AnimalsPix : Daily animals pictures ! - marine

Flamingo tongue

elo — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 09:41:00 +0200

These shellfish can be found in Caribbean Sea. They live inside corals and feed from those (Those are horned corals: Bright coloured and stuck to sandy grounds whereas regular corals are stuck to hard grounds). Their approximately 3 cm long shells is covered by orange spots on black, that they can retract when an animal approaches.
This shellfish used to be a currency, and be so called in French. It’s a quite common shellfish but unfortunately picked up too much by divers; that phenomena threatening this specie.

source : flickr (laszlo-photo), here, here and there

Walrus

elo — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 07:31:00 +0200

Walrus are arctic mammals; they usually look quite calm (whenever they’re not in rut period, when they fight each other). They belong to the same family as seals: they feed and reproduce underwater. They are excellent swimmers who can stay underwater for half an hour about dozen meters deep. They mainly eat fish, and mollusks. Their natural predators are orcas, polar bears and men (because of their ivory tusks).

source : flickr (Andre Boffin) and wikipedia

Beluga whale

elo — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 07:27:00 +0200

Belugas or white whales usually live in the Arctic Ocean but one can find few of them in the Saint Lawrence River and Saguenay River in Québec. It lives in big communities up to thousands animals. As an adult, its body is entirely white (when youngers’ is grey) and cylindrical when well-fed. It can be as long as 5 to 6 metres and can weigh one to two tons. Its flexible forehead is composed by a membrane in the shape of a bulb the beluga can inflate whenever it wants, giving so the impression that it can have several facial expressions (which is always a success in European aquariums). Beluga’s natural predators are bears and killer whale. When belugas are stuck in ice, bears knock them out and kill them on shore. Unfortunately, man stays the most dangerous predator of belugas. Hunting and pollution threatens the specie.

source : flickr (ash matadeen) and wikipedia

Dolphin

elo — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 07:13:00 +0200

The dolphin (here Bottlenose dolphin) is a marine-mammal well-known for its cleverness, cheerfulness and compassion for human beings (There are lots of stories about sinking people saved by dolphins) as much as for its complex language based on ultrasound. Studies about dolphins proved that they could recognise themselves in a mirror (Self-conscience) and are able to use tools (and learn how to). It’s interesting to know that dolphins belong to those rare animals pairing for other reasons than reproduction. Dolphins seem to be more or less the highest part of animals’ evolution. High Five

source : flickr (orcaartist) and wikipedia