A thread to discuss and post information on the rich Etymology of puma concolor.

For some time i have a question it goes through my head and i've thought about it a lot,  but i can't really say if there is some scientific evidence behind it or it's just my opinion and point of view. Everybody knows that big cats have been around for a lot of time by now and they evolved over millions of years into the species we are familiar today, Lions, Tigers, Jaguars and Leopards. These 4 species lived on earth in their actual form (i mean without major biological changes) for hundred thousands years (if i not mistaken, feel free to correct this info). I have the feeling these animals went through a shrinking process in size by the time but i cannot prove it and i didn't have direct scientific evidence in the form of peer reviewed articles. Take for example the Siberian Tiger, we can safely assume in the past the species roamed a much much bigger territory than today's patch in Primorsky Krai. With the same logic the species counted many more specimens (i don't really know their numbers lets say 1000 years ago, anybody knows something about it) and surely had access to many more prey items. Also in the recent past (100 years) their numbers plummeted so quickly that is possible some kind of embreeding process took place on a large% of the population. All these factors combined could have been the cause for a major size shrinking in siberian tigers? And if it is the case what sizes these cats reached lets say 2000 years ago? Or all siberian tigers from every millenia were plus minus equal in maximum size? This question of course is extended to Lions Leopards Jaguars of the past the tiger is only one example. Does anybody know something about this topic?

This thread concerns the conservation of jaguars and how said conservations impacts population and the change in population. I will start the thread with this wonderful study:
Estimating large carnivore populations at global scale based on spatial predictions of density and distribution – Application to the jaguar (Panthera onca) 

Abstract

Broad scale population estimates of declining species are desired for conservation efforts. However, for many secretive species including large carnivores, such estimates are often difficult. Based on published density estimates obtained through camera trapping, presence/absence data, and globally available predictive variables derived from satellite imagery, we modelled density and occurrence of a large carnivore, the jaguar, across the species’ entire range. We then combined these models in a hierarchical framework to estimate the total population. Our models indicate that potential jaguar density is best predicted by measures of primary productivity, with the highest densities in the most productive tropical habitats and a clear declining gradient with distance from the equator. Jaguar distribution, in contrast, is determined by the combined effects of human impacts and environmental factors: probability of jaguar occurrence increased with forest cover, mean temperature, and annual precipitation and declined with increases in human foot print index and human density. Probability of occurrence was also significantly higher for protected areas than outside of them. We estimated the world’s jaguar population at 173,000 (95% CI: 138,000–208,000) individuals, mostly concentrated in the Amazon Basin; elsewhere, populations tend to be small and fragmented. The high number of jaguars results from the large total area still occupied (almost 9 million km2) and low human densities (< 1 person/km2) coinciding with high primary productivity in the core area of jaguar range. Our results show the importance of protected areas for jaguar persistence. We conclude that combining modelling of density and distribution can reveal ecological patterns and processes at global scales, can provide robust estimates for use in species assessments, and can guide broad-scale conservation actions.


Important remark: "Our estimate of the total jaguar population, approximately 173,000 individuals (CI = 138,000–208,000), was greater than may be expected by many researchers."

So, I have something to share with you. A couple friends of mine decided to run a donation campaign in an innovative approach: by offering custom made NFT art of 5 extremely endangered animals. Depending on the type of sale, either 80% or 100% of it goes to a charity. The rest will go to support the artists behind the project. They've also prepared a cool video where they explain the details of the effort, check it out if you want. I'm curious, what is everyone's opinion on an event like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55k7Gc16zmM

Hello first of all @GuateGojira  @tigerluver 
I will ask you a few questions.

• Is it true that the Alaskan Tiger is Panthera Tigris Acutidens?
• How many mm is the largest skull of Panthera Tigris Acutidens (Wanhsien tiger)?
• What is the maximum weight of Panthera Tigris Acutidens? (from the largest skull)
  

I will be glad if you answer my questions.

On the request of @Tonpa, We have added Video Embed from Imgur site. Now you can embed video from Imgur website. Below we have detailed each step to do this.

The code to embed the video is




So basically you need to just copy the URL of video from imgur site and put inside them grvideo BBcode as shown above.

See the below Image to find the URL on Imgur website.




Why this useful?

If you have your own video which you don't want to upload on YouTube or Facebook (We already support video embedding from these platform), then Imgur is perfect site to upload your short video. We generally suggest it for short and quick video upload. So basically first you have to upload your video on Imgur and then embed it in your post on WildFact.

I've been trying to learn/write about animals with the most powerful/sensitive/whatever versions of various senses, and comparing them to humans.

Regarding the sense of smell, it seems elephants and bears are likely among the best out there, but I haven't been able to find a lot of concrete science on olfactory comparisons between different species (maybe I'm just bad at searching for it). There is some research on limited numbers of animals measuring things like the number of olfactory receptors they have, or their functional olfactory receptor genes, but I haven't been able to find much that actually demonstrates how well such numbers correlate with observed behavior (e.g., actually testing animals' ability to distinguish odors or follow very faint smells).

I'd love any help and insight you have into animals with the best and/or most interesting noses and senses of smell. Really, any cool anecdotes about animal noses in general would probably be very interesting to learn! 

Hypothetical question: What would happen if there were as many tigers as humans on Earth ? (around 7,9 billion) Would we live in peaceful coexistence? Maybe the biggest challenge would be for the smaller animals but I guess there would be some economic costs as well. What do you think? Let's say tomorrow morning there suddenly were 7,9 billion tigers on Earth.

Hello WildFact Members,

I am exploring Blockchain possibilities. I can see blockchain is getting popular and it has wide range of applications. Some of the common use case are:

1. DeFi
Decentralized Finance. Lend, barrow and Stack and earn better APY.

2. NFT
Great way for creative person to monetize their assets.

3. Metaverse
With Facbook changing its name to Meta, things will be changing fast in coming future. We will witness next phase of Internet.

4. P2E
Play to earn is going to be huge for gamer. In coming years, Big game company are making economy over blockchain to reward users who play their game. You can mint/collect NFT, sell your weapons to other. This huge Play to earn economy is going to dominate Game world. Axie Infinity is perfect example of such game.

5. DAO
Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). Yes this could be the next big thing in Blockchain industry.

Any list goes on. I think the above 5 are going to dominate more.

So, to my group members, What is your take on Blockchain or Cryptocurrency disruption ?

Well, If I see enough interest, I am willing to educate and learn myself about this more through a new community.

After researching the physiology and anatomical composition of animals, I find that the most muscular mammals are the wild felines.

It is not possible to make comparisons between them, the felines, due to the differences in dissection methods, especially with respect to the extraction of body fat.

This is in reference to the two scientific papers from which these data are taken: Davis (1962) cited in Munro (1969) and Pitts and Bullard (1969).

Lions, possess a mean musculature of 58.8 % without including body fat in the total body weight (Davis 1962), and 57.1 % (Mentioned in (Cuff et. al. 2017)), including the "excessive fat" that one of the specimens had (Something that the original author mentioned).

Bobcats and Canada lynx, had a muscle percentage of 58.5 and 56.5 % respectively including fat, but 66.5 and 66.1 % of fat-free body weight (Pitts and Bullard 1969).

Lions, even with the percentage of muscle including fat (57.1 %), would possess a greater musculature than any mammal according to Munro (1969) who compared the relative musculature of various mammals, including lions (with the figure of 58.8 % not including body fat).

Bobcats and lynx had the highest percentages of musculature, after two species of squirrels, the eastern gray squirrel Sciurus carolinensis and red squirrels Tamiasciurus hudsonicus, which possessed percentages of 61.4 and 59.2 % respectively (this taking into account fat as one of the body elements). But squirrels had unusually low amounts of body fat, compared to felids, and things change when body fat is not taken into account as an element of total body weight. Eastern gray squirrels and red squirrels possess relative musculature of 62.8 and 61.5 % of total fat-free body weight, respectively. Lower values compared to bobcats and Canada lynx under the same situation, which amount to 66.5 and 66.1 % respectively.

The image is my creation and the sources are cited, and the copyright of the images are also cited.

Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version).

*I not speak english.


Sources:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/....tb03240.x
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf....tb03240.x
https://www.nap.edu/read/20255/chapter/3#45
https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2...ossil-lion
https://books.google.es/books?id=FDHLBAA...&q&f=false
https://books.google.es/books?id=-iBS6-2...&q&f=false
https://brainevo.sitehost.iu.edu/publica...BBE.04.pdf
https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/do...1&type=pdf

*This image is copyright of its original author