Jaguar (Panthera onca) Killing Tapir (Tapirus terrestris)

Though the jaguar sometimes uses the deep-bite-and-hold suffocation technique on prey that many other big cats (most notably lions) use, their typical killing method is unique among carnivores. For most animals, jaguars generally pierce directly through the temporal bones of the skull (between the ears) and pierce the brain, killing their target in the same way that they once would have “cracked open” and killed turtles (their primary food source) in the late Pleistocene. 

In this illustration, the jaguar is demonstrating its other predation technique, for larger or stronger animals, where it leaps onto the back of the prey, and severs the cervical vertebrae. This technique is often used while killing caimans. 

The New Natural History. Richard Lydekker, 1911.

African Ratel, or Honey Badger

The earliest descriptions of the ratel that I can find describe it as a repulsive and lazy creature, with an awkward waddle and thieving ways (as they were thought to steal honey from beehives - no one realized they were after the bee larvae until the turn of the century). Really, no one took much interest in them, and as largely solitary creatures, they weren’t the easiest targets for study.

Still, by the time this photograph was taken (at the Transvaal Zoological Gardens in Transvaal Colony, South Africa), people that were around the ratel had a hell of a lot more respect for them. It’s written that they were fighters with tenacious ways, whose “waddle” was caused by the size of their muscles and depth of their chest (lending them great endurance), and that they could dig as well as they could climb. Yes, the Zoological Gardens found that out the hard way. Their ratel apparently escaped at one point. I don’t know if this is the escapee or a different one, but he looks fierce.

Animal Life in Africa: Book 1, Carnivora. Major James Stevenson-Hamilton, 1912.

Nature is brutal.

Solitary tiger vs. African elephant!

Boa constrictor vs. crocodile!

Swordfish vs. everything aquatic!

It’s a veritable SPIKE TV show!

Hunting Big Game in the Wilds of Africa, Containing the Thrilling Adventures of the Famous Roosevelt Expedition. J. Martin Miller, 1909.

This is Totsy. He is a python. He likes sparrows. He really likes sparrows.

Snakes: Curiosities and Wonders of Serpent Life. Catherine C. Hopley, 1882.

William Hunter. 1774.

The second plate from the anatomist William Hunter’s study of the gravid human uterus.