1.
Conservation status
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The conservation status of a group of organisms indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Various systems of conservation status exist and are in use at international, multi-country, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the best known worldwide conservation status listing and ranking system. Also included are species that have gone extinct since 500 AD, when discussing the IUCN Red List, the official term threatened is a grouping of three categories, critically endangered, endangered, and vulnerable. Widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category, Data deficient – Not enough data to make an assessment of its risk of extinction Not evaluated – Has not yet been evaluated against the criteria. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora aims to ensure that trade in specimens of wild animals. Many countries require CITES permits when importing plants and animals listed on CITES, in the European Union, the Birds and Habitats Directives are the legal instruments that evaluate the conservation status within the EU of species and habitats. NatureServe conservation status focuses on Latin America, United States, Canada, and it has been developed by scientists from NatureServe, The Nature Conservancy, and the network of natural heritage programs and data centers. It is increasingly integrated with the IUCN Red List system and its categories for species include, presumed extinct, possibly extinct, critically imperiled, imperiled, vulnerable, apparently secure, and secure. The system also allows ambiguous or uncertain ranks including inexact numeric ranks, NatureServe adds a qualifier for captive or cultivated only, which has a similar meaning to the IUCN Red List extinct in the wild status. The Red Data Book of the Russian Federation is used within the Russian Federation, in Australia, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 describes lists of threatened species, ecological communities and threatening processes. The categories resemble those of the 1994 IUCN Red List Categories & Criteria, prior to the EPBC Act, a simpler classification system was used by the Endangered Species Protection Act 1992. Some state and territory governments also have their own systems for conservation status, in Belgium, the Flemish Research Institute for Nature and Forest publishes an online set of more than 150 nature indicators in Dutch. In Canada, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada is a group of experts that assesses and designates which wild species are in danger of disappearing from Canada. Under the Species at Risk Act, it is up to the federal government, in China, the State, provinces and some counties have determined their key protected wildlife species. There is the China red data book, in Finland, a large number of species are protected under the Nature Conservation Act, and through the EU Habitats Directive and EU Birds Directive. In Germany, the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation publishes red lists of endangered species, india has the Wild Life Protection Act,1972, Amended 2003 and the Biological Diversity Act,2002. In Japan, the Ministry of Environment publishes a Threatened Wildlife of Japan Red Data Book, in the Netherlands, the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality publishes a list of threatened species, and conservation is enforced by the Nature Conservation Act 1998. Species are also protected through the Wild Birds and Habitats Directives, in New Zealand, the Department of Conservation publishes the New Zealand Threat Classification System lists
2.
Extinct in the wild
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The tortoise was believed to be entirely extinct in the mid-20th century, until Hungarian malacologist József Vágvölgyi spotted Lonesome George on the Galapagos island of Pinta on 1 December 1971. Since then, Lonesome George has been a symbol for conservation efforts in general. With his death on 24 June 2012, the subspecies is believed to be extinct. With the discovery of 17 hybrid Pinta tortoises located at nearby Wolf Volcano a plan has made to attempt to breed the subspecies back into a pure state. Not all species that are extinct in the wild are rare, however, the ultimate purpose of preserving biodiversity is to maintain ecological function. When a species only in captivity, it is ecologically extinct. Reintroduction is the release of species into the wild, from captivity or relocated from other areas where the species survives. This may be an option for certain species that are endangered or extinct in the wild, while conservation efforts may preserve some of the genetics of a species, the species may never fully recover due to the loss of the natural memetics of the species
3.
IUCN Red List
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The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, founded in 1964, is the worlds most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature is the main authority on the conservation status of species. A series of Regional Red Lists are produced by countries or organizations, the IUCN Red List is set upon precise criteria to evaluate the extinction risk of thousands of species and subspecies. These criteria are relevant to all species and all regions of the world, the aim is to convey the urgency of conservation issues to the public and policy makers, as well as help the international community to try to reduce species extinction. Major species assessors include BirdLife International, the Institute of Zoology, the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, collectively, assessments by these organizations and groups account for nearly half the species on the Red List. The IUCN aims to have the category of every species re-evaluated every five years if possible, the 1964 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants used the older pre-criteria Red List assessment system. Plants listed may not, therefore, appear in the current Red List, IUCN advise that is best to check both the online Red List and the 1997 plants Red List publication. The 2006 Red List, released on 4 May 2006 evaluated 40,168 species as a whole, plus an additional 2,160 subspecies, varieties, aquatic stocks, on 12 September 2007, the World Conservation Union released the 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Russ Mittermeier, chief of Swiss-based IUCNs Primate Specialist Group, stated that 16,306 species are endangered with extinction,188 more than in 2006, the Red List includes the Sumatran orangutan in the Critically Endangered category and the Bornean orangutan in the Endangered category. The study shows at least 1,141 of the 5,487 mammals on Earth are known to be threatened with extinction, and 836 are listed as Data Deficient. The Red List of 2012 was released 19 July 2012 at Rio+20 Earth Summit, nearly 2,000 species were added, the IUCN assessed a total of 63,837 species which revealed 19,817 are threatened with extinction. With 3,947 described as endangered and 5,766 as endangered. At threat are 41% of amphibian species, 33% of reef-building corals, 30% of conifers, 25% of mammals, the IUCN Red List has listed 132 species of plants and animals from India as Critically Endangered. Extinct – No known individuals remaining, extinct in the wild – Known only to survive in captivity, or as a naturalized population outside its historic range. Critically endangered – Extremely high risk of extinction in the wild, Endangered – High risk of extinction in the wild. Vulnerable – High risk of endangerment in the wild, near threatened – Likely to become endangered in the near future. Does not qualify for a more at-risk category, widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category. Data deficient – Not enough data to make an assessment of its risk of extinction, Not evaluated – Has not yet been evaluated against the criteria
4.
Taxonomy (biology)
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Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
5.
Animal
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Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia. The animal kingdom emerged as a clade within Apoikozoa as the group to the choanoflagellates. Animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and independently at some point in their lives and their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later in their lives. All animals are heterotrophs, they must ingest other organisms or their products for sustenance, most known animal phyla appeared in the fossil record as marine species during the Cambrian explosion, about 542 million years ago. Animals can be divided broadly into vertebrates and invertebrates, vertebrates have a backbone or spine, and amount to less than five percent of all described animal species. They include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, the remaining animals are the invertebrates, which lack a backbone. These include molluscs, arthropods, annelids, nematodes, flatworms, cnidarians, ctenophores, the study of animals is called zoology. The word animal comes from the Latin animalis, meaning having breath, the biological definition of the word refers to all members of the kingdom Animalia, encompassing creatures as diverse as sponges, jellyfish, insects, and humans. Aristotle divided the world between animals and plants, and this was followed by Carl Linnaeus, in the first hierarchical classification. In Linnaeuss original scheme, the animals were one of three kingdoms, divided into the classes of Vermes, Insecta, Pisces, Amphibia, Aves, and Mammalia. Since then the last four have all been subsumed into a single phylum, in 1874, Ernst Haeckel divided the animal kingdom into two subkingdoms, Metazoa and Protozoa. The protozoa were later moved to the kingdom Protista, leaving only the metazoa, thus Metazoa is now considered a synonym of Animalia. Animals have several characteristics that set apart from other living things. Animals are eukaryotic and multicellular, which separates them from bacteria and they are heterotrophic, generally digesting food in an internal chamber, which separates them from plants and algae. They are also distinguished from plants, algae, and fungi by lacking cell walls. All animals are motile, if only at life stages. In most animals, embryos pass through a stage, which is a characteristic exclusive to animals. With a few exceptions, most notably the sponges and Placozoa and these include muscles, which are able to contract and control locomotion, and nerve tissues, which send and process signals
6.
Chordate
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Chordates are deuterostomes, as during the embryo development stage the anus forms before the mouth. They are also bilaterally symmetric coelomates, in the case of vertebrate chordates, the notochord is usually replaced by a vertebral column during development, and they may have body plans organized via segmentation. There are also additional extinct taxa, the Vertebrata are sometimes considered as a subgroup of the clade Craniata, consisting of chordates with a skull, the Craniata and Tunicata compose the clade Olfactores. Of the more than 65,000 living species of chordates, the worlds largest and fastest animals, the blue whale and peregrine falcon respectively, are chordates, as are humans. Fossil chordates are known from at least as early as the Cambrian explosion, Hemichordata, which includes the acorn worms, has been presented as a fourth chordate subphylum, but it now is usually treated as a separate phylum. The Hemichordata, along with the Echinodermata, form the Ambulacraria, the Chordata and Ambulacraria form the superphylum Deuterostomia, composed of the deuterostomes. Attempts to work out the relationships of the chordates have produced several hypotheses. All of the earliest chordate fossils have found in the Early Cambrian Chengjiang fauna. Because the fossil record of early chordates is poor, only molecular phylogenetics offers a prospect of dating their emergence. However, the use of molecular phylogenetics for dating evolutionary transitions is controversial and it has also proved difficult to produce a detailed classification within the living chordates. Attempts to produce family trees shows that many of the traditional classes are paraphyletic. While this has been known since the 19th century, an insistence on only monophyletic taxa has resulted in vertebrate classification being in a state of flux. Although the name Chordata is attributed to William Bateson, it was already in prevalent use by 1880, ernst Haeckel described a taxon comprising tunicates, cephalochordates, and vertebrates in 1866. Though he used the German vernacular form, it is allowed under the ICZN code because of its subsequent latinization, among the vertebrate sub-group of chordates the notochord develops into the spine, and in wholly aquatic species this helps the animal to swim by flexing its tail. In fish and other vertebrates, this develops into the spinal cord, the pharynx is the part of the throat immediately behind the mouth. In fish, the slits are modified to form gills, a muscular tail that extends backwards behind the anus. This is a groove in the wall of the pharynx. In filter-feeding species it produces mucus to gather food particles, which helps in transporting food to the esophagus and it also stores iodine, and may be a precursor of the vertebrate thyroid gland
7.
Bird
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Birds, a subgroup of Reptiles, are the last living examples of Dinosaurs. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the 5 cm bee hummingbird to the 2.75 m ostrich. They rank as the class of tetrapods with the most living species, at ten thousand. Birds are the closest living relatives of crocodilians, the fossil record indicates that birds evolved from feathered ancestors within the theropod group of saurischian dinosaurs. True birds first appeared during the Cretaceous period, around 100 million years ago, Birds, especially those in the southern continents, survived this event and then migrated to other parts of the world while diversifying during periods of global cooling. Primitive bird-like dinosaurs that lie outside class Aves proper, in the broader group Avialae, have been found dating back to the mid-Jurassic period, around 170 million years ago. Birds have wings which are more or less developed depending on the species, the digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have evolved for swimming. Many species annually migrate great distances, Birds are social, communicating with visual signals, calls, and bird songs, and participating in such social behaviours as cooperative breeding and hunting, flocking, and mobbing of predators. The vast majority of species are socially monogamous, usually for one breeding season at a time, sometimes for years. Other species have breeding systems that are polygynous or, rarely, Birds produce offspring by laying eggs which are fertilised through sexual reproduction. They are usually laid in a nest and incubated by the parents, most birds have an extended period of parental care after hatching. Some birds, such as hens, lay eggs even when not fertilised, songbirds, parrots, and other species are popular as pets. Guano is harvested for use as a fertiliser, Birds prominently figure throughout human culture. About 120–130 species have become extinct due to human activity since the 17th century, human activity threatens about 1,200 bird species with extinction, though efforts are underway to protect them. Recreational birdwatching is an important part of the ecotourism industry, the first classification of birds was developed by Francis Willughby and John Ray in their 1676 volume Ornithologiae. Carl Linnaeus modified that work in 1758 to devise the taxonomic classification system currently in use, Birds are categorised as the biological class Aves in Linnaean taxonomy. Phylogenetic taxonomy places Aves in the dinosaur clade Theropoda, Aves and a sister group, the clade Crocodilia, contain the only living representatives of the reptile clade Archosauria
8.
Passerine
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A passerine is any bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. A notable feature of passerines compared to other orders of Aves is the arrangement of their toes, sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders, with over 5,000 identified species. It has roughly twice as many species as the largest of the mammal orders and it contains more than 110 families, the second-most of any order of tetrapods. The passerines contain several groups of parasites such as the viduas, cuckoo-finches. Most passerines are omnivorous, while the shrikes are carnivorous, the order is divided into three suborders, Tyranni, Passeri, and the basal Acanthisitti. Oscines have the best control of their syrinx muscles among birds, producing a range of songs and other vocalizations. Most passerines are smaller than members of other avian orders. The heaviest and altogether largest passerines are the thick-billed raven and the races of common raven. The superb lyrebird and some birds-of-paradise, due to long tails or tail coverts, are longer overall. The smallest passerine is the short-tailed pygmy tyrant, at 6.5 cm and 4.2 g, the foot of a passerine has three toes directed forward and one toe directed backward, called anisodactyl arrangement. This arrangement enables the birds to perch upon vertical surfaces, such as trees. The toes have no webbing or joining, but in some cotingas, the hind toe joins the leg at the same level as the front toes. The passeriformes have this toe arrangement in common with hunting birds like eagles, the leg arrangement of passerine birds contains a special adaptation for perching. This enables passerines to sleep while perching without falling off and this is especially useful for passerine birds that develop nocturnal lifestyles. Most passerine birds develop 12 tail feathers, although the superb lyrebird has 16, certain species of passerines have stiff tail feathers, which help the birds balance themselves when perching upon vertical surfaces. Some passerines, specifically in the family Ploceidae, are known for their elaborate sexual ornaments. A well-known example is the long-tailed widowbird, the chicks of passerines are altricial, blind, featherless, and helpless when hatched from their eggs. Hence, the chicks require extensive parental care, vinous-throated parrotbill has two egg colours, white and blue
9.
Corvidae
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Corvidae is a cosmopolitan family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs, and nutcrackers. In common English, they are known as the family, or, more technically. The genus Corvus, including the jackdaws, crows, and ravens and their total brain-to-body mass ratio is equal to that of great apes and cetaceans, and only slightly lower than in humans. They are medium to large in size, with feet and bills, rictal bristles. Corvids are found worldwide except for the tip of South America, the majority of the species are found in tropical South and Central America, southern Asia and Eurasia, with fewer than 10 species each in Africa and Australasia. The genus Corvus has re-entered Australia in relatively recent geological prehistory, with five species, several species of raven have reached oceanic islands, and some of these species are now highly threatened with extinction or have already gone extinct. Over the years, much disagreement has arisen on the evolutionary relationships of the corvid family. What eventually seemed clear was that corvids are derived from Australasian ancestors, other lineages derived from these ancestors evolved into ecologically diverse, but often Australasian groups. In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Sibley and Ahlquist united the corvids with other taxa in the Corvida, the corvids constitute the core group of the Corvoidea, together with their closest relatives. They are also the group of the Corvida, which includes the related groups, such as Old World orioles. Clarification of the interrelationships of the corvids has been achieved based on analysis of several DNA sequences. The jays and magpies do not constitute monophyletic lineages, but rather seem to split up into an American and Old World lineage, and these are not closely related among each other. The position of the magpie, which has always been a major enigma, is even less clear than before. Likewise, the Humes ground jay is in fact a member of the tit family Paridae, the known prehistoric corvid genera appear to be mainly of the New World and Old World jay and Holarctic magpie lineages, Miocorvus Miopica Miocitta Corvidae gen. et sp. indet. Protocitta Corvidae gen. et sp. indet, - probably belongs in an extant genus Henocitta In addition, there are numerous fossil species of extant genera since the Mio–Pliocene, mainly European Corvus. Corvids are large to very large passerines with a robust build, strong legs, the sexes are very similar in color and size. Corvids have strong, stout bills and large wingspans, the family includes the largest members of the passerine order. The smallest corvid is the dwarf jay, at 41 g and 21.5 cm, the largest corvids are the common raven and the thick-billed raven, both of which regularly exceed 1,400 grams and 65 cm
10.
Corvus
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Corvus is a widely distributed genus of medium-sized to large birds in the family Corvidae. In Europe, the crow is used to refer to the carrion crow or the hooded crow, while in North America, it is used for the American crow, fish crow. The crow genus makes up a third of the species in the family Corvidae, the members appear to have evolved in Asia from the corvid stock, which had evolved in Australia. The collective name for a group of crows is a flock or a murder, the genus name is Latin for raven. Recent research has found some crow species capable of not only tool use, crows are now considered to be among the worlds most intelligent animals with an encephalization quotient equal to that of many non-human primates. Corvus species are all black or black with white or grey plumage. They are stout with strong bills and legs, the members of the Corvus genus are believed to have evolved in central Asia and radiated out into North America, Africa, Europe, and Australia. The latest evidence regarding the evolution indicates descent within the Australasian family Corvidae, Corvus has since re-entered Australia and produced five species with one recognized subspecies. The genus was described by Linnaeus in his 18th-century work Systema Naturae. The name is derived from the Latin corvus meaning raven, the type species is the common raven, others named in the same work include the carrion crow, the hooded crow, the rook, and the jackdaw. The genus was originally broader, as the magpie was designated C. pica before being moved later into a genus of its own, at least 42 extant species are now considered to be in this genus, and at least 14 extinct species have been described. The fossil record of crows is rather dense in Europe, corvids are found in major cities across the world, and a major increase in the number of crows in urban settings has occurred since the 1900s. Crows were uncommon in the Pacific Northwest in the 1900s, except in riparian habitats, populations in the west increased substantially from the late 1800s to mid 1900s. Crows and ravens spread along with agriculture and urbanization into the part of North America. Crows gather in communal roosts numbering between 200 and tens of thousands of individuals during nonbreeding months, particularly in the winter. These gatherings tend to happen near large food sources such as garbage dumps, countless incidents are recorded of corvids at play. Many behaviourists see play as a quality in intelligent animals. Crows and the members of the genus make a wide variety of calls or vocalizations
11.
Binomial nomenclature
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Such a name is called a binomial name, a binomen, binominal name or a scientific name, more informally it is also called a Latin name. The first part of the name identifies the genus to which the species belongs, for example, humans belong to the genus Homo and within this genus to the species Homo sapiens. The formal introduction of system of naming species is credited to Carl Linnaeus. But Gaspard Bauhin, in as early as 1623, had introduced in his book Pinax theatri botanici many names of genera that were adopted by Linnaeus. Although the general principles underlying binomial nomenclature are common to these two codes, there are differences, both in the terminology they use and in their precise rules. Similarly, both parts are italicized when a binomial name occurs in normal text, thus the binomial name of the annual phlox is now written as Phlox drummondii. In scientific works, the authority for a name is usually given, at least when it is first mentioned. In zoology Patella vulgata Linnaeus,1758, the original name given by Linnaeus was Fringilla domestica, the parentheses indicate that the species is now considered to belong in a different genus. The ICZN does not require that the name of the person who changed the genus be given, nor the date on which the change was made, in botany Amaranthus retroflexus L. – L. is the standard abbreviation used in botany for Linnaeus. – Linnaeus first named this bluebell species Scilla italica, Rothmaler transferred it to the genus Hyacinthoides, the ICN does not require that the dates of either publication be specified. Prior to the adoption of the binomial system of naming species. Together they formed a system of polynomial nomenclature and these names had two separate functions. First, to designate or label the species, and second, to be a diagnosis or description, such polynomial names may sometimes look like binomials, but are significantly different. For example, Gerards herbal describes various kinds of spiderwort, The first is called Phalangium ramosum, Branched Spiderwort, is aptly termed Phalangium Ephemerum Virginianum, Soon-Fading Spiderwort of Virginia. The Latin phrases are short descriptions, rather than identifying labels, the Bauhins, in particular Caspar Bauhin, took some important steps towards the binomial system, by pruning the Latin descriptions, in many cases to two words. The adoption by biologists of a system of binomial nomenclature is due to Swedish botanist and physician Carl von Linné. It was in his 1753 Species Plantarum that he first began using a one-word trivial name together with a generic name in a system of binomial nomenclature. This trivial name is what is now known as an epithet or specific name
12.
Titian Peale
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Titian Ramsay Peale was an American artist, naturalist, and explorer. He was a scientific illustrator whose paintings and drawings of wildlife were known for their beauty. Peale was born on November 17,1885 in Philadelphia, the youngest son of noted artist and naturalist and he was first exposed to the study of natural history while assisting his father on his many excursions in search of specimens for the Peale Museum. The family moved to Germantown, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia, although some of his butterfly and moth illustrations were ultimately published, the majority remained unpublished until recently. His drawings were published in Thomas Says American Entomology as early as 1816, Peale took part in the 1817 expedition of the Academy of Natural Sciences to Florida and Georgia, together with Thomas Say, George Ord and William Maclure. He was assistant to Say on the expedition to the Rocky Mountains led by Stephen Harriman Long in 1819, the collection submitted to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia from this expedition included 122 drawings by Peale. He acquired a wild turkey for the museums collections, Peale provided illustrations for Says American Entomology and Charles Lucien Bonapartes American Ornithology. He also undertook an expedition to Florida on behalf of Bonaparte. In 1831, Peale published a pamphlet known as Circular of the Philadelphia Museum, the Peale museum continued to gain a worldwide reputation. He developed a method for storing butterflies in sealed cases with glass fronts. As a result, parts of his collection have been preserved until the present day and his meticulous collection of over 100 separate butterfly species was often praised for the brilliance and vibrancy of the insects colors. As chief naturalist, he collected and preserved specimens of natural history. Peales post-expedition report, Mammalia and Ornithology, was suppressed due to objections by Wilkes, Cassin was hired to produce a corrected volume, which was published in 1858. During the expedition, Wilkes named Peale Passage after Titian Peale, on May 1,1843, financial pressures forced Peale to sell the bankrupt museum at a sheriffs sale to Isaac Brown Parker. Peale went on to work for the U. S, patent Office and to become a pioneer American photographer. C. In 1923, Peale Island, one of the three islands surrounding the lagoon at Wake Atoll was named for Peale by Alexander Wetmore, lead scientist of the Tanager Expedition, calhoun, J. V. & D. M. Wright. Remarks on the recent publication of Titian R. Peales lost manuscript, journal of Research on the Lepidoptera. Titian Ramsay Peale And His Journals of The Wilkes Expedition, 1799-1885, mr. Peales Museum, Charles Willson Peale and the First Popular Museum of Natural Science and Art
13.
Carrion crow
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The carrion crow is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus Corvus which is native to western Europe and eastern Asia. The carrion crow was one of the species originally described by Linnaeus in his 18th century work Systema Naturae. The binomial name is derived from the Latin Corvus, Raven, the plumage of carrion crow is black with a green or purple sheen, much greener than the gloss of the rook. The bill, legs and feet are also black and it can be distinguished from the common raven by its size and from the hooded crow by its black plumage, but there is frequent confusion between it and the rook. It has a wingspan of 84–100 cm or 33 to 39 inches, the beak of the crow is stouter and in consequence looks shorter, and whereas in the adult rook the nostrils are bare, those of the crow are covered at all ages with bristle-like feathers. The carrion crow and hooded crow are two closely related species whose geographic distributions across Europe are illustrated in the accompanying diagram. It is therefore clear that it is only the appearance of the two species that inhibits hybridization. The carrion crow is found in the mountains and forests of Japan. The rook is generally gregarious and the solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees. The most distinctive feature is the voice, the rook has a high-pitched kaaa, but the crows guttural, slightly vibrant, deeper croaked kraa is distinct from any note of the rook. The carrion crow is noisy, perching on the top of a tree, the wing-beats are slower, more deliberate than those of the rook. Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found areas of human activity or habitation, competing with other social birds such as gulls and ducks for food in parks. Like all corvids, carrion crows are highly intelligent, and are among the most intelligent of all animals, though an eater of carrion of all kinds, the carrion crow will eat insects, earthworms, grain, small mammals, amphibians, scraps and will also steal eggs. Crows are scavengers by nature, which is why they tend to frequent sites inhabited by humans in order to feed on their household waste, crows will also harass birds of prey or even foxes for their kills. Crows actively hunt and occasionally co-operate with other crows to make kills, crows have become highly skilled at adapting to urban environments. In a Japanese city, carrion crows have discovered how to eat nuts that they usually find too hard to tackle, one method is to drop the nuts from height on to a hard road in the hope of cracking it. Some nuts are particularly tough, so the crows drop the nuts among the traffic and that leaves the problem of eating the bits without getting run over, so some birds wait by pedestrian crossings and collect the cracked nuts when the lights turn red. The bulky stick nest is placed in a tall tree
14.
Native Hawaiians
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Native Hawaiians are the indigenous Austronesian people of the Hawaiian Islands or their descendants. Native Hawaiians trace their ancestry back to the original Polynesian settlers of Hawaii,140,652 people identified themselves as being Native Hawaiian alone. The majority of Native Hawaiians reside in the State of Hawaiʻi, and the rest are scattered among other states, especially in the American Southwest, another is that a single, extended period of settlement populated the islands. Early historians, such as Fornander and Beckwith, subscribed to this Tahitian invasion theory, king Kalakaua claimed that Paʻao was from Samoa. Some writers claim that other settlers in Hawaiʻi were forced into remote valleys by newer arrivals and they claim that stories about the Menehune, little people who built heiau and fishponds, prove the existence of ancient peoples who settled the islands before the Hawaiians. At the time of Captain Cooks arrival in 1778, the population is estimated to have been between 250,000 and 800,000, over the span of the first century after first contact, the native Hawaiians were nearly wiped out by diseases introduced to the islands. Native Hawaiians had no resistance to influenza, smallpox, measles, or whooping cough, the 1900 U. S. Census identified 37,656 residents of full or partial native Hawaiian ancestry. The 2000 U. S. Census identified 283,430 residents of Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander ancestry, the Hawaiian language was once the primary language of the native Hawaiian people, today, native Hawaiians predominately speak the English language. A major factor for this change was an 1896 law that required that English be the medium and basis of instruction in all public. This law prevented the Hawaiian language from being taught as a second language, in spite of this, some native Hawaiians have learned ʻŌlelo as a second language. Nowadays ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi is the language of the State of Hawaii. The Hawaiian language has been promoted for revival most recently by a program of cultural preservation enacted in 1978. Programs included the opening of Hawaiian language immersion schools, and the establishment of a Hawaiian language department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, as a result, Hawaiian language learning has climbed among all races in Hawaiʻi. In 2006, the University of Hawaii at Hilo established a program in the Hawaiian Language. In fall 2006, they established a program in the Hawaiian Language. In addition to being the first doctoral program for the study of Hawaiian, both the masters and doctoral programs are considered by global scholars as pioneering in the revival of native languages. Hawaiian is still spoken as the language by the residents on the private island of Niʻihau. Alongside ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, some Maoli spoke Hawaiʻi Sign Language, little is known about the language by Western academics and efforts are being made to preserve and revitalize the language
15.
Household deity
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A household deity is a deity or spirit that protects the home, looking after the entire household or certain key members. It has been a belief in pagan religions as well as in folklore across many parts of the world. The second type of household deities are those that are not one singular deity, but a type, or species of animistic deity, who usually have lesser powers than major deities. This type was common in the religions of antiquity, such as the Lares of ancient Roman religion, the Gashin of Korean shamanism and these survived Christianisation as fairy-like creatures existing in folklore, such as the Anglo-Scottish Brownie and Slavic Domovoi. Household deities were usually worshipped not in temples but in the home and they could also be found on domestic objects, such as cosmetic articles in the case of Tawaret. The more prosperous houses might have a shrine to the household god. The gods would be treated as members of the family and invited to join in meals, or be given offerings of food, in many religions, both ancient and modern, a god would preside over the home. Certain species, or types, of household deities existed, an example of this was the Roman Lares. Many European cultures retained house spirits into the modern period, because of their immediacy they had arguably more influence on the day-to-day affairs of men than the remote gods did. For centuries Christianity fought a war against these lingering minor pagan deities. For example, Martin Luthers Tischreden have numerous quite serious references to dealing with kobolds, drawing the picture with broader strokes. Under these conditions, the spirits of the family-ancestors only are worshipped, --each family propitiating its own dead, finally, with the union of all the clans or tribes under one supreme head, there is developed the custom of propitiating the spirits of national, rulers. This third form of the cult becomes the obligatory religion of the country, but it does not replace either of the preceding cults, the three continue to exist together. As stated in the Wikipedia article on Shinto, Whenever a child is born in Japan, after death an ujiko becomes a family spirit, or family kami. Many Japanese houses still have a shrine (kamidana where offerings are made to ancestral kami, Edward Burnett Tylor, one of the main founders of the discipline of cultural anthropology, spoke of survivals, vestiges of earlier evolutionary stages in a cultures development. He also coined the term animism, in contradistinction to both Herbert Spencer and Edward Burnett Tylor, who defended theories of animistic origins of ancestor worship, Émile Durkheim saw its origin in totemism. Freud preferred to emphasize the implications of the reification of metaphysical forces. This emphasis underscores, rather than weakens, the ancestral component, the doyen of European folklorists Jacob Grimm did not hesitate to equate the Roman lar familiaris to the brownie
16.
Local extinction
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Local extinction, or extirpation, is the condition of a species that ceases to exist in the chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinctions, local extinctions may be followed by a replacement of the species taken from other locations, wolf reintroduction is an example of this. Local extinctions mark a change in the ecology of an area, the area of study chosen may reflect a natural subpopula, political boundaries, or both. The Cetacean Specialist Group of the IUCN has assessed the threat of an extinction of the Black Sea stock of Harbour Porpoise that touches six different countries. COSEWIC, by contrast, investigates wildlife only in Canada, so only the risk of a Canadian local extinction even for species that cross into the United States or other countries. Other subpopulations may be divided by political or country boundaries. Many crocodilian species have experienced localized extinction, particularly the saltwater crocodile, which has been extirpated from Vietnam, Thailand, Java, often a subpopulation of a species will also be a subspecies. However, similar studies are not carried out where a population is at risk. In all,119 stocks or subpopulations across 69 species have been assessed by the IUCN in 2006, no plant or fungi subpopulations have been assessed by the IUCN. Major environmental events, such as volcanic eruptions, may lead to large numbers of local extinctions, such as with the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption, extinction List of extinct animals Threatened species Genocide
17.
Toxoplasma gondii
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Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular, parasitic alveolate that causes the disease toxoplasmosis. For example, previous estimates have shown the highest prevalence of persons infected to be in France, although mild, flu-like symptoms occasionally occur during the first few weeks following exposure, infection with T. gondii produces no readily observable symptoms in healthy human adults. This asymptomatic state of infection is referred to as a latent infection and has recently been associated with numerous subtle adverse or pathological behavioral alterations in humans, in infants, HIV/AIDS patients, and others with weakened immunity, infection can cause a serious and occasionally fatal illness, toxoplasmosis. T. gondii has been shown to alter the behavior of infected rodents in ways that increase the chances of being preyed upon by felids. Support for this hypothesis stems from studies showing T. gondii-infected rats have a decreased aversion to cat urine. The rats would not shy away from areas where cats live, widespread histone-lysine acetylation in cortical astrocytes appears to be another epigenetic mechanism employed by T. gondii. Differences in aversion to cat urine are observed between non-infected and infected humans and sex differences within these groups were apparent, as well, because T. gondii can sexually reproduce only within cats, they are defined as the definitive host of T. gondii. All other hosts – hosts in which asexual reproduction can occur – are defined as intermediate hosts. When a member of the cat family is infected with T. gondii, inside these intestinal cells, the parasites undergo sexual development and reproduction, producing millions of thick-walled, zygote-containing cysts known as oocysts. Infected epithelial cells eventually rupture and release oocysts into the intestinal lumen, oocysts can then spread to soil, water, food, or anything potentially contaminated with the feces. Highly resilient, oocysts can survive and remain infective for many months in cold, ingestion of oocysts by humans or other warm-blooded animals is one of the common routes of infection. Humans can be exposed to oocysts by, for example, consuming unwashed vegetables or contaminated water, although cats can also be infected by ingesting oocysts, they are much less sensitive to oocyst infection than are intermediate hosts. T. gondii is considered to have three stages of infection, the stage of rapid division, the bradyzoite stage of slow division within tissue cysts. Tissue cysts in tissues such as brain and muscle tissue, form approximately 7–10 days after initial infection, inside host cells, the tachyzoites replicate inside specialized vacuoles created during parasitic entry into the cell. Tachyzoites multiply inside this vacuole until the host cell dies and ruptures, releasing and spreading the tachyzoites via the bloodstream to all organs and tissues of the body, inside host cells, clusters of these bradyzoites are known as tissue cysts. The cyst wall is formed by the vacuole membrane. Although bradyzoite-containing tissue cysts can form in any organ, tissue cysts predominantly form and persist in the brain, the eyes. Cysts usually range in size between five and 50 µm in diameter, consumption of tissue cysts in meat is one of the primary means of T. gondii infection, both for humans and for meat-eating, warm-blooded animals
18.
Mauna Loa
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Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii in the U. S. state of Hawaiʻi in the Pacific Ocean. The largest subaerial volcano in both mass and volume, Mauna Loa has historically considered the largest volcano on Earth. Lava eruptions from Mauna Loa are silica-poor and very fluid, Mauna Loa has probably been erupting for at least 700,000 years, and may have emerged above sea level about 400,000 years ago. The oldest-known dated rocks are not older than 200,000 years, the volcanos magma comes from the Hawaii hotspot, which has been responsible for the creation of the Hawaiian island chain over tens of millions of years. The slow drift of the Pacific Plate will eventually carry Mauna Loa away from the hotspot within 500,000 to one years from now. Mauna Loas most recent eruption occurred from March 24 to April 15,1984, no recent eruptions of the volcano have caused fatalities, but eruptions in 1926 and 1950 destroyed villages, and the city of Hilo is partly built on lava flows from the late 19th century. Because of the hazards it poses to population centers, Mauna Loa is part of the Decade Volcanoes program. Mauna Loa has been monitored intensively by the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory since 1912, observations of the atmosphere are undertaken at the Mauna Loa Observatory, and of the Sun at the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory, both located near the mountains summit. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park covers the summit and the flank of the volcano, and also incorporates Kīlauea. Like all Hawaiian volcanoes, Mauna Loa was created as the Pacific tectonic plate moved over the Hawaiian hotspot in the Earths underlying mantle. The Hawaii island volcanoes are the most recent evidence of this process that, the prevailing view states that the hotspot has been largely stationary within the planets mantle for much, if not all of the Cenozoic Era. However, while the Hawaiian mantle plume is well-understood and extensively studied, Mauna Loa is one of five subaerial volcanoes that make up the island of Hawaiʻi, created by the Hawaii hotspot. The oldest volcano on the island, Kohala, is more than a years old, and Kīlauea. Lōʻihi Seamount on the flank is even younger, but has yet to breach the surface. Since then, the volcano has remained active, with a history of effusive and explosive eruptions, although Mauna Loas activity has been overshadowed in recent years by that of its neighbor Kīlauea, it remains active. Mauna Loa is the largest subaerial and second largest overall volcano in the world, covering an area of 5,271 km2. Consisting of approximately 65,000 to 80,000 km3 of solid rock, the shield-stage lavas that built the enormous main mass of the mountain are tholeiitic basalts, like those of Mauna Kea, created through the mixing of primary magma and subducted oceanic crust. Mokuʻāweoweos caldera floor lies between 170 and 50 m beneath its rim and it is only the latest of several calderas that have formed and reformed over the volcanos life, additionally, two smaller pit craters lie southwest of the caldera, named Lua Hou and Lua Hohonu
19.
Metrosideros polymorpha
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Metrosideros polymorpha, the ʻōhiʻa lehua, is a species of flowering evergreen tree in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, that is endemic to the six largest islands of Hawaiʻi. It is a highly variable tree, being 20–25 m tall in favorable situations, and it produces a brilliant display of flowers, made up of a mass of stamens, which can range from fiery red to yellow. Many native Hawaiian traditions refer to the tree and the forests it forms as sacred to Pele, the goddess, and to Laka. ʻŌhiʻa trees grow easily on lava, and are usually the very first plants to grow on new lava flows and it is a common misconception that the word ʻōhiʻa is used to refer to the tree and that the word lehua refers only to its flowers. The Hawaiian Dictionary defines lehua with these words, The flower of the ʻōhiʻa tree, thus the Metrosideros polymorpha may be referred to correctly as a lehua tree, or as an ʻōhiʻa lehua, or simply an ʻōhiʻa. Metrosideros polymorpha is the most common tree in the Hawaiian Islands, tolerating a wide range of soil conditions, temperature. It grows from sea level right up to the line at elevations of 2,500 m and is commonly found in moist and dry forests, high shrublands. Dominant in cloud forests above 400 m, the tree is common in seasonally wet forests. Metrosideros polymorpha may occur as a tree or a prostrate shrub. Preferred soils are acidic to neutral and either a Histosol, Mollisol, Podsol, Oxisol, Ultisol, or Alfisol. Rainfall of 1, 000–3,000 mm per year is favored, on moist, deep soils, ʻōhiʻa grows to 20–25 m high. Specimens reaching 30 m high are on record, in some trees, it is straight and smooth, in others, it is twisted and prominently fluted. Trees growing in forests often have roots, having germinated on logs or the stems of fallen hāpuʻu. Some trees have fibrous aerial roots to gather moisture, at high elevations, and in areas with poor soils or little rainfall, shrub forms are the norm. Flowers are usually bright to medium red but orange-red, salmon, pink, yellow, the flowers appear in clusters on the terminal ends of the branches. Masses of stamens extend from the flower and give the blossoms their characteristic pom-pom shape, the reddish brown heartwood of M. polymorpha is very hard, fine textured, and has a specific gravity of 0.7. In native Hawaiian society, it was used in house and heiau construction, as well as to make papa kuʻi ʻai, weapons, tool handles, hohoa, and kiʻi. Although the trunk of ʻōhiʻa was not used to make the kaʻele of waʻa, it was used for their nohona waʻa, pale, wae were made from the curved stilt roots of ʻōhiʻa
20.
Acacia koa
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Acacia koa is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae. It is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands, where it is the second most common tree, the highest populations are on Hawaiʻi, Maui and Oʻahu. Its name in the Hawaiian language, koa, also means brave, bold, fearless, koa is a large tree, typically attaining a height of 15–25 m and a spread of 6–12 m. In deep volcanic ash, a koa tree can reach a height of 30 m, a circumference of 6 m, and it is one of the fastest-growing Hawaiian trees, capable of reaching 6–9 m in five years on a good site. Initially, bipinnately compound leaves with 12–24 pairs of leaflets grow on the koa plant, at about 6–9 months of age, however, thick sickle-shaped leaves that are not compound begin to grow. These are phyllodes, blades that develop as an expansion of the leaf petiole, the vertically flattened orientation of the phyllodes allows sunlight to pass to lower levels of the tree. True leaves are replaced by 7–25 cm long,0. 5–2.5 cm wide phyllodes on an adult tree. Flowers of the koa tree are pale-yellow spherical racemes with a diameter of 8–10 mm, flowering may be seasonal or year round depending on the location. Fruit production occurs when a koa tree is between 5 and 30 years old, the fruit are legumes, also called pods, with a length of 7. 5–15 cm and a width of 1. 5–2.5 cm. Each pod contains an average of 12 seeds, the 6–12 mm long, 4–7 mm wide seeds are flattened ellipsoids and range from dark brown to black in color. The pods are mature and ready for propagation after turning from green to brown or black, seeds are covered with a hard seed coat, and this allows them to remain dormant for up to 25 years. Scarification is needed before A. koa seeds will germinate, koa is endemic to the islands of Hawaiʻi, Molokaʻi, Maui, Lānaʻi, Oʻahu, and Kauaʻi, where it grows at elevations of 100–2,300 m. It requires 850–5,000 mm of annual rainfall, acidic to neutral soils that are either an Inceptisol derived from volcanic ash or a well-drained histosol are preferred. Its ability to fix nitrogen allows it to grow in very young volcanic soils, koa and ʻōhiʻa lehua dominate the canopy of mixed mesic forests. It is also common in wet forests, the koas trunk was used by ancient Hawaiians to build waʻa and papa heʻe nalu. Only paipo, kikoʻo, and alaia surfboards were made from koa, however, olo, the longest surfboards, were made from the lighter and more buoyant wiliwili. The reddish wood is similar in strength and weight to that of Black Walnut, with a specific gravity of 0.55. Koa is also a tonewood, often used in the construction of ukuleles, acoustic guitars, rich used koa on some of their electric guitars as well, and still uses a koa-veneered topwood on certain models
21.
Understory
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In forestry and ecology, understory comprises plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but above the forest floor. Only a small percentage of light penetrates the canopy so understory vegetation is generally shade tolerant, the understory typically consists of trees stunted through lack of light, other small trees with low light requirements, saplings, shrubs, vines and undergrowth. Small trees such as holly and dogwood are understory specialists, in temperate deciduous forests, many understory plants start into growth earlier than the canopy trees to make use of the greater availability of light at this time of year. A gap in the canopy caused by the death of a tree stimulates the potential emergent trees into competitive growth as they grow upwards to fill the gap and these trees tend to have straight trunks and few lower branches. At the same time, the bushes, undergrowth and plant life on the forest floor become more dense, the understory experiences greater humidity than the canopy, and the shaded ground does not vary in temperature as much as open ground. This causes a proliferation of ferns, mosses and fungi and encourages nutrient recycling, the understory is the underlying layer of vegetation in a forest or wooded area, especially the trees and shrubs growing between the forest canopy and the forest floor. Plants in the understory comprise an assortment of seedlings and saplings of canopy trees together with specialist understory shrubs and herbs, young canopy trees often persist in the understory for decades as suppressed juveniles until an opening in the forest overstory permits their growth into the canopy. In contrast understory shrubs complete their cycles in the shade of the forest canopy. Some smaller tree species, such as dogwood and holly, rarely grow tall, the canopy of a rainforest is typically about 10m thick, and intercepts around 95% of the sunlight. The understory receive less light than plants in the canopy. Understory plants therefore must be shade tolerant—they must be able to photosynthesize adequately using such light as does reach their leaves and they often are able to use wavelengths that canopy plants cannot. In temperate deciduous forests towards the end of the leafless season and this is important because it provides the understory plants with a window in which to photosynthesize without the canopy shading them. This brief period is often a period in which the plant can maintain a net positive carbon balance over the course of the year. As a rule forest understories also experience higher humidity than exposed areas, the forest canopy reduces solar radiation, so the ground does not heat up or cool down as rapidly as open ground. Consequently, the understory dries out more slowly than more exposed areas do, the greater humidity encourages epiphytes such as ferns and mosses, and allows fungi and other decomposers to flourish. This drives nutrient cycling, and provides favorable microclimates for many animals and plants, such as the pygmy marmoset
22.
Hawaiian hawk
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The Hawaiian hawk or ʻio is a raptor of the Buteo genus endemic to Hawaiʻi, currently restricted to the Big Island. Buteos tend to be recognized by their bulky bodies relative to their overall length. The ʻio is the hawk that is native to Hawaiʻi, and fossil evidence indicates that it inhabited the island of Hawaiʻi, Molokaʻi, Oʻahu. Today, it is known to breed only on the Big Island, the species is protected as an endangered species in the United States. However, the IUCN classifies the species as Near Threatened, the Hawaiian hawk measures approximately 40 to 46 centimeters in length. The female, which weighs 605 g on average, is larger than the male, two color phases exist, a dark phase, and a light color phase. Feet and legs are yellowish in adults and greenish in juveniles, during breeding season one of the pair, possibly the female, has a distinctive yellow forecap area just above the upper mandible. Common threats to the ʻio are illegal shootings, the degradation of their native forest habitat, poisoning, vehicle collisions, starvation and this solitary hawk remains in and defends its territories year round. They nest from March through September, and usually lay one egg. The female does the majority of sitting during the 38 days of incubation, after the egg is hatched, the female only allows the male to visit when delivering food to the nest. The chick fledges at seven or eight weeks, fifty to seventy percent of the nests successfully fledge young. The ʻio usually hunts from a position, but can also dive on prey from the air. It feeds on rats, small birds, stream animals, crickets, praying mantises, millipedes, centipedes, lizards such as jacksons chameleon and it will also feed on the Hawaiian crow, a Hawaiian bird which is extinct in the wild. They are opportunistic predators and are versatile in their feeding habits and they have a shrill and high-pitched call much like their Hawaiian name, eeeh-oh. They are very noisy during the breeding season, the Hawaiian hawk was a royal symbol in Hawaiian legend, and it is sometimes called “ʻiolani, ” or “exalted hawk”, which was the name of Kamehameha IV and the ʻIolani Palace. Hawaiian Hawk / Buteo solitarius / ʻIo. Fish and Wildlife Pacific Office, United States Fish and Wildlife Service
23.
Small Asian mongoose
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The small Asian mongoose is a species of mongoose found in the wild in South and Southeast Asia. The western subspecies group is treated as a separate species. This species of mongoose is sympatric with Herpestes edwardsii in much of its native range, the body is slender and the head is elongated with a pointed snout. The lengths of the head and body is 509-671mm and they have five toed feet with long claws. The sexes differ in size with males having a wider head and they use about 12 different vocalizations. This species occurs throughout most of southern mainland Asia, from Iraq to China, as well as on the island of Java. It has also introduced to dozens of islands in the Pacific and Caribbean, as well as a few in the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean. It is capable of living among fairly dense human populations, mongooses live in scrublands and dry forest. On Pacific Islands they live in rainforests as well and these mongoose mostly eat insects but are opportunistic feeders and will eat crabs, frogs, spiders, scorpions, snakes, small mammals, and birds and bird eggs. Mongooses are mostly solitary although males sometimes form social groups. Pregnancy duration is up to 49 days, a litter can consist of 2–5 young. The 1800s was a century for sugar cane, and plantations shot up on many tropical islands including Hawaii, Fiji. With sugar cane came rats, attracted to the sweet plant, attempts were made to introduce the species in Trinidad in 1870 but this failed. A subsequent trial with four males and five females from Calcutta however established in Jamaica in 1872, a paper published by W. B. Espeut that praised the results intrigued Hawaiian plantation owners who, in 1883 and these were raised and their offspring were shipped to plantations on other islands. Populations that have introduced to these islands show larger range sizes than in their native ranges. They also show genetic diversification due to drift and population isolation, only the islands of Lanai and Kauai are thought to be free of mongooses. There are two conflicting stories of why Kauai was spared, the first is that the residents of Kauai were opposed to having the animals on the island and when the ship carrying the offspring reached Kauai, the animals were thrown overboard and drowned
24.
Feral cat
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A feral cat is a cat that has been born to other ferals or from stray cats as opposed to domesticated cats. These ferals are unaccustomed to human interaction, Feral cats are usually considered to be distinct from stray cats, which are socialized cats who no longer live in homes, but could potentially be reintroduced successfully. This article discusses the definition, history, behavior, health, distribution and habitat, control and management, further subtopics include the definition, behaviors and characteristics of both farm cats and ships cats and how they relate to feral cats. Feral is an adjective defined as existing in a wild state and it can also be used to describe a quality of wild animals as ferocious or brutal. The meaning of the feral cat varies between professions and countries, and is sometimes used interchangeably with other terms such as free-roaming, street, alley. Stray cats are socialized cats who no longer live in homes, a survey of rescuers and veterinarians in the United States found that there was no widely accepted definition of a feral cat. Many facilities used waiting periods to evaluate whether a cat was feral by observing whether the cat became less afraid, other indicators included the cats response to touch with an inanimate object, and observation of social behavior from the cat in varying environments. The Australian government categorizes cats who have no interaction with or assistance from humans as feral, farm cats are cats that live on agricultural properties in feral or semi-feral condition. They primarily live outdoors, usually sheltering in outbuildings and they hunt vermin such as rodents and other small animals that live in or around outbuildings and farm fields. The need to keep rodents from consuming or contaminating grain crops stored for human consumption may be the original reason cats were domesticated. They are still commonly kept for the purpose of catching undesired vermin found on farms and ranches, ships cats are typically feral or semi-feral, and were once common features on many trading, exploration, and naval ships. Cats were primarily brought aboard to catch mice and rats, which can cause damage to ropes, woodwork, rodents also presented a threat to the stores the ship carried, both as cargo and as food for sailors. Rats and mice were also sources of disease, which was dangerous for ships at sea for long periods of time, Cats have been officially banned from some commercial and military fleets, though they are sometimes still kept privately by sailors. Traders from Phoenicia brought them to Europe to control rat populations, roman armies also helped with the spread, eventually bringing them to England. Since then, cats continued to be introduced to new areas, Cats are thought to have been introduced to Australia in either the 1600s by Dutch shipwrecks, or the late 1700s by English settlers. These domesticated cats began to form feral populations after their offspring began living away from human contact, some behaviors are commonly observed among feral cats, although there is disagreement among veterinarians, rescuers, and researchers on the prevalence of some. In a free-roaming environment, feral cats avoid humans and they do not allow themselves to be handled or touched by humans, and back away or run when they are able to do so. If trapped, they may hiss, growl, bare their teeth and they remain fairly hidden from humans and will not approach, although some feral cats gradually become more comfortable around humans who feed them regularly
25.
Omnivore
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Omnivore /ˈɒmnivɔər/ is a consumption classification for animals that have the capability to obtain chemical energy and nutrients from materials originating from plant and animal origin. Often, omnivores also have the ability to incorporate food sources such as algae, fungi, omnivores come from diverse backgrounds that often independently evolved sophisticated consumption capabilities. For instance, dogs evolved from primarily carnivorous organisms while pigs evolved from primarily herbivorous organisms, what this means is that physical characteristics are often not reliable indicators of whether an animal has the ability to obtain energy and nutrients from both plant and animal matter. The variety of different animals that are classified as omnivores can be placed into categories depending on their feeding behaviors. Frugivores include maned wolves and orangutans, insectivores include swallows and pink fairy armadillos, granivores include large ground finches, all of these animals are omnivores, yet still fall into special niches in terms of feeding behaviors and preferred foods. Being omnivores gives these animals more food security in times or makes possible living in less consistent environments. The word omnivore derives from the Latin omnis, and vora, from vorare, having been coined by the French, traditionally the definition for omnivory was entirely behavioral by means of simply including both animal and vegetable tissue in the diet. This has subsequently conditioned two context specific definitions, behavioral, This definition is used to specify if a species or individual is actively consuming both plant and animal materials. Physiological, This definition is used in academia to specify species that have the capability to obtain energy. Though Carnivora is a taxon for species classification, no equivalent exists for omnivores. The Carnivora order does not include all species, and not all species within the Carnivora taxon are carnivorous. It is common to find physiological carnivores consuming materials from plants or physiological herbivores consuming material from animals, e. g. felines eating grass, from a behavioral aspect, this would make them omnivores, but from the physiological standpoint, this may be due to zoopharmacognosy. Physiologically, animals must be able to both energy and nutrients from plant and animal materials to be considered omnivorous. For instance, it is documented that animals such as giraffes, camels. Felines, which are regarded as obligate carnivores, occasionally eat grass to regurgitate indigestibles, aid with hemoglobin production. Occasionally, it is found that animals historically classified as carnivorous may deliberately eat plant material, for example, in 2013 it was considered that American alligators may be physiologically omnivorous once investigations had been conducted on why they occasionally eat fruits. It was suggested that alligators probably ate fruits both accidentally but also deliberately, life-history omnivores is a specialized classification given to organisms that change their eating habits during their life cycle. Some species, such as grazing waterfowl like geese, are known to eat animal tissue at one stage of their lives
26.
Invertebrate
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Invertebrates are animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column, derived from the notochord. This includes all animals apart from the subphylum Vertebrata, familiar examples of invertebrates include insects, crabs, lobsters and their kin, snails, clams, octopuses and their kin, starfish, sea-urchins and their kin, jellyfish, and worms. The majority of species are invertebrates, one estimate puts the figure at 97%. Many invertebrate taxa have a number and variety of species than the entire subphylum of Vertebrata. Some of the invertebrates, such as the Tunicata and Cephalochordata are more closely related to the vertebrates than to other invertebrates. This makes the term invertebrate paraphyletic and hence almost meaningless for taxonomic purposes, the word invertebrate comes from the form of the Latin word vertebra, which means a joint in general, and sometimes specifically a joint from the spinal column of a vertebrate. In turn the jointed aspect of vertebra derived from the concept of turning, coupled with the prefix in-, meaning not or without. The term invertebrates is not always precise among non-biologists since it does not accurately describe a taxon in the way that Arthropoda. Each of these describes an valid taxon, phylum, subphylum or family. Invertebrata is a term of convenience, not a taxon, it has very little circumscriptional significance except within the Chordata, the Vertebrata as a subphylum comprises such a small proportion of the Metazoa that to speak of the kingdom Animalia in terms of Vertebrata and Invertebrata has limited practicality. That would at least circumscribe the Chordata, however, even the notochord would be a less fundamental criterion than aspects of embryological development and symmetry or perhaps bauplan. The following text reflects earlier scientific understanding of the term and of animals which have constituted it. According to this understanding, invertebrates do not possess a skeleton of bone and they include hugely varied body plans. Many have fluid-filled, hydrostatic skeletons, like jellyfish or worms, others have hard exoskeletons, outer shells like those of insects and crustaceans. The most familiar invertebrates include the Protozoa, Porifera, Coelenterata, Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Annelida, Echinodermata, Mollusca, Arthropoda include insects, crustaceans and arachnids. By far the largest number of described species are insects. The following table lists the number of described extant species for major invertebrate groups as estimated in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species,2014.3. The IUCN estimates that 66,178 extant vertebrate species have been described, the trait that is common to all invertebrates is the absence of a vertebral column, this creates a distinction between invertebrates and vertebrates
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Isopoda
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Isopoda is an order of crustaceans that includes woodlice and their relatives. Isopods live in the sea, in water, or on land. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons and most are grayish or whitish in color and they have two pairs of antennae, seven pairs of jointed limbs on the thorax, and five pairs of branching appendages on the abdomen that are used in respiration. Females brood their young in a pouch under their thorax, aquatic species mostly live on the seabed or bottom of freshwater bodies of water, but some more derived taxa can swim for a short distance. Terrestrial forms move around by crawling and tend to be found in cool, some species are able to roll themselves into a ball to conserve moisture or as a defence mechanism. There are over 10,000 species of isopod worldwide, with around 4,500 species found in environments, mostly on the seabed,500 species in fresh water. The order is divided into eleven suborders, the fossil record of isopods dates back to the Carboniferous period, at least 300 million years ago, when isopods lived in shallow seas. The name Isopoda is derived from the Greek roots ἴσος and πούς, classified within the arthropods, isopods have a chitinous exoskeleton and jointed limbs. Isopods are typically flattened dorsoventrally, although many species deviate from this rule, particularly parasitic forms, and their colour may vary, from grey to white, or in some cases red, green, or brown. Isopods vary in size, ranging from some Microcerberidae species of just 0.3 mm to the deep sea Bathynomus spp. of nearly 50 cm, isopods lack an obvious carapace, which is reduced to a cephalic shield covering only the head. This means that the structures, which in other related groups are protected by the carapace, are instead found on specialised limbs on the abdomen. The dorsal surface of the animal is covered by a series of overlapping, the isopod body plan consists of a head, a thorax with eight segments, and an abdomen with six segments, some of which may be fused. The head is fused with the first segment of the thorax to form the cephalon, there are two pairs of unbranched antennae, the first pair being vestigial in land-dwelling species. The eyes are compound and unstalked and the include a pair of maxillipeds. The seven free segments of the thorax each bear a pair of unbranched pereopods, in most species these are used for locomotion and are of much the same size, morphology and orientation, giving the order its name Isopoda, from the Greek equal foot. In a few species, the front pair are modified into gnathopods with clawed, the pereopods are not used in respiration, as are the equivalent limbs in amphipods, but the coxae are fused to the tergites to form epimera. In mature females, some or all of the limbs have appendages known as oostegites which fold underneath the thorax, in males, the gonopores are on the ventral surface of segment eight and in the females, they are in a similar position on segment six. One or more of the segments, starting with the sixth segment, is fused to the telson to form a rigid pleotelson
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Land snail
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A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to sea snails and freshwater snails. Land snail is the name for terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells. The majority of land snails are pulmonates and that is, they have a lung and breathe air. A minority however belong to more ancient lineages where their anatomy includes a gill. Many of these land snails live in habitats or microhabitats that are sometimes damp or wet. Land snails have a muscular foot, they use mucus to enable them to crawl over rough surfaces. Like other mollusks, land snails have a mantle, and they have one or two pairs of tentacles on their head and their internal anatomy includes a radula and a primitive brain. In terms of reproduction, the majority of land snails are hermaphrodite, tiny snails hatch out of the egg with a small shell in place, and the shell grows spirally as the soft parts gradually increase in size. Most land snails have shells that are right-handed in their coiling, Land snails move by gliding along on their muscular foot, which is lubricated with mucus and covered with epithelial cilia. This motion is powered by succeeding waves of contractions that move down the ventral of the foot. This muscular action is visible when a snail is crawling on the glass of a window or aquarium. Snails move at a low speed. Snails secrete mucus externally to keep their bodies from drying out. The mucus that land snails secrete with the leaves a slime trail behind them. Snails also have a mantle, a layer of tissue which covers all of the internal organs as they are grouped together in the visceral mass. The mantle also extends outward in flaps which reach to the edge of the shell and in some cases can cover the shell, the mantle is attached to the shell, and creates the shell and makes shell growth possible by secretion. A lack of calcium, or low pH in their surroundings, can result in thin, cracked, usually a snail can repair damage to its shell over time if its living conditions improve, but severe damage can be fatal. When retracted into their shells, many snails with gills are able to protect themselves with a door-like anatomical structure called an operculum, Land snails range greatly in size
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Arachnid
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Arachnids are a class of joint-legged invertebrate animals, in the subphylum Chelicerata. The term is derived from the Greek word ἀράχνη, meaning spider, spiders are the largest order in the class. Almost all extant arachnids are terrestrial, living mainly on land, however, some inhabit freshwater environments and, with the exception of the pelagic zone, marine environments as well. They comprise over 100,000 named species, including spiders, scorpions, harvestmen, ticks, mites, almost all adult arachnids have eight legs, and arachnids may be easily distinguished from insects by this fact, since insects have six legs. However, arachnids also have two pairs of appendages that have become adapted for feeding, defense, and sensory perception. The first pair, the chelicerae, serve in feeding and defense, the next pair of appendages, the pedipalps, have been adapted for feeding, locomotion, and/or reproductive functions. In Solifugae, the palps are quite leg-like, so that animals appear to have ten legs. The larvae of mites and Ricinulei have only six legs, a fourth pair usually appears when they moult into nymphs, however, mites are variable, as well as eight, there are adult mites with six or even four legs. Arachnids are further distinguished from insects by the fact they do not have antennae or wings and their body is organized into two tagmata, called the prosoma, or cephalothorax, and the opisthosoma, or abdomen. The cephalothorax is derived from the fusion of the cephalon and the thorax, the abdomen is segmented in the more primitive forms, but varying degrees of fusion between the segments occur in many groups. It is typically divided into a preabdomen and postabdomen, although this is clearly visible in scorpions, and in some orders, such as the Acari. A telson is present in scorpions, where it has modified to a stinger. Like all arthropods, arachnids have an exoskeleton, and they also have a structure of cartilage-like tissue, called the endosternite. The endosternite is even calcified in some Opiliones, most arachnids lack extensor muscles in the distal joints of their appendages. Spiders and whipscorpions extend their limbs hydraulically using the pressure of their hemolymph, solifuges and some harvestmen extend their knees by the use of highly elastic thickenings in the joint cuticle. Scorpions, pseudoscorpions and some harvestmen have evolved muscles that extend two leg joints at once, the equivalent joints of the pedipalps of scorpions though, are extended by elastic recoil. This type of system has almost certainly evolved from the book lungs. The excretory glands of arachnids include up to four pairs of coxal glands along the side of the prosoma, many arachnids have only one or the other type of excretory gland, although several do have both
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Woodpecker
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The woodpeckers are part of the family Picidae, a group of near-passerine birds that also consist of piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, the Picidae are just one of eight living families in the order Piciformes. More recently, DNA sequence analyses have confirmed this view, there are about 200 species and about 30 genera in this family. Many species are threatened or endangered due to loss of habitat or habitat fragmentation, the woodpeckers range from very tiny piculets measuring no more than 7 cm and weighing 7 g to large woodpeckers which can be more than 50 cm in length. The largest surviving species is the great slaty woodpecker, which weighs 360–563 g, Woodpeckers have strong bills for drilling and drumming on trees and long sticky tongues for extracting food. Woodpecker bills are typically longer, sharper and stronger than the bills of piculets and wrynecks, however, the bills chisel-like tip is kept sharp by the pecking action in birds that regularly use it on wood. Combined, this helps the beak absorb mechanical stress. Species of woodpecker and flicker that use their bills in soil or for probing as opposed to regular hammering tend to have longer, due to their smaller bill size, many piculets and wrynecks will forage in decaying wood more often than woodpeckers. The long sticky tongues, which possess bristles, aid these birds in grabbing and extracting insects deep within a hole of a tree. It had been reported that the tongue was used to spear grubs, many of the foraging, breeding and signaling behaviors of woodpeckers involve drumming and hammering using the bill. To prevent brain damage from the rapid and repeated impacts, woodpeckers have a number of features designed to protect the brain. The skull is made of strong but compressible sponge-like bone which is most concentrated in the forehead, computer simulations have shown that 99. All the pecking also heats up the skull, which is part of the reason why they often peck in short bursts with brief breaks in between, giving the head some time to cool. The millisecond before contact with wood a thickened nictitating membrane closes and these membranes also prevent the retina from tearing. The nostrils are also protected, they are often slit-like and have special feathers to cover them, Woodpeckers are capable of repeated pecking on a tree at high decelerations on the order of 10,000 m/s2. Woodpeckers, piculets and wrynecks all possess feet consisting of four toes, the first and the fourth facing backward and this foot arrangement is good for grasping the limbs and trunks of trees. Members of this family can walk vertically up a tree trunk, in addition to their strong claws and feet, woodpeckers have short strong legs. This is typical of birds that forage on trunks
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Red-billed leiothrix
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The red-billed leiothrix is a member of the family Leiothrichidae, native to southern China and the Himalayas. Adults have bright red bills and a yellow ring around their eyes. Their backs are dull green, and they have a bright yellow-orange throat with a yellow chin, females are somewhat duller than males. It has also introduced in various parts of the world. The leiothrix is about six inches in length, generally olive green and it also has a dull yellowish ring around the eye that extends to the beak. The edges of the feathers are brightly colored with yellow, orange, red and black. The cheeks and side of the neck are a gray color. The female is a lot paler than the male and lacks the red patch on the wings and it doesnt fly frequently, except in open habitats. This bird is active and an excellent singer but very secretive. The leiothrix is usually found in India, Bhutan, Nepal, Burma and this species is a bird of the hill forests, found in every type of jungle though it prefers pine forests with bushes. It has also found at elevations ranging from near sea level to about 7,500 feet. The species was introduced to the Hawaiian Islands in 1918 and spread to all the islands except Lanai. Its population on Oahu crashed in the 1960s and it disappeared from Kauai, the leiothrix was released in Western Australia but it failed to become established. This species was introduced in Great Britain but permanent establishment was unsuccessful. It was introduced to France, where it is now established in several areas, the presence of the avian malaria parasite has been found in the blood of this species. This bird feeds on animal matter and it eats fruits such as strawberries, ripened papaya, guavas and also various species of Diptera, Mollusca, Lepidoptera, and Hymenoptera. Its food is gathered from foliage and dead wood and it usually searches for food in lower strata of vegetation. The leiothrix can usually be found in a group of ten to thirty birds during the non-breeding season, however, during the breeding season the birds break off into pairs
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Japanese white-eye
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The Japanese white-eye, also known as the mejiro, is a small passerine bird in the white-eye family. The specific epithet is occasionally written japonica, but this is due to the gender of the genus. Its native range includes much of east Asia, including Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, and it has been intentionally introduced to other parts of the world as a pet and as pest control, with mixed results. As one of the species of the Japanese islands, it has been depicted in Japanese art on numerous occasions. The Japanese white-eye is olive green on its back, from anterior to posterior and its feet, legs, and bill range from black to brown. It has a green forehead and a yellow throat, the white-eye has rounded wings and a long, slender bill – both of which indicate this bird to be very acrobatic. Its wings are brown, but outlined in green. Like other white-eyes, this species exhibits the distinctive white eyering that gives it its name, adults range from 4 to 4.5 inches in length, and weigh between 9.75 and 12.75 grams. This bird species is found on the ground. Allopreening – the art of cleaning, grooming, and maintaining parts of the body – is extremely common, interspecific allopreening has been observed in captivity. While sociable, however, the white-eye typically forms monogamous relationships with mates – it has only one mate at any one time, social hierarchy in a flock is established through physical displays. Some of these displays are not sex dependent, such as wing flicks exposing the underwing, wing flutters and vibrations, as well as open beak displays, during breeding seasons, however, males establish territories via the sex-specific activity of singing loudly. Males will fend off intruders of the species, yet will allow other species of birds to nest inside of their territory. Pairs of individuals, generally monogamous, choose a location for the nest between 1 and 30 meters above ground level, when building nests, they often steal material from the nests of other birds. Nests tend to be cup shaped, with a diameter of 56.2 mm, the majority of nests are only used once, but some may be used up to three times in any given season. The species is omnivorous, living on a diet of fruit from several species of flowering plants, various types of insects and it feeds on insects by searching the leaves of flowers and scouring tree bark for larvae. Consequences of its diet include regulation of local populations and dispersal of seeds, however. The Japanese white-eye is naturally found in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, eastern China, migratory populations of the bird spend winters in Burma, Hainan Island, and Vietnam
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Palila
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The palila is a critically endangered finch-billed species of Hawaiian honeycreeper. It has a head and breast, with a light belly, gray back. The bird has a close relationship with the māmane tree. The first specimen of the palila was collected in 1876 at the Greenwell Ranch on the Big Island by Pierre Étienne Théodore Ballieu, the type specimen is housed at the Muséum national dHistoire naturelle in Paris. The Hawaiian honeycreepers are sometimes included in the finch family. Oustalet scientifically described the palila in 1877, named Loxioides bailleui by him, it was for some times united with several other parrot-billed Hawaiian honeycreeper species in Psittirostra. In the process of describing the bird in print, Oustalet inadvertently transposed Ballieus name to bailleui, currently, the palila has again been moved to genus Loxioides, which was long considered monotypic. The native name ʻōʻū poʻopapale probably refers to this species too, despite its bill and habits being somewhat similar to the ʻōʻū, its color pattern betrays a very close relationship with the genus Telespiza. The palila has a head and breast, with white to light gray plumage ventrally, medium gray plumage dorsally. The bird also has a dark bill with swollen sides, a brown iris. The palila is one of the largest living Hawaiian honeycreepers, measuring around 6–7.5 inches, males tend to have brighter colors overall, as well as clear-cut black lores. The corresponding area contrasts less with the heads in the marginally smaller females. The birds song is inconspicuous, containing whistling, warbling and trilling notes, the call is characteristic, however, being a clear, bell-like whistle, chee-clee-o or te-cleet. This is loudly communicated between birds advertising food during the morning and evening, and according to informants, it is given most frequently during the day as rain approaches. Currently, the palila can be only on the upper slopes of Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaiʻi. Palila live from about 6,500 to 9,500 feet AMSL, the population density of the bird increases in areas where māmane grows more plentifully, and the birds do not appear to venture far from māmane stands. Essentially, this means that the species is confined – and may always have been so – to the area above the moist forest belt at around 3, 000–4,500 feet. Palila are found in less than 10 percent of their historical range, Loxioides bailleui was abundant throughout Hawaiʻi until the beginning of the 20th century
34.
Tool use by animals
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Tools are used by animals to perform behaviours including the acquisition of food and water, grooming, defence, recreation or construction. Originally thought to be a skill only possessed by humans, some tool use requires a level of cognition. There is considerable discussion about the definition of what constitutes a tool, a wide range of animals are considered to use tools including mammals, birds, fish, cephalopods and insects. Primates are well known for using tools for hunting or gathering food and water, cover for rain, chimpanzees have been the object of study, most famously by Jane Goodall, since these animals are more-often kept in captivity than other primates and are closely related to humans. Tool-use in other primates are lesser-known as many of them are observed in the wild. Many famous researchers, such as Charles Darwin in his book The Descent of Man, both wild and captive elephants are known to create tools using their trunk and feet, mainly for swatting flies, scratching, plugging water-holes, and reaching food that is out of reach. A group of dolphins in Shark Bay use sponges to protect their beak while foraging, sea otters will dislodge food from rocks and break open shellfish. Carnivores can use tools to trap prey or break open the shells of prey, corvids are well known for their large brains and subsequent tool use. They mainly manufacture probes out of twigs and wood to catch or impale larvae, crows are among the only animals that create their own toys. Tool use in birds is best exemplified in nest intricacy. Warblers manufacture pouches to make their nests in, some birds, such as weaver birds build complex nests. Finches and woodpeckers may insert twigs into trees in order to catch or impale larvae, parrots may use tools to wedge nuts so that they may crack it open without launching it away. Some birds take advantage of human activity, such as seagulls which drop shellfish in front of cars to crack them open, Several species of fish use tools to crack open shellfish, extract food that is out of reach, cleaning an area, and hunting. Octopuses gather coconut shells and create a shelter and they may also construct a fence using rocks. The key to identifying tool use is defining what constitutes a tool, researchers of animal behavior have arrived at different formulations. In 1980, Beck published a widely used definition of tool use, others, for example Lawick-Goodall, distinguish between tool use and object use. Different terms have been given to the according to whether the tool is altered by the animal. Several studies in primates and birds have found that use is correlated with an enlargement of the brain as a whole or of particular regions
35.
Bird vocalization
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Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs are distinguished by function from calls, the distinction between songs and calls is based upon complexity, length, and context. Songs are longer and more complex and are associated with courtship and mating, still others require song to have syllabic diversity and temporal regularity akin to the repetitive and transformative patterns that define music. It is generally agreed upon in birding and ornithology which sounds are songs and which are calls, Bird song is best developed in the order Passeriformes. Some groups are nearly voiceless, producing only percussive and rhythmic sounds, such as the storks, in some manakins, the males have evolved several mechanisms for mechanical sound production, including mechanisms for stridulation not unlike those found in some insects. Song is usually delivered from prominent perches, although some species may sing when flying, the production of sounds by mechanical means as opposed to the use of the syrinx has been termed variously instrumental music by Charles Darwin, mechanical sounds and more recently sonation. With aseasonal irregular breeding, both sexes must be brought into breeding condition and vocalisation, especially duetting, serves this purpose, the high frequency of female vocalisations in the tropics, Australia and Southern Africa may also relate to very low mortality rates producing much stronger pair-bonding and territoriality. The avian vocal organ is called the syrinx, it is a structure at the bottom of the trachea. The syrinx and sometimes a surrounding air sac resonate to sound waves that are made by membranes past which the bird forces air, the bird controls the pitch by changing the tension on the membranes and controls both pitch and volume by changing the force of exhalation. It can control the two sides of the trachea independently, which is how some species can produce two notes at once, scientists hypothesize that bird song has evolved through sexual selection, and experiments suggest that the quality of bird song may be a good indicator of fitness. Experiments also suggest that parasites and diseases may directly affect song characteristics such as song rate, the song repertoire also appears to indicate fitness in some species. The ability of birds to hold and advertise territories using song also demonstrates their fitness. Communication through bird calls can be individuals of the same species or even across species. Mobbing calls are used to recruit individuals in an area where an owl or other predator may be present, the alarm calls of most species, on the other hand, are characteristically high-pitched, making the caller difficult to locate. Individual birds may be enough to identify each other through their calls. Many birds that nest in colonies can locate their chicks using their calls, calls are sometimes distinctive enough for individual identification even by human researchers in ecological studies. Many birds engage in duet calls, in some cases, the duets are so perfectly timed as to appear almost as one call
36.
Cat
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The domestic cat is a small, typically furry, carnivorous mammal. They are often called house cats when kept as pets or simply cats when there is no need to distinguish them from other felids. Cats are often valued by humans for companionship and for their ability to hunt vermin, there are more than 70 cat breeds, though different associations proclaim different numbers according to their standards. Cats are similar in anatomy to the felids, with a strong flexible body, quick reflexes, sharp retractable claws. Cat senses fit a crepuscular and predatory ecological niche, cats can hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears, such as those made by mice and other small animals. They can see in near darkness, like most other mammals, cats have poorer color vision and a better sense of smell than humans. Cats, despite being solitary hunters, are a species and cat communication includes the use of a variety of vocalizations. Cats have a high breeding rate, under controlled breeding, they can be bred and shown as registered pedigree pets, a hobby known as cat fancy. Failure to control the breeding of pet cats by neutering, as well as the abandonment of former household pets, has resulted in numbers of feral cats worldwide. In certain areas outside cats native range, this has contributed, along with destruction and other factors. Cats have been known to extirpate a bird species within specific regions, a genetic study in 2007 concluded that domestic cats are descended from Near Eastern wildcats, having diverged around 8,000 BC in the Middle East. As of a 2007 study, cats are the second most popular pet in the US by number of pets owned, in a 2010 study they were ranked the third most popular pet in the UK, after fish and dogs, with around 8 million being owned. The domestic cat is believed to have evolved from the Near Eastern wildcat, the felids are a rapidly evolving family of mammals that share a common ancestor only 10–15 million years ago and include lions, tigers, cougars and many others. Within this family, domestic cats are part of the genus Felis, members of the genus are found worldwide and include the jungle cat of southeast Asia, European wildcat, African wildcat, the Chinese mountain cat, and the Arabian sand cat, among others. The domestic cat was first classified as Felis catus by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae published in 1758, because of modern phylogenetics, domestic cats are usually regarded as another subspecies of the wildcat, F. silvestris. This has resulted in mixed usage of the terms, as the cat can be called by its subspecies name. Wildcats have also referred to as various subspecies of F. catus, but in 2003. The most common name in use for the cat remains F. catus
37.
Fledge
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Fledging is the stage in a young birds life between hatching and flight. For altricial birds, those that spend time in vulnerable condition in the nest. For precocial birds, those that develop and leave the nest quickly, all birds are considered to have fledged when the feathers and wing muscles are sufficiently developed for flight. A young bird that has recently fledged but is dependent upon parental care. People often want to help fledglings, as they appear vulnerable, the USA National Phenology Network defines the phenophase of fledged young for birds as “One or more young are seen recently departed from the nest. This includes young incapable of sustained flight and young which are dependent on adults. ”In many species, parents continue to care for their fledged young, either by leading them to food sources. Birds are vulnerable after they have left the nest, but before they can fly, one species, the ancient murrelet, fledges two days after hatching, running from its burrow to the ocean and its calling parents. Once it reaches the ocean, its parents care for it for several weeks, other species, such as guillemots and terns, leave the nesting site while they are still unable to fly
38.
Seed dispersal
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Seed dispersal is the movement or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. Plants have very limited mobility and consequently rely upon a variety of vectors to transport their propagules. Seeds can be dispersed away from the parent plant individually or collectively, there are five main modes of seed dispersal, gravity, wind, ballistic, water, and by animals. Some plants are serotinous and only disperse their seeds in response to an environmental stimulus, seed dispersal is likely to have several benefits for plant species. First, seed survival is often away from the parent plant. This higher survival may result from the actions of density-dependent seed and seedling predators and pathogens, competition with adult plants may also be lower when seeds are transported away from their parent. Seed dispersal also allows plants to reach specific habitats that are favorable for survival, for example, Ocotea endresiana is a tree species from Latin America which is dispersed by several species of birds, including the three-wattled bellbird. In the case of fleshy-fruited plants, seed-dispersal in animal guts often enhances the amount, the speed, and the asynchrony of germination, seeds dispersed by ants are not only dispersed short distances but are also buried underground by the ants. These seeds can thus avoid adverse effects such as fire or drought, reach nutrient-rich microsites. These features are peculiar to myrmecochory, which may provide additional benefits not present in other dispersal modes. Finally, at scale, seed dispersal may allow plants to colonize vacant habitats. In fact, recent evidence suggests that the majority of seed dispersal events involves more than one dispersal phase, seed dispersal is sometimes split into autochory and allochory. Autochorous plants disperse their seed without any help from an external vector, two other types of autochory not described in detail here are blastochory, where the stem of the plant crawls along the ground to deposit its seed far from the base of the plant, and herpochory. Barochory or the plant use of gravity for dispersal is a means of achieving seed dispersal. The effect of gravity on heavier fruits causes them to fall from the plant when ripe, fruits exhibiting this type of dispersal include apples, coconuts and passionfruit and those with harder shells. Gravity dispersal also allows for transmission by water or animal. Ballochory is a type of dispersal where the seed is ejected by explosive dehiscence of the fruit. Often the force that generates the results from turgor pressure within the fruit or due to internal tensions within the fruit
39.
Small population size
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Small populations behave differently from larger populations. They often result in population bottlenecks, which have harmful consequences for the survival of that population, the influence of stochastic variation in demographic rates is much higher for small populations than large ones. Stochastic variation in demographic rates causes small populations to fluctuate randomly in size, the smaller the population the greater the probability that fluctuations will lead to extinction. This can be a problem in small populations. In 1977, the last 18 kakapo on a Fiordland island in New Zealand were all male, with a population of just three individuals the probability of them all being the same sex is 0.25. Put another way, for four species reduced to three individuals, one will become extinct within one generation just because they are all the same sex. If the population remains at this size for several generations, such an event becomes almost inevitable, stochastic variation in the environment can produce temporally correlated birth and death rates that lead to fluctuations in the population size. Again, smaller populations are likely to become extinct due to these environmentally generated population fluctuations than the large populations. Conservationists are often worried about a loss of genetic variation in small populations, there are two types of genetic variation that are important when dealing with small populations. The degree of homozygosity within individuals in a population, i. e. the proportion of an individuals loci that contain homozygous rather than heterozygous alleles, many deleterious alleles are only harmful in the homozygous form. The degree of monomorphism/polymorphism within a population, i. e. how many different alleles of the same gene exist in the pool of a population. Polymorphism may be important at loci involved in the immune response. There are two operating in small populations that influence these two types of genetic variation. Genetic drift — Genetic variation is determined by the joint action of natural selection, in small populations the relative importance of genetic drift is higher, deleterious alleles can become more frequent and fixed in a population due to chance. Any allele, deleterious, beneficial or neutral is more likely to be lost from a population than a large one. This results in a reduction in the number of forms of alleles in a small population, continued fixation of deleterious alleles in small populations is called Mullers ratchet, and can lead to mutational meltdown. Inbreeding — In a small population, related individuals are likely to breed together. The offspring of related parents have a far higher number of homozygous loci than the offspring of unrelated parents, inbreeding depression can almost never be found in declining populations that were not very large to begin with, it is somewhat common in large populations becoming small though
40.
Deforestation
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Deforestation, clearance or clearing is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, the most concentrated deforestation occurs in tropical rainforests. About 30% of Earths land surface is covered by forests, Deforestation occurs for multiple reasons, trees are cut down to be used for building or sold as fuel, while cleared land is used as pasture for livestock and plantation. The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in damage to habitat, biodiversity loss and it has adverse impacts on biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Deforestation has also used in war to deprive the enemy of cover for its forces. Modern examples of this were the use of Agent Orange by the British military in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency, as of 2005, net deforestation rates have ceased to increase in countries with a per capita GDP of at least US$4,600. Deforested regions typically incur significant adverse soil erosion and frequently degrade into wasteland, disregard of ascribed value, lax forest management and deficient environmental laws are some of the factors that allow deforestation to occur on a large scale. In many countries, deforestation, both naturally occurring and human-induced, is an ongoing issue, Deforestation causes extinction, changes to climatic conditions, desertification, and displacement of populations as observed by current conditions and in the past through the fossil record. More than half of all plant and land animal species in the live in tropical forests. Between 2000 and 2012,2.3 million square kilometres of forests around the world were cut down, as a result of deforestation, only 6.2 million square kilometres remain of the original 16 million square kilometres of forest that formerly covered the Earth. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat, subsistence farming is responsible for 48% of deforestation, commercial agriculture is responsible for 32%, logging is responsible for 14%, and fuel wood removals make up 5%. Experts do not agree on whether industrial logging is an important contributor to global deforestation, some argue that poor people are more likely to clear forest because they have no alternatives, others that the poor lack the ability to pay for the materials and labour needed to clear forest. One study found that population increases due to fertility rates were a primary driver of tropical deforestation in only 8% of cases. Other causes of contemporary deforestation may include corruption of government institutions, the distribution of wealth and power, population growth and overpopulation. Globalization is often viewed as another cause of deforestation, though there are cases in which the impacts of globalization have promoted localized forest recovery. The degradation of forest ecosystems has also traced to economic incentives that make forest conversion appear more profitable than forest conservation. Some commentators have noted a shift in the drivers of deforestation over the past 30 years, Deforestation is ongoing and is shaping climate and geography. Deforestation is a contributor to global warming, and is cited as one of the major causes of the enhanced greenhouse effect
