Scientific name: Spheniscidae

Family: Spheniscidae; Bonaparte, 1831

Order: Sphenisciformes; Sharpe, 1891

Kingdom: Animalia

Lifespan: Emperor penguin: 20 years, Little penguin: 6 years

Height: Emperor penguin: 1.1 – 1.3 m, Little penguin: 30 – 35 cm, Galapagos penguin: 49 – 53 cm

genus Panthera native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, deep-chested body, short, rounded head, round ears, and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult male lions are larger than females and have a prominent mane. It is a social species, forming groups called prides. A lion's pride consists of a few adult males, related females, and cubs. Groups of female lions usually hunt together, preying mostly on large ungulates. The lion is an apex and keystone predator; although some lions scavenge when opportunities occur and have been known to hunt humans, the species typically does not.

S.Yashdev

Typically, the lion inhabits grasslands and savannas, but is absent in dense forests. It is usually more diurnal than other wild cats, but when persecuted, it adapts to being active at night and at twilight. During the Neolithic period, the lion ranged throughout Africa, Southeast Europe, the Caucasus, and Western and South Asia, but it has been reduced to fragmented populations in sub-Saharan Africa and one population in western India. It has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1996 because populations in African countries have declined by about 43% since the early 1990s. Lion populations are untenable outside designated protected areas. Although the cause of the decline is not fully understood, habitat loss and conflicts with humans are the greatest causes for concern.

One of the most widely recognised animal symbols in human culture, the lion has been extensively depicted in sculptures and paintings, on national flags, and in contemporary films and literature. Lions have been kept in menageries since the time of the Roman Empire and have been a key species sought for exhibition in zoological gardens across the world since the late 18th century. Cultural depictions of lions were prominent in Ancient Egypt, and depictions have occurred in virtually all ancient and medieval cultures in the lion's historic and current range.

Hedgehogs^[1]

Temporal range: Late Eocene – Recent
PreꞒ
Ꞓ
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N

Kingdom: | Animalia
Phylum: | Chordata
Class: | Mammalia
Order: | Eulipotyphla
Family: | Erinaceidae
Subfamily: | Erinaceinae
G. Fischer, 1814
Genera
AtelerixErinaceusHemiechinusMesechinusParaechinus

A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are seventeen species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introduction. There are no hedgehogs native to Australia and no living species native to the Americas. However, the extinct genus Amphechinus was once present in North America.

Hedgehogs share distant ancestry with shrews (family Soricidae), with gymnures possibly being the intermediate link, and they have changed little over the last fifteen million years.^[2] Like many of the first mammals, they have adapted to a nocturnal way of life.^[3] Their spiny protection resembles that of porcupines, which are rodents, and echidnas, a type of monotreme