#environment
There are many classes of animals, for example elephants are mammals. Reptiles belong to another class: the reptilia. All the reptiles are cold-blooded vertebrates, which means that they have backbones. In addition, they are also covered in scales and they breath with their lungs. Nearly all reptiles lay shelled eggs. There are over 10,000 species in the world! The first reptiles are believed to have evolved around 320 million years ago. Rattlesnakes, Vipers, Cobras, Coral snakes, Pythons, Chameleons, Cobras, Lizards and Turtles are only a few examples of them.
Reptiles normally live in warm tropical climates because they are cold-blooded, this means they are unable to regulate the internal temperature of their bodies. They prefer to live in dry climates rather than wet ones. They are normally found in areas like deserts. However, reptiles can be found on every continent except for Antarctica because they have adapted to live in a variety of environments including water, deserts, jungles, forests and mountains.
Reptiles are one of the longest living group of species on Earth. For example, the Aldabra tortoise can live for more than 150 years! An Alligator can live for nearly 70 years and in addition a ball python can live up to 40 years. Reptiles live so long because of the slow rate of their metabolism. One of the reasons turtles are believed to live so long is due to their slowness. Turtles grow very slowly, this prevents them from aging like birds and mammals. Thanks to their slow metabolism, they can survive for a long period of time without water or food. Surviving for a long period of time with no water or food gives them a greater chance of surviving in harsh conditions, therefore they live longer.
Reptiles use many methods to defend themselves like for example camouflage, hissing and biting. A Cobra protects itself with fangs that inject venom. This venom causes paralysis and it kills if not quickly treated. If the Cobra feels endangered it will increase its size by rising up and by spreading it hood. This makes the cobra appear larger and more frightening to its predators. A Chameleon is able to camouflage and in addition it has two eyes on the top of its head that allows it to look in two directions at once.
Reptiles can eat everything from large mammals to small insects. However, some reptiles like the giant tortoise are vegetarians that eat plants like cacti, grasses and other vegetation. Chameleons eat insects. Other type of lizards, such as the green iguana also eat fruit, flowers and leaves. Caiman lizards prefer snail. Whereas Komodo Dragons eat wild pigs and water buffalo. All snakes eat animals, there are no vegetarian snakes. Most snakes eat rodents or birds after killing them with their venom or squeezing them to death. The Green Anaconda, the largest snake in the world, which kills by constricting can eat animals as large as humans and pigs.
References:
Visit also our album of reptiles in Flickr, and in our Reptilia Album page
And a colorful review of Darwin city in Northern Territory, Australia, a place to go and spot reptiles! by one of our contributors (here a Google translation to English).
#environment
Global warming is the gradual increase in the overall temperature of the Earth atmosphere. Some of the things causing global warming, or certainly not helping, are the increased level of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons and other pollutants.
All of the things stated cause the layer of greenhouse gases to become thicker causing the temperature of the Earth to increase. The Earth becomes hotter and hotter.
Global warming is worst in cold places such as Antarctica. The average temperature in Antarctica has increased by nearly 3 celsius in the last 50 years. This big temperature rise has been very bad for Antarctica. It has caused ice shelves to break up and the temperature in Antarctica is predicted to rise even more in the next 50 years. The rise in temperature is not only bad for the natural landscapes but also for the wildlife living there. The rise in the sea temperature is threatening populations of penguins, seals, whales and other small sea creatures living in the water.
The sea in Antarctica had a rise in temperature that was not expected so many people are worried worried about the marine wildlife because the animals are very sensitive to temperature change. Global warming can have a very severe impact on Antarctica in the next few years.
If we do not do anything to stop this, global warming will surely lead to th deaths of many lives and extinction of certain animal species.
What you can do:
To stop global warming we must act now. You can start by doing some simple tasks that can change everything:
- Plant trees
- Don't use to much hot water
- Turn of the electricity or electronics when you are not using them
- Reduce, reuse, recycle
- Spread Awareness
NGO
Their Goal: Running water in every home
-"In much of the developing world, the urban poor face the daily challenge of procuring water. Many cannot pay monthly bills and high upfront connection costs due to their irregular incomes."
To date, there has been no effective solution to provide safe, convenient, reliable and affordable water access to low-income homes.
City Taps has come up with a solution:
They seek to solve the problem of bringing piped water to homes by making water utility services affordable for the urban poor. Their technology pioneers seamless integration between connected objects; our pay-as-you-go water meters and mobile money networks.
This helps:
- the poor to overcome payment barriers
-water utilities to grow their network infrastructure faster
If you are interested click
here to see their site
If you want to connect with them you can do it through either email, Facebook, twitter or newsletter.
Click
here to see their blog
NGO
(-
Check out the article "Wildlife Not Entertainers" on our blog)
"Our vision is a world where animal welfare matters and animal cruelty has ended - together we can move the world for animals"-World Animal protection
World Animal protection's objective is to move the world to protect animals. WAP stretches from North America and Latin America to Africa, Asia Pacific and Europe. They move the world to protect 70 billion animals farmed each year and to protect wild animals- and keep them in the wild.
WAP moves the world to put animal protection at the heart of global thinking and rescue animals in disaster zones. When it comes to education they teach students and vets that animal protection is vital.
"Poor communities are often the most vulnerable to disasters. We work with governments to prepare, recover and reduce animal suffering so that animals and people are more resilient to disasters."-World Animal Protection
HOW YOU CAN HELP!
Fired up? Ready for change? Then help move the world...
Please Donate,
Join the movement to save up to 550,000 wild animals from a lifetime of cruelty,
Act now to prevent millions of sea animals from suffering painful deaths as a result of ‘ghost gear’,
Join the millions asking for a global declaration,your donation will be used wherever the need to protect animals is most urgent.
Click
here to take action
NGO
SharkLab Malta is an organization who's objective is to protect sharks, rays and skates. They do this by research and public education around the Maltese islands. Their primary goal is to protect sharks. These predators are important parts of the marine ecosystem but they are becoming increasingly rare and face extinction. SharkLab Malta do various research activities such as snorkel and dive searches which allows them to observe local species and examine more closely the habitat where they continue to hold on.
RESEARCH:
SharkLab Malta has been doing research on the development of several egg-laying shark species that live in the Maltese waters. The research includes hatching sharks from egg cases recovered from the fish market. They release the hatched sharks back into the Mediterranean to help numbers of these species to increase. This is very important research as many species of sharks are disappearing form the waters.
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
SharkLab is expanding and they are looking for new members who want to make a difference!
If are interested contact them at:
27 "Chris", Triq Il-Kappella
Tal-Lunzjata,
In-Naxxar,
Salina,
NXR 6031
Malta
Adopt a shark:
MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
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