Category: Animals

Categories
Solar System Animals Astronomy Evolution Life on Earth Planet Earth Plants

Earth without Moon: what would it be like?

Earth without moon - what it would be like
Have you ever wondered what Earth would be like without Moon? Without its closest celestial companion, our planet’s tides, climate, and even the length of days would change dramatically. The Moon stabilizes Earth’s axis, influencing seasons and weather patterns. Without it, life as we know it would be profoundly different.

The Moon is the Earth’s only natural satellite. It is also the fifth-largest natural satellite in the Solar System and the largest among planetary satellites relative to the size of the planet that it orbits. It formed about 4.51 billion years ago from the debris left over after a giant impact between Earth and a Mars-sized body called Theia (this is known as the Giant Impact Hypothesis and is the most widely accepted explanation of the formation of the Moon). This impact happened not long after the Earth has been formed. But, what if that giant impact never happened? What would the Earth without Moon be like?

Continue reading “Earth without Moon: what would it be like?”
Categories
Climate Animals Environment Global Warming Life on Earth

African musicians protest the destruction of the environment with a song titled “Samalilani” (Preserve)

Samalilani
Musicians from Zambia (Africa) protest the destruction of the environment and the wildlife with the song titled "Samalilani". They also draw attention to climate change and environmental issues facing Zambia, like deforestation and charcoal burning.

Musicians from Zambia (Africa) protest the destruction of the environment and the wildlife with the song titled “Samalilani” (means “preserve” in English). They also draw attention to climate change and environmental issues facing Zambia, like deforestation and charcoal burning.

Continue reading “African musicians protest the destruction of the environment with a song titled “Samalilani” (Preserve)”
Categories
Life on Earth Animals Evolution Planet Earth Plants Prehistoric

What If Earth’s History Compressed Into One Year

Earth from the Geostationary Orbit
Earth image taken by Japanese weather satellite Himawari 8, which takes a photo of Earth every 10 minutes. Himawari 8 is the 8th of the Himawari geostationary weather satellites operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency. Himawari 8 entered operational service on 7 July 2015 and is the successor to MTSAT-2 (Himawari 7) which was launched in 2006.

What if the Earth’s history (our planet’s age is approximately 4.54 billion years), compressed into just one year? @YearOnEarth just did that. At midnight on the 31st of December, Chris Jennings started a little project for the incoming year: tweeting the entirety of the geological history of the Earth, compressed into one year.

The result is an amazing timeline of the Earth’s history.

Continue reading “What If Earth’s History Compressed Into One Year”
Categories
Animals Life on Earth

Cheetah facts: 20 interesting things about the world’s fastest land animal

Cheetah running at full speed in South Africa (Acinonyx jubatus)
Cheetah running at full speed in South Africa (Acinonyx jubatus). Source: Deposit Photos

The cheetah (scientific name: Acinonyx jubatus) is a large cat of the subfamily Felinae, which specialized for high speed. Cheetahs live in North and East Africa, and a few localities in Iran. Here are 20 amazing cheetah facts.

Continue reading “Cheetah facts: 20 interesting things about the world’s fastest land animal”
Categories
Animals Life on Earth

Want to Speak Elephant Language? [Now You Can!]

Elephants in Okavango Delta, Botswana
Elephants in the Okavango Delta. The area is one of the best places to see animals and birds in Africa. The area supports large concentrations of animals on both a permanent and seasonal basis. A myriad of species are found within the delta including African Bush Elephant, African Buffalo, Hippopotamus, Lechwe, Topi, Blue Wildebeest, Giraffe, Nile crocodile, Lion, Cheetah, Leopard, Brown Hyena, Spotted Hyena, Greater Kudu, Sable Antelope, Black Rhinoceros, White Rhinoceros, Plains Zebra, Warthog and Chacma Baboon. Notably the endangered African Wild Dog still survives within the Okavango Delta and exhibits one of the richest pack densities in Africa. In addition to these large animals the Okavango Delta also supports over 400 species of birds and 71 recorded species of fish including Tigerfish, Tilapia and Catfish. Thanks to this wide variety of wildlife, the delta is now a popular tourist attraction.

Ever wanted to speak “Elephant”, or to understand these amazing, beautiful animals? Thanks to a new web-based translator developed by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and ElephantVoices, now you can! “Hello in elephant” website translates human words and emotions into the “elephant language”, or elephant calls that signal similar emotions or intentions.

Continue reading “Want to Speak Elephant Language? [Now You Can!]”
Categories
Animals Life on Earth Oceans

Orcas swimming around a woman (video)

Three orcas swimming with a woman (New Zealand)
A woman was swimming on 4 December 2018 at Hahei Beach on the Coromandel peninsular, New Zealand. Then a pod of orcas (killer whales) swam up to her (probably a mother and two calves), and circled her. They kept swimming around her while she was headed to the shore. Especially the mother swam really close to her. A man named Dylan Brayshaw captured the full scene from a drone. The result was an amazing drone footage.

A woman was swimming on 4 December 2018 at Hahei Beach on the Coromandel peninsular, New Zealand. Then a pod of orcas (killer whales) swam up to her (probably a mother and two calves), and circled her. They kept swimming around her while she was headed to the shore. Especially the mother swam really close to her. A man named Dylan Brayshaw captured the full scene from a drone. The result is the amazing drone footage below.

Continue reading “Orcas swimming around a woman (video)”
Categories
Animals Life on Earth Oceans

Immortal Jellyfish [the only animal which can live eternally!]

Immortal Jellyfish (Turritopsis dohrnii)
Immortal Jellyfish (Turritopsis dohrnii) One of the most amazing and incredible organisms living in the oceans is the Turritopsis dohrnii, popularly known as the "immortal jellyfish". It is a tiny, transparent jellyfish, originally found in the Mediterranean Sea and in the waters of Japan (but nowadays it travels the world in the ballast tanks of cargo ships). It has a maximum diameter of about 4.5 millimeters or 0.18 inches. The thing that makes this strange, almost alien-like creature so incredible is that it is biologically immortal. It's the only known animal capable of reverting completely to a sexually immature, colonial stage after having reached sexual maturity as a solitary individual.

Would you like to have the ability to transform back to a younger version of yourself? Meet Immortal Jellyfish (scientific name: Turritopsis dohrnii), the only species on Earth which can live (theoretically, at least) an eternal life.

Continue reading “Immortal Jellyfish [the only animal which can live eternally!]”
Categories
Environment Animals Climate Global Warming Life on Earth Plants

We are Destroying the Earth’s Wilderness [Humans wiped out 60% of wildlife]

Proboscis monkey
The proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) or long-nosed monkey is a reddish-brown arboreal Old World monkey with an unusually large nose. It is endemic to the southeast Asian island of Borneo and known as "the bekantan" in Indonesia. The proboscis monkey is a large species, being one of the largest monkey species native to Asia. Only the Tibetan macaque and a few of the gray langurs can rival its size. Sexual dimorphism is pronounced in the species. Males have a head-body length of 66 to 76.2 cm (26.0 to 30.0 in) and typically weigh 16 to 22.5 kg (35 to 50 lb), with a maximum known weight of 30 kg (66 lb). Females measure 53.3 to 62 cm (21.0 to 24.4 in) in head-and-body length and weigh 7 to 12 kg (15 to 26 lb), with a maximum known mass of 15 kg (33 lb). They generally live in groups composed of one adult male, some adult females and their offspring. All-male groups may also exist. Some individuals are solitary, mostly males. The proboscis monkey is assessed as endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and listed in Appendix I of CITES. Its total population has decreased by more than 50% in the past 36-40 years to 2008 due to ongoing habitat loss because of logging and oil palm plantations, and hunting in some areas due to the species being treated as a delicacy, as well as its use in traditional Chinese medicine. Text Source: Wikipedia Photo: PXHere

We, humans, are destroying the Earth’s wilderness at an alarming pace. Scientists say we have destroyed 10% of Earth’s wildlife habitat in just 25 years. Since 1993, 3.3 million km2 of global wilderness areas, particularly in the Amazon basin (almost 30%) and central Africa (14%) were lost. This is almost twice the size of Alaska!

Continue reading “We are Destroying the Earth’s Wilderness [Humans wiped out 60% of wildlife]”
Categories
Animals Life on Earth

Animal claws comparison: which animal has the biggest claws?

This chart compares some wild animals' claws
This chart compares some wild animals' claws (including Siberian tiger, African lion, Jaguar, Cougar, Grizzly bear, and Polar bear). The harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja) is a neotropical species of eagle. It is also called the American harpy eagle to distinguish it from the Papuan eagle, which is sometimes known as the New Guinea harpy eagle or Papuan harpy eagle. It is the largest and most powerful raptor found in the rainforest, and among the largest extant species of eagles in the world. It usually inhabits tropical lowland rainforests in the upper (emergent) canopy layer. Destruction of its natural habitat has caused it to vanish from many parts of its former range, and it is nearly extirpated in Central America. In Brazil, the harpy eagle is also known as royal-hawk (in Portuguese: gavião-real).

The chart below compares some wild animals’ claws (including the Siberian tiger, African lion, Jaguar, Cougar, Grizzly bear, Harpy eagle, and Polar bear).

Continue reading “Animal claws comparison: which animal has the biggest claws?”
Categories
Life on Earth Animals Evolution

8 major extinctions due to human interference

Landscape with Birds by Roelant Savery, 1628
Landscape with Birds, (showing a dodo in the lower right corner) by Roelant Savery, 1628. Image Courtesy Wikimedia Roelant Savery (or Roeland(t) Maertensz Saverij, or de Savery, or many variants) (1576 - buried 25 February 1639), was a Flanders-born Dutch Golden Age painter. He primarily painted landscapes, often embellished with many meticulously painted animals and plants, regularly with a mythological or biblical theme as background. Among his best-known works are several depictions of the now-extinct dodo painted between 1611 and 1628.

If you are one among the many who have watched the movie Rio and have fallen in love with the adorable lead named Blu, then I have some terrible news for you! As of this date, the Spix’s Macaw has been declared “extinct as in wild”.

Continue reading “8 major extinctions due to human interference”