To begin this new thread: Portrait of a proboscis monkey bachelor. The big-nosed monkey typically lives close to water and is the most prolific swimmer among the wild primates. It has webbed feet, is happy to cross rivers and is capable of swimming up to 20 meters underwater. You sometimes see it jump from trees straight into the river, landing with a loud belly flop. Borneo.

The existence of the tiger on Borneo has long been a cryptic and controversial discussion. The lack of modern, confirmed records regarding the presence of the tiger on Borneo has brought upon much speculation as to why such is the case. Considering the close proximity of Borneo to the rest of islands the tiger inhabits in the Malay archipelago, it seemed out of place for the tiger to never have been on Borneo. In 1999, Meijard speculated on why the tiger was not recorded on Borneo. He gave four possibilities:
1.  The tiger never reached Borneo. One reason may have been the open woodland Savannah in parts of the Sunda shelf creating a barrier for the jungle dwelling tiger to reach what is now Borneo. Another possibility may have been that the tiger arrived on the Malay archipelago only after Borneo had been separated from the rest of the islands by the rising sea levels. 
2. The tiger did once occur on Borneo and are now extinct. Borneo, compared to the rest of the Malay archipelago, is less nutrient dense. Such may have predisposed any population of tigers to extinction.
3. The tiger did exist on Borneo, undiscovered. Meijard (1999) speculated that perhaps a very dispersed population may be able to exist undetected theoretically.
4. The tiger was imported to Borneo. Meijard (1999) noted no record of such an importation exists.

In terms of the fossil record, prior to 2007 all records of the tiger on Borneo were controversial. Hooijer (1963) mentioned a canine. However, it was argued the canine may have been imported from elsewhere. Harrison (1998) mentioned a navicular the author attributed to a tiger. However, no photograph or measurements were published to ascertain such an identification. Finally, in 2007, Piper and team reassessed the collections from the Niah caves, a site in northern Borneo. Here they provided incontrovertible evidence of the presence of the tiger in Borneo.



The specimen, Niah W/E1, was a small tiger, dated to about 13,000 years. At this time, Borneo was still connected to the rest of the Sunda shelf. 

This year, a second confirmed tiger from Borneo was described. Dated to about 22,000 years, this tiger was found in southern Borneo along the Kahayan river (Sherani 2019).


As compared to the Niah Caves specimen, the Kahayan river specimen (SFC-1345), was much larger. It too would have resided in Borneo when the area was still connected to the rest of the Sundaland. Morphologically, SFC-1345 groups well with extant tigers, especially the southern forms of P. t. corbetti and P. t. sumatrae. 

 
Thus, it can be safely said that the tiger existed on the land that is now Borneo in at least the final parts of the Late Pleistocene. Thus, this article sits in the Pleistocene Predators section. What is still up for debate is whether the tiger survived on Borneo once the region became a true island after the rise of sea levels at the turn of the Pleistocene-Holocene. Based on the dramatic downsizing of the tiger as depicted by the striking difference in size between SFC-1345 and Niah W/E1, extinction pressures such a decreased prey biomass, human pressures, and island isolation had probably begun exerting their effects by the end of Late Pleistocene (Sherani 2019). These pressures may have pushed the tiger beyond the edge of extinction by the time the Holocene and associated records of human history came along. Nonetheless, perhaps the stories and collectibles of the locals of Borneo are genuine and the Bornean tiger became the cryptic ghost that it is now much later than the fossil record shows. Such speculation leads the mind to theorize, and maybe even hope, that Meijard's theory of an undetected population of Bornean tigers that may still prowl what is left of the island's jungles holds true. Whatever may be the case, the record of the tiger on Borneo is a paradigm for the diversity and gigantism of the Pleistocene and the loss and mystery of the Holocene.  

References:
Harrison, T. (1998). Vertebrate faunal remains from the Madai caves (MAD 1/28), Sabah, East Malaysia. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, 17, 85-92.

Hooijer, D.A. 1963. Further ‘Hell’ animals from Niah. Sarawak Museum Journal 11: 196-200.

Meijaard E. 1999. The Bornean tiger; speculation on its existence. Cat News. 30:12–15.

Piper, P. J., Cranbrook, E. O., & Rabett, R. J. (2007). Confirmation of the Presence of the Tiger Panthera tigris (L.). Malayan Nature Journal, 59(3), 259-267.

Sherani, S. (2019). Short notes on a second tiger (Panthera tigris) from Late Pleistocene Borneo. Historical Biology, 1-5.

This article is part of a new series published at WildFact. Comments, questions, and the like regarding this article can be posted here.

This thread is for information, pictures and videos of orcas. When posting only photos, it would be more interesting if there is also some story about that photo if photo doesn´t show something spectacular/extraordinary.

This is older news from New Zealand, where orcas hunted group of sharks to the shore so, that some shark(s) actually swam to the beach to flee.


Some astonishing photos from 2013, where an orca is hunting and catching a bottlenose dolphin off the coast of Mexico.












https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2377154/Eight-ton-orca-leaps-15ft-air-finally-capture-dolphin-hour-chase.html

There are certainly some better ways to start a new topic, but I didn't see anything about marsupial animals.

Nevertheless this first thread seems funny. How can we tell that the animals aren't epicurean ? Or simply "bons vivants" ?

I think this is getting worse, Brazil government didn't take needed action. Neither the international community is much concerned about this. This issue is way bigger than any issue right now across the globe.
I request members living in South America, please keep updating us about this mishap.

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Megalania (Varanus prisca) was a giant monitor lizard that lived in southern Australia. It was part of a species of megafauna that lived during the Pleistocene, and it appears to have desappeared around 40.000 years ago. The first Aboriginal settlers of Australia may have encountered living Megalania.
Megalania is landbased lizard known to have existed judging from its size, Megalania would have fed mostly upon medium to large sized animals, including any of the giant marsupials like Diprotodon.
ralph Molnar in 2004 determined a range of possibles sized for Megalania, he did this by scaling up from dorsal vertebrae, after he determined a relationship between dorsal vertebrae length and total body length, if it had a long thin tail like the Lace monitor (Varanus varius), then it would have reached a length of 7,9 metres. If it tail to body proportions were more similar to that of the Komodo dragon then a length of around 7 metres is more likely. Using 7 m as the maximum length Molnar estimated the average weight of the lizard at 320 kilograms and 1940 kilograms as the maximum.
This is more than  twice the length of their closes living relative the Komodo dragon of eatern Indonesia.

Thread to share information about success rates of predators and also what kind of information can be found behind percentages. This thread is meant for terrestrial predators.

I start with observations and thoughts from Londolozi guide James Tyrrell. I found it interesting.

Quote: 
"Are Leopards Successful Hunters?

Most of what I’m about to type is purely anecdotal evidence.

It comes from years of game drives and walks in the field, but given that A) we only witness less than 10% of a leopard’s daily routine (and that’s as a Londolozi team, rather than for an individual ranger or tracker), and B) I’m not running any statistical analyses on my personal observations, none of this is gospel, it’s merely the initiation of what I consider to be an interesting conservation stream.

The established fact is that leopards don’t have a particularly high success rate in hunts. I’m sure the figure varies somewhat between areas, and maybe even between individual leopards, but as it’s roughly 20% – or maybe even less –  I’ll agree that they don’t score well in the hunt-conversion ratio. Certainly not when you compare them to Wild Dogs, which are up above 70% in their hunting success rate. Of course the dogs have a different hunting strategy and they operate as a pack, so it’s like comparing apples and oranges, but I’m merely giving an appreciation for where these solitary spotted cats sit."




Whole story and more photos:

https://blog.londolozi.com/2019/08/10/le...the-stalk/

I'm already thinking of where to go next, right now I'm leaning towards Patagonia.
Not only to see Cougars but from what I've heard from others who've been there, Patagonia is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. It's also a place for active travelers with it's hiking and kayaking through the Glaciers, so it's definitely a place that interests me.
But to be honest, my first choice was Alaska to see Grizzlies or maybe the Arctic to see Polar Bears but both options are incredibly expensive.
I still hope to see either, so if anyone has any other options on how to see them in the wild, let me know.

Any other ideas are welcomed as well, I'm just tossing around some things at the moment and maybe one of you has another option I'm not aware of.
Thanks

Today on 31st July, World Ranger Day, a new thread dedicated to the boots on the ground.

Hi guys and girls, I'm new to this forum so my first post is regarding getting me and my daughter (6) interested in nature so we can spend time together on nature walks and trips to the zoo etc. 

My daughter is really interested in getting started so any advice on how to get started would be much appreciated :). First thing I am going to need (maybe not now but for the cold and wet autumn/winter months) is a nice warm waterproof jacket for her because she only has her school jacket which we don't want to get muddy and dirty etc so, again, any advice on what brand is best to go for, would be greatly appreciated :).

I look forward to interacting with everyone here too.