Two handfuls of “cute”: Red Panda twins!

Red Pandas are among my most favorite animals, and no trip to the Bronx or Philadelphia Zoos is ever complete without visiting them. A world away, however, people are getting their first look at two 12-week-old Red Pandas (twins) born at Taronga Zoo (click the link if you feel like going “Awwwww”). Their names are Jishnu and Tenzin (their parents being Mayhem and Wanmei), and their birth is important as Red Pandas (much like actual, ursine Pandas) are endangered and require help from captive breeding programs in addition to habitat restoration if they are going to continue to survive. Most of my favorite red panda shots are on my other computer, but here’s one from my last trip to the Philadelphia Zoo (when the critter was actually awake for five minutes);

And here’s some YouTube video of the new cubs;

Photo of the Day: Fishing Cat

The first two times I visited the Philadelphia Zoo I couldn’t seem to spy a Fishing Cat, but during my last trip I was lucky enough to see the stout little cat traversing its enclosure;

Lions take down a giraffe

My previous post about lions taking down an elephant made me wonder if the depths of YouTube held any clues as to how lions might successfully hunt giraffe, and indeed, here’s some footage of just such an event;

Indeed, the objective of the lions seems to be to tire the giraffe out and wound it to the point when it can no longer stand. Such tactics are dangerous, being that giraffes can easily break bones and lacerate skin with their powerful kicks (and some of the lions were on the receiving end of such blows) but the method seems to be effective. I have to wonder if there is a larger success rate with this tactic when it is used on male giraffes, being that males are more likely to stand their ground and fight. A giraffe that is able to run away will likely make it to safety, but by standing his ground and fighting, the male giraffe in this video makes himself an easy target, exhausting himself trying to fight off the lions and getting cornered in an area of thick brush.

Lions take down an elephant

The diversity in hunting styles of big cats has always amazed me; cape buffalo, giraffes, and even elephants have all fallen prey to lions. When I was younger, these animals were presented as almost invulnerable to the attacks of carnivores, their size, speed, armaments, or morphology making them impossible to catch and kill (just how are you supposed to deliver a jugular bite to a giraffe when their head is so high up?). Today, we know this is not the case, and even though elephants may not make up the everyday diet of some prides, there are groups of lions that have been able to take down large elephants, as can be seen in this video;

What I’m wondering is this; why was this elephant alone? Elephants are very social animals that live in matriarchies, so unless this was a young male that has been kicked out of the herd when he comes of age (as is elephant etiquette), I have to wonder why this one was on its own. The documentary also fails to show us how the lions actually killed the great pachyderm, so the question of how they manage to overpower and kill such a large animal is unanswered by the clip. It also makes me wonder about the taphonomy of African Elephants; would adolescent males be less likely to be found because they are more likely to be killed by predators or in competition with older males? Elephants also have a habit of examining the bones of deceased members of their own kind, disturbing whatever burial might be occurring, so for an elephant to be preserved (and eventually fossilized) I would imagine that burial would have to happen very quickly or at least in such a way to make the body largely inaccessible to predators and curious elephants.

Photo of the Day: White Nosed Coati

Here’s your member of the Carnivora for today; a White Nosed Coati from the Philadelphia Zoo, taken in August of last year;

I’ve always been charmed by coatis and their relatives, raccoons (both belong to the Family Procyonidae). The problem with photographing these little guys, however, was that they were extremely active, so it proved difficult to get any shot that wasn’t blurry. I’ll give it another try this summer, but until then this is one of the better shots from that trip.

Grizzlies bounce back; the delisting continues…

Apparently big predators are thriving in the United States, wolves, American crocodiles, and now grizzly bears all coming off the endangered species list (and others, like bobcats in the NJ Pine Barrens, are making a comeback). Coyotes and foxes are doing well in cities, mountain lions prowl McMansion developments west of the Mississippi, and predators of all sizes seem to have found their place in a world of suburban sprawl and ecological mismanagement. While I am heartened by the success of these species, it appears that the focus has swung from conservation to (over)active management, wolves, grizzlies, and other species being considered for culls or hunts now that they have established populations. These animals have survived the wrath of man and it seems that people want to go back out and hunt predators as a celebration of their removal from the endangered species listings, and of course this is absolutely foolish.

A stable and healthy population isn’t just about numbers, so merely because there are 500 grizzles in a given area or 300 wolves in all of Idaho does not mean those numbers are going to increase indefinitely (or conversely, are immune to population crashes due to disease or other factors). In the case of wolves, 300 is an awfully paltry number, and I would say the reducing that by 2/3 to 100 takes a step backward; it doesn’t make sense that once the population becomes stable we have the right to go out and start reducing the population again. It would be wonderful if, when a species is no longer endangered, they are given an extra 5 years or so of protection to establish territories, genetic diversity, and stable population numbers before “active management” of said population begins again. What many state governments are doing (I’m looking at you Idaho and Wyoming) is akin to patching up a relationship with a partner you abused, and the second the apologies are over you smack them in the face again. Indeed, “abusive” is perhaps the best word to describe the approach many state and local governments take towards wildlife, and while more people are aware of environmental issues these days the impetus to act is still minimal.

Now, I’m not naive enough to suggest that the bears should be given free reign, no matter what their population size. The wildnerness isn’t “wild” anymore and bears have shown great ingenuity in terms of finding garbage or alternate food sources to eat, thus there’s always a potential for population problems. Indeed, often the camps are polarized, those who don’t want any animals shot or interfered with on one side, those who perceive the predators as an imminent threat on the other, and wildlife management officials in the middle, the findings of actual scientists often coming in second to emotions and rhetoric. For my own part, I would love to see a wild America, but that is not to be (at least in my lifetime). We created so many ecological problems that we must be responsible for caring for and managing what’s left of the wild, and part of that management process may be culling animals if populations of predators get large enough that they become malnourished and begin to exclusively feed on garbage. Developers and residents should be held responsible for where housing is built and where anyone chooses to live, but I’m not going to say that if black bears are breaking into houses and cars in search of food because the natural population is so large that they’ve been pushed out that we should do nothing. Such is the debate going on in my state right now, and it’s become so polarized that depending on who you talk to or apply with, whether you agree or disagree with a regulated bear hunt you might not get the job.

In the case of crocs, grizzlies, and wolves, I don’t believe any of the populations are established enough and they need more time before hunting should be allowed. Hopefully, as wildlife repopulates now-developed areas and adapts to urban lifestyles, developers will take these issues into account and issues like bears getting into trash, coyotes running through pet doors, raccoons raiding the fridge, mountain lions taking a stroll through the streets, etc. will be able to be managed through design and responsibility taken by residents. We cannot live in a world where we can eliminate and contain everything wild; we might win the short battle but in the end we will only end up creating more efficient and wily animals, ones even more capable of becoming nuisances.

Photo of the Day: Snow Leopard Pair

This is one of my favorite photos of a pair of snow leopards at the Bronx Zoo;

I took this prior to the birth of the twin female cubs, so I wonder if this pair are the ones responsible for the little ones running around the zoo. Unfortunately I didn’t think to try and sex them so I probably won’t be able to tell, but they did give me a wonderful photographic opportunity; there was a bird in the corner of the enclosure that was really holding their interest.

Wolves, Lions, Crows, Leopards, and Coyotes, oh my

I’ve got a severe case of bloggers block (today has not been a good day, let me tell you), so until I find something that inspires long-winded discussion, here’s some neat video footage of my favorite mammal order, the Carnivora. First up, some video footage of the recently (re)dubbed Bornean Clouded Leopard;

The distinctive double stripes running along its back are especially visible as it crawls down the tree, and it is exceedingly apparent that this is one stealthy jungle predator.

Wolves also rank among my favorite carnivores, and while everyone knows they can take down large prey, it’s often difficult to get a mental picture of how a group of small animals can take down something as large as, say, a bison. This video (although edited for TV) shows a pack doing just that;

Buffalo elsewhere (specifically Cape Buffalo in Africa) are far more dangerous than anything we may encounter in North America, yet lions in the Okovango Delta of Botswana specialize in taking down these animals. Taking down an adult cape buffalo, however, isn’t easy and many lions are injured or killed attempting to take down the huge animals, one such case seen in this video (although I don’t think these are Okovango lions, but it still illustrates the point);

Other carnivores are not so charismatic, i.e. coyotes. I personally love the little guys, but they’re largely considered a nuisance in urban areas, running through pet doors to disembowel poodles, eating trash, catching rides on subways, inhabiting graveyards in New York, and even making it into elevators in skyscrapers. When I was younger I heard rumors of coyotes in Moutainside, NJ, but I thought coyotes lived out west (just like mountain lions). What’s interesting now is that much like red foxes in London, coyotes have been making a living in cities and suburbs and would quite like to stay. Here’s some amateur video of one in a Fairfield, CT backyard;

Along the same lines (although not related to mammalian carnivores), urban crows have an ingenous way of cracking nuts, showing us that behavior can make up for morphological deficiencies when it comes to food;

Photo of the Day: African Wild Dog

Here’s one of the many African Wild Dogs (Lycaon pictus) currently in-residence at the Bronx Zoo;

Wild dogs are interesting as they lack the characteristic dewclaw of other canids, and in addition to the web-footed Bush Dog they may have some interesting clues as to canid evolution and adaptation (I’m currently trying to find out what I can and I’ll write about it when I have enough information).

Cross-species altruism: A leopard takes in a baboon

The latest issue of National Geographic arrived at my doorstep today, and besides a wonderful (although sad) article about how we’re denuding the oceans of life, towards the back is a striking collection of photos featuring Leopards in the Okovango Delta, Botswana. This particular article follows a mother and her cub, and while this is interesting in of itself, there was something else that was particularly striking in the article. One night the young leopard killed a mother baboon, leaving the baboon’s baby an orphan. Rather than kill the baby as well, the young leopard (according to the article) moved the baby over to a tree, licked the young baboon, and snuggled up to it in sleep. Unfortunately, the baby died (most probably of cold) and the young leopard proceeded to eat the mother, but nonetheless this amount of care given between predator and prey is astonishing. What I’m about to say next is highly anthropomorphic and I don’t consider it to be the same at all, but it almost reminds me of young girls playing with their dollies, practicing to be a mother themselves. Indeed, National Geographic has captured similar behavior on film in their documentary Predators at War in which a leopard happens across an orphaned lion cub and seems to contemplate caring for the youngster. Unfortunately for the cub, she realizes she cannot care for the little one and the baby becomes prey of spotted hyenas, but once again this cross-species altruism for young is quite interesting. I’m not about to simply chalk it up to “maternal instinct” or the argument that babies are just so overwhelmingly cute that you can’t help but take care of them, but I do wonder as to how often this sort of phenomena occurs and why it occurs at all.