Kingfisher: Master Fisher

Every time I had a walk along the seashore, I always watch these beautiful creatures. I observe that they are catching fish. I ask my friend and she told me that it is a “Kingfisher” a kind of a bird.

The kingfisher is a small to medium sized colorful bird generally found close to water. There are nearly 100 different species of the kingfisher bird found around the world.

Kingfishers live both in wetlands and woodlands worldwide, feeding mainly on fish but also insects, frogs, and crayfish with those kingfisher species that live in the woodlands occasionally eating reptiles, birds and even small mammals.

There are three main types of kingfisher around the globe which are the river kingfishers, the tree kingfishers and the water kingfishers all of which have large heads, long sharp pointed bills, short legs, and stubby tails.

The River Kingfishers

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The Alcedininae, or River Kingfishers, are all small birds. They are the most ancient of the three kingfisher lineages. Some species in this group — in the genus Alcedo, like the very widespread Common Kingfisher A. atthis — do fish regularly along streams and rivers. But many of the two dozen species in this group are forest birds, although quite a few prefer the edges of small wooded rivulets.

The Tree Kingfisher

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The tree kingfishers or wood kingfishers are the most numerous of the three families of birds in the kingfisher group, with between 56 and 61 species in around 12 genera, including several species  of kookaburras. The family appears to have arisen in Indochina and the Maritime Southeast Asia and spread to many areas around the world.

The tree kingfishers are short-tailed large-headed compact birds with long pointed bills. Like other Coraciform, they are brightly colored. Most are monogamous and territorial, nesting in holes in trees or termite nests. Both parents incubate the eggs and feed the chicks. Although some tree kingfishers frequent wetlands, none are specialist fish-eaters. Most species a dive onto prey from a perch, mainly taking slow moving invertebrates or small vertebrates.

The Water Kingfisher

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The Cerylid Kingfishers are one of three distinct groups of kingfishers. Known as the Water Kingfishers, these are often the conspicuous kingfishers seen hovering over lakes, ponds, and marshes around much of the globe. They range from high to low latitudes in Eurasia, Africa, and the New World, but are missing from Australasia. Pied Kingfisher is a widespread and common species in the Old World.

The largest kingfisher in the world is Giant Kingfisher of sub-Saharan Africa. Although we often think of these types of kingfishers when we think of the family, there are only 9 species of Cerylid kingfishers and thus they comprise only 10% of the world's kingfisher, the rest of which are in other subfamilies.

Resources: creagrus.home.montereybay.com

                  en.wikipedia.org

Deer: Rich in Antlers

Did you ever wonder why the deer has an antler with branches? This animal is one of a kind because of its inique appearance. It is its antler that made the deer different from other animals.

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Most male deer grow and shed new antlers each year. In this they differ from permanently horned animals.

There are many kinds and some of them are,

Mule deer-is a deer whose habitat is in the western half of North America. It gets its name from its large mule-like ears. The black -tailed deer is considered by some a distinct species though it is classified as a subspecies of a Mule Deer. They generally more associated with the land west of the missouri River. The mule deer tail is black tipped. Their antlers are bifurcated, or “fork” as they grow rather than branching from a single main beam. Each year a buck's antlers start to grow in spring and are shed after mating season from mid-January to mid-April. Mule deer bucks have somewhat more prominent ears than females. Instead of running, mule deer move with a bounding leap (stout), with all four feet coming down together.

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Black deer-more accurately rteffered to as melanistic deer, are very rare across North America, they are spotted more frequently in Central Texas. Melanistic whitetails ae very rare, even more rare than piebalb or albino deer. You can recognize it because of their bodies produce far too much of the pigment of known melanin which makes them much darker than average white tale.

                                                                     

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White-tailed deer-also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail. It is a medium-sized deer native to the United States (all but five of the states), Canada, Mexico, Central America as far as South Peru.

                                                               

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Red deer-is one of the largest deer spoecies. The Red deer inhabits most of Europe, Asia Minor and parts of western and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being the only species of deer to inhabit Africa.

                                                                        

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Moose or European Elk- is the largest extantspecies in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers af the males; other members of the family have antlers with a (twig-like)configuration. Moose typically inhabit boreal and mixed deciduous forests of the Norethern Hemisphere in temperate to subarctic climate.

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Elk or Wapiti-is one of the largest species of deer in the world and one of the largest mammals in North America and Eastern Asia. Elk are almost identical to a red deer found in Europe, of which they were long believed to be a subspecies.

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These are but just few of the different kinds of deer. What ever kind of deer we have in our place, the most important thing is that we should know how to preserve them and not to hunt them.

Resources: en.wikipedia.org

                     www.thejump.net

Butterfly: Colorful and Beautiful Insect

Have you ever notice this beautiful creature that when it spread its wings it brings out different attractive colors that you can’t imagine where do those combinations came from?

The butterfly can be found in most countries in the world, but there tend to be more butterflies in warmer climates. The butterfly is a type of insect that feeds on flower nectar through its long and curled straw-like tongue.

Butterflies are similar in appearance and tendencies to moths, with many species of butterfly often getting confused as a moth and moths with butterflies. In general the butterfly species tend to be more brightly colored than the moth species, but there are exceptions.

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The butterfly's most reputable characteristic is the fact that there is an incredible morphing process, during the life cycle of the butterfly. The butterfly starts life as a caterpillar, which cocoons itself in a silky thread. The caterpillar emerges from it's time in the pod, with colorful wings.

The butterflies in the tropical rain forests of the southern hemisphere can get to incredible sizes, with the wings of these butterflies displaying some of the brightest colors in the natural world.

It has been estimated that there are between 15,000 and 20,000 different species of butterfly in the world as more are constantly being discovered particularly in dense jungle regions that have little contact with humans. The different species of butterfly vary in size and color as well as the differences in the bright patterns that are displayed on the wings of the butterfly.

Behavioral defenses include perching and wing positions to avoid being conspicuous. Some female Nymph lid butterflies are known to guard their eggs from parasitoid wasps.

Eye spots and tails are found in many lycaenid butterflies and these divert the attention of predators from the more vital head region. An alternative theory is that these cause ambush predators such as spiders to approach from the wrong end and allow for early visual detection.

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A butterfly's hind wings are thought to allow the butterfly to take swift, tight turns to evade predators.

Many things to learn about butterfly, but all I can say is that; they are one of God’s beautiful creation as wonderful and amazing!

Source: a-z-animals.com

Alligator: Cruel creature

Have you ever seen an animal as cruel as alligator? What ever it finds, it becomes his meat. A nice lunch for this cruel creature. Both animals and human beings are afraid of this creature.

An alligator is a crocodilian in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatorade. There are two extant alligatorspecies: the American alligator (Alligator mississippiansis) and the Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis).

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The name alligator is an anglicized form of el lagarto, the Spanish term for "lizard", which early Spanish explorers and settlers in Florida called the alligator.

There are many adaptations for the American alligator. Baby alligators have an egg tooth that helps them get out of their egg during hatching time. They also have a muscular flat tail that propels them forward while they swim.

Alligators consume food that could not be eaten in one bite by allowing it to rot or by biting and then spinning or convulsing wildly until bite-size chunks are torn off. This is referred to as a "death roll." A hard-wired response developed over millions of years of evolution, even juvenile alligators execute death rolls when presented with chunks of meat. Critical to the alligator's ability to initiate a death roll, the tail must flex to a significant angle relative to its body. An alligator with an immobilized tail cannot do a death roll.

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Most of the muscle in an alligator's jaw evolved to bite and grip prey. The muscles that close the jaws are exceptionally powerful, however the muscles for opening their jaws are relatively weak in comparison. As a result, an adult man can hold an alligator's jaws shut with his bare hands. In general, a strip of duct tape is enough to prevent an adult alligator from opening its jaws and is one of the most common methods used when alligators are to be captured and/or transported. Alligators are generally timid towards humans and tend to walk or swim away if one approaches. Unfortunately, this has led some people to the practice of approaching alligators and their nests in a way that may provoke the animals into attacking. In the state of Florida, it is illegal to feed wild alligators at any time. If fed, the alligators will eventually lose their fear of humans and will learn to associate humans with food, thereby becoming a greater danger to people.

Little have we know about the alligator but one thing for sure is that, they are dangerous and cruel creature.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

Sheep Unique Creature

A very good biblical example of an animal who always follow his master is the sheep. Sheep is considered as a meek animal. Sheep does ot go alone but by group following the shepherd.

Sheep were domsticated by humans around 10,000 BC. They were among the first animals domesticated. As sheep were raised under tamed conditions, they went through several changes. They began to develop more wool and less hair. The color of the wool and hair changed from brown and shades to white and black. Their ears become more of a lop ear than an erect ear. The horns that the wild sheep possessed were weakened and disappear from many breeds. The tails of a wide sheep had less vertebrates or bones than the sheep do now. And todays sheep had a smaller brain.

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Sheep originated from the wild sheep which include the Mouflon (Europe and Western Asia), the Urial (Asia), the Argali (Asia) and the Bighorn (Asia and North America). Domestic sheep originated from the Mouflon, Urial and Argali. Two wild mouflon populations still exist: the Asiatic Mouflon (living in the mountains of Asia Minor and Southern Iran) and the European mouflon (living on the Islands of Sardinia and Corsica).

Female sheep are called ewes, baby sheep are called lambs, and male sheeps are called rams. A group is called a flock.

Sheep are timid, nervous and easily frightened animals and for the most part defenseless against preditors like cayote and wild dogs. Their only means of survival is to flock together in large no. and run away from the preditors. For this reason, shepherds are able to use dogsto move sheep around. Sheep will consider the dog as preditor, flock together for protection and move away from danger.

Sheep don't like to work in water or moved through narrow openings. They prefer to move into the wind and uphill than downwind and downhill.

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Sheep rank in intelligence just below the pig and even with cattle . They reacted to situations they encounter using instincts that have doveloped over the centuries.

Sheep see in color . The average sheep has a field of vision 270 degrees. The visual can be affected by the amount of wool on the face. They have a poor depth perception. For this reason, sheep will avoid shadows or harsh contrasts between light and dark. They will move towards the light.

Sheep have an excellent sense of hearing. They are more sensitive to high frequency noise than people and get scared by a loud noises.

When sheep are on their back they will need to be helped, because they can't get up from that position.

Sheep really have different characteristics from other animals. That is why they are a unique creature, created by God and even seen many times in the Bible.

Source: http://www.veganpeace.com/

Cow: Food Provider

Cow gives us milk, in some other country they use cow in farming. This is the animal that really contribute a great help not only for farmers but also in society. Cow not only gives us milk, help our farmers, but it also gives us meat.

Dairy cows are those that provides milk. 90% of the worlds milk supply is provided by dairy cows. The best cows give 25 gallons of milk each day. This milk is being use by humans and it gives nutrients and vitamins for the body. Others are being used as an infant formula, thus they considered cow as the second mother because it is cow's milk being feed to human babies.

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Cows meat is called beef. The beef is the meat that is commonly used in menu among cuisine. Many people love beef because for them it has more nutrients than other meat. Cow eats grass and herbs. This herbs and grass has more nutrients. That is why cows meat has more nutrients and it is very rich in protein.

Cow is a kind of animal which have 4 digestive compartments:

1. 
   
   The rumen holds up to 50 gallons of partially digestive food. This is where cud comes from. Good bacteria in the rumen helps digest the cows food and provideproteins for the cow.
2. 
   
   The rediculum is called the hardware stomach because if cows accidentally eat hardware (like a piece of fencing scrap) it will often lodge herecausing no further damage.
3. 
   
   The omasum is a sort of like a filter.
4. 
   
   The abumasum which is like our stomach.

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Cows drink a bathtub full of water and eat around 40 pounds of food a day. They have 32 teeth. 8 incisors on the bottom front, 6 molars on the top and bottom of each side, a tough pad of skin instead of teeth on the top front.

We should be thankful for God's amazing creature which is the cow, because it gives us many things we need.

Resources: www.aipl.arsusda.gov

Smallest Monkey of the World

Have you ever seen a monkey that can fit in a teacup, chamelons the size of your thumbnail and hummingbirds that are easily mistaken for insects are just a few examples of the amazingly small creatures found in nature.

The Pygmy Marmoset is one of the example of these tiny creatures. The Pygmy Marmoset is the smallest living monkey. It's head and body length varies from 117-152 mm and its tail length varies from 172-229 mm. That's a total length of around 18 inches on average. The adult weight is in the range 85-140 grams of approximately four ounces on average. Its tawny coat is sprinkled with gray and its tail is ringed. Long hairs on its head and cheeks form a mane which hides its ears. Its eyes are almond shaped.

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They inhabit the Amazon rain forest in Columbia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil. They scramble about like squirrels in the deep rain forest and drink the sap of the trees. Since they are so tiny they can climb very high up in the trees on slender branches to find untapped sources of food-the sap and gum of trees.even acacia trees that these little monkeys are happy to eat straight without any mixers. They also like to eat grasshoppers and some other insects when available. They prefer forest with a riverfront view or else flood-plain forests.

They communicate by making high pitched clicks, squeaks, whistles and trills. In fact they can make noise that are so high pitch that humans can't even hear them. They do have a language of sorts, where certain types of calls and squeaks signify danger or other important monkey communications.

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Male pygmy marmosets may make display of strenght and prowess when confronted by other males and competing territory. They do this by raising and flattening their ear tufts, arching their backs, grimacing while eyeing each other and displaying their genitals. Female usually give birth to two and sometimes three babies.

These monkeys are not good pets as they do bite and throw feces. In captivity they are not happy away from their families and are hard to care for. They are not considered as endangered species.

Resources: www.honoluluzoo.org

                     www.factzoo.com