PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

The Tommie is a much smaller gazelle and is distinguished by the dark side stripe that goes from the shoulder, to its flank; also there is a white patch on its rump.  The tommie is a cinnamon or dark fawn color on top, with white on the underside.  The Thomson Gazelle is twenty two to twenty six inches at its shoulder and weighs approximately thirty three to fifty five pounds and has a lifespan of about ten years.  The males being larger have strongly ridged parallel horns that curve backwards. They have a light patch on their foreheads, with a black stripe that runs down from their eyes.  This gazelle is exceptionally aware of sounds and movement and has a fine sense of hearing and sight.  This helps in the balance of vulnerability on the plains.

HABITAT

These gazelles are now found mostly on the grassy plains of Tanzania, Kenya, and Sudan.  The shrubby areas and the grasslands of the plains are more suitable for these small Gazelles.  They often remain on pastureland after the larger herbivores have fed and left.

DIET

Grasses make up ninety percent of the Tommi’s diet during the dry season, helped out with seeds and shrubs.  This gazelle being smaller waits until the larger ungulates feed and trample the grass down, which makes it easier for them to graze on the short grass.

BREEDING

The Thomson Gazelle breed two times a year and after giving birth, the mother hides the young calf in the grass, returning during the day to nurse it.  The young are surprisingly hard to see when hidden in Open County because of the tawny coloring and the fact that they can lay motionless for very long periods at a time.  Jackals, baboons, pythons, eagles and several cats often take their young.

Thomson’s Gazelle – East African Gazelle

Female Warthog with young, image courtesy of wikimedia

THE WARTHOG is a member of the domestic pig family, although, they are totally different in appearance.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

These hogs are not the most pleasant and pleasing animals to look at.  They have large, flat heads that are covered with warts and also have very sharp tusks and they have very sparse hair and a thicker mane.  Warthogs range in size, from three to four point nine feet and weigh an average of one hundred ten to one hundred seventy pounds. They are identifiable by two pairs of tusks, which are used for digging and in combat with other hogs.

HABITAT

The warthog (phacochoerus africanus) lives in the grasslands mainly in savanna and also in the woodlands of Sub-Saharan Africa.

DIET

Their diet is composed mostly of berries, fruits, grasses, bark, eggs, fungi and carrion.  Their diet is seasonable, depending on what is available.  Warthogs are basically grazers.  They love the grass and plants and their rather large snouts are great for digging for bulbs and roots.  If a warthog is startled, they can be very fast, at times running at speeds of up to thirty miles an hour.

BREEDING FACTS

Most warthogs are seasonal breeders.  The season starts in the late rains and early dry season and the birthing, begins about the time of the following rain season.  At times the boar will stay with two females and defend the females valuable to them.  In the roaming tactic the boar seeks and will wait for the sows to emerge outside their burrows.  A dominant boar will fight any other boar that tries to court his female.  The gestation is five to six months and when they get ready to give birth, they leave their families to farrow in a different hole.  The litter is usually from two to eight piglets. Pigs are grazing at about two-three weeks and are weaned by six months.

Warthog – Seasonal Breeders – Domestic Pig Family

Spectacled Bear, Image by Kuribo

The diminutive spectacled bear makes its home in the dense Andean jungles of South America, and it has the distinction of being the continent’s only bear.  Spectacled bears wear shaggy fur that is black, brown, or sometimes reddish.  They are so named for the whitish to yellowish rings that encircle their eyes, resembling large eyeglasses.  These lines, however, don’t always fully encircle the eyes, and some individuals lack the markings altogether.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Spectacled bears, also called Andean bears, are among the smallest members of the family Ursidae.   Males, which are significantly larger than females, grow over five feet in length and weigh up to three hundred forty pounds.  Females rarely weigh more than one hundred eighty pounds.

HABITAT

Intensely shy bears, they prefer the lush, isolated cloud forests on the slopes of the Andes, climbing as high as fourteen thousand feet.  They will descend to search for food though, and have been seen in widely differing habitats, from rain forests, to steppe lands, to coastal deserts.

DIET

Spectacled bears are generally nocturnal and are primarily vegetarian, harvesting fruit, berries, cacti, and honey.  Highly agile climbers though, they have been known to build a platform of broken branches, allowing them to sit in a tree for days, waiting for fruit to ripen.  They have naturally strong jaws and wide, flat molars to chew tough vegetation such as tree bark.  On a rare occasion they will supplement their diet with a carnivorous approach seeking meat, taking small rodents, birds, insects, and even small cows, making them the largest carnivores in South America.

BREEDING FACTS

Solitary animals, mature spectacled bears are normally seen together only during mating season.  Females usually give birth to one or two small, helpless cubs, which are mobile after a month, but remain with the mother for up to eight months, often hitching a ride on the mother’s back.

Spectacled Bears – Family Ursidae – Andean Bears

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Sea turtles have large, streamlined shells, with non-retractile heads and limbs.  They vary in size and weight, especially considering there are several species.  They range in color from olive-green, black, greenish-brown, or yellow.  Their flippers are long and paddle-like.  Most sea turtles have bony shells that provide protection and each species has a jaw designed to adapt to its diet.

HABITAT

Sea turtles can be found in all the warm seas, throughout the world.  They like the shallow, coastal waters, including the bays, estuaries and lagoons the best, but often venture into the open sea.  The young may be found in estuaries and bays as well.  None will be found in the Arctic.

DIET

Because of the large variety in the sea turtle species, the diet also varies.  You will see some, such as the Loggerheads, that are carnivorous, eating primarily mollusks, shrimp, crabs, and jellyfish.  The green and black sea turtles are herbivorous, dining on a vegetarian diet of sea grasses and algae.  Then you will see some of the sea turtles, that eat both meat and plants.

BREEDING

The mature female finds a suitable nest on the beach and creates a nest.  Using flippers she digs a hole and starts filling it with soft-shelled eggs.  She deposits anywhere from fifty to two hundred eggs in the nest.  After she completes laying the eggs, she refills the nest until it is undetectable.  This whole process only takes about an hour.  After completing her nest, she returns to the ocean.  Incubation takes approximately two months and after the eggs hatch, they head toward the sea.  The hatching usually takes place at night to provide a better survival rate.

PHYSICAL CHARATISTICS

The moose (North America) or Eurasian elk (Europe) is the largest extant species in the deer family.  Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic (“twig-like”) configuration

HABITAT

In North America, the moose range includes almost all of Canada (excluding the arctic), most of Alaska, northern New England and upstate New York, the upper Rocky Mountains, northeastern Minnesota, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and Isle Royale in Lake Superior.  Within this massive range, the most diverse range of subspecies exist, containing habitat for four of the six subspecies.

DIET

The moose is a herbivore and is capable of consuming many types of plant or fruit.  Much of a moose’s energy is derived from terrestrial vegetation, mainly consisting of forbs and other non-grasses, and fresh shoots from trees such as willow and birch.  These plants are rather low in sodium, and moose generally need to consume a good quantity of aquatic plants.  While much lower in energy, these plants provide the moose with its sodium requirements, and as much as half of their diet usually consists of aquatic plant life.

BREEDING FACTS

Moose are mostly diurnal.  They are generally solitary with the strongest bonds between mother and calf.  Although moose rarely gather in groups, there may be several in close proximity during the mating season.  Mating occurs in September and October.  Female moose have an eight-month gestation period, usually bearing one calf, or twins if food is plentiful, in May or June.  Newborn moose have fur with a reddish hue in contrast to the brown appearance of an adult.  The young will stay with the mother until just before the next young are born. The life span of an average moose is about fifteen–twenty-five years.

Moose – Eurasian Elk – Moose Diet

Some tribes believe that the kudu is sacred and should be protected.  The kudu has had to move to other areas over the years,

because of human settlements. With better food source and water source, this has helped the kudu to repopulate.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

The kudu reaches a height of 55 inches and a weight of up to 565 pounds. It has a shorter lifespan in the wild of 7 to 8 years and up to 23 years in captivity.

There are two of the African kudu species, the greater kudu and the lesser kudu. The lesser kudu can be distinguished by the fact, it has only 10 white stripes, while the

greater kudu has can have 4 to 12 stripes. They are brownish in color with long, spirally curved horns.

HABITAT AND LOCATION

The kudu live in the dense bush or range, which extends from east Africa into the south, where they are found in such places as Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Botswana and Namibia.  You will see them close to a constant supply of water, along with thick bush, rocky hillsides and riverbeds.  Occasionally, you may see them on the open plains, but usually they avoid open

Areas, so as not to be an easy target for their predators.  The kudu predators, are hunting dogs, huma, spotted hyenas, and leopards.

DIET

The kudu is herbivorous. Their diet consists of shoots, tubers, roots, fruits, leaves, and grass.

BREEDING

The kudu herds are usually small and consist of about 24. The male kudus are usually solitary, so the herd, consist of females and their calves. The only time they come together is when it time to mate.  The end of the rainy season is usually when they mate. The gestational period is about 8 months and the female kudu usually gives birth to only one baby.

Kudu – Woodland Antelope

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS    The Jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas.  The Jaguar’s present range extends from the southern United States, across much of Central America and south to Paraguay and northern Argentina.  Apart from a known and possibly breeding population in Arizona, the Jaguar has been mostly extirpated in the U. S. since the 1920′s.

HABITAT   This spotted cat most closely resembles the leopard physically, although it is usually larger and of sturdier build and it’s behavioral and habitat characteristics are closer to those of the tiger.  While dense rainforest is its preferred habitat, the jaguar will range across a variety of forested and open terrains.  It is associated with the presence of water and is known, along with the tiger, as a feline that enjoys swimming.

DIET   Like all cats, the jaguar is an obligate carnivore, feeding only on meat.  It is an opportunistic hunter and its diet encompasses eighty-seven species.  The jaguar prefers large prey and will take adult caimans, deer, capybaras, tapirs, peccaries, dogs, foxes, and sometimes anacondas.  However, the cat will eat any small species that can be caught, none the less; some jaguars will also take domestic livestock, including adult cattle and horses.

BREEDING HABITS   Jaguar females reach sexual maturity at about two years of age, and males at three or four.  The cat is believed to mate throughout the year in the wild, although births may increase when prey is plentiful.  Both sexes will range more widely than usual during courtship.  Mating pairs separate after the act, and females provide all parenting.  The gestation period lasts ninety three to one hundred and five days; females give birth to up to four cubs, and most commonly to two.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

The Gemsbok has thick, horse like neck, muscular body and a short mane, the head is marked with black patches and black stripes from the horns to the cheeks. The black tail reaches to the hocks and the horns are up to thirty inches long.  The Gemsbok is approximately one hundred ninety eight to two hundred sixteen cm and the male can weigh up to two hundred forty kg and the female two hundred ten kg..

HABITAT

They like the light woodland with grasslands and bush lands.  Various species are found in Africa and regions.  They were seen in the Arabian Peninsula, but were exterminated there and have since been reintroduced into the wild from captive stock.

DIET

Coarse grass is their main diet, along with thick leaved plants, wild melons, and roots.  They drink, if water is available, but can go weeks without water.  The Gemsbok conserves water by lying in the shade when it is hot and decreases its activities during these times.  It doesn’t waste moisture on panting and sweating.  In the heat of the day the body temperature rises a few degrees above normal.

BREEDING FACTS

Gemsboks are gregarious animals that usually live in herds of thirty up to as many as several hundred.  The male gemsbok, after the age of about five, will establish his territory.  This usually consists of approximately twenty-five kilometers.  The male will round up his herd and has the sole mating rights with the females.  Gestation is usually two hundred sixty four days, with one calf being born.  The calf stays hidden during the day and comes out at night with the mother. After three to six weeks, the calf joins the herd.  Their lifespan is usually about twenty years.

Gemsbok

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Elk are more than twice as heavy as mule deer and have a more reddish hue to their hair coloring, as well as large, buff colored rump patches and smaller tails.  Elk gather in herds and Elk cows average five hundred pounds, stand about four point three feet at the shoulder, and are around six and a half feet from nose to tail.  Bulls are some forty percent larger than cows at maturity, weighing an average of seven hundred ten pounds, standing approximately four point nine feet at the shoulder and averaging eight point two feet in length.

HABITAT

Elk range in forest and forest-edge habitat, feeding on grasses, plants, leaves, and bark. Although native to North America and eastern Asia, they have adapted well to countries where they have been introduced, including Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand.

DIET

Elk are ruminants and therefore have four-chambered stomachs.  Unlike white-tailed deer and moose which are primarily browsers, elk have a similarity to cattle as they are primarily grazers, but like other deer, they also browse some.

BREEDING FACTS

Female elk have a short estrus cycle of only a day or two, and mating usually involves a dozen or more attempts.  By the autumn of their second year, females can produce one and, very rarely, two offspring.  The gestation period is two hundred and forty to two hundred sixty two days and the offspring weigh between thirty three and thirty five pounds.  When the females are near to giving birth, they tend to isolate themselves from the main herd, and will remain isolated until the calf is large enough to escape predators.

Dall Sheep Lambs -Image from wikimedia

This native species of sheep calls the northwestern part of the continent of North America home, which includes the far northern areas of Canada and Alaska. The Dall sheep range from brown wit white patches to pure white, depending on their geographic range and climate.

They are prized as game animals for their yellowish brown horns as well as the difficulty in tracking them through the rough alpine ridges and meadows that they tend to frequent as a safeguard against predators. Their hooves are able to grip the smallest ledge and act as a springy material which enables them to move quickly without falling in very steep terrain. The predators that feed on the sheep are bears, eagles, coyotes, wolves and man.

The sheep live in bands, with the males growing large, thick curling horns and the females have shorter horns. The two genders do not usually associate with each other except during the mating season which lasts from late November to early or mid December. The lambs are typically born in May.

Family units consisting of an ewe with newborn or yearling lambs or a group of rams. The female Dall sheep is able to produce offspring when she is three or four years of age and usually only produces one baby per year. The male sheep are able to breed when they have established a dominant place in the herd of sheep, usually by winning battles with their sharp strongly curved horns.

The main diet of the Dall sheep consists of grasses, dwarf willows and many other broad leafed plants during the summer months. The winder months bring the change to this diet; the lichens and rough frozen sedge are added. Natural salt or mineral deposits are important to the Dall sheep diet and they will travel miles to take advantage of these needed minerals.

The weather during the year has a great influence on the summer and winter range of the Dall sheep, if the ice and snow are too deep, they cover up the grasses the sheep feed on and the population dwindles due to lack of food. There are several refuges for wildlife where these magnificent animals can be found and observed, along the Alaska Highway near to Muncho Lake; in the Kluane National Park and Reserve.

This photograph was taken by David McMaster

Dall Sheep – Native American Dall Sheep