Category Animal World

How the bolas spider catch it prey?

The bolas spider constructs an ingenious “bolas”. A bolas is a type of ancient south-American throwing weapon made of weights on the ends of interconnected cords. It was used to capture animals by entangling their legs. The bolas spider spins its bolas with a sticky glob of silk at the end of another silken thread. At night, it holds its weapon with one of its legs, ready to fling. Female bolas spiders use a different trick. They mimic the chemical signal of a female moth, and lure male moth suitors. When the predator senses the wing vibrations of an approaching moth, it produces a bolas, and throws its “lasso” to capture its meal.

 

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How the Margay cat catch it prey?

The beautifully-marked margay is a small wild cat native to Central and South America. It lives in primary, deciduous evergreen forest and hunts alone at night. Until the 1990s, margays were hunted illegally for their skin, which resulted in their population decreasing drastically. Margay reportedly uses an incredible mimicry tactic to attract prey in the Amazon jungle. Because the cat is so elusive, scientists have not been able to photograph the creature snaring its prey. So far, what scientists know comes from the stories told by locals. A group of researchers working in Brazil reported that a margay (Leopardus wiedii) makes calls to resemble the sound of a pied tamarind (monkey) baby. The margay would pounce on the parents when they come down looking for the baby.

 

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How Net-casting spiders catch their prey?

Net-casting spiders have long legs and large eyes. They use their silk to weave a stamp-sized net, with which they enclose victims with a lightning-quick movement. The spider sets its trap meticulously: first it leaves white-faeces on the ground as target points. Then with its net held between its front legs; it hangs on a thread, lying in wait. When an unsuspecting creature crosses its trap, the spider stretches its net quickly and traps the victim. It then bits the trapped prey and wraps it up ready to eat. The spiders’ huge eyes help them to see well in low light, and have earned them the alternative name “ogre-faced spiders”.

 

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Which are the animals who are hunted for their body-parts?

Birds, fish and mammals are food; people rear them in farms for mass production and sell them packaged as meat.

Sadly, animals are not killed for food alone. The Indonesian government brought alarming news to the Convention on International trade in endangered species (CITES) held in Johannesburg, South Africa. They said the colourful helmeted hornbill is being hunted non-stop for its casque (the hard part on its beak) and a sudden explosion in demand for the hornbill casque is driving the bird to extinction very fast.

The casque is usually spongy, but in the helmeted hornbill it is solid keratin (protein). It is like soft ivory. Its colour is golden yellow, but the bird rubs it’s casque (horn on top of the beak) on its preen gland, whose oily secretion gives the surface of the casque a bright red colour.

The bird species seen in Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo has suddenly been discovered by the world and is heading to extinction. It is in the category of “critically endangered “. For thousands of years, tribals of the Indonesian rainforests have carved various objects out of the ivory of the helmeted hornbill . In 2011, the Chinese begins to buy the carved ivory products in large numbers. From 2012 onwards, the birds have been hunted mercilessly and their heads are now being smuggled to ports in Sumatra and Java and then on to Hong Kong and Taiwan. Bird protection groups estimate that nearly 6,000 birds are killed every year.

The male helmeted hornbill has the ivory. And it is the male bird with the casque that feels the female when she has her chicks and stays in the nest. Killing off the male will starve the female and wipe out the bird population altogether. It may be a good idea not to buy products made of ivory.

Hippopotamus

The hippopotamus, or river horse, spends up to 16 hours a day submerged. Threat to their lives comes from people hunting them for their meat and ivory (teeth in the case of hippos). Strangely,  these herbivores spend most of their time in water with only their face sticking out so they can breathe. The hippo is still a target for hunters who get paid thousands of dollars to kill them.

Great White Shark

The Great white shark is hunted for its fins. Shark fin soup is a delicacy and people believe it will cure certain ailments . Fishermen across the global catch a million of these sharks, cut off their fins and then throw the sharks back into the water. This inhumane practice is a death warrant for these beautiful creatures. Unable to swim, they starve, drown or are eaten by other marine animals. The white shark is also hunted for sport which is also illegal.

African Lion

The African Lion is fast on its way to becoming an endangered species. Their populations have dwindled to half since the 1950s, but it is legal to hunt them for prices in sport competitions. The lines are hunted in two ways.  One, they are hunted in the wild, in forests. Two, the lions are caught and are let loose in game reserves so people can hunt them for pleasures. This is called “canned hunting”. For canned hunting sometimes cubs are reared by humans and are eventually released in an enclosed area. In confined area, the “customer” is guaranteed a kill.

Tiger

Only about 4000 tigers may be left in the wild. Tigers are poached for almost all their body parts – skin, meat, nails, teeth. Tiger skins, bones, teeth and claws are used in traditional medicine. They are believed to cure toothaches and protect against malicious curses, among other problems. Some countries allow tiger farming, but poaching continues since tiger parts fetch huge amounts of money in the market.

Asian & African Elephant

Elephants everywhere are being slaughtered by poachers and hunters for their tasks. Trade of elephant tusks continues to grow as the demand for ivory increases, though stiff penalties have been in place since the 1990s. Hunters go on a safari and helped by professional trackers locate and kill the animals at close range with high calibre weapons.

Black Rhino

Between 1970 and 1992, 96 percent of the black rhino population was killed for their horns, making their numbers critically endangered. The Vietnamese and the Chinese believe the horns can cure a multitude of health problems. Cruelly, their horns are hacked off and the rhinos are often left to die.

Hawksbill Sea Turtle

Although Hawksbill sea turtles are found from the Caribbean Sea to the Indonesian archipelago, their numbers have dwindled so much that they have been listed as almost extinct. Poachers hunt hawksbill for their shells, which are made into ornaments and decorative items and are sold worldwide as travel souvenirs. Hawksbills are killed for their oil, which is used in traditional medicine.

Mush Deer

Thousands of male musk deer have been killed for their musk pods, a gland that produces the musk. This musk, a brown, waxy substance, can be extracted from live animals, but “musk gatherers,” who get big money for the secretion find it easier to kill the deer. Today synthetic alternatives to musk are available, but the hunting hasn’t stopped. Musk is used in traditional medicines for treating cardiac, circulatory and respiratory problems.

 

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Will the Black-footed ferret survive the onslaught of urbanisation?

The black-footed ferret is a long, slender animal. Nature has made these mammals that way to enable them to easily slip through prairie dog burrows. You may wonder why they haunt these burrows – it’s because their main diet is the prairie dog! Also, they make the burrows their cosy home. They weigh between 1.5 and 2.5 pounds and can grow up to 24 inches long. A strip of dark fur across their eyes gives them the appearance of wearing a mask – rather like bandits!

This member of the weasel family once roamed the prairies from southern Canada to Texas but is now one of the most endangered mammals in North America. In the early 1900s, the United States was perhaps home to over 5 million ferrets. Early in the 20th Century, when agricultural development took place in the U.S., rodent poisons practically wiped out prairie dog populations and in turn the ferrets. Thirteen years after they were listed as endangered in 1967, the last captive ferret died, and the animals were thought to be extinct in North America. Then in 1981 a small population was discovered in a Wyoming prairie dog colony. Between 1991 and 1999, some of these ferrets were released in Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Arizona and along the Utah/Colorado border. And that’s how they were brought back from the brink of extinction. Biologists estimate that are now well over a 1000 black-footed ferrets living in the wild. The average life span of a ferret in the wild is 1-3 years, and 4-6 years for ferrets in captivity.

There are only three ferret species on Earth: the European polecat, the Siberian polecat, and the black-footed ferret. The black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) is the only ferret species native to North America. Female ferrets are called “jills”, males are called “hobs” and the young ones are called “kits”. The slender animal has buff or tan fur, with black feet, tail tip, nose and face mask. It has triangular ears, hardly any whiskers, a short muzzle, and sharp claws.

While their main diet is the prairie dog, in regions where prairie dogs hibernate in winter, ferrets feed on mice, voles, ground squirrels, rabbits, and birds. Black-footed ferrets get water by consuming their prey. Ferrets are preyed upon by eagles, owls, hawks, rattlesnakes, coyotes, badgers, and bobcats.

Except when mating or raising their offspring, black-footed ferrets are solitary, nocturnal hunters. They use prairie dog burrows to sleep, catch their food, and raise their young. They are vocal animals their sounds ranging from hisses, whimpers to loud chattering. Like domestic ferrets, they perform the “weasel war dance”, consisting of a series of hops, often accompanied by a clucking sound (dooking), arched back, and frizzed tail. In the wild, the ferrets may dance to distract prey as well as to show they are enjoying life.

 

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What is migration?

            Migration is a fascinating phenomenon that Nature repeats every year. It is the seasonal movement of some animals, from one place to another, year after year, usually across vast distances.

            Birds, fishes, mammals, insects and reptiles all migrate. Animals migrate for many reasons. It may be to find food, or to escape harsh weather. Some may travel thousands of miles in the spring, and then, thousands of miles back in the fall.

            Animals also migrate in search of better food supplies, or a safe place to give birth to their young. Such migrations happen on a regular basis. Irregular migrations are sometimes triggered by famine or over-population.

            The Arctic tern, the sea bird, travels from one end of the world to the other end every year! This is the longest migration undertaken by any bird. This bird flies in zigzagging routes between breeding grounds in the Arctic and Antarctica each year, a distance of around 70,900 kilometres. They will spend about four or five months in Antarctica, before heading back to the Arctic. Scientists have extensively studied the evolution of migration. But no single theory has been fully accepted.

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