Cutest animal of the week

Bald Eagle / Haliaeetus leucocephalus

The Bald Eagle 

The bald eagle, with its snowy-feathered (not  actually bald) head and white tail, is the proud national bird symbol of the United States — yet the bird funnily was nearly wiped out there. 

For many decades, bald eagles were hunted for sport and for the "protection" of fishing grounds!

In the 1970's they were luckily saved from extinction. 

Though their numbers have grown in much of their range, bald eagles remain most abundant in Alaska and Canada. These powerful birds of prey use their talons to fish, but they get many of their meals by scavenging carrion or stealing the kills of other animals, they are carnivores.

These birds live for around 30 years at least.      They are pretty giant :

Bactrian Camel / Camelus bactrianus

CAMEL

 

The endangered two-humped Bactrian camel inhabits the deserts of Central and East Asia, Bactrian camels have two humps rather than the single hump of their Arabian relatives. The humps function the same way—storing fat which can be converted to water and energy when sustenance is not available. These humps give camels their legendary ability to endure long periods of travel without water, even in harsh desert conditions. As their fat is depleted, the humps become floppy and flabby.

Like Arabian camels, Bactrians rarely sweat, helping them conserve fluids for long periods of time. In winter, plants may yield enough moisture to sustain a camel without water for several weeks.

Camels are adapted very well to their habitat, they have large strong legs to climb hills and humps to carry a lot of water which they need, and also have very long eye lash's to stop dirt going into their eyes.

The camel is a herbivore and is a mammal, and can live for a mager 50 years!

Did you know ?

Bactrian camels give birth usually to just one calf after a gestation period of 12 to 14 months.

This is the size of a camel compared to the average human :

B

Finally we have reached 'B'


Baboon / Papio anubis

Olive baboons, like this mother and baby, are one of five baboon species. All live in Africa or Arabia.

Fast Facts

Type:

Mammal

Diet:

Omnivore

Average life span in the wild:

30 years

Group name:

Troop

Baboon compared with adult man:

Baboons are opportunistic eaters and, fond of crops, become destructive pests to many African farmers. They eat fruits, grasses, seeds, bark, and roots, but also have a taste for meat. They eat birds, rodents, and even the young of larger mammals, such as antelopes and sheep.

Baboons can be quite scary and vicious, they also have giant teeth and their pink bottoms stick out too.

Aye-Aye / Daubentonia madagascariensis

Aye - Aye

The aye - aye is a nocturnal creature and has very large claws to grip its surroundings, and so they can climb to their tree top homes.

Aye-ayes can be found only on the island of Madagascar. These rare animals may not look like primates at first glance, but they are related to chimpanzees, apes, and humans!

Aye-ayes spend their lives in rain forest trees and avoid coming down to earth. They are nocturnal, and spend the day curled up in a ball-like nest of leaves and branches, because of the habitat the aye- aye only eats vegetation and is therefore an omnivore, the aye- aye is a mammal and can live for a whopping 20 years!

Many people native to Madagascar consider the aye-aye an evil omen of ill luck. For this reason they often have been killed on sight. Such hunting, coupled with habitat destruction, have made the aye-aye critically endangered. Luckily today they are protected by law.

The aye-aye is pretty small compared to the average man as seen below:

The aye - aye sort of looks like a gremlin . 

Atlantic Puffin / Fratercula arctica

PUFFIN

The puffin is a relatively small bird that mainly lives on beaches or coves (by the sea).

The breeding colonies start in spring-summer, and return back to land when breeding season is finished.

puffins are carnivores as they eat fish, and can live up to 20 years or more, Atlantic puffins have penguin-like colouring but they sport a colourful beak that has led some to dub them the "sea parrot." The beak fades to a drab Gray during the winter and blooms with colour again in the spring—suggesting that it may be attractive to potential mates.

In the air, puffins are surprisingly fleet flyers. By flapping their wings up to 400 times per minute they can reach speeds of 55 miles per hour.

A puffin relative to a tea cup is about the size of a parrot:

Atlantic Bluefin Tuna / Thunnus thynnus

TUNA

Atlantic blue fin tuna has a streamlined back to reduce the amount of drag when it is in the sea, this will help it swim and shoot faster forwards. Surprisingly this fish is a carnivore and can live for an amazing 15 years! 

The Atlantic blue fin tuna is one of the largest, fastest, and most gorgeously coloured of all the world’s fishes. Their torpedo-shaped, streamlined bodies are built for speed and endurance, like most fish, it is metallic blue/ silver so there is a lovely shimmer to its skin.

Unfortunately for the species however, blue fin meat also happens to be regarded as surpassingly delicious, particularly among sashimi eaters, and overfishing throughout their range has driven their numbers to critically low levels, which means they are very endangered. 

Blue fin tuna have been eaten by humans for centuries. However, in the 1970s, demand and prices for large blue fins soared worldwide, particularly in Japan, and commercial fishing operations found new ways to find and catch these sleek giants. As a result, blue fin stocks, especially of large.

The Atlantic blue fin tuna is actually huge although you would imagine them to be small:

Thanks for reading about tuna ;)

I'm going to have 'tuna pasta' for dinner.......