pathandpuddle:

science illustration

(via scientificillustration)

biomedicalephemera:

Abyssinian Wolf - Canis simensis

Despite appearing more coyote or fox-like in appearance, and previously being thought to be anything from jackal to domestic dog mutation, molecular genetics now place the “Abyssinian wolf” (now commonly known as the Ethiopian Wolf) much closer to grey wolves than any other canid. They are the most critically endangered canine species that is still extant in the wild. 

In addition to being incredibly rare, Abyssinian wolves have a fairly distinct lineage from the grey wolves, and are highly specialized for their niche in the Ethiopian ecosystem. Their teeth are spaced significantly farther apart than other canids, to more effectively catch and eat small-to-medium-sized rodents. Each individual hunts by itself during the day, but they still retain the pack dynamic that many other carnivores have, at least while resting.

Interestingly, though once widespread, no known tribes use the Abyssinian wolf within their folklore, though Ethiopia now views the species as a national pride. This is in sharp contrast to the grey wolf, which is widely used in Native American and First Nations folklore, and many other canid species.

Abyssinian Birds and Mammals, from paintings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes. Chicago Field Museum of Natural History, 1926.

(via scientificillustration)

biomedicalephemera:

Grant’s Zebra - Equus quagga boehmi

Grant’s zebra is the smallest of the six plains zebra species, and has more vertical stripes than other zebras. They’re sorta dumpy-looking compared to other zebras, too. Short and stout with skinny legs. They’re not endangered, but the civil wars in their habitats (such as Somalia, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Uganda) have slashed their population drastically. Still, they’re doing better than most zebra species.

Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1883.

(via scientificillustration)

rhamphotheca:

vondell-swain:   Primate Portraits

World-class professional photographer Jill Greenberg turns her lens to subjects much less fussy than her usual species in her fantastic Monkey Portraits series.

Her incredible skill and almost surreal studio lighting reveal with stunning clarity the unignorable and almost disconcerting degree of similarity and kinship between us and our closest relatives. Human expressions aren’t so uniquely human after all.

Check out the rest of the remarkable 60-image series here.

Large social non-ruminant grazing herbivores

Horses are an herbivorous, grazing species that graze an average of 14-15 hours a day in the wild (Heird et al, 1998). Keiper (1985) found that horses on the Assateague spent 78% of daylight hours grazing. , Horses are not ruminants; they have a single stomach and the digestion of ingested roughage occurs in the cecum at the end of the large intestine (Heird et al, 1998). Cecal digestion, high level of food intake, and quick passage of food through the digestive system allows horses to have a diet high in fiber and low in protein (Waring, 2003). Although horses prefer grasses they are known to forage and derive nutrition from bark, tree, shrub buds, small woody stems, aquatic plants, fruits, roots and seeds. (McDonnell, 2003).

Read the full article!

History of the Kaimanawa

While the first horses were introduced into New Zealand by Samuel Marsden in December 1814, it was not until 1876 that the first wild horses were recorded in the Kaimanawa Ranges.

Over the years that followed, other horses contributed to the bloodline of this wild population. There were escapes and releases of horses from sheep runs in the area and in 1941 horses from the mounted rifle cavalry units at Waiouru were released when a strangles epidemic threatened.

With the varied gene input that followed their origins, the horses have generally become larger in stature than their pony forebears and there is also some variance in their conformation and build.

European grasslands have belonged to wild horses for thousands of years. With the arrival of hunters and later on farmers , wild horses were pushed from most parts of Europe. They had to give way to their domestic relatives. In some areas domestic and wild horses lived side by side for thousands of years. But ultimately, the story of European Wild horses came to a bad end.

“According to the latest researches, it is the Exmoor pony from a remote part of Great Britain that is the closest relative we have of the prehistoric horse. This is confirmed by other researches like bone measurements, historic documents, blood type research, haplotype research and dental researches,“ said Henri Kerkdijk-Otten and continues: „Looking at Exmoor ponies, they seem to come right of the walls of Lascaux cave. We have also noticed from experience that Exmoor ponies express more wild features than Koniks, like a natural tendency to get out of the way when people approach. These are the reasons we are slowly moving away from Koniks and we are concentrating on Exmoor ponies.“

The wild horses of Danube Delta are found in and around Letea Forest, located between the Sulina and Chilia branches of Danube. About 3600 feral horses live in the Danube Delta, 2000 in the Letea Nature Reserve, where they are among the last remaining wild (feral) horses living at large on the European continent.

Although feral horses have existed for hundreds of years in the region, their number greatly increased after the collective farms were closed down in 1990 and the horses belonging to them being freed. Today, the Letea population is not regulated and there are concerns that overgrazing is a looming problem. They are deemed to be a threat to the flora of the forest, including to some plants on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

  ‘Namibs’ as a Breed in their own Right
Substantiated biologically and historically, several theories can thus be brought together. The core of the herd probably consists of horses which belonged to the South African army, the German colonial forces and the Kreplin Stud (with connections to Duwisib). Animals which were dispersed or left behind in the turmoil of war gathered in the mountains around Aus, where many natural watering places can be found; in those days there were no fences yet. It is possible that these groups were joined by horses which had been abandoned during the depression and as a result of the automobile’s triumphant progress.
    It is probably thanks to the diamond finds at the coast that the horses were not caught again later on. As early as 1908 the German colonial administration established restricted areas which extended about 100 km inland and were strictly controlled. The surroundings of Garub were part of ‘Sperrgebiet II’. Nobody was allowed access, with no exception made for hunters or horse-catchers either. Garub with its borehole and the horse-trough, set up later, became the pivotal point in the horses’ existence.     It was only in 1986 that the Restricted Area II was declared open and annexed to the Namib Naukluft Park. For 90 years the feral horses were able to develop in almost complete isolation and by now may therefore be regarded as a breed in their own right, the ‘Namibs’.