Fish are vertebrates that live in water and have gills, scales and fins on their
body.There are a lot of different fish
and many of them look very odd indeed.There are blind fish, fish with noses like elphants, fish that shoot
down passing bugs with a stream of water and even fish that crawl onto land and
hop about!
Fishes have a skeleton made of bone but some, like sharks, have a
skeleton made of cartilage. About
95% of fishes have skeletons made of bone. These bony fishes have a swim
bladder, a gas-filled sac, which they can inflate or deflate allowing them to
float in the water even when not swimming. Fishes with a cartilage skeleton
tend to be heavier than water and sink. They must swim to keep afloat.
Cartilaginous (cartilage) fish include the ray and the shark.
Most fish breathe through gills. Gills perform the
gas exchange between the water and the fish's blood. They allow the fish to
breathe oxygen in the water.
*Fun Fact*
·Most fish, except for sharks,
do not have eyelids.
I’m sure most of you have try out the video game “Angry
Birds” games (or at least heard of before). Now, there is the bird expert gave
his closest approximation to the character of red bird!
Who
am I?
Scientific name as Cardinalis cardinalis,
the Northern Cardinal, aka Red Bird. The bright red male northern cardinal,
with its conspicuous crest, is one of the most recognizable birds in North
America.
What
I Loves to Eat?
Northern Cardinals eat mainly seeds and fruit,
supplementing these with insects (and feeding nestlings mostly insects). Common
fruits and seeds include dogwood, wild grape, buckwheat, grasses, sedges,
mulberry, hackberry, blackberry, sumac, tulip-tree, and corn. Cardinals eat
many kinds of birdseed, particularly black oil sunflower seed. They also eat
beetles, crickets, katydids, leafhoppers, cicadas, flies, centipedes, spiders,
butterflies, and moths.
Where
do I Stay?
Look for Northern Cardinals in dense shrubby
areas such as forest edges, overgrown fields, hedgerows, backyards, marshy
thickets, mesquite, regrowing forest, and ornamental landscaping. Cardinals
nest in dense foliage and look for conspicuous, fairly high perches for
singing. Growth of towns and suburbs across eastern North America has helped
the cardinal expand its range northward.
My
Identity?
The male cardinal fiercely defends its breeding
territory from other males. When a male sees its reflection in glass surfaces,
it frequently will spend hours fighting the imaginary intruder. Their strong
beaks help them dig for insects in bushes and bite into tasty seeds, grains and
fruits. The females build nests using grass, twigs and bits of shrubs. They
build their nests in the middle of thick bushes, which offer them protection
from predators such as cats, dogs, snakes, owls, chipmunks, squirrels and
brown-headed cow birds. When predators get too close to the nests, both male
and female cardinals give a shrill chirp to scare them away. Each year, female
cardinals lay three eggs on average, but can hatch up to five.
These song birds communicate through calls and
songs. Males use a combination of singing and fluffing their feathers to
attract a female’s attention. Mating couples often sing a similar song of
whistles together.
Fast Facts
Type: Bird
Diet: Omnivore
Average life span in the wild: 15 years
Size: 8 to 9 in (21 to 23cm)
Weight: 1.5 to 1.8 oz (42 to 51 g)
Did you know? Unlike many songbirds, both male
and female cardinals sing, and the female often vocalizes with song from her
nest.
Some people think that what makes an animal a
bird is its wings.Bats have wings.Flies have wings.Bats and flies are not birds.So what makes an animal a bird?
The answer is FEATHERS!
All birds have feathers and birds are the only
animals that do.The feathers on a
bird’s wings and tail overlap.Because
they overlap, the feathers catch and hold the air.This helps the bird to fly, steer itself and
land.
Birds have 3 major differentiating characteristics: wings
for flight, feathers, and a beak rather than teeth.
Birds are egg-laying vertebrate animals with feathers and
that are born out of hard-shelled eggs. They evolved millions of years ago from
land reptiles. Birds are animals with their forelimbs modified into wings.
Almost all birds can fly with a few exceptions. Some birds are perching birds,
which feed on fruits while others are great predators like vultures and eagles.
Today, around 10,000 known species of birds exist.
Orangutans are great apes, belonging to the taxonomic family
“Hominidae”. The word orangutan means "man of the forest" in the
Malay language.
What I Loves to Eat?
Orangutans are omnivores (they eat both plants and animals)
but are mostly herbivorous (plants comprise most of their diet). They eat fruit
(their favorite food), leaves, seeds, tree bark, plant bulbs, tender plant
shoots, and flowers. They also eat insects and small animals (like birds and
small mammals).
Orangutans don't even have to leave their tree branches to
drink, they drink water that has collected in the holes between tree branches.
Where do I Stay?
Orangutans live in tropical rain forests of Southeast Asia
(on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra). These apes mostly live in trees (they
are arboreal) and swing from branch to branch using their arms. As its habitats
are being usurped by man, the orangutan's population is decreasing and it is in
grave danger of extinction.
My Identity?
Orangutans have a large, bulky body, a thick neck, very
long, strong arms, short, bowed legs, and no tail. Orangutans are about 2/3 the
size of the gorilla.Orangutans are very
intelligent. They have been known to use found objects as tools; for example,
they use leaves as umbrellas to keep the rain from getting them wet. They also
use leaves as cups to help them drink water. Orangutans usually move by
swinging from one branch to another; this is called brachiating. Orangutans can
also walk using their legs (but rarely do). Orangutans do not swim.
People are mammals.So are dogs, cats, horses, duckbill
platypuses, kangaroos, dolphins and whales. Among
all the mammals, Humans are among the most numerous
of the large mammals. Know what you all have in common?
The answer is – MILK!If an animal drinks milk when it is a baby
and has hair on its body, it belongs to the mammal class.
Mammals are animals that nourish their young with
milk produced by females. Females of the mammal animals have mammary glands.
Mammals are also characterized by the presence of body hair. They are generally
warm-blooded vertebrates. Lions, tigers, and whales are some common mammals.
The five most well known classes of Vertebrates (animals with backbones)
are mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians.They are all part of the phylum chordata -- I remember
"chordota" by thinking of spinal chord.
There are also a lot of animals without
backbones.These are called Invertebrates and are part of the
phylum arthropoda (arthropods).Two of
the most commonly known classes in this phylum are arachnids (spiders) and
insects.
Below is a picture of Classification of Animals. You
may click on the picture to get larger and clearer view.
In my next post, we will look further into each group
of Vertebrates
and Invertebrates.
Animals form one of the largest groups of living
organisms. Scientists believe that here may be around 30 million different
kinds of animals living on the planet. They range in size from the tiny
mosquito to the gigantic blue whale. All animals have four important
characteristics: they can move, breathe, grow, and reproduce.
There are many different animal classes and every
animal in the world belongs to one of them.The animal kingdom can be split up into main groups on the presence or
absence of a backbone. Vertebratesare those animals with a Backbone or Spinal.
Invertebrates are animals without a Backbone
or Spinal Column.
