Meerkat Pictures Meerkats are highly social mammals that form packs of between 10 and 30 individuals consisting of several breeding pairs. The individuals in a meerkat pack forage together during daylight hours. While some members of the pack feed, one or more members of the pack stand sentry.
Meerkat Pictures originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Saturday, July 17th, 2010 at 20:53:36.
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Komodo Dragon Pictures Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis) are the largest of all lizards, they can grow to lengths of 3m and can weigh as much as 165kg. Komodo dragons belong to the Family Varanidae, a group of reptiles known more commonly as the monitor lizards. Adult Komodo dragons are dull brown, dark grey, or reddish in color, while juveniles are green with yellow and black stripes.
Komodo Dragon Pictures originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Saturday, July 17th, 2010 at 20:52:59.
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Lion Pictures Lions (Panthera leo) are the largest of all African cats. They are the second largest cat species worldwide, smaller than only the tiger. Lions range in color from nearly white to tawny yellow, ash brown, ochre, and deep orange-brown. They have a tuft of dark fur at the tip of their tail.
Lion Pictures originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Saturday, July 17th, 2010 at 20:52:08.
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Plastics Pollution: Threats to Ocean Habitats Discovery News has a good article on The Great Atlantic Garbage Patch which highlights the concerns about ocean pollution, particularly the accumulation of plastics in our seas. You can also read more about the plastics pollution problem and find out what you can do on the 5gyrs.com website.
Plastics Pollution: Threats to Ocean Habitats originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Sunday, July 11th, 2010 at 09:44:27.
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Photos: Samuel Fallour's Fantastic Fish There must be something about fish that inspires exaggeration. Who hasn't heard a story from a fisherman friend about the record-breaking big fish that got away? It appears that fabrications about fish are old hat, evident even in the very first color book ever published about fish. That book, entitled Fishes, Crayfishes and Crabs and published in 1719, featured paintings by artist Samuel Fallour who lived on the Indonesian island of Ambon. Fallours would paint the fish caught by local fisherman and would sell the paintings to European collectors. But Fallour did not paint exactly what he saw, instead he added brighter colors and decorated the fish with all sorts of patterns. You can view some of Samuel Fallour's paintings here.
Photos: Samuel Fallour's Fantastic Fish originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Sunday, July 4th, 2010 at 15:29:49.
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Protection Plan for Eastern Chimpanzees
Chimpanzees are humans' closest living relatives—our lineages drifted apart just seven million years ago. Despite our kinship, humans and chimpanzees today face very different realities. While we flourish, chimpanzees suffer. The threats they endure are numerous—hunting for bushmeat, hunting for the trade of infants, habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, disease. Now, nations in East and Central Africa are banding together to protect one subspecies of chimpanzee, the eastern chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii).
Read more...Protection Plan for Eastern Chimpanzees originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 at 01:50:31.
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Worth Reading: Great Whales The BBC has a nice comparison chart of the various whale species including blue, fin, right, sei, sperm, bowhead, Bryde's, humpback, gray, and minke whales. You can get a good sense of the relative sizes of each species, their conservation status and habitat range in a few short clicks.
Worth Reading: Great Whales originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Monday, June 21st, 2010 at 13:16:49.
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How Caribbean Anoles Filled So Many Niches

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Imagine a hungry group of youngsters bursting into a candy store where sweets are free for the taking—no cashiers asking for money, no one at the counter putting lids on the candy jars. Children flock to all corners of the store. They spread out so each child can claim an entire row of candy jars as their own. As more and more children flood into the shop, they fill the open spaces, packing themselves ever tighter until each child is left with control of just a single jar of candy, not an entire row. As available candy jars dwindle, fewer and fewer children come into the candy store.
Read more...How Caribbean Anoles Filled So Many Niches originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Monday, June 21st, 2010 at 11:58:14.
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Photos: Caterpillar Disguises The best way for a caterpillar to survive is to not look appetizing—to somehow disguise itself. That way, birds and other animals—that might make a quick meal of a caterpillar—steer clear of the otherwise helpless creature. In this photo album featured on the New York Times website, you can see some of the many ways caterpillars disguise themselves to look like something other than caterpillars, something a little less appetizing.
Read more...Photos: Caterpillar Disguises originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Saturday, June 19th, 2010 at 21:59:11.
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