papa-leguas

papa-leguas

Geococcyx californianus, popularly known as papa-leguas, is a bird of the Cuculidae family.

Description

The pau-leguas measure about 56 cm in length, with wingspan of 49 cm. Despite being a bird, it flies little. It has a white band in the post-ocular region, a small crest at the top of the head and a long tail. Both sexes are similar, the male being slightly larger.

It inhabits deserts of the southwest of the United States and north of Mexico. During the twentieth century, its occurrence expanded to southern Missouri and western Louisiana. It is the symbol bird of New Mexico.

It feeds mainly on insects, small reptiles, spiders, scorpions, small birds and rodents. It can reach the speed of up to 30 km / h ashore.

jacuguaçu

jacuguaçu

The jacuguaçu or jacuaçu (Penelope obscura) is a bird of the cracid family, which inhabits the Atlantic Forest in Brazil, in the Southeast and South regions of the country. Its distribution area also extends to Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia.

Characteristics

Prefers mountain forests, especially in the southeastern region of Brazil. It seems vaguely a peacock-hence its Castilian name pava de monte-by its size and elongated body and neck - that facilitate its access to the fruits, since they allow it to introduce the body and / or the head between the branch - The peacock was characterized by the absence of a long tail, brilliant plumage, and marked sexual dimorphism. It has little developed deer, having no crest, and a basically dark plumage, between black and brown. He has red eyes. It is distinguished from its close relative, the jacupemba (Penelope superciliaris), because it is larger and has dark legs, pulling gray (hence its scientific name, obscure) while the jacupemba is smaller (55 cm.) And has reddish legs

domestic lizard

domestic lizard

The tropical domestic lizard (Hemidactylus mabouia) is a small-sized gecko (20 mm to 110 mm) that walks on the walls of houses, especially when it rains. The diet of this animal is varied, including animals such as spiders, scorpions, insects, especially cockroaches and Orthoptera species, and even other lizards.

This species is native to Africa, but is now found in almost all of America and elsewhere in the "New World". It is common in urban environments.

The species is also very popularly known in Ceará as briba or viper or even lapixa, in Rio Grande do Norte, Lambiôia. In Espírito Santo and in Itabira (Minas Gerais) it is known as taruíra. Also known in some places as chameleon. In some regions of Brazil, such as Santa Catarina and Northwest Paulista, the lizard is also known as a crocodilian wall. Already in some places of the Brazilian Northeast, it is called "viper", although this term is connected to snakes and not to lizards, in Piauí, this small animal is generally called Labigó or nub. And in Maranhão is known as Osga, in the state of Roraima is known as Tiquiri.

boipeva

boipeva

Waglerophis merremii is the scientific name for a snake in the Colubridae family. It is also known by the names of flattened, flat snake, boipeva (meaning "flat snake" in the Tupi language, by joining the terms mboia ( "snake") and peb ( "flattened")), boipeba, , Captain-of-the-field, captain-of-mato, bored, goipeba, jaracambeva, jararacambeva, jararacuçu-tipiti, pepéua and pepeva. It is the only species of its kind. It is distributed throughout South America. It reaches about two meters. Its coating consists of dark gray or red scales, with yellowish or white designs.

 It is often confused with the jararaca (bothrops), that is, viperids. But boipeva is not poisonous (venomous). It feeds exclusively on amphibians (frogs, frogs and frogs), including frogs of the genus Bufo, which have poison glands. Of terrestrial habits, active both during the day and at night, lives near marshes, ponds, rivers and all kinds of places with great humidity where their food is more abundant. It is an oviparous animal, puts between 14 and 25 eggs at a time and is incubated for approximately 60 days. This snake is distributed throughout South America and is more easily found in the regions of São Paulo and Paraná.

thamia

thamia

Thamia is the common name of rodents classified in the genus Tamias, of the squirrel family (Sciuridae). The group includes 23 species, all of them native to North America, except one, which can be found in Siberia.

Etymology and Taxonomy

Tamias means, in Greek, "store", a reference to the habit of these animals to store food for consumption in the winter. Twenty-five species belong to this family, with one species in northeastern Asia, one in eastern North America, and the rest natural in western North America.

cuica

cuica

The Cuíca-verdadero or Cuíca-de-cuatro-olhos (Philander opossum) is a marsupial of the didelphidae family, found in the tropical forests of Mexico to Argentina.

Characteristics

It measures about 30 cm of body length, long tail with hairs only at the base, dark gray back, pale yellow lower parts and spots of the same color above the eyes.

Territory and Procreation

They are thought to be night owls like the other South American opossums, but there has been a similar activity both night and day. Its territory can reach 300 m² although they move regularly only in a diameter of 30m² around the nest. They build nests or in the branches of the trees from 8 to 10 meters of the ground or in the ground in fallen or hollow trees and occasionally in burrows left by other animals. The nest is round having 30 cm in diameter. Females give birth to 2 to 7 pups.

feeding

It is omnivore, consuming a wide variety of small animals, including birds, crabs, frogs, insects, lizards and rodents. Half of your diet consists of fruits like banana and papaya.

Defensive reaction

There is some disagreement about the defensive reaction of the cuíca-true: some say that it runs on the ground when threatened while others declare that it escapes climbing the trees.

puma

puma

The puma (Brazilian Portuguese) or puma (Portuguese European) (scientific name: Puma concolor), also known in Brazil by suçuarana, is a carnivorous mammal of the family Felidae and genus Puma, native to America. It was originally classified in the genus Felis, but genetic studies demonstrate that the species evolved in a lineage close to the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and the buzzard (Puma yagouaroundi). It is the terrestrial mammal with the largest geographic distribution in the west, occurring from British Columbia in Canada to the extreme south of Chile, inhabiting dense forests, to desert areas, with tropical or subarctic climate, except tundra. It is able to survive in highly man-altered areas such as pastures and agricultural crops.

It is the largest member of the subfamily Felinae, measuring up to 155 cm in length, without the tail, and weighing up to 72 kg, with a size similar to that of the leopard (Panthera pardus), being the second largest felidae in the Americas. It has a coloration ranging from gray to reddish brown, with the tip of the tail of black color, lateral areas of the muzzle and belly of white color. The puppies are born with dark patches on the coat, which usually persist up to 14 weeks old. It has the longest hind legs of the felines. They live on average, between 7.5 and 9 years of age.

It is a lonely and more active animal at night. It feeds predominantly on deer, but can vary the diet, being considered an opportunistic predator. The presence of other carnivores directly influences the choice of prey and hunting environments. Areas of life range from 50 to 1000 km², with males being territorial and having large areas overlapping that of several females. The females have several estrus in the year, they have a gestation that lasts between 90 and 96 days and usually they are born between 3 and 4 puppies, every 2 years approximately.

The puma is not considered to be at risk of extinction by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, but has largely disappeared from its distribution in North America and in some locations in Central and South America. The main causes of this are hunting, whether for sport or retaliation for attacks on livestock, fragmentation and destruction of habitat, and in very crowded areas, run over. The only remaining population in the eastern United States is in Florida and is a good example of the deleterious effects of population isolation. Despite this, there is a trend of recolonization of the central-eastern United States. Because of its strength and elegance, this feline has been depicted in countless American cultures, but in today's Western societies, relationships are often conflicting, whether through attacks on domestic animals or attacks on humans.