Showing posts with label North African serval Leptailurus serval constantinus. Show all posts

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

The African Small Cats; Beautiful dangerous African Serval

The African Small Cats

The African Serval is one of the most beautiful and dangerous small cats in Africa, and a sighting of this elusive creature is a thrilling experience for any safari-goer. Found in the grasslands and savannahs of sub-Saharan Africa, the serval is known for its unique spotted coat and long legs, which allow it to leap up to ten feet in the air to catch prey. While they may be small, servals are formidable hunters and can take down prey much larger than themselves, including birds and rodents.

Seeing an African Serval in the wild is a rare and unforgettable experience, and many African countries offer guided safaris that focus on these elusive cats. Botswana's Okavango Delta, for example, is a prime location for serval sightings, while South Africa's Kruger National Park and Tanzania's Serengeti National Park are also known for their thriving serval populations.

But despite their beauty and grace, African Servals are dangerous animals that should be admired from a distance. While they are generally shy and avoid humans, they are still wild animals with sharp claws and teeth that can cause serious harm. It's important to always respect their space and observe them from a safe distance.

The African serval is a small, slender cat with long legs, a lean body, and a small head. Its extra-long neck gives it the nickname "giraffe cat." The cat's coat is brown with black lines and spots while its belly is a soft white. Native to the grasslands of Africa, the serval's colors allow it to seemingly disappear in the thick grass. Unlike many other cat species, this small feline loves to climb, leap, and play in water. It vocalizes using shrill cries and mews, but the serval can growl and purr, too. Servals are crepuscular to avoid the heat of the day, although they also hunt at night when needed. The cats often share their savanna habitat with caracals and may compete with them for prey.

Wait and see is the serval's main hunting strategy. It waits in the tall grass, using its huge ears to listen for approaching prey before pouncing on its meal. Instead of running down a target like a cheetah would, the serval takes a giant leap up into the air and then forces its body weight down upon the victim, trapping it beneath the front paws until the cat can deliver a deadly bite to the neck. This method is efficient and quick.

The serval has a varied diet, eating birds, reptiles, frogs, and large insects. Standing on its hind legs, a serval can jump more than 9 feet (2.7 meters) straight up to grab birds right out of the air! But small rodents are its most frequent prey item, and servals don't hesitate to reach a long leg down into a rodent's burrow to snatch a meal out of the tunnel! With its many hunting styles, varied diet, and fantastic hearing, the serval is well equipped to be the most successful predator of all the cats.

Servals do not have a specific breeding season, and even though a male's home range may overlap those of several females, they live separately most of the year. Males may sometimes rest together during the day in small groups, but otherwise they are solitary.

The female serval raises her kittens alone, usually three kittens to a litter. They live in a den made of tall, thick grass, and the mother leaves her kittens most of the day while she hunts for food, returning to stay with them at night. She accepts the presence of her female kittens longer than that of male kittens: once the boys can hunt for themselves they are no longer welcome at home. Daughters usually stay with their mother until they are about two years old. In the wild, female servals in overlapping ranges are often related to one another.

Staying wild

Some people think it would be fun to own a wild or exotic cat. This has led to a serval cross-breed cat called the "savanna cat": a captive-raised serval bred with a domestic cat. Wild animals, even those born in zoos, keep their wild instincts for hundreds, even thousands, of years. It took thousands of years to domesticate "tame" dogs, cats, sheep, and cattle by selective breeding for certain traits. Special permits are required for trained experts or zoos to own or house wild servals, and it is against the law in some states to own savanna cats.

Servals in the wild are not considered endangered except for one subspecies, the North African serval Leptailurus serval constantinus. However, like all wild animals, serval populations can be harmed by habitat loss, global climate change, and hunting for their beautiful fur. It takes the skins of many servals to produce one coat. Fortunately, in many parts of the world the wearing of animal-skin coats for fashion is no longer popular.

Servals are important to their human neighbors because they catch rodents, which carry diseases and contaminate food supplies. With fewer than 300 servals in zoos around the world and less than 150 in United States zoos, getting to know this beautiful feline is a special treat for any animal lover!

Facts about Serval

• The serval has the longest legs and largest ears for its body size of any cat.

• Ancient Egyptians worshipped the serval for its power and grace.

• Servals are perhaps the best hunters in the cat world. While other wild cats are successful in just one of every five or six attempts to kill prey, servals make a kill in about half of all tries.

• The name serval comes from a Portuguese word meaning "wolf deer."

• Other nicknames for the serval are "bush cat" and "giraffe cat

Sunday, 26 August 2012

The Endangered Koala Bear with all the Kialafication in needs to survive in the wild

Koala Bear

The Koala Bear Genus: Phascolarctos Species: cinereus is an amazing creature and is very muscular, quite lean, and is almost 33 inches long. The koala bear has a slightly fuzzy coat of fur. When you look at the ears of the koala bear they are big and floppy and you might be amazes to note that a koala bear has almost no tail! Koalas have stubby little nose. The eyes or a koala are small yellow and beady eyes. Like its bear cousins, the koala bear has strong bones to support its heavy body while climbing trees in its natural habitat. The females koala bear weigh between 13.2 and 24.2 lbs., while the male koala bear weigh between 17.6 and 30.8 lbs.

For the protection of the koala while out in the dangerous jungles forests and its natural habitat, these beautiful animals have rough paws that act as traction to prevent them from slipping and falling Each paw has 5 digits. The koala bear back paw consists of two "fingers" that are joined together to form a "grooming paw". These help it get rid of off twigs or ticks that may have gotten tangled in its thick fur. The koala bear has 3 other "fingers". Two of them are very sharp and the koala bear uses them for climbing. The last "finger" which takes the place of a human thumb is stubbed; there are no claw on it. The koala bear front paw has 2 tiny "fingers" that are substituted for 1 large thumb. You also find that it has 3 normal "fingers" that are very sharp which are used for climbing.

As far as the coat is concerned, the koala bear is said to have a thick fur which is normally used to help keep it cool and at the same time warm. The koala bear fur also acts like a rain slicker, repelling moisture. The color of the koala bear fur sometimes changes from gray to brown depending on the season. While not all zebra stripes are the same, some koala bears have patches of white on their neck, chest, and inside the ears, legs, and arms which makes them unique as compared to other animals.

During the mating season when the koala bears are ready to make babies intheir natural habitat and breeding grounds, the koalas mate around September-March. due to competition of the species and the strongest koalas in the family, the breeding female koalas are set to mate with the male koalas when they're almost 3 or 4 years old! They sometimes only produce one offspring per year. It takes about 35 days after the female koala conceives to birth a Joey (a baby koala bear). When the Joey's born, it looks like a pink, hairless, jellybean, with beady little eyes just like its parents. The little koala bears Joey's can't see or hear when they're born. The baby koalas are only 2 centimeters long and weigh only 1 gram. During the first few months, the baby koala stays in its mother's pouch and sucks on something in its mother's nipple called "pap". "Pap" is very mushy, just like baby food. The Joey eats "pap" until it's 1 years old. Then the koala mother starts to feed it eucalyptus leaves.

While in the wilderness the koala bear uses its brown and gray fur to prevent itself from predators . at the same time, the koalas' bottoms are padded with so much fur, that they can sit on pointy branches and not get hurt! The koalas thick, fuzzy fur keeps them warm, but not too warm. Their sharp claws dig into the trees so that they don't fall off. No wonder the koala bears are as good climbers as any other tree climbing animal you can ever thing of..

While a good eyesight is the best protection while out there int he koala jungle, the koala bears to have a very keen sense of smell. In fact the koala bears with their tiny noses have an excellent sense of smell which can detect the poisonous leaves, just by sniffing them!

The koala doesn't have that diverse of a diet. The only thing the koalas eat are eucalyptus leaves. The eucalyptus leaf is poisonous to other animals and strange as it may be the koala's digestive system is immune to it. The only thing is, if the koala bears eat more than 3 lbs. of leaves a day, they'll get indigestion.

In the natural habitat of the koala bears, there are always animals of prey and the koala bears are not spared of any animal attacks and survival of the fittest. The animals that prey or kill koala are mainly foxes, dogs, dingoes and most of all, humans. With the global changes and natural catastrophes many of the koala bears are killed during forest fires which engulf their natural habitat..

While many of the African and Asian animals are on the verge of becoming endangered and efforts are being made to help conserve these animals, these beautiful animals used to be endangered, but there are now laws in Australia that forbid you to hunt koalas, especially just for their fur, which is what most people kill them for. With little information about how to take care of koala bears, many of koalas are killed because they have life threatening diseases.In Australia, the main problem to the koala bears are the slow moving forest fires. While many efforts are geared in educating people about the importance of the koala bears and forest fires in particular there are organizations for animal rescue and koala bear rescue koala protection and koala bear conservation networks are spread around the global to help protect these beautiful bears worldwide

With the increase in population in many parts of the world, the koala bears are not spared in terms of encroachment in their natural habitat and breeding grounds as well. As one of Australia's most recognizable animals apart from the famous kangaroo, the koala bear population is decreasing because of the destruction of the woodlands and forests in which it lives. Found in the scattered dry eucalyptus forests of Eastern Australia, the koala eats only a small variety of the hundreds of eucalyptus species, and needs large areas of woodland to forage in.

When European settlers arrived in the early 1800s, they cleared the forest to build homes, farms, and towns. As the koala bears and other wild animals in their naturala habitat were pushed out of its habitat, the koala bear populations became scattered or died out. Only 20% of the original koala habitat remains today.

They were also extensively hunted for their soft, gray fur. As late as the 1920s more than 2 million koala skins were exported to Europe and the U.S. a year. The koala had to be reintroduced to South Australia from Victoria after the fur trade wiped out the local population.

The destruction of the koala breeding grounds and natural habitat have created the greatest threat to the koala bear.While many laws about animal rights and koala bear protection being in place, in many parts the local governments are often unable to enforce the laws successfully. Also, as settlements spread, the danger of forest fires increases. Fires can wipe out 70% of the koalas in an affected area, from which their population seldom recovers.

With the emergence of new settlements and road networks destroy the koala bear natural habitat habitats and many koalas are killed by cars as they search for new breeding grounds. As people venture in these bear territory, some venture in these grounds with dangerous dogs or go hunting and as such the koala bear become vulnerable to many dog attacks and other introduced animals such as foxes, and domestic dogs also account for many deaths. An animal loving person wouldn't want to unleash his dog to tear down a koala bear but in the wilderness these are some of the many atrocities that the koala bear faces. Remember its a jungle out there.The remaining few koalas in the wilderness become succeptable to inbreeding and disease. Fewer than 50,000 koalas are left in the wild there by creating a need to something about the koala bears.

In the whole world, saving the koala bears is of great importance and and this mainly depends on the government of Australia to work with conservationists, communities and businesses. Worldwide conservation efforts are being made and many organizations which are already providing a lot of information on koalas. The Australian Koala Foundation is educating Australians about the plight of the koala, and the Koala Habitat Atlas, a part of the Australian Koala Foundation, is identifying and assessing remaining koala habitat. Nature reserves are now including larger koala habitats. Public awareness of the plight of the koala is very important to its survival. International recognition of the problem by the IUCN is also helping put pressure on the government and developers. Tourists coming to see the koala are bringing over a billion dollars into Australia.