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Hara Forests
The Mangrove forests of Qeshm or Hara forests of Qeshm, are the mangrove forests on the southern coast of Iran, particularly on and near the island of Qeshm in the Persian Gulf. Dominated by the species '' Avicennia marina'', known locally as the "harra" tree (Persian: حرا), the forests represent an ecological resource. The "Hara Protected Area" on Quesm and the nearby mainland is a biosphere reserve where commercial use is restricted to fishing (mainly shrimp), tourist boat trips, and limited mangrove cutting for animal feed. Hara tree characteristics The hara tree, ''Avicennia marina'', grows to heights of three to eight meters and has bright green leaves and twigs. The long, narrow, oval leaves of the tree have nutritious value for livestock roughly equivalent to barley and alfalfa. Forest extent and significance The hara forest on Qeshm and the opposite mainland covers an area of approximately 20 km by 20 km, with many tidal channels. In 1972 the Hara Pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthropoda
Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated ( metameric) segments, and paired jointed appendages. In order to keep growing, they must go through stages of moulting, a process by which they shed their exoskeleton to reveal a new one. They form an extremely diverse group of up to ten million species. Haemolymph is the analogue of blood for most arthropods. An arthropod has an open circulatory system, with a body cavity called a haemocoel through which haemolymph circulates to the interior organs. Like their exteriors, the internal organs of arthropods are generally built of repeated segments. They have ladder-like nervous systems, with paired ventral nerve cords running through all segments and forming paired ganglia in each segment. Their heads are formed by fusion of varying numbers of segments, and their brains are formed by fu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of National Geoparks
This list includes areas designated as "geopark" on the national level. This should not be confused with members of either the European Geoparks Network or the UNESCO Global Geoparks Network. Australia * Kanawinka Geopark Austria * Kamptal Geopark Brazil * Geopark Paleorrota Bulgaria * Iskar–Panega Geopark China * Protected areas of the People's Republic of China Czech Republic * Bohemian-Moravian Highlands Geopark * Blaník Knights County Geopark * Egeria Geopark * GeoLoci Geopark * Iron Mountains Geopark * Moravian-Silesian Foothills Geopark * Ralsko Geopark Germany * Bergstraße-Odenwald * Bayern–Böhmen * GrenzWelten * Harz - Braunschweiger Land - Ostfalen * Inselsberg – Drei Gleichen * Kyffhäuser * Laacher See * Muskau Arch * Porphyrland * Ries * Ruhrgebiet * Sachsens Mitte * Schieferland * Schwäbische Alb * TERRA.vita * Vulkaneifel * Vulkanregion Vogelsberg * Westerwald–Lahn–Taunus Indonesia * Batur * Belitung * Ciletuh-Palabuha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Network Of Geoparks
UNESCO Global Geoparks (UGGp) are geoparks certified by the UNESCO Global Geoparks Council as meeting all the requirements for belonging to the Global Geoparks Network (GGN). The GGN is both a network of geoparks and the agency of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) that administers the network. The agency was founded in 2004 in partnership with the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). The network was set up to conserve Earth's geological heritage, as well as to promote the sustainable research and development by the concerned communities. To implement these goals they adopted the concept of geopark, a term that had already been in use for one of the proposed parks. Geoparks were conceived as "single, unified geographical areas where sites and landscapes of international geological significance are managed with a holistic concept of protection, education and sustainable development." As the geopark did not naturally conform ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syrian Elephant
The Syrian or Western Asiatic elephant (sometimes given the subspecies designation ''Elephas maximus asurus'') was the westernmost population of the Asian elephant (''Elephas maximus''), which went extinct in ancient times, with early human civilizations in the area utilizing the animals for their ivory, and possibly for warfare. Skeletal remains of ''E. m. asurus'' have been recorded in the Middle East, notably from Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, from periods dating between at least 1800 BC and likely 700 BC. Due to the lack of any Late Pleistocene or early to mid-Holocene records for Asian elephants in the region, there are suggestions that the elephants were anthropogenically introduced, or transported, there during the Bronze Age, though this is disputed. Ancient Syrian and Assyrian craftsmen used the tusks of ''E. m. asurus'' to make ivory carvings. Regionally, the production of ivory items was at its height during the first millennium, BC, when the Arameans crafted splendi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indian Elephant
The Indian elephant (''Elephas maximus indicus'') is one of three extant recognized subspecies of the Asian elephant, native to mainland Asia. The species is smaller than the African elephant species with a convex back and the highest body point on its head. The species exhibits significant sexual dimorphism with a male reaching an average shoulder height of about and weighing up to whereas a female reaches an average shoulder height of about and weighs up to . It has a broader skull with a concave forehead, two large laterally folded ears and a large trunk. It has smooth grey skin with four large legs and a long tail. The Indian elephant is native to mainland Asia with nearly three-fourth of the population found in India. The species is also found in other countries of the Indian subcontinent including Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and South East Asian countries including Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam with small populations in China. It inhabits gra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asian Elephants
The Asian elephant (''Elephas maximus''), also known as the Asiatic elephant, is the only living ''Elephas'' species. It is the largest living land animal in Asia and the second largest living elephantid in the world. It is characterised by its long trunk with a single finger-like processing; large tusks in males; laterally folded large ears and wrinkled grey skin that is partly depigmented on the trunk, ears or neck. Adult males average in weight and females . It has a large and well developed neocortex of the brain, is highly intelligent and self-aware being able to display behaviours associated with grief, learning and greeting. Three subspecies are recognised—'' E. m. maximus'', ''E. m. indicus'' and '' E. m. sumatranus''. The Asian elephant is distributed in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from India in the west to Borneo in the east, and Nepal in the north to Sumatra in the south. It frequently inhabits grasslands, tropical evergreen forests, semi-ev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greater Flamingo
The greater flamingo (''Phoenicopterus roseus'') is the most widespread and largest species of the flamingo family. Common in the Old World, they are found in Northern (coastal) and Sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian Subcontinent (south of the Himalayas), the Middle East, the Levant, the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean countries of Southern Europe. Taxonomy The greater flamingo was described by Peter Simon Pallas in 1811. It was previously thought to be the same species as the American flamingo (''Phoenicopterus ruber''), but because of coloring differences of its head, neck, body, and bill, the two flamingos are now most commonly considered separate species. The greater flamingo has no subspecies and is therefore monotypic. Description The greater flamingo is the largest living species of flamingo, averaging tall and weighing . The largest male flamingos have been recorded to be up to tall and to weigh . Most of the plumage is pinkish-whit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pelican
Pelicans (genus ''Pelecanus'') are a genus of large water birds that make up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before swallowing. They have predominantly pale plumage, except for the Brown pelican, brown and Peruvian pelicans. The bills, pouches, and bare facial skin of all pelicans become brightly coloured before the breeding season. The eight living pelican species have a patchy, seasonally-dependent yet global distribution, ranging latitude, latitudinally from the tropics to the temperate zone. Pelicans are absent from interior Amazon Rainforest, Amazonian South America, from polar regions and the open ocean; at least one species is known to migrate to the inland desert of Australia's Red Centre, after heavy rains create temporary lakes. White pelicans are also observed at the American state of Utah's Great Salt Lake, for example, some 600 miles (965&n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Finch
The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches generally have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usually resident and do not migrate. They have a worldwide native distribution except for Australia and the polar regions. The family Fringillidae contains more than two hundred species divided into fifty genera. It includes the canaries, siskins, redpolls, serins, grosbeaks and euphonias, as well as the morphologically divergent Hawaiian honeycreepers. Many birds in other families are also commonly called "finches". These groups include the estrildid finches ( Estrildidae) of the Old World tropics and Australia; some members of the Old World bunting family ( Emberizidae) and the New World sparrow family ( Passerellidae); and the Darwin's finches of the Galapagos islands, now considered members of the tanager family (Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Egret
The great egret (''Ardea alba''), also known as the common egret, large egret, great white egret, or great white heron, is a large, widely distributed egret. The four subspecies are found in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and southern Europe. Recently, it has also been spreading to more northern areas of Europe. Distributed across most of the Tropics, tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world, it builds tree nests in colonies close to water. Taxonomy The great egret was Species description, formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' under the binomial nomenclature, binomial name ''Ardea alba''. He specified the type locality (biology), type locality as Europe. The scientific name comes from Latin ''ardea'', "heron", and ''alba'', "white". Like all egrets, it is a member of the heron family (biology), family, Ardeidae. Traditionally classified with the storks in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
