Otters are semiaquatic members of the Mustelidae family, which also includes weasels, badgers, ferrets, and mink. The IUCN Mustelid and Viverrid Action Plan include the conservation of the entire family Mustelidae with the exception of the otter. Of the 13 otter species in the Lutrinae subfamily, the most recent edition of the IUCN Red List […]
The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), the jaguar (Panthera onca), and the leopard (Panthera pardus) are three species of cats characterized by yellow or tawny fur with spots and are considered big cats. Because of their physical resemblance, they could be confused with one another. The cheetah is a member of the genus Acinonyx, within the phylum
Zebra stripes are special like a person’s fingerprints. There are plains zebra, Grévy’s zebra and the mountain zebra.The plains zebra is the most common. The numbers of all three are shrinking because of habitat loss, hunting, and competition with livestock for water and their favorite food, grasses. In fact, zebras graze on grass so much
Zebras live in Africa.The best-known zebra is the plains zebra, which lives in the pastures and forests of eastern and southern Africa. Grévy’s Zebra has a highly discontinuous range, being found from the eastern side of the Rift Valley in Kenya to the Tana R. There is a small, isolated population east of the theAlledeghi
Zebras are plan eaters. The preferred forage is Aristida spp., Chrysopogonplumulosus, Dactyloctenium schindicum, Digitaria sp., Lasiurus scindicusand Sporobolus iocladus. Zebras are well adapted to eat herbs, have high-strength teeth, are very resistant, and the digestive system is very effective at extracting nutrients from grasses. In ecosystems with high predation pressure, they may suffer heavier predation
Sea otters search for food using their front paws and highly sensitive noses. Whiskers, in the nose act like fingers; they can move individually and sense where their prey is. Prey can include a multitude of different foods, including sea snails, mussels, crabs, clams, abalone, sea urchins, and many other animals. The sea otter’s teeth
Otters are carnivores that are on the top of the food chain. Food chains are forming a food web. Imagine there were no otters. This would influence all the animals that surround it in the food chain. If pollution, such as plastic, enters the water and the otters didn’t eat it, would this still be
Otters are carnivores and love to find an eel for lunch. Otters have such thick, waterproof fur, with up to a million hairs per square inch! Their webbed feet and strong tail make them a successful predator and at the top of the food chain. They have adapted to life on land and in the
Otters are one of the largest and most social members of the weasel (or Mustelidae) family. The weasel family has been around for a long time, first appearing around 15 million years ago. This group includes almost 60 different species including mink, ferrets, badgers, martens, wolverines, and more. The Mustelidae family inhabits all continents except
Historically, the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) was widely distributed throughout Africa and Asia. And could be found in past in 38 nations of Africa. A survey found that there were about 7,000 to 23,000 cheetahs living in Africa in the early 1970s. During the last decades, its distribution has shrunk dramatically and is currently confined to