Category Animal Law

For years experts argued about whether the giant panda should be grouped with bears, or raccoons, or classed in a family of its own. Scientific study now suggests that the panda is definitely a member of the bear family. The giant panda is a rare animal that is found only in the mountainous forests of Central China, where it feeds on a certain kind of bamboo tree. As the bamboo is not very nutritious, the panda spends 10-12 hours a day eating.

If we go by common names, there are two types of pandas: the giant panda and the red panda. However, only of them is considered a bear species.

There has been a long drawn debate among scientists as to whether the giant panda is a bear, a raccoon, or has a separate family of its own. Why? The giant pandas and red pandas have characteristics common with both a bear and a raccoon. However, with evidence from recent genetic studies indicating that the giant panda is more closely related to a bear, it is categorized in the bear family Ursidae.

Why are they called pandas?

The giant panda is a bear of the bear family Ursidae. Even though it shares a common name with the red panda, the latter is not a bear and belongs to a distinct family of its own called Ailuridae.

The term panda is believed to have its roots in the Nepalese word ‘nigalya ponya’, which translates to ‘bamboo eater’ in English. Thus, the name panda essentially refers to the bamboo-based diet of both giant and red pandas even though the two animals are classified separately. In fact, the red panda was described way before the giant panda, and the latter was named ‘panda’ due to the similarities the two species share, like feeding on bamboo shoots. The giant panda is also known as the bamboo bear, panda bear, or in Chinese as ‘Daxiongmao,’ which means ‘the large bear cat.’

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With some minor exceptions, all eight bear species have roughly the same appearance: large torsos, stocky legs, narrow snouts, long hair, and short tails. With their plantigrade postures—walking upright on two feet—bears walk flat-footed on the ground like humans but unlike most other mammals.

Bears range in color with species: Black, brown and Andean bears are typically red-brown to black; polar bears are generally white to yellow; Asiatic bears are black to brown with a white patch and sun bears are brown with a yellow crescent on their chest. They range in size from the sun bear (47 inches tall and weighing 37 pounds) to the polar bear, (nearly 10 feet tall and weighing 1,500 pounds). 

Most bears are omnivorous, feasting opportunistically on animals, fruits, and vegetables, with two important outliers: The polar bear is almost exclusively carnivorous, preying on seals and walruses, and the panda bear subsists entirely on bamboo shoots. Oddly enough, though, pandas’ digestive systems are relatively well adapted to eating meat.

Because the vast majority of bears live in high northern latitudes, they need a way to survive the winter months when food is dangerously scarce. Evolution’s solution is hibernation: Bears go into a deep sleep, lasting for months, during which their heart rates and metabolic processes slow drastically. Being in hibernation isn’t like being in a coma. If sufficiently roused, a bear can wake up in the middle of its hibernation, and females have even been known to give birth in the deep of winter. Fossil evidence also supports cave lions preying on hibernating cave bears during the last Ice Age, though some of these bears woke up and killed the unwelcome intruders.

Bears may be the most antisocial mammals on the face of the earth. Full-grown bears are almost entirely solitary. This is good news for campers who accidentally encounter lone grizzlies in the wild, but quite unusual when compared with other carnivorous and omnivorous mammals, ranging from wolves to pigs, that tend to congregate in at least small groups.

Depending on species, a bear’s basic communication needs can be expressed with about seven or eight different “words”—huffs, chomps, groans, roars, woofs, growls, hums, or barks. The most dangerous sounds for humans are roars and growls, which denote a frightened or agitated bear defending its territory.

Huffs are generally produced during mating and courtship rituals; hums—a bit like the purrs of cats, but much louder—are deployed by cubs to demand attention from their mothers, and moans express anxiety or a sense of danger. Giant pandas have a slightly different vocabulary than their ursine brethren: In addition to the sounds described above, they can also chirp, honk, and bleat.

Considering that early humans used to worship bears as gods, our relationship with ursines hasn’t exactly been stellar over the last few hundred years. Bears are especially susceptible to habitat destruction, are often hunted for sport, and tend to become the scapegoats whenever campers are attacked in the wild or garbage cans are overturned in suburbs.

Today, the largest threats to bears are deforestation and human encroachment, and, for polar bears, climate change which is reducing the environment in which they live. On the whole, black and brown bears are holding their own, even though adverse interactions with humans have increased as their habitats become more constricted.

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The jaguar – the third largest of the big cats, after the tiger and lion. They look quite like leopards but have bulkier bodies and the rosettes on their coats are larger, with a spot at the centre. Unlike most cats, jaguars do not avoid water and will catch fish, turtles and caimans, as well as deer, capybara and other land animals.

The name “jaguar” is a corruption of the Brazilian Tupi-Guarani people’s name for this big cat. In their language, “yaguara” means “beast”. The largest cat in the Americas, the jaguar is the third largest feline in the world, after the tiger and lion.

The jaguar is an essentially solitary animal. It hunts alone, wandering through the forest across its territory and ambushing prey opportunistically. The bite of the jaguar is unusually powerful even among large felines, and it is capable of perforating the hides of large reptiles and the shells of turtles. Unusually among big cats, it often attacks the head of its prey directly, relying upon its powerful jaws to penetrate the skull and bite into the brain.

Jaguars are adept swimmers and will readily take to the water in pursuit of their prey. They have been spotted crossing the Tambopata River, and will occasionally take down small caiman.

In the wild, jaguars tend to live for between 11 and 15 years, and can live up for to 25 years in captivity. Jaguars are almost always sighted alone. As solitary hunters, they only come together to breed. When seeking a mate, jaguars tend to roam over vast areas of forest, far beyond their normal hunting range. It is believed that jaguars will breed throughout the year, in wet season or dry. Receptive females mark their territory, in addition to becoming increasingly vocal, when seeking a mate. After breeding, the male and female separate, leaving the female to raise her cubs alone. In common with the tiger, female jaguars will not tolerate the presence of any male after the birth of their cubs, given the high risk of infant cannibalism prevalent among these two species.

Tambopata National Reserve is an ideal place to spot the jaguar (Panthera onca) because its forest and wetland systems are home to many of the species that this big cat preys upon, including capybaras, peccaries and tapirs.

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Lions live in prides of anywhere between 3 to 30 beasts. The females, usually all related, stay with the pride for life. Male lions usually leave when they get to about two years of age. It is the females that select and stalk the prey, then make the short dash to pounce and kill it. However, it is the biggest male who will eat first.

What, Where and When

The choice of animals that the lion hunts for food is largely dependent on what sort of food is available in their particular area of habitation. Generally, the scrub country which lions tend to favour more than anywhere else, provides them with many different kinds of herbivores. Their favourites are wildebeest, zebras, antelopes, gazelles and waterbuck. They do though, also have a fondness for warthogs and have been to know lie in wait outside their burrows for hours on end. However, if a lion is hungry enough and cannot find its preferred food it’ll resort to eating whatever it can find, including fish. They also target other large animals such as buffaloes and giraffes, though they do so with great difficulty and with enormous risk to their own lives. Indeed, many lions injure themselves when they try to control bigger animals. It’s not uncommon after such an encounter for an injured lion to be unable to partake in any future hunts.

Most hunting done by lions is under the cover of darkness; in the gloom of an African night they can easily observe and stalk their prey without the threat of detection. It’s actually quite common for lions to sit and observe their prey during daylight hours, usually just before sunset. But they mostly wait until after dark before launching an attack. Similarly, if the landscape is illuminated by bright moonlight, then they’ll wait until it’s obscured before attempting any sort of hunt. The main reason why they do this is simply because their typical habitation is devoid of cover. Often in the daytime, a lion will begin closing in on a potential victim, but will subsequently give itself away, resulting in the prey escaping easily. Lions that live in areas with thicker cover are able to do more of the hunting in daylight hours. Other hunting that occurs in sunlight is directly related to the activity of a particular prey species. For example, when zebras or gazelles drink from lakes or rivers during the heat of the day, their presence often produces a flurry of hunting. But usually, most stalking by lions is done just after sunset, or during the middle of the night, several hours before dawn.

Senses and Deficiencies

More than anything, lions rely on their sight to help them with hunting. Experts have observed individuals stalking under vegetative cover, occasionally sticking their heads up high out of their cover in order to keep track of a particular animal they may be stalking. In the process though, they do sometimes give themselves away inadvertently.

Lions occasionally detect their prey through hearing. They frequently react to the sounds of animals walking or moving through water and set out to investigate. There have also been examples of lions utilising their sense of smell to aid in the hunting process. But generally, lions hunt only what they can see, and are thus not particularly adept at detecting prey in the same way wolves are for example. It’s quite normal for a large group of herbivores to pass right by a pride during the day, due to the fact that the lions normally use daylight hours to snooze.

Working as a Team

Another, or to put it more accurately the most important reason that lions are able to find enough food is that they usually do their hunting cooperatively. They will stalk their victims for up to an hour, but fifteen minutes is more the norm before deciding to pounce. Normally, several lions circle around the herd they are attacking, slowly driving their victims towards some of their fellows hiding in tall grass. These lions, usually females also known as lionesses then attack their prey from the sides or the rear. Cooperative hunting also makes up for another significant problem that lions have in comparison with other predators, their lack of speed. By our standards of course, these mighty creatures are anything but slow, their top seed is around 30mph, but they can only sustain it for around a minute. Indeed, they rarely pursue a prey item for more than 100 yards. By working in groups they are able to tackle prey that would otherwise prove too fast or elusive for them.

Lions also gain another advantage through group hunting when they have killed an animal too large for one to eat alone; with an entire pride partaking in the consumption of food not only does more food go to more mouths at one time, but it also allows the pride to avoid the problem of having to guard or store their food. Such problems are frequently encountered and dealt with by other big cats such as leopards and tigers, who often find ingenious ways of hiding their kills from competitors. Leopards, for example often stash their kills in a tree while tigers will remain in the vicinity of their kill until it’s fully eaten. Lions, being denizens of open country simply don’t have the luxury of being able to hide or shelter the food.

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The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is a large cat that is native to the mountainous regions of South and Central Asia. Living in the alpine and subalpine zones, snow leopards have evolved and adapted to some of the harshest environments on Earth. They are capable of scaling the steep slopes of mountains with agility and can blend into the landscape to avoid detection while hunting. Female snow leopards can have between one and five cubs, but usually have a litter of two or three. Snow leopard cubs are born with a thick coat of fur but are dependent on the mother until approximately 18 months old. Cubs are also born blind, but their eyes open after about one week.

 Physical Description

Snow leopards typically have thick fur that is whitish-gray in color, and can even have a yellow tinge. The neck and head have solid spots, while the rest of the body has rosettes, which are larger and form a ring that encloses smaller spots. Each leopard has a unique patterns of spots, which the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) uses to identify individual snow leopards when conducting research. Snow leopards are characterized by long and bushy tails, which are used for balance, and can also be draped over their body to provide protection from the cold when sleeping. The cat species is very agile, with forelimbs that are shorter than the hind limbs, and are capable of jumping as far as 50 ft. Their paws are large and covered in fur, which which act as snowshoes, as well as providing padding when climbing on sharp rocks.

Range And Habitat

Snow leopards inhabit various regions across central and northern parts of Asia, including the Himalayas, where they live at high altitudes of up to 18,000 ft above sea level. The snow leopard is known to live in 12 countries, including Mongolia, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, and China. Snow leopards are solitary animals and they are very elusive. In fact, snow leopards are sometimes referred to as the “Ghost of the Mountains” because they are very rarely seen. There is no term used to describe a group of snow leopards because they are never observed in groups.

Diet

Snow leopards can hunt large animals with weights exceeding their own by up to three times. Their diet is mainly composed of ibex, Argali wild sheep, blue sheep, deer, pikas, marmots, and other small animals. Most animals hunted by the snow leopard are also hunted by the local indigenous populations, and as their prey dwindle, they begin to hunt livestock for survival, resulting in retaliatory killings by the local communities.

Threats And Conservation

It is estimated that between 4,080 and 6,590 snow leopards currently exist in the wild, which is a population decrease of about 20% over the past 16 years. As a result, the species is listed as “Endangered” (EN) on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List. Some of the threats facing snow leopards include poaching, loss of habitat as a result of climate change, retaliatory killings, and reduced prey. Organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) are working to reduce the threats faced by snow leopards, as well as reducing human-leopard conflicts. They also focus on increasing anti-poaching efforts and protecting the fragile habitat in order to increase the snow leopard’s population in the wild.

Credit : Worldatlas

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