Burchell’s zebra is the most common one. There are about 300,000 of them living wild in Africa.
There are also Grevy’s zebra living in Africa, although there are not as many of them as Burchell’s zebra. It is taller and heavier than Burchell’s zebra. It has big round furry ears and long legs. The biggest difference between the Grevy’s zebra and Burchell’s is in the stripes. The stripes on Grevy’s zebra are much closer. This makes it harder for lions to see them in the long grass. Lions eat zebras when they can catch them. Zebras eat grass. The herd moves from place to place to find more grass.
A little bird, called a fork-tailed drongo, often travels with them. It sits on the zebra’s back and eats the insects which are kicked up by its hooves.
Zebras drink at water-holes. Zebras need to have a long drink once a day. They like to stand in the water too.
Dust can be useful too. When a zebra has an itchy back, it lies down and has a good roll. Zebras also help each other with itches. They nibble along their backs to get rid of insects.
Sometimes they are not so friendly. Young males live together in groups until they start a herd of their own. When their is a young female around, the stallions will bite and kick one another. But they don’t fight to the death. When one has had enough, he lowers his head and trots away.
Most of the time zebras get along well together. They also get along well with other animals. They can be seen drinking along side a kudu or a giraffe at a water hole.
Unlike horses, zebras cannot be trained and tamed by people. People used to hunt them for their skins. Now we try to look after them.
Zebras are part of the same family as horses. So a young one is called a foal, the same name as for baby horses.
They look different than a horse though, they are covered in beautiful black and white stripes.
The mother zebra, who is called a mare, carries her foal for about a year. About an hour after it is born, a zebra foal can stand on its long thin legs. It stays close to its mother until it is strong enough to run. The mother protects it from lions and other dangers.
Even when it is a year old, a zebra foal still likes its mothers milk. But some zebra mares have a foal every year, so the year old foal will have to make way for the baby and go on to eat what the adult zebras eat.
Each foal knows its own mother. They need to because they live in groups, called herds. A herd has one male zebra, the stallion. Then there are up to six mares and their foals. When one zebra starts to run, the rest run too.
The hair along a zebras neck stands up instead of hanging down like a horse’s mane. The neck stripes go right up into the mane.
Every zebra has its own special pattern which others recognize.
Poachers earn a lot of money by selling rhinoceros horns. An African rhinoceros horn that weighs about three and a half pounds will sell for $15,000. A rhinoceros horn from one of the Asian species will sell for even more – possibly $35,000 – because it is believed that their magic is stronger. Poachers who are caught are severely punished, but so much money is at stake that they are prepared to take that risk.
There are two sub-species of white rhinoceros, northern and southern. A hundred years ago, scientists feared the southern white rhinoceros would soon become extinct. But with careful planning, their numbers have been increased to 3,500. Now the northern white rhinoceroses are in trouble. Scientists believe there are only 17 of them left in the wild. The northern white rhinoceros is the most endangered animal in the world.
The only way to save the rhinoceros is to stop the trade in their horns. The World Wildlife Fund, an organization concerned with saving rare animals, is trying to do that. It asks people who buy rhinoceros horn to think about alternatives. There is really no need to use rhinoceros horn, and it has been proven to have no medicinal value.
The problem with humans is two-fold. First of all, the human population is growing so fast that there is little room left for animals. In India and the Far East, the forests and jungles are being cleared to make room for people. The rhinoceroses are being pushed into smaller and more isolated areas, where they do not have room to live. An even bigger problem is that over the centuries, humans hunted the rhinoceros almost to extinction. They killed them for their horns.
Some people believe that rhinoceros horns can work magic. Others use them to make medicine. Rhinoceros horns are made of keratin, which looks like coarse, matted hair. Scientist have proved that rhinoceros horns have no special powers, but people’s beliefs are hard to change. Rhinoceros horns are also in great demand in the Middle East countries, where they are made into dagger handles.
People still hunt and kill rhinoceroses even though it is now against the law. But the areas where rhinoceroses live are difficult to police. The hunters, called poachers, go out secretly into the jungle or the savannah and are able to kill the rhinoceroses before the police catch up with them. They hack off the horns and leave the body of the rhinoceros to rot.
The rhinoceros family is about 60 million years old. Back then, many types of rhinoceros lived all over the world – in Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as in North America. Now there are only five species left in the world: the black, the white, the Indian, the Sumatran, and the Javan. All of these rhinoceroses are in danger of extinction, where they live. No on is allowed to kill rhinoceroses for any reason.
The black and white rhinoceroses live in Africa. Once they were found in many parts of Africa, but today they are scarce. Too many have been killed by people. The Indian rhinoceros used to be common all over India. The Sumatran and Javan rhinoceroses are also at risk. There are only about 500 Sumatran rhinoceroses left in all of Malaysia and Indonesia. The last fifty Javan rhinoceroses live on a reserve in Indonesia.
Rhinoceroses are vegetarians. They do not eat other animals, but live on a diet of coarse grass and leaves. There is always plenty for them to eat in the wild, whether they live in the African grasslands or the Indonesian jungle. Rhinoceroses are big, powerful animals. The largest, the Indian rhinoceros, stands six feet high at the shoulder. No other creatures in the wild dare to attack them. Only humans threaten the survival of the rhinoceroses.
Polar bears are very strong swimmers. They can keep up a steady speed of 6 M.P.H. over long distances. Polar bears use their front legs to propel themselves through the water. Their huge front paws make good paddles. The back legs are dragged behind to steer them. Polar bears can make shallow dives underwater and stay there for two minutes. They do not normally dive deeper than six feet.
Polar bear cubs are born in the winter. A female polar bear normally has twin cubs every two or three years. The cubs are only 7 to 12 inches long when they are born, and they weigh under two pounds. Polar bear cubs are born in a den that their mother has dug under the snow. The female and her cubs stay together inside the den for about three months. The cubs feed on their mother’s rich milk.
The polar bears leave the den for the first time in the spring months of March or April. The cubs are now strong and healthy. They weigh about 20 pounds. The mother bear is hungry. She did not eat all the time she was in the den and is half her normal weight. Now the mother bear needs food, and she will teach her cubs to hunt. They love to play in the snow! A year later the cubs are big enough to look after themselves.
Polar bears are curious animals. They often stand up on their hind legs to get a better look or sniff things. They will follow the tracks of snow vehicles for miles. Like all animals, they have to rely on their senses to find food and fend off surprise attacks. Polar bears do not have very good eyesight. Luckily their sense of smell is excellent. Polar bears can smell a tasty seal from far away!
Polar bears hunt alone. Their favorite food is seal meat, and they are especially fond of ringed seals. Polar bears stalk seals quietly and carefully. They crawl after them on their bellies, slipping in and out of the water between ice floes. Polar bears have to attack on land because the seals are much too quick for them in the water. Polar bears only eat part of the seals. They leave the rest for Arctic foxes to eat.
Polar bears are carnivorous, or meat-eating. In the summer months they sometimes eat leaves and berries, but they prefer meat. Polar bears eat about 8 pounds of meat each day. They eat all kinds of seals, fish, and other smaller sea mammals. Polar bears sometimes attack walrus herds. The walruses run to the sea for safety. Any that are left behind become easy prey for the polar bear.
Polar bears are the biggest and most powerful animals in the Arctic pack ice. The fear no other animal. None are larger enough to challenge the polar bear. Polar bears belong to the bear family. They are closely related to brown bears. Polar bears are as comfortable on land as in the water. They spend a lot of time on land and use the sea as a feeding ground.
Polar bears are covered in thick, creamy white fur. This fur keeps them warm and gives them good camouflage in the snowy landscape. An average male polar bear weighs over 1,000 pounds and is around ten feet long. Female polar bears are smaller, about about eight feet long. Some Alaskan polar bears have weighed well over 1,500 pounds.
Polar bears are found only in the Arctic pack ice. When the ice melts in the summer, the bears move north. They return to the southern limits of the pack ice in the winter. Polar bear populations live in five countires: the United States, Canada, Greenland, the Soviet Union, and Norway. The governments of all these countries have forbidden the hunting of polar bears.
Giant pandas spend twelve to fourteen hours a day feeding. They can eat over 25 pounds of bamboo shoots and stems daily. Pandas need vast areas of bamboo forest to provide enough food for them. But the forests are being taken over by farmers, who need the space to grow food for China’s many people. Although trees are being cut for good reason – to make paper and clear the land for farming – it destroys the only places where pandas can live.
There are many varieties of bamboo, but giant pandas in the wild only like to eat three kinds. These are called “walking stick” bamboo, “umbrella” bamboo, and “cold arrow” bamboo. Every few years, these bamboos flower, produce seeds, and then die. It takes many years for the new seed to grow into bamboo big enough for the giant pandas to eat. The “cold arrow” bamboo takes twenty years to grow back.
Giant pandas rarely leave their home territories which are about five square miles. When the bamboo there flowers and dies, the pandas never think about moving to another area to find food. They stay where they are and starve to death. The worst disaster happened in the spring of 1976, when the bamboo flowered and died in parts of China. More than 140 giant pandas died of starvation.
Not everyone knows that there are two kinds of pandas. One is the red panda and the other is the giant panda. The best known kind, loved by everyone is the beautiful black-and-white giant panda. The smaller red panda is quite common, but giant pandas are now very rare. Giant pandas are the national animal of China. They are also the emblem of the World Wildlife Fund, an organization that gives money to projects to save rare animals and plants.
Giant panda used to live in many parts of China. A few lived in the neighboring country of Burma. Scientists guess that only about one thousand giant pandas are now left. They live only in one area of China. Most pandas are found in the province of Sichuan in southwest China, on the edge of the Tibetan plateau. The giant pandas live deep in the mountainous bamboo forests.
Giant pandas were originally meat-eating animals, or carnivores. Pandas are very gentle animals and are not suited to hunting other animals for food. Over the years they have changed their eating habits. They began to eat a bushy plant called bamboo instead. But giant pandas’ bodies, which are made for eating meat, cannot digest the bushy plant properly. Because of this, less than one-fifth of the pandas’ food intake gives them any nourishment. They have to eat enormous amounts of bamboo to get the vitamins they need.