Habitat

Distributed throughout India, Ceylon and some parts of Bengal. These birds are generally very sociable. Munias are extremely restless and playful birds, with chirping sound throughout the day.

Length of life in captivity

These birds have lived in the captivity for 3 years. These birds appear to thrive well in captivity.

Housing

Munias are kept in large sized cages. Shell grit provided b the side of the cage. Perches and small pots are provided for the birds to rest.

Food

Mixed grains - 5 gms

Common Illnesses Among Munias

Diarrhea

A bird parried watery motion and on fecal analysis, it was found to contain eggs, capillaria sp. The bird was dewormed. But still diarrhea persists. Then one shot of sulpha drugs stooped the enteritis. Electrolytes mixed with feed/water.

Conjunctivitis

The eyes and the surrounding parts become swollen and discharges noticed from the eyes. The bird was put in a separate cage and the eyes were washed with saline water and eye drops (2 drops) applied over the affected eyes thrice daily for 3 days. Bird was active on 3rd day and took its entire feed.

Heat stress/apoplexy

Sudden death of birds occurred in summer due to heat stress. Hence, gunny bags are tied over the cage and watered in morning and night during summer to reduce heat stress.

Synonyms

Black headed Munia and Spotted Munia

Despite the abundance and diversity of river turtles, we sometimes lose sigh of or ignore the existence of these tiny toddlers. Most of us forget their major role in maintaining the ecological balance and their economic importance.

The fresh water turtles are termed as “Vultures in water” because these turtles mainly feeds on the dead animals and fishes in the pond or river to maintain the water clean. Especially the Ganges soft shell and Indian flapshell feed upon the animal carcasses and half-burnt human corpses in River Ganges, where most of the corpses were thrown off…

These turtles are broadly grouped as “hard shells” or “soft shells“. The soft-shell turtles possess elongated snout extended up to a fleshy tube-like proboscis, which consists of nostrils at its tip.

Hard shelled turtles are having a retractile neck and horny shell. The Indian Black turtle is the most commonest hardshell turtle. These turtles are widespread in India. Another hardshell turtle called- Indian Roofted turtle ( It is called so because it is having elevated tent-like carapace) is found in Indus, Brahmaputra and Ganges river system.

As these turtles are having economic importance, these are protected under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act (1972). Despite the stringent rules they’re facing challenges due to over exploitation and deforestation. If you are keen on wildlife conservation, immediately protect the turtles in the river and also ponds…

A Green sea turtle of 2years old was rescued by Sea Turtle Inc. This sea turtle lost three of her flippers and had little chance of survival. This was named as “ALLISON“, which is five-inch in length.

Sea turtles can grow to 450 pounds and live for around 100 years. So animal shelter gave prompt treatment for this sea turtle. Now she managed to swim with single flipper. But reintroducing into the sea is questionable as it may be injured by other aquatic faunas and also would be confined to shallow waters for the rest of her life.

Caregivers at Sea Turtle Inc. are now thinking to fit three prosthetic flippers before getting into sea. This prosthetic flippers would be of silicon, which is being used for implants in humans.

A team of physicians from UT Dental Branch and University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center have arrived to help Allison get back to its home. They are studying the pros and cons of using silicone in sea water to confirm that it does not dissolve. Hope they will succeed to end the longing for the sea of Allison.

Some of the Earth’s most beautiful organisms- Gold fishes that can be found in all aquariums will be a subject of an ambitious new research programs.

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Malaria, the dreadful disease of mammals created awareness program among our ancestors- Chimpanzees. Chimpanzees in Uganda is taking a mouthful of dirt to :self medicate” against malaria. Read the rest of this entry »

Habitat

Distributed throughout India, Ceylon and some parts of Bengal. These birds are generally very sociable. Munias are extremely restless and playful birds, with chirping sound throughout the day. Read the rest of this entry »

“We will miss her dearly“- these were the words delivered by Fanny Lai, group chief executive of Wildlife Reserves Singapore about the death of the death of Ah Meng. Ah Meng is no other than the Singapore Zoo’s celebrity orangutan. Read the rest of this entry »

I am really amazed to hear that foresters in the western parts of India are making use of ring tones of roosters crowing, goats bleating and cows mooing to attract the leopards that intruded into the human inhabitation. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you think socially learned cultural behavior is unique to humans? NO…you’re wrong. A study revealed that our good old ancestors-Chimpanzees show cultural differences.

A team of international scientists did a research on chimpanzees behavior and found that chimps build their ‘cultures’ just like that of humans. Although it is confirmed that behavioral differences between colonies of chimpanzees are due to genetic variability, the variety is mainly due to migration of apes to other places.

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Can you believe that a bull-sized mouse roamed in this world four million years ago? Yes… Scientists discovered a fossil of 1-1.4 tonnes weight in a broken bolder on the coast of Rio de La Plata in Uruguay.

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