Desert Kitteh
Thursday, December 12, 2024
Desert Kitteh
Today’s special animal friend is the sand cat, Felis margarita. These small wild cats are found in desert habitats in North Africa, Arabia, and parts of Asia. They are the only cat species that is entirely adapted for desert life. They are about the size of a house cat, 18 to 22 inches long, and weighing 3 to 7-1/2 lbs. They are, as expected, sand colored, often with dark rings around their legs and tail.
They have both physical and behavioral adaptations to the dryness and extreme temperature variation of their habitat. Their short fur is thick and plush, helping to maintain body temperature in hot and cold periods. They have fur between their toes to protect their feet from hot sand. They burrow into the sand or occupy other animals' burrows for protection against extreme heat or cold. Most of the time, they are active at night, at dawn, or at dusk; this is also when their prey is most active.
Even compared to other cats, sand cats are impressive hunters. Their low-set ears allow them to hear small rodents or reptiles moving beneath the sand. (The similar position of the ears of Pallas’s cat serve for concealment, allowing them to peer from a hidden location without the ears showing.) Although they like to have access to water, they can survive on the water they get from the bodies of their prey. They are opportunistic hunters whose diet includes rodents, birds, eggs, spiders, insects, hares, fish, and reptiles. Sometimes they scavenge around human encampments. They are famous for hunting venomous snakes.
Sand cats are solitary except during mating. Mating season varies across their range: January to April in the Sahara, April to May in Turkmenistan, September to October in Pakistan. Gestation is 59 to 67 days. Two to four kittens is the usual litter, but as many as eight can be born when conditions are exceptionally good. In zoos, they can have two litters per year.
Sand cats are rated as Least Concern by IUCN. Human encroachment into their habitat is the main threat. They are easily killed because they freeze, rather than flee, when they sense a threat. They are kept in zoos around the world, and they breed in captivity with some success.
The sand cat’s other cool features include their ability to run very fast, up to 25 mph, and their ability to scale vertical rock faces. They have very large ranges, sometimes traveling up to 10 miles in a night. They live up to 13 years in captivity, but they are believed to have much shorter lifespans in the wild.
Good morning, everyone. Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a big deal for Mexicans and all Latin Americans in the U.S., although maybe not in their countries of origin, where they often have different national devotions.
We had prayers and a sing-along at our church starting at 5:30 a.m., and we'll be back for more festivities starting around 6:00 p.m.
Today’s special animal friend is the blue wildebeest, Connochaetes taurinus, a kind of large antelope. A wildebeest is also a gnu. I don’t know why they changed the name: it was all gnus when I was a child. There are also black wildebeest, Connochaetes gnou, which have some great, hooked horns and can run 50 mph.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjsW72UCukc
Blue wildebeest, on the other hand, have upward-pointing cow-like horns, not nearly so cool. Their coats can be kind of slaty blue-gray, but they can also be brown, so whatever. There are five subspecies of blue wildebeest. The ones we can see here in Chobe National Park are C. t. taurinus, the nominate subspecies. The others are found in isolated pockets to our northeast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHePijOvQww
Blue wildebeest are very muscular at the front and more refined in the hindquarters. They can be 8 feet long and 5 feet high at the shoulder. Males weigh up to 900 lbs., and females up to 570 lbs. Males have darker coloring. Both sexes have the heavy, curving horns that resemble those of a Cape buffalo. They may have stripes or other markings, and these are bilaterally symmetrical, which is apparently not the usual thing. They have extremely efficient metabolisms, converting their grass diet to energy for movement, going up to 50 miles in five days without needing a drink.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGQn-tca_4Q
They are gregarious, gathering in herds of thousands during seasonal migration. Like many other large herbivores, they typically segregate by age and sex. Females and calves stay together. Young adult males, 2 to 5 years old, join bachelor herds which stay together for protection from predators. Young adult females remain in their maternal herd. Breeding-age males are solitary, but fairly tolerant of one another’s proximity except in the breeding season, when they get territorial and fight over females.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6MTIgHMZyQ
Mating takes place at the end of the rainy season, when everyone is well fed. Gestation is about 9 months, and newborn calves get up and follow their mothers almost immediately.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhzhNeU0Vl4
Blue wildebeest are a species of Least Concern for IUCN. Like other large herbivores, their habitat is threatened by the expansion of cropland and of grazing land for domestic cattle. Fencing interferes with their traditional migration routes. The largest populations are found in national parks and other reserves. They are vulnerable to many diseases, including those contracted from domestic cattle. Predators include large wild cats, wild dogs, hyenas, and Nile crocodiles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGNn9vOz-Vo