Caracal

Caracals are native to much of Africa, Central Asia, and Southwestern Asia. Their distinctive characteristics are their long ear tufts. The name Caracal id derived from the Turkish word “Karakulak” which means  “Black ears”.

They can jump so high(16 feet, height of 3 men) that they can catch birds right out of the air. They can catch 10 to 12 birds in a single leap. Their huge hind legs help them to jump really high. They have retractable claws. Their claws are out when they need them and are in when they don’t need them. Their eyes are adapted to help them see and hunt in the dark.

One of the many nocturnal creatures, Caracals are quite fast(50 miles or 80 km per hour). They can outrun even antelopes and ostriches. They are also known as the Persian lynx and the gazelle cat. Its closest relative is the African golden cat. Caracals are also found in black but are very rare. They are also known to sometimes take down prey larger than themselves like small antelopes or even goats.

They have an amazing sense of hearing. They have 20 muscles in there to move the ear which helps them listen to even the slightest sound of the prey.

They are known to sometimes store their kill in trees. mostly in places with many hyenas. During the breeding season, 2 caracals will pair up for a day or two. After the female becomes pregnant, she drives the male away. Caracal kittens are born with their eyes closed and ears curled up.  after about 3 weeks, their ears unfurl.

They were captured and tamed and were given as gifts to guests. In ancient India and Iran, they were put into arenas with pigeons and deer. then wagers were placed on how many birds the caracal would catch. In doing so, they provided both food and entertainment.

Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey

They live in mountainous regions of central and southwest China where the temperatures are very cold in the winter. This monkey can withstand extremely cold temperatures, where no other non-human primates can survive.

They live in groups called troops, of 2 types, namely - “single male troops” where there are only one male and many females and their young and an “all-male troop”

A mature male snub-nosed monkey has long hair on its back. This is to impress females. being brave, strong, and big and having a cape makes one the leader of a troop. They have a thick coat of fur which keeps them warm in the winter. They have a blue face!!

Sometimes groups get together in the summer and the group will have around 600 of them. That is why in winter, they break into smaller groups between 20-60  because of the lack of food. This behavior is called “ Fission and Fusion”.

In humans, the nose sticks out so when they are in the cold, the nose, fingers, and toes are the first ones to get frostbite. But these monkeys noses don’t stick out so much and their noses are not fleshy like humans. And their hands have short fingers with a lot of hair of them, this makes it less likely for this monkey to get frostbite. At night, when the temperature drops very low. To stay warm, the monkeys huddle together when they are sleeping to keep each other warm and to keep an eye out for predators.

For food, these monkeys eat lichen. It provides proteins to the monkeys which help them get through the winter. In summer, they eat seeds and fruit.

This is an endangered species primarily due to habitat loss and fragmentation. The monkeys are poached for their fur, meat, and traditional medicine.

Pine Marten

Pine Marten

The pine marten is a mustelid and a member of the weasel family. It has a heart-shaped face, big brown eyes, a slim sinuous body, a rich chestnut-brown coat turning darker in summer, flamboyant apricot-colored bib and long tail, bushy in winter.

They are amazing climbers and run through the trees very fast to catch their favorite prey, the red squirrel which is also an amazing climber. Their sense of smell plays an important role in hunting prey.

ng lean body which makes them look like a 4 legged snake slithering through the trees. Their retractable claws and great balance that helps them rin through the tress very fast. These arboreal gymnasts can leap 4 meters between tree branches.  They can land unhurt after jumping from a hight of around 20 meters. They are omnivores. They eat eggs, squirrels, rabbits, and insects and fruits like cherry, hazel, and rowan.

Female pine martens give birth to litters having 2 to 5 kits(that is what baby pine martens are called).

Pine martens are helping the population of red squirrels. Usually, the population of grey squirrels is more than red squirrels. But places where pine martens are present, there are more red squirrels. This is because the grey squirrels are more heavy and slow compare to red squirrels hence making them easy targets for Pine martens.

They make their dens and breeding nests in tree hollows and abandoned animal homes. They kill by biting into the neck, behind the head, and at the top of the spine. Their bite is very strong that they usually decapitate the bird. Pine martens are prey for animals like golden eagles, red foxes, and wolves. Their largest threat is humans.

Aye Aye

Primarily natives of Madagascar, the Aye Aye look more like weird  rodents, but are a type of lemur. They are sparsely scattered along the west coast and northwestern forests of Madagascar.

The only primate with ever-growing teeth, perhaps the most marked trait of the Aye aye is their really long, sharp and flexible middle finger which is three times bigger than the other fingers.It is also the only primate to use echolocation to find its prey.
They catch their food the same way as a woodpecker.They continuously tap on the branches in the trees with their long middle finger and listen closely with their bat-like ears (echolocation). They figure out where small grubs lie in the tunnels in the trees. They then bite through the wood with their sharp teeth and use their flexible middle finger to feel through the tunnel and then grab the grub and eat it.

The Aye-Aye is named after its cries.Its tail is longer than its body.
They are nocturnal, solitary creatures (it means that they spend most of their lives without others of the same species). They are with other primates of their species only for mating.
As they grow up, there will be some color changes in their body.They are arboreal which means that they spend most of their lives in the tree and rarely come to the ground.Aye-ayes have territories that are marked by their scent. Sometimes, a male territory can overlap another male territory.
Baby Aye-Ayes are known as ‘infants’

Aye-ayes are believed to be bad omens for their native residents who believed that it must be killed on sight to avoid bringing bad luck.In 1933, they were believed to be extinct.There used to be giant aye-ayes. It is an extinct form of the aye-aye. It used to weigh between 3 times to 5 times the amount of an average present Aye-aye.

Aardvark

Aardvark

This nocturnal, African Mammal with long ears and elongated snout has the honor of being the first word in the “Oxford English Dictionary”( other than the indispensable indefinite article” a” and some lexical entries like “aa”)

They are insectivorous animals which means that they eat bugs and termites. They use front claws to dig the dirt or mud, back feet to clear the earth and the tail for flattening the dirt.

Their nickname is earth pigs but they are related to elephants. If predators approach the aardvark and the aardvarks cannot go back to their burrow, they dig a hole underground to escape. They can make this hole in about 5 minutes. When Aardvarks dig holes and leave them, other non-digging animals move into these holes. Animals such as warthogs, python, etc live in these holes and these holes also protect themselves from predators.

As the Aardvarks eat termites and termites make very tall and strong mounds, it uses its strong claws to break the mound to eat the termites. They have long tounges and can grab about 100 termites in one slurp. Their tongue is up to 12 inches. They can close their nostrils to keep out dust and ants while digging. Aardvarks don’t chew their food. It gets ground up in their muscular stomachs.

Some animals like aardwolves also eat bugs like termites but cannot break into the termite mound. So they always follow aardvarks so that when they break the termite mound, the aardwolf can also enjoy a meal.

They are digitigrades which means that they walk on their toes and not on the soles of their feet. They have 4 toes on their front feet and 5 toes on their back feet. The tips of their snout are mobile. The only fruit they can eat is aardvark cucumber, in case you are wondering what the picture is about. 

They don’t make much noise unless they are frightened. Baby aardvarks are called cubs. Aardvark teeth are made into good luck charm bracelets by some African tribes.

An aardvark was the star character of a long rime running comic book. The characters name was ‘Cerebus the Aardvark’

Red Panda

Let’s start off by saying that they are adorable!!

Although they are called Ped pandas, they are not a bear at all. So they are not related to the actual Giant Pandas. In fact, the giant pandas were named so after the red panda because of their slight similarities. They are neither related to Fox because of the red color look nor are they related to Weasels. The scientists used to think she is related to Raccoons. But the truth is that they are in a family called Ailuridae. This family consists of only one species-the Red Panda. They are unique and are one of a kind.

Red pandas live in the mountains of Nepal and Northern Myanmar (Burma), as well as in central China.

They are good climbers and they also climb down the trees headfirst.

The red panda is a vegetarian carnivore. This may sound confusing but here, ‘carnivore’ is a biological order that includes bears, dogs, and cats. Many of these species are carnivorous but some are omnivorous or herbivorous like the red panda. They mostly eat bamboo leaves and sometimes insects.

Did you know that once, a Red panda named rusty escaped from Smithsonian National Zoo? A tree branch was pushed down over the fence due to some heavy rains he then made a break for it  😂🤣.

The company Mozilla named its browser ‘firefox’ after the Red Panda. Firefox is another name for the red panda. In 2010, Mozilla adopted 2 baby red pandas that had been born at Tennessee's Knoxville Zoo.

Can you guess which animal master Shifu from the “Kung Fu Panda”? That’s right, he is a Red Panda!!

These animals can easily blend in with their surroundings, they hide by disappearing into the branches of fir trees which are usually covered with reddish-brown moss.

They have 5 fingers, but apart from that, they have a special wrist bone that acts as a thumb which allows it to hold bamboo stalks.

These adorable creatures are endangered with less than 10,000 of them left.

They tweet! Want to listen. Click here (👇)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Red_panda_twittering.ogg

Koala

Koalas are indigenous to Australia and are considered a totemic species. The word ‘koala’, in the Aboriginal language, is thought to mean ‘no drink’ or ‘no water’.

Eucalyptus trees play a very important role in koala’s lives. as they only feed on eucalyptus leaves. These leaves are actually poisonous, but Koalas have special digestive systems that take out the poison and flush it down their liver. A lot of energy is needed to digest eucalyptus leaves. Koalas actually sleep around 18 to 22 hrs a day and they need this time to digest the food.

They have pouches in their mouth to store food, so when they do not have access to eucalyptus leaves, they just eat the food they store in their pouches. They also get water from the eucalyptus leaves as the leaves have water in them.

They have 5 fingers on each paw. Two of the fingers move like thumbs. That is how they can hold on to branches which make them amazing climbers. They are mostly nocturnal as they sleep during the day and stay up at night.

You might be thinking that koalas are related to bears. But they are actually related to wombats.

Did you know, koalas fur differ depending on where they live. Urbanization, skyrocketing deforestation, and bushfires are endangering these vulnerable marsupials. though they are not considered endangered, their population is reducing.

A koala hospital and new wildlife reserves are the focus of one of Australia's boldest plans to protect these animals. Special measures have also been put in place to help drivers avoid koalas that stray onto highways, including better signs. Tunnels and specially-made bridges have also allowed wildlife to traverse roads while avoiding cars and trucks.

Saharan Silver Ant

This is the fastest Ant in the world. It lives in the Sahara desert (obviously). It runs 855 millimeters in one second. It covers the 108 times the distance on its own length in one second. If it was the size of an average human, it would have covered about 180 meters per second. When this fascinating ant runs, it keeps its front two feet above the ground so that it does not touch the sand. 

This is the fastest Ant in the world. It lives in the Sahara desert (obviously). It runs 2.8 Ft in one second and this is probably because of the desert environment where the temperatures reach 140 degrees Fahrenheit. It covers 108 times the distance on its own length in one second. If it was the size of an average human, it would have covered about 180 meters per second. When this fascinating ant runs, it keeps its front two feet above the ground so that it does not touch the sand. 

These ants get prey who have suffered from the heat of the Sahara. But to get their prey, they must face the scorching sand and sun but that actually is no problem for them.  These ants have adapted in such a way that they have hair that glints silver in the sunlight. This hair helps the ant to face the heat. This hair can cause a 5-degree drop in their body temperature if needed. The hair on the ant’s body is actually 3 sided and not round. This special hair helps reflects more than 50% of the light that falls on it. 

But what about the hot sand. The hair is not the only thing that keeps this ant cool, one more characteristic of the ant to keep the ant cool is its legs. Its legs are long compared to the ant’s body. When they scurry, they generate wind which cools their body through convection. The hot layer of air surrounding the insect rises because it’s less dense than cooler air.

Seahorse

Most seahorse species are poorly evaluated (lacking enough study),  their population trends and status are unknown. They have heads like a horse and tail like a monkey but they are a type of fish. Seahorses weigh 7 ounces to 1 pound (about 2 to 4 lemons). 

They swim short distances with the help of their dorsal fin, using the gas in their body to move up and down in the water. Seahorses prefer to swim in pairs with their tails linked together. It moves each of its eyes independently, so it can follow the activity of passing sea life without giving its presence away. 

They can consume 3,000 or more brine shrimp per day. They use their long tail to catch on to things like coral.

They can camouflage to protect themselves from predators. It is interesting that a male seahorse gives birth, they can give birth to as many as about 1,500 seahorse babies.

There are about 40 different species of seahorses. About 8 species are classified as threatened (vulnerable or endangered).

Stingray

Stingrays can be found in oceans in tropical and subtropical areas around the world. They like warm and shallow water.

These are cartilaginous fish. This means that they are a type of fish as their skeleton is made of cartilage which is a substance that is strong but is more bendable than bones. They move with pectoral fins which imitates the motions of bird wings.

The stingray settles on the ground and moves its fins up and down covering itself with sand so that it is not visible to prey and predators. They have a defense against predators. This is the barb located on the tail. If the barb hits the predator, the predator will get infected with venom. They have powerful jaws that can crush through the shell of the prey.

An interesting fact about the Stingrays is that they are ancient species that existed at the time of the Jurassic period. Stingrays are ovoviviparous, which means that their young ones hatch from eggs that are held within the body.

The eyes of a stingray do not play an important role in hunting prey and depend on other senses for hunting.  Special gel-filled pits across the front of their face called Ampullae of Lorenzini,  allow them to pick up electrical signals from other animals when they move.The biggest stingray weighs about 800 pounds or about 363 kg which is about the weight of 10 baby rhinos.

Sadly the number of stingrays is declining. Overfishing, habitat loss and climate change are the major threats to rays.