Polymita is a genus of large, air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Helminthoglyptidae. These snails are endemic to Cuba.

Polymita inhabits the subtropical hardwood forests growing on the coastal plains and mountains of the Eastern end of Cuba. The Polymita displays a marked preference for certain tree species. The preferred or host tree is; Hicaco (Chrysobalanus icaco). Other host trees are varieties of Poisonwood (Metopium toxifera, brownei ), Gumbo Limbo (Bursera simarouba), Hicaquillo (Coccoloba retusa), and other smooth-barked hardwoods.

The Polymita snails feed on the confervoid algae, fungi, sooty molds, and lichens which grow on subtropical hardwood trees and shrubs. Polymita does not eat the leaves or bark of the host tree. Feeding paths may be seen where the snail has scraped the algae and lichen growths with their radula. The quality of the habitat, that is, the amount of food and type of food, affects the shell growth of the Polymita. The Polymita is a welcome guest in the Coffee and Guava orchards of the Oriente province as they eat the sooty molds on the leaves and branches of the trees.

It’s no surprise that land snails like Polymita would be so successful on an island. With the ability to secrete a mucus seal around their shell openings, these invertebrates can go dormant for long periods without drying out. This makes them good travelers, hardy enough to survive a trip at sea on vegetation that comes loose from the mainland during a storm or flood.

The beauty of these striped snails is a many-splendored thing, and differences in color occur not just between species, but also within individuals of a single species. Some scientists suggest that the variations might confuse predators, preventing them from homing in on these snails as a predictable meal, but the question is far from settled.

Polymita is preyed upon by a variety of vertebrates and invertebrates; birds, rats, and the most destructive enemies of all; bulldozers and the ensuing destruction of habitat. Habitat destruction is by far the greatest threat to the Polymita.

If Cuba is the paradise for land-shells, Polymita must be Adam and Eve's Apple. It has such a beautiful species that it seduces the human mind. Both for good (well-illustrated and emblematic for the Cuban malacofauna) and for worse (because of its beauty its species are being over-collected and used as souvenirs). The threats by human activities have plagued these species and eventually may drive them into extinction.

#Wildlife #BeautifulSpecies #Cuba

Agama is a type of lizard. There are more than 60 species of agama that are native to Africa, Europe, and Asia. Agamas are the most dominant type of lizards in Africa. They are very flexible animals that can easily adapt to the changes in their environment. In the past, agamas were living in the forests of Africa. When forests began to disappear, agama managed to adapt to life in open spaces. Most species of agama live in mountains, rocky steppes, and arid areas. Certain species of agama have adapted to life in both rural and urban areas. Some people keep agamas as pets because of the beautiful coloration of their bodies. Agamas are not listed as endangered animals.

Red-headed rock agamas can be found native in countries such as Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Chad, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, and Madagascar. These lizards live in deserts, savannas, forests, and mountains. They also occur in urban and suburban areas. They are a semi desert-dwelling species that live within rock crevices. If close to man, they may even live within their huts or gardens.

The male African Red Headed Agama has a bright red head and a deep blue body. These colors may intensify during the breeding season. Females and young male Red Headed Agamas are olive green or brown with cream-colored bellies. This reptile can grow to be about 14 inches long from tip to tail. Agama lizards are sometimes called rainbow lizards because of the colorful displays put on by the dominant males. While most agamas are green and brown, dominant males show off by rapidly turning their bodies blue and their heads bright red or yellow. Changes in coloration play a key role in their behavior, communication, and reproduction. They reach an adult length of around 12 to 14 inches heads to the tip of tail, males tend to be slightly larger than females. Agamas communicate mainly with their bodies, either through movements and postures or by changing colors. Red-headed agamas spend their days hunting for food, basking in the sun, and occasionally seeking out a bit of shade to cool down.

Most agamas live in small groups with the dominant male ruling over several females and sub-males. While sunning themselves each morning, the dominant male will claim the most elevated spot, with subordinates in lower areas. Agamas hunt by the vision and prefer to wait for an insect to come by. Their sticky tongues help them hold onto prey.

Agamas mainly eat insects, especially ants, grasshoppers, beetles, and termites. They will also consume berries, other fruit, seeds, eggs, flowers, grasses, and even small mammals. They wait in shadows for prey to pass by. When it does, they give chase and catch it, usually with the aid of their sticky, mucous-coated tongues.

Females are sexually mature at age 14 to 18 months; males reach maturity at 2 years. Only the dominant male mates with the females in his territory. Mating tends to occur in the wet season, but agamas can breed any time they have access to water. A male courts a female by head-bobbing to her. After mating, the female digs a two-inch (5-cm)-a deep hole in moist, sandy soil where she lays five to seven eggs. During the day, she leaves the top open so that the sun can warm the eggs; at night, she covers the hole with plant matter. Hatchlings emerge in eight to ten weeks.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has not evaluated this lizard, however, there are no significant threats to this species.

#WildLife #Lion #SpidermanAgama

An artificial reef is a human-created underwater structure, typically built to promote marine life in areas with a generally featureless bottom, to control erosion, block ship passage, block the use of trawling nets, or improve surfing.

Many reefs are built using objects that were built for other purposes, such as by sinking oil rigs (through the Rigs-to-Reefs program), scuttling ships, or deploying rubble or construction debris. Other artificial reefs are purpose-built (e.g. the reef balls) from PVC or concrete. Shipwrecks may become artificial reefs when preserved on the seafloor. Regardless of construction method, artificial reefs generally provide hard surfaces where algae and invertebrates such as barnacles, corals, and oysters attach; the accumulation of attached marine life, in turn, provides intricate structures and food for assemblages of fish.

Artificial reefs can show quick increases in local fish population rehabilitation, coral reef, and algae growth. However, far more than half the amount of biomass found on artificial reefs is attracted from other areas rather than developing there. Artificial reefs do not increase fish populations. Instead, they operate as fish aggregating devices bringing in fish from other reefs. Concentrating fish on a reef also makes for easier fishing.

The fish attracted to artificial reef zones vary from reef to reef depending on their age, size, and structure. Large reef structures such as large sunken ships attract larger fish.

The use of shipwrecks in rocky zones creates a new trophic structure for the local ecosystem. They become the home for certain species and many nearby animals migrate to the shipwreck. This unbalances the natural ecosystem and has the potential to alter many other habitats.

Thousands of popular wreck diving sites throughout the world are shipwrecks sunk as artificial reefs. Some of these wrecks were sunk deliberately to attract divers. The USS Spiegel Grove and USS Oriskany in Florida, USS Indra and USS Aeolus in North Carolina, and Bianca C. in Grenada draw thousands of divers annually.

There are many factors that can make an artificial reef a success or failure, and even the same techniques and materials may work well in some situations and not in others.

The materials used in most artificial reefs often cause pollution by releasing chemicals and nutrients that are not naturally found in reef environments. Ships can release polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), asbestos, iron, lead paint, and anti-fouling paint leaches into the ocean and enters the food chain.

It is important to recognize that artificial reefs only work in areas where water quality is still conducive to coral growth. Artificial reefs are a great tool for marine resource managers, but it is only one tool on our belt. It needs to be used in conjunction with a wide variety of other actions such as establishing rules and regulations, reducing local land and sea-based threats, reducing over-fishing/over-use, and other mitigation or protection methods to create an effective and holistic coral reef restoration program.

#Nature #Underwater #CoralReef

The blacktip shark has a robust, streamlined body with a long, pointed snout and relatively small eyes. The five pairs of gill slits are longer than those of similar requiem shark species.The jaws contain 15 tooth rows on either side, with two symphysial teeth (at the jaw midline) in the upper jaw and one symphysial tooth in the lower jaw. The teeth are broad-based with a high, narrow cusp and serrated edges.The first dorsal fin is tall and falcate (sickle-shaped) with a short free rear tip; no ridge runs between the first and second dorsal fins. The large pectoral fins are falcate and pointed.
The coloration is gray to brown above and white below, with a conspicuous white stripe running along the sides. The pectoral fins, second dorsal fin, and the lower lobe of the caudal fin usually have black tips. The pelvic fins and rarely the anal fin may also be black-tipped. The first dorsal fin and the upper lobe of the caudal fin typically have black edges.Some larger individuals have unmarked or nearly unmarked fins. Blacktip sharks can temporarily lose almost all their colors during blooms, or "whitings", of coccolithophores. This species attains a maximum known length of 2.8 m, though 1.5 m is more typical, and a maximum known weight of 123 kg.
Most blacktip sharks are found in water less than 30 m deep over continental and insular shelves, though they may dive to 64 m. Favored habitats are muddy bays, island lagoons, and the drop-offs near coral reefs; they are also tolerant of low salinity and enter estuaries and mangrove swamps. Although an individual may be found some distance offshore, blacktip sharks do not inhabit oceanic waters.
The blacktip shark is an extremely fast, energetic predator that is usually found in groups of varying size. They feed on small schooling fish such as anchovies, herrings, menhadens, and sardines, and many other bony fish including numerous elasmobranchs. They are known to follow fishing trawlers consuming discarded by-catch. They also consume crustaceans and squids.

#CalmingMusic #Shark #FeedingFrenzy

Acanthaster planci is known as the Crown of Thorns Starfish. This sea star is an organism that has caused great concern all over the world. When the starfish come into a reef ecosystem in these plague proportions, they feed so heavily on corals that they can completely destroy a reef. Crown of thorns starfish outbreaks causes significant damage to coral reefs across large spatial scales. The damage from crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks adds to the damage from other major causes of coral decline, tropical cyclones, and coral bleaching events.

Crown of thorns starfish usually eats the polyps of hard, relatively fast-growing stony corals, such as staghorn corals. If food is scarce, they will eat other coral species. Their feeding preferences and behavior patterns vary with population density, water motion, and species composition. They feed by extruding their stomach out of their bodies and onto the coral reef and then using enzymes to digest the coral polyps. This process can take several hours. After the coral polyps are digested, the sea star moves off, leaving only the white coral skeleton behind. An individual starfish can consume up to 6 square meters of living coral reefs per year.

The lack of predators of these crown-of-thorns starfish is due to overfishing. The most common crown-of-thorns starfish predators include the giant triton snail, the titan triggerfish, brilliant pufferfish, hump head Maori wrasse, yellow edge triggerfish, harlequin shrimp, lined worm. Small crabs living within the complex structures of branching corals may ward off the starfish as it seeks to spread its stomach over the coral surface. The crabs pinch the starfish’s tube feet or even its stomach lining. Through this symbiosis, the crabs protect the coral colony from potential predators, and in return, they receive a safe place to live and avoid their own predators.

When crown-of-thorns starfish populations are at healthy levels, they can be good for a reef. They can keep larger, fast-growing stony corals in check, allowing small corals to grow. They also can open space for more slower-growing corals to grow and increase diversity.

The crown of thorns starfish has a healthy enough population that there is no need to evaluate it for conservation. In fact, sometimes crown-of-thorns starfish populations can get so high, they devastate reefs. The starfish are emerging at night to feed. When the starfish are at high densities, they may move day and night, competing for living coral. One issue is runoff, which washes chemicals (for example, agricultural pesticides) from the land into the ocean. This pumps more nutrients into the water that causes a bloom in plankton, which in turn provides extra food for crown-of-thorns starfish larvae and causes the population to boom. Another cause may be overfishing, which has decreased the population of starfish predators. An example of this is the overcollection of giant triton shells, which are prized as souvenirs.

#Nature #CoralReefs #Fish

Tasmania is a heavily forested state. Just over half of the total area of forest in Tasmania is held in reserves for conservation. Tasmania’s forests are home to the tallest flowering trees on the planet.
Tasmanian rainforest is classified and as cool temperate rainforest, it represents the most floristically complex and best developed form of this forest type in Australia. In Tasmania, they can be found in the West, Savage River National Park, South West, North East and in patches on the East Coast. These forests are climax vegetation and are dominated by angiosperms such as Nothofagus cunninghamii (myrtle beech), Atherosperma moschatum (sassafras), and Eucryphia lucida (leatherwood) as well as gymnosperms such as Athrotaxis selaginoides (King Billy Pine), Lagarostrobos franklinii (huon or macquarie pine) and Phyllocladus aspleniifolius (celery-top pine). The limited number of woody species is thought to be due to repeated glaciation.
Tasmanian cool temperate rainforest can be divided into four types: Callidendrous rainforest, Thamnic rainforest, Implicate rainforest and Open Montane. These four major types differ in many of their characteristics such as structure, floristics, distribution, level of endemism and ecology.

#CalmingMusic #GiantTree #AncientForest

The harvest mouse (Micromys minutus) is a small rodent native to Europe and Asia. It has reddish-brown fur with white underparts and a naked, highly prehensile tail, which it uses for climbing. An adult may weigh as little as 4 grams. They have a reddish-yellow coat with a distinct white underside, small hairy ears, and a much blunter nose than other mice.

They are mostly nocturnal, although are active during the day in warm summer months. Harvest mice are less active in winter but do not hibernate; they stay close to the ground for warmth and insulation and store food to sustain them through the winter months.

Harvest mice can be found in a variety of habitats including rough grasslands, reed beds, riparian margins, roadside verges, hedgerows, cereal crops (e.g. oats and wheat), field margins, and wild bird seed crops.

They eat a mixture of seeds, berries, and insects, although moss, roots, and fungi may also be taken. Harvest mice sometimes take grain from cereal heads, leaving characteristic sickle-shaped remains. Unlike some rodents, harvest mice don't eat enough to cause damage to crops. So farmers don't mind having these tiny gymnasts in their fields. The mice may even help farmers by eating insect pests. These mice are not dangerous, there are no specific diseases that are known for spreading to humans either.

Like other species of rodents, are very active contributors to the ecosystem, wildlife, and nature around them. They actively participate in pollination by being pollen bearers and serving as transporters for pollen.

They communicate using their senses, primarily through chemical responses and tactile behavior.

One feature, other than its small size which makes the harvest mouse truly unique amongst mammals is its tail. The harvest mouse has a tail about as long as its own body which can be used to hold onto things just like a monkey does. This prehensile tail is useful to the mouse when climbing amongst the stems of corn and grass in a field enabling it to maintain its balance and spread its weight. They are excellent climbers and can move about off the ground in tall grass, reeds, or bramble during the summer and autumn. Their hearing is acute and they will react sharply; they either freeze or drop into cover in response to rustling sounds up to 7m away.

Harvest mice don't live long, probably only up to 18 months, but they do reproduce quickly. Their breeding season begins in May and sometimes lasts until December. They can raise to seven litters during that time, each consisting of up to eight young.

Harvest mice are thought to be solitary, and the females prefer familiar males over unfamiliar. When females are in oestrus they spend more time with familiar males and prefer the heavier ones. Pregnant females construct specific breeding nests about 10 cm across (double the size of a non-breeding nest) and gestation takes 17 – 19 days. Females give birth to up to seven young who are dependent on their mother for the first two weeks of their life. They are born blind and without fur, weighing no more than 0.8 g each. Grey fur starts to develop after four days, teeth at one week, and their eyes open after around nine days. They venture outside the nest at around 11 days and their golden fur starts to come in at two weeks.

One of the best ways of spotting the presence of harvest mice is to look for their nests. The nest of a harvest mouse is a beautiful structure of interwoven grass leaves, usually created some 50cm off the ground and about the size of a tennis ball. It is made by pulling leaves of adjacent grasses together, shredding them along their lengths, and weaving them together to form a spherical nest suspended between the grass stems. In this way, the grass which forms its nest continues to live so it will remain green and provide ideal camouflage. If its nest should turn brown then it will be abandoned.

Because harvest mice are active both night and day, they can be preyed on by several different predators even though they usually only constitute a very small proportion of their diet. Predatory species include mustelids (such as weasels and stoats, and polecats), foxes, domestic cats, owls, hawks, corvids, shrikes, and pheasants. Young may be eaten by blackbirds or even toads.

Globally harvest mice are not endangered and they are currently listed as Least Concern on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List.

However, according to the Mammal Society IUCN-authorised Red List of British Mammals, they are Near Threatened in Great Britain as a whole. In Scotland, where we know very little about their numbers, they are Critically Endangered, in Wales they are Vulnerable and in England, they are classified as Least Concern.

As of 2019, the harvest mouse is protected under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981 and the UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework: Implementation Plan.

#Wildlife #PrehensileTail #Grassland

The ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) is a medium-sized spotted wild cat that reaches 40–50 cm at the shoulders and weighs between 8 and 15.5 kg. It is native to the southwestern United States, Mexico, Central, and South America, and to the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Margarita. Both sexes become sexually mature at around two years of age, they can breed throughout the year, though the peak mating season varies geographically. After a gestation period of two to three months, the female gives birth to a litter of one to three kittens. They stay with their mother for up to two years, after which they leave to establish their own home ranges.

The word "ocelot" comes from the Aztec word "tlalocelot," which means field tiger, according to the San Diego Zoo. Ocelots are also sometimes called painted leopards, because of their markings and dwarf leopards, because of their markings and their size. However, ocelots are only distantly related to true leopards or tigers. Leopards and tigers are members of the Pantherinae (roaring cats) subfamily, and ocelots are in the Felinae (small cats) subfamily.

The ocelot inhabits tropical forests, thorn forests, mangrove swamps, and savannas. They prefer habitats with good availability of prey and water and tend to avoid other predators. The ocelot favors areas with dense forest cover and water sources, far from roads and human settlement, avoiding steep slopes and highly elevated areas due to lack of prey. In areas where ocelots coexist with larger predators such as the cougar and human beings, they may tune their active hours to avoid them, and seek dense cover to avoid competitors. The ocelot can adapt well to its surroundings. The ocelot shares a large part of its range with the jaguar, jaguarundi, margay, oncilla, and cougar.

Typically active during twilight and at night, the ocelot tends to be solitary and territorial. During the daytime, it rests on trees, in dens below large trees, or other cool, sheltered sites on the ground. It is agile in climbing and leaping, and escapes predators by jumping on trees. The ocelot scent-marks its territory by spraying urine. The ocelot can be aggressive in defending its territory, fighting even to death.

Ocelots have been observed to follow scent trails to acquire prey. An ocelot typically prefers hunting in areas with vegetation cover, avoiding open areas, especially on moonlit nights, so as not to be seen by the prey. As a carnivore, it preys on small terrestrial mammals such as rodents, lagomorphs, armadillos, opossums, and also fish, insects, reptiles, and small birds. They also take to the trees and stalk monkeys or birds. Unlike many cats, they do not avoid water and can swim well.

Throughout its range, the ocelot is threatened by loss and fragmentation of habitat. The habitat is often fragmented into small pockets that cannot support ocelots well, leading to deaths due to starvation. Traffic accidents have emerged as a major threat over the years as ocelots try to expand beyond their natural habitat to new areas and get hit by vehicles. In the Atlantic Forest in northeastern Argentina, it is affected by logging and poaching of prey species.

Twice the size of the average house cat, the ocelot is a sleek animal with a gorgeous dappled coat. The fur trade was a flourishing business in the 1960s and the 1970s that resulted in severe exploitation of felids such as the ocelot and the jaguar. In the 1960s, ocelot skins were among the most highly preferred in the US, reaching an all-time high of 140,000 skins traded in 1970. This was followed by prohibitions on the commercial trade of spotted cat skins in several range states such as Brazil and the US, causing ocelot skins in trade to plummet. In 1986, the European Economic Community banned the import of ocelot skins, and in 1989, the ocelot was included in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. However, hunting of ocelots for skins has continued and is still a major threat to ocelot survival.

Another threat has been the international pet trade, this typically involves capturing ocelot kittens by killing their mothers, these cats are then sold to tourists. Though it is banned in several countries, the pet trade survives, in some areas of Central and South America ocelots are still sold in a few local markets.

Ocelot hunting has been banned in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, French Guiana, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Trinidad, and Tobago, United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela; regulations have been placed on hunting in Peru. The US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and The Nature Conservancy are among the agencies actively involved in ocelot conservation efforts, such as the protection and regeneration of vegetation in the Rio Grande Valley.

#WildLife #Rainforest #DwarfLeopard

The Etruscan shrew (Suncus etruscus) is also known as the Etruscan pygmy shrew and the white-toothed pygmy shrew. Etruscan shrew belongs to the class of Mammalia, similar to animals like dolphins and humans. The Etruscan shrew is the smallest living mammal. These species are often found in Europe and North Africa up to Malaysia. They are also found in the Maltese islands, situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Although widespread and not threatened overall, they are generally uncommon and are endangered in some countries.

The Etruscan shrew usually inhabits open terrains where grasslands and scrub meet deciduous forests. Etruscan shrews aren’t very good at digging, so they like making their nests in various natural shelters, crevices, and others' uninhabited burrows. If another animal has vacated their burrow, an Etruscan shrew will take advantage of the situation and move in. They frequent rocks, boulders, stone walls, and ruins, darting quickly in and out between them. The Etruscan shrew prefers warm and damp habitats covered with shrubs which is helpful for the shrew to hide from predators.

A unique aspect of Etruscan shrews is their skull size that's the smallest among mammals. The Etruscan shrew has a body length of about 4 centimeters. The body mass of individuals ranges from 1.6 to 2.4 g. They have poor eyesight but they have acute hearing, highly sensitive whiskers, and an amazing sense of smell, indeed, their long tin noses are mobile and can move about quite sinuously.

Being a small animal, it has slender body features with a relatively large head and hind limbs. Their ears are protuberant and large. Their fur color is pale brown on the back and light gray on the stomach. These shrews also have a fast heart beating rate along with a relatively large heart muscle mass.

This species has the highest mass-specific metabolic rate of all mammals. It must eat up to twice its own body weight every day to keep its small body warm. It feeds on various small vertebrates and invertebrates, mostly insects, and can hunt individuals of the same size as itself. It finds its food by smell and touch. It kills its prey with its poisonous bite and eats it immediately, but takes small insects back to its nest. The shrews are more active during the night

The Etruscan shrew is not only the smallest mammal but also one of the fastest and most tactile hunters.

They only eat live food which they catch and they catch between 20 and 30 prey animals a day. This becomes more impressive when one considers that they eat insects (which have wings and are sometimes bigger than the shrew) as well as spiders and myriapods which are armed with terrible stings and venoms. The shrew dines also on amphibians, baby rodents, worms, and larvae.

While The Etruscan shrew may turn out to be fatal for an insect's or animal's body. The shrew venom is not dangerous to humans. However, The Etruscan shrew shrew bites may result in swelling, pain, and body temperature.

They also eat plants like shrubs in damp areas. These small animals are constantly searching to find food throughout their lives to meet their high energy consumption demands.

They protect their territories by making chirping noises and signs of aggressiveness.

The Etruscan shrew has various ways to communicate; when they defend their territories, the shrew makes chirping noises and becomes aggressive towards intruders. When the Etruscan shrew is in torpor, and if suddenly awakened, it starts with its harsh shrieking sounds. in fact, the Etruscan shrew makes such noise only when it's unable to flee those areas.

Etruscan shrews are solitary animals who like living alone. Their mating system is the only way the shrews get to meet each other.

Etruscan shrews mate primarily from March to October, though they can be pregnant at any time of the year. Pairs usually form in the spring and may tolerate each other and their young for some time at the nest. The gestation period is 27–28 days, and they have 2–6 cubs per litter. Cubs are born naked and blind, weighing only 0.2 g. After their eyes open at 14 to 16 days old, they mature quickly. The mother usually moves the young when they are 9 to 10 days old, and if disturbed, she relocates them by leading them with her tail in a train-like formation, with each cub biting the tail of the one in front. The young Etruscan shrews are weaned at 20 days old. By three to four weeks of age, the young are independent and are soon sexually mature.

The largest threat to Etruscan shrews originates from human activities, particularly the destruction of their nesting grounds and habitats as a result of farming. Etruscan shrews are also sensitive to weather changes, such as cold winters and dry periods. Major predators are birds of prey.

#Wildlife #TactileHunters #Grassland

The marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus), also known as the sea iguana, saltwater iguana, or Galápagos marine iguana, is a species of iguana found only on the Galápagos Islands (Ecuador).

Scientists figure that land-dwelling iguanas from South America must have drifted out to sea millions of years ago on logs or other debris, eventually landing on the Galápagos. From that species emerged marine iguanas, which spread to nearly all the islands of the archipelago. Each island hosts marine iguanas of unique size, shape, and color.

Marine iguanas mostly eat seaweed and algae. Larger iguanas will dive into the sea in order to forage, sometimes diving as deep as 12 m and staying submerged for more than an hour. Under normal circumstances, they make shallow dives, usually lasting around 10 minutes. The smaller iguanas keep out of the water, feeding instead on algae on rocks in the tidal area.

Their short, blunt snouts and small, razor-sharp teeth help them scrape the algae off rocks, and their laterally flattened tails let them move crocodile-like through the water. Their claws are long and sharp for clinging to rocks onshore or underwater in heavy currents.

Before feeding the marine iguana must raise its body temperatures to approximately 36°C. These iguanas are ectotherms and can lose up to 10°C when in the ocean. To regulate their body temperature they must bask in the sun for long periods of time. Their black skin helps them to absorb lots of heat from the sun so they can dive into the cold ocean. And they even have special glands that clean their blood of extra salt, which they ingest while feeding.

They mainly live in colonies on rocky shores where they bask after visiting the relatively cold water or intertidal zone but can also be seen in marshes, mangroves, and beaches. Large males defend territories for a short period, but smaller males have other breeding strategies. After mating, the female digs a nest hole in the soil where she lays her eggs, leaving them to hatch on their own a few months later.

Their population is not well known. They are under constant pressure from non-native predators like the Galapagos hawk, the Galapagos racer snake, Lava heron, great blue heron, striated heron, short-eared owl, and frigate bird. They are protected throughout the archipelago and are considered vulnerable to extinction.

#Wildlife #RockyShores #Reptile

The Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) is a medium-large raptor in the family Accipitridae, which also includes other extant diurnal raptors, such as eagles, buzzards, and harriers.

The Northern Goshawks are secretive birds that typically live in large tracts of forest, so they are hard to find. The Northern Goshawk is an extremely secretive and elusive woodland raptor that avoids humans and human activity. Goshawks range from Alaska and Canada south to California in the west and southern New England and the Appalachian Mountains in the east. The northern goshawk nests in mature, unfragmented forests. It is important that those forests are safeguarded from human activity and development. Breeding habitats for goshawks are forests that include large-sized trees, a closed canopy, and an open understory.

The Northern Goshawks build stick nests. It is primarily built by the female. Sometimes their nesting territories may contain several nests that are constructed over the years. Nests are located in large deciduous trees on large branches or in the main forks of trees. It is constructed of sticks and twigs and lined with bark strips, conifer needles, and down feathers.

The Northern Goshawks are monogamous, and the pair bonds are often long-term. Both birds aggressively defend the nest, attacking any interloper, including humans. The adult is pale whitish-gray below with faint, black barring on the underbody. The topside is blue-gray with a blackhead and bold white eye-line. Adult males are often bluer above than females. The eye is dark red. The juvenile is whitish below with extensive dark streaking throughout, even on the under tail coverts. A few are lightly streaked. Upperside is brown with pale mottling along the upper wing coverts that form a narrow "bar." The juvenile also has a broad, whitish eye-line. The eye is yellow slowly becoming red after a few years.

The Northern Goshawks are opportunistic, eating a wide variety of prey. Squirrels, snowshoe hares, grouse, corvids, woodpeckers, and another medium to large songbirds are all potential prey of the goshawk. Northern Goshawks hunt inside the forest or along its edge; they take their prey by putting on short bursts of amazingly fast flight, often twisting among branches and crashing through thickets in the intensity of pursuit. Hunts by perching quietly at mid-levels in trees, watching for prey, often moving from one perch to another. When prey is spotted, hawk attacks with a short flight, putting on a great burst of speed and often plunging through tangled branches and thickets in pursuit of quarry. Sometimes searches for prey by flying low through woods.

The Northern Goshawks are, for the most part, non-migratory. Some birds move to lower elevations in the winter, and irruptive movements into more southern areas occur occasionally, generally in response to the collapse of the prey population.

The Northern Goshawks depend entirely on extensive stands of mature, old-growth forests. Goshawk presence is an indicator of forest maturity and low human disturbance. Unfortunately, as mature and old-growth forests become rarer and rarer, so do goshawks. Logging is the largest threat to Northern Goshawks. As logging pressures have increased, the goshawk has experienced population declines as a result of severe habitat loss and degradation. Additionally, the noise and disruption caused by intense industrial logging operations such as road building, heavy machinery operations, and logging truck traffic, have caused nest failure, especially during pair bonding, nest-building, and incubation.

#WildLife #Chipmunk #Woodland

Octopuses are sea animals famous for their rounded bodies, bulging eyes, and eight long arms. They live in all the world’s oceans but are especially abundant in warm, tropical waters. Octopuses, like their cousin, the squid, are often considered “monsters of the deep,” though some species, or types, occupy relatively shallow waters.

Most octopuses stay along the ocean’s floor, although some species are pelagic, which means they live near the water’s surface. Other octopus species live in deep, dark waters, rising from below at dawn and dusk to search for food. Crabs, shrimps, and lobsters rank among their favorite foods, though some can attack larger prey, like sharks. Octopuses typically drop down on their prey from above and, using powerful suctions that line their arms, pull the animal into their mouth.

Octopuses bring captured prey to the den, where they can eat it safely. Sometimes the octopus catches more prey than it can eat, and the den is often surrounded by a midden of dead and uneaten food items. Other creatures, such as fish, crabs, mollusks, and echinoderms, often share the den with the octopus, either because they have arrived as scavengers, or because they have survived capture. On rare occasions, octopuses hunt cooperatively with other species, with fish as their partners.

Nearly all octopuses are predatory; bottom-dwelling octopuses eat mainly crustaceans, polychaete worms, and other mollusks such as whelks and clams.

Octopuses use camouflage when hunting and to avoid predators. To do this they use specialized skin cells which change the appearance of the skin by adjusting its color, opacity, or reflectivity. Chromatophores contain yellow, orange, red, brown, or black pigments; most species have three of these colors, while some have two or four. Other color-changing cells are reflective iridophores and white leucophores. This color-changing ability is also used to communicate with or warn other octopuses.

Aside from humans, octopuses may be preyed on by fishes, seabirds, sea otters, pinnipeds, cetaceans, and other cephalopods. Strategies to defend themselves against predators include the expulsion of ink, the use of camouflage and threat displays, the ability to jet quickly through the water and hide, and even deceit. When the octopus is approached, it may extend an arm to investigate. When under attack, some octopuses can perform arm autotomy. The crawling arm may distract would-be predators. Such severed arms remain sensitive to stimuli and move away from unpleasant sensations. Octopuses can replace lost limbs. An octopus may spend 40% of its time hidden away in its den.

Most species are solitary when not mating. the male uses a specially adapted arm to deliver a bundle of sperm directly into the female's mantle cavity. About forty days after mating, the female octopus attaches strings of small fertilized eggs to rocks in a crevice or under an overhang. Here she guards and cares for them for about five months until they hatch. The female aerates the eggs and keeps them clean, if left untended, many eggs will not hatch. She does not feed during this time and dies soon afterward. Males become senescent and die a few weeks after mating.

Octopuses are highly intelligent. It is not known precisely what contribution learning makes to adult octopus behavior. Young octopuses learn nothing from their parents, as adults provide no parental care beyond tending to their eggs until the young octopuses hatch.

#Nature #KelpForest #PyjamaShark

The sea otter (Enhydra lutris) is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg, making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the smallest marine mammals.
Unlike most marine mammals, the sea otter's primary form of insulation is an exceptionally thick coat of fur, the densest in the animal kingdom. Although it can walk on land, the sea otter is capable of living exclusively in the ocean.
Sea otters often float at the water's surface, lying on their backs in a posture of serene repose. They sleep this way, often gathered in groups.
Sea otters are the only otters to give birth in the water. Mothers nurture their young while floating on their backs. They hold infants on their chests to nurse them, and quickly teach them to swim and hunt.
The sea otter inhabits nearshore environments, where it dives to the sea floor to forage. It preys mostly on marine invertebrates such as sea urchins, various mollusks and crustaceans, crabs, squid, octopuses and some species of fish. Its foraging and eating habits are noteworthy in several respects. First, its use of rocks to dislodge prey and to open shells makes it one of the few mammal species to use tools.
In most of its range, it is a keystone species, controlling sea urchin populations which would otherwise inflict extensive damage to kelp forest ecosystems. Its diet includes prey species that are also valued by humans as food, leading to conflicts between sea otters and fisheries.
Sea otters were hunted for their fur to the point of near extinction. For these reasons, the sea otter remains classified as an endangered species. Today, sea otters are protected by law.
The recovery of the sea otter is considered an important success in marine conservation.

#Nature #KelpForest #Underwater

The Gila (HEE-la) is the largest venomous lizard native to the United States. They are named after the Arizona Gila River Basin, where they were first discovered. The Gila Monster lives in scrubland, succulent desert, and oak woodland. Though Gila Monster is a desert animal, it prefers to live close to water resources. Their habitat includes humidity supporting microclimate, hence they prefer underground burrows and thickets. They shelter in caves, crevices, and thickets in the Southwestern United States and Mexico. Sonora, Arizona, parts of California, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah.

Gila monsters (Heloderma suspectum) are heavy-bodied lizards covered with beadlike scales, called osteoderms, that are black and yellow or pink covering all but their belly. The color patterns on their skin help them camouflage under vegetation in the desert. Their bulky bodies, slow-moving stride, thick forked tongue, and snorting hisses reinforce the name Gila monster. Gila Monsters grow to weigh 1.8 kg and a length including the tail of up to 50 cm.

Gila monsters need high-protein food, but they cannot chase fast-moving prey like other meat-eaters. As carnivores, Gila monsters do not have very good eyesight; when they hunt, they use their senses of taste and smell. To track prey, the Gila monster flicks its forked tongue out to pick up scent particles in the air. These lizards are not very fast, so they need to sneak up on prey and bite them before they get away. Their prey includes birds’ eggs and nestlings, rodents, frogs, lizards, insects, centipedes, and worms, they may also eat carrion. It can eat almost a third of its body weight in one meal. The giant Gila Monster does not chew its food but directly swallows it. The monster’s venomous saliva may be more useful as a defense against predators rather than for hunting because most of the lizard’s prey is small enough to be subdued by the strength of the bite.

A Gila monster bite is painful to humans, but it rarely causes death. The bite of a Gila monster is very strong, and the lizard may not loosen its grip for several seconds. Gila monsters tend to avoid humans and other large wildlife. To warn off potential predators, they open their mouths very wide and hiss.

Although these tough "monsters" are often thought of as being practically predator-free, an assortment of animals is suspected of sometimes hunting them. These animals include foxes, mountain lions, coyotes, and birds of prey.

They are diurnal but most active in the morning. They spend about 95 percent of their time underground and emerge only to hunt for food or to take a sunbathe. They store fat both in their tails and their bodies. Gila Monsters can consume all the calories they need for a year in three or four large meals.

Gila Monsters are solitary animals. These reptiles live on their own except during mating. They live with other dessert animals in their habitat preying on one another.

The Gila Monster lives from 20-30 years in the wild. Brumation, also known as one of the hibernation processes of cold-blooded animals, helps them regulate their body temperature to survive harsh climates. They shed their skin like other reptiles, but the female sheds all of its skin a fortnight before laying the eggs.

Gila monsters seem to have a loose social structure and occasionally share shelters. Males compete for mates by engaging in carefully choreographed wrestling matches, in which the biggest and strongest wins.

They attain sexual maturity at four years of age. Breeding season for Gila monsters is usually in early summer. The male makes the first move, and if rejected the female bites the male and chases it away. Otherwise, the pair go into their shelter. The female digs a hole lays a clutch of large, leathery, oval-shaped eggs in the hole, and covers them. The eggs are not buried very deep, so the heat of the sun incubates them. A female lays a clutch of about six to thirteen eggs. The eggs are about 6.3 cm long and weigh about 40 grams. About four months later, the baby Gila monsters break out of their eggs and crawl to the surface. They are only a few inches long but look like miniature adults with more vivid coloring. The hatchlings are ready to begin life on their own.

The Gila monster has one of the worst reputations in the reptile world. This lizard is often feared and has been described as frightful and repulsive, especially in local folklore. It has been accused of many things, such as spitting venom, leaping several feet in the air to attack, stinging with its tongue, and killing people with gusts of poisonous breath.

In 1952, the Gila monster became the first venomous animal to be given legal protection. According to the IUCN Red List, Gila Monster's status is near threatened. With many predators, human encroachment in their habitats, their numbers have reduced.

#WildLife #SonoranDesert #VenomousLizard

A small species, it reaches about 30 cm in length including the tail, and a weight of 66–150 g. It has reddish-brown fur on its upper body and five dark brown stripes contrasting with light brown stripes along its back, ending in a dark tail. It has lighter fur on the lower part of its body. It has a tawny stripe that runs from its whiskers to below its ears, and light stripes over its eyes. It has two fewer teeth than other chipmunks and four toes each on the front legs, but five on the hind legs. The chipmunk's appearance "remains consistent throughout life.
The chipmunk lives in deciduous wooded areas and urban parks throughout the eastern United States and southern Canada. It prefers locations with rocky areas, brush or log piles, and shrubs to provide cover.
Chipmunk is mainly active during the day, spending most of its day foraging. It prefers bulbs, seeds, fruits, nuts, green plants, mushrooms, insects, worms, and bird eggs. It commonly transports food in pouches in its cheeks.
Chipmunks mostly forage on the ground, but they climb trees to obtain nuts such as hazelnuts and acorns. At the beginning of autumn, many species of chipmunk begin to stockpile nonperishable foods for winter. They mostly cache their foods in a larder in their burrows and remain in their nests until spring, unlike some other species which make multiple small caches of food. Cheek pouches allow chipmunks to carry food items to their burrows for either storage or consumption.
Chipmunk defends its burrow and lives a solitary life, except during mating season. During the winter, the chipmunk may enter long periods of torpor, but does not truly hibernate.

#Nature #EasternChipmunk #Woodland