Animal Of The Day!

You know, this made me realize something. How come we never have domestic cats the size of a caracal?

Pinkie-Dawn said:

You know, this made me realize something. How come we never have domestic cats the size of a caracal?

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There actually are domestic breeds of cats that can be called large, for an average pet cat, for e.g. the Maine Coon, which can reach a length of upto 41 inches. In fact there was a Maine Coon named "Stewie", who was recorded as the "Longest Cat", measuring 48.5 in (123 cm) from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail.

Anyways, let's get to the next species. How about a bird?


Scientific classification:-

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Opisthocomiformes
Family: Opisthocomidae
Genus: Opisthocomus
Species: O. hoazin

The Hoatzin, also known as the stinkbird, or Canje pheasant, is a species of tropical bird found in swamps, riparian forests, & mangroves of the Amazon & the Orinoco Delta in South America. The name "stinkbird" is derived from the bird's foul odour, which is caused by the fermentation of food in its digestive system.

The Hoatzin was originally described by German zoologist Statius Müller in 1776. There has been much debate about the Hoatzin's relationships with other birds. Because of its distinctness it has been given its own family, the Opisthocomidae, & its own suborder, the Opisthocomi. At various times, it has been allied with such taxa as the Tinamous, the Galliformes (gamebirds), the rails, the bustards, seriemas, sandgrouse, doves, turacos & other Cuculiformes & mousebirds. A whole genome sequencing study published in 2014 places the Hoatzin as the sister taxon of a clade composed of Gruiformes & Charadriiformes. In 2015, genetic research indicated that the Hoatzin is the last surviving member of a bird line that branched off in its own direction 64 million years ago, shortly after the extinction event that killed the non-avian dinosaurs.

The Hoatzin is pheasant-sized, with a total length of 65 cms (26 in), & a long neck & small head. It has an unfeathered blue face with maroon eyes, & its head is topped by a spiky, rufous crest. The long, sooty-brown tail is broadly tipped buff. The upperparts are dark, sooty-brown-edged buff on the wing coverts, & streaked buff on the mantle & nape. The underwing coverts & flanks are rich rufous-chestnut, but this is mainly visible when it opens its wings.

The Hoatzin is an herbivore, eating leaves & to a lesser degree fruits & flowers of the plants that grow in the marshy & riverine habitats where it lives. It has an unusual digestive system with an enlarged crop used for fermentation of vegetable matter, in a manner broadly analogous to the digestive system of mammalian ruminants.

It is a noisy species, with a variety of hoarse calls, including groans, croaks, hisses & grunts. These calls are often associated with body movements, such as wing spreading. Calls are used to maintain contact between individuals in groups, warn of threats & intruders & by chicks begging for food. It clambers around clumsily among the branches, & being quite tame (though they become stressed by frequent visits), often allows close approach.

Hoatzins are seasonal breeders, breeding during the rainy season, whose exact timing varies across its range. Hoatzins are gregarious & nest in small colonies, laying two or three eggs in a stick nest in a tree hanging over water in seasonally flooded forests. The chicks, which are fed on regurgitated fermented food, have another odd feature; they have two claws on each wing. Immediately on hatching, they can use these claws, & their oversized feet, to scramble around the tree branches without falling into the water. When predators such as the great black hawk attack a Hoatzin nesting colony, the adults fly noisily about, trying to divert the predator's attention, while the chicks move away from the nest & hide among the thickets. If discovered, however, they drop into the water & swim under the surface to escape, then later use their clawed wings to climb back to the safety of the nest. Modern researchers believe that the young Hoatzin's claws are of more recent origin, however, & may be a secondary adaptation from its frequent need to leave the nest & climb about in dense vines & trees well before it can fly.

Though conspicuous, even attractive at close range due to its bizarre shape, striking colors, unwariness & poor flight, it is not considered endangered. In fact, its survival seems to be more assured than that of many other endemics of its range. In Brazil, indigenous peoples sometimes collect the eggs for food & the adults are occasionally hunted, but in general this is rare, as it is reputed to have a bad taste.

Pika Pika :chu:

So the secret of what's keeping them from not becoming endangered is their awful taste? Why does it somehow remind me of the taste of the Switch cartridges?

SirYarnsalot said:

people have eaten switch cartridges?

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Nope, they've only licked it, unlike the Hoatzin.

Wanted to showcase more species, but I guess the Forum's gonna close in a day or two :(, so that will be all folks :).

Pika Pika :chu:

Aw. Its been fun.

Cool_Porygon said:

Aw. Its been fun.

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Thanks :)!

Pika Pika :chu: