![lady-lutra-photography:
[lady-lutra May 6th] Any suggestions?
I believe this is a Gadwall (male)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3mdvhT3sJ1qdzqgjo1_1280.jpg)
The unveiling of the living sculptures. We even had a ribbon to cut!
Wildlife Experiences and Interests by Jolene Barnes
1 Notes
Month 10
Again not a very exciting month of volunteering, partly due to the cold weather we’ve had lately which affected part of this month’s tasks. The staff had set up a moth trap the night before hoping to catch some early emerging moths but due to the low temperature there was only one moth caught. The plan was to spend some time identifying the moths in the trap so needless to say that didn’t take very long! To pass some time were shown how to make a simple Robinson’s moth trap so that we can do our own moth trapping at home.
The rest of our time was spent planting wildflowers around the area where we created those soil mounds last month and finish off the ‘living sculptures’ that the youth volunteers had created out of the mounds.
This is a photo of a finished sculpture. I suppose it gives you something different to look at when you’re walking around the nature reserve… I’m still not convinced they were worth the time and resources put into creating them.
Gynandromorph butterfly spotted in English butterfly garden makes headlines
The creature hatched at the Butterfly World Project in Chiswell Green, Hertfordshire, and was spotted by an eagle-eyed youngster on a school trip.
Its condition is caused when the sex chromosomes fail to separate during fertilization.
The butterfly in question - a Papilio rumanzovia, also known as Scarlet Mormon - with the sex division occurring straight down the middle of the abdomen.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2141872/Fluttering-ways-One-10-000-Ladyboy-butterfly-born-half-male-half-female.html#ixzz1ueq9id49
Find out more about gynandromorphs here
109 Notes
Hoatzin Opisthocomus hoazin
The hoatzin is a species of medium sized bird native to the Amazon and Orinoco deltas of South America. It is a notable species for its mysterious evolutionary background and some of its unique traits.
Hoatzins are completely herbivorous, eating almost entirely leaves with some flower and fruit. They are unique in that their crops, generally used for storage of extra food in most birds, are used for fermentation of the leaves they consume in a process similar to that of ruminants. This fermentation gives them a distinct, unpleasant odor comparable to manure, earning them the nickname “stinkbird”. Due to this stench, humans only hunt them in times of starvation, stating that they also have a poor taste. They also have few other predatory threats, presumably for the same reasons.
The hoatzin is a clumsy bird that has difficulty flying due to its enlarged crop which takes up space for its keel and flight muscles. When predators like black hawks do attack, adults scramble around the branches of their trees to cause confusion while the young retreat to cover from the exposed nests. If they fall, the young have the ability to climb back up by using a claw that grows from each wing, unique to these birds. This claw disappears into adulthood. In dire emergencies, young will purposefully throw themselves from the tree tops and into the water below where they can swim below the surface, and then use their claws to climb back up.
The evolutionary origins of the hoatzin has been the subject of heavy debate with no real answer having been found. At various times it has been placed near the gamebirds, cuckoos, doves, and many others. The advent of genetic testing has proven worthless thus far, as it has apparently no close relatives. Currently, its entire genome is being processed in the hopes that more genetic material could help resolve this issue, only exacerbated by the surprisingly limited amount of bird genetics available, with the genomes of only four species having been unraveled.
The clawed wing of a hoatzin chick.
52 Notes
European Mole Cricket - Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa
The scientific name is derived from the Latin ‘gryllus’ meaning a cricket and ‘talpa’ meaning a mole which is descriptive because of the fine dense fur by which it is covered and because of the mole-like forelegs adapted for digging.
The mole cricket occurs throughout Europe as far as western Asia and northern Africa and has been introduced to eastern United States. In the UK it used to be wide spread across southern counties but its range has severely contracted and it may now be extinct. There have only been 5 sightings of mole crickets in Britain since 1970 with the last recorded sighting in 2005.
Animals That Can Fly (or glide to be more accurate)
I read an article recently about snakes (Chrysopelea spp.) that could glide and this got me thinking, how many other animals don’t I know about have this ability?
A quick search on Wikipedia led me to this page and it turns out there are quite a few!
Gliding animals I knew about before reading that page were:
- Mammalian flying squirrels and the similar looking marsupial gliders which evolved flaps of skin (patagium) that stretch from the wrists or elbows to the ankles which allows the animal to glide when its legs are extended outwards.
- Flying lizards (Draco spp.) have a membrane/patagium supported by elongated ribs that can be folded out like a fan to allow the animal to glide.
- Flying fish (family Exocoetidae) which I only found out about a couple of years ago when watching Life on the BBC. These fishes accelerate out of the water with their pectoral fins flat against their bodies to make them streamlined and once at maximum height they stretch out their enlarged pectoral fins which allows them to glide vast distances.
Gliding animals I now know about are:
- Colugos - I had to do a bit of extra reading about these creatures as I had never come across them before. They are also called flying lemurs despite not being true lemurs. There are only two species of Colugos and they form the order Dermoptera which is believed to be the sister group to primates. Their patagium extends all the way from the fingers to the toes and even to the tip of their tail (see photo).
- Flying squid? I’d like to see some video footage of this…
- Some frog and gecko species that have webbed feet and/or small skin flaps along their tails, bodies, limbs or head.
A colugo in flight showing its fully extended patagium.
4 Notes