Adult bush dogs have soft long brownish-tan fur, with a lighter reddish tinge on the head, neck and back and a bushy tail, while the underside is dark, sometimes with lighter throat patch. They have short legs retative to their body, as well as a short snout and relatively small ears.
Adults typically have a head and body length of 57-75 cm (20-30 in) with 12,5-15 cm (5-6 in) tail. They have a shoulder height of 20-30 cm (8-12 in) and weight 5-8 kg (11-18 lb). They have short legs relative to their body as well as a short snout and relative small ears. 
Distribution: 
- The South American bush dog (Speothos venaticus venaticus) - southern Colombia and Venezuela, the Guyanas, most of Brazil, eastern Ecuador and Peru, Bolivia, northern Paraguay.
- The Panamian bush dog (Speothos venticus panamensis) - Panama, northern Colombia and Venezuela, western Ecuador.
- The southern bush dog (Speothos venaticus wingei) - southern Brazil and Paraguay, extreme northeastern Argentina.
Bush dogs are carnivores and hunt during the day, their tipical prey are pacas, agouti and capybaras all large rodents.
credit to Wikipedia the free enciclopedia

*This image is copyright of its original author

Last month @Rage2277 posted an info about several cases of black bears killed by wolf packs from Ontario (Canada). Here is a new case, this time with brown bear killed by wolves in the mountains of Kyrgizstan (Central Asia), including short video. The carcass was found by shepard:

https://ru.sputnik.kg/video/20181012/104...skhoz.html

For long was accepted the conception that mighty bear completely dominates wolves but new info shows that in some cases is other way around. Any videos, photos and info concerning timber wolf-bear relations could be posted here.

Romania

It's about time the forum had a thread on "the mammoth in the conservation room"!

Above all issue that threaten the world & its wildlife these two are the most serious, widespread. This is a much much greater threat than any other anthropogenic cause or there. Than habitat loss... than climate change... than sport hunting... than unsustainable development... 

Hundreds of thousands of square kilometres of pristine forests in SE-Asia, China, Eastern India, Africa etc. lies empty because someone had to feed him family.
Populations of a number of megafauna like tigers, rhinos, elephants, crocodiles have crashed due to it. 

For posts on poaching, its counter & related updates.

Wiki says:

Quote:The dog diverged from a now-extinct population of wolves immediately before the Last Glacial Maximum, when much of Eurasia was a cold, dry mammoth steppe biome. 

The closest living relative of the dog is the extant gray wolf, and an extinct Late Pleistocene wolf is the nearest common ancestor to the dog & modern wolf.
The dog and the extant gray wolf are sister taxa, as modern wolves are not closely related to the wolves that were first domesticated to Paleolithic dogs.

https://www.ancient-origins.net/history/26000-year-old-child-footprints-found-alongside-paw-prints-reveal-oldest-evidence-human-canine-relationhip 

A recent study suggests that domestication took place from a single population in during a short time somewhere in Eastern Asia from where they migrated, on which another fascinating research was done.

But it's likely that ancestors of dogs, weaker & docile outcasts from wild packs, may have been following hunter-gatherers for more than 40k years! 
There's no reason that feat wasn't replicated elsewhere, penally in smaller scale.

This study on genetic diversity of village dogs over the world, found high quite an amount of genetic differences in local strays, actually more than artificially created "breeds" who were basically inbred to highlight certain desired traits.
Unfortunately, need for those are mostly gone today & these once functional breeds are being turned into abominations.

Wildfact was meant to be dealing with only nature & wildlife... but let's face it, that's not all that is to world.
Today (sub)species created artificially by humans & dependant on humans for survival, outnumber wildlife by a long shot.

Plus who doesn't like watching these.

Here is the very first ever discovered feathered pterodactyl. 
 
https://dinosauria.blog/2018/12/19/ptero...uF76gaGNRs

https://www.wtae.com/article/parrot-uses...ZKrt-5yNLg  
  
Parrot uses Amazon Alexa to order items while owner is away

INTRODUCTION 

This forum is one of the few where originality and quality are appreciated. In order to encourage our members in these departments, this section was created. If you see a post that stands out for some reason, this is the thread to say so. 

The intention is to get to a top-10 every month, starting with December 2018.

We're also thinking about a thread that has remarkable photographs.

If you have more ideas that could result in more quality in the end, let us know.  

I don't know if we should distinguish between a top-10 according to members and a top-10 according to mods. We'll discuss that one later.

Lestodon is a extint genus of megafaunal Ground sloth from South America during the Miocene to Pleistocene periods. Its fossil remains have been found in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Brazil. Measuring approximately 4,6 meters (15 ft) from snout to tail tip, it is estimated to have weighed 2.590 Kilograms, it was a herbivore and primarily fed on grasses on the South American plains and is thought to perhaps have used its semi-bipedal stance to obtain foliage from trees.  Lestodon is placed as member of the Mylodontidae as indicated by the lobed form of the last tooth in the dentition.
Taken from the book End of the Megafauna, The fate of the Worlds Huges, Fiercest, and Strangest animals (ROSS D. E. MacPHEE with Ilustrations of Peter Schouten)

In his book, Rise & Fall of the Emerald Tigers, WII scientist Raghunandan Singh Chundawat is of the view that we should protect tigers and not tigers inside the protected areas, as there’s a need for a more inclusive conservation model where local communities and the public at large become partners in the conservation effort.
He discusses the larger threats to Indian wildlife beyond Critical Habitats that are tiny core areas within protected reserves, only 3% of the countries land area—and the possible solutions.

In his portrait of the tendu leaf gatherers and herders, he shows an empathy for the tiger’s human neighbors. Drawing on his own experiences of running a specialist wildlife lodge, The Sarai At Toria, he argues private public partnerships can generate revenues which he is particular should be shared with local communities.

He discusses protected areas during the later part of the book where he states that ‘it is risky to entirely depend entirely on the protected area network for conservation’. Here one agrees with him but in a few pages he moves on to say ‘at present, all our conservation eggs are in one, old, basket; protected area network’. For a culture with conservation ethos (albeit with conservation values disappearing fast like he has pointed out) protected areas are fairly recent and surely not the only practice – we have a long-standing culture of community conservation areas, for example.

Also i should mention that the idea for this thread came from @Jimmy's Chitwan National Park Visit thread.

Quote:

(11-30-2018, 02:36 PM)Rishi Wrote: India should start this kind of trekking & foot safari along forest trail in the buffers of our tiger reserves. That'll be reasonably safe & would create livelihood for the local forest dwellers.
I know it's done only in few places, like Satpura & Periyar.
Brilliant!

It's most definitely on my to-do list now.

Yup for the livelihood of the locals, tourist activities in buffer zone is a must, many locals have also been employed as nature guides here apart from their cultural dance which was included in the package.

To reduce forest dependency of the forest dependent communities living in the buffers & fringes/multiple-use forests, it's not enough to simply compensate them for a cattle killed by predators, or crops destroyed by raiding deers, antelopes, pigs, elephants... We must strive to make them stakeholders in conservation. Because outside the protected areas only thing that is keeping an animal alive is the goodwill & tolerance of the locals.

Attempts are being made worldwide, this thread is for all such steps taken in the right direction!