The African Comb Duck (Sarkidiornis melanotos) is a tropical wetland bird. It is also known as the Knob-Billed Duck.
The African Comb Duck has a white head with small dark spots, a white neck, and white underparts. Its upperparts are glossy, blue-black with blue-green iridescent feathers. The male is much larger than the female, and it has a large black knob on its beak.
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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The Red-and-Yellow Barbet (Trachyphonus erythroacephalus) is a bird.
The Red-and-Yellow Barbet has distinctive black, red, and yellow plumage, where the black feathers are spotted with white. It has a black forehead and crown, with a slight crest. The back of its neck is orange and red with black spots. The side of its neck is red and yellowish. Its back is mostly black with white spots. Its tail is a blackish-brown with up to eight cream spots forming bars. The under side of its tail is yellow with black bars. It has a yellow chin and throat, and there is a black patch at the centre of its throat, which is bordered by areas with more orange. Its chest is orange, and its belly is yellow. It has black wings with white spots, giving a spotted appearance.
Its beak is red. Its eyes are yellow-brown with a dark-grey or black eye-ring. Its legs and feet are blue-grey. The female is similar to the male, but duller, with less red and orange, and more yellow and white.
The Jackson’s Widowbird (Euplectes jacksoni) is a small bird in the Ploceidae family – related to weaver birds.
The Jackson’s Widowbird is black with a long tail. Females are brown-black with a shorter tail. It has a pale beak and light-grey legs.
The West African Gaboon Viper (Bitis gabonica rhinoceros) is a venomous snake and a reptile. It is also called the Butterfly Adder, the Forest Puff Adder, and the Swampjack.
The West African Gaboon Viper has a large triangular-shaped cream-coloured head, with a dark blue-black triangle behind and below its eyes. It is pale-brown, with dark, yellow-edged patterns along its body. Its belly is pale. It has a pair of horn-like structures between its nostrils. Its eyes are large, moveable, and yellow-white.
The East African Fork-Tailed Drongo (Dicrurus adsimilis fugax) is a medium-sized passerine songbird. It is also known as the Common Drongo, the African Drongo, or the Savannah Drongo.
The East African Fork-Tailed Drongo is glossy black, with duller black wings. It has patches of brown feathers. It has a large head, and a light-grey thick, hooked beak, with nasal bristles (hairs). It has orange-brown eyes. It has short legs. The feathers on its tail curve outwards, forming a fork tail.
The Northern Grey-Headed Sparrow (Passer griseus) is a small common and widespread passerine songbird. It is related to the House Sparrow.
The Northern Grey-Headed Sparrow has a pale grey head with a white moustache stripe, pale brown upperparts, whitish underparts and chestnut wings with a small white shoulder patch. The sexes are similar.
The Ashe’s Spitting Cobra (Naja ashei) is a venomous elapid African snake and a reptile. It is also called the Giant Spitting Cobra.
The Ashe’s Spitting Cobra is brown, olive, black, grey, or reddish-brown with orange or pink bars on its neck. Its belly is paler. It has a big, broad head. It has smooth scales.
The Pygmy Hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensisor Hexaprotodon liberiensis) is a small hippopotamid. It is a semi-aquatic mammal. Hexaprotodon means six front teeth. It is closely related to the whale and the dolphin.
The Pygmy Hippopotamus has a brownish-grey to pinkish barrel-shaped body with short legs. Its skin is virtually hairless, but it does have some bristles. It has four toes on each foot. It has ivory teeth. It has small ears, small dark eyes, and large nostrils. It has a short tail with a tuft of hair at the end.
The Hartlaub’s Bustard (Lissotis hartlaubii) is an African ground-dwelling bird.
The Hartlaub’s Bustard has black and brown upperparts, with black underparts. Its head is black and buff with golden-brown eyes and a cream beak. Its neck is long with buff and black feathers. Its tail is brown. Its wings are edged with white feathers.
What is the difference between the African Pygmy Goose and the Green Pygmy Goose?
The African Pygmy Goose (Nettapus auritus) and the Green Pygmy Goose (Nettapus pulchellus) are both perching ducks, because they have the feet and body of a duck, but the beak of a goose.
The African Pygmy Goose is from sub-Saharan Africa and the Green Pygmy Goose is from northern Australia and Papua New Guinea.
The African Pygmy Goose has a white face with black eye patches and light green ear patches. The Green Pygmy Goose has white cheeks.
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The Lemon Cichlid (Neolamprologus leleupi) is a freshwater fish. It is also known as the Gold Cichlid, the Leleupi, or the Tanganyikan Lemon Cichlid.
The Lemon Cichlid is a yellow fish, ranging from bright yellow to yellow-brown.
What are grasslands?
Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is mainly grasses, rushes, bulrushes, and sedges, as well as legumes, clover, and other herbs.
Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica.
Grasslands are herbaceous swamps, meadows, parklands, pastures, prairies, savannahs, sedge swamps, and steppes.
Grasslands can have very short grass or very long grass.
The Spotted Hyena (Crocuta crocuta) is a scavenging carnivorous African mammal. It has one of the strongest bite strengths of any mammal due to its strong jaws.
A dog, for example, such as a Mastiff or Rottweiler, has an average bite strength of 325 pounds per square inch. An African Lion has a bite strength of 650 pounds per square inch. A Bengal Tiger has a bite strength of 1,050 pounds per square inch. The Spotted Hyena has a bite strength of 1,100 pounds per square inch.
A Great White Shark has an average bite strength of 625 pounds per square inch. A Hippopotamus has an average bite strength of 1,825 pounds per square inch. The animal with the strongest bite strength is the crocodile at 3,700 pounds per square inch.
The Western Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) is a criticaly endangered species of the Western Gorilla. The other species of the Western Gorilla is the Eastern Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri). It is a primate mammal, and an ape.
The Western Lowland Gorillla has jet black skin with coarse black hair that covers its whole body, except its face, ears, hands, and feet. It has patches of chestnut-brown hair. The black hair of males becomes silver as it ages (and they are called silverbacks). It has a short nose, a large eyebrow ridge, large nostrils, small dark eyes, and small ears. It has no tail.
It has five digits on each hand and foot, which have fingernails and toe nails. Its thumbs are large. It has long arms. It walks with a hunched movement, with the knuckles of its hands touching the ground.
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The Lake Oku Clawed Frog (Xenopus longipes) is a critically endangered freshwater amphibian.
The Lake Oku Clawed Frog is dark-coloured with claws at the ends of its two hind (back) feet. Its back is brown, and its belly is speckled black on an orange background.
The North African Catfish (Clarius gariepinus) is a freshwater air-breathing fish. It is also called the African Sharptooth Catfish or the Common Mudfish. It has gills (like fish) and a lung, which means that it needs to come to the surface of the water to breathe air. It is able to live in shallow mud for a long period of time.
The North African Catfish is eel-like, with a long, slender, dark-grey body and a white underbelly. It has a flat, bony head. Its mouth has four pairs of barbels (long string-like appendages).
The Black-Cheeked Lovebird (Agapornis nigrigensis) is a small parrot.
The Black-Cheeked Lovebird has mostly green feathers, with a reddish-brown head, black cheeks, and a yellow-orange patch on its chest. It has a red beak with a thin, white cere. It has dark eyes with a white eye-ring.
The Three-Striped Haplotaxodon (Haplotaxodon trifasciatus) is a little-known freshwater fish in the cichlid family.
The Three-Striped Haplotaxodon is silver with three faint stripes which darken as the fish ages. It also develops a dark spot on the base of its tail. It has large, bulging eyes to see in the dark waters of the lake.
The African Cinnamon Dove (Aplopelia larvata) is a common bird. It is also called the African Lemon Dove.
The African Cinnamon Dove has brownish-grey body, with a cinnamon-brown chest. Males have white markings on their face, with a whitish crown. Its wings and tail are dark-brown, and its tail feathers are tipped with a band of white. Its feet and eyes are red, and its beak is black.