The leopard (or snow leopard, which is the same thing) watches for hours somewhere on a rock or under a rock for mountain turkeys or sheep. But in general, he is a universal hunter: he takes everyone - from mice to yaks sometimes. It does not bother people, and its disposition is apparently more good-natured than that of the panther and tiger.
Leopards love to play and roll in the snow. Having fun, they slide off the cliff on their backs, and at the bottom they quickly turn over and fall into a snowdrift on all four paws. Quite a sybarite. After the morning hunt, after the games, they settle down somewhere comfortable and bask in the sun.
The usual habitat is rhododendron bushes, and in some places alpine meadows and bare rocks near the borders eternal snow. They live here in pairs - male and female.
They will give birth to two to four kittens in the spring. The lair is in a cozy crevice (sometimes in a vulture’s nest on a low tree!). The mother insulates the den with wool, having torn it from her belly. Other cats, except for the jungle cat, do not seem capable of such self-sacrifice. Leopards' milk is fatty and five times more nutritious than that of a cow.
The leopard is a good father and helps the female raise her children.
The old leopard weighs 75 kilograms, his large stature and other features are close to big cats, but he also has something of small cats. IN good mood The leopard, for example, purrs (puma and clouded leopard too), but can also growl. Some zoologists call the clouded leopard, leopard and puma giant small cats.
Big cats of America - puma and jaguar
The living space of no cat is spread as far along the meridian as that of the puma: from Southern Alaska to the Strait of Magellan. This was the case, at least, at the beginning of our century. Now in many places the puma has been exterminated completely or almost completely.
There are no longer, it seems, pumas in Alaska; they were all driven out half a century ago in eastern Canada and the USA (these pumas were called cougars - a name that is sometimes awarded to all pumas in general to this day). In Canada and the United States, cougars have survived only in the west and in some places at the mouth of the Mississippi in Florida.
At one time, the puma was considered to be closely related to the lion.
Nowadays we see signs of this old theory in the names of pumas: “mountain lion”, “silver lion”, “lion of the Andes”.
Some zoologists believe that genetically, as I have already mentioned, the puma is close to small cats.
The smallest pumas (weighing about 30 kilograms) live in damp tropical forests South America. Their fur is short and red-brown. The largest (up to 110 kilograms), silver or dark gray - in Rocky Mountains North America and in the extreme south of its vast range - Tierra del Fuego.
The puma's hunting grounds are large: up to a hundred miles in circumference. Even if it is not disturbed, the puma wanders within these miles, never staying anywhere for long.
Nature has not endowed pumas with any spots or stripes, although her kittens are spotted. With the first molt, this atavistic gift disappears. Only some fully grown cougars tropical forests Traces of the former infant spotting are barely visible on the skin.
“The puma is a poor child who, however, has stepped on the wrong path” - this vague description was uttered by the real trampeador Francisco in A. Arletti’s book “Trumpeador” (“Hunter”), Francisco Garrido often communicated with the beast, and therefore his characterization as it neither mysterious, but interesting to decipher. Why "poor"? Why "child"? Why, finally, the “wrong way”?
Trumpeador loved nature, and therefore the phrase he said apparently sounds like sympathy for the real troubles of the puma. And there are such people. The first problem is common for all animals: an armed man. The second is the not entirely clear hatred of the jaguar neighbor.
Well, why “child”?
The puma loves to have fun: while frolicking, she jumps (and she is a phenomenal jumper: 5-6 meters in height, and sometimes 14 meters from a height downwards!). He jumps after butterflies like a small kitten, tumbling and catching his tail if there is no one else to play with. Her large, calm eyes look tenderly to the point of naivety. The Indians assure: the puma is a man’s friend and never attacks him. And if these two meet in deserted places, she will run up, jumping and digging the ground with her paw, as if inviting a person to play. Alas, people don’t understand such jokes and shoot back.
Puma. In the genus Felis, to which many taxonomists include the puma, this is the most big cat. Her weight is 35-105 kilograms.
The question of what is meant by the words “wrong path” seems to be easy to answer. Puma – large animal. In Canada, she chases deer through deep snow, and in the sultry prairies of Argentina she hunts rhea ostriches. Man, as you know, looks at everything that can be useful to him for some reason as his property. Moreover, the puma, unfortunately, does not always distinguish which animal or bird is still enjoying freedom, and which, for human convenience, is “registered” in a pen, stable or chicken coop. She sometimes disturbs the relative peace of “civilized” animals in order to plunge them into final and timeless peace. And this is completely unforgivable.
So, “the puma is a poor child who, however, has stepped on the wrong path”...
The jaguar has a living space, measured in geographic terms, that is smaller than that of the puma: from the southwestern United States (Texas and Arizona, where it already appears to be extirpated) to northern Argentina. Not everyone can tell a jaguar from a leopard. Very similar, and the spots are almost the same: only larger and some of them are rosettes with a small black spot in the center. The jaguar's head is larger (the skull is massive, almost like a tiger's), the tail is shorter, and the animal itself is also relatively shorter, but taller than a leopard. (Weighs on average more than 100 kilograms.)
The jaguar runs, climbs and swims perfectly. Like the tiger, he loves water very much. He easily swims across the Amazon, and there was a case when a jaguar attacked people in a boat, they jumped into the water, and he got into the boat and swam, looking around. He loves to swim, lying on a log, down the river, and sometimes he dreams that the current carries him out into the ocean. The jaguar is a skilled fisherman; he watches fish near the water for hours. Near the river he hunts capybaras and tapirs. Even for crocodiles, which are smaller (and big crocodiles are hunting him!). He catches turtles by the sea. He will jump out of the bushes and throw one turtle after another upside down. The turtles will turn over and cannot crawl away on their own, but they will not die or deteriorate. Then the jaguar comes and with its claws pulls out of the shell those who are tired of lying with their backs down and sticking their heads out. Jaguars live both in the steppes and in damp swampy forests (and often develop rickets there!).
Scan, OCR: ???, SpellCheck: Miger, 2007
Original: Bernard Heuvelman, “Sur la piste des betes ignorees”, 1955
Translation: I. Alcheev, N. Nepomnyashchy, P. Trannois
annotation
The work of the famous Belgian zoologist Bernard Euwelmans is completely unfamiliar to the domestic reader. Meanwhile, he wrote more than a dozen fascinating books about giant sea serpents and krakens, dinosaurs and " snow people" The scientist traveled a lot, and his dossier contains tens of thousands of evidence of unprecedented animals from all continents. The book is intended for everyone who is not indifferent to the search for the unknown, the secrets of nature.
Bernard Euvelmans
ON THE TRAILS OF MYSTERIOUS BEASTS
Translation from French. First edition: “Around the World”, 1994 (under the title “Traces of Unseen Animals”), second ed. - “Veche”, 2000 (under the title “Secrets of Mysterious Animals”).
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
From the editors of the magazine "Around the World"
Books are like people - they age, but do not lose their attractiveness and become even wiser and more interesting interlocutors. Books by Bernard Euvelmans - in particular. Name of this amazing person known to few in our country, only to those who are passionate about searching for hitherto unknown forms of life, to those who dream of adventure and discovery. “Traces of Unseen Beasts” is the main book of this famous Belgian cryptozoologist, for which he collected materials for many years (in total, Euvelmans wrote about a dozen fascinating books). It is dedicated to the still unsolved mysteries of zoology, the search and discovery of new species of living beings.
Euvelmans is rightly called the “father of cryptozoology”, for the first time among zoologists! - loudly declaring that on our planet there are corners with hitherto unknown forms of life. The scientist today has many followers. These are students from his school - the school of studying the unknown.
Throughout its more than 130-year history, the magazine has written many times about the searches and discoveries of mysterious animals. One can at least recall the diaries of the geologist V. Tverdokhlebov, published in the early 50s, when no one even knew about cryptozoology - about meetings with mysterious creature, resembling a plesiosaur, in the lakes of Yakutia; notes from Soviet specialists who encountered a huge hairy crocodile in West Africa; the search by O. Kuvaev and V. Orlov for the giant prehistoric arctodus bear in Chukotka, which was reflected on the pages of the magazine; stories about sea serpent, which was seen by fishermen and sailors in various parts of the world's oceans; observations of " Bigfoot“domestic cryptozoologists, followers of the tireless Belgian... And, finally, the magazine published excerpts from this book by Euvelmans, written quite a long time ago, but which has not lost its authenticity in our days. Today, for example, the scientist’s hypothesis about the existence in Africa of the so-called “third anthropoid” - a large ape, living in the jungle along with chimpanzees and gorilla. Or that in West Africa there live dwarf forest elephants, the adults of which are no larger in size than six-month-old baby elephants. Expeditions returning from the far corners of the planet bring information about new species of the animal world, still unknown to science.
By publishing this book, the editors of the magazine “Around the World” really want to show that the exploration of our planet is not over, “blank spots” are still waiting for their cryptozoological researchers, who, by the way, often come to the editorial office with a variety of ideas and projects about new exciting expeditions V different corners of our country, in deserts and jungles, mountains and the depths of the ocean... In a word, Euvelmans’ work lives on!
THIRTY YEARS LATER
Preface to the second edition
Is everything so hopeless?
One of the most exciting mysteries of the enlightened 20th century is the mysterious animals that supposedly exist in reality. From time to time, here and there they meet Bigfoot from the waters of a Scottish lake Loch Ness the head of a plesiosaur emerges, a “little people” wanders through the jungles of Indonesia, well known to connoisseurs of native folklore... Messages of this kind could be treated as harmless fiction if cryptozoology had not arisen on their basis - a discipline that considers mythical and extinct animals as the reality of our days . Adherents consider it a science, but “real” zoologists, as a rule, simply do not take it seriously - and not without reason. But from a purely scientific point of view, is there really nothing in cryptozoology other than the usual quackery for fashionable modern pseudosciences?
A few zoological facts
...In 1819, the great Cuvier declared that the vertebrate fauna had been fully studied, and proposed that further reports about their new species should be considered a deliberate fake. Since then, the forest elephant, okapi, fusiform antelope, mountain gorilla have been discovered... And a dozen more species, including the famous lobe-finned fish, in time immemorial gave rise to terrestrial vertebrates. Only paleontological data testified to it - and it turned out that one of the species lobe-finned fish still live!
...Relatively recently, krakens were considered a legend. Now these giant cephalopods caught, dissected and studied.
...Steller's cow, manat, dugong. The last two species are rare, the first is extinct or almost extinct. Many scientists believe that they served as the prototype for sirens and mermaids, although they do not sing, but rather scream rather unpleasantly. It turns out that a myth is not really a myth?..
Several cryptozoological artifacts
...In 1961, zoologist Robert Le Serrec, while sailing on a boat in the vicinity of the Australian Great Barrier Reef, photographed a menacing shadow that suddenly emerged from the depths to the very surface of the water. What it is is difficult to determine from the photograph. Le Serrec himself is sure that he caught a placoderm in his lens - a giant shell fish, which, according to official data, became extinct in the Devonian (!), but cannot prove this.
...In the summer of 1989, while in national park Kerinci Seb Lat in Sumatra, British journalist Deborah Martin first heard from local residents about the Orang Pendeks - “little people” who supposedly live in the jungle. In September of the same year, she herself saw their tracks, very similar to human ones. Since then, Deborah has been persistently searching for the Orang Pendeks, for which she has equipped a long-term expedition. Alas, the mysterious forest people clearly do not crave meetings with the press: according to the enthusiastic journalist, only occasionally in the thickets of vines do creatures that correspond to the verbal portrait of a typical orang pendek flash before her and her colleagues - stocky, slightly taller than a meter, completely covered with black-brown hair , with maned heads. So far it has not been possible not only to establish their species, but even to photograph them. There is only a portrait of one of them, drawn by Deborah from life with her own hand.
...In 1994, American biologist David Oren, a Harvard graduate, launched an expedition to the Amazon to search for the mapinguari, a South American folklore monster. He knew about it from the words of local Indians. According to their description, the mapinguari is a large, one-eyed animal, covered with red fur, walks on two legs, and its mouth hangs down to its belly. The monster is very aggressive and bites off the heads of its victims, and when escaping from pursuit, it releases jets of foul-smelling gases at its pursuers (where it comes from is not specified).
Here is one of the evidence. A certain rubber tapper was hunting in the forest. Suddenly he heard a growl behind him, turned around - and was stunned: huge creature strange-looking stood on hind legs and roared at the top of his voice. The native was not taken aback and fired, the animal fell... and then the air was filled with such a stench that the hunter took to his heels. He wandered through the forest for several hours, shuddering with disgust, then finally returned to the carcass and cut off the front paw. But the trophy smelled so much that it had to be thrown away in the forest.
Based on the description, Oren concluded that the mapinguari are nothing more than giant sloths that became extinct several thousand years ago (!). The scientist went into the jungle, accompanied by a dozen Indians, all of them armed with rifles that fired ampoules with sleeping pills, and gas masks. More than a month small squad wandered through the village. It was not possible to meet a single creature that even remotely corresponded to the verbal portrait. The material collected by the expedition included only a bunch of red wool and about 9 kg of droppings of unknown origin.
...In 1966, in one of the caves in Australia, the corpse of a marsupial wolf was found, suspiciously “new” in appearance and showing signs of active decomposition. The find was immediately subjected to radiocarbon dating. The result was saddening: the age of the remains is several thousand years.
...In 1986, Richard Greenwell, an American zoologist, chairman of the International Society of Cryptozoology, while in Mexico, heard many stories about the onza, a legendary wild cat resembling a cheetah. According to legend, one of the individuals of this “species” was once tamed by the Aztec emperor Montezuma himself. Greenwell agreed with the Indian hunters: if one of them was lucky enough to catch a cat alive or at least shoot it, they should inform him. A few months later, Greenwell received a telegram: he was shot, the body was frozen, come. Having arrived at the place, the scientist first examined the prey himself as a zoologist. In front of him lay a slender, graceful female, quite cat-like in appearance, but with very long, not at all cat-like legs. Most of all, she looked like a puma, but, besides those mentioned long legs, differed from it in the presence of horizontal stripes on the paws and a different shape of the skull. For diagnostic reliability, we decided to subject the specimen to modern biochemical tests. It turned out that it was still a puma, albeit an atypical one.
...In 1968, a certain Hansen, a citizen of the United States, showed the public a snowman frozen in ice, smuggled from Vietnam to him in Minnesota. The delight of onlookers might not have been taken seriously if the find had not been personally examined by the authoritative French zoologist Bernard Euvelmans. He found that the exhibit was most likely genuine and therefore worthy of attention, and an external examination allowed him, as an experienced morphologist, to assume that this was a representative of an unknown human species - Euvelmans even, as they say, on the spot came up with a name for it: Homo pongoides. Soon the FBI became interested in Hansen's exhibit; almost immediately both - the exhibit and Hansen himself - disappeared without a trace...
If we add to the above generally known information about Nessie, encounters with Bigfoot, etc., one might get the impression that cryptozoology is a pseudoscientific show like telekinesis: only amateurs believe in it, and experiments - or should I say “tricks”? - succeed only when no one sees. Indeed, apart from krakens, there are no documented cryptozoological successes. A lot of colorful and mysterious stories, even more romance of wanderings in the jungle - but not a single description of a new species of animal that satisfies the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, and what’s more - not a single collectible specimen or even a photograph, the image of which can be accurately identified. But…
But it is not by chance that we mentioned what kind of person bears the honorary title of “grandfather of cryptozoology.” It’s one thing to be a British journalist with no professional training, and quite another to be a venerable zoologist, whose professionalism and integrity there is no doubt. And Euvelmans is by no means the only professional biologist among cryptozoologists. Philip Tobias from South Africa, one of the world's leading paleoanthropologists, worked passionately in the directorate of the Cryptozoological Society until his retirement. What about the research organizers? Yes, of course, stories and fables are told by natives who have not studied at universities, but expeditions are equipped by scientists! The result of these expeditions is invariably zero or almost zero - this seems to prove that real science refutes cryptozoological speculation as not supported by facts. Then why are all new expeditions equipped, why are they organized in different countries cryptozoological societies, why is the number of enthusiasts growing? True, many of them give the impression of incurable romantics, thirsting for miracles.
What if the romantic flair only tightly envelops the overall picture, distorting its true meaning even for those who painted it? Let's try to forget for a while about who is looking for mysterious animals, and let's talk about something else: who will cryptozoologists find - if they find it?
Ten questions and one more
The natural distrust of cryptozoology of the average classically trained biologist can be formulated in the form of the following questions.
1. Can, in principle, there exist animals that are studied by cryptozoology (hereinafter, for brevity, we will call them cryptozoans)?
2. If so, why are they so difficult to detect?
3. Why are they met only by representatives of backward tribes and nationalities?
4. Why are cryptozoans found primarily in tropical forests?
5. Why does modern biosphere monitoring equipment not register any traces of cryptozoans?
6. Why do cryptozoologists look for cryptozoans?
7. Is it necessary to look for them at all? Is information about them of real value?
8. Can we rely on data from fine analyzes when determining the species identity of a candidate cryptozoan?
9. Is it necessary to protect cryptozoans and include them in the Red Book?
10. Finally, the final question: is there a scientific element in cryptozoology and what does it consist of, if so?
And since the noise around cryptozoology is raised exclusively by the press, let’s add an eleventh question: if the reality of cryptozoans is irrefutably proven, can this be considered a sensation?
Trusting the expertise, check yourself
I think it is unnecessary to follow the order of questions. It is more convenient to start with the easiest and most particular, namely the eighth. It arises because the Australian zoologist (professional!) Arnold M. Douglas discredited the conclusion about the age of the mentioned marsupial wolf corpse. According to the scientist, groundwater penetrated into the remains, which confused the instruments. And it’s strange: a carcass from a thousand years ago is showing signs of decomposition now?
There is an obvious misunderstanding here, which is unfortunate, but does not in any way detract from the merits of radiocarbon dating as a method. The point is different: is it reasonable to refer to modern subtle (molecular) methods as the last resort in difficult cases? Let us remember: zoologist Greenwell noted a number of characteristics that distinguished the supposed ontsu from the puma - quite respectable from the point of view of taxonomy - but immediately renounced them, having received a biochemical verdict.
Meanwhile, from the point of view of classical, official, generally accepted zoology, this is unlawful. No wonder the unforgettable Hercule Poirot said: “I myself do not rely too much on all kinds of examinations - I am usually interested in psychology, and not in cigarette ash.” We - in this case - are interested in zoology, and not spectroscopy, spectrometry, etc. Morphological features are as significant for modern taxonomy as they were for the antediluvian, Linnaean one. It is the morphological differences that are zoological, since they directly reflect the ecological uniqueness of each species.
Any biologist, even at the university bench, learns one axiom, which would be worth devoting an entire treatise to, but due to lack of space, we will limit ourselves to its formulation: if a dachshund (species, genus, family, order, etc.) stands out, it means it is doing something in nature. What exactly does it do? This can be answered by studying the ecological niche of the taxon: where, what and how its representatives live. And what are they primarily reflected on? environmental devices, say, the same one? Of course, on its morphological characteristics, that is, on the external and internal structure. As for biochemical and other “test tube” characteristics - “grinding in” to ecological niche does not necessarily require changing them. It's not far to look for evidence. At one time, gene systematics - the classification of animals based on a genetic test - became very fashionable. At first, as usual, they shouted excitedly that this was a revolution in taxonomy, that traditional methods of classification could be safely discarded, etc. And upon closer examination it turned out that sometimes some two species of the same genus show differences of the same degree as two types (!).
There were other embarrassments - apparently, they are generally inevitable when trying to absolutize subtle methods species diagnostics. This means that a competent diagnosis of the species identity of the puma-onza or any other cryptozoan should be based on a complex of morphological, ecological and, let’s say, molecular characteristics. If the latter raise doubts, it is better to resolve them in favor of morphology and ecology.
Why are we talking about this in such detail? Yes, because it directly follows from this, for example, that Greenwell was clearly in a hurry to admit defeat. Still, he was more likely dealing with an unknown cat than with a “defective” puma. If the length of the legs is an insignificant sign, then the stripes on the paws and the shape of the skull should not be dismissed - because in an ecological sense they undoubtedly mean something. Stripes on the paws can serve to identify a male female of his species (and vice versa) - it is known that nature does not neglect any opportunity to strengthen the barrier of reproductive isolation, especially when two species are closely related to each other. And it’s not difficult to associate the shape of the skull with the source of food, with the method of hunting, even with the dynamics of daily activity!
In short, a negative result of a molecular test cannot be considered a convincing refutation of the reality of cryptozoans as a species. What is allowed? Now it is appropriate to discuss the first question:
Do they exist?
Or rather, can they exist in principle - from the point of view of a “normal” zoologist?
Let us recall who the motley crew of cryptozoans consists of: firstly, mythological animals; secondly, from long or recently extinct. The reality of fairy-tale monsters is not theoretically excluded, but only in one sense: since the imagination of people, including myth-makers, by definition does not go beyond the framework of the total human experience, dragons, sirens and others, of course, did not arise out of nowhere. They must certainly have prototypes in living nature. The dragon seemed to be a completely fictional creature until paleontologists discovered prehistoric flying dinosaurs; sirens were somehow identified with Steller's cows, etc. In a word, although with some stretch, it is possible to select the original from which this or that fairy-tale animal was copied.
The question of extinct animals is more difficult. At least it is known for sure that they existed, and it is considered proven that they have now disappeared. But is it conceivable to take seriously any of such evidence? Example: On September 7, 1936, the elderly Benjamin, the last alleged representative of marsupial wolves, died at the Hobart Zoo (Tasmania). Does it follow from this that there is not a single pair of individuals of this species left on the planet capable of producing offspring?
Not only from here, but, perhaps, from nothing at all it cannot follow. One entomologist happened to map the breeding places of mosquitoes - animals that undoubtedly exist and are certainly not rare. So: even in the open rice fields of Karakalpakstan, complete thoroughness cannot be guaranteed. Well, where is the guarantee that all conceivable habitats have been combed in search of marsupial wolves? Let's not forget, these are impenetrable thickets, not rice fields!
By the way, the issue of thickets deserves special attention. For some reason, cryptozoans are suspiciously concentrated in tropical forests. What if, in fact, their distribution is natural areas planets more evenly? Then they could be looked for in any uninhabited or almost uninhabited places. But... most of these places are even less suitable for observation than the jungle. Where to start searching for cryptozoans in the ice of the Arctic and Antarctic, in inaccessible mountains, in the depths of the ocean? Apparently, from mapping trails, burrows, nests, rookeries, etc. How to carry it out? Obviously, personally comb the entire area. That's all - the solution to the problem is broken by the impossibility of even its preliminary part! But let’s say that an expedition looking for “snowman” in the Caucasus got to a place where no homo sapiens had ever set foot. What will happen? While the latter, cursing everything in the world, hammers another wedge into the rock, the first will notice it and, being a local resident, perfectly adapted to unnoticed (!) movement in the mountains familiar from birth, will hide so technically that none of the researchers will even notice, that someone unknown actually existed and disappeared!
Remains a tropical forest. An ideal place where people live, albeit uncivilized, but capable of providing primary information - where to look and who to look for. How do they know this? Why do Mapinguari easily appear in front of Aboriginal hunters? Yes, because the latter, like the former, belong to the tropical forest! They know it like the back of their hand and know how to move around it no worse than the most seasoned cryptozoan!
And now the main thing: the tropical forest is a very ancient community that has changed little over the past hundreds of thousands of years. Therefore, it is natural that there are actually more supposedly extinct species there than in other natural zones.
So, if we approach the matter scientifically, there is nothing incredible either in the very fact that creatures that have seemingly disappeared from the face of the Earth for a long time still live somewhere, nor in the fact that “somewhere” almost always means “in tropical jungle”, nor, finally, that it is much more difficult for a civilized person - a scientist, for example - to meet them than for a native. That is, the answers to questions from the third to fifth of our list are quite materialistic. It is also clear why biosphere monitoring equipment does not record traces of the vital activity of cryptozoans. After all, it works quite “roughly”, and in addition, its use presupposes exact knowledge of who exactly we are looking for and what signs of his presence we expect. And if you don’t know in advance how to interpret what the instruments give out, it’s easy to miss the obvious.
Why are they hiding? And from whom? From U.S?
And cryptozoans hide masterfully. Although we silently agreed to talk about them as reality, we do not forget for a second that reality is still illusory. Almost no one was found! All the above arguments only prove that the search, in principle, is not hopeless, but practice shows that even the natives are extremely rarely lucky!
There are two conceivable reasons: a) the number of cryptozoans is vanishingly small; b) we repeat, they hide skillfully. So why? So that the hunters do not exterminate the survivors? What amazing intelligence!
And yet no.
Let us first understand the causes of extinction individual species. Blaming civilization is as easy as it is absurd. Man unwittingly displaces or deliberately exterminates everyone who competes with him as a species, who fights with him for existence. But some obediently die out, while others - say, rats, cockroaches, mosquitoes, city pigeons - cannot be replaced. It turns out that humans are not such an important factor in the extinction of animals. What throws them off, figuratively speaking, from the ark of evolution?
Evolution
Marsupial wolves, Steller's cows, saber tooth tigers and the others disappeared or almost disappeared because they played their role. Of course, man is their competitor, but a secondary one. The main ones should be looked for where they lived: the marsupial wolf - in the jungles of Tasmania, the Steller's cow - in the sea, etc. It is those who shared shelter with them who survived them.
In other words, cryptozoans are what evolution abandoned. And it doesn’t matter at all whether they died out 10,000 years ago or will die out in 10,000 years: in both cases, they are not inhabitants of the Earth. They are dead ends for evolution and cannot serve as material for it in the future, which is why they turned out to be repressed.
And cryptozoans hide not so much from people, but from those who kicked them out, cryptozoans, from the celebration of life, from their neighbors in the biocenosis, guided not by reason, which they do not have and never had, but by the most ancient instinct of self-preservation: only this helps They will somehow live out their last days.
And from here the true value of cryptozoology can be seen. We did not want to consider it pseudoscience in advance and tried to understand it. What they brought us to known to science facts in combination with logic allow us to answer the tenth question - is there any scientific character in cryptozoology - in the affirmative. But this scientific nature is “buried” in a somewhat unexpected place.
Why do we need them?
Let’s repeat: what are cryptozoans as an object? scientific research? They are species abandoned by evolution, its hopeless dead ends. This means that the benefit of cryptozoology as a discipline that studies them lies in the knowledge of suboptimal physiology, morphology, ecology and biochemistry, in the knowledge of how an animal of a given group (genus, family, order, etc.) should not be structured. Further access to biomechanics and bionics is obvious: the study of cryptozoans from their perspective will help to understand how unsuccessful living machines work. All this is unique information that modern biology does not have, and only cryptozoological research can provide it!
A pedantic scientific approach leads to this conclusion.
Puma- the beast is careful. For centuries it has eluded meticulous researchers. Only in last years biologists began to uncover the secrets of her life and behavior.
Puma has many faces. Scientists count up to thirty subspecies of puma, differing from each other in color and size. Mountain cats are sometimes half the size of their lowland relatives. The shades of the coat vary from sandy brown to gray depending on the habitat. There are whitish burn marks on the chest, throat and belly of the animal. Special signs; dark stripes above upper lip, the ears are also dark, the tip of the tail is completely black.
Living in the mountains or on the plain is not a fundamental question for a particular puma: where there is more game and there is free territory, there she walks, of course, on her own. Whether she hunts during the day or at night also depends on the circumstances.
Cougars are solitary animals. They come together in pairs for a very short time solely for the sake of procreation. Animals skillfully hide and avoid meeting people, so scientific observation for cougars - a real punishment.
Serious study of these predators began in the American state of Idaho - on the banks of the drying up Big Creek River - twenty years ago. Then, trying to figure out the routes of pumas, scientists tracked the animals, euthanized them and branded them. It became known how cougars demarcate their territories. The territory of one individual sometimes extends over tens of square kilometers. The boundaries of the property are inviolable, and bloody territorial disputes rarely occur - neighbors respect the rights of others.
Among the pumas there are also vagabonds - in the language of scientists, “transit individuals”. These are either matured and still landless young animals, or adult individuals driven away from their homes by people. Transit cougars strive to quickly pass other people's borders and settle in free territory. The path is not short. For example, Wyoming pumas were found half a thousand kilometers away - in Colorado.
The puma is extremely patient.
Once caught in a trap, it does not go crazy like a tiger or a jaguar, but after several silent attempts to free itself, it falls into melancholy and can sit motionless for several days.
Amateur travelers stubbornly insist that in the Western Hemisphere there is no animal that screams worse than the puma. The blood, they say, runs cold from her demonic scream. In the last century, old-timers American state New Mexico was so accustomed to attributing any strange sounds to the puma that they attributed it to... the whistles of the first steam locomotives. As for connoisseur naturalists, they call the puma the lyric soprano in the chorus of predators. Neither zoologists nor zookeepers can boast that they have heard any unusual sounds made by pumas. An embittered animal can indeed “raise” its voice to a powerful growl, but it is more usual for it to make meowing sounds, as well as purr, snort and hiss - in a word, do everything that it does domestic cat. And the puma meets any surprises in silence.
In an open fight, a cougar has difficulty defeating large game - a bull or an elk. She prefers to attack from ambush. Moreover, this animal does not like to run - it quickly runs out of steam. This is compensated by silent sneaking and fantastic jumping ability. A puma can jump up to three meters. Fearlessly jumps from the height of a six-story building. If necessary, climbs trees. In the southwestern deserts of the United States, a cougar can even climb a giant cactus to escape dogs. She swims well, but without the slightest pleasure. And of course, like all cats, she is a neat lady - she spends hours licking herself.
The main prey of pumas is deer. If pumas are exterminated in the area, the number of ungulates increases sharply. But only for a while. Epizootics will soon make one remember the disappearance of the fanged orderly.
If the ungulates don’t turn up, it doesn’t matter: the puma is not picky. It can eat coyotes, anteaters, prairie dogs, marmots, partridges, ducks, geese, bird eggs. A cougar manages to break the shell of an armadillo, eat a porcupine or a smelly skunk, and does not disdain a snake. Unlike the practical jaguar, the puma is often unable to resist robbery: like a fox in a henhouse, it sometimes kills much more game than it can eat. The remains of the carcasses are buried or covered with leaves. But, having obtained fresh meat, it does not return to the cache. The Indian tribes that lived in southern California took advantage of this: they followed the hunting animal and picked up slightly eaten, or even completely untouched, carcasses.
Power and elegance, composure and phenomenal jumping ability - all this is the puma, one of the most impressive cats on the planet (4th place after the lion, jaguar and tiger). In America, the only thing larger than the puma, also called the cougar or mountain lion, is the jaguar.
Description of the puma
Puma concolor is the name of the species in Latin, where the second part is translated as “one-color”, and this statement is true if we evaluate color in terms of the absence of a pattern. On the other hand, the animal does not look entirely monochrome: the upper part contrasts with the light belly, and the white zone of the chin and mouth is clearly visible on the muzzle.
Appearance
An adult male is about a third larger than a female and weighs 60–80 kg with a length of 1–1.8 meters. Some specimens gain 100–105 kg. The puma's height is 0.6–0.9 m, and its muscular, evenly pubescent tail is 0.6–0.75 m. The cougar has an elongated and flexible body, crowned with a proportional head with rounded ears. The puma has a very attentive gaze and beautiful eyes outlined in black. The color of the iris varies from hazel and light gray to green.
The hind paws are wide (with 4 toes) more massive than the front paws, which have 5 toes. The fingers are armed with curved and sharp claws that retract, like all cats. Retractable claws are needed for capturing and holding prey, as well as for climbing trunks. The mountain lion's fur is short, coarse, but thick, reminiscent of the coloring of its main prey - deer. In adults, the underside of the body is much lighter than the top.
This is interesting! The predominant shades are red, gray-brown, sand and yellowish-brown. White markings are visible on the neck, chest and belly.
The cubs are colored differently: their dense fur is dotted with dark, almost black spots on the front and hind limbs there are stripes and rings on the tail. Climate also affects the coloration of pumas. Those who live in tropical regions give off reddish hair, while those who live in northern regions tend to show gray tones.
Puma subspecies
Until 1999, biologists worked with the old classification of cougars, based on their morphological characteristics and distinguishing almost 30 subspecies. Modern classification (based on genetic research) has simplified the calculation, reducing the entire diversity of pumas to just 6 subspecies, included in the same number of phylogeographic groups.
Simply put, predators differ both in their genomes and in their attachment to a specific territory:
- Puma concolor costaricensis – Central America;
- Puma concolor couguar – North America;
- Puma concolor cabrerae - central South America;
- Puma concolor capricornensis – East End South America;
- Puma concolor puma – southern part of South America;
- Puma concolor concolor - northern part of South America.
This is interesting! The rarest subspecies is recognized as Puma concolor coryi, the Florida cougar, living in the forests/swamps of South Florida.
The highest concentration was observed in the Big Cypress National Preserve (USA). In 2011, a little more than 160 individuals lived here, which is why the subspecies was listed in the IUCN Red List with the status “critically endangered” (in critical condition). The disappearance of the Florida cougar, according to biologists, is to blame for the man who drained the swamps and hunted it for sport. Inbreeding also contributed to the extinction, when closely related animals mated (due to the small population).
Lifestyle, character
Cougars are principled loners who come together only during the mating season and then for no more than a week. Females with kittens also stay together. Adult males are not friends: this is typical only for young pumas that have recently separated from their mother’s hem. The population density is influenced by the presence of game: a single cougar can rule over 85 km², and more than a dozen predators can rule over half the area.
As a rule, the female’s hunting plot occupies from 26 to 350 km², adjacent to the male’s plot. The sector where the male hunts is wider (140–760 km²) and never intersects with the territory of the opponent. Lines are marked using urine/feces and scratches on trees. The puma changes its location within the area depending on the time of year. Mountain lions are well adapted to life in rough terrain: they are excellent jumpers (the best of all cats) both in length and height.
Puma records:
- long jump – 7.5 m;
- high jump – 4.5 m;
- jump from a height of 18 m (like from the roof of a five-story building).
This is interesting! The cougar accelerates to 50 km/h, but quickly runs out of steam, but it easily overcomes mountain slopes and climbs rocks and trees very well. Pumas running from dogs in the southwestern deserts of the United States have even climbed giant cacti. The animal is also a good swimmer, but does not show much interest in this sport.
The puma hunts at dusk, preferring to knock down its prey with one powerful leap, and during the day the predator sleeps in its den, basks in the sun or licks itself, like all cats. For a long time there were stories about chilling howl made by the puma, but it all turned out to be fiction. The loudest screams occur during the rutting period, and the rest of the time the animal is limited to growling, rumbling, hissing, snorting and the usual cat “meow”.
Lifespan
IN wildlife pumas live to be 18–20 years old unless they fall into the sights of a hunting rifle or into the clutches of a larger animal.
Range, habitats
This is the only one wild cat America, which occupies the largest area of the continent. Several centuries earlier, the puma could be found in a vast area from the south of Patagonia (Argentina) to Canada and Alaska. Nowadays, the range has narrowed noticeably, and now cougars (if we talk about the USA and Canada) are found only in Florida, as well as in less populated areas western regions. True, their zone of vital interests still remains South America as a whole.
Zoologists have noticed that the puma’s range practically replicates its distribution range wild deer, its main fishing target. It is no coincidence that the predator is called the mountain lion - it likes to settle in high-mountain forests (up to 4700 m above sea level), but does not avoid the plains. The main thing is that deer and other food game are found in abundance in the chosen area.
Cougars live in different landscapes, such as:
- rainforests;
- coniferous forests;
- pampas;
- grassy plains;
- swampy lowlands.
True, the small cougars of South America are afraid to appear in the swampy lowlands where jaguars hunt.
Cougar food
The animal goes hunting when it gets dark and usually lies in ambush in order to suddenly jump on unwary living creatures. An open confrontation with a bull or elk is difficult for a cougar, so it uses the factor of surprise, reinforcing it precise jump on the victim's back. Once on top, the cougar, thanks to its weight, twists her neck or (like other cats) sinks its teeth into her throat and strangles her. The puma's diet consists primarily of ungulate mammals, but sometimes it diversifies it with rodents and other animals. The puma has also been observed engaging in cannibalism.
The Mountain Lion menu looks something like this:
- deer (whitetail, blacktail, pampas, caribou and wapiti);
- moose, bulls and bighorn sheep;
- porcupines, sloths and possums;
- rabbits, squirrels and mice;
- beavers, muskrats and agoutis;
- skunks, armadillos and raccoons;
- monkeys, bobcats and coyotes.
The puma does not refuse birds, fish, insects and snails. At the same time, she is not afraid to attack baribals, alligators and adult grizzlies. Unlike leopards and tigers, for the cougar there is no difference between domestic and wild animals: at every opportunity it kills livestock/poultry, not sparing cats and dogs.
This is interesting! In a year, one cougar eats from 860 to 1300 kg of meat, which is equal to total weight about fifty ungulates. She often drags the half-eaten carcass far and wide in order to hide it (covered with brushwood, leaves or snow) and return to it later.
The cougar has a bad habit of killing game in reserve, that is, in a volume far exceeding its needs. The Indians, who knew about this, watched the movements of the predator and took for themselves the carcasses it had buried, often completely untouched.
Reproduction and offspring
It is believed that mountain lions do not have a fixed breeding season, and only cougars living in northern latitudes, there are certain limits - this is the period from December to March. Females are ready to mate for about 9 days. About the fact that cougars are in active search partner, evidenced by the heart-rending screams of males and their fights. The male copulates with all females in estrus that wander into his territory.
The puma bears offspring from 82 to 96 days, giving birth to up to 6 kittens, each of which weighs 0.2–0.4 kg and is 0.3 m long. After a couple of weeks, newborns begin to see the light and look at the world blue eyes. After six months, the heavenly color of the iris changes to amber or gray. By the age of one and a half months, kittens that have already cut their teeth switch to an adult diet, but do not give up their mother’s milk. The most difficult task stands in front of a mother forced to carry meat for her grown cubs (three times more than for herself).
By 9 months of age, dark spots on the kittens’ fur begin to disappear, disappearing completely by 2 years.. The cubs do not leave their mother until about 1.5–2 years of age, and then scatter in search of their own areas. Having left their mother, young cougars stay in small groups for some time and finally disperse, entering the time of puberty. In females, fertility occurs at 2.5 years, in males – six months later.
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