Australian dingoes are larger than Asian dingoes. They weigh between 26 and 35 pounds. Most Australian dingoes are either a sandy color or a ginger color. Dingoes can live in the wild until they are about 10 but if they have been cared for by humans than can live as long as 15 years.

Training

Wild dingoes have had a hard time of being domesticated. They are highly intelligent animals but do not take to training to live in the human world well. They live out in the open in both Australia and Asia and have not really been domesticated successfully.

Breeding

Dingoes breed in the fall. The gestation period is 2 months. There is some concern involving genetic purity of the breed because many wild dingoes have begun to breed with stray domestic dogs. The average liter of dingo pups can range greatly between 1 and 10.

They travel in packs and the dominant or alpha female in the pack will kill puppies born to other females. The pack will all care for the young of the dominant female. The babies are weaned at 8 weeks and are fed solid foods sometimes in the form of regurgitated food from the older dingoes in the group.

They only have one liter a year.

What Do They Eat?

They are carnivores so they eat small rodents and birds. They even eat carrion (dead animals on the side of the road). They are opportunistic eaters in other words they eat what they can catch nothing is off limits. They have even been known to prey on Kangaroos.

Nuisance

Dingoes are considered a nuisance animal around Sydney and other big cities in Australia. Their unique adaptations mean that they can get into places that domestic dogs cannot. While they are truly loved in Australia they have been relegated as nuisance animals because they have been known to attack domestic livestock as well.

There are steps in place to further the conservation of the wild dingo to preserve the blood line.

So what is a desert biome? Deserts are classified by the amount of water that they get or more rightfully do not get every year. Most deserts get less than 10 inches of rain each year. They are dry places that lack humidity but they are not necessarily barren.

They are certainly not lush and green but there are plants and animals that can live in this biome. There is flora and fauna that have special adaptations that allow them to thrive in these environments

The Hot Cold Factor

Deserts can reach blistering temperatures during the day that exceed 100 degrees but because there is no humidity blanket to keep the heat in the temperature can drop drastically as soon as the daylight is gone.

Nights in the desert biomes can be below freezing! It is a very harsh environment that is hard to live in.

The Adaptations

Cactus in the desert can grow as tall as 50 feet and live for hundreds of years. They are specially adapted to the climate. Their stems hold all the water in that they can muster and they slowly sustain on it.

Animals that can live in the desert have special adaptations that allow them to sleep during the heat of the day under the ground and emerge at night to hunt. Camels are very well known desert animals that can go without water for a week or longer but that have the capacity to drink 30 gallons of water in 15 minutes to load up for the next dry period.

There are trees that grow in the desert that have long tap roots that seek water out from 30 feet or more in the earth.

There are many different types of plants and animals that have adaptations that help them to survive in this arid climate.

20% of the land mass in the world is designated as a desert biome. They are located all around the globe. These areas can see storms, wind of course, that can blow sand over 1000 miles away. There is some concern that the deserts are growing by about 30 feet per year in certain areas leaving once lush farmland useless.

There are then the Periodical Cicadas which are black or brown with red eyes that emerge after 17 years living underground in June. There are more cicadas born every year so it is different generations that emerge. There are over 2000 types of Cicadas broken up among the two main families.

Over one million Cicadas can live on one acre of land.

They live above ground after they emerge for only about 5 weeks. The male makes shrill noises that they use to attract their mate. The sound is made by two drum like membranes on their chest that they vibrate.

Life Cycle

The female lays 200-300 eggs in branch or hollowed out section of the tree. The nymphs emerge and fall to the ground where they burrow into the ground at the base of the tree. They attach themselves to the tree roots where they suck the sap of the tree for the entire time they are below ground

When it is time for them to emerge they crawl up the tree and attach themselves and eventually emerge as adults.

Where Can You Find Them?

These insects live on every continent of the world except Antarctica. In some countries cicadas are eaten. In other countries they are held in high regard and looked at as a symbol of rebirth.

Can They Fly?

Cicadas can fly but they are not so good at it. They often bump into things when they are flying around. They are often eaten by rodents and birds because they are not much of a challenge to catch. They are large and kind of sluggish so they do not move very quickly. Maybe they are sluggish because they are not necessarily use to being on land only below it.

Their Eyes

They have two prominent eyes and three smaller eyes on the tops of their heads that are single lens eyes.

Do They Sting?

Cicadas may look scary because of their large size and the loud noise they make but they are no threat to humans. They cannot bite and they do not have a stinger.

Early Life

When he was young he and his brother had a map business. They would sell maps. He had no formal education. Everything he learned he learned by reading however as an adult he did attend a school in Portugal for navigation.

He was 17 when he first started working on ships as a hand.

He had 2 sons with two different women. Both of his sons worked for Queen Isabella. His plan to find a new route to Asia was rejected by the Portugese and the Italians. He went to Spain next and pitched his plan to get the funding together.

Going Out to Sea

He embarked on his voyage in August of 1492 with the three ships from Spain. Columbus and his crew packed light. They wore the same clothing for the duration of the journey. Columbus used maps that had been created by Muslim explorers from the Mid-East.

The ship was full of rats, the crew was full of lice and many crew members fell ill and some died on the journey.

Finding the New World

A crew member spotted the land that was soon to become the New World. Other sailors had been to the country before but they just never mentioned it. Columbus actually never set foot in North America.

More than half of Columbus’s proposed journeys failed, he considered the discovery of North America a failure as well because he did not find an easier route to Asia.

Locked in Captivity

He spent a year in prison on the island of Jamaica. He is credited with introducing horses to the new world purely by accident as several jumped ship and created their own herd.

He was said to be a terrible leader whose crews often spoke of mutiny. In his journals he recorded that he had told his crew if they did not find land in 2 days that they would turn back. Rations were limited and the crew was hungry. He also noted in his journal that he had no intention of turning back.

He actually landed on islands in the Caribbean and thought that he was on islands outside of Asia. The world evidently was a lot bigger than what Columbus thought it was. Columbus Day has been celebrated in the US since 1906.

Where Do They Live?

Their white bellies help them to swim unseen among the ice.

They live in Antarctica on cliffs although they have been known to colonize on large icebergs floating around the ocean. They are around 2 feet tall and weigh around 10 lbs. There are about 13 million of these types of penguins although some estimates are much more conservative at 7 million.

What Do They Eat?

They eat mostly Krill but they can subsidize their diet with the occasional squid or fish. They can dive 230 feet but mostly the average dive is about 50-100 feet. Most dives only last about 20 seconds. They dive for feeding and the occasional frolic.

The incubation period for their eggs is about 35 days. After the fledglings hatch they remain with their parents for about 3 weeks. Both mom and dad are responsible for the incubation of the eggs and take turns sitting on the eggs for up to 5 days during the incubation period.

Life Cycle

The eggs are laid on dry land in nests. Both the males and the females participate in nest building. They form their nest by using rocks and creating a circular area. The female lays 2 eggs in each clutch. Usually one egg survives and the other one does not.

They are flightless birds that mate for life. They are very good parents. There is a story about two Chinstraps that were male that consistently tried to hatch a rock that they found. This pair lived in Central Park Zoo.

A zookeeper put a fertilized egg in with the pair that they hatched and raised. This endearing story has been immortalized in books.

Who Eats the Chinstrap?

They have several predators with the leopard seal as the primary threat to the adults. Baby chicks and eggs are at risk of being eaten by birds because of their size they are usually unable to stave off predators.

They can live up to 15 years in the wild and up to 20 years in captivity.

They live in Africa and can live in any area. They can live in trees, under rocks or logs and in abandoned hutches of other animals. They can travel up to 12 miles per hour over short distances on longer journeys their travel speed is about 7 miles per hour.

Their Reputation

The Black Mamba has a terrible reputation and rightfully so. While most snakes really just want to be left alone and will not bite unless provoked the Black Mamba is an unforgiving snake that will strike before putting on a show meant to scare its threat away.

They have been well known to strike out at people that have simply walked by. They will strike several times very quickly and deposit quite a bit of toxin when they do.

They are attributed with many deaths every year. They can stand up with their first third of the body off the ground up to 3 feet tall which is their striking position so the bites are usually closer to the upper art of the body.

Just two drops of their fast acting venom starts to take effect on the nervous system.

They Are Not Black

You would think that you should be on the lookout for a black snake but they are not black they are dark brown in color. They get their name from the dark black interior of their mouths. When they open their mouths all you see is black.

They Lay Eggs and Can Live Together.

Like other snakes the Black Mamba lays eggs. She usually anywhere between 3 and 25 eggs and never sees them again. The babies hatch at about 3 months later and emerge about 16-24 inches long and able to get along on their own.

They sometimes travel in groups of two to three snakes and will return to their sleeping or nesting place together every night.

What Do They Eat?

Black Mambas eat rodents, birds and other small mammals although there have been stories of Black Mambas being cut open and finding full size Cobras in their belly undigested.

Standing Their Ground

There are actually 65 species of Betta fish. Male Bettas are very feisty and territorial they will attack each other or other fish. The males will flare up when they are threatened or are trying to make a stand for their territory. They are solitary fish that just like to live alone. They were actually bred at one time to fight. They are very smart fish and have been trained to jump through hoops and find their way through a maze.

Survival

They can breathe air. Unlike other fish that do not have the capacity to breath in oxygen, Bettas have special adaptations that allow them to breath in oxygen. The Labyrinth is a special organ that is lung like that allows them to breathe air out of water. This works to their advantage because they live in streams and low water tables.

What Do They Eat?

They are carnivores. They eat other fish, shrimp and blood worms. They are fresh water tropical fish. They can go up to 4 days without food which scientists believe is another adaptation because the food supply may not be ample in their shallow homes.

Like to be Heard

They can also live up to 4 hours outside of the water. They can actually drown in water if they cannot get to the top to breath. Betta’s have been known to jump out of tanks where they are not happy with the quality of water or the living conditions so most Betta tanks have lids to keep them from jumping out.

Raising Their Own Young

The male raises the young. The female lays the eggs and his chased away. The male will stick around for a while to make sure all goes well. He builds a nest at the top of the tank or the water that they live in and carries the eggs to the nest. He will stick around to make sure the fry make it but unfortunately he will eat his offspring once they get moving on their own so it is hard to tell if he is just being a good dad or making sure he has a nice upcoming meal.

In Thailand Betta fighting is still practiced and people bet on the battles.

There are many anecdotal stories about this great mind. One refers to a clock that he built. Without ever really seeing a watch, other than viewing a friends pocket watch he devised a clock made entirely from wood that ran until after his death. He used season wood to carve out the gears.

Early Life

He was born in Baltimore County Maryland in 1731 to an African freed slave and his mixed heritage mother who was the daughter of a freed slave and an English mother. His mother may have given him the advantage that he needed to foster a love of learning.

His mother and his grandmother taught him to read and he would practice reading every night by reading the bible to his family. He did attend a Quaker school as a child for a couple of years but that was the only formal education that he had.

Astronomer

He pursued education on his own throughout his life time and taught himself literature, math and other subjects simply for the love of learning. At 58 he fell in love with the stars and began mapping out the constellations with a borrowed telescope and tools.

He created an almanac of where the planets would be on each day of the year. He was met with many rejection slips before he was finally published.

Dialog with Jefferson

Benjamin Banneker was truly a man before his time. He communicated with Thomas Jefferson with regards to the slave trade in the US and other issues and Mr. Jefferson, including his calculations. The letter opened up the door to multiple correspondences between the two.

The correspondence was than published in a pamphlet. Jefferson forwarded Benjamin’s calculations to Marquis de Condorcet, the secretary of the Académie des Sciences in Paris. The pamphlet that was created using the letters back and forth received tons of publicity right around the time that the almanac was published.

Mr. Banneker never married. His manuscript with calculations and notes has been preserved and tested many times over given proof to his genius. He was able to achieve amazingly accurate results with a small telescope and the desire to achieve.

1. The union soldiers were created with the win but according to the number of casualties that both sides had suffered there was no winner of this battle. There were around 23,186 Union losses and 31,621 Confederate soldiers that lost their life in this war.

2. There was estimated to be 72,000 horses present. There were over 5000 horses and mules that perished in the battle.

3. The battle was actually fought in several different towns. At the end of the battle every building including schools, private homes, churches and saloons were used to house the injured.

4. Limbs were amputated without any anesthetic. The injuries were horrific. The dead were left to the union soldiers to bury because they held the battle field. Many of the commanders allowed the soldiers that were charged with the task of cleaning up the bodies to drink hard liquor before they started the task.

5. Information was slow coming out of the battle field and families clamored for news about the injured and the dead. It was estimated that 1 out of every 4 soldiers died on the battle field and of the 3 that was left out of the 42 were seriously wounded. That means that only 1 out of every 4 soldiers survived the battle without mortal wounds.

6. The wagon train that took the injured confederate soldiers back to Virginia was 17 miles long.

7. There were 120 Generals at the battle. After the battle ended 40000 rifles were collected with over 20000 still loaded. Right before the battle began General Lee had a heart attack.

8. There is a long held rumor that the battle started because Confederate soldiers moved into Gettysburg looking for shoes but there is no reason to believe that Gettysburg had any more appeal than any other place for the procurement of shoes.

9. The confederate soldiers were ill equipped to fight the battle. They were outnumbered on the battle field had less artillery available and were in poor physical health.

10. Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg address was a short 2 minute speech.

They are terrestrial animals which means that they live mostly on the ground but they do climb trees to sleep or for food. The males are considerably larger than the females. The males can weigh twice as much as the females.

The average male weighs around 75 lbs while the average female weighs in at about 40lbs. They can get as large as 100 lbs. They stand about 3 feet tall at their shoulder. Males and females look a lot alike except for their size and the fact that the males have a collar of long fur and females do not.

The Diet

Baboons are opportunistic eaters. They are omnivores that eat both meat and vegetation. They are choosy eaters but not necessarily hunters. They will eat berries and leaves AND they will eat small animals that they come across. They eat fish, birds, insects and small mammals.

They also have adopted a taste for human food and will readily snatch some when they have the chance.

The Troop

Baboons live in troops or groups that include around 50 members. There are more females in the troop than there are males. The males lead the group. The dominant males lead the way when the travel which they always do together. The middle of the troop is reserved for females and the young while the young males pull up the rear of the group.

The young males can hang around until they reach sexual maturation between the age of 5-8 when their fate is than decided by the females in the troop. Most of the young males will be send on their way but some can stay if they earn the right.

Young males earn their way into the hearts of the females by providing protection. Baboons have a very strict hierarchy. The alpha males, the leaders, are not very willing to give up their position in the troop and will fight to the death if necessary to protect their place in the troop.

Baboons are very territorial and mark their land. They usually do not accept new members into the troop without a fight. Visitors are not welcome. Other baboons from other troops may wander into their territory but they will not stay for too long without being confronted and having to deal with a fight on their hands.

They can be very vicious when they are protecting their territory and literally rip an intruder to pieces.

Behavior

Baboons are considered some of the smartest animals on the planet because of the way they interact with each other and adapt to their environment. They have been observed using reason skills and even planning. They have a very strict social order and spend hours a day grooming each other. The grooming takes place during the hottest parts of the day and serves two purposes. One of course is to keep the bugs out of their fur and the other is a bonding experience. By pulling bugs out of each others fur they are “caring” for each other and providing a very valuable service to each other. It is how they get to know one another.

They are creatures of habit. They rise around the same time everyday, they travel together to find food, they stop to groom, than they all return to their sleeping spot around the same time everyday. This is how they live their lives, very ordered routine.

They have over 30 different sounds that they make to communicate. They can also shrug their shoulders to express themselves. They yawn when they are bored with a conversation and will use hand gestures as well to express themselves. They are very communicative with each other and use their language skills to relay information about intruders, danger, joy and to just convey ideas.

They grunt, screech, bark and growl in an attempt to be heard and understood.

Predators

The baboon can be preyed upon by all the big cats like lions and cheetahs. They also have to watch out for crocodiles as adults. Pythons are also a threat. The young are preyed upon by eagles and hyenas. They will defend each other unlike other animals that take off when one of them is attacked baboons will run toward the attacker and fight them off to rescue a member of the troop.

Babies

Baboons like all mammals have a gestation phase and give birth to their young. The gestation period is about 6 months. They can mate any time of the year but only mate once a year. They generally give birth to one baby at a time.

Mom will carry the baby close to her belly until the baby is old enough to hang on to her back. The baby will stay close by mom until they are about 6 months old, than they will take their place in the troop with other juveniles. Males will be assessed for worthiness and either remain with the troop or be sent off on their own.

Females stay with the troop for life. The males that are sent away will join another troop after a lengthy fight. While sending the males away may sound a bit cruel it is actually necessary to insure that the lines are not too closely related. Males usually assimilate into other troops slowly by making friends with a female.

Life Expectancy

Baboons enjoy a long life (by wild animal standards) of about 30 years in the wild and 45 years in captivity. Throughout their life time they can breed many times but usually stop breeding by the time they are 15 years old.

Living Conditions

Baboons are more likely than other animals to interact with humans and because of their outgoing nature are viewed as pests in certain areas of Africa. They are actually more than pests in certain villages and towns that they live near. They have been well known to wander into the town or village and pretty much take what they want including valuable resources like food and pillaging crops.

Most of the time the problem is that the village or town has been erected in what was once the baboons territory. They move through the town or village like they own it and have a right to be there because they do. Unfortunately this has made them the target of angry villagers and led to hunting them. Some species are actually endangered because of the land encroachment (loss of habitat).

Conservation efforts have been underway to prevent future losses. It is the hope that through education and relocation practices that all the species of baboon will be around for a long time.