The Book of Animal Ignorance Read Online Free PDF Page B

for hanging from branches. The tail ispowerful enough for them to walk down a tree trunk head first, or upside down along a branch to pick hard-to-reach fruit.
    Binturongs live mostly on fruit and have a very sweet tooth; in captivity, they show a strong preference for ripe bananas and mangoes but have been known to wolf down marshmallows, muffins, apple pies and milkshakes. This tends to bring on a sugar high, leading to an hour of uncharacteristically manic leaping and running around before they collapse exhausted and sleep it off. Despite this, wild binturongs are genuine carnivores and will occasionally snaffle a bird or catch a fish (they are excellent swimmers).
    Several US colleges have sports teams called ‘Bearcats’ and refer to ‘a mythical animal that combines the power and ferocity of a bear with the cunning and quickness of a cat’. They obviously haven’t met the amiable binturong .
    Like the other civets, the binturong marks its territory with a pungent oil. Civet oil was used for centuries as a valuable additive to perfume, collected from glands of civets and genets with a special spoon. The binturong has a large gland under its tail, and wipes it on branches, posts and other landmarks to leave a calling-card that lists precise details about sex, age and sexual status. Compared with some other civet species, the binturong’s scent smells pleasantly of buttered popcorn. It’s left by both males and females, although the female binturong wears the trousers: she is much bigger and – although it isn’t quite in the hyena league – has a large penis-like clitoris. Both sexes have been hunted for their oil, and the male’s penis bone is a valuable ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine, promoting virility and the conception of male children.
    Unlikely as it sounds, the other reason binturongs are taken from the wild is that they make excellent pets; although presumably not indoor ones, because of their need to climb. They have become popular in the US, where a fertile adult can fetch up to $2,000. Apparently, they are easy to tame and the tail even acts as a built-in leash – they will grip your hand with it when you take them out for a waddle.

Bison
    Seventy million killed in fifty years
    T he bison herds of North America’s Great Plains formed the greatest mass of land animals in the history of the planet. They could stretch 50 miles long by 20 miles wide. By 1890, there were only 635 bison left.
    The American bison ( Bison bison bison ) is commonly called the buffalo, although it is not related to true buffaloes. It migrated from Asia into America 400,000 years ago and is now the biggest North American mammal: adult males weigh a ton, are 10 feet long, and stand 6 feet tall at the humped shoulder.
    Bison are the most efficient machines yet developed for eating grass. Their teeth are wide, to maximise the volume of each bite; and long, to stop them wearing out quickly. Forty per cent of their body weight is digestive tract: their fourth stomach chamber holds 600 pints but a mouthful of grass takes up to ninety hours to digest. Bison chew the cud like cows, but extract a third more nutrients.
    In medieval bestiaries, the European bison was known as the ‘bonnacon’ or ‘vilde kow’, which defended itself by spraying a jet of excrement over a distance of 80 yards .
    Since the end of the last ice age, the bison’s only predators have been bears, wolves and humans. Many archaeologists now believe that it was hunting by early humans that made them form large herds.

    The size of the herds means an amorous male has to stand out. Successful males have evolved bigger heads and more powerful front legs and shoulders, covered in darker woolly hair. Rutting males run full-tilt at one another and clash heads: the sound carries for three-quarters of a mile.
    Without bison urine there would have been no prairie: it transformed the fertility of the