Carnivora

“ CARNIVORA, the zoological order typified by the larger carnivorous placental land mammals of the present day, such as lions, tigers and wolves, but also including species like bears whose diet is largely vegetable, as well as a number of smaller flesh-eating species, together with the seals and their relatives, and an extinct Tertiary group. Apart from this distinct group (see Creodonta) , the Carnivora are characterized by the following features. They are unguiculate, or clawed mammals, with never less than four toes to each foot, of which the first is never opposable to the rest ”

“ The large modern carnivora prey upon herbivores of medium or smaller size, which they are active enough to surprise or run down. Carnivora of much larger size would be too slow and heavy in movements to catch small prey, while the larger herbivores by intelligent use of their defensive weapons could still fend them off successfully. In consequence giant carnivores would find no field for action in the Cenozoic world, and hence they have not been evolved. ”

“ Three types of paired appendages among carnivora. Relation to habitat. The difference in structure and use of the posterior legs of the seal and walrus. The alimentary canal of a cat and rabbit compared. The tongue of cats and dogs contrasted as to structure and use. Economics. The difference between hair and fur. The fur-bearing carnivora. Families, and habitat. Trapping. Game laws and game wardens. Hunters' licenses. Hunting big game. Carnivora harmful to man. Carnivora useful to man. Carnivora as pets. Chief types or breeds of domesticated dogs. Characteristics. ”

“ The great mass of the generic forms of Carnivora, however, are found in the Oriental and Ethiopian regions, which possess all the extensive group of Viverridæ (except a few species in the fourth Palæarctic sub-region) and a large number of Felidæ and Mustelidæ.
Aquatic Carnivora.—The aquatic Carnivora present no very marked features of distribution, except their preference for cold and temperate rather than tropical seas. Their nearest approximation to the terrestrial group, is supposed to be that of the Otariidæ to the Ursidæ ”

“ Individual abundance was a very large factor in determining the chances of preservation in the fossil state for any given species, and, as a rule, whole skeletons are found only when the species was fossilized in large numbers. In any region the Carnivora are less numerous than the herbivora upon which they prey, and while most ungulates live in larger or smaller herds, the carnivores are mostly solitary. ”

“ Range of Carnivora in Time.—Carnivora have been found in all the Tertiary deposits, and comprise a number of extinct genera and even families. Several genera of Canidæ occur in the Upper Eocene of Europe; but the most remarkable fact is, that even in the Lower Eocene are found two well-marked forms, Palæonyctis, one of the Viverridæ, and Arctocyon, forming a distinct family type of very generalized characters, but unmistakably a carnivore. ”

“ The Bear-like Carnivora or Arctoidea.—That division of the Carnivora which is typically represented by the Bears embraces three recent families, which are united by a number of characters. These Carnivora are always plantigrade or nearly so. They have nearly always five toes. The claws are not retractile, or at most semi-retractile as in the Panda. In the skull the tympanic bulla is often depressed, and is not so globular and obvious as in the Cats. Its cavity is not divided by a septum. The paroccipital processes are not applied to it. ”

“ I imagine that these carnivora secure nearly all their prey by approaching herds of game below the wind, and when they have got pretty near lying flat on the ground, perfectly motionless except for the twitching of the end of their tails, which they never seem able to control, and then waiting till one or other of the unsuspecting animals feeds close up to them, when they rush upon and seize it before it has time to turn. ”

“ ANIMAL LIFE IN THE PRAIRIES OF THE OLD WORLD, CONTINUED:—THE CARNIVORA. NEXT to man, the most dangerous enemies of the peaceful herbivora are the great Carnivora of the Felidæ genus, in whose first rank zoologists and poets were formerly wont to place the lion. ”

“ VII. Fossil Carnivora.—The fossil bones and teeth of numerous species of Carnivora, the order comprising the mammalia which prey on other animals, of which the « 808 » Weasel, Bear, Cat, Dog, &c. are examples, abound in fissures and caverns, in conglomerated rocks, and in drifted sand and gravel. The remains of the colossal Pachyderms, the Mastodons and Elephants, lie buried, for the most part, as we have previously shown, in the superficial alluvial deposits ”

“ In living Carnivora the scaphoid, lunar and centrale are always united, forming a single bone. All five digits are present, but as a rule in Carnivora vera the pollex is small, and in Hyaena is represented only by a small metacarpal. Sometimes, as in Cats and Dogs, the manus is digitigrade, sometimes, as in Bears, plantigrade. The ungual phalanges are large and pointed, and in forms like the Cats, whose claws are retractile, they can be folded back into a deep hollow on the ulnar side of the middle phalanx; a small radial sesamoid is often present. ”

“ Thus the species of carnivora is of one sort and of one constitution which suits their manner of living, sharp talons, curved beak, swift wings, allowing them to swoop easily upon their prey and to tear it up after having seized it. [15] The constitution of those who pick up seeds is different, and again that of those who live on all they come across. ”

“ It is only a matter of probable opinion, which it is quite open to any one to dispute, that there is any indication of finality. I should personally be inclined to think that we have indications that carnivora, ungulates, and birds are final forms; that no evolution will ever modify a bird further into anything that is not a bird; that no transition between the ungulates and the carnivora is possible; that the proboscideae are not a final but a transitory type, dying out gradually—our elephants and similar forms will disappear as the mastodon did. ”

“ Many forms have become extinct, and, as we shall see when we come to speak of these bygone creatures, the lower we dig in the strata which compose the rocks of which our earth is made, the lower do the types become, that is to say, among the extinct Carnivora we have no animals so perfectly constructed for flesh-eating as the Cat family, for instance, but the various kinds get nearer and nearer, the lower we go, to what may be called the general plan of Mammalian structure, and farther and farther from the special type of structure found in the higher Carnivores of the present day. ”

“ But this is perhaps because the minute, almost invisible creatures, or entomostraca, of which the rivers and ponds are full, and which are the main food of the smaller water carnivora, live mainly on decaying vegetable substance, which is practically converted and condensed into microscopical animals before these become in turn the food of others. It is as if all trees and grass on land were first eaten by locusts or white ants, and the locusts and white ants were then eaten by semi-carnivorous cows and sheep, which were in turn eaten by true carnivora. ”

“ Herbivorous, insectivorous and carnivorous forms are all numerous, as well as arboreal, terrestrial, cursorial, leaping and burrowing genera. Some are like hoofed mammals in appearance and the Rodentia, Carnivora and Insectivora are also closely imitated in externals. With all this diversity, most unusual within the limits of a single order, there is such a unity of structure, that a division of the group into two or more orders is impracticable. ”

“ The carnivora also may have to suffer from the absence of prey, but even in the most favourable seasons, and in the regions where the animals on which they live abound, it is necessary to them to develop a special activity to obtain possession of beings who are suspicious, prompt in flight, and as fleet as themselves. Thus it is among these that we expect to find the art of hunting most cultivated ”

“ Although the division of the true Carnivora into digitigrade and plantigrade is in many respects objectionable, we feel compelled, in conformity with established rules, to remove the animal before us from its most obvious affinities, to arrange it among the latter ”

“ Very different is it with true carnivora. The gorge of a cat, for instance, will rise at the smell of a mouse, or a piece of raw flesh, but not at the aroma of fruit. If a man could take delight in pouncing upon a bird, tear its still living body apart with his teeth, sucking the warm blood, one might infer that Nature had provided him with carnivorous instinct, but the very thought of doing such a thing makes him shudder. On the other hand, a bunch of luscious grapes makes his 'mouth water,' and even in the absence of hunger he will eat fruit to gratify taste. ”

“ The story of the creodonts—savage marauders large and small—includes the rise of the powerful order Carnivora—the beasts of prey, whose food is the flesh of other animals. There always has been, and always will be in every department and rank of animal life, some or many species that live by preying on their neighbors; and every living thing, from monad to man, has to fear such enemies. ”

“ Passing now from the ungulates, we reach a very well-known order of mammals, called the carnivora, or flesh-eaters. This order is divided into two sub-orders, the pinnipeds, or “fin-footed,” and the fissipeds, or “slit-footed.” In our study of the seal we have had the best example of the [Pg 359] fin-footed, or aquatic carnivora. Bring up your dog or your cat for a sample of the slit-footed flesh-eaters. Ponto, set your foot down firmly, and let us look at it. All the toes are of equal length; the foot looks as if a roundish foot had been deeply slit into toes, which are hairy up to the nails. ”

“ Every new investigation into the Tertiary mammalian fauna brings fresh evidence, tending to show how the rhinoceros, the pigs, the ruminants, have come about. Similar light is being thrown on the origin of the carnivora, and also, in a less degree, on that of all the other groups of animals. ”

“ In considering the chief forms of Carnivora existing at the present day, we have by no means exhausted this varied and interesting group, for a number of its members, the forerunners of those now living, have vanished from the face of the earth, and are known to us only by their bones, which we find here and there entombed in the strata of which the crust of our earth is composed. ”

“ The diversity of form and structure in the group of land Carnivora is very great. We find, as in the groups we have considered previously, many different kinds or species, amongst which are creatures so different as the great and powerful Lion and the small and insignificant Weasel, the active Tiger and Jaguar, and the lazy Glutton. ”

“ They have also not unlike appetencies of food. They are plantigrade carnivora, and have in common a striking habit which removes them from the pure or digitigrade carnivora, namely, that of raising their food with the paws toward the mouth, and bowing the head to meet it half-way. The coati and raccoon will tear the food into fragments, and sticking into it the claws, like an improvised fork, will thus convey it to the mouth. Who ever saw a dog or cat raise its food from the ground, except by its mouth? Our Nasua, then, has elements of ursine structure, aspect, and habit. ”

“ Chinchillidæ and Caviidæ among rodents; besides the greater part of the Octodontidæ, Echimyidæ and Cercolabidæ. Among edentata, it has Bradypodidæ, or sloths, Dasypodidæ, or armadillos, and Myrmecophagidæ, or anteaters, constituting nearly the entire order; while Procyonidæ, belonging to the carnivora, and Didelphyidæ, a family of marsupials, only extend into the Nearctic region. It has also many peculiar groups of carnivora and of Muridæ, making a total of full a hundred genera confined to the region. Hardly less remarkable is the absence of many wide-spread groups. ”

“ We easily see also why the animal activity of carnivora is greater than that of herbivora, for the amount of force necessary for the assimilation of their albuminoid food is small, and therefore a larger amount is left over for animal activity. ”

“ Among mammalia we have the carnivora, which from Eocene times have been becoming more and more specialised, till they have culminated in the cat and dog tribes, which have reached a degree of perfection both in structure and intelligence fully equal to that of any other animals. ”

“ Remains were also found of nine different species of carnivora, such as the fossil bear, the hyena, cat, wolf, fox, and others, and of twelve of herbivora, such as the fossil elephant, the rhinoceros, the great stag, (Cervus elephas,) the European bison, (aurochs,) horse, and others. The most common were the aurochs, the reindeer, and the fox. How savages, armed only with flint implements, could have captured these gigantic animals, is somewhat mysterious ”

“ But the Carnivora, in their wild state, must eat flesh raw, and for the most part reeking, and this has to be torn from the conquered prey. So that the teeth have to be applicable to the first, or destructive process, and then to the tearing to pieces of the fleshly substance, and the scraping of the bones; they may even have to crush the bones themselves, the more spongy parts serving for food; and, greatest feat of all, to break the hardest long bones for the succulent marrow. ”