Uakaris only live in tropical rainforests that are flooded or filled with many slow flowing streams, and consequently they are very rare. They are active during the day, running on all fours through the tops of large trees. They mainly feed on fruit, but will also eat leaves, insects and small vertebrates. Although they are quite agile, Uakaris live in large troops of 10-30 individuals. In areas where forests have not been damaged by human activity, groups of over 100 have been reported. Uakari troops often get mived in with those of other monkeys, such as squirrel monkeys, during daytime feeding forays.
Each troop has a hierarchial structure, which is maintained by fighting among both sexes. The dominant males control access to females in a troop during the breeding seasons. Females give birth to single young every two years.
Habitat: Beside rivers in flooded forests.
Food: Fruits, leaves and insects.
Life Span: 20 Years
Status: Endangered
Breeding: Single young born in summer every 2 years
Capybaras are the largest living rodents in the world. They live in herds of about 20 individuals, feeding by day on the banks of rivers and in swampy areas. Although they are well suited to being in water, with eyes and nostrils high on their head and webbed feet, Capybaras do not feed for long periods in water. They tend to use water as a refuge from predators and as a means of keeping cool on hot days. If startled, Capybaras gallop into water and may swim to the safety of floating plants. When they surface, only their eyes and nostrils are visible.
Capybaras do not have permanent dens, but sleep in waterside thickets. Each herd contains several adults of both sexes as well as their offspring, all conforming to a hierarchy. A single male leads the herd. Fights often break out between the other males as they attempt to improve their rank.
Habitat: Thickly vegetated areas around fresh water
Food: Grass, grains, melons and squashes
Life Span: 10 Years
Status: Common
Breeding: 5 offspring born throughout the year
The Falanouc is a small carnivore that lives within the lowland rainforests in the centre and northwest of Madagascar. They tend to live in elevations from about 50 to 1600 m.
Falanoucs teeth are adapted to a soft-bodied invertebrate diet. Their diet mainly consists of earthworms, chameleons, frogs, insects and slugs. In captivity, small peices of meat will be introduced to their diet which they happily consume. The long claws of the falanouc are used for scraping items of food from rotten wood or shallow soil, prey is then immobilized with the teeth and jaws.
Falanoucs are near threatened in the wild, there are fewer than 20 recent locality-based records of Falanoucs in total, and total adult population estimates are impossible to make.
Habitat: Lowland Rainforest
Food: Insects, slugs, earthworms, chameleons, frogs and small meat in captivity.
Life Span: Unknown
Status: Near Threatened
Breeding: 1 - 2 newborns
One of the most famous and easily recognized animals in the world, the Giant Panda is also one of the most endangered. Scarcely, 1,000 individuals are believed to survive in the wild - in central and south-western China - with another 140 animals in zoos across the world.
Habitat loss and poaching are the major dangers, and because the panda has a very slow reproductive cycle, it takes a long time for populations to recover. Females usually give birth to two cubs, one of which survives and stays with the mother for up to three years. In a lifetime, a female may raise 5 - 8 cubs.
A Pandas diet is almost exclusively bamboo, occassionally supplemented by other grasses and small rodents. Its digestive system is ill-equipped to digest the fibrous bamboo efficiently, so it has to spend most of its days foraging and eating. An elongated wrist bone with a fleshy pad of skin forms a functional but awkward thumb which is used to grasp the stems, and strong teeth then crush them into a more digestible pulp.
Pandas were once thought to be solitary creatures. However, new evidence suggests that small social groups may form outside the breeding season. These well-loved animals are the focus of much detailed research, always aimed at preserving the species. Recent research into in-vitro fertilization of pandas may help in the battle to prevent extinction.
Habitat: High-elevation broadleaf forests with bamboo understorey
Food: Bamboo
Life Span: 35 Years
Status: Critically Endangered
Breeding: 1 cub born every 3 - 4 years
How You Can Help:
http://support.wwf.org.uk/index.php?page=shop&pid=1
Black Rhinoceroses are one of Africa’s most famous and impressive wild inhabitants. Large, fearsome and with few natural enemies, they should be facing a secure future, but changes in land use, war, civil unrest and poverty continue to threaten their security.
Although the Black Rhinos horns are used in Chinese medicine, it is the ivory trade that has had the biggest impact on its numbers - especially the popularity of ceremonial daggers called jambiyas. Trade in rhino horn has been illegal since 1977, and this well-known species is now beginning to recover in much of its range, thanks to careful management and the strict enforcement of legal protection. Yet poverty continues to tempt poachers, and remaining black rhinoceros populations are secure only in a fraction of their former territory, in protected reserves in Kenya, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
Habitat: Scrubland and woody savannah
Food: Twigs and leaves
Life Span: Can exceed 45 years in captivity
Status: Critically Endangered
Breeding: Single calf born every 2-5 years
How You Can Help:
http://www.blackrhino.org/nhow_to_help.htm
http://support.wwf.org.uk/index.php?page=shop&pid=7
(As this specie is so critically endangered, I could not find a photo of it in its natural habitat, or at least a photo where it isnt strung out of water or being held up by an ignorant smiling prick, so this will have to do.)
Vaquitas live in the upper area of the Gulf of California, near the mouth of the Colorado River. No other marine mammal has such a small range, and consequently Vaquitas are extremely rare and may become extinct. Vaquitas used to be able to swim up into the mouth of the Colorado. However, in recent years so much water has been removed from the river for irrigation and for supplying cities that the Colorado is little more than a trickle where it reaches the ocean. This has probably changed the composition of the Gulf waters, too. The Vaquita population was also affected by the fishing industry in the Gulf. Fishermen drowned many Vaquitas in their nets by accident, and their activies have also reduced the amount of fish available for porpoises to eat.
Biologists know little about the lives of these porpoises. Vaquitas probably spend most of their time alone, locating their prey close to the sea floor using echolocation. Births probably take place all year round.
Habitat: Coastal waters and mouth of the Colorado River
Food: Fish and squid
Life Span: Unknown
Status: Critically Endangered
Breeding: Probably 1 calf
If you are interested in finding out how you can help to save this beautiful specie, then check out this link: http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/cetaceans/about/vaquita/
There are two races of African Elephants: the Savannah Elephant, which is the worlds largest living land animal, and the smaller Forest Elephant that lives in the rainforests of Central and western Africa. The Savannah Elephants are social animals and, like Indian Elephants, they form groups consisting of related female Elephants and their young. The leaders of Elephant groups are always the eldest and largest females. Male Elephants leave their groups at puberty, driven away by older females, to go and join groups of other young male Elephants. Males compete to mate, and usually these contests are settled by pushing and aggressive displays, but sometimes fighting leads to fatal injuries.
Forest Elephants do not form large groups, but are able to maintain contact in the dense jungle by producing deep, rumbling calls
Habitat: Forest, savannah, marshland and semi-desert
Food: Grass, leaves, shrubs, bark, twigs, roots and fruit
Life Span: 50-70 Years
Status: Endangered
Breeding: Single calf born every few years
The social behaviour of Lions is unique among wild cats. A typical pride contains about ten related females with their cubs and one or two males. Females do most of the hunting, but male lions may join them to help bring down larger prey such as zebras or buffalo. Males in a pride help themselves to the females’ kills and rarely hunt for themselves. They spend much of the night patrolling, marking territory and driving away rival males. A pride male’s reign rarely lasts longer than three years before he is usurped. Once adolescent males are evicted from prides where they were born and reared, they may stay together hunting groups, or hunt alone before eventually joining other groups.
Habitat: Open country
Food: Grazing animals (zebra, buffalo, gazelles etc)
Life Span: 16 Years
Status: Vulnerable
Breeding: 1 litter of 2-5 cubs in alternate years
The Mediterranean Chameleon is the only species of these appealing lizards to live in the wild in Europe. They are restricted to the extreme south of the mainland and are most common on islands such as Malta, Crete and Sicily.
The lizard is found in dry habitats and is generally seen climbing slowly through bushes. As it moves, the chameleon’s eyes scan its surroundings; each eye can move independently. If the chameleon spots danger, it inflates its body and turns dark. As well as looking out for danger, the chameleon is looking out for insects. Once it spots a suitable victim it unleashes its long tongue, which is almost as long as the lizards body and has a sticky tip that clings to prey.
Mediterranean Chameleons put alot of energy into reproduction. The males defend a territory and each female mates with several before climbing to the ground. They dig a trench and lay 30 eggs in it; the eggs might make up half of the females weight. About a third of females die from exhaustion after their first breeding season.
Habitat: Bushes in dry habitats
Food: Insects
Life Span: 3 Years
Status: Common
Breeding: 30 eggs buried in soil. Hatch after 2 - 3 months
Throughout the range of the Panther Chameleon, males and females vary in colour. There are at least 25 different forms, with each one occuring in a different region. Males from north-west Madagascar are bright turquoise and green, with red and gold colours radiating from their eyes and heads. Another type of male from a different region has up to six different body colours with white streaks around its eyes. Breeding females become brighter too, developing black and red-orange colouring. Their black markings vary in pattern. The Panther Chameleon is able to change colour very quickly when it moves into different vegetation - as camouflage- or when being approached by other chameleons - as communication. They can be very aggressive with one another, and changing colour can warn other individuals to keep away.
Habitat: Lowland coastal areas
Food: Small Insects
Life Span: Unknown
Status: Vulnerable
Breeding: 4-6 clutches of 12-30 eggs are laid per year
