Great white shark

Great White Shark Classification and Evolution

The Great White Shark is a large species of shark found mainly found inhabiting the temperate and tropical coastal waters worldwide. They are the largest predatory fish species in the world known to grow to lengths of 8 meters or more and weighing over 2 tonnes. Great White Sharks are hugely powerful predators that have developed a fearsome reputation as being one of the most prolific "man-eaters" on the planet, with up to half of annual shark attacks on humans being reportedly caused by them. Also known as White Sharks and White Pointer Sharks, Great White Sharks have been one of the most ruthless ocean predatory fishes for nearly 20 million years, but despite their high profile reputation, they are actually a lot less common compared to other widely distributed shark species. Although surprisingly little is still known about their biology and population sizes, it is widely agreed within the scientific community that Great White Shark population numbers are decreasing worldwide as they are threatened by both hunting and habitat loss throughout much of their natural range.

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.

Giant panda bear

The Giant Panda is a species of bear that is found in the mountains of central and western China. One of the most famous and easily identifiable animals in the world, the Giant Panda is also one of the rarest and is under immense threat in its natural environment, primarily from habitat loss. The Giant Panda is unique among bears as they do not hibernate, have very small babies at birth and survive on a diet that is almost entirely vegetarian. Since the Giant Panda was first discovered by a French naturalist in 1869, it has become a global symbol for conservation with the World Wildlife Fund using it as their logo. The Chinese people also see the Giant Panda as a symbol of peace and numerous efforts have been made to try and protect the remaining populations in their native habitats.

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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