Archive for the ‘Wildlife’ category

14 Very Interesting Facts About Bees

October 11th, 2011

1. As they are closely related to wasps, bees are known to be flying insects who are very active in pollination and making bees-wax and honey for the masses.

2. They have a monophyletic line of ancestry which is the family of Apoidea which linked to the taxon name Anthophila.

3. Did you known that there are almost 20,000 species of bees that are known about which are classified into nine different families of bees Although there are said to be more

4. There are known to be famines of bees on every single country and continent in the known world that has flowering and pollinated plants all except Antarctica which bears none.

5. Bees love to feed on nectar which is a very good energy source for them so that they can go about their business full of life.

6. Bees love to feed on pollen because it provides much needed protein and other nutrients for the bees and also acts as food source for the larvae that bees produce.

7. They have the ability to get nectar from flowers by using a ‘complex’ Tongue called a long proboscis which means they are able to get what they need successfully.
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Never Smile at a Crocodile – The Increasing Number of Crocodile Attacks

October 11th, 2011

Today there are something like twenty-two species of reptile that make up the Order Crocodylia. Of these species; only thirteen are actually true crocodiles, the remainder are Alligators, Caiman and the extremely rare and endangered, long-snouted gavials, sometimes referred to as gharials. We often get asked how to tell the difference between a crocodile and an alligator. There are a number of anatomical differences between crocodiles and alligators, when observing these reptiles look for a large, fourth tooth in the lower jaw. When the mouth is closed this tooth fits into a notch in the upper jaw and the tooth remains visible even when the mouth is closed. If you can see this tooth, then you are looking at a crocodile.

There are only two species of Alligator left in the world. Firstly, as most people know, there is the American alligator (alligator mississipiensis), which can be found widely distributed across the south-eastern United States, most typically in the Florida Everglades. There is also a second extant species of alligator, although this one is much rarer and confined to the upper Yangtse River valley in China. Scientists had thought that the less aggressive alligator had been “weeded out” of its range by crocodiles, leaving the only representatives of the Alligatoridae family in these isolated pockets. The more efficient crocodiles grew faster and may have been better at consuming food but this is generally regarded as speculation – as in the case of the American alligator, this species competes with the native American crocodile (C. acutus). The American alligator can withstand cold spells far better than the American crocodile, and as a result, has a much more extensive range in the United States.
» Read more: Never Smile at a Crocodile – The Increasing Number of Crocodile Attacks

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Animals Vs Drought

October 11th, 2011

From the south central US through much of the southeast the drought of 2011 has been described as comparable to the drought of the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s. The U S Drought Monitor, (see link at end of article), shows the effects of the severe shortage of water all the way across the southern tier of states from Southern California to North Carolina, with some areas on the southern Atlantic coast affected as far north as Washington, DC. The map shows the most severely affected areas to be southeast Arizona, southern New Mexico, 2/3 of Oklahoma, almost all of Texas except the extreme northeast, all of Louisiana, south Mississippi and Alabama, the lower 2/3 of Georgia, the Florida panhandle and Miami areas, southern South Carolina and southeast North Carolina. Some drought areas are thousands of square miles, like most of Texas and some are smaller and spotty, like southeast North Carolina. The problem is huge for everyone living in these areas!

Consider the animals, both domestic and wild. Recently, we have written and blogged about animals and how they are impacted by natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes and wild fires. The current drought situation promises to impact animals just as severely as the floods and fires of 2011. It would be wonderful if everyone with any capability to help alleviate the devastating effects of droughts on animals could pitch in, but that would only happen in a perfect world. Unfortunately, the animal advocacy groups equipped to lend a hand, Wildlife WayStation example, are too few and far between in a crisis of this magnitude. According to a recent www.usatoday.com article, last year wildlife officials hauled water into the White Mountains for elk, and into the southern deserts for bighorn sheep.

Further east, The Wildlife Center of Texas, collects, restores good health and releases wild animals back into the wild. The Center has wildlife specialists and veterinarians to meet the animals’ medical needs. So, they are released in the best possible condition.
» Read more: Animals Vs Drought

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