Mother Nature's more aesthetically challenged children have been neglected for too long. The plight of the panda is known the world over because of its teddy-like good looks, but most species are not so lucky. This book, however, aims to shine a light on some of the many ignored and unloved wonders of the animal kingdom. Their hideousness hides their incredible biology and means that we may not have noticed that they need our help. It is time to celebrate the Ugly Animals.
Mother Nature's more aesthetically challenged children have been neglected for too long. The plight of the panda is known the world over because of its teddy-like good looks, but most species are not so lucky. This book, however, aims to shine a light on some of the many ignored and unloved wonders of the animal kingdom. Their hideousness hides their incredible biology and means that we may not have noticed that they need our help. It is time to celebrate the Ugly Animals.
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Overview
Mother Nature's more aesthetically challenged children have been neglected for too long. The plight of the panda is known the world over because of its teddy-like good looks, but most species are not so lucky. This book, however, aims to shine a light on some of the many ignored and unloved wonders of the animal kingdom. Their hideousness hides their incredible biology and means that we may not have noticed that they need our help. It is time to celebrate the Ugly Animals.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780750960847 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The History Press |
| Publication date: | 08/04/2014 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 140 |
| File size: | 4 MB |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
The Ugly Animals
We Can't All be Pandas
By Simon Watt
The History Press
Copyright © 2014 Simon WattAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7509-6084-7
CHAPTER 1
THE UGLY ANIMALS
AYE-AYE
(Daubentonia madagascariensis)
In some parts of Madagascar, the local people harbour a fearful dread of the aye-aye and so kill it on sight. They regard glimpsing it as, at best, a sign of bad luck, at worst, an omen of death. Such superstition-inspired violence, combined with the destruction of its forest habitat, has resulted in this remarkable species becoming endangered. Perhaps that is why this highly distinctive and unusual lemur is constantly and rudely flipping everyone the bird: its most noticeable feature is a distinctively long and skinny middle finger.
The aye-aye is a nocturnal tree-dweller found in a range of habitats, from primary rainforest to dry, deciduous forest, on the island of Madagascar. It spends its daylight hours sleeping in an elaborate nest of intertwined twigs and dead leaves, located high up in the crown of tall trees. These nests are far from ramshackle affairs and can take up to twenty-four hours to construct. As individuals move from place to place, they either build new nests or squat in those vacated by other aye-ayes.
It is the largest nocturnal primate and the most evolutionarily distinct of all the lemurs, being the only living representative of the Daubentoniidae family of primates. During much of the nineteenth century, it was misclassified as a rodent because of its continuously growing incisors, thick coat of coarse, black hair peppered with longer, white guard hairs, and a sumptuous bushy tail that more than doubles the length of the body. To help see in the dark of night it has large, yellowish, almost startled-looking eyes.
The aye-aye has evolved to fill the niche that is occupied in other parts of the world by species of woodpeckers and squirrels, but which are absent in Madagascar. As such, it has developed some fascinating morphological adaptations. Each of its long and narrow fingers brandishes a curved, claw-like nail. Its third finger is the most impressive in its arsenal, being yet longer and thinner, almost skeletal in appearance. It knocks and taps on tree trunks to see if there are any insect larvae inside. Then, cocking its enormous, bat-like, leathery ears forward, it listens for reverberations within the wood and the tell-tale signs of food squirming around beneath the bark. If it hears anything, it uses its sharp gnashers to gash a hole in the tree and its freaky long finger to probe for prey. Unlike our fingers, which only have hinge joints, the highly dexterous middle finger of the aye-aye has a ball and socket joint, allowing it to swivel nimbly while probing for its fodder. It also uses these amazing anatomical tools to extract flesh from hard fruits such as coconuts and ramy nuts, looking almost like someone using a long spoon to reach the good bits at the bottom of an ice-cream sundae.
GREATER ADJUTANT
(Leptoptilos dubius)
If nightmares had wings, then they would look like the Greater Adjutant. With plumage like dead umbrellas and a beak like a scabbed ice pick, this stork from southern Asia looks like a gangly, balding Goth. Its long, wrinkly neck is adorned with a low-hanging, wizened pouch and surrounded by a messy, almost Elizabethan, ruff. Though it has much darker wings, its body is a miserable, rain-cloud grey and it has a wingspan of well over 2m.
The adults stand to attention at nearly 1.5m tall and when they walk, they seem to march. Their species name, adjutant, is a military rank. Their local Indian name, Hargila, translates as 'bone-swallower' and is apt for such a large-mouthed scavenger. They swallow bones whole and feast on rotting flesh, and are so revered as scavengers that they were once part of the logo of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation. There are reports from the nineteenth century of them feeding on the partly burnt human corpses disposed of along the funeral Ghats of the Ganges River. Nowadays, they are frequent visitors to city refuse dumps, where finding leftover decaying food is easy. If the opportunity arises, they will take the initiative and kill food of their own. They have been known to attack large insects, frogs, rodents, snakes and small reptiles. Witnesses even attest to them swallowing wild ducks whole.
Like other storks, they lack well-developed vocal muscles and so generally communicate by grunting and clacking their beak. In winter, they congregate to breed in compact colonies that include other species of birds. Males fight for position, seeking the best trees in which to build their large nests. There, the female lays a clutch of three or four eggs, which she and the male take turns to tend. The parents lovingly care for their young, using their expansive wings to shade them from the sun. The adult birds have a more innovative, and disgusting, technique for keeping cool: they poo all over their own bare legs so that the moisture acts like a putrid, cooling balm.
The endangered Greater Adjutant is only found in two small, separate breeding populations in India and Cambodia. It has lost much of its nesting habitat and feeding sites, as suitable wetland habitats have been cleared, drained and polluted with pesticides. In some places they are even hunted, as some still believe an old superstition that the bird carries within its skull a mystical 'snake-stone' that will relieve snake-bites and cure leprosy.
PROBOSCIS ANOLE
(Anolis proboscis)
The proboscis anole is commonly known as the 'Pinocchio anole', after the deceitful wooden puppet of lore. It is quite an unfair name, as it must be only the males of this species of lizard that are liars, as the females don't develop the same lance-like snout. The novel nose of the male is probably a sexually selected trait used to intimidate rivals and attract females. It is not the only flashy display that the males use, though: they also use a dewlap. A dewlap is a flap of erectile cartilage that is tucked away, hidden atop the throat of the lizard when it is at rest. When they want to impress, they unfurl this flamboyant fan. In many species of anolis lizard, these flag-like appendages boast bright colours and some even have an extra flap on their back to enhance the effect. Each different species sports its own unique combination of colours and patterns.
There are over 350 different species of anolis. All of them have slim, long-tailed bodies and toes bearing adhesive pads, similar to those found in geckos, which allow them to cling to and climb steep surfaces. Though most are green or brown, some can change colour in line with changes in their temperature or mood. This has led to many being mistaken for the famously changeable chameleons. The genus is an exceedingly flexible one and has adapted to fill different niches. A subtly different species has evolved to fit in on almost every island or habitat that exists throughout its range. This makes it an important group for biologists who want to unravel the mysteries of evolution, and they study it intently. The green anole has become the first reptile to have its genome sequenced.
This species is a forest specialist and was first discovered in the dense Andean cloud forests of Ecuador in 1953. It was not spotted again after 1960 and so was thought extinct until its rediscovery in 2005. Its range is severely restricted and all observed individuals have been found in only four locations, predominantly in vegetation along a single stretch of road. There is a continuing decline in the quality of its habitat, due to logging, grazing and other human pressures, which is likely to cause further damage to its already diminished numbers, and so it is listed as endangered. It feeds on crickets, spiders, moths and other insects and will even dabble in cannibalism, should it come across smaller lizards.
PINK VELVET WORM
(Opisthopatus rosues)
Velvet worms are inch-long voracious carnivores that like nothing more than feasting on any smaller invertebrates that they might find such as termites, woodlice, small spiders and miniscule molluscs. Velvet worms are the only members of an ancient phylum known as the Onychophora, meaning the 'claw-bearers'. This unusual group has changed little over the last 400 million years and is thought to represent the missing link between arthropods (a group that includes insects and spiders) and annelids (commonly known as segmented worms). There are thought to be about 180 members of the group in total. They are famous among biologists for their unorthodox sex lives and peculiar method of hunting.
Most give birth to live young rather than laying eggs externally, and in most cases the fertilisation is also internal. For this, some species have evolved a penis, while the males of many Australian species exhibit special structures on the head, which apparently take over certain tasks in transferring sperm to the females. In some species, sperm is collected by these structures and the male dives, head first, into the female's reproductive tract.
Sporting soft, flushed flesh adorned with water-repellent scales and tiny, sensitive, hair-tipped papillae, the pink velvet worm is the most dapper of this disgusting brood. Like any fashion-conscious invertebrate, it changes its wardrobe regularly, moulting its plush skin every fourteen days or so.
Though it was once thought extinct, it has been rediscovered in a single forest of South Africa. It likes to live in rotting logs and beneath the leaf litter on the forest floor. Its narrow range, coupled with the destruction of its habitat through logging and the introduction of invasive species, has rendered it critically endangered.
It usually hunts at night, moving slowly through the leaf litter on eighteen pairs of stumpy, unjointed, clawed legs, while searching for prey. Once food is in its sights, it deploys its unusual and distinctive weaponry: its slime cannons. Twin jets of glue-like goo shoot from its face and ensnare its struggling quarry, making resistance futile. It can fire this slime up from a distance of up to 4cm.
The slime, which can account for up to 11 per cent of the organism's weight, is mostly made up of water with a dash of sugars and a protein very similar to collagen. The thinness of the jet means the goo dries incredibly quickly, condensing the stringy active ingredients.
Once prey has been rendered immobile by these gloopy lassoes, the worm pierces its victim's flesh and squirts digestive juices directly into the body, breaking down tissues so that it may later slurp them up like a gross, partially digested smoothie. It also eats its used gunge, as it would be a shame to waste it. It takes the pink velvet worm about twenty-four days to restock its awful arsenal of slime and be ready for another shoot-out
ASIAN TAPIR
(Tapirus indicus)
In many ways the Asian tapir looks like a minimalist elephant. It is as though it had wanted to grow the famous enormous ears and the trunk, but simply couldn't be bothered. The snout might well be short, but it is still a highly versatile tool. It is really a prehensile extension of the upper lip and nose and allows the tapir to grasp and wrench leaves from twigs before stuffing them into its mouth. It can also act like a snorkel while swimming.
The Asian tapir is the largest species of tapir and can grow to be 2m long and weigh up to half a tonne. It is also the most evolutionarily distinct of the five living species of tapir, and the only one surviving in the Old World. Fossil evidence suggests that tapirs are of an ancient lineage and that their closest living relatives are the rhinos. Their form has changed little over the past 35 million years, although the proboscis probably did not develop until relatively recently, at some point in the last few million years. Prehistoric tapirs once roamed Europe, North America and South-east Asia and the fossilised remains of an even larger, giant tapir, called Megatapirus, have been excavated in China.
The Asian tapir, unlike its American cousins, bears an idiosyncratic white band on its back and sides. This pattern may act as disruptive camouflage, helping break up the profile of the animal so that predators struggle to spot it in the dim light of the forest. Infants, however, are born with a reddish-brown coat and make the fashion faux pas of covering it with a mix of white stripes and spots.
They are usually shy, solitary creatures, preferring to forage at dusk and at night, using an acute sense of smell and excellent hearing to find their way about. Their eyesight is generally poor and only made worse by the darkness. They mark out large tracts of land as their territory, spraying urine on plants to act like smelly signposts, and prefer to stick to distinct paths that they have bulldozed through the undergrowth. Territories frequently overlap and individuals may communicate using a vocabulary of high-pitched squeaks and whistles.
Fragmented populations occur throughout South-east Asia, including some in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and southern Myanmar. Their numbers have declined by more than 50 per cent in the past forty years, due mainly to habitat loss, as much of their home is converted to palm oil plantations.
NORTHERN BALD IBIS
(Geronticus eremita)
The scientific name for the northern bald ibis translates roughly as 'the reclusive old man'. If I looked like that, I would want to hide away too. For an animal that looks so drab and dark from the distance, up close it seems almost colourful. The feathers have a hint of blue with a metallic green sheen, while the glossy feathers of the wings have a silken purple hue. It has a long, red, scimitar-like bill and a face that is acne pink.
Unlike most other forms of ibis, the ibis of the Geronticus genus nest on cliffs rather than in trees and prefer arid habitats to the wetlands used by their relatives. The northern bald ibis is a social species foraging in large, loose flocks, looking mainly for lizards and beetles. They feed companionably in groups by pecking at the ground, rooting around in loose, sandy soil or by using their long, curved bill to probe into cracks and fissures in the earth. They have been known to gather together and gorge on locust swarms, killing many of these notorious pests, but the indiscriminate use of pesticides has removed this and other food sources, leading to the birds' disappearance from many regions they used to inhabit.
The northern bald ibis was once widespread across the Middle East, northern Africa and southern and central Europe, but is now confined to two wild populations in Syria and Morocco, with over 95 per cent of truly wild birds concentrated in one subpopulation in Morocco. The Syrian population is migratory, and satellite tagging has shown that at least some members spend their winter holidays in the highlands of Ethiopia before returning south to breed.
The ibis breeds in loosely spaced colonies, nesting on cliff ledges or amongst boulders on steep slopes, usually on the coast or near a river. It starts breeding between 3 and 5 years of age, and seems to pair monogamously for life. The male chooses the best nest site he can find and thoroughly clears it of debris. Then, standing proudly in his bachelor pad, he advertises for a female by waving his crest and giving low and romantic, rumbling calls. Once the birds have paired, the bond is reinforced through bowing displays and mutual preening and they begin construction of a nest using twigs and grass, where the female lays a clutch of two to four rough-surfaced eggs. Both parents share the burden of incubating the eggs and feeding the chicks. It is a long-lived bird, the oldest recorded captive specimen reaching 37 years of age.
Numbers are currently increasing, owing to the efforts of conservationists who, in several locations, are trying to establish semi-wild breeding colonies. The species is currently the rarest bird of the Middle East and is classified as critically endangered.
KOMODO DRAGON
(Varanus komodoensis)
There are so many myths about dragons. They do not fly or rise menacingly from the depths of the sea. No, they live on a few islands in Indonesia.
St George never even saw one and, if he had, my money would have been on the dragon anyway. For a start, they have a strong bite and a mild but painful venom. A modern myth was that their saliva was rife with bacteria, which would cause their prey to drop dead from septic wounds a few days following an attack. But contrary to this popular belief, recent findings show that the dragon's saliva has no more bacteria than that of any meat-eater that doesn't brush its teeth twice daily. It does eat an extraordinary amount of meat, though, and can consume up to 80 per cent of its body weight in a single sitting.
One myth that does turn out to be true, however, is the one about virgin birth. Several Komodo dragons in zoos have given birth without the need of mating. This method of asexual reproduction is known as parthenogenesis.
In the natural world, there are many different systems for determining the sex of offspring. These include having different numbers or types of chromosomes, or the temperature of the egg. In humans, males are the heterogametic sex, meaning that they have two different sex chromosomes, one called X and the other called Y. Females are homogametic, meaning they have two X chromosomes. For birds and many reptiles, including the biggest lizard, the Komodo dragon, the female is the heterogametic sex and has two different sex chromosomes, one called Z and the other called W. In this case, it is the male that is the homogametic sex, having a pair of Z chromosomes.
Sometimes the unfertilised eggs of Komodo dragons can double the number of their chromosomes, meaning that a mama dragon can have male children made entirely from her own genetic material. Some have suggested that this reproductive adaptation allows a single female to enter an isolated ecological niche (such as an island) and, by parthenogenesis, produce male offspring, establishing a sexually reproducing population. We'd best not get started on the Oedipus myth!
It would be a tragedy if this real-life dragon was to drift into the realms of story, but it is a possibility, as it is considered vulnerable to extinction. The population is estimated to be a mere fraction of the size it was fifty years ago. Causes of this decline are widespread habitat loss, a loss of prey species and hunting. No Komodo dragons have been seen on the island of Padar since the 1970s, the result of widespread poaching of the deer that constitute their chief prey.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Ugly Animals by Simon Watt. Copyright © 2014 Simon Watt. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Title,The Ugly Animal Preservation Society,
Introduction,
The Ugly Animals,
About the Author,
Further Reading,
Picture Credits,
Copyright,