Clownfish

Facts:

• Clownfish belong to a group of small, brightly colored fish called damselfish.
• It gets its name from its distinctive black and white markings.
• Clownfish and sea anemones have a symbiotic, mutualistic relationship.
• The sea anemone protects the Clownfish and provides food through the scraps left its meals.
• The clownfish defends the anemone and cleans it from parasites.
• The anemone functions as a safe nest site for Clownfish.

Scientific classification of Clownfish:.

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Actinopterygii

Order: Perciformers

Family: Pomacentridae

Subfamily: Amphiprioninae

Level of endangerment:

Clownfish is indeed endangered. Few years back it wasn´t so. There were plenty of Clownfish swimming happily on reefs and lagoons. After the movie “Finding Nemo” hit the cinema Clownfish got suddenly extremely popular and they were in high demand as pets.

Population:

The population of anemone Clownfish is stable; however over collecting these creatures would cause a threat to these animals.

Habitat: Clownfish can be found in the warm waters of the Indian and Pacific oceans. They can be also seen on the Great Barrier Reef and the Red Sea.

Clownfish live in sheltered reefs or in shallow lagoons at the bottom of the sea. No Clownfish live in the Atlantic.

Nourishment: In the wild Clownfish eat such live food as algae, plankton, mollusks and crustacean. Around 20-25 percent of its diet consists of algae. Clownfish also feed on small invertebrates which could be harmful to the sea anemone. A portion of the Clownfish diet also includes undigested food from their host anemone.

Breeding: Clownfish lay their eggs in batches on the coral or rock near the anemone. The male guards the eggs until they hatch 4-5 days later. In some species of the clownfish, the male cares for the babies until they reach sexual maturity. When they are have reached it, they leave to find their own host anemone.

Peculiar habits: Clownfish tend to live in groups. They consists reproducing female and male and all the other clownfish in the group are neuter, which means they have not fully developed functioning sex organs for either gender

 In these groups there is a strict dominance hierarchy. The largest and most aggressive female is at the top. Only two clownfish, a male and a female, in the group reproduce.

 Clownfish are “sequential hermaphrodites”, which means that they develop into males first, and when they mature, some of them will become females.

If the female should die, the male will change sex, while the biggest neuter clownfish will develop functioning male sex organs to replace the male. The remaining males of the group will move up a rank in the hierarchy.

Sources:

• Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clownfish

• Shedd the worlds aquarium

sea.sheddaquarium.org/sea/fact_sheets.asp?id=72

Sugar Glider

Scientific classification 

Kingdom: Animalia, Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia, Infraclass: Marsupialia

“Sugar Gliders get their name from their "sweet tooth" and because they have a fold of furred skin stretching from their forefeet to their hind feet which they spread out like a kite to help them glide through the trees searching for insects and nectar!”

 Level of endangerment

 “Unlike many native Southern Australian animals, particularly smaller ones, the sugar glider is not

endangered.”

 But sugar glider’s several other relatives are endangered for example Leadbeater’s Possum and the Mahogany Glider. Sugar glider isn’t endangered because it is adaptable and capable of living for example in small bushes.

There’s a law that protects sugar gliders in South Australia.

  

Population

 Usually sugar gliders live in groups of up to seven adults plus the little sugar gliders. Together they defend their territory and they also take care of each other especially when the female sugar gliders have babies.

Habitat

 Sugar gliders live in eastern parts of Australia and in surrounding islands of Tasmania, Papua New-Guinea and Indonesia. They live in woods where they can find enough food and especially in woods that have eucalyptus trees in them.  They are nocturnal, so they sleep in daytime and are wide awake at night. 

 

Nourishment

 Sugar gliders eat insects, small vertebrates and feed on the sweet sap of certain species of eucalyptus, acasia gum trees.                      

 

Breeding

 The age of when they can reduce offspring varies slightly between males and females.  The males reach maturity when they are 4-12 months old and the females when they are 8-12 months old.  Living freely in the wild sugar gliders breed once or twice per year. Their breeding depends on the climate and habitat conditions.  If the conditions are great and the climate is too they can breed multiple times a year. Usually the mom sugar glider has one or two babies at a time. The gestation period is 15-17 days, after that baby sugar glider crawls in the mother’s pouch and begins to grow.  The baby sugar glider stays 60-70 days in mother’s pouch and grows while drinking milk from her mother.  Eventually the baby sugar glider comes out the pouch and will start to learn how to live in the outside world.

 

Peculiar habits

 - Sugar gliders can glide (almost like a flying squirrel)

- Eats/drinks nectar

- They can fall into hybernation for a short period of time, when the weather in a particular area becomes too cold or there are long periods of food scarcity

Other information

 You can get your own sugar glider an they are excellent pets!

Sources used

 http://animal-world.com/encyclo/critters/Sugar_Gliders/Sugar_Gliders.php#Environment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_glider

Blob fish

Classification: Fish

Level of endangerment:  It’s near extinction because of the deep sea trawling and extreme habitat

Habitat: Blob fish lives near the coasts of Australia and Tasmainia. They live near  the bottom of the sea in the depth of 800 meters. The pressure there is about 80 times higher than above the sea.

Nourishment: Mollusks and other little cratures. It just floats just above the sea bottom and waits for a meal to come by.

Breeding: The famale lays thousands of eggs, floats above and sometimes even sits on them unlike most of the fish. It’s not even uncommon to find groups of blob fish nesting right next to each other.

Peculiar habbits: Blob fish has no muscles. It’s body is gellylike mass which has slightly smaller dension than water aroud it. That’s how it can float aroud the seabottom without using any muscles. It also has a humanlike face because of its large nose between two eyes. It looks like it’s frowning. The blob fish is said the be the most miserable looking marine animal in the world.

 

Sources: http://www.itsnature.org/sea/fish/blob-fish/, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/7077472/Blobfish-worlds-most-miserable-looking-marine-animal-facing-exinction.html

Alpheidae

Classification: Crustacean.

Level of endangerment: Most of the snapping shrimps are not listed among the endangered animals, except for the Crinoid snapping shrimp. It is threatened by reef destruction and siltation.

Population: The family is diverse and worldwide in distribution, consisting of about 600 species within 38 or more genera. The two most prominent genera are Alpheus and Synalpheus, with species numbering well over 250 and 100.

Habitat: Most snapping shrimp dig burrows and are common inhabitants of coral reefs, submerged seagrass flats and oyster reefs. While most genera and species are found in tropical and temperate coastal and marine waters, Betaeus inhabits cold seas and Potamalpheops is found only in freshwater caves.

Nourishment: Omnivores.

Breeding: The species Synalpheus regalis lives inside sponges in colonies that can number over 300 members. All of them are the offspring of a single large female, the queen, and possibly a single male. The offspring are divided into workers who care for the young and soldiers who protect the colony with their huge claws.

Peculiar habits: Pistol shrimps are known for having one disproportionately large claw that has evolved into a very specialized function – to be used as a sonic cannon against its prey. The shooting of a pistol shrimp can be described as a snapping noise. When the shrimp slams shut its claw a high-velocity jet of bubbles is emitted from the claw at incredible speeds. These bubbles are under such extreme pressure that when they burst it causes an effect known as cativation, creating temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun.

Other information: Some pistol shrimp species share burrows with goby fishes in a symbiotic relationship. The burrow is built and tended by the pistol shrimp, and the goby provides protection by watching out for danger. When both are out of the burrow, the shrimp maintains contact with the goby using its antenna. The goby, having the better vision, alerts the shrimp of danger using a characteristic tail movement, and then both retreat into the safety of the shared burrow.

Sources used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpheidae , http://www.eearth.tv/?p=15 , http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/crustacea/othercrust/shrimp/alpheidae.htm , http://www.freshmarine.com/pistol-shrimp.html .

Hippopotamus (Tehnyt Susanne Vierimaa ja Sebastian Niskala)

Hippopotamus
”Hippo”

The hippopotamus (riverhorse) is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa.
Hippos has been added to the International union for conservation of nature and natural resources’s red list of threatened species in year 2006. The reason why is that they are threatened by habitat loss and poaching for their meat and ivory canine teeth.

There are two species, or kinds, of hippopotamus: the common (river hippopotamus) and the pygmy hippopotamus which is not as endangered as the common hippo. The common hippopotamus weighs about 3 tonnes (male) and 1.5 tonnes (female). The pygmy hippopotamus is much smaller, standing at less than 1 metre high at the shoulder.
There are an estimated 125,000 to 150,000 hippos throughout Sub-Saharan Africa; Zambia (40,000) and Tanzania (20,000–30,000) possess the largest populations.
Hippopotamus is living in and around lakes. The pygmy hippo lives in forest streams.

Hippos breeding is happening when the female hippo is ready to breed she goes out to choose a mate and he must behave in a respectful manner as she enters his refuge.
One of the peculiar habit of hippo is when the male hippo uses his stumpy, flat tail as a catapult to spread the "bullshit" to mark territory and paths on land, also to intimidate opponents and impress females.

The hippopotamus is one of the largest four legged mammals. Despite its stocky shape and short legs, it can easily outrun a human. Hippos have been clocked at 30 km/h over short distances. The hippopotamus is one of the most aggressive creatures in the world and is often regarded as one of the most dangerous animals in Africa.

Platypus

The Platypus!

The platypus, being an unlikely mix of duck, beaver, and otter, while being a mammal that lays eggs has baffled naturalists for generations.

 

Classification:

The platypus is a semi aquatic Australian mammal.

Level of endangerment:

They were hunted in the early 20TH century for there fur but is no longer considered an endangered species

Population:

The population of the platypus is unknown, although the platypus is common throughout its original range, with the exception of South Australia its abundance is not easily measured.  An introduced population is present on Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia.

Habitat:

The platypus inhabits streams and rivers throughout the highlands of Tasmania, the Australian Alps, Queensland’s tropical rainforests and also parts of Australia as far north as the Cape York Peninsula. It once inhabited other parts of Australia as well but because of poor water quality, pollution and deforestation the population there has been reduce.

Food:

Platypuses mostly hunt underwater. There main dietary intake consists of yabbies(various insect larvae), shrimp, crayfish, earth worms, meal worms, May flies, dragonflies, mussels, trout eggs, frog eggs, tadpoles, small frogs and fish. 

Unique Habitats:

The platypus displays a unique form of breeding for a mammal; it is one of 2 animals that lay eggs instead of giving live birth while still feeding its young milk. The mother usually gives birth to two eggs and by holding them between her tail and body keeps them warm for around 10 days before they hatch. At this stage they are as big as Lima beans are completely helpless, it will take another  three to four months of the mother platypus’s care before the babies are able to swim on there own.

Platypuses swim gracefully by paddling with their front webbed feet and steering with their hind feet and beaver like tail. Folds of skin cover their eyes and ears to prevent water from entering, and the nostrils close with a watertight seal. In this posture, a platypus can remain submerged for a minute or two and employ its sensitive bill to find food. Interesting facts

Extra information:

They are known to be a timid creature with excellent swimming and diving abilities. You will find the most unique features of this animal is the body structure. Duck-Billed Platypuses have one of the lowest body temperatures of any mammal, being around 30°c while there bill on the end of their face is an extended snout that is covered with receptive nerve endings. The platypus eats during the night hours and can eat its own body weight in food during one night. The male platypus contains venomous ankle spurs that are located on its forelegs. The venom produced is non-lethal to humans, but is capable of inflicting a painful wound. The affected area becomes edematous and in some cases, long-term hyperalgesia can result. According to deposits found in New South Wales, ancestors of the platypus can be dated back to approximately 110 million years ago.

Bibliography:

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/platypus/

http://australian-animals.net/plat.htm

http://animal.discovery.com/mammals/platypus/

http://www.theanimalfiles.com/mammals/egg_laying_mammals/duck_billed_platypus.html

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/platypus/

http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/albania/323/food.html

http://www.edgeofexistence.org/mammals/species_info.php?id=533

Salamanders are big!!

The Chinese giant salamander

The Chinese giant salamander is the largest salamander in the world. It can grow to 180 cm of lenght (6ft), though nowadays they rarely reach that size. The salmander is considered as critically endangered, and is endemic to rocky mountain streams and lakes in China. The population of the giant salamander is estimated to have declined 80 percent during three generations due to pollution, loss of habitat and over collecting.

Salamanders are classified as amphibians, the same class as frogs. The chines giant has a large head small eyes and dark wrinkly skin. It doesn't have gills so under water it breathes trough its skin. It feeds on insects, frogs, and fish. Because of its poor eye sights it depends on nodes that run in a line on the creatures body, from head to toe. With these nodes they can sense the slightest movement around them.

Female salamanders can lay up to 500 eggs in an uderwater breeding cavity, which the male guards until they hatch.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_giant_salamander

http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiinanj%C3%A4ttisalamanteri

http://webecoist.com/2009/02/03/the-9-strangest-animals-on-earth/
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