Home – Northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula
Habitat – Desert
Niche – small carnivore
Favorite Food – lizards
Length – up to 28 inches, nose to tail tip
Weight – up to 3 pounds
Status – Unconfirmed
Threats – trapping for fur and for pet trade
The Sahara desert is a land of murderous extremes. Daytime temperatures can spike to 120 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and below freezing in the dead of night. A cracked landscape of barren rocks, rolling dunes of sand, and very sparse vegetation, the Sahara is not a place where life can have an easy go of it. Most mammals cannot survive in deserts because of the harsh conditions and unavailability of water, but one little mammal has bucked the trend for millenia across the sandy wastes.
The fennec fox is the world’s smallest fox. A full grown adult only weighs in at three pounds, much lighter than a house cat. It inhabits the sandy regions of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, and is well-adapted to life in the desert. It has fur on the soles of its feet that serves as a buffer between the fox’s body and the burning hot sand of the Sahara, and its giant ears are packed with blood vessels that help to radiate heat away from the body to keep cool. Its size is also an advantage, allowing it to fit into tight spaces and survive on less food and water than larger mammals need.
The fennec fox is also nocturnal, retreating from the sun’s menacing rays during the day into underground burrows until daylight wanes and the temperature dips to a level more suitable for hunting. As the moon rises over the desert, the fennec fox will leave the safety of its den to hunt the sands and rocky crevices for small animals like lizards and insects. It obtains nearly all of its water from the prey that it consumes, so this little fox can live in extremely arid environments where larger animals would most certainly perish.
Most foxes are solitary, but the fennec foxes will often gather in groups of up to 10 individuals. Each member of the group digs a den several yards long into the ground to rear its young and escape larger predators. Females give birth to litters of between 2 and 5 pups and will remain with them in the den for about three months. Fennec foxes reach maturity quickly, becoming fully grown in less than a year, which is yet another adaptation for surviving in a harsh land.
Despite its hardiness, the fennec fox is becoming increasingly rare, especially across the Arabian peninsula, where hunting for its pelts and trapping the young for pets have cut its numbers. There is still much to learn about this tiny dog of the desert. Hopefully it will be around long enough to answer some of the many riddles about its existence.
Home – Southeast Asia
Habitat – tropical forest
Niche – large omnivore (primarily herbivore)
Favorite Food – leaves
Height – up to 5 feet tall
Weight – up to 33 pounds
Status – Vulnerable to Extinction
Threats – habitat loss, poaching
It’s morning in the jungles of the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia. Among the thousands of animal calls fighting for ear space in the dense forests, one stands out among the rest. Indeed, this animal’s deafening call would drown out even the roar of the African lion if put to the test. Able to be heard for over two miles through dense rainforest, the call of the siamang is the loudest of any land mammal on earth.
The siamang is a member of the gibbon family, a group of small, tree-dwelling apes that are known for their spectacular leaps and unrivaled agility among the dense upper canopy of the Asian rainforests. Swinging through the trees with a 5-foot arm span, the stocky, broad-chested siamang is the largest gibbon. These shaggy black apes live in the rainforests of Malaysia, Thailand, and Sumatra, sharing their range with a number of other gibbon species in the treetops.
The most striking feature of the siamang is the expandable flap of stretchy skin on its throat. The skin can be inflated the size of the animal’s entire head and acts as a resonator chamber, amplifying the piercing calls of the ape to ward off intruders and attract mates. The noisesome calls are primarily used to frighten other siamangs that have stumbled into a family’s territory, which can range up to 115 acres.
Like other gibbons and great apes, siamangs are social animals, forming small groups of around 5 animals. These family units are very cohesive, and a family member will rarely venture farther than 100 feet from its kin. As with other apes, grooming is the most important social bonding activity with siamangs. However, social interaction between the family unit is kept to a minimum, leaving most of the day open for eating and resting. Leaves are the siamang’s primary food, forming over half its diet. Fruit and insects form the other half, with some regional variation. Half of the siamang’s waking period from dawn until dusk is spent reasting in the trees, taking short siestas in between foragings.
Siamangs are monogamous, meaning they only mate with one partner during the 2-3 year mating cycle, and the mating pair remains together for life. As is the case with other monogamous mammals, there is very little difference between the sexes in terms of body size. Siamangs show an unusual amount of paternal care for a mammal, and the fathers take over care of the infant after about a year. Indeed, the adult male siamang is responsible for a juvenile’s increasing independence on its journey towards adulthood.
After about eight years of family care, the sexually mature siamang is eased out of its family unit and must strike out on its own. Males then begin a period of wandering in search of females and will call out into the forest to find a mate necessary to build a new family. In fact, the loud “singing” of siamangs is an important part of forging and maintaining the crucial pair bonds.
As the forests fall in the Malay Peninsula, so do the siamangs. As illegal logging, clearcutting, and palm oil plantations increase, the future of these magnificent apes grows increasingly in doubt. Without the trees to support them, the siamang’s call will go silent.
Home – Central and South Asia
Habitat - rocky crags to altitudes of 16,500 feet
Niche – ambush predator
Favorite Food – small mammals
Length – up to 8 feet, nose to tail tip
Weight – up to 165 pounds
Status – Endangered
Threats – habitat loss, poaching, revenge killings
Icy wind. Bitter, bone-splinting cold. Air so thin, it leaves mammals wheezing. By all accounts, one of the least-forgiving regions on planet earth, The Himalayas. And within the highest peaks on earth lives a big cat so extraordinarily adapted to its surroundings, that it has come to dominate the food chain.
The snow leopard is one of the rarest big cats in the wild. Living like a gray curtain across the rocks where it lives, it’s seldom found, even when scientists are searching for it in earnest. A solitary hunter, it generally doesn’t want to be seen. That would be giving up its greatest strength.
The snow leopard’s hunting adaptations are many. Its spine is incredibly flexible, allowing it to extend its muscles further for faster running, and swing its body around obstacles for greater maneuverability. It also sports a long, broad tail that acts as a midair rudder. The snow leopard lives in very dangerous territory. There are many clusters of sharp rocks, slippery ledges, and sheer drops. The mountains of Central Asia do not smile on a mistake in timing or careless slip during a fevered dash for prey. Men barely make it up the Himalayas with advanced hiking gear. The snow leopard not only moves in these forbidding mountains. It runs full speed.
This cat actually prefers the most treacherous areas of the mountains, steppes, and forests of Asia because of the way it hunts prey. Using stealth as its best friend, it will sneak up on potential food. Its broad, furry paws not only allow it superb handling of the rocks in the chase that will be forthcoming. The soft hair muffles nearly all the sound of the snow leopard’s approach. And this tactic works quite well. Living up to 16,000 feet above sea level, these cats will take a wide variety of prey. From animals as small as birds up to giant, formidable opponents like the yak, the snow leopard’s list of hunting quarries is long and impressive.
Then comes the strike. When the snow leopard reaches striking distance, it will release powerful muscle tension in its legs and attempt to leap on the prey. It will do this from as far as 30 feet away with extraordinary jumps. If all goes according the plan, the animal being ambushed won’t realize it has been until it feel’s the cat’s claws in its back.
Snow leopards are solitary. This is because in the cold, rocky wastes of its habitat, other animals are scarce. To make the best of the limited hunting, each hunting-age snow leopard patrols a territory up to 40 square miles. However, when the mating season advances in the Himalayas, snow leopard will come together for a brief time in order to mate and hunt together for the new generation.
And snow leopards do most of this under the cover of darkness, which is one reason why they’re so difficult to study. Unfortunately, there may not be much longer to study these animals. Their numbers have been cut steadily for years, and the few remaining snow leopards remain in remote areas. Difficult for both those who want to help, and those who want to harm these endangered marvels. So, the majestic gray hunters of the mountain peaks may hold on yet a bit longer for us to ponder their future.
