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The little cormorant (Microcarbo niger ) is a member of the cormorant family of seabirds. Slightly smaller than the Indian cormorant it lacks a peaked head and has a shorter beak. It is widely distributed across the Indian Subcontinent and extends east to Java, where it is sometimes called the Javanese cormorant. It forages singly or sometimes in loose groups in lowland freshwater bodies, including small ponds, large lakes, streams and sometimes coastal estuaries. Like other cormorants, it is often found perched on a waterside rock with its wings spread out after coming out of the water. The entire body is black in the breeding season but the plumage is brownish, and the throat has a small whitish patch in the non-breeding season. These birds breed gregariously in trees, often joining other waterbirds at heronries.
It is now classified in the sandpiper family Scolopacidae but was formerly sometimes placed in the plover family Charadriidae. It is a highly migratory bird, breeding in northern parts of Eurasia and North America and flying south to winter on coastlines almost worldwide. It is the only species of turnstone in much of its range and is often known simply as turnstone.
Ruddy turnstones are small highly migratory wading birds. In all seasons, their plumage is dominated by a harlequin-like pattern of black and white. Breeding birds have reddish-brown upperparts with black markings. The head is mainly white with black streaks on the crown and a black pattern on the face. The breast is mainly black apart from a white patch on the sides. The rest of the underparts are white. The females are slightly duller than the males and have a browner head with more streaking. Non-breeding adults are duller than breeding birds and have dark grey-brown upperparts with black mottling and a dark head with little white. Juvenile birds have a pale brown head and pale fringes to the upperpart feathers creating a scaly impression.
The greater crested tern has dark grey upperparts, white underparts, a yellow bill, and a shaggy black crest that recedes in winter. Its young have a distinctive appearance, with strongly patterned grey, brown and white plumage, and rely on their parents for food for several months after they have fledged. Like all members of the genus Thalasseus, the greater crested tern feeds by plunge diving for fish, usually in marine environments; the male offers fish to the female as part of the courtship ritual.
This is an adaptable species that has learned to follow fishing boats for jettisoned bycatch, and to use unusual nest sites such as the roofs of buildings and artificial islands in salt pans and sewage works. Its eggs and young are taken by gulls and ibises, and human activities such as fishing, shooting and egg harvesting have caused local population declines. There are no global conservation concerns for this bird, which has a stable total population of more than 500,000 individuals.
The size, black cap, strong bill (29–34 mm in males, 25–27 mm and stubbier in females, with a pronounced gonys) and more positive flight recall common or Arctic tern, but the short, forked-looking tail and dark grey breeding plumage above and below are typically marsh tern characteristics. The summer adult has white cheeks and red legs and bill. The crown is flecked with white in the juvenile, and the hindcrown is more uniformly blackish, though in the winter adult this too is flecked with white. The black ear-coverts are joined to the black of the hindcrown, and the space above is mottled with white, causing the black to appear as a C-shaped band. The sides of the neck are white; this sometimes continues across the nape. The collar is less sharply defined. All through the year the rump is pale grey. In the juvenile, the mantle has a variegated pattern. The feathers of the back and scapulars are dark brown, with prominent broad buff edgings and often subterminal buff bars or centers. There is usually an admixture of new gray feathers, especially on the mantle, quite early in the fall. The mantle is silvery-gray in the adult. The call is a characteristic krekk.
In winter, the forehead becomes white and the body plumage a much paler grey. Juvenile whiskered terns have a ginger scaly back, and otherwise look much like winter adults. The first winter plumage is intermediate between juvenile and adult winter, with patchy ginger on the back.
The whiskered tern eats small fish, amphibians, insects and crustaceans.
The Sri Lanka swallow (Cecropis hyperythra) is a resident breeder endemic to Sri Lanka. It is closely related to the red-rumped swallow, and was formerly considered a subspecies.
It is a large swallow with a tail which forks deeply, and the combination of deep rufous underside and navy blue rump without any marks is a unique feature of this species. Its rufous underside can be used to tell it apart from the red-rumped swallow. It is a passerine, which means it has three toes pointing forward and one pointing backward, allowing it to perch.
It is found in a variety of open country habitats in both the lowlands and foothills in Sri Lanka, including farm fields and lightly wooded areas.
The mugger (Crocodylus palustris ) is a crocodile of medium to large size with the broadest snout of all the living members of the genus Crocodylus. It lives in the Indian subcontinent as well as other countries in southern Asia. Like most crocodilians, muggers feature a flat head where their eyes, ears, and nose are on top. This enables them to see, hear and breathe above water when their bodies are underwater. The mugger evolved at least 4.19 million years ago and has been a symbol for the fructifying and destructive powers of the rivers since the Vedic period. It was first scientifically described in 1831 and is protected by law in Iran, India, and Sri Lanka.
The Mugger crocodile has the broadest snout among living crocodiles. It has a powerful tail and webbed feet. Its visual, hearing, and smelling senses are acute. Hatchlings are pale olive with black spots. Adults are dark olive to grey or brown. The head is rough without any ridges and has large scutes around the neck that are well separated from the back. Scutes usually form 4, rarely 6 longitudinal series and 16 or 17 transverse series. The limbs have keeled scales with serrated fringes on the outer edges, and the outer toes are extensively webbed.
The mugger crocodile occurs in the Indian subcontinent as well as surrounding countries: Sri Lanka in the east, Iran in the west, and also Pakistan and Nepal. This species is found in freshwater lakes, marshes, and ponds, and has also adapted well to reservoirs, human-made ponds, irrigation canals, and coastal saltwater lagoons. This crocodile likes shallow water no more than 5 m deep, and it avoids fast-flowing rivers. It will sometimes bury itself in the mud to avoid the searing heat in India in the dry season.
The habit of standing still and flushing only at the last moment has led to widespread folk beliefs that they are semi-blind and their name in many languages includes such suggestions. In Sri Lanka the bird is called kana koka which translates as "half-blind heron" in the Sinhala language. The Hindustani phrase "bagla bhagat" has been used to describe a "wolf in sheep's clothing" or a hypocrite appearing like a meditating saint and occurs in a Marathi proverb. The paddy-bird also appears as a character in the Hitopadesha where, in one story, it takes injury to itself to save a king. The bird was noted by Anglo-Indian naturalist-writers for the surprising transformation in colours. Phil Robinson described the bird as one that sits all dingy gray and flies all white. It is said to have been eaten by many in India in former times.
During the height of the plume trade, feathers were collected from the "paddy bird" and exported to Britain.
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The grey-bellied cuckoo or the Indian plaintive cuckoo (Cacomantis passerinus) is a cuckoo with widespread occurrence throughout Asia.
The grey-bellied cuckoo is one of the smaller cuckoos, at a total length of about 23 cm. Adults are mainly grey with a white lower belly and undertail. There is a white patch on the wings. Some females are dark-barred reddish brown above with an unbarred tail and have strongly dark-barred whitish underparts. The juvenile resembles the female but is of a duller grey.
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The grey-bellied cuckoo is a brood parasite and uses warblers as hosts. It lays a single egg. Its diet consists of a variety of insects and caterpillars. This is a noisy species, with a persistent and loud pee-pip-pee-pee call, with its tail depressed.
The Malabar pied hornbill is a large hornbill, at 65 cm (26 in) in length. It has mainly black plumage, apart from its white belly, throat patch, tail sides and trailing edge to the wings. The bill is yellow with a large, mainly black casque. Females have white orbital skin, which the males lack. Juveniles have no casque. It might be confused with the oriental pied hornbill. They weigh around 1 kg (2.2 pounds).
The Malabar pied hornbill is a common resident breeder in India and Sri Lanka. Its habitat is evergreen and moist deciduous forests, often near human settlements. It is distributed across three main regions within the Indian sub-continent: Central and Eastern India, along the Western Ghats, and in Sri Lanka. In Central and Eastern India, it ranges from western West Bengal through parts of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, northern and eastern Maharashtra, northern Andhra Pradesh, and north-east tip of Telangana. Along the Western Ghats, the species is distributed in pockets along the eastern slopes and in the Konkan belt and west coast from western Maharashtra through Goa, western Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and in Kerala. In Sri Lanka, the species occurs mainly in the low country and dry zone forests as well as home gardens.
Males have elongated central tail feathers, and a black and rufous plumage in some populations, while others have white plumage. Females are short-tailed with rufous wings and a black head. Indian paradise flycatchers feed on insects, which they capture in the air often below a densely canopied tree.
The female black-hooded oriole is a drabber bird with greenish underparts, but still has the black hood. Young birds are like the female, but have dark streaking on the underparts, and their hood is not solidly black, especially on the throat.
The black head of this species is an obvious distinction from the Indian golden oriole, which is a summer visitor to northern India. Orioles can be shy, and even the male may be difficult to see in the dappled yellow and green leaves of the canopy.
The black-hooded oriole's flight is somewhat like a thrush, strong and direct with some shallow dips over longer distances.
The golden jackal (Canis aureus), also called the common jackal, is a wolf-like canid that is native to Eurasia. The golden jackal's coat varies in color from a pale creamy yellow in summer to a dark tawny beige in winter. It is smaller and has shorter legs, a shorter tail, a more elongated torso, a less-prominent forehead, and a narrower and more pointed muzzle than the Arabian wolf. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List due to its widespread distribution and high density in areas with plenty of available food and optimum shelter.
Despite its name, the golden jackal is not closely related to the African black-backed jackal or side-striped jackal, which are part of the genus Lupulella. It is instead closer to wolves and coyotes. The ancestor of the golden jackal is believed to be the extinct Arno river dog that lived in southern Europe 1.9 million years ago. It is described as having been a small, jackal-like canine. Genetic studies indicate that the golden jackal expanded from India around 20,000 years ago, towards the end of the last Last Glacial Maximum. The oldest golden jackal fossil, found at the Ksar Akil rock shelter near Beirut, Lebanon, is 7,600 years old. The oldest golden jackal fossils in Europe were found in Greece and are 7,000 years old. There are six subspecies of the golden jackal. It is capable of producing fertile hybrids with both the gray wolf and the African wolf. Jackal–dog hybrids called Sulimov dogs are in service at the Sheremetyevo Airport near Moscow, where they are deployed by the Russian airline Aeroflot for scent-detection.
The golden jackal is abundant in valleys and beside rivers and their tributaries, canals, lakes, and seashores; however, the species is rare in foothills and low mountains. It is a social species, the basic social unit of which consists of a breeding pair and any young offspring. It is very adaptable, with the ability to exploit food ranging from fruit and insects to small ungulates. It attacks domestic fowl and domestic mammals up to the size of domestic water buffalo calves. Its competitors are the red fox, steppe wolf, jungle cat, Caucasian wildcat, the raccoon in the Caucasus and in Central Asia, and the Asiatic wildcat. It is expanding beyond its native grounds in Southeast Europe into Central and Northeast Europe into areas where there are few or no wolves.
The grizzled giant squirrel (Ratufa macroura) is a large tree squirrel in the genus Ratufa found in the highlands of the Central and Uva provinces of Sri Lanka, and in patches of riparian forest along the Kaveri River and in the hill forests of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala states of southern India. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the species as near threatened due to habitat loss and hunting.
Grizzled giant squirrels are named for the white flecks of hair that cover their greyish-brown bodies, giving them a grizzled look.
Subspecies dandolena is dorsally brown grizzled with white. Ventrally light brownish cream. Tail frosted with white fur. Forehead and feet are black in color. Whereas ssp. melamochra, upper parts are jet black which contrast brownish cream to orange yellow ventral surface. Tail frosted with black fur. Snout of both ssp. are pinkish color.
Their vision is good, which aids them in detecting predators. Their sense of hearing is relatively poor. The call is staccato and loud with repeated shrill cackle. It is usually uttered in morning and evening. A low "churr" is also used to communicate with nearby groups.
Hands are normally pentadactylous, with four digits and a rudimentary thumb. Fingers have large broad soft pads, where the inner pad is expanded for gripping while moving through branches. Feet are also comprised with soft pads with both fore and hind limbs possessing long, sharp claws.
In India, R. macroura has been recorded from Grizzled Squirrel Wildlife Sanctuary, Theni Forest Division, Palni Hills, Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Anaimalai Tiger reserve, Sirumalai, Thiruvannamalai Forest Division of the Eastern Ghats, Hosur Forest Division and Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary. The easternmost population of Ratufa macroura dandolena was discovered in the Pakkamalai Reserve Forest in eastern Tamil Nadu.
Ratufa macroura are known to eat fruits, nuts, insects, bird eggs, and the bark of some trees. The fruit of the climber Combretum ovalifolium is an especially important food source where it occurs. Young squirrels, upon first emerging from the nest, have been observed to feed exclusively on this fruit.
Unlike its relatives, the giant squirrel balances using its two hind feet, instead of its tail.
The species is almost entirely an arboreal, very rarely coming to the ground to escape from predators, to flee from an intruder, attack males of the territory, and connecting with females.
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Calotes versicolor is an insectivore, and the male gets a bright red throat in the breeding season. It measures over 10 cm (3.9 in) in length snout-to-vent. Total length including the tail is up to 37 cm (14.5 in).[2] Two small groups of spines, perfectly separated from each other, above each tympanum. Dorsal crest moderately elevated on the neck and anterior part of the trunk, extending on to the root of the tail in large individuals, and gradually disappearing on the middle of the trunk in younger ones. No fold in front of the shoulder, but the scales behind the lower jaw are much smaller than the others; gular sac not developed. From thirty-nine to forty-three series of scales round the middle of the trunk. The hind foot (measured from the heel to the extremity of the fourth toe) is not much longer than the head in the adult, whilst it is considerably longer in the young. The coloration is very variable, sometimes uniform brownish or greyish-olive or yellowish. Generally broad brown bands across the back, interrupted by a yellowish lateral band. Black streaks radiate from the eye, and some of them are continued over the throat, running obliquely backwards, belly frequently with greyish longitudinal stripes, one along the median line being the most distinct; young and half-grown specimens have a dark, black-edged band across the inter-orbital region.
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The ground-colour is generally a light brownish olive, but the lizard can change it to bright red, to black, and to a mixture of both. This change is sometimes confined to the head, at other times diffused over the whole body and tail. A common state in which it may be seen (as stated by T. C. Jerdon) is, seated on a hedge or bush, with the tail and limbs black, head and neck yellow picked out with red, and the rest of the body red. Jerdon and Blyth agree that these bright, changeable colours are peculiar to the male during the breeding-season, which falls in the months of May to early October.
Albert Guenther mentioned that Alexandre Henri Mouhot had collected in Siam one of those fine variations of colours, which, however, appear to be infinite. It has the usual cross streaks between the eyes and the radiating lines continent of India to China; it is very common in Ceylon, not extending into the temperate zone of the Himalayas. Ceylonese specimens are generally somewhat larger; one of them measured 16 inches, the tail taking 11 inches. It is found in hedges and trees; it is known in Ceylon under the name of "Bloodsucker", a designation the origin of which cannot be satisfactorily traced; in the opinion of Kelaart, the name was given to it from the occasional reddish hue of the throat and neck. "Roktochosha (রক্তচোষা)" is also a local name in the Bengali language, which also translates to "bloodsucker".
The female lays from five to sixteen soft oval eggs, about 5/8 of an inch long, in hollows of trees, or in holes in the soil which they have burrowed, afterward covering them up. The young appear in about eight or nine weeks. In a hot sunny day a solitary bloodsucker may be seen on a twig or on a wall, basking in the sun, with mouth wide open. After a shower of rain numbers of them are seen to come down on the ground and pick up the larva and small insects which fall from the trees during the showers.[3] Changeable lizards escape danger by darting to the nearest tree. If the predator comes even closer, they will scale to the side of the tree facing away from the predator and very swiftly dart up the tree. The predator looks behind the tree only to see that the lizard is up in the branches.
During the breeding season, the male's head and shoulders turns bright orange to crimson and his throat black. Males also turn red-headed after a successful battle with rivals. Both males and females have a crest from the head to nearly the tail, hence their other common name, "crested tree lizard".
It is one of only three living species of elephants or elephantids anywhere in the world, the others being the African bush elephant and African forest elephant. Further, the Asian elephant is the only living species of the genus Elephas. It is the second largest species of elephant after the African bush elephant. It frequently inhabits grasslands, tropical evergreen forests, semi-evergreen forests, moist deciduous forests, dry deciduous forests and dry thorn forests. They are herbivorous, eating about 150 kg (330 lb) of vegetation per day. Cows and calves form groups, while males remain solitary or form "bachelor groups" with other males. During the breeding season, males will temporarily join female groups to mate. Asian elephants have a large and well-developed neocortex of the brain, are highly intelligent and self-aware being able to display behaviors associated with grief, learning, greeting etc.
The Asian elephant is the largest living land animal in Asia. Since 1986, the Asian elephant has been listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, as the population has declined by at least 50 per cent over the last three elephant generations, which is about 60–75 years. It is primarily threatened by loss of habitat, habitat degradation, fragmentation and poaching. Wild Asian elephants live to be about 60 years old. While female captive elephants are recorded to have lived beyond 60 years when kept in semi-natural surroundings, Asian elephants die at a much younger age in captivity; captive populations are declining due to a low birth and high death rate. The earliest indications of captive use of Asian elephants are engravings on seals of the Indus Valley civilisation dated to the 3rd millennium BC.
Hemidactylus parvimaculatus can grow to 13 cm (5 in) in length. The body has many tubercles and the tail has rings of small spines. Coloration is light grey to tan; there are dark blotches that form three rows along the back. The belly is pinkish-cream.
This gecko is found in Sri Lanka, southern India, Reunion, Mauritius and Rodrigues, Moheli (Comoro Islands), Maldives, and Mascarene Islands. There are also introduced populations in Bangkok, Thailand, and in the southern United States.
In Sri Lanka, Hemidactylus parvimaculatus has been recorded to prey upon Ramanella variegata frogs and insects. It can also be cannibalistic.
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It breeds from West Asia (Iraq, SW Iran, Persian Gulf) eastwards across South Asia (Baluchistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the entire Indian subcontinent up to Kanyakumari and up to 1800m in Kashmir/Nepal), with another sub-species further east in Southeast Asia. May migrate altitudinally in spring and autumn (e.g. in N. Baluchistan or NW Pakistan), and spreads out widely in the monsoons on creation of requisite habitats, but by and large the populations are resident.
This species is declining in its western range, but is abundant in much of South Asia, being seen at almost any wetland habitat in its range.
Eupsittula canicularis, also known as the orange-fronted parakeet, orange-fronted conure, half-moon conure or Petz's conure is a Vulnerable species of bird in subfamily Arinae of the family Psittacidae, the African and New World parrots. It is found from western Mexico to Costa Rica.
The orange-fronted parakeet is 23 to 25 cm (9.1 to 9.8 in) long and weighs 68 to 80 g (2.4 to 2.8 oz). The sexes are alike. Adults of the nominate subspecies E. c. canicularis have an orange-peach forehead (the "front") and lores, a dull blue mid-crown, and a dull green hindcrown, nape, and back. A ring of bare yellow skin surrounds the eye. Their throat and breast are pale olive brown and the rest of their underparts yellowish green. Their wings are green with bluish flight feathers. The top surface of their tail is green and the bottom surface is yellowish. Immatures are like adults but with much less orange on the forehead. Subspecies E. c. clarae has a very narrow orange forehead band, a greener throat and breast than the nominate, and a black spot on the mandible. E. c. eburnirostrum also has a narrow forehead band and is greener below than the nominate; it has a brown spot on the mandible.
Junonia almana, the peacock pansy, is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in Cambodia and South Asia. It exists in two distinct adult forms, which differ chiefly in the patterns on the underside of the wings; the dry-season form has few markings, while the wet-season form has additional eyespots and lines. It is listed as Least Concern in the IUCN Red List.
The adult butterfly has a wingspan of 54–62 mm (2.1–2.4 in), and exhibits seasonal polyphenism.
J. almana is found in India, Sri Lanka and South East Asia, and eastwards to China and Japan.