Zoo animals provide a great deal of enjoyment to visitors. Throughout the United States, and throughout the world, millions of children and adults are provided the opportunity to observe thousand of different kinds of animals. Quite often, this will be the only chance people will ever have to become familiar with these animals.

While visitors may not be aware of the care that is required to keep the animals healthy and happy, those who work at the zoos must accomplish a wide variety of tasks. Of course the animals must be properly housed and sheltered. Different species require different habitats and even different temperatures in order to thrive. Nutritional requirements vary widely between different animals. And of course, all of the medical needs of the animals must be met.

Weighing scales play an important role in a number of different roles at the zoo. Usually, the amount of food required by the animals must be weighed. The digital scales used must be able to withstand a wet environment, as they may often need to be washed after use. The electronic scales will probably need to be moved to different locations to serve a number of different animal habitats. So they must be quite rugged. While these scales may be either bench scales, platform scales or even floor scales, they may need to be quite portable, and may therefore need to run from battery power.

It is often also necessary to weigh the individual animals for medical reasons. While human medication is often a standard (take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning), the weight of different individual animals of similar species may vary widely. Therefore the dosage of medication may be directly related to the weight of the animal.

Because of the different overall sizes and weights of different species, a wide range of veterinary scales may be required. Bench scales would be suitable for weighing smaller animals, such as birds, small reptiles, cats, and a wide variety of other small species. Animal scales for larger species may be platform scales that can weigh up to 1000 lb. Different size digital scales are suitable for different animals. Some standard size platforms include 20” x 27”, 22” x 44”, and even larger sizes up to 27” x 60”. Depending on the type of animal, specially sized animal scales up to 48” x 48” may also be fabricated.

Veterinary scales for even the largest animals, such as hippos and elephants, are available with capacities up toe 20,000 lb. Of course, these large floor scales have much larger platforms. They start at sizes of 4’ x 4’. Some other popular sizes are 4’ x 6’, 5’ x 7’, and 6’ x 8’. Again, even larger size floor scales may be specially fabricated, up to platform sizes of 8’ x 12’.

With all of the platform scales and large floor scales, one of the most important features is the ruggedness and durability of the digital scale. Perhaps the most critical components of the scale are the load cells that are attached to the scale platform. These devices convert the weight on the platform into an electrical signal that may be converted into a digital number to be shown on the electronic indicator. While many veterinary scales utilize aluminum load cells, they may be quite susceptible to damage from shock loading. This may easily occur when the scales are moved to different locations within the zoo. A much better choice for the load cell material is stainless steel. Not only is it much less likely to be damaged when the scale is handled, but it is also more resistant to moisture and corrosive fluids that animal scales are subjected to. A further advantage is that stainless steel is stronger than aluminum, so the load cells may be smaller. This allows the scale platform to offer a lower profile, making it easier for the animals to step up onto it. Some higher quality veterinary scales, such as those manufactured by Arlyn Scales, only use stainless steel load cells for all of their scales, including the bench scales, platform scales and large floor scales.

Depending on the type of animal being weighed, the material of the platform may also be important. Welded aluminum is an excellent choice, as it will not rust when exposed to water, and is quite light in weight. This makes it easier to move the scale. If the animal scale is meant to be used for weighing sea animals, such as seals, which live in a salt water environment, it is preferable to select a scale that is fabricated entirely from stainless steel.
ArlyScales.com’ goal is to provide clients with superiority in equipment and service unrivaled in the scale industry. For almost 30 years Arlyn has manufactured top of the line industrial weighing equipment with an accent on quality, accuracy, advanced technology and durability. From Zoo Scales to Industrial scales and everything in between.

Butterfly

Some kinds of butterflies have special wing patterns that tell other animals that they are poisonous. Other edible butterflies try to copy this same pattern, allowing them to trick predators.

Chameleon

Chameleons are a kind of lizard that can change color as the light or temperature changes, or when it is scared.  The chameleon has a very long sticky tongue that darts out of its mouth to catch insects. Chameleons grow up to twenty-five inches long.

Gorilla

Gorilla’s live mostly in Zaire, and are very large. They can be up to 5′6″ tall and weigh 600 pounds, with an arm span of 9 feet. Gorilla’s have coarse black hair. Even though they are very gentle animals, their scary appearance makes them disliked, so they are portrayed as large (true), scary (false), and cruel (false).

Jaguar

Jaguars can climb trees and swim to catch their prey, but they are known for their fast running. The jaguar is large and orange with black or brown spots, but no stripes. It likes to hunt weaker animals, so it can win without a fight.

Macaw

Macaws are mainly blue and yellow and have strong hooked beaks. They have white faces and long, colorful tails. They can be up to 39 inches long. Macaws live in South America, and there are 11 species altogether.

SLOTH

There are two kind of sloths, and both are very shy and quiet. The two kinds are the three toed sloth and the two toed sloth. They are mammals and live for about ten years. Sloths stay up in trees most of the day, almost never coming down. They like to do things upside down, even sleep!

Animals are interesting, no matter what species they are. Animals that live out in the wild, I think, are the most intriguing.

Each and every one of the wildlife mammals, reptiles and birds on our planet have an individual and unique survival plan. Each different species of wildlife animal have their own hierarchies and family structures, diets and mating rituals, just to name a few behaviours. Most animals featured here come from Africa, Asia, America and Australia. For animals from the British Isles, you can visit our new section, British Wildlife.

With the ever increasing amount of wildlife animals becoming endangered species and their survival threatened daily, awareness must be spread.

Wildlife at Animal Corner hopes to help spread awareness as well as providing valuable and interesting wildlife animal information. By looking through our wildlife section, you can discover specific animal diets, reproduction and behaviour and which animals are constantly struggling to survive and what conservation programs are in progress to try and help those animals, some which are on the verge of extinction.

White Rhino

DESCRIPTION: This is the worlds second largest land mammal by mass.  Weighing up to three tonnes, only the African elephant is larger.

This animal is a docile and peaceful grazer of the African savannah.  Unfortunately, because of human intervention and the belief in many countries of the East that rhino horn has magical properties, the horn commands an extremely high price.  This has led to rhino populations throughout the world being decimated in this century.

STATUS AND DISTRIBUTION: There are 5 distinct species, the Asian: one horned (around 2400), the Black: (around 3100), the White: (around 11670), the Sumatran: (around 300) and the Javan: (around 60 animals left).  The numbers given are recent estimates.

They are so vulnerable to mans weapons, there was possibly only 30 White rhinos left at the end of the last century. The word ‘white’ is derived from the Afrikaans word for wide, and relates to its wide mouth, not its colour.  This mouth acts as a giant lawnmower taking up vast quantities of grass.

The horns of rhino are unusual in that they lie along the middle of the snout and do not have a bony centre. They are made of many fibres of the same chemical that makes hair and nails. Sadly the Far Eastern cultures prize rhino horn for its so-called medicinal properties. Even though it is only the same as finger nails. In parts of Arabia the horns are used as a status symbol and made into dagger handles. To get the horns the animals are killed.

LIFE HISTORY: Rhinos rely mostly on their sense of smell and they have rather poor vision. Their hearing is good. Rhinos make many sounds, from roars and squeals to bleats, they sound too gentle for such massive animals.

Here at South Lakes we have four Wide Lipped Rhinos. Two males - Mazungo, born at Whipsnade and Hubbke, born at Safari Beekse Bergen. They were joined by Tala and Ntombi on the 28th September 2003, who arrived from a reserve in South Africa. Planned breeding should take place in 2004/5.

Balloon modeling or balloon twisting is the shaping of special modeling balloons into almost any given shape, often a balloon animal. People who create balloon animals and other twisted balloon sculptures are called Twisters. Twisters often work as busker, clowns, or restaurant entertainers.
A variety of single balloon animals, (bears)
A multiple balloon sculpture, created by Waukesha, Wisconsin artist for use as a displayTwo of the primary design styles are single balloon modeling, which restricts itself to the use of one balloon per model, and multiple balloon modeling, which uses more than one balloon. Each style has its own set of challenges and skills, but few twisters who have reached an intermediate or advanced skill level limit themselves to one style or another. Depending on the needs of the moment, they might easily move between the one-balloon or multiple approaches, or they might even incorporate additional techniques such as “weaving” and “stuffing”. Modeling techniques have evolved to include a range of very complex moves, and a highly specialized vocabulary has emerged to describe the techniques involved and their resulting creations.

Some twisters inflate their balloons with their own lungs, and for many years this was a standard and necessary part of the act. However, many now use a pump of some sort, whether it is a hand pump, an electric pump plugged in or run by a battery pack, or a compressed gas tank containing air or nitrogen. Twisters do not generally fill their creations with helium, as these designs will not usually float anyway. The balloons for twisting are too porous for helium and the designs are generally too heavy for their size for helium to lift.

Source:

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Author: suegold

Training dogs using positive reinforcement and reward training has long been recognized as both highly effective for the owner and a positive experience for the dog. Positive reinforcement training is so important that it is the only method used to train dangerous animals like lions and tigers for work in circuses and in the movie and television industry. Proponents of positive reinforcement swear by the effectiveness of their techniques, and it is true that the vast majority of dogs respond well to these training methods.One reason that positive reinforcement training is so effective is that is uses rewards to teach the dog what is expected of it. When the dog performs the desired behavior, he is provided with a reward, most often in the form of a food treat, but it could be a scratch behind the ears, a rub under the chin or a pat on the head as well. The important thing is that the dog is rewarded consistently for doing the right thing.

Reward training has become increasingly popular in recent years, but chances are some sort of reward training between humans and dogs has been going on for hundreds if not thousands of years.

When understanding what makes reward training so effective, some knowledge of the history of humans and dogs is very helpful. The earliest dogs were probably wolf pups that were tamed and used by early humans for protection from predators, as alarm systems and later for guarding and herding livestock. It is possible that the wolf pups that made the best companions were the most easily trained, or it is possible that these early dogs were orphaned or abandoned wolf pups. Whatever their origin, there is little doubt today that the vast variety of dogs we see today have their origin in the humble wolf.

Wolf packs, like packs of wild dogs, operate on a strict pack hierarchy. Since wolf and dog packs hunt as a group, this type of hierarchy, and the cooperation it brings, is essential to the survival of the species. Every dog in the pack knows his or her place in the pack, and except in the event of death or injury, the hierarchy, once established, rarely changes.

Every dog, therefore, is hard wired by nature to look to the pack leader for guidance. The basis of all good dog training, including reward based training, is for the handler to set him or herself up as the pack leader. The pack leader is more than just the dominant dog, or the one who tells all the subordinates what to do. More importantly, the pack leader provides leadership and protection, and his or her leadership is vital to the success and survival of the pack.

It is important for the dog to see itself as part of a pack, to recognize the human as the leader of that pack, and to respect his or her authority. Some dogs are much easier to dominate than others. If you watch a group of puppies playing for a little while, you will quickly recognize the dominant and submissive personalities.

A dog with a more submissive personality will generally be easier to train using positive reinforcement, since he or she will not want to challenge the handler for leadership. Even dominant dogs, however, respond very well to positive reinforcement. There are, in fact, few dogs that do not respond well to positive reinforcement, also known as reward training.

Positive reinforcement is also the best way to retrain a dog that has behavior problems, especially one that has been abused in the past. Getting the respect and trust of an abused dog can be very difficult, and positive reinforcement is better than any other training method at creating this important bond.
No matter what type of dog you are working with, chances are it can be helped with positive reinforcement training methods. Based training methods on respect and trust, rather than on intimidation and fear, is the best way to get the most from any dog.

The author Tony Williams manages the dog behavior training website that offers access to expert dog training tools and resources and a chance to get quality dog training DVD’s and videos by an expert dog trainer.

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_841219_54.html

What is a Butterfly?

Butterfly anatomyButterflies are beautiful, flying insects with large scaly wings. Like all insects, they have six jointed legs, 3 body parts, a pair of antennae, compound eyes, and an exoskeleton. The three body parts are the head, thorax (the chest), and abdomen (the tail end).

The butterfly’s body is covered by tiny sensory hairs. The four wings and the six legs of the butterfly are attached to the thorax. The thorax contains the muscles that make the legs and wings move.

FLYING
Butterflies are very good fliers. They have two pairs of large wings covered with colorful, iridescent scales in overlapping rows. Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) are the only insects that have scaly wings. The wings are attached to the butterfly’s thorax (mid-section). Veins support the delicate wings and nourish them with blood.

Butterflies can only fly if their body temperature is above 86 degrees. Butterflies sun themselves to warm up in cool weather. As butterflies age, the color of the wings fades and the wings become ragged.

The speed varies among butterfly species (the poisonous varieties are slower than non-poisonous varieties). The fastest butterflies (some skippers) can fly at about 30 mile per hour or faster. Slow flying butterflies fly about 5 mph.

LIFE-CYCLE OF A BUTTERFLY
life cycle
Butterflies and moths undergo complete metamorphosis in which they go through four different life stages.

* Egg - A butterfly starts its life as an egg, often laid on a leaf.
* Larva - The larva (caterpillar) hatches from an egg and eats leaves or flowers almost constantly. The caterpillar molts (loses its old skin) many times as it grows. The caterpillar will increase up to several thousand times in size before pupating.
* Pupa - It turns into a pupa (chrysalis); this is a resting stage.
* Adult - A beautiful, flying adult emerges. This adult will continue the cycle.

DIET
Monarch larva Caterpillars spend most of their time eating leaves using strong mandibles (jaws). A caterpillar’s first meal, however, is its own eggshell. A few caterpillars are meat-eaters; the larva of the carnivorous Harvester butterfly eats woolly aphids.

Butterflies and moths can only sip liquid food using a tube-like proboscis, which is a long, flexible “tongue.” This proboscis uncoils to sip food, and coils up again into a spiral when not in use. Most butterflies live on nectar from flowers. Some butterflies sip the liquid from rotting fruits and a rare few prefer rotting animal flesh or animal fluids (the Harvester butterfly pierces the bodies of woolly aphids with its sharp proboscis and drinks the body fluids).

HABITAT
Butterflies are found all over the world and in all types of environments: hot and cold, dry and moist, at sea level and high in the mountains. Most butterfly species, however, are found in tropical areas, especially tropical rainforests.

butterflyMany butterflies migrate in order to avoid adverse environmental conditions (like cold weather). Butterfly migration is not well understood. Most migrate relatively short distances (like the Painted Lady, the Red Admiral, and the Common Buckeye), but a few (like some Monarchs) migrate thousands of miles.

CLASSIFICATION
Butterflies and moth belong to the order Lepidoptera. Lepidos is Greek for “scales” and ptera means “wing”. These scaled wings are different from the wings of any other insects. Lepidoptera is a very large group; there are more types of butterflies and moths than there are of any other type of insects except beetles. It is estimated that there are about 150,000 different species of butterflies and moths (there may be many more). There are about 28,000 butterfly species worldwide, the rest are moths.

BUTTERFLY FOSSILS
Butterfly fossils are rare. The earliest butterfly fossils are from the early Cretaceous period, about 130 million years ago. Their development is closely linked to the evolution of flowering plants (angiosperms) since both adult butterflies and caterpillars feed on flowering plants, and the adults are important pollinators of many flowering plants. Flowering plants also evolved during the Cretaceous period.

The Blue Morpho Butterfly (Morpho menelaus) is an iridescent blue butterfly that lives in rainforests of South and Central America, including Brazil, Costa Rica, and Venezuela.

Anatomy:The Blue Morpho Butterfly is a species of neotropical butterfly that has brilliant blue wings (the females are are not as brilliantly colored as the males and have a brown edge with white spots surrounding the iridescent blue area). The undersides (visible when the butterfly is resting) are brown with bronze-colored eyespots. The Blue Morpho has a wingspan of about 6 inches (15 cm). Adults drink the juices of rotting fruit using their straw-like proboscis.

The caterpillar of the Blue Morpho is red-brown with bright patches of lime-green on the back, and it eats the plant Erythroxylum pilchrum nocturnally (at night).

Classification:

Order Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), Family Nymphalidae (brush-footed butterflies), Genus Morpho, Species menelaus.