The king lion

Lion is known to be the King of Beasts across most cultures of the world. This is mostly because of a lion’s appearance and partly because of the social structure of a pride and the lion’s role in the pride. A lion does possess a royal look and attitude. Add to that a tremendous roar that can be heard over miles on the Savannah. Also, living in a pride, a lion doesn’t need to hide itself or avoid any other animals including human beings. A lions lives in the open and controls its territory like a true king, sporting a ‘kingly’ mane and heading a pride that feeds him. The Bible of the Christians and the Geeta of the Hindus both mention the lion as the king of the beasts.

Vital Statistics:[There are a lot of variation in the figures found online. I tried to collect them from reputed instituion and/or govt sources]
Largest Lion in captivity: 806 lbs (366 kg)

Largest Lion found in the wild: 702 lbs (318 kg) and 11′ (3.35 m)
Average size (mode) of African Lion: 410 lbs (186 kg) and 8′10″ (2.7 m)
** Lions stand around 1.15m (including mane) at shoulder as opposed to 1m of a tiger **
The King of The Kings:When you think of a lion, you think of an African lion. The Asiatic ones are somewhat smaller in size and relatively unknown living in the tiger country. There is no significant variation in size among the African lions. In some online forums it is claimed that Ngorongoro Crater lions are the largest sub-specis of lions. But there is no base to that claim.. The Tsavo lions are generally considered more aggressive, but they are naturally maneless.Choice: African lion (with mane).

cats

Thousands of pet cats in Beijing are being abandoned by their owners and sent to die in secretive government pounds as China mounts an aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic Games.
Hundreds of cats a day are being rounded and crammed into cages so small they cannot even turn around.
Then they are trucked to what animal welfare groups describe as death camps on the edges of the city.
The cull comes in the wake of a government campaign warning of the diseases cats carry and ordering residents to help clear the streets of them.

Cat owners, terrified by the disease warning, are dumping their pets in the streets to be picked up by special collection teams.
Paranoia is so intense that six stray cats -including two pregnant females - were beaten to death with sticks by teachers at a Beijing kindergarten, who feared they might pass illnesses to the children.
China's leaders are convinced that animals pose a serious urban health risk and may have contributed to the outbreak of SARS - a deadly respiratory virus - in 2003.
But the crackdown on cats is seen by animal campaigners as just one of a number of extreme measures being taken by communist leaders to ensure that its capital appears clean, green and welcoming during the Olympics.

lovely dogs

We (my husband and I) found Titza on a rainy day, in a market. She has 4 months old and she was hitting by a car. Someone try to fix her leg with a wire (?!?) so she has a big infection on her leg. We took her quickly to a vet, who said that she must to be operated, but first, she must take some antibiotics for her infection to be stopped. And bath is not allowed. So we took her at our home and she was so happy. And dirty, too After a few days, when the infection stops, she was operated. It was a hard operation. The vet put a draw bar in her foot bone and she stays with that draw bar for 3 months. I cannot let her alone in our house, so I took her, in a basket, to my office. All neighborhoods know me as lady with the dog
After 3 month, when the vet took of the draw bar, we go to a lake mountain, for fishing. She was so happy to be free and use her leg that she runs continuously for 10 hours. And I mean that.
We didn’t hear her voice (barks) about 1 month after we found her. And she really scares us, because she has a powerful voice, like a big dog. We took her with us everywhere and she was a good guard dog. With her voice…
When we go fishing she always is very busy to rescue frogs from drowning. She takes frogs in her mouth from water and put them on border.
She has now 11 years old and she is the most quiet and affectionate dog that I ever know. Well, she barks to the stranger on our door, when she sees dogs on TV and when she is playing.

the tiger

at the San Francisco zoo in December. Their attorney, Mark Geragos, who’s been a staunch defender of their innocence, isn’t returning phone calls.

The younger brother, Paul Dhaliwal, has had the decency to admit that he, his brother, and their friend provoked the tiger – all in fun, I’m sure.
High on vodka and marijuana, they stupidly stood on top of a 3-foot-high metal railing to yell and wave at the big cats. The footprint found on the railing matched Paul’s, whose blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit for driving and highest of the three.
Tatiana was likely just sitting there minding her own business, probably bored from being cooped up. She couldn’t believe her good fortune when three large, noisy, live-action cat toys appeared

Everyone knows cats play rough, but maybe some people forget when they’re stoned. One of our favorite games is “Hunting,” where we stalk and pretend to kill our prey – usually a harmless catnip mouse. In Tatiana’s case, her toys were alive and she was playing with a tiger-sized jaw and paws.
They didn’t have a chance, and neither did she, as it turned out.
I hope Paul’s confession means the Dhaliwal brothers feel rich just being alive and are turning down Geragos’ offer to make them millionaires for having a hand in killing their friend and an innocent cat who just did what comes naturally.

reptiles

Diet of the Western Fence Lizard
The Western Fence Lizard eats insects and spiders.

Habitat requirements of the Wester Fence Lizards
The Western Fence Lizard likes boulders or logs to sun bathe on. They also use these to hide under when predators get to close. They also crawl around in oaks, probably searching for ants or other arthropods. They need open ground and have trouble when there are to many weeds.
Behavior of the Western Fence Lizard Thermal regulation
The Western Fence Lizard being a reptile is cold blooded and regulates its body temperature by moving in and out of the sun depending on whether they are too cold or too hot. This is called thermalregulation.
Territory defense
The Male Western Fence lizard is territorial. They will fight of other males when they enter their territory. They do rapid �pushups,� to show their blue bellies to other males or to show off for females.
Survival tactics of the Western Fence Lizard
Like most lizards, when the Western Fence Lizard is being attacked by a predator, it will drop its tail. The muscles in the tail continue contracting causing the tail to flop around. This is to distract the predator from the lizard. However, this is a last ditch effort. It is very stressful for the lizard. It takes a lot of energy to regrow their tail, and they lose a lot of stored food. This is often a tactic they use with domestic and feral cats. As they are a formidable predator where they occur and the Western Fence Lizard is usually perched in high visibility locations where they are easy to catch.
Color variations of the Western Fence Lizard

As shown in these pictures the western fence lizard varies in color. They are able to change color to blend with their surroundings. They vary from a mottled brown to black. Males have blue on their ventral sides and these two males on the left are exhibiting blue on their dorsal side in an altercation. Because of their ventral coloration, they are often called blue bellies.
Predation of the Western Fence Lizard
The Western Fence Lizard is eaten by snakes and birds. They are very susceptible to predation as they like to perch in highly visible locations.

life of lizards

RangeThe Great Basin Desert from SE Oregon and SW Idaho southward through Nevada and Utah, the Mojave Desert of Nevada, Arizona and California, and the Sonoran Desert of Western Arizona and SE Caliifornia mainly north of the Gila River.
Habitat
Rocky, hilly terrain and washes and canyons with large rocks used for protection and lookout sites.
Habits
Collared Lizards are members of the large family Iguanidae and the Subfamily Crotaphytinae which, besides the Collared Lizards, only includes the Leopard Lizards. The family is characterized by small body scales and long, strong hind limbs. The tail does not detach easily and does not grow back as in other lizards of this family. They are one of the few lizards in the desert which are able to run on the two hind legs only. This is known as bipedal locomotion. They are frequently seen on rocks and boulders but are very wary and difficult to catch. From these rocks, they keep a lookout for their favorite prey which is other lizards. They also eat a large variety of invertebrates.
Life Cycle
Great Basin Collared Lizards mate in May or June and the female lays from 3 to 7 eggs in summer in sandy soils, in burrows or under rocks. There is no parental care after the female lays.

Description
The Great Basin Collared Lizard has two conspicuous black collars on the neck interrupted by a white band. The anterior collar goes all the way around the neck. In males, the throat is slate grey to bluish with a black patch in the center. The males have alternating crossbands of grey and pink or orange and a pale dorsal stripe on the tail. Females are duller than the male, greyish brown in color and they lack the tail stripe. Gravid (pregnant) females have orange spots along the sides and immature males often show the orange coloration to avoid conflicts with mature males. Young of both sexes have bright crossbanding with no throat color. A large adult measures about 13 inches overall.

Another species which inhabits the Southern California Colorado Desert is the Baja California Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus vestigium) which comes closest to the Great Basin in Whitewater Pass. However, neither species crosses the Whitewater River and the Baja Collared inhabits the peninsular ranges from the San Jacinto Mountains South into Baja California.

snakes

The two-headed monsters of myth may have a basis in reality. Two-headed snakes are rare but not unheard of, and one recently found in Spain is giving scientists an opportunity to study how the anomaly affects their ability to hunt and mate. "We hear of one every several years," said Gordon Burghardt, a herpetologist at the University of Tennessee who has studied several two-headed snakes.

The snake in Spain, discovered near the village of Pinoso, is a two-month-old non-venomous ladder snake Elaphe scalaris. It is about eight inches (20 centimeters) long. It's probably lucky it was captured—its chances of surviving in the wild are nil, said Burghardt. "Just watching them feed, often fighting over which head will swallow the prey, shows that feeding takes a good deal of time, during which they would be highly vulnerable to predators," said Burghardt. "They also have a great deal of difficulty deciding which direction to go, and if they had to respond to an attack quickly they would just not be capable of it." And that's assuming that both heads are hungry at the same time, and both are interested in pursuing the same prey. "Having two heads would be a hindrance in the wild," agreed James Badman of Arizona State University. "It would be much harder to catch prey." Arizona State was home to a two-headed king snake that was found as a baby. It lived for nearly 17 years in captivity at the university. Even in captivity, there are problems. Snakes operate a good deal by smell, and if one head catches the scent of prey on the other's head, it will attack and try to swallow the second head. On the whole, though, they can do quite well in captivity, said Burghardt. Thelma and Louise, a two-headed corn snake at the San Diego Zoo that's now deceased, had 15 normal babies. Anomaly, Not Evolution Two-headed snakes typically occur in the same way that Siamese twins do. A developing embryo begins to split into identical twins but then stops part way, leaving the twins joined. Among humans, 75 percent of conjoined twins are stillborn or die within 24 hours. "Cobra! Cobra!" A woman's screams pierce the hot night in a tiny village in Myanmar, formerly Burma. An American snake expert--the first scientist ever to survey all reptiles in this isolated region--happens to be in the village in his quest for new cobra species. He races toward the cries, tailed by a throng of curious villagers. Inside a hut, the woman's family stands rooted in fear. Coiled near the back wall, a 3-foot-long cobra arches with a hiss, poised to strike. Stealthily, the American approaches the hissing creature. With a few awkward thrusts of a "grab stick"--an aluminum pole with two 6-inch fingers or tongs--he grasps at the lightning-fast, poisonous animal, and snags it. Elated villagers crowd around to shake the hand of herpetologist (snake and reptile scientist) Joe Slowinski. Now the cobra hunter has good reason to be excited. The snake he's nabbed turns out to be an unidentified species--a spitting cobra that only inhabits the arid terrain of central Myanmar. Named the "Burmese spitting cobra" (Naja mandalayensis), it's the first new cobra species to be discovered since 1922. Surprisingly, cobras are usually shy and nonaggressive--deadly only when threatened or hunting prey. "Ever since I was a kid, I've loved snakes," Slowinski says. "I got bit by a rattlesnake when I was 15, and that didn't stop me." What is it about snakes that mesmerize us? For thousands of years, these slithery creatures have inspired religious myths, fanatical fear, and endless curiosity. Streamlined to the bare essentials--mouth, belly, brain, spine--snakes manage to slink over desert sands and rocky slopes as well as swim in rivers and glide through the rainforest canopy. In more than 100 million years on Earth, they've evolved to elegant perfection

. "The way a snake moves, through sleek body curves, light shining off its scales, is one of the most impressive sights nature has to offer," says cobra expert Wolfgang Wuster at the University of Wales, who collaborated with Slowinski in naming the new cobra. PERFECT BODY Apes climb with powerful anus and hands; frogs swim with webbed feet; falcons seize prey with sharp talons. Snakes--merely with a backbone--do all these things. Sheathed in smooth or rough scales, a snake's limbless body contains a long string of 100 to 600 vertebrae (backbones), which provide spectacular flexibility without sacrificing strength. Each vertebra features a pair of ribs that curve and attach to the inner surface of a broad scale on a snake's under-belly. Essential for snaky locomotion, these belly-side scales run crosswise like bulldozer tread; a snake's skeleton and belly scales are linked by muscles in complex overlapping layers, letting snakes crawl, climb, zigzag, caterpillar creep, coil, and crush. Cruising roads at nightfall is one way Slowinski sleuths cobras, since the species he's after tend to be nocturnal, or active at night. Cobras are nocturnal because the rodents they love to eat scurry around at night; also, cobras can overheat and die in intense tropical sunlight. Since snakes are cold-blooded, or ectothermic, external sources--sunlight, air, water, or warm blacktop roads--heat their bodies. When snakes need to conserve heat, they coil into a compact mass. Some scientists think snakes bask on warm blacktops after they've eaten to heat their bodies and speed up the digestive process. DEADLY VENOM One night in rural Myanmar, Slowinski came upon a spitting cobra lying on a road. As he moved to bag the snake, the cobra reared, hissed, and spit at him. Wearing protective glasses, Slowinski didn't back off. With his grab stick he snatched the snake behind its head and wrangled it into his cloth sack, trying to avoid a vicious bite. But he miscalculated: "Suddenly it bit me right through the bag!" The fang sank into his finger, and Slowinski sat down and waited for the pain--which never came. "I got lucky. The bite was dry." In other words, the snake released no venom, a poisonous saliva used to kill prey. If the cobra had injected venom, Slowinski's finger would have swelled within minutes. His muscles would have weakened and his eyelids drooped; he would have drooled and slurred his speech. Breathing would have become laborious--then impossible. In 12 to 24 hours, he could have died. "But the last thing cobras want to do is waste venom on animals they can't swallow whole, like people," Slowinski says. Snake venom is produced by special cells in two large venom glands on each side of the head. Out of 3,000 known species of snakes, more than 500 are venomous. The 10 most lethal snakes in the world belong to the elapids--often called the cobra family. Cobra venom kills via neurotoxins, proteins that paralyze an animal's nervous system and diaphragm, abdominal muscles used to breathe. The snake metes out the exact amount of venom needed to suffocate the prey, then swallows its catch. Headfirst. SNAKE SNACKS Small animals--frogs, birds, rodents, and snakes (even other cobras!)--whet a hungry cobra's appetite. Cobras track prey using senses of smell, sight, and hearing. As the snake hunts, its forked tongue flicks in and out through a notch in the upper lip; odor particles from the air and ground stick to the extended tongue. Inside the mouth, the tongue transfers scent particles to the Jacobson's organ, two pits on the mouth roof; the organ sends complex signals to the brain, which analyzes the scent chemicals.