Why long-nosed bandicoot have pouch?



The long-nosed bandicoot has a pouch that faces the rear. The direction of the pouch, however, protects the bandicoot babies from dirt and other rubbish that may enter the pouch while the mother digs for food.



Long Nosed Bandicoots have harsh, almost spiny fur. They come with built-in waterproofing fur that is flat, rather than rounded, to deflect moisture. Their fur comes out easily in an attackers mouth.



They have a reverse pouch for the protection of their young whilst digging.



 



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Why koala have pouch?



The quoll, koala and the Tasmanian devil also have pouches that open to the rear. Female Koalas have been described as having a ‘backward-opening’ pouch like wombats, as opposed to an upward-opening pouch like kangaroos. However, that's not strictly true. When a female Koala first gives birth to young her pouch opening faces neither up nor down, although it is located towards the bottom of the pouch rather than at the top. It faces straight outwards rather than ‘backwards’.



It sometimes appears to be ‘backward-facing’ because when the joey is older and leans out of the pouch, this pulls the pouch downwards or ‘backwards’. The pouch has a strong sphincter muscle at the opening to prevent the joey from falling out.



Many other animals have pouches but for different purposes.



 



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Why kangaroo have pouch?



Marsupials are animals that have pouches to carry their young ones. They include the kangaroo, koala, bandicoot, wallaby, wombat, Tasmanian devil, Tasmanian wolf, possum and the opossum. They are found mainly in Australia. The reason why marsupials have pouches for carrying their babies is that their offspring are particularly tiny when they are born. The pouch provides them a ready supply of milk and a safe place to stay till they grow big enough to look after themselves.



The kangaroo has a pouch that opens horizontally on the front of the body. Did you know that a baby kangaroo or joey in hardly the size of a bean at birth?



Interestingly, female kangaroos are able to suckle two joeys simultaneously – one in the pouch and one outside, offering two different types of milk, as well as having an egg ready for implantation. Only female kangaroos have pouches because they do the child rearing – male kangaroos have no need for a pouch as they can’t produce milk.



 



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Who are wombats?



Odd-looking, but cuddly



The pudgy and furry wombat is one of the oddest-looking animals on Earth – rather like a pig, bear and koala all rolled into one.



There are three species of wombat: the common wombat (Vombatus ursinus), the northern hairy-nosed wombat (Laisorhinus krefftii), and the Southern hairy nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons). You will be able to see all three in Australia and Tasmania, usually in forested and mountainous area.



Marsupial



Wombats are marsupials, related to koalas and kangaroos. They usually live up to 15 years in the wild, but can live past 20 and even 30 years in captivity. Rotund, with stubby tails, short ears and tiny eyes, wombats grow to around one metre in length and weigh anything between 20 and 40 kg. their fur is either sandy brown or grayish-black and this helps them blend with the landscape – a way of safeguarding themselves from predators.



Big eaters



These animals are nocturnal and emerge from their burrows to feed at night. Being herbivores, they feed on grasses, herbs, bark, and roots. They spend a lot of time, eating. They have sharp large incisors like rodents which help them gnaw at thick vegetation. Their teeth never stop growing. But they are slow to digest their meal – it takes around 8-14 days for them to fully digest their food. But this helps them adapt to Australia’s arid conditions. Since they derive most of the moisture they require from plants, they don’t need to drink much water either. And interestingly, they are the only creatures in the world to excrete poop that is cube-shaped!



Burrowing away!



They are amazing burrowers and dig lengthy burrow systems with their razor-sharp teeth and claws. Common wombats are shy and solitary and inhabit their own burrows, while the other two species may be more social and live together in large groups in their warren.



Quick sprinters



Wombats may look plump and slow, in fact, their walk is more of a waddle. Despite their podgy bodies and stubby feet, they can run really fast – even up to 40 km/h.



Just communicate



They communicate with one another in various ways – vocalizations, aggressive displays, and markings on logs and branches made by rubbing against them repeatedly. Wombats tend to be more vocal during mating season. When angered, they can make hissing sounds.



Jellybean or joey?



Female wombats give birth to a single young one known as a joey in the spring, after a gestation period of 20-21 days. When the joey is born, it is the size of a jellybean and not completely developed. The joey climbs into it mother’s pouch right after birth to finish developing and stays there for about five to six months. Wombats are weaned after 15 months.



Once pests, now protected



In 1906, the Australian government declared wombats pests and encouraged people to kill them. From 1925 to 1965, some 63,000 wombats skins were redeemed for cash. Fortunately, this practice has stopped. All species of wombats are protected in every state except for Victoria.



Powerful posterior



Startled wombats can charge humans and bowl them over, with the risk of broken bones from the fall, besides wounds from bites and claws. When running away from predators like Tasmanian devils and dingos, wombats rely on their thick rump skin to protect them. Their rear-ends are mostly made up of cartilage, which makes them more resistant to bites and scratches. At the end of a chase, wombats will dive into their burrows and block the entrance with their posterior. They’re also capable of using their powerful backs to crush intruders against the roofs of their burrows.



Wombat facts




  • A group of wombats is known as wisdom, a mob, or a colony.

  • Believe it or not, wombats can jump! Some have been known to jump over metre-high fences.

  • The giant wombat, an ancestor of modern-day wombats, lived during the Ice Age and was the size of a rhinoceros.

  • Since 2005, Wombat Day is observed in Australia on October 22.

  • Wombats have featured in Australian postage stamps and coins and ‘Fatso’, the wombat, was the unofficial mascot of the Sydney 2000 Summer Games.



 



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Dugong, a vulnerable and medium-sized marine mammal, is the flagship species of which marine park, located between the southeastern tip of India and the west coast of Sri Lanka?



The Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park is a protected area of India consisting of 21 small islands (islets) and adjacent coral reefs in the Gulf of Mannar in the Indian Ocean. It lies 1 to 10 km away from the east coast of Tamil Nadu, India for 160 km between Thoothukudi (Tuticorin) and Dhanushkodi. It is the core area of the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve which includes a 10 km buffer zone around the park, including the populated coastal area. The park has a high diversity of plants and animals in its marine, intertidal and near shore habitats. Public access inside the park is limited to glass-bottom boat rides.



The dugong, a vulnerable marine mammal, is the flagship mammal of the park. It is an important habitat for the cetaceans: Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin, finless porpoise, spinner dolphin, common dolphin, Risso's dolphin, melon-headed whale, and dwarf sperm whale. Larger whales include sperm whale, minke whale, Bryde's whale, sei whale, and critically endangered species including humpback whale, fin whale, and blue whale.



The islands are uninhabited except for Krusadai, Musal and Nallathanni islands where antipoaching sheds are operating. Along the coast near the park there are about 125 villages which support about 100,000 people who are mainly Marakeyars, a local community principally engaged in fishing.



 



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Which is the oldest water bird sanctuary in India?



Vedanthangal is the oldest water bird sanctuary in the country. Vedanthangal in Tamil language means 'hamlet of the hunter'. This area was a favourite hunting spot of the local landlords in the early 18th century. The region attracted a variety of birds because it was dotted with small lakes that acted as feeding grounds for the birds. Realising its ornithological importance, the British government undertook steps to develop Vedanthangal into a bird sanctuary as early as 1798. This was established in 1858 by the order of the Collector of Chengalpattu.



The Vedanthangal Lake Bird Sanctuary features thousands of birds coming from various countries, some of which can be easily identified. Some easily found birds include cormorants, darters, grebes, large egrets, little egrets, moorhens, night herons, paddy birds, painted storks, pintails, pond herons, sandpipers, shovellers, terns, white ibises and many more. The migratory birds include garganeys and teals from Canada; snake birds and glossy ibises from Sri Lanka; grey pelicans from Australia; grey herons and openbilled stork from Bangladesh; painted storks from Siberia; spoonbills from Burma and the spot-billed duck. It is a good tourist spot.



The Vedanthangal lake is situated 122 m above sea level. It supplies water to 250 acres of agricultural land around the area. The west and south sides of the lake are bordered by a long bund, whereas the northern and eastern sides extend to the agricultural lands. Input of water into this lake is through four small canals. Maximum depth of the lake is 5 metres. The area receives an average annual rainfall of 1400 mm, mostly from the north-east monsoon.



 



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Running north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau, through six States and two Union Territories, which is one of the world’s eight “hottest hotspots” of biological diversity?



The Western Ghats or Sahyadri is a mountain range that runs parallel to the western coast of the Indian peninsula, located entirely in India. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the eight "hottest hotspots" of biological diversity in the world. It is sometimes called the Great Escarpment of India. The range runs north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau, and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain, called Konkan, along the Arabian Sea. A total of thirty nine properties including national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserve forests were designated as world heritage sites - twenty in Kerala, ten in Karnataka, five in Tamil Nadu and four in Maharashtra.



The mountains intercept the rain-bearing westerly monsoon winds, and are consequently an area of high rainfall, particularly on their western side. The dense forests also contribute to the precipitation of the area by acting as a substrate for condensation of moist rising orographic winds from the sea, and releasing much of the moisture back into the air via transpiration, allowing it to later condense and fall again as rain.  The largest city within the mountains is the city of Pune (Poona), in the Desh region on the eastern edge of the range. The Biligirirangan Hills lie at the confluence of the Western and Eastern Ghats.



There are at least 139 mammal species. Of the 16 endemic mammals, 13 are threatened and amongst the 32 threatened species include the critically endangered Malabar large-spotted civet, the endangered lion-tailed macaque, Nilgiri tahr, Bengal tiger and Indian elephants, the vulnerable Indian leopard, Nilgiri langur and gaur.



 



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The largest city within the mountains is the city of Pune (Poona), in the Desh region on the eastern edge of the range. The Biligirirangan Hills lie at the confluence of the Western and Eastern Ghats



The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains along India's eastern coast. The Eastern Ghats run from West Bengal state in the north, through Odisha and Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south passing some parts of Karnataka. They are eroded and cut through by the four major rivers of peninsular India, known as the Godavari, Mahanadi, Krishna, and Kaveri.



The Eastern Ghats are older than the Western Ghats, and have a complex geological history related to the assembly and breakup of the ancient supercontinent of Rodinia and the assembly of the Gondwana supercontinent. The Eastern Ghats are made up of charnockites, granite gneiss, khondalites, metamorphic gneisses and quartzite rock formations.



The southern tropical thorn scrub type forests consist of open, low vegetation that is characterised by thorny trees with short trunks and low, branching crowns that rarely meet to form a closed canopy.



The endemic fauna of the Eastern Ghats are Jerdon's courser (Rhinoptilus bitorquatus) and grey slender loris (Loris lydekkerianus). The rare geckos found here are Indian golden gecko (Calodactylodes aureus), rock gecko (Hemiphyllodactylus aurantiacus), and Sharma's skink Eutropis nagarjuni.



 



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The Odisha Cost has three key mass nesting sites of the olive ridleys. One is the Gahirmatha beach, which are the other two river mouths?



Olive Ridley sea turtles turned up for mass nesting this season, after having stayed away from the Rushikulya river mouth on the Orissa coast for two consecutive years. 



Operation Kachhapa has deployed 10 field assistants to monitor the nesting jointly with Forest Department staff. Steps have been taken to protect the nests from predators like dogs and jackals, and also against theft of eggs by local fishermen for consumption.



There are three mass nesting sites in Orissa State. The first, Gahirmatha, in Kendrapara district, is the world’s largest rookery for Olive Ridley turtles. The second, the Rushikulya river mouth rookery, has seen mass nesting since March 1994, when the phenomenon was first discovered at this site.



Operation Kachhapa, under whose aegis a patrol trawler has been provided to the State Forest Department for patrolling the sea in and around the mouth of the Devi river, is engaged in:




  • Building awareness and education by putting up posters, stickers and holding meetings for local fishermen in the coastal villages

  • Empowering the local fisherman community in nearly 120 villages by using travelling minstrels and handbills to enlighten them about marine fishing laws, and how their livelihoods are affected by illegal trawling

  • Providing information to the media about sea turtle activity throughout the season

  • Lobbying the government for protection of the turtles by coast guard patrols and Forest Department patrols

  • Monitoring turtle mortality along the beach (two camps are run, one each at the Devi river mouth and the Rushikulya river mouth)

  • Monitoring turtle nesting sites outside the Sanctuary

  • Providing protection to turtle nests against predators.



 



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Which national park in Assam is home to the single largest number of one-horned rhinoceros?



Kaziranga National Park of Assam is home to 1,855 adult Indian rhinos and also host one of the highest density of Tigers in India. Kaziranga is a World Heritage Site and hosts two thirds of the world’s great one horned rhinoceroses.



The park also combines high species diversity and recognized as an important bird area. Kaziranga also has significant populations of large herbivores include Elephants, Gaur, Wild water buffalo, 9 primate species, 4 species of wild cats and largest snakes of reticulated python and rock python along with longest venomous King Cobra snake.



Kaziranga is recognized as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International for conservation of avifaunal species. When compared with other protected areas in India, Kaziranga has achieved notable success in wildlife conservation. Located on the edge of the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot, the park combines high species diversity and visibility.



Kaziranga has flat expanses of fertile, alluvial soil, formed by erosion and silt deposition by the River Brahmaputra.[citation needed] The landscape consists of exposed sandbars, riverine flood-formed lakes known as, beels, (which make up 5% of the surface area),[citation needed] and elevated regions known as, chapories, which provide retreats and shelter for animals during floods. Many artificial chapories have been built with the help of the Indian Army to ensure the safety of the animals. Kaziranga is one of the largest tracts of protected land in the sub-Himalayan belt, and due to the presence of highly diverse and visible species, has been described as a "biodiversity hotspot". The park is located in the Indomalayan realm, and the dominant ecoregions of the region are Brahmaputra Valley semi-evergreen forests of the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome, and the frequently-flooded Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands of the tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome. Kaziranga is also surrounded by lush green tea plantations, most of them contributing heavily to Assam's economy.



 



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What is the another name of Uttarakhand’s Jim Corbett National Park?



Corbett National Park, also called Jim Corbett National Park, natural area in southern Uttarakhand state, northern India. It was established as Hailey National Park in 1936 and was first renamed Ramganga in the mid-1950s, before the name was changed to Corbett later that decade in memory of Jim Corbett, a well-known British sportsman and writer. The park itself occupies an area of 201 square miles (521 square km). It is part of the larger Corbett Tiger Reserve, which includes adjacent protected areas and has a total area of 497 square miles (1,288 square km). It is India’s oldest national park.



The park was established mainly for the protection of the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris); it is there that India’s Project Tiger was established in 1973 to provide havens for tigers in the country’s national parks. Among other mammals found in the park are langurs, sloth bears, Asiatic black bears, Indian gray mongooses, jungle cats, elephants, wild boars, chitals (spotted deer), barking deer, and nilgai (Indian antelope). Reptiles and amphibians include a variety of snakes (including cobras and pythons) and species of crocodiles (notably gavials and muggers). At least 600 resident and migrant bird species have been identified, including shikras (Levant sparrowhawks), Indian white-backed vultures, black partridges, golden orioles, red jungle fowl, black-crowned night herons, and peafowl.



The park has roads that facilitate tours of it via jeep or elephant, and there are numerous machans, or observation posts, from which wildlife can be viewed. 



 



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Which youngest mountain range in the country separates the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan plateau?



The Himalayan mountain range separates the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. This mighty mountain range lies across six countries in all – Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and China. They are bordered on the northwest side by the Karakoram Range and Hindu Kush range, on the northern side by the Tibetan Plateau, and on the southern side by the Indo – Gangetic Plain.



The Himalayas are also blessed with an extremely diverse range of flora and fauna. This exceptional natural wealth is a definite lure for botanists and zoologists who have over the years been conducting extensive studies and research on the rare species of flora and fauna found here. More than 600 million people depend on the Himalayas for their livelihood. Some of the major rivers of our nation like the Indus, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra have their point of origin amidst the snowy peaks of the Himalayan glaciers. Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists hold several mountains in these ranges as sacred spots and conduct pilgrimages on a regular basis. The Himalayas provide perennial rivers, protect Indian subcontinent from cold Arctic winds, support several exotic wildlife and are revered as our nation’s pride. They are among the best treasures that nature has gifted us.



 



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How do birds protect themselves from predators?



Birds are not too far behind mammals when it comes to smelly arsenals.



The green wood hoopoe of Africa pointedly lifts its tail at attackers and releases a foul fart smelling of rotten eggs. Its young take it a step further. They let their (liquid) faeces fly at the same time.



The babies of its next-of-kin, the Eurasian hoopoe, can fire-faecal-like fluid bullets to more than 60 cm.



Fulmars are seabirds that eat anything, from fish to rubbish. That gives the yellow vomit their chicks shoot out its distinctive bouquet. Adult fulmars simply spit stomach oil at intruders.



Smelling bad not only earns these birds the respect of their enemies but also keeps their skin and feathers free of pests. A study found 17 anti-microbial compounds in the wood hoopoe’s excreta.



 



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How do insects protect themselves from predators?



Insects have their very own cornucopia of odours, some of them toxic.



Millipedes secrete a smelly, caustic liquid to make themselves unpalatable. The liquid can burn the skin and eyes. In some species, the liquid contains hydrogen cyanide, a poison that is strong enough to kill a mouse. Lemurs and capuchin monkeys have been observed rubbing millipedes on their skin to get rid of parasites!



The bombardier beetle gets its name from the hot, lethal chemical spray that it shoots out from the tip of its abdomen. The beetle stores two chemicals in separate compartments. When it releases them, they react together, heating up to almost boiling point. The beetle sprays in a rhythmic ‘machine gun’ mode to prevent overheating.



 



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Which are the creatures that are malodorous?



There are some creatures that don’t use smell as active defence but are still malodorous because of the food they eat or the parasites they carry around.



Slow-moving sloths are colonized not only by green algae, but by beetles, moths and mites. These ‘residents’ make the sloth one of the worst-smelling animals on the planet.



Scarab beetles – up to a thousand have been found on a single sloth – live in the fur near their elbows and behind their knees, and the beetle larvae feed on their dung. Three species of mites dwell inside its bottom. Moths crawl around in the fur, feeding on secretions in the skin and the algae.



The hoatzin of the Amazon rainforest is called the stink bird. It gives off the smell of manure because it is the only bird in the world that lives almost exclusively on leaves. The leaves ferment in its stomach, leading to extremely smelly gases.



The sperm whale is another accidental stink bomb. It feeds on giant squid. The squid’s beak can piece the whale’s intestines so it excretes a waxy goo mixed with rotting squid called ‘ambergris’ to protect itself. Ironically the whale’s poop, like the musk deer’s musk, costs the earth because it is used as a base in expensive perfumes!



 



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