Liger Story Abuzz The Animal World

This information came to me at fag end of 2006 and since then I've always wanted to talk about and read about this amazing creature. I was awiting for an opportunity to write about this, but since I hadn't had an animal blog until Saturday, December 20, 2008, I couldn't write about it. If you have watched out the National Geographic Channel on December 30 2008 at 10 PM -11 PM, I am sure you know what a Liger is.

I liked him... simply liked him to the fullest extent! Liger is a cross breed creature between a lion and a tiger. Documentation of ligers spans back to over hundred years... at least the early phase of 19th century, in Asia. Well, though that was believed to be an accidental mix, but after that story had a its own twist. Researchers started thinking of creating ligers by cross breeding lions and tigers, when another accident set the world wide web abuzz! Hercules - the largest non-obese cat on the Earth cam into being to rule the Jungle Island in Miami. The Guinness Book of World Records recognized 900 lbs Hercules as the largest cat on Earth. When only 3 years of age, Hercules weighed 900 lbs (408.25 kg). Chyna, the trainer of the Parrot Jungle's Liger, Hercules, said that Hercules was a result of an accident... not any deliberate approach or artificial insemination. Over 11 feet tall Hercules eats about 20 pounds of meat every day. At his three years of age, Hercules was featured on the Today Show, Good Morning America, Anderson Cooper 360, Inside Edition. He also found a space in a Maxim magazine article in 2005.

Sinbad, another giant Liger marked his name in the world of wild! 900 lbs Sinbad is the result of a pre-planned mixing of genes of a lion and a tiger. Liger Sinbad was over 100 times the size of the domestic cats and weighes almost twice the natural weight of a tiger or a lion; he is still growing! Dr. Mahamayavi Bhagavan Antle (shortly called Dr.Bhagavan Antle) is the trainer of Sinbad. He is also the founder and director of T.I.G.E.R.S - The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species.

Let's see what a Liger actually is...

Liger is a hybrid creature bred by combining the genes of a male lion and a female tiger.... not the reverse. The anomaly of a missing growth-inhiniting gene in Ligers causes ligers to grow to an incredibly gigantic size, even dwarfing the lion father and tiger mother. The skull can grow as large as 40% larger tha the skull of the lions and tigers. That's what happened to both Hercules and Sinbad. This amazing creature looks like a king size lion with faint tiger like stripes.

Quick facts about History of Ligers...

A well known painting of a couple fo liger cubs had been made by the artist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772−1844), which documents the presence of ligers even those days. Evidences of Liger cubs born in 1824 had been proved by an engraving made by G.B. Whittaker in the year 1825. Traces of Ligers could also be found in a native style 19th Century painting that depicted parents and their three liger babies along with their trainer. So Liger is nto a new story! A couple of liger babies born in 1837, had been exhibited before the King William IV and his successor Victoria. December 14, 1900 and May 31, 1901 have always been a memorable day for the Liger lovers, because on these days zoologist James Cossar Ewart recieved two letters from Carl Hagenbeck, informing about details of ligers born at the Hagenbeck's Tierpark in Hamburg in 1897, along with the photographs of the liger cubs. Naturalist Mr Carl Hagenbeck was the breeder of the ligers, and came to fame by successfully bringing them up into two great giant Ligers.

Click on each of the pics on the right and view the larger image. Pics have been collected from the net.

Stay tuned... I want to talk more about Ligers. Till then check out these amazing Liper clips:

A Million thanks to Metacafe for this Liger Video clip


Liger - Awesome video clips here

A Million thanks to YouTube for these Liger Video clip

A bit About Poisonous Dart Frogs - The Endangered Species

Human impact have been slashing down the animal population wantonly, throwing many rare animals on the verge of extinction. Not discovered until 1968, the Poison Dart Frog - one of the most toxic animals in the world, is one such amazing variety of frog that is in desperate threat of extinction. Thanks to the National Aquarium in Baltimore for the noblest effort on the breeding program of Poison Dart Frog. The National Aquarium in Baltimore that offers the home land of over 16000 different varieties of animals is the best place for animal lover tourists, since it reveals scopes for tonnes of aesthetic wildly fun experiences. The aquarium's general curator, Jack Cover says: "You're gonna see a lot of diversity and the best thing, you get to see them without the extreme heat and the mosquitoes that would normally be chewing you up if you were out in the wild". If you want to see the Poison Dart Frog, Baltimore's National Aquarium is the right spot to visit.

Also called dart-poison frog, poison frog or sometimes poison arrow frog, this poisonous frogs falls in the family Dendrobatidae and are native South and Central America. The most interesting characteristics that sets the dart-poison frogs apart from the other frogs, is that these species are usually active during the day. People are usually attracted to these amazing amphibians by their highly vibrant colored bodies. The poison frogs are often called "dart frogs" or "arrow frogs", because indigenous Amerindians' used to make use of their toxic secretions (batrachotoxin, which has the potency to kill many small animals and even humans, if the poison dose is higher) for poisoning their blowdarts tips, although amongst over 175 species, only three varieties have been documented as being used for the purpose. Although defined as "one of the most toxic animals in the world", but herpetologists concluded that they aren't very dangerous living inside the aquarium. As a matter of fact the are completely non-toxic when born and raised in captivity. Certain snakes and large poisonous spiders are the natural predators of the dart frog. the tadpoles, are not protected by poison; they easily fall in prey to dragonfly larvae and snakes.
Nature and Characteristics of Dart Frog:
Poison dart Frogs are usually small amphibians - sometimes even as small as 1.5 centimetres in a full grown adult length, while a few grows up to around 6 centimetres. These brightly colored poison frogs have amazing patterns of designs too - usually aposematic patterns that help them to to warn the potential predators.

They lay eggs in moist places for instance wet part of plants, leaves, in plants, and sometimes exposed roots in the wet areas. The parent frogs allow their tadpoles to wriggle onto their backs immediately after they are hatched. They then carry the piggy-backed tadpoles to water, where the larva remain until metamorphosis.

Diet:
In the captivity it's not possible to provide them their natural foods, which are meadow planktons tiny termites, small beetles, ants and other tiny insects.Frog born and raised in captivity are fed planktons, fruit flies and newborn crickets charged with certain vitamins and mineral supplements. This makes them totally non-toxic.

Distribution and Habitat:
Poison dart frogs thrives well live in the rain forests of South and Central America. These amazing amphibians are found on some of the Hawaiian islands too.

Life Span:
In natural condition the maximum life span of the Poisonous Dart Frogs are over 10 years.

Larger Mammals Have Smaller Litter Size

Hey… here’s something really interesting! I am sure most people in the animal world are unaware of the reason why small mammals have large litters. Have you ever thought why cats usually have larger litters than tigers? Smaller mammals usually have larger litters compared to the larger mammals. The reasons are best explained by the scientists who classified mammals into two distinctive categories, as per the ecological terms:

R-selected species: These are the small animals that have larger litters. The letter ‘R’ symbolizes higher reproductive rate. The adult members of these species usually invest relatively less time and effort in taking care to upkeep their offspring. The young ones of these species grow relatively faster than those of the K-selected species. The cycle repeats quite frequently, allowing them to become hugely populated within a short span of time. E.g: Rodents, like mice, rats.

K-selected species: These are the larger animals that have smaller litters. Unlike the ones that fall under the R-selected species, the K-selected ones are much bigger in size and have smaller litters. These animals usually spend more hours a day to care for their young ones, because the babies are not capable of caring themselves until they grow much older. They usually born blind and remain so for many weeks, which is why they bank on their mother for food and protections for comparative a longer span of time. The grow rate of these species relatively faster than those enlisted under the R-selected groups. The cycle is comparatively much slower… these animals are likely to have babies as frequent as the R-selected species, which is why these animals do not get over-populated.

When it comes to the litter size of mammals, one most obvious expression of reproductive activity is the number of babies born in a single litter. This varies among the species and even with species. The variation of the litter size, as a whole, arises from genetic and environmental impact. The difference among the eutherian mammals in the individual weight and number of their young at the birth are huge. Let us compare the two extremities among species. While mice give birth to young ones each weighing 1 grams, a whale gives birth to a baby that may weigh 1 tonne right after the birth. Now I have a couple of questions:

• Firstly, why does a single pattern of reproduction has such a huge variation?
• Secondly, if there’s such a huge variation, why isn’t it even more?

I found my answers here

A bit About Tiger - Top Tiger Facts

Tigers – the symbol of power...

Like most of the animal lovers around the world my love for tigers is quite prominent. Whenever I visited te zoo during my childhood I had always loved to see the tigers first and then the rests. Their majestic gesture and the exceptional valor of carrying themselves have always enticed me. Even today whenever I can scoop time out of my busy schedule, I try to sit back on my couch with the information about tigers that I've gathered. I thought of sharing some of those precious information about tigers - largest members of the cat family.

My unflagging inquisitiveness to learn more about tigers led me to look for the different subspecies of the beast. I learned that there were as many as eight distinctive subspecies of tiger; however three of them became extinct during the 20th century. Over the last century, hunting and wanton de-forest have desperately reduced the Indian tiger population to a handful numbers of 2500 only and as many as 6000 all over the world. Many of them have been killed for many reasons, one of which is that fact that some of the body parts of tigers – especially bones hane been traditionally used in making certain Chinese medicines. This is the reason that the remaining five subspecies of tiger are in threat of extinction. Bengal tigers – commonly known as Indian tigers comprises almost 50% of the overall tiger population of the world.

Here are some fast facts about tigers that I could gather from varied sources:

• Amongst all the tiger subspecies the Siberian Tiger is the largest variety and can weigh up to around eight hundred pounds.
• The Bengal tiger or Indian tiger is the second largest variety of the tiger subspecies, which is approximately 9ft 5' long, weighing around 480 pounds.
• The Sumatran tiger is the smallest existing subspecies, that has an average length of 7ft 8', weighing around 250 pounds.
• The heaviest tiger ever recorded was a Siberian tiger, who weighed 1,025 pounds. I wonder how much he used to eat a day!!!!
• Each single stripe of a tiger is a unique mark – no two stripe patterns are identical, which often help the authorities to identify individual tigers in the wild.
• Tigers are solitary cats that are most active between dusk and dawn. That means they are noctornal hunters.
• The night vision is aproximately 6 times that of the human beings.
• Although tigers are not natural man eaters, yet some of them turn to be the most notorious killers of human due to old age or severe wonds that might constraint them from hunting faster beasts. An Indian tigress called Champawat became the queen of terror by killing 436 people before she was fired to death by Mr. Jim Corbett in 1907. Champawat was allegedly responsible for claiming such an incredibly huge number of lives in Mepal and Kumaon region of India.
• This terror queen – Champawat killed a 16 year old girl on the day Mr Corbett bagged her to death.
• After Champawat's death, she had been post-mortem and the result showed that the upper and lower canine teeth on the right side of her jaw were broken, which created her a problem to tear hard flesh on wild beasts. This was the reason that she turned man eater.
• The tendons in the tigers' legs are so strong that they are known to keep standing form seconds even after shooting.
• A tiger banks mostly on stealth and strength instead of speed while preying.
• An adult male tiger in the wild requires more than 5 to 7 kilograms of meat per day.
• The auditory perception is the strongest of all senses of a tiger.
• The largest population of man eater tigers is in Sundarvan in India.
• Tigers reaches maturity at the age of three years.
• In the wild a male tiger can copulate up to as manyas 6 times an hour.
• Females can bear up to 2 to 3 cubs each time.
• The gestation period usually ranges from 102 to 106 days.
• The cubs start eating solid food at the age of 12 to 13 weeks of age.
• The cubs starts their first killings at the age of around 18 months.

Well these are only some of the interesting tiger facts that I could remember. Stay tuned to get more interesting info about tigers shortly.

Polar Bear Information

Polar bear...

The arctic animals have always fascinated animal lovers around the world. I love to spend times reading about the animals online. Although especially dogs but animals as a whole is what I have always loved to read about. As I was scrambling around the web a couple of weeks ago, I came across something quite interesting about some amazing arctic animals. and polar bear was in the list. Just thought of sharing what I came to know about polar bear above what I knew about it.

Oldest Known fossil record for polar bear: I didn't know this. The oldest known polar bear fossil is less than about 100,000 years old. Researchers assume that polar bears have developed during the Pleistocene era. According to them the root of their evolution is brown bear, which is why, they say that brown bears and polar bears are so closely related. They have always produced fertile offspring in experimenting with cross breeding these two types of bears.

Other Information:

1. Order - Carnivora.
2. Family - Ursidae. All bears belong to this family. The family is divided into three subfamilies:
Ursinae (includes polar bears black bears, sloth bears, brown bears, and sun bears)
Ailuropodinae (includes giant pandas)
Tremarctinae (includes spectacled bears)
3. Genus, species - Ursus Maritimus (which is the Latin word for "Sea Bear")

According to the polar bear specialty group of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) the polar bear population in the world today ranges between 20,000-25,000, being distributed all through the arctic region in, as many as. 19 subpopulations. Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Norway and Russia are amongst the major polar bear populations region. Vigorous changes in climatic condition is one of the major menaces to the polar bear survival. The loss of sea ice results a shortage of food for these animals, causing higher mortality rate among cubs. There has been a noticeable declination in growth rate in cubs too. Lethal removal and poaching of polar bears by human are amongst the other major menaces to their existence.

On May 14 2008, polar bears have been enlisted as threatened under the Federal Endangered Species. This means that polar bears are threatened with the extinction from global warming. Polar bears are among the largest predators in the world.

Pigmentation:

Polar bears comes in varied tints of white, ranging from pure white right after a heavy molt to yellowish hue that results mainly from solar oxidation. Stain of oil from seal blubber is another reason that the coat of polar bears sometimes look pale yellow. Their eye rings, lips and nose are jet black, unless otherwise they are albino.

Physique and life span:

Well muscular structure gives the animal a decent look. The fairly long neck and narrow skull give the animals a streamlined front structure, which helps him to submerge deep into the water and swim well. The front feet is fairly large and flat, forming an oar-like structure which aid him to swim faster than many arctic animals. They have a thick layer of blubber which provides them insulation and buoyancy.

• Height 8 to 10 feet
• Weight Adult males 550-1700 lbs; females 200 - 700 lbs
• Lifespan 20 - 25 years

Behavior:

Polar bears loves to spend major part of their time on hunting and denning. They are usually solitary as adult, unless its time for breeding and rearing. The non-breeding polar bears (irrespective of genders) do not hibernate during winter. Pregnant polar bears usual den, which is why they eat up a lot during summer to build up the sufficient fat reserves for self maintenance and giving birth to cubs. Polar bears generally give birth cubs weighing approximately one-pound and then nurse them until they acquire a body weight of about 20-30 pounds. It's after they stop nursing their cubs completely that the polar bears emerge out of their den... during March or April. The responsibility of choosing the right denning site is soldered by the females.The mating season of the polar bears starts off late March up till May. Gestation period is maximum about 8 month (counting the delayed implantation). The most common litter size is 2 cubs, but the size may rise up to 4 cubs per litter.