Black backed Jackal

The Black backed Jackal lives in the grasslands of East Africa. The Jackal is about as big as a small Labrador. The Jackal is golden in color and has a large black strip down its back, and its legs are made especially long for running. The Jackal hunts in packs of about 5-7, but sometimes members get cast out by dominant males. It eats small antelopes, reptiles, small rodents, birds, fruits, berries, and grass. Also the Jackal picks up scraps from larger carnivores kills. Female Jackals have 5-6 babies per year and take care of the male pups for about 2 months before they start living on their own. But the female pups stay with the mother their whole lives, and only the dominant male and female of the pack would have the pups and the other half of the group would basically help babysit. The predators of the wild Jackal are humans and have been losing habitat because of the growing, living places of the humans. Credits go to: AFW Wildlife

Picture credits

African Spotted Hyena

The Hyena is a dog like animal with a sturdy build, high shoulders, and long muscular limbs. The hyena has a large head, broad, rounded ears. It's coat is rough, comparatively short and is reddish brown or tan in color growing lighter when getting older. The tail and nose are black. The spotted hyena has the strongest jaws in the animal kingdom. Of the three species of hyena in Africa, only the spotted hyena is shy and rare, striped hyena are found in East Africa. They stand 28 to 35 inces high at the shoulder,and weigh 90 to 190 pounds.Spotted hyena are cunning and resourceful. Although usually considered scavengers (they pick over kills made by larger preditors)), they also hunt and kill a variety of prey. The hyena eats vertebrates of all kinds, especially hoofed mammals, it seldom eats invertebrates, fruits, or vegetables. Utilizes carcasses of large vertebrates more efficiently than other carnivores. Eats everything but rumen contents and horn bosses of the biggest antelopes, even deriving nourishment from mummified carcasses. Bones, horns, hooves, even teeth are digested completely within 24 hours. The spotted hyena livs in Savannas, grasslands, woodlands, forest edges, subdeserts and mountains to 13,000 feet. The hyena is the most abundant large carnivore in areas where antelopes and zebras are found in masses. Information taken from: South African Wildlife
The picture is from: AFW Wildlife

African Leopard

The most secretive and elusive of the large carnivores, the leopard is also the shrewdest. Pound for pound, it is the strongest climber of the large cats and capable of killing prey larger than itself. Leopards come in a wide variety of coat colors, from a light buff or tawny in warmer, dryer areas to a dark shade in deep forests. The spots, or rosettes, are circular in East African leopards but square in southern African leopards.Dense bush in rocky surroundings and riverine forest are their favorite habitats, but leopards adapt to many places in both warm and cold climates. Their adaptability, in fact, has helped them survive the loss of habitat to increasing human settlement. Leopards are primarily nocturnal, usually resting during the daytime in trees or thick bush. The spotted coat provides almost perfect camouflage. Leopards are solitary creatures and predominately nocturnal. Each individual has a home range that overlaps with its neighbors; the male's range is much larger and generally overlaps with those of several females. Leopards continually move about their territory, seldom staying in an area for more than two or three days at a time. Ranges are marked with urine and claw marks and leopards announce their presence to other leopards with a rasping cough. Leopards also growl, roar and purr. A litter includes two or three cubs, whose coats appear to be smoky gray as the rosettes are not yet clearly delineated. The female abandons her night time wandering until the cubs are large enough to accompany her. She keeps them hidden for about the first 8 weeks, giving them meat when they are 6 or 7 weeks old and suckling them for 3 months or longer. The most elusive of the large carnivores, the leopard is a cunning, stealthy hunter, its prey ranges from strong-scented carrion, fish, reptiles and birds to mammals such as rodents, hares, hyraxes, warthogs, antelopes, monkeys and baboons. Both lions and hyenas have been known to take away a leopard's kill. To prevent this, leopards store their larger kills in trees where they can feed on them in relative safety.The most widespread of the felines, leopards occur in regions across both Africa and Asia. Indeed, their adaptability to both warm and cold climates has helped them survive the loss of habitat caused by increasing human settlement. This information was taken from: AFW Wildlife
The picture is from: african leopard pictures on google

African lynx spiders

Lynx spiders body length ranges from 3-25mm. They are easily recognized by their long legs, distinctive eyes, numerous spines on their legs, and bright colors in some species. Some have patterned coloration.The body is longer than wide, high and angular or rounded with a wide, flattened tip. The abdomen is usually oval shaped and angles to a point.Lynx spiders have eight eyes. with inferred vision
They live in primarily tropical and subtropical in distribution, but also in temperate zones. Like Southern Africa.Most species are found in the southern states, although. Primarily they live by vegetation and are found in grasses, shrubs, and trees. For food they eat insects and spiders. They are nocturnal hunters, and some species are active during both day and night. They use their vision to detect and legs to catch prey, sometimes jumping up to 2cm into the air to catch insects in flight. Some lynx's also capture prey by jumping from a stationary location.Some lynx's may produce several egg sacs, while others only one. Lynx's are very protective of their egg sacs, guarding them avidly. Many will not eat while guarding eggs, and often die of starvation as a result. The picture was taken by Family Oxopidae that is also where I got my information.http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/arachnids/spiders/oxyopidae/index.htm

Red-billed hornbill

The Red-billed hornbill, scientific name Tockus erythrorhynchus, measuring 20 inches, is distinguished by a red bill. It does not have the point on the bill that many other hornbills have. It is brownish black with white markings and white on its stomach. Hornbills are notable for their long eyelashes and rather stubby legs and toes, with broad soles and the bases of the three front toes partly fused.The Red-billed hornbill lives in African trees and bushes of the savanna. Red-billed hornbills usually occur in pairs or small parties. They are some time solitary and defend a permanent territory that may range up to 25 acres.Short wings and a direct flight support their foraging habits. They utter clucking calls with the head bowed and the wings slightly opened during display. These birds are omnivorous, taking both plant and animal food. They skillfully seize swarming termites in flight and pursue grasshoppers on the ground. This picture was taken by "travel pictures." The credits go to http://www.honoluluzoo.org/red_billed_hornbill.htm

African Vervet Monkey

The vervet monkey livs in the grasslands south to eastern and southern Africa. Their habitat is the savannah and woodlands. They grow to about 46-66cm. Their weight is: male 4.5 pounds. female 3.3 pounds. The vervet monkies live for about 7-12 years. They eat fruit, leaves, crops, flowers, baby birds, eggs and rodents. Vervet monkeys have long arms and legs which allow them to move at speed on the ground. Their coloring varies even among members of the same troop, but generally they have golden backs, grey limbs, and a black face.Male vervets are often larger than females, and unusually for monkeys, there may be several adult males in each group. These will fight each other for control of the group, and power frequently changes hands as a dominant male leaves the group or young males reach maturity.A single infant is born five to six months after mating. It is fully furred and its eyes are open, and from birth it is able to cling to its mother's belly fur, though she will usually support it with her arm during the first few hours. Older vervets are allowed to look after the young when they are a few months old. This teaches them how to look after their own young when it is their turn to breed. Females often stay with their mothers for as long as they live, the mothers bring the babys food untill they are old enough to find food on their own. Males leave their family at about five years of age to join other group and to start to breed. Vervets have a very mixed diet, although their favourite food is fruit. They will also eat flowers and leaves, crops from farmsteads, and even insects, eggs and small rodents. They collect food using their hands, and the young are taught what foods to pick and how to prepare them for eating by their mothers. Vervets also make regular evening trips to a water-hole to drink. Vervets' natural predators include eagles and snakes, particularly the python, which often waits at the bottom of a tree to ambush an unsuspecting monkey as it climbs down. Pythons are able to swallow vervets whole. Baboons sometimes kill and eat vervet monkeys too. The picture is of a baby Vervet monkey. Credits: Vervet monkey facts

Video of African Animals

This video is on the African animals that Iv'e posted about so far. The picture of the hippo and turtle is my favorite. I did this video on animoto. Animoto is a great site, and would be a great site to use if you were to make a short video. So I hope you enjoy this video. :)

Wildebeest

The wildebeest is an odd-looking animal. Its hight at shoulder, 3-41/2ft, and weight the males, 400-600lb and the females, 300-360lb. It has the head of an ox, the mane and the tail of a horse, and the horns of a buffalo, but it is actually a kind of grazing antelope. There are two species of wildebeest. The black wildebeest, also called the white-tailed gnu, is found only in South Africa. The blue wildebeest, known as the brindled gnu, ranges from Kenya to northern South Africa.Although it looks frightening, the horned wildebeest is neither aggressive nor particularly dangerous. When approached, it will stab the ground with its horns, stamp its hooves, and trash its tail menacingly. It may even lower its head and pretend to charge. But if this display fails stop the intruder, the wildebeest will retreat and repeat its performance from a safe distance. Territorial battles between males involve a similar confrontation. Trespassers are first threatened with loud bellowing calls. If this warning is ignored, the pair meets in a head-to-head trial of strength. Horns may lock, but the fights are rarely bloody. The wildebeest usual response to danger is flight. Wildebeest live in a herds of up to 100 animals. If a herb member spots danger, such as a pride of lions out hunting, it sounds a warning and the whole herd flees. The wildebeest lives in fertile plains and open woodland, where it grazes on short sweet grass. A taste for this type of grass often leads the wildebeest to recently burned areas, where the fire has cleared the tall, dry scrub, allowing shorter grass to grow. The wildebeest may also follow behind other grazing animals that eat the taller, thicker vegetation. It also eats succulent plants and browses on karroo bushes. It begins grazing soon after sunrise, rests briefly at midday, an continues feeding until sunset. Although wildebeest are know for their seasonal migrations, not all wildebeest migrate. If there is a constant supply of fresh green grass, they remain in the same area all year. Only when there is severe seasonal drought does the wildebeest migrate in search for food. Herds of over 1,000 animals may then thunder over the plains, raising dark clouds of dust visible for many miles. Hundreds die on these journeys. Many drown as they try to cross-flowing rivers. Credits: National geographic, and Safari animals.
This information was taken from: National goegrapic

Lion

The lion is a member of the cat family The fore body of the lion is very powerfully built, and has the greatest front body strength of any cat, except possibly the tiger. This enables the lion to deliver blows with it's forepaws heavy enough to break a zebra's back. Each paw is equipped with soft pads to make it's movements quiet. But the majority of the animals weight is borne by the main paw pads, which would correspond on a human to the palm of the hand at the base of the fingers. Extra bones in the toe joints give the toes a wide range of motion.The claws are retractable and very sharp. The retractable feature helps keep the claws sharp, and prevents injury during play, etc. The dewclaw on the front limbs is often used as a toothpick. The claws grow as a series of layers. As a layer wears, it is shed, and a new sharp-pointed claw is exposed. The body is covered with a sandy brown coat. Lions with a very dark brown coat, the coat color of a lion is not determined so much by the color of the hair, but by the ratio of light-colored hairs to dark-colored hairs.The mature male lion has a mane that covers the backside of the head, and the shoulders. But some have no mane at all, while others have a large mane that runs onto the body, along the abdomen, and even onto the fronts of the back legs. The mane varies in color from the rest of the body, and tends to grow darker with age. Just like the body hair. The mane hair is stiff and wiry, like stiff horse hair. The lion's tail is the only one in the cat family with a tassel (tuff of hair) at the tip. This tassel conceals a spine, which is the last few tail bones fused together. What function this spine serves, if any, is unknown. The tail is very important for overall balance. Females also use their raised tail as a 'follow me' signal for the cubs. They also use it to signal each other during a group hunt.The lion's teeth are well adapted for killing their prey and eating it. The great canine teeth are spaced such that they can slip between the cervical vertebrae of their favorite-sized prey animals, and sever the spinal cord. Lions, like all cats, do not chew their food, but swallow it in chunks. They also use only one side of their mouth at a time. This trait is also common to all cats, and is caused by the inability of the jaw to move side-to-side. The tongue is covered with rough spines, called papialle. This helps the lion scrape meat off of bones, and acts like a comb for grooming.Lions are social animals. By hunting together, they can go after bigger game. Bigger game means more food for everyone. The typical prey animal that is taken by lions is in the 250 pound range, but much larger game. Prey species more commonly taken include zebra, wildebeest, gazelles, antelope and waterbuck. Lions will also hunt smaller animals, when they are hungry and nothing bigger is available. Lions are also expert scavengers, and obtain as much as 40 percent of their food by stealing it from other predators, or finding already dead animals. Although they are the largest, lions are by no means the best hunters in their ecosystem. (Cheetahs are probably the best.) They do not do simple things that solitary predators tend to do, like keep the wind before them. Instead, lions survive because there is so much food available around them, and they tend to hunt in groups. Even their impact on prey populations is smaller than might be suspected. About one in fifteen of any given popular prey animal will become a lion meal in a given year. On average, a single lion will kill 15-20 large herbivores a year. Hunting is done most frequently in the evening, or early morning. Credits for the information goes to: Lion Facts

Alligator

The alligator belongs to the family Alligatoridae. Alligators are largely found in freshwater environments like the swamps, rivers, lakes and marshes of Africa. The average male alligator grows to a length of 3.4 to 4.5 meter(around 13 to 17 feet long), while the length of the average female alligator is 2.5 to 3 meter (9 to 11 feet long). Aalligators have a large, slightly rounded body covered with ruff scales. Their head is large with large eyes and nostrils, and they have powerful jaws with pointed teeth. The huge tail accounts for nearly half of its length, which it uses to defend itself from other animals and to float in water. The color of the skin is generally olive, brown, gray or nearly black, while its belly is pale. However, the skin of the young ones of an alligator (known as hatchlings) is typically black with yellow stripes.Alligators are carnivorous, and they mainly eat fish, birds, snakes, zeras, gazells, turtles and sometimes even dead animals. Hatchlings or young alligators mainly eat insects, tadpoles, frogs and small fish. Alligator's are also a freshwater animal. It thrives in wetlands like swamps, marshes, bogs, lakes and rivers. Although it can withstand salt water to some degree,and can sometimes be seen near brackish water like mangrove swamps, the wetlands are crucial for the existence of alligators. They construct burrows in the wetlands for shelter and hibernate during winter. African alligators reach the reproduction stage at 8 to 13 years of age and spring (April and May) is the time when they mate. Male alligators attract females by bellowing, and an interesting fact is that sometimes they use infrasound for that purpose. As alligators do not have vocal chords, this is done by sucking in air into their lungs and blowing it out at intervals, making low rumbling roars. The average number of eggs laid by female alligators vary between 25 to 60. After mating, they build nests by using vegetation, mud and leaves for laying eggs. After laying the eggs, mother alligators cover the eggs under more sand and leaves, which helps to keep them warm. The temperature at which the eggs are hatched, plays an important role in determining the sex of the young alligators. The eggs that are hatched at temperatures between 90 to 93 degree Fahrenheit turn out to be males, while those hatched between 82 to 86 degree Fahrenheit turn out to be females. However, intermediate temperature ranges are found to produce a mix of male and female alligators. The young alligators are generally 6 to 8 inches in length and they become independent almost immediately, in finding their food, but stay with their mothers for about two years, for their safety. The average life span of an African alligator is about 30-35 years, but they can live up to more than 50 years in captivity.

Hippo

A hippo can grow up to 13 feet long and 5 feet tall, and can weigh up to 3 and a half tons, and live up to 40 to 50 years. Hippo's live in rivers, swamps,and ponds or where ever else there is heavy vegetation. The hippo is a herbivore, with very few predators because of its massive seize, predators such as Humans, crocodiles, and lions. The hippo is one of the largest animals on earth. The hippo is gray and has a pink under belly, the hippo has no hair and is very smooth and has a large stomach they can eat up to 285 pounds of food a day. The hippo has a baby 1 every 2 years, and once they do have their babies they leave the group so they can raise their babies on their own. The girls stay with their mom and the boys stay for 3 years then leave the herd to join another or make their own. Their is normally 7 females to one male.

African Wild Dog

The African Wild dog is about 55-70 pounds, and is about 40 inches from the top of its head to the ground. They can live for up to 10 to 12 years and have 1 litter of 15 pups a year. The African dog lives in the open plains of East Africa,and hunts in packs feeding on gazelles, zebras, rats, birds, other animals sick or young also loners pick off food from other animals kills. Wild dogs look a lot like domestic dogs the only differences is it relatively long legs bat like ears and large thick bone in their jaws. We humans are their only predators the dogs are shot for sport and poisoned for raiding farms. The population has decreased so rapidly the dogs are now on the endangered spices list. So now you can barley see them in the wild, for they are shy and scared of humans.

Wild Boar

The wild boar lives in the northern part of Africa. It lives in spacious woodland and wild grassland areas.The wild boar is pale grey to brown or black in colour with a thick hide with wide spaced bristles and some finer hairs, and tusks that are only on males. Length of body is 90 - 180cm, and weighs up to 50 - 200pounds. The boar can live for about 15 -20 years. The boars eating habits insist of roots, fruits, nuts, fungi, insects, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, and birds. A wild boar searches for food mainly at dawn and dusk, rooting amongst the leaf litter and damp soil of open woodlands with its toughened snout. It has a keen sense of smell and will eat almost anything! Its main diet consists of plant material but it will happily gobble up any animals it can catch.The wild boar lives in a family group that has a territory of 10 - 20 sq meters. Family groups come together to form herds of up to 50 females and baby's (boys and girls). The group is known as a sounder, led by the oldest sow, and its members feed, rest and sleep together. The older male remains solitary, joining up with females in the autumn mating season. Once mated, he will once again live alone.Wild boars like to live near mud holes and puddles in which they will spend many hours. This wallowing is an important routine, helping to remove parasites and protect the sensitive skin from the sun's harmful rays. A boar's den is used for resting and sleeping. A boar often makes a shelter by cutting long grass and crawling under it to lift it so that it becomes entangled with the tall grasses and leaves around to form canopies.