A Group Of Zebras In An Open Field
Zebras are a short, stocky animal that is generally about 8 feet long and stands between 4 and 5 feet at the shoulder. They can weigh up to 650 pounds. The have black coats with white stripes and a short, coarse mane that stands straight up in the air. ... The stripes on a zebra are very much like fingerprints.
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A lion standing on a field
The lion (Panthera leo) is a large felid of the genus Panthera native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, deep-chested body, short, rounded head, round ears, and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult male lions are larger than females and have a prominent mane. It is a social species, forming groups called prides. A lion's pride consists of a few adult males, related females, and cubs. Groups of female lions usually hunt together, preying mostly on large ungulates. The lion is an apex and keystone predator; although some lions scavenge when opportunities occur and have been known to hunt humans, the species typically does not.
Typically, the lion inhabits grasslands and savannas, but is absent in dense forests. It is usually more diurnal than other wild cats, but when persecuted, it adapts to being active at night and at twilight. During the Neolithic period, the lion ranged throughout Africa, Southeast Europe, the Caucasus, and Western and South Asia, but it has been reduced to fragmented populations in sub-Saharan Africa and one population in western India. It has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1996 because populations in African countries have declined by about 43% since the early 1990s. Lion populations are untenable outside designated protected areas. Although the cause of the decline is not fully understood, habitat loss and conflicts with humans are the greatest causes for concern.
One of the most widely recognised animal symbols in human culture, the lion has been extensively depicted in sculptures and paintings, on national flags, and in contemporary films and literature. Lions have been kept in menageries since the time of the Roman Empire and have been a key species sought for exhibition in zoological gardens across the world since the late 18th century. Cultural depictions of lions were prominent in Ancient Egypt, and depictions have occurred in virtually all ancient and medieval cultures in the lion's historic and current range.
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A brown rabbit on a couch
Rabbits are small, furry mammals with long ears, short fluffy tails, and strong, large hind legs. They have 2 pairs of sharp incisors (front teeth), one pair on top and one pair on the bottom. ... Their teeth are specifically adapted for gnawing and grow continuously throughout their lives.
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A giraffe walking in the wilderness
At an average height of around 5 m (16-18 ft.), the giraffe is the tallest land animal in the world.
Characterized by its long legs, long neck, and distinctive spotted pattern, many people first believed the giraffe was a cross between a leopard and a camel, which is reflected in its scientific name, Giraffa camelopardalis.
Giraffes live primarily in savanna areas in the sub-Saharan region of Africa. Their extreme height allows them to eat leaves and shoots located much higher than other animals can reach. In particular, they seek out acacia trees. Their long tongues are helpful in eating because they help pull leaves from the trees. Spending most of the day eating, a full-grown giraffe consumes over 45 kg (100 lb.) of leaves and twigs a day.
The male giraffe is both taller and heavier than the female. Both sexes have skin-covered knobs, called ossicones, on the top of their heads. Female ossicones are smaller and have a small tuft of fur on top, while male ossicones are bald on the top. These knobs are used to protect the head when males fight, which involves swinging their necks at each other in a show of strength called “necking.”
GiraffeWhen giraffes walk, they move both legs on one side of their body and then both legs on the other side, which is unusual. However, they run in a similar style to other mammals, swinging their rear legs and front legs in unison. They can reach 55 km/h (35 mph) at full speed but only in brief spurts.
Giraffes sleep less than two hours a day. In general, they sleep with their feet tucked under them and their head resting on their hindquarters, but they can also sleep for short periods of time standing up.
Female giraffes can become pregnant at 5 years old. They carry a baby for 15 months and give birth while standing up. Newborns are about 2 m (6 ft.) tall and weigh 70 kg (150 lb.).
They live up to 25 years in the wild.
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Cute Gibbons Playing & Climbing
Gibbons are apes in the family Hylobatidae. The family historically contained one genus, but now is split into four extant genera and 18 species. Gibbons live in subtropical and tropical rainforest from eastern Bangladesh to Northeast India to southern China and Indonesia.
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Flock of sheep
A group of sheep is called a flock. A farmer's flock can range from two sheep to over 1,500 ewes with their lambs.
Sheep are a prey species, and their only defense is to flee. Sheep display an intensely gregarious social instinct that allows them to bond closely to other sheep and preferentially to related flock members. Flock mentality movements protect individuals from predators. Flocks include multiple females, offspring, and one or more males. Ewes tend to stay in their maternal groups for life, whereas rams may form transient, unstable, and easily disbanded bachelor herds. If most rams in a group die because of fights or diseases, those remaining join another group. Under standard grazing situations, sheep graze together in casual affiliations; social hierarchies are not as apparent as they are for cattle.
Flock dynamics are apparent in groups of four or more as evidenced by willingness to follow a leader or flee in unison. When escape is prevented, even a ewe may charge or threaten by hoof stomping. Separation from the flock can cause stress and panic. Isolation from other sheep can cause severe stress and should be avoided. Mirrors can be used in the absence of other sheep.
Males in rut will physically challenge one another for social rank and breeding privileges. Social rank depends on the presence and size of horns, body mass, and height at the withers and hocks. Age may also play a role, because the mortality of lambs from yearling ewes is extremely high. Higher-ranking males concentrate on courting females when in rut and do not graze to the extent lower-ranking rams do. Groups of 40–50 ewes/adult ram and 25–30 ewes/juvenile ram are common management choices. Mortality in rams is five times that in ewes. Generally, subordinates and lower-ranking rams are excluded from breeding, unless lower-ranking animals outnumber the higher-ranking male and serve to distract or otherwise occupy him (this need not be cooperative). While the higher-ranking male usually has larger horns, the role of the demographic environment (ie, the number of lower-ranking males in the group) prevents an extreme selection response for these secondary sex characteristics.
In large groups of sheep or in sheep on large pastures, more subordinates are likely to mate. In tightly confined, relatively small groups, the role the social order plays in mating is critical, and owners should understand that lower-ranking rams may not mate under such conditions.
Sheep are seasonally polyestrous and reach puberty at 7–12 mo. Mating behavior includes nudging, kicking, or pawing with the front legs, low stretching, and pushing. These same behaviors and head-to-head banging with horn clashing occur in conflicts between males.
Artificial weaning occurs at 10 wk of age, but these lambs recognize and will return to the ewes after a 2-mo separation. Sheep are naturally weaned at 6 mo of age, usually when their mother again comes into heat. Ewe lambs continue to follow the dam, but ram lambs do not.
Sheep are likely to be more intelligent than generally regarded. They respond readily to food calls, may problem solve, learn their names, carry packs, and can even be clicker trained. Sheep may be grazed on open, unfenced areas and may heft (remain in home field) to a limited area as a learned behavior by lambs from their ewes. Sheep possess specialized neural mechanisms in the right temporal and frontal lobes of the brain and may recognize familiar human or ovine faces for as long as 2 yr.
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Sea lions close view
Sea lions are pinnipeds characterized by external ear flaps, long foreflippers, the ability to walk on all fours, short, thick hair, and a big chest and belly. ... Three species, the Australian sea lion, the Galápagos sea lion and the New Zealand sea lion, are listed as endangered
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School of fish
A school is a group of the same fish species swimming together in synchrony; turning, twisting and forming sweeping, glinting shapes in the water. Fish probably do this to confuse predators and to save energy (by using the 'slipstreams' of other fish).
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A Seal on the beach.
There are 33 species of pinnipeds alive today, most of which are known as seals. Pinnipedia is made up of three main groups: The walrus, which is the only living member of the family Odobenidae; the eared seals of Otariidae, including numerous kinds of fur seal and sea lion; and the earless seals, known as true seals or Phocidae. Despite the name, earless seals have ears—they’re just hidden beneath the surface of their skin.
Pinnipeds can be found on every continent on Earth, though most species occur in cold-water environments. Thick layers of fat, also known as blubber, keep the animals warm, in addition to dense fur. Walruses are the exception to the rule, as these large, tusked pinnipeds have nearly hairless bodies.
Seals range greatly in size, from the gargantuan southern elephant seal, which can weigh more than a pickup truck, to the relatively slender, 100-pound Baikal seal.
While there are many differences among the species, all seals have feet shaped like fins. In fact, the word pinniped means "fin-footed" in Latin. Those fin-shaped feet make them supreme swimmers, and all pinnipeds are considered semi-aquatic marine mammals. This means they must spend some part of their lives on land or sea ice, usually during the mating and birthing seasons.
With so much time spent in water, some species like the elephant seals have evolved the ability to hold their breath for up to two hours and dive to depths of more than 6,500 feet looking for food.
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Kangaroo joey in a marsupium.
Kangaroos and other marsupials have a special pouch — called a marsupium — for carrying their babies, because their young are particularly small when they're born.
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Penguins going to swim.
Penguins are flightless seabirds that live almost exclusively below the equator. Some island-dwellers can be found in warmer climates, but most—including emperor, adélie, chinstrap, and gentoo penguins—reside in and around icy Antarctica. A thick layer of blubber and tightly-packed, oily feathers are ideal for colder temperatures.
The 18 different species of penguins can widely in shape and size but all have black bodies and white bellies. This protective countershading allows them to hide from predators like leopard seals and orcas while they swim.
While penguins can’t fly, their stiff flippers, webbed feet, and sleek shape make them expert swimmers. In fact, they spend most of their lives in the ocean and do nearly all of their hunting for krill, squid, and crabs underwater. They can swim about 15 miles an hour, and when they want to go faster, they often porpoise, or leap out of the water as they swim.
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Baby elephants playing on the mud
Elephants are large grey animals with big ears, long noses and white tusks. They are the largest living land mammals. The largest elephant recorded was one shot in Angola, 1974. It weighed 27,060 pounds (12.25 tonnes) and stood 13 feet 8 inches (2.16 m) tall.
At birth, an elephant calf may weigh as much as 100 kg (225 pounds). The baby elephant develops for 20 to 22 months inside its mother. No other land animal takes this long to develop before being born.
In the wild, elephants have strong family relationship. Their ways of acting toward other elephants are hard for people to understand. They "talk" to each other with very low sounds. Most elephants sounds are so low, people cannot hear them. But elephants can hear these sounds far away. Elephants have strong, leathery skin to protect themselves.
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Herd of buffaloes
These are large hoofed mammals with an imposing pair of horns atop their heads. Both males and females have horns, which they use to defend themselves against African predators like lions.
The largest individuals stand up to 5.5 ft. tall at the shoulder, and can weigh 2,000 lbs. or more. Their size and appearance vary based on the subspecies. Their short fur is black, dark brown, or reddish-brown.
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