A visit to Madumalai National park

    I love to travel. Traveling and seeing new places, observing the flora and fauna

of the place has always been my priority. I am always inclined to greenery, may 

be because I come from the hills of India. The northern region of India 

(Uttrakhand), to where I belong is lush green with the grand Himalayas in 

the background. After living in Mumbai(The economic capital of India) for long,

which is very busy and less green like any other metro, I miss my hills and greens 

a lot. Therefore I like to travel to the greener zones.

      This time my stop was Madumalai National Park. Briefly, the National Park 

is located in the state of Tamil Nadu and comes under Nilgiri Biosphere reserve. 

Its adjoining national parks are Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, Bandipur National 

Park,  Nagarhole National Park and Mukurthi National Park. The total area of

the reserve is 33,000 square km. The main animal inhabitants include leopard, 

Elephant, Deer, Chital deer, Sambar Deer, Grey langur, wild boar and more. 

Besides, peacock are present in abundance.

        I would recommend an early morning safari along the main road itself. If 

you have your own vehicle that is even better. Drive slowly along the main 

road and you can see whole deer and peacock families. They can be seen 

easily and you can even click picture without bothering them. Just like I clicked....

I would recommend using a really good camera, as you can click much better 

pictures with them.

Besides, Madumalai National Park has a elephant rearing center having 13 

elephants. A feeding program is organized for them in the presence of public 

in evening. Seeing so many elephants together was indeed a rare site.

                                                           Elephant Rearing Center

If you are really interested in wild life, Madumalai National Park is a good option. 

Give it a try...

Fresh water fishes

                                                      Barillius


Fishes that spend some or all of their lives in freshwater, such as rivers and lakes, and water bodies with a salinity of less than 0.05%.

41% of all known species of fish are found in freshwater.

example: Trench,Schizothorax, Barillius and more.

Fresh water fish differ physiologically from salt water fish in several aspects:-

1. Their gills must be able to diffuse dissolved gasses while keeping the salts in the body fluids inside.
2. Their scales reduce water diffusion through the skin; freshwater fish that have lost too many scales will die.
3. They also have well developed kidneys to reclaim salts from body fluids before excretion.




There are mainly 2 types of migration in fishes:-

Anadromous fishes:  Many species of fish reproduce in freshwater, but spend most of their adult lives in the sea. These are known as anadromous fish.
example: salmon, trout and three-spined stickleback.

Adult Salmon ---------------------> Breeding Salmon--------------------->Adult Salmon
(living in sea)                   (Comes from sea to river)             (Returns back to sea)

                                                    Salmon

Catadrmous fishes:  Some other kinds of fishes are born in salt water, but live most or parts of their adult lives in fresh water.
example: eels.

    Adult eel ---------------------> Breeding eel---------------------------->Adult eel
(living in river)       (Comes from river to sea)           (Returns back to river)

                                                         Eel

The species which migrate between marine and fresh waters need adaptations for both environments. For examples,in the salt water they keep the bodily salt concentration on a level lower than the surroundings, and vice versa. Both eels, anadromous salmoniform fish and the sea lamprey have different tolerances in salinity in different stages of their lives.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshwater_fish
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_migration

Scales, theclothing of fish...

In humans the outermost covering of body is the skin,which protects our internal organs from damage. Likewise in fishes the body is covered with scales. Scales form an integral part of body covering.

                             The image shows the fish with its scales.

Scales vary greatly in size, shape and structure.

Fish scales are divided into various categories and are shown below with the help of diagrams.

Diagram (a) signifies the Cycloid scales found in Teleost fishes

Diagram (b) signifies Ctenoid scales


Diagram (c) and (d) are for the Placoid scales present in sharks and rays

Diagram (e) signifies Ganoid scales present in Sturgeons and Bowfin

The morphology of scale helps in the identification of a fish. A particular species of fish has a particular kind and number of scales throughout the world.

http://allfishblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/s.html

Fishes the most wonderful creatures of world..

Fishes are one of the most wonderful and colorful creatures in the world..

6 spine butterfly fish

Total of 31, 900 variety of fishes occur in world, which includes both salt and fresh water fishes.
They vary greatly in shapes, sizes, colors, food and living habitats.
Fishes are cold blooded creatures. They are either cartilaginuous or bony.
They bear gills for respiration, instead of lungs and are zoologically termed Pisces.

Circulation occurs in the form of closed loop circulatory system and digestion through esophagus

Excretion from body occurs in the form of nitrogenous wastes(Ammonia)

Body is usually covered throughout with scales, but some do not have any and are called cat fishes.

Fish scales are of 5 kinds,including Cycloid, Ctenoid, cosmoid, placoid and ganoid.
Notes:
*Cold Blooded—which do not maintain their own body temperature, but body temperature varies according to the temperature of surrounding.

*Cartilaginous—Made of the tissue that is found in our nose and ear.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish
http://allfishblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/scales-theclothing-of-fish.html