Some cool animal species images:
Breakdancing sea elephant
Image by passengercis
Elephant seals are large, oceangoing mammals in the genus Mirounga, in the earless seal (Phocidae) family. There are 2 species: the Northern Elephant Seal (M. angustirostris) and the Southern Elephant Seal (M. leonina). Both were hunted to the brink of extinction by the end of the nineteenth century, but numbers have since recovered. The Northern Elephant Seal, somewhat smaller than its southern relative, ranges over the Pacific coast of the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The Southern Elephant Seal is found in the southern hemisphere on islands such as South Georgia, Macquarie Island, and on the coasts of New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina in the Peninsula Valdés, which is the fourth largest elephant seal colony in the world.
source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Elephant)
Grant's Gazelle
Image by wallygrom
Tsavo East, Kenya.
From Wikipedia -
The Grant's Gazelle (Nanger granti) is a species of gazelle. Its populations are distributed from northern Tanzania to southern Sudan and Ethiopia, and from the Kenyan coast to Lake Victoria. Its Swahili name is Swala Granti.
Grant's Gazelle is found in East Africa and lives in open grass plains and frequently found in shrublands; it avoids areas that have high grass where the visibility of predators is compromised. They also occur in semi-arid areas as well, and is relatively arid-adapted. They are migratory animals but travel in the opposite direction of most of the other ungulates like Thompson's gazelles, zebras and wildebeests which are more water dependant. They can subsist on vegetation in waterless, semiarid areas. Here they face little competition.
Grant’s gazelles are generally mixed feeders that both browse and graze. Their average diet consists of 65.8% browse and 34.3% graze. Rainfall in their habitats seem to be the determinant of their diets. The Grant's Gazelle's diet may also be responsible for the slow growth rates in the browsed plots. They get most of their moisture from the plants they eat so they don’t have to drink water often. Thus they can stay on the plains long after the rains end. From July to September, gazelles move deep into dense brush and wait for the next rains. They will eat red oats and small crunchy plants, which are avoided by the other ungulates. This allows the gazelles to survive in the brush during the dry season. Grant’s gazelles eat mainly dicotyledons during the dry season and grass in the wet season.
The most common predators of the Grant's Gazelle are Cheetahs and African Wild Dog. Humans also tend to hunt gazelles. In the Serengeti, Grant's Gazelle is a prey item but Thomson's gazelle is preferred by Cheetahs. However, in Nairobi National Park Grant's Gazelle is preferred over Thomson's Gazelle making it an important resource to the Cheetah. Jackals are major predators of fawns.
Fragile / Frágil
Image by . SantiMB .
Zoo - Barcelona (Spain).
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ENGLISH
The dorcas gazelle is a small ungulate found typically in the extensive deserts of North Africa, the Sinai peninsula, Palestine and Arabia; its colour is very close to that of the desert sands, and it has delicate silhouette and deeply ringed, lyre-shaped horns. The subspecies seen here in the zoo is the Western Sahara dorcas gazelle (Gazella dorcas neglecta), one of the breeds in greatest danger of extinction at present.
The dorcas gazelle was very numerous until relatively recently and large herds roamed the deserts in search of pasture and water. It had always been hunted for its meat by the nomadic peoples inhabiting the region, but the advent of firearms and motor vehicles has led to the decimation of these herds.
The Saharan Fauna Rescue Park was created in the province of Almería in 1971 in an attempt to save this gazelle and other Saharan species and has achieved notable success, to the extent that a number of these gazelles born at the Park have been sent to zoos, including the Barcelona zoo, and some have also been reintroduced into parks and nature reserves in North Africa.
Source: www.zoobarcelona.com/ZOO_Barcelona/English/zoo_virtual/ca...
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CASTELLANO
La gacela dorcas es un pequeño ungulado característico de las grandes extensiones desérticas del norte de África, la península del Sinaí, Palestina y Arabia. Su color es muy semejante al de la arena del desierto y posee una esbelta silueta y unos cuernos en forma de lira muy anillados. La subespecie que vive en nuestro Zoo es la gacela dorcas del Sáhara Occidental (Gazella dorcas neglecta), una de las razas que se encuentran actualmente en más grave peligro de extinción.
Muy abundante hasta épocas relativamente recientes, vivía en grandes manadas que se desplazaban a través del desierto en busca de pastos y agua. Desde siempre habían sido perseguidas por los pueblos nómadas que habitan la zona y que utilizaban su carne como alimento, pero la llegada de las armas de fuego y los automóviles provocó un gran descenso de sus poblaciones.
Para intentar salvar a esta gacela y otras especies saharianas en peligro de extinción, en 1971 se creó en la provincia de Almería el Parque de Rescate de Fauna Sahariana, que ha alcanzado con notable éxito su objetivo, ya que han podido enviarse ejemplares nacidos en sus instalaciones a diferentes zoológicos, entre ellos el nuestro, y además ha hecho posible la reintroducción de algunos de estos animales en determinados parques y reservas de fauna del norte de África.
Fuente: www.zoobarcelona.com/ZOO_Barcelona/castellano/zoo_virtual...
