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Taiwan Blue Magpie
The Taiwan blue magpie (''Urocissa caerulea''), also called the Taiwan magpie, Formosan blue magpie (), or the "long-tailed mountain lady" (; Taiwanese Hokkien: Tn̂g-boé soaⁿ-niû), is a bird species in the crow family. It is endemic to Taiwan. Taxonomy and systematics The Taiwan blue magpie was collected by Robert Swinhoe and described by John Gould. Swinhoe translated the magpie's Hokkien name into English, calling it the "Long-tailed Mountain-Nymph". The species is sometimes placed in the genus '' Cissa''. It forms a superspecies with the yellow-billed blue magpie (''Urocissa flavirostris'') and the red-billed blue magpie (''Urocissa erythroryncha''). The species is monotypic. Distribution and habitat The Taiwan blue magpie is endemic to Taiwan. It lives in broadleaf forests at elevations of . Description It is in length. The tail measures around in length, and the wings are long. It weighs . The plumages of the male and female are similar. The head, neck and breast ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gould
John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter, Joseph Wolf and William Matthew Hart. He has been considered the father of bird study in Australia and the Gould League in Australia is named after him. His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" played a role in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Gould's work is referenced in Charles Darwin's book, ''On the Origin of Species''. Early life Gould was born in Lyme Regis, the first son of a gardener. Both father and son probably had little education. After working on Dowager Lady Poulett's glass house, his father obtained a position on an estate near Guildford, Surrey, and then in 1818, Gould Snr became foreman in the Royal Gardens of Windsor. Gould then be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carrion
Carrion () is the decaying flesh of dead animals, including human flesh. Overview Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters (or scavengers) include crows, vultures, condors, hawks, eagles, hyenas, Virginia opossum, Tasmanian devils, coyotes and Komodo dragons. Many invertebrates, such as the carrion and burying beetles, as well as maggots of calliphorid flies (such as one of the most important species in '' Calliphora vomitoria'') and flesh-flies, also eat carrion, playing an important role in recycling nitrogen and carbon in animal remains. Carrion begins to decay at the moment of the animal's death, and it will increasingly attract insects and breed bacteria. Not long after the animal has died, its body will begin to exude a foul odor caused by the presence of bacteria and the emission of cadaverine and putrescine. Some plants and fungi smell like decomposing carrion and attract insects that a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thao Language
Thao (; Thao: Thau a lalawa), also known as Sao, is the nearly extinct language of the Thao people, an indigenous people of Taiwan from the Sun Moon Lake region in central Taiwan. It is a Formosan language of the Austronesian family; Barawbaw and Shtafari are dialects. Name The name ''Thao'' literally means "person", from Proto-Austronesian ''*Cau''. It is therefore cognate with the name of the Tsou. History In 2014, there were four L1 speakers and a fluent L2 speaker living in Ita Thaw (伊達邵) village (traditionally called Barawbaw), all but one of whom were over the age of sixty. Two elderly native speakers died in December of that year, including chief Tarma (袁明智), age 75. Four elderly L1 speakers and some semi-speakers were reported in 2021. Phonology Consonants Orthographic notes: * are written . is though written in Blust's dictionary. * is written * is written . It's though written in Blust's dictionary. * is written Notes: *The glides are deri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tsou Language
Tsou () is a divergent Austronesian language spoken by the Tsou people of Taiwan. Tsou is a threatened language; however, this status is uncertain. Its speakers are located in the west-central mountains southeast of the Chiayi/ Alishan area in Taiwan. Name The name ''Tsou'' literally means "person", from Proto-Austronesian ''*Cau'' through regular sound changes. It is therefore cognate with the name of the Thao. Classification Tsou has traditionally been considered part of a Tsouic branch of Austronesian. However, several recent classifications, such as Chang (2006)Chang, Henry Yungli. 2006. "Rethinking the Tsouic Subgroup Hypothesis: A Morphosyntactic Perspective." In Chang, H., Huang, L. M., Ho, D. (eds.). ''Streams converging into an ocean: Festschrift in honor of Professor Paul Jen-Kuei Li on his 70th birthday.'' Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica. and Ross (2009)Ross, Malcolm. 2009. "Proto Austronesian verbal morphology: A reappraisal." In Alexander Adelaar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bunun People
The Bunun (), also historically known as the Vonum, are a Taiwanese indigenous people. They speak the Bunun language. Unlike other aboriginal peoples in Taiwan, the Bunun are widely dispersed across the island's central mountain ranges. In the year 2000, the Bunun numbered 41,038. This was approximately 8% of Taiwan's total indigenous population, making them the fourth-largest indigenous group. They have five distinct communities: the Takbunuaz, the Takituduh, the Takibaka, the Takivatan, and the Isbukun. Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup According to a study published in 2014, the Y-DNA of the Bunun people belongs mainly to haplogroup O1a2-M50 (34/56 = 60.7%) or haplogroup O2a1a-M88 (21/56 = 37.5%), with a single representative of haplogroup P*-M45(xQ-M242, R-M207) (1/56 = 1.8%). Haplogroup O-M88 is rare among other aboriginal peoples of Taiwan and its vicinity, being found more commonly among populations of southwestern China and the northern parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thao People
The Thao/Ngan () are a small group of Taiwanese indigenous peoples who have lived near Sun Moon Lake (Lake Candidius) in central Taiwan for at least a century, and probably since the time of the Qing dynasty. The Thao/Ngan people numbered around 800, making them one of the smallest of all of the recognized indigenous peoples in Taiwan (a number of indigenous peoples, both smaller and larger than the Thao in population, remain unrecognized by the Taiwanese government). Despite their small group size, the Thao/Ngan have retained their customs, beliefs and traditional culture and language until now, though they have been assimilated into mainstream culture as well. Most of the members of this ethnic group work in the tourism industry at Sun Moon Lake. The Chi-Chi earthquake of 1999 damaged or destroyed 80% of the houses of the Thao/Ngan. Language The Thao/Ngan people have their own language, the Thao language, which is nearly extinct and spoken by only a few, mostly elders, of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tsou People
The Tsou ( Tsou: ''Cou''; ) are an indigenous people of central southern Taiwan. They are an Austronesian ethnic group. They reside in Chiayi County and Nantou County. The Tsou numbered around 6,000, approximately 1.19% of Taiwan's total Indigenous population, making them the seventh-largest indigenous group. They are sometimes confused with the Thao people of Sun Moon Lake. History The Tsou are traditionally based in the Alishan area. Their rich oral histories describe migrations of each ancient clans' ancestors into the area between Yushan and the Chianan Plain. Originally, each clan had its own settlement, with the first multi-clan town, Tfuya, forming approximately 1600 CE. The earliest written record of the Tsou dates from the Dutch occupation, which describes the multi-clan settlement Tfuya as having approximately 300 people in 1647. Ethnologists have attempted to reconstruct the development of Tfuya, proposing that each stage of clan migration could be equivalent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gurney's Eagle
Gurney's eagle (''Aquila gurneyi'') is a large eagle in the family Accipitridae. It is found in New Guinea and Wallacea, and is an occasional vagrant to Australia. The common name and Latin binomial commemorate the British banker and amateur ornithologist John Henry Gurney (1819–1890). Description This eagle is a fairly large species, though mid-sized as a member of the genus ''Aquila''. It is mainly dark brown to black, with paler undersides to its flight feathers and a rounded tail. Its body length is with a wingspan of between . Females are larger than males. One immature female weighed . Males are estimated to weigh about in this species.Parry, S. J. (2001). ''The booted eagles (Aves: Accipitridae): perspectives in evolutionary biology''. University of London, University College London (United Kingdom). Its wings are held level when gliding. It feeds on mammals (such as cuscuses), reptiles, fish, and birds. Juveniles have brown scapular feathers, wing coverts, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spot-bellied Eagle Owl
The spot-bellied eagle-owl (''Bubo nipalensis''), also known as the forest eagle-owl is a large bird of prey with a formidable appearance. It is a forest-inhabiting species found in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. This species is considered part of a superspecies with the barred eagle-owl (''Bubo sumatranus''), which looks quite similar but is allopatric in distribution. Taxonomy The spot-bellied eagle-owl, like its close relative, the barred eagle-owl, is one of the species that would have to be moved into ''Ketupa'' if that genus is to be retained, according to mtDNA cytochrome ''b'' sequence data (Olsen ''et al.'' 2002). Unlike the " fish owls" that were also considered to be included in ''Ketupa'', the barred and the spot-bellied species are not closely tied to riparian habitats and piscivorous eating habits. However, all eagle-owls and fish owls (as well as the snowy owl (''Bubo scandianus'')) have been deemed insufficiently distinct to warrant separate genera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White-bellied Sea Eagle
The white-bellied sea eagle (''Haliaeetus leucogaster''), also known as the white-breasted sea eagle, is a large diurnal bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. Originally described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788, it is closely related to Sanford's sea eagle of the Solomon Islands, and the two are considered a superspecies. A distinctive bird, the adult white-bellied sea eagle has a white head, breast, under-wing coverts and tail. The upper parts are grey and the black under-wing flight feathers contrast with the white coverts. The tail is short and wedge-shaped as in all ''Haliaeetus'' species. Like many raptors, the female is slightly larger than the male, and can measure up to long with a wingspan of up to , and weigh . Immature birds have brown plumage, which is gradually replaced by white until the age of five or six years. The call is a loud goose-like honking. Resident from India and Sri Lanka through Southeast Asia to Australia on coasts and major waterways, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crested Goshawk
The crested goshawk (''Accipiter trivirgatus'') is a bird of prey from tropical Asia. It is related to other diurnal raptors such as eagles, buzzards (or buteos) and harriers, and thus placed in the family Accipitridae.Grimmett ''et al.'' (1999) Description This raptor has short broad wings and a long tail, both adaptations to manoeuvring through trees. It is 30–46 cm in length, with the female much larger than the male. The larger size and a short crest, clearly visible in profile, are the best distinctions from its relative, the besra (''A. virgatus''). The male has a dark brown crown, grey head sides and black moustachial and throat stripes. The pale underparts are patterned with rufous streaks on the breast and bars on the belly. The larger female has a browner head and brown underpart streaks and bars. The juvenile has pale fringes to its head feathers, and the underpart background colour is buff rather than white. The flight is a characteristic "slow flap, slow fl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helpers At The Nest
Helpers at the nest is a term used in behavioural ecology and evolutionary biology to describe a social structure in which juveniles and sexually mature adolescents of either one or both sexes remain in association with their parents and help them raise subsequent broods or litters, instead of dispersing and beginning to reproduce themselves. This phenomenon was first studied in birds where it occurs most frequently, but it is also known in animals from many different groups including mammals and insects. It is a simple form of co-operative breeding. The effects of helpers usually amount to a net benefit, however, benefits are not uniformly distributed by all helpers nor across all species that exhibit this behaviour. There are multiple proposed explanations for the behaviour, but its variability and broad taxonomic occurrences result in simultaneously plausible theories.Dickinson, J. L.; Hatchwell, B. J. (2004) "Fitness consequences of helping" in ''Ecology and evolution of coop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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