Porcupines are the largest rodents of the subcontinent and among the largest in the world. Their dorsal hair is modified into thick, stiff spines of quills. These are usually banded black and white or deep brown and white and are easily shed if damaged or during a struggle. Quills are found commonly shed on forest floors throughout India and along with cigar-droppings, give away the presence of the animal , Porcupines need calcium to grow quills, so they eat bones and shed antlers from the forest floor.
INDIANPORCUPINE
Local Name: Sayal(Hindi), Sheval(Marathi), Mullan panni(Tamil), shojaru(Bengali).
The most common and largest porcupine of India, this thickest rodent is covered with long black and white quills with a long crest of spines flowing from the forehead to the middle of the back. Its tail ends in a bunch of thick quills. In southern a sub-species often referred to “Red Porcupine” has quills with rusty tinge in its back. The Indian Porcupine is know to destroy crops near the forest margins and eat up the bark of trees at ground level.
Habitat and occurrence: Rocky hill slides, open countryside, and deciduous forest throughout India. Inhabits burrows, thick bush, and tall grass.
ASIATIC BRUSH-TAILED PORCUPINE
Local Name: Ketela pohu(Assamese), Shojaru(Bengali)
These species is the smallest and most endangered of the Indian Porcupines. It lacks the characteristic long quills of the others. Itsquills are short and spiny like those of a hedgehog. The first third of its scaly tail is spineless and the rest is covered in a swatch of quills. Each tail quill has a rice-grain sized round enlargement at the tip. Little research has been carried out on this rare species that is not easily spotted n the wild. Interestingly, the Asiatic-Brush-tailed porcupine has a distribution in West Africa and in Peninsular South Asia-perhaps indicative of a time when the two continents were connected by an unbroken stretch of forests.
Habitat and Occurrence: Evergreen forests, especially hilly areas of Northeast India.
Characteristics Thick, bushy tail Short muzzle Large Incisors Arboreal lifestyle
Indian Squirrels at Glance
Number of species
27
Largest
Indian Giant Squirrel
Smallest
Himalayan Striped Squirrel
Most Endangered
Layard’s Striped Squirrel
A squirrel is amedium to large sized rodent with a long, bushy tail/ There are several variations in form, behavior, and appearance within this large family of rodents. Currently, taxonomists divide the family into two sub-families: Sciurinae and petauristinae. Within Sciurinae, the Ratufini tribe comprisesgiant squirrels that live in the tropical forests of southern and eastern India. The Funambulini tribe comprises the striped squirrels. The Callosciurini tribe contains all the non-striped diurnal squirrels, including the northeastern species such as the Pallas’s, the Hoary-bellied, and the Orange-bellied squirrels. The squirrels in the Petauristinae sub-family are nocturnal and include the flying squirrels. In reality, these do not fly but merely glide with the aid of flaps of skin that connect their limbs. The two ground-dwelling marmots are also considered to be members of the Sciuridae family. Squirrels build nests or dreys in tree branches or occupy tree branches or occupy tree holes.
Woodland is home for most squirrels as trees provide plenty of food and shelter. The best habitat for squirrels is an old wood with a mixture of trees and good ground cover, with bulbs, fungi and berry-bearing bushes. Good food trees for Grey Squirrels include Oak, Hazel, Ash, Field Maple, Sycamore, Hornbeam and Sweet Chestnut. Grey Squirrels can adapt to the open and are commonly found in parks and gardens. Home for a squirrel is either a nest called a drey hidden in the high branches, or a den in a hollow tree. These provide shelter and a place to rear their young. They are also known to get access to loft spaces when our roofs are in need of repair. Squirrels' diet varies, depending on the season and what is available. They eat catkins, flowers, rose hips, shoots and bark. They may even rob nests in spring, taking both eggs and young birds. However, their most important natural food is tree seed. Squirrels store seeds and nuts by burying them just below the surface of the soil. They make numerous caches with only a couple of nuts or seeds in each one. The squirrels' keen sense of smell helps them find these caches when food is scarce.
A large powerful bird of prey, swooping down and snatching up its next victim?
Or maybe you imagine a beautiful and noble bird with very likable qualities.
Actually, eagles are all of that and more.
In the United States, the Bald Eagle is a symbol of justice, strength, and fairness. The Bald Eagle is US national symbol. To the rest of the world the eagle may bring to mind many different images. That is because there are many different types of eagles. In fact there are about 59 different species of eagles throughout the world, and they can be found on every continent except Antarctica.
As members of the same species, the 59 different eagles share a lot of things in common. They are all predators or raptors, they are excellent fliers, and they all have excellent vision.
Eagles have strong, hooked bills and powerful talons adapted to their flesh-eating mode of life. They catch their prey with their feet and the claws of the rear toe and the central of the front three toes close together powerfully, killing their victims. The length of the toes and claws is more closely correlated with the size of the prey than with the size of the eagle itself.
The flight of eagles is powerful and often soaring. Some that take their prey on the ground swoop down on it from hunting perches on cliffs or branches. Like other raptors, eagles regurgitate pellets containing undigested feathers, hair, and bone fragments; ornithologists use these to study the birds' feeding habits in a particular region.
The female, usually larger than the male, chooses the nesting site and does most of the building. Eagles tend to renew old nests, adding only twigs and lining; such nests may be used year after year and for many generations. Most eagles lay two to three eggs. Incubation begins with the laying of the first egg, so that the firstborn is older and larger than its siblings.
Would you like to know hoe an eagle chooses her mate?
The eagle is such a wonderful creature that has a lot to offer to life. When the male eagle reaches the age of three, it begins the process of wooing the female eagle but there are some key requirements it must fulfill to get the nod or total approval of the female eagle in the proposed relationship. The two undergo a process called tagging that usually lasts for a couple of days in which the male eagle proves whether he is truly qualified to foot the bill of the female eagle. Amongst the fundamental qualities that the female eagle looks for in the male eagle is his trustworthiness and his ability to cater for her and her eaglets when they are born.
You may wonder, how does the female eagle confirm this and what are the pointers she looks for in the male eagle?
Let’s check this out - during the process of tagging, the female eagle conducts some exercises which tests these abilities in the male eagle. They are as follows:
The female eagle takes a stick in a three dimensional figure-eight pattern in the air to heights reaching as high as 10,000 feet above the ground level and then drops it. She requires the male eagle to catch it before it reaches the ground and return it to her.
The female eagle repeats this process every time by reducing the height with which it flies above ground level and using a larger stick but increases the speed at which it drops the stick. She expects the male eagle to pick the stick up each time without allowing it to fall to the ground and returning it to her.
She continues this until the height of flight above the ground is just about 500 feet. At this point, the male eagle goes through the greatest test of the whole exercise. If he fails here, he is given the boot out of the relationship but if he succeeds, he wins the heart of the female eagle completely.
The question is; why this stress? or whole exercise?
The female eagle takes the male eagle through all these because she wants to be sure that the male eagle has the following abilities/qualities:
He is dependable friend
To find out whether he is very fit to be her husband
She wants to be sure that when the baby eaglets are born, he would be able to catch them when she is teaching the eaglets how to fly. This is because the process of teaching the eaglets how to fly requires her to drop them and see whether they can fly, and should they has any struggles in flying; the male eagle is expected to catch them before they crash land.
He is patient enough to be the head and overseas the affairs of their proposed family
Even the greatest and most powerful have weak moments. At such times, they may need a push before they stretch their wings and fly. Golden and bald eagles are among the largest and most powerful birds in the world. Eagles are symbols of strength, bravery and courage -- and proud independence. Even then, their independence must be learned.
As young eaglets, the nest is comfortable, safe, and secure. But if the eaglets are to survive on their own, they must leave the comfort of the nest and learn to fly! To convince the eaglets that it is time to leave the parents make the nest uncomfortable by tearing up the bedding with their talons, allowing the sticks and sharp ends to be exposed.
The mother eagle then beats her wings at the eaglets, harassing them, and driving them forward. Cowering before such an attack, the little eaglets climb up on the edge of the nest, only to be pushed over the side by the mother eagle.The eagle gently coaxed her offspring toward the edge of the nest. Her heart quivered with conflicting emotions as she felt their resistance to her persistent nudging. “Why does the thrill of soaring have to begin with the fear of falling?” she thought. This ageless question was still unanswered for her.
Despite her fears, the eagle knew it was time; her parental mission was all but complete. There remained one final task – THE PUSH.
The eagle drew courage from an innate wisdom. Until her children
discovered their wings, there was no purpose for their lives outside the nest. Until they learned to soar, they would fail to understand the privilege it was to have been born an eagle. The push was the greatest gift she had to offer. It was her supreme act of love. And so, one by one, she pushed them. The eaglet falls, its wings struggling to catch the air currents, but flopping out of control due to inexperienceJust before the eaglet crashes upon the rocks below, the mother eagle swoops down, catches it on her back, and soars upward into the sky. Much relieved, the young eaglet feels safe, until suddenly, without warning, the mother eagle dives downward, depriving the little eaglet of its grip. Once again it finds itself plummeting toward the ground.
Repeatedly the eaglet is dumped then rescued until it learns to catch the rising air currents and ride the winds. Its wings strengthen and soon the eaglet soars high above the earth, taking on the character of a true eagle.
Unfortunately, some eaglets refuse to use their wings and fly. Eventually, the mother eagle soars high one final time with the eaglet on her back, and with a wild screech of disappointment and pain, she dives out from under it and flies away, leaving it to its fate -- either “fly or die.”
From the above phases of the eagle’s life, we can infer some key points as nuggets to soar high:
True friendship consists not in the multitude of friends, but in their worth and value.
The female eagle has a worthy and dependable friend in the male eagle with great worth and value to her life. We all need such in our lives to have the right balance as we progress with our daily life endeavours. We have a duty to choose the right ones because they can either make or break us - the choice of friends or relationships we keep this year is absolutely ours. We have a duty to choose rightly by paying attention to some key qualities in them.
Focus
This is a very vital requirement to soar very high as we progress this year. The female eagle never wavered on her resolve to know the true quality of her potential mate, friend and husband. She did not settle for less neither did she compromise on the standard required of him. Similarly, the male eagle on his part was resolved to win the heart of the female eagle irrespective of the cost. We must have set goals and targets with a strong focus at achieving them irrespective of the challenges that come our way in form of family issues, associates, economic changes as well as unexplainable life situations. When we have a goal with a focus, it helps our judgment on what we desire to get and how to get it.
Trust
Due to the tagging process and all that is involved, the female eagle is rest assured that no matter what happens, the male eagle will watch her back as well as keep the eaglets safe.
We will need trusted partnerships and networking to carry out some laudable innovative ideas and hatch great concepts/plans. This really makes life easy when we know deep down that we have people who we believe in and vice versa, as well as willing to trust
Do you have a "fly or die" attitude similar to the eaglets? It's time you gave your life a push and stretched your wings! If you never stretch your wings, you will never fly to greater heights.
We must remember that success begins when we understand that life is about growth as the eaglets does. It is about acquiring the knowledge and skills we need to live more fully and effectively.
