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Soay, St Kilda
Soay ( gd, Soaigh) is an uninhabited islet in the St Kilda archipelago, Scotland. The name is from Old Norse ''Seyðoy'', meaning "Island of Sheep". The island is part of the St Kilda World Heritage Site and home to a primitive breed of sheep. It is the westernmost point in the United Kingdom if disputed Rockall is excluded. Geography Soay lies some west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic It is about north-west of Hirta, from which it is separated by the narrow Sound of Soay, which is only about 500 metres wide. Two sea stacks, Stac Shoaigh (Soay Stac), , and Stac Biorach, , lie between. The island covers about and reaches a height of , the cliffs rising sheer from the sea. The island is formed of a breccia of gabbro and dolerites and is a single mountain peak rising from the sea-bed, without Ice-Age erosion. Along with the rest of the archipelago, Soay is owned by the National Trust for Scotland, managed by NatureScot as a nature reserve and is included it t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Kilda, Scotland
St Kilda ( gd, Hiort) is an isolated archipelago situated west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic Ocean. It contains the westernmost islands of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The largest island is Hirta, whose sea cliffs are the highest in the United Kingdom; three other islands ( Dùn, Soay and Boreray) were also used for grazing and seabird hunting. The islands are administratively a part of the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar local authority area. The origin of the name ''St Kilda'' is a matter of conjecture. The islands' human heritage includes numerous unique architectural features from the historic and prehistoric periods, although the earliest written records of island life date from the Late Middle Ages. The medieval village on Hirta was rebuilt in the 19th century, but illnesses brought by increased external contacts through tourism, and the upheaval of the First World War contributed to the island's evacuation in 1930. The story of St Kilda has attracted artis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gabbro
Gabbro () is a phaneritic (coarse-grained), mafic intrusive igneous rock formed from the slow cooling of magnesium-rich and iron-rich magma into a holocrystalline mass deep beneath the Earth's surface. Slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro is chemically equivalent to rapid-cooling, fine-grained basalt. Much of the Earth's oceanic crust is made of gabbro, formed at mid-ocean ridges. Gabbro is also found as plutons associated with continental volcanism. Due to its variant nature, the term ''gabbro'' may be applied loosely to a wide range of intrusive rocks, many of which are merely "gabbroic". By rough analogy, gabbro is to basalt as granite is to rhyolite. Etymology The term "gabbro" was used in the 1760s to name a set of rock types that were found in the ophiolites of the Apennine Mountains in Italy. It was named after Gabbro, a hamlet near Rosignano Marittimo in Tuscany. Then, in 1809, the German geologist Christian Leopold von Buch used the term more restrictively in his descri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Fulmar
The northern fulmar (''Fulmarus glacialis''), fulmar, or Arctic fulmar is a highly abundant seabird found primarily in subarctic regions of the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. There has been one confirmed sighting in the Southern Hemisphere, with a single bird seen south of New Zealand. Fulmars come in one of two color morphs: a light one, with white head and body and gray wings and tail, and a dark one, which is uniformly gray. Though similar in appearance to gulls, fulmars are in fact members of the family Procellariidae, which include petrels and shearwaters. The northern fulmar and its sister species, the southern fulmar (), are the extant members of the genus . The fulmars are in turn a member of the order Procellariiformes, and they all share certain identifying features. First, they have nasal passages that attach to the upper bill called naricorns; however, nostrils on albatrosses are on the sides of the bill, as opposed to the rest of the order, including fulm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Gannet
The northern gannet (''Morus bassanus'') is a seabird, the largest species of the gannet family, Sulidae. It is native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, breeding in Western Europe and Northeastern North America. It is the largest seabird in the northern Atlantic. The sexes are similar in appearance. The adult northern gannet has a mainly white streamlined body with a long neck, and long and slender wings. It is long with a wingspan. The head and nape have a buff tinge that is more prominent in breeding season, and the wings are edged with dark brown-black feathers. The long, pointed bill is blue-grey, contrasting with black, bare skin around the mouth and eyes. Juveniles are mostly grey-brown, becoming increasingly white in the five years it takes them to reach maturity. Nesting takes place in colonies on both sides of the North Atlantic, the largest of which are at Bass Rock (75,000 pairs as of 2014), St. Kilda (60,000 pairs as of 2013) and Ailsa Craig (33,000 pairs as of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boreray (sheep)
The Boreray, also known as the Boreray Blackface or Hebridean Blackface, is a breed of sheep originating on the St Kilda archipelago off the west coast of Scotland and surviving as a feral animal on one of the islands, Boreray. The breed was once reared for meat and wool, but is now used mainly for conservation grazing. The Boreray is one of the Northern European short-tailed sheep group of breeds. It is one of the rarest breeds of sheep in the United Kingdom. The breed is classed as "Category 3: Vulnerable" by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, because 500–900 breeding ewes are known to exist. It had previously been the only breed classed in "Category 2: Critical" but by 2017 the population had grown. St Kilda sheep St Kilda is a remote archipelago, west of the Outer Hebrides. Several types of sheep have been associated with St Kilda. In addition to the Boreray, these include the Soay sheep, a feral type from Soay (one of the other islands in the St Kilda archipelago), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Livestock
Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals who are raised for consumption, and sometimes used to refer solely to farmed ruminants, such as cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. Horses are considered livestock in the United States. The USDA classifies pork, veal, beef, and lamb (mutton) as livestock, and all livestock as red meat. Poultry and fish are not included in the category. The breeding, maintenance, slaughter and general subjugation of livestock, called '' animal husbandry'', is a part of modern agriculture and has been practiced in many cultures since humanity's transition to farming from hunter-gatherer lifestyles. Animal husbandry practices have varied widely across cultures and time periods. It continues to play a major economic and cultural role in numerous communities. Lives ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tweed (cloth)
Tweed is a rough, woollen fabric, of a soft, open, flexible texture, resembling cheviot or homespun, but more closely woven. It is usually woven with a plain weave, twill or herringbone structure. Colour effects in the yarn may be obtained by mixing dyed wool before it is spun. Tweeds are an icon of traditional Scottish, Irish, Welsh and English clothing, being desirable for informal outerwear, due to the material being moisture-resistant and durable. Tweeds are made to withstand harsh climates and are commonly worn for outdoor activities such as shooting and hunting, in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. In Ireland, tweed manufacturing is now most associated with County Donegal but originally covered the whole country. In Scotland, tweed manufacturing is most associated with the Isle of Harris in the Hebrides. Etymology The original name of the cloth was ''tweel'', Scots for twill, the material being woven in a twilled rather than a plain pattern. A traditional story ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plucking (hair Removal)
Plucking or tweezing can mean the process of human hair removal, removing animal hair or a bird's feathers by mechanically pulling the item from the owner's human body, body. In humans, hair removal is done for personal grooming purposes, usually with tweezers. An epilator is a motorised hair plucker. Those under the influence of deliriants or trichotillomania may pluck their own hair out of habit. Roman baths employed personnel solely to pluck hair from their customer, clients' bodies. In birds and animals, plucking is usually carried out by humans, sometimes called ''pluckers'', to the wikt:carcass, carcass of the subject as part of food preparation. Poultry Feathers can be removed either manually or in a tumbling machine. Both methods require the feathers to be first loosened by submerging the slaughtered bird in hot water. Manual plucking involves pulling out the larger feathers then removing the Down feather, down with a rubbing action. Automated plucking machines use ru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Relict (biology)
In biogeography and paleontology, a relict is a population or taxon of organisms that was more widespread or more diverse in the past. A relictual population is a population currently inhabiting a restricted area whose range was far wider during a previous geologic epoch. Similarly, a relictual taxon is a taxon (e.g. species or other lineage) which is the sole surviving representative of a formerly diverse group. Definition A relict (or relic) plant or animal is a taxon that persists as a remnant of what was once a diverse and widespread population. Relictualism occurs when a widespread habitat or range changes and a small area becomes cut off from the whole. A subset of the population is then confined to the available hospitable area, and survives there while the broader population either shrinks or evolves divergently. This phenomenon differs from endemism in that the range of the population was not always restricted to the local region. In other words, the species or group did n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soay Sheep
The Soay sheep is a breed of domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') descended from a population of feral sheep on the island of Soay in the St Kilda Archipelago, about from the Western Isles of Scotland. It is one of the Northern European short-tailed sheep breeds. It remains physically similar to the wild ancestors of domestic sheep, the Mediterranean mouflon and the horned urial sheep of Central Asia.Ryder, M L, (1981), "A survey of European primitive breeds of sheep", ''Ann. Génét. Sél. Anim.'', 13 (4), pp 381–418. It is much smaller than modern domesticated sheep but hardier, and is extraordinarily agile, tending to take refuge amongst the cliffs when frightened. Soays may be solid black or brown, or mor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Feral
A feral () animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in some cases, contributed to extinction of indigenous species. The removal of feral species is a major focus of island restoration. Animals A feral animal is one that has escaped from a domestic or captive status and is living more or less as a wild animal, or one that is descended from such animals. Other definitions include animals that have changed from being domesticated to being wild, natural, or untamed. Some common examples of animals with feral populations are horses, dogs, goats, cats, rabbits, camels, and pigs. Zoologists generally exclude from the feral category animals that were genuinely wild before they escaped from captivity: neither lions escaped from a zoo nor the white-tailed eagles re-introduced to the UK are regarded as fera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NatureScot
NatureScot ( gd, NàdarAlba), which was formerly known as Scottish Natural Heritage, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government responsible for the country's natural heritage, especially its natural, genetic and scenic diversity. It advises the Scottish Government on nature conservation, and acts as a government agent in the delivery of conservation designations, i.e. national nature reserves, local nature reserves, national parks, Site of Special Scientific Interest, Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), Special Area of Conservation, Special Areas of Conservation, Special Protection Areas and the national scenic area (Scotland), national scenic areas. It receives annual funding from the Government in the form of Grant in Aid to deliver Government priorities for the natural heritage. NatureScot is the Scottish Government's adviser on all aspects of nature, wildlife management and landscape across Scotland, and also helps the Scottish G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_on_water.jpg "Click for more on -> Northern Fulmar")
