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Brazilian three-banded armadillo - Wikipedia

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The Brazilian three-banded armadillo ( Tolypeutes tricinctus) is an armadillo species endemic to Brazil, where it is known as ( Portuguese pronunciation: [tɐˈtu ˈbɔlɐ], lit. ball armadillo). It is one of only two species of armadillo (the other is the southern three-banded armadillo) that can roll into a ball.

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Physical Description

Three-banded armadillos are various shades of brown. The hard carapace covering their bodies develops from the skin and is composed of strong, bony plates, called scutes. The tail, top of head and the outer surfaces of the limbs are also usually armored.

When frightened, they will roll up almost all the way until their armor forms a trap that snaps closed on their predator's hand or paw. The shell also helps protect them from the thorny vegetation that armadillos frequently pass through. The under surface is soft, hairy skin. The carapace is not attached to the skin on the two sides, allowing the head, legs and tail to tuck inside when the animal rolls into a ball. This works well against most predators, but unfortunately has made La Plata three-banded armadillos easy prey to human hunters.

Three-banded armadillos usually weigh about 3 pounds (1.5 kilograms) and have 12-inch (30-centimeter) long bodies and 2.5-inch (6-centimeter) long tails.

Native Habitat

The range of La Plata three-banded armadillos includes parts of Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. They live in open, grassy areas, open forests and marshes. They do not dig burrows like most armadillos, but use the abandoned burrows of anteaters when they can get them.

Communication

Armadillos use their sense of smell to determine the identity and sexual condition of other armadillos.

Food/Eating Habits

They use their well-developed sense of hearing and smell to detect both predators and prey. In the wild they feed primarily on ants and termites, which they obtain using their powerful forelegs and claws.

At the Smithsonian's National Zoo, La Plata three-banded armadillos are fed soaked insectivore diet and mealworms.

Reproduction and Development

The male's penis is one of the longest among mammals, extending two-thirds of the body length in some species. This may be necessary to extend past the carapace to the female's vaginal opening. Other than that, little information is available regarding reproduction in this species. Breeding is believed to take place between October and January. After a 120-day gestation period, females give birth to only one young that is about the size of a golf ball. Newborns look like miniature adults and become independent after 72 days.

These armadillos usually live 15 to 20 years. While well-protected, armadillos are vulnerable to predation. Juvenile mortality can be twice that of adults; many juvenile deaths are due to predation from coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions, some raptors and even the domestic dog.

Loss of habitat has been substantial throughout the range of La Plata three-banded armadillos; however, this species is capable of adapting to minor modifications to its habitat. While their defense mechanism of curling into a ball is suitable for protection from natural predators, this makes them particularly susceptible to hunters and poachers, who can simply reach down and pick up the animals. They experience high morbidity during transit, making collection for the pet trade an even greater threat to their survival. In South America, natives use armadillo carapaces to make musical instruments. These instruments, which are called charongos, are similar to mandolins.

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Physical Description Three-banded armadillos are various shades of brown. The hard carapace covering their bodies develops from the skin and is composed of strong, bony plates, called scutes. The tail, top of head and the outer surfaces of the limbs are also usually armored.

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Springbok videos, photos and facts - Antidorcas marsupialis | Arkive

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Roaming the central plains of southern Africa is the slender springbok, the National Animal of South Africa. Within the last 100 years springbok numbers have greatly declined, but older Southern...

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There's a great octopus story coming your way tomorrow. For that reason, I thought it was about time to republish this - the first ever post I wrote for Not Exactly Rocket Science, about the ever-amazing mimic octopus. This article was a game-changer for me. I submitted it to the Daily Telegraph's Young Science Writer competition in 2004, while still struggling with a failing attempt at research. It was awarded a runner-up prize - not a win, but enough to convince me that I could actually write and that I enjoyed it. Looking back on it now, it's decent but a bit rough. It also took forever to write - today, I crank stuff like this out in a an hour. But I'm still fond of it - this was the piece that started a career.

As you swim through tropical waters, you notice that a strange creature has entered your territory. The intruder is unfamiliar, but when you try to chase it away, it undergoes a startling transformation. Its new form is one you recognise - a banded sea-snake, highly venomous and likely to make you its next meal. You turn and flee. You are a damselfish, you are in Indo-Malayan seas, and you have just been duped by the mimic octopus.

The mimic octopus is new to science and has yet to be properly classified [ NB - Since 2004, the octopus has been classified as Thaumoctopus mimicus - the "mimicking miracle octopus" - Ed]. It has, though, already gained notoriety for its unique ability to impersonate venomous or distasteful animals. Politicians and pop-stars may be beyond its scope, but its repertoire includes soles, lionfish, sea-snakes, and possibly sea anemones, stingrays and jellyfish.

To transform into a sea-snake, for example, the octopus withdraws its head and six of its tentacles into a burrow and waves the other two in opposite directions in an uncannily serpentine manner. You can download some Quicktime videos of the octopus doing its thing from the Royal Society website.

Octopus specialist Dr Mark Norman, from the University of Melbourne, Australia, first observed the mimic off the coast of Indonesia. There, it forages in open sand flats during broad daylight and its talents may have evolved to keep it safe in these vulnerable surroundings. As Norman says, when you're caught in the open by a passing fish, "you've got to look either deadly or inedible".

Mimicking deadly or inedible animals reaps obvious benefits - predators avoid you, and you need not bother making poisons yourself. It has therefore become a common strategy, used by snakes and flies, spiders and plants. But these charlatans are all one-trick ponies.

In comparison, the mimic octopus's charades are orders of magnitude more dynamic. "No other animal has been found that is able to rapidly change between different forms of mimicry", says Dr Tom Tregenza, from the University of Leeds, UK, co-author of the paper which first described the mimic.

Having multiple acts benefits the octopus as predators are less likely to catch on to any individual one. If too many octopuses mimic a single creature - say, a lionfish - then predators are more and more likely to encounter the fake than the real deal. They might never learn that something that looks and moves like a lionfish is not worth biting.

Like all good performers, the mimic octopus caters to its audience. It only acts like a sea-snake (right) when confronted by territorial damselfish, which are preyed upon by sea-snakes. "This is very exciting because it raises the possibility that the mimic octopus can employ different forms of mimicry to counter different threats", says Tregenza.

But is the mimic actually mimicking or are human eyes misinterpreting these movements? To answer this, a BBC/Discovery film crew captured six hours of live footage of the mimic in 2000. The combination of colour, posture and very "un-octopus-like" movement convinced many sceptics.

For example, when mimicking the leaf-shaped sole, the octopus not only draws its tentacles and head back into a leaf shape, but also matches a sole's colours and undulates its body to resemble its swimming style.

Norman believes that octopuses as a group are the equivalent of "rump steak swimming around". Their bodies lack any sort of protective shell or skeleton and they have had to evolve other incredible defences to compensate. Soft bodies make them vulnerable, but they also make octopuses particularly well-suited to deception.

Without skeletons, they are expert contortionists, and can change shape or squeeze into tight spaces. Their remarkable skin can change texture, becoming spiky or smooth on a whim. It also contains sacs of pigment called chromatophores which can be expanded or contracted to produce rapid changes of colour and pattern. Armed with this arsenal of stealth, all octopuses are masters of disguise.

Most species are content to blend into their backgrounds. The mimic's ancestor probably lived unnoticed in nearby coral reefs. These reefs are like busy and crowded high streets; in contrast, the sand flats are an open market, with rich pickings for any animal (provided that they can avoid being eaten).

The octopus's inbuilt camouflage abilities would have given it a head-start. As time passed, individuals that slightly resembled poisonous animals would have lived longer without being eaten, allowing them to pass their appearances on to their offspring.

The mimic's behaviour remained undiscovered for years because its dull homelands are poorly studied. But it is precisely this barren nature that has provided the impetus to evolve such amazing behaviour.

As Tregenza says, "The mimic octopus teaches us that very bland and barren habitats may be home to the most impressive behaviours." Even more surprising and wondrous animals may await discovery in these unexplored worlds.

More cephalopods:

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There's a great octopus story coming your way tomorrow. For that reason, I thought it was about time to republish this - the first ever post I wrote for Not Exactly Rocket Science, about the ever-amazing mimic octopus. This article was a game-changer for me.

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invertebrates - terrestrial and freshwater

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Monarch butterfly videos, photos and facts - Danaus plexippus | Arkive

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One of the best-known butterfly species, the beautiful monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is renowned for its spectacular, long-distance annual migrations. The adult monarch butterfly is...

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Wildscreen's Arkive project was launched in 2003 and grew to become the world's biggest encyclopaedia of life on Earth.

With the help of over 7,000 of the world's best wildlife filmmakers and photographers, conservationists and scientists, Arkive.org featured multi-media fact-files for more than 16,000 endangered species.

Freely accessible to everyone, over half a million people every month, from over 200 countries, used Arkive to learn and discover the wonders of the natural world.

Since 2013 Wildscreen was unable to raise sufficient funds from trusts, foundations, corporates and individual donors to support the year-round costs of keeping Arkive online. Therefore, the charity had been using its reserves to keep the project online and was unable to fund any dedicated staff to maintain Arkive, let alone future-proof it, for over half a decade. Despite appeals for support, just 85 of our 5.6 million users in 2018 made a donation.

As a small conservation charity, Wildscreen eventually reached the point where it could no longer financially sustain the ongoing costs of keeping Arkive free and online or invest in its much needed development.

For many years, and in an attempt to keep Arkive online for years to come, Wildscreen investigated the possibility of transferring custodianship of the website to another environmental charity or institution but due to legal issues and the cost of doing so, we were unable to secure any support.

Therefore, a very hard decision was made to take the www.arkive.org website offline in February 2019.

The complete Arkive collection of over 100,000 images and videos is now being stored securely offline in perpetuity for future generations.

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Wildscreen's Arkive project was launched in 2003 and grew to become the world's biggest encyclopaedia of life on Earth. With the help of over 7,000 of the world's best wildlife filmmakers and photographers, conservationists and scientists, Arkive.org featured multi-media fact-files for more than 16,000 endangered species.

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Millipede

The millipede is a medium to large sized invertebrate that is found under rocks and in decaying logs all around the world. The millipede has a long and narrow body which is made up of segments.

The millipede is from the same family as the centipede, but the millipede generally has more legs for its body length than the centipede. The average millipede has between 80 and 400 legs, not a thousand as the name suggests.

The millipede is found all over the world but is more common in the southern hemisphere where the millipede has been known to get to nearly 40cm long. Some species of millipede have a poisonous bite which they use to kill their prey before eating it.

Millipedes are most commonly found in the cooler, damper and darker places within their environment. Millipedes inhabit areas under rocks, in the leaf litter, in rotting logs and occasionally in burrows which are all known as micro-habitats.

The exact number of legs and segments that make up the body of the millipede, depend on the millipede species. However, all millipedes are made up in a similar way with the first sections of the millipede's body having one pair of legs and the later sections of two pairs of legs. The legs of millipede all work together and move in a wave-like motion.

The millipede is an omnivorous animal but primarily feeds on dead plant material and decaying matter on the forest floor. Millipedes are also known to eat some species of plants (that are alive) and the larger species of millipede also hunt insects.

The millipede has a number of different predators in its natural environment including birds, badgers, foxes and small rodents such as shrews and rats. When the millipede feels that it is in danger it curls up into a spiral and some species of millipede even release a disgusting smelling liquid that deters many of the animals that prey on the millipede.

The female millipede can lay up to 1,000 sticky eggs at once although the number of millipede eggs laid is usually closer to 500. When the baby millipedes hatch they only have 3 pairs of legs but they shed their skin as they grow. Each time the baby millipedes shed their skin they develop more body segments and legs.

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The millipede is a medium to large sized invertebrate that is found under rocks and in decaying logs all around the world. The millipede has a long and narrow body which is made up of segments.The millipede is from the same family as the centipede, but the...