Crying over spilt oil!

Oil spills have had a devastating impact on sea birds. On coming in contact with the oil, the feathers of the birds mat and separate, their waterproofing abilities are impaired, exposing the delicate inner bodies to the extremes in temperatures, and death often occurs by hypothermia. The birds often try to overcome the damage by preening, and unwittingly ingest the oil and this causes lethal damage to its internal organs.

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Armor in need, armor indeed!

Pangolins or scaly ant-eaters are insectivorous mammals which have a scaly armor-like keratin covering to protect themselves from predators. At the sign of the slightest threat, a pangolin curls into a ball, projecting its armor-like covering outwards, which is very difficult to penetrate, and the curled pangolin is also very difficult to unroll by the predator. As pangolins are toothless and very slow, the armor and ‘curling-up’ are their primary defense mechanisms.

Read more about this fascinating mammal- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangolin

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Living the Sloth Life

           
A sloth's diet consist almost entirely of leaves, which yield very little energy. Hence, they have an extremely slow metabolic rate and move only when required (they also are the slowest mammals in the world) in order to use their energy economically. Sloths spend their lives hanging upside down tree branches and come to the ground only once a week to defecate, and when in search of a mate.

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