animalia

Scientific name: animalia

Rank: Kingdom

Common names:

 

• Animalia,
 
• Metazoa

Kleptoparasitic

Kleptoparasitic animals are thieves and bandits. They steal food, nest material or other resources from their own species or from another one. Gulls are a famous example - they harass other seabirds such as puffins and kittiwakes into giving up their fish, and even snatch chips from unwary people on many a seafront. Lions and hyenas both steal each other's kills, so both can be considered kleptoparasitic.

 

Acoustic communication

Acoustic communication is the sending and receiving of messages using sound. Bird song, the roars of lions and the chirping of cicadas are all examples of this. Sometimes the messages are outside the range of human hearing, such as the ultrasonic squeaks of baby rats or the infrasound rumbles of elephants. Most acoustic communication is not language, in the sense that humans use it, although language is one aspect of this adaptation. 

Polar bear

Remarkable adaptations allow polar bears to live in the frozen Arctic, but global warming is destroying their habitat and leaving them seriously endangered. Despite being born deaf and blind beneath the snow, cubs eventually grow into the most powerful of all four-legged animals.

Using their incredible sense of smell to track their prey, adult polar bears spend most of their lives alone, wandering over the vast tracts of frozen ice in search of blubber-rich prey such as seals, walruses and even whales. They are also remarkably good swimmers and have been spotted over 60 miles from shore.

Did you know?
Polar bears are the largest living land carnivore. 

Scientific name: Ursus maritimus
Rank: Species

Watch video clips from past programmes (7 clips)

Sexual dimorphism

Sexual dimorphism describes animals where there is a physical differences between males and females of the same species (other than in the sex organs). One may be significantly larger than the other, colouration may be different or one might have additional body parts such as antlers, ornate plumage or a mane. In the rarer cases where females are larger or more ornate it is termed reverse sexual dimorphism.

Watch video clips from past programmes (7 clips)

Showing off  

The Life of Birds

Male frigate birds use sight as well as sound to attract a mate.

Role Reverse Birds  

The Life of Birds

Unusual in the bird world, male red phalaropes are duller in colour and care for the young.

Spot the difference  

Autumnwatch

How to tell the difference between a male and female hen harrier.

Fencing whales  

The Living Planet

Male narwhals use their tusk - an overgrown tooth - in courtship.

Flying colours  

Journey of Life

For a male zebra finch, being a pretty boy means you're the fittest mate.

Small, medium or large  

Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives

A huge variety of crest shapes distinguished duck-billed dinosaur species.

Spring plumage  

Bill Oddie Goes Wild

In early spring, ptarmigan begin to change out of their winter white.

Showing off  

The Life of Birds

Male frigate birds use sight as well as sound to attract a mate.

Role Reverse Birds  

The Life of Birds

Unusual in the bird world, male red phalaropes are duller in colour and care for the young.

Spot the difference  

Autumnwatch

How to tell the difference between a male and female hen harrier.

Fencing whales  

The Living Planet

Male narwhals use their tusk - an overgrown tooth - in courtship.

Flying colours  

Journey of Life

For a male zebra finch, being a pretty boy means you're the fittest mate.

Introduction

Bighorn sheep

Bighorn sheep are all about those famous massive spiralled horns. In the males, they are particularly heavy and can reach over a metre in length. They are the primary weapon during some spectacular clashes over the females and horn size dictates position in the herd. Bighorn sheep are found on the grassy alpine meadows and foothills of some of America's greatest mountain ranges. They're never far from the safety of some rocky cliffs and buffs where agile leaping and bounding between impossibly narrow ledges lets them escape potential predators with ease.

Scientific name: Ovis canadensis
Rank: Species

Common names:

• American bighorn sheep,
• Mountain sheep
• 

Herbivorous

Herbivores are animals that exist mainly on a diet of plants or algae. Some eat a wide range of plants, others are more exclusive and eat only particular types, such as monarch butterfly caterpillars which feed on milkweed and pandas on bamboo. Anatomical and physiological adaptations help some herbivores become specialists, for example, in their tolerance of spiky leaves or an in-built antidote to toxins. Other specialists restrict themselves to certain parts of a plant: hummingbirds feed on nectar and greenfly feed on sap.

 

Collared dove

Since the UK's first breeding collared doves were recorded in the mid-1950s, their numbers have sky-rocketed to make them one of the top ten most common garden birds. Their invasion of Europe from Asia began in the mid-20th century and once they'd arrived, farmyards full of fallen grain and plentiful animal feed were the springboard for a rapid population expansion into our mills, docks and towns.

The familiar, repetitive cooing from a pair of collared doves seems pleasant at first, but all too soon becomes irritatingly monotonous to many people. This is especially likely with a feeding flock.

Scientific name: Streptopelia decaocto
Rank: Species

Common names:

Eurasian collared dove

Turtle doves

Turtle doves are a common enough sight in their African and Asian heartlands, from where they've gone on to colonise much of Europe. When introduced to places in which they don't naturally occur, notably North America, population expands rapidly, making turtle doves a highly successful group of birds. The collared dove and turtle dove are just two species from this group, and you can click on the images below to watch video or just find out more about these very typical doves. Listen out for the monotonous cooing and purring of these common and widespread birds.

Scientific name: Streptopelia
Rank: Genus
 

Pigeons and doves

Pigeons and doves are one of the most cosmopolitan of bird families. All easily recognisable, some are even brightly coloured and beautiful - even the pesky, city-dwelling pigeon has a certain head-bobbing charm. Pigeons and doves thrive in pretty much every habitat on Earth, only the Arctic Circle and Antarctica have none.

One of the most famous, or infamous, extinctions of recent times was a species of pigeon. The passenger pigeon was perhaps the most numerous bird that ever lived, however, billions were wiped out in under 50 years. Explore some of the remaining 300 or so species from the turtle dove and Old 

World pigeon groups below.

Scientific name: Columbidae
Rank: Family

Vertebrates

Chordates include all the vertebrates and some invertebrate allies that possess, for part or all of their lives, a structure called a notochord. The notochord is a stiff rod that helps support the body and runs parallel to the main nerve cord. In the vertebrates, these have evolved into the spinal column, which is reinforced and protected by cartilage or bone. The allied invertebrates in the chordates phylum include members that only have the notochord for part of their life: the sea squirts, lancelets and hagfish.

Scientific name: Chordata
Rank: Phylum

Common names:

Vertebrates and allies

Cnidaria

Cnidaria are a phylum of aquatic animals that includes jellyfish and corals. They have two body shapes: the medusa (a jellyfish-like swimming form) and the polyp (a sea anemone-like sessile or static form). During their life cycle they may transform themselves from one shape to the other. All cnidarians possess stinging cells, which they use to kill or paralyse prey.

Scientific name: Cnidaria
Rank: Phylum

Common names:

• 
  
• Cnidarians,
• corals and allies,
• Jellyfish 

Molluscs

Molluscs include the largest of all invertebrates - the giant squid. This is a diverse phylum, containing approximately 100,000 species, that includes snails, mussels and the pearly nautilus. Molluscs are soft-bodied and most species today still possess the ancestral shell. Some notable examples however, such as squid and slugs, have lost it.

Scientific name: Mollusca
Rank: Phylum

Common names:

• Mollusca,
• Mollusks