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Western Parotia
The western or Arfak parotia (''Parotia sefilata'') is a medium-sized, approximately 33 cm long, bird-of-paradise with a medium-length tail. Parotia comes from the Greek ''parotis'', a lock or curl of hair by the ear, alluding to the head wires. The specific name ''sefilata'' is derived from the Latin word 'sex', meaning six, and ''filum'', a thread or filament. Description Like other birds-of-paradise, the western parotia is sexually dimorphic. The male has jet black plumage, with striking iridescent scale-like golden-green breast shields and triangular silver feathers on its crown. The occipital plumes (or head wires) arise from above and behind the eyes, with three long erectile wire-like plumes with smaller spatulate tips, above and behind each eye. As with most members of the family, the female is unadorned and has brown plumage. The species is similar to Lawes's parotia (''Parotia lawesii''). Distribution The western parotia is found only in the mountain forests of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Pennant
Thomas Pennant (16 December 1798) was a Welsh natural history, naturalist, traveller, writer and antiquarian. He was born and lived his whole life at his family estate, Downing Hall, near Whitford, Flintshire, in Wales. As a naturalist he had a great curiosity, observing the geography, geology, plants, animals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish around him and recording what he saw and heard about. He wrote acclaimed books including ''British Zoology'', the ''History of Quadrupeds'', ''Arctic Zoology'' and ''Indian Zoology'' although he never travelled further afield than continental Europe. He knew and maintained correspondence with many of the scientific figures of his day. His books influenced the writings of Samuel Johnson. As an antiquarian, he amassed a considerable collection of art and other works, largely selected for their scientific interest. Many of these works are now housed at the National Library of Wales. As a traveller he visited Scotland and many other par ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polygyny In Animals
Polygyny (; from Neo-Greek , ) is a mating system in which one male lives and mates with multiple females but each female only mates with a single male. Systems where several females mate with several males are defined either as promiscuity or polygynandry. Lek mating is frequently regarded as a form of polygyny, because one male mates with many females, but lek-based mating systems differ in that the male has no attachment to the females with whom he mates, and that mating females lack attachment to one another.Clutton-Brock T.H. (1989). ‘Review lecture: mammalian mating systems.' ''Proceedings of the Royal Society of London''. Series B, Biological Sciences 236: 339–372. Polygyny is typical of one-male, multi-female groupsBoyd, R., & Silk, J. B. (2009). How Humans Evolved (preferably the downloadable pdf version): WW Norton & Company, New York. and can be found in many species including: elephant seal, spotted hyena, gorilla, red-winged prinia, house wren, hamadryas bab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemic Birds Of Indonesia
Indonesia has more endemic birds than any other country. Indonesia's size, tropical climate, and archipelagic geography, support the world's second highest level of biodiversity (after Brazil). Most endemic birds are in the Wallacea region of eastern Indonesia. Sulawesi supports twelve endemic bird genera. Of all Indonesian endemic birds, about sixty-one species are threatened: thirty-seven species are listed as vulnerable, twenty-three are endangered and eleven species are listed as critical on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Conservation status Craciformes Megapodiidae * ''Aepypodius bruijnii'' ( Bruijn's brush-turkey) - EN * ''Talegalla cuvieri'' ( red-billed brush-turkey) - LC * ''Macrocephalon maleo'' ( maleo) - EN * ''Eulipoa wallacei'' ( Moluccan scrubfowl) - VU * ''Megapodius bernsteinii'' ( Sula scrubfowl) - NT * ''Megapodius tenimberensis'' ( Tanimbar scrubfowl) - NE * ''Megapodius geelvinkianus'' ( Biak scrubfowl) - VU Galliformes Phasianidae * ''Anurop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birds Described In 1781
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the bee hummingbird to the common ostrich. There are over 11,000 living species and they are split into 44 orders. More than half are passerine or "perching" birds. Birds have wings whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have furth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parotia
The parotias are a genus, ''Parotia'', of passerine birds in the bird-of-paradise family Paradisaeidae. They are endemic to New Guinea. They are also known as six-plumed birds of paradise, due to their six head quills. These birds were featured prominently in the BBC series ''Planet Earth''. The males of the genus are characterized by an ornamental plumage consisting of six wired head plumes with black oval-shaped tips, a neck collar of black, decomposed feathers which can be spread into a skirt-like shape, and bright or iridescent head and throat markings. During courtship, they perform ballerina-like dances and spread out their "skirt" on a patch of forest floor they have meticulously cleaned of dead leaves and other debris. The "ballerina dances" usually consist of the male hopping from foot and bobbing their heads from side to side. The males are polygamous and do not take part in raising the young. Clutch size is somewhat uncertain; it is usually one to three eggs. Taxon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CITES
CITES (shorter acronym for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of international trade. It was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The convention was opened for signature in 1973 and CITES entered into force on 1 July 1975. Its aim is to ensure that international trade (import/export) in specimens of animals and plants included under CITES does not threaten the survival of the species in the wild. This is achieved via a system of permits and certificates. CITES affords varying degrees of protection to more than 40,900 species. , the Secretary-General of CITES is Ivonne Higuero. Background CITES is one of the largest and oldest conservation and sustainable use agreements in existence. There are three workin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IUCN Red List
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological species. A series of Regional Red Lists, which assess the risk of extinction to species within a political management unit, are also produced by countries and organizations. The goals of the Red List are to provide scientifically based information on the status of species and subspecies at a global level, to draw attention to the magnitude and importance of threatened biodiversity, to influence national and international policy and decision-making, and to provide information to guide actions to conserve biological diversity. Major species assessors include BirdLife International, the Institute of Zoology (the research division of the Zoological Society of London), the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, and many Specialist Groups w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Triangle
A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimensional line segments. A triangle has three internal angles, each one bounded by a pair of adjacent edges; the sum of angles of a triangle always equals a straight angle (180 degrees or π radians). The triangle is a plane figure and its interior is a planar region. Sometimes an arbitrary edge is chosen to be the ''base'', in which case the opposite vertex is called the ''apex''; the shortest segment between the base and apex is the ''height''. The area of a triangle equals one-half the product of height and base length. In Euclidean geometry, any two points determine a unique line segment situated within a unique straight line, and any three points that do not all lie on the same straight line determine a unique triangle situated w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skirt
A skirt is the lower part of a dress or a separate outer garment that covers a person from the waist downwards. At its simplest, a skirt can be a draped garment made out of a single piece of fabric (such as pareos). However, most skirts are fitted to the body at the waist or hips and fuller below, with the fullness introduced by means of darts, gores, pleats, or panels. Modern skirts are usually made of light to mid-weight fabrics, such as denim, jersey, worsted, or poplin. Skirts of thin or clingy fabrics are often worn with slips to make the material of the skirt drape better and for modesty. In modern times, skirts are very commonly worn by women and girls. Some exceptions include the izaar, worn by many Muslim cultures, and the kilt, a traditional men's garment in Scotland, Ireland, and England. The hemline of skirts can vary from micro to floor-length and can vary according to cultural conceptions of modesty and aesthetics as well as the wearer's personal tast ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ballerina
A ballet dancer is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet. They rely on years of extensive training and proper technique to become a part of a professional ballet company. Ballet dancers are at a high risk of injury due to the demanding technique of ballet. Training and technique Ballet dancers typically begin training at an early age as young as three or four if they desire to perform professionally and often take part in international competitions such as YAGP and Prix de Lausanne. At these events, scholarships are being granted to the most talented dancers, enabling them to continue their training at renowned ballet schools around the world, such as the John Kranko Schule in Germany and the Académie de Danse Classique Princesse Grace in Monaco. Pre-professional ballet dancers can audition to enroll at a vocational ballet school such as The Royal Ballet School or Elmhurst Ballet School. These types of ballet boar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lek Mating
A lek is an aggregation of male animals gathered to engage in competitive displays and courtship rituals, known as lekking, to entice visiting females which are surveying prospective partners with which to mate. It can also refer to a space used by displaying males to defend their own share of territory for the breeding season. A lekking species is characterised by male displays, strong female mate choice, and the conferring of indirect benefits to males and reduced costs to females. Although most prevalent among birds such as black grouse, lekking is also found in a wide range of vertebrates including some bony fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and arthropods including crustaceans and insects. A classical lek consists of male territories in visual and auditory range of each other. An exploded lek, as seen in the kākāpō (the owl parrot), has more widely separated territories, but still in auditory range. Lekking is associated with an apparent paradox: strong sexual s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
