Least Concern
FUN FACTS
- Crested caracaras sometimes follow trains or cars to collect food that falls from them.
- A group of caracaras or falcons can be called by many names, such as a “bazaar”, “eyrie”, “stooping up”, “ringing up” or “tower” of falcons.
- The Golden eagle is the national bird of Mexico but some believe the Crested caracara is the bird in the ancient Aztec pictogram on Mexico’s flag.
- Crested caracaras are devoted as parents. Clucking sounds and the sound of snapping branches with their bill are used to send predators away from their nest.
Conservation Status
Distribution
The Northern Caracara is a resident in Cuba, northern South America (south to northern Peru and northern Amazonian Brazil, especially along the Amazon River proper) and most of Central America and Mexico, just reaching the southernmost parts of the United States, including Florida, where it is resident but listed as threatened.
There have been reports of the Crested Caracara as far north as San Francisco, California. South of the US border, it is generally common. This is a bird of open and semi-open country.
Description
The Northern Caracara has a length of 49–58 cm (19–23 in), a wingspan of 120 cm (47 in), and weighs 1,050–1,300 g (37–46 oz).
It is broad-winged and long-tailed. It also has long legs and frequently walks and runs on the ground. It is very cross-shaped in flight.
The adult has a black body, wings, crest and crown. The neck, rump, and conspicuous wing patches are white, and the tail is white with black barring and a broad terminal band. The breast is white, finely barred with black. The bill is thick, grey and hooked, and the legs are yellow. The cere (soft skin surrounding the nostrils) and facial skin are deep yellow to orange-red depending on age and mood.
In addition to hunting its own food on the ground, the Northern Caracara will steal from other birds.
Breeding /Nesting
Northern Caracaras build large stick nests in trees such as mesquites and palms, cacti, or on the ground as a last resort. It lays 2 to 3 pinky-brown eggs with darker blotches, which are incubated for 28-32 days.
As wide-ranging birds with flexible diets, crested caracaras are resilient species, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists them as “of least concern.”
However, in Florida, their habitat is endangered by urban and agricultural development, particularly as the state’s population increases. As ground dwellers, they’re also hit and killed by cars. Both factors make them a threatened species in Florida.
Physical Description
Tigers have reddish-orange coats with prominent black stripes, white bellies and
white spots on their ears. Like a human fingerprint, no two tigers have the exact
same markings. Because of this, researchers can use stripe patterns to identify
different individuals when studying tigers in the wild. Tigers are powerful hunters
with sharp teeth, strong jaws and agile bodies. They are the largest terrestrial
mammal whose diet consists entirely of meat. The tiger’s closest relative is the lion.
In fact, without fur, it is difficult to distinguish a tiger from a lion.
Size
Tigers are the largest cat species in the world, and the Amur tiger is the largest
subspecies with males weighing up to 660 pounds (300 kilograms) and measuring 10
feet (3 meters). Sumatran tigers are the smallest subspecies, maxing out at 310
pounds (140 kilograms) and 8 feet (2.4 meters). Female tigers of all subspecies tend
to be smaller than their male counterparts.
Native Habitat
Historically, tigers existed throughout much of Eastern and Southern Asia, as well as
in parts of Central and Western Asia and the Middle East, surrounding the Caspian
Sea. Their range has diminished significantly as human populations have expanded.
Itis believed they currently occupy just 7 percent of their historic range.
Presently, tigers are found in a variety of habitats across South and Southeast Asia,
China and Eastern Russia. They thrive in temperate, tropical or evergreen forests,
mangrove swamps and grasslands. Amur tigers are primarily found in Far-East
Russia, although there are small populations across the border into China and
potentially North Korea. Sumatran tigers are found only on the Indonesian island of
Sumatra. A tiger’s range within these regions is determined by the availability of
prey.
Communication
Despite their solitary nature, communication is a very important part of tigers’
behavioral ecology. They communicate through vocalizations, such as roaring,
grunting and chuffing, and through signals, such as scent marking and scratches on
trees. Tigers are fiercely territorial animals, so these signals are particularly
important to communicating where one tiger’s home range ends and another’s
begins.
Food/Eating Habits
Tigers are solitary ambush predators that rely on stealth and strength to take down
prey. These apex predators primarily hunt large ungulates, such as wild boar and
deer, but are also known to consume monkeys, buffalo, sloth bears, leopards and
even crocodiles. When tigers are found in close proximity to humans, they may also
feed on domestic animals, such as cattle or goats. Tigers are adept swimmers and
have even been recorded hunting in the wild.
These powerful cats hunt primarily at night, using sight and sound to identify prey.
Their striped coats help them blend into their surroundings, where they lie in wait for
prey to pass by. At the opportune moment, tigers pounce on their prey, take it to the
ground and finish the kill by breaking or biting the neck. Tigers hunt about once a
week and consume as much as 75 pounds (34 kilograms) of food in one night.
At the Zoo, tigers eat ground beef, and their diet is supplemented with enrichment
items each week. They receive knucklebones or cow femurs twice a week and rabbits
once a week to exercise their jaws and keep their teeth healthy.
Social Structure
Tigers are solitary creatures, except when mating or raising young. Cubs stay with
their mothers until they learn to hunt successfully, usually at about 18 to 24 months
old. They reach full independence after two to three years, at which point they
disperse to find their own territory. Female tigers often remain near their mother’s’
territory, while males disperse farther from home.
Reproduction and Development
Female tigers reach sexual maturity between age 3 and 4. Males are sexually mature
at about 4 or 5 years old. Mating can occur at any time of year but most often takes
place during cooler months between November and April. Tigers are induced
ovulators, which means females will not release eggs until mating occurs. Gestation
lasts approximately 100 days, and females give birth to between one and seven
offspring at a time, averaging between two and four cubs. Once cubs become
independent, at about age 2, females are ready to give birth again. However, if a
female’s offspring do not survive, due to causes such as infanticide or starvation, she
is able to conceive another litter right away.
Lifespan
The life span of tigers in the wild is usually between 10 and 15 years. In human care,
or on rare occasions in the wild, a tiger can live up to 20 years. However,
approximately half of all wild tiger cubs do not survive past the first two years of life.
Only 40 percent of those that reach independence actually live to establish a territory
and produce young. The risk of mortality remains high for adult tigers due to their
territorial nature, which often results in direct competition with conspecifics, or
members of the same species.
WHERE TO FIND THE CRESTED CARACARA
