SEA AND RIVER OTTERS 



world ; and there is even an otter (Enhydris) which lives 

 by the sea shore, and makes excursions therein for its 

 food, a way of life which is occasionally copied by the 

 usually fluviatile otters of the genus Lutra. Bears and 

 the bear tribe generally are not as a rule so purely 

 carnivorous as the cats ; some of them, however, such 

 as the weasels and stoats and the South American 

 tayra, are as bloodthirsty as the fiercest of cats. 



Apart from fossil forms, which tend to fill up gaps 

 and destroy clear and sharply cut classifications, the 

 carnivora are separable into three divisions, all of 

 which are abundantly in evidence at the Zoo at any 

 time. We have, first of all, the carnivora par excellence, 

 in which the carnivorous type of structure has arrived 

 at the greatest perfection and specialization that is 

 the Aeluroidea, or cats and civets. These animals are 

 generally spotted or striped, or both. The civets are 

 on the whole, less specialized than are the more fully 

 developed cats. Their claws are not so retractile, or 

 are not so at all : they are all smaller beasts than the 

 true cats, which include such giants as the lion and 

 tiger. The civet tribe includes not only the civets 

 and genets, but also the little African suricates, which 

 sit up on their hind quarters like prairie dogs, the 

 curious slothful binturong, and a variety of forms 

 known as palm civets, of all of which, as well as of a 

 few other forms mentioned in the ensuing pages, ex- 

 amples are to be seen in the Zoo. The hyaenas, includ- 

 ing the Proteles, are another branch of the Aeluroidea. 

 The second great division of the fissipede carnivora 

 is that of the dogs, which includes the large number of 

 wolves, foxes, and jackals, of which again a compre- 

 hensive assortment is invariably to be seen in the dog- 

 kennels near to the lion house. These have not retrac- 

 tile claws, but they walk, like the cat tribe generally, 

 upon their toes, and not upon the soles of the feet. 



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