Some carnivorous mammal manage to keep their claws sharps. That's especially true when we talk about cats in general. It seems to be a common assumption that cats manage to keep their claw sharp because of their retractability. Alought claw retractability might help keeping your claws sharps, that's probably not the primary reason why their claws stay sharp. Domestic cats, lions, tigers, bobcats and probably the vast majority of cats are equipped with a "claw-shedding mechanism". This mechanism is also present on other carnivorous mammal, the following explain how this mechanism work :

''The morphology of cornified structures is notoriously difficult to analyse because of the extreme range of hardness of their component tissues. Hence, a correlative approach using light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, three-dimensional reconstructions based on x-ray computed tomography data, and graphic modeling was applied to study the morphology of the cornified claw sheath of the domesticated cat as a model for cornified digital end organs. The highly complex architecture of the cornified claw sheath is generated by the living epidermis that is supported by the dermis and distal phalanx. The latter is characterized by an ossified unguicular hood, which overhangs the bony articular base and unguicular process of the distal phalanx and creates an unguicular recess. The dermis covers the complex surface of the bony distal phalanx but also creates special structures, such as a dorsal dermal papilla that points distally and a curved ledge on the medial and lateral sides of the unguicular process. The hard-cornified external coronary horn and proximal cone horn form the root of the cornified claw sheath within the unguicular recess, which is deeper on the dorsal side than on the medial and lateral sides. As a consequence, their rate of horn production is greater dorsally, which contributes to the overall palmo-apical curvature of the cornified claw sheath. The external coronary and proximal cone horn is worn down through normal use as it is pushed apically. The hard-cornified apical cone horn is generated by the living epidermis enveloping the base and free part of the dorsal dermal papilla. It forms nested horn cones that eventually form the core of the hardened tip of the cornified claw. The sides of the cornified claw sheath are formed by the newly described hard-cornified blade horn, which originates from the living epidermis located on the slanted face of the curved ledge. As the blade horn is moved apically, it entrains and integrates the hard-cornified parietal horn on its internal side. It is covered by the external coronary and proximal cone horn on its external side. The soft-cornified terminal horn extends distally from the parietal horn and covers the dermal claw bed at the tip of the uniguicular process, thereby filling the space created by the converging apical cone and blade horn. The soft-cornified sole horn fills the space between the cutting edges of blade horn on the palmar side of the cornified claw sheath. The superficial soft-cornified perioplic horn is produced on the internal side of the unguicular pleat, which surrounds the root of the cornified claw sheath. The shedding of apical horn caps is made possible by the appearance of microcracks in the superficial layers of the external coronary and proximal cone horn in the course of deformations of the cornified claw sheath, which is subjected to tensile forces during climbing or prey catching. These microcracks propagate tangentially through the coronary horn and do not injure the underlying living epidermal and dermal tissues. This built-in shedding mechanism maintains sharp claw tips and ensures the freeing of the claws from the substrate.''

''That a superficial layer of the cornified claw sheath is shed when domesticated cats appear to sharpen their claws by scratching rough surfaces, such as tree bark or rough textiles, is well known among pet owners and veterinarians, and was mentioned earlier by De Weerdt (1927). Siedamgrotzky (1871), though, described a continuous abrasion as the mechanism for keeping claws sharp and seems to have been unaware that cats shed horn caps off their claws. Interestingly, in Dyce et al. (2002), a shed horn cap of a cornified claw sheath is shown as an example of an actual cat claw. However, the internal architecture of the cornified material that allows such a controlled shedding of its superficial layer without cracks propagating into the underlying living tissues has not been analysed and cannot be inferred from the currently available information on the morphology of claws. Not only domesticated cats but also large cats, such as lions, tigers and bobcats (staff at the Baton Rouge Zoo, personal communication), small dogs (Barbara Luikhart, Galvez Veterinary Clinic, Prairieville, Louisiana, personal communication), and even horses (K.-D. Budras, Institute of Veterinary Anatomy, Free University Berlin, unpublished observation of a Przewalski horse) can shed their claws or hooves. Hence, the phenomenon of shedding superficial parts of cornified digital end organs is of a more general interest and warrants a better understanding of the morphology of cornified end organs to explain the mechanisms that are involved.''

Scanning electron microscopy picture of shed horn caps off the tips of cornified claw sheaths of an adult female cat. (a) Proximal view (specimen SC no. 3). (b) Side view (specimen SC no. 5).


''The microcracks expose edges of horn layers to water loss. In combination with aging and continuing internal strain throughout the cornified claw sheath, these processes promote the formation of intercellular cracks that propagate from the peripheral microcracks through the horn preferentially along the interfaces between the cornified cell layers. In this manner, the separation of superficial layers can proceed tangentially to the interface between the living tissues and the cornified epidermis without creating perpendicular cracks that would damage the underlying living tissues. Hence, the ongoing simultaneous horn production and formation of microcracks result in superficial layers of coronary horn being separated from underlying layers of coronary horn through tangential cracks that propagate through the horn material starting from the superficial microcracks. As can be seen from the surface structure of shed horn caps, several microcracks may appear before a particular microcrack spreads between two layers of horn and separates a horn cap from the main part of the cornified claw sheath in preparation for the shedding of the horn cap. The actual removal of this horn cap is probably facilitated by the characteristic scratching behavior of cats on rough surfaces of bark or textile.''

"The selective regime for the evolution of the claw-shedding mechanism in cats is likely to be connected with the need to maintain sharp cutting edges and a sharply pointed tip, as well as to be able to free the claws from struggling prey or other substrates without the risk of pulling the entire claw sheath off the vascularized and innervated dermal claw bed. At this point in time, it is less clear why small dogs and even horses have evolved the capacity for shedding their claws or hooves, respectively. It may be hypothesized that the shedding of superficial horn layers of claws and hooves is more widespread among terrestrial vertebrates than hitherto assumed and that, therefore, the shedding mechanism of cats is only more pronounced and effective because it has evolved under the selective regime for climbing and prey catching. Additional studies will be needed to clarify these and other questions concerning the evolutionary history of cornified digital end organs.''

All of the above paragraphs and picture are quoted from this scientific article : The structure of the cornified claw sheath in the domesticated cat (Felis catus): implications for the claw-shedding mechanism and the evolution of cornified digital end organs

If you have any informations about similar mechanisms present on other animals, please share it in this thread.

I'm leaving today to go to India finally! I'll update sightings and expierences here and once my photos are uploaded and sorted through, I'll post them here as well. Keeping my fingers crossed for great sightings and stories.

Amphimachairodus






Amphimachairodus Skull (Bone Clone)
- length of skull 37 cm
- wide of skull 20,5 cm
- length of upper fang 10,2 cm

The brown hyena lives in the Sothern parts of the African continent, it's a medium sized carnivore, the size difference between the sexes are not very noticeable, but the males are a little bigger than females the males typically weigh 40-44 kg while females weigh 37-40 kg, but a large female weighed 72 kg. The body length averages on  144 cm, witch a range of 130-160 cm. Shoulder height is 70-80 cm. 
The brown hyena is a notorious scavenger, able to fend of multiple wild dogs (seems better at this than a single spotted hyena), cheetahs and even leopards in search for their kills. They will although sometimes hunt for themselves for the most part small mammals, they are becoming quite famous for killing cape fur seal pups.

Maned Wolf Skull 




Pictures taken in Museo de Zoologia de Facultad de Ciencias de la UCV in Caracas, Venezuela
Maned Wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) Skull
- Length of skull 25 cm
- Wide of skull 12,5 cm
- Length of upper canine 3 cm
- Length of lower canine 2,5 cm

The average adult weighs 23 kg (51 lb) and stands 90 cm (35 in) tall at the shoulder, has a head-body length of 100 cm (39 in) with the tail adding another 45 cm (18 in). Its ears are large and long (7 inches).The maned wolf is omnivorous. It specialises in preying on small and medium-sized animals, including small mammals (typically rodents and rabbits), birds, and even fish, but a large portion of its diet (more than 50%, according to some studies) is vegetable matter.

It is very interesting to see that big part of their diet are rodents and rabbits because they have huge canine teeth for canids similar sized to the canine teeth of Wolf (Canis Lupus)

Top predators play very important role in climate change in the environment they lives.They can bring life back to the place they live. They give more lives then they take.
This is an awesome video which confirm this. In this video they show how 14 packs of wolves reintroduce in Yellow stone national park changes the whole ecosystem.

We all are here becasue in some or other way we relate each other due to our love and curiosity for nature and wild animals.
In this thread I am in mission of finding your other interest. So that we can know how many of us share same common passion for life other than wildlife and animals.

So my question is what other things you like to read, write, watch, search and talk on internet ??
I mean their are lots of other industry/fields which may be worth of an hour? 2 hours ? or entire day ? from your daily life ?
Here are few of the listed items that coming right on the top of my head

01. Gadget (Mobile, drone, VR, GPS etc..)
This industry has most attention by young people and newer generation. I am also one of them and my current favorite is Drones. I love to see them and read about them.

02. Gaming (PC or mobile game)
Not my cup of tea, I have played some games (Project IGI) but I was never a good gamer and I never wanted to be. But I am sure many of you have lot to talk on this.

03. Movies, Super hero, WWE, Action, Music, Superman, batman, Ironman,  animation movies.
Well, I like to watch animation movie most, but my friends are more inclined towards Marvel and DC movies. They tell me lot of stuffs so sometime I watch them. WWE ? I think its only for amateur one

04. Football, Baseball, NBA, Cricket, any sport.
Since I am Indian, Cricket used to be my favorite game, but over the last few years I have no interest in it. I barely watch it. Football?? I sometime show my curiosity to know the winner.. To be honest I am not big fan.


05. Love to read about Trump, Sriya, terrorist, Putin vs Trump, China vs US, India vs Pakistan.
Some major news attract me and I discuss these issue on other place, but I can not do it more than 10 minutes... becasue it always result in bad atmosphere

06. Travel
I wish I could but its expensive industry for me. I want to travel and talk about Africa and wildlife.. But the money...

07. Food
I am fan of drinks more than eating.. I love to try different type of local drinks specially made in hot summer. Wish I could write a blog in it and can share with all of you. I keep discussing with my wife.

08. Website creation, WordPress, themes and plugin, Website hosting
This is my profession so, I love to talk about them, even I consult for free while suggesting best hosting company, what is best wordpress theme.. etc


09. Startups businesses.
This is the era of new startups and investor. Young college people come with Idea and they try to find investor to make it reality. I love to read about them and I heavily discuss about them

10. online shopping, amazon, ebay  etc.
I find this is time consuming and extravagance activity. But since I love gadget and I keep searching these sites for them



This is some common and popular Niche or industry where your interest may lie and you will love to talk, read, watch and write about them with other. You can also mention your own if I missed them.

Why I am asking this ?

Well, I want to find most common interest so that I can launch another well managed and highly resourceful community of people on internet. What do you say ?

Hello everyone, about a year ago I started feeding the squirrels around my house peanuts and one started to come to me and take them from my hand... well, once the rest of the gang saw what was going on, I started to have the whole crew coming up for peanuts! I started to go outside and sit on a bench and have the squirrels come up... then the chipmunks joined in on the tasty vittles being handed out! I am hoping the birds start to come in, getting close and starting to wonder what else I can become buddies with! Here are some videos of my new friends!!!

If you are artist and know how to make fantastic images related to Wildlife using tools like Photoshop or something similar then this information is for you
We are planning to launch custom designed t-shirt. We need animal and nature based design and you can show your creativity by providing us cool and trendy design related to animals. If your image is approved, we will create the t-shirt design and will list it for sale.

On every successful sales you will get 50% of the profit (which vary from $5 to $20).

Here is the important point
01. Design and images must be yours and should not have any copyright issue
02. If you are using images of other make sure you have all the rights
03. Image format should be PNG, JPG, JPEG only
04. Image dimension should be minimum 1200px wide
05. Image should be very clear
06. You can use powerful but short messages along with image
07. You can use line drawing or icon creation
08. Mention of WildFact is optional
09. We prefer transparent background, but wee can accept simple white background too.
10. We do not accept scan of drawing.

In my opinion @phatio, @Spalea, @Polar and other have great opportunity
So, show your art skill and let share it with others.

Hello guys, I would like to post about my recent Chitwan trip. I was looking for a suitable section and  I made one, if not it may be transferred to another suitable section. Opinions on animal behavours  stated here are mostly provided by nature guides of Chitwan.

I travelled to Chitwan on march this month, stayed at Sauraha 3 nights 4 days- a little town right on the border with Chitwan national park, in-fact a river separates this town with a national park on the opposite side and the town is full of choice resorts and tourist activities. We took the picture by mobile and digital cameras so pictures are not very good ,just  to show what me and my wife clicked.

Day1: Booked a canoe ride observing riverine and acquatic ecosystem on the buffer zone area; which are forests and rivers managed by the community. The river was absolutely full of Marsh Mugger crocs no less than 20 of them. Some showing only their backs, others were on full view on land.

*This image is copyright of its original author

[i]

*This image is copyright of its original author

[/i]





...also smallish rock python was seen curled in cane thickets hanging just above the river surface.


No Gharials on sight and I was thinking if Muggers were responsible for eliminating Gharials, but  the nature guide told that this season  the Gharials had moved off into another channel as they prefer greater current.  We disembarked and walked for about 10 minutes on land to observe the elephant breeding centre full of female domestic elephants.
Turned out, the elephant  breeding centre unwillingly attracts other wildlife too. Nearby we saw a little herd of spotted deer and then a wild boar sow a and a piglet came in search of any left over food in the elephant stable. They moved from one stable to another . Myna birds, peacock and red jungle fowl were also a regular visitors, they were busy searching out elephant dungs. 



Solitary wild elephant bulls who don't have control over a wild herd are known to frequent this area in search of females to mate with and we were in luck as a wild bull named 'Dhurbe' or Ronaldo (the Brazilain one- due to it's bulk and speed) came from a distance with no fear of humans- There were atleast  50 people (visitors) there. This bull is famous in the area and has said to kill 20 people but being a rare wild animal and generally minding it's own business, the government don’t want to shoot it down –and I feel very grateful to the government and local people. The bull went from checking all the females one by one.
A wild elephant in the background sowly lumbers towards the breeding centre

 
Same elephant bull checks every female in the stable, guide yells at the tourists not to get too close

*This image is copyright of its original author

[i]Some of these calves are sired by wild elephant bull coming from the national park forest, they may have mixed genes of central indian and nepalese elephant



[/i]Day2: Rained very heavily last night and i awoke to loudest thunder at night like a bomb had went off. Monsoon normally starts from June but sporadic pre-monsoon showers are common from March onwards. Had booked jungle walking inside the national park this day for an added thrill. A morning wake up call brought a  news that rhino had wandered from the bush, after some time we got into the area,  there were some tourists and a herder boy was gesturing. Sure enough a lone rhino had wandered off from a bush and forest guard were chasing it off.  It made for a great sighting without venturing into the park.

 




After breakfast our canoe was ready to cross the river. weather looked fine today. A big croc, bigger than we saw yesterday was out on a bank basking on the national park side. We got into the canoe and approached it to get a good photo. It did not move just rolled it's eyes as we passed close. We disembarked from a canoe to the other side and then began continuing on foot.


Now we were inside a national park and no weapons were allowed. Two guides, senior one in front and another behind is compulsory and they carry only a stick but a sturdy one. The guided passed information on potentially dangerous wildlife and we proceeded, lots of animal tracks- rhinos passing, slipping and rolling mud, trampled grass, lots of gaur footprints – one was absolutely huge but i missed taking a photo of it, there were deer tracks allover. Rhesus monkeys were very common in the border area of the park and up on trees scurrying everywhere, spotted deer were seen, some in the herd and some stags. About an hour not seeing any big animals and just continuously walking, the guides spotted two dozing rhinos quite far 100ft away. A female Hog deer that was hiding was alerted and  it fled .First we thought it was rhino mother with a calf but infact were adult male and a female. Guide made some rhino like puffing noise, males ran away snorting while female just kept standing lazily.


We left them and entered a real grassland with no trees for some distance, guide told to be extra cautious, for if we stumbled upon a rhino now there was no escape at all.  No animals on sight for some time,  then just ahead on the path a fine black wildboar stood at us very close looking and giving us differnt postures like a model.... and we all laughed. It hesitantly leaped and made a splash and went into the grass thickets. Further on and we discovered a carcass. The guide told that the boar must have been attracted by the carcass hence it was reluctant to go away. Another long walk without any event,  a rickety looking tower was lying on the ground smashed by wild elephant, another similar tower was in the distance and we walked upto the area.  The ladder was a vertical one which meant we had to haul ourselves like a rock climb-not a staircase type.  I did not bother to carry my bag and left it on the base. This was a great regret. From above, the view was nice- there was short green grasses and tall brown grass further away. After a brief moment a black head appeared, it was a wild buffalo- absolutely stunning. This is for a reason- wild water buffalo has just been translocated from Koshi reserve 3 months ago, so these are the seed for the future. A female appeared in a full view  on to the green grass the upper body was black but the back was hairless and ash grey,  then a male followed making some grunts as it walked.  I felt pretty amazed looking at them. They noticed us but did not care too much then they gestured each other and all of a sudden the made chased the female pretty aggressively and bolted off into the long grass, was pretty surreal, I was seeing them and thinking that a whole herd would one day cover the Chitwan grassland.


Some wild water buffaloes were also taken from the zoo of Kathmandu, i took this pic some time ago, the bull (below) is now enjoying his life in chitwan. Also this is diff. subspecies to that of Assam, critically endangered with more contrasting black and whites.


Then, from the tall grass, some three brown ones of different sizes poked out their head, they never came into full view and before long slinked into the grass. We descended the tower and I regret not having taken a video,  they were so close and a great activity as well. Then there was a river crossing with crocs basking on the banks, 5 gharials were also seen. The guides assured that big crocs were not here and that we could cross from the shallow stretch.


Then there was not much to see for the rest of the day, but some very eventful encounter was a rhino creating a road block ahead,  a noise from behind the bush (guide saying rhino)made us scurry and dashed off to the base of a tree and another rhino sleeping infront while the front guide had no clue at all while I had to yell. it all gave me a headache –real pain I mean on a hot humid day.  With most animals covered ,we were too intent on getting away in one piece really, especially the rhinos kept bumping at us in a very unlikely places; inside a forest and tangled vegetation.

Day3: Decided to go for 5 hrs. Jeep drive as it takes you into the deeper parts of the national park and traverses nearly all type of terrain and environment. However halfway into the ride and forest and grassland was just empty there was no great wildlife viewing at all. The expanse of grassland was amazing looks good for the future prospects when Chitwan aquires swamp deer, Blackbuck and wildbuffaloes.



I could tell that, Wilboars and chitals were undoubtedly the most common animals in the park and some sightings of hog deer and barking deer. Bird life was great, with a raptor taking a fish –tunred out to be a black coot on a death  grip, two flying pecock males, whistling ducks, purple and grey herons,  pied hornbill, openbilled and adjutant storks etc.  also  saw a python sunning itself on the swamp. Then the jeep took a 25 minutes break at a crocodile breeding centre inside the park. Some 50 or more Gharials of every size were there, the healthy ones will all be released in the river. It was good to see these creatures close up.


Then a returning drive was not much fruitful either but after some four hours the guide stopped and pointed to a gaur very very far away. It would have been a complete safari if the gaur was in full view but all I could say it really was a gaur was a fact that through a binocular it's tail kept swishing constantly-a rhino won't do that at all, and there was no buffaloes in this part. A single animal meant likely a bull, what a sight that would have been. Then saw a Sambar stag (the first and the last one) juvenile- judging by it's nilgai like single long antler, which dashed off, then a long queue of jeep had discoverd a sloth bear, we were at the back end of a line and had to wait quite a long. Then  saw a rhino-a battle scarred individual with wounds on his back side and the 5 hrs ride came to an end.





Spotted deer doe and a fawn- showing absolutely no fear



Day4: took elephant back safari for an hour inside a community forest area, saw an awesome sight of a mother and a very small calf bathing.




some spotted deer and a peacock were seen together. it was a great time but now it was time to leave Chitwan. And I am missing it already…!!!