The Cottontop Tamarin

Cottontop Tamarin :: WLR :- The cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus), also known as the Pinché tamarin, is a small New World monkey weighing less than 1 lb (0.5 kg). It is found in tropical forest edges and secondary forests where it is arboreal and diurnal.

In German-speaking areas, the cottontop tamarin is commonly known as "Lisztaffe" (literally "Liszt monkey") most likely due to the resemblance of its hairstyle with that of Hungarian composer and piano virtuoso Franz Liszt.

This tamarin species has a long sagittal crest, white hairs from forehead to nape flowing over the shoulders ("Cottontop"). The back is brown, and the underparts, arms and legs are whitish-yellow. The rump and inner thighs are reddish-orange.

It is considered one of the bare-faced tamarins because of the lack of facial hair. Its lower canine teeth are longer than its incisors, so it seems as if it has small tusks. It is about the size of a squirrel and weighs 10-18 ounces.[citation needed] The males are only slightly larger than females. A medium cottontop tamarin weighs 432 g. Tamarins are among the smallest of the primates. Head body length of this species is 17 cm and tail length is 25 cm. Forelimbs are shorter than the hind limbs. The thumb is not opposable and the tail is not prehensile. All the finger and toe nails are like claws except for the big toe which has a flat nail.

The cottontop tamarin vocalizes with birdlike whistles, soft chirping sounds, high-pitched trilling, and staccato calls. Researchers say its repertoire of 38 distinct sounds is unusually sophisticated, conforming to grammatical rules and able to express curiosity, fear, dismay, playfulness, warnings, joy, and calls to young.

It has loud territorial songs as well as songs when it is excited. It moves its tongue across the lips. This may be a recognition signal, or could be used to communicate anger or curiosity. A "threat face" consists of lowering the forehead until it forms a bulge which almost covers the eyes; the lips are pushed forward and the head and neck crests are erected. This apparently is sufficient since no other body language is used.

The Asian Black Bear

Asian Black Bear :: WLR :-The Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus), also known as the moon bear or white-chested bear is a medium-sized species of bear, largely adapted for arboreal life, which occurs through much of southern Asia, Korea, northeastern China, the Russian far east and Honshū and Shikoku islands of Japan. It is classed by the IUCN as a vulnerable species, mostly due to deforestation and active hunting for its body parts. The species is morphologically very similar to some prehistoric bears, and is thought by some scientists to be the ancestor of other extant bear species. Though largely herbivorous, Asian black bears can be very aggressive toward humans, and have frequently attacked people without provocation. The species was described by Rudyard Kipling as "the most bizarre of the ursine species."

Biologically and morphologically, Asian black bears represent the beginning of the arboreal specialisations attained by sloth bears and Sun bears, though these traits are not as maximally attained in Asian black bears. Asian black bears have karotypes nearly identical to those of the five other ursine bears, and, as is typical in the genus, they have 74 chromosomes. From an evolutionary perspective, Asian black bears are the least changed of Old world bears, with certain scientists arguing that it is likely that all other lineages of ursine bear stem from this species. Scientists have proposed that Asian black bears are either a surviving, albeit modified, form of Ursus etruscus, specifically the early, small variety of the middle Villafranchian or a larger form of Ursus minimus, an extinct species which arose four million years ago. With the exception of the age of the bones, it is often difficult to distinguish the remains of Ursus minimus with those of modern Asian black bears.

Asian black bears are reproductively compatible with several other bear species, and have on occasion produced hybrid offspring. According to Jack Hanna's Monkeys on the Interstate, a bear captured in Sanford, Florida was thought to have been the offspring of an escaped female Asian black bear and an American black bear, and Scherren's Some notes on hybrid bears published in 1907 mentioned a successful mating between an Asian black bear and a sloth bear. In 1975, within Venezuela's "Las Delicias" Zoo, a female black bear shared its enclosure with a spectacled bear, and produced several hybrid descendants. In 2005, a possible black bear/sun bear hybrid cub was captured in the Mekong River watershed of eastern Cambodia. An Asian black bear/brown bear hybrid, taken from a bile farm, is housed at the Animals Asia Foundation's China Moon Bear Rescue as of 2010.

Asian black bears are similar in general appearance to brown bears, but are more lightly built and more slender limbed. The skulls of Asian black bears are relatively small, but massive, particularly in the lower jaw. Adult males have skulls measuring 311.7–328 mm (12.3–13 in) in length and 199.5–228 mm (7.9–9 in) wide, while females have skulls measuring 291.6–315 mm (11.5–12.4 in) long and 163–173 mm (6.4–6.8 in) wide. Compared to other bears of the genus Ursus, the projections of the skull are weakly developed; the sagittal crest is low and short, even in old specimens, and does not exceed more than 19–20% of the total length of the skull, unlike in brown bears, which have sagittal crests comprising up to 41% of the skull's length. Although mostly herbivorous, the jaw structure of Asian black bears is not as specialised for plant eating as that of pandas: Asian black bears have much narrower zygomatic arches, and the weight ratio of the two pterygoid muscles is also much smaller in Asian black bears. However, the lateral slips of the temporal muscles are thicker and stronger in black bears.
Asian black bears are diurnal, though they become nocturnal near human habitations. They may live in family groups consisting of two adults and two successive litters of young. They will walk in a procession of largest to smallest. They are good climbers of rocks and trees, and will climb to feed, rest, sun, elude enemies and hibernate. Some older bears may become too heavy to climb. Half of their life is spent in trees: In the Ussuri territory, black bears can spend up to 15% of their time in trees. Asian black bears break branches and twigs to place under themselves when feeding on trees, thus causing many trees in their home ranges to have nest-like structures on their tops. Asian black bears will rest for short periods in nests on trees standing fifteen feet or higher. Asian black bears do not hibernate over most of their range. They may hibernate in their colder, northern ranges, though some bears will simply move to lower elevations. Nearly all pregnant sows hibernate.

Black bears prepare their dens for hibernation in mid October, and will sleep from November until March. Their dens can either be dug out hollow trees (sixty feet above ground), caves or holes in the ground, hollow logs, or steep, mountainous and sunny slopes. They may also den in abandoned brown bear dens. Asiatic black bears tend to den at lower elevations and on less steeper slopes than brown bears. Female black bears emerge from dens later than do males, and female black bears with cubs emerge later than barren females. Asian black bears tend to be less mobile than brown bears. With sufficient food, Asian black bears can remain in an area of roughly 1–2 sq km, and sometimes even as little as 0.5–1 sq km.

The Red Wolf

Red Wolf :: WLR :- The red wolf (Canis rufus) is a North American canid which once roamed throughout the Southeastern United States and is a glacial period survivor of the Late Pleistocene epoch. Based on fossil and archaeological evidence, the original red wolf range extended throughout the Southeast, from the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, north to the Ohio River Valley and central Pennsylvania, and west to central Texas and southeastern Missouri. Historical habitats included forests, swamps, and coastal prairies, where it was an apex predator. The red wolf became extinct in the wild by 1980. 1987 saw a reintroduction in northeastern North Carolina through a captive breeding program and the animals are considered to be successfully breeding in the wild.

The Red Wolf stands about 66–79 cm (26–31 in) at the shoulder. The total length is 111–165 cm (44–65 in) including a tail of 30–43 cm (12–17 in). The body weight can range from 16 to 41 kg (35 to 90 lb) but averages at about 24.5 kg (54 lb). Male red wolves are approximately 10% larger than females. Coat long, coarse; mostly brown and buff colored on the upper part of the body with some black along the backs. Muzzle long; nose pad wide and black; ears rufous; legs long; tail long, bushy, black tipped. Body is intermediate in size between the gray wolf (Canis lupus) and the coyote (Canis latrans)
The red wolf pup begins life with a slate or dark gray pelt with auburn-tinged fur visible on its head. As it matures, this color changes color to a mixture of buff, tawny, cinnamon and brown along the body and a black tipped tail; it often has black guad hairs too and sometimes presents with black or dark bars on its forelegs. The pelt molts once annually in the winter. Its muzzle is white furred around the lips. The red wolf is generally intermediate in size between the coyote and the gray wolf. However, the disproportionately long legs and large ears are two obvious features that separate red wolves from coyotes and gray wolves. Its overall appearance is more slender and gracile than that of a gray wolf.

In May 2011, an analysis of red wolf, Eastern wolf, gray wolf, and dog genomes revealed that the red wolf was 76-80 percent coyote and only 20-24 percent gray wolf, suggesting that the red wolf is actually much more coyote in origin than the Eastern wolf. This study analyzed 48,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms and found no evidence for a unique Eastern wolf or red wolf species. However, the US Fish and Wildlife Service still considers the red wolf a valid species and plans to make no changes to its recovery program.

When considered as a full species, three subspecies of red wolf were originally recognized by Goldman; two of these subspecies are extinct. Canis rufus floridanus (Maine to Florida).It has been extinct since 1930 and Canis rufus gregoryi (south-central United States) was declared functionally extinct in the wild by 1980. Canis rufus rufus, the third surviving subspecies, was also functionally extinct in the wild by 1980, although that status was changed to "critically endangered" when captive-bred red wolves wolves were reintroduced in eastern North Carolina in 1987. The current status of the “non-essential/ experimental” population in North Carolina is “endangered” and the population numbers around 100 wild animals.

The red wolf has one estrous cycle per year and typically becomes sexually mature by its second year. Litters average three pups and red wolves live in family units similar to those of gray wolves. Data acquired from the restoration project indicate that the offspring of a breeding pair are tolerated in their natal home range until the onset of sexual maturity.

The red wolf lives in an extended family unit which includes a dominant breeding pair and young from prior seasons. The red wolf will scent mark territorial boundaries to deter intrusion from other wolf packs. As an apex predator, red wolves have no natural predators, although they may compete for prey with bobcats and coyotes and kills may be stolen by American black bears.
Prior to extinction in the wild, the red wolf diet consisted of nutria, rabbits and rodents. In contrast, the red wolves from the restored population rely on white-tailed deer, raccoon, nutria and rabbits. It should be noted, however, that white-tailed deer were largely absent from the last wild refuge of red wolves on the Gulf Coast between Texas and Louisiana (where specimens were trapped from the last wild population for captive breeding), which likely accounts for the discrepancy in their dietary habits listed here. Historical accounts of wolves in the southeast by early explorers such as William Hilton, who sailed along the Cape Fear River in what is now North Carolina in 1644, also note that they ate deer.

The Smilodon

Smilodon :: WLR :- Smilodon often called a saber-toothed cat or saber-toothed tiger, is an extinct genus of machairodonts. This sabre-toothed cat was endemic to North America and South America, living from near the beginning through the very end of the Pleistocene epoch (2.5 mya—10,000 years ago).

The nickname "sabre-tooth" refers to the extreme length of their maxillary canines. Despite the colloquial name "sabre-toothed tiger", Smilodon is not a tiger; the latter belongs to subfamily Pantherinae, whereas Smilodon belongs to subfamily Machairodontinae. The name Smilodon comes from Greek: σμίλη, smilē, "chisel" together with ὀ δoύς (ho doús), "the tooth", or in the genitive: δoύς, δόντος, dóntos.

The genus Smilodon was described by the Danish naturalist and palaeontologist Peter Wilhelm Lund in 1841. He found the fossils of Smilodon populator in caves near the small town of Lagoa Santa, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

A number of Smilodon species have been described, but today usually only three are recognized.

Smilodon gracilis, 2.5 million-500,000 years ago; the smallest and earliest species estimated to have been only 55 to 100 kg (120 to 220 lb) was the successor of Megantereon in North America, from which it probably evolved. The other Smilodon species probably derived from this species.
Smilodon fatalis, 1.6 million-10,000 years ago, replaced Smilodon gracilis in North America and invaded western South America as part of the Great American Interchange. In size it was between Smilodon gracilis and Smilodon populator, and about the same as the largest surviving cat, the Siberian Tiger. This species was about 1 m high at the shoulder and is estimated to have ranged from 160 to 280 kg (350 to 620 lb). Sometimes two additional species are recognized, Smilodon californicus and Smilodon floridanus, but usually they are considered to be subspecies of Smilodon fatalis.
Smilodon populator ("the devastating Smilodon"), 1 million-10,000 years ago; occurred in the eastern parts of South America and was the largest species of all machairodonts. It was much larger than its cousins, S. fatalis and S. gracilis, possessing a massive chest and front legs, and is the largest known variety of sabre-toothed cat. It was more than 1.22 m (48 in) high at the shoulder, 2.6 m (100 in) long on average and had a 30 cm (12 in) tail. With an estimated weight of 360 to 470 kg (790 to 1,000 lb), it was among the heaviest known felids. Its upper canines reached 30 cm (12 in) and protruded up to 17 cm (6.7 in) out of the upper jaw. Genetic evidence suggests that Smilodon populator and other members of the genus diverged from the main lineage of modern cats (subfamily Felinae) around 14-18 million years ago.

Smilodon populator is also known from the famous cave site of Ultima Esperanza, with well-preserved remains retaining endogenous DNA.

Smilodon probably preyed on a wide variety of large game including bison, tapirs, deer, American camels, horses and ground sloths. As it is known for the sabre-toothed cat Homotherium, Smilodon might have also killed juvenile mastodons and mammoths. Smilodon may also have attacked prehistoric humans, although this is not known for certain. The La Brea tar pits in California trapped hundreds of Smilodon in the tar, possibly as they tried to feed on mammoths already trapped. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County has many of their complete skeletons.

The Bactrian Camel

Bactrian Camel :: WLR: - The Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) is a large even-toed ungulate native to the steppes of central Asia. It is presently restricted in the wild to remote regions of the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts of Mongolia and Xinjiang. There are a small number of wild Bactrian camels still roaming the Mangystau Province of South West Kazakhstan. It is one of the two surviving species of camel. Bactrian camel has two humps on its back, in contrast to the single-humped Dromedary camel.

Nearly all of the estimated 1.4 million Bactrian camels alive today are domesticated. In October 2002, the estimated 800 remaining in the wild in northwest China and Mongolia were classified as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

It is thought that the Bactrian camel was domesticated (independently of the dromedary) sometime before 2500 BCE, probably in northern Iran, Northeast Afghanistan, or southwestern Turkestan. The Dromedary camel is believed to have been domesticated between 4000 BCE and 2000 BCE in Arabia. The wild population of Bactrian camels was first described by Nikolai Przhevalsky in the late 19th century. Their name comes from the ancient historical region of Bactria.

Bactrian camels have been the focus of artwork throughout history. For example, western foreigners from the Tarim Basin and elsewhere were depicted in numerous ceramic figurines of the Chinese Tang Dynasty (618–907).

As of the 1980s, a complete range of fossils suggests that the first camelids appeared in North America about 30 million years ago, had a relatively small body mass and were adapted to warm climates. By the early Pleistocene (about 2 million years ago), they had already evolved into a form similar to the current Bactrian camel and many individuals permanently migrated to the opposite end of the Bering Strait in an abrupt fashion, probably as a response to the advancing ice age. The remaining related types of American camelids are now only in South America.

There is some evidence that the Bactrian camel can be divided into different subspecies. In particular, it has been discovered that a population of wild Bactrian camel lives within a part of the Gashun Gobi region of the Gobi Desert. This population is distinct from domesticated herds both in genetic makeup and in behavior.

There are possibly as many as three regions in the genetic makeup that are distinctly different from domesticated camels and there is up to a 3% difference in the base genetic code. However, with so few wild camels, it is unclear what the natural genetic diversity within a population would have been.

Another difference is the ability of these wild camels to drink saltwater slush, although it is not yet certain the camel can extract useful water from it.