tortoises

Tortoises can make an interesting pet, although they can present a challenge, due to their size and dietary habits. Their diets vary based on species, but all need quite a variety of foods, with careful attention paid to the amount of roughage as well as calcium/phosphorus balance. Some species have voracious appetites, too. Many species are fairly large and need a decent sized enclosure, preferably outdoors, so are suited to areas with nicer climates. Depending on the temperatures where the tortoise originates and the area where you live, it may be necessary to bring tortoises indoors overnight or during cooler weather (and with the larger tortoises providing indoor housing can be a big challenge!). Some species need to hibernate, which can be very stressful on the tortoise and requires special conditions.

Tortoises can also live a very long time (anywhere from 50 to over 100 years), which means you must be prepared to provide a lifetime of care and consier that your pet might even outlive you.

A couple of important notes: when constructing an outdoor pen, make sure it is strong and bury your fences if you have a burrowing tortoise. Tortoises are quite strong, especially the larger ones, and flimsy enclosures won't hold them long. Some tortoises also climb surprisingly well so some may require a roofed pen. It is also very important to make sure the enclosure keeps predators (including dogs) out. Make sure there are no dangers in the pen - no poisonous plants, shallow water only, and no sharp objects or small inedible objects which may be accidentally ingested. Also for some tortoises, trying to climb steps or other obstacles can result in them tipping onto their backs, which may result in their untimely deaths. Most will need some sort of shelter outdoors as well, such as a doghouse (perhaps heated as well).

It is also best, as with any reptile, to get a captive bred specimen if at all possible. This isn't easy for some species, but the capture and shipping conditions can be appalling, and result in stressed animals which are then more prone to disease. It is also possible in some areas to locate tortoises from rescues. Any new addition should be checked for parasites and quarantined for a while to ensure that it is healthy (if other tortoises are present). Some species are quite aggressive with other tortoises, and if a couple of males are kept in too small of an enclosure, fighting may result producing potentially serious injuries around the eyes and on the legs.

It is vital to choose a tortoise species well - based on housing and environmental needs, and diet requirements. Different species have markedly different adult sizes, temperature and light needs, diets, and some need to hibernate and some do not. Rather than try to get into the details of care here we'll just compare of a few species, and refer readers to the excellent care sheets that are available on the net.

mantises

What is a Praying Mantis? The praying mantids, or praying mantises, are carnivorous insects that belong to the family. There are about 2,000 species of mantids. The biggest praying mantises are the Tenodera and the Archimantis, which are six inches long! The smallest praying mantis is the Bolbe pygmaea, which is only 2/5 of an inch, or one-centimeter. Unbelievably, some scientists agree the mantis is closely related to the cockroach. The name "mantis" comes from the Greek word for 'prophet' or 'soothsayer.' The Carolina mantid is a common insect of Eastern United States. The European and Chinese species were introduced to the Northeastern United States about 75 years ago as garden predators in hopes of overtaking the native pest population.

DESCRIPTION

Praying mantises are about 2/5-12 inches according to species. Their colors vary, ranging from light greens to pinks. Most mantids are pea green or brown. The tropical flower mantises, which resemble flowers, are usually light colors such as pink. Flower mantises, from Africa or the Far East, so closely resemble flowers that insects will often land on them to get nectar.

Camouflage is very important for the praying mantis' survival. Because they have so many enemies such as birds, they must blend in with their habitat to avoid being eaten. They have a triangular-shaped head with a large compound eye on each side. Praying mantids are the only insect that turn from side to side in a full 180-degree angle. Their eyes are sensitive to the slightest movement up to 60 feet away. They have straight, leathery forewings and very powerful jaws used for devouring its prey. They have ultrasound ears on their Metathoraxes. The Metathorax is located on the thorax. Also, the males' genitalia are asymmetrical. They have a long prothorax and strong, spiny front legs held together in a praying manner. In the bodies of some species of mantis, there is a hollow chamber. Recently it has been discovered that these hollow chambers provide the mantis with a means of detecting bats, one of their most feared predators. Apparently, the mantis in flight will drastically change its flight pattern (often hurling to the ground in a spiral) when the mantis hears certain frequencies of sound.

HABITAT

Nearly 2,000 species of mantids are widely distributed throughout tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate areas of the world. Different species live in many parts of countries such as North and South America, South Africa, Europe, the Southern parts of Asia and some parts of Australia. Praying mantids in North America are usually green or brown. There are three main types of mantids in Eastern United States: the European mantid (Mantis religiosa), Carolina mantid (Stagmomantis carolina) and Chinese mantid (Tenodera aridifolia sinensis).

DIET

The praying mantis is a carnivorous insect that takes up a deceptively humble posture when it is searching for food. When at rest, the mantis' front forelegs are held up together in a posture that looks like its praying. These front legs are equipped with rows of sharp spines used to grasp its prey. They wait unmoving and are almost invisible on a leaf or a stem, ready to catch any insect that passes. When potential prey comes close enough, the mantis thrusts its pincher-like forelegs forward to catch it. The prey probably won't escape because the forelegs are so strong and armed with overlapping spines. The mantid bites the neck of its prey to paralyze it and begins to devour it. The mantis almost always starts eating the insect while it's still alive, and almost always starts eating from the insect's neck. This way, the mantis makes sure that the insect's struggle stops quickly. Praying mantises eat insects and other invertebrates such as other mantises, beetles, butterflies, spiders, crickets, grasshoppers, and even spiders. The praying mantises also eat vertebrates such as small tree frogs, lizards, mice and hummingbirds. Praying mantids can resemble flowers and can catch small, unknowing hummingbirds. Praying mantids also eat other nesting birds.

BREEDING

Breeding season is in the summer in temperate areas. After mating, the female will lay groups of 12-400 eggs in the autumn, in a "frothy" liquid called an "ootheca", that turns into a hard protective shell. This is how these insects survive during the wintertime. Small mantids emerge in the spring. Often, their first meal is a sibling. Young mantids or nymphs, also eat leafhoppers, aphids and small flies. Young mantids will shed many times before it is full grown. It takes an entire summer or growing season for mantids to mature to adulthood. One generation develops each season. Many species of mantids resemble ants when they are small, but as they go through a series of molts, they begin to look more like adult mantids.

BENEFICIAL OR NOT?

Most often people think mantises are pests. That is only partly true. They can be beneficial, too. Praying mantises are terrific pest exterminators. They keep down the population of bugs that are a threat to farming. A master of disguise, the praying mantis can be an able assistant to farmer and gardener. Look carefully in your backyard. Perhaps that deceptive shape is a praying mantis poised for his next meal.

super sized snake

Reality has proven more incredible than Hollywood fantasy with the discovery of a super-sized snake that slithered around the tropics 60 million years ago.

Measuring 13 metres from its tongue to the tip of its very long tail, Titanoboa cerrejonensis is the largest snake ever uncovered.

A reconstruction illustration of the Titanoboa cerrejonensis, a relative of the Boa constrictor, was 13 metres long, weighed more than a tonne, and would have required temperatures that are hotter than in today's tropics.

It swam around warm, steamy swamps swallowing giant turtles and crocodiles, says paleontologist Jason Head, at the University of Toronto in Mississauga, lead author of a report on the boa constrictor like reptile in the journal Nature to be published Thursday.

"It was longer than a city bus, and weighed more than a car," Head said in an interview. It's body, weighing about 1,135 kilograms, was so thick he says that the snake would have had trouble getting from the hallway into his office: "It would have to squeeze a little bit to get into the door."

Head and his co-authors in the U.S. and Panama say the snake was more fantastic than Hollywood creations - and much bigger than the snake that tried to eat actor Jennifer Lopez in the movie Anaconda.

"Terrifying," Head says of the snake he describes as the "most amazing" he has ever studied.

The bones from several of the creatures were unearthed in the open-pit Cerrejon coal mine in Colombia, and provide a rare glimpse of the past tropical climate.

"We were able to actually take the giant snakes and turn them into thermometers," says Head, explaining how they have reconstructed the climate Titanoboa lived in based on the size of its bones. The growth of cold-blooded animals like snakes is determined by temperature - cold limits their size, which is why snakes are small in Canada, while warmth allows them to grow bigger in places like Brazil.

The scientists say the snake's enormous size points to a mean annual temperature at the equatorial South America 60 million years of nearly 30 to 34 Celsius, up to six degrees warmer than it is today.

Climatologist Matthew Huber, at Purdue University, says the work has "major implications" as it indicates that the tropics are not buffered from global warming as some scientists have believed. It suggests the tropics, now home to millions of people, may warm more that some have expected because of the greenhouse gases now being released into the atmosphere.

"It is a big step to go from our analysis to today's man-made global warming, but it certainly makes you scratch your chin," says Head, who is to travel to Columbia this spring to look for more snake bones in the coal mine.

"I'd like to find the head of one of those guys," he says. So far the researchers have unearthed ribs and vertebrae, some bigger than Head's hand.

scorpions

Scorpions have long been of interest to humans primarily because of their ability to give painful and sometimes life threatening stings. Scorpions are also an important and beneficial component of many ecosystems and they are one of the oldest known terrestrial arthropods. Fossil scorpions found in Paleozoic strata 430 million years old appear very similar to present day species.

Scorpions are venomous arthropods in the class Arachnida, relatives of spiders, mites, ticks, solpugids, pseudoscorpions and others. There are currently 1400 recognized species of scorpions worldwide. Scorpions have an elongated body and a segmented tail that is tipped with a venomous stinger. They have four pairs of legs and pedipalps with plier-like pincers on the end, which are used for grasping.

Range and Habitat

Scorpions are commonly thought of as desert animals, but in fact, they occur in many other habitats, including grasslands and savannahs, deciduous forests, montane pine forests, intertidal zones, rain forest and caves. Scorpions have even been found under snow-covered rocks at elevations of over 12,000 feet in the Himalayas of Asia.

Description

As arachnids, scorpions have mouthparts called chelicerae, a pair of pedipalps, and four pairs of legs. The pincer-like pedipalps are used primarily for prey capture and defense, but are also covered with various types of sensory hairs. The body is divided into two main regions, a cephalothorax and an abdomen. The cephalothorax is covered above by a carapace (or head shield) that usually bears a pair of median eyes and 2 to 5 pairs of lateral eyes at its front corners (a few cave and litter-dwelling scorpions are completely eyeless).

The abdomen consists of 12 distinct segments, with the last five forming the metasoma what most people refer to as the "tail". At the end of the abdomen is the telson, which is a bulb-shaped structure containing the venom glands and a sharp, curved stinger to deliver venom.

On its underside, the scorpion bears a pair of unique comb-like sense organs called the pectines; these are usually larger and bear more teeth in the male and are used to sense the texture and vibration of surfaces. They also serve as chemoreceptors (chemical sensors) to detect pheromones (communication chemicals).

The "long-tailed" African Scorpion (Hadogenes troglodytes) reaches a length of over 8 inches, and is probably the longest scorpion in the world. Some of the African and Asian Emperor Scorpions routinely reach (and probably exceed) 7 inches. The largest scorpions in the United States are members of the genus Hadrurus (giant desert hairy scorpions), obtaining a length of about 5 inches. Giant desert hairy scorpions also occur in Arizona

calotes verscicolour

These lizards can change their colours, quite rapidly, but not as rapidly as chameleons.

Mangrove and wetland wildlife at Sungei Buloh Nature Park Main features: Medium (37cm), distinguished by the two spines above the eardrums (tympanum), lack of spines behind the eye and lack of a shoulder fold. Status in Singapore: Common. Introduced. World distribution: Southwest Asia, from Sri Lanka to Southern China and Sumatra. Classification: Family Agamidae, Superfamily Iguania.

Changeable Lizards are usually a dull brown, grey or olive with speckles or bands, but can can be seen in other colours such as bright green. These colour changes may reflect their moods.

During the breeding season, the male's head and shoulders turns bright orange to crimson and his throat black. Males also turn red-headed after a successful battle with rivals. Thus their other gruesome name of "Bloodsucker Lizard". But they don't actually suck anybody's blood! Both males and females have a crest from the head to nearly the tail, hence their other common name "Crested Tree Lizard".

Changeable Lizards are related to iguanas (which are found only in the New World). Unlike other lizards, they do not drop their tails (autotomy), and their tails can be very long, stiff and pointy. Like other reptiles, they shed their skins. Like chameleons, Changeable Lizards can move each of their eyes in different directions.

Changeable Lizards eat mainly insects and small vertebrates, including rodents and other lizards. Although they have teeth, these are designed for gripping prey and not tearing it up. So prey is swallowed whole, after it is stunned by shaking it about. Sometimes, young inexperienced Changeable Lizards may choke on prey which are too large. They are commonly found among the undergrowth in open habitats including highly urban areas. The lizards were introduced to Singapore from Malaysia and Thailand in the 1980s.

Breeding: Males become highly territorial during breeding season. They discourage intruding males by brightening their red heads and doing "push-ups". Each tries to attract a female by inflating his throat and drawing attention to his handsomely coloured head. About 10-20 eggs are laid, buried in moist soil. The eggs are long, spinde-shaped and covered with a leathery skin. They hatch in about 6-7 weeks. They are able to breed at about 1 year old.

flying tree snakes

If you are lucky, you may spot this elegant snake warming itself quietly in a sunny spot at Sungei Buloh Nature Park. But you have to be sharp eyed as they are well camouflaged.

They are the largest of the Flying Snakes, so named because they are the only snakes that can move through the air. They don't actually fly or glide but instead, perform a sort of parachute jump.

more facts

Of course, the very best setup is to have a pond of your very own, if your lucky enough to live in an area suitable for frogs!

If you do choose to build a pond, here are some tips:

Many frogs cannot breed in a pond with fish. 'Gold fish pollution' seems to be a major factor in the breeding habits of various species. If in doubt, avoid adding goldfish to your pond.

Amphibians that can be purchased in pond supply catalogs to be put in ponds are usually not native. The worst examples are cute little tadpoles that grow up to be bullfrogs, Rana catesbeiana. A bullfrog will eat anything that moves and will fit in its mouth, including the native frogs and other endangered species. Be careful when importing frogs to your area because the effects can be devastating! Your best bet is the old saying: "If you build it, they will come!"

If indeed the frog species that end up in your pond are native, you needn't worry about "saving" them from cold spells that naturally occur in your neighborhood. There are species of frogs that hibernate through the winter when needed, so it should not be a major concern.

By all means avoid using pesticides in your yard when you have a pond!