Phacochoerus africanus

The Common warthog is today's #MammalCrushMonday !!!! A wild member of Suidae, the pig family. Their skulls are most notably identified by two pairs of tusks protruding from their upper and lower jaw. They also have a set of canine teeth that can grow up to 10 inches, which aid the tusks in defense, and digging for food.

Warthogs have an omnivorous diet, and are the only pig species adapted to savanna habitats, eating grasses, roots, fruits, fungi, insects, eggs, and carrion. When foraging for food, they often kneel on their front legs using their snouts to dig for their meal, or for their burrows.





Which brings me to rule #1 of Kenya, don't look down unknown holes. Warthogs often occupy abandoned burrows of aardvarks and like to come barreling out when least expected.

Common predators of the common warthog are humans, lions, leopards, and hyenas. So no, Pumba and Simba were not friends. So, whenever you see a warthog in the wild, you usually just see their tales sticking up like little warning flags as they trot away. (I personally like to imagine they are quite flatulent as they bounce off)
All warthogs have a sebaceous glans which they use to mark their territory. Females tend to stay in their sounder throughout their lives while males leave to find non-genetically related females to mate with. Males typically live alone and join sounders with estrous females during mating season.

Finally, shout-out to my dad, whose spirit animal is 100% Phacochoerus africanus.

Lycaon pictus

Today's #MammalCrushMonday goes to the African wild dog, formerly known as Lycaon pictus, but new genetic information suggests that they actually belong in the genus Canis, and are more closely related to wolves than belonging to their own genera (Lindblad-Toh et. al., p. 816, Figure 10).

Lindblad-Toh et. al., p. 816, Figure 10

 

 

 

 

 

Phylogeny is the classification of living things based on their physical and genetic characteristics. As science becomes more advanced, we are able to target more specific genetic markers, which often lead to the frequent 'editing' of evolutionary trees. It also leads to lots of confusion and debates over 'clumping' species or 'splitting' of genera, which lead to polyphyletic groups and makes a mess. In order to make more accurate hypotheses about evolutionary trees, both genetics and morphology of species should be considered, simple right?

African wild dogs form strong social bonds, with separate male and female dominance hierarchies. Unlike most pack- animals, the females migrate to find other packs while the males are more likely to stay in their groups.




 
  Because of their social behavior, African wild dogs are specialized pack hunters, with the best success rate of any mammal in the order Carnivora. While only 10% of lions hunts end in a kill, while 80% of wild dog hunts end successfully. So, who is the king of the jungle again? They also have a pre-hunt behavior where each dog 'begs' or acts submissive to each other dog in the pack before they move out to hunt.






We were lucky enough to see this pack of wild dogs on our first day out in the field. They are native to Sub-Saharan Africa in savanna and arid zones. They are on the IUCN endangered species list with only 6,600 adults left in 39 sub-populations.








Absolutely amazing animals to observe, but just from the car!

 #MCM #mammalsarefreakingawesome #mammalogy2014 #Africanwilddog

References:

Lindblad-Toh, K., Wade, C. M., Mikkelsen, T. S., Karlsson, E. K., Jaffe, D. B., Kamal, M., ... & Mauceli, E. (2005). Genome sequence, comparative analysis and haplotype structure of the domestic dog. Nature, 438(7069), 803-819.

Chlorocebus pygerythrus

Happy Mammal Crush Monday!!!!

In honor of the ''big'' male who chased after me yesterday because I apparently got too close to HIS tree, today's #mammalcrushmonday goes to the Vervet monkey, Chlorocebus pygerythrus, you have guts, my friend, and very blue balls.

https://primatology.net/2011/03/09/the-semantics-of-vervet-monkey-alarm-calls-part-i/

No, I didn't kick the vervet, males are notorious for their bright blue colored scrotum which, serves a communication purpose to both competitor males and prospective mates. *fun fact* The 'brightness' of the scrotum fades when an animal loses social rank (M. Gerald, 2001).

Vervets are an old world monkey, native to Africa, spanning along the east coast from Somalia to S. Africa, although they have been introduced to Florida, Cuba, the Bahamas, and other tropical islands of the new world.

 Female vervets remain in their home groups throughout their lives while males often migrate to neighboring groups, which gives future offspring genetic variability. Each sex has their own dominance hierarchy within the group. Vervets are highly social primates, spending lots of time grooming one another and playing, through my observations, they don't wander too far from their groups. They also have been recorded to display spiteful actions toward one another such as destroying anothers food source, which is an uncommon trait in the animal kingdom (Horrocks & Hunte, 1981).

Often times on the compound the cute, yet extremely mischievous, vervets can be seen playing from tree to tree, snacking on macadamia nuts, avocados and whatever else they can find including stealing Sinnary's food. As previously mentioned, my latest interaction with the monkeys involved a male running at least 15 yards across the lawn toward me, me not realizing why the heck this guy was getting so close, and me walking faster out of sheer confusion (and a little intimidation). This reaction only delighted the guy and upon realizing this, after he had gotten about 2 feet away, I stopped, turned toward him, stomped my foot, and we both proceeded in own own directions.

*No vervets or humans were harmed in the writing of this post*

References:

Gerald, M.S. (2001) Primate colour predicts social status and aggressive outcome. Animal Behavior 61(3):559–566

Horrocks, J., W. Hunte (1981). "Spite; a constraint on optimal foraging in the vervet monkey Cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus in Barbados". American Zoology 21:939.

https://primatology.net/2011/03/09/the-semantics-of-vervet-monkey-alarm-calls-part-i/

Balaenoptera musculus

Happy #MammalCrushMonday! Since it's been awhile since I've posted a #mcm AND it's the first mammal crush of the blog, it's gotta be big. That's why today's mammal is Balaenoptera musculus, the blue whale, the largest living mammal!

B. musculus is a member of the sub-Order Mysticeti, or baleen whales. So lucky for us, the largest animals in the world feed nearly exclusively on some of the smallest animals in the world, krill. A full-grown adult can eat up to 40 million krill in a day. Blue whales can travel at speeds up to 50 km/hour but typically they travel at the more modest speeds of 20km/hour. If that isn't enough reason to gloat, male blue whales have the largest penises in the animal kingdom, sizes reported from 8 to 10 feet long. However, they have a highly disproportionate brain to their massive..... bodies, weighing in at a whopping 15lbs, only 0.007% of their body weight. (Ladies, I know you're all thinking it... sounds like most men.)

Little is known about the mating behavior or breeding grounds, but scientists estimate they can live for up to 80 years, although the longest recorded study of an individual is 34 years. Orcas are the only natural predators of the blue whale, other than humans of course who greatly impacted their populations throughout history with whaling practices, which was banned in 1966. Today, the estimated world population of blue whales is between 5 and 12,000, the largest known concentration ranges from Alaska to Costa Rica.

#HappyMammalCrushing #mammalsarefreakingawesome