Wildlife Education

Gray wolves can range in color from white to black, as seen in the photo. They can range in size from 4.5 to 6.5 feet, from nose to tail, while weighing in at 55 to 130 pounds, although can look a lot larger when their winter coats come in. Generally wolves live an average of seven or eight years in the wild. The Gray wolf has a current estimated population of 5,000 in the lower 48 and 7,000 to 11,000 in Alaska. These numbers may seem large but they have been greatly reduced due to years of persecution.(1) The most important fact about the wolf is that it is an apex and keystone species, meaning that it is needed in order to keep the balance of all species, plants and animals alike. For more information, please watch this amazing video on how wolves can save an ecosystem.
http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/how-wolves-can-save-ecosystem

The African wild dog, also known as the Cape hunting dog or the painted dog, is the only canine in Southern Africa. They generally live to about 11 years on average and can grow to 79 pounds. These beautifully unique creatures live in packs lead by a monogamous breeding pair. They can have litters as small as only two pups or as large as twenty, and all are cared for by the entire pack. The African wild dog is endangered due to a lack of room to roam, and a persecution by farmers fearing for their livestock; in addition, the wild dog has grown susceptible to diseases spread by domestic animals. (2).

The leopard is a powerful, graceful, and sadly threatened large cat. The leopard has a large variety of prey and methods of hunting. From stalking its prey from trees to blending in perfectly in tall grass or even swimming to catch fish or crabs, this animal is the perfect hunter. It even has the strength to pull its prey into the safety of tall trees away from scavengers. An adult leopard can weight between 66 and 176 pounds and be, from head to base of tail, 4.25 to 6.25 feet long. Besides cubs living with their mother for up to two years, leopards are solitary animals. (5).

Known to be the fastest land mammal on Earth, the cheetah can reach 0 to 60 miles per hour in only three seconds! Due to the amount of energy needed to reach their top speeds, a cheetah will first use its keen eye sight to scan for prey and then wait until the time is just right. Once the chase begins it will generally last less then a minute, leaving the cheetah either with a meal or hungry. Thankfully, the cheetah is just as agile as it is fast, using its tail to help it steer and turn in the needed direction. (6)(7).

The caracal, despite its small stature, is an incredibly able and talented hunter. Although only weighing between 24 to 40 pounds it has been known to be able to take down ostriches and young kudu! In addition to all its power, it is also an agile hunter, being able to leap high into the air to take out low flying birds. (8).

Although they may look large at times, bobcat males weigh only 16 to 28 pounds and females 10 to 18 pounds. Despite its small size, the bobcat is an excellent hunter, patiently stalking its prey and taking it down in a single leap. Although the males territory will overlap with other males, the female will never share territory with one another. These territory sizes can be extremely varied, as males can have up to 25-30 squares miles of territory, while females will generally have only five square miles. Once, the bobcat populations were decimated, hunted for their fur, this graceful cat is now considered a great success story with its current continental United State population growing over three million. (9).

An incredibly adaptive animal, the red fox can be found in many diverse habitats and even human environments such as farms, suburban areas and large communities. A solitary hunter, the red foxes has an adaptive diet, which includes small mammals, fruit, vegetables, fish, and even worms. (10).

The Chacma baboon is also known as the Cape baboon, and like all baboons comes from the Old World monkey family. This species of monkey is sexually dimorphic, meaning that the male and female are physically different. The male species can weigh 59 to 97 pounds, and can be 20 to 30 inches long. The females are much smaller then the males weighing in at only 31 to 37 pounds and are 16 to 24 inches long. Interestingly, baboons do not spend the majority of their time in trees as is generally expected. The only times they do decide to climb is to either escape predators, spend the night, and of course, find food. Baboons will mostly consume fruit, roots, bugs, and plants. Baboons live in groups called troops, which on average, can contain 50 individuals and have a single alpha male and female as leaders. One of the baboon's greatest ecological contribution is its distribution of seeds while eating and soil aeration while foraging. (3)(4)

The American badger 's entire life is surrounded by one thing, their den. They will use them for hunting, sleeping, storing food and giving birth. Besides when it has young, the badger may change dens every day. When they are threatened, the American badger will back up into their burrow, while baring their teeth and claws, to scare away any unwanted guest. Obviously, the badger is far from helpless. It has a very muscular neck and thick, loose fur to protect it when captured by predators. If captured, it will use the extra time that the loose fur provides, to turn around and use their long claws and very large teeth to attack back. When the claws and teeth do not perturb a predator enough to stay away, they can also release a very unpleasant musk to drive them away. (11)

The American Bison is the heaviest land animal in North America, weighing in at an impressive 930 to 2,200 pounds and can stand at up to 6.5 feet tall. Despite their tremendous size, when the need arises, the bison can run at speeds up to 40 miles per hour. During the 19th century, early settlers killed over 50 million bison for food and sport. Today only 30,000 wild,true bison are in existence, the majority of the population has been cross-bred with cattle and is semi-domesticated. (12)(13)

Despite weighing over 40 tons and being the size of a school bus the humpback whale's diet consists mainly of shrimp-like krill, plankton, and small fish. Humpbacks migrate annually from summer feeding grounds near the poles to warmer winter breeding waters closer to the Equator. Breaching, as seen in the photograph, is still an unknown behavior. Scientist are not sure of the reason behind this behavior, and what if any purpose it may serve. The current theories include reasons such as; cleaning pests from the whale's skin, or that the whales simply do it for fun. (14)

Northern Elephant Seals are an extraordinary marine mammal. It spends eight to ten months a year in the open ocean, diving 1000 to 5800 feet deep for periods of fifteen minutes to two hours, on a single breath. They have also been known to migrate thousands of miles, twice a year, to their land based rookery for birthing, breeding, molting and rest. Like all mammals, elephant seals replace their old skin and hair. Most mammals do this throughout an entire year, but the elephant seals molt all at once. This process is so abrupt in elephant seals, that it also known as a catastrophic molt. (15)

With a wingspan of 9.5 feet, weighing in at 17 to 25 pounds and having a life span of 45-80 years, this bird is one of the nations most magnificent species. Due to lead, DDT (a very harmful pesticides), sport hunting and, many other man made threats, the condor's population decreased to a dismal twenty-two known individuals in the wild. The last of the wild condors were taken into captivity in 1987 in order to save the species from becoming fully extinct. Thankfully, due to amazing efforts from the zoos of California as well as Fish and Wildlife and other conservation groups, there is now approximately 435 California condors in the world and about 237 in California, Arizona and Baja California, Mexico. (16)

The northern spotted owl is a highly specialized species that occupy old growth
forest. Being a specialized species means that the northern spotted owl can
only thrive in certain environmental condition and has a limited diet. As a result of their declining habitiat and that they are being out competed by species that have a generalized diet, which is when a species can thrive in a wide variety of environmental conditions, the spotted's now have fewer then 100 pairs of in British Columbia, Canada, 1,200 pairs in Oregon, 560 pairs in northern California and 500 pairs in the state of Washington. (18)

The tarantula hawk, also known as a tarantula wasp, has one of the worlds most painful stings to humans, which means a fully paralyzing one to tarantulas. Once the tarantula is paralyzed the tarantula hawk will drag it down into its burrow. There is buried alive with the eggs of the tarantula hawk put inside of it. The eggs will hatch and fully consume the helpless tarantula from the inside. The entire process takes a few weeks, during most of which the tarantula will be alive. (17)

If there are any species you would like me to add to this section, please send me a message through the comment section.