Extinct+Animal+-+Andreiescu+Raul


 * Animals in danger**


 * [[image:http://www.util21.ro/relaxare/poze/animale/elefant_94_m.jpg width="150" height="100" caption="Poza elefanti, poze cu animale" link="http://www.util21.ro/relaxare/poze-animale/poze-9-animale-elefanti-4.htm"]] ||
 * **Poza elefanti, poze cu animale** ||
 * [[image:http://www.util21.ro/relaxare/poze/animale/elefant_95_m.jpg width="150" height="100" caption="Poza elefanti, poze cu animale" link="http://www.util21.ro/relaxare/poze-animale/poze-9-animale-elefanti-5.htm"]] ||
 * **Poza elefanti, poze cu animale** ||
 * [[image:http://www.util21.ro/relaxare/poze/animale/elefant_92_m.jpg width="150" height="100" caption="Poza elefanti, poze cu animale" link="http://www.util21.ro/relaxare/poze-animale/poze-9-animale-elefanti-2.htm"]] ||
 * **Poza elefanti, poze cu animale** ||

Elephant skin is thick, grey and very wrinkled. Having deep wrinkles helps elephants stay cool because water gets trapped inside the wrinkles and evaporates slowly, thus cooling the elephant. Their hearing is keen and they can detect rumblings from miles away. Every elephant's ears are different, just like human fingerprints.** ||
 * [[image:http://www.zooschool.ecsd.net/Zoo%20Photos/elephant1.jpg width="294" height="217" align="center" caption="external image elephant1.jpg"]]
 * The elephant is the largest and heaviest mammal on land and is very intelligent as well as strong. Elephants have the largest teeth, tusks, and ears. They have small eyes which are protected by very long eyelashes.
 * The elephant's trunk is really it's nose, but the elephant can use it like an extra hand. The trunk is used for breathing, eating, drinking, touching, picking up things, throwing things, feeling, digging, squirting, fighting, playing and greeting. Smell is the most important sense for the elephant, and the trunk can often be seen held up high trying to determine smells in the air.** ||


 * [[image:http://www.zooschool.ecsd.net/Zoo%20Photos/elephant3.jpg width="329" height="214" align="center" caption="external image elephant3.jpg"]]
 * Elephants live together in family groups with a matriarch (wise, experienced female) as the head. Daughters and sisters stay together, and young males up to age 13 are included. However, males are encouraged to leave and can be found in small bachelor groupings or on their own. The mother elephants look after their young longer than any other animal except humans. All members of the family assist and protect the youngsters. Babies will follow their mothers, sisters, or aunties, and are guided by trunk touches. Babies drink milk from their mothers up to 4 years.** || [[image:http://www.zooschool.ecsd.net/Zoo%20Photos/elephant4.jpg width="337" height="259" align="center" caption="external image elephant4.jpg"]]
 * The elephant's tusks are really its front teeth. Just like humans are right handed or left handed, so, too, are elephants right tusked or left tusked. The one they favor has been ground down and is shorter from the constant use. Both male and female African elephants have tusks, but only male Asian elephants do. Tusks are used for digging, fighting, feeding, fighting and lifting. Another name for tusks is ivory.** ||

Mud coatings help to cool elephants.** || Males will occasionally fight to see who is the strongest.** || ** Elephants usually walk, but can run short distances. They move quietly because of the soft pads in their feet.** || Listen to elephant sounds:** ||
 * [[image:http://www.zooschool.ecsd.net/Zoo%20Photos/elephant5.jpg width="328" height="221" align="center" caption="external image elephant5.jpg"]]
 * Elephants roll in the mud to keep flies from biting them and to cool themselves down.** || [[image:http://www.zooschool.ecsd.net/Zoo%20Photos/elephant6.jpg width="357" height="245" align="center" caption="external image elephant6.jpg"]]
 * Elephants need 18 - 24 gallons of water every day. They suck water up their trunk, then holding the end closed, bring their trunk to their mouth to squirt the water inside.** ||
 * [[image:http://www.zooschool.ecsd.net/Zoo%20Photos/elephant7.jpg width="361" height="238" align="center" caption="external image elephant7.jpg"]]
 * Elephants are herbivores and eat up to 100 different kinds of plants. All parts of the plant are eaten - leaves, twigs, bark, roots, flowers, fruit, seeds, and thorns. They spend most of their time eating (about 16 hours) because they need between 330 to 350 lbs. of food each day.. Babies often eat dung of the adults to get the microscopic organisms to live in their gut to help them digest their food. Only half of the adults food is digested, so the dung is rich as a food source for the youngsters.** || [[image:http://www.zooschool.ecsd.net/Zoo%20Photos/elephant8.jpg width="323" height="481" align="center" caption="external image elephant8.jpg"]]
 * Bulls live alone.** ||
 * **[[image:http://www.zooschool.ecsd.net/Zoo%20Photos/elephant9.jpg width="384" height="269" caption="external image elephant9.jpg"]]
 * Elephants can use their trunks to dig down in dried up water holes to find water below the surface.** ||
 * [[image:http://www.zooschool.ecsd.net/Zoo%20Photos/elephant32.jpg width="357" height="238" align="center" caption="external image elephant32.jpg"]]
 * The elephant has brown eyes and is color blind. Vision is limited in strong, direct sunlight and better in the woods and shadows.** || [[image:http://www.zooschool.ecsd.net/Zoo%20Photos/elephant12.jpg width="375" height="255" align="center" caption="external image elephant12.jpg"]]
 * Elephants do not have a permanent home. They journey and migrate to food and water sources.** ||
 * [[image:http://www.zooschool.ecsd.net/Zoo%20Photos/elephant13.jpg width="306" height="443" align="center" caption="external image elephant13.jpg"]]
 * Elephants can live up to 70 years of age. By looking at how much the tusks of these elephants have worn, you can easily tell which elephant is older.** ||
 * **[[image:http://www.zooschool.ecsd.net/Zoo%20Photos/elephant35.jpg width="405" height="271" caption="external image elephant35.jpg"]]
 * [[image:http://www.zooschool.ecsd.net/Zoo%20Photos/elephant37.jpg width="384" height="254" align="center" caption="external image elephant37.jpg"]]
 * Elephants can swim very well, and in deep water, they will swim underwater, raising their trunks to act as a snorkel.** || **Elephants communicate in several ways:**
 * **trumpet when they are excited, surprised, angry or lost**
 * **cry**
 * **bellow**
 * **scream**
 * **snort**
 * **by touch**
 * Elephants greet each other by putting their trunk in the other's mouth. Their rumbling is so low-pitched that humans cannot hear it.
 * **Elephants are endangered because of poaching for their tusks and deforestation.** || **Elephants usually sleep twice each day - around noon, and in the very early morning. They most often sleep standing up, but sometimes will sleep on their sides**

African elephants information, pictures and trivia


//**Extinct Animal!!!!!!!!!!!**//
 * African elephants are native to a wide variety of habitats including semi-desert scrub, open savannas and dense forest regions. Their habitat ranges from sea level to 16,000 feet (4,877 m). The African elephant is the largest living land animal and weighs up to 5,400 kg. It inhabits the Savannah, brush, forest, river valleys, and semi-desert regions of Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Besides its greater size, it differs from the Asian elephant in having larger ears and tusks, a sloping forehead, and two “fingers” at the tip of its trunk, compared to only one in the **** Asian species. African elephants are capable of making a wide variety of vocal sounds, such as grunts, purrs, bellows, whistles, and the obvious trumpeting. Elephants and people have always had an interesting relationship.**
 * People have had to contend with elephants destroying their crops. However, it is the elephants who have had the greatest burden. They have been hunted and poached for their ivory tusks, been prevented from migrating between feeding and water sites, and have lost due to conversion into agricultural areas and human dwellings. While the whole elephant population throughout Africa is declining, some countries in southern Africa have the opposite problem: too many elephants. The future of the elephant in Africa is a complex issue that will need to resolve overpopulation in some areas and under population in others.** ||

__THE MOUNTAIN GORILLA__

 * There are probably about 600 mountain gorillas left in central Africa. Theydon´t have enough forests to live in.**



establishedin 1986 as the first organization of its kind, providing veterinary care for free-ranging mountain gorillas. This species lives on the brink of extinction, with no fall-back breeding population in sanctuaries or zoos. The many threats to the mountain gorilla--in addition to naturally-occurring health problems--include poaching, war, and habitat loss, as well as susceptibility to human and domestic animal diseases. For more about our patients and recent events, go**
 * MGVP was


 * WWF started delivering fuel wood 1 day before UNHCR started distributing food. But they had to interrupt the delivery on 24th/25th January as there were problems with the food distribution. UNHCR spotted some irregularities, stopped the distribution, and then the IDPs became violent. It wasn’t sensible to go into the camp while the IDPs were in a state of unrest so WWF resumed on 28th January.

So the campaign has been a success. Distribution will continue til the money runs out. And by then I hope we are looking at a less violent future in eastern DRC that will enable the thousands upon thousands of IDPs to return to their homes.**


 * [[image:http://wildlifedirect.org/blogAdmin/gorilla/files/2008/02/collage14-tn.jpg width="400" height="400" caption="collage14.jpg" link="http://wildlifedirect.org/blogAdmin/gorilla/files/2008/02/collage14.jpg"]] ||
 * **collage14.jpg** ||


 * //The Kabirizi family will benefit from less pressure on the park.//**

=**__THE BLACH RHINO__**=

Although there were an estimated 20,000 black rhino in Kenya in the 1970s, by 1982 the population was reduced to fewer than 400. Since then, their number has increased and now stands at over 420. The number in fenced areas has risen at an average rate of four percent each year when the conditions are good** || All rhinos are4 extremely rare today. But the black rhino, whish lives manily in Zimbabwe, is the most threatened by the illegal trade in rihno horn. There may be less than 3,500 alive today.
 * **Shoulder height 1.6 meters**
 * Mass 900 to 1,000 kilograms**
 * Gestation 16 months, single calf**
 * Speed 45 km/h maximum**
 * Diet Browser and grazer, preferring long grass. Usually found in thickets, where it eats shrubs, twigs, and leaves. Thorns present no problem.**
 * Feces Usually defecates in piles along various routes. Dung is scattered with the hind legs and is easily identified by its fibrous, woody texture.**
 * Spoor More compact and smaller than that of the white rhino. Urinates backwards against vegetation and then kicks back, often breaking up the vegetation. This action is a form of communicating and is also sexually related. The female will ”spray-kick“ when in season and the male will do it more frequently when consorting a female.** ||
 * || [[image:http://www.lewa.org/lewa-wildlife-conservancy-pics/black_rhino_portrait.jpg width="280" height="346" align="center" caption="Black rhinocerous protrait."]] ||
 * **Black rhinocerous protrait.** ||  ||
 * [[image:http://www.lewa.org/lewa-wildlife-conservancy-pics/community_03.gif width="387" height="32" caption="external image community_03.gif"]] ||
 * **The hook-lipped, or black, rhino has a distinctive prehensile lip. It holds its head higher and is smaller than the wide-lipped, or white, rhino. An agile animal, the black rhino can display considerable aggression, although it is usually shy and solitary. Its eyesight is poor, but it has a good sense of smell and possesses extraordinary hearing. The tail is held erect while running. The black rhino has a wide vocal range and can possibly communicate like an elephant below the range of human hearing. Breathing is an important part of communication. Unlike the white rhino-calf, the black rhino calf normally runs behind its mother.
 * **The hook-lipped, or black, rhino has a distinctive prehensile lip. It holds its head higher and is smaller than the wide-lipped, or white, rhino. An agile animal, the black rhino can display considerable aggression, although it is usually shy and solitary. Its eyesight is poor, but it has a good sense of smell and possesses extraordinary hearing. The tail is held erect while running. The black rhino has a wide vocal range and can possibly communicate like an elephant below the range of human hearing. Breathing is an important part of communication. Unlike the white rhino-calf, the black rhino calf normally runs behind its mother.





The rhinoceros or rhino is one of the world's most magnificent creatures with its almost Prehistoric appearance. Sadly the [|five species of rhino] are also among the group of animals most threatened with extinction (endangered). Three of these rhino species are found in Asia: the [|Indian] or one-horned rhino (population about 1 500), the [|Sumatran] (population about 200) and the [|Javan] (population about 50). The three Asian rhino species are well protected and their numbers have remained steady. The other two rhino are found here in Africa: the white rhino (numbering about 4 500 - 5 000) and the black rhino (population about 3 000). The population of the [|black rhino (//Diceros bicornis//)] is steadily declining.** || ||
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 * **Black Rhino** ||


 * From a total number of at least 100 000 in 1960, spread across most of Africa south of the Sahara Desert, there are today fewer than 3 500 black rhino left. Most of these survive in southern African countries where there are good protection measures e.g. South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. However poachers are managing to kill rhino in all three of these countries, despite protection. Numbers in South Africa have increased from about 100 to almost 700 since 1930.**

Courtship and mating is complex and can take a long time. The male approaches the female with great caution, frequently interrupting his slow progress with a series of snorts. Often the male makes a distinctive display, swinging his head from side to side with his horn sweeping the ground. Sometimes he loses his nerve and runs off, fearful of an attack from the female, only to return once again with his characteristic stiff-legged gait. The courtship may go on in this fashion for several hours. The black rhino tends to be found on its own, except when a female is accompanied by her calf, and this calf leaves when the next calf is born, following a pregnancy of 15 months.**
 * 

= = = = =**THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT**=


 * Class: Mammalia**
 * Order: Proboscidae**
 * Family: Elephantidae**
 * Genus species: //Loxodonta// (slanting tooth) //africana// (from Africa)**
 * Size: 3 to 4 m (10 - 13 ft.) tall at shoulder; 6 to 7.25 m long (20 - 24 ft.)**
 * Weight: 3200 to 6400 kg (7000 - 14000 lb.), females are smaller**
 * Description: largest of all land mammals, with large ears, a long trunk, and large tusk**
 * Life Span: up to 70 years**
 * Gestation: 22 to 24 months**
 * Sexual Maturity:** **females (cows) 10 to 11 years, males (bulls) 10 to 20 years**
 * Habitat: found in the forests, grasslands, marshes, scrub, and semi-desert areas of sub-Saharan Africa. There is a distinct sub-species, the forest elephant, found in the tropical forests of central Africa.**
 * Diet: herbivore that eats all types of vegetation such as grasses, leaves, fruits, and bark**
 * Status: listed by USFWS as threatened and protected by CITES

Oncethere were millons of elephans in Africa. Today only about 600.000 are left. They are killed for their ivory.

The African elephant's most obvious adaptation is its trunk, which is basically an elongated nose. It has many uses, such as sucking up water and spraying it back in its mouth. Its main use, however, is to allow the elephant to reach up in trees to reach the foliage, which it eats. The trunk is tipped with two "fingers," which let the elephant examine, or even pick up, some small objects. The elephant's fan-shaped ears have many small blood vessels through them, which dissipate heat from the blood. The ears can also be used as fans, to keep hot air away from the elephant. The tusks of the African elephant are actually the elephant's incisor teeth. The largest single tusk ever found weighed 236 pounds and was 11 feet and 6 inches long! Legs of the African elephant are columnlike, the same width from top to bottom. Its feet are round and have a pad, almost like the one on a cat's paw, to support the leg. African elephants have five toes on the front feet and three on the back.**



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 * The African elephant can be quickly distinguished from the Indian elephant by its greater size and its larger ears, which may reach a length of about 5 ft from top to bottom. The African elephant is tallest at the shoulder, has more wrinkled skin, and bears tusks in both male and female. The Indian elephant is tallest at the arch of the back, bears tusks in the male only, and has one lobe instead of two on its trunk.**
 * Despite their great weight, which in African elephants reaches 15,400 pounds and in Indian elephants reaches 11,000 pounds, elephants walk almost noiselessly and with exceptional grace, their columnar legs keeping their bulk moving forward in smooth, rhythmic strides. A thick cushion of resilient tissue grows on the base of the foot, absorbing the shock of the weight and enabling the animal to walk high on its hooflike toes. Elephants normally walk about about 4 mph and can charge at up to 25 mph.**
 * [[image:http://lh4.google.com/fdardano/RpHpzWMBksI/AAAAAAAAACo/NbpB6M3AAo4/DSCF4614.JPG?imgmax=720 width="720" height="540"]]
 * [[image:http://lh3.google.com/fdardano/RpHpMGMBklI/AAAAAAAAABw/iJphkVAHXkY/DSCF4553.JPG?imgmax=720 width="720" height="540"]] ||||  ||
 * [[image:http://lh5.google.com/fdardano/RpHoNmMBkhI/AAAAAAAAABM/DZPsJzqchKw/DSCF4486.JPG?imgmax=512 width="384" height="512"]] ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * [[image:http://lh4.google.com/fdardano/RpHu8WMBk1I/AAAAAAAAAFQ/tVjUhX_UhPI/DSCF4532.JPG?imgmax=720 width="720" height="540"]]