animals, animals, animals

JAPANESE WHITE EYE
Zosterops japonicus
John&Fish

The Japanese White-eye is a small passerine bird in the white-eye family. Its native range includes much of east Asia, including Japan, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, and the Philippines. 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 native species of the Japanese islands, it has been depicted in Japanese art on numerous occasions, and historically was kept as a cage bird.

Introduced to Hawaii in 1929 as a means of insect control, it has since become a common bird on the Hawaiian Islands, and has become a vector for avian parasites that are now known to adversely affect populations of native birds such as Hawaiian honeycreepers, as well as spreading invasive plant species through discarded seeds.

Fact Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_White-eye

John&Fish are particularly good at capturing Asian birds in their photographs. @purpleraven and I are both fans of their work.

Other beautiful John & Fish Photos you may like:

Japanese Whie Eye - John& Fish

Formosan Magpie & John&Fish

Among the Flowers - John&Fish

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purpleraven:

#716 小綠向櫻 (by John&Fish)

NEW ZEALAND or WAITOMO GLOW WORM
Arachnocampa luminosa
©tourismhoteltrip.com

The lifecycle of a Glowworm is in four stages and takes about 11 months. Eggs are laid in clutches of 30-40 on walls and ceilings. Immediately on hatching from the egg, the larvae emit a light, build a nest, put down lines and feed. Sticky substances on the lines trap insects and these are drawn up and devoured.

The larvae stage is the longest phase in the creature’s life and lasts around nine months. It then turns into a pupa in a cocoon and emerges as a two winged flying insect, which looks like a large mosquito.

The adult fly lives no longer than a few days as it has no digestive system and so cannot eat. Instead it uses this time to mate and lay eggs. The glowworms found in the Waitomo Glowworm Caves is a species unique to New Zealand.

WHAT IS A GLOWWORM?

A glowworm is the larvae stage in the lifecycle of a two-winged insect. It grows as long as a matchstick and looks a bit like a maggot. There are many types of glowworm. The one we have in New Zealand is arachnocampa luminosa. ‘Arachno’ means spider-like, which refers to the way glowworms catch flying insects like spiders do. ‘Campa’ means larva and ‘luminosa’ means light-producing.

WHY AND HOW THEY GLOW

A glowworm uses its glow to attract food and to burn off its waste. It’s tail glows because of bioluminescence, which is a reaction between the chemicals given off by the glowworm [luceiferin] and the oxygen in the air. This chemical reaction produces light, which the glowworm can control by reducing the oxygen to the light organ. Insects fly towards the light and get stuck in the sticky lines that the glowworm hangs down to catch food. Glowworms also use their glow to put other creatures off eating them.

WHY THEY ARE FOUND IN CAVES

Glowworms can survive only in very damp, dark places where their light can be seen. They need a ceiling that is fairly much horizontal from which they can hang their sticky [mucus covered] feeding lines, and a sheltered place where wind does not dry out or tangle their lines. The Waitomo Glowworm Caves provide a perfect environment with an abundance of insects brought into the cave via the river.

Fact Source and more photos: http://www.waitomo.com/glow-worm-lifecycle.aspx

Other photos you may like:

Pink Glowworm of Los Angeles

Firefly or Lightning Bug

One Firefly mimicking another’s mating pattern to feed on it

PALAWAN PEACOCK PHEASANT
Polyplectron emphanum
©Nicky Icarngal

The Palawan Peacock Pheasant is endemic to the Palawan Island in the Central Philippines where it is quite uncommon. They inhabit the island’s humid, coastal lowland and deep forests. Several habitat sites are known to exist in the central mountain range.

They are very shy, but adapt and breed well in confinement. The male struts and displays to the female with courtship feeding by spreading the feathers of its lower neck and mantle, and bobbing its head with a small piece of food in its beak. The male will drop the food in sight of the female and if she takes the food, the male will make a lateral posture that best shows off all the ocelli on the tail and tail coverts. The crest is then erected and pointed forward. The male also makes a hissing sound while he walks in circles around the female.

The diet in the wild consists of a variety of seeds, grains, nuts, fruit, leaves, roots, slugs, worms, and insects.

Fact Source: http://www.honoluluzoo.org/palawan_peacock_pheasant.htm

Other photos you may like:

Bornean Peacock-Pheasant

Palawan Peacock Pheasant - Full shot

Grey Peacock Pheasant

JAPANESE DWARF FLYING SQUIRREL or MOMONGA
Pteromys momonga
©omgthatscute.com

The Momonga is a type of flying squirrel.

Its body is 4-5” long (14–20cm) and the tail length is also 4-5” long (10–14cm). It weighs 5-6 ounces (150–220g). It is much smaller than the Japanese giant flying squirrel which can reach 3-1/2 pounds (1500g). Its back is covered with grey brown hair, and its belly is white. It has large eyes and a flattened tail. It is exceedingly cute.

It inhabits sub-alpine forests in Japan. It is nocturnal, and during the day it rests in holes in trees. It eats seeds, fruit, tree leaves, buds and bark. It can leap from tree to tree using a gliding membrane.

It faces threats from habitat destruction.

Fact Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_dwarf_flying_squirrel

Other photos you may like:

Japanese Pygmy Flying Squirrel - cuteness with snow

Patagonian Cavy

Long-Eared Jerboa

(Source: awkwardyoungadult, via theanimalblog)

What’s the difference between the
ORANGE BREASTED GREEN PIGEON Treron bicinctus and the
PINK NECK GREEN PIGEON Treron vernans - by request for Peter
©Dr Jonathan Cheah Weng Kwong

The Orange Breasted Green Pigeon (shown above with fruit in its beak) looks a lot like the Pink Neck Green Pigeon except that the forehead, face and throat are greenish yellow. Also, the mauve-pink upper breast area is smaller and does not extend to the neck. The outer feathers of the tail is blackish, with a broad pale grey subterminal band. Otherwise they look very similar.

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The Orange Breasted Green Pigeon is a pigeon found across tropical Asia south of the Himalaya across the Indian Subcontinent and extending into parts of Southeast Asia. Like most Green Pigeon species this one feeds mainly on small fruit. They may be found in pairs or in small flocks, foraging quietly and moving slowly on trees. The nape is blue-grey and the crown is yellowish green. The uppertail coverts and brozed and the undertail coverts are unmarked rufous. The male has a pinkish band on the upper breast with a broader orange one below while the female has a bright yellow breast. Similar in appearance to other green pigeons including the Yellow-footed Green Pigeon and the Grey-fronted Green Pigeon but has no maroon on the wing.

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The Pink Neck Green Pigeon  is a species of bird in the Columbidae family. It is found in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical mangrove forests, and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

Fact Sources:
http://www.besgroup.org/2008/01/12/orange-breasted-green-pigeon-sighted

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink-necked_Green_Pigeon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange-breasted_Green_Pigeon

Other Photos you may like:

Pink Neck Green Pigeon

Orange Breasted Green Pigeon

Wompoo Fruit Dove

WHITE EARED KOB
Kobus kob
©Alamy Blickwinkel 

Also, check out @wildlifecollective she’s posting some great stuff.

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wildlifecollective:

White-Eared Kob
Kobus kob

These graceful antelopes of central Africa’s well-watered savannas and floodplain grasslands are best known for their annual migration, which produces one of the natural world’s great spectacles. 
The Sudd wetlands of southern Sudan, nourished by the White Nile, are home to an astounding number of white-eared kob—more than 800,000 animals. When joined by tiang antelopes and Mongalla gazelles they form enormous migrating herds of more than 1.2 million individuals. Thickly packed columns of these animals in motion can stretch a staggering 50 miles long and 30 miles across. Such herds rival the Serengeti’s teeming masses of wildebeests for the title of the world’s most massive—and awe-inspiring—mammal migration.

Facts | Photo © Alamy Blickwinkel

OPOSSUM Ecounter
Didelphis Marsupialis
©Steve Creek Outdoors

One night a few years ago our Pitbull Mix was whining to go out into the yard. I opened the door, heard a scuffle and then she ran past me back into the house carrying a large animal in her mouth. I thought it was a big gray Persian Cat. She ran down the hall and dropped it as far away from the door as she could get, then walked away leaving a full-grown opossum, lying on our bedroom floor.

What to do now?

It appeared uninjured. It was definitely “out,” but for how long? I knew that I had to act fast or I’d have a frightened animal running around the house which would not be good. I put the dogs out and got to work.

As luck always seems to have it - I was home alone, the house was on the market and everything we owned was either on display, pared down or had already been moved — so, no gloves, not even oven mitts, and no box handy that I could use for transport.I’d have to do this barehanded

With no other options handy and limited time, I sucked up my fear, and grabbed it by the base of the tail to carry it outside. It was heavier than I expected, but thankfully still unconscious. I had about a hundred feet to get to the front door. Please God I thought, let it stay “unconscious” the entire trip. I did wonder if it could climb up my arm and attack my face. I had to put it down to open the front door, and then pick it up again. Once outside, I set it in a protected spot just outside the door and waited. I wanted to make certain that it was okay, and I was also curious to see it “wake up.”

A few moments later, the opossum groggily staggered to it feet and shuffled off slowly into the night.

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Some Opossum Facts:

• Playing Possum or Thanatosis, is an involuntary physiological response (like sneezing), rather than a conscious act (like blowing the nose).But the animal has to be really stressed in order for Thanosis to occur. Normally they will hiss first or try to escape
• Opossums are the only marsupial native to North America
• They lived 70 million years ago during the Mesozoic Era in the late Cretaceous period 
• Adults weigh 5 to 15 lbs, while newborn babies are about the size of a honey bee
• Their life span is 3 years in the wild; longer in captivity
• They are often mistaken for a large rat, but they are not rodents, they are marsupials
• Opossum fur can be white or black, but is usually gray
• They are solitary, nocturnal and can live wherever there is food, water and shelter
• They can strike surprisingly fast like snake (I’ve been bit so I know!)
• They can swim
• Opossums are excellent climbers using their hands, feet and tail to grasp

Fact Source: http://www.planetpossum.com/facts.htm

The Trifecta of nocturnal visitors to our yard:

Baby Opossum

Baby Striped Skunks

Raccoon

GREAT WHITE SHARK lands on research vessel
Carcharodon carcharias
©Chris Brunskill Ltd/Rex Features

Earlier this week, the research crew on the Cheetah was startled when a 10 foot Great White Shark erroneously landed on their research vessel. They had been chumming the water at Seal Island, South Africa, while conducting a population study of Great White sharks in the area. Getting a shark [alive and hopefully unharmed] off your boat is not as easy as one would think, it is amazing that this shark survived the ordeal.

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Oceans Research’s co-director, Enrico Gennari, an expert on great white sharks, had never heard of a great white  jumping onto a boat. He estimated that it would have had to have leapt about three metres / 10 feet to do so. A smaller vessel would likely have capsized.

The cause of the shark’s behavior was almost certainly an accident rather than an attack. In the low-visibility water the fish could have mistaken the vessel’s shadow for prey, or been disturbed by another shark close by, he said.

Dorien Schröder, team leader at Oceans Research, pulled her colleague to safety before the shark, weighing about 500kg (half a ton) landed on top of the bait and fuel tanks. At first half of its body was outside the boat but in a panic the shark thrashed its way further onto the vessel, cutting the fuel lines and damaging equipment before becoming trapped between the containers and the stern.

The crew found safety at the bow of the boat.

Schröder remained near the animal pouring water over the shark’s gills to keep it alive while another boat was sent out to the Cheetah. A rope from the second vessel was secured around the shark’s tail, but repeated efforts to tow the fish back into the water failed.

The rescue ship then towed the Cheetah into the port with the shark still on deck. A hose was placed in the fish’s mouth to ventilate its gills, before it was lifted off the boat with a crane and lowered back into the water.

Though the shark swam away it was unable to navigate its way out of the harbour and was soon beached. The team tried unsuccessfully to “walk” the shark back to sea. Finally they tied ropes to the shark’s tail fin and behind its pectoral fin, and attached these ties to the rescue vessel, which towed the shark out through the harbour. The ropes were then removed and the animal swam away.

Story Source:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/19/great-white-shark-jumps-boat

Other photos you may like:

Great White on a seal

Great Whites Feeding on bait fish

Great White Shark

BORNEO RAINBOW TOAD or SAMBAS STREAM TOAD
Ansonia latidisca
Indraneil Das / Conservation International

Last seen in 1924, the Sambas stream toad has been seen again, allowing scientists to capture the first-ever photos of the elusive amphibian, described as a “colorful and gangly tree-dwelling toad.”

Fact Source: http://www.thedailygreen.com/weird-weather/weather-categories/nature-pictures/sambas-stream-toad-0714

Other photos you may like:

Suriname Toad- she has pits on her back for her tadpoles to live in

Spray Toads

Ornate Horned Toad

“Thrilling discoveries like this beautiful toad, and the critical importance of amphibians to healthy ecosystems, are what fuel us to keep searching for lost species,” Das said. “They remind us that nature still holds precious secrets that we are uncovering, which is why targeted protection and conservation is so important. Amphibians are indicators of environmental health, with direct implications for human health. Their benefits to people should not be underestimated.”

Worldwide, amphibians have been in steep decline, owing to factors ranging from climate change to pollution, but primarily from habitat loss and the spread of an apparently new fungus that has decimated many species. It’s estimated that about one in three species is threatened with extinction, making amphibians the most at-risk category of vertebrates on Earth.

PUERTO RICAN EMERALD ANOLE - INTELLIGENCE STUDY
Anolis evermanni
©Alfredo Colon

Kudos to the Puerto Rican Anoles, for proving smarter than scientists previously believed and representing for the Lizard family’s ability to learn

Manuel Leal and Brian Powell at Duke University in North Carolina tested the problem-solving skills of the Puerto Rican anole, by setting up a platform with two different colored capped wells—one empty and the other containing a worm.

The biologists found that the lizards not only developed solutions to the problem, but needed three fewer tries than birds to pass the test.

“They’d put their snout under the little plastic chip and then quickly bump it,” explained Leal in a press release. “They don’t do this in the wild.”

The lizards learned that the cap’s color signified whether it covered their worm reward. However, when the caps were later reversed, two of the lizards managed to unlearn the association and started bumping away the new cap.

Of note as well is that Birds get six chances per day to learn to flip the cap correctly, but anoles eat less, which means each lizard in the study only had one daily opportunity to figure out how to pass the test and needed to retain that information from day to day.

Fact Source: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/science/lizards-ace-test-designed-for-birds-59021.html

Other photos you may like:

Gold Dust Day Gecko

Spiderman Lizard

Anole Lizard earring(?)

ARABIAN ORYX or WHITE ORYX
Oryx leucoryx
©David Mallon

Why is the ORYX called the Arabian “Unicorn” if it has two horns? - by request

Good question…according to National Geographic, the oryx, a frequent muse for Arabic poetry and paintings, resembles a unicorn in profile, when its two long horns appear to fuse into one.

Okay, so maybe it’s a long shot by today’s standards, but consider that this description goes WAY back, probably before the horse with the horn became the Unicorn norm.

But it seemed the hardy antelope was headed for an entirely fictional existence in 1972, when only six animals existed in the wild.

Five of the remaining antelopes were either killed or taken into captivity over the course of the year, and the last wild “unicorn” was shot in Oman in 1972—capping decades of uncontrolled hunting for food and sport.

Now, however, the oryx has leaped to at least a thousand individuals in parts of its native range within Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced with this week’s release of its updated Red List of Threatened Species.

“If you consider there were about six animals in the wild … in 1972, to go from six up to a thousand is amazing,” said Craig Hilton-Taylor, manager of the United Kingdom’s IUCN Red List Unit.

As a result, the organization has upgraded the antelope’s status from “endangered”—facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild—to “vulnerable,” facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.

It’s the first time in IUCN history that a species considered extinct in the wild has rebounded enough to advance past the “critically endangered” and “endangered” conservation categories.

Fact Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/06/110617-arabian-oryx-unicorn-endangered-extinct-species-animals/

Other photos you may like:

Alpine Ibex

Reeves Muntjac Deer

Barbary Sheep

GIANT WOOD WASP
Urocerus gigas
©Jon and Family

The dozen species of wood wasps in California, Oregon, and Washington look similar. They are large insects, generally 1 inch or longer, and are wasplike in appearance but have an elongated, cylindrical body without a noticeable constriction or “waist.” They often are black or metallic dark blue or in combinations of black, red, and yellow.

They make a noisy buzz when flying.

The male and female have a similar body shape, except the female is larger and has a long egg-laying apparatus (ovipositor) that can exceed her body length. The female can use her ovipositor only for egg laying; she can’t use it to sting in defense. Although these pests can chew through wood, they don’t bite people.

A female wood wasp drills her ovipositor nearly 3/4 inch into the wood of a weakened or dying tree and lays 1 to 7 eggs. At the same time, she squirts in a fungus from her abdominal gland. She continues this process, laying up to 200 eggs.

Eggs hatch in 3 to 4 weeks, and larvae tunnel into the fungus-predigested wood parallel with the grain. Larvae are legless, cylindrical, whitish, and have a spine at the tip of their last abdominal segment. As they chew, larvae use a spine at the tip of their abdomen to help push themselves forward, through the wood. Larvae begin eating the softer wood (sapwood) just beneath the bark, following the fungus into the heartwood, then return to the sapwood to complete their feeding.

Larval feeding continues through 5 or more immature stages, which take at least a year and as many as 5 years in cooler climates to complete. The tunnel, or gallery, usually measures 10 to 12 inches long at completion.

Pupation takes place at the end of the gallery. After 5 or 6 weeks as a pupa, the adult emerges by chewing through about 3/4 inch of wood, leaving a round exit hole 1/4 to 1/2 inch in diameter.

For @lordwozz, please let me know if this could be what you were asking about…it doesn’t look similar to the description, but the behavior is similar…

Fact Source: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7407.html

Other photos you may like:

Tarantula Hawk Wasp

Vespid - Paper Wasps

Social Wasps

Palmetto CORNSNAKE
Elaphe guttata
Photo © Don Soderberg
Submitted by wilkosphotos

Palmettos are the newest (and perhaps the most stunning) of the corn snake morph family. Read more about the cornsnake here.

Other photos you may like:

More typical Cornsnake pattern

Cornsnake Blood Red Morph(?)

Northwestern Ring-neck Snake

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A Palmetto Cornsnake

Palmetto was first discovered in 2008 as a wild caught animal and was proven as recessive in 2011 by Don Soderberg at South Mountain Reptiles. The morph is named after the state it was first discovered in, South Carolina - the Palmetto state.

SHORT TAILED ALBATROS
Phoebastria albatrus


The Short-tailed Albatross or Steller’s Albatross, Phoebastria albatrus, is a large rare seabird from the North Pacific. Although related to the other North Pacific albatrosses, it also exhibits behavioural and morphological links to the albatrosses of the Southern Ocean. It was described by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas from skins collected by the Georg Wilhelm Steller (after whom its other common name is derived). Once common, it was brought to the edge of extinction by the trade in feathers, but with protection has recently made a recovery.

Fact Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short-tailed_Albatross

Other photos you may like:

Atlantic Puffin

Inca Tern

King Eider Duck

BEARDED PIG
Sus barbatus
©Nick Garbutt / Alex Hyde

allcreatures:

A bearded pig forages for food at night in the Maliau Basin in Borneo, Malaysia. British photographers Nick Garbutt and Alex Hyde captured images from a world few are lucky enough to glimpse during their journey into the Maliau Basin in the Malaysian state of Sabah. Hidden behind an encircling fortress of impenetrable cliffs, Maliau Basin is home to a spectacular and diverse array of wildlife, which has been allowed to flourish away from man’s interference.

Other photos you may like:

North Sulawesi Babirusa

Western Bush Pig

Warthog