Humboldt Penguin

The Humboldt penguin is a medium-sized species of penguin that is found breeding on the coasts of South America. The Humboldt penguin is similar in appearance to and closely related to other more northern penguin species including the African penguin, the magellanic penguin and the Galapagos penguin. The Humboldt penguin is one of the most northern-dwelling penguin species as it is found natively breeding on the coastlines of Peru and Chile. The Humboldt penguin is named after the cold water current that it spends most of it's time swimming in, which is itself named after the explorer, Alexander von Humboldt.

Humboldt penguins are medium-sized penguins that can grow to heights of 70 cm or more. Also the Humboldt penguin is undoubtedly very similar in appearance a number of other penguin species, the Humboldt penguin can be easily identified by the pink, fleshy base at the end of their bills. All penguins are fantastic swimmers and the Humboldt penguin is no exception. Humboldt penguins use their powerful flippers and streamlined bodies, aided by their webbed feet to soar through the water. Humboldt penguin populations have been severely affected in their native regions due to increasing commercial fishing which leaves less food for the penguins to eat.

The Humboldt penguin is a carnivorous animal, that like all other penguin species, survives on a diet that is only comprised of marine animals. Krill and small crustaceans make up the bulk of the Humboldt penguin's diet along with larger organisms including squid and various species of fish. Humboldt penguins can be at sea for days at a time whilst hunting and catch their food by diving deep into the water for minutes at a time. The Humboldt penguin has few predators on land, the main ones being large snakes and sea-birds that hunt their eggs.

Humboldt penguins nest on beaches and rocky islands along the South American coast, where their range in Chile overlaps that of the closely related magellanic penguin (these sites are known as rookeries). The female Humboldt penguin lays two eggs which are incubated for just over a month and usually fledge (leave the nest) when they are between 2 and 3 months old. Today, the Humboldt penguin populations throughout the Pacific Ocean have been drastically declining over the past few years, with human interference (mainly habitat loss and over-fishing) being the main cause. Source

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Howler Monkey

Howler monkeys (genus Alouatta monotypic in subfamily Alouattinae) are among the largest of the New World monkeys. Fifteen species are currently recognised. Previously classified in the family Cebidae, they are now placed in the family Atelidae. These monkeys are native to South and Central American forests. Threats to howler monkeys include human predation, habitat destruction and being captured for captivity as pets or zoo animals.

These monkeys are famous for their loud howls, which can travel three miles through dense forest. Howler monkeys have short snouts and wide-set, round nostrils. Their noses are very keen, and the Howler monkey can smell out its food (primarily fruit and nuts) up to 2km away. Their noses are usually roundish snout-type, and the nostrils have many sensory hairs growing from the interior.

They range in size from 56 to 92 cm (22 to 36 in), excluding their tails, which can be equally as long, in fact in some cases the tail has been found to be almost 5 times the body length. This is a prime characteristic. Like many New World monkeys, they have prehensile tails, which they use for picking fruit and nuts from trees. Unlike other New World monkeys, both male and female howler monkeys have trichromatic color vision.

Howler monkey Credit

This has evolved independently from other New World monkeys due to gene duplication. They have lifespans of 15 to 20 years. Howler species are dimorphic and can also be dichromatic (i.e. Alouatta caraya). Males are, on average, 1.5 to 2.0 kg heavier than females. The hyoid of Alouatta is pneumatized, one of the few cases of postcranial pneumaticity outside Saurischia. Howler monkeys generally move quadrupedally on the tops of branches, usually grasping a branch with at least two hands or one hand and the tail at all times.

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Horseshoe Crab

The horseshoe crab is a hard-shelled invertebrate found on the sea floor in warmer climates. Despite it's name, the horseshoe crab is not actually a crab (or crustacean) and is in fact more closely related to arachnids such as spiders and scorpions. There are four different species of horseshoe crab found inhabiting the warmer shallows off the coasts of India, Japan, Indonesia, the eastern USA, and the Gulf of Mexico.

The horseshoe crab has a hard outer shell, five pairs of legs and a long, thin tail which the horseshoe crab uses for changing direction whilst swimming rather than as a defensive weapon. The appearance of the horseshoe crab is thought to have changed very little from when it first evolved around 500 million years ago. Horseshoe crabs breathe using book gills, which are thin plates found on the abdomen of the horseshoe crab.

Horseshoe crabs are generally nocturnal animals, coming out of the shadows in the darkness in order to hunt for food. As carnivorous animals, horseshoe crabs only eat meat including sea worms, small molluscs and crustaceans. Thanks to their armoured casing, horseshoe crabs have few natural predators and are primarily hunted by sharks and sea turtles. Humans also widely hunt the horseshoe crab around the world, along with coastal birds that pick the horseshoe crabs out of the shallows.

Female horseshoe crabs are known to lay between 60,000 to 120,000 eggs at a time. After mating, the female horseshoe crab lays her eggs into a hole in the sand which she then covers up to protect them. Today, the horseshoe crab is still found widely along the world's warmer coastlines although horseshoe crab populations in certain areas are suffering from high levels of water pollution and over-fishing. Source

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Hyena

The hyena is a carnivorous dog-like species of animal, native to parts of both Africa and Asia. There are four known species of hyena, the spotted hyena, the striped hyena, the brown hyena and the aardwolf. Hyenas are scavenger mammals meaning that the hyena tends to eat another animals kill, rather than the hyena actually catching its own food. The hyena is well known for its cackling laugh-like scream, which the hyena is believed to use in order to alert other hyenas of a source of food. This hyena call is thought to be able to be heard by other hyenas for up to three miles.

The hyena is a remarkably intelligent animal. Hyenas are thought to have being compared to primates and humans in the evolutionary status of the hyenas brain. All four hyena species have a bear-like stance as the front legs of a hyena are longer than the back legs of a hyena. The striped hyena, the brown hyena and the aardwolf all have a striped mane on the top of the hyenas neck that stands up when the hyena is frightened. The main of a spotted hyena is considerably shorter and appears to stand on end the majority of the time.

Despite the hyenas once large range across Africa and parts of Asia and Europe, all four hyena species are today found mostly in the African Savannah. The only exception to this is that the striped hyena is often seen roaming in the jungles of India, and western Asia. The hyena is said to be one of the most abundant large carnivores on the African continent and the hyena is often viewed as an irritant by other large carnivores who actually make a kill that is then stolen by a hyena pack.

The only animal that will hunt and kill a hyena intentionally is a human being. Humans and hyenas have a long history of conflict ranging from hyenas killing livestock for an easy meal and the fact that humans used to believe that hyenas were related to witchcraft and supernatural activity, naturally making the human very wary of the hyena. Hyenas group together in packs with the den of the hyena pack generally being in the center of their territory. Source

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Horse

Horses evolved over 50 million years from small many toed animals to the big beautiful, single-toed horses of today. The modern horse has been domesticated around the world for many reasons including transportation and battle. Horses tend to live for about 30 years, and the oldest recorded horse at age 56 died in 2007. Horses graze on plant matter and vegetation, preferably tender green grass. The height of a horse is measured in hands, 1 hand being the same as 10cm (4 inches). The age of the horse is estimated by the pattern of tooth wear in his mouth.

 

An adult female is called a mare, and a young female is called a filly. An adult male is a stallion, and a young male is a colt. An unweaned baby of either sex is a foal. Castrated males and spayed females are called geldings. Mares carry their young inside them for approximately 11 months. When the baby horse is born, the young horse is often able to stand and then run about not long after birth. A mare comes into season one month after her foal is born. If she is remated then, she will have a foal at the same time each year. The horses' hoofs are made out of horn which comes in different colors, with black being most common..

There are thought to be more than 300 different breeds of horse found around the world today, each being bred for a purpose. Enormous draft horses such as Clydesdales pull heavy wagons, lighter saddle horses are for riding, and pony breeds are suitable for children and small adults. Miniature horses (30" and under) are primarily pets, though some have been used to guide blind people. Horses have remarkable hearing and are almost able to have 360 degree hearing. The sense of smell of the horse is better than that of a human but the horse tends to rely more on vision than smell.

 

Horses have an advanced sense of taste which allows the horse to sort through grasses and grains to find the things that the horse would most like to eat. Horses generally will not eat plants that are poisonous, but when the horse cannot find more adequate food, the horse will eat plants that contain toxins. A horse's gut is designed to have food flowing through it almost continually, and horses graze most of the day if allowed. Source

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Hippopotamus

The hippo (hippopotamus) spends most of its time wallowing in lakes and rivers in the jungles of western Africa. Hippos are generally solitary animals but can often be found in groups of between 5 and 30 hippo individuals. Even though the hippo has a pig-like appearance, the closet mammal relatives to the hippo are the whale and the porpoise both of which are found in the oceans. Despite the fact that hippos are roughly the same size and weight of a rhino, some hippos have been seen running at speeds of up to 30mph and the hippo is therefore seen to be the third heaviest animals in the world.

Apparently the hippo has pink sweat, which not only cools the hippo down when the hippo gets too hot, but also has antibacterial properties helping to fight infection in the thick skin of the hippo when the hippo is bitten or injured when fighting, generally with rival hippos. The hippo is also remarkable for the fact that it can take in enough air to stay underwater for half an hour before the hippo needs to resurface again, an astonishing feet seeing as the hippo is a mammal and therefore does not have gills that aid the animal in breathing underwater.

Many people think that large animals such as hippos are lazy and docile and will therefore pose no threat to humans. The hippo is known to be one of Africas most dangerous animals as when you combine the sheer size of the hippo, the territorial temperament of the hippo and the fact that a hippo is capable of running at immense pace (and can easily outrun a human) a wild hippo can therefore become extremely dangerous. The average hippo spends most of the hot daytime cooling itself in the colder water environment in the African jungle.

Despite the immense size of the hippo, hippos have a nearly completely herbivorous diet, as the hippos munch on aquatic water plants during the day and the hippo is capable of eating around 50kg of grass in one go in the cooler night. The hippo has large tusks at the front of the mouth of the hippo which are capable of growing to more than a foot in length. The hippo mainly uses these tusks for fighting off predators and rival hippos and the hippo can therefore give another large animal a near fatal bite. Source

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Huon Tree Kangaroo

Huon Tree Kangaroo (Dendrolagus matschiei), also known as the Matschie's Tree Kangaroo is a tree kangaroo  native to the Huon Peninsula of North Eastern New Guinea. Under the IUCN classification, Huon Tree Kangaroo is endangered. With a body and head length of 20 to 32 inches, Huon Tree Kangaroo are much smaller than Australia's well-known red kangaroo. 

There is no particular season in which they breed. Gestation lasts 32 days and joeys of captive bred individuals leave the pouch after 13 ½ months. The average life span of the Huon Tree Kangaroo in the wild is unknown, but is at least 14 years. The life span of the kangaroo in a zoo is about 20 years. The Huon Tree Kangaroo can only be found on the Huon Peninsula on the northeast coast of Papua New Guinea. They live in forests that are usually foggy.Unlike other species of kangaroos, the Huon Tree Kangaroo spends most of its time living in trees. They even eat and sleep in trees.

The most distinctive trait of all tree kangaroos is the hair whorl they possess. It is a patch of hair that goes out in many directions and its location ranges from up near the shoulders all the way down to the tail. The Huon Tree Kangaroo is golden on its ventral side, lower parts of its limbs, ear edges, belly, and tail, and the rest of its body is a chestnut brown color, except for usually having a dark stripe down its back. Their faces are typically an array of yellow and white colors. The Huon Tree Kangaroos are similar in color and size to Dendrolagus dorianus, the Doria’s tree kangaroo.

The Huon Tree Kangaroo are mainly folivorous, eating anything from leaves, sap, insects, flowers, and nuts.  Since they eat high fiber foods, they only eat maybe about 1 to 2 hours throughout the day and the other time of the day they are resting and digesting their food. Their digestion is similar to that of the ruminants; they have a large, “tubiform forestomach”, where most of the fermentation and breakdown of tough material takes place at; in the hind stomach, there is a mucosa lining with many glands that help absorption begin here. Source

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