The Manturón (Arctictis binturong), also known as Binturong, the Asian bearcat, the Bearcat Palawan, or simply Bearcat, is a species in the family Eupleridae, which includes Civets and to the ginetas.

It is the only member of its genus. The binturong It is neither a bear nor a cat, and the true meaning of the original name has been lost, as well as the local language that gave him that name.

The binturong It is nocturnal and sleeps on branches. It´s omnivorous feeding mainly on fruits, Although also has been known to eat alligators, mice, rats, spiders, insects and beetles. They can live more than 20 years in captivity, knowing cases have come to the 26 years.

The deforestation It has significantly reduced the number.

You can make sounds laughing between teeth when she feels happy and an annoying sharp groan when he feels cornered.

Being burly and aggressive against any threat, to the binturong sometimes compared with a bear, Although it is considerably smaller than, being no bigger than a small dog. It´s, However, the largest living species of the family Eupleridae, matched only by the African civet.

Its length ranges between 60 and 97 cm., weighing between the 9 and 20 kg.
Its body is covered with coarse and thick black hair. The hairs are often white silver tip, giving the animal a somewhat hoary appearance. It has a clear or silvery Mane in the contour of your face to give the appearance of greater size. The tail, hairy and fully prehensile, It can act as a fifth hand and can measure between 50 and 84 cm.. The binturong It is one of only two carnivores with a prehensile tail (the other is the kinkajou). The ears of the ears are small and rounded, small eyes. Females are a 20% larger than males.

Habitat

Its natural habitat is the forest canopy, in the dense tropical jungle primary or secondary, from sea level to the 400 meters above sea level.
While sometimes there may be small groups in logged forest, This species does not seem to adapt well to spaces modified with great human activity. Widely distributed in not very numerous groups, this species can be found in the Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Borneo and Viet Nam.

Reproduction

Females give birth to 2 or 3 pups after a gestation period of 90 days. It seems that there is no defined year-round breeding season, but there are births more frequently between February and April. The females are breeding from the 30 months. It is believed that the female binturong It is one of the few female mammal that can delay the implantation of the egg in the womb (phenomenon known as embryonic diapause or delayed implantation), so looking for the most opportune moment for the breeding season.

Behavior

The binturong It is solitary and nocturnal. It climbs trees and leaps from branch to branch, using its tail and claws to cling to them during the search for food. You can rotate legs backwards so that its claws still have grip to move between the branches. It sometimes moves through the forest floor, either to cross over to other trees or to feed on fallen fruits.

The binturong also it uses its tail to communicate through the scent glands. The females also have pairs of glands of odor on both sides of the vulva. Musk perfume binturong It is often compared with hot butter on the popcorn and cornbread. Rozan its tail against trees and howl to announce its presence to other manturones.

The manturones They have stable territories, but they are not very territorial and often overlap in range with their peers. In Thailand, the estimated range of average territory for a female is of 4 km square and 4,7 - 20,5 km square for males.
Although they are sympatric with several potential predators, including leopards, and reticulated pythons, predation on manturones adults is very rare. It is believed that it is due in part to its arboreal and nocturnal habits. In addition, Although it is normally quite shy, It can be notoriously aggressive when he is harassed. It is known that it uses urine and feces initially faced a threat to then emit a grunt showing teeth, If you do not deter the harasser you will make use of their powerful JAWS in self-defense. The binturong It is believed to be one of the animals with more character of nature.

Is considered ecologically an important important due to their diet frugivore seed disperser.

The female has a pseudopene similar to that of hyenas. They have been domesticated and are common as pets, as they are very protective with children.

Primitive primates called prosimians that are in the tropical forests of Laos, Viet Nam, China and Cambodia. These arboreal primates become extinct almost during the Viet Nam war. Much of the forests where they lived the loris were destroyed. After the war, deforestation remains a threat. Due to numerous environmental hazards, the species is classified as “vulnerable” by the Programme of the United Nations to the Centre global environmental monitoring of conservation

To help the repopulation of the species, Moody Gardens, an accredited member of the Association of zoos and aquariums (AZA), teamed with the AZA to participate in a Plan of survival of species (PS3). The birth in Moody Gardens was a great success of this cooperative breeding and conservation program, to help ensure the survival of the species, both in the natural environment such as captivity.

Icarus parents and Luyen have 11 and 15 years of age and have been an integral part in the reproduction of animals Moody Gardens in the past seven years.

“The twins are very young, so you spend the day beside Luyen for breastfeeding”, said Kolvig.

Via: zooborns

Photo credits: Moody Gardens

The probe loris

It measures 30 - 38 cm long and weighs 1 - 2 kg. The hair is dense, woolly, short and smooth, tawny colour with tones ranging from greyish or yellowish brown to reddish brown, and in the ventral area is white to yellowish or grayish. Along the back, the nape of the neck and up to the forehead has a narrow black band. The snout is short. Between the forehead and the nose it presents whitish hair around the eyes, you are surrounded by dark brown rings.

There is a tendency of the dorsal band to grew as it goes from North to South of the area of dispersion of the species, so close to the ears and becomes confused with facial mask.

The toes are short and the second finger of the hand is very low, but in the hind limbs, the second toe presents a long fingernail specialized for mutual grooming.

Nocturnal and arboreal habits. Mark territory with urine to avoid conflicts with other individuals of their own species. Lives alone or in small family units. During the day, it sleeps inside a cavity of a trunk or simply on the branches. Night moves slowly through the trees, step by step, and only hurry with your hand to catch a prey. If perceived any danger, It stays motionless and can remain so for hours.

As a rare case among the mammals, can you give a poisonous bite: the toxin, a polypeptide of inflammatory effects, It is produced by a brachial gland located in the center of the elbow and the loris is responsible for bring it to your mouth. If it is threatened, inoculates the toxin with a bite, by means of the characteristic of the estrepsirrinos dental comb. With poisonous saliva, the female spread your puppy to repel predators.
Has numerous vertebrae dorsals, which allows you to rotate the trunk with respect to the abdomen.

Consumes mainly insects, but in addition it eats small vertebrates, leaves and fruit. Unlike the funny loris, I plucked not captured birds but is limited to pass the lip on the feathers before eating the prey.

The female has two periods of oestrus per year. Gestation lasts from 5 - 6 months, after which a baby is born, that breastfeeding with 4 nipples, until the 8 or 9 months of age, Although it is rare to leave it before the year, When it reaches sexual maturity. In captivity live up to 26 years.

Source: Wikipedia

• Probe Loris images

 

The species Psychrolutes marcidus, best known for fish drop, smear fish, Pez sapo or Janira, It is without a doubt one of the fish more ugly from the ocean. These saltwater fish have what resembles a large nose and appear to be frowning. Its length is about 30 cms. Found at extreme depths off the coast of Tasmania and Australia. For this reason the drop fish is very difficult to see in its natural state.

Fish drop has the ability to withstand the high pressure of these depths because your body is actually a gelatinous mass with a density slightly less than the water of the sea. This gives you the ability to float and swim on the seabed without hardly spending power.

They are not very active. In fact, most of the food, sea urchins, molluscs and crustaceans, simply floats next to them. This deep-water fish, simply pick and choose what to eat. Drop fish are often caught in trawl nets, What makes it an endangered species and is currently in danger of extinction.

A strange in the drop fish fact is that playing sit on their eggs until they hatch.