I was in the Big Easy this past week for the holiday and we did an air boat tour in hopes to see some Gators.
Unfortunately it was a bit too cold and we didn't get to see the Gators come out to bask since they'll stay in their caves they build on the bank until the water heats up then they'll come out to bask, if it's too cold they'll just stay in their cave coming up only to take a breath every 4-5 hours but other than that they stay in an almost hibernation state except for they are awake the entire time.

Here are some pics and info below


The front desk and some of their wildlife taxidermy



An Aligator Gar


An Albino Gator they keep in the Lobby


A Snapping Turtle Skull


A Real Texas Cichlid they had in their Shop


A baby Gator getting some sun before we head out...
The smaller animals will bask before the larger ones for obvious reasons.



A vulture, there were lots of them on a Hog kill that was made earlier in the week.


The boats leaving the doc



Landscape Shot




The actually company we used https://airboatadventures.com/?source=adwords


Sorry I don't have many better shots, I took some good videos but they don't transfer well, either way it was beautiful and fun. 
I definitely recommend it, usually seeing Gators is guaranteed but not when it's cold.

Name: Andrew Ucles.

Country: Australia

Websites: http://www.andrewucles.com/
                https://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewUcles/featured
                https://www.facebook.com/uclesvsthewild
                https://twitter.com/andrewucles

Profession: Nature Explorer, wildlife documentary film maker, Wildlife Explorer cum Adventurer (Studying in Australian university about Wildlife).

Disorder: Funny all time, has a disorder of his body releasing adrenaline along with Oxytocine which make him do that thing again. many people and he himself Calls him as Homo sapiens retardus or retard man.

Specialties: Captures any animal with bare hands on bare foot like primitive man. Makes a documentary on it and releases it back into the wild unharmed.

Why he does so? He gets that euphoria feeling due to the produce of oxytocin during the adventurous thrill he get during that dangerous encounter and capturing of wild animals. He feels bonded with Nature. For that feeling of anxiety and wildlife or nature enthusiasm he does soo again and again. He films them in episodes.

Happy New Year!

In a few hours, i'm leaving for the forests of Dooars for a week. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, a brief introduction...

Map of Dooars.


Dooars is a moderately forested region situated in North Bengal (actually northern Bengal), a narrow corridor that joins rest of India with the Northeast since partition in '47. This is where the Ganga-Brahmaputra plain ends & Himalayan foothills begin. The name comes from the word "duar", meaning door in classical Bengali, the doorway to Bhutan. 
The stretch from Neora Valley National Park to Buxa Tiger Reserve, covering the three districts of Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri & Alipurduar is technically Western Dooars, with the eastern one beyond the Sankosh river made up of the Manas TR of Assam, but that term is not as popular.

In the past most of the region was a wilderness of monsoon forest & grasslands that joined the Terai with Brahmaputra floodplains. For much of its history the region formed is frontier between the Kingdoms of Bhutan & Coochbehar (Koch Bihar).
After the Duar War, saw deforestation during the British era as large swathes of land came under tea plantations, that still sit on elephant corridors, causing considerable conflict & death on both sides. 

Some communities that they kicked out from ancestral lands were settled here to work as semi-bonded labourers. Many of those plantations lie closed from time to time because paying reasonable wage simply isn't profitable!

I'll provide detailed info as i write along. In the meantime, if you want to know more on wildlife of Bengal, then this treasure trove has all data:
http://www.wildbengal.com

I propose a new topic about big cats' intelligence. Not a biased topic like the previous one " tigers 16% brainier than..." titled. It sounded like a fanboy fanzine...

But a topic also about the advantages, or not, of the social life. As such I come to discover this account of the scientific american :

https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...-big-cats/

OK, the title seems categorical. I feel me a little bit contradictal by what I have introduced this new topic. At least, for those who would reproach me for choosing it, there are as many truths as there are scientific men...

Hi guys, posting this thread to connect anyone who is planning to visit the tiger reserve of Ranthambore National Park in Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan. Anyone who have tried to get an online ticket for this reserve know that its very difficult to get confirmed entry pass, especially for the main core areas and if you have a group. And last year, I connected with some guys from Jaipur, that said that they can offer confirmed entry passes for Ranthambore, especially for groups. So, I am sharing their contact details. Name: Mr Chaturbhuj Singh, his contact number: 9928399846 and website is http://rajputanacabs.in/.

(Disclaimer: I am not connected with these guys, and only sharing this as 2 members contact me on how I always get confirmed jeep tickets for Ranthambore)

Hey Grizzly...
I know it’s hard when they are carved but what do you think this is? Thanks.

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Its total length has been estimated to be about 13,5-17,5 m similar to moderns sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), making it  one of the largest predators to have ever existed. The tallest tooth measured 36,2 cm it is the largest tooth of any  known animal, excluding tusks. It is distinguished from the other raptorial sperm whales by the basin on the skull, and how it spans the entire length of the snout. 
The holotype skull of Livyatan was about 3 m long, like other raptorial sperm whales, Livyatan has a wide gap in between  the temporal fossae on the sides of the skull and zygomatic processes on the front of the skull, indicating a large spece for holdind strong temporal muscles, which are the most powerful muscles between the skull and the jaw. 
Unlike the modern sperm whale, Livyatan had functional teeth in both jaws. The wearing on the teeth indicated that the teeth sheared past each other while biting down, meaning it could bite
off large portions of flesh from its prey. also the lower jaw contained 22 teeth and upper jaw contained 18 teeth.
credtit for information to Wikipedia, pictures and images credit to @a_fools_experiment 

Probably most of us, unless I'm the only person here not wealthy, has a dream vacation, somewhere you would love to visit. 
 
My first choice would be: https://www.visitmt.com/glacier.html

The Wild Yak- bos mutus (the mute ox) probably need it's own honourable section very little verified data is available about this beast, Maybe as a community we can gather as much interesting data as possible, so here it is- a thread to share any materials that may relate to wild yaks - behaviour, physical traits, pictures, distribution, numbers, even domestic ones if it can compare to it's wild counterpart in any way and so on. I will add some stuffs soon, in the meantime, found this cool video
First impression I got was it was a wild yak which came to take over a domestic herd and challenged a domestic bull cuz it resembled very much a wild yak interms of it's  general build, tall hump and notably forward curving and pretty thick horns but then i realized this was all filmed in close proximity, a wild yak would be too dangerous for this and maybe it's close to a wild variety but still a domestic one.
Wild yak in it's habitat

Tigers are one of the more territorial bigcats. And are even more territorial than many bigcats. Most of the territorial battles between tigers were ended in death than that of lions or any big cats. Showing how Territorial they were, actually. 

Many people think lions having more testosterone level than that of tigers, based on a study of capitive specimens. Where it gives mean of 1850 pg/ml for Asiatic lions and 1720 pg/ml for tigers.

But the other study showing other wise. The following study gives the values of 9.71 ng/ml for 4 year old males and 18.02 ng/ml for 6 year old males. That is 9710 pg/ml  and 18020 pg/ml. Much higher than previously thought. 

Source: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.jakraya.com/journal/download.php%3Ffile%3D5-ijavsArticle_1.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwj999r097ffAhVGOSsKHSJXAdYQFjAAegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw3__bE074bjN3JyHE8aAXSg&cshid=1545636308304

The following study, sounds familiar to that value...

"Frequent blood samples were collected to study hormonal responses to GnRH in male and female leopards and tigers. Animals were anaesthetized with ketamine-HCl and blood samples were collected every 5 min for 15 min before and 160 min after i.v. administration of GnRH (1 micrograms/kg body weight) or saline. No differences in serum cortisol concentrations were observed between sexes within species, but mean cortisol was 2-fold greater in leopards than tigers. GnRH induced a rapid rise in LH in all animals (18.3 +/- 0.9 min to peak). Net LH peak height above pretreatment levels was 3-fold greater in males than conspecific females and was also greater in tigers than leopards. Serum FSH increased after GnRH, although the magnitude of response was less than that observed for LH. Basal LH and FSH and GnRH-stimulated FSH concentrations were not influenced by sex or species. Serum testosterone increased within 30-40 min after GnRH in 3/3 leopard and 1/3 tiger males. Basal testosterone was 3-fold greater in tiger than leopard males. LH pulses (1-2 pulses/3 h) were detected in 60% of saline-treated animals, suggesting pulsatile gonadotrophin secretion; however, in males concomitant testosterone pulses were not observed. These results indicate that there are marked sex and species differences in basal and GnRH-stimulated hormonal responses between felids of the genus Panthera which may be related to differences in adrenal activity."
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/3123664/

While that of lions, wasn't reaching that range. When I looked up.
The following study shows the testosterone of wild male lions from Serengeti and ngorogoro crater lions.


Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/1899889/

And this study...


Source: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=w...Tnkwvj5vdu

These two sources giving the value of 2.5 ng/ml(2500 pg/ml) for wild adult male African lions. 

That is almost more than 3 times lower than that observed in Bengal tigers.
These values showing that tigers posses higher level of testosterone of all big cats..


I need the opinions of you guys. No harsh "versus" debate, just a discussion about "testosterone levels"!