|
Jonathan's Jungle
News from
June and July 2008
28th July 2008
It's been a quieter fortnight than usual in terms of
animal news since I last updated this page, but I
have acquired a few new animals during this time.
Before I show you those I thought you might like to
see some nice new pictures of
Boris, my bearded
dragon, enjoying the bright sunshine and hot
temperatures in my back garden today!
As is
mentioned on the page of the website devoted to
Boris (follow the link above to find it), bearded
dragons love to bask in the sun. Despite
having the freedom of my back garden today he chose
to sit in just one place and take in some rays!
Here he is enjoying the sunshine:
Being
outdoors in the sunshine also gave me the chance to
get a nicer than usual picture of one of his eyes,
as you can see below:
A
bearded dragon's eyes are very beautiful and they
also provide extremely good all-round vision which
enables them to spot danger quickly. This was
brilliantly demonstrated today when a light aircraft
flew overhead and Boris immediately reacted to it by
looking straight up at it and going into his threat
posture. He flattened his body, opened his
mouth and puffed up his 'beard', all of which are
done to make him look much bigger and more scary
than he really is to potential predators! I
took a photograph as quickly as I could once I
realised what he was doing, but as it only lasted a
few seconds I sadly didn't quite catch him in
full-on 'threat display' mode. Despite this,
the picture below still gives you at least some idea
of his reaction:
Boris
almost certainly saw the aircraft as a threat as it
probably resembled a large bird, some of which would
be the bearded dragon's predators in the wild and
would themselves cause this reaction, in an effort
to scare them away. Once the aircraft was out
of sight he completely relaxed again and enjoyed a
while longer lazing in the sun!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In terms
of the new animals I have acquired in the last
couple of weeks, first up is a new species of
scorpion commonly known as the Israeli gold
scorpion. As well as being native to the
deserts of Israel they are also found in many other
Asian and also north African countries such as Iran,
Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia to
name just a few. They are also sometimes known
as the large-clawed scorpion because relative to
their small size (they only reach about 8cm as
adults) they have quite large claws as you can see
below:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have
also acquired a new species of stick insect this
week. This species originates from Vietnam
(although these were bred by a friend of mine in
Somerset!) and does not have a common name, which is
a shame as their scientific or Latin name is a bit
of a mouthful - it is Pharnacia jianfenglingensis
!
I have
acquired seven small nymphs (babies) which as you
can see are quite small at present:
However,
even though they are quite small now they will
definitely not stay that way! When they are
adult, Pharnacia jianfenglingensis can reach
35cm with their front legs outstretched! Watch
this space to see how these little ones grow and
change in the coming months...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14th
July 2008
During the last 72 hours
crested gecko numbers 8, 9,
10, 11 & 12 for 2008 have hatched! These five
are all beautiful and as you can see below they are
also quite variable in both their colour and pattern
which, as I have said before, is the main reason why
they are such a fantastic species of gecko to keep
and breed as you never know what you will get!
The gecko in this bottom
picture has just caught its first ever cricket!
Baby geckos can take several days before they start
feeding, this is because they absorb the remainder
of the yolk sac of their egg shortly before hatching
which then provides them with enough energy for the
first few days of life.
During recent weeks I have
also had a number of leopard geckos hatch and I took
some photographs of some of them this evening to
show you how some of them have changed already.
When leopard geckos hatch they are, as I have shown
on this page previously, typically banded in yellow
and dark brown, with a black and white banded tail
like this one which I found hatched when I woke up
this morning!:
However, within a matter of
a couple of weeks their pattern can change
dramatically, as the dark coloured bands break up to
produce a more irregular and lighter spotted
pattern. These are four geckos which hatched
in June, once again you can see that they too are
very variable in colour and pattern!
As you can see from this
bottom picture they can become quite pale in colour
compared to how they are when they hatch, and when
you consider that the gecko above is still only six
weeks old it is already looking very beautiful,
especially with its lovely bluish coloured eyes!
When they are fully grown
leopard geckos typically, but not always, have a
spotty appearance which is why they have the name
'leopard' gecko, as they resemble the pattern of a
leopard. This is a fully grown adult male
called Blotch, named because of the unusually big
and dark spot on his back, and he is the father to
most of the babies I have had hatch this year!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
29th
June 2008
I witnessed something truly amazing this week, as
one of my adult tarantulas moulted during the
daytime rather than at night as they usually seem
to! I have watched very small tarantulas moult
in the past but never an adult-sized one, so for me
it was fantastic to see and also to be able to
photograph! As you may know from some of my
past tarantula moulting-related news stories (see
the stories dated 14th and 6th June 2008 for the two
most recent ones) they start the actual process by
producing and laying down a 'bed' of silk and then
lying on their back, the silk protecting their
delicate abdomen during the moulting process:
The actual process of
moulting is a very demanding one for a tarantula and
it takes a huge amount of energy to complete
successfully. If they are disturbed in any way
during the process they can be severely stressed and
fail to moult successfully, or even die. For
this reason, and as soon as I saw that she was lying
on her back and therefore preparing to moult, I
opened the lid of her enclosure and left it open and
in one place during the whole process. This
meant that each time I revisited her to see how she
was doing I would not need to disturb her at all.
I did not sit and watch the entire process as I knew
from experience that it could take several hours
from start to finish, and instead just checked in on
her very regularly during the four or so hours that
it did eventually take!
The picture above shows the
first visible sign of the moulting process, which is
the tarantula's legs starting to be squeezed out of
the old exoskeleton. Fluid pressure inside the
tarantula's body is used to pop off the carapace
(which is like the tarantula's head) and then the
same pressure is used to squeeze the legs out of the
hole where the carapace or head used to be!
The legs are moving almost constantly during this
part of the process as the fluid is being pumped
through them. The picture below shows this
part of the process a bit more closely, with those
shiny bluish coloured (and hairy) things being the
tarantula's 'new' legs emerging from inside those of
the old exoskeleton or skin!
Half an hour or so later
she had pushed her legs out a little further, and
here you can clearly see that she is lying on her
back and pushing the old exoskeleton off over the
top of her new one!
Another hour or so later
she had nearly completely pulled her legs free from
the old exoskeleton as you can see below!
Finally, once the
tarantula's new body is completely free from the old
one, it will remain on its back for some time to
rest following all the exertion required to moult.
Her new body is very soft and will take some time to
fully harden up again, in fact it can be as many as
7-10 days before the new exoskeleton of a large
tarantula is fully hardened. During this time
the tarantula is unable to feed as its fangs are
soft and rubbery, as shown by their white colour in
the picture below, which is very different to the
normal black colour of the hard fangs of the 'old'
exoskeleton!
It was a
great privilege to witness this most amazing of
natural processes and, even having actually watched
it on this occasion, it never fails to amaze me how
on earth a tarantula can get out of its old
exoskeleton without damaging it at all, and leaving
it in entirely one piece! They truly are a
wonder of nature, I hope you agree!
By the
way this tarantula is, like the lovely Rosanna, a
Chile rose tarantula but
it is not one I have ever yet taken to any schools,
parties or other events. This is because
unlike Rosanna, and most of my other tarantulas, she
is currently quite nervous about being handled and I
would not ever risk stressing any of my animals by
placing them in situations in which they may not
feel comfortable. I am hoping that in time she
may become as tolerant of handling as Rosanna and my
other spiders, but if she does not then she will
simply be kept by me as a pet and not ever
introduced into the large group of animals of
Jonathan's Jungle Roadshow!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22nd
June 2008
Crested gecko
baby numbers 5 & 6 for 2008 hatched today!
They are possibly the most beautiful babies I have
hatched so far, as they have a lovely high contrast
between the darker and lighter parts of their
patterns.
Here is one of them looking
particularly beautiful!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19th
June 2008 I
have acquired five new and very unusual animals!
These are called
armoured
ground crickets and are absolutely fascinating
as well as being beautiful in their own unique way!
They were bred by a friend of mine in Wales and I am
delighted to have been able to buy them from him,
they are not yet fully grown so watch this space to
see how they grow and develop in the coming weeks.
Click on their name above if you would like to learn
more...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14th June
2008 I
woke this morning to find that
Rosanna, my Chile rose tarantula, had moulted
during the night! I had known for quite a
while that Rosanna was approaching a moult, as she
had stopped eating for some time and also her
colours had become quite drab, sure signs that a
moult is due soon. I found her sitting next to
her empty exoskeleton in the same way that I'd found
my Mexican red knee tarantula (see story 4 dated 6th
June 2008 below)
Tarantulas moult lying on
their back and before moulting they usually spin for
themselves a silken 'pillow' on which to lie whilst
going through this lengthy process. The
picture below clearly shows the silken pillow which
Rosanna had made for herself before moulting this
time.
Once they have successfully
moulted, tarantulas will have their brightest
colours back as their brand new exoskeleton hardens.
As you can see, Rosanna is certainly now back to
looking beautiful again having been particularly
dull in the days leading up to her moult! The
first picture below shows how she looked just a few
days before moulting, and the second shows how she
looks now in her 'new' exoskeleton!
Before:
After:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8th June 2008 Just
when I thought this week couldn't possibly see any
more news, I have just discovered some beautiful
newly emerged beetles! A few months ago I was
given a mixed selection of beetle grubs by a friend
of mine and many of these have pupated in recent
weeks. Today I have discovered that three have
emerged as beetles and all three are absolutely
stunning as I'm sure you will agree!
These
first two are a species of fruit beetle from
Ethiopia in eastern Africa, and as you can see they
are truly beautiful. They do not have a
'common' English name but their scientific name is
Eudicella aethiopica. The male is on
the left and he has quite a large pair of red
'antlers' on his head, whereas the female does not.
These beetles fly very well and this male seems
especially keen to do so, making him very
difficult to photograph! These pictures are of
the female:
The
third beetle I have discovered today is very
different but equally beautiful and is another fruit
beetle, of a species known only as Dicronorrhina
derbyana layardi, from Namibia in southern
Africa. This one is a female and if it was a
male it would, like the species above, have small
'antlers'.
This
first picture shows her sitting next to her empty
pupal cell, which is like a cocoon. It is
inside this pupal cell that she has gone through the
most incredible change, from a grub to a beetle over
a period of several weeks, before biting her way out
of it during the last 24 hours!
Grubs of
most species of fruit beetles look almost identical,
so there is no way of telling which species they are
until they have gone through their change from grub
to beetle and emerge from their pupal cells.
This is why it is really exciting to have been given
a mixed selection of grubs from my friend's
collection, as I know she keeps lots of different
species and so there are lots of different shapes,
sizes and colours of beetles which might emerge in
the coming weeks!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6th June 2008
WOW! Lots has happened in the last
couple of weeks, with new arrivals and new babies
and various animals moulting and looking fantastic!
Here are the most important news stories of the past
two weeks (there are loads more but I don't want to
bore anyone!):
1.
I have acquired a new animal which I am
VERY excited about as I have been wanting to keep
one of these for a very long time! It is a
blue tongued
skink, a beautiful species of lizard from
Indonesia which has, as the name suggests, an
amazing blue tongue!
For more
information about this fantastic new addition to my
collection click the link above (the words in blue)
or click
here.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.
I have more new arrivals as well as the
blue tongued skink this week, click the links to
each animal's own information page (the words in
blue) for more information:
-
I
have also acquired another incredible new
creature, again one which I have been wanting to
keep for some time so I am particularly excited
about this one too! It is a praying mantis
known as a wandering
violin mantis or Indian rose mantis, and it
has a truly bizarre appearance as you can see
below!
-
I
have created a web page for my two beautiful
tangerine Honduran milk snakes, Tango and
Clementine, which I have actually owned since
Christmas 2006 but which I have just recently
decided are now plenty big enough to visit
schools, parties and other events!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.
I have also had two more new arrivals this week as
baby crested geckos
numbers 3 and 4 for 2008 have hatched!
As you
can see from the pictures below, taken just one day
after those above, once they have shed their skin
for the first time they are absolutely beautiful.
They also use their tongue to lick their faces clean
which is really cute to watch!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.
Ruby my Mexican red knee
tarantula moulted again one night this week, and
I found her in the morning sitting next to her
moulted exoskeleton (a bit like a shed skin)!
It is
always an unusual sight as it looks like there are
two tarantulas, but the one on the left of the
picture is nothing more than the empty body which
the real Ruby (on the right) has squeezed
herself out of! The empty exoskeleton is
upside down because Ruby would have been lying on
her back when she moulted and she would have pushed
the exoskeleton off over the top of her body before
crawling away to the position she is in above!
Here she is looking lovely:
And here
is her moulted exoskeleton, looking remarkably like
her but being nothing more than an empty case or
shell!:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.
A stick insect in my collection moulted early this
week to become the longest one I have ever owned!
It is a female of a species called
Acrophylla
wuelfingi
and until today it has never featured on the
website. I wanted to wait to make sure she
successfully moulted to maturity before placing her
on the 'Meet the
animals' page as sometimes they do not survive
the process, but she survived and came through the
moulting process in perfect condition!
She is
absolutely huge as you can see, at 31cm long with
her front legs outstretched or 21cm from head to tip
of abdomen!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. The second of my group of female
jungle
nymphs also moulted to maturity last week and this one
kept the more typical green colouration, unlike the
more unusual yellow one featured in the news story
dated 26th May 2008. As you can see
here, when you put them together they really are
very different in appearance but both are very
beautiful!:
|
