World Wildlife Day 2018

World Wildlife Day is March 3rd and this year's theme is "Big cats: predators under threat". I wanted to do a bunch of Big Cat drawings but couldn't finish them in time so I will hopefully post them over this week. 
I love the Big Cats - BBC's documentary on them in 2016 was one of the best I've seen. I'd like to say I'm partial towards Tigers and Leopards because I've actually seen those in the wild but I love them all. I saw a jaguar in the zoo and I was in love with it. Then I saw a caracal and clouded leopard and fell in love with those. They're amazing animals and it's so incredibly sad that we could have pushed them to the brink of extinction. All for what? Some trophies? Fear of being attacked in their own territory? 

Did we really want a world without these in it? 

Was that a Leopard or a Zebra?

I come across pictures of Zebra Sharks (Stegostoma fasciatum) wrongly labeled as "Leopard Sharks" and hence this attempt at an infographic. I understand why people make the error - after all, adult Zebra Sharks have no stripes, let alone any resemblance to a zebra. But it was named as a child and the name stuck.
The Leopard Shark (Triakis semifasciata), on the other hand, doesn't really lounge around on tree branches nor is it found in the Asian/African region. It does have some beautiful markings though.

The two sharks look different enough and they are easy to tell apart. One just has to remember that the ridged, spotted, nurse-shark-look-alike is a Zebra shark.

I taught my 2-year old nephew to identify them and when he saw a Zebra shark at an aquarium he said "Zebra Shark". My sister ignorantly told him it was a Leopard Shark. Luckily one of the workers told her she was wrong and he was right. Another proud aunt moment.

Black Panther vs Black Panther?

A black panther is the melanistic color variant of the big cats. Black panthers in Asia and Africa are leopards (Panthera pardus), and those in the Americas are black jaguars (Panthera onca).

The Leopard Shark (Triakis semifasciata) is an active shark about 120-150cm long found in the Eastern North Pacific regions. Many times, the Zebra Shark (Stegostoma fasciatum) gets mistakenly called a Leopard Shark (more on this soon). The Leopard shark is a species of houndshark.

Not much is known about the Jaguar catshark (Bythaelurus giddingsi). It is found around the Galapagos islands. It is at least 45cm long.

And wasn't Black Panther a really fun superhero movie?