10 facts about white lions

1. White lions are not albinos, but a genetic rarity unique to one endemic region on the globe: the Timbavati region.
2. The genetic marker that makes white lions unique has not yet been identified by science.
3. They are currently classified under the general species classification Panthera leo, although this is likely to change after the genetic research undertaken by the Global White Lion protection Trust reveals important reasons for sub-speciation of this rare phenotype.
4. The earliest recorded sighting of white lions in the Timbavati region was in 1938. However, the oral records of African elders indicates that these unique animals survived in this region for many centuries.
5. The unique white lion gene is carried by certain of the tawny coloured lions in the region, and white cubs occured in numerous prides in the region.
6. Since their discovery by the West, white lions and those lions carrying the unique gene have been hunted, and forcibly removed from their natural endemic habitat.
7. The last white lion was seen in the wild in 1994, after which time they were technically extinct in the wild.
8. The idea that white lions are genetically inferior to ordinary tawny lions has not yet been scientifically tested.
9. The idea that they cannot survive in the wild due to perceived lack of camouflage has not been scientifically tested.
10. Currently, there is no law nationally or internationally that protects the white lions from being wiped off the face of the earth.
    
    

Reference: Global White Lion Protection Trust

INSECT EATERS (Order EULIPOTYPHLA)

• most primitive of placental mammals
• small brain
• not many wrinkles
• primitive teeth
• primitive characteristics of auditory bones and collar bones
• plantigrade

In South Africa, Insectivores are divided into 3 types of species:

1. the SHREWS
2. the HEDGEHOGS
3. the GOLDEN MOLES

THE SHREWS (15 species in South Africa) 

Characteristics:

• small secretive mammals
• long pointed narrow muzzles
• small eyes; poor vision
• acute sense of smell and hearing
• musk gland
• born with their final set of teeth; the fisrt set are shed or reabsorbed in embryonic stage.
• ecologically important because they break down animal tissues and raw materials returned to soil.

THE HEDGEHOGS (only 1 South African species)

Characteristics:

• they have spines
• ears and eyes are well-developed
• long snout has a mobile tip
• powerful legs and strong claws
• the base of each spine has a small muscle that functions of pulling the spine erect when threatened. Curling up into a ball
• eat earthworms, beetles, earwings, slug, millipedes, centipedes, dead animals, eggs, young chicks
• hibernation

THE GOLDEN MOLES (15 South African species)

Characteristics:

• solitary and burrow for food
• strong limbs and strong claws
• not tail, eyes also almost inexistent
• ear and eyes openings are covered with fur. Nostrils shielded by leathering pad.
• very sensitive to vibration in the soil
• eat earthworms, larvae, slugs, snails, crickets, spiders.

HOOFED MAMMALS (UNGULATES)

Hoofed mammals are divided into 4 orders:

• PERISSODACTYLA (odd-toed ungulates)
• SURIFORMES (even-toed ungulates)
• WHIPPOMORPHA (even-toed ungulates)
• RUMINATIA (even-toed ungulates)

They have hooves for running ans are herbivores that feed on grass, leaves, fruits, seeds and herbs.

They need to go through a process of fermentation by means of bacteria before the digestion takes place: Hindgut fermentation or Rumination.

PERISSODACTYLA

• 1 single toe or 1 foot with 3 toes together
• hindgut fermenters
• family Equidae (zebra), family Rhinoceratidae (rhino)

SURIFORMES

• 2 weight-bearing toes on each foot
• sub-families: Suinae (bushpig), Phacochoerinae (warthogs)

WHIPPOMORPHA

• 1 sub-family Hippopotamidae (hippopotamus)
• even-toed ungulate with 4 weight-bearing toes on each foot

RUMINATIA

• 2 families: Giraffidae (giraffe, okapi), Bovidae (buffalo, antelope)
• Bovidae males have horns and few females too. Even-toed ungulates with ruminant digestive system of fermentation. Sub-families Bovinae and Antelopinae.

Bovinae:

• tribe Bovini (African buffalo)
• tribe Tragelaphini (bushbuck, statunga, nyala, kudu, eland). All males have spiral horns and females are hornless, except the female eland.

Antelopinae:

• tribe Alcelaphini (wildebeest, hartebeest, blesbok, bontebok, tssessebe). Horns are present in both sexes.
• tribe Cephalophini (duikers)
• tribe Neotragini (damara dik-dik, oribi, steenbok, grysbok, shape's grysbok and suni)
• tribe Oreotragini (klipspringer)
• tribe Reduncini (reedbuck, mountain reedbuck, waterbuck, lechwe and puku, grey rhebok)
• tribe Antilopini (gazelles) only springbok in South Africa.
• tribe Aepyceraniti (Impala)
• tribe Hippotragini (sable antelope, roan antelope, gemsbok).

Antelope species in which both females and males have horns:

• Blue and Black wildebeest
• African Buffalo
• Eland, gemsbok
• Bontebok
• Blesbok
• Springbok
• Tssessebe
• Red hartebeest
• Sable and Roan antelope

CARNIVORES (CARNIVORA)

Characteristics of the carnivores:

• meat-eaters
• carnassial teeth: the last upper preolar and the first lower molar fit together
• fusion of bones in foot that give a firm basis for flexion and climbing
• they have a penis (except Hyanidae) that contains an elongate bony structure called the baculum, to prolong the copulation.

CLASSIFICATION

CATS:

• round head
• digitigrade feet and retractile claws (except cheetah)
• large eyes with binocular and some colour vision; eyes adapted to darkness rapidly.
• large ears, sense of hearing acute.
• sense of smell less developed than canids.
• facial whiskers: long, stiff, sensitive, improve night hunting.
• tongue coated with sharped-pointed papillae that lacerate food and aid in function of grooming.

DOGS:

• long legs
• digitigrade with 5 toes on front foot and 4 on hind foot, Non-retractile claws.
• long muzzle, well-developed jaw
• bushy tail
• flattered molar in front (indicate not purely carnivorous)
• copulation of long duration due to the presence of erectile folds on penis that swollen prevent retraction by male.

HYENAS:

• Spotted hyena, Brown hyena and the Aardwolf
• large ears
• thick-set muzzles
• powerful jaws
• non-retractils claws
• anal pouch that lies between the rectum and the base of the tail, can be turned inside out . In Brown hyena, the pouch is large and discharges 2 secretion from different glands lining the pouch
• they hunt but are mainly scavengers
• they have an unusual digestive system so that they can consume indegestible material (bone, horn, hoove, ligaments, chair) often regurgitated.
• the Spotted hyena has a large head with large premolar used for bone-crushing, slicing and shearing meat and skin. Thr Brown hyena has smaller premolars as their diet includes insects, eggs, fruits.
• there is a misconception of the Spotted hyena being hermaphrodite based on genitals of both sexes being masculine until puberty, when the female's urogenitals open and mammae enlarged.
• Well-developed forequarters, a back-line that slopes and a mane.
• Aardwolf is shy and nocturnal, seldom seen , feeds on termites and has sticky salive.

MONGOOSES AND SURICATES / CIVETS AND GENETS

• Viverrids: small Spotted genet, South African large-spotted genet, Common large spotted genet, Angolean genet, African civet.
• Mepestids: Suricates and 12 species of Mongoose.
• they are not cats because they have short legs, not the same length of muzzle, not rounded head.
• well-developed anal glands
• feet vary from digitigrade to near-plantigrade
• omnivores, small canine teeth 
• diet: small mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, fruits, eggs.
• excellent vision and hearing due to a well-developed inner ear.

BADGERS AND RELATIVES

• Mustelids: Honey badger, Striped weasel, Striped polecat, Cape clawless otter, Spotted rock otter
• divided into 3 sub-families: long body, short legs, anal glands
• variety of teeth structure, foot structure (digitigrade or plantigrade), 4 or 5 toes, claws retractile or not
• some are fierce hunters: honey badger also feeds on honey and bee larvae, otters on crabs and fich
• anal glands, powerful-smelling liquid (musk) as a mean of defence when frightened or defecate.
• sexes live separately, copulation is prolonged and opften repeated. The females only ovulate through a vigorous copulation.

BATS (CHIROPTERA)

2 South African sub-orders: Fruit-eating bats and insectivorous bats.
No blood-eating bats in South Africa !

They represent 1/4 of the mammalian species.
They are the only mammals that are capable of sustained flight (not gliding but flap their wings)

Insect eating bats: 6 families; 68 South African species
Fruit eating bats: 8 South African species

Characteristics of Bats:

• Wings made up of skin, elastic tissue and muscle fibre. Any holes in wings heal within few weeks and broken finger bones mend quickly.
• They have a mechanism that looks digits of hind feet in place preventing them from falling.
• Well-developed sight, senses of hearing and smell.
• They have incisors, cannines, premolars, molars. The crow of molars are flattened in fruit-eating bats and insect-eating bats have molars with sharp crests.
• 1 clawed thumb
• Tail is very variable
• Skin area is proportional to the volume of the body; so a large amount of heat is lost, but is compensated by an intense feeding, sleeping in clusters and some bats by hibernating.

FRUIT-EATING BATS

• Important role in maintaining woodland savannas and forest areas. Some trees rely on fruit bats for pollination, whereas many trees rely on them to disperse their seeds (sausage trees). Meals are digested fast (<1 hour) and can be excreted in flight..
• They are larger than insectivorous bats. They have elongated muzzles and tubular pointed ears, 2 claws on each wing to clamber in trees and handle food.
• They have also large eyes to navigate at night. Not echolocation
• Only the Egyptian fruit bat has a basic echolocation, using sound produced by tongue-clicking
• The monotonous pinging of male epauletted fruit bats occurs after they have fed. Territorial males use this vocalization to advertise their presence to females, to demarcate their territories.
• Females give birth to 1 pup per season, in summer. She carries the young on her nightly excursion.

INSECT-EATING BATS

• Echolocation or sonar: ultrasonic sounds produced in animal's throat and projected forward, at a rate of 10 or more pulses per second. Pulses received by ears and intensity + character are interpreted by the brain. A typical bat's echolocation pulse sweeps between 45 000 and 90 000 Hz, above our level of hearing !
• They consume 25% or more of their own body weight in insects each night.
• Some hibernate.
• The Mauritian tomb bat migrates to tropical regions during winter.
• They can live for 25 years or more.

PRIMATES (Order PRIMATES)

2 sub-orders:

1. HAPLORHINI (simple nosed true primates): Chacma baboon; Vervet monkey; Sykes's monkey.
2. STREPSIHINI (turned nosed early monkeys): Bushbaby, Galagos

Characteristics of Primates:

• flattened nails on finger tips
• toes rather than claws
• ability to move individual digits
• opposing thumb and a big toe that enables objects to be gripped

BUSHBABIES and GALAGOS

• well-developed sense of smell
• face covered by hair
• 3 species: Lesser Bushbaby; Grant's lesser Bushbaby, Thick-tailed Bushbaby
• tail longer than body to keep balance
• large eyes
• hind legs > forelimbs for leaaping
• can turn their head to look backwards
• Lesser bushbay feed on gum
• have tooth-comb

BABOONS and MONKEYS

• same dental formula as humans and powerful jaws
• 5 digits on fore and hind feet (1st digit opposed). Plantigrade
• rounded head with moderately long muzzles
• nostrils close together and point downwards
• not able to use the tail to grasp (not prehensible)
• can hold the same amount of food that their stomach can. When they compete for food they stuff their cheek pouches full of food and move off to a safe area to eat it in comfort.
• they scrute food before eating to ensure that only high quality food is consumed
• they have ischial callosities: brightly coloured and that play a role in reproductive behaviour: females have them separated in the middle by a wide space whereas callosities are fused in males.

HYRAXES (DASSIES) (Order HYRRACOIDAE)

Only 1 family (Procaviidae); 3 species: 
Rock dassie; 
Tree dassie;
Yellow-spotted dassie

• small, solidify built with a stump for a tail
• rubbery pads that contain sweat glands
• 4 digits on front feet and 3 on hind foot
• all digits ends have nails except for inner digit on hind foot, they have claws.
• 1 pair of upper incisor teeth; 2 pairs of lower incisors
• a dorsal gland surrounded by a circle of hair that stiffens when they are excited.
• poor regulation of body temperature
• efficient kidneys enable them to function on a bare minimum of moisture intake.
• capacity for concentrating urea and excreting un-dissolved calcium carbonate
• urinate all the time at the same place
• loss of body heat is prevented by the behaviour of huddling together, long periods of inactivity and basking in the sun.
• feed on plant matter

Elephant SHEWS (MACROSCELIDAE)

7 South African species

• secretive behaviour
• terrestrial mammals
• long legs; hind legs >front legs; adapted to jumping
• long snouts for foraging
• larges eyes
• long rat-like tail
• clear and maintain complex trail networks to traverse their terrotories easily and quickly, to escape potential predators

The ELEPHANT (PROBOSCIDAE)

In Africa, there is only one species: the African Elephant

• the largest living land mammal, the body size is continually increasing with age
• specialised system for crushing coarse vegetable matter is formed by the skull, jaws and molar teeth
• the large skull is disproportionate to the brain size but it is to carry and support the trunk and the heavy dental structure.
• light skull due to air cell and cavities within skull
• skin varies in thickness over the body and sparsely covered with hair
• the tusks: elongated upper incisor teeth, consist of dentine, cartilaginous material and calcium salts; used for defence, prying bark off trees, dig roots and pull grass
• the trunk: sucking up water and transferring into mouth, caressing each other, squirting water, throwing dust, amplification of sound production. The top lip and nose are fused and form the trunk. The trunk is a hydrostatic skeleton consisting of thousand of muscles that may be contracted and released depending on the function.
• large ears to increase body surface area and thus aid in the rate of heat loss. The ears have a large number of blood vessels that cause the blood to cool down when ears are moved back and forwards in a fan like movement.
• the foot structure is between plantigrade and digitigrade
• they are near ungulates, have hooves but toenails
• they are pentadactyls 

HARES and RABBITS (Order LAGOMORPHA)

1 family, 7 species: 

1. Scrub hare
2. Cape hare
3. Riverine rabbit
4. Natal red rock rabbit
5. Tameson's red rock rabbit
6. Smith's red rock rabbit
7. Hewitt's red rock rabbit

• there are not rodents because they have a second pair of small peg-like incisors behind the constantly growing pair in the top jaw, unlike the rodents
• long hind legs for running
• very large and mobile ears
• large eyes adapted to condition of low light
• long and soft fur
• nostrils can be opened and closed by a skin fold above
• highly modified digestive system: they are able to cope with large quantities of vegetation. The ceacum situated between the large and the small intestines contains a bacterial flora that aids in digestion of cellulose. Many products of digestion pass from the ceacum into the blood stream but other vitamins (B12) are lost.
• the Lagomorphs re-digest faeces and pass through their stomach twice (Coprophagy).

The AARDWARK (TUBULIDENTATA)

Only 1 family representative: Orycteropodidae

• secretive and nocturnal
• feed on termites and ants (Myrmecophagy)
• long ears, long tubular snout
• body covered by coarse hair
• powerful short limbs with 4 digits on front feet and 5 hind feet, and claws
• nostrils surrounded by hair that functions as a filter for dust
• continually growing molars and cheek teeth, no canines or incisors
• long sticky tongue and salivary glands
• stomach has muscular pyloric area that grinds the food, no need to chew
• anal scent gland that secrete strong smelling liquid

The PANGOLIN (PHOLIDOTA)

Only 1 family (Manidae), 1 species : the Cape Pangolin

• It is covered by scales that overlap each other from front to back, protective armour, ability to curl up forming a tight ball.
• anal gland
• narrow and triangular head
• no teeth as they feed on termites and ants (Myrmecophagy)
• no external ears and nostrils that can be closed by use of special muscles preventing ants and termites from entering the nose.
• plantigrade, 5 digites on each foot with powerful claws. The central claw on front feet are enlarged and used for burrowing.

RODENTS (RODENTIA)

In South Africa there are 92 species divided into 2 sub-orders:

1. Histricognathi (porcupines, canerats, mole-rats, dassie-rats)
2. Sciurognathi (dormices, squirrels, spring hares, rats, mice)

The Cape porcupine is the largest rodent in South Africa.

• small with short limbs and a tail
• 1 single pair of razor-sharp incisors that grow continually
• not canine teeth
• cheek pouches that allow a large store of food
• sense of smell and hearing well-developed
•  touch-sensitive whiskers
• plantigrade
• eat plant products
• have large ceacum that contains bacterial flora: separate cellulose into carbohydrates that are easily digestible. Absorption takes place in stomach.
• To overcome this, they re-eat the bacterially treated food by tking pellets directly from its anus. The carbohydrates are absorbed through the stomach.

MAMMALS

Characteristics of mammals:

• they have mammary gland that produce milk
• a body covered by hair
• they are warm blooded (Endothermic)
• external ear structure
• 3 bone structures in the inner ear (ossicles)
• 4 chambered heart

Mammals are divided into 3 groups depending of the way that they reproduce:

1. Montremes
2. Marsupials
3. Placentals

MONOTREMES

(Order Monotremata)

• eggs laying (oviparous)
• most primitive mammals
• no gestation
• rear their youngs on milk
• eggs carried in a pouch on the abdomen or kept warm in a nest
• no Monotremes found in South Africa but in Australia (Duck-billed platypus; Spiny anteater)

MARSUPIALS

(Order Marsupialia)

• pouched mammal with a prolonged lactation period
• abdominal pouch: marsupium in which they rear their young
• primitive placenta: yolk-sac placenta
• short gestation
• no Marsupials in South Africa but in Australia and New Zealand

Lactation: period during which milk is produced by the mammary glands.

Embryo: animal or human before it is born, when it is beginning to develop and grow.

PLACENTALS

• viviparous mammals with a prolonged gestation period
• have developped and advanced placenta
• Impalas, Leopards, Elephants...

Eutherian: mammal whose young develops within a womb that is surrounded by a placenta.

Viviparous: animal that bear live young and does not carry or lay eggs.

Placenta: vascular organ that develops inside the uterus of most pregnant mammals to supply food and oxygen to the foetus through the umbilical cord. It is expelled after birth.

The mammal FOOT STRUCTURE:

• Plantigrade
• Digitigrade
• Unguligrade

PLANTIGRADES

- standing or/and walking on the whole lenght of the foot

- Man, Apes, Monkeys, Bears, Insectivores

DIGITIGRADES

- heel and instep are raised in order that only the digits touch the ground

- predatory animals (Dogs, Cats) enabling to move silently

UNGULIGRADES

- adaptation to running

- allow to stand right on the tips of their toes that have enlarged nails or hooves

Number of DIGITS:

Plantigrade and Digitigrade mammals have 4 or 5 digits.

A pentadactyl has 5 digits on each foot (Elephant)

2 groups of Ungulates: 

1. ODD-TOED
2. EVEN-TOED

A ungulate is an animal that has hooves.

TRUE UNGULATES

- hoofed mammals that walk on tiptoe:

• odd-toed ungulates
• even-toed ungulates
• near ungulates

ODD-TOED HOOFED UNGULATES (order Perissodactyla)

- 1 single toe (zebra)

- or 3 toes together with a large middle toe (rhino)

EVEN-TOED HOOFED UNGULATES

- 2 or 4 toes on each foot

Order Ruminantia

- 2 toes on each foot

- antelope, buffalo, giraffe

Order Surriformes

- 2 toes on each foot

- warthogs, bushpigs

Order Whippomorpha

- 4 toes on each foot

- Hippo

NEAR UNGULATES

- toenails rather than proper hooves

- Elephant, Dassie

- walk on whole foot (plantigrade)

- teats between forelegs

- same type of placenta and womb

- upper incisors reduced in number and modified as tusks

- molar have transverse ridges

The mammal DIGESTIVE SYSTEM

The Ungulates and Near-Ungulates can be classified according to their digestive systems.

Most ungulates eat large amounts of indeigestible cellulose. The cellulose can be digested through a process of bacterial fermentation.

Herbivores have developped 2 different digestive systems:

1. Hindgout fermentation
2. Rumination

Cellulose: substance that forms the outer layer of plant cells and plant fibers.

Fermentation: breakdown of carbohydrates by microorganisms.

Rumination: to regurgitate partiaally digested food and chew it again.

HINDGUT FERMENTERS

Vegetable matter is completely digested in the stomach from where it moves to the large intestine and cecum where microorganisms ferment the cellulose.

RUMINANTS

Animals that ruminate pass the vegetable matter directly to the 1st chamber (Rumen) where fermentation takes place and is then later regurgatited to be chewed and mixed with saliva. The cud ball then passes back to the 2nd stomach chamber (Reticulum) bypassing the rumen. The digestive process then continues in the 3rd chamber (Omassum) and is completed in the 4th chamber (Abomassum).

example of a cow

DIET

• Ruminants: animals with 4 chambered stomach to extract the maximum of nutrients from vegetation (selective grazers or mixed feeders).
• Hindgut fermenters: animals that can cope with eating larger quantities of less nutrious vegetation (bulk grazers).

• Bulk grazers: animals that are not selective about which grass to eat.
• Selective grazers: animals that only eat specific kind of grass or vegetation.
• Mixed feeders: Animals that may graze or browse or eat fruit, bulbs, forbs,...

• Bowsers: animals that eat mostly leaves.
• Fructivores: eat fruits.
• Omnivores: eat a mixed diet.
• Piscivores: eat fish.
• Carnivores: eat meat.