#Hunting Cheetahs Rely More on Agility Than Speed Cheetahs may hold the distinction of being the fastest animals on land
but these elegant felines actually owe their hunting prowess to their ability to rapidly accelerate
A team of researchers monitored five wild cheetahs in northern Botswana and found that despite clocking top speeds of nearly 60 mph (97 km h) cheetahs use their agility rather than simply relying on a furious pace to track down prey.
Cheetahs have a very high top speed but they don't always use it said study lead author Alan Wilson a professor in the department of comparative biomedical sciences at The Royal Veterinary College in the United kingdom. oewhat was more remarkable was the maneuverability
and acceleration that they displayed. Quick kitty Wilson and his colleagues designed special GPS-tracking collars for their cheetah subjects that collected precise data on the animals'location speed acceleration and deceleration.
Cat Album: The Life of a Cheetah Over the course of 367 runs in 17 months the cheetahs recorded a blistering top speed of 58 mph (93 km h) far outpacing greyhounds racing horses
and humans the researchers said. On most runs however the cheetahs kept a more modest pace averaging 31 mph (50 km h) Wilson said.
They're doing about half their top speed so they're not moving extremely quickly
when they hunt he told Livescience. The researchers used the extensive information collected by the collars to map out the running behaviors of wild cheetahs on the prowl.
Runs started with a period of acceleration either from stationary or slow movement (presumably stalking) up to high speed they wrote in the study
The cheetahs then decelerated and maneuvered before prey capture. From zero to The acceleration and turning speeds measured from these cheetahs either match
or exceed the known speeds of all other land mammals the researchers said. In fact cheetahs are so agile they can increase their speed by up to 6. 7 mph (10.8 km h) in a single stride the researchers added.
The calculated muscle power output during these sustained accelerations is the highest of any land mammal
Of the 367 runs studied 94 resulted in the cheetahs capturing their prey contributing to a success rate of about 26 percent.
The researchers also examined where the cheetahs preferred to chase down their meals: Nearly half or 48 percent of the runs occurred on open grasslands 28 percent were carried out around large trees
Although trees and shrubs may offer cheetahs better means to stalk prey the researchers did not find significant differences in the speed
The five cheetahs studied predominantly hunted impala a type of African antelope but one male cheetah who frequently hunted in areas with thicker vegetation occasionally hunted warthogs Wilson said.
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In the summer they climb even higher up to 8500 feet (2590 m). Their climbing skills help them evade predators such as coyotes and bobcats.
Cats are bigger than mice because they have more cells. In a sense we are all like Lego constructions.
and other beasts as long as they lasted we were glad to make shift with vermin as dogs cats rats
and have grown to be the size of a cougar Sauther said. This is the first time that wild primates have been found to use caves as a place to bunk regularly Sauther
The emergence of flowering plants several million years earlier probably allowed mega-herbivores such as the imposing Triceratops to evolve from smaller herbivores that were about the size of a house cat Loewen said.
what the ancestor of mice elephants lions tigers bears whales bats and humans once looked like researchers say.
but the teary endeavor probably has little impact on the turtles other than perhaps making them more vulnerable to predators like big cats
UC Davis'Gabriel and his colleagues are seeing the effects of these chemicals on the fisher cat a carnivore being considered for Endangered Species Act listing.
In addition to human figures and geometric shapes many different kinds of animals were represented from big cats and armadillos to birds and reptiles but alas no peccaries.
In addition to the woolly mammoth mammals such as saber-toothed cats (Smilodon) giant ground sloths (Megatherium) and mastodons roamed the Earth during this period.
About 13000 years ago more than three-fourths of the large Ice age animals including woolly mammoths mastodons saber-toothed tigers
</p><p>From<a href=http://www. livescience. com/39165-worlds-priciest-coffee-test. html>coffee pooped out by Southeast Asian cats</a>to jellied chicken'
Ten years later a group of researchers and conservationists gathered in Washington D c. today (March 15) for a forum called TEDXDEEXTINCTION hosted by the National geographic Society to talk about how to revive extinct animals from the Tasmanian tiger and the saber-toothed cat to the woolly mammoth and the North american passenger pigeon.
poll options 50 165=Saber-toothed cat; load poll (50; But DNA from extinct species doesn't need to be preserved in Arctic conditions to be useful to scientists researchers have been able to start putting together the genomes of extinct species from museum specimens that have been sitting on shelves for a century.
and evenâ glow-in-the-dark cats in the name of science. Study researcher Stefan Moisyadi a bioscientist from the University of Hawaii at Manoa explained in a statement that the GFP in the piglets is marker to show that we can take a gene that was not originally present in the animal
#Snow leopard's Fate Hinges on Historic Talks (Op-Ed) Bradnee Chambers Executive secretary of the United nations Environment Program Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals contributed this article
Snow leopards are struggling to survive in their mountain habitats driven to the brink of extinction by increasing intrusions into their rocky domain and by the insatiable demand for their fur and bones.
But the Global Snow leopard Conservation Forum in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek in October can reverse this trend.
Snow leopards often travel huge distances along ridge lines and cliff bases but increasing threats from a growing human footprint are dissecting their habitat putting the survival of these animals at risk.
Expanding human populations and the demand for more and more land for agriculture and livestock herding are encroaching on snow leopard ranges even into protected areas.
As leopards are forced into living in closer proximity to humans conflicts with shepherds are almost inevitable.
Because of overhunting and poaching of their favorite prey the endangered Argali sheep the leopards are turning to domestic animals goats and sheep instead.
This leads to retributive killing of snow leopards by angry herders. Feral dogs hunt livestock as well but since the snow leopard is protected a species farmers blame snow leopards for attacking livestock
because they will be reimbursed. Also contributing to the snow leopard's downfall is its splendid coat essential for the animal to survive the bitter cold of The himalayas the Hindu kush the Pamirs and the Altai Mountains of Central asia at altitudes as high as 5 kilometers (3 miles.
The species is classified as endangered according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)' s Red List.
Despite the highest level of protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) a lucrative illegal trade flourishes as leopards are killed for their skin and bones meeting the demands of both the fur industry and traditional Chinese medicine.
In today's market a top-quality garment made of leopard skin made up of between six and twelve animals could command a price as high as $60000 in affluent global markets.
Estimates suggest that there are between 3500 and 7000 snow leopards left in the wild from Afghanistan in the west China to the east Russia to the north and Myanmar to the south.
But the upcoming Global Snow leopard Conservation Forum in the Kyrgyz Republic might change the course of the snow leopard's fate.
In promoting the conservation of the snow leopard Kyrgyz's President Almazbek Atambayev is playing a similar role to the one played by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Global Tiger Summit in St petersburg Russia in November 2010.
Surprising Ally For Snow leopards: Buddhist Monks At St petersburg a cast of celebrity supporters such as Leonardo Di caprio as well as donor nations and conservation nongovernmental organizations were in attendance.
The contributions over five years will to try to double the number of tigers living in the wild.
Despite countries making encouraging noises half of them had failed to meet their obligations to protect tigers under CITES.
The snow leopard one of the tiger's smaller more elusive and enigmatic cousins is in a similar predicament.
Kyrgyzstan has already hosted a preparatory meeting with support of the World bank Global Tiger Initiative.
The meetings provided an opportunity for countries to present the zero drafts of their National Snow leopard Ecosystem Protection Priorities
which are the initial building blocks for the proposed Global Snow leopard Protection Program. CMS is represented well in the region of the 12 snow leopard range states six are parties to CMS four more participate in regional CMS conservation instruments
and one of the remaining two is reportedly close to joining to the convention. The snow leopard has been inscribed on the CMS Appendix
I since 1985 requiring parties to accord the species the highest level of protection. CMS has a long track record of engagement in Central asia the first CMS agreement between governments concluded more than 20 years ago
There are many forums dealing with the conservation of endangered species. We cannot afford fruitless attempts to conserve this magnificent big cat
The World bank's resources and the Convention on Migratory Species'expertise and experience in the region could be the winning combination that the snow leopard so desperately needs.
The ape went extinct after a land bridge connected their island to other land allowing large saber-toothed cats
Krampus dragging bad children to the underworld pine trees kissing Santa lighting a cigar off a Christmas tree anthropomorphic mice decorating trees and cats tossing snowballs.
#Tiger Tracker: Tales from a Conservation Biologist Elephants really really hate camera flashes. When conservation biologist Firoz Ahmed installs camera traps in Kaziranga National park in northeastern India's Assam state he
Because the traps are installed in pairs to capture each side of a passing tiger Ahmed has photographic evidence.
Ahmed is a full-time tiger tracker and staff biologist for Aaranyak a nonprofit organization dedicated to wildlife conservation.
How have improved camera traps our knowledge of tiger populations? Firoz Ahmed: The stripes of a tiger can never lie.
The pugmarks footprints can lie. The same individual tiger can have different pugmarks. In some places where there were no tigers people made pugmarks out of their own plaster casts.
Personnel were expected to locate tiger tracks and obtain plaster casts or tracings of the pugmarks.)Now they cannot do that
because they have to show tigers from their own camera traps. Iconic Cats: All 9 Subspecies of Tiger OAP:
Do tigers try to avoid the cameras? FA: They recognize the cameras. When we resampled an area we had less population density
and we believe it is recognized because they the camera traps. Initially what we used had a very bad focusing flash
and they figured it out. We're not using those anymore. They are very cunning
and they know their habitat very well. When we put up a camera they come and look at it
and they remember that place. They think I know there is a camera here and I don't like it.
and monitor our cameras we see signs of a tiger moving around then we see them go around the camera behind the camera
You snapped a well-known tiger photograph in Kaziranga in 2010. How did you get the shot?
because in Kaziranga you don't see a tiger. The tiger can see you but you don't see a tiger.
This tiger we saw it from a distance and we went close to him and took this photograph.
Then he realized that there was somebody around and he sped off. OAP: How do you navigate through the forest?
FA: We put cameras mostly on the roads and paths because the tigers don't like to go through the grass.
In the grassland they can't go through the grass on their own. The holes that the elephants and the rhinos and the buffalos make that becomes the highway
if we put a camera trap there we will get tigers. We always put a camera trap in a place where there is a maximum likelihood of getting a tiger.
So this place has rhinos more than 2000 of them and we always pray in the morning I don't want to see a rhino.
What are some of the threats faced by tigers in India? FA: This is a human-dominated place.
What should people in the United states know about tigers in India? FA: They should know that the tigers are very important.
They should know they are disappearing from large tracts of forest in India and other range countries and try to help as much s they can.
and volunteer and help local villagers understand the importance of tigers in the area. They can do home-stay instead of staying in big lodge
For instance just 1500 golden lion tamarin a magnificent primate covered in red fur are left in the wild the Smithsonian National Zoological Park reports.
Tigers lions and other big cats have also increasingly been poached due to demand for various body parts like their iconic fur.
Botswana is one of the few countries where populations of lions and other large animals may be relatively stable he added.
Dereck and Beverly Joubert have made more than 25 films about large wildlife like lions usually with a message about the importance of conservation.
In their latest film Game of Lions to debut Dec 1 on Nat Geo Wild they show just how hard it is for male lions to survive only one in eight survive to adulthood giving people a reason to not want to shoot them as trophies Dereck said.
or megafauna such as marsupial versions of lions rhino-size wombats giant kangaroos and flightless birds but about 90 percent of that megafauna disappeared during this time.
and dogs elephants and sheep even tigers and black bears have found kinship. The National Trust hopes the deer will rejoin his own herd
The lowland Mayan forests of northern Guatemala teem with wildlife toucans macaws howler monkeys and even the fabled jaguar.
and trout species that spawn in the rivers there some of the 12 other owl species found in Primorye and mammals such as the endangered Siberian tiger Asiatic black bear and wild boar.
and her colleagues faced several challenges along the way including inquisitive animals knocking down cameras fires raging across the sites a run-in with a pride of lions on foot long hikes to sites in sweltering heat
and how to recognize predators such as snakes birds and wildcats. Learning from watching a video
#Lions: Facts & Information Lions are large felines that are depicted traditionally as the king of the jungle.
These big cats once roamed Africa Asia and Europe. However now they are found in only two areas of the world
and are classified into two subspecies. Asiatic lions live in India's Gir Forest; African lions live in central and southern Africa.
Though they look similar these two subspecies are very different in size habitat diet and more.
The African lion is 4. 5 to 6. 5 feet (1. 4 to 2 meters) long from its head to its rump
and its tail measures from 26.25 to 39.5 inches (67 to 100 centimeters) long. African lions typically weigh 265 to 420 lbs.
120 to 191 kilograms. Asiatic lions tend to be much bigger according to the World Wildlife Federation (WWF.
They weigh 300 to 500 lbs. 120 to 226 kg) and are 6. 56 to 9. 18 feet (200 to 280 cm) long.
Male lions are generally larger than females and have a distinctive mane of hair around their heads.
African lions live in Angola Botswana Mozambique Tanzania the Central african republic South Sudan and other parts of Sub-saharan africa.
Asiatic lions are found only in the Gir Forest National park in India. This park is a wildlife sanctuary on 877.37 square miles (1412 square km) of land.
African lions eat large animals that they find in the grasslands including antelopes zebras and wildebeest.
Asiatic lions eat large animals as well such as goats nilgai chital sambhar and buffaloes. They are known also to eat smaller animals.
Lions are very social cats and live in groups called prides. Asiatic and African lion prides are very different though.
African lion prides consist of up to three males around a dozen females and their young according to National geographic. There are prides that have as many as 40 members though.
Asian lions divide themselves into two prides. The females have a pride and the males have a pride.
They only come together during mating season. With both types of lion prides the females stay put.
All of the females in a pride are usually related to each other because females tend to stay with the pride in
All of the females in a group of lions mate at the same time. After the first six weeks the cubs are taken care of by all of the females
The taxonomy of lions recognized by most experts is: Kingdom: Animaliasubkingdom: Bilateria Infrakingdom: Deuterostomia Phylum:
Panthera leosubspecies: Panthera leo leo (African lion) Panthera leo persica (Asiatic lion) The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) only recognizes these two subspecies
while the Integrated Taxonomic Information system (ITIS) maintained by the U s. Fish and Wildlife Service lists six other subspecies.
Lions face threats from hunting habitat loss and diseases that can be spread from domestic dogs in nearby villages according to the National Zoo.
African lions are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. This is
(whose livestock the lions eat) as well as from trophy hunting and habitat loss. Asiatic lions are in a much more perilous position as human encroachment has reduced their habitat.
The IUCN lists them as endangered and says only about 350 of them exist. This group includes only about 175 mature individuals.
Lions also go toe-to-toe with animals much larger than themselves. Lions can kill animals that weigh up to 1000 lbs. according to the Smithsonian National Zoo.
To kill their prey lions use their powerful jaws to snap the prey's neck
or to strangle it to death. Male African lions that are trying to take over a pride will kill all of the cubs to avoid competition.
Lions and tigers are related so closely that if you shaved them you wouldn't be able to tell them apart.
Their body structure is so similar only experts can tell them apart according to the Smithsonian. Lions are also related to leopards and jaguars.
Though mountain lions (pumas) are in the same Family felidae) as Asiatic and African lions they are considered not lions.
According to the WWF lions can run up to 50 mph (80 kph) for short distances and leap as far as 36 feet (11 m) e
#5 Huge, Efficient Wins for the Environment in 2013 (Op-Ed) Peter Lehner is executive director of the Natural resources Defense Council (NRDC.
This Op-Ed was adapted from a post that appeared onthe NRDC blog Switchboard. Lehner contributed this article to Livescience's Expert Voices:
#Tigers: Facts & Information Tigers are the largest felines in the world. Many cultures consider the tiger to be a symbol of strength and courage.
However because hunting them is also a sign of bravery in some cultures tigers are endangered;
no more than 3200 tigers are left in the wild. Tigers have distinctive stripes which help camouflage them
when hunting prey. Some tigers have orange fur with black stripes; others are black with tan stripes white with tan stripes or all white (albino) according to the San diego Zoo.
No two tigers have the same markings on their coats. They are as individual as fingerprints are for humans.
On average tigers are 4. 8 to 9. 5 feet (1. 5 to 2. 9 m) long
and weigh 165 to 716 lbs. 75 to 325 kilograms. The largest tigers the Siberian also called Amur are 10.75 feet (3. 3 meters) long
and weigh 660 lbs. 300 kg) according to National geographic. The smallest tiger is the Sumatran tiger.
They grow to 5 to 12 feet (1. 5 to 3. 7 m) and weigh 143-670 lbs.
65-305 kg) according to the Woodland Park Zoo. Tigers also have very long tails which can add 2. 3 to 3. 6 feet (0. 7 to 1. 1 m) to their overall length.
Tigers live in Asia. Larger subspecies such as the Siberian tiger tend to live in northern colder areas such as eastern Russia and northeastern China.
Smaller subspecies live in southern warmer countries such as India Bangladesh Nepal Bhutan Myanmar Laos Cambodia Vietnam Malaysia and Indonesia.
They live in arid forests flooded mangrove forests tropical forests and taiga depending on the subspecies according to the San diego Zoo.
All tigers are carnivores. Most of a tiger's diet consists of large prey such as pigs deer rhinos or elephant calves.
To kill their prey tigers will clamp down on the animal's neck with their jaws
and suffocate the animal. Though tigers are fierce hunters they are no strangers to failure.
Ninety percent of the time they don't catch their prey according to the Woodland Park Zoo.
Tigers are solitary creatures; they like to spend most of their time alone roaming their massive territories looking for food.
According to the San diego Zoo the Siberian tiger has the largest range. Its territory can be more than 4000 square miles (10000 square kilometers.
Tigers mark their territory by scratching marks into trees with their claws. Tiger babies or cubs are born helpless.
At birth a cub weighs 2. 2 pounds (1 kg) and a female may have as many as seven cubs at a time according to the San diego Zoo.
Usually only two survive though because the mother must leave the cubs while she hunts
Tiger cubs mature quickly. At 8 weeks old they are ready to learn how to hunt
Tigers typically live 14 to 18 years. Nine subspecies of tiger are recognized; however three of them are extinct according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information system (ITIS.
The taxonomy of tigers according to ITIS is: Kingdom: Animaliasubkingdom: Bilateria Infrakingdom: Deuterostomia Phylum: Chordatainfraphylum: Gnathostomata Superclass:
Tetrapoda Class: Mammalia Subclass: Theriainfraclass: Eutheriaorder: Carnivorasuborder: Feliformiafamily: Felidaesubfamily: Pantherinaegenus & species: Panthera tigrissubspecies: The Javan tiger was last recorded in the 1970s the Caspian tiger was lost in the 1950s
and the Bali tiger became extinct in the 1930s according to Panthera a wild cat conservation organization.
Gallery: Iconic Cats: All 9 Subspecies of Tigers There are more tigers in captivity than there are in the wild.
According to the WWF there are about 5000 captive tigers in the United states alone but there are fewer than 3200 tigers in the wild.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN's) Red List of Threatened Species categorizes all remaining tiger species as endangered.
Most live on wildlife refuges to protect them from poachers. Tigers are fantastic swimmers. They can forge rivers
and lakes that are 3. 7 to 5 miles (6 to 8 km) wide according to Woodland Park Zoo.
Lions and tigers are related closely. If you shaved them you wouldn't be able to tell them apart
because their body structure is so similar according to the Smithsonian National Zoo. Their teeth can be very long as well.
Some tigers have teeth as long as 3 inches (7 cm) h
#Apple Health App: What It Can and Can't Do Apple's new Health app is now up and running on the latest version of ios 8 but
what exactly can this app do for you? The first thing to know is that the Health app doesn't track information by itself at least not yet.
It's an aggregator meaning it pulls information from your other health apps and displays it all for you in a single dashboard.
While many people think rabbits are about the size of a cat some rabbit species such as the jackrabbit can grow to be as big as a small child.
In Asia they are hacking into the signals from tigers'satellite collars to find and kill them.
and tigers continue to roam safely in the wild and with luck seeing them firsthand.
Lady Caravaner the Knight-captain began keeping wonderful composure-Knights are very good at that much like trained cats-my name is Captain Lynniac.
So are its cheetahs and aurochs and wildebeests. But animal bones and images of animals on ancient artifacts reveal
Import records of cheetahs and lions reveal when certain animals might have been considered exotic after disappearing locally.
The researchers found that Egypt was home to 37 large-bodied mammals (those over 8. 8 lbs. or 4 kilograms) during the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene.
But while prehistoric paintings in places such as Chauvet Cave in France depict cave lions horses and hyenas the animals represented in Sulawesi include fruit-eating pig-deer called babirusas Celebes warty pigs and midget buffalos also known as anoas.
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