Animals

Largest of the lesser apes. Height: up to 3 feet. Weight: 20 to 45 pounds (Sumatran male is largest). Color: jet black, with long, profuse, somewhat shaggy hair. Face is naked with sparse stubble of moustache and beard. Armspread up to 5 feet. Forearm hair grows toward elbow as in great apes and humans. Dark eyes, color vision, and a throat sac inflatable to the size of the head (gular sac). The toes are webbed between 2nd and 3rd toes. No facial fringe or tail.

Upper canopy of forested regions of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula from 500 to 2500 feet.
Fruits, leaves and other plant products. Probably also small animals, insects, birds and birds' eggs.
Social group consists of a monogamous pair: one male, one female and up to 3 dependent offspring. Gestation: 7-8 months (230 days). Single births. Young are born very small (6 ounces) and usually naked. The long adult hair does not appear until 2-3 years of age. Infant is weaned at one year. When there are older youngsters in the family, the father gives the older ones protection and affection while the mother tends the infant. Siamangs mature at 8 years of age and at that time leave their parents. Lifespan: 25 years.

Light sandy-brown color. Weight is about 15 pounds. Has an eight-foot wing span, but short legs with weak, blunt toes. The horn-colored beak is slender and relatively weak. The long goose-like neck is thinly covered with down, with a distinct ruff of quill and down feathers at the base of the neck. Tail is rounded.

Widely distributed around the Mediterranean, ranging east into India and south across the savannas of Africa. Sometimes found as far north as the Scandinavian countries. Prefers barren areas with few trees, mountain steppes and high plateaus.

The friendliest and most social of the vultures. Non-territorial. There is some indication that pairs mate for life. They are "home" bodies and do not migrate. Nests are always placed on cliffs even when trees are available. They are built of twigs and grass and much excrement, often on the remains of previous years' nests and are found in a variety of sites, from well-protected rock caves to exposed ledges. 10-15 pairs may share nesting grounds. A single egg is hatched, occasionally two. Incubation period is unusually long, between 48-50 days. Young are covered with pale buffy down; when they leave the nest after 3-4 months they look almost like adults. Life span is 40 years.

Generally dark brown or black. Crown and nape streaked with white or gray. Black cere and yellow feet. Eyes brown or yellowish brown; exact color varies from area to area. Smaller than most of the flying scavengers. Weight around 2 pounds. Wing span up to 5 feet.

Europe, Africa, Middle East, India and southern Asia east to South China, New Guinea, and Australia. Range covers elevations from sea level up to 14,000 feet. In winter birds living in cold areas migrate to warmer climates. These birds are very adaptable; they can exist in habitats ranging from crowded cities to remote, desolate areas.

Generally roost communally, but normally hunt singly like vultures. Over 3000 individuals have been counted around one "piggery" in Australia. Their nests are generally built in trees at 15 to 100 feet above the ground. Nests are about 18" to 24" in diameter and 10" to 18" deep. All types of available material are used in nest building. There are 2 or 3 dull white eggs in a clutch. The eggs are incubated for 38 days by only the female. The male will bring some food to the female during incubation and while she is feeding the young. The chicks are able to fly about 42 days after hatching.

Two to four feet long; cylindrical, slender body with smooth rounded scales. Small eyes with vertical elliptic pupils. Uniform light to reddish brown above. Two light stripes on either side of the head, one running from the tip of the snout across the upper half of the eye and the other from the lower half of the eye to the angle of the mouth. Underside yellowish to mother-of-pearl white.
Very common and widespread throughout most of southern Africa and extending northwards to central, west and east Africa to the Congo, Sudan and Eritrea. A common nocturnal constrictor found near human dwellings.
Mainly rodents and other small vertebrates including bats and lizards. One snake can devour an entire rodent family in a single session.
Oviparous, laying 8 to 10 eggs, but a large female can lay up to 18. Laying takes place in spring or early summer. The young take 60 to 90 days to develop and are 7 to 10 inches long.
Its slender shape allows it access to places where small rodents are to be found.
As its common name indicates it is often found in and around human dwellings in tool sheds, compost heaps or beneath building rubble where it searches for rodents and lizards. As it is nocturnal, it is seldom seen. Other than humans, its enemies include several snakes including cobras and birds of prey, especially owls.

Monitors swallow small prey or pieces of large prey whole rather than chew it as do iguanas and other lizards. Like snakes, they have a strong bony roof to the mouth which protects the brain from being damaged by the passage of large mouthfuls. They can also greatly increase the size of their mouth cavity by spreading the hyoid apparatus and dropping the lower jaw. Their long, deeply-slit tongue is also snakelike and is often protruded to follow olfactory “tracks". Other similarities with snakes are the shape of the vertebrae, the chamber structure of the heart, and the absence of a urinary bladder.
Powerful legs allow them to run swiftly. Long, sharp claws make them good climbers; claws also are used as tools to dig out dens or enlarge rodent dens for their own use.
When lizards walk and run, they amble from side to side, flexing their bodies laterally. The muscles that are responsible for this flexing work in a different direction to expand the chest for breathing. Thus at higher speeds flexing predominates and breathing suffers. Monitors, however. have shown no constraint on oxygen consumption because they have a throat pump. As the monitor breathes, air is drawn both into the lungs and into an expanding cavity in the throat area. The cavity contracts, pumping the air into the lungs.

Alberts, Allison. "Lessons from the Wild"

Hunt over a large home range of around 2.3 square miles for females and 7 square miles for males (keeping to a much smaller part of their home range during the dry season-when food and thus energy is in shorter supply). Mating and egg incubation occurs during the drier months with hatching coinciding with the onset of the rainy season. Seven or more soft smooth leathery-shelled eggs are buried in the ground. Sexual maturity is reached at three to five years. Life expectancy is about 15 years.
Also known as the Cape Monitor. The family of monitor lizards (31 species with 58 subspecies) includes the largest lizards now in existence; several species reach 5 feet or more. The largest is the Komodo Dragon at ten feet long, and the smallest is the eight inch short-tailed monitor of Australia.
Monitors can get quite agitated if brought to bay. At first they inflate their bodies and hiss. Then they attempt to deter any attack by violently lashing the tail like a whip. Finally they may attack by grabbing their adversary with powerful jaws and clawing with their feet.

All monitors have long, forked tongues, sharp teeth, relatively long necks, pointed snouts, sharp claws, and non-autonomous tails. The eyes have eyelids and round pupils. Body is usually fairly massive, with four powerful legs, each bearing five clawed toes. The tail is thick and long and functions as a rudder, as a prehensile organ and as a weapon. It is twice as long as the body. The body is covered with various small, non-overlapping scales that form a granular pattern. Typically gray-brown with conspicuous white or yellowish markings. Can grow to six feet, but average length is four feet.
Geographical range: South Africa north to Zimbabwe, south into Namibia, and northeast into Mozambique. It lives in dry steppe or savannah regions, seeking shelter under tree roots or in burrows during hottest part of day.