Chimpanzeeexhibits strong maternal bond...

Apart from the important role of teaching her offspring “how to be a proper chimpanzee”, the mother ape also provides them with much love.
She breast feeds her baby chimpanzee for up to 4 years (comparing to humans, that’s long) and during that time the bond is constantly reinforced through various physical gestures.
Chimps develop faster than us up to about 3 or 4 years of age. They start walking and clambering around trees at about 5 months, while we only start walking around 12 months of age.

Baby chimpanzee...

I read somewhere that a baby chimpanzee can learn to recognise itself in a mirror. Apparently monkeys can’t. Just imagine that moment when the penny drops!

Baby chimpanzee trying to pay attention
Although that sounds like an interesting experiment, how many mother chimpanzees carry mirrors around with them?
However, our close cousins (chimps share 98.6% of our DNA) do spend a lot of time in the wild learning all sorts of things from their mothers.

For instance, chimps have learnt that termites attack anything that disturbs their nest. By inserting a twig into an opening of the nest, termites will crawl onto it. Pull out the twig and “lunch is served”! Baby chimps watch their mothers do this and thus also learn to fish for food in this way.
Some other skills a baby chimpanzee picks up by observation, trial and error, are cracking open nuts with stones, selecting plants that are safe to eat, making a tree-bed at night and hunting small animals like monkeys.

Via: african-safari's picture.

Tags: chimpanzee, wildlife

A Whale does have a song

The sound made by whales to communicate. The word "song" is used in particular to describe the pattern of regular and predictable sounds made by some species of whales (notably the humpback) in a way that is reminiscent of human singing. The mechanisms used to produce sound vary from one family of cetaceans to another. Marine mammals, such as whales, dolphin, and porpoises are much more dependent on sound for communication and sensation than land mammals are , as other senses are of limited effectiveness in water. Sight is limited for marine mammals because of the way water absorbs light. Smell is also limited, as molecules diffuse more slowly in water than air, which makes smelling less effective. In addition, the speed of sound in water is roughly four times that in the atmosphere at sea level Because sea-mammals are so dependent on hearing to communicate and feed, environmentalists and cetologists are concerned that they are being harmed by the increased ambient noise in the world's oceans caused by ships and marine seismic surveys.

Tags: Whale, whale song

LIONS (Panthera leo) ...part one

Of all the great cats, the lion has always held a supreme place in man's esteem and imagination. The lion has always been honored by man, crediting the regal beast with attributes he prizes most; nobility, courage, loyalty, combative skills and sexual prowess. This attribution applies to both sexes, for a lioness is a creature of sinuous beauty, but the full-grown male, whose magnificent mane ranging in color from a rich golden brown to a deep blackish-brown, mark him as the veritable monarch of the plains. The legacy of the lion, King of Beasts, as the model throughout history is demonstrated by its appearance among the earliest drawings made by humans over 15,000 years ago. The myth of the supernatural powers of the lion survives today; by consuming or wearing parts of a lion it is believed that one can revive lost powers, cure illness, attain courage and win immunity from death.
To be continued.

Tags: Lion

Martin Purple...

Description 7-8 1/2" (18-22 cm). Our largest swallow. Adult male dark steel-blue. Female and immature male duller above, pale gray below. Overhead, similar in shape to European Starling, but flight more buoyant and gliding.
Habitat Open woodlands, residential areas, and agricultural land.
Nesting 4 or 5 white eggs in a mass of grass and other plant material placed in a cavity -- sometimes a hole in a tree or a martin house with many separate compartments, where the birds nest in a colony.
Range Breeds from British Columbia, central interior Canada, and Nova Scotia southward, but absent from interior western mountains and Great Basin. Winters in tropics.
Voice Liquid gurgling warble. Also a penetrating tee-tee-tee.
Discussion The custom of erecting a martin house to attract these beneficial birds was practiced by the early settlers and, before them, by the southern Indian tribes, who hung clusters of hollow gourds in trees near their gardens. In other areas, the species nested in tall dead trees riddled with woodpecker holes, but these original colonies never reached the size -- as many as 200 pairs -- of colonies found in large martin houses today. In the West, it tends not to occupy martin houses, preferring the open countryside or downtown areas, and is becoming scarcer, probably due to competition with European Starlings for nest sites.

Tags: bird, Martin purple

Garden patrol: help control pest...

As a gerdener, it can be your worst nightmare: watching helplessly as hordes of destructive insects attack your plants. With a little planning and simple landscaping, however, you can help moderate garden pests naturally in your yard. Your weapon: bug-eating birds. "During the late spring and summer months, insects make up the great majority of many avian species' diets," says NWF Chief Naturalist Craig Tufts. The trick to enticing these birds to your property, he notes, is to first learn which of them range in your area, and then to plant appropriate types of native cover that provide insect- and bird-attracting natural foods--leaves, fruit, pollen and nectar--to sustain both adults and their insect-dependent nestlings. Tina Phillips, project leader of Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Bird House Network, adds, "The most important thing to do to attract birds to your yard is to provide an enticing habitat, not just a nest box. Birds choose a nest site based on its surrounding habitat."
Along with native vegetation, offer birds a water source and a few different nesting sites: brush piles, ledges, nest boxes, shrubs and various types of trees--including dead tree limbs and trunks. "As long as they don't create a safety hazard for people, dead trees provide nesting areas and are a great food source for insectivores," says Tufts.
Needless to say, birds will not completely rid your yard of insects, and even if they could, you wouldn't want them to do so. Some insects are imperative for a healthy garden, and birds do not discriminate between destructive and beneficial bugs. But they can help keep insect populations in your neighborhood at a stable, balanced level, benefiting both you and your neighbors. Subsequently, you'll have a nicer garden to show for it throughout the summer.
Which bug-eating birds are the best ones to attract to your yard? There's no simple answer. Scientists cannot say for sure how many insects a certain bird will eat in a summer day. But depending on where you live, the following ten species can be valuable allies in your efforts to sustain a vibrant garden:

Tags: Bird,Garden pest

Whale...Part One

Whales are the largest species of exclusively aquatic mammals members of the Cetacea which also includes Dolphins and porpoises. They include the largest known animals to have ever existed.
The term whale is ambiguous: it can refer to all cetaceans, to just the larger ones, or only to members of particular Family within the order Cetacea. The latter definition is the one followed here. Whales are those cetaceans which are neither dolphins (i.e. members of the families Delphinidae or Platanistoidea nor porpoises. This can lead to some confusion because Orcas ("Killer Whales") and Pilot Whales have "whale" in their name, but they are dolphins for the purpose of classification.

Tags: Whale

To be continued.

The world's first hypoallergenic cats may soon be curling up and purring in the laps of allergy sufferers, a U.S. company announced yesterday

The cats are not transgenic animals—their genes have not been altered to make them less of an allergy risk.
Instead Allerca officials say they searched for natural variations in the cat gene that controls allergy-inducing properties and then bred cats with the desired trait.
Leslie Lyons, an assistant professor in the school of veterinary medicine at the University of California, Davis, specializes in research on domestic cat genetics and is not involved with Allerca's work.
"People breed cats all the time, so why not a company who has used empirical data to identify hypoallergenic cats?" Lyons said.
"Siberian cats have been toted by breeders as being hypoallergenic for a long time," she said.
If Allerca used Siberians—or another low-allergen breed found through genetic screening—Lyons thinks a hypoallergenic breed could be developed in as few as "one to two crosses."
Megan Young, Allerca's CEO, said that the firm has simply "taken selective breeding to the next level."
Allerca officials are closely guarding their scientific data, and independent parties have yet to publicly verify the cats' hypoallergenic status.
But Young says human-exposure trials conducted by Allerca and an independent lab revealed that known cat-allergy sufferers ranging from mildly to highly allergic showed no signs of reaction when in contact with the newly bred cats.
She also notes that Allerca plans to submit its findings for publication in a peer-reviewed journal in early 2007.

Tags: Cat

A must read...

Do you know that...Giraffes are the tallest mammals in the world. They grow up to 18 feet tall. They weigh between 2000 and 4000 pounds. Their bodies from front to hind legs are about 5 feet long. Giraffes are known for a beautiful pattern on their skin: large, brown spots on the yellowish background. Differences in pattern divide giraffes into two main groups: reticulated giraffes and blotched giraffes. The spots of reticulated giraffes are large, very similar in shape, and not much of the background is visible. It seems that the animal is all brown, but it is covered with a yellowish net. This kind of giraffe has no pattern below the knees. Blotched giraffes have a pattern that is not so regular. The spots have odd shapes and sizes. You can see more of the background, and its color is darker. Blotched giraffes are divided into smaller groups still depending on how their pattern looks like. The pattern of each giraffe is unique, and there are no two identical giraffes in the world.Via:

Tags: Giraffe, wildlife

hometown.aol.com

The endangered specie...

There are several different types, or subspecies, of tigers, and their names reflect where they live geographically. Pressures from illegal killing, or poaching, and habitat loss have already driven three tiger subspecies to extinction while the remainder are threatened with the same fate. Tigers belong to the cat family, and are the biggest of the big cats, a group which includes lions, jaguars and leopards.
Although there is some variation in size among the subspecies, males generally measure about 11 feet from their nose to the tip of their tail and weigh about 400 pounds. Females are slightly smaller measuring a little more than 8 feet and weighing about 300 pounds. Males also have ruffs of hair around their cheeks.
Like housecats, tigers have retractable claws. They can pull their claws into a protective sheath to prevent them from becoming worn down while walking on rocks or hard ground they also try to keep them very sharp.

Tiger, Wildlife

Do you know that...

Large female edible crabs carry up to 20 million eggs when pregnant. The cushion starfish pushes its stomach out of its body through its mouth to catch food. Blennies can actually change their colour to help them avoid predators.

This week the Wembury Marine Centre, near Plymouth will reopen its doors after a major refurbishment. These fascinating facts along with a whole suite of new displays are set to stun audiences for years to come and help spread the marine conservation message to more people just in time for the summer tourist season.

Since opening in 1994, around 15,000 people have visited the Centre each year enjoying marine themed activities and games whilst learning about the county’s threatened seas at the same time. After more than a decade of heavy use, the Centre’s interpretation panels and aquaria needed rejuvenation. Now the Centre has been totally refitted with exciting displays and interactive games which will help widen people’s awareness of the wildlife of Wembury’s coastline

Tags: wildlife, news

Dhole...

The Dhole is a pack hunter from Asia. Their color is a reddish brown with long tails tipped in black. They weigh between 27-45 pounds. There has been much prejudice against the Dhole and they have been poisoned, shot and trapped. There may be up to 25 members in a pack. Dholes have a wide range, from the Indian jungles to the Siberian forests. Dholes hunt deer, wild boar, and buffalo. Dholes are now facing extinction.

Tags: Dhole, wildlife