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A dragonfly in its radical final moult, metamorphosing from an aquatic nymph to a winged adult.. In biology, moulting (British English), or molting (American English), also known as sloughing, shedding, or in many invertebrates, ecdysis, is a process by which an animal casts off parts of its body to serve some beneficial purpose, either at specific times of the year, or at specific points in ...
When preening, a bird (such as this red lory) draws individual feathers through its beak, realigning and re-interlocking the barbules.. Preening is a maintenance behaviour found in birds that involves the use of the beak to position feathers, interlock feather barbules that have become separated, clean plumage, and keep ectoparasites in check.
The snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus), [4] also known as the polar owl, the white owl and the Arctic owl, [5] is a large, white owl of the true owl family. [6] Snowy owls are native to the Arctic regions of both North America and the Palearctic, breeding mostly on the tundra. [2]
Harbor seals must spend a great deal of time on shore when molting, which occurs shortly after breeding. This onshore time is important to the life cycle, and can be disturbed when substantial human presence occurs. [36] The timing of onset of molt depends on the age and sex of the animal, with yearlings molting first and adult males last. [37]
The larval stage of insect development is considered by some to be a form of altricial development, but it more accurately depicts, especially amongst eusocial animals, an independent phase of development, as the larvae of bees, ants, and many arachnids are completely physically different from their developed forms, and the pre-pupal stages of ...
A boa constrictor in the U.K. gave birth to 14 babies — without a mate. The process is called parthenogenesis, from the Greek words for “virgin” and “birth.”
Caiques have a few unique ways of moving. They “surf” (described below), “hop” (when excited or to move quickly without flying), and “shuffle” (often in a rapid, backwards direction). They flip their wings rapidly, which exposes their red/orange patch under the wing, to potentially communicate to one another or other animals.
A new analysis of three-toed fossil footprints that date back more than 210 million years reveals that they were created by bipedal reptiles with feet like a bird’s.