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Home , Eupleridae

Order

• Mainly meat-eaters, but some omnivores and a few herbivores • Adaptations for pursuing and Zoo Placental consuming prey • Distinguishing features: long canines and carnassial teeth Order Carnivora • Most have acute vision with forward facing eyes, well developed sense of smell and acute hearing • Reproductive strategies include delayed implantation rufus and induced ovulation

Canoidea Family Ursidae -like Forms Grizzly • Range includes Alaska, western Canada, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Washington in high • Similar to mountain wooded areas, tundra and sub-alpine regions • Long snout • A subspecies of the , they are called • Large canines “grizzly” due to the silver tipped guard hairs • 4” long front claws and pronounced shoulder • Teeth for crushing, all- hump where powerful muscles attach are purpose omnivore teeth adaptations for digging • Typically solitary, but will congregate to fish for • Non-retractable claws salmon during spawning • CA state and the symbol on our state flag; • Long legs although it is extinct in the state • Our two females were orphaned in Montana and rescued from euthanasia by the Zoo arctos horribilis • Listed as Endangered • Grizzlies play an important role in managing the health of an ecosystem by distributing seeds through their scat, regulating ungulate populations and mixing topsoil when digging.

Family Ursidae Family Black Bear Mexican Gray • Found throughout North America from Canada to Mexico in large forested areas • Once ranged widely from central Mexico • Smallest of the North American and throughout the southwestern U.S. Now, range most widely distributed bear is restricted to southeastern Arizona and parts • Short, non-retractable claws provide for of New Mexico and northern Mexico in excellent tree climbing and tearing apart mountain woodlands, grasslands and stumps and logs in search of insects. They will scrublands climb trees to escape danger. • Carnivorous; they hunt cooperatively so that • Solitary animal with exception of mothers and they can take out prey much larger than her cubs themself. • Den up depending on local weather conditions • Smallest species of gray wolf, distinguished by and availability of food during winter months its smaller, narrower skull and its darker pelt • Omnivores; will feed on a wide variety of food, • Lives in packs of 4 – 8 individuals, including lupus baileyi including nuts, berries, roots, fruits, insects, alpha male and female eggs, fish, mammals, and carrion Ursus americanus • Critically Endangered, were hunted, • American black bears can be distinguished trapped, and poisoned to near in the from brown bears (includes grizzlies) by their smaller size, their less concave skull profiles, U.S. by the mid-1970s their shorter claws and the lack of a shoulder • 5 remaining wolves in the wild were rescued hump. and were used to start a captive breeding program; in 1998 eleven wolves released into wild; now there are ~100.

1 Family Family North American River

• Found eastern Himalayas and southwest China in mountain • Larger mustelid, found in rivers, lakes and coasts over most of forests Canada and the US • Specialized bamboo feeder; • Eats fish, crawfish, frogs, snakes, small, bony projection on their lizards, and insects; occasionally wrists that helps them grip will take ducklings or other small bamboo stalks aquatic mammals • Descend tree headfirst; rotates its • Usually solitary ankle to control its descent • Becoming more rare due to • Territorial, marking with urine habitat loss, pollution, and trapping and a weak musk-smelling secretion from their anal glands. • Known for being playful; slide down river banks on their bellies Ailurus fulgens • Distantly related to the giant into the water panda more closely related to • Induced ovulators with altricial and young • Endangered, do not survive well in fragmented habitat canadensis

Family Mustelidae Family Otariidae California Sea

• Found in coastal waters from along • Found N Canada, Alaska, Nordic Europe, the west coast of North America W. Russia, and Siberia in boreal forests, • Social marine mammals with taiga, alpine and tundra streamlined bodies and paired • do not hibernate but are flippers well adapted for winter existence; long, dense oily fur; the fur is hydrophobic • Blubber aids in buoyancy and and resistant to frost insulation • • Reputation for ferocity and ability to kill Visible ear pinnae and rotatable hind prey many times larger than itself flippers distinguish sea and fur seals from the other two families • Opportunistic omnivores; they have special upper molar in the back of the • Very agile swimmers, can also run on mouth that is rotated 90 degrees allows land due to the flexibility of the hind them to tear off frozen meat flippers • Use anal scent glands to mark territory • Zoo’s sea lions are blinded from with musk; nickname " bear" injury and disease in the wild and no Gulo gulo • Solitary except for the breeding period longer able to survive on their own. • Induced ovulators and delayed californianus They were rescued by the Marine implantation Center and given a second chance at the Zoo.

Feloidea Family Herpestidae -Like Forms Slender-tailed • Found in semi-arid, open country, • Similar to commonly hard or stony ground, • Shortened snout savanna and grasslands, widely • Larger canines distributed in southern Africa • Small, social , with darker • More specialized lower stripes along tan fur, with a dark mask molars - carnassials • They build burrows and have complex • Retractable claws social behavior through a maternal (exception: ) hierarchy system • “Small cat” vs. “large • Often rest sitting back on their cat” haunches in an upright position, will often see “scouts” scanning for danger on top of mounds and rocks Suricata suricatta • Omnivorous, and have ability to catch venomous prey such as scorpions and snakes

2 Family Eupleridae Family - Cats • Adaptations for pursuing and • Largest carnivorous mammal endemic consuming prey to Madagascar • Most have acute vision with • Prefers pristine undisturbed forests forward facing eyes, well that are more humid than dry developed smell and acute • Cathermal and usually solitary hearing • 50% of diet is , rest is small • Tapetum lucidium enhances visual sensitivity in low light especially at mammals, lizards and birds night • Agile climbers with semi-retractable • Wide peripheral vision Cryptoprocta ferox claws and flexible ankles to climb down tree head first • An obligate carnivore that must eat meat in order to thrive • Tail makes up ½ length of body leo OFF EXHIBIT • “Big cats” have elastic segment of • Plantigrade gait gives them extra hyoid bone allowing them to balance and stability while maneuvering amongst the trees produce a roar versus “small cats” have boney hyoid and purr

Family Felidae Family Felidae African Lion Sumatran

• Member of the big cat subfamily; large, tawny, muscular cat found in • Smallest of 5 tiger subspecies, males being Africa in open grassland areas about 350 lbs, also with the darkest coat color • Only cat species to form social • Prefers deep jungles, found on the island of groups, called prides, with one male, females and cubs Sumatra off the coast of Malaysia, probably less • Cooperatively hunt large hoofstock than 600 remaining such as zebras, wildebeest, African • Diet consists of wild pig and sambar deer; 90% buffalo, and antelope; mainly females of the time the cats fail to catch their intended doing the hunting prey • Sexual dimorphism, with males having a thick mane that can be tan • SSP species; classified as Critically Endangered to black; thought to be protective in by IUCN and is on Appendix I of CITES territorial fights with other males • Zoo supports the AZA Tiger Conservation • Distinct roar can be heard over miles; advertises territory and gathers pride Campaign, which support wild tiger together conservation efforts and raise awareness about • SSP species wild Panthera tigris sumatrae

Panthera leo

Family Felidae Family Felidae Snow

• Within large cat subfamily; smaller • In the small cat subfamily; species with thick white fur and large black rosettes, long, thick tail for this medium cat is spotted balance • Found in steppes, forests and rocky with a grayish coat, and a terrain at higher altitudes in central and short tail southern Asia; only strictly alpine cat; very secretive and rarely seen • Semi-webbed toes for • Wide range of prey, from birds, hares, and rodents, to sheep, goats, wild asses fishing near rivers, lakes and and yak streams; besides fish, will • Endangered and highly prized for its fur • Has elastic hyoid bone but does not eat frogs, snakes, crayfish, roar, but still designated with other big shellfish, insects, water birds cats • SSP species, classified as Endangered by and small mammals Panthera uncia IUCN and on Appendix I of the CITES • • Zoo has had successful breeding history Native to Southeast Asia viverrinus of snow , producing 42 snow leopards since 1958 and supports the • SSP species Conservancy

3 Family Felidae

• Ranges from southern Canada to northern Mexico, including most of the continental United States found mostly in wooded areas • Crepuscular • Territorial and largely solitary • May have several dens, one main den and several Lynx rufus auxiliary dens, in its territory

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