How to contain an exotic animal at home? Varan. Part 1.

Varans belong to the family of lizards. Body length - 0,8-3 m. There are 30 species of these animals. They live in the Eastern Hemisphere. Predators.

They eat lizards, snakes, small mammals and rodents, arthropods, turtles, birds and bird eggs. Largest representative - Komodo dragon, up to 3 m in length, lives on the island of Komodo (Indonesia).

Emerald Island Indonesia - Komodo


A little smaller than the size of his South Asian striped giant lizard - 2,8 m, and dwelling in Australia, a giant monitor lizard - 2,5 m. Camaya big lizard fauna of Central Asia - gray monitor lizard, length up to 1.6 m. The length of the smallest, the Australian short-tailed monitor lizard -- to 20 cm are listed as endangered.
Meat giant lizards are edible, taste like chicken, so in some countries people are mercilessly destroy them for their tasty meat, and also because of the valuable skin that goes to the production of various craft and haberdashery.

Komodo dragon - not on whether the word "chest"?


By the nature of habitat, these animals are divided into terrestrial, semi-aquatic and arboreal. But the division is - conditionally, because All of them to climb trees and swim and dive readily, if necessary.

Tinted lizards varied, but not too bright. Tree lizards are often painted in green, which allows them to camouflage in the foliage of trees. They live in deep burrows, snatches of their own, or occupy the burrows of rodents, which then expand to fit your needs. The length of the hole reaches the monitor lizard 2-2,5 m.

Lizards have a lean, muscular body with well-developed five-fingered limbs and long fingers with large curved claws. Powerful long neck crowns more or less elongated head. The tail is strongly compressed laterally.
The body is covered with round or oval scales. Numerous polygonal plates cover the head from above. Eye hole is always open.

Lizards love to swim and dive

Long, deeply forked at the end and extremely agile, language, constantly sticking out of his mouth, serves as monitor lizards, as the organ of smell and touch, "groping" surroundings, smells. During hunting lizards make great transitions for several kilometers in search of food. Very fast run, chasing prey, as well as fleeing from persecution.

Traveling in search of food, many lizards from time to time vertically raise the front part of the body, relying on widely spaced hind legs and tail to vysmatrivanii prey or danger.

I look in the blue of the lake ...

With the approach of a powerful enemy might be hiding in flight, but often throw themselves boldly on the offensive. This greatly inflate the body, hissing and beating its tail on the ground, trying to scare the enemy.
Hard tail serves as a powerful weapon for defense and attack these animals, which they knocked down the victim or the opponent to the ground, and then cause him terrible, smashing blows.
Teeth were giant lizards are arranged so that when they are inflicting wounds tearing the body of the enemy, inflicting painful wounds. In addition to mechanical damage, they can also put on a dangerous wound infection, because often they are feeding the corpses of dead animals.

Overwhelming number of giant lizards - active predators and beautiful, cautious hunters creeping quietly to the victim and grabbed her and then suddenly in the final dash. Their prey lizards killed vigorous shaking, lifting his head up, and then swallowed, with a long neck like a snake twists, encouraging the rapid passage of food. If the victim is very great, monitors tear my teeth suitable for swallowing the pieces, keeping production forelimbs.

Nevertheless, despite their carnivorous, some lizards diversify your diet fruits and seeds of plants. Thus, fruits and fruit trees fed inhabits the Philippine Islands a large tree Gray's monitor lizard.
Arboreal South Asian arboreal monitor lizard eats ants, capturing insects with a long sticky tongue.

Reproduction
Lizards become sexually mature by 3-4-th year of life.
In the mating season the males fight fiercely with each other, causing each other for a long time does not heal deep wounds.
All lizards - egg-laying. The number of eggs in a batch of different species varies from 7 to 35 units, they are protected pergament looking soft shell.

And here I am! Hello!

The quantity of eggs of the largest - Komodo dragon - perhaps up to 10 cm in length and weighing up to 200 g. In the small species of giant lizards eggs are no longer than 1,5-2 cm Females lay them in the loose soil, filling the old holes in holes in piles of plant residues, tree hollows, and even in the building termites and ant.
Duration of egg development in the tropics is very high - up to 10 months.


In the next article will discuss the types of giant lizards, which are most often kept in captivity.

Marina Dutta
http://animaldin.blogspot.com/

What do you know about the mouse, the symbol of 2008? 15 interesting facts.

Someone was afraid of them, someone is moved, and someone completely neutral. But the year is unlikely to leave Mice someone indifferent to these little creatures. We know a lot about them, but even more - do not know. Here are some interesting facts from the life of mice.

1. Most people in our time the word «mouse» and «Mouse» evokes associations with the computer manipulator type «mouse». And came up with this device a man named Douglas Engelbart in the mid 60. Unfortunately, I have not found a lucid explanation for why the «mouse» was named so. Probably because she has a tail ...

2. By the way, archaeologists dug up a bronze brooch, which is very similar to Disney's Mickey. Made it was in the tenth century BC. e. According to specialists, the unknown sculptor intended to represent the lion and made it to the best of his imagination.

3. University of Jerusalem researchers say that mice are much more like humans than we think. If the mouse to increase human growth and straighten the skeleton, we find that the joints of mice and humans are arranged the same way, and the bones have an equal number of parts. Scientists say even that study in mice the function of human genes more easily than the man himself.

4. Mickey Mouse - First «humanised mouse». He first appeared in 1928 in a cartoon «steamer Willie». The rest of the cartoons and movies lit up Jerry (who with Tom), torturers cat Leopold, Stuart Little, Remy (the cook, who prepared ratatouille), king of the mice «Nutcracker».

5. For research in laboratories and content in the home zoougolke most commonly used white and colored mice that are derived through breeding. These mice lost their natural wildness, easy to handle, feed on a wide variety of foods, including special briquettes, which fed them in research institutes. It is in these two rodents (mice and rats) for more than 80% of all laboratory experiments in biology and medicine.

6. The smallest among rodents and in second place among all mammals - Harvest Mouse, surprisingly elegant and lovely creature with a bright color.

7. Recently, activists of «Animal Liberation Front» abducted from the nursery of laboratory animals in Russia more than 10 thousand rats, mice and hamsters. Rodents were released to the wild in the Moscow region, as much frightened residents of nearby villages.

8. Everyone knows that mice love cheese. But this is misleading, say British scientists. Rodents prefer to eat food with high sugar content, such as grains and fruits, and objects with a strong smell of cheese makes them disgusting.

9. Rats and mice belong to the most numerous on the globe detachment - rodent. Characteristic feature that unites rodents and distinguishes them from representatives of other units, - a peculiar structure of the dental system. On the upper and lower jaws are located on one pair of incisors. They are very large, devoid of roots and grow throughout the life of the animal. Incisors grind unevenly and always stay sharp.

10. In noun these animals are associated with trouble. To dream mouse portends domestic troubles and the insincerity of friends. Cases in business will be off-putting character. Seeing that you killed a mouse, means that you will defeat his enemies. To dream of rats means that you will be disappointed and beaten by your neighbors. It is also possible quarrel with your companions.

11. Bats - the only animals from the mammals that can fly.

12. Superstitions and prejudices associated with bats, surprisingly resilient. Their way mercilessly exploited in horror films and books about vampires. Even scientifically bat is Vampyrus sektrum Linnaeus. But in fact found that most of them do not consume blood. In Europe, the known 30 species of bats, which feed on insects and fruit.

13. In the East, the rats treated very differently than in the West, where their only way associated negative emotions. In Japan, for example, rat - companion of the god of happiness. In China, the absence of rats in the house and the yard was considered alarming.

14. Why rats fleeing a sinking ship? They are very sensitive to sounds not audible to people. It is possible that even in a quiet harbor rats, hearing the «voice of the sea», in a hurry to leave the ship, the resonant frequency of which coincides with the frequency of storm waves. They feel that such a ship can not faint. The captain knows everything. But the rats know more.

15. And the last. Omnipresent in science it was found that elephants do not have the fear of mice. Was an experiment in which the elephants released a set of mice, and elephants are not afraid and took to their heels. So it's a misconception dispelled.

ШколаЖизни.ру
http://animaldin.blogspot.com/