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Lava Heron
The lava heron (''Butorides sundevalli''), also known as the Galápagos heron, is a species of heron endemic to the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador. It is considered by some authorities — including the American Ornithological Society and BirdLife International — to be a subspecies (or even just a colour morph) of the striated heron (''B. striata''), and was formerly " lumped" with this species and the green heron (''B. virescens'') as the green-backed heron. Description The adult is slate-grey to black, which allows it to blend in with the hardened lava. The back feathers typically have a silvery sheen and it has a short crest on its head. When breeding, the heron has a black beak and bright orange legs, but these fade to grey after the breeding season. File:Galapagos Striated Heron imported from iNaturalist photo 261543157 on 3 December 2024.jpg, Young juvenile swallowing a bird, San Cristóbal Island. File:Striated heron (Butorides striata sundevalli) juvenile.jpg, Older juve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santa Fe Island
Santa Fe Island (), also known as Barrington Island, is a small island of which lies in the middle of the Galápagos Archipelago in Ecuador. Visitor access is by a wet landing in Barrington Bay on the northeastern side of the island. Names The name is Spanish for "Holy Faith" in reference to Roman Catholic Christianity. The English name ''Barrington Island'' was bestowed in 1794 by James Colnett in honor of Admiral Samuel Barrington, noted for his kindness to the sailors under his commands. Geography Santa Fe lies in the middle of the Galápagos Archipelago in Ecuador. It is southeast of Santa Cruz Island. Environment Geologically, the island is one of the oldest of the archipelago; volcanic rocks of about 4 million years old have been found. The vegetation of the island is characterized by brush, palo santo trees and stands of a large subvariety of the Galápagos prickly pear cactus, '' Opuntia galapageia'' subvar. ''barringtonensis''. Santa Fe is home to two e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Green-backed Heron
''Butorides'' is a genus of small herons. It contains four similar species, the striated heron ''Butorides striatus'', the lava heron ''Butorides sundevalli'', the green heron ''Butorides virescens'' and the little heron ''Butorides atricapilla''. They are closely related, and some authorities have considered them all to be subspecies of just one species; when treated so, the merged species is called green-backed heron. The name ''Butorides'' derives from Middle English ''Butor'' ("bittern") and the Ancient Greek suffix ''-oides'', "resembling". Adults of the extant species are among the smallest herons, ranging in length from , and have a dark grey to blackish back and wings (sometimes with greenish or bluish iridescence), a black cap, and short legs; the legs are yellow most of the year, but flush bright orange-red during pre-breeding courtship. The species have different underpart colours; white to grey or orange-buff in striated heron, and very dark grey in lava heron, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemic Birds Of The Galápagos Islands
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Cape sugarbird is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be ''endemic'' to that particular part of the world. An endemic species can also be referred to as an ''endemism'' or, in scientific literature, as an ''endemite''. Similarly, many species found in the Western ghats of India are examples of endemism. Endemism is an important concept in conservation biology for measuring biodiversity in a particular place and evaluating the risk of extinction for species. Endemism is also of interest in evolutionary biology, because it provides clues about how changes in the environment cause species to undergo range shifts (potentially expanding their range into a larger area or becomin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Butorides
''Butorides'' is a genus of small herons. It contains four similar species, the striated heron ''Butorides striatus'', the lava heron ''Butorides sundevalli'', the green heron ''Butorides virescens'' and the little heron ''Butorides atricapilla''. They are closely related, and some authorities have considered them all to be subspecies of just one species; when treated so, the merged species is called green-backed heron. The name ''Butorides'' derives from Middle English ''Butor'' (" bittern") and the Ancient Greek suffix ''-oides'', "resembling". Adults of the extant species are among the smallest herons, ranging in length from , and have a dark grey to blackish back and wings (sometimes with greenish or bluish iridescence), a black cap, and short legs; the legs are yellow most of the year, but flush bright orange-red during pre-breeding courtship. The species have different underpart colours; white to grey or orange-buff in striated heron, and very dark grey in lava heron, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monogamy In Animals
Some animal species have a monogamous mating system, in which pairs bond to raise offspring. This is associated, usually implicitly, with sexual monogamy. Monogamous mating Monogamy is defined as a pair bond between two adult animals of the same species. This pair may cohabitate in an area or territory for some duration of time, and in some cases may copulate and reproduce with only each other. Monogamy may either be short-term, lasting one to a few seasons or long-term, lasting many seasons and in extreme cases, life-long. Monogamy can be partitioned into two categories, social monogamy and genetic monogamy which may occur together in some combination, or completely independently of one another.Ophir, Alexander G., Phelps, Steven M., Sorin, Anna Bess & O. Wolff, J. (2008)Social but not genetic monogamy is associated with greater breeding success in prairie voles/ref> As an example, in the cichlid species '' Variabilichromis moorii'', a monogamous pair will care for eggs and y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Galápagos Province
Galápagos () is a province of Ecuador in the country's Insular region, located approximately off the western coast of the mainland. The capital is Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. The province administers the Galápagos Islands, a group of tiny volcanic islands that sit on the equator, famous for their unique biodiversity popularized by naturalist Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. Demographics Ethnic groups as of the Ecuadorian census of 2010: *Mestizo 74.5% *White 9.7% * Indigenous 7.0% *Afro-Ecuadorian 5.2% *Montubio 1.9% *Other 1.7% History It is estimated that the islands were formed 8 million years ago as a result of tectonic activity on the seabed. The archipelago was likely inhabited long ago: the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl in 1963 reported that he found Inca archaeological sites and objects. The Galapagos Islands were discovered by chance on 10 March 1535, when the Dominican friar Fray Tomas de Berlanga, Bishop of Panama, went to Peru in pursuanc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mangrove
A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen and remove salt, allowing them to tolerate conditions that kill most plants. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse due to convergent evolution in several plant families. They occur worldwide in the tropics and subtropics and even some temperate coastal areas, mainly between latitudes 30° N and 30° S, with the greatest mangrove area within 5° of the equator. Mangrove plant families first appeared during the Late Cretaceous to Paleocene epochs and became widely distributed in part due to the plate tectonics, movement of tectonic plates. The oldest known fossils of Nypa fruticans, mangrove palm date to 75 million years ago. Mangroves are salt-tolerant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intertidal Zone
The intertidal zone or foreshore is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide; in other words, it is the part of the littoral zone within the tidal range. This area can include several types of habitats with various species of life, such as sea stars, sea urchins, and many species of coral with regional differences in biodiversity. Sometimes it is referred to as the ''littoral zone'' or '' seashore'', although those can be defined as a wider region. The intertidal zone also includes steep rocky cliffs, sandy beaches, bogs or wetlands (e.g., vast mudflats). This area can be a narrow strip, such as in Pacific islands that have only a narrow tidal range, or can include many meters of shoreline where shallow beach slopes interact with high tidal excursion. The peritidal zone is similar but somewhat wider, extending from above the highest tide level to below the lowest. Organisms in the intertidal zone are well-adapted to their environment, facing high ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isabela Island (Galápagos)
Isabela Island () is the largest of the Galápagos Islands, with an area of and a length of . By itself, it is larger than all the other islands in the chain combined, and it has a little under 2,000 permanent inhabitants. The island straddles the equator. Names The original Spanish name of Isabela () was Santa Isabela Island ( or ) in honor of the Aragonese Queen Elizabeth of Portugal, who was canonized by Pope Urban VIII on 24 June 1626. When the name was formally changed to Isabela Island in 1892 as part of Ecuador's quadricentennial celebration of Columbus's first voyage, its eponym changed to Columbus's patron Queen IsabellaI of Castile. Isabela and nearby Fernandina Islandhonoring Isabella's husband FerdinandII of Aragonalso preserve the names bestowed on the third and fourth islands encountered by Columbus during his voyage. The former English name Duke of Albemarl's Island or Albemarle Island was bestowed by English buccaneer Ambrose Cowley in 1684 in honor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Cristóbal Island
San Cristóbal Island (), also known as Chatham Island, is the easternmost island in the Galápagos archipelago, as well as one of the oldest geologically. It is administratively part of San Cristóbal Canton, Ecuador. Names ''San Cristóbal'' is Spanish for Saint Christopher, reckoned in Catholicism as the patron saint of sailors. The English pirate William Ambrosia Cowley named it Dassigney's Island in 1684, later shortened to Dassigney or Dassigny Island, in honor of Philip Dassigny, the member of Bartholomew Sharp's crew who translated the Spanish atlas that saved the captain from being hanged for piracy. The British captain James Colnett renamed it Lord Chatham Island in 1793 after John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham and First Lord of the Admiralty, on the specious claim it had never been previously charted. Colnett also named Kicker Rock, which lies in Stephens Bay, on the western side of the island. That name is thought to be a reference to two English navigationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lava
Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a Natural satellite, moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a Fissure vent, fracture in the Crust (geology), crust, on land or underwater, usually at temperatures from . The volcanic rock resulting from subsequent cooling is often also called ''lava''. A lava flow is an outpouring of lava during an effusive eruption. (An explosive eruption, by contrast, produces a mixture of volcanic ash and other fragments called tephra, not lava flows.) The viscosity of most lava is about that of ketchup, roughly 10,000 to 100,000 times that of water. Even so, lava can flow great distances before cooling causes it to solidify, because lava exposed to air quickly develops a solid crust that insulates the remaining liquid lava, helping to keep it hot and inviscid enough to continue flowing. Etymology The word ''lava'' comes from Ital ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
