#clasiffication

The South African Giraffe is the last member of the giraffe family I've been studying, and it's been quite an adventure. While I still struggle to identify some of the subspecies, I feel confident in recognizing most of them.

South African Giraffe

The South African Giraffe, also known as the Cape Giraffe, is a fascinating subspecies with a population of approximately 37,000 individuals. Interestingly, it was once extinct in some of its native areas in Southern Africa, but thanks to reintroduction efforts, its population has seen an impressive 150% increase. This is certainly good news for this subspecies, which is now a common resident in zoos, private farms, and ranches around the world.

With its distinctive coat pattern of cream-colored patches with orange-brown edges, the South African Giraffe is a unique and beautiful animal. While habitat loss, poaching, and trophy hunting continue to threaten their populations, conservation efforts are helping to protect these magnificent creatures for future generations to enjoy.

This is a family that has captivated me since I was a kid. Its strange shape and the resemblance to a kind of a little elephant, but also the fact that could be found in my country Colombia just fascinated me. I still remember the first time I saw a tapir and was able to touch it and feed it. However, a Malayan Tapir was an animal that I just could see a long time after, in the Singapore zoo. Store Instagram Malayan Tapir Is the only species that live out of America and the one with the most particular color palette. Its pattern is supposed to be used as camouflage but I don't really know if works. It is curious though, that the Panda shares the same pattern but they both aren't even far related.

Another curious thing is that the babies are very similar in coloration to the ones in America. Brownish color with white spots that are actually good for camouflage. They have very poor sigh but are compensated with a great sense of smell and hearing. Some scientist state that there is a subspecies of the Malayan Tapir (The Tapirus indicus brevetianus, Kuiper, 1926), with the particularity of being completely black. Registered for the first time in 1924, was captured and taken to the Rotterdam zoo, where died soon after. The second one was photographed in 2000. However, taking it as a subspecies because of its coloration is inaccurate since there are no further studies that demonstrate its validity. It is actually just a case of melanism. Still, both theories are yet to be confirmed. _____________________________________________________ Credits: Malayan TapirMelanistic Tapir _____________________________________________________

The Bryde's Whale has been a kind of puzzle for scientists because three species use to fall into its category. This is called complex in taxonomy. In other words, three (or maybe four) species of whales were thought to be subspecies, (or just the same species) as the Bryde's whale.

I wonder why not just name all four species the same if they are so closely similar? The devil is in the details. Those little differences that make one species become different from others can be the starting point for a completely new animal in million years. On the other hand, those tiny changes also may be the ones that make the animal adapt better than its relatives and therefore survive the changes of the environment.

So if is similar in appearance, as it seems in the cetaceans, there are movements and changes that are only perceptible in millions of years of evolution.

Can I suppose that the Balaenopteridae family is a young one, therefore many of its members are closely similar? Could be...

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Fin Whale