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| Prides and Coalitions: The Social Lives of Lions | ||
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There are two basic groups that shape the social lives of lions: prides and coalitions. A pride is a group of 1 to 18 female lions and their young. A coalition is a group of 1 to 9 male lions. A coalition of males competes with other male coalitions for exclusive access to a pride of females. A coalition that wins a pride remains associated with the pride for a period of about 3 to 4 years. After that time, challenges from other coalitions of nomadic males often prevail and the resident coalition is displaced. When one coalition ousts another from its place within a pride, the consequences are fatal for any unweaned cubs sired by the previous coalition's males. The incoming coalition males kill the cubs and evict any subadult males from the pride. Adult females are thus hastened to return to estrous and mate with the new males. Prides and Coalitions: The Social Lives of Lions originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Thursday, July 29th, 2010 at 02:28:32. Permalink | Comment | Email this more... |
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| Climate and the Lion's Magnificent Mane | ||
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Only male lions (Panthera leo) grow manes—females lack the long fur around their face and neck. This difference in appearance between the sexes mean that lions are sexually dimorphic. It was long thought that manes were shaped largely on the anvil of sexual selection. Males with more impressive manes won more mates and left more offspring. Of course, there were other tentative explanations as well. One was that a lion's mane creates an illusion of bulk, making a male lion appear bigger and fiercer than it would if it lacked a mane, as is illustrated in this picture. The mane thus serves to discourage challengers or entice mates. Another explanation was that the mane provides a lion with protection during a fight, making it difficult for attackers to grasp at the lion's vulnerable neck area. Although there may be truth in all of these explanations, there's yet more to the story of the lion's mane. In 2002, Peyton West and Craig Packer from the University of Minnesota published a paper in the journal Science exploring the many factors that influence lions' manes. The details they gathered revealed that a lion's mane communicates a wealth of information—the condition of the mane reflects the lion's nutrition, testosterone levels, fighting ability, health, age and the climate in which it lives. Climate and the Lion's Magnificent Mane originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 at 19:21:53. Permalink | Comment | Email this more... |
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| The 6 Basic Animal Groups | ||
| Description: | Scientists estimate that there may be between 3 and 30 million species of animals on our planet. If you're just starting to learn about animals and wildlife, it would be an overwhelming task to try and memorize species, one by one. Instead, an understanding of the main groups of animals provides a good foundation for further learning. In this article, we'll take a look at six groups of animals, their characteristics and the types of organisms that belong to each group. Once you have a understanding of these six groups, you'll be on your way to grasping the basic characteristics of virtually every animal on the planet. The 6 Basic Animal Groups originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 22:47:20. Permalink | Comment | Email this more... |
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| Meerkat Pictures | ||
| Description: | Meerkats are highly social mammals that form packs of between 10 and 30 individuals consisting of several breeding pairs. The individuals in a meerkat pack forage together during daylight hours. While some members of the pack feed, one or more members of the pack stand sentry. Meerkat Pictures originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Saturday, July 17th, 2010 at 20:53:36. Permalink | Comment | Email this more... |
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| Komodo Dragon Pictures | ||
| Description: | Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis) are the largest of all lizards, they can grow to lengths of 3m and can weigh as much as 165kg. Komodo dragons belong to the Family Varanidae, a group of reptiles known more commonly as the monitor lizards. Adult Komodo dragons are dull brown, dark grey, or reddish in color, while juveniles are green with yellow and black stripes. Komodo Dragon Pictures originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Saturday, July 17th, 2010 at 20:52:59. Permalink | Comment | Email this more... |
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| Lion Pictures | ||
| Description: | Lions (Panthera leo) are the largest of all African cats. They are the second largest cat species worldwide, smaller than only the tiger. Lions range in color from nearly white to tawny yellow, ash brown, ochre, and deep orange-brown. They have a tuft of dark fur at the tip of their tail. Lion Pictures originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Saturday, July 17th, 2010 at 20:52:08. Permalink | Comment | Email this more... |
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| Plastics Pollution: Threats to Ocean Habitats | ||
| Description: | Discovery News has a good article on The Great Atlantic Garbage Patch which highlights the concerns about ocean pollution, particularly the accumulation of plastics in our seas. You can also read more about the plastics pollution problem and find out what you can do on the 5gyrs.com website. Plastics Pollution: Threats to Ocean Habitats originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Sunday, July 11th, 2010 at 09:44:27. Permalink | Comment | Email this more... |
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| Photos: Samuel Fallour's Fantastic Fish | ||
| Description: | There must be something about fish that inspires exaggeration. Who hasn't heard a story from a fisherman friend about the record-breaking big fish that got away? It appears that fabrications about fish are old hat, evident even in the very first color book ever published about fish. That book, entitled Fishes, Crayfishes and Crabs and published in 1719, featured paintings by artist Samuel Fallour who lived on the Indonesian island of Ambon. Fallours would paint the fish caught by local fisherman and would sell the paintings to European collectors. But Fallour did not paint exactly what he saw, instead he added brighter colors and decorated the fish with all sorts of patterns. You can view some of Samuel Fallour's paintings here. Photos: Samuel Fallour's Fantastic Fish originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Sunday, July 4th, 2010 at 15:29:49. Permalink | Comment | Email this more... |
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| Protection Plan for Eastern Chimpanzees | ||
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Protection Plan for Eastern Chimpanzees originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 at 01:50:31. Permalink | Comment | Email this more... |
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| Worth Reading: Great Whales | ||
| Description: | The BBC has a nice comparison chart of the various whale species including blue, fin, right, sei, sperm, bowhead, Bryde's, humpback, gray, and minke whales. You can get a good sense of the relative sizes of each species, their conservation status and habitat range in a few short clicks. Worth Reading: Great Whales originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Monday, June 21st, 2010 at 13:16:49. Permalink | Comment | Email this more... |
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Lions are definitely not loners. In fact, 
A lion's mane is more than just a bushy bunch of fur framing a big cat's face. A mane is a declaration of a lion's vitality, fighting prowess and dominance as well as an acknowledgement of the climate in which the lion lives. This is the conclusion made by scientists who studied nearly 300 lions in Tanzania's Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Park.
Chimpanzees are humans' closest living relatives—our lineages drifted apart just seven million years ago. Despite our kinship, humans and chimpanzees today face very different realities. While we flourish, chimpanzees suffer. The threats they endure are numerous—hunting for bushmeat, hunting for the trade of infants, habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, disease. Now, nations in East and Central Africa are banding together to protect one subspecies of chimpanzee, the eastern chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii).