Asian Animals Photo Galerry

Red Panda

Just like giant pandas, these pandas primarily eat bamboo and live in temperate forests in China, as well as Myanmar and other south Asian countries.

Red pandas exist in the shadow of giant pandas, but they were actually the first animals to be called "panda." In the past, red pandas have been classified with the bear family (which includes giant pandas) and with procyonids (a family that includes raccoons). Today, they are classified as the sole species in family Ailuridae.

Red pandas are engaging, bamboo-eating animals that resemble raccoons and share parts of their Asian habitats with giant pandas. Although not "giant," the red panda is an endangered species that also deserves scientific and conservation attention, as well as wider recognition among the public.

Red pandas have striking red coats and reddish-brown tear marks from the eyes to the corner of the mouth. They are especially vibrant during winter time: As their coats redden and thicken, they become easily visible on even the coldest January day

Sloth Bear adult and cub

These reclusive Asian bears are the only bears to carry young on their backs.

Sloth Bear Facts

Order: Carnivora
Family: Ursidae
Genus and Species: Melursus ursinus

Disheveled in appearance, the sloth bear leads a reclusive life in India's forests, noisily seeking out insects and fruits.

Physical Description: Sloth bears have shaggy, dusty-black coats, pale, short-haired muzzles, and long, curved claws that they use to excavate ants and termites. A cream-colored "V" or "Y" usually marks their chests. Sloth bears' nostrils can close, protecting the animals from dust or insects when raiding termite nests or bee hives. A gap in their teeth enables them to suck up ants, termites, and other insects.

Size: Sloth bears grow five to six feet long, stand two to three feet high at the shoulder, and weigh from 120 (in lighter females) to 310 pounds (in heavy males).

Geographic Distribution: Most sloth bears live in India and Sri Lanka; others live in southern Nepal, and they have been reported in Bhutan and Bangladesh.

Status: The sloth bear is listed as vulnerable on the World Conservation Union's Red List of Threatened Animals.

Habitat: Sloth bears live in a variety of dry and wet forests, and also in some grasslands, where boulders and scattered shrubs and trees provide shelter.

Natural Diet: When trees are in fruit, usually during the monsoon season, sloth bears dine on mango, fig, ebony, and other fruits, and also on some flowers. However, ants and termites, dug out of their cement-hard nest mounds, are a year-round staple. Also, sloth bears climb trees and knock down honeycombs, later collecting the sweet bounty on the forest floor. Beetles, grubs, ants, and other insects round out their diet. During food shortages, sloth bears will eat carrion. They sometimes raid farm crops.

Zoo Diet: The Zoo's sloth bears eat insects, mealworms, and crickets, as well as such fruits as pears, melons, oranges, and grapes.

Reproduction: Sloth bears mate during the hot season—May, June, and July—and females usually give birth to two cubs six to seven months later. Cubs are born in an underground den, and stay there for several months. After emerging from the den, cubs stay at their mother's side for two to three years before heading off on their own.

Behavior: Active mostly at night, the sloth bear is a noisy, busy bear. It grunts and snorts as it pulls down branches to get fruit, digs for termites, or snuffles under debris for grubs and beetles. A sloth bear uses its lips like a vacuum, making rapid, loud "kerfump" noises as it sucks insects from their nests.

Sloth bears lead solitary lives, and most are nocturnal. (In protected areas, they may be active during the day.) If threatened, these smallish bears will stand on two legs, brandishing their clawed forepaws as weapons.

A Few Sloth Bear Neighbors:

Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris): At the top of the forest food chain, this mighty, endangered cat slinks through the shadows in search of spotted deer and other prey, which sometimes includes sloth bears.

Gaur (Bos frontalis): A massive, forest-dwelling wild ox that lives in small herds and feeds in clearings at night.

Lion-tailed macaque (Macaca silenus): An endangered, black-coated monkey with a distinctive gray mane and dangling tail. Troops of 12 to 20 inhabit tropical evergreen forests in India's Western Ghats mountains.

Great pied hornbill (Buceros bicornis): A vulture-sized black, white, and cream-colored fruit-eating bird with a massive, toucan-like bill.

Fun Facts:

Sloth bears are the only bears to carry young on their backs

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There are two main breeding populations of this endangered crane, which mates for life. The smaller population breeds and winters on the island of Hokkaido, Japan. The larger northeast China/southeastern Russia population, numbering about 1,200 birds, winters in two or three subpopulations—both coasts of North Korea, the Demilitarized Zone, and the Jiangsu region of central China.

RED CROWNED CRANE FACTS

Order: Gruiformes
Family: Gruidae
Genus/Species: Grus japonensis

Description:

The Red-crowned Crane is a stately long-legged, long-necked bird whose immaculate snow-white plumage is accented by black secondary feathers, a black neck with contrasting white nape, and a red crown. They stand 1.5 m tall, average 7-10 kg in weight and have a 2.5 m wing span. Unique among the four species of "white" cranes (a group that also includes the Hooded Crane, Black-necked Crane and Whooping Crane) they have snow white primary feathers. The black secondaries form an elegant curling black bustle when the bird is standing. Juvenile birds are also predominately white with black-tipped primaries and dull grayish-brown neck and secondary feathers. Sexes are similar in appearance. They are very long-lived, reaching ages greater than 70 years in captivity.

Cranes have specialized vocal adaptations highlighted by an extremely long trachea that coils within a hollow sternum. They produce a wide variety of calls ranging from low pitched purrs to the loud unison calls involved in courtship and pair maintenance. The calls of male and female cranes differ in pitch.

Distribution and Habitat:
The white cranes are the most aquatic of the world's 15 crane species. They inhabit wide open marshes, bogs, and wet meadows where high visibility in daylight leaves them with less need to remain inconspicuous from predators. They have very sharp eyesight, spotting intruders and potential hazards from hundreds of meters away. Red-crowned Cranes roost overnight in rivers or streams to take advantage of the deeper water for predator defense. Their flashy plumage may aid them in territory maintenance.

There are two main breeding populations of Red-crowned Cranes: on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, and a larger mainland population that breeds in northeast China and southeastern Russia (sometimes referred to as the Manchurian Crane). The Hokkaido population breeds and winters in the same geographic area, with individuals seldom moving more than 150 km from season to season. The mainland birds divide into sub-populations as they migrate to wintering grounds on both coasts of North Korea, the Demilitarized Zone, and the Jiangsu region of central China.

Diet:
Red-crowned Cranes prefer to forage in deep water marshes where they prey on insects, aquatic invertebrates, fish, amphibians and small rodents. They also frequent dikes, rice fields, and other croplands where they feed on waste grains and other plant material. The Hokkaido and South Korean birds take advantage of public and privately maintained winter feeding stations located on refuges and local farms.

Reproduction:
Once a firm pair bond has been established, Red-crowned Cranes usually remain mated for life, although they will replace a mate that has died. The most spectacular aspect of crane courtship is the dancing ceremony. They prance stiff-legged around each other, alternately bowing and stretching, with their wings half extended. They punctuate the dance by leaping high into the air with their legs dangling loosely beneath them. When excited they pick up small sticks or pieces of grasses, toss them exuberantly into the air, and then stab at them on the way back down. They perform a duet of their ringing unison calls to further strengthen the pairing.

Cranes are spring breeders, usually nesting in April or May. Shortly before laying commences, both sexes participate in constructing a large ground nest of reeds and grasses in a marshy area, sometimes completely surrounded by water. They female lays two large light brown eggs, liberally spotted with darker shades of brown. Both parents share in the 29- to 34-day incubation. The newly hatched chicks are covered in light brown down and are able to follow their parents almost immediately.

Because incubation commences when the first egg is laid, the hatch is asynchronous, with the first chick emerging two days ahead of the second. The older chick usually monopolizes its parents attention and bullies its younger sibling. It is rare for both chicks to survive to fledging. The parents are very attentive, continually capturing prey items and offering them to the chick by holding them to the end of its bill. Though they grow rapidly, they still require more than three months to fledge. They do not reach sexual maturity until they are three to four years old.

Relationship to Humans:
Called tancho by the Japanese, the Red-crowned Crane has always had a conspicuous presence in Japanese culture. Reputed in folklore to live one thousand years, they are a symbol of longevity. Their well-deserved reputation for fidelity makes them a popular symbol in wedding ceremonies. The crane has been a common theme in Japanese art for many centuries.

Conservation:
The only crane more critically endangered than the Red-crowned Crane is the North American Whooping Crane. The Red-crowned Crane is listed on CITES appendix 1, with a total world population estimated at 1500 in the wild with another 700 in zoos around the world. The National Zoo supports the conservation of the Red-crowned Crane by participating in the Species Survival Plan.

The privilege of hunting the magnificent tancho was reserved for the Japanese nobility until 1867. The subsequent increase in hunting pressure drove the cranes from the southern Japanese islands by the end of the 19th century. Both the Hokkaido and mainland populations were devastated by World War II and the Korean War. By the severe winter of 1950 the Hokkaido birds were reduced to 25 half-starved birds huddled around a hot spring. Local farmers came to their rescue by supplying them with grain. Japan designated the tancho as its national bird in 1952.

Supplemental feeding, rigorous protection and unflagging public support have enabled them to rebound to over 600 birds by the 1990's. Some researchers believe that this number is actually higher than the natural carrying capacity of the habitat. They worry about the increased risk of disease to birds that gather in such large numbers at the artificial feeding stations. Deaths from power line collisions have been reduced by a program to make the lines more visible to the birds.

The Red-crowned Crane is protected as a National Monument in South Korea and is also legally protected in North Korea and Russia. Although several species of crane are now enjoying the peace and solitude of the Demilitarized Zone, this critical habitat is under constant threat of development or renewed hostilities. All of the breeding and wintering areas are imperiled by agricultural development, wetlands degradation, proposed dams, poaching, poisoning, intentional burning of marshes, catastrophic storms and industrial development.

Fishing cats eat birds, small mammals, snakes, snails, and fish.

FISHING CATS
Facts

Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus and Species: Prionailurus viverrinus

Description: Fishing cats range from about 25 pounds for males to about 15 pounds for females. Head and body length is 25 to 34 inches. These cats have a long, stocky body, relatively short legs, a broad head, round ears, and a short tail. Their olive-gray fur has black stripes and rows of black spots.

Distribution and Habitat: The fishing cat’s general distribution is southwest India, Sri Lanka, countries of the southern Himalayas, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, China, and the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. However, these cats are not found all throughout this broad area because of their habitat preferences. They are strongly tied to densely vegetated areas near water, in marshes, mangroves, rivers, and streams.

Diet: The fishing cat’s diet includes birds, small mammals, snakes, snails, and fish. The cat attracts fish by lightly tapping the water's surface with its paw, mimicking insect movements. Then, it dives into the water to catch the fish. It can also use its partially webbed paws to scoop fish, frogs, and other prey out of the water or swim underwater to prey on ducks and other aquatic birds. It is powerful enough to take large prey, such as calves and dogs.

Reproduction: Two to three young are born after a gestation of about 63 days. Young reach adult size at less than one year of age. Little is known about the details of their reproductive or social behavior in the wild.

Conservation: Fishing cats are are listed as vulnerable on the World Conservation Union's Red List of Threatened Species. They are threatened by habitat loss and hunting for food and fur. People have drained many wetland areas to make room for farmland and roads. Pollution from industries has poisoned rivers and streams where fishing cats once fed. However, fishing cats appear to do well in suburban habitats, so they may prove adaptable to human activities that some other species.

Fun Facts

When swimming, the fishing cat may use its short, flattened tail like a rudder, helping control its direction in the water.

Part of the fishing cat's scientific name, viverrinus, comes from the taxonomic family Viverridae. Like the fishing cat, civets and other members of this group have long bodies and short legs, and many have stripes or spots along the body, and banded tails.


Fishing Cats

The Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard in the world and is limited to a few volcanic Indonesian islands. The first time Komodo dragons hatched outside of Indonesia was in 1992, here at the National Zoo.

Komodo Dragons—Giant Predators with a Tiny Kingdom

Primeval Power
The Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard in the world. The largest verified specimen reached a length of 10.3 feet and weighed 366 pounds, although this may have included a substantial amount of undigested food. More typical weights for the largest wild dragons are about 155 pounds. Although the Komodo can run briefly at speeds up to 13 miles per hour, it generally relies on stealth and power for hunting.

A top predator with possibly important lessons for science, the Komodo dragon is a popular resident at the National Zoo.

Thought to live about 30 years in the wild, Komodo dragons are limited to a few volcanic Indonesian islands of the Lesser Sunda group including the Island of Komodo (the largest at 22 miles long). Numbering between 2,500 and 5,000 in the wild, Komodo dragons are found in tropical savanna forests, but range widely over the islands, from beach to ridge tops.

Komodo dragons eat almost any kind of meat. They scavenge from carcasses or stalk animals ranging in size from small rodents to large water buffalo. The young feed on mostly small gecko lizards or insects. These predators are at the top of the food chain and are cannibalistic. They can detect carrion from a considerable distance.

A dragon may spend hours in one spot, waiting for a deer, boar, goat, or anything sizable and nutritious. Komodos hunt along game trails, where they wait for prey to pass by. They then attack. Most of the time dragons are unsuccessful in bringing down an animal; however, if they are able to bite the prey, the toxic bacteria in their saliva will kill it within the next few days. Then they use their powerful sense of smell to locate the dead animal. A kill is usually shared by many Komodo dragons and very little is wasted.

A Komodo’s tooth serrations harbor bits of meat from its last meal, either fresh prey or carrion. This protein-rich residue supports large numbers of bacteria. Scientists have found some 50 different bacterial strains, at least seven of which are highly septic, in the saliva.

Dragon Facts

Vision and hearing are useful, but the Komodo's sense of smell is its primary food detector. The Komodo smells much like a snake does. It uses its long, yellow, forked tongue to sample the air, after which the two tongue tips retreat to the roof of the mouth, where they make contact with the Jacobson's organ. The chemical analyzers "smell" a prey animal by recognizing airborne molecules. Little is known about their visual abilities, but they have a much smaller hearing range than humans. The result is an animal that cannot hear such sounds as a low-pitched voice or a high-pitched scream.
The muscles of the Komodo's jaws and throat allow it to swallow huge chunks of meat with astonishing rapidity. Several movable joints open the lower jaw unusually wide. The stomach expands easily, enabling an adult to consume up to 80 percent of its own body weight in a single meal, which most likely explains some exaggerated claims for immense weights in captured individuals. Komodos can throw up the contents of their stomachs when threatened to reduce their weight in order to flee more quickly.
Large mammalian carnivores, such as lions, tend to leave 25 to 30 percent of their kill unconsumed, leaving the intestines, hide, skeleton, and hooves. In contrast, Komodos eat much more efficiently, leaving only about 12 percent of the prey. They eat bones, hooves, and pieces of hide. They also eat intestines, but only after swinging them vigorously to scatter their contents.
Komodo hatchlings weigh less than 3.5 ounces and average only 16 inches in length. Their early years are precarious, and they often fall victim to predators, including their fellow Komodos. Young live in trees for protection. They feed on a diverse diet of insects, small lizards, snakes, and birds. Should they live five years, they will weigh about 55 pounds and stretch 6.5 feet long. By this time, they have moved on to bigger prey, such as rodents, monkeys, goats, wild boars, and the most popular Komodo food, deer.
Komodo National Park contains fenced areas, not to protect the dragons but rather to protect human visitors from the dragons! Silence rules are enforced, not to avoid scaring the giant lizards but to avoid attracting them! Komodos are large, ferocious predators fully capable of killing and eating a human. Tour guides on Komodo Island recount a story about a tourist who went to the island’s beach to sunbathe. All that was found of him were his glasses and camera

An Endangered Species with Possible Lessons for Human Immunology

Komodo dragons are vulnerable to extinction due in part to their limited range. They appear to have been hunted over the years, but not to the extent of decimating the population. Komodo National Park, established in 1980, and strict anti-poaching laws have helped protect the dragons, although illegal activity still takes place. Villagers sometimes poison carrion bait to reduce their numbers. Because of their small range, Komodos are highly affected by habitat loss and reductions of prey animal numbers.

This powerful predator may hold special significance for science. Amazingly, despite the high levels of infectious bacteria in a Komodo’s saliva and their deadly implications for other animals, a dragon’s bite is not harmful to another Komodos. Dragons wounded in battle with their comrades appear to be unaffected by their otherwise deadly bacteria. Scientists are looking for antibodies in Komodo blood that may be responsible for saving them from infection.

Dragon at the National Zoo

The National Zoo has been a leader in the fight to conserve this fascinating creature. In 1992, Komodo dragons hatched for the first time outside of Indonesia at the National Zoo. Since then, the Zoo has reared 55 dragons, which have been sent to about 30 zoos worldwide.

One of the highlights of the Zoo’s Reptile Discovery Center is the Zoo's male Komodo dragon, Murphy, who lives in an open-air, outdoor enclosure. The Zoo’s dragon is fed dead rats and rabbits several times a week.

Another dragon enters the world at the National Zoo. About 20 eggs usually make up a Komodo clutch.