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Blue Nile Patas Monkey
The Blue Nile patas monkey (''Erythrocebus poliophaeus'') or Heuglin's patas monkey is a species of Old World monkey found in Africa along the Blue Nile river valley in Ethiopia, Sudan, and potentially South Sudan. While first described in 1862, it was synonymized with the common patas monkey (''E. patas'') in 1927. A 2017 study reclassified it as a distinct species. Taxonomy The species was described in 1862 by Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach. Reichenbach's description was based on a live specimen from Fazogli and a skin from the vicinity of the White Nile, both received by Theodor von Heuglin, with a captive adult in Cairo confirming the species as distinct to him. However, in the first widely adopted taxonomy for ''Erythrocebus'' by Schwartz (1927), all ''Erythrocebus'' monkeys were classified into three subspecies: ''patas'', ''pyrrhonotus'' and ''baumstarki,'' creating a monotypic genus. This led to the synonymization of ''E. poliophaeus'' with ''E. patas''. In 2017, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giza Zoo
The Giza Zoo () is a zoological garden in Giza, Egypt. It is one of the few green areas in the city, and includes Giza's largest park. The zoo covers about , and is home to many endangered species, as well as a selection of endemic fauna. The first to be built in the Middle East and Africa, rare species have been successfully bred in the zoo—including the first California sea lion to be born in the region. History The zoo was built by Khedive Ismail and opened on 1 March 1891. It was built on about 50 feddan () that was once part of the harem gardens. Ismail imported many plants from India, Africa, and South America, of which a banyan tree planted about 1871 can still be seen. The original 180 birds and 78 other animals in the zoo's collection were taken from Ismail's private menagerie. In the late 1870s, the state took over the zoo as partial payment of the Ismail's debts. In January 1890, the harem building was opened as a natural history museum, and was used in this mann ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monotypic Genus
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispecific" or "monospecific" is sometimes preferred. In botanical nomenclature, a monotypic genus is a genus in the special case where a genus and a single species are simultaneously described. Theoretical implications Monotypic taxa present several important theoretical challenges in biological classification. One key issue is known as "Gregg's Paradox": if a single species is the only member of multiple hierarchical levels (for example, being the only species in its genus, which is the only genus in its family), then each level needs a distinct definition to maintain logical structure. Otherwise, the different taxonomic ranks become effectively identical, which creates problems for organizing biological diversity in a hierarchical system. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Data Deficient
A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessarily indicate that the species has not been extensively studied, but it usually indicates that little or no information is available on the abundance and distribution of the species. It can also indicate uncertainty about the taxonomic classification of an organism; for example, the IUCN classifies the orca as "data deficient" because of the likelihood that two or more types of the whale are separate species. The IUCN recommends that care be taken to avoid classing species as "data deficient" when the absence of records may indicate dangerously low abundance: "If the range of a taxon is suspected to be relatively circumscribed, if a considerable period of time has elapsed since the last record of the taxon, threatened status may well be ju ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wildlife Trade
Wildlife trade refers to the exchange of products derived from non-domesticated animals or plants usually extracted from their natural environment or raised under controlled conditions. It can involve the trade of living or dead individuals, tissues such as skins, bones or meat, or other products. Legal wildlife trade is regulated by the United Nations' Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which currently has 184 member countries called ''Parties''. Illegal wildlife trade is widespread and constitutes one of the major illegal economic activities, comparable to the traffic of drugs and weapons. Wildlife trade is a serious conservation problem, has a negative effect on the viability of many wildlife populations and is one of the major threats to the survival of vertebrate species. The illegal wildlife trade has been linked to the emergence and spread of new infectious diseases in humans, including emergent viruses. Global init ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agricultural Expansion
Agricultural expansion describes the growth of agricultural land ( arable land, pastures, etc.) especially in the 20th and 21st centuries. The agricultural expansion is often explained as a direct consequence of the global increase in food and energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ... requirements due to population growth (both which in turn have been attributed to agricultural expansion itself), with an estimated expectation of 10 billion people on Earth by end of this century. It is foreseen that most of the world's non-agrarian ecosystems (terrestrial ecosystem, terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem, aquatic) will be environmental impact, affected adversely, from habitat loss, land degradation, overexploitation, and other problems. The intensified food production, fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Villagization (Ethiopia)
Villagization was a land reform and resettlement program in Ethiopia implemented by the Derg in 1985 that aimed to systematize and regulate village life and rural agriculture. Villagization typically involved the relocation of rural communities or nomadic groups to planned villages with communal farmland. Land reform stood as one of the Derg's foremost priorities, and villagization occurred within the context of broader policies of Resettlement and villagization in Ethiopia, resettlement and the collectivization of agriculture. A nominally Marxist–Leninist state, the Derg modeled villagization on Collectivization in the Soviet Union, Soviet and Ujamaa, Tanzanian precedents. Villagization policy immediately followed the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia, Famine of 1983–85, and attempted to increase food production, expand social services, and further extend state control over rural populations through a systematic relocation of people into planned communities. Opponents of the De ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Handlebar Moustache
A handlebar moustache is a moustache with particularly lengthy and upwardly curved extremities. These moustache styles are named for their resemblance to the handlebars of a bicycle. It is also known as a spaghetti moustache, because of its stereotypical association with Italian men. The Handlebar Club humorously describes the style as "a hirsute appendage of the upper lip and with graspable extremities". History Similar styles of moustache are quite ancient, appearing on statues and other depictions of Iron Age Celts. In the United States, handlebar moustaches were worn in the later part of the 19th century by Wild West figures like Wyatt Earp. In Europe, handlebar moustaches were often worn by soldiers during the 19th century until roughly the era of World War I. English comedy actor Jimmy Edwards grew his trademark handlebar moustache in the late 1940s in order to disguise facial injuries sustained as a pilot in World War II. In 1972, to win a $300 "best facial hair" pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aridification
Aridification is the process of a region becoming increasingly arid, or dry. It refers to long term change, rather than seasonal variation. It is often measured as the reduction of average soil moisture content. It can be caused by reduced precipitation, increased evaporation, lowering of water tables, and changes in ground cover acting individually or in combination. Its major consequences include reduced agricultural production, soil degradation, ecosystem changes and decreased water catchment runoff. Some researchers have found that the Colorado River basin and other parts of western North America are currently undergoing aridification. A December 2024 report from the UNCCD concluded that more than three-quarters of the Earth's land "has become permanently dryer in recent decades", that "drier climates now affecting vast regions across the globe will not return to how they were", and that a quarter of the global population lives in expanding drylands. See also * Arid * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Refugium (population Biology)
In biology, a refugium (plural: ''refugia'') is a location which supports an isolated or relict population of a once more widespread species. This isolation ( allopatry) can be due to climatic changes, geography, or human activities such as deforestation and overhunting. Present examples of refugial animal species are the mountain gorilla, isolated to specific mountains in central Africa, and the Australian sea lion, isolated to specific breeding beaches along the south-west coast of Australia, due to humans taking so many of their number as game. This resulting isolation, in many cases, can be seen as only a temporary state; however, some refugia may be longstanding, thereby having many endemic species, not found elsewhere, which survive as relict populations. The Indo-Pacific Warm Pool has been proposed to be a longstanding refugium, based on the discovery of the "living fossil" of a marine dinoflagellate called '' Dapsilidinium pastielsii'', currently found only in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sudd
The Sudd (, Nuer: Baki̱ec, Dinka: Toc) is a vast swamp in South Sudan, formed by the White Nile's '' Baḥr al-Jabal'' section. The Arabic word ' is derived from ' (), meaning "barrier" or "obstruction". The term "the sudd" has come to refer to any large solid floating vegetation island or mat. The area which the swamp covers is one of the world's largest wetlands and the largest freshwater wetland in the Nile Basin. For many centuries the swamp, and especially its thicket of vegetation, proved an impenetrable barrier to navigation along the Nile. The ancient Egyptians failed to penetrate the Sudd and reach the areas south of it. In AD 61, a party of Roman soldiers sent by the Emperor Nero proceeded up the White Nile but were not able to get beyond the Sudd, which marked the limit of Roman penetration into equatorial Africa. For the same reasons in later times, the search for the source of the Nile was particularly difficult; it eventually involved overland expeditions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metemma
Metemma (Amharic: መተማ), also known as Metemma Yohannes, is a town in northwestern Ethiopia, on the border with Sudan. Located in the Semien Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Metemma has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 685 meters above sea level. Across the border is the corresponding Sudanese village of Gallabat. Metemma hosts an airport (ICAO code HAMM, IATA ETE). Etymology According to the British diplomat Hormuzd Rassam, who travelled through Metemma in November 1865 on his diplomatic mission to Emperor Tewodros II, "Metemma" comes from the Arabic word for "the place of cutting, or termination – indicating the end of the Muslim provinces", although at the time the settlement was better known as Suk ul-Gallabat ("The market of Gallabat").Hormuzd Rassam, ''Narrative of the British Mission to Theodore of Abyssinia'' (London, 1869), vol. 1, p. 158 History The town traces its origins to the 18th century, when a colony of Tukrir from Darfur finding ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Rift Valley, Ethiopia
The Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia, (or Main Ethiopian Rift or Ethiopian Rift Valley) is a branch of the East African Rift that runs through Ethiopia in a southwest direction from the Afar triple junction. In the past, it was seen as part of a "Great Rift Valley" that ran from Mozambique to Syria. Known for its scenery and diverse wildlife in Ethiopia specifically the Rift Valley holds importance in the field of human evolution. It is recognized as an area for researching the stages of human development with crucial fossil findings such, as Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) unearthed within its bounds. Description The Great Rift Valley lies between the Ethiopian Plateau to the north and the Somalia Plateau to the south. The rift developed as the Nubian and Somali plates began to separate during the Miocene Period along the East African rift system. Rift initiation was asynchronous along the Ethiopian rift valley: deformation began around 18 million years ago at the south end, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
