Chinkara Deer

Physical appearance : Its total height is 65 cm and weigh around 23

kg. Males have short horns. Horns of the females are soft or missing.
Its summer coat is warm biscuit or reddish in colour, with smooth
glossy fur. In winter the white belly or throat fur is in greater contrast.
The sides of the face have dark chestnut stripes from the corner of
the eye to the muzzle bordered by the white stripes. It's tail is
covered with a dorsal crest of black hairs. It is the smallest antelope
found in Asia.
Presence in India : Chinkara is widely distributed in India. It is
mostly found in Rajasthan, north western and central parts of India. They could also be
spotted in the Bandhavgarh and Ranthambore National Park.
Habitat : Chinkara prefers grasslands, desert areas, woodlands and shrub lands to live.
Diet : Their diet include all types of vegetation. The feed on grass, leaves and wild
fruits. They can live without water for longer period of time.
Reproduction : Chinkara can mate throughout the year. Gestation period lasts for 5 -6
months. Females give birth to one or two young ones. There are two birth peaks the
major one in April and the minor one in Autumn.
Conservation status : Endangered species, considered as extremely vulnerable. It is
widely haunted for games.
Lifespan : The lifespan of Chinkara is upto 12 - 15 years.

Ostrich (Struthio camelus)

OstrichAt 2.5 m (8 ft.) tall, the ostrich is the worlds
largest and heaviest bird. Its significant weight, up to
145 kg (320 lb.), prohibits the bird from taking flight.
But the ostrich has many unique abilities that make it
well-adapted to living in the savanna, desert, and open
woodlands of central and southern Africa.

The ostrich is equipped with long, muscular legs built

for running. Unlike other birds, who have three or four toes, ostriches have only two
toes on each foot which allows for greater speed. They can sprint as fast as 70 km/h
(43 mph) and hold steady speeds of 50 km/h (31 mph). One stride can span 3-5 m (10-
16 ft.)! When confronted with danger, ostriches can usually outrun any animals posing
a threat.

Their diet consists mainly of roots, leaves, and seeds, but ostriches will eat whatever is
available. Sometimes they consume insects, snakes, lizards, and rodents. They also
swallow sand and pebbles which help them grind up their food in their gizzard, a
specialized, muscular stomach. Because ostriches have this ability to grind food, they
can eat things that other animals cannot digest.

ostrich_eggs: Both the male and female ostriches take turns incubating the eggs.
Each egg is 15 cm (6 in.) long and weighs 1.5 kg (3 lb.). Ostrich eggs are the largest in
the world!

Penguin:
Emperor penguins spend their entire lives on Antarctic
ice and in its waters. They survivebreeding, raising
young, and eatingby relying on a number of clever
adaptations.

These flightless birds breed in the winter. After a

courtship of several weeks, a female emperor penguin
lays one single egg then leaves! Each penguin egg's
father balances it on his feet and covers it with his brood pouch, a very warm layer of
feathered skin designed to keep the egg cozy. There the males stand, for about 65
days, through icy temperatures, cruel winds, and blinding storms.
Finally, after about two months, the females return from the sea, bringing food they
regurgitate, or bring up, to feed the now hatched chicks. The males eagerly leave for
their own fishing session at sea, and the mothers take over care of the chicks for a
while.

As the young penguins grow, adults leave them in groups of chicks called crches while
they leave to fish. There is a reason for the timing of emperor penguins' hatching. By
December, when the Antarctic weather has warmed somewhat, the ice the penguins
occupy begins to break up, bringing open waters closer to the nesting sites. Now the
chicks are old enough to take to the seas and fish for their own food.

Vulture
he vulture is a large, carnivorous bird that is most well
known for its scavenging nature. The vulture is one of the
few types of bird that is found distributed so widely around
the world, as vultures are found on every continent
excluding the Antarctic and Australia and the islands that
surround it.
Different species of vultures of firstly classified into two
groups, the old world vultures and the new world vultures.
There are thought to be nearly 30 different species of vulture that are found worldwide.

The old world vultures are found in Asia, Europe and Africa with these species of vulture
thought to be most closely related to eagles and hawks. The old world vulture is not
thought to be closely related to the new world vulture and the old world vulture uses its
spectacular sight alone in order to find food.

The new world vultures are found in the Americas and although there are definitive
similarities between the old world vulture and the new world vulture, they are believed
to be connected through evolutionary status rather than DNA. The new world vultures
tend to be slightly smaller than the old world vultures and use both sight and their
excellent sense of smell in order to find their food.

All species of vulture are similar in the sense that they scavenge for their food
whenever possible rather than killing it themselves. Vultures feed on the remains of
dead animals and are never too fussy about what is left. Vultures are known to strip
meat, skin and even feathers, leaving only the skeleton of the animal remaining.

Although vultures are generally fairly solitary animals, groups of vultures are often seen
circling prey from the sky above. This movement of the vultures is called a kettle and a
group of vultures together is sometimes known as a venue.
Vultures have keen eyesight. It is believed they are able to spot a three-foot carcass
from four miles away on the open plains. In some species, when an individual sees a
carcass it begins to circle above it. This draws the attention of other vultures that then
join in. The feces of the turkey vulture contains strong acids that kill many of the
bacteria commonly associated with bird feces. Because of their diet, these birds are
able to kill harmful bacteria and viruses with their stomach acids, and halt the potential
spread of disease from rotting carcasses.

Kingfisher
The kingfisher is a small to medium sized colourful bird
generally found close to water.There are nearly 100
different species of the kingfisher bird found around the
world.
Kingfishers live both in wetlands and woodlands worldwide,
feeding mainly on fish but also insects, frogs and crayfish
with those kingfisher species that live in the woodlands
occasionally eating reptiles, birds and even small
mammals.

There are three main types of kingfisher around the globe which are the river
kingfishers, the tree kingfishers and the water kingfishers all of which have large heads,
long sharp pointed bills, short legs, and stubby tails.

The smallest species of kingfisher is the African Dwarf Kingfisher, which gets to an
average of 10.4 g in weight and just 10 cm (4 inches) in length. The largest kingfisher
species is the Giant Kingfisher, which gets to an average of 355 g (13.5 oz) and grows
to 45 cm (18 inches). However, the familiar Australian kingfisher known as the
Laughing Kookaburra may be the heaviest known kingfisher species, since large adult
Australian kingfishers exceeding 450 g in weight are quite common.

Kingfishers nest in tree hollows and holes dug into the ground, which tend to be in river
banks or at the sides of lakes. Kingfishers dig small tunnels with their nest at the end,
which can range in length depending on the species. The giant kingfisher is known to
dig tunnels that are over 8 meters long! Female kingfishers lay up to 10 eggs (although
normally less), and both the male and the female kingfishers help to incubate the eggs,
which hatch in between 3 and 4 weeks.

Kingfishers are well known for their brightly coloured feathers which range in colour
from black to red to green. Some species of kingfisher have tufts of feathers on their
heads which stick upwards, although many species of kingfishers have smooth, flat
feathers covering their bodies.

Due to their generally small size, kingfishers have a number of predators wherever they
exist around the world. The main predators of the kingfisher are foxes, raccoons, cats
and snakes, but kingfishers are also preyed upon by other small mammals and large
birds. The eggs of the kingfisher are also preyed upon by many of the kingfisher's
predators.

Many species of kingfisher are considered to be threatened species as their numbers

have been declining mainly due to habitat loss. These threatened species of kingfisher
tend to be the kingfisher species that inhabit woodland and forests as their habitat is
being destroyed due to deforestation which occurs in many areas around the world.
Tailorbird :
Tailorbird is a little beautiful bird with long tail. Always active
and restless. Tailorbird has bright olive-green upper parts
and rust colored crown. Local name of Common tailorbird is
Tuntuni. They performs short, quick darting flights.

Size of Common tailorbird is between 10 cm to 13 cm

including the tail. The Weight of adult is between 5 g. to 15
g. Tailorbird is a little beautiful bird with long tail. Tailorbird has bright olive-green upper
parts and rust colored crown. It has two elongated pinpointed feathers in the tail.
Underparts are paler, creamy buff. Thighs are rufous. Wings are short and rounded.

The Common Tailorbird, generally found in South Asia, from Pakistan and India to South
China, and Indonesia. Tailorbird also range extends from India to southern China and
down into Indonesia. It is common, mostly in the lowlands, but can range as high as
4000 ft.

Common Tailorbird feeds on insects, adults and larvae. They may also snack on small
fruits, berries, sip some nectar or eat tiny seeds. They are usually found in pairs. They
constantly shift their perch in the under story thickets, and make short, quick darting
flights.