Asian Elephant
Asian elephants used to live in areas stretching from Iraq to southern China, where some still live wild. The habitats these forest mammals once occupied have been cut down to make way for farms and villages. They are now mostly confined to hilly regions where human contact is minimal. Recent figures indicate that there are about 30,000 Asian elephants left in the wild, with available habitat of about 190,000 square miles. By contrast, the African population is about 10 times this size, living on nearly 3 million square miles of habitat.
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Giant Panda
Giant pandas are famous for their love of bamboo, a diet so nutritionally poor that the pandas have to consume up to 20kg each day. The extra digit on the panda's hand helps them to tear the bamboo and their gut is covered with a thick layer of mucus to protect against splinters. Habitat loss is the greatest cause of the giant panda's decline, and today their range is restricted to six separate mountain ranges in western China. |
Tiger
The magnificent tiger, largest of the big cats, is a heavily muscled, powerful predator that stalks and ambushes large prey, camouflaged by its stripy coat. Unlike other cats, tigers are good swimmers and often cool off in lakes and streams during the heat of the day. Sadly, they have been pushed to the edge of existence through hunting and habitat loss, with three of the eight subspecies already extinct, and the other subspecies at high risk.
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Dromedary camel
Dromedary camels account for about 90% of the world's 15 million camels. The other being the two-humped bactrian camel. These beasts of burden are now considered domesticated except for a wild population that was introduced to the Australian outback in the mid-19th century, principally as draft animals. Life in the hot and arid desert requires some remarkable adaptations, from being able to stand a 30% loss of water to drinking 100 litres of water in just 10 minutes. |
Japanese macaque
Japanese macaques have become famous for washing their food in saltwater before they eat it, both cleaning it and enhancing the taste.Japanese macaques are the most northerly-living non-human primates. In the forested and mountainous, region of Japan where they're found, some populations have been known to bathe in hot springs during the freezing winters and swim during the sweltering summer heat. |
Asian golden cat
Asian golden cats are enigmatic and elusive forest predators whose population is difficult to estimate as a result. Very little is known about the behaviour of this medium-sized, wild cat. What is known, is that Asian golden cats are under severe pressure from habitat loss and poaching. Their diet consists of small animals and birds, and individuals team up to bring down larger prey.
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