Archive for the 'Big cats' category

King cheetah in Zoon Tycoon 2

If you play Zoo Tycoon 2, you may “adopt” cheetahs. Did you know that, with the help of chance, if you adopt a sufficiently large number of cheetahs, the game will offer you a king cheetah (easily recognizable by its fur more striped than spotted)?

‘Big Boy’ and ‘Leonardo’ are the names of two of the GPS-collared desert lions living in Namibia under the constant surveillance of animal researchers. These big males fell under the bullets of trophy hunters, even with collars and in a protected area.

It’s a pity, but these hunters will kill anything and anywhere. In this case, this will be a major blow to the small population of desert lions (a specific adaptation of the African lion to dry weather conditions).

Photo: Hunting Ventures

Source: Bush Warriors.

London is a city marked by centuries of colonization when Britons crossed the planet and brought back memories of the conquered countries including many representations of lions (both from Africa and from Asia). London kept it as innumerable statues celebrating the King of the Animals.

Londonist has a map of all these attractions sometimes dating back much further in time: Lionist.

Via Neatorama.

This one does not like Calvin Klein

I don’t know if (and I doubt that) Calvin Klein latest technology-based perfume, Obsession for Men, can live up to the expectations it raises. This musky scent is supposed to attract women, run them wild with its potent aroma. However, wildlife photographers in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala found that it could be used to attract jaguars, cougars and pumas to the camera traps used to get pictures of the endangered cats. Apparently, this does not only attract male jaguars, but females also like the cologne from Calvin Klein.

This was so marked that Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo tried it on snow leopards too. This works! Consequently, the Snow Leopard Trust will try it in South Gobi, Mongolia. Remember that snow leopards are so difficult to find in the wild that apart from GPS collars, it may take months for experts before they can find one in some of the most difficult terrains.

I guess that this will soon lead to a Ig Nobel prize in the future. And some nice new photos, too.

Source: Wildlife Conservation Society – Guatemala Program

Some species of mammals are clearly confronted with the immediate risk of extinction. And, when I shoot photos of some of these at the other end of the world, I am often shocked by the immense chance I have to be able to still see these animals free in the wild for the years they have left.

For example, cheetahs were submitted to a major event of reduction in genetics diversity during the last Ice Age (less than 10,000 animals fought for survival during thousands of years). Today, the enormous competition pressure brought by Man and “its civilization”, on top of the stark competition from other carnivorous mammals (like hyenas), will most certainly bring cheetah out of the African savannas in a few years (maybe less than 20 years).

Tigers are also in a nearly desperate situation today: The last wild animals are already living in relatively small Reserves where, even free in the wild, they have become tourism subjects without being fully protected from poaching or illegal culling.

This is the context when Frédéric Lepage created a series of TV documentaries about a few emblematic species (cheetah, orangutan, tiger, elephant, jaguar, polar bear): Extinctions

I strongly recommend your being in front of the TV (France 5, French TV channel), to watch the episode for Tiger, on Friday 6 August 2010 at 20h30.

Right! But it may not be a real one. Some Chinese people seem to find it nice to transform/disguise their dogs into other animals. Sometimes, it’s a panda, but here it is a fake tiger.

Source: Daily Mail.

Most people know that leopards may have a nearly completely black hide (they are often named black panthers, but it’s the same animal). As a matter of fact this comes from a small genetic variation (a receessive allele) quite common in big cats. And we tend to forget that this can happen in many other big cats species.

Here is a femal jaguar, Lolo, and her newborn cub in Jordan’s zoo, in Canada. And, as you can notice, the young cat, proud of his spotted hair, is pleased to crush his mother under niceties and small bites.

Via Winnipeg Sun. Photos Ali Jarekji/REUTERS.

Three baby servals born at the Adelaide zoo.

Actually, the story is not as simple as it may seem, but this is the way it was presented in the Daily Mail.

As often happens in the wild, young cheetahs (or other young predators) have to learn how to catch and how to kill. In many cases, this goes very fast (think about the birds learning to fly when they first try). But cheetahs are known for spending some time at it. Mothers may catch a prey and teach young ones how to kill. Things may take time and the animals seem to be playing with the prey.

The Daily Mail just forgot to provide the real end of the story: The baby impala did not leave the premises alive. It may happen sometimes, not often, but here it was finally killed and eaten.

The photos were shot by Christine and Michel Denis-Huot, clearly some of the very best wildlife photographers in France (Christine is also commonly leading some photo safaris in Africa, you may find information on their web site).

Note: Impalas are really the most common food for cheetahs, probably because of their size (and large numbers in many parts of East and South of Africa).