Got Croc? A Little Croc Test.....

Sooo... let's see how you do on this test for crocs, gators, & gharials!

Should be fairly simple to figure it out if you remember these three things:

• snout shape
• "pinch" in snout (or not) for lower 4th tooth
• visible upper/lower teeth.

Okay, let's go!

Next post I'll give you the answers...

...not that you need them, right?  :)

Can you confuse a gator with a gharial?

 If you do, you just aren't looking at a gharial.  Their long, oddly-shaped snout is a dead giveaway!

General: The gharial is second only to the saltwater crocodile in size, growing up to 21 feet in length! It is found in the rivers of India and surrounding countries. The elongated snout is perfect for catching its main food...fish!  


Let's look at three simple IKs* for the gharial:

1st IK: Long narrow snout; adult males have a bulb, or ghara, on the tip.

2nd IK: Many interlocking teeth show when the gharial's mouth is closed. 

3rd IK: They slide on land because gharials are not able to lift their bellies off the ground.

You could pretty much spot a gharial without the second and third IKs, but it's always nice to have backup info.  My next blog will test your knowledge on all three types of crocodilians, so you can enjoy spotting the differences when you next see one!

The gharial is considered an endangered animal...for more information, visit the Gharial Conservation Alliance.

*On many of my blog posts, I will have photos showing readily identifiable characteristics of each animal. I will provide a general description that gives clues to help identify the animal, and then some specific Identification Key, or IKs, as seen and described in the photos. (More about identification keys here.)

Top photo courtesy Gharial Conservation Alliance and Saravana Kumar.

What's living under New York City?

Alligators!  


They could come up the plumbing and into your bathtub!  Right?  


Well, in case the picture above has you concerned, there's no hard evidence that there are gators in the sewers of New York.  Why not?  


It's too cold for them!   :)


With that said, let's check out how the alligator is different from the crocodile; take a look at the alligators in the photos below.  

General: The alligator is found in the southern part of North America and in the eastern part of China.  The caiman is smaller in size and lives in South America. Let's look at three simple IKs* for the alligator and the caiman in the corresponding photos:

1st IK: Broad, u-shaped snout.**

2nd IK: Generally, only the upper teeth show when the alligator's mouth is closed.

3rd IK: Adult alligators are of a dark or black color, with babies having yellow stripes. Caimans are dull olive green.

Compare these IKs with my post on crocodiles here and look at the differences. And look for my next post on the last of the crocodilians....the gharial.


*On many of my blog posts, I will have photos showing readily identifiable characteristics of each animal. I will provide a general description that gives clues to help identify the animal, and then some specific Identification Key, or IKs, as seen and described in the photos. (More about identification keys here.)

** The mugger crocodile, found in India and surrounding areas, also has a u-shaped snout, which gives it an alligator look.  The mugger is brown or gray in color, however, and has all other characteristics of a crocodile. See a pic of him here.

That crocodile smile....

Crocodiles certainly have a fixed grin, but do they also cry?   Crocs do shed tears, but not for the reasons we do.  When a crocodile has been out of the water for a long time, his eyes will start to dry out and tears will form.  For more about crocodile tears, click here.

Now let's take a look at the true crocodile.....and see if we can discover ways to tell him apart from alligators, caimans, and gharials.

General: There are more than a dozen different kinds of crocodile.  Some can live in salt water (which makes sunning on the beaches of southern Florida a bit scary!) Let's look at three simple IKs* for crocodiles and the corresponding photos:

1st IK: Narrow, v-shaped snout.**

2nd IK: When the mouth is closed, the upper and lower teeth show, and a noticeable indent in the crocodile's snout allows room for the jutting lower fourth tooth.

3rd IK: Adults are of a tan, brown or brown color.

These IKs may soon have you able to recognize a crocodile anywhere! Stay tuned for my next post on alligators, and start looking for the differences.

* On many of my blog posts, I will have photos showing readily identifiable characteristics of each animal. I will provide a general description that gives clues to help identify the animal, and then some specific Identification Key, or IKs, as seen and described in the photos. (More about identification keys here.)


** The mugger crocodile, found in the fresh water of India and surrounding areas, has a u-shaped snout which gives it an alligator look.  The mugger is brown or gray in color, however, and has the tell-tale notch in the snout to accommodate the jutting lower tooth. See a pic of him below!

If you swim with crocodiles....

Made a household name by Steve Irwin, the saltwater crocodile is the largest reptile on earth today!  But did you know that there are three types of croc in the crocodile family? 

• the true crocodile (like the salty)
• the alligator and caiman
• the gharial (gavial)

Are they all dangerous?  Take a look at the sign above, posted in Australia...humans and crocodiles just don't mix.  Even the smallest, the caiman, can give a vicious bite!

Do they look a lot alike?  You bet they do.  So we are going to use Identification Keys (IKs) to see the differences between them, and when we're done, you should be able to tell a gator from a croc from a gharial, no problem!

The Poor Huemul

Zonkeys and zorses (or hebras?)

Yes, donkeys and zebras can breed and have babies!  The above foal was born to a donkey mother, fathered by a zebra.

I like this little guy, half horse, half zebra.  The flank stripes make me think the zebra was a mountain zebra...what do you think?

Zebra resurrection? The Quagga...

The photo above shows the quagga, a subspecies of the Plains zebra.  This female quagga, formerly of the London Zoo in Regent's Park, is the only one ever photographed alive.

But the quagga became officially extinct when the last one died in the Natura Artis Magistra Zoo in Amsterdam in 1883.

Above is a very cool painting of a male quagga that resided at The Royal College of Surgeons, believe it or not.  Painted by Jacques-Laurent Agasse.  I like it... especially the white tail.

This photo is a modern Plains zebra that is part of the project to breed back the quagga from Plains zebra stock.  It's a laudable effort, but really, the above zebra doesn't look much like the real quagga to me...its neck stripes are reversed in color!


To learn more about the quagga and the attempt to bring it back, check out the video below:






Check out more about zebras here.


And you can go to The Quagga Project here.

The dark side of zebras

The Black zebra...

Sometimes, a zebra is born with strange stripe patterns and large areas of black.  

These photos illustrate some of the variety possible in the stripes or, in the top and bottom photo, spots of the zebra!

When zebras go pale...

"White" zebras actually encompass leucistic, blonde, and albino colorations

Actual true albino zebras are extremely rare...but there's a photo of one below.

Let's take a look:

Did you know your stripes?

How did you do on the test?  Pretty fun?  Better than listening to that same old song on your iPod!

Mountain zebras are a threatened species.


The Grevy's zebra is endangered. You can help the endangered Grevy's zebra here.

Eight little zebras....a test

See how many you can identify of Grevy's, Mountain, and Plains zebras (Plains zebras have subspecies).  Don't forget your IKs!

         

You can find the answers here.

The Half & Half Zebra

The Plains (or Common) zebra is the third of the three zebras species we'll look at.

This zebra lives in large herds and has six subspecies. Its ears are normal-sized compared to the Grevy's zebra.  Let's look at three simple IKs and the corresponding photos:

They can look very different in color and stripe pattern, but their stripes always meet in the center of their bellies. The following photos are all of different subspecies of the Plains zebra:

1st IK*: Overall broad stripes

2nd IK: Broad pattern of stripes on flank are horizontal and change to vertical halfway across the zebras body...about mid-belly.  Has underbelly stripes.

3rd IK: Back stripe down back and into tail, surrounded by broad rump stripes.

These IKs will soon have you able to choose the Plains zebra out of a whole herd! Stay tuned for my next post which will test your knowledge of all three zebras.


And check out my zebra painting "Zebra Story"; it was awarded first place in the last art show.

*Identification Key, or IKs, as seen and described in the photos. (More about identification keys here.)

The Dewlap Zebra

The Mountain zebra is the second of the three zebras species we'll study, so take a look at the first photo.

This zebra lives in small family groups, not large herds. Its ears are normal-sized compared to the Grevy's Zebra and it's stripes are broad and widely spaced at the flank. 

Let's look at three simple IKs and the corresponding photos:

1st IK*: Dewlap on the throat of adult animals. Overall broad and thin stripes.

2nd IK: Broad pattern of stripes on flank are horizontal and change to vertical where the belly and flank meet. No underbelly stripes.

3rd IK: Back stripes zig zag across the back and get smaller toward the tail. 

These IKs will soon have you able to choose the Mountain zebra out of a whole herd! Stay tuned for my next post on the Plains zebra.

*Identification Key, or IKs, as seen and described in the photos. (More about identification keys here.)

The Triangle Zebra

So since we are identifying species, we are going to try our hand at seeing the differences in the eight types of zebras that exist today.  

That's not as hard as you might think, because there only three species we actually need to key on; the rest are subspecies with very similar features.

The Grevy's zebra is the first of the three zebras species we'll study, so take a look at the first photo.

This is the most horse-like or mule-like of the zebras, having very large rounded ears. It's stripes are thin and close together. 


Let's look at three simple IKs and the corresponding photos:

1st IK*: Large round ears. Overall thin stripes.

2nd IK: Pattern of stripes on flank comes together in a triangular shape. No underbelly stripes.

3rd IK: Wide dark back stripe runs down into the tail, surrounded by thin rump stripes.

See, simple.  But these IKs will soon have you able to choose the Grevy's zebra out of a whole herd! Stay tuned for my next post on the Mountain zebra.

*Identification Key, or IKs, as seen and described in the photos. (More about identification keys here.)

So who cares about Edible dormice anyway?

So why a blog for kids and educators about recognizing different animal species?  At the least, it's fun and interesting to see differences in animals and be able to "name that animal"!   Searching for and spotting differences is similar to an I Spy or Where's Waldo? game.  How many hours have  kids spent poring over those books to root out the different items?  Find the turquoise cats-eye marble somewhere in the town made of every kitchen utensil imaginable. Kids can do this, no problem; in fact, they love to do this!  So let's take this propensity for detailed search and point it toward something more rewarding; let's direct it toward seeing the differences between similar animals.

But why? What could possibly be rewarding about identifying different animal species?  Studies have shown (though I think I could have told you this years ago) that when children are able to identify plants and animals, they begin to nurture an interest nature, environmental awareness, and an affection for wildlife. As this study states:

"Animals are fascinating for children and adolescents, e.g. in Norway animal-related activities received high scores, such as bird feeding (74%), or watching hare, fox and moose (63%). Watching TV programmes received an almost similar proportion compared to learning about animals in schools (Bjerke et al. 2001)...(But) many educational practitioners and conservationists claim ... a significant decrease of species knowledge in today’s children and adolescents." "...Children have serious problems with classifying animals (e.g. Bell, 1981) and they often incorrectly classify vertebrates as invertebrates (e.g. Braund, 1998) or birds as non-bird species (Trowbridge and Mintzes, 1988, Prokop et al., 2007)."

"...basic knowledge about animal or plant species, their identification and life history has been targeted as a fundamental aspect for learning and understanding in biodiversity (Lindemann-Mathies 2002; Randler and Bogner 2002; Gaston and Spicer 2004; Randler et al. 2005) as well as in the framework of ecological questions (Leather & Helden 2005)." (Teaching Species Identification – A Prerequisite for Learning Biodiversity and Understanding Ecology - Christopher Randler)

So leading kids to even casually study species identification can form in them an interest in ecology. And that's important for obvious reasons...wait, maybe it's not so obvious?  Let's do some brief statistic surfing:

"Since the year 1600, a total of 83 mammals species (2.1%) and 113 birds (1.3%) are known to have become extinct." Why?  There are several reasons, but the single largest and expanding threat is habitat destruction caused by human actions. But would the loss of, for example, whales, leopards and wolves really be so harmful?  Besides just the glory and uniqueness of each animal species, whales, leopards and wolves "serve a purpose important for their respective habitats... when wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park, they helped bring the elk population back into balance, which in turn aided trees, trout, birds, beavers and bears. (What is the most harmful type of diversity loss? - Jessika Toothman) 

There is a balance to the make-up of the world and the extinction of species upsets it;  sometimes to the detriment of ourselves. For example, what impact would a newly extinct animal have on, say, the economy? 

"The extinction of animals can have a profound impact on the economy, considering scientists and engineers find more and more uses for animals and plants everyday. Significance: After estimating in 2010 that at least three species go extinct every hour, the United Nations Environment Programme said that boosting biodiversity can help the global economy. Effects: When a species goes extinct, it also impacts up to 30 other species, leading to further extinctions up and down the food chain. If one insect goes extinct, various animals that feed on it, such as a frog or a bat, can go extinct as well. Agriculture: Farmers have started using certain breeds of endangered insects to help eliminate crop pests.The extinction of any of these biological controls would have a severe negative impact on the nation's agriculture. Medicine:Medical advances would slow if species went extinct. For example, leatherback turtles have a special property that causes their blood to clot quickly after an injury. Scientists examine them to see if these clotting properties can help humans." Read more: here

Those are the larger issues, but how does this practically affect our own children today?  Let's say a child is at the zoo.  He sees a zebra, and thinks, "Hmmm, a zebra."  And then he pats his pocket for his iPod.  How much more interesting, though, to see a zebra at the zoo, examine it critically, and then say to himself, "That's a Mountain zebra! I know because it has a dewlap, and small zig zag stripes down its back! "  iPod forgotten!  :)

Closer to home, identifying the birds and insects around us is a real-life I Spy that most kids, mine included, love! Using Spotter's Guides, Google, or field references to identify observed species teaches children to examine what they see critically, search for and analyze information about what they've seen, and make decisions based on the information presented to them. And don't count out the personal satisfaction that comes with correct identification, and the empowering sense of knowing and accomplishment that accompanies such an occasion.  It's a winning scenario in a child's life and perhaps a serious kick-start to an interest in the field of sciences in his or her academic and vocational future. And, like the study said, kids rated it as fun as watching a movie!

So who cares about identifying dormice in general, and the Edible dormouse in particular?  I do.  We all should.

Especially if we feel really hungry!  :)