Post any images, accounts or studies related to Semi/Domesticated Bovines.



Jiju Atheena‎

Nikon D 7100 +Sigma 70-200 mm f 2.8 lens
@ 70 mm , F 4.5 , 1/800, ISO 500 ,
Date 10 AUG 2017 
Location : Alathur , Palakkadu, Kerala.
( Full screen view recommended )

*This image is copyright of its original author

Raja preying on domestic bison

Kaziranga Tiger chasing down domestic cattle

In 2017, the Cat Classification Taskforce of the Cat Specialist Group revised felid subspecies, including for the lion, and they recognised 2 subspecies: the northern Panthera leo leo for lions in Asia and northern parts of Africa (including the northern part of Central Africa), and the southern Panthera leo melanochaita for lions in southern parts of Africa (including in East Africa), but there's a problem, if you look closely at their map of lion subspecies in Page 72: https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/hand...=y#page=72 
   

They put a question mark over Ethiopia in Northeast Africa, and said "There have been several recent molecular studies, which confirm that there is a clear divergence between the lions of eastern and southern Africa and those from the rest of range (e.g. Dubach et al. 2013, Barnett et al. 2014). Barnett et al. (2014) identify five phylogeographical groups, which have differentiated genetically from each other over the last c. 80,000 years. However, two of these groups are partly sympatric in southern Africa, making their recognition as separate subspecies inappropriate. The divergence of the other three groups, which range from Central and West Africa to India, has been very recent (c. 50,000 years ago or less). Asian lions, which have frequently been recognised as a distinct subspecies have only colonised SW Asia within the last 20,000 years. However, this is far earlier than the suggestion by Thapar et al. (2013) that lions were introduced to India from East Africa from the 17th Century by the Mughals. Mazák (2010) analysed craniometric variation, although some populations were poorly represented, e.g. West Africa, and found a broadly similar pattern of variation with the main differentiation in skull shape being between lions in southern and eastern Africa and those in the rest of the range. Bertola et al. (2011, 2016) have confirmed this basic pattern of differentiation into two subspecies based on genetic data; one from south and east Africa and one from the rest of the range. The contact zone is somewhere in Ethiopia. On the basis of these recent studies, we recognise two subspecies, although morphological diagnoses are currently unknown: 

Panthera leo leo (Linnaeus, 1758). Distribution: Central and West Africa and India; formerly throughout North Africa, SE Europe, the Middle East, Arabian Peninsula, SW Asia. 

Panthera leo melanochaita (Hamilton Smith, 1842). Distribution: Southern and eastern Africa."

To put it simply, according to the CSG, using the work of Bertola et al. on lion genetics, the ranges of the northern (P. l. leo) and southern (P. l. melanochaita) lion subspecies meet at Ethiopia, and thus classifying Ethiopian lions (formerly Panthera leo abyssinica or Panthera leo roosevelti in honour of the U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, who used to go hunting in Africa: https://archive.org/stream/smithsonianmi...3/mode/2up) is difficult.

If you remember, Ethiopian lions at Addis Abeba Zoo had earlier been in the news for their genetic makeup, like in National Geographic, after Bruche et al. (https://link.springer.com/article/10.100...8-5#page-2) determined them to be "genetically distinct": https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2012...-is-found/ 



A lion discovered in Bale Mountains National Park, National Geographic: https://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/an...video.aspx



However, as per Bertola et al. (https://www.nature.com/articles/srep3080..._evolution), they're not alone, and this appears to be a reason why the Addis Abeba lions, despite being in East Africa, were found to be different to wild lions in that region, such as Tanzania: 







According to Bertola et al., the Horn of African country of Ethiopia, part(s) of Somalia or Somaliland (from where Panthera leo somaliensis or Panthera leo webbiensis was described: https://web.archive.org/web/201707281311...ra_leo.pdf), and possibly northern parts of Kenya and Uganda (from where Panthera leo nyanzæ was described: https://archive.org/stream/smithsonianmi...5/mode/2up) in East Africa, and the southeastern part of South Sudan, are where the northern and southern lion groups overlap. In addition, the ranges of the 2 groups are depicted as being close in the northeastern part of D. R. Congo, from where Panthera leo azandicus was described: https://archive.org/stream/bulletinameri...3/mode/2up

A lion in Somaliland / Somalia in the Horn of Africa, photo by Feisal Omar of Reuters: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-self...of-china-1 



Northeast Congolese lion (formerly Panthera leo azandica) at Virunga National Park, photo by Adrian Treves: https://savevirunga.com/2012/07/02/1-000...irunga-10/ 



Ugandan lion (formerly Panthera leo nyanzæ) in Murchison Falls National Park, adjacent to Virunga Park, photo in Mariana Tourist Hotel: https://marianahthotel.wordpress.com/saf...onal-park/ 



Another northern Ugandan lion in Kidepo Valley National Park, just south of South Sudan, photo in Ultimate Expeditions: https://ultimateexpeditions.com/kidepo-v...ional-park 


South Sudanese lion at Boma National Park, photo in Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/570760952752139229/ 



Counting northern Kenyan lions, by the Lion Recovery Fund: https://www.lionrecoveryfund.org/project...de-survey/ 

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https://allthatsinteresting.com/worms-fr...a_A06azCjc  
  
These Worms Unfrozen After More Than 30,000 Years Are Now The Oldest Living Animals On Earth
Published July 27, 2018

@Kingtheropod Post Body Mass of Bengal tiger in Modern Records: Revised (2019)

Excerpt
Hello everyone, I have decided to make a new revision of the body mass of Bengal tiger in modern records. This list included the weights of 30 male tigers, with a few others not included. The average body weight is 492 lbs (223 kg).....

Read the full post CLICK HERE

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Official trailer of the new version of "The Lion King" scheduled for release coming summer ( @Spalea ):


The film director is same as in Jungle Book, hopefully the film will be not so darkish, at least Africa is a land plenty with sunshine....

Wildlife activist Rathindranath Das with his spouse is going on an ambitious campaign to raise awareness & draw attention to tiger conservation, as they will ride a motorbike through all 13 tiger countries starting from 20th January. The first ever of its kind.
It is named "Journey for Tigers".


In the 1st phase they'll go to every single one of the 50 tiger reserves in India, visit 500+ local schools along those forests' fringe. 

In the 2nd phase, Myanmar> Thailand> Malaysia> Indonesia> (ship)Vietnam> Cambodia> Laos will be covered.
There's going to be meetup with local NGOs supporting them in those countries.

In the 3rd phase Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China & Russia (Vladivostok to St. Petersburg).


This is the site that is going online once they start & updates will be shared here:
http://wildrathinaroundthe.world
And this is the link to further details:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ghn9IkJ...AFHFi5vGto

WildFact.com supports them on their mission & urges all members/visitors to share the news.

A thread dedicated to carnivorous animals interracting with eachother, (excluding felids inerracting with other felids)

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/fi...d=61907549 
  
New Fossils Reveal the Predatory Lifestyle of Australia’s ‘Top Marsupial Carnivore’
The first complete skeleton reconstruction of Thylacoleo carnifex, the “marsupial lion,” illuminates how this bizarre carnivore moved and ate.
BYKATHERINE J. WUWEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2018 NOVA NEXT

Hello Members

Nothing can be worse than starting the new year with such a bad experience. Due to technical problem from hosting company our forum was down for more than 24 hours. This was the technical problems that is beyond the reach of my expertise. And only the hosting provider can fix/solve it.

I was very paniced and nervous through all this time and was in constant contact with the hosting company. At one time hosting company told me it is also possible that we might have lost everything and they can't get back the websites backup.. that means all thing lost forever.. I was almost screaming on them.. but they have nothing to say. Thank you to God, Jesus, Bhagwan, Allah, Buddha they were able to retrieve the website and able to make it online again.

So lesson learned from this incident is that.. We have to move on some more reliable hosting company. Good hosting company is not cheap and thats why we were avoiding them. We don't make much money from WildFact and hence was not avail to pay for it.

Thanks for reading and supporting us through this hard time.