Animals & birds

dog, an animal of the family Canidae, which contains thirty-two species within the order of carnivores. They appeared very early in the evolution of carnivores and those living today have changed relatively little from their fossil ancestors of 50 million years ago. The dog family, which includes wolves, jackals, foxes, dingo, and dhole, is found world-wide. All dogs have elongated jaws with forty-two to forty-four teeth; the canines are especially long and dagger-like to hold on to the prey; the carnassial teeth are for cutting and shearing flesh and sinews. In some species the molars are used for grinding bones. Their claws are not retractile. The female dogs, or bitches, give birth to between two and sixteen pups, which, blind at birth, open their eyes at ten days of age. Growth is rapid and they are weaned at six weeks.

Wild species of dog include the bush dog and the Cape hunting dog. Wild dogs can swim, and a few can climb trees, although they are adapted to life on the ground. The muzzle is narrow, the ears large and erect, the limbs slender, and the tail long and bushy. The sense of smell is exceptionally well developed and this, with their good eyesight and keen hearing, allows them to follow a trail through a forest on a dark night. Domestic dogs now include many breeds, which may be classified into groups according to their employment: hounds for hunting, gun dogs, spaniels, non-sporting dogs, sheepdogs, watchdogs, draught animals, and pet dogs.

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kangaroo, a name which usually refers to the fifty species of the family of big-footed marsupials, Macropodidae, also including wallabies. The red kangaroo, Macropus rufus, and the grey kangaroo,  may reach a weight of 90 kg (200 pounds) and a height of 1.8 m (6 feet) or more. The large, heavily built, muscular hindquarters and tail balance the small, lightly built, mobile forequarters. The fore-limbs are held clear of the ground during bipedal locomotion, and while collecting and eating food. For such large animals they move easily, with leaps of 8 m (26 feet) in length. The teeth and digestive system are adapted for a herbivorous diet. It does not chew the cud, as cattle and true ruminants do, but the food is regurgitated and swallowed again.

Like all marsupials, the kangaroo has a pouch into which the minute young, or joey, crawls immediately after it is born. The joey remains in the pouch for some 190 days before it leaves for short periods. A second offspring may be born while the larger young is still suckling; and the mother produces two milks vastly different in composition to satisfy their different needs.

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snake, an elongate reptile comprising 2,500 species. Snakes are generally limbless, although claw-like hind-limb vestiges occur in some primitive groups. 2,500 species. Most have enlarged, wide scales on the underside of the body, but these are reduced or absent in many totally aquatic groups, such as sea snakes, wart snakes, and some burrowing species. Snakes lack movable eyelids, the eyes of most species being covered by a transparent spectacle (brille), and this feature separates them from lizards, which have, in addition, reduced limbs as an adaptation to a subterranean life. In some burrowing species of snake the eye is small and covered by the head-scales. Most snakes have remarkably mobile jaw-bones which, together with stretchable throat skin, enable them to swallow prey that is much wider than their own head.

Three categories (or infra-orders) of snakes may be recognized: Scolecophidia, which includes blind snakes and thread snakes; Henophidia, a group with some primitive characteristics and including boas, pythons, cylinder snakes, sunbeam snake, and shield-tail snakes, and Caenophidia, or higher snakes, including colubrids, elapids (such as cobras, mambas, coral snakes, kraits, and sea snakes), and vipers.

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tiger, an animal which resembles the lion more than any other member of the cat family. The single species, Panthera tigris, is similar in size, but the tiger lacks the mane of the lion, and has a striped coat. This coat provides camouflage among the shadows and sunbeams of the forests and dense underbush where they live. Tigers can swim and take readily to water, and can leap 4 m (15 feet) in one bound. Under cover of darkness, they hunt prey, which include deer, antelope, wild pigs, and livestock such as sheep, goats, and cattle. Occasionally a tiger kills a man and may become a persistent menace.

There is no fixed breeding season, and two to four offspring are born about 100 days after mating. The young are blind at birth and remain so for two weeks. The mother takes great care of her kittens and they are suckled until, at about six weeks, they begin to travel with the mother while they learn the elements of hunting. At six months they are of sufficient size and strength to hunt small game. There are eight subspecies, including the Indian or Bengal, Siberian, and Caucasian tigers.

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lion, the largest of the big cats, Panthera leo, now restricted to Africa, except for a few Asiatic ones surviving in a reserve. The African lions live in prides of three to thirty individuals on the veld and in scrub country, each pride with its own territory. Prides can cover 48 km (30 miles) in a night. When chasing, lions can reach a speed of 48 km/hour (30 miles per hour) over a short distance. Their prey includes zebra, waterbuck, and antelope, but they will eat anything from carrion to fish.

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giraffe, the tallest species of animal in the world today, Giraffa camelopardalis, is quite unmistakable with its extremely long neck. The male is larger than the female and has a shoulder height of 3.5 m (12 feet), and a total height of 5.5 m (18 feet). There are nine subspecies, including the blotched giraffe, found over most of Africa south of the Sahara, and the larger, reticulated giraffe, found in East Africa.

A single young is born after a gestation period of fourteen to fifteen months. Rather wobbly at first, the baby can move under its own power twenty minutes after birth.

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fox, a member of the dog family, Canidae. Twenty-one species occur throughout most parts of the world, with the exception of Australasia and Southeast Asia. They include species such as the Cape fox, Vulpes chama, Arctic fox, Alopex lagopus, crab-eating fox, Dusicyon thous, and fennec fox, Fenecus zerda. All are small dog-like carnivores which also eat fruits in season. The European red, or common, fox, Vulpes vulpes, is found from mountains to lowland areas and even around towns. It lives in a den and the surrounding area is often littered with bird, vole, rabbit, sheep, deer, mice, rat, and even insect remains.

cheetah, a large cat with long, slender legs; it is the fastest land animal on earth, able to reach a speed of 72 km/hour (45 miles per hour) in two seconds from a standing start. The top speed of this cat, Acinonyx jubatus, is 112 km/hour (70 miles per hour); this pace, however, can only be maintained over some 450 m (1,500 feet) or so. It has for long been associated with humans and trained to hunt like a dog. Unlike many cats, it hunts during daylight, using sight rather than smell. In Asia it was once found from the Caspian Sea to Sumatra, but it is becoming a rarity; in Africa it is disappearing with the encroachment of man.

monkey, a higher primate with a relatively large brain, acute vision, and hands developed as useful grasping organs. Two distinct groups have arisen, apparently independently, from prosimian ancestors. One group, the New World monkeys, is found in South America. These are called platyrrhines (flat-noses) and have prehensile (grasping) tails. This group is represented by a variety of forms, including capuchins and marmosets. The second group is the Old World monkeys, called catarrhines (drop-noses), of Africa and Asia. They include the colobus monkeys, mangabeys, baboons, and the apes. The Old World monkeys are not markedly different in general habits and organization from those of the New World and it would appear that the two groups have made many changes in parallel.

horse, a member of the same family, Equidae, as asses and zebras. All seven members of this family are in the same genus, Equus, and can interbreed to produce sterile hybrids, such as mules. All have only a single functional digit, the middle one, which terminates at its very tip in a hoof, on which the horse walks. The teeth are typical of herbivores. The horse's ancestors include Eohippus and Mesohippus.

donkey, a relative of the horse, derived from the wild ass, Its name is thought to originate from the dun colour of its coat. It was probably domesticated during the New Stone Age some 12,000 years ago; the Egyptians used it extensively, as far back as 3000 BC, to carry materials for their monument-building. From Egypt the donkey spread through Asia Minor, Turkey, and the Balkans, reaching the rest of Europe in the ninth century; it was brought to the USA in 1868. The donkey is a placid animal and makes a better pack and draught animal than the horse, to which it is superior when carrying loads and negotiating narrow mountain paths. It has a life expectancy of up to fourteen years. A single foal is usually produced after a gestation period of nine months.

camel, a ruminant of the family Camelidae, which is among the largest of the even-toed ungulates (hoofed mammals). Camels form a family of six species which includes the two species of 'camel' as well as the llama, alpaca, guanaco, and vicuna. The two species commonly called camels, the dromedary, Camelus dromedarius, and the Bactrian camel, C. bactrianus, can be as tall as 2.3 m (7.5 feet) at the shoulder. The long head is set on an arched neck. The eyes have long lashes to keep sand out, the ears are small, and the nostrils are set high above the fleshy lips. The legs are long and slender and the feet have two toes united by a web of skin, allowing the toes to spread sideways, thus enabling the animal to walk on soft sand.

The two-humped or Bactrian camel of Asia survives in the wild in the Gobi Desert and has been domesticated since the third or fourth century BC. The one-humped, or Arabian, camel of North Africa and the Near East has been domesticated since 4000 BC and is not known in the wild today. Where the Arabian and the Bactrian camels live side by side, as in the south of the former Soviet Union and Syria, they frequently cross-breed. The offspring are known as tulus.

Camels can survive for six to eight days in the desert and can travel for 1,000 km (620 miles) without drinking. When water does become available they can drink up to 90 litres (23 US gallons) to rehydrate their tissues. The large hump of fat provides an energy store when food is in short supply. The thick, dense fur acts as a substantial barrier to heat. By allowing their body temperature to rise during the day, camels reduce the need to sweat, thus preventing water loss. Another aid to water conservation is the concentrated nature of their urine.

yak, a species of large mammal of the family Bovidae, Bos grunniens, unsurpassed among cattle for its capacity to survive under the bleakest mountain conditions at heights of up to 6,000 m (20,000 feet) in the Tibetan highlands. It has a rounded forehead with smooth, round horns curving upwards, outwards and forwards, and a hump over the shoulders. It is covered with long, dark brown hair with a fringe of long black hair on the flanks. Large bulls can be nearly 1.82 m (6 feet) tall at the shoulder. In the summer, cows and calves will collect together in herds of ten to a hundred; the bulls are more or less solitary except in the rutting season.

Birds

kiwi, three species of mainly nocturnal, flightless birds of the family Apterygidae, living in New Zealand. Kiwis are about the size of a large chicken, with a large head and a long, curved beak. They have powerful legs and brownish or greyish feathers which look like hair. The females are larger than the males. Kiwis eat a variety of food, including berries and worms, some of which they trace by smell. They nest in a hole in the ground, the male doing most of the incubating of the usually single egg.

parrot, a bird of a very large family, Psittacidae, containing about 330 species, which occur in most of the warmer areas of the world. The family includes parrots, budgerigars, love-birds, parakeets, lorikeets, cockatoos, and macaws. The majority are forest-dwelling species. They vary in size from the tiny buff-faced pygmy parrot, Micropsitta pusio, 8.5 cm (3.5 inches) long, from the lowland forest of New Guinea, to the hyacinth macaw, Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus, 1 m (3.25 feet) long, from tropical South America.

eagle, some fifty-six species of large hawk of the subfamily Accipitrinae, with world-wide distribution. Most have long, pointed wings, spanning up to 1.5 m (5 feet), which are perfectly adapted to flapping, soaring, and gliding flight. The legs are strong, the feet heavily taloned and in some species feathered. The beak is strongly curved, and used for tearing prey. Eagles are generally powerful predators, catching their prey on the ground or snatching it from treetops; a few are carrion-feeders. Live prey includes reptiles, birds, and small mammals. Their plumage is usually brown or black and combined with white. Eagles generally nest high in trees or on cliff faces, sites which give good vantage-points with updraughts to assist take-off. Their nests are untidy heaps of sticks accumulated from year to year and most species lay one or two eggs. Parents hunt over extensive territories, returning to the nest with prey before tearing it up for the chicks. They are diurnal hunters with remarkable eyesight, and can air-lift prey of considerable size. In pastoral areas they occasionally attack lambs and kids.

ostrich, a flightless species of bird, Struthio camelus, which is the sole member of its family, Struthionidae, although it has been suggested that a subspecies, S. c. molybdophanes, should be classified as a separate species. It is the largest living bird and occurs only in Africa. The male stands up to 2.5 m (8 feet) tall and weighs up to 120 kg (270 pounds); it has a long, bare, pinkish neck and long, bare legs, with pink thighs. The feathers are loosely structured, and black in colour, except for white feathers in the rudimentary wings and in the tail. The female is a little smaller and has brown instead of black plumage. She lays her eggs in simple scrapes in the ground, each egg being up to 20 cm (8 inches) long and weighing up to 1.3 kg (3 pounds). The tail and wing plumes have long been valued for head-dresses and the bird is now kept on farms for this purpose.

sparrow, a name applied to many small birds, especially those which are streaky brown and have short, stout beaks for eating seeds. The family of true sparrows, Passeridae, contains about twenty species of the genus Passer. These are Old World in origin, but some, especially the house or English sparrow, P. domesticus, have spread widely in man-made habitats around the world. They are streaky brown birds, although the males may be quite attractive with patches of rich red-brown and black. They nest in holes or in thick vegetation, building untidy, domed nests of grass and other vegetation. The other main group contains about fifty species of several genera in the bunting family, all occurring in the New World. Most of these are smaller than the house sparrow, but the fox sparrow, Passerella iliaca, is almost the size of a thrush. Most are brownish or greyish birds, many heavily streaked below; others have chestnut or black head markings. All are primarily seed-eating, though they may feed insects to their young.

crow, a bird of the crow family, Corvidae, a large family containing about 103 species with a world-wide distribution, which includes many familiar birds, such as jays, rooks, jackdaws, magpies, ravens, choughs, and nutcrackers. They are medium to large birds, 30-40 cm (12-16 inches) long; a few, such as the magpies, are much larger than this because they have very long tails. The Chinese red-billed blue magpie, Urocissa erythrorhyncha, is 70 cm (28 inches) long, of which 40 cm (16 inches) is tail.

dove, a bird belonging to any of several groups of the pigeon family, Columbidae. The term 'dove' does not describe any particular taxonomic unit, but most of the species tend to be small ones. The Barbary dove, Streptopelia risoria, is kept extensively for its pleasant song; its origin is obscure, but it is thought to be a long-domesticated form of the African collared dove. The white dove of peace is a domesticated form of the rock pigeon

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