Archive for the 'Panthera' category

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.

WebEcoist assembled some nice photos of the nicest big cats.

• Tiger
• White Tiger
• Lion
• Leopard
• Black panther
• Cheetah
• Puma
• Snow Leopard
• Lynx
• Caracal

the Barbary Lion, sometimes named Atlas lion or Nubian lion, Panthera leo leo, is a sub-species of African lions which lived in the Atlas mountains (Morocco, Algeria, mainly). It is now totally extinct out of some zoos. But it seems that it was a great animal with a truly impressive look.

Honoring its memory, I collected a few images from the world wide web:

We knew dogs who loved wind and were hanging out the window of their owner’s car. Here comes their friend the leopard…

This new species was discovered last month in Borneo and the lucky photographer just presented amazingly nice photos. Even better, one of them is good enough to allow a direct identification of gender differences and the specific fur coat of juveniles.

(more…)

The moral in the tale lies somewhere around the need to understand the difference between a big cat who does not climb (the tiger) and one that climbs routinely (the leopard). The monkey knew.