The Wild Life Blog

The California condor is the largest land bird belonging to the family of the vultures. It is largely found in the regions of grand canyons areas. It has got large black vultures with large patches of white on the underside of the wings and a large bald head with skin color ranging from yellowish to a bright red color. It is the largest wingspan of all the birds found in north America. The condor is the longest living bird of all the bird in the world, with a life span of 50 years. The number of condors have been decreasing due to poaching, lead poisoning and habitat destruction.

The adult Californian condor is a uniform black with the exception the males having a triangular white patch underneath the wings. It has grey legs and feet , it has a frill of black feather that are surrounding the neck and the brownish red eyes. The condor does not have feathers that helps them to prevent from dehydration and from ultra violet radiation when it is flying at higher altitudes. The condor shows its emotion by changing the color of the skin at the neck. The color varies from brown to reddish brown. They are the largest land bird with the largest wing span. It has a long middle talon that is developed to suit walking on the land. The talons are developed in such a way that they are the best on land. 

The movement of the condor is graceful when it is flying. They flap their wings during the take off and glide when they are at a moderate height. They generally fly with a speed of 90KMPH and fly at a height of 4500 meters. Some times with a single flap they can glide several meters. They often roost on high cliffs so that they enable them to thermally aloft. They often defecate to maintain their body temperature. 

Condors mature at the age of six. They look for mate by changing the color of the gizzard from red to yellow and puffs out its tufts. It then spreads out the wings to welcome the females. The female responds to it by bending the head and moving near the male. Then both of them mate. A condor’s  egg hatches in 50 - 60 days. 

The meerkat or also called as the Surricate is a small mammal belonging to the  family of mongoose. It is found largely in the regions of kalahari desert in south africa. A group of meerkats is called as a clang or mob. A clang of meerkats has about 20 of them and some super families have 50 of them. They have an average life span of 15-17 years.

The name meerkat comes from the dutch name which means lake cat. According to the African popular belief, the meerkat is also known as SUN ANGEL, as it protects the village from the moon devil or the werewolf that is believed to attack the tribal people and the cattle.

The meerkat is a small mongoose with  the male weighing  about 731 Grams  and 720 grams for the female. It has a long slender body and limbs give it a body length of 25-32 Cm’s. The length of the tail is around 17 Cm’s. The meerkat has a tail that is not that tuft when compared with the mongoose, They use their tail to balance their body when they are standing on their feet. They have black patched eyes that prevent them from glaring. They generally close their ears when they are digging the ground, so that the sand does not go in to their ears. They generally borrow during the winter and stand on their feet to absorb the heat.

Though they  are insectivorous, they eat snakes,lizards and other small animals. They are immune to certain kind of venom like the highly venomous ones of the scorpion in kalahari desert. They do not have excess body fat, so they have go for foraging of food daily. Meerkats generally go for foraging in a group and the sentry of the group guards it from the predators. The work of each sentry is abut one hour. They do peeping sounds when all is well and bark or whistles when some thing is wrong They are burrowing animals that come of the nest during the day time only. The authority among them is depicted by the amount of scent that the mammal releases.

Chameleons are best known sqamates of all the lizard families. The word chameleon comes from Latin word “chame” mean ” on the ground” and lion means lion. They vary in great size and body structures with a total size of 2.5Cm’s. Many have head or oral protrusions, or large crest in the from if their head. Many of the species of chameleons are sexually dimorphic. Male chameleons are much ornamented than female. They have foot structure, eyes and lack of ears in common to all the chameleons.

Chameleons are gifted with many features like its feet, tongue and camouflage. The hind and the fore limbs help them to grip them firmly on the short branches. Each leg is equipped with sharp talons that help them to grip them when they are climbing tree branches. Chameleon has a long tail that is curled and helps them as a fifth leg. Sometimes it uses it as a weapon.

The chameleon eyes are exception which is not there in any of the animals. Each eye can see in two different directions. Each eye can rotate up to 360 degrees. when a prey is spotted both eyes are fixed to the prey. They have a good eye sight that helps them to see small insects from a distance of 10-15Cm’s.

Like all the other reptiles they do not have ears they detect the predators using the vibrations. They have  very long tongue that helps them to catch prey with pre-scion. The end of the tongue is a thick ball shaped that helps the chameleon to strike the prey and fix it ti its tongue. One of the most interesting feature of the chameleon is that it can see ultra-violet radiation. When they are exposed to the ultra-violet rays they show more response. Their capacity for the reproduction also increases in the UV light.

Most of the chameleons are oviparous . They lay clutches of 80-100 eggs once. Their gestation period is 3-4 weeks. The egg size is same among all the species of chameleons and they hatch in 4-12 months.

The most interesting feature of the chameleon which no other animal has is the change of the color of the skin with its surroundings.  They depict the psychological condition of the lizard, not commonly believed as it changes to match the surrounding. The change of color also plays as a communication between two lizards.