Giant Japanese Spider Crab


All three subspecies of Vampire Bat have been listed as being of Least Concern of becoming extinct in the wild in the immediate future, due to the fact that they are widespread and feed on a variety of warm-blooded animals. Deforestation of their natural habitats along with persistent Human efforts to eradicate who colonies at a time however, have led to population declines in certain areas. Scientists have also discovered though that the anti-coagulant found in the Bat's saliva, proves to more effective at preventing blood clotting than any medicine, meaning that this could have significant positive implications for patients with strokes or heart attacks.

Area:  India, southeastern China, the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia, and the Philippine Islands

Size:  Up to 18 feet (that's as long as a giraffe is tall!)

King cobras make a deep, loud hissing sound. Like the rattle of the rattlesnake, the hiss is a warning signal that can be heard from a distance. The message is: "I am big, bad, and will bite you if you come any closer!"

Most cobras are known to protect their eggs after laying them, but the female king cobra does even more. She uses her body and head to move leaves around to build a nest. After she lays her eggs, she covers them with more leaves, and stays on top of the nest until the eggs hatch.

When a fully grown cobra rears up, it can reach as tall as an adult human.
The King Cobra is the largest venomous snake. The solitary King Cobra lives in rainforests, tropical deciduous forests, tropical scrub forests, and tropical grasslands of India, southern China, and southeast Asia. Several of people die from the bite of the King Cobra each year. A King Cobra can even kill an elephant.

The King Cobra can slither on land, climb on trees, and swim on water; it often lives near water. It has a life span of about 20 years.

Like all snakes, King Cobras are cold-blooded; they are the same temperature as the environment. They continue to grow all their lives, getting bigger and bigger each year.

Like all snakes, they swallow the prey whole, head first. The top and bottom jaws are attached to each other with stretchy ligaments, which let the snake swallow animals wider that itself. Snakes can't chew their prey; food is digested by very strong acids in the snake's stomach.

The King Cobra eats mostly cold-blooded animals, including snakes (like the rat snake) and lizards. After swallowing a large animal (which can take hours), the King Cobra can go without food for months.

Reproduction: Female King Cobras build a leafy nest early in spring; they lay up to 20 to 50 white, leathery eggs, which have an incubation period of 60 to 70 days. Nesting females are very dangerous.

Tucuxi Dolphin

Sotalia fluviatilis

The Tucuxi dolphin (pronounced 'too-koo-shee') (Sotalia fluviatilis), is "the world's only exclusively freshwater delphinid" (IUCN) - a freshwater member of the family of Oceanic Dolphins within the order of cetaceans. It is closely related to the Costero (Guiana Dolphin - Sotalia guianensis). Tucuxi is the form of Sotalia in the Amazon region and Costero occurs in the marine and estuarine waters of eastern South and Central America and the Caribbean. Threats to the Tucuxi include water pollution, hydroeclectric facilities, noise pollution and habitat destruction. 

The Tucuxi dolphin  quite closely resembles the Bottlenose dolphin, but is slightly smaller with a mean body length of 1.7 meters (m) for the marine tucuxi and 1.4 m for the riverine Tucuxi. The dorsal fin is triangular in shape, curved to the back, and extends approximately 11 to 13 centimeters (cm) in height. The flippers are slightly broader in comparison to other dolphins. The eyes are about 18 millimeters in diameter. The iris is brown with a longitudinal oval pupil. In general, the Tucuxi is dark gray on its dorsal side and pale pink on its ventral side with a distinct line separating these two regions. An area of pale gray starts behind the pectoral fin and another gray area starts from the mid-body and runs to the anus. The tip of the beak and tip of the dorsal fin are occassionally white.

The breeding system is polyandrous (where each female has more than one male partner), with males exhibiting aggression toward other males in the breeding season. 

The average body length at which the marine Sotalia fluviatilis reaches sexual maturity is between 160 cm to 170 cm. The gestation period of the Sotalia fluviatilis is approximately 11 to 12 months. The birth size of the marine Tucuxi is 60 to 65 cm, and for the riverine subspecies, 71 to 83 cm. Birth occurs during October or November when the water levels are low. (da Silva and Best. 1996) 

Lifespan

Relatively little is catalogued regarding the species lifespan in the wild; however, one individual in captivity lived to the age of about 32.

Sotalia is found to be most active in early morning or late afternoon. It is a slow swimmer and rarely jumps from the water. However, in the wild populations this species displays acrobatics and behaviors such as vertical and lateral jumps, somersaults, surfing in the waves of the boats, and rolling on the surface of the water. Captive tucuxi do not display aerial stunts voluntarily.

The two types of tucuxi have similar social groupings with 1-30 individuals. Groups often swim in perfect synchrony.

Sotalia fluviatilis produces echolocation at 8-15 kHz, 30 kHz, and 95 kHz. The rates of the clicks are 10-70 per second when animal is moving. The short pulses and high rates of repetition allow distinction of objects at distances less then 15 cm. Whistling has also been reported in the wild riverine tucuxi, and a higher frequency whistle has been reported when the animals are agitated in captivity.

Aggressive behavior occurs amongst males during breeding season. (Nowak 1999,da Silva and Best 1996). 

Occurring in the river systems of the Amazon and the Orinoco, as well as along the coasts from Brazil to Nicaragua, the tucuxi dolphin is split into two subspecies. The freshwater subspecies, Sotalia fluviatilis fluviatilis, inhabits only fresh water and is found as much as 250 km up the Orinoco River system and as much as 2,500 km up the Amazon River system. The marine subspecies, Sotalia fluviatilis guianensis, is found in the coastal estuaries and bays of the east coast of South America as far south as the Brazilian city of Florianópolis. 

Tucuxi are found in the main channels of tributaries as well as in large lakes, but they do not enter flooded forest and avoid rapids. (da Silva and Best 1996, Nowak 1999)

The seasonal fluctuation in river water levels has a great influence on the freshwater subspecies. It enters lakes during high water but leaves as the waters begin to fall to avoid being trapped.  A shy dolphin, the Tucuxi tends to be most active during the early morning and late afternoon, but is usually a slow swimmer that jumps infrequently. It dives for approximately 30 seconds, and uses echolocation to communicate as well as to catch fish and shrimp. Group size varies, but can be up to 20 in freshwater or 50 in the marine subspecies. 

In addition to a diet of chiefly fish and shrimp, the following contents have also been found in the stomach of the Tucuxi: pelagic lupeids, demersal scianids, neritic cephalopods and anchovies.  

Conservation status

The superstition of some fishermen, who believe the Tucuxi dolphin to be a sacred animal that brings the bodies of drowned people back to the shore, has ensured that it has rarely been targeted as a food item. In 1994, the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) Scientific Committee urged member states to reduce by-catch and monitor populations. The IWC had previously started the Sotalia Project with the organisation Brasil's Biologists, which set out to study the behavior and habitat needs of the Tucuxi dolphin, and has managed to build a significant collection of photo identifications. The IUCN lists the species as Data Deficient. 

The greatest danger is incidental capture in the fishing nets belonging to large commerical fisheries. Other concerns are water pollution and hydroelectric dams. The species has been listed under Appendix I since 1982. Sotalia is considered "insufficiently known" by the IUCN. In Brazil, the taxon is protected under the Federal Fisheries Law. An organization in Brazil, the IWC/Brasil's Biologist, started the Sotalia Project in 1991 to study the behavior and habitat needs of Sotalia fluviatilis. Furthermore, the group aims to gain more knowledge on how humans impact the Tucuxi's habitat in Brazil. There have already been hundreds of photo-identifications of the dolphins. (Nowak. 1999; da Silva and Best; 1996)

The Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard. The largest verified specimen reached a length of 10.3 feet (3.13 m) and weighed 366 pounds (166 kg). This may have included a substantial amount of undigested food. More typical weights for the largest wild dragons are about 154 pounds (70 kg). Although the Komodo can run briefly at speeds up to 20 km/hr, its hunting strategy is based on stealth and power. They can spend hours in one spot, waiting for a deer, boar, goat, or anything sizable and nutritious.

In 2009, researchers concluded that Komodo dragons produce venom whose toxins cause the prey animal to go into shock and decrease its blood from clotting.

The stomach expands easily, enabling an adult to consume up to 80 percent of its own body weight in a single meal. Komodos can throw up the contents of their stomachs when threatened to reduce their weight in order to flee.

Komodos eat efficiently, leaving only about 12 percent of the prey. They eat bones, hooves, and swaths of hide. They also eat intestines, but only after swinging them vigorously to scatter their contents. This behavior removes feces from the meal. Because large Komodos eat young ones, the young often roll in fecal material, thereby assuming a scent that the large dragons avoid. Young dragons also undergo rituals of appeasement, with the smaller lizards pacing around a feeding circle in a stately ritualized walk. Their tail is stuck straight out and they throw their body from side to side with exaggerated convulsions.

Komodo dragons are limited to a few volcanic Indonesian islands of the Lesser Sunda group including Komodo, the largest at 22 miles (35 km) long, Rintja, Padar, and Flores.

Komodo dragons eat almost any kind of meat. They scavenge from carcasses or stalk animals ranging in size from small rodents to large water buffalo. The young mostly feed on small gecko lizards or insects. They are tertiary predators (predator at the top of the food chain) and are cannibalistic. They can detect carrion from a considerable distance, about 2.5 miles (4 km), and actively seek it out. Komodos hunt along game trails, where they wait for prey, deer or boar, to pass by. They then attack the prey; most are unsuccessful in bringing down an animal. However, if the dragon was able to bite the deer the toxic bacteria in their saliva will kill the prey within the next few days. At that time, they can use their powerful sense of smell to locate the dead animal. A kill is usually shared by many Komodo dragons and very little is wasted.

Although males tend to grow larger and bulkier than females, no obvious morphological differences mark the sexes.

The hatchlings weigh less than 3.5 ounces (100 g) and average only 16 inches (40 cm) in length. Their early years are precarious, and they often fall victim to predators, including their fellow Komodos. They feed on insects, small lizards, snakes, and birds. Should they live five years they have moved on to bigger prey, such as rodents, monkeys, goats, wild boars, and the most popular Komodo food, deer. Slow growth continues throughout their lives, which may last more than 30 years.

Dragons may live about 30 years in the wild, but scientists are still studying this.

Komodo dragons are endangered due in part to their limited area. Villagers sometimes poison carrion bait to reduce the population, much like ranchers of the American West poison sheep carcasses to rid the area of coyotes and mountain lions.

This poorly known inhabitant of the ocean depths belongs to a genus typically referred to as the ‘lantern sharks’, on account of the number of species exhibiting tiny light-producing organs on the sides of their body (3) (4). Small and stout bodied, the great lanternshark is generally blackish-brown in colour and possesses hooked denticles resembling tiny teeth on its skin (2) (3). The caudal fin is very broad and like other lantern sharks, the two dorsal fins are each preceded by a single grooved spine, the second of which is large and strongly curved (3). In adaptation to the low light levels of its deepwater environment, the great lanternshark has large, sensitive eyes (4).

The available evidence indicates that the great lanternshark only occurs in the North and East Central Atlantic, however, there have been unconfirmed reports of this species in the Western Pacific (1) (3).

This deepwater species typically occurs on or near the bottom of the continental slope from depths of 350 to 2,213 metres, but has also been recorded down to 4,500 metres (1) (3).

Classified as Data Deficient (DD) on the IUCN Red List (1).

The great lanternshark is caught as bycatch by deepwater trawlers over much of its range, but owing to the paucity of information on the species and the overall lack of fisheries information, the status of this species is unknown (1).

Etmopterus princeps is a relatively small (to 75 cm total length), deepwater (350 to 4,500 m) lanternshark occurring in the North and Eastern Central Atlantic. Biology is essentially unknown. This species is subject to bycatch fishing mortality by deepwater trawlers over much of its range and may be under considerable fishing pressure but specific information is not available. It could prove to be Near Threatened on the basis of reductions in population size however, given that so little is known about the species, and the overall lack of fisheries information, it cannot be assessed beyond Data Deficient at this time. Like many deepwater chondrichthyan species, more information on biology, ecology and importance in fisheries are required. Deepwater fisheries in the region need to be carefully monitored and managed.
Atlantic – eastern central; Atlantic – northeast; Atlantic – northwest
Associated with the continental slope on or near the bottom generally at depths of 350 to 2,213 m, but also found on the Lower Rise of the Northeast Atlantic at 3,750 to 4,500 m (Compagno in preparation a). Like other etmopterids, little known of its biology.
Age at maturity (years): Unknown.

Size at maturity (total length): Female: unknown; Male: 55 cm TL (Compagno in prep. a).

Longevity (years): Unknown.

Maximum size (total length): 75 cm TL (Compagno in prep. a).

Size at birth (cm): Unknown.

Average reproductive age (years): Unknown.

Gestation time (months): Unknown.

Reproductive periodicity: Unknown.

Average annual fecundity or litter size: Unknown.

Annual rate of population increase: Unknown.

Natural mortality: Unknown.
Clown fish

Clown fish (also called the Clown Anemonefish) are small fish that live among anemone (fish-eating animals that look like undersea flowers and have hundreds of poisonous tentacles). The anemone's tentacles kill other fish that touch them, but the Clown fish seems to be immune to its poison. Scientists think that the Clown fish may be coated with a mucous that protects it from the poison. The anemone protects the Clown fish from most predators, who know not to go near the anemone's tentacles. The clown fish helps the anemone by cleaning it (as it eats detritus) and perhaps by scaring away predators of the anemone.

There are 28 recognised species of clown fish that are found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The clown fish is also found as far north as the Red Sea and inhabits the Great Barrier Reef, on the Australian east coast.

The clown fish was made most famous from the popular children's film Finding Nemo . Aquatic stores and clown fish breeders reported a significant increase in the popularity of the clown fish although many people did not realise the work that goes into keeping marine fish so sadly, the majority of clown fish bought at the time quickly died.

The clown fish is also famous for it's seeming immunity to the stings of the sea anemone. Most clown fish are found either in or around sea anemones which the clown fish inhabits both for protection from predators but also the readiness of food.

Clown fish inhabit a single sea anemone in groups that include the breeding male and female and a number of younger male clown fish. All clown fish are born male and develop female reproductive organs when needed. When the female in the sea anemone group dies, the dominant male becomes female and breeds with one the males that is inhabiting the same sea anemone.

Female clown fish lay their eggs on a flat surface close to the sea anemone which they inhabit. The female clown fish can lay hundreds or thousands of eggs at one time depending on the species. Clown fish lay their eggs around the same time as a full moon and the male clown fish guards the eggs until they hatch just over a week later.

Clown fish are omnivorous animals meaning that they eat both plants and animals. Clown fish eat a wide range of food such as algae, plankton, mollusks and small crustaceans. The diet of the clown fish is however largely dependent on the species of clown fish and what food is available in the area which they inhabit.

Due to their small size, clown fish are preyed upon by a number of predators but can be difficult to catch are they often retreat into the safety of the sea anemone. Large species of fish, sharks and eels are the main predators of the clown fish in the water but the human is the biggest overall threat to the clown fish as they are caught to keep in tanks and aquariums.

Despite the rising levels of pollution in the world's oceans and destruction of the habitats on the ocean floor, clown fish are not considered to be a threatened species of animal mainly because they lay so many eggs at a time. Even though not all of the clown fish eggs will hatch, a vast number of clown fish fry hatch in every spawn meaning that clown fish numbers remain high in the wild.


Chimpanzees

Biologically, chimpanzees are more closely related to humans than they are to another species of great apes—gorillas. In fact, humans and chimpanzees share about 95 percent to 98 percent of the same DNA.
 

Chimpanzees can catch and be infected with human diseases.

In the wild, chimpanzees seldom live past age 50. Some captive individuals, however, have lived past the age of 60.
 

Chimpanzees are currently found in 21 African countries with the greatest concentrations in what used to be the equatorial forest “belt.”
Chimpanzees make and use tools in a variety of ways. Their toolmaking can also vary based on habitat and location. The typical objects turned into tools at Gombe National Park include stems, twigs, branches, leaves and rocks. Chimpanzees use these objects for many purposes, including feeding, drinking, and cleaning themselves. Sometimes they even use these objects as weapons. In other habitats and in other areas of their range, researchers have observed chimpanzees using and making tools in differing ways. For example,  the chimpanzees of Tai National Park in Cote d’Ivoire crack open nuts with rocks while there is no record of the Gombe chimpanzees using rocks in this manner.

Chimpanzees use more tools for more purposes than any other creature except human beings.