Carnivore Research Paper

Final essay
The order carnivore is a very interesting order that takes in different forms. It contains five families all of which are uniquely different. Members of Carnivora have diverse food habits, although many are primarily carnivorous, and carnivory is widely distributed in mammals, being found in many other orders including bats, marsupial mammals, primates, and dolphins and whales. Carnivores occupy just about every type of terrestrial habitat, and many aquatic habitats as well, from the tropics to the poles. They live in forests, deserts, mountains, grasslands, scrublands, tundra, and on open ice. Aquatic and semi-aquatic species live in freshwater rivers, lakes, and marshes, in marine coastal areas, and in the open ocean. Carnivores
are relatively long-lived mammals, with most species living at least a decade. The main exceptions are small weasels, which live up to six years in captivity but usually do not make it past one year in the wild. In general, pinniped carnivores live longer than fissiped carnivores, with several species such as walruses, gray seals, ringed seals, Caspian seals, and Baikal seals, reported to live 40 or more years in the wild. However even though they are different they are indeed the same. Humans benefit from carnivorans in many ways. Humans have hunted them for thousands of years for sport and for their fur, meat, and other body parts. Bones and soft tissues of tigers and other large carnivores have long been used in traditional Asian medicine. Millions of small carnivores such as red foxes, vulpes, and mink are raised on farms for their fur. Carnivorans are also valuable to humans for their ability to control rodents and other pests, and domesticated cats, dogs, and other carnivorans are popular pets worldwide. These five families are called: Family Otariidae, Family Phocidae, Family Odobenidae, Family Mustelidae, and Family Ursidae. Three of these families belong to the suborder pinnipeda, and are exclusive to that suborder only, while the other two are separate marine mammals, however they do contain one similarity, and that is that they are both Fissipeds and contain paws. Here we will go through all of the astounding characteristics of these animals as well as what makes them different and alike to one another. First we have the walruses and the seals, true seals and fur seals. Walruses are very large animals that live on ice sheets in the arctic and weigh much more then seals due to their massive size and fat to keep them warm in the freezing temouratures, however this doesn’t make them much different. However the tusks on the walrus make it a unique part of the pinniped suborder since it is the only one to have these tusks. These tusks are used to create a larger sound and are used in mating as well as to show the dominance throughout the place that these animals live. True seals and seals both can compare in shading and thee place where they live. Even if this is true the seals still have differences among themselves. The true seals have one back flipper and are not very mobile on land unlike the fur seals which walk clumsily on land and don’t have much of a struggle like the true seal does. Polar bears are large, white bears that like cold climates, fatty meals and long days of hunting.
Polar bears are ferocious hunters, and they are the biggest carnivores among land animals. Polar Bears are large and have a stocky build. They have a long neck and strong limbs. Their feet are large and furry, and they have stiff hairs that grow on the soles to provide insulation and traction on the ice. They have a thick layer of blubber and, along with their dense coat, it provides them with insulation. They have a black nose and black skin which helps to absorb and retain heat, keeping the animal warm in cold conditions. Their fur is translucent despite its white or cream appearance and it is water repellent enabling them to shake themselves dry after swimming. Polar Bears are also extremely dangerous to humans as any animal they encounter they will quickly size up as potential prey. They have the reputation as the only animal that will actively hunt humans Polar bears live in countries that ring the Arctic Circle: Canada, Russia, the United States (in Alaska), Greenland and Norway. In the winter, temperatures in the Arctic are usually around minus 29 degrees Fahrenheit. Polar bears are excellent swimmers. Polar bears have built-in socks. The bottoms of their paws are covered with fur to keep them warm and to help with traction in slippery situations. Their scientific name is Ursus maritimus, means "sea bear". They use their big front feet to paddle and their back legs as
rudders. These bears have been known to swim more than 60 miles without rest. Polar bears are solitary. The animal will spend its days sitting on the ice by a seal breathing hole, waiting for one to pop up. This style of hunting is called still-hunting. Polar bears will also seek out seal lairs, crash through the roof and kill the seals inside. The polar bear's primary food source is seals. A polar bear can sniff out a seal's breathing hole from more than half a mile away, according to the National Zoo. The bears can smell a seal on the ice 20 miles. Their diet of meat makes them carnivores. If the food supply is plentiful, they will only eat seal blubber. This high-calorie meal helps the bears build up fat reserves, which keep polar bears healthy between feedings and help maintain their body temperature. Polar bears need 4.4 lbs of fat each day. This is equal to about 121 lbs. of seal and provides about eight days' worth of energy. If seal hunting isn't going well, polar bears will also eat anything they can find, such as fish, eggs, vegetation, reindeer, rodents, birds, berries and human garbage. The sea otter is a small marine mammal native to the north and eastern coasts of the Pacific Ocean.
Despite the fact that sea otters are the largest members of the weasel family, sea otters are among the smallest mammals in the marine world. The sea otter is known to have one of the thickest, warmest coats of fur in the animal kingdom which helps to keep the sea otter warm in the cold waters of the North Pacific. Like their smaller river otter cousins, the sea otter is able to walk and live on the land but it is not uncommon for sea otters to spend their lives exclusively in the water. Sea otters are omnivores as they do eat seaweed and other aquatic plants. Despite this though, most sea otter individuals have a primarily carnivorous diet with sea otters known to eat more than 40 different species of marine animals. The sea otter mainly hunts sea urchins, clams, crabs, snails and small fish in the water. The sea otter is one of the few animals in the world that has the remarkable trait of using tools, such as rocks, in order to get at its prey. Sea otters have few natural predators in the sea due to their large size. Those sea otters that live further south are mainly preyed upon by the great white shark and those sea otters that inhabit more northern regions of the Pacific, are preyed upon by killer whales. Humans are one of the sea otters main predators as sea otters are hunted mainly for their incredibly dense fur.
Overall the Carnivora order is extremely important to the
animal kingdom and the food chain. Without these animals and their diets there would massive over population of many different species which would cause an imbalance in the world if it’s either over population or lack of oxygen or more poop. Carnivora order causes a perfect balance in the world.