When you hear the time period ‘prehistoric animal,’ you possible consider one thing that’s no extra. Dinosaurs. Woolly mammoths. Saber-toothed tigers. But there are numerous Ice Age creatures that also exist—and also you may simply see a few of them in your subsequent journey!
Which Ancient Animals Are Still Alive Today?
Some of those creatures you’ve most likely by no means heard of, others you might need chanced upon, and a few might sound so frequent you’d by no means suspect they’re really Ice Age animals that also roam our planet right this moment. While that is under no circumstances and exhaustive checklist, learn on to see what number of you acknowledge.
Nautilus
Considered residing fossils, nautilus are mollusks which have survived with out a lot change for practically 500 million years. Easily recognized by their distinctive shell and dimension—together with the various tentacles rising from the shell that assist them seize prey—nautilus are principally present in Indonesia and Australia. Sought after internationally for his or her shells, that are utilized in jewellery and residential décor, there have been efforts to limit additional hurt to the species and enhance nautilus numbers by levying fines and deeming these creatures a protected species.
Horseshoe crab
You’ve possible heard of and maybe even seen a horseshoe crab, however do you know that these creatures are extra carefully associated to spiders and scorpions than to crustaceans? Fossil information present they existed for greater than 445 million years, and one have a look at them actually gives the look they’ve been round a very long time! Found in North America and components of Southeast Asia, horseshoe crabs are threatened by overharvesting for human consumption in some components of the world. They are additionally used as fishing bait and in some scientific analysis, and they’re topic to habitat loss.
New Zealand Tuatara
New Zealand is just about your solely guess if you wish to probability upon a tuatara, a lizard-like animal that information point out has existed for about 200 million years. Its pores and skin ranges from inexperienced to grey to brown and is marked by a crest of spines going all the best way down its again, proper to the tip of its tail. The tuatara’s most unusual function is a 3rd eye that usually will get lined because it approaches maturity. Another distinctive function (if you may get shut sufficient to at least one to note it) is 2 rows of enamel within the higher jaw and just one row within the decrease jaw that matches cosy between the higher rows when it closes its mouth.
Majestic sandhill cranes might be heard or seen on any of Nat Hab’s Yellowstone and Alaska summer season departures!
Considering you possibly can observe sandhill crane migrations yearly in Nebraska’s Platte River area, the notion that this might be a prehistoric animal is perhaps arduous to think about. But these elegant birds, identified for his or her loud, trumpeting calls and the truth that they mate for all times, date again greater than 10 million years and seem to have remained structurally the identical by means of all that point. Sandhill cranes additionally stay in Siberia, Canada and different components of the U.S., together with Alaska, New Mexico, Texas, and the Southeast. There are a couple of subspecies, a few of that are critically endangered as a consequence of habitat loss, wetland loss and growth. See (and listen to!) them on our Yellowstone and Alaska summer season departures.
Also present in Alaska is one other historic animal: the muskox. There’s no approach you possibly can miss its distinct, long-haired determine with a hump on the shoulder and lengthy, curved horns. Although the species is native to the state, they disappeared by the Twenties and needed to be reintroduced within the Thirties through the relocation of muskox from Greenland. These Ice Age animals are identified to have existed round 600,000 years in the past. Now, it’s also possible to discover them in Canada, Russia, Norway and Siberia. Interestingly, muskoxen are extra carefully associated to sheep and goats than to ox. They get their identify from the robust, musky odor they produce throughout mating season to draw females. They can stay for as much as 20 years within the wild and weigh anyplace between 400 and 900 kilos.
One of the primary stops on Natural Habitat Adventures’ Ultimate Alaska Wildlife Safari is the Large Animal Research Station (LARS) on the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. The 134-acre homestead web site was deeded to the college in 1963 to additional the institution of a home muskox herd. LARS has performed in-depth analysis on muskox copy, feeding habits and habits, and it affords seasonal excursions for guests to its campus farm. Today, there are estimated to be about 4,000 muskox in Alaska alone, and roughly 100,000 worldwide. With a secure inhabitants, they don’t seem to be thought of endangered, however there may be laws in place to guard the species in most areas the place they’re discovered.
Modern Threats to Ancient Animals
Climate change and the rise in human exercise are threats to the survival of muskox and a number of the different prehistoric species we’re fortunate to nonetheless discover within the wild.
Overhunting as soon as resulted in muskox going extinct in Alaska, and there are nonetheless components of the world the place muskox is consumed or killed for its fur, disguise and horns. Hunting alternatives are additionally obtainable in lots of areas, even when at a better price ticket than deer and caribou.
The change in local weather inflicting excessive winter situations has generally posed an impediment to muskox reaching areas the place they’ll feed. These herbivores feed totally on moss, grass, willows and different crops discovered within the chilly Arctic climate. When hotter temperatures come round, it ends in a better danger from parasites. Predators corresponding to grizzly bears and wolves are additionally a trigger for concern.
Similarly, predators corresponding to pigs, cats, rats and mice pose a menace to New Zealand’s tuataras. Destruction of habitat is one other subject, and one which notably impacts sandhill cranes.
Protecting the areas wherein these Ice Age animals stay is among the greatest methods to assist enhance or preserve their numbers. Volunteering with wildlife organizations or animal sanctuaries that present refuge to such historic animals to be taught extra about them and unfold consciousness on their existence is one other approach to assist guarantee they proceed to thrive. And, whenever you journey with Nat Hab, you might be assured that you simply’re serving to preserve wild locations for animals previous and new!