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Hermann’s Tortoise

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The Hermann’s Tortoise (Testudo hermanni) is a small to medium-sized reptile in the Testudinoidea family of land chelonians. It is related to the Greek Tortoise (Testudo graeca). 

The Hermann’s Tortoise has a slightly domed, rounded shell, called a carapace. The carapace is black and pale-yellow with markings, but the colour fades with age, and becomes grey or straw-coloured. Its underbelly shell, called a plastron, is creamy-beige. It has no teeth, but it has a strong, short beak. It has scaly brownish-grey, stumpy legs with five claws. Its back legs are thicker than its front legs. The tip of its tail has a spur (a horny, short spike). 

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The Feet of the Grasshopper

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What do the feet of the Grasshopper look like?

The Grasshopper, Cricket, and Locust are insects in the Orthoptera order and the Caelifera suborder, with thousands of different species. Most of them are in the Acridoidea superfamily of grasshoppers and locusts. They are all herbivorous, eating grass and vegetation.

They have six legs with receptors on each leg that can detect movement and vibrations as well as temperature.

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Mottled Shield Bug

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The Mottled Shield Bug (Rhaphigaster nebulosi) is an insect in the Pentatomidae family of shield bugs or stink bugs. It is called a Stink Bug because it has an unpleasant smell when it is squashed. Nymphs have stink glands on their back. Adults have stink glands on the underside of the thorax. 

The Mottled Shield Bug has a hard, hairless, smooth exoskeleton that looks like a shield.The shield is called a scutellum.It is yellowish-grey, grey, or brown with irregular mottled markings. Its underbelly is light-coloured. Its underbelly also has a long spur. On its lateral edge (side), called a connexivum, it has irregularly-spaced black and yellow markings. 

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Common Wild Turkey

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The Common Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is a large bird in the Phasianidae family of pheasants, partridges, francolins, junglefowl, and grouse. It is a galliforme. 

The Common Wild Turkey has black feathers with brown-black and white tail feathers with a roundish body. Its feathers have a brown and green iridescent sheen. It has pale feet with spurs. It has brown eyes. It has wings and can fly for a short distance. 

It has fleshy red nodes or bumps on its head, which are called caruncles. The male turkey has fleshy red skin that hangs from it head, the top of its pale beak, and under its neck. The fleshy part on its forehead that hangs over its beak is called a snood. The fleshy part under its chin is called a wattle or dewlap. 

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Palawan Peacock-Pheasant

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The Palawan Peacock-Pheasant (Polyplectron napoleonis) is a medium-sized bird.

The male and female Palawan Peacock-Pheasant look very different. The male looks like a peacock, because it has bright iridescent turquoise-green feathers and a blue-violet crest. Its chest and sides are black. He has spurs on his legs. The female is smaller with grey-brown feathers. She has a short crest and a white throat, white cheeks, and white eyebrows. 

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Platypus

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The Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is a semi-aquatic monotreme (egg-laying) marsupial (pouched) mammal. It is also known as the Duck-Billed Platypus.

The Platypus has a duck-like beak, webbed feet with sharp claws like an otter, an elongated mole-like body, and a broad, flat, beaver-like tail. Its waterproof fur is brown with a whitish underbelly. The male has a venomous spur on it hind (back) feet. The female has a spur, but it is not venomous. It has small brown eyes and small nostrils. 

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Crested Wood Partridge

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The Crested Wood Partridge (Rollulus roulroul) is also called the Roul-Roul or the Red-Crowned Wood Partridge. It is a small game bird in the Phasianidae family of pheasants.

The Crested Wood Partridge is a short, rounded short-tailed bird. It has a scarlet-red patch of bare skin around its eyes with a red eye-ring. It has red legs, without a spur or hind (back) toe. The male is metallic iridescent green on its upperparts with glossy dark-blue on its underparts. It has a purplish wing panel. Its head has a white forehead spot, black bristles, and a tall red crest.

The female has pea-green body, a grey head with bristles but no spot and no crest.  It has a brownish wing panel. The male and female have a dark-grey beak and pink-grey to red legs.

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What is the difference between a dewclaw and a spur?

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What is the difference between a dewclaw and a spur? 

A dewclaw is a small digit on the foot of many mammals, birds, and reptiles. The dewclaw is at the back of each leg, above the ankle or foot. The dewclaw is mostly on the front feet, but can also be on the back feet. When the animal is standing it does not make contact with the ground.

Dogs, domestic cats, wild cats, lions, and cloven-hoofed animals, such as pigs and deer, have a dewclaw. Giraffes and horses do not have a dewclaw.

A spur is a bone covered in horn that grows out of an animal’s body. Spurs grow on the hind (back) feet. Some birds have spurs on the edge of their wings.

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Indian Peafowl

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The Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus) is also called the Blue Peafowl. It is a large colourful bird native to South Asia.

The male peafowl is called a peacock. A female peafowl is called a peahen. A mixed group of males and females are called peafowl.

The Indian Peafowl has mainly blue and green feathers with a fan tail. The tail feathers have round tufts of short blue-green feathers that look like eyes. Males have a long tail, called a train with more than 200 feathers. Peahens do not have the train. The male has a metallic blue crown with a blue-green crest. Peahens have chestnut and green crest. It has a pale beak and pale legs. Peacocks have a spur on their leg. It has white lines near its eyes.

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Yellow-Necked Spurfowl

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The Yellow-Necked Spurfowl (Pternistis leucoscepus) is also called the Yellow-Necked Francolin. It is an East African bird, found in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.

The Yellow-Necked Spurfowl is a medium-sized terrestrial (ground) bird with dark-grey feathers, flecked with white. It has a grey head, a red mask around its eyes, and a yellow patch on its neck. It has a short, dark-grey beak and dark-grey legs.

Each of their legs has one short spur at the back. A spur is an outgrowth of bone, similar to a horn. Only spurfowl, turkeys, and guineafowl have spurs on the back of their legs. The spurs might be used in defense.

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