Eastern Newt (salamanders) Food Habitats

Notophthalmus, the genus comprising the eastern newts, inhabits eastern North America. A different genus, Taricha, comprises the western newts along the Pacific coast of North America. Unlike other salamanders, the skin of newts is rough-textured, not slimy. Eastern newts are primarily aquatic; western newts are terrestrial.

The life cycle of eastern newts is complex. Females deposit their eggs into shallow surface waters. After hatching, the larvae remain aquatic for 2 to several months before transforming into brightly colored terrestrial forms, called efts. Post larval migration of efts from ponds to land may take place from July through November.

But the timing varies between populations. Efts live on land (forest floor) for 3 to 7 years. They then return to the water and assume adult characteristics. In changing from an eft to an adult, the newt develops fins and the skin changes to permit aquatic respiration.

Occasionally newts omit the terrestrial eft stage, especially in the species located in the southeast coastal plain and along the Massachusetts coast. These aquatic juveniles have the same adaptations (i.e., smooth skin and flattened tail) as the aquatic adults but are not sexually mature.

Under favorable conditions, adults are permanently aquatic; however, adults may migrate to land after breeding due to dry ponds, high water temperatures, and low oxygen tension. The life cycle of western newts does not include the eft stage.

The eastern newt (Notophthalmus viridescens) has both aquatic and terrestrial forms. The aquatic adult is usually yellowish-brown or olive-green to dark brown above, yellow below. The land-dwelling eft is orange-red to reddish-brown, and its skin contains tetrodotoxin, a neurotoxin and powerful emetic.

There are four subspecies of eastern newts:

1. N. v. viridescens (red-spotted newt; ranges from Nova Scotia west to Great Lakes and south to the Gulf states).
2. N. v. dorsalis (broken-striped newt; ranges along the coastal plain of the Carolinas).
3. N. v. louisianensis (central newt; ranges from western Michigan to the Gulf).
4. N. v. piaropicola(peninsula newt; restricted to peninsular Florida).

Neoteny occurs commonly in the peninsula and broken-striped newts. In the central newt, neoteny is frequent in the southeastern coastal plain. In the red-spotted newt, neoteny is rare. Adult eastern newts usually are 6.5 to 10.0 cm in total length. In North Carolina, N. v. dorsalisefts ranged from 2.1 to 3.8 cm snout-to-vent length (SVL).

That excludes the tail, and adults ranged from 2.0 to 4.4 cm SVL. The aquatic juveniles 1 year of age to range from 2.0 to 3.2 cm SVL. Adult eastern newts weigh approximately 2 to 3 g. Whereas the efts generally weigh 1 to 1.5 g. Neotenic newts are mature and capable of reproduction but retain the larval form, appearance, and habits.

Habitat

Larval and adult eastern newts are found in ponds, especially those with abundant submerged vegetation, and in weedy areas of lakes, marshes, ditches, backwaters, and pools of shallow slow-moving streams or other unpolluted shallow or semi-permanent water. Terrestrial efts inhabit mixed and deciduous forests and are found in moist areas, typically under damp leaves, brush piles, logs, and stumps, usually in wooded habitats. Adequate surface litter is important, especially during dry periods, because efts seldom burrow.

Eastern Newt Food Habits

Adult eastern newts are opportunistic predators that prey underwater on worms, insects and their larvae (e.g., mayfly, caddisfly, midge, and mosquito larvae), small crustaceans and mollusks, spiders, amphibian eggs, and occasionally small fish. Newts capture prey at the surface of the water and on the bottom of the pond, as well as in the water column.

The shed skin (exuvia) is eaten and may comprise greater than 5 percent of the total weight of food items of both the adult and eft diets. Snails are an important food source for the terrestrial eft. Efts feed only during rainy summer periods. In late August and September, efts often were found clustered around decaying mushrooms feeding on adult and larval dipterans. In a northern hardwood-hemlock forest in New York, the most prey of adult migrants and immature efts were from the upper litter layer, soil surface, or low vegetation.

Temperature regulation and daily activities

Adult newts are often seen foraging in shallow water, and efts are often found in large numbers on the forest floor after it rains. Efts may be found on the open forest floor even during daylight hours, but they rarely emerge if the air temperature is below 10C.

Hibernation

Most adults remain active all winter underwater on pond bottoms or in streams. Some adults overwinter on land and migrate to ponds during the spring to breed. If the water body freezes to the bottom, adults may be forced to hibernate on land or to migrate to another pool. Efts hibernate on land, burrowing under logs and debris. It is observed that efts migrated to ponds for the first time in the spring and fall.

Breeding activities and social organization. In south-central New York, breeding takes place in late winter or early spring, usually in lakes, ponds, and swamps. Ovulation and egg deposition occur over an extended period. Females overwintering on land can store sperm for at least 10 months.

Spawning underwater, the female deposits eggs singly on leaves of submerged plants, hiding and wrapping each in vegetation. The time to hatching depends on temperature. Smith (1961) found typical incubation periods to be 14 to 21 days in Illinois, whereas the incubation period observed 21 to 56 days.

Growth and metamorphosis

In late summer or early fall, the larvae transform into either aquatic juveniles or terrestrial efts that low larval density stimulated neoteny in larvae under experimental conditions. Larval growth rates were higher in ponds with low larval densities. Growth rates for aquatic juveniles are highest in the spring; however, maximum seasonal growth for the terrestrial efts occurs between June and September when the temperature is optimal for active foraging.

Home range and resources. For adult newts, the distance between capture and recapture sites to be about 7 m, indicating small home ranges. It did not find any defined home range or any territoriality for males. Most efts around a pond in Pennsylvania remained within 1.5 m of the shore. The home range for terrestrial efts in a Massachusetts woodland to be 270 m² and located approximately 800 m from the ponds where the adults and larvae were located.

Population density. Populations of aquatic adults may reach high local densities, whereas terrestrial efts exhibit lower population densities. Recorded population densities for terrestrial efts range from 34 per hectare (ranging from 20 to 50 efts per hectare) in a North Carolina mixed deciduous forest to 300 per hectare in a Massachusetts woodland. The density of 1.4 adult newts per m² (14,000 adult newts per hectare) in a shallow pond in North Carolina in the winter, whereas the summer population density was only 0.2 adults per m² (2,000 adults per hectare).

Many populations of the eastern newt reach sexual maturity when the eft stage returns to the water and changes to the adult form. However, under certain conditions such as low larval density, most of the larvae present have been shown to metamorphose directly into adults or even into sexually mature larvae.

In experimental ponds, densities of 22 larvae per m² resulted in metamorphosis to eft by the majority, while a density of 5.5 larvae per m²resulted in metamorphosis directly to the adult form or sexual maturation without metamorphosis (Harris, 1987). Adult density also influences reproduction.

The doubling adult density resulted in a reduction of offspring produced to one-quarter that produced by adults at the lower density (i.e., from 36 offspring per female in tanks containing 1.1 females per m² to 9.7 offspring per female in tanks containing 2.2 females per m²). The adult life expectancy 2.1 breeding seasons for males and 1.7 breeding seasons for females. Amphibian blood leeches (ectoparasites) are likely to be a primary source of mortality for adults; they also prey directly on larvae.

Similar Species

The black-spotted newt (Notophthalmus meridionalis) is similar in size (7.5 to 11.0 cm) to the eastern newt. It has large black spots and is found in south Texas in ponds, lagoons, and swamps. There is no eft stage.

The striped newt (Notophthalmus perstriatus) is smaller (5.2 to 7.9 cm) than the eastern newt and ranges from southern Georgia to central Florida. It is found in almost any body of shallow, standing water.

The western newts (Taricha) are found along the Pacific coast. They do not undergo the eft stage but rather transform into land-dwelling adults that return to the water at breeding time.

Other small salamanders are similar but vary by having slimy skin and conspicuous costal grooves. They differ in life history, however; in the family Plethudontidae, all are lungless and breathe through thin, moist skin. Many are completely terrestrial.

Eastern Box Turtle Care (box turtles)

Order Testudines, Family Emydidae

Box turtles are the most terrestrial of the Emydid turtles, having close-fitting shells that have allowed them to adapt well to terrestrial life. They are found throughout the eastern and central United States and into the southwest. They are omnivorous. Eastern Box turtles are also known as box tortoises, currently, four recognized species of box turtles.

Eastern Box Turtle Facts

The eastern box turtle (Terrapene Carolina carolina) ranges from northeastern Massachusetts to Georgia, west to Michigan, Illinois, and Tennessee. Also, they prefer the water, but are not improved for swimming in water. Box Turtles can roam up to one mile in a year. The main roads are a major deadly hazard for these slow-moving creatures.

Also, aggressive exotics smother their food plants. Raccoons and crows, though native, are major predators of young turtles. Also, lawnmowers get injure and kill box turtles. There are four subspecies of T. Carolina. All found within the eastern United States.

·              T. c. carolina, T. c. major (Gulf Coast box turtle; the largest subspecies, restricted to the Gulf Coast).

·              T. c. triunguis (three-toed box turtle; Missouri to south-central Alabama and Texas).

·              T. c. bauri (Florida box turtle; restricted to the Florida peninsula and keys.

Body Size

The eastern box turtle is small, with adults ranging from 11.5 to 15.2 cm in length and approximately 300 to over 400 g. Hatchlings weigh approximately 8 to 10 g. Turtles continue to grow throughout their lives.

However, their growth rate slows after reaching sexual maturity. The growth rings are no longer discernible after 18 to 20 years. Therefore, the body fat reserves in a Georgia population-averaged 0.058 to 0.060 g of fat per gram of lean dry weight from spring through fall.

Where do Eastern Box Turtles Live?

Typical box turtle habitats include open woodlands, thickets, and well-drained but moist forested areas. But occasionally pastures and marshy meadows are utilized. In areas with mixed woodlands and grasslands, box turtles use grassland areas in times of moderate temperatures and peak moisture conditions.

Otherwise, they tend to use moister forested habitats. Many turtles are killed attempting to crossroads, and fragmentation of habitat by roads can severely reduce populations. Eastern Box turtles tend to thrive best when they have let them leave alone. Various people illegally collect Eastern box turtles to breed in captivity to adopt as pets.

Eastern Box Turtle Diet

Most people want to know, what do eastern box turtles eat. Thus, adult T. carolinaare omnivorous when young, they are primarily carnivorous, but they become more herbivorous as they age and as growth slows. They consume a wide variety of animal material, including earthworms, slugs, snails, insects and their larvae (particularly grasshoppers, moths, and beetles), crayfish, frogs, toads, snakes, and carrion.

They also consume vegetable matter, including leaves, grass, berries, fruits, and fungi. A high proportion of snails and slugs may comprise the animal matter in the diet, and seeds can become an important component of the plant materials in the late summer and fall.

Temperature Regulation and Daily Activities

The species is diurnal and spends the night resting in a scooped depression or form that the turtle digs in the soil with its front feet T.carolinaare most active in temperate, humid weather. In the summer, they avoid high temperatures during midday by resting under logs or leaf litter, in mammal burrows, or by congregating in mud holes.

In the hottest weather, they may enter shaded shallow pools for hours or days. In the cooler temperatures, they may restrict their foraging activities to midday. In the laboratory, locomotion is maximal between 24 and 32C. In the field, their mean active body temperature is approximately 26C.

Hibernation

In the northern parts of its range (northeastern Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois), the eastern box turtle enters hibernation in late October or November and emerges in April. In Louisiana, it is found that T. c. major hibernated when temperatures fell below 65F. To hibernate, the box turtle burrows into loose soil and debris or mud of ponds or stream bottoms.

The South Carolina population of box turtles to occupy relatively shallow burrows (less than 4 cm) compared with those occupied by box turtles in colder regions (up to 46 cm). The hibernacula of box turtles in Tennessee are under 15.5 cm of leaf litter and 5.8 cm of soil on average. In southern states, during rainy and warm periods, box turtles may become active again. In Florida, the box turtle may be active all year.

Eastern Box Turtle Care?

Keep the Box Turtle it in an outdoor enclosure if the climate is often remaining above 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Or keep in indoor glass tank which has at least 20 gallons of water. Moreover, soak from time to time to rehydrate and cool down the body of water that is large but shallow. Also, mist their living place several times daily with a spray bottle, to keep the humidity level high.

The Box turtles normally live for 25 to 35 years but in some cases, it is known to survive to over 100 years old. Moreover, if there are no woods on the roadside, then the best you can do is to find a small patch of woods as close to where the turtle was heading and reposition them there.

If anyone has Box Turtle as pets, then you must provide an adequate sun or artificial light to stay healthy along with a suitable diet. As Box Turtles are omnivores, so they need invertebrates, such as insects and worms, vegetable matter, leaves, fruits, and berries. Hence, it is very imperative to provide a varied diet in captivity to ensure good nutrition.

Breeding Activities and Social Organization

Box turtles are solitary except briefly during the mating season. Individuals restrict their activities to a foraging home range, but home ranges of different individuals can overlap substantially.

 Mating usually occurs in the spring but may continue into fall, and eggs are laid in late spring and summer. The female digs a 3-to 4-inch cavity in sandy or loamy soil in which she deposits her eggs and then covers the nest with soil. Also, Box turtle eggs can be a very easy target for predators like raccoons. 

Nests tend to be constructed several hundred meters from the female's foraging home range in the warmer and drier uplands. The duration of incubation depends on soil temperatures, and sometimes hatchlings overwinter in the nest. The young are semi aquatic but seldom seen.

Home Range and Resources

Measures of the foraging home range for box turtles range from .5 ha to just over 5 ha. A female may need to search for suitable nest site (e.g., slightly elevated sandy soils) outside of her foraging home range. Winter hibernacula tend to be within the foraging home range.

Population Density

Population density varies with habitat quality, but studies linking density to habitat characteristics are lacking. In some areas, population densities have declined steadily over the past several decades.

Some investigators attribute the decline to increasing habitat fragmentation and obstacles that prevent females from reaching or returning from appropriate nesting areas.

Population Dynamics

Sexual maturity is attained at about 4 or 5 years to 5 to 10 years of age. One to four clutches may be laid per year, depending on latitude.  Eastern Box Turtle clutch size ranges from three to eight eggs, averaging three to four in some areas.

Juveniles generally comprise a small proportion of box turtle populations, for example, 18 to 25 percent in one population in Missouri. Some individual box turtles may live over 100 years.

Similar Species

The ornate box turtle (Terrapene ornata ornata) and the desert box turtle (Terrapene ornata luteola) are similar in size and habits to the eastern box turtle. They occur in the western, midwestern, and southern Midwestern states.

Preferred habitats include open prairies, pastureland, open woodlands, and waterways in arid, sandy-soil terrains. The ornate box turtle and desert box turtle forage primarily on insects but also on berries and carrion.

Are Eastern Box Turtles Endangered?

Eastern Box Turtles are not listed as endangered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. However, in some cases, it is considered threatened by many conservationists due to Loss of habitat, collisions with traffic, and illegal trade has made the eastern box turtle scarce in some of its native ranges.

Hence in recent years their population has been in decline. The exclusive bright coloration shell makes it very special for animals’ lovers. The Eastern Box Turtles length is 4 to 8.5” with its carapace is high and dome-shaped. The shell is made of bone covered by living vascularized tissue and covered with a layer of keratin.

The strong shell is connected to the body through its fused rib cage which makes the shell enduringly attached and not detachable. However, when it gets injured or damaged, the shell has the capacity to regenerate and reform.

Read More – The Snapping Turtles (Chelydra serpentina)

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The Snapping Turtle

Where Do Snapping Turtles Live

Snapping turtles are among the largest of the freshwater turtles. They are characterized by large heads with powerful hooked jaws. There are only two species of this family in North America. The snapping turtle, including both the common and Florida snapping turtles, and the alligator snapping turtle mostly found in lakes, streams, and freshwater where fish in abundance numbers.

The snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) is primarily aquatic, inhabiting freshwater and brackish environments, although they will travel overland. There are two subspecies recognized in North America that are primarily distinguished by range.  

 s. serpentine (the common snapping turtle, which is the largest subspecies, primarily occupies the United States east of the Rockies, except for the southern portions of Texas and Florida), and C.s. Osceola (the Florida snapping turtle, found in the Florida peninsula).

Snapping Turtle Size

An adult snapping turtle is large, 20 to 37 cm in carapace length. Although the male turtle attains larger sizes than females. In a large oligotrophic lake in Ontario Canada, adult males averaged more than 10 kg. Hence the female’s turtle is averaged 5.2 kg. In other populations, the difference in size between males and females often is less.

Snapping Turtles reach the sexual maturity at about 200 mm in carapace length. The cool, brief activity season in more northern areas results in slower growth rates and extended times to reach sexual maturity.

Snapping Turtle Habitat

In the east, snapping turtles are found in and near-permanent ponds, lakes, and marshes. However, in the arid west, the species is primarily found in larger rivers, because these are the only permanent water bodies.

They are often found in turbid waters with a slow current. They spend most of their time lying on the bottom of deep pools or buried in the mud in shallow water with only their eyes and nostrils exposed.

It is observed that young snapping turtles show a preference for areas with some obstructions that may provide cover or food. The turtle has the great ability to travel extremely long distances to find food or an appropriate area to lay their eggs.

What do Snapping Turtles Eat

Snapping turtles are omnivorous. In the early spring, when limited aquatic vegetation exists in lakes and ponds. They may eat mainly animal matter.  Though, when aquatic vegetation becomes plentiful, they become more herbivorous. Also, young snapping turtles are chiefly carnivorous and like smaller streams where aquatic vegetation is less abundant.

Snapping turtles consume a wide variety of animal material. That is including insects, snails, crustaceans, clams, leeches, earthworms, tubificid worms, freshwater sponges, fish (adults, fry, and eggs), frogs, toads, salamanders, small snakes, small turtles, birds, small mammals, and carrion and plant material including several algae.

Snapping Turtle observed no difference between the diets of males and females who fed at the surface, mid pelagic, and benthic levels. The pharyngeal mechanism of feeding (i.e., drawing water with food objects into the mouth) prevents snapping turtles from ingesting food above the air-water interface.

Temperature Regulation and Daily Activities

Snappers are most active at night. During the day, they occasionally leave the water to bask onshore, but basking is probably restricted by intolerance to high temperatures and by rapid loss of moisture. It is found that the turtles were active in the early morning and early evening and basked in the afternoon but were rarely active at night.

Active turtles were found in deeper waters than inactive snappers. Cloacal temperatures of 18.7 to 32.6C were reported for snapping turtles captured in the water in Sarasota County, Florida, between May and October.

Snapping Turtle Hibernation

Snapping turtles habitually enter in the hibernation process at the end of October and emerge sometime between March and May. But it is all depending on latitude and temperature. Also, to hibernate, turtles burrow into the debris or mud bottom of ponds or lakes, settle beneath logs, or retreat into muskrat burrows or lodges.

The turtles have been seen moving on or below the ice in midwinter. Large congregations sometimes hibernate together. This turtle is incredible cold-tolerant; even remain active under the ice during the winter.

Snapping Turtle Breeding Activities

Mating occurs any time turtles are active from spring through fall, depending on latitude. Some investigators believe that male snapping turtles are territorial but doubt that males defend their home ranges against other males. Sperm may remain viable in the female for several years.

Nesting occurs from late spring to early fall, peaking in June. Snapping Turtles can travel long overland to reach a new destination. They do it because of pollution, food scarcity, destruction in habitat, overcrowding, and many other factors.

When do Snapping Turtles Lay Eggs

The older females nested earlier in the season than did smaller, younger ones. Females often move up small streams to lay eggs. The nest site may be in the soil of banks or in muskrat houses but more commonly is in the open on south-facing slopes and maybe several hundred meters from the water.

The turtle digs a 4-to 7-in cavity on dry land, preferably in sand, loam, or vegetable debris. The duration of incubation is inversely related to soil temperature. In more northerly populations, hatchlings may overwinter in the nest.

Home Range and Resources

Moreover, many turtles stay mainly within the same marsh or in one wide-ranging area from year to year. The summer home range includes a turtle’s aquatic foraging areas, but females may need to travel some distance outside of the foraging home range to find a suitable nest site.

The females tagged at their nesting site moved an average of 5.5 km from the nest site afterward. The 91.9 percent of the turtles in one population returned to the same nesting site a year after having been tagged there. Home ranges overlap both between and within sexes.  

However, the young snapping turtles use different habitats than adults; they tend to remain in small streams until shortly before maturity when they migrate to habitats preferred by adults (e.g., ponds, marshes, lakes).

Population Density

The density of snapping turtles appears to be positively correlated with the productivity of the surface water body (e.g., density in a eutrophic surface water body is higher than in an oligotrophic lake). Specific habitat characteristics and intraspecific interactions contribute to the variability of observed population densities in snapping turtles.

Snapping Turtle Egg Incubation

Females do not begin laying eggs until age 6 to 19 year depending on latitude and when they reach an appropriate size (approximately 200 mm carapace). Males mature a few years earlier than females. However, females may lay 1 or 2 clutches per season.

Snapping turtle eggs incubation took around 90 days. However, it all depends on the average temperature during that time, hatch anywhere from 80 to 120 days after being laid. Clutch size increases with female body size calculated the relationship between clutch size and plastron length.

Clutch size has also been positively correlated with latitude the mammalian predators destroyed over 50 percent of the turtle nests. The undisturbed nests, hatchling success was less than 20 percent. Adult mortality is low, corresponding with the long lives exhibited by these turtles.

Snapping Turtles Predators

The eggs predators by crows, Foxes, mink, skunks, and raccoons. The hatch-lings and juveniles, most of the same predators will attack them as well as herons, as it is observed that mostly attacked by great blue herons, Yellow bitterns, fishers, hawks, owls, bullfrogs, large fish, and different snakes. The average lifespan is not known, but estimated life is more than a hundred years.

Similar Species

The alligator snapping turtle (Macroclemys temmincki) is much larger (16 to 68 kg; 38 to 66 cm carapace) than the common snapping turtle and is one of the largest turtles in the world. Its range is from northern Florida to east-central Texas and north in the Mississippi Valley.

Are Snapping Turtles Poisonous

Snapping Turtle biggest threat is to humans are their powerful bite and scratch. So be careful when you interact with him to avoid the danger of their bite and claws which are very sharp and lacerate the flesh of a person trying to calm them. The Snapping Turtle can also cause some serious bruise or even break the skin or break bones as well. CP

Read More – The Lesser Goldfinch (Spinus psaltria) / The Himalayan Cutia / The fire-tailed myzornis / Pando – The One Tree Forest

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The Gobi Bear of Mongolia

The rare Gobi Bear “Mazaalai” is a subspecies of the Brown Bear lives on the harshest places on Earth. It is in the list of critically endangered species by the Zoological Society of London. Gobi Bear is found in Gobi Desert of Mongolia. The flimsy eco-system of the Gobi desert is being threatened by the advance of the human activities that strengthen the process of desertification and shrinks the traditional natural habitat of the species.

The appearance of Gobi Bear

Gobi Bears is relatively small with brown fur, their head, belly, and legs are noticeably darker and lighter patches on the neck or chest.  Its population is decreasing as only 30 adults alive till 2009. The Gobi Desert is separated by enough distance from other brown bear populations to achieve reproductive isolation. The Gobi desert is the fifth largest desert in the world sprawling across half a million square miles of Mongolia and China. The Gobi desert temperatures are minus 40°F in winter and 120 in summer.

The Ecology, Genetic Diversity and Behavior of Gobi Bear

Gobi Bear normally eat roots, Wild rhubarb rhizomes, nitrebush berries, rodents, and other plants all of them can be scarce when the bears emerge from hibernation. Female bears make winter hibernation mostly place in rock caves or amidst deep bushes. The Hibernation period lasts from Nov to May.  Only around one percent of the diet consists of meat, mainly rodents, and carrion. They don’t rely on prey on large mammals. An adult male bear weighs about 96 to 138 kg; however, females are about 51 to 78 kg.  As far as genetic diversity which is the lowest ever observed in any species of brown bear? A small population of brown bears in the Pyrenees Mountains on the border of Spain and France has similar levels of genetic diversity.

Based on the study of morphology, the bear has historically been classified as the same subspecies as the Tibetan Blue Bear. A phylogenetic analysis has shown that Gobi Bear represent a relict population of the Himalayan Brown Bear. Sadly so far only 22 Gobi Bears left in the world. Historically, the decline of Gobi Bear started in the 1960s due to increase in livestock production around the desert.

Facts of Gobi Bear

Gobi bear (Ursus arctos gobiensis) average life span is 20 to 25 Year. It is also badly affected by climate change. Average annual rainfall in the Gobi desert fell from 100 to 50 millimeters during a 14-year drought between 1993 and 2007. There is no evidence found that the bears attack or eat any of the other large animals that live in the desert, such as ibex or camels. Although the Mongolian Government has banned hunting in Gobi Desert and formed a working group to explore ways of boosting the bear's population and new nature reserve to protect their habitat.

Researchers have fitted GPS in some bears to collect their habitat data. Which has shown low genetic diversity and no evidence of inbreeding based disorders? The Year 2013 was declared “Year of Protecting the Gobi Bear” by Mongolian Government.  Also, Mongolian people have embraced the beleaguered bear as a national treasure, all the more precious for its rarity. Gobi bears a distinct subspecies, gobiensis, to be an isolated group of the subspecies isabellinus, still found in China’s Tien Shan Mountains and the Himalaya. Hence time is really running out for this largely forgotten bear in the weird and inhospitable landscape of the desert. Source: CP

40 Animals That May Soon Be Extinct

The Himalayan Brown Bear

The Himalayan brown bear is also known as “The Himalayan Red Bear”, distribution from northern Afghanistan, northern Pakistan, northern India, west China, Nepal, and have become extinct in Bhutan. The male brown bear ranges from 5ft - 7t 3in long while female is little smaller ranges from 4 ft 6 in - 6 ft. Thus, it is largest mammal in Asian region, as these bears are omnivorous and hibernate in a den during winter.  A large brown bear has thick fur which is most often sandy or reddish-brown in colour.  The head is large and the body heavy and the legs stocky. The Himalayan brown bear is found in three major mountain ranges, Hindu Kush, Karakoram and the Western Himalaya, and four inter-mountain highlands. Himalayan brown bears seem to be arguably the least arboreal of all the bear subspecies. The average wild life of brown bear is 20 to 30 years.  

Though current in a number of protected areas, they’re becoming progressively rare because of loss of suitable habitat and hunting by humans, and have become "critically endangered."  Himalayan brown bears exhibit sexual dimorphism and they are the largest animals in the Himalayas and are habitually sandy or reddish-brown in color. The brown bears include habitats of high altitude open valleys and pastures.  During the summer months the bears move up as high as the snow-line at around 5,500 metres and then descend into the valleys in the autumn. The Himalayan brown bear consists of a single clade that is the sister group to all other brown bears and polar bears. Overall, the brown bear is one of the most widespread bear species in the world, and one of the most ancient brown bear lineages. It’s a very large animal, believed by some that the bear’s ability to walk upright probably gave rise to the legend of the Yeti or “Abominable Snowman.” Deosai National Park in Pakistan has the largest population of Himalayan brown bears in the region; it is also one of the few places where their habitat is protected.

Moreover, Himalayan brown bears are omnivores and will eat grasses, roots and other plants as well as insects and small mammals; they also like fruits and berries. They will also prey on large mammals, including sheep and goats. Thus, both genders will eat before sunrise and later during the afternoon. The Himalayan brown bear is a critically endangered species in some of its range with a population of only 150-200 in Pakistan. The populations in Pakistan are slow reproducing, small, and declining because of habitat loss, fragmentation, poaching, and bear-baiting. Moreover Himalayan brown bears are diurnal and, except during mating and for mothers with cubs, are solitary.  Mating takes place during May and June with cubs being born in the winter den in December and January.  The bears go into hibernation in a cave or dug-out den around October, emerging in April or May.