Category Zoology

Some of the most effective hunters among the carnivores are actually the smallest. The weasels, for example, are fearsome fighters, able to kill prey much larger than themselves. The fisher marten of North America preys on the formidable porcupine, while a wolverine can bring down a reindeer.

The weasel family includes weasels, polecats and martens, skunks, otters and badgers. They are generally small animals, though the giant otter can measure over 1.8 metres from nose to tail. They have long bodies with short legs and often a long tail, and can be found on and under the ground in the trees and in the water.

Most members of the weasel family feed on smaller mammals, especially rodents, but some will also eat worms, fruit, and insects. The honey badger breaks open beehives to reach the honey inside, while otters feed on fish, frogs and other water creatures. The sea otter uses a stone to crack open shellfish.

Many members of the weasel family can produce a foul-smelling liquid called musk, both to mark their territories and to defend themselves against predators. The best-known of these is the skunk. If threatened, it will turn its back on its attacker and spray musk for distances of up to seven metres.

Apart from some otters and badgers, members of the weasel family are solitary mammals, keeping to their own territories and fight. Males and females usually come together only to breed.

Although hyenas look as though they should belong to the dog family, they are actually a separate group of carnivores. Most hyenas are meat-eaters. Some live in groups and hunt or feed together. They can kill large prey such as wildebeest after chasing them for several kilometres. A hyena’s strong jaws and large teeth can crush even large bones, horns and hooves, making sure there is little left after a kill.

The aardwolf differs from other hyenas because it is nocturnal, solitary, and feeds not on meat but on termites.

          The carnivore group also includes the mongoose family and the raccoon family, many of which do not rely on meat in their diets. The mongoose family (civets and genets and mongooses) are mostly solitary animals, but some, such as the meerkats, live in large groups. While feeding above ground they all watch out for predators, and will even band together to drive them away.

The raccoon family includes raccoons, coatis and pandas. All except the giant panda are quite small animals with long tails. They are good climbers, and some feed and nest in trees. Most members of the raccoon family live alone and are nocturnal, apart from coatis which form groups of females and feed during the day.

Raccoons and coatis feed on a wide range of foods including rodents, insects, frogs, plants and fruits. Red pandas, the smaller, lesser-known relatives of the giant panda, feed on fruit, bamboo and other plant material, while giant pandas them-selves usually feed only on bamboo.

Giant pandas are solitary animals that live in bamboo forests in the mountains of China. Although the small areas where they live are protected, the surrounding forest has been cut down. This means that giant pandas cannot move to a new area to breed or to find fresh supplies of bamboo. Giant pandas also breed very slowly, raising only one young at a time. Both of these factors make them among the rarest mammals in the world.

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The word carnivore usually describes animals that feed on meat, but not all meat-eaters belong to the carnivore group, nor do all carnivores eat meat.

Carnivores include cats, dogs, and bears as well as weasels, raccoons and mongooses. Most are meat-eaters, but others feed on insects and fruit and some eat only plants. They are grouped together because they are all descended from mammals that had specially shaped teeth for cutting through flesh. Many of the meat-eating carnivores still have these teeth, but in others they have been adapted for grinding plant material.

Carnivores have keen senses, especially their sense of smell. Scent is used to mark their territory or to communicate with others. Many live in packs, hunting together and even helping to raise the young.

The cat family is made up of the big cats such as lions, tigers and leopards, and the small cats, such as the ocelot, bobcat and the domestic cat. They feed only on meat, and are superbly adapted for hunting.

Cats have excellent hearing and vision, and can see in the dark. Their feet have soft pads for creeping up silently on their prey. Their sharp claws can be drawn in when walking to stop them from becoming blunted on the ground.

Although lions are well-known for living in groups, or prides, most cats in the wild are secretive animals that usually live and hunt alone.

The dog family includes wolves, foxes and wild dogs. Domestic dogs are descended from wolves. Like the cats, dogs are built for hunting. Their long, strong legs can carry them great distances in search of food. Small prey are grabbed in the jaws or pounced on first with the front feet. Larger prey are chased down then pulled to the ground and killed.

Dogs are able to adapt easily to different conditions, living in the hottest and the coldest of environments. They also have a more varied diet than the cats, feeding on almost anything they can find, including fish, fruit and even insects, as well as meat.

Most kinds of dogs live together in family groups. A pair of Arctic wolves will form a breeding partnership that can last for life.

Their young leave to make their own family groups when they become adult. African wild dogs form large packs where young males are allowed to stay with the pack while their sisters must leave to find a new one. Pack hunters work together to hunt down large prey, and also help to feed and look after the young.

In contrast, another group of carnivores, the bears, led a mainly solitary life. Bears are large, heavily built mammals which, despite their short legs, can run at speed. They include the largest carnivores on land, the polar bear and grizzly bear.

Bears have poor eyesight but an excellent sense of smell. Most bears are mainly plant-eaters, but they also feed on fish, small animals and insects. They will eat meat killed by other carnivores, and even catch some prey themselves. The exception is the polar bear, which feeds mostly on seals since there is little vegetation in the icy Arctic.

Most bears live in forests, and the smaller bears such as the black bear or sun bear are good climbers. Bears that live in northern climates spend the winter in caves or in dens dug under the snow. They live off the food they stored as fat in the summer. During the winter, the females give birth.

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Many of the ungulates are able to digest their food more efficiently than other animals. This means that, despite their large size, they can get the nourishment they need from their plant-eating diets. These animals are known as ruminants, and include camels, giraffes, deer and bovids (cattle, antelopes, sheep and goats). Their stomachs are divided into compartments that break down tough food in stages. In some ruminants, such as cattle, the food is sent back to the mouth to be chewed again after the first stage of digestion.

This efficient process of digestion means that the ruminants are able to spend less time eating than do other ungulates, such as horses. They also do not need to drink as often, so they can roam more freely in harsh conditions such as deserts.

Giraffes live in open wooded areas of the African grasslands. With adult males measuring over five metres in height, they are the tallest animals on land. They have long legs, sloping backs and extremely long necks, which means that they can feed on leave and shoots from trees that other animals cannot reach.

Giraffes wander across large home ranges, moving in constantly changing groups for protection. They have excellent eyesight and can see for several kilometres. They are also able to run at over 50 kilometres per hour with a strange lopsided gait, both legs on the same side moving at once. Females will lash out with their huge, powerful feet if a predator threatens their calves.

Wild cattle, sheep, goats, antelopes and gazelles are known as bovids. The first three groups of bovids have been domesticated by humans for thousands of years, but they still have many wild relatives. Small bovids, such as gazelles, feed on higher-quality plant material such as fruits, leaves and bark. The large cattle are grazers, breaking down their poorer diet of grass by chewing the cud (partially digested food).

Many bovids live in herds, which in the African buffalo can number hundreds of individuals. Cattle and antelopes are preyed upon by big cats or wild dogs. The predators usually target young or sick cattle, but adult cattle are sometimes able to drive them away by forming a defensive group or attacking with their horns. Antelopes of all ages are vulnerable to attack. They hide from predators, or escape from danger by running and leaping at top speed.

Sheep and goats live in rocky, mountain environments. Some are solitary and will fight fiercely for territory, while others group together in herds. They have stocky but agile bodies, and are able to run and leap over dangerous terrain without falling. Males and females both usually have horns, though those of the male are larger. During tights the males clash their horns with great force. Goats also stab violently while sheep bang their heads together.

Deer look very similar to antelopes, but, unlike antelopes, deer do not have a permanent set of bony horns. A deer’s antlers (possessed only by males except in the reindeer) are shed and regrown every year, as they are often damaged in fights.

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The even-toed ungulates include a wide variety of large mammals from pigs and sheep to giraffes and antelopes. There are two main groups of even-toed ungulates. The first group is made up of the pigs, peccaries and hippopotamuses, which have short legs, large heads and four toes on each foot. The second group comprises all other even-toed ungulates, which have longer legs and two toes on each foot.

Wild pigs and peccaries have stocky bodies covered with bristly hair, and large canine teeth, which in some kinds, such as wild boars and warthogs, curve upwards to form tusks. They are larger in males, and are used for fighting. Thick skin and pads of matted hair on the shoulders protect each male from its opponent’s tusks.

Wild pigs and peccaries feed on a wider variety of foods than other even-toed ungulates. Wild boars use their large, mobile snouts to sniff out and unearth plants, fruits, worms, roots and even small animals such as frogs and rodents. Other wild pigs eat grasses while peccaries feed mostly on roots, fruit and seeds.

Wild pigs usually live in small groups of males or females and their young, though larger groups may come together to feed. Peccaries live in large social herds that are then divided into smaller family groups including males, females and young. Peccaries will defend their territory against intruders and risk their lives to protect the herd from a predator.

Hippopotamuses are large African mammals. The hippopotamus lives in groups in Grassland Rivers and lakes, while its smaller, more solitary relative, the pygmy hippopotamus, lives in forests and swamps.

The skin of a hippopotamus dries out quickly in the hot African sunshine, so they spend the daytime lazing in cool water or mud. Their eyes, ears and nostrils are high on their heads, so they can submerge almost their entire bodies. At night, as the air cools down, they come out on to land and graze on short grasses for a few hours. Because they spend little time moving about, they do not need to eat for long periods every day as other large ungulates do.

 However, despite their lazy appearance, hippopotamuses are powerful animals that will fight fiercely for territory or to defend their young. They can inflict serious injuries with their long, sharp, lower canine teeth on anything that threatens them.

Camels are two-toed ungulates. The camel group includes two species of camel and several South American species such as llamas and vicunas. They live in deserts or mountainous plains, and have adapted to be able to survive in these harsh conditions.

Camels are desert animals. Their flat, wide feet help them to walk easily over soft sand, and they can even close their nostrils to stop sand blowing in. Camels will eat dry, thorny plant material that other animals would not, and they can go for long periods without food or water. Their humps are actually food stores in the form of fat, and their bodies conserve as much water as possible. When they do drink, they can take in large volumes of water in a short time.

Most camels are now domesticated by humans, though they still roam freely for much of the time, living in herds and feeding for themselves. They have been used for thousands of years by humans as beasts of burden, carrying goods and people for many miles. Their meat, wool and milk are also valued by their owners.

The smaller members of the camel family live in the Andes Mountains of South America. They are agile, long-legged animals that feed on grass or browse on plant material. The llama and alpaca are domesticated. Llamas can carry heavy loads for miles across rough terrain, while alpacas are bred for their fine wool. The guanaco and vicuña live in wild groups. They are also prized for their wool, which means that they are vulnerable to hunters.

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Ungulates are a group of mammals that have hooves instead of claws on their feet. They are all quite large, with long faces and good senses of smell and sight. Most ungulates have a coat of coarse hairs rather than soft fur. They are all plant-eaters, taking food straight from the plant or the ground with their lips, teeth and tongue.

Ungulates have large, flat teeth for grinding down plant material, and specially-adapted digestive systems to get as much nourishment as possible from their food. Because of their large size, many ungulates have to spend most of their time eating.

Ungulates have evolved to walk on their toes, which have become hard hooves. This gives them speed to escape from danger. Ungulates that live in forests and have to search for their food are often solitary, while those that live in open spaces and feed on abundant plants such as grasses tend to live in herds.

Ungulates are divided into two groups: the odd-toed ungulates, which have one or three toes, and the even-toed ungulates, which have two or four toes. The odd-toed ungulates include horses and zebras, which have a single toe, and rhinoceroses and tapirs, which have three toes on each foot.

Horses, asses and zebras live in grasslands and deserts, feeding on grass. They have sharp front teeth for biting off blades of grass, and grinding back teeth for chewing. Their long tails are covered with hair all over in the horses, but only at the tip in asses and zebras. All horses and zebras have a mane of hair on their necks.

Horses have excellent eyesight and can spot a predator in almost any direction. They can also run at top speed for long distances. Where food is plentiful, they live in herds consisting of a male and a group of females and their foals. Male horses or zebras will fight for the right to lead a herd.

The tapir family is one of the oldest in the world. Tapirs are found in the forests of Central and South America and Southeast Asia. They use their small trunks to sniff out leaves and pull them towards their mouths.

Tapirs are nocturnal animals, and rely on their dark colouring to camouflage them among the trees and protect them from predators. The Malayan tapir has large patches of black and white that break up its outline in the darkness. The natural enemies of tapirs are big cats such as the jaguar, but humans are also threatening them by destroying much of their habitat.

Rhinoceroses form the third group of odd-toed ungulates. Their huge bodies are armoured with thick skin, and they have one or more horns on their heads. These are actually made from a hardened material called keratin, similar to that found in our fingernails. Several kinds of rhinoceros are in danger of dying out because of hunting by humans for their horns.

Unlike most other ungulates, rhinoceroses have poor eyesight, but their hearing and sense of smell is good. They are mainly solitary animals, though they may sometimes form small groups. White rhinoceroses graze on short grass while other kinds prefer to browse on woody plants, leaves and fruits. The browsers have a prehensile upper lip, to grasp food more easily. Rhinoceroses like to be near water to keep cool. They roll in the mud to protect their skin from biting insects.

          The largest animals on land today, elephants share the same distant ancestor as the manatees and dugongs. They are famous for their huge size, their tusks and of course, their long trunks.

          The strong, flexible trunk is actually an extended nose and top lip. Though mainly used for feeding, it is also useful for bathing and for communicating with others through touch. Using its trunk, an elephant can reach down to the ground to drink or up into the trees to pull down branches.

          Elephants feed on all types of plant material including grasses, leaves, branches and fruits. They pick up food or suck up water with their trunks and put it into their mouths. They can also spray water over their backs to cool themselves off. The tusks (actually long front teeth) are used to dig for roots or peel bark from trees, and also as weapons in fights between males.

          Elephants can live for up to 60 years in the wild—almost as long as humans. Many roam the open grasslands of Africa, but others live in forests or mountainous areas. Female elephants stay in family groups led by the oldest female, while males travel alone or in small bands.

          There are two kinds of elephants: African and Asian elephants. African elephants are larger than Asian elephants, with bigger ears and a less rounded back. Asian elephants have been used by humans for thousands of years to carry heavy loads. They are still used today in the logging industry.

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