Category Animal World

               Have you ever gone fishing in a lake or river? From time immemorial, fish has been close to Man either as food or pet.

               Like human beings, fishes have backbones. There is a general misconception among common people that all animals that live in water are fish. That is manifest in addressing certain animas such as shellfish, starfish and cuttlefish as fish. However, that is incorrect because they are evidently different from true fish. The previously mentioned animals are invertebrates-animals without backbones.

               There are mammals too. Whales and porpoises cannot be categorized as fish as they are mammals that have adapted to life in the sea. These animals cannot breathe underwater like fishes, as they have to come up to the surface to breathe.

               Fishes, therefore, are aquatic animals with vertebra that live and breathe in the water. They have special anatomical features that help them in water such as gills, fins and scales. These animals possess basic vertebrate features, such as a brain, eyes, ears, blood, muscles and bones.

            Snakes in India are treated with not only fear but also prayerful worship. However, many a species is in grave danger because of several reasons.

            The most important of them is deforestation. The felling of trees is a big blow to reptiles. Most reptiles live in forests.

            As India’s population grows rapidly, forests are disappearing and reptiles face the danger of being wiped out. Highways that cut through forests are deadly for these hapless animals. Many meet their end under wheels of vehicles as they try to cross these roads. Although many snakes eat rats and thus help farmers, all snakes mistakenly believed to be dangerous, and are killed in every encounter. Crocodiles are also killed for the same reason. Many species of turtles were used as food and medicine.

            However, there is improvement in these matters today, thanks to the efforts of wildlife officers, and the rising publicity about the threatened status of these turtles. The illegal pet trade is another threat to turtles.

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               Our Earth is a sanctuary of biodiversity and there are creatures with the strangest characteristics. One such animal is the tuatara.

               The tuatara is a strange reptile. It looks like a lizard; however, it is not a lizard. It is not a snake or turtle or crocodilian either. These creatures have remained beyond evolution as well. Tuataras have remained unchanged over millions of years. The tuataras in the age of the dinosaurs were the same as the tuataras of today. The tuatara is slow by nature. They grow slowly. Male tuataras grow to a length of 60 centimetres, but females are slightly shorter. The female tuatara lays 10 to 10 eggs in a shallow burrow. The eggs take long 15 months to hatch. This is the longest time for any reptile. Tuataras can live for over 120 years.

               Although snakes frighten us in several ways, it generally does not do so by flying! Snakes do not usually fly, because they do not have wings. However, if you ever go to Southeast Asia, you might see a snake flying over your head! If snakes do not have wings, how do they manage to fly?

               These snakes, in fact, are not really flying like a bird. They are merely gliding from one tree to another. A flying snake launches itself at high speed from a perch on a tree, raises its limbs, and flattens its body to form a kind of parachute. A flying snake cannot take an upward flight. They glide only downwards. It may even swish and contort itself in flight so that it can control where it lands.

               Flying snakes can hunt their prey in the air too, crushing small animals with their powerful jaws. A flying snake can glide as much as 24 metres in the air!

               There is a group of is islands 965 kilometres off the coast of Ecuador in South America. They were discovered in 1535, and are called Galapagos Islands. The islands were famous for the huge tortoises that lived there. The name of the islands derives from these reptiles. ‘Galapago’ in Spanish means saddle, and refer to the tortoise shell. It is believed that long, long ago these giant turtles must have arrived in the island from South America, on pieces of driftwood.

               Galapagos tortoises are the largest tortoises in the world. One of the most amazing facts about the Galapagos Giant Tortoise is that they keep growing for 30 to 40 years, reaching almost 1.5 metres. They also weigh about 227 kilogrammes. They are also the longest living of all vertebrates – that is, animals with backbones. Do you know these animals outlive humans? The oldest on record lived for 152 years!

               Throughout the 19th century, giant tortoises were valued by sailors as food supply. Thousands of these tortoises were killed and the species died out. The last surviving tortoise called Lone-some George died in 2012 at the Galapagos national park in Ecuador.

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            Some reptiles are excellent hunters. Crocodiles and alligators, in particular, are very clever at stalking, capturing and killing their prey. The gharial crocodile, which has a long narrow snout, eats mostly fish, and it captures its prey by a rapid sideways snap of its tooth-lined jaw. Alligators and crocodiles with broader snouts also eat fish, but their diets vary according to  their age.

            The young reptiles feed mainly on insects, spiders, crabs and small frogs. They will circle their prey with their bodies and with a sudden sideways movement of their jaws, trap them and eat them.

            Adult crocodiles and alligators eat small mammals, birds, turtles and other reptiles. They will approach their prey stealthily with their bodies submerged under water and only their eyes and tip of their snout above the water. When they are near the prey, they submerge themselves completely. With the help of their powerful tails, they reach up to the prey and capture them. Their vice-like, tooth-lined jaws snap shut with an enormous force and kills the smaller prey immediately. Larger animals are dragged underwater, drowned and then killed and eaten, sometimes over the span of several days.

Picture credit: google