Category Zology

Which is the fastest flying bird?

Spotting a white-throated needletail swift is not easy. They do not hop about on the ground for one thing. In fact they never land on the ground if they can help it. And they are one of the fastest birds in the sky, reaching a top speed of around 170 km per hour! So it may be difficult to get a good look at them as they whizz past.

This greyish brown swift has a white throat patch, as well as a whitish patch on its back. It measures around 21 cm and weighs 120 grams. It is found in Australia, Central Asia, Sweden, Norway, Great Britain and Siberia. It is called needletail due to its tapering tail, which is not forked as with other swifts.

It builds its nest in rock crevices, cliffs or high up in tall trees. It avoids hunting on the ground and catches its food on the wing. It eats insects like beetles, flies, bees, locusts, grasshoppers, cicadas and moths. The needletail has very short legs which it uses only for clinging to vertical surfaces.

It constructs a cup-like nest made of twigs and straw stuck together with its own saliva. The female lays 2 to 7 eggs and both parents incubate the eggs for a period of around 23 days. This bird was first described by the English ornithologist John Latham in 1801.

It is listed under ‘Least Concern’ on the IUCN Red List.

Picture Credit : Google

Who is the ultimate speed king?

The ultimate speed king on the planet, with no competitors on land, water or the air, is the peregrine falcon. This superbird achieves an unbelievable speed of 321 km/h during its famous downward ‘stoop’ (dive) to catch prey.

This large-sized falcon has a blue-grey back, barred underparts and a black head. It hunts birds like pigeons, ducks, songbirds and gulls.

It has special tubercles in its nostrils to guide the air and prevent damage to its lungs during a dive. Its vision is 8 times better than a human’s and it has a third eyelid to protect its eyes during those super-fast dives. It swoops down in a curve to decrease drag and strikes its prey mid-flight, knocking it out!

The word peregrine means wanderer or pilgrim. These birds may fly around 30,000 kilometres every year from Europe to Africa during winter.

The peregrine falcon has faced many unforeseen threats over the years. One of the birds it likes to hunt is the pigeon. However, during the First World War thousands of peregrines were killed because they were a threat to messenger pigeons carrying important military messages to and fro.

A large number also perished due to the rampant use of the pesticide DDT, which entered their systems through food. This pesticide made peregrine eggs brittle and a huge number of eggs broke, depleting their numbers drastically. After many countries banned the use of DDT, population figures have been picking up. They are currently listed under ‘Least Concern’ in the IUCN List.

Picture Credit : Google

HOW DOES SEAWEED GROW IN INDIA?

Seaweed is being hailed as a miracle crop that absorbs more carbon dioxide than trees. For women in coastal villages in Tamil Nadu, cultivating seaweed has empowered them with a source of income.

India is the world’s third-largest carbon polluter, behind China and the U.S. Authorities are looking to seaweed farming to help reduce the impact of greenhouse gas emissions, reverse ocean acidification, improve the marine environment, and provide a sustainable livelihood for coastal communities.

Marine scientist M. Ganesan says that seaweed provides a possible way forward as coastal habitats and wetlands absorb five times more carbon than terrestrial forests. “It is a miracle crop in many ways, it is eco-friendly, it doesn’t use land or fresh water. It absorbs carbon dioxide dissolved in water during photosynthesis and oxygenates the entire marine ecosystem.” Seaweed absorbs an estimated 173 million metric tons of carbon annually.

When seaweed dies and drops to the seafloor, its carbon is locked up in the sediment. As a result, seaweed cultivation has been identified as a carbon sink that could help alleviate climate change.

Lakshmi Murgesan is part of a team of women who cultivate seaweed on bamboo rafts; one raft yields upto 200 kilos in 45 days, of which 50 kg is used to cultivate the next raft. She makes Rs 20,000 each month farming seaweed, and says, “I would not have been able to educate my children but after doing this, I could send to college.” my children

The product is sold in markets nationwide as well as the U.S. and Australia through AquAgri, a private company. India, which has an 8,000 km coastline, aims to boost production from the current 30,000 tons to more than 1 million tons each year by 2025.

Picture Credit : Google

What is an albatross?

Have you heard the term ‘albatross’? It means an unwanted burden in English. Did you know the term is coined after a giant seabird of the same name?

An albatross is the largest seabird in the world. It has an incredible wingspan that can reach up to 3.35 metres – the longest of any bird. This graceful sentinel of the sky spends most of its life soaring high above the oceans in the southern hemisphere. An albatross lives most of its life out in the open Oceans and may touch land after 5 or 6 years only for the purpose of breeding!

While at sea, they eat krill, fish and rubbish from shipping vessels and sometimes follow ships for many days eating from its discarded waste.

It is this habit that caused it to be immortalized in ST Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. Here a sailor shoots an albatross that follows his ship and dooms the crew with bad luck. He is forced to wear the dead albatross around his neck as punishment by the rest of the crew. Hence, an albatross around the neck signifies great problem.

The albatross is probably the most loyal bird in the world. It mates for life and its ‘divorce rate’ is zero! If its mate dies it will not search for another partner. It also has an extremely low reproductive rate, laying just one egg in a year or two!

Picture Credit : Google 

Which is the largest fish?

We now know that the blue whale is the largest sea creature, but it is not a fish. It is a mammal. So, you might ask -which is the biggest fish in the ocean? The answer is the ‘whale shark’. You might further ask – is it a whale or a shark? To answer, the whale shark is not a whale, but a shark. However, owing to its massive size (it is known to reach lengths of more than 12 metres), it has earned the name ‘whale’ shark.

Like many whales and unlike most sharks, it is a filter feeder. In another deviation from sharks, its mouth is located at the front of its head rather than on the underside of its head. However, like all true sharks it breathes with the help of gills, unlike whales which breathe air like humans do. Also, as with all sharks, its skeleton is made of cartilage.

Larger whale sharks may weigh up to 54,400 kg. It would follow that such enormous sharks would be top predators in the ocean, but the whale shark is a harmless fish. It feeds on tiny organisms called plankton that float in the ocean. It uses its massive mouth, which can stretch up to 1 metre wide; to take in the plankton-rich waters using sieve-like structures called filter pads to separate the food from water.

Picture Credit : Google 

Which is the largest reptile?

When it comes to reptiles, there is none deadlier than the saltwater crocodile. Reaching lengths of 2 metres and weights of 1,000 kgs, this apex water predator is the largest of all reptiles found on Earth. Saltwater crocodiles are hyper-carnivorous, opportunistic predators that will eat anything that they can get their jaws on!

They appear lethargic as they bask on riverbanks or float motionless in the water but are capable of lightning-fast strikes at unsuspecting victims. They usually drag their prey into the water. Armed with a lethal bite which is among one of the most powerful in the world, there is no escaping once a ‘saltie’ latches onto a hapless victim.

Unlike other crocodiles who are confined to river systems, this crocodile fares very well in the open seas as well. They are able to travel long distances on ocean currents and learn to track the migratory route of their prey with very little prior conditioning. They are known to be very aggressive towards humans and are more likely than other types of crocodile to treat humans as prey.

Picture Credit : Google