Animals Round-Up
ANIMALS
FIRST THREE-PIECE SUIT DESIGNED FOR A HORSE
To celebrate the opening of the Cheltenham Festival in
Gloucestershire, UK, on 15 Mar 2016, fashion designer Emma
Sandham-King (UK) designed and made a Harris Tweed suit
for Morestead, a chestnut gelding racehorse. The three-
piece suit, complete with shirt, tie and flat cap, took four
weeks to make and required more than 18 m (59 ft) of hand-
woven tweed – enough for 10 regular human-sized suits.MOST EXPENSIVE DODO SKELETON SOLD AT AUCTION
On 22 Nov 2016, a near-complete skeleton of a dodo
(Raphus cucullatus) sold to a private collector for £346,300
($428,931), with buyer’s premium, at the Summers Place
“Evolution” auction in Billingshurst, West Sussex, UK.
The skeleton is believed to be one of only 13 such skeletons
in existence; the others are all held by museums.An ant colony trapped inside a Polish nuclear bunker has formed its own
society with no queen or males.IN THE NEWS...
Great white shark
On 15 Apr 2012, a great
white shark nearly 20 ft
(6.09 m) long and weighing
at least 2,000 lb (907 kg)
was caught in the Sea of
Cortez in Mexico. Great
whites are the largest
predatory fish: adults
average 14–15 ft (4.3–4.6 m)
in length, with females
usually larger than males,
although there is evidence
of some exceeding 20 ft.Masai giraffe
The Wild Nature Institute’s
ongoing Project GIRAFFE
(short for Giraffe Facing
Fragmentation Effects)
is the largest giraffe
research project,
monitoring more than
2,100 specimens in an area
of 4,000 km^2 (1,544 sq mi).
It focuses on the possible
effects of environmental
fragmentation – i.e., habitat
decrease or loss – upon
the Masai giraffes (Giraffa
tippelskirchi) of Tanzania’s
Tarangire National Park.
The tallest giraffe ever
documented was a Masai
bull named George, who
was received by Chester
Zoo, UK, on 8 Jan 1959.
Measuring c. 19 ft (5.8 m)
in height, George was so
tall that he had to duck
his head to get in and out
of the giraffe house!Dinosaurs
Researchers from the
Natural History Museum in
London, UK, constructed
a detailed dinosaur family
tree that suggests the
creatures may have evolved
up to 10 million years
earlier than the current
oldest-dated dinosaur, a
Nyasasaurus approximately
240 million years old.Apes
The largest primate,
Gigantopithecus blacki,
stood 3 m (9 ft 10 in) tall and
weighed around 1,580 kg
(3,483 lb). Research in
2016 suggested that the
ape died out 100,000 years
ago owing to a lack of food,
as forests turned into
savannahs.Nile crocodile
In May 2016, DNA tests
confirmed that three
crocodiles found in swamps
in Florida, USA, were man-
eating Nile crocodiles. It
is not known for certain
how they got there – one
possibility is that they were
smuggled into the country
by unlicensed collectors.
The Nile crocodile
(Crocodylus niloticus) is
one of 12 species contained
within Crocodylus – the
largest crocodile genus.
Other species include the
recently recognized desert
crocodile (C. suchus) and
the mugger crocodile
(C. palustris).FIRST DINOSAUR TAIL PRESERVED IN AMBER
In 2015, palaeontologist Dr Lida Xing from Beijing’s China
University of Geosciences made a startling discovery
while browsing an amber market in Kachin State, Burma.
Preserved inside one lump of amber, dated to the mid-
Cretaceous period 99 million
years ago, was a finely
feathered tail. Tomographic
scans of the feathers and
accompanying eight veterbrae
suggested that the tail had
belonged not to a bird but
to a dinosaur, most likely a
coelurosaur (pictured above).RAREST WILD BUFFALO
The tamaraw (Bubalus mindorensis) is confined entirely
to the Philippine island of Mindoro. Thanks to habitat
destruction caused by logging and human habitation, the
tamaraw’s range has shrunk to a few grassy plains in the
mountainous interior of the island. As of 2 016, it is believed
to number around 430 individuals, and is categorized as
“Critically Endangered” by the IUCN.Moose
In Nov 2016, two hikers in
Unalakleet, Alaska, USA,
stumbled across two
pairs of bull moose antlers
protruding through an 8-in
(20.32-cm) layer of ice over
open water. It is thought
that the two bulls had
locked antlers while fighting
before drowning together
in water that later iced over.
The Alaskan moose
(Alces alces gigas) is
the largest deer. A bull
standing 7 ft 8 in (2.34 m)
tall and weighing an
estimated 1,800 lb (816 kg)
was shot in the Yukon
Territory of Canada in
Sep 1897.