Showing posts with label amphibians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amphibians. Show all posts

Friday, December 28, 2012

Amazon Rain Forest



      The Amazon Rain Forest


  The Amazon River Basin is home to the largest rain forest on Earth..Today the Amazon River is the most voluminous river on Earth, eleven times the volume of the Mississippi, and drains an area equivalent in size to the United States. During the high water season, the river's mouth may be 300 miles wide and every day up to 500 billion cubic feet of water (5,787,037 cubic feet/sec) flow into the Atlantic..


  The Amazon is home to more species of plants and animals than any other terrestrial ecosystem on the planet -- perhaps 30% of the world's species are found there. Its biodiversity is astounding: a single bush in the Amazon may have more species of ants than the entire British Isles, while a lone hectare of forest may have more than 480 species of trees. Take a look at some of these examples of the Amazon's biological richness:




  • The Amazon rain forest is the largest tropical rain forest in the world, covering over five and a half a million square KiloMetres (1.4 billion acres).
  • Over half of the Amazon rain forest is located in Brazil but it is also located in other South American countries including Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Guyana, Bolivia, Suriname and French Guiana.
  • 10% of the world’s known species live in the Amazon rain forest.
  • 20% of the world’s bird species live in the Amazon rain forest.
  • It is home to around 2 and a half million different insect species as well as over 40000 plant species.
  • There are also a number of dangerous species living in the Amazon rainforest such as the cougar, jaguar and anaconda.
  • While the protection of the Amazon rainforest remains an issue, deforestation rates have been reducing while areas of conserved land have been increasing over the last 10 years.
  • In both 2005 and 2010 the Amazon rainforest suffered severe droughts that killed off large amounts of vegetation in the worst affected areas.
  • A recent study by climate change experts suggests that a 3 °C rise in world temperatures by the year 2010 would destroy around 75% of the Amazon.


Amazon Deforestation


Amazon is the most biggest Rain forest on earth.this contains the major potion of all organisms on earth..But ,now these resources are facing serious threats of destruction..
Between May 2000 and August 2005, Brazil lost more than 132,000 square kilometers of forest—an area larger than Greece—and since 1970, over 600,000 square kilometers (232,000 square miles) of Amazon rain forest have been destroyed. Why is Brazil losing so much forest? What can be done to slow deforestation? 

In many tropical countries, the majority of deforestation results from the actions of poor subsistence cultivators. However, in Brazil only about one-third of recent deforestation can be linked to "shifted" cultivators. A large portion of deforestation in Brazil can be attributed to land clearing for pastureland by commercial and speculative interests, misguided government policies, inappropriate World Bank projects, and commercial exploitation of forest resources. For effective action it is imperative that these issues be addressed. Focusing solely on the promotion of sustainable use by local people would neglect the most important forces behind deforestation in Brazil. 


Colonization and subsequent subsistence agriculture





A significant amount of deforestation is caused by the subsistence activities of poor farmers who are encouraged to settle on forest lands by government land policies. In Brazil, each squatter acquires the right (known as a usufruct right) to continue using a piece of land by living on a plot of unclaimed public land (no matter how marginal the land) and "using" it for at least one year and a day. After five years the squatter acquires ownership and hence the right to sell the land. Up until at least the mid-1990's this system was worsened by the government policy that allowed each claimant to gain title for an amount of land up to three times the amount of forest cleared.

Poor farmers use fire for clearing land and every year satellite images pick up 
tens of thousands of fires burning across the Amazon. Typically under story shrubbery is cleared and then forest trees are cut. The area is left to dry for a few months and then burned. The land is planted with crops like bananas, palms, manioc, maize, or rice. After a year or two, the productivity of the soil declines, and the transient farmers press a little deeper and clear new forest for more short-term agricultural land. The old, now infertile fields are used for small-scale cattle grazing or left for waste.

Between 1995 and 1998, the government granted land in the Amazon to roughly 150,000 families. Forty-eight percent of forest loss in 1995 was in areas under 125 acres (50 hectares) in size, suggesting that both loggers and peasants are significant contributors to deforestation


We must take appropriate actions to prevaent the massive destruction of the world's enchanting source of life,the Amazon...


pls visit this link to see more


Thursday, December 27, 2012

Extincted Animals & Birds

Extincted Animals


  There is a very huge diversity of organisms in this world.they shape a beautiful diversity on this earth.But now most of the organisms facing greatest threat of extinction from humans and other sources..

In this article i introduce some varieties of animals that survived strongly on past and disappear from world due to some unknown problems.. 

DINOSAURS


It isn't hard to imagine the world full of dinosaurs,..Eeven though these extinct animals haven't walked the earth for millions of years. Learn all about dinosaurs, including early dinosaur discoveries, dinosaur fossils, and dinosaur extinction.


    Most people think of dinosaurs as big, ferocious and extinct reptiles. 
That's largely true, but there are some misconceptions.
 Dinosaurs came in all shapes and sizes. Dinosaurs were the largest land animals of all time, 
but a great number of dinosaurs were smaller than a turkey.!!!

Dinosaurs appear first about 250 million years ago.
They ruled the Earth for about 135 million years until an extinction event 65 million years ago wiped out all but bird-like dinosaurs. Scientists don't agree entirely on what happened, but the extinction likely was a double or triple whammy involving an asteroid impact, choking chemicals from erupting volcanoes, climate change and possibly other factors..


Everyone imagine that they are very gigantic animals..
no one knows the real facts about these huge animals,Dinosaurs..



Mammoth

Mammoth, an extinct animal related to and resembling the elephant. Mammoths were abundant during the Ice Age.
They are very gigantic animals lived in prehistoric era..
They highly resembles Elephant.


Mammoths


Mammoths had long curved tusks, shaggy dark hair, and humped backs.Thousands of mammoths have been found frozen in the soil of Siberia and Alaska. Many are perfectly preserved, even to the stomach contents mostly grass and leaves. Remains of dwarf mammoths, which were about six feet (1.8 m) high at the shoulder, have been found on islands off the coasts of California and Siberia.
Stone Age people hunted mammoths and drew pictures of them on the walls of caves. Most mammoths became extinct about 10,000 years ago; some dwarf mammoths lived as recently as 4,000 years ago. Over-hunting by humans and a warming of the climate may have together caused the extinction of mammoths.



Extincted Birds



DODO


Dodos
Dodos were flightless birds the size of large turkeys.


Dodo, a large flightless bird that once lived on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean but is now extinct. The dodo was related to the pigeon, but was the size of a large turkey. Its body feathers were gray; breast and tail feathers were white. A bulbous hooked beak, short, stubby legs, and curly tail feathers gave the dodo a comical appearance. The dodo was a clumsy, slow-moving bird but it flourished on Mauritius because it had no natural enemies.

  Solitaires, birds related to the dodo, lived on the nearby islands of Runion and Rodriguez. By 1800 they, too, had become extinct.
The dodo and the solitaires belonged to the family Raphidae. The dodo was Raphus cucullatus; the Runion Island solitaire, R. solitarius; the Rodriguez Island solitaire, Pezophaps solitaria.



Stellers Sea Cow


Stellers Sea Cow



    The Stellers sea cow was a large marine mammal that was found in abundance in the North Pacific. These enormous animals were closely related to the dugong and the manatee still found grazing in the oceans today, but were of considerable size at between eight and nine meters in length.
The Stellers sea cow was first discovered in 1741 by explorers that ventured into parts of the Arctic Circle. When they were first recorded, the Steller's sea cow was said to be living in abundance in the North Pacific, however in less than 20 years of human contact, the Stellers sea cow had disappeared from the ocean completely.


The Sabre-Toothed Tiger

Sabre-Toothed Tiger



The sabre-toothed tiger is one of the most well-known prehistoric animals along with giants such as the woolly mammoth. Sabre-toothedtigers roamed the mid-western US and parts of both North and South America and were named for the enormous canines which skeletons show, protruded quite far out of their mouths.
Despite it's name, the sabre-toothed tiger was not actually related to the modern tigers that are found throughout the jungles of Asia. It is thought that the sabre-toothed tiger would have roamed across the grassland plains and open woodlands throughout both North and South America where individuals would of varied slightly depending on the area which they inhabited.
The sabre-toothed tiger is one of the best known ice-ageanimals but little is really known about them as they are thought to have become extinct around 10,000BC which is a long time ago. The sabre-toothed tiger was named for the canines that could grow to more than 7 inches in length and were capable of fatally wounding their prey with one bite.


Sabre-Toothed Tiger Facts

Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Order:Carnivora
Family:Felidae
Genus:Smilodon
Scientific Name:Smilodon populator
Type:Mammal
Diet:Carnivore
Size (L):2m - 2.5m (79in - 98in)
Weight:300kg (661lbs)
Life Span:20 - 40 years
Lifestyle:Pack
Conservation Status:Extinct
Extinct:10,000 BC
Colour:Tan, Brown, Yellow, Black, White
Skin Type:Fur
Favourite Food:Deer
Habitat:Forests and grasslands
Average Litter Size:3
Main Prey:Deer, Bison, Woolly Mammoth
Predators:Humans
Distinctive Features:Large muscular body and long canine teeth

Passenger Pigeon





     The earliest settlers in the New World were amazed by the passenger pigeon, a bird with flocks so huge that it would take days for them to travel overhead, blackening the sky as they passed. 
    Any farmer who had the misfortune of hosting passenger pigeons for a meal would quickly find his entire crop decimated within the blink of an eye. Then, virtually overnight, the most abundant bird in North America suddenly disappeared from the planet.
  
     The extinction of the passenger pigeon is an example of nature coming into direct conflict with man. Its population numbered an astounding 3 to 5 billion when the first Europeans arrived in America. However, there was not room enough in the New World for both species.
    Passenger pigeons were soon wiped out due to merciless hunting, deforestation and other factors related to humankind's ever-expanding range. The extinction was only becoming apparent at the start of the 20th century; by 1914, the last known bird was dead.






Quagga
Quagga
    The Quagga is a mammal closely related to modern horses and zebras. In fact, it looks like a cross between a horse and a zebra, with stripes only on its head and neck that disappear as they approach the brownish hindquarters of the animal. The quagga was native to desert areas of South Africa until it was hunted to extinction in the 1870s. The last captive animals died in Europe in the 1880s.
    As an extinct species, the quagga has a couple claims to fame. For starters, it was the first animal to have its DNA analyzed, which led to the discovery that the quagga was not a distinct species but a subspecies of the plains zebra. Also, the quagga is the subject of an ambitious breeding effort by the aptly named Quagga Project, the result of which was a foal born in 2005. Based on appearances, the "re-created" quagga closely resembles the ancient quagga, but DNA evidence has yet to determine whether this animal is authentic.




Vancouver Island Marmot


     The rodent is one of the most endangered mammals in North America, with less than 40 individuals found in an area less than 10 sq. km. Logging is most likely the cause of its diminishing numbers.






Black Rhino


    The population of the black rhino declined by 90% over the last six decades, thanks chiefly to poaching. But since the mid 1990's — when fewer than 3,000 of the African rhino existed — the population has increased steadily, and now there are over 4,000.




Iberian Lynx


Believed to be the most endangered mammal in Europe, the Iberian lynx, found mostly in Spain, has fewer than 150 individuals in the wild. It's dying out because its main source of food — a rabbit — is also declining rapidly.





Amphibians kingdom

Amphibians kingdom

Frog


      Frog, a small tailless amphibian. Scientifically, there is no distinction between frogs and toads. Both belong to the same order of the class Amphibia, and are collectively called anurans. Popularly, anurans that live in or near freshwater are usually called frogs. They vary in size from certain South American frogs less than one-half inch (13 mm) long to the 10-inch (25-cm) Goliath frog of Africa.



Common Frog, Norway

The Common Frog (Rana temporaria) also known as the European Common Frog or European Common Brown Frog


Bullfrog at DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge





Bullfrog


Spade Foot Toad



  Spade foot Toad, the common name for a family of Amphibians. 
Spade foot toads are widely distributed over Europe, southern Asia, northwest Africa, and North America. The family is named for those members that have a “spade”—a crescent-shaped projection used in digging burrows—on the side of their hind limbs




Spadefoot toads make up the family Pelobatidae. The North American species are all of the genus Scaphiopus.

Now the frogs are also facing serious threats of Extinction...
most of the species are now vanished from planet..
every organisms plays a vital role in the ecosystem.Destruction of any one of these species lead to the Unbalance of the ecosystem..


                          Common Frog Facts

Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Amphibia
Order:Anura
Family:Ranidae
Genus:Rana
Scientific Name:Rana Temporaria
Type:Amphibian
Diet:Carnivore
Size (L):6cm - 10cm (2.4in - 4in)
Weight:20g - 80g (0.7oz - 2.8oz)
Top Speed:8km/h (5mph)
Life Span:5 - 10 years
Lifestyle:Solitary
Conservation Status:Least Concern
Colour:Black, Green, Grey, Brown
Skin Type:Permeable
Favourite Food:Insects
Habitat:Forests, rivers and marshes
Average Clutch Size:1,500
Main Prey:Insects, Worms, Snails
Predators:Foxes, Snakes, Birds
Distinctive Features:Short back legs and webbed toes