Tapir

Tapirs are large browsing mammals, roughly pig-like in shape, with short, prehensile snouts. They inhabit jungle and forest regions of South America, Central America, and Southeast Asia. All four species of tapir are classified as endangered or vulnerable. Their closest relatives are the other odd-toed ungulates, including horses and rhinoceroses.

Size varies between types, but most tapirs are about 2 meters (7 ft) long, stand about a meter (3 ft) high at the shoulder, and weigh between 150 and 300 kg (330 to 700 lb). Coats are short and range in color from reddish-brown to grey to nearly black, with the notable exceptions of the Malayan Tapir, which has a white saddle-shaped marking on its back, and the Mountain Tapir, which has longer, woolly fur. All tapirs have oval, white-tipped ears, rounded, protruding rumps with stubby tails, and splayed, hoofed toes, with four toes on the front feet and three on the hind feet, which help them walk on muddy and soft ground. Baby tapirs of all types have striped-and-spotted coats for camouflage. Females have a single pair of mammary glands.

White-faced Saki Monkey

The White-faced Saki (Pithecia pithecia), also known as the Guianan Saki and the Golden-faced Saki, is a species of saki monkey, a type of New World monkey, found in Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela. This species lives in the understory and lower canopy of the forest, feeding mostly on fruits, but also eating nuts, seeds, and insects.


In captivity, female White-faced Sakis experience ovarian cycles of approximately 17 days, and a gestational period of 20-21 weeks. Following birth, the mother undergoes a period of lactationally-induced fertility lasting 23 weeks, on average.


Sakis of the Pithecia pithecia species display noticeable sexual dimorphism in their coloration. Females have shorter hair than males, with brownish-grey fur and white or pale brown stripes around the corners of the nose and mouth. Males, on the other hand, have blacker fur, with a reddish-white forehead, face, and throat.

Emperor Tamarin

The Emperor Tamarin (Saguinus imperator) is a tamarin allegedly named for its resemblance to the German emperor Wilhelm II. It lives in the southwest Amazon Basin, in east Peru, north Bolivia and in the west Brazilian states of Acre and Amazonas.



The fur of the Emperor Tamarin is predominantly grey colored, with yellowish speckles on its chest. The hands and feet are black and the tail is brown. Outstanding is its long, white mustache, which extends to both sides beyond the shoulders. The animal reaches a length of 24 to 26 cm (9 1/2 to 10 1/4 in), plus a 35 cm (13 3/4 in) long tail. It weighs approximately 300 to 400 g (10 1/2 to 14 oz). This primate inhabits tropical rain forests, living deep in the forest and also in open tree-covered areas. This diurnal species walks or runs quadrupedally through the forest, spending the majority of its days in the trees with quick, safe movements and broad jumps among the limbs.



The Emperor Tamarin lives together in groups of two to eight animals. The oldest female leads the group above several mature males. Mutual grooming plays an important role for bonding and socializing. The Emperor Tamarin is known to form mixed-species associations with the Brown-mantled Tamarin (Saguinus fuscicollis). It has various cries which help them to promptly recognize interlopers.

The diet of the Emperor Tamarin is similar to that of other tamarins. It is an omnivore, primarily eating fruits, insects and sap. When feeding on sap, the Emperor Tamarin latches on to the tree vertically with its claws dug into the bark of the tree. It also eats bird eggs and small vertebrates (such as tree frogs). Due to its small weight it can reach food at the far end of branches, which are not accessible to heavier animals.

The Emperor Tamarin lives a polyandrous life, i.e. the mature female mates with all of the males of her harem. Gestation is 140 to 145 days, and births are typically twins (although triplets happen on occasion) as is typical of tamarins. All the males, father or not, help with the birth, care, and support of the young, carrying them and bringing them to the mother to nurse. At approximately three months they are weaned, and toward the end of the second year they are fully mature. The Emperor Tamarin's life expectancy is over 15 years. Very little is known about the population of Emperor Tamarin in the wild.

Sloth

The living sloths comprise six species of medium-sized mammals that live in Central and Sout America belonging to the families Megalonychidae and Bradypodidae, part of the order Pilosa. The sloth's taxonomic suborder is Folivora, while some call it Phyllophaga. Both names mean "leaf-eaters"; the first is derived from Latin, the second from ancient Greek. Tribal names include Ritto, Rit and Ridette, mostly forms of the word "sleep", "eat" and "dirty" from Tagaeri tribe of Huaorani.



Until geologically recent times,ground sloths such as Megatherium lived in South America and parts of North America, but along with many other animals they disappeared immediately after the arrival of humans on the continent Much evidence suggests that human hunting contributed to the extinction of the American megafauna, like that of far northern Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Madagascar. Simultaneous climate change that came with the end of the last Ice age may have also played a role in some cases. However, the fact that ground sloths survived on the Antilles long after they had died out on the mainland points towards human activities as the agency of extinction.

The living sloths are omnivores. They may eat insects, small lizards, and carrion, but their diet consists mostly of buds, tender shoots, and leaves, mainly of Cecropia trees. They have made extraordinary adaptations to an arboreal browsing lifestyle. Leaves, their main food source, provide very little energy or nutrition and do not digest easily. Sloths therefore have very large, specialized, slow-acting stomachs with multiple compartments in which symbiotic bacteria break down the tough leaves. As much as two-thirds of a well-fed sloth's body-weight consists of the contents of its stomach, and the digestive process can take a month or more to complete.
Even so, leaves provide little energy, and sloths deal with this by a range of economy measures: they have very low metabolic rates (less than half of that expected for a creature of their size), and maintain low body temperatures when active (30 to 34 °C or 86 to 93 °F), and still lower temperatures when resting.
Although unable to survive outside the tropical rainforests of South and Central America, within that environment sloths are outstandingly successful creatures: they can account for as much as half the total energy consumption and two-thirds of the total terrestrial mammalian biomass in some areas. Of the six living species, only one, the Maned Three-toed Sloth (Bradypus torquatus), has a classification of "endangered" at present. The ongoing destruction of South America's forests, however, may soon prove a threat to other sloth species.

Red Panda

The Red Panda, also called the Firefox or Lesser Panda (Latin name: Ailurus fulgens, "shining cat"), is a mostly herbivorous mammal, specialized as a bamboo feeder. It is slightly larger than a domestic cat (40 - 60 cm long, 3 - 6 kg weight). The Red Panda is endemic to the Himalayas in Bhutan, southern China, Pakistan, India, Laos, Nepal, and Burma. There is an estimated population of fewer than 2,500 mature individuals. Their population continues to decline due to habitat fragmentation.

Recent molecular-systematic DNA research places the Red Panda into its own independent family Ailuridae. Ailuridae are in turn part of a trichotomy within the broad superfamily Musteloidea (Flynn et al., 2001) that also includes the Mephitidae (skunks) and the Procyonidae (raccoons) + Mustelidae (weasels). Unlike the Giant Panda, it is not a bear (Ursidae).
There are two extant subspecies of Red Panda: the Western Red Panda (Ailurus fulgens fulgens) that lives in the western part of its range, and the somewhat larger Styan's Red Panda (Ailurus fulgens styani) that lives in the east-northeastern part of its range. The Western Red Panda has lighter pelage, especially in the face, while the Styan's Red Panda has more dramatic facial markings. The effective population size in the Sichuan population is larger and more stable than that in the Yunnan population, implying a southward expansion from Sichuan to Yunnan.
The taxonomic classification of both the Red Panda and Giant Panda has been under debate for many decades, as both species share characteristics of both bears and raccoons. However, they are only very distantly related by remote common ancestry from the Early Tertiary Period. Its common ancestor can be traced back to tens of millions of years ago with a wide distribution across Eurasia. Fossils of the Red Panda have been unearthed from China in the east to Britain (Parailurus anglicus) in the west (Hu, 1990,Ro), and most recently a handful of fossils(Pristinailurus bristoli, Miocene, considered to be a new genus and species of the Red Panda) have also been discovered in North America.

Angora Rabbit

The Angora rabbit is a variety of domestic rabbit bred for its long, soft hair. The Angora is one of the oldest types of domestic rabbit, originating in Ankara, Turkey, along with the Angora cat and Angora goat. The rabbits were popular pets with French royalty in the mid 1700s, and spread to other parts of Europe by the end of the century. They first appeared in the United States in the early 1900s. They are bred largely for their long angora wool, which may be removed by shearing, combing, or plucking (gently pulling loose wool).
There are many individual breeds of Angora rabbits, four of which are ARBA recognized. Such breeds include French, German, Giant, English, Satin, Chinese, Swiss and Finnish, to name a few.

Angoras are bred mainly for their wool because it is silky and soft. They have a humorous appearance, as they oddly resemble a fur ball. Most are calm and docile but should be handled carefully. Grooming is necessary to prevent the fiber from matting and felting on the rabbit. Because they are prone to hairballs, they should be groomed everyday or every other day. A condition "wool block" is common in angora rabbits and should be treated quickly. Sometimes they are shorn in the summer as the long fur can cause the rabbits to overheat.

Sun Bear

The Sun Bear (Helarctos malayanus) is a bear found primarily in the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia. Its Malay and Indonesian name is Beruang Madu ("Honey Bear").

The Sun Bear stands approximately 1.2 m (4 ft) in length, making it the smallest member in the bear (Ursidae) family. Males tend to be 10-45% larger than females; the former normally weigh between 30 and 60 kg (66-132 lb), the latter between 20 and 40 kg (44-88 lb). The Sun Bear possesses sickle-shaped claws that are relatively light in weight. It has large paws with naked soles, probably to assist in climbing. Its inward-turned feet make the bear's walk pigeon-toed, but it is an excellent climber. It has small, round ears and a stout snout. The tail is 1.2-2.8 inches (3-7 cm) long. Despite its small size, the Sun Bear possesses a very long, slender tongue, ranging from 8 to 10 inches (20-25 cm) in length. The bear uses it to extract honey from beehives.
Unlike other bears, the Sun Bear's fur is short and sleek. This adaptation is probably due to the lowland climates it inhabits. Dark black or brown-black fur covers its body, except on the chest, where there is a pale orange-yellow marking in the shape of a horseshoe. Similar colored fur can be found around the muzzle and the eyes. These distinctive markings give the Sun Bear its name.

The diet of the Sun Bear varies widely and includes small vertebrates, such as lizards, birds, and other mammals, in addition to fruits, eggs, termites, the young tips of palm trees, nests of bees, berries, sprouts, insects, roots, cocoa, and coconuts. Its powerful jaws can crack open nuts. Much of the Sun Bear's food must be detected using its keen sense of smell, as its sight is poor. They live to about 28 years in captivity.

The Sun Bear does not hibernate, and, as a result, it can reproduce year-round. The offspring reach sexual maturity after 3-4 years and may live up to 28 years in captivity. A female Sun Bear can produce 1 to 2 cubs per year. Sun Bears undergo a roughly 96 day gestation period after which the 300 to 400g cub is born blind and hairless. The cub is initially totally dependent on its mother and suckling can continue for about 18 months. After 1 to 3 months, the young cub can run, play and forage near its mother. Male Sun Bears grow larger than females. Females are observed to mate at about 3 years. During time of mating, the Sun Bear will show behavior like hugging, mock fighting and head bobbing with its mate.
Being a primarily nocturnal creature, the Sun Bear tends to rest during the day on lower limbs not far above the ground. Because it spends so much time in trees, the Sun Bear can sometimes cause a good amount of damage to private property. It has been known to destroy coconut palms and cacao trees on plantations.

Adult Sun Bears have almost no predators except humans, due to their fierce reputation and formidable teeth. Occasionally, they may be overwhelmed by tigers, or large reticulated pythons. Possible predators include the leopard, the clouded leopard, and the Sun Bear's larger sympatric relative, the Asiatic Black Bear. The bear's loose skin on its neck allows it to wriggle its body inside its skin far enough to turn around and bite its attacker when grabbed.
The recent decline in the Sun Bear population can be largely attributed to the hunting of "nuisance bears" that destroy crops and poaching driven by the market for their fur and for their bile, which is used in Chinese medicine.
Sometimes, Sun Bears are captured or bred to be domestic pets--a role for which they are considered desirable, due to their relatively inoffensive nature and small size in comparison with other bears.
The IUCN reclassified the Sun Bear from "data deficient" to "vulnerable" status in 2007