Swift Fox

Vulpes velox

The swift fox is similar in appearance to the common red fox, but is much smaller. Along with the kitfox, it is the smallest member of the dog family in North America. The small swift fox has suffered heavy losses as a result of trapping and poisoning campaigns intended to eradicate other more abundant carnivores that were thought to be a threat to livestock. The swift fox is sometimes regarded as a North American subspecies of the common kit fox. However, the two have a different distribution, and the distinctive DNA and skeletal structures of the swift fox justify treating it as a separate species. Swift foxes [Read more]

Koala

Phascolarctos cinereus

The koala has enjoyed considerable conservation success. However, although it is no longer threatened with extinction, managing the remaining populations is proving problematic for conservationists. Koalas manage to survive on a diet that no other mammal will touch-eucalyptus leaves. Tough, dry, and with a very low nutritional value, the leaves also contain indigestible materials and compounds that are highly poisonous to most other animals. Koalas are able to exist on this poor diet by having efficient digestive systems that will not only break down the toxins but also extract every available calorie. [Read more]

Quagga

Equus quagga

A form of the common zebra, the quagga used to roam the South African grasslands, but during the 19th century was hunted to extinction for its meat and hide. The common zebra occurs as various localized and distinct varieties, and the one in southern Africa was sufficiently distinct to have been considered a separate species. It was known as the quagga, a name that was based on the loud barking-coughing sound that all zebras make. Like the common zebra, quaggas formed large herds to exploit the vast grasslands and to achieve safety in numbers when attacked by predators. It is said that they preferred to [Read more]

Buffalo

Although the North American bison is often called a buffalo, true buffalo come from much warmer lands in Asia and Africa. Along with bison, buffalo belong to the scientific family Bovidae.

Where buffalo live

The several types of buffalo are native to South and Southeast Asia and much of Africa. As people from those regions spread throughout the world they brought buffalo with them. Today the animals can be found in Europe, Australia, and South and Central America as well as Asia and Africa. The Indian, or Asian water, buffalo lives in tall grasses close to [Read more]

Arabian Oryx

Oryx leucoryx ( image )

In the vast deserts of the Middle East the oryx was hunted to extinction in the 1970s. It has now been reintroduced to the wild from captive herds bred in zoos.Arabian oryx live in small herds, usually with fewer than 10 animals per group, which lessens the impact of their feeding on the sparse desert vegetation. They generally feed early in the day, then rest, and feed again before finding shade for the hottest part of the afternoon. The animals move around seasonally between feeding places and may use a total area of several thousand square miles in a year. They seem able to detect rain at a distance; they [Read more]

European Mink

Mustela lutreola ( image )

Once widespread in Europe, native mink populations are now in rapid decline. The animal’s future is under threat both from humans and from the introduced American mink. Like its American cousin, the European mink inhabits waterside habitats and is found along river banks and at the edges of lakes. It is mainly nocturnal, operating out of a burrow or natural den among tree roots. Some take over burrows made by water voles, but a mink can dig its own home if necessary. Mink are territorial and normally live alone: They tend to be well spaced out, with an average of only one mink per mile of river bank. They swim and dive well, aided by their partly webbed feet, and capture most of their food in the water. [Read more]

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