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Monday, August 28 2006

Coati

coati


Three species of these insectivore and frugivore mammals can be found on the American continent from Arizona to Argentina. Those three species are characterized by their fur’s colour. Coatis have ringed tails often held up. They also are diurnal animals (unlike the Procyonidae (raccons) family to which they belong).


source : flickr (no.zomi) and wikipedia

Friday, August 25 2006

Chipmunk

tamia


Chipmunks are North American little rodents belonging to the squirrel family. They live in forests where they eat grains, chestnuts, mushrooms, and birds’ eggs. They keep food in their burrows in order to prepare for winter. Chipmunks’ burrows can be as long as 3 meters organised into different rooms with several closed entries.


source : flickr (SugarbearSteve) and wikipedia

Thursday, August 24 2006

Flamingo tongue

Monnaie caraĂŻbe Ă  ocelles

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

Wednesday, August 23 2006

King Vulture

Sarcoramphe roi =

King vultures are tropical vultures that can be found in South and Central America. As all the other vultures, they eat carcass using their little but resistant beak. They have a very developed smell.


source : flickr (True_Bavarian) and wikipedia

Tuesday, August 22 2006

Golden toad

crapaud dorée


Golden toads used to live in high areas in tropical forests up the town of Monteverde of Costa Rica. Those five centimetres long toads’ male are orange almost fluorescent; females are yellow with black spots. They are considered extinct since 1989. Their reproduction’s necessary condition where quite delicate : between April and June, where it rains the most, they get out, reproduce and females then lay eggs in temporary ponds and brooks created by rain. This toad was a lot dependant on rain. Not enough rain, ponds get dry and larva die. Too much, brooks get down the mountains and dispatch larva. 1987 dryness created a bloodbath: 29 on a 43,500 potential larva lived. (This phenomena was observed by Marty Crump, herpetologist, who think El Niño and global warm are responsible for this animal’s extinction.

(This picture is a sculpture, not a real toad.)


source : flickr (Thomas Hawk) and wikipedia | crapaud doré on batraciens-reptiles.com | golden toad on bagheera

Monday, August 21 2006

Bat

chauve souris


There are 950 species of this unique flying mammal. Bats rarely land where they are quite awkward; as for rest time, they prefer hanging upside down by the claws on their tiptoes. Bats hunt by night. They mainly are insectivore; some tropical ones can eat fruits and three feeds from little mammals’ blood. In order to move and localise their prey, they use ultrasounds (echolocation) thanks to their vocal cords


source : flickr (Thomas Hawk) and wikipedia

Friday, August 18 2006

Bald Eagle

Pygargue Ă  tĂŞte blanche

Bald eagles are North America birds of prey well known for being the USA emblem. Even though the English name is bald eagle, they aren’t exactly belonging to the eagle family. They are recognisable by their head and white tail as much as by their large yellow beak. They live around rivers, lakes, and near coasts where they eat other birds and fish corpses (He can steal those from other predators). They build very large and high nests (sometimes as high as 1 metre) on the ground or in high trees.


source : flickr (creativity+) and wikipedia

Thursday, August 17 2006

Leopard

Léopard

Leopards or panthers live in Asia and Africa. Their fur is usually with spots but some are entirely black (Black panther). Leopards hunt by night; capture and kill deer or boars thanks to their vivacity (Leopards are almost as quick as cheetahs.), they eat then in trees on which they climb, thanks to their powerful paw muscles, and spend most of their time.

Some of leopards’ species like North China leopards are endangered.


source : flickr (Michael Poliza) and wikipedia

Wednesday, August 16 2006

Chameleon

caméléon

Chameleons are reptiles mostly African from iguana family. They’re characterized by their ability to change their body colours: the can become green to maroon different bright colours in between in order to camouflage, defend themselves, seduce, or just show their mood. In order to eat, chameleons can stay still and hidden in trees for several hours until a prey comes and get eaten by them. Chameleons’ tong can be as long as their bodies.


source : flickr (Michael Poliza) and wikipedia (animal suggestion of rakanishu )

Tuesday, August 15 2006

Walrus

morse

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

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