Back To Wild

Most of us know that platypuses are unique because they are mammals (echidnas also lay eggs) but they also lay eggs. They live only in the Australian continent. However, even if you leave that, they still can be fascinating because of certain facts about their ways.

Read on to know more about them:

• When it was first discovered many scientists that the discovery was some kind of a hoax
  The animal is a combination of a duck (webbed feet and bill), an otter (fur and body) and a beaver (its tail).
• Male platypuses are poisonous. With their sharp spikes on the heels of their rear feet they can give quite a toxic blow to their enemies.
• Platypuses hunt for their food under water. They have skin folds that provide protection to their eyes and ears from water. They swim a beaver.
• A platypus can stay under water without breathing for a couple of minutes.
• A platypus can sense food with its bill. They love to eat larvae, insects, shellfish and worms.
• Platypuses do not have teeth. They take in gravel with their food which helps them to chew. They have cheek pouches for this purpose.
• They lay eggs which hatch within ten days. Platypus kids are as small as lima beans. Mother platypuses take care of them for four months (which is quite long for animals) till they can swim on their own.
• In spite of their webbed feet they can run pretty well on the land.

The moon was shook up by volcanoes for a much longer time than what the scientists had earlier thought of. The Japanese lunar satellite KAGUYA exposed the young dark “seas” of the volcanic rock, which took shape 2.5 million years old.

As of date, the existing belief was that lunar volcanism began immediately after the formation of the moon about 4.5 billion years ago and came to an end 3 billion years ago.

Scientists can identify the age of the lunar landscape by the craters that have been blasted by meteors. The more older the region, the more craters it contains.

Less craters can be found on the far side of the lunar maria or the basalt seas, which means they are young.

The findings will force the scientists to reconsider the early geological findings of the moon.

The findings appear in the November 2008 issue of journal Science.

source:

The much glorified Nemo, an orange clownfish made famous by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios, has been cited to sniff its way home. A recent study claims that this fish uses water odors to identify its home. Geoffrey Jones from James Cook University in Townsville, Australia surveyed the water bodies next to Papua New Guinea for clownfish breeding.

Researchers also revealed that the sea anemones, which the regions clownfish called their “home”, were mostly found around islands and beaches with numerous trees rather than around islands only with coral reefs.

Researchers found that the fish have to make great efforts in finding their anemone. It so happens because when the eggs get hatched near their parents’ anemone, the larvae gets swayed away by the ocean currents. As a result, the fish have to find new anemone to survive.

Researchers conducted this survey with the help of chambers – with 2 open sources of water and with a wall on top that separated the portion from the waters. Towards the lower end, there was no wall but the waters were left unmixed with two different kinds of water flowing in. Researchers then put the clownfish into the water to detect their preference for the kind of water odor.

At the start, researchers compared beach water (vegetated islands) with reef water. It was found that the fish preferred beach water as compared to the reef water and stayed on that side of the chamber almost 99% of the time.

The next endeavor of the researchers was to find out as to why clownfish prefer beach water as against other kinds of water. As earlier researchers had revealed that clownfish remain attracted to the chemical cues of anemones, this survey revealed that clownfish preferred water that was exposed to anemones as against those which were not exposed to the same.

However, what made the researchers even more curious was the fact that since the anemones couldn’t reach out to the fishes and that the fish had to do so, there could have been other cues that actually led the fishes to the islands.

Researchers found that the islands were flocked with trees and the water was covered with different kinds of leaves. The team then studied the preference of the fishes with the different kinds of leaves scattered on the surface of the ocean water. It was found that the clownfish were attracted to all of them.

In addition, the team also found that the clownfish were less or not attracted to the tea tree plants near the swamps thereby assuming that the fish also had their choice for the “right” kinds of trees.

According to researchers this quality of sniffing water bodies to identify their homes is an innate property of the clownfish. For the same, the team of researchers also studied the fish that were artificial sea water in an aquarium. It was found that they too responded to beach water, leaves and anemone as other ocean clownfish did.

Researchers find it very interesting that a living creature actually smells water to identify or reach home. Imagine human beings, they’ve never been cited for doing till late at least. Researchers also opine that it could probably be the leaves that stay scattered on the ocean surface near the islands that may be drawing the fishes closer to find their abode or anemone.

Researchers clearly identify this as a culmination of the terrestrial and marine life where one exists with the need for the other. Also, if you try protecting the reefs, you are actually not protecting the shorelines that call these Nemo’s home.

source

Memories that remain in female elephant’s mind can help the elephants prepare for the hard times in the future, particularly when drought conditions prevail. This fact emerged in a new research conducted by researchers of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

Scientists observed elephant herds that had gathered at the Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park, which had experienced a severe drought from 1958 to 1961. The second drought that occurred in that area in 1993 indicted that elephants that had mothers who had gone through the earlier drought went in search of better places for their food and water supply. This shows that elephant mothers that remembered the difficult conditions of the previous drought were better prepared to face up to the challenges of a recurring drought. In fact, groups that went elsewhere in search of food and water had more calves surviving as compared to family groups that remained in the same place.

Matriarch elephants are strong enough to live through two droughts. In the case of the Tarangire National Park incident, the matriarch elephants were 5years or perhaps older when the first drought had occurred. They were in a position to take precautions during the second drought as they were aware of the pitfalls. The group of elephants, which could not  fend for itself in the second drought, was due to the fact that it  had no elephant in  its group, which had experienced the previous drought.

The study also highlights the fact that groups, which had older members had better survival chances as the past memories of these older elephants  helped them to sustain themselves in the present drought. In the elephant society, the female elephant leads the family and is therefore more prone to remember events for the family welfare.

Researchers favor the protection of veteran elephants as  more droughts are occurring due to global warming.

source

Not only humans, birds can also sense the rising temperatures caused by Global Warming. Not only are the birds sensitive enough to feel the increasing mercury level but their reactions are also almost immediate.

Scientists from France have made extensive researches and are happy that the birds migrate to more suitable places. Though apparently it is a good sign, the balance in nature is going to be deeply affected with this trend. This is because different animals react differently to this climate change. The researchers are afraid that it is only the birds that migrate to a cooler place and it is not be the case for the insects which is the source of food for these birds. That would result into an ecological disaster and severe disbalance in nature.

There are other problems attached to this find. The researchers think that the habitat shift is essential and necessary and the birds have survived the climate change because of this. However, even when birds are quick to react, the researchers think that their reactions should be faster.

Another problem is that all the species are not reacting in the same manner; therefore, there is a danger of extinction of certain species of birds. As the “interaction between the species” is inadequate the fear of mismatches in decision making by the different animals and bird species threatens the balance in nature.

Humans are responsible for the extinction of giant like kangaroos and other huge marsupials in Tasmania about 40,000 years back. Hunting carried out on the Australian island resulted in the extermination of many prehistoric animals, which include kangaroo like beasts, leopard type cats and marsupial “hippopotamuses according to scientists.

The giant type kangaroo known as Protemnon anak, which is leaf browser with a long neck, existed on Tasmania until at least 41,000 years ago. This is was much later than believed and 2,000 years later after the first human settlers arrived. This is evident based upon the new radiocarbon and luminescence dating of fossils, some having been accidentally found by cavers.

Earlier studies showed that the giant beasts of Tasmania had disappeared when humans had access to land bridge that was temporary, providing entry to the island almost 43,000 years ago.

The new findings shall appear this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Six other oversized prehistoric species in Tasmania survived the change in climate and may have existed till the arrival of the humans. Of course, the animals remains have not been specifically dated to a period when the humans were on the island. Around 90 percent of the Australian megafauna disappeared almost 46,000 years ago, immediately after the humans initially settled on the continent. Many more megafauna  may be found on Tasmania.