WOMBATS

HAIRY NOSED
WOMBAT

Wombats look like a small bear. They have thick bodies, small eyes and a big flattened head. Their short legs are powerful with sharp claws useful for digging. The wombats are nocturnal and live in a burrows.

Their body measures about 1 meter long and has short hairs. They belong to the marsupial species.

The marsupial pouches of digging animals, such as the wombat, open backwards to prevent the baby being showered with soil.

Wombats living in semi-arid shrublands in SouthAustralia and are well established. They have hairy noses in contrast to the common wombat.

Hairy-nosed Wombats living in the North of Australia are in danger of extinction. Conservationists think there  might be only 20 species left in the wild.

COMMON WOMBAT

In contrast, the common wombat living in Queensland and eastern Victoria are thriving. They live on slopes, creeks and gullies which has a sub-humid climate amongst eucalyptus forests.

The animals have very strong teeth which enables them to break-up the tough, fibrous grasses. It is the wombats diet.

Wombats do not fight and have stable social relationship. Their territory measures anything between 2.5 to 2.4ha depending on the habitat.

All wombat species are protected apart from the common wombat living in eastern Victoria.

CONGRATULATION GREENPEACEl SANTANDER STOPPED DESTRUCTION OF RAINFORESTS -- Update 12 June, 2015

ORANG  UTAN

LATEST NEWS -  12 June, 2015 -- Greenpeace had further talks with APRIL and they decided now to stop the deforestation completely. It is fantastic good news because hundred thousands of acres of ancient rainforest will be saved.


UPDATE:  27 February, 2015 --  Good News UK Santander promised to pull out backing APRIL.  Whether that means all the backing and if their promise is true and immediately, remains to be seen. At least Greenpeace received that promise. It also remains to be seen whether the other backers are pulling out. Banks and Financials world seem to have lost principles these days. 

UPDATE: 20 February, 2015 -- As much as Greenpeace keeps pressuring Santander they still buying time  by saying they awaiting APRIL's report. This is not good enough because every day another piece of rainforest is lost forever. It has to be stopped immediately to avoid another part of the rainforest  gone forever. Greenpeace is trying to get an appointment with the top chief executive but, unfortunately, it is still another day lost and with that a piece of rainforest.  Santander could have stopped it weeks and months ago when Greenpeace started contacting them.

Right now, digger are cutting down Indonesia’s rainforest and pushing Oran Utan, tigers, sun bears and many other species towards extinction.

The banking group Santander is backing APRIL a pulp and paper company with millions of pounds to destroy Indonesia’s rainforest.

Tell Santander to stop final extinction or you will withdraw your account but tell them why.

Over the last few years Santander have loaned millions to APRIL which chopping down Indonesia’s rainforest at an alarming rate. If Santander wants to be responsible company, it needs to end the loans now and this would hot APRIL where it hurts most – in the pockets.

If you like to sign the competition please click on 

 www.greenpeace.org.uk/santander

which takes you straight to the competition to sign.  It would be great to receive signatures, as many as possible. It would increase the pressure to stop. 

IF THAT DOES NOT MAKE YOUR 

HEART BLEED, NOTHING WILL

Greenpeace forced already Santander to admit that they support APRIL financially but the High Street branches say it’s monitoring the situation and will act accordingly. It is nothing but a white wash and playing for time. So far Santander used to deny them financial support to APRIL. While all this was and is going on the rainforest has been cut down and that was exactly what they were playing at. Only after 75,000 of Greenpeace took action Santander admitted their financial support but still refuses to stop.

According to Greenpeace APRIL had been destroying rainforest for years. It is not known how long Santander advanced loans to them.

Santander said it is waiting for APRIL’s results of a sustainable forest management which is an again a white wash and playing for time. It still does not give the result of stopping cutting down the rainforest which Greenpeace and all of us want. The rainforest is such a complicated environment which only nature could make links between many species and plants and once it is destroyed it can never be established again. It will affect not only Orang Utans, tigers, sun bears and many other smaller species and many plants and birds which are all relying on each other.  Once the chain is broken it would result into                                                                                                  extinction of many.

                               WHICH PICTURE IS BETTER !!!!!! 
  IT HAS TO STOP NOW NOT WAITING FOR THIS REPORT AND THAT REPORT.  ALL A NAME OF THE GAME AND  IN THE MEANTIME THE DESTRUCTION GOES ON.  THAT IS THEIR AIM.                                                     

KPMG assessed APRIL last year.  A leaked report
says that not one of APRIL’S suppliers has met its policy and that includes Santander.

APRIL gave another promise to rectify it but APRIL is known to make and break promises and al the time another piece of rainforest has gone and that is their real policy.

Now we come to the final point; unless the backers all pull out immediately and it has to be immediately APRIL will not stop to destroy Indonesia’s rainforest and drive Orang Utans, tigers, sun bears, rare pygmy elephant and many other species driven to extinctions.

Indonesia's rainforests are home to untold number of plants and animals. Over the years, scientists uncover more rare species that can not be found anywhere else. Yet, the forests are disappearing fast, as greedy companies chop down the trees to make paper and packaging.

BUSTARDS AND RAILS

RAILS

These two families belong to the same species as the crane. Rails are a small to medium-sized species and live on the ground. They have a black, chestnut, olive or buff plumage and some are barred or spotted birds.  Their wings and tails are short and rounded with medium to long legs and long toes. They have a great variation of bills from short, conical to long, curved and some birds have even a noticeable shield at the front.

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The rails are living secretly near waters. They mostly live in marches and feed on animals and vegetable matter. They build their nest on the ground and in low bushes. The water rail with its very narrow body gives the impression to be squashed when seen from the front. This narrow body, however, enables the bird to disappear quickly between dense reeds.

COOTS

GALLINULES

MOORHENS

Altogether there are 125 species all over the world and include coots, moorhens, gallinules and rails. They also include flightless birds like the New Zealand’s takahne and some rails do migrate.  The corncrake, for instant, has a weak flight but even so they still migrate long distance.

Bustards are another species of the crane family and vary from medium - to large-sized birds.  Their feathers are grey or brown on the top and buff or white underneath. Quite number has black head and neck markings. The wings are broad, their necks are long and their long legs have three-toed feet. They are to be found on open plains and seldom fly. They build there nest on the ground and their diet exist of insects, small vertebrates and vegetation.

KORI BUSTARD

The kori bustard of Africa weighs up to 18kg is the heaviest flying bird and only flies very short flights at low level. The great defence of bustards is turning round and dispatches a very sticky salvo of droppings at their enemies.

The courtship of male birds is fascinating and magnificent sight. They raised ruffs, inflate a beard-like and balloon their necks while erecting their wings as well as inflating their throat poaches to impress the female.

NORTHERN BLACK KORHAAN 

SOUTHERN BLACK KORHAAN

Black korhaans of southern Africa rise in flapping flights and descend with their legs dangling and wings fluttering and all in aid to impress their chosen females.

A relative species of the rails is the serienna or cariama. It lives in the tropical South American grasslands and struts about with its peak raised. It does not fly very often but can run fast enough to avoid danger. Its diet varies from insects, some plant matter, and some mice, frogs, and even sometimes snakes.

ORCHIDS

ORCHID --PHALAENOPSIS

Orchids are the world's most glamorous flowers and there is no doubt about that. Like other perennials plants, they are also specially grown to enable the pollination. The years gone by when they were labelled as having mystical powers as well as parasites or carnivores. However, over the centuries they came from bottom to the top and are now regarded are the most exotic flowers.

Today you can count 18,000 different species of orchids and they found their way all over the world apart from the most extreme habitats. They grow on the damp mountains of Norway and New Zealand; in shady forest of Europe; on heathlands and marches of North American. Nevertheless, most of the orchids are found in the tropics. The ones growing on the ground are known as terrestrials. Some grow high in the leafy canopy of forests and they are known as epiphytes.

All orchids are perennial plants in spite of the wide variety but they split into two categories.

SYMPODIAL ORCHIDS grow very much as the herbaceous perennials. Their leaves and flowers grow from the base of previous growths. These type of orchids grow 'pseudobulbs' to prevent drying out in a seasonal drought. Pseudobulbs are swellings on the stem and it contains food and water. Other pseudobulbs are club-shaped on the cattleya orchids and some are long, thin and up to a meter longcane-like pseudobulb like on the Dendrobium orchids. Most of the pseudobulbs are egg-shaped and between a few millimetre to almost 20 cm.

CEOLOGYME CRISTATE grows, what looks like a bunch of grapes, pseudobulbs. When the leaves are shed from the old pseudobulbs the store of nutrients provides food for the new growth.

MONOPODIAL ORCHIDS grow from the previous years' growth and therefore the plant grown upwards. The new leaves grow alternatively on opposite sides from the top. Some of the most beautiful orchids is called VANDA GENUS and grows in China, the Himalayas, New Guinea and Australia. They are epiphyte orchids meaning they grow erect leafy stems, evergreen leaves, strong-coloured flowers on long stems and long aerial roots to secure itself to the trunk or branch of the tree. Some aerial roots just tangle down to get the moisture and nutrients through porous layers. These roots can reach a length of 1.2 meters and store water and nutrients.

CROSS-POLLINATION

There is an amazing fact that orchids do anything to get their flowers cross-pollinated.  Many of them have evolved in conjunction with one specific insect pollinator, changing their  structure to fit the size and shape of these partners. 

Scent is one thing they use to attract pollinators.  A fine example is the Angreacum orchids from tropical Africa.  They waft scents at dusk into the air to attract moths.  The moth drinks its nectar and picks up a sac of pollinia with its head.  On a visit to the next orchid, the moth transfers the pollonia to the stigma of that orchid and cross-pollination happened.  The orchid develops a fruit-capsule and a single spike of flower can produce up to a million of seeds.  Seeds take two to 18 months to ripen and the same time to germinate.  The plant could take up to four years to flower or more and produce seeds

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EARED SEAL

EARED SEAL

When you look at seals they look all the same at first glance. However, if you look closer there are two different groups. One of the groups has retained a distinct, protruding ears hence the name 'Eared Seals' the other group has not.

Of course, all seals have ears but ears of the so called true seal are reduced to small openings which, it is assumed, make them more streamlined.

This minor point comes from a complete separate evolution. The true seal is thought to have evolved from otter-like creatures in the North Atlantic, about 15 million years ago. The eared seal evolved from dog-like creatures in the North Pacific about 25 million years ago. From this evolution they have a dog-like look, a very great mobility on land which in comparison the true seals is almost helpless on land.

TRUE SEAL COLONY

On land the true seal lies on its stomach with the front flippers stretch out on either side. The hind flippers trailing on the ground and to move forward it humps its body along.

On the other hand the eared seal stands on all four of its limbs. The front flippers are equipped with powerful muscles that bear the animal's weight. The hind limbs are turned forward under the body instead of trailing behind. When it moves slowly it waddles on the heels. The tips of the flippers are held upward from the ground. When it feels danger, it speeds up and throws both front flippers forward - like a man on crutches.  It looks clumsy but it can move fast and outrun a man.

Again the swimming techniques are quite different. The true seal uses its hind flippers and with powerful strokes propels itself through the water. The eared seal zooms through the water with using his front flippers and the hind flippers are only used like rudders. Therefore, all the muscle-power comes from the shoulder and neck. Through these exercises it keeps the muscles strong to use them on land.

Like all seals it spends its life in water and through evolution it became an efficient swimmer. The streamlined body gives an effortless efficiency in water. In spite of the sleek body of the seal it has a small face preventing heat loss. The thick fat layer under the skin gives not only insulation but also a further streamlining.

ANTARCTIC FUR SEAL

The fur seal has a tense woolly undercoat with longer and coarser guard hair on top for further protection 
he two types of hairs couple and is extremely protective against water reaches the skin, preventing heat loss.

However, during a deep sea dive the insulation of the fur become less because the warm in the fur will be compressed by water pressure. Despite of this the Cape fur seal dives often to a depth of up to 100m. Californian sea lion have been trained to dive even deeper. The eared seal are not such great diver. The reason is that they can't or won't hold their breath for long periods. The true seal can stay under water for 20 minutes. It empties its lungs stores the high concentrated oxygen in its blood. Eared seal do not have this capability and only stay under water for about five minutes.

When on land the fur seal is very clumsy but in water it is like a torpedo and with intelligence plus resourcefulness of a wolf. They are predators but some are better than others. in the group of eared seals, the fur seal feeds almost entirely on krill. These shrimp-like creatures are in their millions in the Polar seas. They are the diet of the great whale but them almost extinct in the Southern Ocean and it is thought that this may have resulted of a population explosion of the Arctic fur seal.

On a whole fur seal and sea lions kill and eat anything they get hold of. They live in a region of whirling ocean currents bringing up nutrient-rich water from the seabed near the coast. These nutrients then nourish the microscopic algae floating in the sun on the surface of the water. This will provide food for the tiny floating animals. Great shoals of fish will be attracted which then feed the seals.

Eared seal hunts in the middle of the water and on seabeds. It feeds on fish, squid and sometimes on penguins. as well as crabs and crayfish which are at the bottom of the sea.

On the beach it can see fairly well in bright sunshine but not much when the light is fading.  In the sea it can see everything in sharp focus even when the light is almost zero. The seal doesn't depend on eyesight. It had been noticed that a totally blind eared seal is well fed in the wild. It proves that other senses are used to find food.

The ears are developed to cope with the greater pressure of sound waves in water. It also is capable to take the increasing pressure as it dives, through a special mechanism. The hearing is remarkable in pinpointing the sounds of its prey and it can home in on it in dark, cloudy water.

Through its cat-like whiskers it picks up vibration in the water. Each whisker has a complex network of nerve fibres which sends messages to the brain. This gives it the ability to track its prey in total darkness.

The fur seal and sea lions breed in tightly packed colonies and give birth. They rear their babies and mate again before they return to the sea at the end of the season. They developed this colonial habit because of the shortage of beaches. The other reason is that they are vulnerable to predators.  Although the eared seal is quite mobile it still gathers together into groups and the female comes to the beach to give birth.

They mate soon after the female gave birth. The male arrives at their breeding ground first. When the female emerges out of the water it has to move into his territory. This gives the male an opportunity to have a harem of up to 50 females. It leaves a lot of other males or bulls without any female. There is a lot of fighting going on and some are so serious insured, it leads to death even with their thick hide.

SEA LION AND HIS HAREM

When a bull claimed a territory he has to stay there right through the mating season and live on his fat reserves. If he doesn't, he looses his place. The females arrive two to three weeks after the bulls claimed his place. The pregnant females first. The seals have delayed development of the foetus. This enables the female to give birth exactly one year later. The female stays with its pup for six days then she wanders about and goes back to sea. The male will mate with her when she starts to wander around. She goes to sea hunting and returns to the pups to suckle them for at least 100 days.

SEAL PUP

A number of species suckle their pups for a year and when she returns to the beach to give birth; it is not unusually she is accompanied by her year old pup.

The secluded breeding beaches provide protection from predators but not from man. When they discovered in 1786 the huge colonies of northern fur seals on the Alaskan Pribil of Islands; the sealers wiped them out. The same happened on South Georgia with the Antarctic fur seals in the 19th century.

It was their skin with their beautiful woolly undercoat which the sealers were after and they didn't do a great selection amongst the animals. They slaughtered any seal that came on land, including pregnant females. It wasn't surprisingly that by 1910 the Antarctic fur seal was practically extinct and the other species were not far off.

It was just in time when the hunting restriction came into power during the early 20th century otherwise the seals would have disappeared. Only through sheer conservation the population has increased, especially the Antarctic fur seal. Due to this timely intervention the eared seals are thriving again. However, the large mammals round the world do not do so well.

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