Wednesday 21 December 2011 Reindeer - Santa's reindeer all female

The caribou (rangifer tarandus) is the name of the species when found in the wild, 'reindeer' when domesticated. They can be found in North America, Norway, Iceland and Greenland (caribou, green in the range map below) and in Scandinavia and Russia (reindeer, red in the range map below.

The different species of caribou display a wide range of size. Sexual dimorphism exists, in some subspecies the male is twice as large as the female. The female can become as old as 15 years of age, while the male's average lifespan is up to 10 years in the wild. The caribou in North America can run at speeds of up to 80 km/h (50 mph) and may travel as much as 5,000 km (3,000 miles) in a year. Both sexes grow antlers and these grow again each year (see picture, the velvet is shedding, and you can see the new antler). Their diet consists of leaves of birches and willows, cotton grass, sedges, lichens, but also mushrooms and various other vegetation found on the ground. They use their keen sense of smell to find food covered underneath the snow.



The reindeer has a long history of being hunted/herded, dating back to the Middle Stone Age and have played a very important role in Siberian, Scandinavian, and American native cultures. The caribou young are very vulnerable to attacks by bears, wolves, and other predators during their first week of life.

Interesting fact: The caribou (rangifer tarandus) is the only species of deer in which both sexes have antlers. It is argued that Santa's reindeer must be female, because male reindeer will lose their antlers during winter.

Picture of the caribou loosing velvet on one of its antlers by Chris73, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 You can help spreading the word about this animal by liking it on facebook

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Monday 19 December 2011 Red Goral - Red Furred Bovidae Verging On Extinction

The red goral (Naemorhedus baileyi) is a species of mountain goat most known for its bright red fur. This is unusual for the goral because all other members of the Naemorhedus family have grey or brown fur, making the red goral stands out significantly due to its oddly bright fur. While the coloring is unusual, this animal has many of the same traits as its distantly related family, including long shaggy hair and a long black tuff of fur that makes up the tail. The red goral also has a single black stripe that runs from its skull down to its tail.

The red goral itself is the smallest member of the bovidae family, weighing only 20 to 30 kg (44 to 66 lbs) and with a length of 100 cm (39 in). About 16 cm (6 in) of this is made up of the horns that both male and female have. These horns are used for fighting when necessarily, though it is in the red goral typical nature to flee rather than fight. When predators, most commonly including leopards and jackals, challenge them, the goral can use its quick speed and strong climbing and jumping skills to bolt up ledges where they are unreachable to other animals. They use this technique to their advantage, feeding on grass, stems, and leaves during the day, then retreating to inaccessible cliff ledges at night to avoid the threat of predators.

The red goral is most commonly found in grasslands and forests in China, though there have been reports of the species living in India and Myanmar as well. The species is currently on the endangered list, rating "Vulnerable" on the conservation scale. This means the animal is likely to become endangered unless drastic measures are taken to improve environmental conditions. The red goral is currently falling victim to habitat loss as well as hunting, and as little as 810 are feared to be alive today. The hunting, while illegal, is partly due to the bright red fur that the goral's have in comparison to their relative, which are a much duller shade. This also prevents the goral's from blending into their surroundings, which can make avoiding predators more difficult.

Despite the low number of red goral's alive today, those who are surviving tend to roam alone, or in a small pack of three. This is most commonly with a male, female, and young. If a male goral isn't present, the female will often travel with two of her young instead of just one.

Due to its "Vulnerable" status on the conservation scale, the red goral can often be seen in zoos where they are encouraged to mate with one another to help improve the number alive today. Unfortunately, their keen skill of jumping can make this difficult, as the animal has been known to jump as high as nearly 2 meters (6 ft) from a stand still. Zoo owners must be careful to watch the species to insure that none of them escape.

Picture of the red goral by Beaukarpo, licensed under GFDL You can help spreading the word about this animal by liking it on facebook

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Friday 16 December 2011 Columbia Sturgeon - Huge Fish That Can Live Up to 104 Years

The Columbia sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) is known by many other common names, including the white sturgeon, the Oregon sturgeon and the Pacific sturgeon. But no matter what you call it, this is the largest freshwater fish in America, although it can also survive in brackish (slightly salty) and salt water, depending on its age. It is also very long-lived. The oldest known specimen lived to be 104 years old. But most Columbia sturgeons are harvested long before they reach that age.

The Columbia sturgeon’s native habitats are fresh and brackish water bodies in the United States along the Pacific states of Alaska down to mid-California. The fish has been released into other lakes, streams and rivers in Idaho, Georgia and the Colorado River. Efforts have been made by game wardens and sport fisherman to remove all Columbia sturgeon from Georgia as they were accidentally introduced there and could have greatly upset the natural ecosystem. The species is not endangered.

General Description

The white sturgeon has a silhouette resembling a narrow submarine torpedo. Juveniles are miniature versions of adults. The adults grow up to 1700 pounds (816 kg) and a nose-to tail length of 20 feet (6.1 meters). Unlike many other species of fish, Columbia sturgeon has skin instead of scales. Down their back and sides from head to tail is a lone of firm pyramid-shaped pale growths. The tail is long and forked, with the top fork longer than the bottom. Their long heads include a horn-like snout and four catfish-like “whiskers” called barbels. When the fish swims head-on towards a viewer, they resemble thin alligators.

Both adult and juvenile Columbia Sturgeons over one month old are colored an alligator green with grey fins and a pale belly. The barbells tend to be white. Although called a “bony fish” by biologists and taxonomists, they do not possess skeletons of bones but of a tough cartilage. This makes them flexible and strong in the water.

Life Cycle and Behavior

Adults spawn in freshwater. Females can release about 100,000 eggs. Newly hatched fry look like tadpoles. They are born with a yolk sac which depletes in 20 to 30 days. The fry is then large enough to eat small mollusks, shellfish and insects. Once they reach 19.01 inches (48.3 cm) long, they begin hunting fish. Normally, juveniles travel upriver out to sea and stay near the coastlines. They stay in salt water until they mature. However, some populations have adjusted to being landlocked after dams were built on their waterways out to the see. They stop feeding just before spawning and go as far inland as possible. The parents take no part in raising the fry.

Juvenile sturgeons (as shown in the picture) are prey to carnivorous fish larger than themselves, including the prickly sculpin fish (Cottus asper) and the common carp (Cyprinus carpio). Adult Columbia sturgeon are fished for sport, for their meat and for their eggs, sold as caviar. Columbia sturgeons are related to the endangered Beluga and the keluga, which provide the world’s finest caviar. You can help spreading the word about this animal by liking it on facebook

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Tuesday 13 December 2011 Daurian Hedgehog - Rare Russian Hedgehog Almost Wiped Out By Pesticides

Not much is known about the Daurian hedgehog (Mesechinus dauuricus) or (Erinaceus dauuricus) but scientists know more about this solitary and elusive little mammal since the 1960s, when use of broad-spectrum insecticides and rodenticides almost wiped out the species. Daurian hedgehogs primarily eat insects and mice. Coming across a load of dead prey is too tempting for any hedgehog to pass up. Unfortunately, the poison that killed the insects can also kill hedgehogs.

The Daurian hedgehog has adapted to a wide territory of northern China, Russia (especially in the Dauria region) and Mongolia. It prefers to live alone near water sources in steppes, grasslands, farmed fields and forests. Although this species is so rare in Russia that it is protected by law, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists the species as thriving based on its population worldwide. But the ICUN notes that if the natural habitat was destroyed, the species population would plummet.

Physical Description

The adult Daurian hedgehog is primarily shades of brown, with their backs and tops of the heads covered in soft, spine-like material. The spines are grooved to help burrow underground and possibly to discourage predator bites. A white variation exists, with white bodies but grey spines. Unlike an albino, these hedgehogs have dark eyes and noses. Their bodies primarily look like spiny balls with little feet. Both males and females grow to the same head to tail body length of 5.9 to 7.87 inches (15 to 20 cm) and weights of 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram.)

Another less common name for the Daurian hedgehog is the long-eared hedgehog. Unfortunately, there is another species of hedgehog that spreads from China to Africa called the long-eared hedgehog (Hemiechinus auritus) which can confuse laypeople and biologists. But both species do sport prominent tan triangular ears that are much larger than the European hedgehog. These ears help the hedgehogs detect movements of their prey, which not only includes insects but small rodents, small reptiles, baby bird and eggs. They also eat carrion, including dead insects.

Life Cycle and Behavior

Adult Daurian hedgehogs break their solitary lives to search for mates in June and July. It is unknown exactly how long a female Daurian hedgehog’s gestation is. She gives birth to a litter of 3 to 7. Two months later, they are weaned and finding food for themselves. During this brief childhood, the mother hedgehog teaches her babies how to hide from their main predators of badgers, foxes, wolves, eagle owls and eagles. If the babies can’t get underground, they are to roll up in a tight ball so that the predators can only bite spines.

In order to survive the brutal Russian, Chinese or Mongolian winters, hedgehogs hibernate and do not wake up until April. They can have several small burrows in a territory so that they can always be near a hiding spot should a predator appear. Each hedgehog, male and female, keeps a territory of 12.4 to 24.7 acres (5 to 10 hectares.) Although equipped with tough claws, Daurian hedgehogs prefer to use burrows made and abandoned by other creatures rather than dig their own. They prefer old ground squirrel and marmot burrows. With luck, a Daurian hedgehog can live to the ripe old age of six. You can help spreading the word about this animal by liking it on facebook

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Monday 12 December 2011 Stump-Tailed Macaque - Nearly Extinct Species Used for Human Medical Research

The bear macaque or stump-tailed macaque (Macaca arctoides) is a large Asian monkey with a short tail and a short survival expectancy. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (ICUN) lists this species as “vulnerable”, meaning it can go extinct during this century. Stump-tailed macaque populations have plummeted 20% since 1992 and are almost extinct in Thailand and thought to be extinct in Bangladesh. They can be found in many medical research laboratories. Experiments on stump-tailed macaques resulted in at least two drugs for hair loss due to male pattern baldness.

Baby stump-tailed macaques are especially prone to meat-eating raptors. Both babies and adults are on the menu for clouded leopards, common leopards and feral dogs. But their worst predators are humans. Not only do humans hunt the macaques for meat and body parts for Traditional Chinese Medicine, but humans will wipe out the adults in a troop in order to sell the babies for the exotic pet trade. Humans are steadily destroying the macaque’s environment through overdevelopment. Once it ranged all throughout Asia from China down to India and across to Vietnam. Now it can be rarely found in the wild.

General Description

Stump-tailed macaques are covered in thick brown fur over grey to black skin. The shade of brown varies from macaque to macaque, from a dark chocolate to a golden tan. Babies are born white with pink skin, but become darker as they age. Adult macaques are hairless on their hands, feet, faces and stumpy hamster-like tails. Older stump-tailed macaques, like older humans, suffer from baldness on their heads.

Males are larger and heavier than females. Males grow up to 22.44 pounds (10.2 kg) while females are a mere 16.5 pounds (7.5 kg). Males grow to 25.59 inches long (58.5 cm) while females are 19.09 inches (48.5 cm). Tail length varies considerably, no matter what the sign="middle">