Biota Reference Libraries
The European ground squirrel (Spermophilus citellus), also known as the European Souslik, is a species from the squirrel family Sciuridae and the only European representative of the genus Spermophilus. Like all squirrels, it is a member of the rodent order. It is to be found throughout Eastern Europe from southern Ukraine, to Asia Minor, the Czech Republic, Greece and north as far as Poland....
The Uinta Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus armatus), is a squirrel native to the northern Rocky Mountains and surrounding foothills in the United States including Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming. Its habitat includes dry meadows, grasslands, and cultivated fields close to water. The squirrels eat foods including seeds, green vegetation, insects, and meat. They are fully active for only a few...
The Arabian Oryx (Oryx leucoryx), is a bovid and the smallest member of the Oryx genus. It is native to desert and steppe areas of the Arabian Peninsula. This species was endangered by the early 1970s in the wild, and attempts have been made to build wild populations. With only little success, the species is still endangered and by 2003 only 106 specimens were alive in the wild. Today, there...
The Scimitar Oryx (Oryx dammah), is a species of oryx which formerly inhabited the whole of North Africa. It is not known today if the species is either extinct or existent in small numbers in central Niger and Chad. A global captive breeding program was initiated in the 1960s. In 1996, there were at least 1,250 captive animals held in zoos and parks around the world with a further 2,145 on...
The Russian Tortoise, Horsfield's Tortoise or Central Asian Tortoise, Testudo horsfieldii, is a species of tortoise that is named after the American naturalist Thomas Horsfield. The Russian Tortoise ranges from Afghanistan to north western China, through the countries of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Baluchistan....
The Round-tail Horned Lizard, Phrynosoma modestum, is the smallest species of horned lizard. They are found in the United States, in western Texas, New Mexico and eastern Arizona, and three states in Mexico. They prefer a sandy, semi-arid habitat with sparse vegetation, near harvester ant colonies or honey pot ant colonies, which is their primary diet. The color of these lizards usually...
The Texas Horned Lizard, Phrynosoma cornutum, is one of fourteen North American species of spike-bodied reptiles, called horned lizards. The Texas species ranges from Colorado and Kansas to northern Mexico, and from southeastern Arizona to Louisiana and Arkansas. Texas is the heart of its range. There are also some isolated populations in the Carolinas, Georgia, and northern Florida. The...
The sable (Martes zibellina) is a small mammal. It is closely akin to the martens, living in northern Asia from the Ural Mountains through Siberia and Mongolia to HokkaidÅ in Japan. Its range in the wild originally extended through European Russia to Poland and Scandinavia. It has achieved fame for its fur, which is integrated into various clothes fashions. Sables range in color from tan to...
The beech marten (Martes foina), also known as the Stone Marten, is the most common species of marten in Central Europe. Beech martens are long, slender, short-legged predators with long, bushy tails. They grow to a size of 15.75 to 19.69 inches (40 to 50cm) in body length and weigh up to 4.41 lb (2 kg). Their brown coats have a forked white marking at the throat, which distinguishes them in...
The American Marten (Martes americana) is a North American marten sometimes also called the Pine Marten, even though it is a separate species from the European Pine Marten. Some sources believe that the population found in the western United States should be considered a distinct species and given the scientific name Martes caurina. It lives in mature coniferous or mixed forests in Alaska...
