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.......

Asian Lion / Panthera leo persica

Nearly all wild lions live in sub-Saharan Africa, but one small population of Asian lions exists in India's Gir Forest. Asian lions and African lions are subspecies of the same species.

 Lions in a group are called a pride, All lions eat meat as you may already know, these are called carnivores, and they give birth to live young so are classed as mammals. 

Sadly these amazing cats are an endangered species and there are not many around in the wild, An additional 200 Asian lions live in zoo's! Asian Lions only live for as long as a pet dogs, the average 15 - 18 years, which is quite surprising as they are large animals of prey.
Lions are the only cats that live in groups, called prides. Prides are family units that may include up to three males, a dozen or so females, and their young.

Only male lions boast manes, the impressive fringe of long hair that encircles their heads. Males defend the pride's territory. They mark the area with urine, roar menacingly to warn intruders, but the female on the other hand work as a team to take out large prey for the families to feast on, females are the primary hunters of the pride.

Average size to a 6ft man :


                                                   Lion king clip ( actually African lions though)

Asian Elephant / Elephas maximus

 

Asian elephants, smaller than their African cousins, are highly endangered. The subspecies shown here is found only on Borneo and faces threats from the conversion of their forest habitat to agricultural use.

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.

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

Elephants use their tusks to dig for roots and water, strip bark from trees, and even fight each other. Elephants eat roots, grasses, fruit, and bark, and they eat a lot of these things. An adult elephant can consume up to 300 pounds in a single day!

These animals only give birth to live young, which means they are called mammals, they only eat plants and vegetation, called herbivores.

The elephants live up to approximately 60 years.

In a group elephants are classed as a herd.

The Asian elephants are an endangered species

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

Armadillo / Dasypodidae

An armadillo roots around the forest floor looking for its food, they have very long, sharp nails for digging.

The word armadillo in Spanish means 'little armoured one'. Of the 20 varieties of armadillo, all but one live in Latin America. 

These creatures are covered in hard bony plated, all over their legs, heads and tails.Closely related to anteaters and sloth's, armadillos generally have a pointy or shovel-shaped snout and small eyes, Contrary to popular belief, not all armadillos are able to encase themselves in their shells. In fact, only the three-banded armadillo can, curling its head and back feet and contorting its shell into a hard ball that confounds would-be predators.

Population numbers of nearly all species are threatened by habitat loss and over-hunting. Many cultures in the Americas consume armadillo flesh.

Armadillos are Mammals and eat meat and vegetation, they can live for around 12 - 15 years and are now under threat, of poaching. 

The size of an armadillo compared with man:

Arctic Skua / Stercorarius parasiticus

Not many people have heard of an Arctic skua, but if you were wondering what they look like...


Arctic skuas, also called parasitic Jaeger's, have a well-earned reputation as avian pirates, stealing much of their food from other birds.  These aggressive sea birds are sometimes referred to as avian pirates. The name is well earned. Skuas steal much of their food from terns, puffins, and other birds that are carrying fish or other prizes back to their nests and young, they strike other birds while airborne.

These birds are devious Carnivores.

Did you know?
The word “skua” comes from the Old Norse term for seagull.
Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:



They are similar to the size of a duck.

Arctic skuas live most of their lives at sea, and come ashore only to breed in the Arctic summer. "Kleptoparasitism" is the term for stealing food from other species, while "jaeger" is derived from the German  word "hunter."

These birds are not endangered.