Eagle

True Wild Life | Eagle | The eagle is a (generally) large sized bird of prey meaning that the eagle is one of the most dominant predators in the sky. Eagles are most commonly found in the Northern Hemisphere including Europe, Asia and North America. Eagles are also found on the African continent. There are more than 60 different species of eagle in the world with only 2 of these eagle species being found in the USA and Canada. However, one of these eagle species is one of the most common species of eagle, the bald eagle. Despite it's name the bald eagle has a full head of feathers but their bright white colour makes the bald eagle very distinguishable. The golden eagle is the only other species of eagle found on the American continent.

The size of an eagle is dependent on the species of eagle. Eagles can range in size from 40cm to over 1m in height. The wing span of an eagle tends to be at least double the length of the eagle's body. Eagles have feathers on the ends of their wings which the eagles move up and down to help them when flying. Eagles are dominant predators and are known as birds of prey. Eagles feed off smaller birds and bats in the sky and small mammals and fish on the ground. The eagle is well known for it's incredible eyesight. An eagle's eyesight is so good that an eagle can apparently see a mouse on the ground when the eagle is still high in the sky.

The eagle is used as a symbol in many national flags and emblems all around the world, as an eagle is believed to resemble power or good fortune. Eagles are dominant and ruthless predators in their environment and eagles therefore have very few natural predators themselves. Eagles are most likely to be hunted by smaller animals when they are chicks or still young and inexperienced so they are fairly vulnerable. Female eagles build their nests in tall tree tops or on high cliffs where they are at their safest. The mother eagle tends to lay two eggs, which hatch after about a month. In many eagle species however, one of the eagle chicks is naturally slightly stronger than the other chick, with the stronger chick generally killing it's weaker sibling

Eagles have adapted well to their dominant predatory lifestyle. Not only do eagles have exceptional eyesight and are about to soar remarkably quickly through the air for such a large bird, but eagles also have pointed beaks and agile feet known as talons. The beak of the eagle is perfectly designed for ripping flesh away from bone, and the talons of the eagle are so strong that the eagle is able to carry it's prey in it's feet until it reaches a safe place to eat it.

taken from :http://true-wildlife.blogspot.com

camel

NG and Panthera Team Up

National Geographic’s Big Cats Initiative (BCI) has formed an important collaboration with Panthera, the world’s leading organization devoted exclusively to the conservation of the world’s 37 wild cat species. Together, their aim is to further the global fight to save big cats in the wild.

Officials from the two organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding designating Panthera as a scientific and strategic collaborator on the BCI. The collaboration will facilitate the development and implementation of global conservation strategies for the most imperiled cats around the world, including tigers, lions, leopards and cheetahs. (Read “Politics Is Killing the Big Cats” by legendary biologist and Panthera Vice President George B. Schaller, from the December 2011 National Geographic Magazine.)

To help guide strategy, an advisory group composed of representatives from each organization has been established. The advisory group members are Panthera CEO Alan Rabinowitz, BCI Grants Committee Chair Thomas Lovejoy and National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence Dereck and Beverly Joubert, who with National Geographic founded the Big Cats Initiative. As part of this effort, the BCI also will utilize the expertise of Panthera’s premier cat biologists, who will provide scientific and strategic advice on conservation projects supported by the BCI.

“Panthera’s relationship with the National Geographic Society’s Big Cats Initiative presents a great opportunity for us to collaborate on new projects that conserve the world’s big cats and their ecosystems and ensure their survival for years to come,” said Rabinowitz. “National Geographic serves as a unique and unmatched mechanism for media outreach, broadcasting conservation stories about wild cats around the globe.”

“Panthera represents the most comprehensive effort of its kind in wild cat conservation,” said Terry Garcia, National Geographic’s executive vice president for Mission Programs. “The big cats of the world need our help, and a scientific collaboration between the Big Cats Initiative and Panthera is a significant step forward in our efforts to save endangered cats species around the world."

taken from :http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com

Bengal Tiger

Fast Facts :
Type:Mammal
Diet:Carnivore
Average life span in the wild:8 to 10 years
Size:Head and body, 5 to 6 ft (1.5 to 1.8 m); tail, 2 to 3 ft (0.6 to 0.9 m)
Weight:240 to 500 lbs (109 to 227 kg)
Protection status:Endangered
Did you know?
A tiger's roar can be heard as far as 2 mi (3 km) away.
Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man

Tigers are the largest members of the cat family and are renowned for their power and strength.

There were eight tiger subspecies at one time, but three became extinct during the 20th century. Over the last 100 years, hunting and forest destruction have reduced tiger populations from hundreds of thousands of animals to perhaps fewer than 2,500. Tigers are hunted as trophies, and also for body parts that are used in traditional Chinese medicine. All five remaining tiger subspecies are endangered, and many protection programs are in place.

Bengal tigers live in India and are sometimes called Indian tigers. They are the most common tiger and number about half of all wild tigers. Over many centuries they have become an important part of Indian tradition and lore.

Tigers live alone and aggressively scent-mark large territories to keep their rivals away. They are powerful nocturnal hunters that travel many miles to find buffalo, deer, wild pigs, and other large mammals. Tigers use their distinctive coats as camouflage (no two have exactly the same stripes). They lie in wait and creep close enough to attack their victims with a quick spring and a fatal pounce. A hungry tiger can eat as much as 60 pounds (27 kilograms) in one night, though they usually eat less.

Despite their fearsome reputation, most tigers avoid humans; however, a few do become dangerous maneaters. These animals are often sick and unable to hunt normally, or live in an area where their traditional prey has vanished.

Females give birth to litters of two to six cubs, which they raise with little or no help from the male. Cubs cannot hunt until they are 18 months old and remain with their mothers for two to three years, when they disperse to find their own territory.

taken from :http://animals.nationalgeographic.com

Tigers – When Hunters Become Victims

Tigers… I’ve always wanted to have one. They seem so cute (especially, when they are young) and inoffensive. But, now (because I am not a child anymore) I perfectly understand, that these beautiful and powerful animals are dangerous, but they still need our help, our protection. Unfortunately, nowadays, tigers are an endangered species. Earlier, there were 8 species of tigers and now 3 of them are extinct and 5 are endangered.

Tigers are predators and the largest feline species in our world. Also, they are the heaviest cats in the wild. In general, tigers’ length is from 2 m to 4 m and their weight – 306 kg. Tigers have bright reddish fur coats and black or brown stripes (as a rule, tigers have approximately 100 stripes). They make tigers so recognizable! It is interesting, but pattern of stripes is unique to each tiger, the same as fingerprints to a person. For most of us the Bengal Tiger, is a typical representative of all tigers and namely its image we imagine while speaking about tigers, ’cause they constitute nearly 80% of the entire tiger population. Tigers live in India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, Russia (the Siberian tiger is capable of surviving in extremely cold areas!), Thailand, Indonesian, Laos etc.

The word “tiger” comes from the Greek “tigris” and means an “arrow”, because of their amazing reaction and speed. Present day tigers are strong swimmers, they prefer swimming in ponds, rivers and lakes.

Unfortunately, tigers are haunted for their fur, bones of tigers are used in Chinese traditional medicine, for example in pain killers. But, it was banned. Very often tigers are called men-killers and sometimes, these things really happen. As a rule, only injured or very old tigers attack people. A tiger that killed a person will be killed or poisoned.

By the way, in a poll from Animal Planet, tigers were named World’s Favourite Animal, tigers got 10 904 votes, 17 votes more than dogs. More and more people keep or want to keep tigers as pets. A tiger is a potential danger. Most people don’t understand that keeping a tiger as a pet is almost unrealistic fantasy – give the wolf the best food, but he would hanker for the wood.

There are incredible white tigers, they are just a mutation, but a very beautiful one, yeah?

taken from :http://curiousanimals.net

Spotting Jaguars

A jaguar paces in front of a camera trap in the rain forests of Bolivia—1 of a record 19 individuals spotted in a recent survey of the country's Madidi National Park.

Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) set up the camera traps to try and identify jaguars based on the unique patterns of their spots. Once the images were collected, the team ran them through software originally designed to recognize tigers by their stripes.

The 19 jaguars found by the project represent a record number for a single camera-trap survey in the country. (Related pictures: "Seven Cat Species Found in One Forest-A Record.")

"The preliminary results of this new expedition underscore the importance of the Madidi landscape to jaguars and other charismatic rain forest species," Julie Kunen, director of WCS's Latin America and Caribbean Program, said in a statement.

"Understanding the densities and ranging habits of jaguars is an important step in formulating effective management plans for what is arguably the most biodiverse landscape on the planet."

taken from :http://news.nationalgeographic.com

White Siberian tiger

White tigers are not a separate tiger species nor the subspecies, they are the result of rare mutations that are passed from the normal orange tigers. People usually associated white tigers with Siberian tigers, because Siberian tigers inhabit snowy landscapes, and their white fur serves as camouflage. The truth however is that Siberian tigers are orange like all other tiger subspecies. It's even thought that their fur adjusted somewhat to snowy areas where they hunt.

The existence of white Siberian tigers in fact never been proven, in facts of Siberian tigers population may not even carry a white fur gene. When the white Siberian tiger is born, he is probably the result of a previous mating with a white Bengal tiger, which was caused to Siberian parents carry a gene of white fur. It is known that Bengal tigers carry the genes of white fur.

There is however several reports of sightings of white Siberian tiger from the region inhabited by normal orange Siberian tiger, but nothing have been scientifically determined yet. Hopefully, future DNA testing can tell us whether or not a pure Siberian tiger can carry the gene for white fur. This would show us whether two pure Siberian tiger parents can produce a white Siberian tiger or not. A DNA testing project would however face a great challenge: a large portion of the Siberian tiger population has already been eradicated. Which genes those tigers carried, and how diverse the Siberian tiger gene pool once were, we might never find out.

White tigers are sometimes mistakenly replaced as albino tigers, but it's not quite correct term. White Bengal tigers have black or brown stripes and the reports of white Siberian tiger from the wild all speak of clearly striped Siberian white tiger. If they really albino, they would not have any stripes at all. A pure Siberian white tiger would have brown stripes on a creamy white background. Since the white Siberian tigers bred in captivity is the result of a mixture of Bengal and Siberian heritage, it can have black stripes as well. The eyes of the Bengal and Siberian white tiger are blue and the nose is of a pink shade.

Since the gene for white fur is recessive in tigers, Both parents must carry a gene in order to produce a white tiger cub. Since such a mating extremely rare, white tigers are rarely seen in the wild. Humans have however selectively bred white tigers from parents known to carry the gene and they are therefore quite common in captivity. White Bengal and white Siberian tigers are not included in the official tiger breeding programs for conservational purposes. They can however help their orange coloured relatives by making people more interested in tigers and willing to set aside resources for the protection of the wild tiger population. One example is the famous white Siberian tiger Taj. Just like the other bred in captivity white Siberian tigers, and he also has an Bengal ancestor. Taj was born in 1984, at the Henry Doorly Zoo. After two years, he moved to the National Zoo (Smithsonian Institution).

WHITE TIGERS