Cute Snowballs: Polar Bears

Facts about Polar Bears      

     Polar bears are large bears. They have strong legs with large, flattened feet that help with walking on ice and swimming. The wide paws prevent sea ice from breaking by distributing weight while the bear is walking. In addition, the wide paws serve as paddles to help polar bears swim faster. They are also partially webbed.      

      The polar bears' fur has two layers--one for trapping in heat close to the body and another for trapping heat and repelling water. The outer layer of fur is hollow and reflects light giving the fur a white color. The white fur helps the bear camouflage in the icy and snowy habitat.

     In addition, they have a layer of blubber below the surface of the skin. The blubber acts as insulation on the body to trap heat. This is especially important while swimming.   

     Most polar bears inhabit the Arctic and around the North Pole (not including polar bears that are captive).  The countries that encompass the Arctic include Canada, Russia, Norway, Denmark (Greenland) and Alaska (United States).  Polar bears thrive in these Arctic conditions because this is where their food sources are, and their bodies are made to handle the harsh Arctic conditions, even the winter one.   

Working for Food

     Polar bears spend a great deal of their time in the Arctic Ocean hunting and searching for food.  In the winter months they walk on the ice and look for seals and in the summer months they wait on the shore for them.  Polar bears know how to use the climate and the land conditions to their benefit when hunting for seals.  They will walk on an ice floe (a sheet of floating ice) and look for hole or cracks in the ice.  Since seals have to breathe at some time they wait there for a seal to come up for breath.

Become Endangered  Due to Global Warming

     Polar bears are in serious danger of going extinct due to global warming. Rising temperatures cause sea ice to melt, especially in the summer months when the polar bears are the most active.
     Polar bears depend on sea ice  as habitat for hunting and dens. As available sea ice decreases, polar bears have to swim farther to find suitable habitat and it takes much longer to find a meal. Compounding the problem, sea ice loss also impacts polar bears main food source--seals.

Polar Bears are Special

     Of all of the wildlife species in the Arctic, the polar bear is perhaps the most fitting icon for this ecoregion. Its amazing adaptations to life in the harsh Arctic environment and dependence on sea ice make them so impressive, and yet so vulnerable. Large carnivores are sensitive indicators of ecosystem health. Polar bears are studied to gain an understanding of what is happening throughout the Arctic as a polar bear at risk is often a sign of something wrong somewhere in the arctic marine ecosystem.

Interesting Facts about Animals Under the Water

Dolphins sleep with one eye open.  

Dolphins sleep at night just below the surface of the water. They frequently rise to the surface for air.

A goldfish has a memory span of 3 seconds.

A squid has 10 tentacles.

A scallop has 35 blue eyes.

The Sea Horse is the slowest fish, drifting at approximately 0.016 km/h. 

The small car on the road is probably the size of the heart of a blue whale. 

The length of an elephant is the same as the tongue of a blue whale. 

The crocodile's tongue is unmovable, as it is attached to the roof of its mouth. 

Sharks apparently are the only animals that never get sick. As far as is known, they are immune to every known disease including cancer.

A father sea catfish keeps the eggs of his young in his mouth until they are ready to hatch. He will not eat until his young are born, which may take several weeks.

An electric eel can produce a shock of up to 650 volts.

Goldfish lose their color if they are kept in dim light or are placed in a body of running water, such as a stream.

Intersting Facts about Reptiles Amphibians and Insects

The average garden-variety caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head.

Mosquitoes have 47 teeth.

The Poison Arrow frog has enough poison to kill 2,200 people.

A snail's reproductive organs are in its head.

When a horned toad is angry, it squirts blood from its eyes.

Snakes can see through their eyelids.

The praying mantis is the only insect that can turn its head 360 degrees. 

The strongest animal in the world is the rhinoceros beetle. It can lift 850 times its own weight. 

Katydids have ears in their front legs. 

A chameleon's tongue is twice the length of its body.

A Chameleon can focus its eyes seperately to watch two objects at once.

Many snakes never stop growing. That's one reason they must shed their skin.  

A leech is a worm that feeds on blood.

All clams start out as males; some decide to become females at some point in their lives.

Certain frogs can be frozen solid then thawed and continue living.

Dragonflies are one of the fastest insects, flying 50 to 60 mph.

In its entire lifetime, the average worker bee produces 1/12th teaspoon of honey.

The fastest -moving land snail, the common garden snail, has a speed of 0.0313 mph. 

Interesting Facts about Mammals and Birds

Mammals are the only creatures that have flaps around their ears.

Cows can have regional accents.

Bulls are color blind.

A cow's only sweat glands are in its nose.   

An elephant can be pregnant for up to 2 years.    

A mule won't sink in quicksand but a donkey will.

More people are killed annually by donkeys than in airplane crashes.

Pigs can cover a mile in 7.5 minutes when running at top speed. 

The giraffe has the highest blood pressure of any animal.

Zebras can't see the color orange.

It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs.

A rat can go without water longer than a camel can.

Polar bears are left handed.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

A domestic cat can frighten a black bear to climb a tree.

The typical hen lays 19 dozen eggs a year.

A swan is the only bird with a penis.

The left leg of a chicken in more tender than the right one.

The only dog that doesn't have a pink tongue is the chow.   

Dogs and humans are the only animals with prostates.

Chickens can't swallow while they are upside down.  

A dog was the first animal to up in space. 

Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.
The bones of a pigeon weigh less than its feathers.
The cheetah is the only cat in the world that can't retract its claws.
The mouse is the most common mammal in the US.
The penalty for killing a cat, 4,000 years ago in Egypt, was death.

A sheep, a duck and a rooster were the first animals to fly in a hot air balloon. The oldest breed of a dog known to mankind is the ‘Saluki’. 

Hippos have killed more than 400 people in Africa - more than any other wild animal.
Rats can't throw-up.

The largest egg from a living bird belongs to the ostrich. It is more than 2,000 times larger than the smallest bird egg, which is produced by the hummingbird. 

A group of owls is called a parliament.

A group of ravens is called a murder.

A group of bears is called a sleuth.

 

Lovely Friendship Between Animals

Juvenile Animals

Best Facial Expression Award

Heart Warming Animals

We are BIG!

The largest tree dwellers: Orangutans.
The largest animal on land: Africal Elephants.
The largest creature on earth: Blue Whales(even bigger than the biggest dinosaurs!).
The largest living marsupial:  Red Kangaroos.
The tallest living land animal: Giraffes.
The most heavy weighted:  Hippopotamus.
The largest carnivores:  Pinnipedias, the Southern Elephant Seals.
The largest living land carnivores:  Polar Bear and the Brown Bear.
The largest whale:  Baleen Whales.
The largest bat: Giant Golden-Crowned Flying Fox.
The largest ungulates:  White Rhinoceros.
The largest living primates:  Eastern Lowland Gorillas.
The largest living rodent: Capybaras.
The largest living reptile: Saltwater Crocodiles.
The largest living turtle: Leatherback Sea Turtle.
The largest animals to ever live on land: Sauropoda.
The largest living bird: Ostrich.
The largest bird in the fossil record: Elephant Birds.
The largest living amphibian: Chinese Giant Salamander.
The largest living bony fish: Ocean Sunfish.
The largest living Cartilaginous Fish: Whale Shark.
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Shy Cutey Guys, Rhinos are Disappering.

     Borneo rhinos have walked the earth for millions of years, yet the modern population stands at less than 40 individuals. Can the littlest rhino be saved?

 

First-ever photo of a rare Borneo rhino in the wild.

     In year 2006, Scientists have captured the first-ever photo of the extremely endangered Borneo rhinoceros in the wild.

     Conservationists believe the newly photographed rhino is one of the few of these beasts remaining in the wild, and probably belongs to the small population of 13 discovered in 2005 in the interior forests of Sabah, Malaysia, which was the first confirmed sighting in 20 years.



  
Rhinos Threats: Vanishing Home

A Sumatran Rhino

     The Borneo Rhinoceros is in fact one of three subspecies of Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) and is critically endangered, with less than 40 individuals left in the wild in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Sumatran rhinos were once widespread throughout Southern and South Eastern Asia, but they are now found only in isolated patches of forest in Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Sumatra and possibly Myanmar, although current political situations have prevented detailed study here.

     Many centuries of overhunting this slow breeding mammal, coupled with dramatic habitat loss have reduced the numbers and range of Sumatran rhinos to a tiny fraction of their former distribution. The species is now regionally extinct in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, India, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Thailand and Viet Nam. However poaching activities continue, particularly to supply a demand for traditional Chinese medicines despite zero evidence of rhino horn possessing any significant medicinal properties.
     Both Malaysian and Indonesian rainforest are still under threat from both legal and illegal logging, threatening further displacement of rhinos and fragmentation of their habitat. Borneo rhinoceroses are particularly threatened by their low population density; very few individuals existing in isolated pockets of forest, making it unlikely that fertile individuals will come together for breeding purposes.

How to Help Rhinos

• Never buy goods made from rhino horn, or any other wild animal product for that matter and discourage friends and family from doing the same.
• Report anyone who offers wildlife products for sale –it is not only the Borneo rhino that suffers as a result of this trade. Hundreds of other species are threatened with extinction due to the illegal wildlife trade.
• Support organisations such as the WWF and BORA in their vital work to save species from extinction.
• Spread the word –rhino horn is not medicine. There is no evidence that rhino horn is a remedy for any medical condition.

Read more at : The Borneo Rhinoceros -World's Smallest Rhino http://www.suite101.com/content/the-borneo-rhinoceros--worlds-smallest-rhino-a254670#ixzz0zObgmQ1O

Elephants Do Addition.

     Elephants are famous for their supposedly superb memory. Now it seems that they are good at simple maths too. 




Counting Game

     Researchers at the University of Tokyo have found an Asian elephant named Ashya can add small quantities together and correctly identify which is larger.
     For example, when researcher Naoko Irie-Sugimoto dropped three apples into one bucket and one apple into a second, then four more apples into the first and five into the second, Ashya correctly identified that the first bucket contained more apples and began munching on her tasty prize.
      Ashya and her companions chose the correct bucket 74% of the time. "I even get confused when I'm dropping the bait," Irie told New Scientist magazine.

      The elephants' counting abilities are far from unique. Chimps, salamanders and pigeons have shown numerical abilities in lab tests, but what is more impressive for the elephants is that their ability to distinguish between two figures does not get worse when those numbers are more similar.

Why Good at Math?

      The elephants that Irie-Sugimoto tested were as good at telling the difference between five and six as they were at distinguishing between five and one.
      She presented her findings last week at the International Society for Behavioral Ecology's annual meeting in Ithaca, New York.
      It is not obvious why elephants should need this mathematical faculty in the wild. "It really is tough to figure out why [elephants] would need to count," said Mya Thompson, an ecologist at Cornell University who studies elephants.

      One possibility is that they use it to keep track of other members of their herd so that no individual is left behind. Asian elephants live in close-knit groups of six to eight. "You really don't want to lose your group members," she said.

      Another possibility is that a propensity for simple maths might be a by-product of natural selection for a larger brain, said Irie-Sugimoto.

Scalier Lord of the Jungle: Tarzan the Chameleon.

The Treasure from Madagascar

(Photograph: Frank Glaw/National Geographic)

     Five-inch-long (13-centimeter-long) Calumma tarzan was found recently in a tiny patch of forest on the vast Indian Ocean island of Madagascar, a new study says.
     The new species' name,  Calumma tarzan, has multiple roots. For one thing, the chameleon's habitat—in what locals call the Tarzan Forest—is near the village formerly known as Tarzanville
(recently renamed Ambodimeloka).

Unique Flat Snout

     The Tarzan chameleon was found on a 2009 night survey in eastern Madgascar, which lies off the east coast of mainland Africa.
     Scientists immediately recognized the reptile as unique from other chameleons, due to its flat, spadelike snout, Gehring said.
     Though the species' numbers are unknown, Gehring and colleagues suspect the Tarzan chameleon will be added to the ranks of critically endangered species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.
(See related pictures: "Over 200 New Amphibians Found in Madagascar.")

Tarzan Forest Fragmented

     Large scale of deforestation, which has accelerated throughout Madagascar since a 2009 political coup, has turned the chameleon's habitat into a patchwork of isolated forest fragments, some no bigger than a soccer field.
     Combined, the fragments account for just about four square miles (ten square kilometers), Gehring said.
     Even though the habitat is broken into pieces, the team found up to 60 chameleons in one fragment alone, suggesting the new species can survive in the remaining pockets—and that the Tarzan chameleon could still come out swinging.

The Elegant Dorcas Gazelle

(Photo: Frithjof Spangenberg)

   
     The Dorcas gazelle (Gazella dorcas) is closely related to the mountain gazelle, but is different on a few points. They have longer ears and they have curvier horns.
     These species can be found in northern Africa and throughout the Sahara and Negev deserts and parts of the Middle East. Their coats vary in coloration, depending on the subspecies and location.


Life in the Desert

     The Dorcas Gazelle is highly adapted to the desert. They can go their entire lives without drinking, as they can get all of the moisture they need from the plants in their diet, though they do drink when water is available. They are able to withstand high temperatures, but when it is very hot they are active mainly at dawn, dusk and during the night. In areas where they face human predation, they tend to be active only at night in order to minimise the risk of falling prey to hunters. These gazelles feed on leaves, flowers and pods of many species of Acacian trees, as well as the leaves, twigs and fruits of various bushes. They occasionally stand on their hind legs to graze on trees, and after rain they have been observed digging out bulbs from the ground.

     Dorcas Gazelles are able to run at speeds of up to 80 km per hour, and when threatened they tail-twitch and make bouncing leaps with the head held high (stotting) to announce that they have seen a predator.

The Shrinking Habitat

     The population of this gazelle has declined throughout its range.
     The natural predators of Dorcas Gazelles include the cheetah, leopard, and the lion, but due to hunters, there aren't very many large cats left to eat them.
     The main threat to this species is ever-expanding civilization. People's industrial and living areas shrink the gazelle's habitat, and by introducing new flocks of domestic sheep and goats which compete with the gazelle for vegetation.

The Cat that Stalks Alone---The Leopard

About Leopards
     The leopard can be found in all of sub-Saharan Africa and west of the Kalahari Desert, and it is also found in the Middle East (Iran, Pakistan) and Asia (China, India, Indonesia, and Nepal). Since the leopard has such a wide range, there are probably over 30 subspecies of leopard. The leopard's habitat is temperate broad-leaf and mixed forests. However, it's rarely found in cold or high-elevation environments and is best known in its more familiar home in the savannas of Africa, where populations are relatively stable.

     Leopards hunt by night; capture and kill deer or boars thanks to their vivacity (Leopards are almost as quick as cheetahs.), they eat then in trees on which they climb, thanks to their powerful paw muscles, and spend most of their time.


Leopards' Threats

     Leopard hunting for its fur was once very popular causing a significant decline in the 1960s and 70s. Today threats to the species include trapping and poisoning by farmers who consider the leopard a nuisance to their livestock, habitat loss, commercial hunting, and decline in prey populations. Although listed and protected, the leopard is actually doing well in the wild with the latest population estimated at over 500,000 worldwide.