2008 February | Feathers Fins and Fur

Archive for February, 2008

Grey Squirrel

Our national past time may not be baseball but instead be squirrel watching. So many of us observe them and at parks feed them. The eastern gray squirrel is a small mammal with the often observed and loved skill of gnawing. They belong to the order Rodentia which is from the Latin word rodere, which means “to gnaw”. Fossil records of about 3.5 million years show records of the ancestors of the gray squirrel as well as their hundred of cousins flung around the world. flying squirrel, fox squirrels, red squirrels, Persian squirrels, pine squirrels and tassel-eared squirrels. That bushy tail of...

Flamingos

Hundreds of thousands of three foot flamingos live around East Africa’s alkaline soda lakes. Of the five species of this hot pink bird these three footers are the smallest. The volcanic soil beneath these lakes leaches out bicarbonate of soda. These warm lakes are the perfect environment for the growth of spirulina algae which is the staple of these little flamingos. Flamingos have a unique way of scooping up this algae. They invert their head so that the bottom of the bill is facing the sky. By moving its head from side to side with its beak open he is...

Seahorses

Pliny the elder (A.D. 23-79) named the sea horse “hippus,” Today the generic name of the ea horse has been retained. Hippocampus mans horse-caterpillar. The alleged medicinal properties range from a supposed aphrodisiac effect when used in a love potion to more prosaic uses as a cure for baldness and pains in the side; or when a living sea horse has been dipped into oil of roses, for chills and fever. There are approximately two dozen species of seahorses. Seahorses are strictly marine in habitat. The female actually deposits the eggs in the brood pouch of the male, who, in turn,...

Emperor Penguins

The Emperor Penguins of Antarctica , the largest of the penguins, take the rules of nature and turn them upside down. They choose the coldest time to breed and it is the females who compete for the males. It's the male who is hatch the egg. The females don't their their they just lay the egg and scurry to the ocean and feed there for two months. This leaves egg hatching to the male who has only his own body fat to live off of throughout this ordeal.. His new offspring to be is in the egg and he must balance...

Sea Turtles

For 150 million years our planets ancient mariners have been the sea turtles. Currently there are eight species and each one once abundant are threatened or in some level of endangerment. Indifference of humankind as well has hunting and development have caused this alarm that some of these turtle species may not survive. These eight species are killed for meat and leather, their eggs are taken for food and aphrodisiacs. Their nesting sites are eliminated by development. They are poisoned by pollution, strangled by trash and drowned by fish line and net and run over by pleasure boats. All sea turtles...