A Reply for a Reader.

Anonymous said on the Owl blog...

this is cool

Dear Anonymous:

Hey, Anonymous! Thank you so much for vising my animal blog, it really encourages me and give me some faith that there are people who care for the cool creatures around us.

Owls are one of my favorite animals on earth. They also can control rodents (rodents are mice and rats.) in the country side, and they are indeed very cool! And also very elegant.

Once again thank you for visiting! And don't be shy on requesting anything from me either from this blog or from my FaceBook at liantammy@hotmail.com

Cheers!
Tammy

A Thank You Reply for a Reader.

Anonymous said...

I love owl

Dear Anonymous:

Yes, I totally agree that owls are amazing animals, to me, they are like the eagles for the night. They are excellent hunters from the sky that not many can compete with them.

Thank you so much for reading my blog and also commenting it!

Cheers,
Tammy

Blog Announcement

Dear Loyal Readers,

First of all (and as always), thank you so very much on reading this animal blog for so long (can't you believe that it has been a bit over a year since I first started?!).

And secondly, I will be taking a long break on writing on my blog for working on my possible book, but you are still more than welcome to leave messages, comments or even requests on the subject, either on Facebook or in the comment box provided by the blog, I will be delighted on answering you ASAP.

Once again, thanks for taking the time each week to reading the fun animal fact and God bless!

Tammy

PS. For leaving message on Facebook, please do leave them at the account of liantammy@hotmail.com

Rabbit Diary VIII

Wow! I can't believe that it has been more than 6 months since my last Rabbit Diary! Time really flies fast! Well, you can't blame me much in a way, since the rabbit who comes to our yard doesn't really come as often as before, due to winter and also the fact that I was away for a while in Taiwan for Chinese New Year, Mexico for business trip with Johnny (My husband) and in San Francisco for visiting my aunt there. But the good news is that Regular (The one that I spend a lot of time with last summer, in order to gain its trust.), still remembers me. It still runs over whenever it sees me, tilt his head to observe me a bit and then stiff my hand after it took the banana from my hand. I guess we are now friends, even though I still haven't gotten the chance and enough trust between it and I for it letting me pet it.

This picture was taken from our front yard, where Regular was taking its afternoon nap in its favorite spot.

By the way, I think I'm feeding it quite well to the fact that I think Regular is getting fat!!!

They aren't joking matter: The Clown fish

First of all, yay! It's June! That means summer's here! So happy summer, everyone!

Now let's talk about something quite "wet" for a change, 'cause we are talking about fish this week, not just some ordinary fish, but a clown fish! I really do wonder why they are called the clown fish and are they really as funny as their name? Anyway, this picture was taken in the aquarium a little while ago, and whenever I see those clown fish, I always thought of Disney's Pixar movie, Finding Nemo. It's really a lovely movie that's suitable for everyone and I recommend it quite highly.

Clown fish, or professionally called the Clown Anemonefish (Hey! I just noticed the professional name of clown fish has Nemo in it! 'Cause you see, A-"Nemo"-nefish! No wonder the film makers named the movie Finding Nemo, we have to find Nemo in Anemonefish! That's funny!), has bright orange with three distinctive white bars, clown anemonefish are among the most recognizable of all reef-dwellers. They reach about 4.3 inches (11 centimeters) in length, and are named for the multicolored sea anemone in which they make their homes.

Clownfish perform an elaborate dance with an anemone before taking up residence, gently touching its tentacles with different parts of their bodies until they are acclimated to their host. A layer of mucus on the clownfish's skin makes it immune to the fish-eating anemone's lethal sting. In exchange for safety from predators and food scraps, the clownfish drives off intruders and preens its host, removing parasites.

There are 28 known species of anemonefish, most of which live in the shallow waters of the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the western Pacific. They are not found in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, or Atlantic Ocean.

Surprisingly, all clownfish are born male. They have the ability to switch their sex, but will do so only to become the dominant female of a group. The change is irreversible.

A Camouflage master: The Stick Insect

Before anything happens, I challenge you to see where the stick insect is, or are. You can tell me the answer either in the comment box or in my facebook at liantammy@hotmail.com

This picture was taken in the aquarium where I was volunteering my time at, I wasn't so sure what I was looking at, at first, and it took me a full minute to realize that I was staring face to face with the Stick Insects! Imagine if it took me so long to really see those creatures in a gallery, how hard is it going to be for predators to see them in the wild?!

Ok, ok, enough of the amazement shock that I was having; it's time for the real introduction for these amazing insects:

For all of us who have read the books or seen the movies of Harry Potter, we all know how sometimes we would love to disappear under the invisibility cloak, right? And you know that there are creatures who are actually quite skilled on blending into their environment so well to the extant that if not looking carefully, they are quite invisible to everyone! And one of those disguise masters is the Stick Insect.

Like the name, Stick Insect, those bugs are so stick like that they actually act like twigs too! They sway with the twigs with the wind by rocking back and forth as they move and they also even wear lichen-like markings to make their disguise more authentic. (Lichen is a kind of plant that, I'm not so sure, looks like moss.) They're typically brown, black, or green so it helps them to blend in with branches and twigs.

But once in a while that they do get attacked by predators (Like all other preys.) such as birds, although they don't bite back but don't think that they just stand there being defenseless! They can produce disgusting body fluids that's so bad tasting and bad smelling that the ones who try to eat them just spit them straight out! But other times, they just lose a leg to the predator and grow that leg back sometime later in the future. Wouldn't it be nice if we could do that, too?

When it's time to reproduce, the Stick Insect don't insist one needing a male to fertilize the eggs. This behavior is called the "parthenogenesis", stick insects are a nation of Amazons, able to reproduce almost entirely without males. Unmated females produce eggs that become more females. When a male does manage to mate with a female, there's a 50/50 chance their offspring will be male. A captive female stick insect can produce hundreds of all-female offspring without ever mating. There are species of stick insects for which scientists have never found any males.

When the female lays her eggs, she doesn't lay them in one place like a crocodile or a chicken, she actually puts her eggs all over the forest floor and let whatever fate that comes to her eggs, but don't be so quick to judge all the mama Stick Insects! Some of them tend to do a better job by putting her eggs in the soil, or in the tree barks or even under some leaves!

And when those baby stick insects, called "Nymphs", hatch, they eat their own molted skin.... Well, it's still nutrient, right? And also free food for those nymphs... besides, those molted skins are a dead giveaway for predators to catch the real insect, so I guess it's the best idea to ingest (eat) everything away before anything happens.

The Free Spirited Animal: The Horse

This photo is not my property, it is taken from http://www.horsewallpapers.in/wallpaper/hd-horse-wallpaper/

Whenever I think or talk about horses, I would picture them either in a farm working for a farmer or in a wide grassland running strong and free. Speaking of farms, did you know that horses have domesticated by humans for approximately 6,000 years ago? And they are related to other horse family such as zebras, donkeys and mules.

Horses are quite social, they can get along with other animals, such as cats, sheep, cows and even dogs (that is if dogs are well behaved, because horses can easily get frightened by them.) other than their own. Although, there are about 20~25 mares (that is the female horse.) and a stallion (a male horse.) in a herd. It is also important to always have companions for horses, or else they can get depressed and quite lonely easily.

Do you know how long does a horse live? Well, there are some cases that a horse is SO long lived that they can reach to a ripe old age of 48 years old!! But their life span is around 30 years of age. And the only way so far to tell a horse's age is by and how they wore their teeth, meaning their teeth tend to get blunt with age, so it is actually kind of difficult to tell the age by the age of 12.

Here's a final little horse tip, horses can run fast, right? Did you know that they are running with their middle finger? All other toes, or fingers are degenerated over the years of evolution. They also have a very strong tendon wrapped around their hooves so they don't get tired easily while sleeping on their feet.

The colorful birds in the Tropics: The Parrots!

This picture was taken a few days ago when I went volunteering at the aquarium inside the Amazon gallery, and, boy! Those employees sure do make sure the gallery is humid and hot! Just like in the Amazonian forest. I was already sweating like crazy for only after 5 minutes in there. But the great picture was worth the sweat.

Now how many fun facts do you know about them?

• Definition: Parrots are usually brightly colored tropical birds with short hooked beaks and the ability to mimic sounds. There are about 250 different species

• Parrots are described as zygodactylous. A zygodactyl bird has the first and fourth toes directed backward the second and third pointing forward

• Many species of parrots, as cage birds, learn to imitate sounds, and to repeat words and phrases

• Parrots are omnivorous, which means they eat both vegetation and meat, such as seeds, nuts, fruit, buds, other plant material and of course, meat itself.
  

• They are highly intelligent birds, some can even reach up to the intelligence of a 6 year old.
  

• Parrots are found on all tropical and subtropical continents The Budgerigar is a small parrot and is the most popular of all pet bird species. Other parrot species that are kept as pets include macaws, Amazons, cockatoos, African Greys, lovebirds, cockatiels and parakeets

• Lifespan: 80 years

• Weight: 2.25 oz (65 g) to 3.5 lbs (1.6 kg)

• Height: 3.5 in (8.7cm) to 40 in (100 cm)

• They use their bills and toes for climbing

• Parrots are monogamous - they mate for life

• African gray parrots are the best mimics. Wild parrots do not imitate

• Parrots are the only birds that can bring food to its mouth with its foot

• The biggest parrot is the Hyacinth Macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) which grows up to 39 inches (100cm) long and can weigh almost 5 pounds

• The smallest parrot is the buff-faced pygmy parrot (Micropsitta pusio) which is only 3.5 inches (9 cm) tall and weighs as little as 0.4oz (11,5g)

• Parrot eggs are always white

• Endangered Species: 130 species are listed as near threatened or worse by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

Bats: The Flying Mammal

The picture is not my property, I do not claim it as my own. It was taken from http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://animal.discovery.com/mammals/bat/pictures/bat-picture.jpg&imgrefurl=http://animal.discovery.com/mammals/bat/&usg=__7hRrXsVuvzJNmXIJTRx84tu0gX8=&h=450&w=625&sz=35&hl=en&start=61&sig2=rPLk4bwWLA_kq0FqOS392w&zoom=1&tbnid=qIuDH4iSFsq0zM:&tbnh=135&tbnw=180&ei=X_7ETbSuPJGasAP-hNzrAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dbat%2Bpictures%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DlTd%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D601%26tbm%3Disch0%2C1482&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=921&vpy=312&dur=300&hovh=189&hovw=264&tx=197&ty=172&page=4&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:19,s:61&biw=1366&bih=601


Many of us tend to go "Eeek!" or "Ahhh!!" when we think of or talk about bats, which is quite normal! Because they are quite scary looking, and some of those bats (Of course NOT every one of them, some are actually quite gentle and they rather eat fruits or insects.) are vampire bats, who actually do drink blood for their main course. But just think, just because of those vampire bats and some really sick people back in the old days, who just needed some blood transfusion, there came some of those great stories about Batman, the vampires stories like Dracula and the now very popular movie franchise, Twilight.

As I mentioned before that there are different bats around the world, except for really cold places, as the matter of fact, there are over 1,000 species of them flying around! And did you know that bats are the ONLY mammal who can fly? Their wings are made of a layer of skin, stretched between those long slender fingers, (yes, they do have hands and fingers and they do fly with them.)

In the traditional scary vampire movies, we are being taught that vampires sleep during the day and awake at night, right? Well, it's quite true, because it's the same thing goes with the real bats. Which means, they are nocturnal and they prefer to come out at night.

You might wonder if they got good eye sight if moving around at night without bumping each other. To tell you the truth, for those bats who eat fruit, yes, they do see very well because they have very large eyes, which help them to collect the dimmest light around them to see the environment. But for those who eat insects, they don't see quite as well, but they make up for a build-in sonar system, called the echolocation, to help them see and hunt.

So, the next time when you see or hear a bat, just think they are the inspiration of many great stories that we love today.

Question and answers on Squirrels.

Hey, Tammy!

Wow, squirrels finally come up! They are really active no matter which situation! Do they like to take a break? How many hours a day does average squirrels spend sleeping?

Tina Liu




Hi, Tina!

Fist of all, thanks for reading my blog and also asking questions. It's great that people are asking them! I welcome it anytime of the day. When people are getting so quiet, I really start to wonder if they are reading and learning something new.

So, anyway, to answer your question (which is a very good one, too!), it is unknown exactly exactly how long squirrels sleep, but they hibernate beginning in June to September and stay asleep until February, and squirrels will sleep in their nest at night and during parts of the day when they are not out foraging (foraging means looking.) for food.

Hope I answered your question! And remember to take care of the animals around you and the 3 Rs: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Cheers,
Tammy

Squirrels

When we talk about squirrels, we immediately considered them as the cute category (which is quite true.), but did you know that there are more than 300 species of squirrels in 7 families and also part of the rodent family? (Rodent is a species for animals who are small in size and their teeth keep on growing, like rats and mice. By the way, rabbits ARE NOT rodents, they are different kind of species, although their teeth do grow non stop.)

This picture was taken in the national park in Lake Louis, Alberta, Canada. My husband and I went there quite often when we lived in the province. This little squirrel was just standing there and I just couldn't refuse but to take a picture.

Squirrels have different types, such as ground squirrels, tree squirrels, flying squirrels and fox squirrels. Squirrels are seen in different colors such as gray, white, red and black. They have a life span of 5 to 7 years.

Interesting Facts About Squirrels

• A squirrel's brain is almost the size of a walnut.
• Squirrels start mating when they are a year old. Male is the cleaner sex in squirrels. A male squirrel makes a sneezing sound when ready to mate. The mating season for them mostly begins in the late winters where they are most active.
• Majority of the squirrels mate twice a year. The female squirrel gives birth to 4 or 8 offsprings.
• The new born squirrels are naked (without fur) and are called kittens. They remain blind for almost 2 months or more.
• Squirrels are so fast that they can run at the speed of 20 miles per hour.
• A squirrel stands motionless on two feet when it senses danger.
• The tail helps the squirrel to balance its body while jumping.
• A squirrel can survive even if it jumps from a height of 100 ft. as it has padded feet.
• Squirrels hardly move out of their nests in the night. They get back to their nests before it gets dark.
• Squirrels are not sexually dimorphic, that is, both males and females are of the same size.
• They communicate with their distinctive chirps.
• Another interesting fact about squirrels is that they have sweat glands on their feet.
• Squirrels have such sharp teeth that they can break the hard shells of nuts, and also chew the electric wires.
• Squirrels are mostly vegetarian but sometimes they do eat small insects, small birds or bird eggs. They also love seeds, tree buds, berries, etc..

The Speeding Feline: The Cheetahs

The photo is taken from http://exiledonline.com/usain-bolt-vs-a-cheetah/

Once again, thank you all for reading my animal posts, but this time, I give an extra big THANK YOU to Brandon, who's a good friend of mine that encouraged me and gave me the idea on writing a topic on today's subject: The Cheetah. So, here's to you, Brandon!

Swahili Name:	Duma
Scientific Name:	Acinonyx jubatus
Size:	30 inches at the shoulder
Weight:	110 to 140 pounds
Lifespan:	10 to 20 years
Habitat:	Open plains
Diet:	Smaller antelopes
Gestation:	90 to 95 days
Predators:	Eagles, humans, hyenas, lions

The lion is said to be majestic, the leopard ferocious and shrewd. But elegant and graceful best describes the cheetah. The cheetah is smaller than the other two cats, but by far the fastest at speeds of 70 miles per hour it can run faster than all other animals.
Now restricted to sub-Saharan Africa, wild cheetahs once were found in most of Africa, the plains of southern Asia, the Middle East and India.

Physical Characteristics
The cheetah is built for speed. It has long, slim, muscular legs, a small, rounded head set on a long neck, a flexible spine, a deep chest, nonretractable claws, special pads on its feet for traction and a long, tail for balance. Although fast, the cheetah cannot run at full speed for long distances (100 yards is about the limit) because it may overheat.
Cheetahs have distinctive black "tear stripes" that connect from the inside corner of each eye to the mouth that may serve as an antiglare device for daytime hunting.

Habitat
Cheetahs are found in open and partially open savannas.

Behavior
Cheetah mothers spend a long time teaching their young how to hunt small live antelopes are brought back to the cubs and released so they can chase and catch them. Unlike most other cats, the cheetah usually hunts during daylight, preferring early morning or early evening to avoid competition, but is also and can be active on moonlit nights.
Cheetahs do not roar like lions, but they purr, hiss, whine and growl. They also make a variety of contact calls, the most common is a birdlike chirping sound.

Diet
Once a cheetah has made a kill, it eats quickly and keeps an eye out for scavengers lions, leopards, hyenas, vultures and jackals will occasionally take away their kills. Although cheetahs usually prey on the smaller antelopes such as Thomson's gazelles and impalas, they can catch wildebeests and zebras if hunting together. They also hunt hares and other small mammals and birds.
Although known as an animal of the open plains that relies on speed to catch its prey, research has shown that the cheetah depends on cover to stalk prey. The cheetah gets as close to the prey as possible, then in a burst of speed tries to outrun its quarry. Once the cheetah closes in, it knocks the prey to the ground with its paw and suffocates the animal with a bite to the neck.

Caring for the Young
With a life span of 10 to 12 years, and like all other felines, except for the lion, the cheetah is basically a solitary animal. At times a male will accompany a female for a short while after mating, but most often the female is alone or with her cubs. Two to four cubs are born in a secluded place. Their eyes do not open for a week or two, and they are helpless at first. When the mother is hunting, she leaves them hidden, but by 6 weeks of age they are able to follow her. They are suckled for 2 to 3 months but begin to eat meat as early as 3 weeks.
By 4 months the cheetah cub is a tawny yellow and almost completely spotted; the tail has bands of black and by adulthood a white tip. The grayish mantle disappears more slowly; the last traces are still visible when the cubs are adult-sized at 15 months.

Predators
A shy creature that roams widely, the cheetah is not seen as easily as some other cats. Never numerous, cheetahs have become extinct in many areas, principally due to shrinking habitat, loss of species to prey upon, disease and a high rate of cub mortality. In some areas 50 to 75 percent of all cheetah cubs die before 3 months.

Did you know?

• The name cheetah comes from an Indian word meaning "spotted one."
• The young cub has a long gray-blue coat and a black underbelly that rapidly lightens and becomes spotted.
• Early peoples trained cheetahs for hunting, and many civilizations depicted them in their art and in written records.
• Cheetahs were so popular that Akbar the Great of India was said to have kept a stable of about 1,000

Friendly but Energetic Sled Dogs

This picture was taken on the street, this dog is a coyote and a husky mix. A really beautiful dog!


Many of us know what a sled dog is, there are the famous wolf like Siberian Husky and the sturdy Alaskan Malamute to the smiling creamy white not wolf like Samoyed. They happened to be one of my favorite breeds, not just because I had one before, but because of their beauty and stamina.

Those dogs are originally bred for sledding and pulling carts back in the days when cars weren't as popular as today, hence the great amount of energy and the tendency to pull, but now they are becoming great house pets with energetic owners with the knowledge of those dogs.

They are really smart, but have their will of them own, so that leads to being stubborn and hard to train from time to time, so being patient is especially essential for these dogs. Like wolves, they howl when they are lonely or just being very "communicative". They have two layers of coat, one is the undercoat, which is really fine, soft and dense for fighting the winter cold, the other one is the outer coat, which is long and coarse for repelling dirt and stuff off.

Humans

The person in the picture is taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Akha_cropped_hires.JPG



Humans are created by God's image according to the Bible, and like other creatures, we are also unique in our own way. One thing for sure, we are the only animal who are created to stand up straight and walk.

Like the chimpanzee, we are classified as mammal, primate, under the species of Homo Sapian. Our life span is approximately 75 years of age. We can have children all year around, usually 1 young per litter. We usually are active during the, or in another word, diurnal. Since we eat everything from plants, animals and their products and also being the only species that is creative, that made us the only ones that cook the food.

Do you know what else that made us different from other animals? We also bury our dead! That also might lead to the question, where do we distributed in the world? Well, to be honest with you, due the fact that we are not an endangered species, we tend to live across the globe.

Border Collie

This picture was taken from a new friend that I've met, she was really nice to share her precious collie picture with me and everyone else who reads this blog. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1460380932&sk=photos

When we speak of collies, we often think of the most famous Rough Collie in the world, named Lassie. Although a Rough Collie has similarities with the Shetland Sheepdog, but there are other collies/sheepdogs around the world as well, who are as energetic and hard working as the Rough Collie. One of those breeds which they look like robbers with black masks on are called the Border Collie.

If you have seen the pig movie franchise called "Babe", then you will notice there are a pair of dogs on a farm, name Fly and Rex. Undoubtedly, they are also the charming Border Collie.

Speaking of Border Collie, they came from a long way across the world from the border of the United Kingdom and Scotland as a working sheepdog, they still remain as a popular breed for herding but they weren't recognized by its present name, Border Collie, until 1915.

A bit of their characteristics, they have excellent stamina, supremely intelligence and highly responsive, which means it's going to be an excellent idea to train the Border Collie for Dog Agility Trials. They are also great companions for very active family with older kids, they will work hard for a praise, so they are really trainable.

If you're one of those medium or even low energy person, then it's not a good idea for raising a Collie of any sort, because if they are left alone too long without exercise and companionship, the dog will become very miserable, very bored and VERY destructive, and the owners may find themselves being "herded" like sheep in the house.

As for their body height, it's around 18-21 in or 46-54 cm;
weight: 31-49lb or 14-22 kg
Coat care: They need to be brushed very often or they will shed like a husky.

Hummingbird: One Tiny Creature

This photo was taken from http://wildbirdsupplies.net/hummingbird-feeders/



I believe at least some of us common folks have seen those adorable birds before, at least for me, I remember that I saw a hummingbird once before when I was little. It was indeed very TINY!! It was about the size of my thumb and its wings were flapping so fast that is was a blur. It was also moving around between flowers and bushes gathering nectar, which is a sweet liquid produced from flower.

It was later on that I pleasantly learned that hummingbirds' size is from 7.5–13 cm (3–5 in, which means their size really is roughly the same size of our thumbs! Of course, there's another hummingbird which is smaller, all of that 5 cm and goes by the species "The Bee Hummingbird".

Of course, the "humming" part of the bird's name was not a bluff either! The reason why it's called the "Hummingbird" is because of the flapping sound of their wings, the wing action is so fast that it hums, it can go up to 12-19 times per second and can fly up to 54 km/h! Imagine that!

With that fast metabolism and flying motion going on, we might think that those birds live a short live, which is, again to my amazement, not exactly true! Although many of the young chicks don't survive the first year, especially between hatching and leaving the nest, which called fledging, but for those that survived can live up to more than decade! Of course, different types tend to have different life spam, like the better known North American hummingbirds live up to only 3 to 5 years. But most live longer than that.

Speaking for Animals

This is a Vancouver Aquarium Logo, I DO NOT claim it as my property. For more information, please contact the aquarium at http://www.vanaqua.org/


Hey, dear readers! This post is an update post on my own personal plan and thoughts for the animals this year.

As an animal lover ever since I was a little girl, I have always thought of being a vet or an animal behavior expert, but due to moving around the world throughout my whole life, I went into art program for finishing up my schooling instead. But, luckily, I was fortunate enough to get back in touch with my main interest and enrolled myself to the Vancouver aquarium as a volunteer, where I'm happily serving my time around animals.

But this year, after I saw on the news in Taiwan, just one the day I came back to Vancouver, that taking fur off animals are usually from animals who are still alive and kicking and they feel every second of pain while being skinned. After seeing this footage, I have decided to join up an organization on fighting against animal cruelty, including illegal hunting, fur and skin trading and so on. Or at least do something about it.

Of course, I can't do all that alone, since I'm only one person and I can't change the world by my own power, it would really help out if anyone can show some kind of kindness, of any sort, for our furry friends by donating things like used pet toys, pet beds, pet food.... to your nearest animal shelter near you, or even doing some volunteering work will help a lot as well.

As for planning on getting yourself a pet, please consider adopting, instead of buying, because buying a pet is usually comes from an animal mill where a mom is always giving birth to children, which is quite harmful to the animal mothers and also getting our living community over populated with unwanted animals. Of course, adopting is giving an animal a second chance of a good life, they aren't there by choice or they have something wrong with them, it's usually the owners can't afford taking care of them, due to traveling, working and so on.

Having said all that, please think ahead for the animals before buying a piece of leather jacket, or buying, instead of adopting, a pet from a pet store. Please, be kind to animals. Thank you!

Butterflies: The Large Tree Nymph

I would like to make an apology for taking so long on updating my blog. It has been a very exhausting trip back home to Taiwan for Chinese New Year. But now I'm back and the animal blog continues.


Butterflies are probably one of the few insects that are pleasant to watch and to be around with. Of course, I'm also one of the human population who enjoys their existence and beauty. This picture was taken in the Taipei Zoo when I visited there.

Like bees around the world, butterflies actually play an important part for the environment, such as spreading pollen from flower to flower, so that the flowers can produce its fruits and so on. This particular butterfly is called the Large Tree Nymph, it is the largest butterfly in Taiwan, considering the fact that it's wing spread go to up to nearly 13 cm.. It is a such a slow flying butterfly, even in the wild, that it requires very little effort to fly its wing beats are very slow, so slow that the individual movements of each wing can be easily observed. Imagine the difference in the wing movement between those butterflies to the Humming Birds!! Speaking of which, I guess I will write something about Humming Birds for my next blog!

Anyway, the Large tree Nymph spends most of its time on flying and hovering in the high tree canopies (A canopy means like a top cover, like a lid for a pot or like a shelter. On the topic of trees, I guess it means the top of a luscious tree.). However, much like a sloth, who also lives on trees all the time, moves slowly but they do come down the tree from time to time, the Nymph also descends to ground level to feed and to breed, but does not rest on the ground, due to safety reasons of being attack and eaten by birds and such. It usually rests on the ends of dead branches or twigs.

By the way, just out of curiosity, do you think you're romantic when it comes to dating? At least I think I'm romantic when it comes to it. Animals can also be quite seductive and very sexy if the time of love is in the air. When mating season the male and female fly together for an hour or more (it's like a Spanish tango of seduction.) before mating, which occurs at ground level. The male releases a hormones sent, called the pheromones, and other chemicals from its hair pencils to stimulate the female. These include danaidone, a poisonous substance that helps to protect it from predators, which is later passed on to the eggs.

The early stages of life of the Ceylon Tree Nymph are not well recorded. One account by naturalists Lionel de Nicéville and Manders dating from about 1900 describes the larva as "velvety black with four pairs of long filamentous tentacles" with each segment of its body marked with a pale yellow band. The record further mentions that it has twelve segments and that the sixth segment has a "large oval crimson spot". Its head and legs are black.