Aldabra giant tortoise

The Aldabra giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea), from the islands of the Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles, is one of the largest tortoises in the world. Historically, giant tortoises were on many of the western Indian Ocean islands, as well as Madagascar, and the fossil record indicates giant tortoises once occurred on every continent and many islands with the exception of Australia and Antarctica.Many of the Indian Ocean species were thought to be driven to extinction by over-exploitation by European sailors, and they were all seemingly extinct by 1840 with the exception of the Aldabran giant tortoise on the island atoll of Aldabra. Although some remnant individuals of A. g. hololissa and A. g. arnoldi may remain in captivity, in recent times, these have all been reduced as subspecies of A. g. gigantea.

Jackal

The jackal is a medium sized member of the dog family, originally found in Africa, Asia and southeast Europe. There are four main species of jackal with these jackal species being the golden jackal, the side-striped jackal, the black-backed jackal and the Ethiopian wolf jackal. The golden jackal is the most northernly species of jackal and can be found as far east as Burma in Southeast Asia. Jackals are generally found in packs of roughly between 10 and 30 jackal individuals. Jackals use their large group numbers to their advantage and work together in a similar way to a wolf pack to both occasionally hunt for food but more so that the jackals can protect one another.

Horse

A large animal with four legs, a mane (= long thick hair on its neck) and a tail. Horses are used for riding on, pulling carriages, etc.

Greyhound

A large thin dog with smooth hair and long thin legs, that can run very fast and is used in the sport of greyhound racing. The Greyhound is a breed of dog; a sighthound which has been bred for coursing game and Greyhound racing. Since the rise in large-scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, the breed has seen a resurgence in popularity as a family pet.

Humpback whale

The humpback whale is one of the bigger species of whale with the average adult humpback whale measuring more than 15m long (thats still about half the size of the blue whale). Humpback whales are found in all of the main oceans worldwide, but the humpback whales tend to stay in three main herds, the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Indian Ocean herds. There were once thought to be less than 15,000 humpback whale individuals left in the wild, with the humpback whale population declining by nearly 90% when whale hunting became popular with humans, meaning that the humpback whale was on the verge of extinction. Since new whaling laws have been put into place the humpback whale population has been allowed to grow again and today there are believed to be roughly 80,000 humpback whale individuals left in the wild.

Animals

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