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Rhinoplax
The helmeted hornbill (''Rhinoplax vigil'') is a very large bird in the hornbill family. It is found on the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, Thailand and Myanmar. The casque (helmetlike structure on the head) accounts for some 11% of its 3 kg weight. Unlike any other hornbill, the casque is almost solid, and is used in head-to-head combat among males. It is a belief among the Punan Bah that a large helmeted hornbill guards the river between life and death. Description It has mostly blackish plumage, except that the belly and legs are white and the tail is white with a black band near the tip of each feather. The tail is long and the two central tail feathers are much longer than the others, giving the bird a total length greater than that of any other hornbill species. The body length is , not counting the tail feathers, which boost the length a further . One male weighed in weight while two females averaged about . Although sometimes considered the largest Asian hornbil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hornbills
Hornbills (Bucerotidae) are a family of bird found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a casque on the upper mandible. Both the common English and the scientific name of the family refer to the shape of the bill, "buceros" being "cow horn" in Greek. Hornbills have a two-lobed kidney. They are the only birds in which the first and second neck vertebrae (the atlas and axis respectively) are fused together; this probably provides a more stable platform for carrying the bill. The family is omnivorous, feeding on fruit and small animals. They are monogamous breeders nesting in natural cavities in trees and sometimes cliffs. A number of mainly insular species of hornbill with small ranges are threatened with extinction, namely in Southeast Asia. In the Neotropical realm, toucans occupy the hornbills' ecological niche, an example of convergent evolution. De ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hornbill
Hornbills (Bucerotidae) are a family (biology), family of bird found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a Casque (anatomy), casque on the upper mandible. Both the common English (language), English and the scientific name of the family refer to the shape of the bill, "buceros" being "cow horn" in Greek language, Greek. Hornbills have a two-lobed kidney. They are the only birds in which the first and second vertebra, neck vertebrae (the atlas (anatomy), atlas and axis (anatomy), axis respectively) are fused together; this probably provides a more stable platform for carrying the bill. The family is omnivorous, feeding on fruit and small animals. They are monogamous breeders nesting in natural cavities in trees and sometimes cliffs. A number of mainly Island, insular species of hornbill with small ranges are Threatened species, threatened with extinction, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helmeted Hornbill
The helmeted hornbill (''Rhinoplax vigil'') is a very large bird in the hornbill family. It is found on the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, Thailand and Myanmar. The casque (helmetlike structure on the head) accounts for some 11% of its 3 kg weight. Unlike any other hornbill, the casque is almost solid, and is used in head-to-head combat among males. It is a belief among the Punan Bah that a large helmeted hornbill guards the river between life and death. Description It has mostly blackish plumage, except that the belly and legs are white and the tail is white with a black band near the tip of each feather. The tail is long and the two central tail feathers are much longer than the others, giving the bird a total length greater than that of any other hornbill species. The body length is , not counting the tail feathers, which boost the length a further . One male weighed in weight while two females averaged about . Although sometimes considered the largest Asian hornbil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buceros
''Buceros'' is a genus of large Asian hornbills (family Bucerotidae). Description Hornbills in the genus ''Buceros'' include some of the largest arboreal hornbills in the world, with the largest being the great hornbill. All the hornbills in this genus have a large and hollow bony casque on their upper beak that can be useful to scientists and bird watchers to recognise their age, sex and species. Their wingspan can be up to 1.8 meters (6 foot) and they have the largest wingspan out of all the hornbills. Taxonomy The genus ''Buceros'' was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his '' Systema Naturae''. The name is from Latin ''becerus'' meaning "horned like an ox" which in turn is from the Ancient Greek boukerōs which combines ''bous'' meaning "ox" with ''kerōs'' meaning "horn". The type species was designated as the rhinoceros hornbill (''Buceros rhinoceros'') by Daniel Giraud Elliot in 1882. Species The genus contains three spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strangler Fig
Strangler fig is the common name for a number of tropical and subtropical plant species in the genus ''Ficus'', including those that are commonly known as banyans. Some of the more well-known species are: * ''Ficus altissima'' * ''Ficus aurea'', also known as the Florida strangler fig * ''Ficus benghalensis'' * ''Ficus benjamina'' * '' Ficus burtt-davyi'' * ''Ficus citrifolia'' * '' Ficus craterostoma'' * ''Ficus tinctoria'' * ''Ficus macrophylla'' * ''Ficus obliqua'' * ''Ficus virens'' *''Ficus watkinsiana'' *''Ficus henneana'' These all share a common "strangling" growth habit that is found in many tropical forest species, particularly of the genus ''Ficus''. This growth habit is an adaptation for growing in dark forests where the competition for light is intense. Strangler figs suck up the nutrients from its victims, causing them to die eventually. These plants are hemiepiphytes, spending the first part of their life without rooting into the ground. Their seeds, often bird- dis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical conservation, and the study of world culture and history. The National Geographic Society's logo is a yellow portrait frame—rectangular in shape—which appears on the margins surrounding the front covers of its magazines and as its television channel logo. Through National Geographic Partners (a joint venture with The Walt Disney Company), the Society operates the magazine, TV channels, a website, worldwide events, and other media operations. Overview The National Geographic Society was founded on 13 January 1888 "to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge". It is governed by a board of trustees whose 33 members include distinguished educators, business executives, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Perrins
Christopher Miles Perrins, (born 11 May 1935) is Emeritus Fellow of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at the University of Oxford, Emeritus Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford and Her Majesty's Warden of the Swans since 1993. Education Perrins was educated at Charterhouse School and Queen Mary College where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology in 1957. He completed his postgraduate study and research at the University of Oxford where he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1963 for research on brood size in tits supervised by David Lack. Research and career Perrins research interests are in the population dynamics and breeding biology of birds, particularly tits (''Paridae''), mute swans and seabirds on Skomer and Skokholm. He investigated animal lead poisoning of swans from lead shot. He is renowned for his work on avian population ecology and, in particular, reproductive rates. He has made a number of important contributions to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hornbill Ivory
Hornbill ivory (also called "golden jade" or ''calao ivoire'' in French) is a precious ornamental material derived from the helmeted hornbill (''Buceros vigil''), a large bird of the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo. Many hornbill species have "casques", decorative growths on the upper mandible of the bill. In most, the casque has a spongy structure, but in the helmeted hornbill it is solid keratin. This material, hornbill ivory, has a texture suggesting ivory but is softer. As it grows it is golden yellow, but the bird rubs its casque on its preen gland, whose oily secretion tints the surface of the casque bright red. Native peoples in the helmeted hornbill's range, such as the Kenyah and Kelabit, have long carved the casques. In Malaysia, hornbill-ivory rings were said to change colour when near poisonous food. The Chinese encountered the material in the 14th century and it soon became an important trade item at Brunei. According to Tom Harrisson, writing in the first (1960 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thai Baht
The baht (; th, บาท, ; currency sign, sign: ฿; ISO 4217, code: THB) is the official currency of Thailand. It is divided into 100 ''satang'' (, ). The issuance of currency is the responsibility of the Bank of Thailand. Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, SWIFT ranked the Thai baht as the 10th-most-frequently used world payment currency as of January 2019. History The Thai baht, like the Pound (currency), pound, originated from a traditional unit of mass. Its currency value was originally expressed as that of silver of corresponding weight (now defined as 15 grams), and was in use probably as early as the Sukhothai Kingdom, Sukhothai period in the form of bullet coins known in Thai as ''phot duang''. These were pieces of solid silver cast to various weights corresponding to a Thai units of measurement, traditional system of units related by simple fractions and multiples, one of which is the ''baht (unit), baht''. These are listed in the follo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Traffic (conservation Programme)
TRAFFIC (Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce), the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network, is a global non-governmental organisation monitoring the trade in wild animals and plants that focuses on biodiversity and sustainable development. It was originally created in 1976 as a specialist group of the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and evolved into a strategic alliance of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the IUCN. History 1990s TRAFFIC established 13 more offices worldwide including in Europe (1990), in East/Southern Africa (1991) and in East Asia (1994). The organisation looked into trade issues including tiger, agarwood, and rhino and established the Bad Ivory Database System (BIDS) which became the foundation for the highly important ETIS. TRAFFIC's first major work in Africa looked into the decline of black rhinos, which assessed the future for rhinos against serious threats from poachi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CITES
CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of international trade. It was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The convention was opened for signature in 1973 and CITES entered into force on 1 July 1975. Its aim is to ensure that international trade (import/export) in specimens of animals and plants included under CITES, does not threaten the survival of the species in the wild. This is achieved via a system of permits and certificates. CITES affords varying degrees of protection to more than 38,000 species. , Secretary-General of CITES is Ivonne Higuero. Background CITES is one of the largest and oldest conservation and sustainable use agreements in existence. There are three working langu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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