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Dasypeltis Fasciata
''Dasypeltis fasciata'', commonly known as the Central African egg-eating snake or the western forest eggeater, is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to Africa. It is one of 18 species in the genus ''Dasypeltis'', and is occasionally kept in captivity as an exotic pet along with other members of its genus, particularly '' D. scabra'' and '' D. medici''. Geographic range ''D. fasciata'' is found in western and central Africa including the Central African Republic, Gambia, Nigeria, and Uganda. Habitat The preferred habitat of ''D. fasciata'' is lowland forest at altitudes of approximately . Reproduction ''D. fasciata'' is oviparous. Anatomy and behaviour Owing to their nature as obligate ovivores, all members of the genus ''Dasypeltis'' are arboreal, preferring to remain in the trees where they can locate bird-nests, and tend to be nocturnal as this is when the diurnal bird species they prey upon are asleep and most likely to leave their eggs un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrew Smith (zoologist)
Sir Andrew Smith (3 December 1797 – 11 August 1872) was a British surgery, surgeon, explorer, ethnologist and zoology, zoologist. He is considered the father of zoology in South Africa having described many species across a wide range of groups in his major work, ''Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa''. Smith was born in Hawick, Roxburghshire. He qualified in medicine at the University of Edinburgh obtaining an Doctor of Medicine, M.D. degree in 1819, having joined the Army Medical Services in 1816. South Africa 1820–1837 In 1820 he was ordered to the Cape Colony and was sent to Grahamstown to supervise the medical care of European soldiers and soldiers of the Cape Corps. He was appointed the Albany district surgeon in 1822 and started the first free dispensary for indigent patients in South Africa. He led a scientific expedition into the interior and was able to indulge in his interests of natural history and anthropology. On several occasions, he was sent by gov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dasypeltis Medici
''Dasypeltis medici'', known commonly as the East African egg-eater and the eastern forest egg-eater, is a species of nonvenomous snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to Africa. Etymology The specific name, ''medici'', is in honor of Italian physiologist Michele Medici. Geographic range ''D. medici'' is found in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.. www.reptile-database.org. Habitat The preferred habitat of ''D. medici'' is lowland evergreen forest. Description ''D. medici'' may attain a snout-to-vent length (SVL) of for females, and for males. Branch, Bill (2004). ''Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa''. Third Revised edition, Second impression. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Books. 399 pp. . (''Dasypeltis medici'', p. 96 + Plate15). Diet ''D. medici'', like all species in the genus ''Dasypeltis'', feeds exclusively on birds' eggs. It can swallow an egg three times the size of its hea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fauna Of Central Africa
Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and '' funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoologists and paleontologists use ''fauna'' to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess Shale fauna". Paleontologists sometimes refer to a sequence of faunal stages, which is a series of rocks all containing similar fossils. The study of animals of a particular region is called faunistics. Etymology ''Fauna'' comes from the name Fauna, a Roman goddess of earth and fertility, the Roman god Faunus, and the related forest spirits called Fauns. All three words are cognates of the name of the Greek god Pan, and ''panis'' is the Modern Greek equivalent of fauna (πανίς or rather πανίδα). ''Fauna'' is also the word for a bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snakes Of Africa
Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors and relatives, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads (cranial kinesis). To accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most only have one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. Lizards have independently evolved elongate bodies without limbs or with greatly reduced limbs at least twenty-five times via convergent evolution, leading to many lineages of legless lizards. These resemble snakes, but several common groups of legless lizards have eyelids and external ears, which snakes lack, although this rule ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indian Egg-eating Snake
The Indian egg-eating snake or Indian egg-eater (''Elachistodon westermanni)'' is a rare species of egg-eating snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to the Indian subcontinent. It is also called Westermann's snake, reflecting its scientific name. The snake belongs to the monotypic genus ''Elachistodon''. Etymology The specific name, ''westermanni'', is in honor of Dutch zoologist Geraldus Frederick Westermann (1807–1890). Geographic range The Indian egg-eating snake is found in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. Recent discoveries of the species come from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. Habitat The preferred natural habitats of ''E. westermanni'' are forest and shrubland, at altitudes of . Description ''E. westermanni'' is glossy brown to black, with bluish white flecks posteriorly and a middorsal creamy stripe from neck to tail tip. The head is brown with a black arrow mark. The ventrals are white with brown dots. Adults ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garter Snake
Garter snake is the common name for small to medium-sized snakes belonging to the genus ''Thamnophis'' in the Family (biology), family Colubridae. They are native to North America, North and Central America, ranging from central Canada in the north to Costa Rica in the south. With about 35 recognized species and subspecies, garter snakes are highly variable in appearance; generally, they have large round eyes with rounded pupils, a slender build, keeled scales (appearing ‘raised’), and a pattern of longitudinal stripes that may or may not include spots (although some have no stripes at all). Certain subspecies have stripes of blue, yellow, or red, mixed with black tops and beige-tan underbelly markings. They also vary significantly in total length, from . With no real consensus on the classification of the species of ''Thamnophis'', disagreements between Taxonomy (biology), taxonomists and disputed sources (such as field guides) are common. One area of debate, for example, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Mamba
The black mamba (''Dendroaspis polylepis'') is a species of highly venomous snake belonging to the family Elapidae. It is native to parts of sub-Saharan Africa. First formally species description, described by Albert Günther in 1864, it is the second-longest venomous snake after the king cobra; mature specimens generally exceed and commonly grow to . Specimens of have been reported. It varies in colour from grey to dark brown. Juvenile black mambas tend to be more pale in colour than adults, and darken with age. Despite the common name, the black mamba is not black; the colour name describes rather the inside of its mouth, which it displays when feeling threatened. The species is both terrestrial animal, terrestrial (ground-living) and arboreal (tree-living); it inhabits savannah, woodland, rocky slopes and in some regions, dense forest. It is Diurnality, diurnal and is known to prey on birds and small mammals. Over suitable surfaces, it can move at speeds up to for short ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Batesian Mimicry
Batesian mimicry is a form of mimicry where a harmless species has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a harmful species directed at a predator of them both. It is named after the English naturalist Henry Walter Bates, who worked on butterflies in the rainforests of Brazil. Batesian mimicry is the most commonly known and widely studied of mimicry complexes, such that the word mimicry is often treated as synonymous with Batesian mimicry. There are many other forms however, some very similar in principle, others far separated. It is often contrasted with Müllerian mimicry, a form of mutually beneficial convergence between two or more harmful species. However, because the mimic may have a degree of protection itself, the distinction is not absolute. It can also be contrasted with functionally different forms of mimicry. Perhaps the sharpest contrast here is with aggressive mimicry where a predator or parasite mimics a harmless species, avoiding detection and improving its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egg Predation
Egg predation or ovivory is a feeding strategy in many groups of animals (ovivores) in which they consume eggs. Since a fertilized egg represents a complete organism at one stage of its Biological life cycle, life cycle, eating an egg is a form of predation, the killing of another organism for food. Egg predation is found widely across the animal kingdom, including in fish, birds, snakes, mammals, and arthropods. Some species are specialist egg predators, but many more are generalists which take eggs when the opportunity arises. Humans have accidentally or intentionally introduced egg predators such as Rat, rats to places that had been free of them, causing damage to native species such as ground-nesting seabirds. Predatory birds such as ravens and gulls have spread, threatening ground-nesting birds such as Centrocercus, sage grouse and terns. Measures to control such predators include the use of poisoned bait eggs. Definitions An ovivore or ovivorous animal is one that eats ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oviparity
Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings known as hatchlings with little or no embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method used by most animal species, as opposed to viviparous animals that develop the embryos internally and metabolically dependent on the maternal circulation, until the mother gives birth to live juveniles. Ovoviviparity is a special form of oviparity where the eggs are retained inside the mother (but still metabolically independent), and are carried internally until they hatch and eventually emerge outside as well-developed juveniles similar to viviparous animals. Modes of reproduction The traditional modes of reproduction include oviparity, taken to be the ancestral condition, traditionally where either unfertilised oocytes or f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Habitat
In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ecological niche. Thus "habitat" is a species-specific term, fundamentally different from concepts such as Biophysical environment, environment or vegetation assemblages, for which the term "habitat-type" is more appropriate. The physical factors may include (for example): soil, moisture, range of temperature, and Luminous intensity, light intensity. Biotic index, Biotic factors include the availability of food and the presence or absence of Predation, predators. Every species has particular habitat requirements, habitat generalist species are able to thrive in a wide array of environmental conditions while habitat specialist species require a very limited set of factors to survive. The habitat of a species is not necessarily found in a ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dasypeltis Scabra
''Dasypeltis scabra'', also known commonly as the common egg eater, the egg-eating snake, and the rhombic egg eater, is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to Africa. Geographic range ''D. scabra'' is found in sub-Saharan Africa. Description ''D. scabra'' grows to a total length (tail included) of , and has almost toothless jaws. Dorsally, it has a series of rhomboidal dark brown spots on a lighter background. There is an alternating series of brown spots on each side and a distinct V-shaped mark at the back of the neck. Ventrally it is yellowish, either uniform or with dark dots. Mimicry It has been suggested that non-venomous ''D. scabra'' is a mimic of venomous ''Echis carinatus'', the saw-scaled viper, which it strongly resembles. Typical specimens of ''D. scabra'' even more closely resemble '' Causus rhombeatus'', the rhombic night adder. The colouration of ''E. carinatus'' generally tends to be more reddish and brown, instead of shades of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
