When the sun goes down, batallions of bats around the world file out of their belfries and begin to fill their bellies. The 10 million adults from one particular Texan cave can demolish about 100 tonnes of insects a night.
One in every five species of mammal is a bat, yet to most people bats remain [...]

The initial colonizers of quarries are often plants that have extremely good powers of dispersal and are able to cope with relatively inhospitable circumstances. These early colonizers also tend to be in a position to take nitrogen directly from the atmosphere and incorporate it into the soil, from where it is then taken up by [...]

About 66 species of carnivore make up the civet family, or viverrids. Discovered in southern Europe, Asia, Africa and Madagascar, these cat-like creatures are generally lithe and low-slung with pointed snouts and long tails. Many civets, genets and Hnsangs are boldly marked with stripes or spots. Smell plays an essential part in these loved ones [...]

A whole clutch of little cats, similar in biology and behaviour to large cats, are found in a variety of habitats around the world. The puma, also known as mountain lion and cougar, is rather a large little cat – much more than 1.5m long and weighing around 100kg. This brownish yellow lone-ranger maintains its [...]

Seven species are described as big cats: lion, tiger, leopard, snow leopard, jaguar, clouded leopard and cheetah. They all reside in Africa and Asia except for the jaguar of South and Central America and southern USA. The lion may be the so-called king of beasts. The savannahs of sub-Saharan Africa are this large predator’s kingdom, [...]

Edgy baboons prick their ears and bark uneasily as the rasping circular-saw growl of a leopard disturbs the African night. Prior to dawn the large cat will call on its stealth and speed to obtain within throttling range of its quarry.
Within the order Carnivora – a group of mammals with flesh-shearing cheek teeth (carnassials) – [...]

The family Lorisidae includes a group of small, nocturnal primates. Distinguished from monkeys and apes by their hairy faces and moist snouts, they have a well-developed sense of smell. The family is split into two sub-families: Galaginae – bush babies (galagos) – and Lorisinae – pottos and lorises. Bush babies are long-tailed jumpers – the [...]

Numerous lemurs, such as typical lemurs, the indri and sifakas, are vegetarian by nature. Lemur facts stipulate that they eat fruit, leaves and other plant stuff – even though diet varies between species. Rather than picking food within their hands, they generally pull food-laden branches down to their mouth to consume. Some species raid numerous [...]

A nocturnal group of omnivorous lemurs make up the family Cheirogaleidae. They are the smallest Madagascan primates and one, the western rufous mouse lemur, at l8cm and 28g, may be the world’s smallest primate. The largest species weighs around 500g. They spend nearly all their time in the trees, coming down to the ground to [...]

Monkey-like but more foxy of muzzle, lemurs are called halb-affen (half apes) in German. Loris is Dutch for clown – and also the name Dutch sailors gave to a tribe of strange Asian primates.
Primates are grouped into two sub-orders – Anthropoidea, which includes monkeys, apes and humans, and Prosimii – the much more primitive primates. [...]