Quails

Black-Footed Ferrets

The black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) is a small carnivorous North American mammal closely related to the steppe polecat of Russia, and a member of the diverse family Mustelidae which also includes weasels, mink, polecats, martens, otters, and badgers. It should not be confused with the domesticated ferret.

The black-footed ferret is the most endangered mammal in North America. They became extinct in the wild in Canada in 1937, and were classified as endangered in the U.S. in 1967. The last known wild population was taken into captivity in the mid-1980s, a few years after its accidental discovery in Wyoming.

Black-footed ferrets are about 18 inches long, with a furry 6 inch tail, and they weigh roughly 2 pounds. Like most members of the family, they are very low to the ground with an elongated body and very short legs. Their fur is white at the base but darkens at the tips, making them appear yellowish-brown overall, with black feet and tail-tip, and a distinctive black face mask. These blend in well with the prairie ecosystem in which they live. They do not change their habitat over the seasons.

Even before their numbers declined, black-footed ferrets were rarely seen: they weren't officially recognized as a species by scientists until 1851, following publication of a book by naturalist John James Audubon and Rev. John Bachman. Even then, their existence was questioned since no other black-footed ferrets were reported for over twenty years.

They are nocturnal hunters that are almost entirely dependent on a plentiful supply of prairie dogs to prey on, and shelter in a prairie dog burrow during the day. A single family of four black-footed ferrets eats about 250 prairie dogs each year and cannot survive without access to large colonies of them.

Historical habitats of the black-footed ferret included shortgrass prairie, mixed-grass prairie, desert grassland, shrub steppe, sagebrush steppe, mountain grassland and semi-arid grassland. Black-footed ferrets use prairie dog burrows for raising young, avoiding predators and thermal cover. High densities of prairie dog burrows provide the greatest amount of cover for black-footed ferrets.

Black-footed ferrets are believed to be polygynous. Mating occurs in February and March. When a male and female in estrus encounter each other, the male sniffs the genital region of the female, but does not mount her until after a few hours have elapsed. During copulation, the male grasps the female by the nape of the neck, with the copulatory tie lasting from 1 1/2 to 3 hours. Unlike other mustelids, the black-footed ferret has low reproductive rates. Gestation of black-footed ferrets lasts 42–45 days. Litter size ranges from 1–5 kits. Kits are born in May and June in prairie dog burrows. Kits are raised by their mother for several months after birth. They first emerge above ground in July, at 6 weeks old. They are then separated into individual prairie dog burrows around their mother's burrow. Kits reach adult weight and become independent several months following birth, from late August to October. Sexual maturity occurs at one year of age.

The black-footed ferret is solitary, except when breeding or raising litters. They primarily hunt for sleeping prairie dogs in their burrows. They are most active above ground from dusk to midnight and 4 am to mid-morning. Above ground activity is greatest during late summer and early autumn when juveniles become independent. They are inactive inside burrows for up to 6 days at a time during winter.

Female black-footed ferrets have smaller home ranges than males. Home ranges of males may sometimes include the home ranges of several females. Adult females usually occupy the same territory every year. Black-footed ferrets may travel up to 11 miles to seek prey.

The loss of their prairie grassland habitat, hunting, the drastic reduction of prairie dog numbers through both habitat loss and poisoning, canine distemper and sylvatic plague all contributed to the near-extinction of the species during the 19th and 20th centuries.

For a time, the black-footed ferret was harvested for the fur trade. The large drop in black-footed ferret numbers began during the 1800s, lasting through the 1900s, as prairie dog numbers declined because of "control programs" and the conversion of prairies to croplands. Sylvatic plague, a disease introduced into North America, also contributed to the prairie dog die-off. Inbreeding may have also contributed, as studies on black-footed ferrets revealed low levels of genetic variation. Canine distemper devastated the Meeteetse ferret population in 1985. A live virus vaccine originally made for domestic ferrets killed large numbers of black-footed ferrets, thus indicating that the species is especially susceptible to distemper.

In 1981, a very small population of about 130 animals was discovered near Meeteetse, Wyoming. Soon after discovery, the population began a rapid decline due to disease. By 1986, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department led a cooperative program to capture the 18 remaining animals and begin an intensive captive breeding program. At that time, the entire world population amounted to about 50 individuals in captivity.

U.S. federal and state agencies, in cooperation with private landowners, conservation groups, Native Americans, and North American zoos, have been actively reintroducing ferrets back into the wild since 1991. Beginning in Wyoming, reintroduction efforts have since expanded to sites in Montana, South Dakota, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Chihuahua, Mexico. Proposed reintroduction sites have been identified in Canada.

Currently, about 1,200 ferrets are thought to live in the wild.

Conservation efforts have been opposed by stock growers and ranchers, who have traditionally fought prairie dogs. In 2005, the U.S. Forest Service began poisoning prairie dogs in private land buffer zones of the Conata Basin of Buffalo Gap National Grassland, South Dakota. When a few ranchers complained the measure was inadequate, the forest service expanded its "prairie-dog management" in September 2006 to all of South Dakota's Buffalo Gap and the Fort Pierre National Grassland, and also to the Oglala National Grassland in Nebraska, against opinions of biologists in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Following exposure by conservation groups and national media, public outcry and a lawsuit mobilized federal officials and the poisoning plan was revoked.

THREATS TO BLACK-FOOTED FERRETS

Despite significant recovery successes, the black-footed ferret remains one of the most endangered animals in the world. The primary reasons the species remains at risk are the same that nearly caused the animal’s extinction. Conversion of native grasslands to agricultural land, widespread prairie dog eradication programs, and fatal, non-native diseases have reduced ferret habitat to less than two percent of its original range. The remaining habitat is now fragmented, with prairie dog towns separated by expanses of agricultural land and other human developments.

Poisoning and shooting of prairie dogs continues, threatening both prairie dogs and black-footed ferrets. There are no known black-footed ferret populations that were not reintroduced. All those populations remain small and fragmented. They have lost about 90 percent of their genetic diversity, which can lead to inbreeding, health issues and reduced reproduction. Without the protection of prairie dogs, black-footed population could dwindle again and be lost forever.

Crocodiles

Fennec Foxes

Deer

Deer, ruminant mammal of the family Cervidae, are found in most parts of the world except Australia. Antlers, solid bony outgrowths of the skull, develop in the males of most species and are shed and renewed annually. They are at first covered by "velvet," a soft, hairy skin permeated by blood vessels. The stem of the antler is called the beam, and the branches are the tines. Antlers are used as weapons during breeding season combats between bucks. In deer that lack antlers (the musk deer and Chinese river deer), long upper canines serve as weapons.

Deer are polygamous. They eat a variety of herbaceous plants, lichens, mosses, and tree leaves and bark.

Many species of deer are threatened with extinction. The white-tailed deer that live in woodlands throughout the United States and in Central America and South America was a source of food, buckskin, and other necessities for Native Americans and white settlers. Slaughter through the years nearly exterminated the whitetail, but it is now restored in large numbers in the Eastern United States, and to a lesser extent in the West. In summer its upper parts are reddish brown; in winter grayish. The mule deer exists in reduced numbers from the Plains region westward, and the closely related black-tailed deer is a Pacific coast form.

Old World deer include the red deer, closely related to the North American wapiti, the fallow deer, and the axis deer. The only deer in Africa are small numbers of red deer found in the north in a forested area. The barking deer, or muntjac, is a small deer of South Asia. A muntjac discovered in North Myanmar (formerly Burma) in 1997 is believed to be the smallest deer in the world. Called the leaf deer, Muntiacus putaoensis, it stands about 20 inches at the shoulder. The misleadingly named mouse deer, or chevrotain, is not a deer, but belongs to a related family (Tragulidae).

Deer are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Artiodactyla, family Cervidae.

Deer live in a variety of biomes ranging from tundra to the tropical rainforest. While often associated with forests, many deer are ecotone species that live in transitional areas between forests and thickets (for cover) and prairie and savanna (open space). The majority of large deer species inhabit temperate mixed deciduous forest, mountain mixed coniferous forest, tropical seasonal/dry forest, and savanna habitats around the world. Clearing open areas within forests to some extent may actually benefit deer populations by exposing the understory and allowing the types of grasses, weeds, and herbs to grow that deer like to eat. Additionally, access to adjacent croplands may also benefit deer. However, adequate forest or brush cover must still be provided for populations to grow and thrive.

Nearly all cervids are so-called uniparental species: the fawns are cared for by the mother only. A doe generally has one or two fawns at a time (triplets, while not unknown, are uncommon). The gestation period is anywhere up to ten months for the European Roe Deer. Most fawns are born with their fur covered with white spots, though in many species they lose these spots by the end of their first winter. In the first twenty minutes of a fawn's life, the fawn begins to take its first steps. Its mother licks it clean until it is almost free of scent, so predators will not find it. Its mother leaves often, and the fawn does not like to be left behind. Sometimes its mother must gently push it down with her foot. The fawn stays hidden in the grass for one week until it is strong enough to walk with its mother. The fawn and its mother stay together for about one year. A male usually never sees his mother again, but females sometimes come back with their own fawns and form small herds.

Deer are selective feeders. They are usually browsers, and primarily feed on leaves. They have small, unspecialized stomachs by ruminant standards, and high nutrition requirements. Rather than attempt to digest vast quantities of low-grade, fibrous food as, for example, sheep and cattle do, deer select easily digestible shoots, young leaves, fresh grasses, soft twigs, fruit, fungi, and lichens.

With the exception of the musk deer and Chinese river deer, which have tusks, all male deer have antlers. Sometimes a female will have a small stub. The only female deer with antlers are Reindeer (Caribou). Antlers grow as highly vascular spongy tissue covered in a skin called velvet. Before the beginning of a species' mating season, the antlers calcify under the velvet and become hard bone. The velvet is then rubbed off leaving dead bone which forms the hard antlers. After the mating season, the pedicle and the antler base are separated by a layer of softer tissue, and the antler falls off.

During the mating season, bucks use their antlers to fight one another for the opportunity to attract mates in a given herd. The two bucks circle each other, bend back their legs, lower their heads, and charge.

Each species has its own characteristic antler structure - for example white-tailed deer antlers include a series of tines sprouting upward from a forward-curving main beam, while Fallow Deer and Moose antlers are palmate, with a broad central portion. Mule deer (and Black-tailed Deer), species within the same genus as the white-tailed deer, instead have bifurcated (or branched) antlers - that is, the main beam splits into two, each of which may split into two more. Young males of many deer, and the adults of some species, such as brocket deer and pudus, have antlers which are single spikes.

A rub is used to deposit scent from glands near the eye and forehead and physically mark territory.

THREATS TO DEER

Deer are threatened with habit loss from urban sprawl and commercial construction, trophy hunting and poaching, disease and government mismanagement. Wildlife management agencies, rather than working to preserve ecosystems, often manage wildlife purely for human recreation. Deer are viewed as a "resource" to be conserved simply for recreational purposes. As a result, "deer management" usually keeps deer populations high, resulting in many human-deer conflicts. Exterminators are hired by neighborhood associations and municipalities to slaughter "nuisance deer". Left unaltered, the delicate balance of ecosystems is maintained by nature with predators reducing the sickest and weakest individuals.

Lemurs

Barnacles

Butterflies

Flamingos

Wombats

Camels

A camel is either of the two species of large even-toed ungulate in the genus Camelus. The Dromedary is a single hump camel, and the Bactrian Camel is a double hump camel. Both are native to the dry and desert areas of Asia and northern Africa. The average life expectancy of a camel is 30 to 50 years. Humans first domesticated camels approximately 5,000 years ago.

Although there are almost 13 million Dromedaries alive today, the species is extinct in the wild. There is, however, a substantial feral population in central parts of Australia, descended from individuals that escaped from captivity in the late 19th century. The Australian government has culled more than 100,000 of the animals, claiming the camels use too much of the limited resources needed by sheep farmers.

The Bactrian Camel once had an enormous range, but is now reduced to an estimated 1.4 million animals, mostly domesticated. It is thought that there are about 1,000 wild Bactrian Camels in the Gobi Desert, and small numbers in Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey and Russia.

A small population of introduced camels, Dromedaries and Bactrians, survived in the Southwest United States until the 1900s. These animals, imported from Turkey, were part of the US Camel Corps experiment, used as draft animals in mines, and escaped or were released after the project fell through.

Bactrian camel have two humps and are rugged cold-climate camels, while Dromedaries have one hump and are desert dwellers. Dromedary hybrids are called Bukhts. The females can be mated back to a Bactrian to produce ¾-bred "riding camels". These hybrids are found in Kazakhstan. The Cama is a camel/llama hybrid bred by scientists with short ears and the long tail of a camel, no hump and Llama-like cloven hooves rather than the Dromedary-like pads.

Camels are well known for their humps. They do not, however, literally store water in them as is commonly believed; though they do serve this purpose through roundabout means. Their humps are a reservoir of fatty tissue, while water is stored in their blood. However, when this tissue is metabolized, it is not only a source of energy, but yields water through reaction with oxygen from the air. This allows them to survive without water for about two weeks, and without food for up to a month.

A camel's red blood cells have an oval shape, unlike those of other mammals, which are circular. This is to facilitate their flow in a dehydrated state. These cells are also more stable so they do not rupture when drinking large amounts of water.

Camels are able to withstand changes in body temperature and water content that would kill most other animals. Their temperature ranges from 93 degrees F at night, up to 106 degrees F at day; only above this threshold they start to sweat. This allows them to preserve about five liters of water a day. However, they can withstand at least 25% weight loss due to sweating.

The camel's thick coat reflects sunlight. A shaved camel has to sweat 50% more to avoid overheating. Their coat also insulates them from the intense heat that radiates from hot desert sand. Their long legs also help by keeping them further away from the sand.

The camel's mouth is very sturdy, able to eat thorny desert plants. Long eyelashes and ear hairs, together with sealable nostrils, prevent sand from entering. Their pace (always moving both legs of one side at the same time), and their widened feet, help them move without sinking in.

THREATS TO CAMELS

Many desert based countries have a tourist industry offering camel back rides and treks. Hotels and travel agents also offer these unethical excursions. They force camels to carry tourists in extreme conditions all in the name of profit. The camels are often poorly treated and housed in unacceptable conditions. Sick, old, injured and physically exhausted camels are forced to work. Humans are often far too heavy for the camels, but income is valued over the welfare of the animal.

Camels are also sold for slaughter, inhumanely fattened before sale. They are beaten with wooden sticks, ill-cared for and their skin is scarred from repeated beating. One of their legs is kept tied up to prevent them from escaping.

Camel wrestling is a cruel "sport" where two male camels are forced to wrestle, typically in response to a female in heat being led before them. Most common in the Aegean region of Turkey, camel wrestling also takes place in other parts of the Middle East and South Asia. The government of Turkey began discouraging the practice in the 1920s, but began promoting the inhumane practice again in the 1980s as part of Turkey's "historic culture."

Circus camels are doomed to a life of misery, spending most of their lives in tiny enclosures. Their natural needs are never met and they live in constant stress. Camels are also forced to provide rides at fairs and festivals, tethered tightly to turnstiles and made to plod in endless circles. They suffer from numerous ailments and emotional issues.

Even under the best of circumstances, captivity is cruel for camels. Confined to tiny areas and gawked at by crowds, animals in exhibits and acts endure constant stress. They may suffer from temperature extremes and irregular feeding and watering. Without exercise, they become listless, their immune systems are weakened, and they become prone to sickness; many resort to self-mutilation in reaction to stress or boredom. Mental illness is rampant among confined animals. Torn from their families and deprived of all dignity, every part of their lives is controlled by their captors.

While zoos may appear to be educational and conservation-oriented, most are designed with the needs and desires of the visitors in mind, not the needs of the animals. Many animals in zoos exhibit abnormal behavior as a result of being deprived of their natural environments and social structures. When the facility breeds too many animals they become "surplus" and often are sold to laboratories, traveling shows, shooting ranches, or to private individuals who may be unqualified to care for them.

Displays featuring camels also put people at risk. Humans can contract brucellosis, ringworm, and tuberculosis from close interaction with camels.

Salamanders

Kingfishers

Zebras

Black Bears

The American black bear (Ursus americanus), also known as the cinnamon bear, is the most common bear species native to North America. The black bear occurs throughout much of the continent, from northern Canada and Alaska south into Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This includes 39 of the 50 U.S. states and all Canadian provinces. Populations in east-central and the southern United States remain in the protected mountains and woodlands of parks and preserves, though bears will occasionally wander outside the parks' boundaries and have setup new territories in recent years in this manner.

While there were probably once as many as two million black bears in North America, the population declined to a low of 200,000 before rebounding in recent decades, partly due to conservation measures. By current estimates, more than 600,000 are living today.

The black bear is about 5 feet long. Females weigh between 90 and 400 pounds, while males weigh between 110 and 880 pounds. Cubs usually weigh between seven ounces and one pound at birth. The adult black bear has small eyes, rounded ears, a long snout, a large body, and a short tail. They have an excellent sense of smell. Though these bears indeed generally have shaggy black hair, the coat can vary in color depending on the subspecies: from white through chocolate brown, cinnamon brown, and blonde, found mostly west of the Mississippi River, to black in the east (the same is generally true in Canada with the border being between Manitoba and Ontario). Further adding to the confusion, black bears occasionally sport a slight white chest blaze on either side of the river.

While black bears are able to stand and walk on their hind legs, they usually stand or walk on all four legs. When they do stand it usually is to get a better look at something. The black bear's characteristic shuffle results from walking flat-footed, with the hind legs slightly longer than the front legs. Each paw has five strong claws used for tearing, digging and climbing. One blow from a powerful front paw is enough to kill an adult elk.

Black bears prefer forested and shrubby areas but use wet meadows, high tidelands, ridgetops, burned areas, riparian areas and avalanche chutes. They also frequent swampy hardwood and conifer forests. After emerging from their winter dens in spring, they seek southerly slopes at lower elevations for forage and move to northerly and easterly slopes at higher elevations as summer progresses. Black bears use dense cover for hiding and thermal protection, as well as for bedding. They climb trees to escape danger and use forested areas as travel corridors. Black bears hibernate during winter and may build dens in tree cavities, under logs, rocks, in banks, caves, or culverts, and in shallow depressions.

Black bears reach breeding maturity at about 4 or 5 years of age, and breed every 2 to 3 years. Black bears breed in the spring, usually in May and June, but the embryos do not begin to develop until the mother dens in the fall to hibernate through the winter months (delayed implantation.) However, if food was scarce and the mother has not gained enough fat to sustain herself during hibernation as well as produce cubs, the embryos do not implant (develop). Black bear cubs are generally born in January or February. They are blind when born, and twins are most common, though up to four cubs is not unheard of and first-time mothers typically have only a single cub. By spring thaw, when the bears start leaving their dens, the cubs are fur-balls of energy, inquisitive and playful.

When their mother senses danger she grunts to the cubs to climb high up a tree. They are weaned between July and September of their first year, and stay with the mother through the first winter. They are usually independent by the second winter. Cub survival is totally dependent on the skill of the mother in teaching her cubs what to eat, where and how to forage (find food), where to den, and when and where to seek shelter from heat or danger.

Black bears are omnivores. They eat a wide variety of foods, relying most heavily on grasses, herbs, fruits and mast. They also feed on carrion and insects such as carpenter ants, yellow jackets, bees and termites. Black bears sometimes kill and eat small rodents and ungulate fawns. Unlike the brown bear, black bears like to attack and eat dead creatures, which makes humans feigning death at bear attacks ineffective. Like many animals, black bears seldom attack unless cornered or threatened. They are less likely to attack man than grizzly bears and typically run for cover before one catches sight of them. Black bear predation on man is extremely rare. It is estimated that there have been only 56 documented killings of humans by black bears in North America in the past 100 years. Black bear predators include other black bears, man, and the grizzly. Coyotes and mountain lions may prey on cubs.

Because their behavior has been little understood until recently, black bears have been feared and hated. Before the 20th century these bears were shot intermittently as vermin, food, and trophies being seen as either a vicious beast or an endless commodity. In many areas bounties were paid, until recently, for black bears. Paradoxically, black bears have also been portrayed as harmless and cuddly. For example, the "teddy bear" owes its existence to a young black bear cub Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot.

Their tendencies to follow their stomachs and habitat encroachment by man have created human-bear conflicts. This is true especially in areas where they may have been uncommon or absent for a long time, as in many parts of the eastern United States.

THREATS TO BLACK BEARS

Today, a major threat to the American black bear is poaching, or illegal killing, to supply Asian markets with bear galls and paws, considered to have medicinal value in China, Japan, and Korea. The demand for these parts also affects grizzly and polar bears. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a treaty among more than 120 nations, provides measures to curb illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products across international boundaries, helping to protect the black bear from poaching.

Black bears are abundant in much of the West, in portions of the Midwest and in most of Canada. Conversely, Iowa, where land is heavily used for agriculture, has virtually none. Most eastern populations in the United States are seeing a marked, steady increase in population with bears moving back into places where they may not have been present for over a century as suitable habitat has come back. Two populations, however, are at critically low levels. Two subspecies, the Louisiana black bear and the Florida black bear, still face decline mainly due to habitat loss and degradation. In Mexico, the indigenous black bear population is listed as endangered and is mostly limited to increasingly fragmented habitat in the northern parts of the country.

In 1992, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Louisiana black bear subspecies as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act, meaning it could be in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range in the near future. The American black bear also is protected by legislation in the affected states (Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) due to its close resemblance to this subspecies. The Florida black bear is a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Hummingbirds

Moles

Alligators

Sparrows

Swordfish