Hippo's Wild World of Animals - Random Animal Facts

The platypus is the favorite food of everything, is sexually attracted to fire, and needs constant reassurance or it will die.

This week brings to you the wonders of the pangolin, as requested by rainbowsherbert and MrsLangdonAlger ! Also as a heads up, the slots for season three's animals is now open so add your requests in today! songstarliner already bagged African wild dogs, what'll you choose to be poorly informed about?

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Pangolins are a family of animals made up of eight species residing mostly in Africa and parts of Asia, every one of which is on the endangered species list.

Also known as scaly anteaters, their main diet is made up of ants and termites and will generally consume 140-200g of insects a day. They can be as small as 30cm in the case of the Ground Pangolin and as long as a metre as the Giant Pangolin typically are.

All pangolins are distinct by their many overlapping hard scales made of keratin and their habit of curling up as a defence mechanism. Much like their outsides, their muscled stomachs are lined internally with keratin spikes to help with digestion due to a lack of teeth.

Like anteaters, they have very long tongues with with to feed with, some extending far longer than the body itself. Generally, pangolins are solitary animals and will only meet with other pangolins to reproduce.

The main threat for all pangolins is mostly human with their flesh being used in some traditional medicines and considered a delicacy in parts of China and Vietnam. The high price paid for pangolin parts make it one of the most highly illegally trafficked animals on earth as well as one of the most critically endangered with no hard number on how many are in the wild.


Unlike the dang giant panda who is willing itself into extinction without human help, not much is publicly known about the pangolin's plight or how understudied or endangered it truly is but efforts have been made to try and educate the public on them. They're still no panda though.

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So, some more pics?

To repeat from earlier, season three selections are now open, please add in your requests!

So do you figure that pangolin is safe from the lion trying to eat it? Its scales should remind me strongly of something, but I'm not sure of what.

I would like to be informed about the noble beaver, please.

It is the animal of my people.  The pangolin scales remind me of a particular plant's leaves, I think, but I'm not sure which.  Do you think before the lion lets the pangolin go it would roll it down a hill? 

Pangolins have had a strange and perplexing taxonomic history. They were originally classified with the Xenarthrans (sloths, anteaters, armadillos) mainly based on their lack of teeth. However, since the centre of biogeography of the other Xenarthrans is South America, and pangolins are found today only in Africa and Asia, that was never really satisfying.

More recently, genetic analysis has shown them to be more closely related to the Carnivores than any other living group. Although, obviously not very closely related.

The fossil history of pangolins is patchy at best. Most mammal fossils consist of teeth. It's amazing how many extinct mammal species are known only by their teeth. Usually this isn't much of a problem, as teeth are really hard (making them excellent candidates for preservation), are highly adapted to a wide range of morphologies based on the critter's diet and habitat, and show numerous tiny changes in form over time that really help classify the beasties. Not having them makes pangolins problematic from a paleontological perspective.

There are some pangolin fossils though. The earliest are from the Eocene of Europe (about 50 million years ago). There are also pangolins known from North America in the late Eocene (about 35 million years ago). So it appears pangolins may have originated in the Laurasian continent, which started breaking up at the end of the Eocene to form North America, Europe and Asia (the latter two of which then connected to Africa). The first African fossils that might be pangolins show up in the Oligocene in Egypt, so that seems to fit.

You just won a pangolin!

moimoi  I wasn't thinking of that, but I will do now, and for that you've earned a pokemon.

Desert Dweller  Don't underestimate the charm of Hippo's inimitable prose stylings!

Aw, it was just a joke. I do read all the facts.

It's Wednesday which means more animal facts sandwiched between pics! This week brings the wolverine as requested by MissBeaHaven and partially by Lord Lucan .

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Wolverines are mustelids (same family as otters and ferrets) living mostly in the most northern ends of Canada and Europe, mostly within Russia with two subspecies representing the ones from the Old World in Russia and the ones in the New World in North America. Small personal note but I do love mustelids as my favourite animal family.

Unlike almost every animal from week to week we've covered, this one isn't actually endangered and several live in ol' Canuckistania.


The skunkbear is a rapacious hunter and scavenger preying on several species of mustelid and deer. Usually as an opportunist will go after smaller or weaker animals but will mostly survive on carrion usually left behind by wolves or coyotes.


Though fairly small at a standing height of 35-40cm and 70-90cm long it's still a very powerful animal with very sharp claws, a powerful bite and a tough hide.


While the wolverine isn't endangered and in some areas are growing their population, they are at risk of losing their usual home ranges to, yep, climate change.


Somewhat unfairly... let's be honest, totally unfairly the poor wolverine in several languages has a name which basically means "glutton". It earns such a name from its ravenous looking eating habits but come on, look at that face, barely ravenous at all.

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And so, we end our time with the carcajou with a few pictures and junk.

Hah, thanks haysoos, knew you'd be able to provide actual facts.

It's the night before the night before Christmas so what better way to do this than to go festive with this week's animal, the reindeer. Could have done Hannukah a few weeks back but you find me one Hannukah animal, can't be done.

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Reindeer are usually found, like wolverines, around the landmasses near the North Pole with habitats across northern Europe and Siberian Russia and in Canada and Alaska though are called caribou there.


There are 14 subspecies of reindeer and are really big as far as deer go, going from 80cm tall at the shoulder to 150cm generally with weights ranging between 80kg upto 180kg on average.


Being an ungulate, reindeer will eat leaves and grasses in summer seasons but during the winter, they mostly eat lichen which very few other ungulates can digest especially one specific type of lichen named after them.


Common to both male and female reindeer are large antler racks, mostly used during the rut but during the times when they're regrowing then (reindeer lose their antlers yearly) they'll be covered in what looks like a velvet coat. That coat however is fur covering a layer of skin, the skin is threaded with blood vessels to help the growth of the antlers and eventually comes off leaving a nice red hue to the horn underneath which eventually bleaches out.


Reindeer have clicky knees, this isn't due to bones but from the tendons and are considered to be a communicative method due to how far away they can be heard. This is mostly used by reindeer in order to establish dominance through frequency differences the heavier and bigger a reindeer bull is.


The Arctic reindeer's eyesight is very good, almost operating like a blacklight with the capability of seeing things in the ultraviolet spectrum as glowing. Also, to deal with the Arctic winters, their eyes change from yellow in the summer to blue in the winter.


Much like their eyes, reindeer hooves also change depending on the conditions. During the summer months they have soft padding under their hooves to help with rocky terrain but in winter these pads recede so they can use the harder parts of their hooves for digging into dense snow for lichen.


Our connections to these creatures go way back into the paleolithic eras and have been herded and made semi-domesticated by various Arctic peoples, including the Sámi in Finland. Their meat is popular in Scandinavian countries and are still hunted by First Nation people though hard limits are placed on how many are killed.


The connection between reindeer and Christmas didn't really exist until "A Visit From St. Nicholas", penned in 1823 which included a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. Rudolph was a later addition, the little song written in 1939 for a chain of department stores and somehow solidifying the connection of reindeer and Santa that much closer together and making you notice everything you know about Christmas was defined as little as less than a century ago during the 30s, that decade has a lot to answer for when it comes to animal representations.

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The Yulemastide Sloth brings gifts of gifs! Be generous this year and offer more animal suggestions, I have got exactly three so far so I need far far more.

Well these seem like happy, hardy animals. Good show, hippo.

And for next year, can I throw in a suggestion for my spirit animal, the tortoise?

Historically, caribou were found across Canada and down into the United States, but were driven out by hunting (extirpated in Wisconsin and most of Michigan by 1840, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick around 1925-27). But paleontologically, their range was even further south. Fossils have been found in Alabama, Tennessee, and some questionable ones from Nevada and New Mexico. These likely had the same habits and habitat preferences as the modern caribou, and are used as indicators of paleoclimate in those areas at the height of glaciation.

Caribou are also known for their seasonal migrations, moving in huge numbers hundreds of kilometers to take advantage of temporary resources. These migrations were incredibly important to the various native groups that hunted the caribou, and in the NWT it is still common for kids to get the day off school to go caribou hunting when the herds arrive. The paths the caribou take are often circuitous and don't really take advantage of the easiest terrain - instead they are influenced more by the wind. As the caribou move, they prefer to face into the wind, which helps keep down the face biting by mosquitoes (which can infest the Arctic tundra in fearsome clouds).

(PS - I think photo #4 might actually be a fallow deer)