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CREATURE FEATURE: Bukharan Markhor

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The Bukharan Markhor (Capra falconeri heptneri) is a large species of wild goat. It is also known as the Tadjik Markhor, the Turkmenian Markhor, or the Screw Horn Goat. It is an ungulate (hoofed) mammal.

The Bukharan Markhor looks like a goat with shaggy light-brown to black colour fur. Its coat is smooth and short in summer and thicker and longer in winter. Its lower legs have black and white fur. The male has a beard with longer hair on its chin, throat, chest and legs than the female. The female is redder in colour with shorter hair, and a short black beard, without a mane.

Both the male and the female have curled, corkscrew horns in a V-shape, but the male horns are much larger.

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Mekong Yellow-Vented Bulbul

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The Mekong Yellow-Vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier jambu) is a small passerine songbird. It is also known as the Eastern Yellow-Vented Bulbul.

The Mekong Yellow-Vented Bulbul has a slight black crest and black mask on a white head. It has brown upperparts, pale underparts, and yellow feathers at the top part of its under-tail, which is called the vent. The male and the female look similar.

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Kunekune Pig

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The Kunekune Pig (Sus scrofa domesticus or Sus domesticus) is a small, rare breed of domestic pig. It is a mammal.

The Kunekune Pig is hairy and barrel-shaped. Kunekune is from the Maori language, meaning fat and round. It often has two wattles (loose skin) hanging from its chin. It has a medium to short black snout (nose). It can be a range of colours, such as black, brown, black and white, ginger, cream, gold-tipped, tri-coloured, and spotted. Its hair can be long or short, and straight or curly. Its legs are short.

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What are the similarities between the Burmese Python and the Rock Python?

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What are the similarities between the Burmese Python and the Rock Python?

The Burmese Python (Python bivittatus) and the Rock Python (Python sebae) are both non-venomous constrictor snakes (they squeeze their prey to death).

The Burmese Python and the Rock Python are both oviparous (egg-laying) reptiles.

The Burmese Python and the Rock Python are both dark-coloured with brown markings on their back.

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Burmese Python

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The Burmese Python (Python bivittatus) is a non-venomous constrictor snake and a reptile.

The Burmese Python is a dark-coloured snake with many brown markings on its back. It has a clearly defined large head with dark eyes. It can also be albino (no pigmentation) or leucistic (partial pigmentation), and can look caramel, whitish, or yellowish. Albino pythons have pink eyes, but leucistic pythons have brown eyes.

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Visayan Hornbill

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The Visayan Hornbill (Penelopides penelopides panini) is a highly endangered bird. It is a tarictic hornbill.

The male Visayan Hornbill has a creamy-white head and neck, a white upper chest, a reddish-brown lower chest, reddish-brown uppertail feathers, and a creamy-white tail with a broad black tip. Its beak and casque (bony growth on its head) are blackish. Its beak has yellowish ridges. It has orange-brown eyes and pinkish-white eye-rings. The female is black, and her eye-rings are blue.

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Long-Tailed Macaque

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The Long-Tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis) is a monkey, a primate, and a mammal. It is also known as the Crab-Eating Macaque or the Cynomolgus Monkey.

The Long-Tailed Macaque is a monkey with short arms, short legs, and a very long tail. It has dark-grey fur with light golden-brown tips. Its underparts are light-grey, and its tail is dark-grey to brown. It has a crown with hairs pushed backwards. Its feet and ears are black. Its ears sometimes have white spots. The skin on its muzzle (nose) is light greyish-pink. Its eyelids have white markings. The male has a moustache and cheek whiskers, whereas the female does not have a moustache.

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Silver Pheasant

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The Silver Pheasant (Lophura nycthemera) is a large game bird.

The Silver Pheasant has a bare red face and red legs. The male is black and white, with white upperparts and a white tail with some black markings. He has glossy blue-black underparts. His crest is blue-black. The female is mainly brown with grey upperparts, with a tail that has a lot of black markings. She has whitish underparts. The female has a shorter tail than the male.

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One foot, two feet …

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What is an animal with one foot, two feet, three feet …?

An appendage, such as a foot or a leg, is used for locomotion – walking, moving, or running.

Ped or pod means foot (leg) or feet (legs).

A mollusk, such as a snail or a slug, is an example of an animal with one foot. It is a gastropod – it is a body of one piece. Gastropod means stomach foot.

An animal that walks with two feet is a biped. A bird is a biped.

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Superb Fruit Dove

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The Superb Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus superbus) is a medium-sized bird. It is also known as the Purple-Crowned Fruit Dove.

The male Superb Fruit Dove is very colourful with a purple crown, green cheeks, and an orange nape (back of its neck). His chest is grey, and he has olive-green wings with dark spots, and his tail is tipped with white. The female is mostly green with a white abdomen, blue wing tips, a light-blue chest, and a small dark-blue spot on the back of her head. Both sexes have yellow eyes and yellow eye-rings.

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Oriental Magpie-Robin

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The Oriental Magpie-Robin (Copsychus saularis) is a small passerine songbird small. It is related to the Flycatcher.

The Oriental Magpie-Robin is black and white with an upright long tail. The male has black upperparts, black head and black throat, with a white shoulder patch. Its underparts and the sides of the long tail are white. The female has greyish-black upperparts and greyish white chest.

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Blue Sheep

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The Blue Sheep (Pseudois nayaur) is a medium-sized ungulate (hoofed) mammal. It is also called the Bharal or the Himalayan Blue Sheep. It is a caprid.

The Blue Sheep has blue-grey fur. Its underparts and the backs of its legs are white. Its chest and the front of its legs are black. Separating the grey back and white belly is a charcoal-coloured stripe. It has small ears. It has a short tail. Both males and females have horns. The male has horns that grow upwards, then turn sideways and curve backwards – like an upside-down moustache. The female has shorter and straighter horns.

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Scarlet Macaw

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The Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) is a large bird in the parrot family.

The Scarlet Macaw has bright blue, yellow, and red feathers. Its head is red, its back is red, yellow, and blue, and its long tail is red and blue. Its wings are also red and blue. It has a red throat and chest. It is featherless on its white cheeks. It has small, dark eyes with a white eye-ring. It has a large, strong creamy-white beak.

The Scarlet Macaw, like other parrots, has its first and fourth toes pointing backwards.

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What are the similarities between the Jungle Carpet Python and the Northwestern Carpet Python?

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What are the similarities between the Jungle Carpet Python and the Northwestern Carpet Python?

The Jungle Carpet Python (Morelia spilota cheynei) and the Northwestern Carpet Python (Moelia spilota variegata) are both non-venomous constrictor snakes (they squeeze their prey to death).

The Jungle Carpet Python and the Northwestern Carpet Python are both oviparous (egg-laying) reptiles.

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Northwestern Carpet Python

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The Northwestern Carpet Python (Moelia spilota variegata) is a non-venomous constrictor snake, and a reptile. It is also known as the Darwin Python.

The Northwestern Carpet Python is creamy-beige or brown with blackish or grey blotches, cross-bands or stripes, or a combination of patterns.  It has yellow flower-type or irregular patterns in each band of markings. Its main colour and markings can be varied, in yellow, gold, rust, or grey.

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