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1. Loro Parque

Loro Parque is situated to the north of the Tenerife capital city, Puerto de la Cruz, and you can park your car at the entrance. The highlight of the park is its collection of parrots, the largest in the world, which includes more than 350 species and sub-species. You can see some of these parrots performing in one of the Loro Shows which are held in the park throughout the day.

You can also see orca, dolphin and sea lion shows, and Loro Parque's other residents include tigers, jaguars, alligators, gorillas and giant tortoises. Don't miss the Parrot Museum, where you can see the world's largest collection of porcelain parrots. There is also a children's play area, Kinderlandia, which includes suspension bridges and slides.

2. La guilas Jungle Park

This zoo and botanical park is about 3km from the popular resort of Los Cristianos, and is easy to get to if you hire a car. Las guilas Jungle Park is home to more than 500 animals, birds and reptiles including primates, big cats, penguins, pygmy hippos and crocodiles. You can watch the daily Birds of Prey and Exotic Bird shows, explore the Jungle Raid adventure area or take a ride on Bob, the park jungle sled.

The park has plenty of food outlets where you can stop for a bite to eat, and there are souvenir stalls where you can buy something to remind you of your visit.

3. Aqualand Costa Adeje Waterpark

As part of your Canary Islands travel guide, if you hire a car during your stay in Tenerife, you can drive to the Aqualand Costa Adeje Waterpark in the south-west of the island. This all-year attraction features a range of rides including water slides and a rapids ride, but if you do not want to do anything too energetic, you can simply float along the Congo River on a raft.

There is also a dolphinarium in the park, where you can see bottlenose dolphins perform in daily shows or simply watch them swim and play underwater.

posted by qhishjq  # 11:02 PM 0 comments

If you are considering getting an iguana for a pet there is a very large bit of literature and information that you should carefully study before deciding if an iguana is the right pet for you. Green iguana taming is but one of the relatively small issues in the way of owning and caring for iguanas, as they are a high maintenance pet to keep and can life for quite some time. There are also other considerations when deciding on an iguana and that includes green iguana taming as many iguanas display high levels of aggression in captivity. With this bit of information you will be able to form a better understanding of what the tasks are involved with having this pet and learning the fine points of green iguana taming.

Understanding Green Iguana Taming

The very first thing that is imperative for you to realize is that iguanas are a reptile and are very wild by nature. These creatures have only just begun in recent decades to be an in-home pet and often green iguana taming is very difficult for this reason. When you decide to own an iguana and bring it home it is going to show you aggression because it is scared and you may be inadvertently creating a worse situation by not understanding what the iguana perceives as a threat. These are necessary things to learn about your iguana because green iguana taming can be tricky and the iguana will never get over his aggression if you do not learn how to properly act and approach the iguana.

Green iguana taming can be a very long process because the reptile isnt as easily warmed up to as other mammal like pets that you may have had in the past. The iguana will display high levels of aggression if you arent handling him properly and this seems to be the number one reason for iguana aggression is either due to the fact that the iguana is not handled properly or when green iguana taming, you dont spend enough time with the pet on a daily basis. When you are researching how to properly perform green iguana taming be sure that you pay particular attention to how to approach your iguana also because trying to grab your iguana from the back will instinctively trigger defense mechanisms within the iguana and he will react negatively.

Another very important issue in green iguana taming is that you never grab your iguana by its tail because it will break right off in your hand. An iguana doesnt have many defense mechanisms and the tail breaking off, is one of the defenses they have to protect themselves from predators in the wild.

If you want to learn more about Iguana diet please visit our site which is free to the public. You'll find the best tips on everything to do with Iguana

posted by qhishjq  # 4:39 PM 0 comments

In 1974 Donald Johanson's team found the bones of an extinct hominid in the Afar region in Ethiopia. The same night John Lennon and Paul McCarthy's song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was played in their camp, giving the name for the find. In a LiveScience column, Cornell University anthropologist Meredith F. Small calls Lucy the crown jewel of ancient full skeletons.

Small's characterization is an exaggeration. Actually, only 40 per cent of the bones of the skeleton were found but Lucy is still by far the most famous specimen of the species known as Australopithecus afarensis, which has been proposed as a link between apes and the genus Homo. In other words, Lucy has been characterized as our grandmother.

Lucy's bones have been kept in Ethiopia but now they are on a long tour of the United States. The tour might have something to do with the lively and occasionally fierce origins debate that shows no signs of abating. For the past 34 years Lucy has been used as a poster girl for evolution to bolster up the view that apes and humans have a common ancestor.

When a new fossil known as the Lucy child, i.e. the almost complete skeleton of a three-year old Australopithecus afarensis, was unveiled in Dikika, Ethiopia, in 2006, the popular press and science journals advertised it as a human ancestor. However, an in-depth study revealed that it was more gorilla-like than supposed and the hyoid bone that is associated with the capacity for speaking resembles that of a chimpanzee. And chimpanzees are not known for their oratory skills.

Last year brought some more bad news for Lucy's status as our supposed grandmother. Professor Yoel Rak and colleagues at Tel Aviv University in Israel published a study in the online edition of PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They compared the mandibles or lower jaw bones of gorillas, chimpanzees and modern humans and reported that since the bones of apes are morphologically almost identical to those in both Australopithecus robustus (a species related to Lucy) and Australopithecus afarensis but different in modern humans, this casts doubt on the view that regards Lucy as an ancestor of Homo sapiens.

Lucy's American tour will no doubt continue but it should probably have to include a warning that the old lady is not a human ancestor.

Joel Kontinen is a translator and novelist currently living in Finland. His background includes an MA in translation studies and a BA in Bible and Theology. He likes to keep up-to-date on science news and often comments on creation/evolution and origins issues.

Blog: http://joelkontinen.blogspot.com

posted by qhishjq  # 10:17 AM 0 comments

On his website, a certain Mr. X has a standing offer of $250,000 to anyone who can give any empirical evidence (scientific proof) for Evolution.

To prove Evolution, there are three main subjects to consider, being Knowledge, Science and Belief. Knowledge is about facts. Science is about explaining and working with facts. Belief is about non-facts. Atheist and religious fanatics, being people you can't discuss common sense with, combine these three subjects in one, which they call "Truth". Not A truth, but THE indisputable Truth. If Mr. X would belong to this category, he might want to pay me for deleting this article, something I surely would consider.

Knowledge

We can be rather short about this one, unless someone can tell us what energy, matter and time is. Especially time is a great mystery, but it stands central in debates about Evolution versus Creation. How long time ago happened what, how much time did what development take, etc? Matter is a great mystery also, no scientist ever saw an electron as yet, just traces it leaves behind in various pieces of equipment. We only know the mass and electrical charge of an electron, but nothing about its internal structure. Yet, electrons are the main agents in the forming of chemical bonds, matter and life as we know it. Nobody ever "saw" energy either. We only know forms of energy, matter being one of them (Einstein). We can observe those various forms, but we don't know what the H2O of energy is. In fact, when it comes to the basic components of Creation and Evolution, we know absolutely NOTHING.

Science

Scientific facts are observed behaviors of matter and energy as functions of time, which can be described in formulas that we can work with. These "facts" however can change, some even become invalid as new discoveries are made and new "facts" emerge. The only "complete" science is that of mathematics. What is known of it since thousands of years will never change, never become invalid. Only more sophisticated methods can be developed, but for the rest, mathematics are stable as a rock.

Belief

When knowledge and science fail, Belief is left to explain whatever. It is therefore very hard to prove any Belief, or to deny it, because it is not based on knowledge and/or science. Nevertheless, we have also common sense, which allows us to judge the probability of something to be true. This is the field of philosophy, which is considered a science, but it is not an exact one and therefore it can be categorized under Beliefs. Religion is a special category within Belief, because it usually is dogmatic. In religions indisputable postulates are made to be "facts" and "truths", which rules out "common sense". Hence, it is rather useless to want to prove whether God exists or not. Those who try to do that, are no longer dealing with religion, but with science. If God ever would become a scientific fact, we can close all holy books and churches, fire all priests and instead ask a computer what God's will is, by letting it make "divine" calculations. If it then answers with "syntax error", the computer proves that God does not exist - a scientific fact.

However, there are false gods and false beliefs, which can be discovered by "common sense". Common sense must be based on a logic that everybody can agree with and this is not always the case, so even "common sense" is not always "convincing".

This brings us on Mr. X's first event to prove, without the need of a God Creator:

1. Time, space, and matter came into existence by themselves.

Because we don't know what energy, matter and time is, there can be no empirical prove on the origin of them, but theories only. What we can say about time though is, that nothing can be infinitely old, because whatever would be (God), cannot become a second older than it is already - you can't add anything to infinity. From this follows that time does not flow from the present into the future, but the other way around, from the present into the past and the future does not exist. This means that only the present moment exists and indeed, tomorrow never comes, it is always today and always right now. The present moment then becomes ageless and so both Creation and God are ageless. In that case there is no origin in time, but in Evolution only, changing the conditions of the present moment. This neither includes nor excludes a God Creator, just the perception of God would become a fundamentally different one from the Abrahamic view of the Bible. We are thus totally confined to the field of belief and speculation here and therefore I deem this point to be invalid in respect to proving Evolution.

Mr. X's second event to prove:

2. Planets and stars formed from space dust.

Mr. X requires an empirical prove. In my Oxford Dictionary, "empirical" is defined as: based on observation, experience, or experiment, not on theory.

As to observation, we have a very interesting physical law, called the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The interesting thing is this context is, that this is a purely observational law. This means that it is not based on any physical principle, but on observations only. Hence If I can prove Evolution on the basis of the Second Law, Mr. X has to accept it as valid.

The Second law has great significance for the mechanisms behind Evolution. Evolution is characterized by an almost infinite number of random events, bringing about unpredictable results over time, the more unpredictable, the longer the time of a certain process of consideration is. It is here where the Second Law comes in, based on our observations that random events indeed do occur. Random events relate to disorder, the very subject of the Second Law in terms of entropy. The creationists say that the Second Law predicts that everything develops to greater states of disorder (= higher entropy), which then erroneously is seen as to be in conflict with the high order we observe in the structure of the galaxies, planetary systems and the extremely high organized organisms of life, that thus must be created by God. This point of view thus rejects the Second Law, as it goes against God's creative order.

A correct understanding of entropy lets one see that organized matter instead causes an increase of entropy. For example, the Sun (or any star) was formed by gravity from a chaotic interstellar cloud of dust, into a more organized concentrated body, that converts matter into heat energy by nuclear processes. This energy disperses in space far more chaotically than the mass of the original cloud did and thus the entropy (disorder) has increased. Likewise, the chemical energy in food is in the body converted to heat, that is given of to the environment, thus spreading in a more chaotic manner, causing increase of entropy. There is order in chaos!

Evolution leads to more organized forms of matter and so doing increases the total entropy of the universe and is thus a direct consequence of the Second Law. The amazing complexity of these structures is due to the incredibly long time over which they were formed - billions of years of random events, finally resulting into a perfect system, perfect by necessity, in order to exist as the only sustainable solution - anything else would not be possible to last over (long) time. There is no "intelligent" design behind these structures, none that could be proven, nor would be required to explain them.

Hence, already at this point I can say to have proven Evolution on basis of the Second Law

Mr. X's third event to prove:

3. Matter created life by itself.

The prove of this is largely the same as of event 2, just the scene is a different one. Again, consider the time factor. Hundreds of millions of years of an almost infinite number of random events, chemical experiments, finally resulting in something that was sustainable, again later developing into something that could reproduce itself - life. This reproduction requires chemical energy (food) to be converted to ambient heat, increasing entropy, which was the driving factor behind the probability for it to occur - the Second Law. Evolutional development is about 100 million errors against one success, finally resulting into something that is without errors, "supreme" perfection. Hence, the extreme complexity and perfection of natural systems, including life, talks in favor of Evolution, rather than against it. Anything less perfect could not survive over time. Evolution can do "miracles", by virtue of the Second Law.

Mr. X's fourth event to prove:

4. Early life-forms learned to reproduce themselves.

This statement suggests that there could be life forms not learning this. That would be in conflict with the definition of life, being the ability to reproduce itself. Something that cannot reproduce itself, is not life.

Mr. X's fifth event to prove:

5. Major changes occurred between these diverse life forms (i.e., fish changed to amphibians, amphibians changed to reptiles, and reptiles changed to birds or mammals).

In view of said above, there is nothing peculiar for life to have spread over the planet, by which major changes between the various life forms occurred. Naturally, migrating to new environments with different conditions for survival, needed the migrating life forms to adapt to that. This just follows from common sense. An empirical prove of this event lies alone in the observations of paleontology, fossil findings of previous life forms.

The author is a thermodynamicist engineer and an agnostic. He is webmaster for http://www.zoroastrianism.cc, which is about an alternative God-Creator, who is co-existent with Evolution and was firstly realized by the prophet Zarathushtra, more than 1000 years before the Bible came into existence. Read more about the first monotheistic religion in History, now restored and brought back to the World.

http://www.zoroastrianism.cc/zarathushtra_biography.html

posted by qhishjq  # 9:54 AM 0 comments

Hartmann's mountain zebras are the largest of the mountain zebras. They look whiter than the Cape mountain zebras because their black stripes are narrower and more widely spaced.

There are two kinds of mountain zebra. They are the Hartman's mountain zebra and the Cape mountain zebra. Taxonomists placed them in the subspecies group because the original mountain zebras may have changed morphologically through geographic isolation. The Hartman's mountain zebra is an endangered wild equid living in a harsh yet fragile environment. This subspecies is differentiated from it's close relative, the Cape mountain zebra because of it's body size, ears and stripes. This Mountain Zebra is named after Dr. George Hartmann, 4-8-1865 to + 1945. Hartmann was a geographer, explorer, colonial politician and Major of the German land resistance. Hartmann is said to have named this zebra after his wife whose maiden name was Anna Woermann daughter of a ship-owner in Hamburg Germany.

Physical Description-Adults

Hartmann's zebras have broad black stripes with an off-white, creamy color between them. The black stripes on the animals' sides do not meet on the belly. The leg stripes extend horizontally, all the way down to the top of the hooves. These leg stripes can be thin and wrap around the entire leg. The stripe that covers the spine and top portion of the tail is said to be "zipper-like" in appearance. The most characteristic and interesting feature of both mountain zebra subspecies is a square flap of skin on the throat just below the head. This flap of skin, or dewlap, is larger on the males.

The average adult height at the shoulder is 120 - 130 cm or 4 - 4.3 ft. and the tail length is 50 cm or 20 in. The body length is 220 cm or 7.3 ft. The weight is 260 - 370 kg or 572 - 814 lb. There is no significant size difference between the sexes except the stallions are usually heavier.

Physical Description-Foals

Foals weigh about 25 kg or 55 pounds at birth. The foals' white stripes are more brown in color than white. As a foal matures the stripes become white. Foals nurse for as long as 7 months. They are capable of grazing when they are 2 weeks old. Like many zebras the foal can stand on its feet within an hour after its birth and can run with the herd after a few hours. This adaptation gives zebra foals a much better chance of escaping from predators. Both male and female Hartmann's mountain zebras sexually mature after two years.

Life Cycle

The longevity of Hartmann's mountain zebras is between 25 to 30 years. They are not considered seasonal breeders since mares can foal any time of the year, but most foal sometime during the rainy season when the grass is at its best. Gestation, is 300 to 365 days.

Behavioral Description

Hartmann's mountain zebras live in family groups that are made up of mares, foals and a dominant stallion. The normal size of a family group is 5 to 10 zebras. Stallions must fight for a dominant position in a family group. The winning stallion passes on his physical abilities for fighting to his foals. In this way zebras maintain the best physical shape for survival. After two years a male foal leaves his family group to form a bachelor group with other males. The males challenge stallions to get their own group or start new ones if enough mares are available from oversized family groups.

Some authorities have observed that Hartmann's mountain zebras orient their bodies with the sun during the day. Hartmann's mountain zebras will climb eastward facing slopes to absorb the sun's morning warmth. As the day progresses they find shade. In Africa's Namib desert Hartmann's mountain zebras have been observed to sniff out water on the surface of dry river beds. They paw at the ground with their hooves to get to water that is sometimes three feet below the surface. By doing so these zebra's benefit other desert dwelling animals. It has also been mentioned that Hartmann's mountain zebras can go without water for four days.

Hartmann's mountain zebras are diurnal. Most activity is during the coolest hours which is the morning and late afternoon. More than half of their day is spent eating and looking for food. They take dust baths once or twice a day.They are also excellent climbers and more sure-footed compared to zebras that live on the flat plains. Family groups are often found grazing with other animals.

Habitat Description

Parts of the Namib desert in which these animals live are covered with pink or peach colored sand dunes. The area is cris-crossed with granite river ravines that sustain a diversity of plant and animal life. Hartmann's mountain zebras depend very much on these rivers for survival. The Naukluft region of Namib has been set aside as an African national park. Many Hartmann's mountain zebras live in the Naukluft region. Some of the trees that grow in the ravines are Sycamore figs (Ficus sycomorus), sweet thorns and ebonies (Euclea pseudebenus). The grass grows as tall, tough mounds.

Somewhat unrelated to the Hartmann's mountain zebra is a rare and unique plant that grows in their habitat called Welwitschia Mirabilis.

Environmental Interactions

Hartmann's mountain zebra mix freely with groups of other grazing animals; the significance of this being that the combined sharp senses of a group of animals help detect predators. Together they form an effective early warning system against the areas predators; leopards and hyenas. Mammals that live in the same habitat are: steenbok, springbok, oryx, kudu, Dassie Rat, Chacma Baboon, rock dassie, klipspringer and ostrich. Many of these animals have adaptations that enable them to live in such a harsh habitat such as Namib and Naukluft. Herbivores like the Hartmann's mountain zebra have special stomach fauna (animals mentioned above in "Life Cycle" as micro-organisms) to digest rough forage that other animals could not use. Also mentioned is the ability of the Hartmann's mountain zebra to find and expose water for themselves and other desert dwelling animals.

Status in the Wild

IUCN 2000: Endangered.

CITES: Appendix II.

USFWS: Threatened.

Population Estimates:

362 Hartmann's mountain zebra can be found within 47 zoos worldwide.
25,000 are known to exist in the wilds of Nambia.

http://wild-about-you.com/GameHartmannZebra.htm

posted by qhishjq  # 3:32 AM 0 comments