Tag: Texas

Dog family tree

The Dog (caninae) family tree

The arctic wolf is a subspecies of the grey wolf found native to the High Arctic tundra of Canada's Queen Elizabeth Islands, from Melville Island to Ellesmere Island.

The Dogs also form an incredibly successful family. They have spread to even more so more of the earths surface has a dog living in each area. They has been classified into 2 tribes.

The first tribe is the tribe Canini (true dogs), which is further split into two subtribes. Each sub tribe is in turn split into a number of Genus, which have a number of species each

The first subtribe is Canina which is wolf like Canids, this is in term split into 4 genus which I will take in turn

Canis

First genus  is Canis, which is subdivided into 6 species 2 of which have into subspecies.

Dog
European golden jackal
Ethiopian wolf
African wolf
wolf
Algonquin wolf
A curious coyote at Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge in South Texas
Red wolf

The second genus is Cuon and only has one member in it. This is found in central south and south east Asia.

Dhole

The next genus is Lupulella, and has two members, both found in Africa

Black backed jackal
Side stripped Jackal

The last Genus in Canis is Lycaon. This only has one member, which is the African wild dog

Wild dog in the Kruger

The second subtribe is Cerdocyonina (south American Dogs). There are 5 genus with living members (South American dogs), with the 6th (Dusicyon) containing 2 extinct species – so we will not mention this agai .

Of the 5 genus with living members, Lycalopex is one of these genus with 6 species. Lycalopex is made up of South American fox species – it should be noted that these so called South American foxes are not foxes. While they look like foxes, they are more closely related to Jackals and wolves.

Culparo Fox
Darwin Fox
Hoary Fox
Pampas fox
Sechuran Fox
South American grey fox

The other 4 Genus in this subtribe, with living members each only have one member, so I will deal with these Genus in one go. These Genus are  Atelocynus, Cerdocyon, Chrysocyon and Speothos. In the same order, the species that inhabit each of these genus are Short eared-dog, Crab eating fox, Manned wolf and the Bush dog.

Bush dog From the Genus Speothos
Crab eating fox from the genus Cerdocyon
Manned wolf from the Genus Chrysocyon
Short-eared dog from the genus Atelocynus

Then there is a tribe called Vulpina, sub divided into 3 Genus. these are essentially the fox like canines

  • The Nyctereutes which consist of the Racoon dogs: the common raccoon dog and the Japanese racoon dog.
  • The Otocyon which consists of the bat eared fox
  • The Vulpes: Which I will deal with in the next section, separately (below
Raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides)
Japanese raccoon dogs
Bad eared fox

The true fox family is a large extended family of foxes from around the world. They all behave in a similar way, though the habitat in which they live can be very differemt

Finally there is a Genus on its own called Urocyon which consists of grey foxes, of which there ae only 2 surviving members.

Grey fox
Island fox

Ocelot

An Ocelot photo by RawheaD Rex

Ocelot

Ocelots, servals are about the size of domestic cats, which mean that without being careful it is easy to overlook them. Found throughout the south west of the USA, Mexico, and on through central and South America, as well as the Caribbean island of Margarita and Trinidad. At this time, two subspecies of Ocelot are recognized (in the past as much as 9 subspecies were proposed) and these are essentially split by continent (a north America Ocelot and a Southern America Ocelot).

Researchers agree that there are around 120 wild Ocelots in Texas but elsewhere it is less clear. Indeed, the Ocelot is generally listed as least concern, though in various parts of its range it is threatened by habitat destruction, hunting or traffic accidents. As such while its range is very large there are areas where it is decreasing in an area of its range. The ocelot has had occasional association with humans dating back as far as the Incas and the Aztecs – and has occasionally been kept as a pet.

Margay

A Margay from Costa Rica Taken by Supreet Sahoo

Margay

This is a relatively small wild cat that is found in central and Southern America, living in primary evergreen and deciduous forests. Until the 1990s they were illegally hunted for the wildlife trade, causing a significant decrease in the wild population. Sine 2008 they have been listed as near concern due to declining population, thought to be caused by habitat loss. It is classed as near threatened -one up from least concerned, but one down from Vulnerable.

There are currently 3 recognized subspecies, these are in turn found South of the Amazon, North of the Amazon and in Central America.

 

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Could road crossings threaten the survival of the Texas Ocelot?

Ocelots are often thought of as relatively exotic animal. Looking like a small leopard or Jaguar, this is not particularly surprising. Never-the-less, like their bigger cousin, the jaguar, they are a native cat of the USA.

Unfortunately, as it is dangerous, this Ocelot crossing is not rare

Road deaths are a significant problem, as with a total population not thought to number more than 60-80, 8 were lost in under a year (2015-2016). Texas has created 27 wildlife crossings, with many in Ocelot areas, but clearly more are needed, along with driver education.

Perhaps more unhelpful, as Ocelots are largely nocturnal, they are usually crossing the road when hardest to see. Once relatively common in the southern USA, just 1% of its optimal habitat remains, and this is criss-crossed by road.

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Foolish attacks on renewable energy – Texas blackouts cannot be blamed on green energy

With incredibly cold weather hitting Texas (for instance the beach is covered in snow), Fox News has been making a big thing of the fact that some of the wind turbines are not turning supposedly because they froze – and that this is the cause of the blackouts.

This is factually incorrect. According to data from the Texas government wind turbine shutdowns accounted for less than 13% of the total outage. A bigger problem is freezing of oil and gas equipment throughout the state.

Continue reading “Foolish attacks on renewable energy – Texas blackouts cannot be blamed on green energy”
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