White handed gibbon

The Lar Gibbon (Hylobates lar), also known as the White-handed Gibbon, is a primate in the Hylobatidae or gibbon family. It is one of the more well-known gibbons and is often seen in zoos.
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Range

The range of the Lar Gibbon historically extended from southwest China and eastern Myanmar to Thailand and Burma down the whole Malay Peninsula in primary and secondary tropical rain forests. It is also present in the northwest portion of the island of Sumatra. In recent decades, especially the continental range has been reduced and fragmented, and the animals are thought to be extinct in China. The gibbon genus is highly allopatric, usually separated by large rivers. The Lar Gibbon shares its range with only the siamang, Symphalanges syndactylus, on the tip of the Malaysian peninsula and Sumatra.

Appearance

The fur coloring of the Lar Gibbon varies from black and dark-brown to light brown sandy colors. The hands and feet are white colored, likewise a ring of white hair surrounds the black face. Both males and females can be all color variants, and the sexes also hardly differ in size. Gibbons are true brachiators, propelling themselves through the forest by swinging under the branches by their arms. Reflecting this mode of locomotion, the white-handed gibbon has curved fingers, elongated hands, extremely long arms and relatively short legs, giving it an intermembral index of 129.7, one of the highest of the primates. As with all apes, the number of caudal vertebrae have been reduced drastically, resulting in the loss of a functional tail.

Diet and Dentition

The Lar Gibbon is considered frugivorous with fruit constituting 50% of its diet, but leaves (29%) are a substantial part, with insects (13%) and flowers (9%) forming the remainder [5]. Its dental formula is 2.1.2.3/2.1.2.3, the generalized formula for Old World monkeys and apes. The dental arcade is U-shaped, and the mandible is thin and light. The incisors are broad and flat, while the molars have low, rounded cusps with thick enamel. The most noticeable characteristic of the dentition of Hylobates lar is the presence of large, dagger-like canines in both the upper and lower jaw. These canines are not sexually dimorphic.

Behavior

Lar Gibbons are diurnal and arboreal, inhabiting rain forests. They rarely come to the ground, instead using their long arms to brachiate through the trees. With their hooked hands they can move swiftly with great momentum, swinging from the branches. Its social organization is dominated by monogamous family pairs, with one breeding male and one female along with their offspring. When a juvenile reaches sexual maturity, it is expelled from the family unit. However, this traditional conception has come under scrutiny. Long-term studies conducted in Khao Yai National Park in Thailand suggest that their mating system is somewhat flexible, incorporating extra-pair copulations, partner changes and polyandrous groupings.

Family groups inhabit a firm territory, which they protect by warding off other gibbons with their calls. Each morning the family gathers on the edge of its territory and begins a "great call," a duet between the breeding pair. Each species has a typified call and each breeding pair has unique variations on that theme. The great call of Hylobates lar is characterized be its frequent use of short hoots with more complex hoots, along with a "quavering" opening and closing. These calls are one of the traits used determining species differences among the gibbons.

Reproduction

Sexually they are similar to other gibbons. Gestation is seven months long and pregnancies are usually of a single young. Young are nursed for approximately two years, and full maturity comes at about 8 years. The life expectancy of the Lar Gibbons in the wild is about 25 years.

Status

Lar Gibbons are threatened in various ways: they are sometimes hunted for their meat, sometimes a parent is killed in order to capture young animals for pets. The largest danger, however, is the loss of habitat. With breathtaking speed the forests of Southeast Asia are cut down in order to establish plantations, fields and settlements. National parks and protected areas exist, but are often poorly supervised.

Subspecies

There are five subspecies of Lar Gibbon:

* Malaysian Lar Gibbon, Hylobates lar lar
* Carpenter's Lar Gibbon, Hylobates lar carpenteri
* Central Lar Gibbon, Hylobates lar entelloides
* Sumatran Lar Gibbon, Hylobates lar vestitus
* Yunnan Lar Gibbon, Hylobates lar yunnanensis (possibly extinct)

Malayan Sun Bear - Helarctos malayanus

The Sun Bear stands approximately 1.2 m (4 ft) in length, making it the smallest member in the bear (Ursidae) family. Males tend to be 10-45% larger than females;[2] the former normally weigh between 30 and 60 kg (66-132 lb), the latter between 20 and 40 kg (44-88 lb). The Sun Bear possesses sickle-shaped claws that are relatively light in weight. It has large paws with naked soles, probably to assist in climbing. Its inward-turned feet make the bear's walk pigeon-toed, but it is an excellent climber. It has small, round ears and a stout snout. The tail is 1.2-2.8 inches (3-7 cm) long.[2] Despite its small size, the Sun Bear possesses a very long, slender tongue, ranging from 8 to 10 inches (20-25 cm) in length. The bear uses it to extract honey from beehives.

Unlike other bears, the Sun Bear's fur is short and sleek. This adaptation is probably due to the lowland climates it inhabits. Dark black or brown-black fur covers its body, except on the chest, where there is a pale orange-yellow marking in the shape of a horseshoe. Similar colored fur can be found around the muzzle and the eyes. These distinctive markings give the Sun Bear its name.

Diet

The diet of the Sun Bear varies widely and includes small vertebrates, such as lizards, birds, and other mammals, in addition to fruits, eggs, termites, the young tips of palm trees, nests of bees, berries, sprouts, insects, roots, cocoa, and coconuts. Its powerful jaws can crack open nuts. Much of the Sun Bear's food must be detected using its keen sense of smell, as its sight is poor. They live to about 28 years in captivity.

Lifestyle and reproduction

The Sun Bear does not hibernate, and, as a result, it can reproduce year-round. The offspring reach sexual maturity after 3-4 years and may live up to 28 years in captivity. A female Sun Bear can produce 1 to 2 cubs per year. Sun Bears undergo a roughly 96 day gestation period after which the 300 to 400g cub is born blind and hairless. The cub is initially totally dependent on its mother and suckling can continue for about 18 months. After 1 to 3 months, the young cub can run, play and forage near its mother. Male Sun Bears grow larger than females. Females are observed to mate at about 3 years. During time of mating, the Sun Bear will show behavior like hugging, mock fighting and head bobbing with its mate.

Being a primarily nocturnal creature, the Sun Bear tends to rest during the day on lower limbs not far above the ground. Because it spends so much time in trees, the Sun Bear can sometimes cause a good amount of damage to private property. It has been known to destroy coconut palms and cacao trees on plantations.

Threats

Adult Sun Bears have almost no predators except humans, due to their fierce reputation and formidable teeth. Occasionally, they may be overwhelmed by tigers, or large reticulated pythons. Other possible predators include the leopard, the clouded leopard, and the Sun Bear's larger sympatric relative, the Asiatic Black Bear. The bear's loose skin on its neck allows it to wriggle its body inside its skin far enough to turn around and bite its attacker when grabbed.

The recent decline in the Sun Bear population can be largely attributed to the hunting of "nuisance bears" that destroy crops and widespread poaching driven by the market for their fur and for their bile, which is used in Chinese medicine.

Sometimes, Sun Bears are captured or bred to be domestic pets--a role for which they are considered desirable, due to their relatively inoffensive nature and small size in comparison with other bears

Pelicans

Pelicans are large birds with large pouched bills. The smallest is the Brown Pelican (P. occidentalis), small individuals of which can be as little as 2.75 kg (6 lb), 106 cm (42 in) long and can have a wingspan of as little as 1.83 m (6 ft). The largest is believed to be the Dalmatian Pelican (P. crispus), at up to 15 kg (33 lb), 183 cm (72 in) long, with a maximum wingspan of nearly 3.5 m (11.5 ft). The Australian Pelican has the longest bill of any bird[1].


Pelicans swim well with their short, strong legs and their feet with all four toes webbed (as in all birds placed in the order Pelecaniformes). The tail is short and square, with 20 to 24 feathers. The wings are long and have the unusually large number of 30 to 35 secondary flight feathers. A layer of special fibers deep in the breast muscles can hold the wings rigidly horizontal for gliding and soaring. Thus they can exploit thermals to commute over 150 km (100 miles) to feeding areas.

Axis deer or Rusa Bintik

The chital or cheetal (Axis axis), also known as chital deer, spotted deer or axis deer is a deer which commonly inhabits wooded regions of Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and most of India. It is the most common deer species in Indian forests. Its coat is reddish fawn, marked with white spots, and its underparts are white. Its antlers, which it sheds annually, are usually three-pronged and curve in a lyre shape and may extend to 75 cm (2.5 ft). It has a protracted breeding season due in part to the tropical climate, and births can occur throughout the year. For this reason, males do not have their antler cycles in synchrony and there are some fertile females at all times of the year. Males sporting hard antlers are dominant over those in velvet or those without antlers, irrespective of their size and other factors. A chital stands about 90 cm (3 ft) tall at the shoulder and masses about 85 kg (187 lb). Lifespan is around 20-30 years.

Ecology and lifestyle

Chital most commonly occur in herds of ten to fifty individuals, with one or two stags and a number of females and young. They are often fairly tolerant of approach by humans and vehicles, especially where they are accustomed to human disturbance. They do not occur at higher elevation forests where they are usually replaced by other species such as the Sambar deer. Chital eat primarily grasses and vegetation, but also eat their shed antlers as a source of nutrients.

Mongolian Wild Horse (PRZEWALSKI'S Horse)

The Mongolian wild horse (Equus przewalskii Poljakow) is the only wild horse recognized by all zoologists as a pure wild form in the zoological sense. This has led to the theory that is the ancestor to all our domestic horses. This theory is disseminated as fact in most books and articles today. However, Japanese geneticists have documented in 1995 through DNA analyses that Mongolian wild horse, or Przewalsi's horse, is NOT an ancestor of our domestic horses!

[Click on image to enlarge]

This issue is being made complicated by the fact that, because Przewalski's horse is the only wild horse scientifically described and documented, and it belongs - together with all other horses - to the same species, its zoological name must apply to all of today's horses according to zoological nomenclature systematics.

So, if it is said that all horses stem from Equus przewalskii, that is correct and wrong at the same time: if it is supposed to mean they stem from Przewalski's horse, i.e. the Mongolian wild horse, it is wrong; if it is meant to say that whatever wild ancestors there were of our domestic stock, they would all belong to the species Equus przewalskii, it would be correct. The Mongolian wild horse, or Przewalski's horse, stems from the same root as all other horses we know, but it does not represent this root!

Some zoologists and paleo-zoologists think that there were several forms of wild horses that our domestic horses derived from. One such form is still around in the British Exmoor pony, another one in the Sorraia horse. It would be foolish to claim the Sorraia horse to be pure anymore, but its status is most likely that of a direct descendant of an ancestral form, the closest thing we have left to that form.
The Mongolian wild horse survived in zoos all over the world. It, too, isn't pure anymore, but it is still a good representative of the original subspecies.

Porcupine or ''Landak"

The Malayan Porcupine ranges from Nepal through North-east India (Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, West Bengal, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland), to central and southern China (Xizang, Hainan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Hunnan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Fujian, Jianxi, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Gansu), throughout Myanmar, Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Vietnam, through Peninsular Malaysia, to Singapore, Sumatra (Indonesia) and throughout Borneo (Indonesia, Malaysia, Sarawak and Brunei). It is also present on the island of Penang, Malaysia. It can be found from sea level to at least 1,300 m asl.

Habitat and ecology

It is found in various types of forest habitats as well as open areas near forests. It may stray into nearby agricultural areas. It digs into the ground and inhabits dens near rocky areas, where it lives in small groups. It has a gestation period of 110 days and a litter size of two or three. The species may give birth to two litters annually. Their habitat is terrestrial where they are living in the hole of tree barks or roots. It also living in a burrow, from which a network of trails penetrate into surrounding habitat. It can be found in all forest types up to 1500m.

Diet

They normally feed on roots, tubers, bark and fallen fruits. They also eat carrion and insects.

Serows or Kambing Gurun

The serows are six species of medium-sized goat-like or antelope-like mammals of the genus Capricornis.

All six species of serow were until recently also classified under Naemorhedus, which now only contains the gorals. They live in central or eastern Asia.

* The Japanese Serow, Capricornis crispus, is found on the islands of Honshū, Kyūshū, and Shikoku.
* The Taiwan Serow, Capricornis swinhoei, is native to Taiwan.
* The Mainland Serow, Capricornis sumatraensis, the largest of the six species, inhabits areas from Nepal to the Gansu province of China to Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula.
* The Chinese Serow, Capricornis milneedwardsii
* The Red Serow, Capricornis rubidus
* The Himalayan Serow, Capricornis thar

Like their smaller relatives the gorals, serows are often found grazing on rocky hills, though typically at a lower elevation when the two types of animal share territory. Serows are the slower and less agile than members of the genus Nemorhaedus, but they are nevertheless able to climb slopes to escape predation or to take shelter during cold winters or hot summers. Serows, unlike gorals, make use of their pre-orbital glands in scent marking.

Coloration varies by species, region, and individual. Both sexes have beards and small horns which are often shorter than their ears.

Fossils of serow-like animals date as far back as the late Pliocene, two to seven million years ago. The other members of the Caprinae family may have evolved from these creatures.

Zoo Melaka - An Introduction

Zoo Melaka (English: Melaka Zoo) is a major zoological park located besides Lebuh Ayer Keroh in the town of Ayer Keroh in the state of Malacca, Malaysia. More than 1200 animals of 215 species can be found at the Melaka Zoo. It is the second-largest zoo in Malaysia behind Zoo Negara (National Zoo).

The zoo was established in the year 1963, along with Zoo Negara although its management later were took by the The Department of Wildlife and National Parks of Malaysia in 1979.This enhances its operations and upgrade its services for public’s benefit being used as a wildlife rescue base before it was opened to the public by the then Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohammad on August 13, 1987. Although it has long been opened to the public, its primary roles as a rescue base and an animal sanctuary are still kept and never changed. Within decades, it greatly expanded to become a large zoo and now houses a great number of birds, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, insects and even grown to be the second biggest zoo behind Ulu Klang's Zoo Negara.

The Zoo Melaka has many creative attractions to attract visitors both abroad and local ones. Some of them includes:

* A Mini Safari
* A Multi-Animal show
* An Elephant Show
* Elephant & Horse rides
* A Souvenir shop at the exit
* Night Zoo