Mysore Zoo was originally created in 1892 on 10 acres of the summer palace of Maharaja Sri Chamaraja Wodeyar and was originally called the Palace Zoo. The zoo was originally set up by G. H. Krumbeigal. (German horticulturist)
The zoo was opened to the public in 1902 and includes a bandstand and an artificial lake. It was given to the Department of Parks and Gardens of the Mysore State Government in 1948.
The zoo was handed over to the Forest Department in 1972, and was entrusted to Zoo Authority of Karnataka.
The Zoo which has now spread over an area of 250 acres was initially made for the exclusive visit of the royal family but public entry started as early as 1920.
This Zoo has a wide range of animals. At present there are 1450 individuals belonging to 170 different species. The large number of animals is exotics like Gorilla, Chimpanzee, Zebra, Giraffe, African Rhinos, Tapir, Marmoset, Lemur, Baboon, Emu, and Cassowary etc.
The Zoo has a small museum which exhibits the stuffed animals. A small library is also located in the Zoo. Painting and essay competitions are periodically conducted by the zoo authority to create awareness for animals between the children.
The Mysore zoo is a very popular tourist attraction and it's maybe the second sought after attraction in the city after Mysore Palace.
All these beautiful animals can be seen in open natural enclosures. The animals are let in a natural habitat like environment.
The zoo is at a short distance from Mysore Palace, on the way to Chamundi Hills.
Zoo Timings : 8.30am to 5.30 pm on all days except Tuesdays
India is rich with inland freshwater fish, with about 940 species known from its rivers, lakes and estuaries. Of these about 500 species are primary freshwater fish with around 65% endemic, cloistered in the two hot spots of India, the Western Ghats and the North East.
Fishes are member of paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic craniate animals that lack limbs with digits. Most fishes are ectothermic "cold-blooded", allowing their body temperatures to vary as ambient temperatures change.
Fish is ectothermic, has streamlined body for rapid swimming, extracts oxygen from water using gills or uses accessory breathing organ to breathe atmospheric oxygen, has two sets of paired fins, usually one or two dorsal fins, an anal fin, and a tail fin, has jaws, has skin that is usually covered with scales, and lays eggs.
Fish can be found in nearly all aquatic environments, from high mountain streams to the abyssal and even hadal depths of the deepest oceans.
Fish are an important resource for humans worldwide, especially as food.
They lacked true spine, they possessed notochords which allowed them to be more agile than their invertebrate counterparts.
Unlike groupings such as birds or mammals, fish are not a single clade but paraphyletic collection of taxa including hagfishes, lampreys, sharks and rays, ray-finned fish, coelacanths, and lungfish.
Fish species diversity is divided equally between marine (oceanic) and freshwater ecosystems.
Fish exchange gases by pulling oxygen-rich water through their mouths and pumping it over their gills. The gills push the oxygen-poor water out through openings in the sides of the pharynx.
Most air breathing fish are facultative air breathers that avoid the energetic cost of rising to the surface and the fitness cost of exposure to surface predators.
Fish have closed-loop circulatory system. The heart pumps the blood in a single loop throughout the body.
Jaws allow fish to eat wide variety of food, including plants and other organisms. Fish ingest food through the mouth and break it down in the esophagus.
Fish release their nitrogenous wastes as ammonia. Some of the wastes diffuse through the gills
The scales of fish originate from the mesoderm (skin); they may be similar in structure to teeth.
Fish have quite small brains relative to body size compared with other vertebrates.
Most fish possess highly developed sense organs. All daylight fish have colour vision that is good as a human. Fish orient themselves using landmarks and may use mental maps based on multiple landmarks or symbols. Fish sense sound using their lateral lines and their ears.
Fish move by alternately contracting paired sets of muscles on either side of the backbone. The streamlined body of the fish decreases the amount of friction from the water.
Fish reproductive organs include testes and ovaries. Over 97% of all known fish are oviparous that is, the eggs develop outside the mother's body.
The newly hatched young of oviparous fish are called larvae. The larval period in oviparous fish is relatively short (only several weeks), and larvae rapidly grow and change appearance and structure to become juveniles.
Fish suffer from diseases and parasites. To prevent disease they have variety of defences.
Freshwater fish seem particularly threatened because they live in relatively small water bodies. Overfishing is major threat to edible fish such as cod and tuna.
Threats to these fauna are aplenty with urbanization, deforestation, habitat loss, pollution, over-harvesting, and culture of exotics.
The only way for a fish enthusiast to save the fish and its habitats is creating awareness among the people.
Watch out peaceful sight of ducks and artificial pond during sunset for relaxation. You will see beautiful and natural colour of the sunset in the water of artificial pond. (Golden Water Waves)
Everyone has hidden beauty and music; we just need to explore them.
Ducks are aquatic birds smaller than the swans and geese. The can be found in both fresh water and sea water.
A male duck is called a drake and the female duck is called a duck.
The body plan of ducks is elongated and broad, and they are also relatively long-necked.
Ducks exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians, worms and small molluscs.
The ducks are monogamous although these bonds generally last a single year only.
Most duck species breed once a year in favourable conditions (spring/summer or wet seasons). Ducks also tend to make a nest before breeding and after hatching to lead their ducklings to water. Mother ducks are very caring and protective of their young.
Females of most dabbling ducks make the classic "quack" sound.
Ducks have many predators like large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters including fish-eating birds such as herons.
Watch out beauty of white peacock at Ramakrishna Math, Bangalore. Everyone has hidden beauty and music; we just need to explore them.
Indian Peacocks or peafowl have been domesticated for about 3000 years. The male Indian Peafowl, commonly known as the peacock. Life expectancy is generally considered to be 15-20 years. The male peacock sports about 150 of the long "eyed" peacock tail feathers.
These large, brightly colored birds have a distinctive crest and an unmistakable ornamental train. The train (1.4-1.6 meters in length) accounts for more than 60% of their total body length (2.3 meters). The train is formed by 100-150 highly specialized uppertail-coverts.
Peafowl are forest birds that nest on the ground but roost in trees.
Peafowl are omnivorous and eat most plant parts, flower petals, seed heads, insects and other arthropods, reptiles, and amphibians.
Feather of Peacock
These feathers are shed annually during the molt. These feathers grow to be several feet long but are shed each year just after the breeding season and regrown in the following season. Each of these long feathers also has a design near its tip which resembles an eye.
Colour of Peacock Feather
The feathers of the peacock are composed of many colors including the crescent sheen of bright blue and green. The shimmering color of the peacock feather is due to phenomena known as interference. Each feather consists of tiny flat branches. This same principle is also responsible for vibrant shimmering colors of butterflies, pheasants, birds of paradise and humming birds.
Feather structure is as important to colour as pigment. Each feather consists of thousands of flat branches, each with minuscule bowl-shaped indentations. At the bottom of each indentation is a lamellae (thin plate-like layers), that acts like a prism, splitting light.
White Peacock
The white feathers on a peacock depend on which genes are dominant and which are recessive. They do not have any pigmentation. Any animal can be albino, but what separates an albino from a white peacock is the colour of the skin beneath its feathers. A white peacock has coloured skin whereas an albino's skin will be very pale and without any markings.
There is a variety of peacock with all white feathers. These are not albino but a color variation of the India Blue peacock. Albino animals and birds have a complete lack of color and red or pink eyes. White peafowl have blue eyes. Indian peafowl of all colors, including white, have pink skin.
The colors in the feathers of a bird are determined two factors: pigment and structure. For example, the green in some parrots is a result of yellow pigments over blue-reflecting feathers. In the case of a white peacock, its unusual lack-of-color is due to a missing pigment. This missing pigment is dark and absorbs incident light, making diffracted and interference light visible. The effect is similar to that of oil on water.
Peacocks are native to India. The white peacock is frequently mistaken for an albino, but the white peacock is a colour variety of the Indian blue peacock, and they are the same in size and behaviour as the other blue peacock.
Watch out a loveable moments of Love Birds for relaxation. The Love Bird flirts with their partner like humans. Many Love Birds are very flirty like human and always keep flirting with many female Love Birds.
This video can be useful for a teenager and biology students for knowing nature.
House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) is a very common breeding resident bird. It is found near habitation and cultivated areas of India. In regional language, it is called Gouriya, Chidiya or Chidi. House Sparrow is now declining in population rapidly. This bird needs an attention of human to conserve it.
In this video, you can see a female house sparrow is feeding its chick in a nest made on the ceiling of a house in India.
Check out peaceful sound of Indian sparrow for relaxation. Everyone has hidden beauty and music; we just need to explore them.
House Sparrow is a common breeding resident bird. The Indian house sparrow (Passer domesticus indicus) belongs to the Passeridae family and is common in urban areas and human settlements. The House Sparrow is so named because it has always been associated with human habitation. It is found near habitation and cultivated areas of India. In Indian language, it is called Gouriya, Chidiya or Chidi. House Sparrow is now declining in population rapidly. These birds need an attention of human to conserve it.
They are primarily seed-eaters but they also consume small insects. It feeds mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is an opportunistic eater and commonly eats insects and many other foods.
They are monogamous with both the male and female helping in nesting activities.
Most House Sparrow vocalizations are variations on its short and incessant chirping call.
It tolerates a variety of climates but prefers drier conditions especially in moist tropical climates.
The House Sparrow is a social bird. At feeding stations and nests, female House Sparrows are dominant despite their smaller size.
The House Sparrow's flight is direct (not undulating) and flapping, averaging 45.5 kilometres per hour and about 15 wingbeats per second.
Most House Sparrows do not move more than a few kilometres during their lifetime but there is limited migration in all regions.
House Sparrows can breed in the breeding season immediately following their hatching. The House Sparrow is monogamous and typically mates for life. Lost mates of both sexes can be replaced quickly during the breeding season.
The nest has an outer layer of stems and roots, a middle layer of dead grass and leaves, and a lining of feathers, as well as of paper and other soft materials.
The yolk comprises 25% of the egg of House Sparrows, the egg white 68% and the shell 7%. Eggs are watery being 79% liquid and mostly protein. The female develops a brood patch of bare skin and plays the main part in incubating the eggs.
Young House Sparrows typically remain in the nest for 14 to 16 days. During this time, they are fed by both parents.
Its predators include domestic cats, hawks, owls, and many other predatory birds and mammals. The House Sparrow's main predators are cats and birds of prey, and other animals prey on them like corvids, squirrels.
Though the bird is abundant in the areas of its occurrence, in recent years it has seen a sharp decline. The use of pesticides and the changing style of house construction that leave very little space for the birds to breed has been cited as a reason for the decline of their population. It has been reports that house sparrow is being affected by radiation from cell phone towers.
Watch out beauty of a Black Butterfly. Can you guess scientific name or general name of this Butterfly? Every species has hidden beauty; we just need to explore them.
A butterfly is a day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera which includes the butterflies and moths. The butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult.
Butterflies have large and brightly coloured wings. Butterflies in their adult stage can live from a week to nearly a year depending on the species.
Boy Structure : Adult butterflies have four wings : a forewing and hindwing on both the left and the right side of the body. The body is divided into three segments : head, thorax and abdomen. They have two antennae, two compound eyes, and a proboscis.
The coloration of butterfly wings is created by minute scales. These scales are pigmented with melanins that give it blacks and browns colour to the wings.
Butterflies feed primarily on nectar from flowers and some derive nourishment from pollen. Butterflies use their antennae to sense the air for wind and scents. The antennae are richly covered with sensory organs known as sensillae. A butterfly has sense of taste 200 times stronger than humans.
Butterflies have a well developed vision and most species are sensitive to the ultraviolet spectrum. Some butterflies have organs of hearing and some species can make stridulatory or clicking sounds.
This video can be useful for a teenager and biology students for knowing nature.
