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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] |
Pseudechis Porphyriacus Eating Eggs
''Pseudechis'' is a genus of venomous snakes in the Family (biology), family Elapidae. It contains the group of elapid species commonly referred to as the black snakes. Species of ''Pseudechis'' are found in every Australian state with the exception of Tasmania, and some species are found in Papua New Guinea. They inhabit a variety of habitat types, from arid areas to swampland. All species are dangerous (''Pseudechis'' signifying "like a Viperidae, viper", Greek ''echis'') and can inflict a potentially lethal bite. Most snakes in this genus reach about 2 m (6.6 ft) in total length (including tail), and vary in colour. Some species are brown, whereas others are black. The most recognisable and widespread species in the genus are the red-bellied black snake (''P. porphyriacus'') and the mulga snake (king brown) (''P. australis''). These snakes feed on lizards, frogs, birds, small mammals, and even other snakes. All species of ''Pseudechis'' lay eggs with the exception of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evolutionary Fitness
Fitness (often denoted w or ω in population genetics models) is a quantitative representation of individual reproductive success. It is also equal to the average contribution to the gene pool of the next generation, made by the same individuals of the specified genotype or phenotype. Fitness can be defined either with respect to a genotype or to a phenotype in a given environment or time. The fitness of a genotype is manifested through its phenotype, which is also affected by the developmental environment. The fitness of a given phenotype can also be different in different selective environments. With asexual reproduction, it is sufficient to assign fitnesses to genotypes. With sexual reproduction, recombination scrambles alleles into different genotypes every generation; in this case, fitness values can be assigned to alleles by averaging over possible genetic backgrounds. Natural selection tends to make alleles with higher fitness more common over time, resulting in Darwinian e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jane Goodall
Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall; 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English zoologist, Primatology, primatologist and Anthropology, anthropologist. She is considered the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, after 60 years' studying the social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees. Goodall first went to Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania to observe its chimpanzees in 1960. She is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots & Shoots programme and has worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues. As of 2022, she is on the board of the Nonhuman Rights Project. In April 2002, she was named a United Nations Messengers of Peace, United Nations Messenger of Peace. Goodall is an honorary member of the World Future Council. Early life Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall was born in April 1934 in Hampstead, London, to businessman (1907–2001) and Margaret Myfanwe Joseph (1906–2000), a novelist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Penguin
The little penguin (''Eudyptula minor'') is the smallest species of penguin. It originates from New Zealand. It is commonly known as the fairy penguin, little blue penguin, or blue penguin, owing to its slate-blue plumage and is also known by its Māori language, Māori name . It is a Neritic zone, marine neritic species that dives for food throughout the day and returns to burrows on the shore at dusk, making it the only Nocturnality, nocturnal penguin species on land. The Eudyptula novaehollandiae, Australian little penguin (''Eudyptula novaehollandiae''), from Australia and the Otago region of New Zealand, is considered a separate species. ''Eudyptula minor'' feathers are dense in Melanosome, melanosomes, which increase water resistance and give them their unique blue colour. Taxonomy The little penguin was first described by German naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster in 1781. Several subspecies are known, but a precise classification of these is still a matter of dispute. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Raven
The little raven (''Corvus mellori'') is a species of the family Corvidae that is native to southeastern Australia. An adult individual is about in length, with completely black plumage, beak, and legs; as with all Australian species of ''Corvus'', the black feathers have a grey base, and the iris of the adult bird is white (typical also of some related species from islands to the north of Australia). Although the little raven was first named by Gregory Mathews in 1912, it was only in 1967 that there was consensus to separate it from the Australian raven (''C. coronoides'') as a distinct species. Taxonomy In the 1960s, the CSIRO were intensively studying Australian raven populations and their relationship to lambing and sheep in southeastern Australia. It became evident that there was a smaller species of raven living alongside the Australian raven. These birds lived in smaller trees, had smaller throat hackles and lacked the bare skin of their larger relative. They were also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foraging
Foraging is searching for wild food resources. It affects an animal's fitness because it plays an important role in an animal's ability to survive and reproduce. Foraging theory is a branch of behavioral ecology that studies the foraging behavior of animals in response to the environment where the animal lives. Behavioral ecologists use economic models and categories to understand foraging; many of these models are a type of optimal model. Thus foraging theory is discussed in terms of optimizing a payoff from a foraging decision. The payoff for many of these models is the amount of energy an animal receives per unit time, more specifically, the highest ratio of energetic gain to cost while foraging. Foraging theory predicts that the decisions that maximize energy per unit time and thus deliver the highest payoff will be selected for and persist. Key words used to describe foraging behavior include ''resources'', the elements necessary for survival and reproduction which have a l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corvidae
Corvidae is a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan Family (biology), family of Songbird, oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, Rook (bird), rooks, magpies, jackdaws, jays, treepies, choughs, and Nutcracker (bird), nutcrackers. In Colloquialism, colloquial English, they are known as the crow family or corvids. Currently, 139 species are included in this family. The genus ''Corvus'' containing 50 species makes up over a third of the entire family. Corvids (ravens) are the largest passerines. Corvids display remarkable Animal cognition, intelligence for animals of their size, and are among the most Bird intelligence, intelligent birds thus far studied. Specifically, members of the family have demonstrated self-awareness in mirror tests (Eurasian magpies) and Tool use by animals, tool-making ability (e.g. crows and rooks), skills which until recently were thought to be possessed only by humans and a few other mammals. Their total Brain–body mass ratio, brain-to- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pine Marten
The European pine marten (''Martes martes''), also known as the pine marten, is a mustelid native to and widespread in most of Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, and parts of Iran, Iraq, and Syria. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. It is less commonly known as baum marten or sweet marten. Description The European pine marten's fur is usually light to dark brown. It is short and coarse in the summer, growing longer and silkier during the winter. It has a cream- to yellow-coloured "bib" marking on its throat. Its body is up to long, with a bushy tail of about . It weighs around ; males are slightly larger than females. It has excellent senses of sight, smell, and hearing. Distribution and habitat Britain and Ireland The European pine marten was for many years common only in northwestern Scotland. A study in 2012 found that it has spread from the Scottish Highlands north into Sutherland and Caithness and southeastwards from the Great Glen into Moray, Aberde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Badger
Badgers are medium-sized short-legged omnivores in the superfamily Musteloidea. Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by their squat bodies and adaptions for fossorial activity rather than by their ancestral relationships: Musteloidea contains several families, only two of which (the "weasel family" Mustelidae and the "skunk family" Mephitidae) include badgers; moreover, both of these families also include various other animals that are not badgers. The fifteen species of mustelid badgers are grouped in four subfamilies: four species of Melinae (genera ''Meles'' and ''Arctonyx'') including the European badger, five species of Helictidinae (genus ''Melogale'') or ferret-badger, the honey badger or ratel Mellivorinae (genus ''Mellivora''), and the American badger Taxideinae (genus ''Taxidea''). Badgers include the most basal mustelids; the American badger is the most basal of all, followed successively by the ratel and the Mel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buzzard
Buzzard is the common name of several species of birds of prey. ''Buteo'' species * Archer's buzzard (''Buteo archeri'') * Augur buzzard (''Buteo augur'') * Broad-winged hawk (''Buteo platypterus'') * Common buzzard (''Buteo buteo'') * Eastern buzzard (''Buteo japonicus'') * Ferruginous hawk (''Buteo regalis'') * Forest buzzard (''Buteo trizonatus'') * Galápagos hawk (''Buteo galapagoensis'') * Grey hawk (''Buteo plagiatus'') * Grey-lined hawk (''Buteo nitidus'') * Hawaiian hawk (''Buteo solitarius'') * Jackal buzzard (''Buteo rufofuscus'') * Long-legged buzzard (''Buteo rufinus'') * Madagascar buzzard (''Buteo brachypterus'') * Mountain buzzard (''Buteo oreophilus'') * Puna hawk (''Buteo poecilochrous'') * Red-backed hawk (''Buteo polyosoma'') * Red-necked buzzard (''Buteo auguralis'') * Red-shouldered hawk (''Buteo lineatus'') * Red-tailed hawk (''Buteo jamaicensis'') * Ridgway's hawk (''Buteo ridgwayi'') * Roadside hawk (''Buteo magnirostris'') * Rough-legg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carrion Crow
The carrion crow (''Corvus corone'') is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae, native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic. Taxonomy and systematics The carrion crow was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'', and it still bears its original name of ''Corvus corone''. The binomial name is derived from the Latin , "raven", and Greek , "crow". The hooded crow (''Corvus cornix''), formerly regarded as a subspecies, has been split off as a separate species, and there is some discussion whether the eastern carrion crow (''C. c. orientalis'') is distinct enough to warrant specific status; the two taxa are well separated, and it has been proposed they could have evolved independently in the wetter, maritime regions at the opposite ends of the Eurasian landmass.Madge, Steve & Burn, Hilary (1994): ''Crows and jays: a guide to the crows, jays and magpies of the world''. A&C Black, London. Al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
