Nature's Kingdom

Elephants – Largest Land Mammal

elpiadoso — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 08:40:16 +0000

When you think “elephant,” you probably think “trunk.” An adult African elephant’s trunk is about seven feet (two meters) long! It’s actually an elongated nose and upper lip. Like most noses, trunks are for smelling. But they’re also for touching and grasping.When an elephant drinks, it sucks as much as 2 gallons (7.5 liters) of water into its trunk at a time. Then it curls its trunk under, sticks the tip of its trunk into its mouth, and blows. Out comes the water, right down the elephant’s throat.

Since African elephants live where the sun is usually blazing hot, they use their trunks to help them keep cool. First they squirt a trunkful of cool water over their bodies. Then they often follow that with a sprinkling of dust to create a protective layer of dirt on their skin (think elephant sunscreen!).

Elephants pick up and spray dust the same way they do water—with their trunks. Elephants also use their trunks as snorkels when they wade in deep water.

An elephant’s trunk is controlled by many muscles. Two fingerlike parts on the tip of the trunk allow the elephant to perform delicate maneuvers such as picking a berry from the ground or plucking a single leaf off a tree. The elephant can also use its trunk to grasp an entire tree branch and pull it down to its mouth. Elephants also use their trunks to yank up clumps of grasses and shove the greenery into their mouths.

When an elephant gets a whiff of something interesting, it sniffs the air with its trunk raised up like a submarine periscope. If threatened, an elephant will also use its trunk to make loud trumpeting noises as a warning.

Elephants are social creatures. They sometimes “hug” by wrapping their trunks together in displays of greeting and affection. Elephants also use their trunks to help lift or nudge an elephant calf over an obstacle, to rescue a fellow elephant stuck in mud, or to gently raise a newborn elephant to its feet. And just as a human baby sucks its thumb, an elephant calf often “sucks its trunk” for comfort.

Moths and Butterflies

elpiadoso — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 22:03:07 +0000

Moths and Butterflies are very much alike, but here are a few things to look out for so you will be able to tell them apart.

Butterfies have chrysalis. A chrysalis is in fact a stage of a butterflies life (the four stages are egg, caterpillar, chrysalis (or pupa), and adult moth or butterfly). Its part of their transfermation from a caterpillar to a butterfly.
Moths build a protective case around their chrysalis called a cocoon. A cocoon is an outer rapping made by the caterpillar using silk produced from glands in the caterpillar’s mouth.
When a butterfly rests with their wings closed, and moths rest with their wings open.
Moths spend most of their short lives (up to 2 to 4 weeks) looking for a place to lay their eggs.
Butterflies fly and eat in the daytime while most moths fly and eat at night.
Moths have short, thick, feather-like antennas while butterflies have long, thin, smooth ones with knobs at the end.
Butterflies have slender bodies and moths have chubbier ones.

Emperor Moth

Buckeye Butterfly

Tortoise and Hippo – year-old baby hippo finds compainionship and comfort in a centry-old turtle

elpiadoso — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 20:53:44 +0000

Tortoise and Hippo

“Much of life can never be explained but only witnessed.”

- Rachel Naomi Remen, MD

A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said.
The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, 2004 before wildlife rangers rescued him.

“It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a ‘mother’,” ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park, told AFP.

“After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together,” the ecologist added. “The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother,” Kahumbu added.

“The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years,” he explained.

This is a real story t hat shows that our differences don’t matter much when we need the comfort of another. We could all learn a lesson from these two creatures of Allah. Look beyond the differences and find a way to walk the path together.

TAWNY FROGMOUTH

elpiadoso — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 11:23:44 +0000

Tawny Frogmouth’s feathers, or plumage, is mostly silvery-gray with streaks and speckles of black. Their eyes are stiking yellow and very wide, and their bills are olive-gray to blackish in color.Tawny Frogmouths are masters of camouflage, or disguise. Tawny Frofmouths are nocturnal. This means that they are most active during the night. They usually hunt at night, and spend the daytime roosting on a dead log or in trees. Since their plumage can blend well with the tree bark, they sit on a tree branch close to the trunk and remain very still and upright. This way, they look just like part of a branch! The only thing that could give them away is their beaks and their eyes, which they usually close, or open very little.The Tawny Frogmouth is often thought to be an species of owl, but they are in fact related to nightjars. They do not have stong talons, or claws, like owls, and owls fly around at night to hunt for food, whereas Tawny Frogmouths usually sit very still on a low perch, and wait for food to come near them.Tawny Frougmouth’s feed on mice, rats, beetles, cicadas, frogs and other small prey. They catch their food with their large bills instead of their talons, another difference between frogmouths and owls, owls use their talons.

Male and female Tawny Frogmouths look alike. Their body length ranges between 30-50 cm. Usually south-eastern Tawny Frogmouths are larger than Northern ones.

When two Tawny Frogmouths pair together, they stay together until one of the two dies. They breed between August and December. They usually keep their nest, and when the female lays the eggs, both her and the male take turns sitting on them. The eggs usually hatch 30 days after they have been laid. The parents also take turns in gathering food for the newborns. Chicks usually only live in the nest for about 25 days before they are ready to leave the nest and start lives of their own.

In Australia there are three species of frogmouth. The Papuan Frogmouth, which lives in the Cape York Peninsula. The Papuan frogmouth is larger and has orange-red eyes. Another species of frogmouth is the Marbled Frogmouth, which is about the same size as the Tawny frogmouth, but instead is found only in the rainforests of far north Queensland and on Queensland-New South Wales border. Marlbed Frogmouths have orange-yellow eyes. Frogmouths got their name because of their large, flat, hooked bills and huge frog-like gape.

Watch Tawny Frogmouths on the Internet Bird Collection (IBC)!

——————————————————————————————-

FUN FACTS

1.	Frogmouths nest in trees, usually in the fork of horizontal branches. Their nests are made of sticks, and sometimes padded with their own feathers, which they camouflage with lichen, moss, and spider webs. Both parents incubate the clutch. When hatched, the young are covered with down and remain in the nest until able to fly.

2.	Often mistaken for owls, these unique birds are part of the nightjar, nighthawks, and whippoorwill family.

3.	Tawny frogmouths, nocturnal insect hunters, have whisker-like feathers around their large mouth to help trap prey in their wide, frog-like mouth. Their unusual appearance serves as effective camouflage during the day while perching in trees.

4.	Unlike other birds that fly at night catching insects, tawny frogmouths remain very still, waiting for prey. The insect or spider, fooled by the frogmouth’s coloring, is quickly maneuvered by the whisker-like feathers above their beak and eaten.

5.	During the day, frogmouths usually sleep in a sedentary position, when disturbed they raise their head and stiffen their body, simulating a branch. This behavior is called “stumping”.

6.	They can be heard emitting a soft warning buzz, similar to a bee, when startled.

7.	These birds are normally monogamous, communicating with a low, grunting “oom-oom-oom” call.

FAST FACTS

DESCRIPTION:

Tawny frogmouths have enormous, wide, frog-like mouths to capture insects. Their bill is large, horny, triangular, and sharply hooked. Their legs are very short and their feet small and weak. They are slow and deliberate in their movements, and are the weakest fliers in the order. They have rounded, medium length wings. Their plumage is mottled grayish-brown with darker streaks. There is little to no sexual dimorphism.

SIZE:

Range in length from 22.5-52.5 cm (9-21 in)

WEIGHT:

No data

DIET:

Fish, amphibians, crustaceans, and insects

INCUBATION:	30 days
CLUTCH SIZE	1-2 eggs

SEXUAL MATURITY:

No data

LIFE SPAN:

10 years in managed conditions

RANGE:

Australia and Tasmania

HABITAT:

Forest and scrubland trees – with special preference for open eucalyptus woodlands

POPULATION:

GLOBAL

Abundant through range

SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION

COMMON NAME:

tawny frogmouth