Category Nature Science & Wildlife

Though it looks like a small bear, the wolverine is actually the largest animal in the weasel family. The wolverine is a ferocious animal noted for its strength, cunning, fearlessness, and voracity.

Wolverines are solitary animals. They hunt by night and need a lot of room to roam around. Individual wolverines may travel 24 kilometres in a day in search of food. They often live in dens amongst roots and rocks. They are also known to dig dens in snowdrifts as well.

Small animals like rabbits and rodents are an easy catch for wolverines. They often prey on animals many times larger than their size. They occasionally feed on carrion of the corpses of larger mammals, such as elk, deer, and caribou. Their jaws are extremely powerful and can crunch through frozen meat and bone easily.

Wolverines are found in isolated areas of Canada, North West USA, Northern Europe, and Northern and Eastern Asia. Wolverine populations are steadily declining since the 19th century due to a number of reasons like trapping, range reduction and habitat fragmentation.

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Also known as the ermine, the stoat is a mustelid. Mustelids are carnivorous mammals like otters, weasels, ferrets and wolverines. Stoats are highly adaptable creatures. They are bigger than weasels and are as potent as big cats.

Highly skilled killers, stoats can subdue and devour prey, like rabbits and hares that are much bigger than themselves. They usually kill by a single bite on the neck. Stoats are quite well-known for ‘hypnotizing’ rabbits. They hunt both by day and night, don’t like to be out in the open and so tend to hunt along ditches, hedgerows and walls or through meadows and marshes.

Apart from rabbits, stoats also hunt many rodents, including voles, as well as birds. Stoats can climb trees and that is how they gain access to birds’ nests.

Stoats were native to Eurasia and America. They were brought to New Zealand in the 19th century in order to control the rabbit population. This however, had a devastating effect on the bird population in New Zealand.

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The Komodo dragon grows up to a size of three meters and is the largest lizard in the world. As a result of their size, these lizards dominate the ecosystems in which they live.

The hunting style of the Komodo dragon is different from all the others in the reptile world. They have a venomous bite and usually hunt in groups. They hunt big mammals like cattle, pigs and deer. They also prey on birds and invertebrates. However, a major portion of their diet consists of carrion. They seldom need to capture live prey, since their venomous bite delivers toxins that render them lifeless.

The way Komodo dragons eat is worth mentioning. They can eat up to 80 per cent of their body weight in one sitting; their flexible jaws aid them to hog. Their large size and predatory habits have invited the world’s attention to this creature.

Tourists from around the world flock to Indonesia to see this huge lizard, where it is endemic. The Komodo dragon is protected by law and the Komodo National Park was founded in 1980 to aid the protection efforts.

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Though only of the size of a small dog, the Tasmanian Devil is the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial. It became the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial in 1936 following the extinction of the thylacine.

The Tasmanian Devil is named after the Australian island of Tasmania; it is endemic to this region. The body of the animal is covered with a coat of coarse brown or black fur which gives it the appearance of a baby bear. It would be wrong to underestimate this animal because of its size. It can run fast, climb trees and can even swim. It also has sharp teeth and strong muscular jaws that can deliver one of the most powerful bites of any mammal.

Though they are good hunters, they sometime feed on carrion as well. Apart from these, they also prey on livestock when near human settlements. Because of this, they were hunted down. Tasmanian Devils sneeze sharply before a fight. Their shrieks can be heard from more than a mile away when they are in a feeding frenzy.

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The grizzly bear has a diverse diet; it feeds on small mammals, fish, calves of many hoofed animals, berries, plant roots and shoots. Sometimes, it would also eat birds and bird eggs. In addition to these, it occasionally feeds on carrion as well.

The grizzly bear is an awe-inspiring solitary animal found in western North America. Its fur is usually brown with a tinge of white at the tips. Grizzly bears usually gather near fishing spots when the salmon run upstream for summer spawning. They hog on as many fish as they can, hoping to store all the fat needed to survive the harsh winter climate.

Grizzly bears are overprotective mothers; they would not hesitate to attack anybody who comes between the mother and her cubs.

Despite their fierce nature, human settlements and aggressive hunting eliminated most of the grizzly bear populations. Though conservation measures have helped increase the numbers, the species remains endangered today.

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The howls of a dhole are enough to chill the spine of a wild boar or a sambhar deer. The dhole is a wild Asian dog with a notorious reputation of being a ruthless killer. It lives and hunts in groups of up to 20 animals.

Dholes are surprisingly small in size; they weigh between 12-18 kilograms and are smaller than medium-sized dogs. They hunt mainly during the dawn and at times in the moonlit nights. Dhole hunting parties are known to employ a variety of tactics to bring down their prey, including splitting into small scouting groups. They usually prey on mammals like wild sheep and deer, but they are also reported to attack animals as large as tigers and bears.

Dholes roam the jungles and montane forests of Central and East Asia. They are now facing massive habitat loss due to rampant deforestation.

Yet, dholes have been almost wholly ignored by conservationists, researchers and the general public.