logo
搜索
我的图书馆

发文章

发文工具

其他工具

留言交流
搜索
分享

世界上最丑濒危物种

 图101 2015-02-10

世界上最丑濒危物种  

The purple pig nosed frog is fat, purple and lives underground - perhaps because it is so hideous. But despite it gelatinous lumpy appearance the purple frog is the sole survivor of a group of amphibians that evolved 130 million years ago. Their population is thought to be in decline, thanks to the destruction of the forests for the cultivation of coffee and other crops, and so the species has been classified as endangered
image010.png
The common name of the Titicaca water frog is the scrotum frog, thanks to its extremely saggy skin.  But the folds of extra skin are what allows the water frog to survive high up in the Andes in Lake Titicaca. Unfortunatley, there is a belief that eating the aquatic scrotum frog can improve a man’s masculinity and so many are stolen from the lake to be made into frog 'frappés'. Various zoos around the world are trying to breed them in captivity but have so far had only limited success
The red-faced bald-headed Uakari has the unfortunate apperance of a spanked bottom.  Perhaps it is red-faced with rage because of having its habitat destroyed by logging in the rainforests of Peru and Brazil. On top of this, they are hunted for their meat or to be used as bait to catch bigger animals
He may be as ugly as sin, but the Axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) doesn't seem too bothered by it. Roughly translating to 'water monster' the aquatic creature walks on legs and while it does develop lungs, it doesn’t really use them, preferring instead to draw oxygen from its ruff of gills or even from its skin. If its habitat dries up, it can metamorphose into a form that will wander off in search of a new home. Creepy
The Cuban solenondon is armed with nasty teeth and a potent venom cocktail in its saliva that it uses to disable its prey.There are very few mammals that are venomous. Most of their forest habitat has now been lost to development, and as slow, clumsy movers they are easy targets for dogs, cats and mongooses
The Saiga Antelope are being driven into extinction by their aggressive mating ritual which leaves the men so exhausted that they often drop dead after. The male population is further threatened by poaching for their horns. This means that the groups are mostly female and that there is now a shortage of males for breeding, causing a further decrease in their numbers
With a perfectly upside down mouth, the blobfish is perhaps the ugliest of them all.  Deep sea trawling in its home territory off the coast of Australia and Tasmania has made it endangered - but fishermen catch it by mistake and throw it, dead, back into the ocean
The Sulawesi Babirusa is so ugly that the people of the island of Silawesi, Indonesia, who call it the 'pig deer' make demonic masks thatmimic its face. It has curious upper canines that curve round and grow into the back of its skull
The Chinese Giant Salamander resembles a shiny sack of warts.  But Its delicious peppery flesh is considered a delicacy throughout Asia and attempts are being made to farm them. But beware their strange falls, which are said to sound like the voice of a child
The Olm could be mistaken for a sausage - and it can see just about as much as one too. The curious salamander is almost completely blind and doesnt even have eyelids. Its numbers are declining due to over-collection from the wild, and the pollution of the waters in which it lives
the flamboyant looking tonkin snub-nosed moncg is one of the most endangered primates in the world and the largest primate species of vietnam.it was presumed extinct for a long time before it was rediscovered in 1989, and has been classed as critically endangered since then
Believe it or not, the baby bumphead parrotfish is a beautiful creature. But like an ugly ducking in reverse, it grows into this toothsome wonder. They have been hunted relentlessly and this once abundant fish is now virtually extinct in Guam, the Marshall Islands, parts of Fiji andEast Africa 
The giant gippsland worm can grow spitan acrid acid or unleash a lethal electricalcharge. These reports, as far as we can tell,are merely the stuff of legend. But there aregiant worms out there, and much of their biologyremains a mystery.The giant Palouse earthworm of Washington,USA, is one of the largest earthworms in theworld and, though there have been reports ofit being able to grow up to 1m in length, thelargest confirmed sightings have been but30cm. At such a size it doesn’t deserve thename ‘giant’, but ‘slightly-bigger-than-averagePalouse worm’ doesn’t quite have the samering to it. They do not spit or release dangerousshocks like an electric eel, but they have beenstudied by using hi-tech probes that run anelectric current through the soil, prompting theworms to come to the surface.A close cousin of the giant Palouse earthwormis the Oregon giant earthworm, whichis rumoured to grow to be up to 1m in lengthand to smell strangely like lilies when handled.The rumours cannot be confirmed though, asno one has seen one since 1981 and many fearthat they could be extinct.There is at least one species of earthwormwhich has had its colossal size confirmed.The Gippsland giant earthworm of Australiawas first discovered in the 1870s and was firstthought to have been, perhaps, some strangekind of snake. The worms average 1m in length,though individuals of 3m have been reported.They live in deep burrows and never come tothe surface, unless flushed out and forced toflee by heavy rains.It may be that little is known about theseweird worms because they live so muchdeeper in the soil than common garden varietiesand we just don’t have the chance tostudy them very often. However, it is morelikely that the introduction of invasive speciesof non-native worm predators and the effectsof the construction industry are killing themoff. All these giant species are consideredvulnerable, but many scientists suspect thattheir situation could
The rather dramatic looking California Condor was on the brink of extinction by the 1980s.  But thanks to a concerted conservation effort, the first wild condor chick for over two decades was born in 2002.The California condor is the largest bird in America, having a massive wingspan of nearly 3metres
The ghost bat has super-size and strangely shaped nose and ears. Looking like an extra from a horror film, the ghost bat is so named forthe spectrally pale colour of its long, soft fur andnaked, fleshy wings
The shoebill takes his ugliness very seriously indeed.  His huge, bulbous bill is straw-coloured with erratic, scratchy, grey markings. Measuring up to 24cm ithis bill is also ferocious. The small population is declining due to habitat destruction and degradation, nest disturbance, increased hunting levels and capture for the bird trade 
Bizarrely, the Dugong is thought to be the inspiration behind the mythical creature, the mermaid. Supposedly, lonely sailors would spot them and mistake them for the sirens of Greek legend. The species has been hunted throughout much of its range andthough commercial hunting is now banned, many die by becoming accidentally caughtand drowned in fishing nets
The aptly named hagfish have teeth that lie in two vicious rows, and no jaws. To escape predators, hagfish secrete a sticky goo that will allow them a slippery exit.  They have even evolved the ability to sneeze to free their own gills from the gloop 
The big-headed turtle has a cranium so large inconvenience for the species, as it is so large it is unable to retract it into its shell for protection. This ismainly due to popular demand for it as a petor as a food, which is surely an uncommoncombination. Its scarcity in the wild has ledto a greater demand and higher market value.To combat this, there are some turtle farms inboth Thailand and China, but the illegal tradestill seems to be continuing apace. Thoughvery little is known about the biology of thespecies, its reproductive rate appears to bevery low, with females laying only a few eggs ayear. This makes it difficult for their population
the probosis sonamed because of the male’s particularlyenormous and pendulousschnoz. it is the largest nose of anyprimate, drooping over the mouth and capableof growing to be up to a quarter of the body’slength. the precise purpose of the male’s immensehooter is debatable, but it is likely torelate to some form of sexual selection and mayhelp enhance the loud honking calls malesmake to entice females.they live in mangrove swamps on the islandof borneo. here, the native peoples used torefer to it as the ‘dutch moncg’ because itsbig hooter and pot belly were said to be akinto the features of the dutch colonisers. i imaginethat both the moncg and the europeansettlers would have been equally offended bythe moniker.the proboscis moncg mostly feeds onyoung leaves, supplementing its diet withseeds, fruits, flowers and, very occasionally,meat. bacteria in its gut aid the breakdown ofthe plant matter, producing gas and bloatingthe belly to drum-like proportions. though itspends most of its life in the trees, it is a goodswimmer and even has partially webbed feet.if startled, an entire troop may belly flop intothe swamp waters below in an attempt to fleefrom predators.groups consist of a single mature male anda harem of around six much smaller femalesand their young. adolescent males break off toform rowdy bachelor troops until they grow oldenough and big enough to fight and take overtheir own harem. females may switch haremsseveral times in their lives and compete for theattentions of the male by performing a matingdance that is somewhere between heavy-metalhead banging and twerking. a single offspringis born after a gestation period of nearlysix months, and the baby will stay with itsmother for the first few years.the numbers of this king of the mingers havecrashed dramatically over the last forty years,thanks to the destruction of its habitat. vastswathes of the native rainforest of malaysiaand indonesia have been cleared for timberand to make way for oil-palm plantations.furthermore, the moncg’s habit of forminglarge, visible, ginger groups by the watersidehas made it an easy target for hunters with ataste for moncg meat.
The Asian tapir are  shy, solitary creatures, preferring to forage at dusk and at night - perhaps because they are so disgusting looking

    本站是提供个人知识管理的网络存储空间，所有内容均由用户发布，不代表本站观点。请注意甄别内容中的联系方式、诱导购买等信息，谨防诈骗。如发现有害或侵权内容，请点击一键举报。
    转藏 分享 献花（0）

    来自： 图101 > 《五花八门》

    举报/认领

    0条评论

    发表

    请遵守用户 评论公约

    类似文章 更多