Dumb Ol' Fox

eyes-of-the-cat:

Differences between the Cheetah, Jaguar and Leopard.

Cheetah - Acinonyx jubatus:

• Fastest land mammals, can reach speeds up to 70mph.
• Spine flexes up and down when running. 
• Have a very unique anatomy compared to all other cats.
• ‘Lanky’. They have long legs, and a long back and tail.
• Tail has black bands towards the end.
• Black ‘tear marks’ run down from their eyes to their upper lips and cheeks.
• Their noses are always black.
• Eye colour is usually amber, but can be shades of brown.
• Their body markings are just simple black dots.
• No markings on their belly.
• Cubs often have moehawks and resemble honey badgers!
• Live in Africa and isolated pockets of Iran

Jaguars - Panthera onca:

• Love water!
• Wild jaguars have been known to get high. They seek out caapi roots and gnaw on them until they start to hallucinate!
• Burly and muscular.
• Short upwardly arched back, with a thick neck and short legs.
• Solid thick black markings on tail. 
• Big square shaped head, with widely spread apart eyes and a large muzzle.
• Eye colour can range from pale green to amber.
• Nose colour can range from light pink to dark purple.
• Markings on the face are solid black spots.
• They have less rosettes than leopards, but they are larger in size and are a round unbroken shape with small dots inside them.
• Have large solid black markings on their belly.
• Live in the Americas.

Leopard - Panthera pardus:.

• Their main talent is climbing, so if you see a potential jaguar in a tree, it’s probably a leopard.
• More delicate looking than jaguars.
• Have long backs and tails, but quite short and stocky legs.
• Large round head, with a fairly small muzzle.
• Large pretty eyes, which can be blue, green, yellow or amber.
• Markings on the face are solid black spots.
• They have lots of small rosettes which are densely packed together. They have no dots in the middle of the rosette, unlike the jaguar. 
• No markings on their belly.
• Live in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

(via petakills)

thebrainscoop:

Here I am assisting in skinning a giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) with mammal prep staff at the Chicago Field Museum back in April.  We made bets on how much we thought this large male weighed - estimates were anywhere from 52-78lbs.  Actual weight was 82lbs (37kg), if I remember correctly.  The mammal prep lab manager, Anna, did the majority of the work on this specimen, but was nice enough to let me jump in at the end and help out. Bottom picture is me cutting around the gonads.  

Before you ask - I’m not wearing gloves because in many circumstances it’s arguably safer.  It allows you to get a much better grip on the specimen, which gives you more control over your instruments and the specimen, and no, I’m not really concerned with contracting some kind of awful disease if I had accidentally cut myself.  Wearing gloves and similar precautions are taken more seriously when dealing with primate specimens.  I’m not saying that it’s always advisable to go in bare-handed, just that some institutions approach procedures differently. 

Thanks to Marisol Cowan for the photos!