Kids Encyclopedia

Hyrax — A hyrax is any of four species of fairly small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea. They live in Africa and the Middle East. Hyraxes are well-furred rotund creatures with a mere stump for a tail. They are about the size of a Corgi; most measure between about 30 and 70 cm long and weigh between 2 …

Impala — An impala is a medium-sized African antelope. The name impala comes from the Zulu language. They are found in savannas in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, southern Angola, northeastern South Africa and Uganda (the source of that country’s capital city’s name – Kampala). Average mass for an Impala is approximately 75 kilograms. They are reddish-brown in …

Indri — The Indri (Indri indri), also called the Babakoto, is one of the largest living lemurs. It is a diurnal tree-dweller related to the sifakas and, like all lemuroids, it is native to Madagascar. Along with the Diademed Sifaka, the Indri is the largest lemur still in existence. It has a head-body length of 64-72 cm (2-2.4 ft) and …

Jackal — A jackal is any of three (sometimes four) small to medium-sized members of the family Canidae, found in Africa, Asia and Southeastern Europe. Jackals fill a similar ecological niche to the coyote in North America, that of predators of small to medium-sized animals, scavengers, and omnivores. Their long legs and curved canine teeth are adapted for hunting small …

Jaguar — The jaguar is a New World mammal of the Felidae family and one of four “big cats” in the Panthera genus, along with the tiger, lion, and leopard of the Old World. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and on average the largest and most powerful feline in the Western Hemisphere. The …

Jerboa — Jerboas are the bulk of the membership of the family Dipodidae; they are small jumping desert rodents of Asia and northern Africa that resemble mice with a long tufted tail and very long hind legs. The small forelegs are not used for locomotion. In general, Asiatic jerboas have five toes on their hind feet and African jerboas have …

Kaffir Cat — The African Wildcat, Kaffir Cat (Felis silvestris lybica), also known as the Desert Cat, is a subspecies of the Wildcat (F. silvestris). They appear to have diverged from the other subspecies about 131,000 years ago. Some individual F. s. lybica were first domesticated about 10,000 years ago in the Middle East, and are the ancestors of the …

Kangaroo — A kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning ‘large foot’). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the Red Kangaroo, the Antilopine Kangaroo, and the Eastern and Western Grey Kangaroo of the Macropus genus. The family also includes many smaller species which include the wallabies, tree-kangaroos, wallaroos, …

Kiang — The Kiang (Equus kiang), also written khyang, is a large mammal belonging to the horse family. They are native to the Tibetan Plateau, where they inhabit montane and alpine grasslands from 4000 to 7000 meters elevation. They are the largest of the wild asses, with an average shoulder height of 140 cm. The Kiang is related to the …

Kinkajou — The Kinkajou (Potos flavus), also known as the Honey Bear, Sugar Bear, or Cat-Monkey is a rainforest mammal of the family Procyonidae related to the olingo, ringtail, cacomistle, raccoon, and coati. It is the only member of the genus Potos. Native to Central America and South America, this arboreal mammal is not particularly rare, though it is seldom …