Animal of the Day: Addax

The Addax (Addax nasomaculatus) sometime called the screwhorn antelope, is a "Critically Endangered" member of the group of animals known collectively as the antelope.  The addax is found in the Sahara desert.  The Addax has been extirpated, or made regionally extinct, in the countries of Egypt, Algeria, Western Sahara, and Sudan.  Nowadays, the Addax can only be naturally found in the countries of Chad,  Niger, Mauritania, and has been reintroduced into Morocco and Tunisia.  The Addax has earned its "Critically Endangered" status due to the immense and very frequent hunting of its horns, and is still often hunted on game reserves in the United States.  The meat and leather obtained from the Addax are also highly prized.  Their diet consists of primarily grass, as well as the leaves of various shrubs.  Rarely drinking, they instead gain most of their moisture through the plants that they eat.  The Addax is a slow moving animal, leaving it vulnerable to attacks from cheetahs, leopards, lions, African wild dogs, and humans.  The calves can also be killed by servals, caracals and hyenas.

There is also a Spanish motorsport team named the Barwa Addax Team, but I was unable to ascertain whether this team was named after the animal or not!
 

Acrobatic Felines: The Serval

This birthday post goes out to Maiji Castro, happy birthday Maiji!  If you have a birthday coming up, just email me the date at cuyvaldar123946@gmail.com with the date and your favorite animal, and I will do my best to get a post in!

Today, the serval is going to be added to our pantheon of acrobatic felines!  The serval (Leptailurus serval) is another one of those mid-sized cats, like the caracal, bobcat, and lynx, and is actually closely related to the caracal!  DNA studies place the serval in what is frequently referred to as the "Caracal Lineage," with the serval being the basal-most, or the earliest to split off, of these three cats.  The other two are, of course, the caracal, and its closest relative, the African golden cat.

So that tells us about the serval's phylogenetic position in the feline family tree, but what else do we know about this interesting creature?  And how is it so acrobatic?  Well, the serval, much like the caracal, is a jumper, perhaps not quite as high of a leaper, but nevertheless an amazingly nimble cat.  It's incredible jumps are assisted by its long legs: in fact, the serval has, in relation to its body size, the longest legs of any feline.  To see the incredible leaps of the serval, click on the link below!

A Pretty Awesome Serval Jump!

The serval is labeled "Least Concern" by the IUCN, and has a very wide distribution across the continent of Africa, excluding deserts (like the Sahara) and the equatorial jungles of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the neighboring countries.  The serval once inhabited the countries of Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco, as well, but seems to have been extirpated (caused to go extinct in one country as opposed to extinct overall; a local extinction).  It is also now found in Tunisia again, but was reintroduced there by humans.

Four albino servals have been documented throughout the years, all of which were born in captivity.  One was born in Canada in the early '90s, but died just a week or two after birth.  The other three were all born at Florida's excellent cat sanctuary, Big Cat Rescue.  (If you want to see a ton of really, really cute pictures, click on this link HEREEEEEEEEEEEEEE to their Facebook page.  Trust me, you will NOT be disappointed!)  One of these three died a few years back, but they still have two!  First is Pharaoh, who is featured in the picture below, and Tonga, who is featured in all of the rest of the pictures, and who recently overcame nose cancer.  Enjoy!

The Fox's Animal Magnetism

For a while now, it has been thought that birds could see the magnetic field, in order to help them migrate.  It has been hypothesized that, when they are facing north, they can see a little blurry patch at the bottom of their eye.  If they are facing east or west, then they can't see the patch, so they know where to put the patch in their field of vision to get where they want to go.  Recent research by a Czech team of scientists seems to indicate that the red fox can also use the magnetic field, but for a different purpose: hunting.

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) ("Least Concern" by the IUCN) has the largest geographical distribution of any member of the Carnivora, with habitat on all of the continents except for South America and Antarctica.  In North America, it inhabits the United States and Canada, in Europe and Asia it lives almost everywhere, and in Africa it lives in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, and Libya.  Not only does it possesses the range shown in the map below, it has been introduced to Australia, where, like the Dingo, it poses a threat to native species.

The red fox hunts by leaping up into the air, and coming down right on top of its prey, literally (for the prey, at least) appearing out of nowhere.  But how to pinpoint its jump?  The answer lies in the magnetic field, which is visible to the foxes.  But how does this work?  Out of all of the explanations set forth by various journals and such, I thought the explanation from Nature was easiest to understand.  Here's what they have to say:

"Think of a laser pointer attached to you that always points slightly downwards in the same direction. Now think of some object on the ground. If you walk towards the object until the laser spot is on top of it you know that object is a set distance away."

Generally, it was thought that foxes would pinpoint their location solely using their very acute sense of hearing.  But then the Czech team found that, when the red fox was leaping in a northerly direction, 74% of the attacks were successful, while the leaping attacks in other directions had the success rate of a mere 18%.  That's a very big difference, and seems to point to the magnetic field theory.

A picture of the red fox outside of the house that our friends the Beckleys rented in Breckenridge one summer.  Awesome place to stay, especially if you are looking to escape the summer heat!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

East Breckenridge on Dwellable