More weird animals and animan traits.

Rosborne:

Your picture looking down on the gray fox reminded me of what my brother said. He lives near Tallahassee, and frequently canoes on a nearby river. He sits up in trees, and says that many animals don't bother to look up unless there is motion or noise, so you can see animals that you otherwise couldn't get close to.

It looks like you've got a beautiful place to live with a lot of wildlife, and though I must admit the bear is a mixed blessing, it does spice things up. In Texas and the South there are a number of poisonous snake species that you have to watch for while hiking, but I look at them as spice too.

Hi Coluber, yep, it's a spicy place up here. Watch out for the snakes. We don't have many poisonous ones up here (just rumors of rare rattlers and copperheads).

Turkey vulture—Cathartes aura. Range: Minnesota to New England south to the gulf coast. Food: carrion.

Turkey vultures have red, naked heads. The rear portion of the wings are light-colored and are held in a low V shape in flight. (Compare to black vulture below.)

The turkey vulture is one of the few bird species with a good sense of smell that it uses to home in on its food. When encountering the smell of food while in flight, the bird flies in a circle descending with tighter and tighter spirals until it locates the food.

The eggs are laid on the ground or on shleves, small caves and niches on cliff sides.

I was hiking in the Fakahatchee Strand, a cypress slough in SW Florida penetrated with the remnants of a ramified rail tram left over from cypress logging in the early 50s. While walking on a narrow tram surrounded by water and having to push through thick ferns over my head, a turkey vulture exploded out from under the ferns just two steps ahead giving me a fright. I continued on to a small pond and sat at its edge for an hour observing the birds and alligators. Upon returning through the same patch of ferns, the same vulture burst up of the ferns again with the same effect on my nerves. I bent down on the trail and saw two vulture eggs just off the narrow trail.

Young vultures like other birds have to learn to fly, but it takes longer still to master the art of soaring. I once observed a group of seven or eight turkey vultures flying south along an escarpment. The first four or five birds, taking advantage of the rising air currents of the topography, quickly ascended in a spiral two hundred feet or so and continued on. The last three birds, presumedly youngsters, attempted the same maneuver but could't catch the currents. To gain airspeed they would descend slightly and try to catch the rising air again, but after ten minutes they gave up as it was late in the afternoon, and they roosted in a tree separated from the rest of the group, which were long gone.

Black vulture—Coragyps atratus. Range: Ohio to N. Jersey south to the gulf states. Food: carrion.

Compared to the turkey vulture, the black vulture has a black naked head and a shorter tail. The wings are light toward the tips, are held flat in flight, and appear to curve forward. Its soaring is interrupted by short, rapid wingbeats. Unlike the turkey vulture, the black vulture hunts by sight only.

YOu could eat that pygmy marmoset baby in one gulp. mmmmmmmm endangered animals.

King vulture—Sarcoramphus papa. Range: Mexico to Paraguay. Food: carrion.

This is a beautiful and, in my experience, mischievous vulture.

Working in a privately-owned zoo in Bonita Springs, Florida in the mid sixties, I was assigned a cage of 5 or 6 king vultures. Naively, I walked in the cage the first time to clean and noticed a cowboy hat hanging on a hook. Wondering why it was there, I started cleaned the cage unaware of the special greeting the birds were going to give the "new guy." They hopped down off their perches and headed toward me as if it were already choreographed. One started picking at my shoelaces while another chewed on my foot through the sock. Bending over to chase them away another bit my hand while the fourth one, taking advantage of my bent over position flew up on my shoulder and pecked at my ear. The fifth of this "gang of five" enlightened me on the cowboy hat and alighted on my head. Thus was my initiation into the world of the king vulture.

Good story Colub

Top: Young cottonmouth water moccassin?-Agkistrodon piscivorus ssp.
Bottom: Adult cottonmouth.

How to discrimminate between the venomous cottonmouth water moccassin and the harmless water snake.

Identification by body pattern can be confusing and misleading, because the pattern may become darker and obscured as the animal ages. Also, since there are many species of water snakes?-Nerodia sp.?-patterns vary greatly. The structure of the head is the best key to identification, though you must bear in mind that under stress many water snakes flatten their heads to produce a triangular and more threatening appearance that minics the cottonmouth.

The term water moccassin is also confusing, because in some areas this term is used to refer to the harmless watersnake, and, therefore, when referring to the venomous snake it's best to include the term cottonmouth.

Keys to identification:

1) Examine the heads of the cottonmouths above and notice the flatness of the top of the head and the sharp angle between the top and the sides of the head. Water snakes have relatively smaller heads that are rounded.

2) Some authors stress the eliptical pupils in the eye of the cottonmouth versus the round pupils of the water snakes, but since you have to get very close to the snake to see this trait, it is not reliable.

3) Many species of water snakes have sutures on the mouth. These are lines that cross from the upper lip to the lower lip and have the appearance of sutures.

4) Should you find a dead snake near the water, pick it up and look under the tail. If the snake hasn't been dead for a long time, pick it up behind the head to avoid bites from reflex action. The scales of water snakes are in a double row under the tail, whereas, the scales are in a single row in the cottonmouth. The tail of snakes begins posterior to the vent scale.

(con't)

Brown water snake—Nerodia taxispilota.






Red-bellied water snake—Nerodia erythrogaster.




Northern water snake—Nerodia s. sipedon.

The faces of these snakes don't look even remotely similar. The Water Moccassin has an evil squinty eyed stare (light ridge over the eye), but the water snake has a wide eyed (no ridge) gaze.

Hi Rosborne: You got my point. By comparing the heads, it's easy to discriminate between the cottonmouth and water snakes.

You and I can easily tell the difference between the snakes at a glance, but most people need clues.

It's interesting that some people pick up on the visual characteristics of snakes (and other animals) so much more easily that other people do.

I have known for years that I recognize subtle characterists of animal shapes and behaviors which others miss, but I have never understood quite why this is. Even though I read a lot about animals when I was a kid, and even though I have an interest in animals, I was never "trained" in any way that I remember.

Both snakes display aposematic—warning—coloration, and the harmless kingsnake mimics—Batesian mimicry—the venomous coral snake. Now we know from other Batesian mimicry examples—Viceroy-Monarch—that a bird swallowing and vomiting the inedible Monarch butterfly will also avoid the edible Viceroys. The bird learns from the bad experience.

The question I have is how can a bird or other predator learn from a bad experience with a coral snake to avoid the harnless scarlet kingsnake when, we must assume, the bird cannot survive the bite of the highly toxic coral snake bite? Is the aposematic coloration on its own enough to warn a predator off. That is, is the color red instinctively avoided by predators in prey animals? This does not seem likely, so what's the answer?

Are all bites from a Coral Snake lethal, or do some of them just result in pain and sickness?

If they are not all lethal, then we have an answer.

If they are all lethal, then we probably have to assume that other members of the species observe the events and learn by watching.

Good question.

Well, I think we almost have to assume that any bird, at least, that was envenomated at all from a coral snake would die. It's hard to believe that a hawk would get enough venom to make it sick but not enough to kill it. Of course large mammals might survive a bite.

I started thinking about this when I saw a scarlet kingsnake atop a fallen tree in Florida. It was so brilliant that any bird within a mile (high) would have seen it. It was obviously advertising.

It's possible that watching another animal get sick might teach another to avoid the food. I don't know. It's also possible that a bird ingesting a coral snake and its venom could get sick but not die. I always thought that venom ingestion was safe though.

Maybe you can start a new thread and we can hear from some other people. It's a pretty good question. I'm not sure I know the answer, but I haven't tried to google it yet.

Hi Coluber, I found some stuff:

http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/ncisla/muse/naturalselection/materials/section4/lesson4A/handouts/handout2.html

Aposematism is the term used to describe a bright coloration in association with poisons (as a warning mechanism).

http://www.utexas.edu/opa/news/03newsreleases/nr_200310/nr_frogs031001.html

I think the key is that Coral Snakes didn't immediately become lethal as they evolved. They must have gone through a stage when they were dangerous, but not lethal, during which their coloration developed.

I'm still not sure how a currently living predator knows that bright colors are dangerous, unless that too has been incorporated in the genetics somehow.

lunar moth

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/10659235/

The Wolverine, (Gulo Gulo)
Also known as the Skunk Bear, Devil Bear, Carcajou, and Glutton.


http://blindkat.tripod.com/zoo/wolverine.html

okapi

http://www.danger-island.com/true/mokapi/okapi.html