Greater Prairie Chicken Habitat Requirements
Greater prairie chickens are native to North America. Habitat loss caused a great decline in the number of Greater Prairie chickens and almost pushed them towards extinction. Gradually the number of these birds increased as efforts are taken to protect them from extinction. Greater Prairie chickens which goes by the binomial name (Tympanuchus cupido) belongs to the grouse family and is well-known for its mating ritual.
Great Prairie chickens are medium-sized birds. They have round black feathers with white stripes running across it. They have a short and round tail that stands erect, pointing upward. Males have a yellow patch around their neck, which they inflate while performing the courtship ritual. Females are smaller and lighter than males and they lack the yellow comb and the patch around their neck. The birds from grouse family are around 6.5 kg and are 31 to 95 cm in length. Heath Hen (extinct) , the Greater Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus) and Attwater’s Prairie Chicken are three of the subspecies that are grouped under Tympanuchus cupido. Tall grass prairies or agricultural land are the areas where these birds find comfort for displaying courtship, nesting and brooding. However, the type of habitat changes and are always ranging to vast grassy fields.
Habitat Requirements for Greater Prairie Chicken
Greater prairie choose their dwelling place as per their needs. These mainly consists of wetlands, croplands, oak stands and short grasses. Therefore, let us take a look at how the habitat changes as per their requirements.
Lekking Ground
The mating pattern of the grouse family birds is referred to as lekking. The area they choose to perform the ritual is termed as the lekking ground. Males of these species create a small territory where they perform their competitive mating ritual. The males form a small territory and periodically display their wonderful courtship. The females then come to the lekking site and selects the dominant and desirable males to proceed with the ritual.
As the birds want to make their best impression, the lekking grounds are mostly low vegetation lands. Greater Prairie chickens also use grazed hill tops, burned land, wet meadows, cultivated land needle grass fields. The Great Prairie chickens use undisturbed lands that are away from traffic and roads. Read the rest of this entry »
Interactions between Children and Cats
The presence of one or several cats in one’s home may be a very good thing for the development of one’s children. Cats can be something more than mere companions. When children interact with pets, they can learn valuable lessons of altruism, but they also have the chance to practice things such as patience and respect.
Children should be encouraged to take utmost care of the family’s pets. This may teach them how to become responsible for themselves, the others, their actions. It’s also good for children to learn at an early age how to look after another small being such as a cute, playful pet. Karen Lee Stevens, the founder of the All for Animals Association and the creator of Compassion for Critters animal protection program, says that children should take care of their pets, but still gives certain warnings in this respect. She says that regardless of their best intentions, children should not be allowed to take all by themselves care of their pets. Thus, parents must teach their children by the power of the example, how to feed their pets properly, how to play with them, handle pets, how to treat them in general. Otherwise, parents might have unpleasant surprises.
Children, in their innocence and due to the richness of their imagination, can get dangerous ideas about how to handle a pet. And of course, cats make no exception to this imminent danger. Because of that, parents must know that they are the ones who are ultimately responsible for the cat’s well-being, not their children. By acknowledging this simple fact, both cats and children can avoid being traumatized by each other.
Mieshelle Nagelschneider, another cat behavior expert, also agrees with these previously mentioned ideas. She says that by buying a cat, parents must take up the responsibility of looking after it when children fail to do that in a proper manner. Also, she stresses the idea that parents must be perfectly aware of their children’s level of responsibility before buying them a cat or any other living creature to play with and look after. Read the rest of this entry »
The Stargazer Fish
Stargazer fish is a bony fish that belongs to the family of Uranoscopidae. In all, there are almost 50 species of stargazers found in 8 different genera. They live in shallow waters of seas and oceans and are quite commonly found in Mediterranean sea and Atlantic Ocean. It can be described as a benthic species that prefers either to remain buried under the sand or mud or stay on the bottom of the sea or ocean bodies. When they bury themselves in the sand or mud, the eyes and the mouth are the only two parts of the fish that are visible. Thus it got its name as stargazer fish.
Stargazer Fish Classification
The scientific classification of the stargazer fish are as follows:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Uranoscopidae
Stargazer Fish Information
Stargazer fish has an elongated round shaped body with a dull brown color. The upper section of the body has a slightly darker shade of brown as compared to its under part. It has a large head which is slightly flattened on the sides and consist of rough, bony plates. On an average, the usual size of the stargazer fish varies from 18-25 cm. However, there are certain species of giant stargazer that can be as long as 90 cm.
The eyes of stargazer fish are very small in size and are mounted at the top of the body. It has a large mouth which is faced in the upward direction. At the tip of its lower jaw, there is a small projection that looks like a worm. Most species have both the dorsal fins and anal fins. However, in some of the species, the dorsal spines are missing. Stargazers are poisonous in nature. This is because of presence of two large poison spines that are located on each of its pectoral fins behind the gill cover. These spines can produce electricity and also deliver electric shocks. Read the rest of this entry »