The aye-aye belongs to a group of arboreal mammals known as lemurs. This solitary, nocturnal mammal has very large incisors, toes, and fingers. The aye-aye, which is found only in the coastal rain forests of Madagascar, feeds primarily on insect larvae and fruits.

Konrad Wothe/Oxford Scientific Films

Dugong

Dugong

Introduction to the Sirenia

Manatee Junction

 

This male dugong is among only a few thousand of the large marine mammals believed to remain in the Indian and western Pacific oceans. Dugongs, commonly called sea cows, have long been hunted for their meat, blubber, oil, and hide. The harmless animal uses its rounded forelimbs for locomotion and its muscular lips to crop water plants for food.

Fred McConnaughey/Photo Researchers, Inc.

Cheetah

The Cheetah Spot

Because of extensive inbreeding, the cheetah has one of the lowest degrees of genetic diversity among mammals. Genetic variation between cheetahs is so low that a given animal does not recognize the difference when a tissue graft from another cheetah surgically replaces its own tissue. These low levels of diversity make the cheetah species extremely vulnerable to disease and threaten its ultimate survival. Scientists hope to use modern captive breeding programmes to increase genetic diversity in the species.

Rafi Ben-Shahar/Oxford Scientific Films

Giant Panda Bear

Giant Panda Bears

An enlarged wrist bone provides the bear-like giant panda, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, with a second "thumb" to grip the bamboo shoots that are the mainstay of its diet. This animal, discovered as recently as 1839, exists naturally only in the cool mountain forests of the Sichuan (Szechwan), Shaanxi (Shensi), and Gansu (Kansu) provinces of China. There are very few still living in the wild, and efforts at captive breeding have been largely unsuccessful.

Art Wolfe/ALLSTOCK, INC./BBC Natural History Sound Library. All rights reserved.

Whooping Crane

The Majestic & Endangered Whooping Crane :An Alberta, Canada Perspective

The whooping crane, Grus americana, has long been considered one of the most endangered species of bird in the United States. Although only 14 of these birds existed in 1941, current estimates put the population at more than 200 individuals.

Tim Davis/Photo Researchers, Inc./Library of Natural Sounds, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. All rights reserved.

Giant Tortoise

The giant tortoise, Geochelone elephantopus, is found on the Galápagos Islands. This slow-moving reptile is the largest species of tortoise in the world and lives to be well over 100 years old. All tortoises lay eggs. The destruction of nesting sites worldwide has caused many species, including the giant tortoise, to become endangered.

Tui De Roy/Oxford Scientific Films

Orang-Utan

Great Ape House

Orangutan Foundation International

Species Data Sheet: Orangutan

The orang-utan, Pongo pygmaeus, whose name derives from the Malay words for "old man of the forest", has a high, arched forehead that gives it a distinctly human visage. Long red hair distinguishes it from other apes, as does its habit of foraging for food individually, rather than in groups. Orang-utans have been observed to eat more than 200 kinds of fruit. They live almost exclusively in the trees and are quite awkward on the ground, where they move slowly on all fours. This ape is found only in lowland and tropical rainforest areas of northern Sumatra and lowland Borneo.

Dorling Kindersley/BBC Natural History Sound Library. All rights reserved.

Blue Whale

The blue whale, the largest animal ever to exist, may grow to 29 m (95 ft) in length. The loud moans of blue whales may carry through deep waters more than 160 km (100 mi) away, allowing them to communicate across vast distances. Hunted nearly to extinction in the first half of the 20th century, blue whales are now protected, although they remain endangered.

Flip Nicklin/Minden Pictures

Cactus

The Cactus & Succulent Plant Mall

Indian Elephant

The two extant species of the family Elephantidae can be distinguished easily by the size of their ears—small in the Indian and quite large in the more massive African. A closer look reveals several other differences. The prehensile trunk of the Indian elephant, for example, has only one lobe at the end, whereas that of the African has two. Both of the animals illustrated here are male: not visible is the absence of long tusks in the female Indian elephant.

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