Babysitters help out

Each gang contains several family units with a male and female breeding pair in each. There is a special breeding burrow where pups are born. They are raised here for the first three weeks, then allowed outside with babysitter females while their mother goes in search of food. E ach pup is taught how to forage by and adult mentor and is able to fend for itself by the age of 10 weeks.

Part of Meerkat

• strong tail – used for added support when standing
• long, strong hind leg – good support when the meerkat stands upright on sentry duty for long periods of time. Meekats can walk on two or four legs
• slender, lithe build – enable the meerkat to dive underground quickly. Its fur rangeds in colour from silver to brown and acts as camouflage againt the sandy ground and pale grasses of the kalahari
• dark bands – around the eyes reduces glare from the sun, so the meerkat can see a bird of prey while looking straight into the sun
• ears – can be closed to keep dirt out when the meerkat is digging

Stastistics

• status – common
• social unit – group
• lenght – 25-35 cm
• tail – 17-25 cm
• weight – 600-975 g
• sexual maturity – about 1 year
• breeding season – any time, depending on food availability
• gestation period – about 75 days
• number of young – 2-5
• breeding interval – 12 months
• diet – insects, scorpions, lizards, mice, eggs, fruit, roots
• lifespan – up to 6 years

Myth or fact

For a long time, it was throught that meerkats stood sentry for the rest of the colony as an act of selfless heroism. Now it seems more likely that standing guard simply gives a meerkat a better opportunity to save its own skin. Apparently, no guard was ever attacked by a predator during 2000 hours of observation. Also, even though guards sounded the alarm on spotting predators, they were also the first to dive into a nearby burrow.

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1. European Mink

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 spend the night in areas of short grass where they could not be easily ambushed. In good feeding areas the herds would stay in the same region throughout the year. However, where the grazing was poor, the quagga migrated seasonally to find better feeding places.

In the quagga (above) the striping that is characteristic of all zebras was confined to the head, neck, and forequarters. Breeding experiments to produce an animal resembling the extinct quagga have included a cross between a mule and a zebra, to produce a quagga” hybrid (right). However, this animal lacks the striped head and neck of the quagga and is gray, whereas the quagga was generally brown.

The Road to Extinction

From about 1700 settlement in South Africa by Europeans increased substantially. By the late 19th century most of the land occupied by quaggas had been brought into use for grazing livestock and for farming. The new settlers used to shoot quaggas for sport in far greater numbers than had ever been possible by the native people. The quaggas were killed by farmers as a convenient source of meat, and their skins also provided a source of strong leather, which was used for making robust bags. They were easy animals to hunt from horseback, since the open grassland offered nowhere to hide or escape. Hunting caused disruption of the quagga herds. Although there may have been many surviving quaggas as late as the 1860s, they were scattered into small groups, which substantially reduced their breeding success. As the older animals died, there were too few offspring to replace them, and the last wild quagga was probably killed in about 1878. A few quaggas had been kept in zoos, the last individual dying in Amsterdam on August 12, 1883. The only photographs of a living quagga are of the female that lived at the London Zoo from 1851 to 1872. Today there is only one quagga left on the entire continent of Africa-a preserved foal in the Cape Town Museum. About 22 stuffed and mounted specimens of adult quaggas are scattered among museums elsewhere.

Quagga (Bonte quagga, Burchell’s zebra)
Equus quagga

• Family: Equidae
• World population: 0 (Extinct)
• Distribution: Formerly Cape Province and parts of Orange Free State, South Africa
• Habitat: Dry temperate grasslands
• Size: Length head/body: about 6 ft (2 m); tail: nearly 24 in (50-60 cm); height at shoulder: 4-5 ft (1.3-1.4 m). Weight: about 450 lb (200 kg); adult males can be up to about 650 lb (300 kg)
• Form: Brown zebra in which the head, neck, and forequarters had brown and cream stripes, but the hind quarters were solid brown. As in other zebras, each individual had a slightly different pattern
• Diet: Coarse grasses
• Breeding: Single foal born probably after a gestation of about 1 year. Independent at 6-8 months and probably capable of breeding at 2-3 years. Life span may have been up to 40 years, as in common zebras today
• Related endangered species: Mountain zebra (Equus zebra); Grevy’s zebra (E. grevyi); African wild ass (E. africanus); Asiatic wild ass (E. hemionus)

Re-Creating the Quagga

It has been suggested that genetic material from some of the museum specimens might be used to clone a “re-created” quagga, but that will only be possible if the DNA has remained suitably preserved (tanning the skins, for example, which is part of the preservation process, harms DNA irrevocably). Experimental cross-breeding projects and the selective breeding of zebras with different coat patterns have also produced
animals that look very similar to quaggas.

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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.

They also hunt on land, using their sense of smell to track down small rodents, frogs, and other prey. Only a century ago the European mink was found across northern Europe and in parts of northern Asia. It has been extinct in most of western Europe for decades and is now also extinct in eastern European countries such as Lithuania, probably also in Finland and Poland. It remains widespread in Russia, where over 95 percent of the surviving populations live, but their distribution and exact status are uncertain. Reasons for their decline include eager hunting and trapping for their valuable fur. Mink are easy to catch, so the temptation to overharvest them has not been resisted, and their slow breeding rate has been unable to compensate for heavy losses. Females produce up to seven young but only once a year and the survival rate is often low. Kittens are raised without help from the male and are independent at about 10 weeks. Some disperse 30 miles (50 km) or more, especially in winter, when it may be necessary to travel such distances to find unfrozen water.

Man-Made Hazards

Mink face other problems, including water pollution. They have also been affected by habitat loss, since many rivers have been dammed to provide electricity or modified to prevent floods and allow cultivation of land along their edges. Even in relatively undisturbed areas such as Belarus recent surveys show the mink has been declining. In addition to this, in 1926 American mink were imported into Europe to be reared on fur farms. Many of them escaped and now compete directly with their smaller European cousin for food, dens, and living space. It is also said that male American mink can mate successfully with female European mink. However, although the babies begin to develop, they never survive. Since mink have only one litter a year, crossbreeding means that female European mink waste a whole year’s reproductive effort. It appears that the American species is a more successful survivor, and in under 75 years it has spread throughout Scandinavia, much of Britain, and the Netherlands. Other populations are also spreading rapidly in France, Spain, Italy, and Germany. In places where both species of mink occur together, the European mink seems to die out within five to 10 years. In 1992 a special breeding program for the European mink was established with the aim of maintaining a viable population in captivity. In 1997 there were 64 individuals in 10 zoos. In the wild the decline continues at an alarming rate, and the native wild mink seems destined to become extinct in western Europe. Efforts are being made to establish populations on offshore islands, safe from the dangers on the mainland. The European mink is smaller than its American cousin. Only 2 to 3 percent of the remaining population live in Europe. This one has matted fur, having just left the water.

Status European mink ( Mustela lutreola )

• Family: Mustelidae
• World population: 30,000-40,000
• Distribution: Belarus, Estonia, France, Georgia, Latvia, Spain, and widely in Russia
• Habitat: River banks near temperate grassland
• Size: Length head/body: 12-18 in (30-45 cm); tail: 4.5-7.5 in (12-19 cm), Weight: 1.3-1.75 lb (550-800 g)
• Form: Small mammal resembling a small, short-legged cat; dark, glossy, brown fur with white around muzzle
• Diet: Rodents, including water voles and muskrats, small birds, and aquatic invertebrates such as crayfish and mollusks
• Breeding: Breeding season February-March; 4-7 young born April-June; 1 litter a year. Life span 7-10 years
• Related endangered species: Wolverine (Gulo gulo) ; Colombian weasel (Mustela felipei) ; pine marten (Manes martes); giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis)

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Formerly abundant and widespread in Africa, the black rhinoceros has been drastically reduced in numbers since the 1970s. The main culprit is the expanding international trade in rhino horn. Although the black rhinoceros is able, if necessary, to go for five days without water, it is generally found in relatively moist areas of lush vegetation. Throughout Africa these regions are under pressure for development into farm and grazing land, effectively excluding the rhinos, which are too large and unpredictable to be tolerated close to human settlements. Yet the main threat to the animals comes not so much from habitat loss as from hunting, principally for their horns for use in oriental medicine. For centuries rhino horn, composed of densely compressed hair, has been powdered and swallowed as a remedy for fevers and other disorders. It is made of keratin (a fibrous substance that occurs in skin, hair, nails, and hooves) and cannot be absorbed into the body, so any supposed medicinal benefits will only be imaginary. Yet the horns continue to fetch high prices, often earning more than their weight in gold. In recent years a new factor has further complicated the situation. In Yemen in southwestern Asia there has long been a tradition of using rhino horn to make carved dagger handles. As oil money brought new prosperity to the region, the demand for these prestigious status symbols increased; in 1999 more than 100 craftsmen were employed in making and repairing such artifacts. Old and new horns were used; at the time, new horns were said to be fetching $615 per pound ($1,350 per kg), 20 percent more than they had only two years earlier. Before hunting reduced their numbers, black rhinos could be found in the bush and savanna regions of most of Africa south of the Sahara. By the 1960s they were already becoming rare, but were still 110 widely distributed, with substantial numbers in Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Although the animals enjoyed legal protection, the lucrative trade in horns could not be controlled, and the rhino died out in one area after another as hunting took its lethal toll.

Slow Breeders

The black rhino has one of the slowest reproductive rates of any large mammal, making it ill equipped to cope with population loss. Young animals first breed at five or even 10 years, but in practice many are killed long before they reach that age. Calves are not born annually, but at intervals of up to five years. In the past this was not a disadvantage; the slow breeding rate was probably a natural adaptation to avoid producing more young than the available resources could support. Excessive hunting has, however, overwhelmed the animal’s capacity to maintain its numbers, which have fallen by more than 90 percent since 1970. The total figure now seems to have stabilized, but several countries where the species was once common now have fewer than 50 black rhinos, most of them confined to national parks and reserves. Thanks to the high cash value of the horns, the killing continues; a poacher can earn more from one dead rhino than from a year’s farmwork. One possible solution might be to remove the horns, which contain no nerve endings and can be painlessly cut away without disrupting the rhino’s life. However, the horns grow back, so the process would have to be repeated. Even so, such a program would remove the incentive for poaching and might prove more practicable in the long run than captive breeding, which is the only other way of ensuring the rhino’s long-term survival.

Statistic
Black rhinoceros
Diceros bicornis

• Family: Rhinocerotidae
• World population: About 2,550 (1994 estimate)
• Form: Large, thick-skinned animal; grayish in color but often coated with dust or mud. Two horns on the snout and a pointed, mobile upper lip, used like a miniature trunk to gather food
• Distribution: Africa south of the Sahara, in widely scattered localities
• Habitat: Bush and savanna; rarely found more than a day’s walk from water
• Size: Length head/body: 9.5-12.3 ft (2.9-3.7 m); tail: 24-28 in (60-70 cm); height at shoulder: 4.5-5.9 ft (1.4-1.8 m). Weight: 1,500-3,000 lb (700-1,400 kg)
• Diet: Leaves, twigs, and branches browsed from more than 200 species of low-growing shrub
• Breeding: Single calf born after 15month gestation; suckled for up to 1 year. Life span may exceed 40 years
• Related endangered species: White rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum); great Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis); Javan rhinoceros (R. sondaicus); Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumarrensis

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The Chinese alligator is one of the smaller crocodilians (large, predatory reptiles of the order Crocodilian, and possibly the rarest. Its range has been restricted by expanding human populations in China, and it is now endangered, although farmed specimens are restoring numbers overall. Like all crocodilians, the Chinese alligator is an efficient predator that is well adapted to its lifestyle. It is reclusive, feeding mainly at night and spending six to seven months hibernating in burrows. The burrow system is complex, often having ventilation holes up to the surface. The alligators’ habits, together with their efficient camouflage, mean that they can often go undetected even when they are near human habitation. Once widespread, the species is now mainly restricted to 13 small protected areas within Anhui Chinese Alligator National Nature Reserve, an area of 167 square miles (433 sq. km). The alligators’ association with the dragons of Chinese mythology offers no protection. Their habitat is in an area of dense human population that has been heavily cultivated, principally by draining swamps and clearing vegetation. Pressure to expand cultivation is growing as the population increases. The Chinese alligator is not a man-eater, but is feared by local people and considered an expensive nuisance because of its burrowing, which destroys irrigation dams. Although the alligator’s diet is mainly snails and mussels-the broad teeth are adapted to crushing mollusk shells-they will take fish and ducks, which brings them into conflict with humans. The alligator is a protected species, but that does not stop it from being killed and sold for meat and medicinal use. The meat and skins are not as sought-after as those of some other species; the skin is difficult to tan due to the large osteoderms (bony plates) under the scales. Its lower value means that it is not worth hunting the alligators on a commercial basis. However, occasional kills remove a pest and earn a little money.

Surviving Populations

When the species was added to the IUCN listing in 1965, the estimated wild population was 50 specimens. Today the estimate is about 1,000, roughly 500 of which are in the Anhui Reserve. A few live in other reserves and possibly in scattered isolated areas along the Yangtze River’s tributaries. There are more alligators in captivity than in the wild. Captive-breeding programs have been successful; starting in the early 1960s with 200 wild alligators and 780 wild eggs, numbers increased to just over 4,000 by 1991. Breeding centers have been set up in China, and Chinese alligators have been bred at several American and European zoos. Currently the number of alligators in establishments in China is about 5,000; outside China about 230 exist in zoos and one or two private collections. Space is limited in zoos, however. The young will live together quite well up to the age of three or four years; but as they grow, fights and cannibalism can become a problem. At the moment breeding from second-generation animals is not carried out for these reasons.

Future Prospects

Which means that they can enter trade. The original idea was to produce them for meat and for the European pet market, although it is doubtful if the demand in Europe would be great enough to make breeding worthwhile. However, the industry provides much-needed jobs for many people. The Chinese alligator has been proven to thrive in captivity. Females are mature at between four and five years, which makes them ideal for captive breeding. Its longevity and reasonable clutch size mean that wild areas could be repopulated if the habitat was not being constantly threatened.

Chinese alligator
Alligator sinensis

• Family: Alligatoridae
• World population: About 1,000 wild adults
• Distribution: Lower Yangtze River in China
• Habitat: Slow-moving freshwater rivers and streams; lakes, ponds, and swamps
• Size: Length up to 6 ft (2 m). Weight: up to 85 lb (40 kg)
• Form: Similar to the American alligator, but smaller and with a more tapered head. Snout is slightly upturned near the nostrils. Color is dark brown to black. Young carry bright-yellow crossbands that fade with age
• Diet: Snails, mussels, fish, and ducks
• Breeding: Clutch of 10-40 eggs per year laid under mounds of decaying vegetation. Average clutch size in captivity is 15 eggs. Females may occasionally miss breeding one year. Incubation about 70 days
• Related endangered species: Black caiman (Melanosuchus niger)

[tags]chinese, alligator, crocodile, reptiles, species[/tags]

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