Grizzly Bear

The grizzly bear is one of the three bear species that is found in North America. Other bears include the black bear and the polar bear. The grizzly bear is the second largest bear, the polar bear being the biggest. Most grizzlies can end up being at least 8 feet tall, but some have been recorded as being ten feet tall. A good why to recognize a grizzly bear is it's fur, it's very shaggy and has silver tips. This is how it got it's name. Grizzly bears also have a pronounced hump on their shoulders. They have large flat feet with extremely long claws that they use to hunt as well as dig up roots. 

The grizzly is an omnivore, meaning it eats both plants and meat. The grizzly bear diet consists of roots and berries as well as insects, fish, small animals, and carrion. It doesn't have carnassial teeth, the teeth that are used to shred meat off prey. It has molars similar to our own that are used to chew up plants. You might think that the grizzly would be lumbering and slow, but surprisingly, it can run  in short spurts up to 30 miles per hour. This allows it to catch prey like caribou and deer.

Grizzlies hibernate 5 to 7 months of the year, usually during the coldest months. Before this time, they must eat a lot to stock up on their fat reserves. It's these reserves that will allow them to survive their hibernation period. During this time, the bear's metabolism slows to a crawl so that all basic functions like heart beat and breathing are slowed so they don't waste energy. This is also the time that many bears give birth to cubs. Female bears, called sows (males are called boars) usually give birth to twins. The cubs survive on their mother's rich milk until winter is over, in which they will join their mother in search for food. A mother bear is very protective of her babies and they will aggressively protect them from humans and other bears, who will kill cubs.

The grizzly bear is an apex predator, meaning it is at the top of the food chain. Most apex creatures have no predators of their own, except humans. The grizzly bear is considered endangered, but certain populations such as the one in the Yellowstone Park, have been considered stable.

The Latin term for bear is Ursus. Interestingly enough the star constellations commonly known as the Big and Little Dipper are named Ursus Minor and Ursus Major (Little Bear and Big Bear).

Source:  The Encyclopedia of Animals, 2006, Per Christiansen.

National Geographic, Grizzly Bear (http://animals.nationalgeographic.com)

Kakapo

The kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) is the world's only flightless parrot. It is also one of the heaviest, weighing in at almost 6 pounds. The kakapo spends a lot of it's time on the ground, eating fruit, leaves, seeds, and roots. Instead of using it's wings for flight, the kakapo uses them, along with it's tail, to help it keep balance as it maneuvers itself through it's jungle home. 

The kakapo is also known as an owl parrot, due to it's face. It has a facial disc that is a common characteristic of many owls. The facial disc is made up of many small feathers that create a bowl like shape on the bird's face. This allows the bird to focus sounds towards its ears. Kind of like a satellite dish. Since the kakapo has no real defense, it needs anything it can to help it survive. It's plumage also makes it hard to see as it hides in vegetation on the forest floor. The kakapo is very active at night. It's name literally means night parrot. To help it get around at night, the kakapo has bristly feathers around it's facial disc that act like feelers. Kind of the same why a cat's whiskers work.

Kakapos are considered critically endangered, meaning they are close to being extinct. This is mainly do to predation by animals like cats that were introduced to New Zealand by humans. Such animals are considered invasive, meaning they are not native to the land and do more harm than good. Many invasive species are introduced by people with a good goal in mind; like controlling a pest specie or providing a new food source. But, these new species often over populate and battle native species for resources like food, water, and habitat, or, like the kakapo, they become food to the introduced specie. The kakapo is now found in only three distinct parts of New Zealand where they are highly protected.

Source: The Encyclopedia of Animals, 2006, Per Christiansen

What's in a name?

Taxonomy, the science how things are classified, is how animals are categorized and let us know what creatures we have already discovered. There are seven main categories, with the broadest listed first:

Kingdom

Phylum

Class

Order

Family

Genus 

Species

An easy way to remember this is Keep Pots Clean Or Family Gets Sick!

Kingdom

This is the most simplistic category. Some kingdoms include Plantae (plants), Animalia (animals), and Fungi (fungus). This way we can tell what ever thing we are looking at is an animal or  a plant.

Phylum

Phylum is the next category that lists a common characteristic of the animal. Most of the time, it whether or not the animal has some kind of backbone. Most creatures with backbones, like dogs, snakes, birds, and ourselves fall under the phylum known as Chordata. Animals without backbones, like mollusks, spiders, and butterflies, are put in the phylum Anthropoda.

Class

Class gets more specific by letting us know what kind of creature we are looking at. Examples of class are Mammalia (mammals), which contains animals that are covered with hair, have developed offspring that's not in eggs (except for a few special mammals), and produce milk to support their young, and Reptillia (reptiles), containing creatures that are cold blooded and their babies hatch from eggs. 

Order

With in each class is an order. Within the class Mammalia, there is the order of Rodenta (rodents like squirrels, mice, rats, and hamsters), Carnivora (carnivores or meat eaters like cats, dogs, and bears), Insectivora (insect eaters like moles and shrews), as well as Artidactyla (even toed hoofed animals like deer, antelopes, sheep, and hippos). The Primate order contains monkey, apes, lemurs, and ourselves. As you can see, it is getting more and more specific. 

Family

Family contains all the members of one type of animal. These animals all share a common feature and generally look kind of the same. All cats (Felidae family) have whiskers, all rabbits (Leporidae family) have long ears and long back legs. Within the Canis family includes wolves, coyotes, foxes, and the domestic dog.

Genus

Genus is more complex than family. For example is the domestic dog (Canis lupus familiars). This genus contains all the types of dogs that are out there in the world. All big cats like lions, tigers, leopards, and jaguars belong to the Panthera genus.

Species

Species gives a very specific name for an animal. Both genus and species together creates an animals bionomen, or it's scientific name. So within the Panthera you have leo (lions), tigris (tigers), pardus (leopards), and onca (jaguar). Species names are commonly named after the location they are found, their color, or the person who found them. For example the okapi (Okapia johnstoni), it's species is named after the man that led the expedition that led to it's discovery. Any living things scientific name is written in italics, with it's Genus written first with a uppercase, followed by it's species in all lower case, like this: Genus species.

Below are some examples of taxonomy. We can tell by their classification that the animals are relative to one another. At one time, they shared a common ancestor.

Source:  Integrated Principles of  Zoology, 2006, Hickman et al.

The Encyclopedia of Animals, 2006, Per Christiansen

Double-Wattled Cassowary

The double-wattled cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) is a large flightless bird that lives in northeastern Australia and New Guinea. Although it can't fly away from it's predators, it protects itself by slashing out it's long 4 inch long claws. It can run about 30 miles per hour and can jump nearly five feet, making it one of the more dangerous animals in Australia. 

It uses it's big feet to chase small birds and mammals through the jungle it lives in.It also eats fruits, insects, fungi, and carrion. While it's claws help it catch prey and give it sure footing as it runs, it's feathers also help it speed through the forest. They are thick and dense, which protects the cassowary from getting stuck by thorns and bramble as well as keep it waterproof. The large knob on it's head, called a casque, helps it as well by allowing it to smash through twigs and branches. 

The casque grows as it ages. Young cassowary lack a casque, so they must stay with their mother for protection. Cassowaries lay around 3 to 5 bright green or black eggs in a nest made of mostly leaves. Chicks are brown and stripped, which helps them camouflage in the shady jungle.

The cassowary belongs to the taxonomic order known as Casuariiformes, where the emu and the cassowary are the only members. Taxonomy is the science of how animals are categorized. In order to keep track of all the animals out there, scientist list them in very specific order. It starts off very broad, listing whether its an animal, plant, fungus, or perhaps bacteria. It then starts to get more specific, such as whether the animal has a backbone, if it's a mammal, reptile, or bird. As classification gets more specific it get so specific to it's individual name, which is the long name after it's common name. It's scientific name, or bionomenclature, is always in Latin. This way every scientist in the world will be able to know what animal is being talked about. 

Source: The Encyclopedia of Animals, 2006, Per Christiansen

Deep Sea Angler Fish

The deep sea angler fish is found in the deepest part of the oceans of world. Where they live it is so deep that many of the creatures that live there never see sunlight. This part of the ocean is known as the abyss. The angler fish gets it's name from an appendage on it's head, called on esca, that is uses to lure it's prey toward it. Because it is hard to find prey in their dark home, angler fish can't waste the energy swimming around and hunting food. So instead, it lies in wait, using it's lure to draw other fish towards it's mouth. 

The esca contains glowing, or bioluminescent, bacteria. The bacteria and the angler fish have a symbiotic relationship, which means that they both benefit from one another by working together. When the angler fish catches a meal, the bacteria also get a free meal. So by working together, the bacteria and the angler fish get to eat.

Another strange fact about the deep sea angler fish is that the ones that are seen the most are female. The male is tiny in comparison to the female and acts like a parasite (something that lives off the energy of others). It attaches it's self to the female and glues himself to her. He then looses all other functions except his reproductive duties. 

This is an example of sexual dimorphism, which is when the male or female of the species looks totally different. Many birds also exhibit this; male birds are more flashy than female ones. Like the peacock for example; the male has a long pretty tail with lots color while the female is usually a drab brown. This allows animals to survive in different ways. For the angler fish, it can be hard to find a mate in pitch blackness, so once they find each other, they are together for live. 

Source: The Encyclopedia of Animals, 2006, Per Christiansen