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Great Gerbil
The great gerbil (''Rhombomys opimus'') is a large rodent found throughout much of Central Asia. Description The largest of the gerbils, great gerbils have a head and body length of . Their skulls are distinctive by having two grooves in each incisor. They have large front claws used for burrowing. Distribution and habitat Great gerbils are found in arid habitats, predominantly in sandy or clay deserts. They are found in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. Predators The great gerbil is preyed on by foxes, owls, kites, wildcats, weasels, vultures, and cobras. Ecology and behavior Great gerbils live in family groups and occupy one burrow per family. Their burrows can be fairly extensive with separate chambers for nests and food storage. Great gerbils spend considerably more time in the burrows during winter, but do not hibernate. They are predominantly diurnal. Food consists mostly of vegetable matter. The animals are often colonial. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Johann Andreas Wagner
Johann Andreas Wagner (21 March 1797 – 17 December 1861) was a German palaeontologist, zoologist and archaeologist who wrote several important works on palaeontology. He was also a pioneer of biogeographical theory. Career Wagner was born in Nuremberg and received a PhD from the University of Erlangen in 1826 after spending some time in the University of Wurzburg (1814-16). He worked as a privatdozent at Erlangen after a tour that included a visit to Paris. In 1832 he became an adjunct to Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert at the Munich zoological collection. In 1835 he was elected to the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Royal Bavarian Academy of Science. In 1845 he organized a survey of the distributions of 44 vertebrates (16 mammals, 27 birds, 1 reptile) across the districts of Bavaria under auspices of the Kingdom of Bavaria. In 1849 he was made third curator for the zoological collections. He was the author of ''Die Geographische Verbreitung der Säugethiere Da ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Wildcats
The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the African wildcat (''F. lybica''). The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while the African wildcat inhabits semi-arid landscapes and steppes in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Central Asia, into western India and western China. The wildcat species differ in fur pattern, tail, and size: the European wildcat has long fur and a bushy tail with a rounded tip; the smaller African wildcat is more faintly striped, has short sandy-gray fur and a tapering tail; the Asiatic wildcat (''F. lybica ornata'') is spotted. The wildcat and the other members of the cat family had a common ancestor about 10–15 million years ago. The European wildcat evolved during the Cromerian Stage about 866,000 to 478,000 years ago; its direct ancestor was '' Felis lunensis''. The ''silvestris'' and ''lybica'' lineages probably diverged about 173,0 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Pest (organism)
A pest is any organism harmful to humans or human concerns. The term is particularly used for creatures that damage crops, livestock, and forestry or cause a nuisance to people, especially in their homes. Humans have modified the environment for their own purposes and are intolerant of other creatures occupying the same space when their activities impact adversely on human objectives. Thus, an elephant is unobjectionable in its natural habitat but a pest when it tramples crops. Some animals are disliked because they bite or sting; wolves, snakes, wasps, ants, bed bugs, fleas and ticks belong in this category. Others enter the home; these include houseflies, which land on and contaminate food; beetles, which tunnel into the woodwork; and other animals that scuttle about on the floor at night, like rats and cockroaches, which are often associated with unsanitary conditions. Agricultural and horticultural crops are attacked by a wide variety of pests, the most important being ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Agriculture
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in the cities. While humans started gathering grains at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers only began planting them around 11,500 years ago. Sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle were domesticated around 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world. In the 20th century, industrial agriculture based on large-scale monocultures came to dominate agricultural output. , small farms produce about one-third of the world's food, but large farms are prevalent. The largest 1% of farms in the world are greater than and operate more than 70% of the world's farmland. Nearly 40% of agricultural land is found on farms larger than . However, five of every six farm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Cutaneous Leishmaniasis
Cutaneous leishmaniasis is the most common form of leishmaniasis affecting humans. It is a skin infection caused by a Trypanosomatid, single-celled parasite that is Vector (epidemiology), transmitted by the bite of a Phlebotominae, phlebotomine sand fly. About 30 species of ''Leishmania'' may cause skin, cutaneous leishmaniasis. This disease is considered to be a zoonosis (an infectious disease that is naturally transmissible from animals to humans), with the exception of ''Leishmania tropica'', which is often an anthroponotic disease (an infectious disease that is naturally transmissible from humans to vertebrate animals). Signs and symptoms Post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis Post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) is a recurrence of Visceral leishmaniasis, ''kala-azar'' that may appear on the skin of affected individuals months and up to 20 years after being partially treated, untreated, or even in those considered adequately treated. In Sudan, they can be demonstrated in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Zoonosis
A zoonosis (; plural zoonoses) or zoonotic disease is an infectious disease of humans caused by a pathogen (an infectious agent, such as a virus, bacterium, parasite, fungi, or prion) that can jump from a non-human vertebrate to a human. When humans infect non-humans, it is called reverse zoonosis or anthroponosis. Major modern diseases such as Ebola and salmonellosis are zoonoses. HIV was a zoonotic disease transmitted to humans in the early part of the 20th century, though it has now evolved into a separate human-only disease. Human infection with animal influenza viruses is rare, as they do not transmit easily to or among humans. However, avian and swine influenza viruses in particular possess high zoonotic potential, and these occasionally recombine with human strains of the flu and can cause pandemics such as the 2009 swine flu. Zoonoses can be caused by a range of disease pathogens such as emergent viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites; of 1,415 pathogens known t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Leishmania Major
''Leishmania major'' is a species of parasite found in the genus ''Leishmania'', and is associated with the disease zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (also known as Aleppo boil, Baghdad boil, Bay sore, Biskra button, Chiclero ulcer, Delhi boil, Kandahar sore, Lahore sore, Oriental sore, Pian bois, and Uta). ''L. major'' is an intracellular pathogen which infects the macrophages and dendritic cells of the immune system. Though ''Leishmania'' species are found on every continent aside from Antarctica, ''Leishmania major'' is found only in the Eastern Hemisphere, specifically in Northern Africa, the Middle East, Northwestern China, and Northwestern India. Biology Life cycle As a trypanosomatid, ''L. major'' begins its lifecycle in amastigote form in the midgut of the main vector, female sand flies ('' Phlebotomus'' ). Once in the gut of the sand fly, the parasites change from aflagelated amastigotes into flagellated promastigotes for one to two weeks until they are fully d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Bubonic Plague
Bubonic plague is one of three types of Plague (disease), plague caused by the Bacteria, bacterium ''Yersinia pestis''. One to seven days after exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms develop. These symptoms include fever, headaches, and vomiting, as well as Lymphadenopathy, swollen and painful lymph nodes occurring in the area closest to where the bacteria entered the skin. Acral necrosis, the dark discoloration of skin, is another symptom. Occasionally, swollen lymph nodes, known as "buboes", may break open. The three types of plague are the result of the route of infection: bubonic plague, septicemic plague, and pneumonic plague. Bubonic plague is mainly spread by infected fleas from small animals. It may also result from exposure to the body fluids from a dead plague-infected animal. Mammals such as rabbits, hares, and some cat species are susceptible to bubonic plague, and typically die upon contraction. In the bubonic form of plague, the bacteria enter through the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Yersinia Pestis
''Yersinia pestis'' (''Y. pestis''; formerly ''Pasteurella pestis'') is a Gram-negative bacteria, gram-negative, non-motile bacteria, non-motile, coccobacillus Bacteria, bacterium without Endospore, spores. It is related to pathogens ''Yersinia enterocolitica'', and ''Yersinia pseudotuberculosis'', from which it evolved. ''Yersinia pestis'' is responsible for the disease plague (disease), plague, which caused the Plague of Justinian and the Black Death, one of the deadliest pandemics in recorded history. Plague takes three main forms: Pneumonic plague, pneumonic, Septicemic plague, septicemic, and bubonic plague, bubonic. ''Y. pestis'' is a facultative anaerobic organism, facultative anaerobic Parasitism, parasitic bacterium that can infect humans primarily via its host the Oriental rat flea (''Xenopsylla cheopis''), but also through airborne transmission , aerosols and airborne droplets for its pneumonic form. As a parasite of its host, the rat flea, which is also a parasit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Longevity
Longevity may refer to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas ''life expectancy'' is defined Statistics, statistically as the average number of years remaining at a given age. For example, a population's life expectancy at birth is the same as the average age at death for all people born in the same year (in the case of Cohort (statistics), cohorts). Longevity studies may involve putative methods to extend life. Longevity has been a topic not only for the scientific community but also for writers of Hyperborei, travel, science fiction, and utopian novels. The legendary fountain of youth appeared in the work of the Ancient Greek historian Herodotus. There are difficulties in authenticating the longest human maximum life span, life span, owing to inaccurate or incomplete birth statistics. Fiction, legend, and folklore have proposed or claimed life spans in the past or future vastly longer than those verified by modern standards, and longevity narratives and unverif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Diurnal Animal
Diurnality is a form of plant and animal behavior characterized by activity during daytime, with a period of sleeping or other inactivity at night. The common adjective used for daytime activity is "diurnal". The timing of activity by an animal depends on a variety of environmental factors such as the temperature, the ability to gather food by sight, the risk of predation, and the time of year. Diurnality is a cycle of activity within a 24-hour period; cyclic activities called circadian rhythms are endogenous cycles not dependent on external cues or environmental factors except for a zeitgeber. Animals active during twilight are crepuscular, those active during the night are nocturnal and animals active at sporadic times during both night and day are cathemeral. Plants that open their flowers during the daytime are described as diurnal, while those that bloom during nighttime are nocturnal. The timing of flower opening is often related to the time at which preferred pollinator ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Hibernation
Hibernation is a state of minimal activity and metabolic reduction entered by some animal species. Hibernation is a seasonal heterothermy characterized by low body-temperature, slow breathing and heart-rate, and low metabolic rate. It is most commonly used to pass through winter months – called overwintering. Although traditionally reserved for "deep" hibernators such as rodents, the term has been redefined to include animals such as bears and is now applied based on active metabolic suppression rather than any absolute decline in body temperature. Many experts believe that the processes of daily torpor and hibernation form a continuum and use similar mechanisms. The equivalent during the summer months is aestivation. Hibernation functions to conserve energy when sufficient food is not available. To achieve this energy saving, an endothermic animal decreases its metabolic rate and thereby its body temperature. Hibernation may last days, weeks, or months—depending on t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
