Common batagur, Four-toed Terrapin – Batagur Baska

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Common batagur, Four-toed Terrapin – Batagur Baska

 

 

 Facts:

Type: Reptile

Diet: Carnivore

Size: 60cm

 

 

Whale Shark – Rhincodon Typus

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Whale Shark – Rhincodon Typus

 Facts:

Type: Marine

Diet: Carnivore

Size: 18 to 32.8 ft (5.5 to 10 m)

Weight: Average, 20.6 tons (18.7 tonnes)

Group name:School

Protection status:Threatened

Size relative to a bus:

 Map

 Further Facts:  (click to view further information) 

 Video Clip:

Valencia Letourneuxi – Corfu Toothcarp

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Valencia Letourneuxi – Corfu Toothcarp

 Facts:

Type: Marine

Average life span in the wild: 3 years

Size: 8cm

Protection status: Endangered

 Further Facts:

Corfu Toothcarp can be found in North West Greece and Albania. The Corfu Toothcarp lives in small freshwater lagoons, swamps and streams that have little or no current.

Toothcarps have lived in Corfu since before the Ice Age; they were able to survive because the part of Greece where they are from was not covered in glaciers. But now, because of humans, they are seriously threatened by over farming and tourism. Their habitats are drying out, and they are struggling to survive.

Somphongs’s Rasbora – Trigonostigma Somphongsi

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Somphongs’s Rasbora – Trigonostigma Somphongsi

 

 Facts:

Type: Marine

Size: 10.5 cm

Protection status: Endangered

 

Singapore Freshwater Crab – Johora Singaporensis

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Singapore Freshwater Crab – Johora Singaporensis

 Facts:

Type: Marine

Size: 30mm

Protection status: Endangered

 

 Map

 

Sakhalin Taimen – Parahucho Perryi

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Sakhalin Taimen – Parahucho Perryi

 Facts

Type: Marine

Diet: Herbivore

Average life span in the wild: 8 years

Size: 2om

Weight: 50kg

Protection status: Endangered

 Map

 Further Facts:

Akhalin Taimen (Parahucho perryi, also known as Hucho perryi) is an ancient species, which can live up to 20 years and reach 2 meters in length and over 50 kilograms in mass. The largest salmonid in the world, taimen occupy a globally unique ecological niche. Known as the ‘river wolf’, its diet can include mammals, ducklings, and large fish, including possibly returning adult salmon. The species faces an uncertain future in its native habitat on the Japanese Island of Hokkaido, Russia’s Sakhalin and Kuril Islands and far eastern mainland Russia. Taimen have a long, complex life-cycle and are dependent on freshwater, estuarine and marine habitats. Due to overfishing and land use development, over 90% of Sakhalin taimen’s historic abundance has been lost. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed the taimen as a critically endangered species, the core distribution and abundance of which remains centered on Sakhalin Island.

Further Facts

 

 Further Facts:

The elephant is Earth’s largest land animal, although the Asian elephant is slightly smaller than its African cousin. Asian elephants can be identified by their smaller, rounded ears. (An African elephant’s ears resemble the continent of Africa.)

Elephant ears radiate heat to help keep these large animals cool, but sometimes that isn’t enough. Elephants are fond of water and enjoy showering by sucking water into their trunks and spraying it all over themselves.

An elephant’s trunk is actually a long nose with many functions. It is used for smelling, breathing, trumpeting, drinking, and also for grabbing things—especially a potential meal. The trunk alone contains about 100,000 different muscles. Asian elephants have a fingerlike feature on the end of their trunk that they can use to grab small items. (African elephants have two.)

Elephants use their tusks to dig for roots and water, strip bark from trees, and even fight each other. Unfortunately their ivory has gotten them into a lot of trouble. Because ivory is so valuable to some humans, many elephants have been killed for their tusks. This trade is illegal today, but it has not been completely eliminated.

Elephants eat roots, grasses, fruit, and bark, and they eat a lot of these things. An adult elephant can consume up to 300 pounds (136 kilograms) of food in a single day.

These hungry animals do not sleep much, and they roam over great distances while foraging for the large quantities of food they require to sustain their massive bodies.

Female elephants (cows) live in family herds with their young, but adult males (bulls) tend to roam on their own.

Having a baby elephant is a serious commitment. Elephants have a longer pregnancy than any other mammal—almost 22 months. Cows usually give birth to one calf every two to four years. At birth, elephants already weigh some 200 pounds (91 kilograms) and stand about three feet (1 meter) tall.

Asian elephants have been domesticated for thousands of years. The powerful beasts have been employed to move heavy objects, such as felled trees, to carry humans on their backs, and even to wage war.

Giant Panda – Ailuropoda Melanoleuca

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Giant Panda – Ailuropoda Melanoleuca

Poster child for all endangered species, wild giant pandas exist in limited numbers. Concerted conservation efforts have been somewhat successful.

 Fast Facts:

Type: Mammal

Diet: Omnivore

Average life span in the wild: Up to 20 years

Size: 4 to 5 ft (1.2 to 1.5 m)

Weight: 300 lbs (136 kg)

Protection status: Endangered

Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:

 Map:                         

 

       

 Further Facts:   (click to view further information) 

         

 Video Clip: 

Further Facts

 

 Further Facts:

The Amazon river dolphin, also known as the pink river dolphin or boto, lives only in freshwater. It is found throughout much of the Amazon and Orinoco river basins in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela. It is a relatively abundant freshwater cetacean with an estimated population in the tens of thousands. However, it is classified as vulnerable in certain areas due to dams that fragment and threaten certain populations, and from other threats such as contamination of rivers and lakes.

Further Facts

 

 Further Facts:

These enormous vegetarians can be found in warm coastal waters from East Africa to Australia, including the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Pacific.

Dugongs are related to manatees and are similar in appearance and behavior— though the dugong’s tail is fluked like a whale’s. Both are related to the elephant, although the giant land animal is not at all similar in appearance or behavior.

Dugongs graze on underwater grasses day and night, rooting for them with their bristled, sensitive snouts and chomping them with their rough lips.

These mammals can stay underwater for six minutes before surfacing. They sometimes breathe by “standing” on their tail with their heads above water.

Dugongs spend much of their time alone or in pairs, though they are sometimes seen gathered in large herds of a hundred animals.

Female dugongs have one calf after a yearlong pregnancy, and the mother helps her young reach the surface and take its first breath. A young dugong remains close to its mother for about 18 months, sometimes catching a ride on her broad back.

These languid animals make an easy target for coastal hunters, and they were long sought for their meat, oil, skin, bones, and teeth. Dugongs are now legally protected throughout their range, but their populations are still in a tenuous state.

Some believe that dugongs were the inspiration for ancient seafaring tales of mermaids and sirens.