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Zambezi Bream
Zambezi bream (''Pharyngochromis acuticeps''), also known as dwarf bream, is a species of haplochromine cichlid which is found in river systems in southern Africa. Description The Zambezi bream is a medium-sized species of haplochromine which has a large head with a rounded snout and an slightly, upward pointing mouth. It has a slender body with a relatively straight outline, a long dorsal fin and a truncated caudal fin. The dorsal fin contains 14-16 spines and 10-13 soft rays while the anal fin has 2 spines and 7-10 soft rays. The lateral line is in two sections and contains 36 scales. The body is brown in colour on the upperside which his marked by darker brown bars, with the colour becoming iridescent green towards the belly. The scales have red in their centres and there are red dots on the parts of the dorsal and anal fins supported by rays, while the tail has brown spots and there are orange egg imitating spots on the anal fin. They grow to a total length of . Distribution T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franz Steindachner
Franz Steindachner (11 November 1834 in Vienna – 10 December 1919 in Vienna) was an Austrian Zoology, zoologist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. He published over 200 papers on fishes and over 50 papers on reptiles and amphibians. Steindachner described hundreds of new species of fish and dozens of new amphibians and reptiles. At least seven species of reptile have been named after him. Work and career Being interested in natural history, Steindachner took up the study of fossil fishes on the recommendation of his friend Eduard Suess (1831–1914). In 1860 he was appointed to the position of director of the fish collection at the Naturhistorisches Museum, a position which had remained vacant since the death of Johann Jakob Heckel (1790–1857). (in German). Steindachner's reputation as an Ichthyology, ichthyologist grew, and in 1868 he was invited by Louis Agassiz (1807–1873) to accept a position at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. Steindachner took ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Okavango River
The Okavango River (formerly spelled Okovango or Okovanggo), Also known as the Cubango River, is a river in southwest Africa. It is the fourth-longest river system in southern Africa, running southeastward for . It begins at an elevation of in the sandy highlands of Angola. Farther south, it forms part of the border between Angola and Namibia, and then flows into Botswana. The Okavango does not have an outlet to the sea. Instead, it discharges into the Okavango Delta or Okavango Alluvial Fan, in an endorheic basin in the Kalahari Desert. Flow In Angola, the upper reaches of the Cuito (a tributary river to the Okavango) suffers clogging due to controlled burns of the vegetation, reducing water flow downstream as the accumulated water instead flows into the sand. Before it enters Botswana, the river drops 4 m in a series of rapids known as Popa Falls, visible when the river is low, as during the dry season. In the rainy season, an outflow to the Boteti River in turn seaso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grey Heron
The grey heron (''Ardea cinerea'') is a long-legged wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia and also parts of Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but some populations from the more northern parts migrate southwards in autumn. A bird of wetland areas, it can be seen around lakes, rivers, ponds, marshes and on the sea coast. It feeds mostly on aquatic creatures which it catches after standing stationary beside or in the water or stalking its prey through the shallows. Standing up to tall, adults weigh from . They have a white head and neck with a broad black stripe that extends from the eye to the black crest. The body and wings are grey above and the underparts are greyish-white, with some black on the flanks. The long, sharply pointed beak is pinkish-yellow and the legs are brown. The birds breed colonially in spring in "heronries", usually building their nests high in trees. A clutch of usually three to five bluish-gree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Long-tailed Cormorant
The reed cormorant (''Microcarbo africanus''), also known as the long-tailed cormorant, is a bird in the cormorant family Phalacrocoracidae. It breeds in much of Africa south of the Sahara, and Madagascar. It is resident but undertakes some seasonal movements. Taxonomy The reed cormorant was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's '' Systema Naturae''. He placed it in the genus '' Pelecanus'' and coined the binomial name ''Pelecanus africanus''. Gmelin based his description on the "African shag" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book ''A General Synopsis of Birds''. The reed cormorant is now one of five small cormorants placed in the genus ''Microcarbo'' that was introduced in 1856 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. Two subspecies are recognised: * ''M. a. africanus'' (Gmelin, JF, 1789) – inland and coastal Sub-Saharan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White-breasted Cormorant
The white-breasted cormorant (''Phalacrocorax lucidus'') is much like the widespread great cormorant and if not a regional variant of the same species, is at least very closely related. It is distinguished from other forms of the great cormorant by its white breast and by the fact that subpopulations are freshwater birds.J.A. Harrison, D.G. Allan, L.G. Underhill, M. Herremans, A.J. Tree, V. Parker, C.J. Brown (eds). The Atlas of Southern African Birds. Published by BirdLife South Africa, P.O. Box 84394, Greenside 2034, Johannesburg, South Africa 1997 ''Phalacrocorax lucidus'' is not to be confused with the smaller and very different endemic South Australian black-faced cormorant, which also is sometimes called the white-breasted cormorant. Taxonomy and description The white-breasted cormorant (''Phalacrocorax lucidus'') is a member of the cormorant family Phalacrocoracidae. Its taxonomic status has been under discussion for some decadesBrooke RK, Cooper J, Shelton PA, Crawford ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piscivorous
A piscivore () is a carnivorous animal that eats primarily fish. The name ''piscivore'' is derived . Piscivore is equivalent to the Greek-derived word ichthyophage, both of which mean "fish eater". Fish were the diet of early tetrapod evolution (via water-bound amphibians during the Devonian period); insectivory came next; then in time, the more terrestrially adapted reptiles and synapsids evolved herbivory. Almost all predatory fishes (most sharks, tuna, billfishes, pikes etc.) are obligated piscivores. Some non-piscine aquatic animals, such as whales, sea lion and crocodilians, are not completely piscivorous, often also preying on invertebrates, marine mammals, waterbirds and even wading land animals in addition to fish; while others, such as the bulldog bat and gharial, are strictly dependent on fish for food. Some creatures, including cnidarians, octopuses, squid, spiders, cetaceans, grizzly bears, jaguars, wolves, snakes, turtles and sea gulls, may have fish as significa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Contracaecum
''Contracaecum'' is genus of parasitic nematodes from the family Anisakidae. These nematodes are parasites of warm-blooded, fish eating animals, i.e. mammals and birds, as sexually mature adults. The eggs and the successive stages of their larvae use invertebrates and increasing size classes of fishes as intermediate hosts. It is the only genus in the family Anisakidae which can infect terrestrial, marine and freshwater animals. Life cycle The adults live as parasites in the stomachs of piscivorous birds and mammals. As third stage larvae they attach to the stomach of the species of fish which are preyed on by their definitive host. When the intermediate host fish is eaten and reached the warm stomach of its predator the larvae of ''Contracaecum'' moult twice into adult males and females, producing eggs which are expelled into water in the faeces of the host. Where the water is shallow the eggs or larvae descend to the sea bed. Here they may be consumed by invertebrates while thos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nematode
The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant-Parasitism, parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhabiting a broad range of environments. Less formally, they are categorized as Helminths, but are taxonomically classified along with Arthropod, arthropods, Tardigrade, tardigrades and other moulting animalia, animals in the clade Ecdysozoa, and unlike platyhelminthe, flatworms, have tubular digestion, digestive systems with openings at both ends. Like tardigrades, they have a reduced number of Hox genes, but their sister phylum Nematomorpha has kept the ancestral protostome Hox genotype, which shows that the reduction has occurred within the nematode phylum. Nematode species can be difficult to distinguish from one another. Consequently, estimates of the number of nematode species described to date vary by author and may change rapidly over ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mouthbrooding
Mouthbrooding, also known as oral incubation and buccal incubation, is the care given by some groups of animals to their offspring by holding them in the mouth of the parent for extended periods of time. Although mouthbrooding is performed by a variety of different animals, such as the Darwin's frog, fish are by far the most diverse mouthbrooders. Mouthbrooding has evolved independently in several different families of fish. Mouthbrooding behaviour Paternal mouthbrooders are species where the male looks after the eggs. Paternal mouthbrooders include the arowana, various mouthbrooding bettas and gouramies such as ''Betta pugnax'', and sea catfish such as ''Ariopsis felis''. Among cichlids, paternal mouthbrooding is relatively rare, but is found among some of the tilapiines, most notably the black-chin tilapia ''Sarotherodon melanotheron''. In the case of the maternal mouthbrooders, the female takes the eggs. Maternal mouthbrooders are found among both African and South American ci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African Darter
The African darter (''Anhinga rufa''), sometimes called the snakebird, is a water bird of sub-Saharan Africa and Iraq. Taxonomy The African darter is a member of the darter family, Anhingidae, and is closely related to American (''Anhinga anhinga''), Oriental (''Anhinga melanogaster''), and Australasian (''Anhinga novaehollandiae'') darters. Description The African darter is long. Like other anhingas, it has a very long neck. The male is mainly glossy black with white streaking; females and immature birds are browner. The African darter differs in appearance from the American darter most recognisably by its thin white lateral neck stripe against a rufous background colour. The pointed bill prevents confusion with cormorants. Distribution The African darter is found throughout sub-Saharan Africa wherever large bodies of water occur; overall the species remains widespread and common. The only non-African subspecies, the Levant darter (''Anhinga rufa chantrei''), occurred at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kafue River
The Kafue River is the longest river lying wholly within Zambia at about long. Its water is used for irrigation and for hydroelectric power. It is the largest tributary of the Zambezi, and of Zambia's principal rivers, it is the most central and the most urban. More than 50% of Zambia's population live in the Kafue River Basin and of these around 65% are urban. It has a mean flow rate of 320 m³/s through its lower half, with high seasonal variations. The river discharges 10 km³ per year into the Zambezi River. Course Sources The Kafue River rises at an elevation of 1350 m on the relatively flat plateau just south the border between Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo 120 km north-west of Chingola in the Copperbelt Province. The source of the Kafue River is in the North-western Province of Zambia. The area is Miombo woodland on the Congo-Zambezi watershed, with many branching dambos lying 10 to 20 m lower than the highest ground, producing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cunene River
The Cunene (Portuguese spelling) or Kunene (common Namibian spelling) is a river in Southern Africa. It flows from the Angola highlands south to the border with Namibia. It then flows west along the border until it reaches the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of the few perennial rivers in the region. It is about long, with a drainage basin in area. Its mean annual discharge is 174 m3/s (6,145 cfs) at its mouth. The Epupa Falls lie on the river. Olushandja Dam dams a tributary of the river, the Etaka, and helps provide the Ruacana Power Station with water. Dam controversies The Namibian government proposed in the late 1990s to build the Epupa Dam, a controversial hydroelectric dam on the Cunene. In 2012 the Governments of Namibia and Angola announced plans to jointly build the Orokawe dam in the Baynes Mountains. According to the indigenous Himba who would have been most affected by the construction of the dam, the dam threatens the local ecosystem and therefore the economic bas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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