Parasitic jaeger

The parasitic jaeger ("Stercorarius parasiticus"), also known as the Arctic skua, Arctic jaeger or parasitic skua, is a seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. The word "jaeger" is derived from the German word "Jäger", meaning "hunter". The English "skua" comes from the Faroese name "skúgvur" for the great skua, with the island of Skúvoy known for its colony of that bird. The general Faroese term for skuas is "kjógvi" . The genus name "Stercorarius" is Latin and means "of dung"; the food disgorged by other birds when pursued by skuas was once thought to be excrement. The specific "parasiticus" is from Latin and means "parasitic".
Description.
Identification is complicated by similarities to long-tailed jaeger and pomarine jaeger, and the existence of three colour morphs. Small for a skua, the parasitic jaeger measures in length, in wingspan and weighs . The tail streamer of the breeding adult accounts for about of their length. Light-morph adults have a brown back, mainly white underparts and dark primary wing feathers with a white "flash". The head and neck are yellowish-white with a black cap and there is a pointed central tail projection. Dark-morph adults are dark brown, and intermediate-phase birds are dark with somewhat paler underparts, head and neck. All morphs have the white wing flash.
Identification of juveniles is even more problematic, and it is difficult to separate parasitic jaegers from long-tailed jaegers. Parasitic jaegers are bulkier, shorter-winged, and less tern-like than long-tailed jaegers. They are usually warmer toned, with browner shades, rather than grey. However, they show the same wide range of plumage variation. The flight is more falcon-like.
The typical call of these birds is a nasal mewing sound, repeated a few times in display. Their alarm call is a shorter sound.
Behavior.
Breeding.
This species breeds in the north of Eurasia and North America, with significant populations as far south as northern Scotland. It nests on dry tundra, higher fells and islands, laying up to four olive-brown eggs. It is usually silent except for mewing and wailing notes while on the breeding grounds. Like other skuas, it will fly at the head of a human or fox approaching its nest. Although it cannot inflict serious damage, it is a frightening and painful experience. It is a migrant, wintering at sea in the tropics and southern oceans.
In the British Isles, they breed in Shetland and Orkney, the Outer Hebrides, Sutherland, Caithness, and some islands in Argyll.
Feeding.
This bird will feed on rodents, insects, eggs, chicks and small birds in the breeding season, but the majority of its diet (especially in winter and on migration) is made up of food that it acquires by robbing other birds (primarily gulls and terns) of their catches in an act called kleptoparasitism.
Conservation status.
In 2018, "Stercorarius parasiticus" was regionally uplisted to Endangered in Iceland, from Least Concern in 2000, after their numbers declined drastically in the early 2000s.


Lesser water boatman

The lesser waterboatman or lesser water boatman ("Corixa punctata") is a water-dwelling insect of the order Hemiptera.
Adults normally range in size from 5 to 15 mm long, and are found in ponds, lakes and sometimes even swimming pools. The boatman feeds on algae and dead plant material. They have long hind legs which they use to swim on top of water. These powerful legs are covered in tiny hairs which helps them float on the surface of the water.
They breathe oxygen by trapping air beneath their wing cases when they are on the surface as the oxygen is trapped by tiny hairs. They use trapped air in their physical gill to convert water-borne sounds into airborne sounds that they can hear.
They are similar to "Notonecta glauca", the back swimmer by appearance, although these lesser waterboatman are herbivores and swim on their fronts. They are not related to "Notonecta glauca", back swimmer, nor to the European "Micronecta scholtzi", also known as the "lesser water boatman".


Aspidoscelis cozumela

Aspidoscelis cozumela, the Cozumel racerunner, is a species of teiid lizard endemic to Mexico.


Polychrus jacquelinae

Polychrus jacquelinae or Jacqueline's bush anole is a species of bush anole. It is endemic to Peru and was dedicated to Jacqueline Maria Charles. It can be found in elevations of 1,460 to 1,570 meters.


Hemidactylus varadgirii

Hemidactylus varadgirii, Giri's brookiish gecko or Amboli brookiish gecko is a species of gecko. It is endemic to India.


Graus nigra

Graus nigra is a species of sea chub endemic to the Pacific coast of South America, ranging from Valdivia in Chile to southern Peru. This species grows to a total length of . It is popular as a game fish. This species is the only known member of its genus, and is known locally as "vieja negra" (meaning “old black” in Spanish).
Ecology.
"Graus nigra" is found in Chile and Peru, often in forests of giant kelp. Associated with it in this habitat are the Chilean abalone ("Concholepas concholepas"), keyhole limpets ("Fissurella" spp.), the Chilean sea urchin "Loxechinus albus", and the labrid fish Galápagos sheephead ("Semicossyphus darwini"). Other carnivorous fish in the kelp forest include the Peruvian morwong ("Cheilodactylus variegatus"), the Chilean sandperch ("Pinguipes chilensis") and the Cape redfish ("Sebastes capensis"); also present in this habitat is the herbivorous "Aplodactylus punctatus". These fish are present in the dense lower storey of the kelp forest where they feed on the benthos. If for some reason the kelp is removed or thinned, the predacious fish feed in the water column instead.
Uses.
"Graus nigra" is a game fish, targeted by spear-fishers, both recreational fishermen and artisanal hunters. From around 1985 to 2005, the total tonnage caught of this species has dwindled by about 90% and the average size of fish has also shrunk. Another target species, "Medialuna ancietae ", once abundant, has become so rare that most younger spear-fishers have never seen one. These changes in abundance of some of the dominant carnivorous fish in the giant kelp forest has had a marked effect on the biodiversity of their habitats.


List of mammals of Israel

This is a list of the mammal species recorded in Israel. There are ninety-seven mammal species in Israel, of which one is critically endangered, four are endangered, eleven are vulnerable, and three are near threatened.
The following tags are used to highlight each species' conservation status as assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature:
Some species were assessed using an earlier set of criteria. Species assessed using this system have the following instead of near threatened and least concern categories:
Order: Hyracoidea (hyraxes).
The hyraxes are any of four species of fairly small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea. About the size of a domestic cat they are well-furred, with rounded bodies and a stumpy tail. They are native to Africa and the Middle East.
Order: Sirenia (manatees and dugongs).
Sirenia is an order of fully aquatic, herbivorous mammals that inhabit rivers, estuaries, coastal marine waters, swamps, and marine wetlands. All four species are endangered.
Order: Proboscidea (elephants).
The elephants comprise three living species and are the largest living land animals.
Order: Rodentia (rodents).
Rodents make up the largest order of mammals, with over 40% of mammalian species. They have two incisors in the upper and lower jaw which grow continually and must be kept short by gnawing. Most rodents are small though the capybara can weigh up to .
Order: Lagomorpha (lagomorphs).
The lagomorphs comprise two families, Leporidae (hares and rabbits), and Ochotonidae (pikas). Though they can resemble rodents, and were classified as a superfamily in that order until the early 20th century, they have since been considered a separate order. They differ from rodents in a number of physical characteristics, such as having four incisors in the upper jaw rather than two.
Order: Erinaceomorpha (hedgehogs and gymnures).
The order Erinaceomorpha contains a single family, Erinaceidae, which comprise the hedgehogs and gymnures. The hedgehogs are easily recognised by their spines while gymnures look more like large rats.
Order: Soricomorpha (shrews, moles, and solenodons).
The "shrew-forms" are insectivorous mammals. Shrews and solenodons closely resemble mice, while moles are stout-bodied burrowers.
Order: Chiroptera (bats).
The bats' most distinguishing feature is that their forelimbs are developed as wings, making them the only mammals capable of flight. Bat species account for about 20% of all mammals.
Order: Cetacea (whales).
The order Cetacea includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. They are the mammals most fully adapted to aquatic life with a spindle-shaped nearly hairless body, protected by a thick layer of blubber, and forelimbs and tail modified to provide propulsion underwater.
Order: Carnivora (carnivorans).
There are over 260 species of carnivorans, the majority of which feed primarily on meat. They have a characteristic skull shape and dentition.
Order: Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates).
The odd-toed ungulates are browsing and grazing mammals. They are usually large to very large, and have relatively simple stomachs and a large middle toe.
Order: Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates).
The even-toed ungulates are ungulates whose weight is borne about equally by the third and fourth toes, rather than mostly or entirely by the third as in perissodactyls. There are about 220 artiodactyl species, including many that are of great economic importance to humans.


Samoan whistler

The Samoan whistler ("Pachycephala flavifrons"), also known as the yellow-fronted whistler, is a species of bird in the family Pachycephalidae. It is endemic to Samoa, where found in forest, plantations and gardens.
Taxonomy.
The Samoan whistler was originally described in the genus "Eopsaltria". It has been previously considered a subspecies of the Australian golden whistler, "Pachycephala pectoralis", as "P. pectoralis flavifrons".
Description.
The Samoan whistler resembles the Australian golden whistler, but the male has blacker upperparts, yellow or white to the forehead, a dull black throat that is strongly mottled with yellow or white, and no black chest-band. The female resembles a duller version of the male with a pale grey throat.


Clinidium balli

Clinidium balli is a species of ground beetle in the subfamily Rhysodinae. It was described by R.T. & J.R. Bell in 1985.


Nonja (Malaysian orangutan)

Nonja (1952 – December 29, 2007) was a female sumatran orangutan who was thought to be the oldest of her species in either the wild or captivity. She was 55 years old when she died in 2007. Most orangutans die before they reach their mid-40s, which made Nonja unique and likely the oldest living orangutan in the world at the time.
Nonja, whose name meant "girl" in Malaysian, was captured in the wild and brought to the Wassenaar Zoo in the Netherlands in 1955. She was thought to be about 2–3 years old at the time. She was transferred to the Miami MetroZoo (now Zoo Miami) on October 4, 1983, where she spent the rest of her life. Nonja gave birth to five children.
Nonja died at the Miami MetroZoo on Saturday, December 29, 2007. Experts believe that she died of either a brain tumor or an aneurysm.


Jordania

Jordania zonope, the longfin sculpin, is a species of sculpin native to the northeastern Pacific Ocean, ranging from Baranof Island (Alaska) to Point Lobos (California). It can be found at depths of . This species grows to a length of TL. This species is sometimes displayed in public aquariums. This species is the only known member of its genus. Jordania Zonope is a demersal fish that is adapted morphologically and behaviorally to frequent a variety of rock surfaces and to feed on an array of prey types. The "J.zonope" are generally olive green, marked by a red-banded color pattern which blends well with their habitats. They are mostly found on rock faces, and there its coloration helps to camouflage it from predators.


Fisher (animal)

The fisher ("Pekania pennanti") is a small, carnivorous mammal native to North America, a forest-dwelling creature whose range covers much of the boreal forest in Canada to the northern United States. It is a member of the mustelid family (commonly referred to as the weasel family), and is in the monospecific genus Pekania. It is sometimes misleadingly referred to as a fisher cat, although it is not a cat.
The fisher is closely related to, but larger than, the American marten ("Martes americana"). In some regions, the fisher is known as a "pekan", derived from its name in the Abenaki language, or "wejack", an Algonquian word (cf. Cree "wuchak", "otchock", Ojibwa "ojiig") borrowed by fur traders. Other Native American names for the fisher are Chipewyan "thacho" and Carrier "chunihcho", both meaning "big marten", and Wabanaki "uskool".
Fishers have few predators besides humans. They have been trapped since the 18th century for their fur. Their pelts were in such demand that they were extirpated from several parts of the United States in the early part of the 20th century. Conservation and protection measures have allowed the species to rebound, but their current range is still reduced from its historic limits. In the 1920s, when pelt prices were high, some fur farmers attempted to raise fishers. However, their unusual delayed reproduction made breeding difficult. When pelt prices fell in the late 1940s, most fisher farming ended. While fishers usually avoid human contact, encroachments into forest habitats have resulted in some conflicts.
Male and female fishers look similar. Adult males are long and weigh . Adult females are long and weigh . The fur of the fisher varies seasonally, being denser and glossier in the winter. During the summer, the color becomes more mottled, as the fur goes through a moulting cycle. The fisher prefers to hunt in full forest. Although an agile climber, it spends most of its time on the forest floor, where it prefers to forage around fallen trees. An omnivore, the fisher feeds on a wide variety of small animals and occasionally on fruits and mushrooms. It prefers the snowshoe hare and is one of the few animals able to prey successfully on porcupines. Despite its common name, it rarely eats fish. The reproductive cycle of the fisher lasts almost a year. Female fishers give birth to a litter of three or four kits in the spring. They nurse and care for their kits until late summer, when they are old enough to set out on their own. Females enter estrus shortly after giving birth and leave the den to find a mate. Implantation of the blastocyst is delayed until the following spring, when they give birth and the cycle is renewed.
Etymology.
Despite the name "fisher", the animal is not known to eat fish. The name is instead related to the word "fitch", meaning a European polecat ("Mustela putorius") or pelt thereof, due to the resemblance to that animal. The name comes from colonial Dutch equivalent "fisse" or "visse". In the French language, the pelt of a polecat is also called "fiche" or "fichet". Alternatively, Dr. James DeKay, as reported by John James Audubon and John Bachman, claimed the name "fisher" may have been attributed to the animal's "singular fondness for the fish used to bait traps", although this may have been local lore.
Taxonomy.
The Latin specific name "pennanti" honors Thomas Pennant, who described the fisher in 1771. Buffon had first described the creature in 1765, calling it a "pekan". Pennant examined the same specimen, but called it a fisher, unaware of Buffon's earlier description. Other 18th-century scientists gave it similar names, such as Schreber, who named it "Mustela canadensis", and Boddaert, who named it "Mustela melanorhyncha". The fisher was eventually placed in the genus "Martes" by Smith in 1843. In 2008, advances in DNA analysis allowed a more detailed study of the fisher's evolutionary history. The fisher and the genus "Martes" were determined to have descended from a common ancestor, but the fisher was distinct enough to put it in its own genus. It was decided to create the genus "Pekania" and reclassify the fisher as "Pekania pennanti".
Members of the genus "Pekania" are distinguished by their four premolar teeth on the upper and lower jaws. Its close relative "Mustela" has just three. The fisher has 38 teeth. The dentition formula is:
Evolution.
Some evidence shows that ancestors of the fisher migrated to North America during the Pliocene era between 2.5 and 5.0 million years ago. Two extinct mustelids, "Pekania palaeosinensis" and "P. anderssoni", have been found in eastern Asia. The first true fisher, "P. diluviana", has only been found in Middle Pleistocene North America. "P. diluviana" is strongly indicated to be related to the Asian finds, which suggests a migration. "P. pennanti" has been found as early as the Late Pleistocene era, about 125,000 years ago. No major differences are seen between the Pleistocene fisher and the modern fisher. Fossil evidence indicates that the fisher's range extended farther south than it does today.
Three subspecies were identified by Goldman in 1935, "Martes. pennanti. columbiana", "M. p. pacifica", and "M. p. pennanti". Later research has debated whether these subspecies could be positively identified. In 1959, E.M. Hagmeier concluded that the subspecies are not separable based on either fur or skull characteristics. Although some debate still exists, in general, the fisher is recognized to be a monotypic species with no extant subspecies.
Biology and behavior.
Physical characteristics.
Fishers are a medium-sized mammal, comparable in size to the domestic cat. Their bodies are long, thin, and low to the ground. The sexes have similar physical features, but they are sexually dimorphic in size, with the male being much larger than the female. Males are in length and weigh . Females measure and weigh . The largest male fisher ever recorded weighed .
The fisher's fur changes with the season and differs slightly between sexes. Males have coarser coats than females. In the early winter, the coats are dense and glossy, ranging from on the chest to on the back. The color ranges from deep brown to black, although it appears to be much blacker in the winter when contrasted with white snow. From the face to the shoulders, fur can be hoary-gold or silver due to tricolored guard hairs. The underside of a fisher is almost completely brown except for randomly placed patches of white or cream-colored fur. In the summer, the fur color is more variable and may lighten considerably. Fishers undergo moulting starting in late summer and finishing by November or December.
Fishers have five toes on each foot, with unsheathed, retractable claws. Their feet are large, making it easier for them to move on top of snow packs. In addition to the toes, four central pads are on each foot. On the hind paws are coarse hairs that grow between the pads and the toes, giving them added traction when walking on slippery surfaces. Fishers have highly mobile ankle joints that can rotate their hind paws almost 180°, allowing them to maneuver well in trees and climb down head-first. The fisher is one of relatively few mammalian species with the ability to descend trees head-first.
A circular patch of hair on the central pad of their hind paws marks plantar glands that give off a distinctive odor. Since these patches become enlarged during breeding season, they are likely used to make a scent trail to allow fishers to find each other so they can mate.
Hunting and diet.
Fishers are generalist predators. Although their primary prey is snowshoe hares and porcupines, they are also known to supplement their diet with insects, nuts, berries, and mushrooms. Since they are solitary hunters, their choice of prey is limited by their size. Analyses of stomach contents and scat have found evidence of birds, small mammals, and even deer—the latter two indicating that they are not averse to eating carrion. While the behavior is not common, fishers have been known to kill larger animals, such as wild turkey, bobcat (although, in most cases, confrontations tend to be dominated by the cat, that frequently prey on them and in fact is one of their main predators) and Canada lynx. Researchers in Maine have found "about a dozen" cases of confirmed fisher predation on Canada lynx, and several more suspected cases, in a four township area of Maine. According to Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife wildlife biologist Scott McClellan, the fishers involved in these kills attacked lynx bedded down in snowstorms with a quick "powerful grip" bite to the lynx's neck. Signs of struggle indicated that some lynx attempted to defend themselves but McClellan states that "the fishers would finish the cats off pretty quickly. 'There was some struggle certainly, but it didn’t appear to last very long. There were some broken branches, tufts of fur, and claw marks where the lynx was trying to get away.' The McClellan study in The Journal of Wildlife Management documents 14 fisher-caused mortalities of Canada lynx from 1999 to 2011 in northern Maine, and found that predation was the leading source of mortality of lynx in the study area (18 deaths, 14 by fisher).
Fishers are one of the few predators that seek out and kill porcupines. Stories in popular literature indicate that fishers can flip a porcupine onto its back and "scoop out its belly like a ripe melon". This was identified as an exaggerated misconception as early as 1966. Observational studies show that fishers make repeated biting attacks on the face of a porcupine and kill it after about 25–30 minutes.
Reproduction.
The female fisher begins to breed at about one year of age and her reproductive cycle is an almost year-long event. Mating takes place in late March to early April. Blastocyst implantation is then delayed for ten months until mid-February of the following year when active pregnancy begins. After gestating for about 50 days, the female gives birth to one to four kits. The female then enters estrus 7–10 days later and the breeding cycle begins again.
Females den in hollow trees. Kits are born blind, helpless, and are partially covered with fine hair. Kits begin to crawl after about three weeks. After about seven weeks, they open their eyes. They start to climb after eight weeks. Kits are completely dependent on their mother's milk for the first eight to ten weeks, after which they begin to switch to a solid diet. After four months, kits become intolerant of their litter mates, and at five months, the mother pushes them out on their own. After one year, juveniles will have established their own range.
Social structure and home range.
Fishers are generally crepuscular, being most active at dawn and night
. They are active year-round, and are solitary, associating with other fishers only for mating. Males become more active during mating season. Females are least active during pregnancy and gradually increase activity after birth of their kits.
A fisher's hunting range varies from in the summer to in the winter. Ranges up to in the winter are possible depending on the quality of the habitat. Male and female fishers have overlapping territories. This behavior is imposed on females by males due to dominance in size and a male's desire to increase mating success.
Parasites.
Parasites of fishers include nematode "Baylisascaris devosi", tapeworm "Taenia sibirica", nematode "Physaloptera" sp., trematodes "Alaria mustelae" and "Metorchis conjunctus", nematode "Trichinella spiralis", and "Molineus" sp.
Habitat.
Although fishers are competent tree climbers, they spend most of their time on the forest floor and prefer continuous forest to other habitats. They have been found in extensive conifer forests typical of the boreal forest, but are also common in mixed-hardwood and conifer forests. Fishers prefer areas with continuous overhead cover with greater than 80% coverage and avoid areas with less than 50% coverage. Fishers are more likely to be found in old-growth forests. Since female fishers require moderately large trees for denning, forests that have been heavily logged and have extensive second growth appear to be unsuitable for their needs.
Fishers also select for forest floors with large amounts of coarse woody debris. In western forests, where fire regularly removes understory debris, fishers show a preference for riparian woodland habitat. Fishers tend to avoid areas with deep snow. Habitat is also affected by snow compaction and moisture content.
Distribution.
Fishers are widespread throughout the northern forests of North America. They are found in the boreal and mixed deciduous-coniferous forest belt that runs across Canada from Nova Scotia in the east to the Pacific shore of British Columbia and north to Alaska. They can be found as far north as Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories and as far south as the mountains of Oregon. Isolated populations occur in the Sierra Nevada of California, throughout New England and the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, fishers were virtually eliminated from the southern and eastern parts of their range, including most American states and eastern Canada including Nova Scotia. Overtrapping and loss of forest habitat were the reasons for the decline.
Most states had placed restrictions on fisher trapping by the 1930s, coincidental with the end of the logging boom. A combination of forest regrowth in abandoned farmlands and improved forest management practices increased available habitat and allowed remnant populations to recover. Populations have since recovered sufficiently that the species is no longer endangered. Increasing forest cover in eastern North America means that fisher populations will remain sufficiently robust for the near future. Between 1955 and 1985, some states had allowed limited trapping to resume. In areas where fishers were eliminated, porcupine populations subsequently increased. Areas with a high density of porcupines were found to have extensive damage to timber crops. In these cases, fishers were reintroduced by releasing adults relocated from other places into the forest. Once the fisher populations became re-established, porcupine numbers returned to natural levels. In Washington, fisher sightings were reported into the 1980s, but an extensive survey in the 1990s did not locate any.
Scattered fisher populations now exist in the Pacific Northwest. In 1961, fishers from British Columbia and Minnesota were reintroduced in Oregon to the southern Cascades near Klamath Falls and to the Wallowa Mountains near La Grande. From 1977–1980, fishers were introduced to the region around Crater Lake. Starting in January 2008, fishers were reintroduced into Washington State. The initial reintroduction was on the Olympic peninsula (90 animals), with subsequent reintroductions into the south Cascade Mountains. The reintroduced animals are monitored by radio collars and remote cameras, and have been shown to be reproducing. From 2008 to 2011, about 40 fishers were reintroduced in the northern Sierra Nevada near Stirling City, complementing fisher populations in Yosemite National Park and along California's northern boundary between the Pacific Coast Ranges and the Klamath Mountains. Fishers are a protected species in Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. In Idaho and California, fishers are protected through a closed trapping season, but they are not afforded any specific protection; however, in California the fisher has been granted threatened status under the Endangered Species Act. In June 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended that fishers be removed from the endangered list in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.
Recent studies, as well as anecdotal evidence, show that fishers have begun making inroads into suburban backyards, farmland, and periurban areas in several US states and eastern Canada, as far south as most of northern Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Minnesota and Iowa, and even northwestern New Jersey. Having virtually disappeared after the construction of the Cape Cod Canal in the early 1900s, some reports have shown that populations have become re-established on Cape Cod, although the populations are likely smaller than the populations in the western part of New England.
Relationship with humans.
Fishers have had a long history of contact with humans, but most of it has been to the detriment of fisher populations. Unprovoked attacks on humans are extremely rare, but fishers will attack if they feel threatened or cornered. In one case, a fisher was blamed for an attack on a 6-year-old boy. In another case, a fisher is believed to be responsible for an attack on a 12-year-old boy.
Fur trade and conservation.
Fishers have been trapped since the 18th century. They have been popular with trappers due to the value of their fur, which has been used for scarves and neck pieces. It is reported that fisher tails were used in the making of spodiks, a form of ceremonial hat worn by Jews of certain Hasidic sects.
The best pelts are from winter trapping, with secondary-quality pelts from spring trapping. The lowest-quality furs come from out-of-season trapping when fishers are moulting. They are easily trapped, and the value of their fur was a particular incentive for catching this species.
Prices for pelts have varied considerably over the past 100 years. They were highest in the 1920s and 1930s, when average prices were about US$100. In 1936, pelts were being offered for sale in New York City for $450–750 per pelt. Prices declined through the 1960s, but picked up again in the late 1970s. In 1979, the Hudson's Bay Company paid $410 for one female pelt. In 1999, 16,638 pelts were sold in Canada for C$449,307 at an average price of $27.
Between 1900 and 1940, fishers were threatened with near extinction in the southern part of their range due to overtrapping and alterations to their habitat. In New England, fishers, along with most other furbearers, were nearly exterminated due to unregulated trapping. Fishers became extirpated in many northern U.S. states after 1930, but were still abundant enough in Canada to maintain a harvest over 3,000 fishers per year. Limited protection was afforded in the early 20th century, but total protection was not given to the few remaining fishers until 1934. Closed seasons, habitat recovery, and reintroductions have restored fishers to much of their original range.
Trapping resumed in the U.S. after 1962, once numbers had recovered sufficiently. During the early 1970s, the value of fisher pelts soared, leading to another population crash in 1976. After a few years of closed seasons, fisher trapping reopened in 1979 with a shortened season and restricted bag limits. The population has steadily increased since then, with steadily increasing numbers of trapped animals, despite a much lower pelt value.
Captivity.
Fishers have been captured live for fur farming, zoo specimens, and scientific research. From 1920–1946, pelt prices averaged about C$137. Since pelts were relatively valuable, attempts were made to raise fishers on farms. Fur farming was popular with other species such as mink and ermine, so the same techniques were thought to be applicable to fishers. However, farmers found it difficult to raise fishers due to their unusual reproductive cycle. In general, knowledge of delayed implantation in fishers was unknown at the time. Farmers noted that females mated in the spring but did not give birth. Due to declining pelt prices, most fisher farms closed operations by the late 1940s.
Fishers have also been captured and bred by zoos, but they are not a common zoo species. Fishers are poor animals to exhibit because, in general, they hide from visitors all day. Some zoos have had difficulty keeping fishers alive since they are susceptible to many diseases in captivity. Yet at least one example shows a fisher kept in captivity that lived to be 10 years old, and another living to be about 14 years old, well beyond its natural lifespan of 7 years.
In 1974, R.A. Powell raised two fisher kits for the purpose of performing scientific research. His primary interest was an attempt to measure the activity of fishers to determine how much food the animals required to function. He did this by running them through treadmill exercises that simulated activity in the wild. He compared this to their food intake and used the data to estimate daily food requirements. The research lasted for two years. After one year, one of the fishers died due to unknown causes. The second was released back into the wilderness of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Interactions with domestic animals.
In some areas, fishers can become pests to farmers when they raid chicken coops. Instances of fishers preying on cats and small dogs have been reported. A 1979 study examined the stomach contents of all fishers trapped in the state of New Hampshire; cat hairs were found in only one of over 1,000 stomachs. An informal unfinished 2011 study in suburban upstate New York found no cat remains in 24 scat or stomach samples, and an earlier published study found no cat in 226 Massachusetts samples.
Poisoning.
In 2012, a study conducted by the Integral Ecology Research Center, UC Davis, U.S. Forest Service, and the Hoopa tribe showed that fishers in California were exposed to and killed by anticoagulant rodenticides associated with marijuana cultivation. In this study, 79% of fishers that were tested in California were exposed to an average of 1.61 different anticoagulant rodenticides and four fishers died directly attributed to these toxicants. A 2015 follow-up study building on these data determined that the trend of exposure and mortality from these toxicants increased to 85%, that California fishers were now exposed to an average of 1.73 different anticoagulant rodenticides, and that 9 more fishers died, bringing the total to 13. The extent of marijuana cultivation within fishers' home ranges was highlighted in a 2013 study focusing on fisher survival and impacts from marijuana cultivation within the Sierra National Forest. Fishers had an average of 5.3 individual grow sites within their home range. One fisher had 16 individual grow sites within its territory.
Literature.
One of the first mentions of fishers in literature occurred in "The Audubon Book of True Nature Stories". Robert Snyder relates a tale of his encounter with fishers in the woods of the Adirondack Mountains of New York. He recounts three sightings, including one where he witnessed a fisher attacking a porcupine.
In "Winter of the Fisher", Cameron Langford relates a fictional encounter between a fisher and an aging recluse living in the forest. The recluse frees the fisher from a trap and nurses it back to health. The fisher tolerates the attention, but being a wild animal, returns to the forest when well enough. Langford uses the ecology and known habits of the fisher to weave a tale of survival and tolerance in the northern woods of Canada.
Fishers are mentioned in several other books, including "The Blood Jaguar" (an animal shaman), "Ereth's Birthday" (a porcupine hunter) and in "The Sign of the Beaver", where a fisher is thought to have been caught in a trap.
Popular culture.
The animal's common if misleading name is used for a minor league baseball team, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.


Thick-billed ground dove

The thick-billed ground dove ("Pampusana salamonis") is an extinct dove species of the family Columbidae.
Description.
This poorly known species is only known from two specimens from 1882 and 1927. The holotype from 1882 can be seen in the Australian Museum in Sydney.
The length was about 26 cm. The head, the throat, and the breast mantle were beige. The chestnut upperparts with a pale purple sheen on the carpals and the small wing coverts contrasted with a chocolate-coloured belly.
The thick-billed ground dove might have preferred dry beach forests on the Solomon Islands of Makira (formerly San Cristobal), and the tiny island of Ramos Island which belongs to Isabel. It is likely that it also occurred on other islands in that region in the past. It was a ground-dweller like its congeners, and so it was an easy prey for introduced rats and feral pigs, cats and dogs. The logging of the lowland forests in its habitat and the hunting sealed its fate.
Despite the fact that it was last seen in 1927, the IUCN has long hesitated to declare this species extinct. Many surveys in its former range were undertaken in the later part of the 20th century (Dutson, 2003), but when the last search for this species on Ramos in 2004 had failed too it was officially declared extinct in 2005. It probably became extinct in the mid-20th century following the increased activity around the time of World War II, which affected several populations of endemic birds in the region.
This species was formerly in the genus "Alopecoenas" Sharpe, 1899, but the name of the genus was changed in 2019 to "Pampusana" Bonaparte, 1855 as this name has priority.


Dismorphia astyocha

Dismorphia astyocha is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. It is found in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro) and Argentina.


List of mammals of Niue

This is a list of the mammal species recorded in Niue. There are ten mammal species in Niue, none of which are known to be at risk.
The following tags are used to highlight each species' conservation status as assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature:
Some species were assessed using an earlier set of criteria. Species assessed using this system have the following instead of near threatened and least concern categories:
Order: Chiroptera (bats).
The bats' most distinguishing feature is that their forelimbs are developed as wings, making them the only mammals capable of flight. Bat species account for about 20% of all mammals.
Order: Cetacea (whales).
The order Cetacea includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. They are the mammals most fully adapted to aquatic life with a spindle-shaped nearly hairless body, protected by a thick layer of blubber, and forelimbs and tail modified to provide propulsion underwater.


Saaristattus

Saaristattus is a monotypic genus of Malaysian jumping spiders containing the single species, Saaristattus tropicus. It was first described by D. V. Logunov & G. N. Azarkina in 2008, and is found only in Malaysia. The name is a combination of Michael Saaristo and "attus", a common suffix for salticid genera, meaning "jumper". The species name means "tropical".


Bhutan laughingthrush

The Bhutan laughingthrush ("Trochalopteron imbricatum") is a species of bird in the family Leiothrichidae. It is commonly found in Bhutan and some adjoining areas in India. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the streaked laughingthrush, "G. lineatus", hence its alternate common name of Himalayan streaked laughingthrush.


Hyloscirtus chlorosteus

Hyloscirtus chlorosteus is a species of frog in the family Hylidae. It is endemic to Bolivia and only known from the holotype collected in 1979 from Parjacti (=Paracti), on the eastern slopes of the Andes in the Cochabamba Department. The specific name refers to the green bones of this frog. Common name Parjacti treefrog has been coined for it.
Description.
The holotype, a subadult male, measures about in snout–vent length. The specimen has a prominent preorbital ridge and moderately heavy supratympapanic fold that continues as a later fold, ending just before to the groin; the tympanum itself is indistinct. The snout is truncate in dorsal view but bluntly rounded when viewed from the side. The finger and toe tips bear large discs. The toes are heavily webbed whereas the finger webbing is moderate. The dorsum is brown with darker pattern. The flanks and the thighs have yellowish markings. The venter is opalescent gold to cream, turning to cream with pinkish tint posteriorly; the chin is opalescent gold. The iris is gold. The bones are green, as hinted by the specific name "chlorosteus".
Habitat and conservation.
The holotype was found in Yungas forest at above sea level. The specimen was collected at night from a door knob at the agricultural customs inspection station. The tadpoles presumably develop in water.
Despite later surveys to the area, no new specimens have been found. The area is suffering from habitat degradation caused by agriculture, logging, and infrastructure development.


Ololygon berthae

Ololygon berthae is a species of frog in the family Hylidae. It is found in northeastern Argentina], southern Paraguay, Uruguay, and southern Brazil. It is named in honor of Bertha Lutz, a Brazilian zoologist and feminist.
It occurs in grasslands and rainforest clearings. Reproduction takes place in temporary pools, also in altered habitats. This locally common species is threatened by habitat loss and pollution.


Ancylosis pallidimarginalis

Ancylosis pallidimarginalis is a species of snout moth in the genus "Ancylosis". It was described by Walter Rothschild in 1915, and is known from Algeria.
The wingspan is 23 mm.


Hemidactylus giganteus

Hemidactylus giganteus, also known as the giant leaf-toed gecko, the giant southern tree gecko, or the giant gecko, is a species of gecko endemic to India.
Description.
Snout longer than the distance between the eye and the ear-opening, 1.5 times the diameter of the orbit; forehead concave; ear-opening rather large, suboval, vertical. Body and limbs stout. Digits free, inner well developed, strongly dilated; with straight transverse lamella beneath; 11 or 12 under the inner digits, 13 to 15 under the median. Upper surfaces covered with uniform small granular scales, somewhat larger on the snout, smallest on the hinder part of the head. Rostral quadrangular, not quite twice as broad as deep; nostril pierced between the rostral and three nasals;12 to 15 upper and 11 to 13 lower labials; mental large, pentagonal; two pairs of chin-shields, the inner the larger. Abdominal scales rather small, cycloid, imbricate. Male with a series of femoral pores interrupted mesially; 19 to 22 pores on each side. Tail without large tubercles. Olive-grey above, with irregular dark, pale-edged marks in imperfect circles, tending to form, or forming, 4 or 5 transverse undulating bands on the body; below uniform white.
From snout to vent 4.8 inches.
Distribution.
Godavari Valley and Malabar. Found on trees, mainly near water sources. found in northern Andhra pradesh, India.
Type locality: near Badhrachalam, Godavari Valley


Golden-headed cisticola

The golden-headed cisticola ("Cisticola exilis"), also known as the bright-capped cisticola, is a species of warbler in the family Cisticolidae, found in Australia and thirteen Asian countries. Growing to long, it is usually brown and cream in colour, but has a different appearance during the mating season, with a gold-coloured body and a much shorter tail. It is an omnivore and frequently makes a variety of vocalizations. Known as the "finest tailor of all birds", it constructs nests out of plants and spider threads. It mates in the rainy season. It has a very large range and population, which is thought to be increasing.
Taxonomy.
The golden-headed cisticola was described by the naturalists Nicholas Vigors and Thomas Horsfield in 1827 and given the binomial name "Malurus exilis". The specific epithet "exilis" is the Latin word for "small", "slender" or "thin". It is now placed in the genus "Cisticola", which was erected by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1829. This species has been known by several English names in addition to the golden-headed cisticola, including bright-capped cisticola, bright-headed cisticola, bright-crowned cisticola, gold-capped cisticola, yellow-headed cisticola, exile warbler and fan-tail warbler. It has been called a tailorbird, but it is not closely related to "Orthotomus", a genus containing 13 species known as tailorbirds.
Twelve subspecies are recognized:
Description.
The golden-headed cisticola is a small species, growing to long and weighing , with males slightly heavier than females. Although its appearance is similar to the black-backed cisticola ("Cisticola eximius"), the golden-headed cisticola has a shorter tail during the breeding season. The zitting cisticola ("Cisticola juncidis") is also similar, but does not have the "rich golden" head of the golden-headed cisticola.
The male has several characteristics that are only present during the breeding season, including a golden body colour, a golden-orange head, and a dull chin. It also has a shorter tail; this may be a result of sexual selection as a shorter tail has been shown to improve male reproductive success. Females and males outside of the breeding season are similar in appearance, characterized by a cream-coloured underside and a brown upperside. They have streaks of black or dark brown on the upper part of their body, black wings, and a golden head. Their throat is white and the back of their neck is a dull shade of gold. Aside from being lighter in colour, juveniles are similar in appearance to adults. When vocalizing the species exhibits a crest on its head.
Behaviour.
The golden-headed cisticola is omnivorous, primarily eating invertebrates such as insects and small slugs, but also eating grass seeds. It typically forages on the ground for food, hiding from its prey among various plants, such as grass, and moving slowly. It usually inhabits a single place throughout its life, but habitat changes sometimes cause it to move to a different location. Records from New Guinea and Tasmania have shown it to be a wandering bird, and it possibly undergoes partial migration in China. It is often difficult to detect in the non-breeding season, which has made it difficult analyze when it travels to different areas. It produces a variety of sounds distinct from other birds, which, according to the Sunshine Coast Council, range from a "teewip" to a "wheezz, whit-whit". It is most often found single or in small flocks, but outside of the breeding season groups can be larger.
Breeding.
The golden-headed cisticola typically mates during the rainy season, which varies across countries. In Asia, the breeding season is in May–July in China, April–August in India, September–March in Moluccas and Sulawesi, December–March in New Guinea, and April–September in Southeast Asia. It can breed any time of the year in North Australia, while it breeds from January to May in West Australia and October to April in East Australia. In Southeast Australia, breeding usually occurs there in September–October, and its breeding plumage appears earlier, in July or August. The species can breed other times of the year when rain is falling. It can be monogamous or polygamous, depending on the area. During the breeding season, males sometimes fly and vocalize for display. In these performances, the male "climbs vertically, spirals upwards to cruising height of c. 50 m, circles for up to 5 minutes, singing, alternately fluttering and closing wings", and then steeply descends to just above the ground. It can repeat this practice immediately or fly to another part of its territory and then do so. The male defends its territory, which in Queensland, Australia, is .
The bird constructs its nests in shrubs, grass tussock, and other types of vegetation, no more than above the ground. They are built with green leaves, soft plant down, and grass, with the plants being used so that the nest is camouflaged. Described as the "finest tailor of all birds" for its nest-making, the species frequently stitches its nest together using spider threads. According to the "Maitland Mercury", it constructs the nest by creating holes, "threading through cobweb silk", and lastly "pulling the construction together". The nests are built by both sexes, with the female stitching the nest together and the male giving spider web threads to the female. They are round in shape with an entry on the side of them.
Three to four eggs are laid at a time, which are incubated by the female, taking 11 days. The rate of eggs that survive to hatch is 32%. After hatching, the female feeds the chicks and the male defends the nest, chasing away animals that come near it. Young remain in the nest for 11–13 days, during which time the female swallows their feces.
Habitat and distribution.
The golden-headed cisticola has a very large range and population, covering Australia, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam. Its extent of occurrence is estimated to be , and it is the most common species of cisticola in Australia and from India to the Philippines. Based on reports of its population in individual countries, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) believes that the golden-headed cisticola's population is increasing globally. Its population density varies across regions – in most areas, about 2–6 birds are found in a single hectare, while in Kimberley, Western Australia, as many as 27 birds can be in a hectare. Due to its wide range and increasing population, the IUCN Red List lists it as a species of least concern.
The species' habitat can be grassy hills, savannas, woodlands, scrublands, rivers, wetlands, or irrigated farmland, in areas where the grass is tall and thick. With the exception of the breeding season, the species mostly prefers to be near the ground. In Northern Australia, fires can occur in grasslands, causing it to sometimes live in forest edge habitats. According to the scientific journal "BioLife", it lives at altitudes of or less, although the "Handbook of the Birds of the World" says that it can live up to in China and on the island of Lombok.


Elaphe bimaculata

Elaphe bimaculata, the twin-spotted ratsnake or Chinese cornsnake, is a small ratsnake (60–80 cm) found in China. It occurs as both blotched and striped phase, with the blotched type being the more common or "typical" phase. Some specimens even exhibit a pattern of half blotched, half striped where the anterior half is usually blotched and the posterior half striped. They are found in many habitats ranging from the edge of forest to cultivated areas and seem to like cooler temperatures and higher humidity. This secretive snake prefers smaller food items such as young to half grown mice. "E. bimaculata" has been known to breed at different times of the year, usually with 3-10 eggs being laid in late spring; eggs require 35–48 days of incubation. A period of 2–3 months hibernation is typical. Females are known to grow larger and heavier than males.


Lindholmiola spectabilis

Lindholmiola spectabilis is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Helicodontidae.
Geographic distribution.
This species is endemic to Greece, where it occurs in the north and north-eastern part of the country's mainland.


Arsenaria vesceritalis

Arsenaria vesceritalis is a species of snout moth in the genus "Arsenaria". It was described by Pierre Chrétien in 1913 and is known from Algeria.


Ashy-headed goose

The ashy-headed goose ("Chloephaga poliocephala") is a large sheldgoose, which breeds in mountainous areas of southernmost South America and winters on lowlands just north of its breeding range.
The lined nest is built in tall grass, and 4–6 eggs are laid. This terrestrial species favours damp upland forest clearings and feeds by grazing; it rarely swims.
Description.
The ashy-headed goose is a stocky bird with a pale brown back, chestnut neck and black-barred white flanks. The head is grey and paler over the crown. The inside of the legs are black and the outside of the legs are red. Sexes are similar, except that the male may have reduced or no underparts barring. Immature birds are duller and have brown heads.
In flight, this species shows black primaries, with the rest of the wing white except for a broad green bar. The male's call is a soft whistle, and the female's is a harsh cackle.


Laminacauda monticola

Laminacauda monticola is a species of sheet weaver found in Bolivia. It was described by Millidge in 1985.


Schenkeliella

Schenkeliella is a monotypic genus of Sri Lankan long-jawed orb-weavers containing the single species, Schenkeliella spinosa. The species was first described by Octavius Pickard-Cambridge in 1871 under the name "Oeta spinosa", but it was renamed to "Schenkeliella" by Embrik Strand in 1934 because the name was already in use for a genus of ermine moths. Originally placed with the Nesticidae, it transferred to the Tetragnathidae in 1980.


Acanthodactylus ahmaddisii

Acanthodactylus ahmaddisii, also known commonly as the Jordanian fringe-fingered lizard and the Jordanischer Pantherfransenfinger in German, is a species of lizard in the family Lacertidae.
Geographic range.
"A. ahmaddisii" is endemic to Jordan.
Etymology.
The specific name, "ahmaddisii", is in honor of Jordanian biologist Ahmad M. Disi.
Habitat.
The natural habitats of "A. ahmaddisii" are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland.
Conservation status.
The Jordanian fringe-fingered lizard is threatened by habitat loss.
Taxonomy.
"A. ahmaddisii" was first described in 2004 by Israeli herpetologist Yehudah L. Werner.


Slaty bunting

The slaty bunting ("Emberiza siemsseni") is a species of bird in the family Emberizidae.
Appearance.
An adult Slaty bunting measures 13 centimeters in length and weighs 20 grams. The plumages are brown and highly distinctive with unusual tail feathers which are broad towards the tip. Its bill is comparatively small and neat.
Range.
It is endemic to China.
Habitat.
Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist shrubland.
Diet.
Slaty bunting's diet includes seeds, insects, and other small invertebrates.
Conservation Status.
The population of Slaty bunting is not globally threatened. However, migration and clearing of vegetation for agriculture are some of the threats facing this species in China.


Latrodectus mactans

Latrodectus mactans, known as southern black widow or simply black widow, and the shoe-button spider, is a venomous species of spider in the genus "Latrodectus". The females are well known for their distinctive black and red coloring and for the fact that they will occasionally eat their mate after reproduction. The species is native to North America. The venom is rarely fatal to healthy humans.
Taxonomy.
"Latrodectus mactans" was first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1775, placing it in the genus "Aranea". It was transferred to the genus "Latrodectus" in 1837 by Charles Walckenaer and is currently placed in the family Theridiidae of the order Araneae. The species is closely related to "Latrodectus hesperus" (western black widow) and "Latrodectus variolus" (northern black widow). Members of the three species are often confused with the genus "Steatoda", the false widows. Prior to 1970, when the current taxonomic divisions for North American black widows were set forth by Kaston, all three varieties were classified as a single species, "L. mactans". As a result, there exist numerous references which claim that "black widow" (without any geographic modifier) applies to "L. mactans" alone. Common usage of the term "black widow" makes no distinction between the three species.
Description.
The body length (excluding legs) of the mature female is , for males. Legs are long in proportion to body. Females are shiny and black in color, with a red marking in the shape of an hourglass on the ventral (under) side of her very rounded abdomen. There is much variation in female size, particularly in egg-carrying (gravid) females. The abdomen of a gravid female can be more than in diameter. Many female widows also have an orange or red patch just above the spinnerets on the top of the abdomen. Juveniles have a distinctly different appearance from the adults; the abdomen is grayish to black with white stripes running across it and is spotted with yellow and orange. Males are either purple, or closer to the appearance of the juveniles in color.
The web of the black widow spider is a three-dimensional tangled cobweb of exceptionally strong silk.
Range.
The southern widow is primarily found in (and is indigenous to) the southeastern United States, ranging as far north as Ohio and as far west as Texas. The northern black widow "(L. variolus)" is found primarily in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, though its range overlaps with that of "L. mactans". (In Canada, northern black widows occur in the southern parts of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec.) In the Dominican Republic "L. mactans" is found throughout the whole country.
"Latrodectus mactans", along with "Latrodectus hesperus" and "Latrodectus geometricus" (the "brown widow spider"), is established in the Hawaiian Islands (USA). One pathway of entry into Hawaii for at least one of these black widow species is imported produce (which is also considered an important potential pathway for widow spiders elsewhere).
Reproduction.
When a male is mature, he spins a sperm web, deposits semen on it, and charges his palpal bulbs with the sperm. Black widow spiders reproduce sexually when the male inserts his palpal bulbs into the female's spermathecal openings. The female deposits her eggs in a globular silken container in which they remain camouflaged and guarded. A female black widow spider can produce four to nine egg sacs in one summer, each containing about 100–400 eggs. Usually, eggs incubate for twenty to thirty days. It is rare for more than a hundred to survive this process. On average, thirty will survive through the first molting, because of cannibalism, lack of food, or lack of proper shelter. It takes two to four months for black widow spiders to mature enough to breed, however full maturation typically takes six to nine months. The females can live for up to three years, while a male's lifespan is about three to four months. The female may eat the male after mating.
Prey.
Black widow spiders typically prey on a variety of insects, with a preference for fire ants if extant, but they also feed on woodlice, diplopods, and chilopods when they are young, and occasionally other arachnids. The spider's web is even strong enough to catch animals as large as mice. When the prey is entangled by the web, "Latrodectus mactans" quickly comes out of its retreat, wraps the prey securely in its strong web, then bites and envenoms its prey. The venom takes about ten minutes to take effect; in the meantime, the prey is held tightly by the spider. When movements of the prey cease, digestive enzymes are released into the wound. The black widow spider then carries its prey back to its retreat before feeding.
Natural enemies.
There are various parasites and predators of widow spiders in North America, though apparently none of these have ever been evaluated in terms of augmentation programs for improved biocontrol. Parasites of the egg sacs include the flightless scelionid wasp "Baeus latrodecti", and members of the chloropid fly genus "Pseudogaurax". Predators of the adult spiders include wasps, most notably the blue mud dauber, "Chalybion californicum", and the spider wasp "Tastiotenia festiva". Other species including Mantis or Centipede also will occasionally and opportunistically take widows as prey, but the preceding all exhibit some significant specific preference for "Latrodectus".
Furthermore, in 2012, researchers published a paper suggesting that the black widow's close relative, the brown widow, may be competing for territory with, and ultimately displacing black widows in Southern California.
Toxicology.
Although the reputation of these spiders is notorious and their venom does affect humans, only mature females are capable of envenomation in humans; their chelicerae—the hollow, needle-like mouthparts that inject venom—are, at approximately 1 mm, or .04 in., long enough to inject venom into humans, unlike those of the much smaller males. The actual amount injected, even by a mature female, is variable. The venom injected by the female black widow is known as alpha-latrotoxin which binds to receptors at the neuromuscular motor end plate of both sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves, resulting in increased synaptic concentration of catecholamines. The symptoms are caused by lymphatic absorption and vascular dissemination of the neurotoxin. The symptoms that result from a black widow spider bite are collectively known as "latrodectism". Deaths in healthy adults from "Latrodectus" bites are exceedingly rare, with no deaths despite two thousand bites yearly, and studies within the past several decades have been unable to confirm any fatalities from this or any of the other U.S. species of "Latrodectus" (e.g. zero fatalities among 23,409 documented "Latrodectus" bites from 2000 through 2008). On the other hand, the geographical range of the widow spiders is vast. Epidemics of mostly European Widow spider bites had been recorded from 1850 to 1950, and during that time period, deaths were reported from 2/1000 to 50/1000 bites. Deaths from the Western Black Widow had been reported as 50/1000 in the 1920s. At that same time, antivenom was introduced. The LD-50 of "L. mactans" venom has been measured in mice as 1.39 mg/kg, and separately as 1.30 mg/kg (with a confidence interval of 1.20–2.70). In 1933, Allan Blair famously allowed himself to be bitten by the spider in order to investigate the toxicity of its venom in humans and as a means of convincing skeptics at the time who thought that the spider's venom might not be dangerous to humans.
There are a number of active components in the venom:
The venom is neurotoxic.


Dendropsophus bogerti

Dendropsophus bogerti is a species of frog in the family Hylidae. It is endemic to the Andes of Colombia and occurs in the Cordillera Central in Antioquia, Caldas, and Chocó Departments. The specific name "bogerti" honors Charles Mitchill Bogert, an American herpetologist. Soon after its description in 1970, it was relegated to synonymy of "Dendropsophus carnifex", but its species status was restored in 1997.
Description.
In a sample from Chocó, three adult males measure and an adult female measures in snout–vent length (SVL). In a sample of 11 adults (no sex specified), including the holotype, SVL varied between . The snout is short and rounded. The tympanum is very indistinct. The fingers are webbed at the base, whereas the toes are slightly more than one-half webbed. Coloration is sexually dimorphic: males have dull yellowish green dorsal surfaces of body and limbs, while these are pale golden brown or beige in females. The concealed surfaces of the limbs are bright orange. The throat bright yellow and the belly and posteroventral part of flanks are pale brownish yellow. The iris is coppery.
The tadpoles have an ovoid body that is wider than it is tall. Body coloration is dark brown with blue, gold, and purple iridescence anteriorly and with golden spots on dorsally. The fins are coppery brown. The tail is xiphicercal (i.e., narrowing abruptly to a distinct flagellum). Tadpoles of Gosner stage 34 measure in body length, or about 41% of the total length.
Habitat and conservation.
"Dendropsophus bogerti" is an adaptable species found in open areas such as secondary forest and pastureland at elevations of above sea level. The eggs are deposited in temporary or permanent pools. This very common species is not facing any known threats. Nevertheless, it has not been recorded in protected areas.


Masked palm civet

The masked palm civet ("Paguma larvata"), also called the gem-faced civet, is a palm civet species native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It has been listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List since 2008 as it occurs in many protected areas, is tolerant to some degree of habitat modification, and widely distributed with presumed large populations that are unlikely to be declining.
The genus "Paguma" was first named and described by John Edward Gray in 1831. All described forms are regarded as a single species.
In 2003, masked palm civets at a wildlife market in China were found to have been infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus.
Characteristics.
The masked palm civet's fur is grayish to ochraceous, black on the head, shoulders and neck, and blackish brown on the tail and feet. It has a white blaze on the forehead; white marks above and below the eyes extend to the ears, forming a half-collar.
In morphology the masked palm civet resembles other palm civets, but does not have spots or stripes. Its tail is more than two-thirds the length of head and body. It has three mammae.
The whitish mask extends laterally to the far edges of the cheeks and caudally up the forehead, past the ears, and down the back of the neck before stopping just under the shoulder blades. The eyes are surrounded by white fur that can vary from faint, incomplete outlines to well-defined blotches. The lips, chin, and throat are white. In some, white stripes of fur, comparable to sideburns on humans due to shape and location, curve up from the throat. These curves vary in thickness and have ends that terminate either in small blotches at the ear base or large blotches that surround the base of both darkly furred ears.
The main body varies from 51 to 76 cm (20 to 28 in) in length, to which is added a tail of 51 to 63 cm (20 to 25 in). It weighs between 3.6 and 6 kg (8 and 13.2 lb).
Distribution and habitat.
The masked palm civet is distributed from the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent, especially the Himalayas, ranging eastwards across Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam to China, Borneo, Sumatra, Taiwan, and the Andaman and Nicobar islands. It was introduced to Mainland Japan and Ryukyu Islands.
It has been recorded in both evergreen and deciduous forest, and in disturbed habitat. It also inhabits fragmented forest habitats, albeit at reduced density.
It is also found in Japan, where genetic studies indicate that it is an introduced species with multiple introductions over the centuries, at least two of which are from Taiwan.
Ecology and behaviour.
The masked palm civet is a nocturnal solitary predator that is occasionally active during the day.
It is partly arboreal.
When alarmed, the animal sprays a secretion from its anal gland against the predator. The spray is similar in function to that of a skunk, and its conspicuousness serves to deter other predators.
Feeding and diet.
The masked palm civet is an omnivore feeding on rats and birds as well as on fruit such as figs, mangoes, bananas, and leaves. Scat analysis indicates that they also eat mollusks, arthropods, bark and to a lesser extent snakes and frogs. The composition of the diet varies between seasons and sites.
Reproduction.
Masked palm civets are polyestrous and their mating behavior is promiscuous. There are two breeding seasons per year. The female bears up to four young. Masked palm civets are known to reach 15 years of age in captivity.
Copulation in masked palm civets can last for more than 30 minutes. Upon completion of copulation, males leave a copulation plug in the female's vaginal tract. The young grow to the size of an adult in about three months.
Threats.
The major threats for the masked palm civet are continued habitat destruction and hunting for bushmeat. It is widely offered in restaurants in southern China and is also eaten in Vietnam. Masked palm civets are often victims of illegal animal trafficking to meet the demands in China and Vietnam; 100 civets were confiscated in April 2021. Despite relocation to Save Vietnam Wildlife, a wildlife rehabilitator, at least 8 civets died due to stress and injuries.
Conservation.
"Paguma larvata" is protected in Malaysia and China, but not Thailand and Nepal. The population of India is listed on CITES Appendix III.
Connection with SARS.
In May 2003, the SARS virus was isolated in several masked palm civets found in a wildlife market in Guangdong, China. Evidence of virus infection was also detected in other animals including a raccoon dog, and in humans working at the same market.
In 2006, scientists from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention of the University of Hong Kong and the Guangzhou Centre for Disease Control and Prevention established a direct genetic link between the SARS coronavirus appearing in civets and humans, bearing out claims that the disease had jumped across species.


Black bearded saki

The black bearded saki ("Chiropotes satanas") is a species of bearded saki, a type of New World monkey, one of five remaining monkeys of their kind. The genus name "Chiropotes" means "hand-drinker" as they have been observed using their hands as ladles for scooping water into their mouths. This behavior is thought to be way of maintaining and protecting their magnificent beards.
Distribution and habitat.
This critically endangered species is endemic to the far eastern Amazon in Brazil, it being restricted to a relatively small region from the Tocantins River in Pará east to around the Grajaú River in Maranhão (similar to the range of the equally threatened Kaapori capuchin).
Anatomy and morphology.
They can be identified by their thick black hair, distinctive beard that shapes the face, and a bushy fox-like tail. They can have some yellowish brown highlights around the back and shoulders. There are some gender differences as the males tend to be slightly larger than females and also have a bulging forehead. They formerly included the red-backed, brown-backed and Uta Hick's bearded saki as subspecies or taxonomically insignificant variations (in which case the 'combined' species simply was called the bearded saki), but based on colour of pelage, karyotype, and molecular analysis it has been recommended treating these as separate species. The black bearded saki is the only dark-nosed species of bearded saki with a blackish back, though some females and young have a paler, brownish back.
Behavior.
As an infant the monkeys can be seen using their tail to grasp things but lose the ability as the primate gets older. They are very social animals commonly grooming and playing with one another, even with those of other species and can be found in groups of around 30 individuals.
The black bearded saki spends a majority of its time foraging for fruits and seeds, as well as insects. They use their strong canine teeth to crack open hard shells of fruits and nuts enabling them to access the unripened young seeds in the fruits.
Bearded sakis have a gestation period of 5 months and produce one young at a time. They don't become sexually mature until 4 years old and have an expected lifespan of 18 years.
Conservation.
Just over the last few decades urbanization has brought with it highways, agriculture, and dams creating an influx in habitat fragmentation, habitat destruction and hunting pressure. Habitat fragmentation is rising as secondary roads increase and people move closer to the forests. Along with an influx of people the amount of agriculture required to support the area increases, increases pressure for deforestation. They also face a hunting problem for their bushmeat and their tails used as dusters.
Habitat conservation is of top priority as this species has a particularly small range are considered the most endangered primate in the Amazon and already locally extinct in a large portion of their original range.


Phrynopus barthlenae

Phrynopus barthlenae is a species of frog in the family Craugastoridae.
It is endemic to Peru.
Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forest, subtropical or tropical high-altitude grassland, arable land, pastureland, and rural gardens.


Craugastor tabasarae

Craugastor tabasarae is a species of frog in the family Craugastoridae. It is endemic to Panama and known from a few isolated records in the Veraguas, Coclé, Colón, and Panamá Provinces. The range includes the eponymous Serranía de Tabasará.
Description.
Adult males measure and adult females in snout–vent length. The tympanum is distinct albeit heavily pigmented, and round in males whereas subelliptical in females. The finger and toe tips are expanded into discs. The toes are basally webbed. Coloration is dorsally cocoa brown with medium-sized darker brown blotches interspersed with lemon yellow. The lips are barred with brown and lemon yellow. The upper thigh surface has dark brown to black irregular bars, interspersed with bright orange-red bars. The chin, chest, and venter are custard yellow. The limbs are ventrally bright yellow with scattered brown spots. The iris is silvery tan to golden above and dark brown to black below.
Habitat and conservation.
"Craugastor tabasarae" occurs in premontane forest at elevations of above sea level. They are typically at night up to above the ground on vegetation overhanging or near streams. Development is presumably direct (i.e., no free-living larval stage).
This species is rare, and at least one population has crashed and might be now extinct. The species is threatened by the spread of the chytrid fungus "Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis" as well as by habitat loss. It has been recorded in the D. Omar Torríjos. H. and Chagres National Parks.


Tortilia trigonella

Tortilia trigonella is a species of moth in the family Stathmopodidae. It is found in Morocco south-west of Marrakesch, in the High Atlas near Goundafa and in Middle Atlas near Azrou.
The wingspan is about 9 mm. Adults have been recorded in June.


Nanorana feae

Nanorana feae (common names: Kakhien paa frog, ocellated spiny frog) is a species of frog in the family Dicroglossidae.
It is found in Yunnan, China, and the Kachin Hills in Myanmar. The specific name "feae" honors Leonardo Fea, an Italian explorer, zoologist, and naturalist. This little-known species probably inhabits hill streams in forested areas.
"Nanorana feae" are relatively large frogs, attaining a snout–vent length of about .


Cnemidophorus arubensis

Cnemidophorus arubensis, the Aruba whiptail, is a species of whiptail lizard in the genus "Cnemidophorus". It is found on the island of Aruba.


Sardinian Anglo-Arab

The Sardinian Anglo-Arab, () Sardinian, or AAS, is a horse breed from the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, where it has been selectively bred for more than one hundred years. It derives from cross-breeding Thoroughbred horses with Sardinian horses carrying Arabian blood.
History.
In 1874 The Ozieri Army Remount Station was established to supply mounts for the cavalry units of the Italian Army. To produce horses suitable for the cavalry, indigenous Sardinian mares were crossed with oriental-bred stallions such as the foundation sire Osmanié, and, starting from 1883, also with French-bred Anglo-Arabian stallions.
In 1915, captain Grattarola, director of the Ozieri Remount Station, continued the work by crossing the best 600 available mares with stallions of Purosangue Orientale breeding, using as his founding stallions Abbajan Sciarragh, Talata u Kamsin and Etnen u Kamsin, which had all been purchased directly from Bedouin desert tribes.
Later on, Thoroughbred stallions started to be utilized on the mares of mixed Sardinian and oriental ancestry. One such Thoroughbred stallion was Rigogolo (son of Havresac II).
A goal of a minimum of 25% Arabian blood was set. In 1967 the breed was officially named “Anglo-Arabo Sardo” (abbreviated in AAS). Lately the suffix "sardo" has been dropped and the breed is increasingly being promoted as an Anglo-Arabian horse.
Related breeds.
There is also a smaller native horse called the Giara horse, which is thought to have developed from Numidian (North African-possibly Barb) stock brought to the island by the Carthaginians in pre-Roman times. It is these native horses that crossed first with Arabians and then Thoroughbreds, that provided the local foundation bloodstock that contributed to the creation of the Sardinian Anglo-Arab. The Government remount station in Ozieri is now crossing the Giara Horse with Arabians, Small AAS and even German riding Ponies in an effort to produce a pony ideally suited to equestrian sports, and is creating the "Giarab" pony breed. Many specimens of AAS are contributing to the foundation bloodstock of a new breed, named the "Sella Italiano" or Italian Saddle Horse.
Uses.
Since the 1960s the AAS has proven itself in the sport of eventing and has also established itself as a racehorse and a steeplechaser. In 1990, Ostenda, an AAS horse won the Grand Prix des Pouliches in Tarbes, and the mare Vituliana repeated this feat in 1997. Vidoc, an AAS stallion, placed first in the Prix du Ministere in 1997.
The majority of horses competing in the Palio di Siena belong to the Anglo Arabo Sardo breed. They replaced the Thoroughbred for racing in the Palio di Siena after several horses had fractured their legs in the tight turns of the Siena Square, so they were replaced by the shorter and sturdier breed whose legs can better withstand the stress of the race. This horse also plays an important role in the folk festivals of Sardinia's horse culture such as the Sartiglia di Oristano, The Cavalcata Sarda and the Ardia di Sedilo. Several specimens are used by mounted regiments of the Carabinieri police force, continuing the tradition of the breed as a cavalry horse.
Characteristics.
The Sardinian Anglo-Arab is characterized by solid feet and legs, a refined head with a straight profile and a fiery temperament with speed and stamina. In cavalry trials it was able to cover 100 kilometers per day for several days. Horses have a light (Dolichomorphic) build with long legs and neck. Colours include bay, chestnut or gray. Height at the withers ranges from small type , medium type , to large type, which is taller than Weight is


Chestnut-throated huet-huet

The chestnut-throated huet-huet ("Pteroptochos castaneus") is a large passerine bird of the family Rhinocryptidae. At an average mass of , it is, with the related black-throated huet-huet, the largest rhinocryptid and the third-heaviest tracheophone suboscine behind the giant and great antpittas. It is a stockily-built bird, averaging in length with a predominantly dark brown plumage except for a dark red throat and a pale buff bar on its wind – lacking in the black-throated species. For many decades intense debate existed as to whether these two were one species or two, but molecular studies in the 1990s demonstrated that the two species had been separated since before the Patagonian Ice Sheet first formed in southern Chile.
The species is found in temperate forest of "Nothofagus" species and "Austrocedrus chilensis" on the humid fringe of the Mediterranean climate zone of Chile, chiefly in Biobío, Maule and parts of O'Higgins Regions, and also in a small adjacent area of Neuquén Province in Argentina.
The species sometimes occurs in exotic "Pinus radiata" plantations, but only if there is a dense understory of shrubs, as it cannot move across habitat without dense understory as shown by a study of the fragmented Maulino forest. The Chestnut-Throated Huet-Huet feeds on insects and their larvae, and also a substantial number of seeds and fruit, which it digs for in the forest floor with its long claws. It may be important in the dispersal of certain forest plants.
Breeding occurs in spring between September and December, but the burrows ordinarily used to nest are dug during the winter rainy season when the soil is loosest. The burrows can be as much as deep and contain two oval white eggs, which are very large for the bird's size, typically averaging long and wide with a mass of . It is believed both sexes incubate the eggs (as is usual for tracheophone suboscines), but the incubation period is not documented.
The huet-huets are well known for their vocalisations, and the song of the chestnut-throated huet-huet is a series of resonant “hoots” that unlike its more southerly counterpart, is typically given as a duet between pairs. The song is higher, softer and faster than the black-throated species, and the call is a “” given in alarm.


Ansonia latidisca

Ansonia latidisca, commonly called the Sambas stream toad or Bornean rainbow toad, is a small true toad rediscovered in 2011 after being unseen since 1924. It is endemic to Borneo (Indonesia and Malaysia). Its natural habitats are tropical moist lowland forests and rivers. It is threatened by habitat loss.
Description.
The three specimens known of "A. latidasca" are small, ranging in size from in length. They are also nocturnal. They have long spindly limbs and variegated dorsal skin "splattered in bright green, purple, and red." The colorful spots on the dorsum are not flat but "pebbly" and have been compared to warts. Amphibian expert Robin Moore told the National Geographic that such skin on a toad "usually indicates the presence of poison glands ... You probably don't want to put this in your mouth." Moore was the initiator of Conservation International's Search for Lost Frogs.
Herpetologist Indraneil Das, leader of the 2011 team that rediscovered the toad, called its coloration "mosslike" and noted that it may be an adaptation for camouflage on the mossy tree bark of its habitat.
Conservation status and rediscovery.
"Ansonia latidisca" was listed by Conservation International as one of the "world's top 10 most wanted frogs" in its "Global Search for Lost Amphibians" in 2010. It had not been seen since 1924. Until its recent rediscovery, the only depictions of the toad were drawings of specimens collected by explorers in the 1920s. The type specimen were collected by Johann Gottfried Hallier.
In July 2011, scientists from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak led by Dr. Indraneil Das found and photographed three specimens in the high branches of a tree after months of night expeditions in the Gunung Penrissen range of Western Sarawak. According to Moore, the team organized its search based on what was known of similar species, searching at night along streams for a toad they thought might be found climbing trees. Dr. Das said these were "standard search techniques appropriate for amphibians in rainforest habitats," adding that they entailed "dangers and annoyances" that included heavy rainfall, leeches, and poachers.
The scientists were concerned about giving public information about the toads' exact location, worried about poachers and the international pet trade.


Acalyptris hispidus

Acalyptris hispidus is a moth of the family Nepticulidae. It was described by Puplesis and Robinson in 2000. It is known from Belize.


Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross

The Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross ("Thalassarche chlororhynchos") is a large seabird in the albatross family. The scientific name is from Ancient Greek. "Thalassarche" is from "thalassa", "sea" and "arkhe", "command", and "chlororhynchos" is from "khloros", "yellow", and "rhunkhos", "bill".
This small mollymawk was once considered conspecific with the Indian yellow-nosed albatross and known as the yellow-nosed albatross. Some authorities still consider these taxa to be conspecific, such as the Clements checklist and the SACC, which recognizes that a proposal is needed.
Taxonomy.
Mollymawks are a type of albatross that belong to family Diomedeidae of the order Procellariiformes, along with shearwaters, fulmars, storm petrels, and diving petrels. They share certain identifying features. First, they have nasal passages that attach to the upper bill called naricorns, although the nostrils on the albatross are on the sides of the bill. The bills of Procellariiformes are also unique in that they are split into between seven and nine horny plates. Finally, they produce a stomach oil made up of wax esters and triglycerides that is stored in the proventriculus. This is used against predators as well as an energy rich food source for chicks and for the adults during their long flights. They also have a salt gland that is situated above the nasal passage and helps desalinate their bodies, due to the high amount of ocean water that they imbibe. It excretes a high saline solution from their nose.
Description.
The Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross averages in length. It is a typical black and white mollymawk with a grey head and large eye patch, and its nape and hindneck are white. Its bill is black with a yellow culminicorn and a pink tip. It has a blackish grey saddle, tail and upperwing, and its underparts are predominantly white. Its underwing and primaries show a narrow black margin. The juvenile is similar to the adult but with a white head and black bill. It can be differentiated from the Indian yellow-nosed by its darker head. Relative to other mollymawks it can be distinguished by its smaller size (the wings being particularly narrow) and the thin black edging to the underwing, The grey-headed albatross has a similar grey head but more extensive and less well defined black markings around the edge of the underwing. Salvin's albatross also has a grey head but has much broader wings, a pale bill and even narrower black borders to the underwing.
Behaviour.
Feeding.
This mollymawk feeds on squid, fish, cuddlefish and crustacea. The yellow-nosed Albatross sometimes hunts at night instead of day.
Breeding.
Like all albatrosses they are colonial, but unusually they will build their nests in scrubs, on top of cliffs amongst "Blechnum" tree ferns. Like all mollymawks they build pedestal nests of mud, peat, feathers, and vegetation to lay their one egg in. They do this in September or early October, and the chick fledges in late March to April. They breed annually.
Range.
Atlantic yellow-nosed albatrosses nest on islands in the mid-Atlantic, including Tristan da Cunha (Inaccessible Island, Middle Island, Nightingale Island, Stoltenhoff Island) and Gough Island. At sea they range across the south Atlantic from South America to Africa between 15°S and 45°S.
Conservation.
The IUCN list this species as endangered, with an occurrence range of and a breeding range of . A 2001 population estimate breaks down the population and shows some trends. Gough Island has 5,300 breeding pairs, between 16,000 and 30,000 breeding pairs on Tristan da Cunha Island, 4,500 on Nightingale Island, between 100 and 200 pairs on Middle Island, and 500 pairs on Stoltenhoff Island, and 1,100 on Inaccessible Island. This adds up to between 27,500 and 41,600 pairs per year for the total between 55,000 and 83,200 total adult birds. This population estimate was done in 1983, however and is outdated. Trends suggest a 50% decrease over 72 years.
The largest threat is from longline fishing, as harvesting of chicks and adults has been outlawed.
Efforts to help conserve this bird are underway, with counting of the birds on Gough Island. Also, Gough Island and Inaccessible Island are nature preserves, and Gough Island is a World Heritage Site. The Tristan da Cunha population is being remotely tracked and counted, and the South East Atlantic Fisheries Commission has passed a resolution that all fishing vessels use a tori line and drop lines at night.


Fauna of Switzerland

Fauna of Switzerland may refer to:


Oxyphyllomyia

Oxyphyllomyia is a genus of flies in the family Tachinidae.


Great bent-winged bat

The great bent-winged bat ("Miniopterus tristis") is a species of vesper bat in the family Miniopteridae.
It can be found in the following countries: Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu.


Dawkinsia filamentosa

Dawkinsia filamentosa is a species of barb. Young fish have barely any color and black spots. They start having more color at three months old. The fish is a swift swimmer. Males are larger than females and they fertilize eggs by swimming into the cloud of eggs. The species is most commonly found in coastal floodplains near the Southwest Indian states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The species' common names are filament barb and blackspot barb.
Fishing.
Along the rivers of Kerala, these fishes grow in abundance and due to its high diet of worms and insects, they are easily caught with baits by fishermen especially during the monsoon season when they are more widely found.


Birinus (moth)


Laudakia agrorensis

Laudakia agrorensis, the Agror agama, is a species of agamid lizard. It is found in eastern Afghanistan, northwestern India (Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu, Kashmir), and northern Pakistan.


Pinctada albina

Pinctada albina is a species of pearl oyster of the genus "Pinctada", known as the sharks bay shell. Another common name is the Arafura shell. It is called the "Amami gai" in Japan.
"Pinctada".
"Pinctada albina" belongs to the genus Pinctada. These are saltwater oysters, marine bivalve mollusks of the genus "Pinctada" in the family Pteriidae. They have a strong inner shell layer composed of nacre, also known as mother of pearl. Pearl oysters are not closely related to the edible oysters of family Ostreidae, and they are also not closely related to the freshwater pearl mussels of the families Unionidae and Margaritiferidae. Like other members of the genus "Pinctada", they share the physiological properties that can lead to the production of large pearls of commercial value, and therefore attempts have been made to harvest pearls commercially from many different Pinctada species.
Characteristics.
The species is small, only three to four inches in diameter. The shells are either grayish or greenish yellow and surrounded by a few indistinct brownish-green radial bands. Nacre is tinted yellowish-green, with a slight border of pale yellow, and has brown markings. The shell has a rounded outline, with a nearly equal height and width.
Oyster shells are usually oval or pear-shaped, but will vary widely in form depending on what they attach to.
Oysters have a strong inner shell layer composed of nacre, also known as "mother of pearl".
An oyster can filter 1.3 gallons of water per hour.
Habitat and distribution.
Although the population stretches along the northern coast up the Great Barrier Reef, "P. albina" is predominately found in Shark Bay, Western Australia. "P. albina" thrives in relatively shallow waters, which contributed to its being the first Australian pearl oyster discovered. When white adventurers first recruited Aboriginals to collect pearl oysters, they found "P. albina", as it was accessible from wading or swimming offshore.
The distribution of "P. albina" reaches Northern Australia, from Indonesia through the Philippines and up to Micronesia. The widespread distribution is equal to "P. maxima". They can also be found in China, Korea, and Vietnam.
Commercially.
Pearls are only occasionally found. They are yellow and small. The nacre is thin and the shells are small, making them of little commercial value. However, before the introduction of the Mississippi shell, their ideal shape for buttons made “Shark Bay” shells critical to the Mother of Pearl Industry in the 19th century. Today, the species is used for culturing blister pearls (Mabe pearls).


Tytthoscincus leproauricularis

Tytthoscincus leproauricularis, the scaly-eared diminutive leaf-litter skink, is a species of skink. It is endemic to Malaysia.


Northern fulmar

The northern fulmar (), fulmar, or Arctic fulmar is a highly abundant seabird found primarily in subarctic regions of the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. There has been one confirmed sighting in the Southern Hemisphere, with a single bird seen south of New Zealand. Fulmars come in one of two color morphs: a light one, with white head and body and gray wings and tail, and a dark one, which is uniformly gray. Though similar in appearance to gulls, fulmars are in fact members of the family Procellariidae, which include petrels and shearwaters.
The northern fulmar and its sister species, the southern fulmar (), are the extant members of the genus . The fulmars are in turn a member of the order Procellariiformes, and they all share certain identifying features. First, they have nasal passages that attach to the upper bill called naricorns; however, nostrils on albatrosses are on the sides of the bill, as opposed to the rest of the order, including fulmars, which have nostrils on top of the upper bill. The bills of Procellariiformes are also unique in that they are split into between seven and nine horny plates. One of these plates makes up the hooked portion of the upper bill, called the maxillary unguis. They produce a stomach oil made up of wax esters and triglycerides that is stored in the proventriculus. This can be sprayed out of their mouths as a defense against predators from a very early age, and as an energy rich food source for chicks and for the adults during their long flights. It will mat the plumage of avian predators, and can lead to their death. Finally, they also have a salt gland that is situated above the nasal passage that helps desalinate their bodies, due to the high amount of ocean water that they imbibe. This gland excretes a high saline solution from their nose.
The northern fulmar was first described as "" by Carl Linnaeus in 1761, based on a specimen from within the Arctic Circle, on Spitsbergen. The Mallemuk Mountain in Northeastern Greenland is named after the northern fulmar ().
Subspecies.
The northern fulmar consists of three subspecies:
Etymology.
' can be broken down to the Old Norse word ' meaning "foul" and ' meaning "gull". "Foul-gull" is in reference to its stomach oil and also its superficial similarity to gulls. Finally, ' is Latin for "glacial" because of its extreme northern range.
In Shetland, the bird is known by the name "mallie."
Description.
The northern fulmar has a wingspan of and is in length. Body mass can range from . This species is gray and white with a pale yellow, thick bill and bluish legs. However, there are both a light morph and dark, or "blue," morph; in the Pacific Ocean there is an intermediate morph as well. Only the dark morph has more than dark edges on the underneath but they all have pale inner primaries on the top of the wings. The Pacific morph has a darker tail than the Atlantic morph.
Like other petrels, their walking ability is limited, but they are strong fliers, with a stiff wing action quite unlike the gulls. They look bull-necked compared to gulls, and have short stubby bills. They are long-lived, with a lifespan of 31 years not uncommon.
Behaviour.
Feeding.
This fulmar will feed on shrimp, fish, squid, plankton, jellyfish, and carrion, as well as refuse. When eating fish, they will dive up to several feet deep to retrieve their prey.
Breeding.
The northern fulmar starts breeding at between six and twelve years old. It is monogamous, and forms long-term pair bonds. It returns to the same nest site year after year. The breeding season starts in May; however, the female has glands that store sperm to allow weeks to pass between copulation and the laying of the egg. Their nest is a scrape on a grassy ledge or a saucer of vegetation on the ground, lined with softer material. The birds nest in large colonies Recently, they have started nesting on rooftops and buildings. Both sexes are involved in the nest-building process. A single white egg, , is incubated for a period of 50 to 54 days, by both sexes. The altricial chick is brooded for 2 weeks and fully fledges after 70 to 75 days. Again, both sexes are involved. During this period, the parents are nocturnal, and will not even being inactive on well-lit nights.
Social behaviour.
The mating ritual of this fulmar consists of the female resting on a ledge and the male landing with his bill open and his head back. He commences to wave his head side to side and up and down while calling.
They make grunting and chuckling sounds while eating and guttural calls during the breeding season.
Conservation.
The northern fulmar is estimated to have between 15,000,000 and 30,000,000 mature individuals that occupy an occurrence range of and their North American population is on the rise, hence it is listed with the IUCN as Least Concern. The range of these species increased greatly last century due to the availability of fish offal from commercial fleets, but may contract because of less food from this source and climatic change. The population increase has been especially notable in the British Isles.
Anthropogenic impact.
Northern fulmars' stomach contents are a hallmark indicator of marine debris in marine environments because of their high abundance and wide distribution. A study of 143 northern fulmars from 2008 to 2013 found 89.5% of them containing microplastics within their gastrointestinal tracts. A mean score of 19.5 pieces of plastic and 0.461 g per individual was calculated. This is considerably higher than in past studies on northern fulmars, possibly implying increasing plastic debris in marine ecosystems and shorelines. However, more research is needed to substantiate such conclusion. Long-term data from the Netherlands dating back to the 1980s show an increase in consumer plastics and a decrease in industrial plastics in the stomach contents of fulmars. The increased plastic ingestion can occur through biomagnification: their diet consists of such invertebrates like plankton that have shown an increase of consumption of microplastics entering the ocean. By going deeper into the food web of marine life, it is evident that fulmars could be indirectly affected through tropic transfer and biomagnification, and similarly could also affect their predators ingestion of plastic pollution. With the increase in freshwater pollution of plastic debris, there may be a further rise in microplastic content of seabird gastrointestinal tracts.


Nebria boiteli

Nebria boiteli is a species of ground beetle in the Nebriinae subfamily that is endemic to Morocco.


Dusky tapaculo

The dusky tapaculo ("Scytalopus fuscus") is a species of bird in the family Rhinocryptidae. It is endemic to Chile.
Taxonomy and systematics.
The dusky tapaculo was formerly considered a subspecies of Magellanic tapaculo ("Scytalopus magellanicus"). Following 1997 and 2003 publications, it was raised to species status because of vocal differences and because the two are sympatric over part of their ranges.
Description.
The dusky tapaculo is long. It is essentially gray all over, darker above and lighter below. The lower back and rump have a brown wash and the flanks are sometimes pale tawny brown with black bars.
Distribution and habitat.
The dusky tapaculo is found only in central Chile. It ranges from southern Atacama Region south to Biobío Region at elevations from sea level to . It inhabits the bottoms of densely vegetated valleys.
Behavior.
Feeding.
No information has been published about the dusky tapaculo's diet or foraging behavior.
Breeding.
Little has been published about the dusky tapaculo's breeding phenology. One nest has been described. It was a globe made of root fibers and moss with a horse hair lining, placed at the end of a tunnel long.
Vocalization.
The dusky tapaculo's song is a repeated short rising trill .
Status.
The IUCN has assesed the dusky tapaculo as being of Least Concern. It is locally fairly common and occurs in at least one protected area. However, its habitat "has been largely destroyed and remains strongly fragmented. This species should probably be monitored".