Porbeagle Shark

Some people believe the name “porbeagle” (Lamna nasus) comes from a combination of the word “porpoise” with “beagle,” as in the small, playful hunting dog. It’s a great description of this unique shark—but there are far more cool things to learn about it; so let’s dive in!

What do porbeagle sharks look like?

Sadly, the dog namesake for this shark doesn’t show up in its appearance (how funny would that be?). Rather, it looks like a nondescript gray shark. You can tell it apart from other sharks by a tiny white patch at the base of the backside of its dorsal fin.

Porbeagles are very long (up to 11 ½ feet!) and can weigh up to 300 pounds. They’re sleek and streamlined, but they are pretty thick around the middle compared to most other sharks (too many mackerel, perhaps?).

Where do porbeagle sharks live?

Porbeagles aren’t interested in taking any tropical vacations. Instead, they prefer waters on the chilly side, gravitating to the north and south Atlantic and south Pacific oceans. Weirdly enough, they’re not present at all in the north Pacific, even though it’s cold there. Instead, that area is occupied by a similar species (and a close cousin to the porbeagle) called the Salmon Shark (Lamna ditropis).

Porbeagles tend to cruise along the continental shelves (the area right off the coasts) looking for prey. Female porbeagles will migrate 1,000 miles or more to warmer areas to give birth to around four pups per year (that’s right—porbeagle offspring are called pups, just like actual beagles). It’s about the only time they’ll inhabit warmer waters.

Interestingly, porbeagles don’t mix much with each other. Sharks from the southern hemisphere won’t cross the equator to go visit their northern brothers and sisters. So it’s possible that over time we’ll even see these two sharks—the northern and the southern populations—evolve into separate species!

What do porbeagle sharks eat?

Porbeagles might look big and scary, but they’re mostly harmless to people. They stick to eating fish, smaller sharks, and squid.

In fact, there have only ever been a few documented cases of porbeagles ever attacking people, and none of them were fatal. Most people think the porbeagles did it by accident or were investigating the people (What’s this? Blech. It’s not a fish.).

How do porbeagle sharks behave?

Porbeagles are one of the only shark species known to engage in playful behavior, just like dogs! They’ve been observed pushing floating objects and kelp around and chasing each other. They’re very curious sharks and are likely to come check you or your boat out if you’re in the water. Just to be safe, don’t dip a hand in!

Porbeagles can also swim very fast, as you can see in this awesome underwater video:

One of the reasons that porbeagles can swim so fast is that they’re one of the few sharks that are endothermic—i.e., they’re warm-blooded! Porbeagles have a unique blood vessel network of countercurrent heat exchangers. This traps heat generated by a line of huge red muscles along their back within their body, so it isn’t lost to the chilly waters they like to swim.

Do we need to worry about porbeagle shark conservation?

Yes.

Porbeagles worldwide are classified as vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN. They’re literally one step away from being endangered. Some countries, like Canada, have even gone even further and listed them as endangered within their waterways.

Remember those big red muscles? It turns out those muscles are quite tasty, and porbeagles themselves are known for putting up quite a fight when people fish for them. This makes them really popular with sport fisherman.

There’s even high commercial demand for them in some parts of the world. Porbeagles are also frequently caught as bycatch when fisherman are targeting other species, and because they’re so valuable, they’re often kept aboard and later sold.

How are porbeagle shark populations doing worldwide?

Fishing for sharks isn’t necessarily a bad idea, as long as the fishery is managed and monitored so that the population remains stable. Unfortunately, in some parts of the Northeast Atlantic and the Mediterranean, there is little to no effort to regulate the porbeagle fishery. As a result, porbeagles have almost entirely disappeared from some of these areas.

Porbeagles on the Northwestern Atlantic have fared slightly better because fisheries are now regulated. But, it’ll still takes a long time for them to recover from past population crashes due to overfishing.

As for the southern porbeagles? Only a few countries down there monitor and report how many porbeagles they catch, so it’s anyone’s guess as to what’s going on with the southern porbeagles.

Interestingly enough, something odd happens to porbeagles when their population declines. I’ll let Rob tell you more:

We don’t know what will happen to the porbeagles in the future. If we’re careless and allow them to be overfished like they currently are in many areas, it’s possible they’ll go extinct.

That’s why we need more researchers to study porbeagles and other sharks, because you can’t prevent an extinction without good information. An equally important piece of the puzzle is people who can then act on that information to keep porbeagle populations safe.

If we’re able to do that, then we might continue to see playful porbeagles swimming around well into the future!

Reticulated Python

There are few animals in the world that could have man on the menu. A good case could be made that the reticulated python could be one of the few animals in the world that holds the infamous title as a man-eater. I’m not talking about just a man-killer as clearly a few pet owners have fallen victim to these dangerous snakes. I’m talking about a snake that would not only kill a man, but would stick around to feast on their remains. Let’s not have this introductory statement fall into the category of sensationalism for the sake of predator pornography. On the contrary, let’s look deep into the facts and history of this, one of the most impressive of reptiles. How is it possible for these species to both capture and eat large prey, survive in it’s natural environment and become a giant among reptiles?

The World’s Longest Snake

While it’s not the longest snake to have ever lived – Titanoboa currently takes that trophy. It’s not the heaviest – the anacondas take that prize. The reticulated python holds the record for the world’s longest snake. Biologists tend to agree that this snake could reach lengths of around 30 feet. However, no snake has been officially measured that long.

The genius book of world’s record lists the largest officially measured living snake as Medusa – 7.67 m (25 ft 2 in). It also lists the largest as one caught in Celebes, Indonesia in 1902 at 32.75 feet. Some scientists are skeptical of this historical report though and think the longest ever may be much smaller.

A recent snake was captured in Indonesia in 2016 that was reported at 26 ft. These seem to be about the size limit for these snakes. Measurements over this size should elicit a great deal of skepticism. NBC for example, reported at 49′ snake in Indonesia in 2004. This proved to be completely false. The snake was measured by a reporter a few weeks later at only 21′-23′ (The range is included I’m guessing because it’s really hard to measure a snake that big).

A Man-Eater: Myth or Mistaken Identity?

Most people who breed reticulated pythons will argue against the ‘man eating’ reputation of these snakes. That’s only fair. The more of a reptuation they have as a man-eater, the greater the chances that local governments will want to restrict access to these reptiles. Snake breeders will likely explain that you have to have great respect for them, but that given the right care, they’re great snakes to have. News media will portray their darker side – possibly in an attempt to gain more viewership.

Sensationalism aside, a case can be made that the reticulated python can be, in fact, a man-eater. There have been several reported attacks by wild snakes, deaths from captive animals and in at least one well documented case, proof the best proof we have that a man was actually consumed by a reticulated python (as seen in the video below).

This video was taken of a 23 foot reticulated python that was cut open to reveal the body of a 25 year old farmer – Akbar. Apparently Akbar was working at a palm plantation on the island of Sulawesi. He would have encountered a Sulawesi Reticulated python, a species known for both being extremely large, but also being extremely aggressive. In other words, this may be one of the only pythons capable of eating a man.

So far, this is the only incident ever recorded. If you take into context this one incident, you realize that it really is very rare. After analyzing the incident you may write it off as an accident or a one off mistake from the snake. If you love snakes you may find ways of justifying that this isn’t something snakes like this do. You might even suggest that Akabar could have been at fault by attacking the snake. But, for the sake of Akbar’s family here, let’s not forget that whatever happened, he did fall prey to a giant snake. Clearly Akbar knows only too well the capabilities of one of these large snakes.

The big question for us to consider is, “Are these snakes a problem we should worry about.” My answer to that is no, but not to the extent that we dismiss the capabilities of this creature. It is rare. Most snakes will not attack a human. But, as we can see here, when they reach the upward end of their size range, they do have the ability of attacking, eating and consuming a human. That’s truly impressive. Let’s look in detail at the unique abilities of these magnificent snakes.

Camouflage and Color Patterns

The reticulated python gets its name for the “reticulated” or netlike pattern on it’s back. It is an impressive camouflage. Reticulated pythons in the wild tend to look a lot like this:

Over millions of years, this pattern has allowed these snakes to hide from their prey. Humans have decent eyesight, but when buried in the leaf litter or curled up in a ball, it’s easy to see how it’d be difficult to see them. While almost every python has an intricate pattern on their backs, the reticulated patterning on these snakes seems particularly good for their semi-aborial life.

Variation in Reticulated Python Color Patterns

Thankfully for snake breeders and those that love to find new patterns, these snakes have the diversity in their genes, that selective breeders have used to create an impressive array of different types. Check out the this assemblage of different reticulated pythons (a detailed list can be found here).

All of these color patterns have come from only a few genetic variations (mutations) in the wild. Namely, albinism and melanism. Here are both the albinistic (lacking melanin, the dark pigment in the skin) and hte melanistic version (dark variety).

Killing Power in Perspective

Chances are, maybe you’ve witnessed the unique constricting power of a python. Maybe you witnessed a friend feeding a constrictor. Maybe you saw it on the internet, or some tv show. But, take a moment to think about it from a person point of view. Put yourself in those rats shoes – because as we’ve seen, at the upper end of their size range, humans can be on the menu.

From almost all accounts of these constrictors, they are sit and wait predators that are waiting for their prey to come by. We know they have great camouflage, so this may be easier than you think. You may or may not see it slithering up behind you – taking it’s time. It then strikes at just the right time. The strike is quick -faster than you’d expect for an animal of it’s large size. It lunges out with 6 rows of 80 dagger-like backward facing teeth. The angle of the teeth make sure that you’re not getting away.

This is only the beginning of the end. This is where it get’s sketchy. In less than a second, the python gets it’s first coils around you. It twists and spins disorientating you until it has you locked up completely. Keeping the coils off seems to be the key. If you imagined yourself as a rat, that’s probably not possible though. An entangled human may or may not have a chance here if they can think quickly. However, once those coils are around you, and your arms and legs are pinned, there is little chance. It starts constricting.

Constriction in Reticulated Pythons

Reticulated pythons, like boa’s or anacondas, subdue their prey via a process of constriction. They wrap around them and squeeze harder and harder. Originally it was thought that these snakes killed their prey via suffocation – slowly squeezing the breath out of them. The problem is that when you crunch the numbers, this didn’t make a lot of sense. Many of their prey could, in theory, hold their breath for a long time. The limiting factor was the flow of blood to the brain. If these snakes cut that off and quickly, the prey would die much faster. Through a series of brilliant physiological studies we know know that this is, in fact how they kill their prey, by stopping blood flow. It’s a bit like putting a giant tourniquet on your whole body.

More Info

Man-Eating Python: Discovery Channel Special with Rob Nelson

Death Adder

Death adders are a highly venomous, cryptic, nocturnal snake which occurs throughout most of Australia and Papua New Guinea, including offshore islands. Before the development of Death Adder antivenom in Australia in 1958, death from envenomation was estimated to be ~50%.

The following video highlights the habitat and ecology of the common death adder as well as highlighting some of the important research being done to help with the human-wildlife conflict. We hope it serves as a good introduction. Further info is below.

Death Adder Venom

The venom from Death Adders is mostly neurotoxic, eventually leading to a loss of control in the voluntary muscular system via post-synaptic blockage of neuromuscular transmission. This then can result in respiratory failure (asphyxiation) and therefore death unless assisted breathing is given. Clinical symptoms from death adder envenomation include paralysis of extra ocular muscles, abdominal pain, headache, drowsiness, and enlargement of regional lymph nodes.

Venom is very energetically expensive to produce and is not always injected with a bite. Dry bites are regularly reported with death adders, with snakebite victims not showing any symptoms nor requiring any antivenom. This illustrates the point that these bits are ‘warning bites’ and that venom injection is a voluntary action chosen by the snake depending on the perceived level of threat.

The northern death adder (Acanthophis praelongus). This image shows flattening behaviour to enlarge the body and evade predators. ©CNZdenek

Death Adder Bite

With an average fang length of 6.22mm and being a high venom yielder, combined with the fact they are nocturnal and cryptic, death adders are considered highly dangerous to co-inhabiting humans or their pets. When dogs are bitten by death adders, their back legs go limp, and the paralysis works its ways to the lungs, eventually killing the victim. Unfortunately, dogs only live on average 20 minutes after symptoms are seen (pers. comm., Magnetic Island Veterinarian), and that is regardless of antivenom treatment (which can cost thousands of dollars). Treating the dog prior to symptoms showing gives the dog the best chance for their survival.

Death Adder Habits

Within Australia, death adders are an outlier among all other venomous snakes. Whereas other venomous snakes in Australia are active foragers, death adders are a sit-and-wait ambush predator. Their reluctance to retreat has even led to their alternative name of ‘deaf adder’ based on the misled belief they cannot hear approaching humans. (No snakes have external ears, but they do pick up on ground vibrations).

Common death adder (Acanthophis antarcticus). Note the scale colours matches either the top or underneath of leaves remarkably well. The caudal lure is adjacent the head, probably to ensure the protection of this precious, modified body part. ©CNZdenek

When in danger, camouflaged critters remain motionless for safety. Their first line of defense against predators is to not be detected in the first place. The broken color pattern of the death adder suits this approach, and burrowing beneath the leaf litter renders them impossible to spot sometimes. This fact makes them a hazard to bush walkers or land workers, but also one of the easiest snakes to handle for professional snake handlers.

Death Adder Morphology

The body shape of the death adder is distinctive. While the bodies of other elapid (Elapidae) snakes are slender and long, that of death adders is broad and short. Whilst its musculature is not designed for quick escape, they are thought to be one of the fastest striking snakes in the world. This unusual body shape, combined with a triangular head, thin neck, and thin tail give it a viper-like appearance (image below). This morphologic similarity and ecology with vipers (Viperidae) suggests convergent evolution, despite the genetic dissimilarity of being in two different families. That is, while these two groups of snakes are not closely related, they independently arrived at similar foraging modes and thus similar body shapes to suit these needs.

Photographic comparison of a Common Death Adder (Acanthophis antarcticus) with a Terciopelo Viper (Bothrops asper), illustrating morphological similarities (e.g. thin tail, triangular head, thick and short body) between Acanthophis sp. and Viperidae snakes (Photos: CNZdenek; DinoAnimals.com)

Death Adder Ecology

Though very little is known about their ecology, anecdotal evidence suggests they stay put for months on end. But then, presumably triggered by some environmental cues, they’re on the move. When this time comes, they can be seen crossing roads on warm nights and even turning up in peoples’ houses.

Large death adders are eaten by large lizards called Goannas or Varanids (Varanidae). Small death adders are probably taken by a number of predators, including Kookaburra birds. While other birds may not prey on death adders, that does not mean that they won’t try to kill them (probably in a misled effort to protect their nest (death adders don’t predate nests)). A Currawong was once seen repeatedly swooping an exposed death adder and pecking at its head until, only after few minutes, the adder lay lifeless with a hole in the top of its head.

Caudal Luring

The main prey of death adders is skinks, then frogs and mammals (Shine et al. 2014). Unlike the Green Tree Python (Morelia viridis), which hangs from a vine or a small branch with its head near the ground above a rodent trail to catch its prey, the death adder hunt using a different form of ambush: caudal luring.

The often vertically-compressed tail with very small scales is waved and wiggled like a worm to lure prey. When hunting, the death adder places the lure near its head, while the rest of its body is submerged in the leaf litter. The unsuspecting ‘worm’ predator quickly becomes the prey.

Death Adder Safety

Most Australians never see a death adder in the wild. Unbeknownst to them, they probably walked past them in the bush on many occasions. However, for some unknown reason, some towns or suburbs (e.g. Magnetic Island), experience high encounter rates with these snakes. It is important for residents in these areas to be aware of this hazard and to train their pets to stay away from snakes and not bite them, as this is of course when the snake will defend itself by biting. People in high-risk zones should also be extra careful at night when walking around: a torch should always be used to watch your step, cats should remain inside (this also protects local wildlife from these non-native predators), and dogs should be watched when outside for a pee.

Death Adder Conservation

While persecution by people threatens death adders in some regions, another major threat to their survival is the poisonous, feral cane toad (Bufo marinus). Curiously, some death adder populations increased after the arrival of the cane toad, while others experience massive declines. The mechanism for these phenomena are unknown.

While the Northern Death Adder (Acanthophis praelongus) is listed as Least Concern under the EPBC Act, the Common Death Adder (A. antarcticus) is listed as Vulnerable. While they are a hazard, just as sharks and bears are, death adders play an important role as a top predator in the environment. Small changes in people’s behavior in high-risk zones can greatly reduce their risk of envenomation and allow them to live more harmoniously alongside Australia’s top ambush predator.

The distribution of six out of seven described death adder (Acanthophis) species. Records from A. cryptamydros are not yet available on ALA, but they are the light blue dots in north-eastern WA (Maddock et al. 2015). Data records retrieved from Atlas of Living Australia (accessed Feb. 2017). Black arrow indicates the location of Magnetic Island. Light blue= A. praelongus; red= A.antarcticus; pink= A.pyrrhus; brown= A.wellsei; green= A.rugosus, dark blue= A.hawkei. Source: Atlas of Living Australia.

References and Further Reading

In an effort to make this article easier to read, we have dropped the standard scientific citation protocol and elected to reference all articles via hyperlinks. The links above go to these scientific articles.

  1. The ecological impact of invasive cane toads on tropical snakes: Field data do not support laboratory-based predictions.
  2. The Death Adder (Acanthophis antarcticus): The effect of its bite and its treatment.
  3. A new species of death adder (Acanthophis: Serpentes: Elapidae) from north-western Australia.
  4. Venom yields from Australian and some other species of snakes.
  5. Predator behaviour and morphology mediates the impact of an invasive species: Cane toads and death adders in Australia.
  6. The complete amino acid sequence of a post-synaptic neurotoxin isolated from the venom of the Australian death adder snake Acanthophis antarcticus.
  7. Ecology of the Australian Death Adder Acanthophis antarcticus (Elapidae): Evidence for Convergence with the Viperidae.
  8. Morphology, Reproduction and Diet in Australian and Papuan Death Adders
  9. Australian animal toxins: The creatures, their toxins and care of the poisoned patient
  10. Researches on Australian venoms, snakebite, snake venom and antivenine, the poison of the platypus, the poison of the red-spotted spider.



Woolly Spider Monkey

Imagine living in a community where no one competes for food, bickers over where to sleep, or vies for breeding privileges. In this peaceful community, everyone also has a close social bond, complete with a morning ritual of hugging. Now you’re probably picturing a group of people holding hands around a campfire, singing Kumbaya in tie-dyed shirts and thinking how absurd such a perfect scenario seems. Well, this is the lifestyle of Brazil’s muriqui monkeys, the largest of the New World monkeys.

Their common name is fitting since “muriqui” is the native Tupi word for “largest monkey.” Sometimes referred to as woolly spider monkeys, due to their close relations to both woolly monkeys and spider monkeys, there are two species of muriquis: northern (Brachyteles hypoxanthus) and southern (B. arachnoides).

Muriqui Physical Appearance

The alternate common name, woolly spider monkey, derives from their thick, woolly coats. Muriquis vary in color, a range of brown, black, gray, and yellowish. All but a patch under their prehensile tail (which is used to help grip branches) and their face is covered in fur. As muriquis age, their black face becomes more mottled. Males and females are similar in size, about 38-58cm long from the top of the head to the base of their tail, and they weigh between 4.5-9kg.

There are a couple differences between northern and southern populations. While the teeth of northern muriquis show no sexual dimorphism from males or females, the canines of male southern muriquis are much longer than those of the females. Also, while northern muriquis have a vestigial thumb, southern muriquis are completely missing this appendage. Over time, these monkeys evolved to no longer need a thumb due to their behavior of rapidly swinging and gripping branches. A thumb became unnecessary, probably hindering efficient locomotion.

Muriqui Habitat

Muriquis inhabit a very isolated region of Brazilian Atlantic coastal forest at altitudes between sea level and 1800m. The northern species ranges within the states of Espírito Santo, Bahia, and Minas Gerais. The southern species ranges in São Paulo, southern Minas Gerais, and southern Rio de Janeiro.

Their habitat consists of severely fragmented patches of primary and secondary semi-deciduous forest. Since the overall forest composition has been altered by human exploitation, muriquis have learned to adapt to surviving off diverse tree species. Temperatures in these habitats vary between 12-26˚C during the year, with an average of 1.2m of annual rainfall.

Muriqui Diet

Being primarily a folivorous monkey, or leaf eater, muriquis have evolved specialized teeth and digestive systems that can handle large quantities of a low-calorie diet. They are also frugivores, which means they will feed on fruits and berries as well. Buds, flowers, and bark are other items on the muriqui’s menu. The amounts of vegetation consumed differs between species and seasons, regulated by availability in their limited habitat.

“Hippie Monkey”: Make Peace Not War

In comparison to other primate species, muriquis may spend up to half of the day resting. Most the other half is dedicated to traveling throughout their 2-8km2  home range looking for food. Demonstrating cooperative behaviors while feeding, muriquis will often hug when passing by each other on a branch. Nicknamed the “hippie monkey,” muriquis constantly show affection to each other by maintaining physical contact, exchanging face-to-face embraces, and participating in group hugs. They are often seen as a tangle of fur and limbs, cuddled amongst the canopy. Awwwwww! Although they will loudly chase other monkey species away from their group, there is no pecking order among members while resources are shared. During rare instances of tension, a younger monkey will often solicit a hug from an elder to calm the situation.

Muriqui Reproduction

Muriquis are polygamous, with males spending much time together in tightly bonded social groups that show no aggression during breeding. Unlike many other primates, females invite a male to mate with, as opposed to being chased down and forced to submit. Around age 5-7 years, females will move into other groups before reaching sexual maturity at age 11. Males typically reach sexual maturity around 5-6 years. Gestation lasts 216 days before an offspring is born during the dry season of May to September. Young are then weaned between 18-30 months. The lifespan of muriquis is still unknown.

Muriqui Conservation Status

Listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, there are less than 2,000 muriqui monkeys left in the wild.

Threats

Due to the rate of habitat destruction, there is an enormous impact on biodiversity as a whole. The status of primate species is an issue that arises from logging and clearing entire areas of natural forest. It is estimated that almost half of the world’s 634 primate species are under threat of extinction, and the majority of these are in tropical forests. The more human populations grow, the more resources are extracted from the forests, and the more primate habitat is degraded or destroyed. Many people may wonder why primates should be conserved. Ecologically, many primate species play a vital role in environmental interactions, such as seed dispersal to aid in the health of the forests. This allows them to be “keystone species.”

Conservation

Reserves and national parks are a way to officially protect an area and its inhabitants. A problem that arises in South America, however, is that parks often only exist on paper. Many governments lack the funding to protect and enforce regulations in those reserves. Local people continue to live within the reserve boundaries. Conservation works best when a compromise with local people is met. To prevent people from losing their homes and way of life, it is best to educate the locals on methods of efficient forest resource sharing and how the protection of the forest ecosystem services is in people’s best interest.  Properly managed reserves contribute to financial benefits that are passed through the whole community, such as compensation to landowners who no longer use their forested land.

Environmental legislation and the increase of public awareness have dramatically improved in Brazil. However, many residents in the Amazon, along with many politicians, still have a “pro-development” attitude. Hearings to discuss development projects in the Amazon are often poorly attended and have little impact. It is imperative that conservation professionals work more closely with community members, politicians, social scientists, and economists to imbed environmental knowledge. Traditional environmental education leads to the thought that human behaviors can be changed through more understanding of certain issues. This, in turn, would lead toward a higher motivation for people to act more responsibly toward the environment.

Ongoing Research on the Muriqui

Research on northern muriquis has been conducted by Dr. Karen Strier and her colleagues in Brazil since 1982 at the RPPN Feliciano Miguel Abdala on Fazenda Montes Claros, a privately-owned ranch. This property has been protected by the owner and has been a significant source for learning about muriqui natural history.

Southern muriqui study sites are within Parque Estadual de Carlos Botelho and Fazenda Barreira Rico in the São Paulo state. In Carlos Botelho, the muriquis live in one of the largest undisturbed regions of Atlantic coastal rainforest where these monkeys are found. The study sites for northern muriquis include Reserva Biologica Augusto Ruschi in Espírito Santo and Fazenda Esmeralda in Minas Gerais.

Pallas’s Cat

The cat that people think of for high-altitude central Asian habitats is the snow leopard. However, there is another equally important cat for those ecosystems that tends to get overlooked (which is generally the case for small cats). It is the Pallas’s cat, Otocolobus manul. Weighing between 2.2-4.5kg, Pallas’s cats are recognizable by their compact body, short legs, thick coat, fluffy tail, and a bearded, flattened face with an expression that makes Grumpy Cat seem content.

pallas-cat-wide

Habitat

Pallas’s cats inhabit mountains, steppe grasslands, and semi-desert terrain, taking shelter among more structurally complex rock features. Their range includes: western China, Mongolia, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Russia. They can be found at elevations between 3,000-5,000m, sharing their mountain habitat with snow leopards! For small cats, they have quite large territories. Males have a home range of an average of 98 km2 that overlaps with home ranges of females. Females have an average home range of 23 km2.

pallas-cat-range-habitat

Physical Adaptations

Their thick coats help Pallas’s cats stay warm when winter temperatures drop to -50°C. In summer, they can tolerate temperatures around 38°C, seeking shelter in burrows or crevasses. Because their environment does not have much cover, Pallas’s cats’ grey-tawny coloring helps them blend in with the terrain; in semi-desert habitats, they may have more of a rusty color. A characteristic that all cat species have is a nictitating membrane over their eye, or third eyelid. For Pallas’s cats, this helps to protect against the cold and often-dusty winds of their environment. Their small, closely set ears help them to hide.

Diet

This small cat species feeds on a broad range of rodents, birds, insects, reptiles, and even carrion. Since they are not very fast, they must crouch low and get pretty close to their prey before pouncing. To avoid becoming prey themselves—to eagles, wolves, red fox, or dogs—they move in short bursts before lying flat on the ground while foraging. Their foraging activity is highest during dusk and dawn, but they may also hunt during the day. Other meso-carnivores, such as corsac foxes, red foxes, and European badgers, rely on the same food sources as Pallas’s cats. To avoid competitive exclusion, a principle that states species competing for the same resources cannot coexist in the same habitat, they have adapted seasonal foraging behaviors.

pallas-cat-diet-eat

Avoiding a Food Fight

In winter, when prey is scarce, Pallas’s cats will actively seek out hibernating or frozen insects. Winter is when badgers hibernate, so they avoid competing for this prey with badgers during this season. During the rest of the year, insects are a major food source for badgers.

Red foxes and corsac foxes prey on the same rodent and bird species as Pallas’s cats during the summer and autumn seasons, but both fox species feed on plant material, such as fruits and seeds, as well. Large mammal remains from carrion is another difference in the diet for red foxes. Since Pallas’s cats do not feed on plant material, they can avoid seasonal dietary overlap. 

Reproduction

Similar to other cats that live in harsh environments, Pallas’s cats have an annual breeding season. Pallas’s cats are polygamous, meaning a male will mate with several females. Breeding season is typically between December and early March, with a gestation period lasting an average of 75 days. Litter sizes are usually between 2 and 6 kittens, though some litters have been recorded to have up to 8. Kittens are born between late March and May then will stay in their den for the first two months.

After the kittens are born, the father will have nothing to do with raising them. Once the kittens leave the den, they learn to forage and hunt with their mother until they reach 4-5 months of age. At this point, they are at their adult size and weight and ready to venture off on their own. Around 1 year of age, they become sexually mature and can find their own mates. The average lifespan of a wild Pallas’s cat is approximately 27 months, or a bit over 2 years, due to extreme environmental conditions and a high rate of being preyed upon. In captivity, they have been known to live up to 11.5 years!

Conservation

Pallas’s cats are listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List.

pallas-cat-conservation-threatened

Habitat loss due to overgrazing livestock and state-sponsored pika-control programs threaten their populations. Pallas’s cats are also hunted for their soft, warm fur and for their fat, the latter of which is used in some Eastern medicines to cure frostbite.

In 2000, Dr. Bariushaa Munkhtsog from the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, and Irbis Mongolia Center, along with Meredith Brown, started the first field study of wild Pallas’s cats. Dr. Munkhtsog has continued to research productivity of Pallas’s cats throughout central Mongolia and is one of the few researchers who is observing breeding females.

The Pallas’s Cat International Conservation Alliance (PICA) is a new conservation and research project initiated by Nordens Ark Zoo, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, and Snow Leopard Trust. It is supported by Fondation Segré as a three-year effort that started in March 2016. The mission of PICA is to increase global awareness about Pallas’s cats and build on knowledge of their natural history and threats. Captive populations within accredited zoos will also be bolstered to aid in spreading education about the cats while communicating updates from field projects to the general public. An increased captive population will also help to strengthen the genetic integrity of the species.

Blobfish

Imagine sitting on the deck of a giant fishing trawler somewhere off the coast of Australia. The fishermen are reeling in the big nets, and lots of eerie, alien-looking creatures are being dumped on the decks. Suddenly, you see an odd, smooth, foot-long lump amongst the chaos. It’s a squid! It’s an octopus! No, it’s a…blobfish?

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What is a blobfish?

A blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) may be the ugliest animal you’ve ever seen. In fact, the title is official: in a 2013 competition held by the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, the blobfish was actually voted as the World’s Ugliest Animal. The blobfish has small eyes, a gelatinous appearance, a large mouth, and a relatively small body and fins to go with it.

If being named “blobfish” wasn’t bad enough, the rest of its family gets little love either. The blobfish is a member of the Psychrolutidae family of fishes, commonly known as “fathead sculpins” due to the size of their heads and generally floppy appearances. Poor guys!

Life as a Blob

As it turns out, the blobfish has good reason to be so ugly: its habitat shaped it that way. Blobfish live in deep water just off the ocean floor around southeastern Australia and Tasmania. At depths of 2,000 feet or greater, the water pressure is crushing—more than 60 times that of water at the surface! If you lived down that deep, you’d probably be squished into a blob, too.

Fortunately for the blobfish, they’ve adopted a way of living that allows them to survive just fine as a blob in the deep ocean. They tend to float along, just off the bottom of the sea, eating whatever happens to float right in front of them and is small enough to fit into their mouths.

You might think that being a blob would be a disadvantage, but for the blobfish lifestyle, it actually helps. Most of its body mass is gelatinous, and it has very few hard bones. This is an advantage in the crushing depths where it lives; by being made out of gelatinous, blobby material, the blobfish can keep itself from being crushed due to water pressure. In fact, the blobfish looks very different when in its natural environment at the bottom of the sea—it appears much more compressed and fish-like (but still quite odd-looking, even for a fish).

Being a gelatinous blob also helps the blobfish with its coach-potato attitude. Its body composition gives it just the right buoyancy to float along across the bottom of the sea without having to expend much effort. Imagine putting a water balloon in a pool full of people: it would just kind of float along across the bottom of the pool. The same thing happens with the blobfish, minus the pool and lots of people part.

Why are blobfish numbers declining?

It’s difficult to get good population numbers on the blobfish because it’s not a very important species economically. No one is crowding into expensive restaurants asking for the Blob of the Day. They’re also very hard to find (how likely are you really to come across a blobfish in your adventures?), and not very photogenic, unlike red wolves or whooping cranes. It’s likely that no one really knows how many blobfish there are.

Nevertheless, scientists think that these interesting fish are declining due to fishing activity. Fisherman use trawlers to catch deep-sea delicacies like orange roughy and crustaceans in their native environment, and sometimes blobfish just happen to get swept into these nets, too. When they are inadvertently caught, they’re known as bycatch, and it’s a huge problem for many other non-food species of fish as well. Luckily, the Australian Fisheries Management Authority has closed some of their habitat to fishing, so hopefully there’ll be less blobfish bycatch in the future.

In the meantime, though, you can learn more about blobfish and other interesting threatened ugly animals at the Ugly Animal Preservation Society!

Red Wolf

Everyone’s heard about the famous gray wolf reintroductions in Yellowstone National Park, but few people realize that there was actually another major wolf reintroduction program dating to before the Yellowstone wolves were reintroduced. The earliest wolf reintroduction program involved the red wolf (Canis rufus), first released into North Carolina in 1987.

In fact, the Yellowstone wolf reintroduction efforts used this earlier red wolf reintroduction program as a model. Unfortunately for the red wolves, their program has seen mixed success, especially compared to the Yellowstone wolf reintroductions.

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Grey Wolves showing the grey and white morphs

What is a red wolf, anyways?

With most animals, it’s pretty cut and dry as to which specimens are a separate species or not. The red wolf is a bit different. No one’s really in agreement as to how red wolves fit in amongst the other North American canids—wolves and coyotes.

There have been many studies done trying to classify red wolves into a nice taxonomic category, but there’s competing evidence for each of three possibilities: that red wolves are a wolf/coyote hybrid, that they’re a subspecies of gray wolf, or that they’re a completely separate species. Many people (including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or USFWS) classify red wolves as their own species. Admittedly, though, they do look like a cross between a wolf and a coyote: they are intermediate in size, coloration, and even behavior.

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What happened to red wolves?

Before Europeans arrived in North America, red wolves spanned a wide range across the Eastern U.S., from Texas all the way to New York. Unfortunately, they found themselves in the crosshairs of early settlers, who thought red wolves were dangerous competitors and needed to be wiped out. The early U.S. governments even put out bounties on red wolves as far back as 1768—before the U.S. was even a country!

A long history of being hunted meant that by the early 1900s, there were already very few red wolves left. Frankly, it’s surprising that they lasted as long as they did. Once the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, the red wolf was one of the first animals placed on the list.

How were red wolves saved from extinction?

To save red wolves from almost certain extinction, biologists had to do something a bit counterintuitive: they removed from the wild all the living red wolves that they could find. In Texas and Louisiana, biologists captured around 400 animals they thought were red wolves. Their next challenge was sorting out which animals were really red wolves, and which ones were just coyote/wolf hybrids.

What they found was shocking: out of the original 400 animals, only 17 were pure red wolves. That was all that was left of the entire species. It seemed that red wolves had been interbreeding with coyotes for a long time because they just couldn’t find any other red wolves in the wild. To make matters worse, three of the real red wolves couldn’t breed, so they only had 14 wolves left to work with.

The remaining red wolves were set up in a captive breeding colony at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington. At that time, no one had ever really reintroduced wolves to the wild, so they did a few “trial” releases in South Carolina to hone down their strategy before trying it on a larger scale.

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After several years, they had enough young red wolves to start reintroducing them into the wild. They settled on one hopeful location in the red wolves’ former range: the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina. At first, it looked like a success: scientists soon began releasing red wolves in other areas of Mississippi and Florida as well. But then, something changed.

Public opinion had always been mixed about red wolf reintroductions. In the case of the red wolves in North Carolina, some people just didn’t like the wolves, saying that they ate livestock and took away hunting opportunities from local residents. Additionally, an open hunting season on coyotes was declared in the range of the North Carolina red wolves. Red wolves look a lot like coyotes, and some red wolves were shot by hunters. Currently, there is much pressure from groups in North Carolina to stop the reintroduction program. The successes of the other reintroduction efforts have seen mixed success as well.

What is the future of the red wolves?

As of 2020, there are about 20 red wolves left in the wild, half of the population size from just two years prior. Another 175 red wolves remain in captivity. Their future hinges on a lot of things: keeping poaching to a minimum, finding broad-based public support for reintroduction efforts, minimizing hybridization with coyotes, and continuing monitoring and release efforts throughout the red wolf’s former range. Any way you slice it, it’s a lot of work.

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The USFWS is currently revising their red wolf management plan. Stay tuned for updates on the future of this program and of the species!

Are wolves dangerous?

The simple answer is no… but. We outline how to survive a wolf attack here and discuss ways to make sure you can appreciate these amazing canids.

Przewalski’s Horse

Things looked a lot different back in the Pleistocene Epoch, some 12,000 years ago. Saber-toothed tigers, giant ground sloths, and dire wolves all roamed the world, along with three subspecies of horse: modern horses (Equus ferus caballus), tarpans (E. f. ferus), and the Przewalski’s horse (pronounced “shev-ahl-skee”; E. f. przewalskii). Gradually, these three subspecies either died out or were domesticated, except for one: the Przewalski’s horse. To this day, it’s the last remaining truly wild horse.

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How are Przewalski’s horses different from other horses?

Technically speaking, Przewalski’s horses are the same species as the domestic horses you see around you all the time. This means the two are still closely enough related that they can interbreed and produce offspring, but there are still differences between them. One of the most notable is that Przewalski’s horses have 66 chromosomes, while domestic horses have only 64.

How are Przewalski’s horses similar to other horses?

While Przewalski’s horses don’t live in stables and carry people around all day, they are similar to domestic horses that have turned feral (i.e., gone back to living in the wild after being domesticated) in places like the United States and Australia.

They eat grasses, forbs (soft flowering plants like dandelions and forget-me-nots), and other plants, and they aren’t as picky as other animals about what they can eat. They’re sort of like the garbage disposals of the herbivore world—they can process almost anything. As a result, they can live in a lot of weird places where other animals wouldn’t be able to survive—everywhere from deserts to thickly wooded forests in Europe and Asia.

Przewalski’s horses, just like domestic horses (and people!), are also very social animals. They live in family groups called harems with several females and their foals, along with a dominant male. There’s not enough room for more male horses in the group, so after they’re old enough, they branch off and form their own bachelor groups and wait for a good opportunity to seize control of a harem from another dominant male.

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What happened to the Przewalski’s horse?

Przewalski’s horses have been victims of the same forces that have been causing many other species to decline over the past couple of hundred years: overhunting, habitat loss, and competition with people and livestock. Gradually, they were pushed out of the best areas until all that remained of their populations were a few small groups of horses living in the desert.

While Przewalski’s horses are perfectly capable of surviving in the desert, they never really thrived there—at least not enough to build their numbers back up to their former glory. Gradually, their numbers dwindled until the last wild Przewalski’s horse was seen in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in 1969. Things looked pretty dire for the species; it looked like they were about to go extinct, much like the Tasmanian tiger or dinosaurs.

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How did the Przewalski’s horse come back?

Luckily for the Przewalski’s horse, there were still a few remaining members of their species left in zoos around the world. People began breeding them, but not very well: because there were so few animals left, they were all very inbred, and a fifth of all captive-born foals died.

Once again, the Przewalski’s horse had another stroke of good luck: a newly-married couple from the Netherlands, Jan and Inge Bouman, saw the sad state of the remaining Przewalski’s horses while on their honeymoon in 1972. They were determined to do something to help, and so they did the best thing they could think of—they started a studbook of the remaining Przewalski’s horses.

A studbook on its own doesn’t seem like it would have a big impact. But what it allowed people to do for the first time was breed the last remaining Przewalski’s horses in a more scientific manner. There weren’t many horses left to choose from (at one point there were a mere twelve horses left), and it was important to breed them to minimize inbreeding as much as possible.

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The project worked; pretty soon, deaths among captive-born foals dropped by a third, and more Przewalski’s horses began surviving to adulthood. To this day, the studbook is still used to scientifically breed remaining Przewalski’s horses in zoos around the world. You can even see an online, searchable version of the studbook here.

Scientists have also gotten pretty creative at improvising other ways to allow more horses to breed. For example, in 2007, a group of scientists (including a human urologist) pioneered a new type of surgery to reverse a vasectomy on a genetically important male Przewalski’s horse named Minnesota. In 2013, scientists again made history—this time by producing the first Przewalski’s horse ever born through artificial insemination (check out this cool video about the horse).

The result of all of this zoo breeding is a bunch of surplus horses that are being released back into the wild in places like Mongolia, China, and even the Chernobyl Exclusion Area (Untamed Science’s own Rob Nelson even went there to see them!).

Although the wild populations are definitely larger than they once were (after all, zero wild horses is an easy target to beat), they are still very fragile and will require a lot of work now and well into the future if they are ever to persist on their own again. By 2014, there were 1,988 live animals (captive and wild) officially recorded in the Przewalski’s studbook. Who knows—maybe even you can help keep wild populations of Przewalski’s horses alive in the future!

Whooping Crane

It seems like almost every day we hear about a new species going extinct. It’s a bit depressing, to say the least. Most of the time, it seems like no one even cares—the last remnants of a species simply wink out and die, and another page of history is turned over.

This story of the whooping crane is a bit different, though. Historically, scientists think there may have been as many as 20,000 cranes, but by 1941, there were only 15 whooping cranes left in the entire world.

How did their populations get so low? To figure this out, we need to understand a bit about their biology.

What are whooping cranes?

Whooping cranes are big birds—not the Sesame Street kind, but almost as large. At five feet tall, they can stand eye-level with many people. And if that wasn’t impressive enough, they have a wingspan of seven feet!

Whooping cranes tend to live for a long time—up to 24 years in the wild. This is good for their mates, because like humans, whooping cranes form long-lasting pair bonds with one other crane. If one crane dies, though, the other one will “remarry.”

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What’s a year in the life of a whooping crane like?

Each pair of whooping cranes starts out the breeding season in the spring by laying two eggs in a wetland area, like a marsh or even a wet field. Traditionally, whooping cranes are migratory; they breed in the northern half of North America and fly south in the winter. However, there are only a small handful of wild crane populations left, one of which is entirely non-migratory and stays on the Florida coast year-round!

After their chicks hatch, the parents teach them how to be successful cranes. They show them all the good things to eat, like berries, crayfish and crabs, frogs—pretty much anything that will fit into their mouths.

By the time the baby cranes are big enough to fly in the fall, the crane parents lead them on their first of (hopefully) many migrations to come. They fly due south and winter in wetlands along the Gulf Coast. Once spring comes, they head north again and repeat the cycle.

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Why are whooping cranes almost extinct?

As with most endangered species, there are many reasons why whooping crane numbers are so low. Even to begin with, there was never a huge population of whooping cranes. To put those numbers in perspective, today there are an estimated 310 million American Robins (Turdus migratorius) in North America. Compared to other bird species, whooping cranes started already behind in terms of population size.

When the United States started being colonized by white settlers, the whooping crane population started taking a hit. Marshy lands they had used for breeding, migration, and wintering grounds were dammed and dried up to create farms, and it became harder for the whooping cranes to find the habitat they liked. At the same time, people began hunting the cranes, and this also had a big impact on the population.

While most other bird populations did fine with these changes, there were already too few whooping cranes. These challenges were just too much for the already-tiny population, and their numbers started falling drastically.

By the time people realized what was happening to the whooping crane population, there was just one single population left in the entire world; they would breed in a refuge in Canada and winter in an American refuge.

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How did people save the whooping crane from extinction?

Over the years, scientists have tried many times at reintroducing whooping cranes to the wild. None of them were very successful until scientists from multiple nonprofit organizations, state, and federal agencies came together and formed the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP). Their goal: bring back the cranes.

It was a big task: they held the fate of an entire species in their hands. Over the years, they’ve turned whooping crane reintroduction into a science—literally.

Some of the members of WCEP have captive pairs of whooping cranes in zoos and wildlife research centers. Each spring, the pairs of cranes produce two eggs, just as they would in the wild. Instead of letting the parents raise them, though, the scientists remove their eggs so that they’ll lay another set in a couple of weeks. By doing so, the cranes lay many more eggs than wild ones would. If this seems cruel, just remember: with each egg laid, the species moves a little further away from extinction.

Once the eggs are removed from the parents, they have an adventure ahead of them. The eggs are given to a set of surrogate parents—sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) who incubate them just as they would their own chicks.

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Shortly before the eggs hatch, they’re taken away again and placed in a mechanical incubator. Newly-hatched chicks will imprint on whatever’s around them when they hatch, and you don’t want them growing up thinking they’re sandhill cranes!

After hatching, the baby cranes are raised by yet another set of surrogate parents—people who are actually dressed up in giant crane costumes! The people have to be totally quiet when around the cranes, and they gently teach them how to be a crane just like a normal crane parent would. The system works out well until it comes time to migrate; luckily, the scientists have figured out a way around that, too.

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Each fall, the crane people load themselves up onto an ultralight aircraft and take off. An ultralight is the only aircraft that flies slow enough for the cranes and lets them see their “parents” too. The “parents” lead them slowly south to the wintering grounds, where they keep tabs on them periodically to make sure their “kids” are still doing just fine. Come spring, the cranes are able to fly back to their breeding grounds and start up life as a normal whooping crane (albeit with one of the most interesting upbringings of any animal in the world, perhaps).

Thanks to these extreme efforts, the whooping crane population is slowly growing. Unlike the Tasmanian tiger, people were able to save them before they went extinct. It’s been a true success story: now, human kids will still be able to see real, live whooping cranes, not just grainy old black-and-white photographs.

Tasmanian tiger

Imagine that you’re deep in the heart of Tasmania. The wind is blowing in off of the coast, and the plain stretches out miles before you to a barely visible mountain range. Suddenly, you spot some movement among the low swells and hills of the plain.

An animal steps into view—something you’ve never seen before. You peer closer and notice it has a head like a dog, but a long, low body with stripes on its hindquarters like a tiger. It even has a long, thick tail like a kangaroo, and is about the size of a large Labrador retriever. What on Earth is it?

It just might be a Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus), also known as Tasmanian wolves or thylacines. Although scientists generally believe that the species went extinct in 1936, people still report sightings of odd animals resembling Tasmanian tigers. As of yet, though, no conclusive proof exists.

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Tasmania—The Last Refuge

The extinction of Tasmanian tigers is only the last chapter of an old story that’s thousands of years in the telling. In recent history, Tasmanian tigers were restricted to the island of Tasmania, but they once lived on the Australian mainland and even Papua New Guinea as well.

Scientists believe that Tasmanian tigers were hunted and killed by humans and dingoes, which ultimately led to the Tasmanian tigers’ demise in those areas. Tasmania had few people and no dingoes, though, so it became a last refuge to the Tasmanian tiger and its close cousin, the Tasmanian devil. In fact, by the time white settlers first arrived in Tasmania in the 1800s, people estimated that there were only about 5,000 Tasmanian tigers left at all.

The Final Straw in the Tasmanian Tiger’s Extinction

The settlement of Tasmania by white settlers marked the beginning of the end for the Tasmanian tigers. They brought large quantities of livestock with them and assumed that Tasmanian tigers would be just as fearsome livestock killers as the Western wolves and coyotes with which they were familiar. Tasmanian tigers certainly did kill some livestock, but most people believe now that the numbers were greatly exaggerated. The Tasmanian government responded to these fears by instituting a bounty system and eventually paid out more than 2,180 bounties.

In Australia, the settlers brought dogs with them. It’s likely the dogs also contributed to the Tasmanian tigers’ decline through direct competition and by introducing new diseases. There were reports that a distemper-like disease was killing many Tasmanian tigers right before the wild population winked out of existence.

What did the Tasmanian tiger really eat?

Despite presumptions to the contrary, it turns out that they might not even have been physically able to routinely kill large livestock. The massive witch hunt that led to their demise might have been completely unnecessary.

A recent analysis of the musculoskeletal configuration of the Tasmanian tiger’s jaw showed that it probably couldn’t regularly withstand the high pressures imposed on it when killing large prey. Their jaws were simply too long and skinny for that kind of diet. Instead, they probably ate smaller prey like possums and bandicoots.

Why didn’t Tasmanian tiger populations recover?

Unfortunately for the Tasmanian tiger, they probably didn’t breed very fast—at least not fast enough to replace the population at the rate it was falling. Females tended to be much smaller than males and were probably easier for dogs and dingoes to kill. Even if females made it past their predators, though, they could only support four young at a time—not nearly as many as their placental mammal counterparts.

The Last Tasmanian Tiger

As the Tasmanian tiger population started diminishing, people realized what was happening. Zoos around the world began scooping up live specimens while they still had a chance, and there was a lucrative trade for the last few animals.

The last remaining live specimen turned out to be Benjamin, a Tasmanian tiger held in a zoo in its native Tasmania. By the time Benjamin was in the zoo, the Tasmanian government finally came to its senses and passed legislation protecting Tasmanian tigers. It came too late, though—just 59 days after the legislation was signed into law, a neglectful zookeeper locked Benjamin out of his sheltered area on a cold night, and the last Tasmanian tiger died of exposure.

The extinction of the Tasmanian tiger was a hard lesson to learn. We know we need to avoid manufacturing witch hunts against an entire species, to keep tabs on dwindling populations better, to start conservation efforts before the last living animal is identified. Sadly, though we’ve learned these lessons before with many other species, we still fail to follow these rules. Let’s hope that with proper education, we can prevent other unique species from going extinct in the future.