Archive for » September, 2007 «

Hartmann’s Mountain Zebras – Endangered Species

The Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra is considered to be Endangered. Scientific Classification: Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Perissodactyla Family: Equidae Genus: Equus Subgenus: Hippotigris *** Hartmann’s Mountain Zebras – Equus Zebra Hartmanni By Morne Fouche Hartmann’s mountain zebras are the largest of the mountain zebras. They look whiter than the Cape mountain zebras because their black stripes are narrower and more widely spaced. There are two kinds of mountain zebra. They are the Hartman’s mountain zebra and the Cape mountain zebra. Taxonomists placed them in the subspecies group because the original mountain zebras may have changed morphologically through geographic isolation. The Hartman’s mountain zebra is an endangered wild equid living in [ ... ]

Bullfrogs Bullying Their Way Around Utah

Exotic Animal Newsflash: Utah officials are alerted to the fact that there are bullfrogs inhabiting a pond on a golf course in Roosevelt, Utah and are really in a hurried state. Native to the Eastern United States, bullfrogs have contributed to the decline of native species in the Western United States, and it has been deemed illegal to transport or possess a bullfrog in Utah. Tipped by a golfer, biologists determined that the species was, in fact, populating the pond. Bullfrogs are ruthless predators, making prey of snakes, lizards, frogs, toads, crustaceans, worms, salamanders, insects…even small mammals. They could very well eat [ ... ]

Giant Giraffes – The World’s Tallest Animal

Giraffes are the tallest of all land animals in the world, and are actually related to deer and cattle, but it has it’s own separate family all to itself, Giraffidae. The Giraffidae family includes the giraffe and the okapi. The giraffe’s conservation status is Conservation Dependent. Scientific Classification: Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Artiodactyla Family: Giraffidae Genus: Giraffa Species: G. camelopardalis *** Longneck African Giraffe – Distinctive Walking Gait – Unknown Outside Of Africa By Gerald Crawford Ancient cultures in Africa revered the giraffe, as some modern cultures do today, and commonly depicted it in prehistoric rock and cave paintings. Unknown outside of Africa, early written records described the giraffe [ ... ]

Brand New Species of Bat Discovered

Exotic Animal Newsflash: It was reported on Monday that a new species of fruit bat or flying fox has been discovered on Midoro Island south of Manila in the Philippines. The bat is orange in color with distinctive white striping on it’s face. For this reason, it is being dubbed the “Midoro Stripe-Faced Fruitbat”. (Photo above: Costa Rican Bat, with white striped face) Researchers, jointly working from the University of Kansas’ Biodiversity Research Center and the Comparative Biogeography and Conservation of Philippine Vertebrates (CBCPV), accidentally discovered this new species when it was caught in a net that was set for surveying [ ... ]

Announcing: Our New Baby Albino Hedgehog!

Exotic Animal Newsflash: I just picked up our newest addition to the Edwards family! Announcing: Our new baby albino hedgehog! She is a 4 1/2 month old baby girl! She appears to of the pale apricot variety. Help us pick out a name, but it must start with a “K”! Our dogs’ names are Kaptain Knickknack, Kurious Kissyface, and Knosey Konversation… Please let us know your suggestions and votes! Some suggestions so far are: 1. Klover 2. Klondike 3. Korona 4. Klever 5. Kutie-Pie 6. Kupid 7. Kream-puff Thanks for your help in advance… I hope you enjoyed today’s installment of Exotic Animal Lover! [ ... ]

Amazing Breakthrough Discovery Should Save Endangered Fish

Exotic Animal Newsflash: This week, it was reported that “surrogate broodstocking” may save endangered fish, as researchers engineer one fish to create another fish. Tokyo University inventors injected newly hatched, but sterile, Asian masu salmon with sperm-growing cells from rainbow trout. These salmon then grew up to produce trout babies. Amazing! What a breakthrough! (Photo left: Rainbow Trout) Fantastic news for endangered fish species and subspecies! In the past, it has been extremely difficult to breed endangered fish in captivity, and attempts to freeze fish eggs for future use have failed. Researchers already have their eyes on sturgeon (Photo right: [ ... ]

Polar Bears Mostly Extinct by 2050

Exotic Animal Newsflash: It has been reported that we the polar bear could be mostly extinct by the year 2050. That means that 2/3 of the entire polar bear population, roughly 1600 bears, could be dead if sea ice melting predictions are accurate. However, it could be the case that the sea ice is even melting faster than computer models are predicting. It is thought that a few may survive on Canadian Arctic islands off the west coast of Greenland by 2100, but this is very bleak! These reports are being used to determine if the polar bear should be [ ... ]

Invasion Of The Leeches

Exotic Animal Newsflash: It was recently reported that Japanese leeches have been making their way from the mountains to urban areas, and are causing a fair bit of discomfort for the residents. These land leeches, called “yamabiru”, are now a problem in 29 of the 47 prefectures in Japan causing swelling and itching in their victims. Although it’s great that parts of the land have been successfully reforested, rural population has been decreasing, and deer and boar populations have greatly increased, and these leeches latch onto these unknowing animals, which come closer and closer to urban areas. The Japanese people are discovering leeches in [ ... ]

20 Yr Government Endangered Trout Restoration Project A Failure

Exotic Animal Newsflash: It was reported last week that for the past 20 yrs, there has been an effort in Colorado to restore an endangered native trout, the Greenback Cutthroat Trout, but studies show that in some of the waterways, the wrong trout was stocked. The more common Colorado River cutthroat trout was used mistakenly, as they look similar. . The Greenback Cutthroat Trout is shown in the photo above. The more common Colorado River Cutthroat Trout is shown in the photo to the right. The University of Colorado lead a 3yr study that shows this effort has been a failure in improving the [ ... ]

Are Ferrets The Ideal Exotic Pet?

Ferrets are carnivorous mammals and are in the same family as mink. In fact, they are even closer…they are in the same genus! Scientific Classification: Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Mustelidae Genus: Mustela Species: M. putorius Subspecies: M. p. furo I found a great article, so that you can decide for yourself if the ferret is the perfect exotic pet and/or if it is the one for you! Enjoy! *** Ferrets — The Ideal Pet By Susan Jan If you love pets that are quiet and cute, then ferrets will be the right choice. Because by their very appearance, many people tend to mistake them for rodents but they [ ... ]