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Sunning (behaviour)
Sunning or basking, sometimes also known as sunbathing, is a thermoregulatory or comfort behaviour used by animals, especially birds, reptiles, and insects, to help raise their body temperature, reduce the energy needed for temperature maintenance or to provide comfort. They may also have additional functions of ridding animals of ectoparasites, bacteria, or excess moisture. Birds Birds adopt special postures when sunning, these may include spreading out their feathers, flattening their body on soil, showing either their upper parts to the sun or facing the sun. Some authors separate the behaviours into sun-basking and sun-exposure - the former term used when the behaviour is strictly thermoregulatory in function while the latter term may be more appropriate if the behaviour serves functions other than raising body temperature. In some species, the sunbathing posture is adopted in very hot weather and the birds sometimes stay in close contact with hot soil. Birds may fluff up th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grey Heron Sunning3
Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed of black and white. It is the color of a cloud-covered sky, of ash and of lead. The first recorded use of ''grey'' as a color name in the English language was in 700 CE.Maerz and Paul ''A Dictionary of Color'' New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 196 ''Grey'' is the dominant spelling in European and Commonwealth English, while ''gray'' has been the preferred spelling in American English; both spellings are valid in both varieties of English. In Europe and North America, surveys show that grey is the color most commonly associated with neutrality, conformity, boredom, uncertainty, old age, indifference, and modesty. Only one percent of respondents chose it as their favorite color. Etymology ''Grey'' comes from the Middle English o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gippsland Water Dragon
The Australian water dragon (''Intellagama lesueurii''), which includes the eastern water dragon (''Intellagama lesueurii lesueurii'' ) and the Gippsland water dragon (''Intellagama lesueurii howittii'' ) subspecies, is an arboreal agamid species native to eastern Australia from Victoria northwards to Queensland. There may be a small introduced population on the south-east coast of South Australia. Etymology The specific name, ''lesueurii'', is in honor of French naturalist Charles Alexandre Lesueur. Description Australian water dragons have long powerful limbs and claws for climbing, a long muscular laterally-compressed tail for swimming, and prominent nuchal and vertebral crests. (A nuchal crest is a central row of spikes at the base of the head. These spikes continue down the spine, getting smaller as they reach the base of the tail.) [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pseudantechinus Macdonnellensis
The fat-tailed false antechinus (''Pseudantechinus macdonnellensis''), also called the fat-tailed pseudantechinus and red-eared antechinus, is a member of the order Dasyuromorphia. It is an inhabitant of western and central Australia. Its species name, ''macdonnellensis'', refers to the MacDonnell Ranges near Alice Springs, where it was first discovered. Taxonomy Scientific name: ''Pseudantechinus macdonellensis''. Common name: Fat-tailed-antechinus, fat-tailed pseudantechinus. It was first described in 1896 by Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer, who placed it in the genus '' Phascogale''. It was for a long time included in the genus '' Antechinus''. The species has formerly included the Alexandria false antechinus (''P. mimulus''), the Ningbing false antechinus (''P. ningbing''), and Woolley's false antechinus (''P. woolleyae''). The ''P. macdonellensis'' is commonly found in the rocky environments of Central Australia. It is presumed to have a large population, and generally li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tabby Sunning After Winter In House
A tabby is any domestic cat (''Felis catus'') with a distinctive 'M'-shaped marking on its forehead; stripes by its eyes and across its cheeks, along its back, and around its legs and tail; and (differing by tabby type), characteristic striped, dotted, lined, flecked, banded, or swirled patterns on the body—neck, shoulders, sides, flanks, chest, and abdomen. "Tabby" is not a breed of cat, but a coat type seen in almost all genetic lines of domestic cats, regardless of status. The tabby pattern is found in many official cat breeds and is a hallmark of the landrace extremely common among the general population of cats around the world. The tabby pattern occurs naturally and is connected both to the coat of the domestic cat's direct ancestor and to those of their close relatives: the African wildcat (''Felis lybica lybica''), the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the Asiatic wildcat (''Felis lybica ornata''), all of which have similar coats, both by pattern and colorat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
River Cooter
The river cooter (''Pseudemys concinna'') is a species of freshwater turtle in the family Emydidae. The species is native to the central and eastern United States, but has been introduced into parts of California, Washington, and British Columbia. Geographic range ''P. concinna'' is found from Virginia south to central Georgia, west to eastern Texas, Oklahoma, and north to southern Indiana. Habitat ''P. concinna'' is usually found in rivers with moderate current, as well as lakes and tidal marshes. Subspecies There are two subspecies which are recognized as being valid. *''Pseudemys concinna concinna'' – eastern river cooter *''Pseudemys concinna suwanniensis'' – Suwannee cooter – sometimes regarded as a separate species, ''P. suwanniensis'' ''Nota bene'': A trinomial authority in parentheses indicates that the subspecies was originally described in a genus other than ''Pseudemys''. The coastal plain cooter or Florida cooter (''P. floridana'') was formerly consider ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pond Slider
The pond slider (''Trachemys scripta'') is a species of common, medium-sized, semiaquatic turtle. Three subspecies are described, the most recognizable of which is the red-eared slider (''T. s. elegans''), which is popular in the pet trade and has been introduced to other parts of the world by people releasing it to the wild. Hatchling and juvenile pond sliders have a green upper shell (carapace), yellow bottom shell ( plastron), and green and yellow stripes and markings on their skin. These patterns and colors in the skin and shell fade with age until the carapace is a muted olive green to brown and the plastron is a dull yellow or darker. Some sliders become almost black with few visible markings. The carapace is oval with a bit of rounding and a central crest with knobs, but these features soften and fade with age, adults being smoother and flatter. For determining an adult slider's sex, males typically have much longer front claws than adult females, while females usually have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dimetrodon
''Dimetrodon'' ( or ,) meaning "two measures of teeth,” is an extinct genus of non-mammalian synapsid that lived during the Cisuralian (Early Permian), around 295–272 million years ago (Mya). It is a member of the family Sphenacodontidae. The most prominent feature of ''Dimetrodon'' is the large neural spine sail on its back formed by elongated spines extending from the vertebrae. It walked on four legs and had a tall, curved skull with large teeth of different sizes set along the jaws. Most fossils have been found in the Southwestern United States, the majority coming from a geological deposit called the Red Beds of Texas and Oklahoma. More recently, its fossils have been found in Germany. Over a dozen species have been named since the genus was first erected in 1878. ''Dimetrodon'' is often mistaken for a dinosaur or as a contemporary of dinosaurs in popular culture, but it became extinct some 40 million years before the first appearance of dinosaurs. Rept ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trachemys Scripta Elegans
The red-eared slider or red-eared terrapin (''Trachemys scripta elegans'') is a subspecies of the pond slider (''Trachemys scripta''), a semiaquatic turtle belonging to the family Emydidae. It is the most popular pet turtle in the United States, is also popular as a pet across the rest of the world, and is the most invasive turtle. It is the most commonly traded turtle in the world. The red-eared slider is native from the Midwestern United States to northern Mexico, but has become established in other places because of pet releases, and has become invasive in many areas where it outcompetes native species. The red-eared slider is included in the list of the world's 100 most invasive species. Etymology The red-eared slider gets its name from the small, red stripe around its ears, or where its ears would be, and from its ability to slide quickly off rocks and logs into the water. This species was previously known as Troost's turtle in honor of an American herpetologist G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thermoregulation
Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature as its own body temperature, thus avoiding the need for internal thermoregulation. The internal thermoregulation process is one aspect of homeostasis: a state of dynamic stability in an organism's internal conditions, maintained far from thermal equilibrium with its environment (the study of such processes in zoology has been called physiological ecology). If the body is unable to maintain a normal temperature and it increases significantly above normal, a condition known as hyperthermia occurs. Humans may also experience lethal hyperthermia when the wet bulb temperature is sustained above for six hours. The opposite condition, when body temperature decreases below normal levels, is known as hypothermia. It results when the homeostatic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crocodylus Palustris
The mugger crocodile (''Crocodylus palustris'') is a medium-sized broad- snouted crocodile, also known as mugger and marsh crocodile. It is native to freshwater habitats from southern Iran to the Indian subcontinent, where it inhabits marshes, lakes, rivers and artificial ponds. It rarely reaches a body length of and is a powerful swimmer, but also walks on land in search of suitable waterbodies during the hot season. Both young and adult mugger crocodiles dig burrows to which they retreat when the ambient temperature drops below or exceeds . Females dig holes in the sand as nesting sites and lay up to 46 eggs during the dry season. The sex of hatchlings depends on temperature during incubation. Both parents protect the young for up to one year. They feed on insects, and adults prey on fish, reptiles, birds and mammals. The mugger crocodile evolved at least and has been a symbol for the fructifying and destructive powers of the rivers since the Vedic period. It was firs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psammophilus
''Psammophilus'' is a genus of agamid Agamidae is a family of over 300 species of iguanian lizards indigenous to Africa, Asia, Australia, and a few in Southern Europe. Many species are commonly called dragons or dragon lizards. Overview Phylogenetically, they may be sister to the ... lizards found in India. Although the genus name means "sand loving" in Greek, they are found in rocky habitats. Species *'' Psammophilus blanfordanus'' - Blanford's rock agama *'' Psammophilus dorsalis'' - peninsular rock agama, South Indian rock agama References Psammophilus Lizard genera Taxa named by Leopold Fitzinger {{agamidae-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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