Tour to Neocene
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Edited by Timothy Donald Morris.
In the history of the Earth, the boundary between Holocene
and Neocene was marked by a catastrophic cooling. The polar regions have expanded,
and the equatorial zone of humid forests has narrowed to an intermittent belt.
In connection with these events, the fauna of the Earth has changed a lot. The
species adapted to life in the “greenhouse” conditions of the equatorial climate
either decreased in number or became extinct completely. And from the north
and south they had been pressed up more and more by migrants from other natural
zones – from savannas and dry woodlands. Many species whose numbers were undermined
during the period of human domination failed to endure the changing conditions
and became extinct.
But in some places, even during the Ice Age, rainforests continued to exist.
Such places have became real shelters for thermophilic flora and fauna. One
of these zones was the West Indies. The role of this region in the shaping of
the fauna of the New World has proved to be truly invaluable. In the Late Holocene
epoch, the connection between North and South America via the Isthmus of Panama
broke completely and irrevocably: under the pressure of the expanding bottom
of the Atlantic Ocean, North America slowly drifted to the north, and South
America to the south. When the areas of warm regions of the Earth began to shrink,
a flood of migrants poured into the islands of the West Indies. During the Ice
Age, many of these islands were connected by land isthmuses, and due to tectonic
processes, temporary “bridges” regularly appeared between separate islands,
allowing populations of “refugees” from the mainland to settle further. The
true “Noah's Ark” for the fauna of South America became the island that united
Haiti and several neighboring islands into a single landmass, called Great Antigua.
From time to time, it connected via isthmuses with Cuba lying to the northwest,
and Cuba – with the North American continent. Therefore, in Great Antigua, it
is possible to meet immigrants from both Americas. The climate on Great Antigua
has never been cold or dry, and the island has always been covered with forests.
The only inconvenience for the inhabitants of this island has always been represented
by hurricanes that regularly come from the expanses of the Atlantic.
An island with a wonderful climate, Great Antigua has become a favorite wintering
place for birds. Even in the Neocene epoch, the migration routes used by birds
during the severe Ice Age, still persist.
Flocks of huge birds with a wingspan of almost three meters are flying over
the coast of North America. These are northern
crails from Greenland flying to their usual wintering grounds. The most
part of these birds overwinter in the swamps of Florida, but part of the population
flies farther, to Great Antigua. Lanky birds fly over mangrove forests and palm
groves of the coast, and choose for landing an area overgrown with reeds and
other grasses – wetlands at the northeast coast of the island. There are no
large predators here, and birds tired during the migration can rest quietly.
Crails land on the swamp in a whole flock. The first steps on the ground are
made by them uncertainly, as if the birds have forgotten how to walk during
the flight. But in fact they are just tired. Folding their wings, the northern
crails, one by one, lie down on the ground and rest. The birds’ eyes close almost
immediately, and the crails fall into a light, but very welcome sleep. One of
the birds is usually on guard, but now, it seems, no one is trying to guard
the slumber of the whole flock.
The slapping of wide paws on the water and the quiet rumbling that can be heard
from the thickets of sedges are like the lightning striking from blue sky for
resting birds. Crails wake up, and begin, without understanding, to vocalize
loudly and anxiously, flapping their wings. But their anxiety turns out to be
in vain: the first local inhabitant that meets them on the island is not a predator,
but a harmless, though formidable-looking, prickly scaly porcupine. A predator
would not so openly announce its approach, but this beast clad in corneous scales
does not care about a flock of crails at all. Not being afraid of these birds,
the beast moves across the marshland, slapping with its wide paws with small
webs between the digits. Old birds calm down quickly: they know from their own
experience that they should not expect any trouble from this creature. They
go back to sleep. But young birds see this beast for the first time in their
lives, and they do not know what to expect from it. Huddled together, they follow
every movement of the prickly scaly porcupine. One young crail shows courage:
it comes closer to the beast and tries to peck it. In response to this behavior,
the porcupine snorts loudly and presses the scales tightly to its body. The
crail is somewhat puzzled, and watches, with its head tilted, as the porcupine
wanders on. At home, in Greenland, this crail easily could have put an animal
of this size to flight, but here it sees for the first time that such an animal
is not afraid of it. The corneous scales of the porcupine protect it from such
accidental encounters, and long-billed birds do not often try to attack these
rodents in order to cause any fear. The porcupine crosses the swamp where the
crails stopped to rest, enters the river and swims.
The rivers of Greater Antigua are short, narrow and full of rapids. They begin
in the mountains as crystal clear streams, but flowing through the forest, they
appear saturated with tannins and humic acids, and in their lower reaches the
water becomes slightly brownish, similar to weakly brewed tea. Mangroves grow
in the river estuaries, and the shallow waters around Great Antigua are bordered
by reefs.
Once in the Cenozoic, corals had a “monopoly” on the right of reef-building.
But they had one physiological feature that prevented their settlement: corals
could not endure lowered level of water salinity. Therefore, there were no reefs
in the river estuaries. In the Neocene, when reef-building corals became extinct,
the situation changed radically. The coastal shallows of Great Antigua are covered
with reefs built by new species of living creatures, mainly mollusks and barnacles,
the sessile crustaceans. Unlike corals, they are resistant to drop of salinity
level and form life-rich communities opposite river mouths. Plankton is developing
especially rapidly here: the river carries a large amount of substances necessary
for the growth of microalgae into the sea. Also, calcareous algae receive additional
organic fertilization from river water and in such conditions more actively
cement the shells of animals into a solid body of the reef. The areas of the
sea that are separated by a reef from the ocean are gradually filled with river
sediments and become a favorable place for the development of another productive
ecosystem of the sea – mangrove forests. Mangrove forests grow mainly in the
estuaries of rivers where the salinity level is decreased, so they do not populate
the entire territory occupied by reefs. When the river flowing into the sea
becomes shallow, mangroves gradually thin out and degrade, but the reefs grow.
This way the balance between different types of ecosystems is maintained, and
none of them completely displaces the other.
Wide shallow deltas are formed at the mouths of rivers, and the coast gradually
advances to the sea. Mangrove forests accumulate soil between their roots and
gradually give way to salt-resistant palm trees, and they, in turn, are replaced
by typical forest plants: first shrubs, and then trees.
At low tide, areas of sandy and muddy shoals are exposed, where a large animal
can simply get stuck, as if in a swamp. But for small animals there is a real
freedom here. Small crabs run sideways to and fro, looking for marine life trapped
in pools of water. Their round eyes on stalks provide them with a full all-round
view, so it is difficult to get close to the crab unnoticed. Crabs are busy
with their own affairs, but they are constantly on the alert: when something
suspicious flashes in the bushes or in the air and all the crabs instantly scatter.
And this time they did not have to feed quietly for a long time: the crabs scattered
when several birds flew over the shallows. In the manner of their flight, they
do not resemble seabirds, majestically soaring over the waves, at all: some
seconds of active work with their wings – and then flying literally like a bullet,
with folded wings. Birds are on their way to the tops of the reefs exposed at
low tide. When they land on the reefs, their “non-marine” origin becomes even
more obvious: the birds move in kind of jerks, leap on the reef surface, but
do not approach the water. When they begin to feed, all doubts about their origin
disappear completely. The birds firmly cling to the reef with their toes and
with quick powerful pecks of their beaks they crush snail shells and get various
small animals from the cracks of the reef. There is no doubt – these birds are
woodpeckers, typical woodpeckers! The amazing inhabitants of Great Antigua are
called so – these are reef woodpeckers. On a lime fortress, stacked with shells
of animals, they behave as if on a tree somewhere in the forest. The barred
plumage of woodpeckers makes them poorly visible against the background of the
reef. When the tide comes in, the birds will leave the reef and wait out this
time in the mangrove forest.
At low tide, there is enough water left in the space between the reef and the
mangroves. In shallow water, large shoals of small fish are noticeable. These
are mainly fry of live-bearing fishes that dominate the Caribbean Sea. Occasionally,
it is possible to see even quite large fishes swimming here from the open sea
to hunt. But sea hunters have a very serious competitor. A long body wriggles
and slides under the water. This is clearly not a fish: for a few seconds, the
creature emerges to the surface of the water and takes a breath. At this point,
scaly skin and spiky crest on its head become noticeable. Having waved its clawed
front paws, the animal dives. This lizard is the not fully grown terraguana
searching for food in the water. Terraguana is a terrestrial inhabitant, the
largest predator species of Great Antigua, a kind of ecological analogue of
the monitor lizard from Komodo Island. Adult lizards of this species reach a
length of four meters, but this one, only one and a half meters long, also inspires
fear among the inhabitants of the island. Terraguana hunting raid is spotted
by reef woodpecker. The bird immediately raises the alarm, and its sharp call
can be heard far over the reef. Upon hearing it, the rest of the reef woodpeckers
take off and perch on the peaks of the reef. Usually these birds are loners
who do not tolerate close proximity of congeners. But now, in the presence of
a predator, a sense of collectivism takes over: the birds gather in groups on
the highest parts of the reef and watch the terraguana. The lizard does not
pay attention to them, although on occasion it can easily catch a careless bird.
The reptile tracked down a shoal of small fish and began hunting: having driven
the fish into shallow water, the lizard grabs one of them with a rush, turns
around and swims away. While terraguana reaches the shore, reef woodpeckers
accompany it with their calls. The terraguana gets out on the sandy shore, and
the reef woodpeckers as if pass the baton to their relatives: the snail woodpeckers,
residents of the mangrove forest, begin to mob the terraguana. Their gray backs
and barred bellies flash among the greenery. Gathered in a small flock, snail
woodpeckers fly out of the mangroves and chase the terraguana. They fly over
its head, screaming continuously. To avoid annoying chasing, terraguana turns
to the mangrove forest and crawls through the tangle of roots. Snail woodpeckers
almost immediately stop their chasing. They calm down and begin searching for
food. Birds leap on the roots of mangroves, tearing off snails stuck to them.
Woodpeckers are unable to dive, and prefer not to go down to the water edge,
where predatory fish sometimes hide. Therefore, only those snails that have
crawled high enough become their prey. With well-aimed pecks of its beak, the
woodpecker tears the snail from the root, and drags it onto one of the branches.
Every bird has a favorite place for splitting shells. Usually this is a natural
depression in the trunk, or a fork in the branches. Having stuck the shell in
this place, the woodpecker breaks it with some blows of its beak and eats the
meat of the mollusk. One of the birds is not searching for snails – it perched
on the trunk of a mangrove tree next to a sandy beach, cautiously peeking out
from behind the leaves. When several crabs appear on the shore, the woodpecker
takes off. Like a hawk, it sweeps over the beach, and then a crab already shakes
and waves its claws in its beak. The woodpecker treats it the same way as the
snail: having stuck its prey into the fork of the branches, bird kills it with
some blows of the beak, after which begins to eat it. A bunch of claws and shells
of its prey has already accumulated under bird’s favorite “dining room”, and
the crabs come here themselves to feast on the remains of their relatives.
The roots of mangrove trees are bored by a variety of animals, including special
wood-boring bivalves – the so-called “shipworms”. They also have a hunter, and
this is again a woodpecker. Mangrove woodpeckers, the largest of the “sea-dwelling”
woodpeckers living in Great Antigua, feed in mangrove forests without flying
to the reef or to the beach. At low tide, these black-and-white birds with red
heads examine the roots of mangroves, looking for the holes of “shipworms” in
them. Having found the opening of the hole into which the mollusk extends its
respiratory siphons outwards, the bird opens the root of the tree with its beak
pecks and takes out the body of the mollusk with its tongue. If the shipworm
is large, the woodpecker acts in way that is more sophisticated: with light
beak tapping, it examines the root, trying to find the place where the hole
drilled by the mollusk ends. At this point, the woodpecker makes a hole, and
through it takes the front end of the body of the “shipworm”, equipped with
a small rudimentary shell. In addition to “shipworms”, these woodpeckers eat
crustaceans boring the wood, and also adhere to a diet common to all woodpeckers:
they eat insects that settle in the decaying wood of mangroves.
On mangrove trees, it is possible also to meet other former inhabitants of the
forest – mangrove marmosets, a peculiar monkey species that have adapted to
life in mangrove swamps. These primates came to Great Antigua from South America.
Just like woodpeckers, they have adapted to life in an environment new for them
due to increased competition at the island having a limited area. Before that,
no species of New World monkeys had developed such habitats.
A family group of these monkeys with golden-yellow fur and black-and-white tails
is searching for the fruits of mangrove trees. The most important thing here
is to find in a proper time a fruit in which the seeds have not yet had time
to germinate, but which is ripe enough. If there are no fruits, mangrove marmosets
are just as willing to eat young leaves of mangroves. Old leaves are inedible
for these monkeys: salt absorbed by the roots of trees is deposited in them.
Shedding old leaves, mangrove trees get rid of excess salts at the same time.
The marmosets travel along the branches in groups: the dominant female moves
first, followed by the male, and younger group members trail behind. Newborn
cubs often sit on the back of the male – caring for them is the responsibility
of the male for all marmosets, and this species is no exception here. The cubs
are born helpless and the male spends a lot of time caring for them. When the
group stops to rest, the male passes the babies to the female for feeding, but
immediately takes them back when they are full.
At low tide, mangrove marmosets descend to the ground. Perhaps not a single
species of these monkeys has done anything like this in their homeland – in
the South American selva. However, on islands, where food resources are scarce,
it is more profitable not to adhere to the old “traditions”, but to look for
new ways of survival. Raising their tails vertically, the monkeys go out to
the sandbanks exposed at low tide for fish and shrimp. These primates run freely
along the shore: they weigh a little, so they feel safe – a large predator who
decided to hunt them will simply get bogged down here. Monkeys find a lot of
suitable food in shallow puddles – small fish, crabs and shrimps. But the danger
can come not only from the forest, but also fall from the sky like a stone,
so while hunting for fish, mangrove marmosets often keep eyes on the sky. It
is not safe to stay on the shore for a long time, so the caught prey is hurriedly
eaten or is hidden in the corner of animal's jaw in reserve. One of the teenagers
caught a large fish in the puddle, and it just doesn’t fit in its mouth. The
tail of the prey treacherously sticks out of its mouth, and the members of the
group notice this. The male is too burdened with cubs to chase a successful
fisher, but the dominant female rushes to chase the teenager and takes away
its prey. The offended teenager screams, and the female begins to eat the taken
fish nonchalantly. Nevertheless, she also fails to finish her meal: the male
approaches her and simply takes away the half-eaten fish. When the female tries
to protest, the male just grins his teeth, and his dearest wife walks away and
sits off to the side resentfully. After the male, she is left with only the
spine of the fish, almost completely gnawed, and a half-chewed head. Well, “you
don’t like it, don’t eat it!”
The tide begins. Waves are coming in from the ocean, crab holes are gradually
filling with water, and fishes swim more freely between the roots. Puddles merge
with each other, and then become a part of the sea at all. The water level is
rising higher and higher, and now fishes and other marine inhabitants dominate
the coastal zone. Reef woodpeckers fly away from the reef, and mangrove and
snail woodpeckers rise to the upper “floors” of the mangrove forest.
Shoals of fry are swim in the water. The juveniles of many species of live-bearing
fishes grow in mangroves. It is safe here: marine predators either do not like
water of low salinity, or are too big to squeeze between the roots of mangroves.
Whole schools of live-bearing fishes enter the river from the sea to give birth
to offspring. Fry of many species live in the river for the first time, and
then move to the sea. It seems like memories of a distant Holocene epoch, when
live-bearers were small fishes and lived in rivers and brackish ponds of Central
and South America.
In the river, the largest inhabitant is the prickly scaly porcupine. The rodent
swims well and confidently keeps on the water surface, despite the spiny armor.
Its physique is robust and it swims very slowly. But it doesn’t need to be fast:
this beast is a vegetarian, and its food won’t swim away. Sitting in shallow
water, the spiny scaly porcupine enjoys food and safety. It has unearthed a
whole bush of a small water lily, and now it is eating it. From below, the leaves
of the water lily are dotted with snails and insect larvae, which are also suitable
for food. Having finished with the leaves, the porcupine chewed the sweetish
flower of the water lily and began to eat the juicy petioles of the leaves.
In the end, only a starchy tuber remained of the water lily, and the porcupine
dealt with it with some bites. The prickly scaly porcupine is protected from
predators and behaves calmly – here, animals that it is afraid of are rare.
But for some of its neighbors, constant caution has become the fact of life.
Mazamaras come to the river to drink. These are small creatures with a build
resembling tiny deer without antlers. The spotted skin makes mazamara invisible
among bushes and forest shadows. The animals are thirsty, but they stay alert,
look around and sniff. A male with a thick white “beard” is the first to approach
the water and begins to drink hastily. When he step away, having quenched his
thirst, the other mazamaras fall to the water. The male constantly looks around
and sniffs the air. When the porcupine began to scratch noisily, the mazamara
male twitched his ears in displeasure. This is not a real danger – mazamaras
are not afraid of scaly porcupines. But almost all mazamaras heard a rather
loud noise in the bushes, and even the scaly porcupine paid attention to it:
only the one who is not afraid of anyone makes such a noise. Before the scaly
porcupine could notice anything in the bushes, the mazamara male uttered an
alarm signal similar to the barking of a small dog, and the whole mazamara herd
quickly disappeared into the forest. They had something to fear: an adult terraguana
crawled out of the bushes. This is a real monster: more than four meters in
length, a skin covered with numerous scars, pointed claws and a ferocious look.
On the reptile’s back, a dragon-style jagged crest of numerous corneous outgrowths
sways. It seems that terraguana is not hungry: it does not sniff the air and
does not look at the tracks left by the mazamaras on the riverbank. The reptile
enters the water and swims to the other side, wriggling with its whole body
and having pressed its paws to its sides. Prickly scaly porcupine watches her
go. As soon as the monster appeared from the bushes, it went ashore and shook
itself. It was not just a desire to remove water from under the plates, but
a warning about the intention to defend itself. If terraguana attacks it in
the water, it can defeat the beast – this lizard swims as good as a crocodile.
But on land, with solid ground under its feet, this porcupine is more mobile
and can repel a predator. But this time, it seems, everything went well…
A tropical rainforest is a community in which all life is concentrated in forest
canopy, at an altitude of several tens of meters above the ground. There is
very little amount of food in the undergrowth – almost all sunlight is caught
by the tree crowns, and vegetation is represented only by sparse grass. Only
near the rivers, where the forest canopy opens, shrubs and giant broad-leaved
grasses grow. In such conditions, large species become dwarfs, and mazamara
is one example of this phenomenon. Its ancestors, cursorial deermara
(Cervimara) rodents, penetrated into North America via the Antillean land
Bridge, but part of the ancestral population remained to live on the islands.
During the Ice Age, when the islands were covered with sparse forests, a population
of large continental deermaras inhabited Great Antigua. When conditions changed,
the animals got decreased in size greatly.
Mazamara herd feeds in the undergrowth. With their sharp incisors, animals browse
leaves from shrubs. If mushrooms are found, mazamaras willingly eat them too
– rodents perfectly understand which mushrooms are edible and which ones are
better avoided. Small rodents constantly live in tension: they nervously shake
their ears and often look around. A loud and unexpected bird call, heard from
the bushes, makes them shudder and run away to the side. Mazamaras huddle together
and look fearfully in the direction from which it was heard.
Two chicken-sized birds appear from the thickets of large-leaved plants. They
are clearly not going to fly, but move on the ground by jumping. They have large
heads and straight strong beaks. This is another species of unusual woodpeckers
inhabiting Great Antigua – giant ground woodpecker.
In conditions of island isolation, species from the continent adapt to a new,
sometimes atypical way of life. Ground woodpeckers have exchanged a relatively
safe, but competitive life in the trees for sated, but more dangerous terrestrial
life. They have very short wings, and these birds will not be able to take to
the air with all their desire. But these are the largest birds in their order.
Ground woodpeckers move on the ground with jumps, like small kangaroos. Their
wings function as balancers and are very helpful if they need to make a sharp
turn.
A pair of ground woodpeckers did not even deign to look at the frightened mazamaras.
Birds are busy with their own affairs, and perceive these rodents simply as
a certain part of the world around. Woodpeckers keep and forage together: they
have chicks in their nest, which are voracious and grow very quickly. Therefore,
since a recent time, both adult birds are busy almost exclusively in searching
for food for their offspring.
Having found a termite mound, disguised artfully among the roots of a tree,
the birds get to work. Pointed beaks easily crack the strong outer wall of the
nest, which hundreds of blind soft insects come out to seal up. They represent
the best food for young birds, and adult woodpeckers, like anteaters, begin
to lick termites off, stuffing their stomachs. Along the way, several beetles
and caterpillars of certain butterflies that have settled in termite nest are
taken from it.
Due to such way of life, that is unusual for woodpeckers in general, the nesting
method of ground woodpeckers has undergone significant changes. These birds
no longer make holes in tree trunks, but dig burrows. The birds dug a burrow
under the roots of a large tree. The burrow is initially directed horizontally,
and then sharply bends down, repeating the shape of the hollow in which the
ancestors of the ground woodpeckers nested. Over time, the walls of the burrow
crumble, and parents constantly renovate the burrow, throwing out the earth.
There are two hungry chicks at the bottom of the burrow. When the parents appear
in the burrow, the chicks raise a cry, flapping their short wings. Parents regurgitate
food, and feeding their offspring one after another.
In isolated habitats, evolution sometimes goes differently than on the mainland.
The inhabitants of the islands sometimes occupy ecological niches atypical for
them. A large number of species of lizards of iguanid family lived on the islands
of the Caribbean Sea. They were mostly omnivorous or herbivorous forms, but
in the absence of large predators, one of the species of these lizards turned
into the Antiguan terraguana – the dominant predator in the island ecosystem.
Terraguana will easily cope with any land-dwelling animal that it can catch.
One of these reptiles crawls through the forest in search of food, from time
to time sticking out its tongue and probing the air with it. This reptile is
completely indiscriminate in food, and will eat both live prey and half-decomposed
carrion with equal pleasure. But it seems that hunting luck will smile on it
today: the lizard senses a smell indicating the presence of a bird nest nearby.
Having caught the attractive aroma, the reptile makes its way through the ferns
and soon crawls out to a huge tree. The smell comes from a burrow located under
one of its roots. There is no doubt: this is a nest of ground woodpeckers with
grown-up chicks – a good lunch, which will be enough for a predator for a couple
of days.
Terraguana sticks its head into the hole, tasting the air with a forked tongue.
And at the same moment, the ground woodpecker female jumps out to meet the reptile.
She has something to lose: two chicks are almost ready to leave the nest, and
in the near future the birds will not have to nest. The female defends her offspring
desperately, screams and strikes terraguana with her beak. The bird is locked
in the nest, and it has nowhere to retreat. The male is far from the nest, and
the female will have to rely only on her own force. The chicks have not grown
up yet, and they do not take part in the fight. But they are screaming heart-rendingly,
and their voices spread through the forest for tens of meters to the sides.
The ground woodpecker female began to get tired, but terraguana, it seems, has
not yet given up on the idea of a delicious meal. Gathering all its strength,
the bird rushes into a desperate attack and pecks the lizard right in its nostril.
A strong blow stunned terraguana, blood gushed from its nostril and a sharp
pain pierced the reptile’s muzzle. For a split second, terraguana recoiled,
and this gave confidence to the ground woodpecker female. The bird began to
pounce on the huge reptile obsessively, aiming its beak at the bleeding nose
of the terraguana. The lizard began shaking its head desperately, trying to
dodge the blows raining down on it. After all, it can’t stand the onslaught
of the bird, turns around and leaves. Pushing through the thickets, the reptile
hears a sharp, staccato cry of a bird behind him. Plants crushed by a lizard
near the woodpecker’s burrow and a chain of blood drops reddens against the
foliage are the evidence of the battle that had just taken place. When the footsteps
of the huge reptile subsided, the ground woodpecker female felt how tired she
was. Perhaps this was her first and last such fierce battle for the life of
these chicks. They will soon leave their native burrow, and then leave the territory
of their parents. But for now, they demand attention, and young birds require
care. Their mother breathes heavily and lies down on the ground, resting after
the battle with the monster. The chicks give the voice – at first timidly and
uncertainly, and then they shout at the top of their lungs. Some minutes ago,
they could have died – but life prevailed over death. And in order for life
to continue, the chicks need to eat.
For about two days, the terraguana attacked by a ground woodpecker female lay
in the bushes. At first, it was even difficult for the reptile to breathe, and
the dried blood on the muzzle attracted clouds of flies. Good physical shape
saved the reptile: terraguana recovered, although one of her nostrils will remain
scarred for life. The reptile could have waited out a longer starvation, but
the longer it starves, the less chances to hunt successfully it will have. Therefore,
barely recovering from its injury, terraguana goes hunting. It sets up an ambush
in the bushes near the animal trail, where it is easiest to ambush prey. Due
to its discreet skin pattern, a huge lizard skillfully disguises itself in the
shade of bushes and waits patiently. The physiology of lizards is not adapted
for a long chase for prey, but it is excellent for a sharp and quick attack.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the terraguana hunts from ambush: despite
its size, it is only a lizard.
The path where the terraguana has settled leads to the river. Sooner or later,
a suitable prey appears on it. A herd of mazamaras, about thirty adult rodents
and a dozen more young ones, goes to drink. The rodents listen and look carefully
around, trying to detect a possible danger. But terraguana sensed their approach
much earlier: it heard the patter of their feet through the ground. Frozen in
the shade of bushes, a huge reptile is waiting. And when the herd passes very
close, the lizard attacks the mazamaras. It rushes at the rodents with a powerful
dash, knocks down one of the mazamaras with a ramming blow of its head and finishes
it off by locking its teeth on beast’s throat. The surviving mazamaras are fleeing
rapidly. But they are no longer in danger: having put all its forces in the
single rush, the lizard would not be able to get a second mazamara, even if
it comes even closer than the first one. But rodents live a momentary life,
not thinking about the past or the future. What happened half an hour ago is
as far away for them as what happened six months ago.
Having got the long-awaited prey, the terraguana begins to eat. The reptile
peels off the fleshy parts of the carcass and greedily swallows them. The teeth
of terraguana are poorly adapted for thorough gnawing of prey, and are not suitable
for chewing at all. Therefore, after the terraguana finishes its meal, it is
possible to feed well on the remains of its prey. This is well known by ground
woodpeckers, which are waiting for the reptile’s meal to end at a safe distance.
A couple of birds rest, looking impatiently at terraguana from time to time.
When the reptile goes away, leaving the remains of the mazamara carcass, they
rush to the half-gnawed bones. With their pointed beaks, woodpeckers carefully
peck the remains of meat from the bones, and then peck open the gristles and
lick the bone marrow from the tubular bones with their long tongues. After such
birds, only some small rodent will be able to find something edible on the bones
of mazamara.
Rain forests occupy a significant part of the island, especially in the east,
from the side of the Atlantic Ocean. But in Great Antigua, mountains rise, protecting
the Caribbean Sea from ferocious hurricanes. Also, completely different vegetation
dominates in the mountains. The dry mountain forest descending from the western
slopes of the island is a sharp contrast to the gloomy rain forest. The Great
Antigua mountain forest is a light sparsely wooded forest formed mainly of various
species of palm trees and pines. If palm trees are residents of the hot south,
then pine is a typical relic of the Ice Age. Above it, there is a peculiar mountain
desert with cacti. The crowns of the trees of the mountain forest close rather
weakly, and the ground here is covered with a carpet of various plants, mainly
graminoids.
Hoarse calls are constantly heard in the pine crowns – small Caribbean pine
parakeets feed here. From the ground, red breasts and white spots under the
wings of these birds flashing in the tree crowns can be seen. The rest of the
plumage of these parrots is green, masking them among the branches. These birds
feed mainly on pine seeds. The beak of pine parakeet is perfectly adapted for
getting seeds from under the scales of pinecones: a thin and curved upper mandible
easily bends the scale and picks up the seed, and a massive lower mandible crushes
the pine tree seed. But a significant part of the pine seeds just scatter when
the parakeets pick open the cones. Sometimes the cones fall down, where the
seeds from them are eaten by other animals. Pine is a favorite fodder tree of
parakeets of this species. In addition, pine parakeets often eat small seeds
of other trees that related species do not feed on in the rain forest.
Another inhabitant of Great Antigua wanders under the trees in the mountain
forest. The mountain scaly porcupine, a slow-moving robust rodent, picks up
the fallen cones and chews out the seeds remaining in them. It watches the parakeets
and prefers to feed where they eat. If there are few seeds and fruits that have
fallen to the ground, the porcupine supplements its diet with plant roots.
The mountain scaly porcupine is perfectly protected from large enemies: its
scales, leaning on each other, form an almost solid shell. If the porcupine
faces an attack, it can cause serious wounds to the enemy. Its scales are sharp
at the edges, and during its attack, they work like many knives, causing incised
wounds. But, being perfectly protected from large predators, the scaly porcupine
suffers from small tormentors: many ticks settle under its scales, and some
beetles even lay eggs on backs of porcupines. Their grubs help the beast get
rid of unwanted guests, but still the porcupine is often overcome by itching
from many parasites. The porcupine would have had a very hard time if it weren’t
for the many helpers living in the neighborhood. It seems that pine parakeets
do not make much difference between pine cones and a huge live “pine cone” –
the scaly porcupine. Birds willingly provide cleaning services to the rodent.
They attract the porcupine with their voices and bright plumage, perching on
bushes not far from the beast. Parakeets swing upside down on a branch, open
their wings and scream – in short, they do everything to make the rodent pay
attention to them.
The porcupine has not been cleaned for a long time, so the beast willingly follows
the calls of parakeets. The rodent lies down on the ground and slightly spreads
its scutes, inviting the feathered sanitarians to start working. The birds land
on the porcupine’s back and get to work. The rodent specifically relaxes the
muscles that raise and lower the corneous plates, entrusting the birds with
very delicate work. Parakeets stick their heads under the porcupine’s scales,
carefully removing ticks and beetles that have settled there from under them.
These parasites serve also as additional feeding for birds. An alliance with
parakeets is beneficial for the porcupine: it has poor eyesight, and parakeets
perform the duties of watchmen, warning of the approach of predators.
One of the parakeets walking on the porcupine’s back became agitated: the bird
noticed a scaly skin flashed in the bushes. With a sharp cry, the parakeet took
off from the back of the scaly porcupine, followed by its congeners. From a
height, the birds can clearly see that an adult terraguana is wandering very
close to the porcupine. These reptiles live mainly in the rain forest, only
occasionally occurring in the mountains. But now the egg-laying season begins
for reptiles, and terraguana females migrate to the mountains to arrange nests.
The terraguana that appeared in the mountain forest is a female, one of the
first ones to come here. During the breeding season, the feeding behavior of
lizards is suppressed, but aggressiveness increases sharply, and the female
is ready to rush even at an animal that she would not chase for food.
Confident in its protection, the scaly porcupine is in no hurry to retreat,
and the terraguana attacks. The reptile circles around the beast, and then resolutely
rushes at the porcupine, mouth agape. The beast defends itself – it presses
the scales to the body, and the teeth of the terraguana only slightly scratched
some protective plates. Terraguana failed to bite the beast, and now it fights
back: having spread its spikes, the porcupine tries to strike at the head and
shoulders of the terraguana with sharp rushes. The reptile retreats, carrying
one porcupine’s scale stuck in its shoulder.
When terraguana goes away, the parakeets return to the disturbed porcupine.
It is a sign for the beast: there are no enemies nearby. The rodent starts eating
again: it searches for nuts that have fallen from palm trees, and bites them
with its incisors. Porcupine’s cooperation with parakeets is mutually beneficial:
parakeets cannot open the hard fruits of palm trees themselves, although they
are fond of their oily flesh very much. When a porcupine eats a palm nut, its
pieces fall to the ground and the parakeets immediately pick them up. Having
sated, the porcupine goes to rest in the bushes, and the parakeets fly away.
Now, there are the last days of peaceful life in the mountain forest…
Gradually, the number of terraguanas in the mountain forest begins to increase:
lizards move here from the lowland humid forests. All these reptiles are females
with bellies swollen from fully formed eggs. Terraguanas are going to lay eggs
and are actively searching for places for nests. The best places for nests are
ground areas with loose soil. In some suitable places, terraguana females lay
eggs year after year. Having once found a convenient place, the female returns
there every year, fiercely attacking competitors who decided to anchor here.
Because of the huge lizards, life in the forest becomes simply unbearable. After
suffering for several days surrounded by these monsters, the scaly porcupine
leaves the forest and rises higher into the mountain desert. Here, among cacti
and stones, its congeners roam – they are “refugees” from the forests, displaced
from the inhabited territories by the invasion of terraguanas.
Terraguana females do not burden themselves with parental responsibilities for
long: they only choose a territory, drive away rivals, arrange nests, bury eggs
and leave them. Therefore, the inconveniences they cause to the inhabitants
of mountain forests are only temporary. But after the invasion of these lizards,
the inhabitants of the forest have a source of affordable and delicious food
– the eggs of these reptiles. Perhaps if most of the terraguana nests were not
ravaged every year, it would be impossible to live on this island because of
the abundance of these predators.
A hole had been dug under the roots of a pine tree. It is not as wide as the
burrow of a ground woodpecker, and it is not a mammal or a bird that lives in
it. A young terraguana emerges from the burrow. It differs from its adult relatives
in a brighter color – it is bright green with brown stripes. With its size,
it does not inspire terror to the local inhabitants at all, and even on the
contrary, it hides itself from its adult relatives so as not to become their
prey. Fearing the cannibalism of adult reptiles, young terraguanas live in mountain
forests and migrate to the rain forest, having reached a sufficient length to
be able to defend themselves. There is less food in the mountain forest than
in the rain forest, but when the adult terraguans leave, young lizards can feast
in their nests. A young terraguana looks for a nest arranged by its adult relative
by smell. Having found a place where the earth lies in a loose mound, it begins
to dig with its front paws. Soon, eggs covered with a leathery shell appear
from under a layer of loose earth. The young terraguana grabs the uppermost
egg with its mouth and runs away to the side. Having looked around, it tears
the shell of the egg and licks its contents dry. Having finished with the egg,
it returns to the nest for the next one. The natural resources of the island
are limited, so this behavior – cannibalism at all stages of development – regulates
the number of predators.
A lizard ravaging the nest of its own relatives is watched from the branches
of a tree by pine parakeets. They are also not averse to taking advantage of
a free treat, so when terraguana drags away another egg, the parakeets descend
from the tree and take an active part in the destruction of the reptile’s clutch.
The life of the inhabitants of Great Antigua is greatly influenced by the riot
of natural elements. The Atlantic Ocean is the place where hurricanes, devastating
the islands and the southern coast of North America, are born, so the animals
from the island have learned to feel the approach of a natural disaster.
Anticipating the revelry of the elements, all living things hide. Terraguana
will not be saved from the elements by its ferocity, and scaly porcupines will
not be saved by their armor. The hope of salvation for any living creature is
a good shelter. When clouds cover the sky, pine parakeets search for a safe
haven: they hide in a whole flock in the hollow of an old pine tree, hanging
on its walls. Birds snuggle tightly together, and they will be warm and dry
even in the worst weather. A scaly porcupine hides in a hole under the roots
of a tree upturned by a storm. It deepens the hole, curls up in it and calms
down, waiting for the impact of the elements. However, its peace lasts not for
long: before a hurricane, land-dwelling crabs living in forest streams moved
about madly. They leave their native places and run all over the forest, looking
for shelters. Several crabs fall into the pit where the porcupine is hiding.
They run around its pit, try to get under the porcupine’s belly and from time
to time pinch the beast with their claws if it turns awkwardly. The porcupine
does not need such a neighborhood, so the beast gently pushes its restless neighbors
away with its head.
The forest seems to be dying out: all living things are waiting for the elements
to impact. The birds are silent, and only monkeys are calling to each other
somewhere in the treetops. Gradually, the wind rises, and the tree crowns rustle
alarmingly, drowning out the voices of living beings. A little more time passes,
and it starts to rain. This is not the refreshing light rain that pours daily
on Antigua, giving life to plants and animals. The rain falls on the island
literally like a bucket. Water falls from the clouds in sheets, and visibility
is reduced to several meters. Tight jets erode the soil, and the rivers and
streams of the island turn into mad torrents. The water undercuts the roots
of several trees, and they fall to the ground with a thunderous crash. Leaves
torn from trees fly in the air, and several birds are unsuccessfully trying
to resist the elements that are taking them to no one knows where. The rivers
of Antigua overflow their banks, flooding the lowlands. The water, brown with
clay, foams, bubbles and carries tree trunks and the corpses of drowned animals
to the sea.
A family of mangrove marmosets, thoroughly soaked, is sitting on a branch, huddled
together and clutching the branch convulsively with their paws. They protect
two small cubs, which the male holds on his stomach, from rain and cold. When
a hurricane shakes a branch, an adolescent sitting on the edge falls into the
water with a plaintive cry. If he gets swept out to sea, he’ll just die. A young
monkey is fighting for its life: overcoming the wind and waves, the adolescent
monkey swims, gets out on the root of a tree and barely gets to the family.
The fury of nature continues for several days. Despite the catastrophic consequences,
hurricanes are one of the factors to which local animals have adapted well.
All biological rhythms and behavior of animals are consistent with annual weather
changes. So, because of the annual hurricanes, terraguanas make their nests
in the mountains, where the eggs will not be flooded with rain.
After a hurricane, many trees in the mountain forests are felled. Palm trees
– trees with a relatively weak root system and wide leaves – are particularly
affected by hurricanes. Under the palm trees that withstood the impact of elements,
there are many nuts knocked down by the rain. The scaly porcupine can finally
leave its hiding place and go out to feed. It hadn’t eaten for several days,
hiding in its shelter, and now it can satisfy the hunger that has twisted its
stomach. Pine parakeets also successfully endured the impact of elements, and
now their red breasts are visible among the pine branches. Noticing that the
porcupine is gnawing the fruits of palm trees, the birds fly to the ground and
wait until some pieces of nut pulp falls out of the rodent’s mouth.
During hurricanes, lowland forests are completely flooded with water, and their
inhabitants are forced to escape for several days in the mountains. Several
pine parakeets walking near the porcupine suddenly begin to worry. Birds look
around anxiously, take off at the same time and notify the rodent of danger
with their hoarse voices. But this time the vigilant sentries clearly overdid
it: they found not the real danger, but just a herd of mazamaras. Spotted graceful
rodents are rare visitors in the mountains. Obviously, this herd had escaped
from a flood caused by a hurricane, which is why these beasts appeared here.
Animals feel scared when they get into the wrong habitat. Mazamaras constantly
sniff and twitch their ears. It is obvious that they are afraid of almost everything
in this area. When the scaly porcupine accidentally makes too sudden a movement,
a mazamara male with thick white beard utters an alarm signal, and the herd
quickly runs away. Mazamaras will not stay in the mountains for long: when the
water subsides, they will descend back to their native rainforests.
The consequences of the hurricane are clearly visible in the rainforest. Everywhere
on the ground, there are tree trunks that failed to endure the fury of the nature.
Each old tree, when falling, tears the vines that connect it with neighboring
trees and crushes the seedlings of other trees occupying the undergrowth. For
a single tree, this event means death, but for its environment it is a chance
for survival. When sunlight penetrates through a huge gap in the dense forest
canopy, the surrounding plants begin to grow at breakneck speed, trying to be
the first to take the vacant place under the sun.
The ground woodpeckers have safely survived the hurricane, and now they leap
along the trunk of a fallen forest giant. With their pointed beaks, birds chip
off large pieces of bark, peck rotten wood and scatter “flower baskets” of epiphytic
plants, searching for insects. A family pair of woodpeckers safely endured the
flood: these birds dug their hole under a tree that stood on a small hill, and
the water did not reach the nest very much, although a puddle of water leaked
from the soil accumulated at the bottom of their hole. But the most important
thing is that the parents managed to save their chicks. The ferocious hungry
terraguana could be driven away, but the birds were powerless against the elements.
The life and health of juveniles is a worthy reward for caring parents. But
sometimes it becomes downright punishment for them: juveniles do not suffer
from a lack of appetite, and constantly harass their parents, begging them for
food with loud voices. For a few days, adult woodpeckers will have to share
food with their offspring too often, but then young birds will have to move
on to independent life.
After the hurricane, changes also took place on the coastal reef: the river
carried a trunk of a tree, whose roots failed to withstand the test of the elemental
forces, into the sea. This trunk sways a hundred meters from the shore, having
bumped into the limestone wall of the reef. Under the trunk, and especially
in the roots and branches of the dead tree, there is a huge amount of small
fish hiding. On the trunk, a lone “Robinson” – a prickly scaly porcupine – sits.
During a hurricane, it fell into a raging river and did not die only because
of its ability to swim. When the rodent was already losing its last strength,
floundering in the water, this very trunk, which the river carried into the
sea, became its salvation. So the forest rodent ended up on the reef. As long
as the water is high, it has no way to escape. In addition, the tree is unstable
on the reef. One strong wave is enough to carry it away to the open sea, and
the porcupine will surely die of thirst.
But the tide is turning. The water level gradually decreases, and the tree falls
onto the limestone towers of the reef. When the trunk stops swinging underfoot,
the prickly scaly porcupine gains confidence. Other inhabitants of the island
– reef woodpeckers – fly to the reef from the mangroves. The sight of birds
leaping on the tops of the reef encourages the porcupine, and the beast prepares
for the difficult journey home. The porcupine carefully walks back and forth
along the trunk, then looks around, carefully descends into the water and swims.
A flock of fish, frightened by the appearance of such a creature unusual for
them, rushes into the shadow of a tree trunk, sparkling with their silver sides.
Ignoring them, the scaly porcupine continues on its way. Soon it touches the
bottom with its paws. Pushing off with its claws and leaving a path of churned
silt behind it, the beast reaches the shore and goes out onto a sandy beach,
scaring crabs away. Its deep footprints remain in the sand, and water quickly
fills them. Having reached the mangrove forest, the porcupine gets out of the
viscous sand on the roots and quickly disappears into the thickets.
Gradually, the tree trunk, swaying near the reef, will become soaked with water
and sink to the bottom. But even being dead, it will become a place of accumulation
of life for a long time: the wood will be bored by wood-boring crustaceans and
shipworms, and at low tide large mangrove woodpeckers will come here to feed.
In the meantime, these birds are pecking the trunk of another tree cast ashore.
This tree trunk came to Great Antigua from the coast of South America, and during
its voyage, “shipworms” managed to occupy it. Birds wield their beaks, chipping
off large pieces of worm-eaten wood, pull out and eat these mollusks. Their
meal is interrupted by a completely unwanted guest: a huge adult terraguana
crawls past the tree. Woodpeckers feel safe: they are watching the reptile,
and at any moment they can take off. They mob the reptile, but the lizard completely
ignores them and crawls on. Its sense of smell leads it and promises the reptile
a feast unprecedented in abundance and luxury.
On the shore lies the carcass of a guest from the depths of the Atlantic – a
cachalot shark. It had died a long time ago, and now its body, which had
become a toy of the waves, appeared decomposed in great degree. Terraguanas
from the forest gather to the carcass of the fish and greedily tear off the
skin and meat from its sides. On the top of the carcass, where the terraguanas
have not yet climbed, reef woodpeckers leap. Birds peck shark meat and arrange
short noisy fights if two birds appear too close to each other. Soon a couple
of mangrove woodpeckers join the meal. They drive away their smaller relatives,
and begin to fill at a leisurely pace.
Soon the carcass of the shark will be completely eaten, and even the cartilaginous
vertebrae of the giant dried in the sun will be pecked and eaten by woodpeckers.
The sea and land mutually feed each other, being part of a unite biosphere of
the Earth.
Bestiary |
Mangrove
marmoset (Mangropithecia flava)
Order: Primates (Primates)
Family: Marmosets and Tamarins (Callitrichidae)
Habitat: Great Antigua, mangrove forest.
Picture by Pavel Volkov
Initial image by Alexey Tatarinov |
During the Ice Age, the polar caps began to expand from both
poles and push the thermophilic fauna into the equatorial regions. At this time,
a true “reserve” of the fauna of the past era had been formed at the Caribbean
Islands. Rains from the Atlantic provided ample opportunities for the growth
of tropical rainforests, and the lowering of the ocean level connected the Caribbean
Islands into an almost continuous land bridge over which land-dwelling animals
migrated from South America.
There were monkeys among the migrants from South America. Large species of cebid
monkeys failed to keep sufficiently large populations, and some local species
became extinct completely. But the small marmoset monkeys have become the real
owners of the forest canopy at the Caribbean islands. Numerous species and subspecies
of these monkeys, often very brightly and bizarrely colored, have formed at
the small islands. They usually lead a lifestyle characteristic of their ancestors,
but one species among these monkeys has adapted to life in the mangrove forests
on the coast of Great Antigua, thus avoiding competition with other primate
species.
The mangrove marmoset is a small monkey: a large adult male of this species
weighs about 1 kilogram, and the female is even smaller. In its physique, the
mangrove marmoset almost does not differ from other species of its family: it
has a large rounded head; front and hind legs are of almost the same length.
The tail is long (about twice as long as the trunk) and non-prehensile. On the
branches and on the ground, these marmosets move on four legs.
The wool has a bright color: golden on the body, reddish-brown on the head.
The monkey’s tail is black with a white tip: it performs a signaling function.
Descending to the ground, these monkeys keep their tails raised up so that their
congeners can see it from afar.
The face of the mangrove marmoset is hairless, covered with smooth pink skin.
This monkey species has well-developed facial muscles, and expressive facial
expressions complement the sound “vocabulary”. In males, at the moment of irritation
or excitement, the face turns red. In addition, males often have dark pigment
spots on the skin near the mouth and between the nose and mouth, merging in
some individuals into a kind of “mask”.
Mangrove marmoset leads a social lifestyle and lives in families of 5-10 individuals.
As a rule, they include a parental couple and their cubs. After reaching puberty,
males always leave the group, and females stay longer, and even bring an outside
male into the group.
Most primates avoid water, and among the New World monkeys there were no species
associated with aquatic biotopes at all. But the mangrove marmoset is not afraid
of water and can swim. Its nostrils are placed wide, like in all New World monkeys,
but adapted for life in the water. They are slit-like, and can close during
the diving.
This species has another adaptation for life in mangrove swamps: it has large
kidneys that remove excess salts from the body. But the kidneys cannot fully
compensate for the drinking water needs of these monkeys, and mangrove marmosets
drink rainwater from the leaves, or go to the rivers to drink.
The diet of mangrove marmosets includes many species of plants and animals that
can be found in the mangrove forest. These monkeys usually eat young leaves
of mangrove trees, supplementing their diet with fruits. From among foods of
animal origin, monkeys prefer crabs, which are hunted at low tide, small marine
animals that are gathered in puddles on the littoral zone, and insects living
on mangrove trees.
Cubs are born twice a year. Usually they are twins, and often the cubs are of
the same sex. The juveniles remain in the group until maturity. Usually, when
an adult couple gets old, their cubs on the female line begin to lead the group
and “inherit” the parental territory.
Mazamara
(Mazamara sylvatica)
Order: Rodents (Rodentia)
Family: Deermaras (Cervimaridae)
Habitat: Great Antigua, rainforests and woodlands.
Picture by Sauron from FurNation
In the early Neocene, about 7-8 million years after the change
of epochs, which appeared catastrophic for the fauna of the Earth, changes occurred
in the geography of the New World: the Isthmus of Panama sank under water, and
the connection between North and South America was disrupted. The faunas of
these continents began to develop in isolation, and soon only single common
species of birds and other flying animals remained on both continents. But the
isolation of the continents was not complete. Two lithospheric plates, the Caribbean
and Cocos plates, moving near each other, caused a chain of Antilles to rise
from the ocean. A more or less permanent land bridge was formed, using which
some species from South America began to penetrate to the north. Via this way,
large cursorial deermara rodents (Cervimara) appeared in North America. These
animals descended in the Ice Age from the Patagonian mara (Dolichotis) that
lived in South America, but in the process of evolution they have changed so
much that it is more expedient to classify them as representatives of a separate
family related to the cavy family (Caviidae), to which the mara belonged.
Some migrants chose to stay on the islands, adapting to their new environment.
Among them, there were deermaras also. When the climate became more favorable
and humid, the herbaceous vegetation had been superseded by the shrubs, and
then they had been replaced by a continuous selva. The cursorial animals of
the plains adapted to these changes and became very small. So the mazamara –
a forest-dwelling cursorial rodent from Great Antigua – appeared.
Mazamara is a tiny creature of graceful constitution. In its appearance, it
resembles an antelope, but it weighs only about 5 kilograms and reaches a height
of only 40 cm at the withers. Mazamara has a long neck, and the head in profile
seems somewhat heavy because of the thick “beard”, especially well-developed
in males. The legs of this rodent are thin, and the claws have turned into a
kind of hooves. There are three hooves on the front leg, and two ones on the
back. Mazamara runs fast and is able to make high jumps – up to 2 meters in
height from the spot.
Mazamaras live in dense tropical forests and feed on relatively soft food. They
eat fallen tree fruits, mushrooms and leaves of large forest grasses. The small
weight and sharp hooves allow this rodent to even climb the sloping trunks of
trees undercut by the river current. Due to the diet consisting of soft forest
plants, the incisors of the mazamara grow much slower than those of its relatives
from the plains, that eat hard cereals “flavored” with sand.
The lifestyle also left another imprint on the appearance of mazamara. Its color
has become much brighter and more contrasting than that of its large plain relatives.
The general coat color of the mazamara is reddish-brown. Cheeks, muzzle tip,
chin and thick “beard” are white. A black stripe stretches along the sides of
the muzzle from the nostril through the eye to the base of the ear, separating
the white and brown areas on the head. The chest and belly are white; there
are rounded white spots on the sides. Due to this coloring, mazamaras are difficult
to distinguish among shadows and rays of light in the undergrowth.
These rodents live in small herds – 1-2 males and about a dozen females and
cubs. Animals communicate with each other using sounds similar to the cooing
of pigeons. The alarm call is similar to the yapping of a small dog.
2 times a year, the female gives birth to one cub, which can follow the mother
a few minutes after birth. The cub differs from adult animals in darker coloration
and fewer spots. It feeds on milk until the age of one month, but from the first
days of life it tastes adult animal food. Mazamara has preserved the feeding
posture characteristic of its ancestors: the nursing female sits on her hind
legs, and the cub sucks milk while lying on its stomach.
At the age of four months, the young mazamara reaches a weight of 3.5-4 kg.
Half-year-old females can bear offspring.
Mountain
scaly porcupine (Squamodermus setosus)
Order: Rodents (Rodentia)
Family: New World porcupines (Erethizontidae)
Habitat: Great Antigua, montane dry forests.
Among the migrants used the Antillean Land Bridge to settle from South America,
there were wood porcupines – slow tree-climbing rodents. This was their second
attempt to colonize the north: in the Pleistocene and Holocene in North America,
wood porcupines lived, that settled there earlier. During the Ice Age, the ranges
of many northern species shifted to the south, so the new settlers encountered
representatives of the previous wave of migration. Competition with them did
not allow the southern wood porcupines to settle further north. When the Antillean
Land Bridge broke up into separate islands, South American wood porcupines appeared
in isolation and began to evolve into new species. Dwarf species of them appeared
on small islands, and on the Great Antigua island, the evolution gave rise to
a remarkable species that differs from both northern and southern continental
species.
In the conditions of island isolation, porcupines from Great Antigua had got
a very peculiar feature: their spikes transformed into wide pointed corneous
plates similar to knife blades. Between them, however, there are separate spikes
and relatively thin long hair. Defending itself, the scaly porcupine raises
its scales and shakes its whole body. The edges of the scales are sharp, and
an attacking predator can get multiple incised wounds from this rodent.
The mountain scaly porcupine left the humid tropical forests of the lowlands
and moved to the dry forests in the mountains and the western part of Great
Antigua. It also broke with its previous habits: now it is a ground-dwelling
rodent that can weigh up to 20 kg.
The physique of the mountain scaly porcupine is robust: it has a large head,
short legs and a powerful barrel-shaped body. The paws of the mountain scaly
porcupine are equipped with pointed claws. The tail of this rodent is long,
but not prehensile, like in its ancestors. It serves another important purpose:
fat stock is accumulated in it.
The scales of this beast cover the back, sides, hips and the base of the tail.
There is also a cover of thick scales on the crown and back of its head. The
scaly porcupine has a characteristic menacing posture: it turns its head towards
the enemy and stands on its hind legs, grumbling loudly. At this moment, the
scales on its head are raised and erect. If the enemy does not retreat, the
porcupine falls on four legs and strikes the aggressor with its head with a
swift rush.
The body color of different individuals varies from straw yellow to brown. Scales
can have different coloration: dark with white tips or vice versa, cross-striped
and monochrome.
During molting, the old scales are gradually replaced by new ones. During this
period, scaly porcupines are especially dangerous: the scales set not firmly
in the skin and easily remain in wounds, causing severe suppuration. The scales
do not change at the same time, so the porcupine is ready to repel the enemy
at any moment. It usually gets rid of old scales by wallowing on the ground
or among bushes. Shedding porcupines are very fond of scratching themselves
against trees. In their favorite places, it is often possible to find the scales
of this rodent stuck in the bark or soil.
Mountain scaly porcupine feeds on roots and grass. It prefers to live in dry
sparse forests formed by pines and low-growing palms. With its strong teeth,
the porcupine can easily open the hard nuts of palms and chew the seeds of pine
trees, getting to their oily contents.
Once a year, the female bears offspring. There is one cub in the litter that
is born well-developed and sighted. After drying off, it can immediately follow
its mother. The newborn is covered only with short fur. Approximately at the
3rd day after birth, spikes begin to erupt, and at the age of one month, scales
grow – at first narrow, then wider ones. A three-month-old cub is already completely
independent, and at the age of 18-20 months it becomes fully adult.
Smaller related porcupine species inhabit neighboring islands:
Dwarf
scaly porcupine (Squamodermus nanus) is a very small species of scaly
porcupines: it weighs only 1.7-2 kg. It is characterized by a dark coat color,
from which light, brownish-white scales protrude. The scales are sharper on
the sides, and thicker and stronger on the back. The tail is about one and a
half times the length of the body. Several parallel rows of scales run along
the tail. This species has preserved the arboreal lifestyle characteristic of
its ancestors, inhabiting palm groves of the Lesser Antilles. When attacked
by a predator, this porcupine sits across a branch and wraps its tail around
it, anchoring itself firmly. With the tip of its tail, it covers its head lowered
to the branch. It behaves in the same way during hurricanes, tightly clinging
to the leaves of palm trees.
This species feeds mainly on the oily fruits of palm trees.
Prickly
scaly porcupine (Squamodermus semperspinosus) is an inhabitant of Great
Antigua and some neighboring islands. This rodent is relatively large: it weighs
up to 8 kg with a total length of about one meter. Being exclusively terrestrial
animal, it prefers humid habitats: wetlands and riverbanks. This rodent species
can swim well. The tail is short; there is a rudimentary swimming membrane on
the paws between the digits.
It feeds on rhizomes and tender leaves of amphibious grasses and often escapes
from predators in the water.
Porcupines of this species are distinguished by scales of a special shape: the
tip of the scale is thin and curved upwards. When the scales are pressed against
the body, their tips stick out, protecting the animal from attacks of terrestrial
predators. The tail is naked; the body is covered with scales on the sides and
back. There are only some small scales on the back of the head.
Caribbean
pine parakeet (Pinopsitta caraibica)
Order: Parrots (Psittaciformes)
Family: Holotropical parrots (Psittacidae), subfamily Neotropical parrots (Araini).
Habitat: montane forests of Great Antigua.
In the Holocene, the West Indies was one of the centers of the greatest species
diversity of birds. During the Ice Age, the islands became a refuge for birds
from the tropics of the Americas, crowded by ice caps coming from the poles.
On the islands of the West Indies, representatives of such typically forest
groups of tropical birds as trogons, cuckoos, suboscine passerine birds and
parrots survived the Ice Age.
One of the bird species from Great Antigua is the Caribbean pine parakeet. It
is a small bird, slightly larger than a sparrow, except for the tail. Its total
length (with a long pointed tail) is about 30 cm. This parakeet is brightly
colored: the back is green with a large red spot on the chest; there are white
spots under the wings, noticeable when the bird takes off or flaps its wings.
There are rings of white bare skin around the eyes.
The male and female of this species differ well in the color of the beak: the
upper mandible of birds of both sexes is coffee-brown, and the lower mandible
is pink in males and white in females.
The upper mandible is noticeably longer and thinner than the lower mandible.
The lower jaw serves as a kind of “anvil” for crushing seeds. The Caribbean
pine parakeet has adapted to kind of food that other parrot species are reluctant
to eat. Its main food is small hard seeds of woody plants. This parrot peels
dry capsules of trees and deftly takes seeds from pine cones. Pine seeds are
one of the favorite foods of the pine parrot. Because of them, meat of this
bird acquires a resinous smell, and predators are reluctant to catch these birds,
preferring other prey. In case of a poor harvest of pine seeds, this parakeet
can migrate to tropical forests, but it does not nest there and does not stay
for a long time.
The pine parakeet, like most species of the order, is a sociable social bird.
It keeps in flocks of 10-20 birds. Inside each flock, there are formed permanent
pairs of adult birds that breed regularly. At the time of nesting, the flocks
break up.
Nest is arranged in a hollow; clutch numbers of up to 5 eggs. The female incubates
mainly, but both parents take care of the chicks. The chicks stay in the nest
for about a month, then their parents feed them for another two weeks. Families
of parrots with grown-up juveniles unite in flocks and roam until the next nesting
season.
This species has developed an interesting behavior: the pine parakeet can provide
scaly porcupines with cleaning services. Birds wishing to clean the porcupine
descend from the tree and attract the “client” by vocalization and displaying
of bright spots on the stomach. Cleaning porcupine from parasites, pine parakeets
simply eat them, filling the need for animal proteins.
Mangrove
woodpecker (Thalassopicus mangrophilus)
Order: Woodpeckers (Piciformes)
Family: Woodpeckers (Picidae)
Habitat: mangrove forests of the Atlantic coast of America, Great Antigua, Lesser
Antilles.
Picture by Alexander Smyslov
What about a woodpecker at the seashore? It may seem unusual,
but only at first glance. Where there are mangroves, there are, for example,
monkeys – forest-dwelling animals. And in Neocene, when the climate became much
warmer and the range of mangroves expanded, the development of mangrove forests
became a solution of the problem of survival for many species that had not previously
been found in these biotopes.
In late Holocene, when a wave of glaciation covered a significant part of North
America, many species migrated to the south of the continent in search of suitable
habitats. The ocean level has dropped, and areas that were previously shallow
seas have turned into land. The area of the Caribbean islands has increased,
and some migrants from the north managed to find their way to salvation in the
south. Among them, were some species of North American woodpeckers. They have
found their new home at the vast Great Antigua island. There were forests and
a lot of food. But over time, the ocean level began to rise – the glaciers were
melting. The collision of the Caribbean lithospheric plate with the North American
plate gradually increasing in the Atlantic zone compensated for the immersion
of island in water, but all the same, the area of Great Antigua decreased compared
to that during the Ice Age. This event intensified the competition between forest
dwellers, and some species faced a choice: to change their place of residence,
or to die out. So, one woodpecker species had mastered a biotope new for these
birds: mangrove forest zone, where it had evolved into several more species
that have flourished in Neocene.
Mangrove woodpecker is a very large species among the woodpeckers: its wingspan
reaches one meter. It is a bird of a characteristic “woodpecker” appearance,
with a pointed tail of stiff feathers, of black and white coloration. The body
is almost entirely black from above: there are only white markings on the wings,
and the primary feathers are striated. The belly is entirely white. Against
the background of the plumage, the red head of the bird with white “cheeks”
stands out as a bright spot. Beak is black.
This bird feeds on wood-boring bivalves (so-called “shipworms”) that settle
in the roots of mangrove trees and on floating wood. Having found a tree or
coconut cast ashore, the bird explores it, looking for wood-boring invertebrates.
Usually, the mangrove woodpecker keeps among mangrove trees, very rarely leaving
such a safe place, protected by impassable swamps and a dense palisade of branches.
At high tide, this bird feeds on insects living in the crowns of mangrove trees,
and at low tide it moves down to the roots, where the mangrove woodpecker’s
favorite food – wood-boring bivalves – lives. Their presence can be easily recognized:
below the average tide level, round holes are drilled in the roots of plants.
At high tide, the respiratory siphons of mollusks protrude from them. Having
discovered the holess of the “shipworms”, the bird opens the root with blows
of its strong beak. With strong blows, the bird chops off large chips from the
root, and finally gets the desired food. The woodpecker swallows this mollusk
together with its rudimentary shell, which is digested in bird’s stomach.
Adult woodpeckers of this species live in family pairs that persist for life.
The mangrove woodpecker is a very territorial species. Each pair occupies a
vast area of mangrove forest and actively protects it from its congeners. A
pair of birds claims the rights to the territory with vocalization similar to
hoarse laughter. Often the birds vocalize in duet, replacing each other in turns,
and their voices last for ten to fifteen minutes almost continuously. If a stranger
appears on the territory, the couple expels it, acting together and accompanying
the attacks with menacing calls and flapping wings. Threatening their rivals,
adult birds bristle red feathers on their heads, which makes them seem much
larger.
Mangrove woodpeckers nest twice a year. A barchelor male, which is going to
start a family for the first time, occupies a free territory, or expels a competitor
from it. He carefully surveys his territory, choosing trees suitable for nesting.
Another condition for its success is a good “musical” snag, resonating under
the blows of its beak. On such snag, the male diligently drums mating invitations
with his beak. If he is attractive to the female, she stays on his territory.
The couple declares to possible competitors for some time that the rights to
this area of mangroves are occupied: in the morning and in the evening, the
birds vocalize for a long time. If the pair has formed successfully, the birds
begin to build a nest.
For nesting, woodpeckers choose large mangrove trees located in the most inaccessible
areas of the thickets. A couple hollows out together a large cavern (up to 15
cm in diameter and up to one meter deep), in which they rear two or three chicks.
The eggs lie on a litter of wood dust, and the birds take turns incubating them
for two weeks. Chicks hatch blind and covered with sparse down. They fledge
completely at about five weeks of age, and then leave the nest. For about one
more week they wander around the parental territory with their parents, and
then their childhood ends: adult birds drive the grown offspring away. After
about two to three weeks, adult birds nest a second time per season. There are
no more than two eggs in the second clutch.
Young birds differ from adults in that the red color on their head is replaced
by black. Due to this, they can feed relatively unpunished on the territory
of adult birds. In the second year of life, they become adults, and red feathers
begin to grow on their heads.
Picture by Alexander Smyslov
A similar species lives along the Pacific coast of North America – the black-bearded mangrove woodpecker (Thalassopicus melanobarbus), differing by the black color of the throat and lower part of the head, as well as a brown back. It is less specialized in nutrition, and willingly feeds on any marine animals that can be found on the shallows at low tide.
Reef-dwelling,
or oyster-catching woodpecker (Nanothalassopicus ostreophagus)
Order: Woodpeckers (Piciformes)
Family: Woodpeckers (Picidae)
Habitat: mangrove forests on the Atlantic coast of America, Great Antigua, Lesser
Antilles.
The scattering of Caribbean islands with extensive coastal shoals and a long
coastline provides abundant food for a variety of living creatures, both marine
and terrestrial ones. Avoiding the competition, which has intensified due to
rising ocean levels and a reduction in the area of forests on the islands and
on the mainland, some woodpeckers have successfully mastered life in the coastal
mangrove forests.
At low tide at the mollusk-built reefs of the Caribbean Sea, it is possible
to meet agile birds scurrying along the tops of oyster beds that have emerged
from the water. This is one more species of “marine” woodpeckers – the reef-dwelling
woodpecker. For its predilection for shellfish meat, it received another name
– oyster-catching woodpecker. Although, of course, not only shellfish make up
its diet: it also willingly eats worms and crustaceans that hide in the crevices
of the reef.
The reef-dwelling woodpecker is a relatively small woodpecker species: it is
only a starling-sized bird. The pattern of the plumage of this bird is quite
mottled: it is entirely barred, brown-and-white. The head is somewhat darker,
and the brown stripes on the belly are narrower and denser. In its physique,
this woodpecker is similar to its forest-dwelling relatives.
The beak of the reef-dwelling woodpecker is relatively long and thin. This feature
is connected to its diet: the bird eats marine invertebrates hidden in the cracks
of the reef. The woodpecker has a peculiar biorhythm consistent with the time
of high and low tide. These woodpeckers spend the time of high tide in mangroves
and rest. And with the outflow, the birds already fly to feed. They gather one
or several birds at a time on the tops of reefs exposed at low tide, and as
the water subsides, they begin to descend onto the reef, probing cracks and
crevices with their beaks. Having found small bivalves, the bird opens their
shells with beak blows. Also, this woodpecker attacks old mollusks whose muscles
are not strong enough to restrain the blows of the bird’s beak. The favorite
food of reef woodpeckers is shrimp. If these crustaceans get into a shallow
puddle at low tide, the reef-dwelling woodpecker can easily catch and eat them.
The coccygeal gland of this bird is well developed, so the plumage does not
get wet, even if a random wave sweeps over the woodpecker. This woodpecker receives
much more salts with its food than its forest-dwelling relatives. Therefore,
the kidneys of the reef-dwelling woodpecker are relatively large.
When the inflow comes in, the birds leave the reefs and fly away to rest. They
are relatively tolerant of each other during the rest, but when feeding and
during the nesting season, each bird or pair jealously protects its lands from
relatives.
After storms, reef woodpeckers, alongside with other seabirds, explore the coasts
in search of fish and other marine animals washed up by the sea. Due to their
pugnacious nature and pointed strong beak, they have significant advantages
in prey sharing.
Pairs of reef woodpeckers are formed for one season, and the birds manage to
make up to three clutches together. The couple makes a nest in a hollow, choosing
trees in the forest closer to the coast. Nesting birds fly to feed alternately.
The clutch numbers up to 6-8 eggs; chicks hatch 10 days later. After 4 weeks,
they leave the nest and feed for a while on the parental territory. When they
become completely independent, the parents drive them away and begin the next
nesting cycle.
A close species – snail-eating
woodpecker (Nanothalassopicus cochleophagus) – lives in the same places
as the reef-dwelling woodpecker, but prefers to forage in the coastal zone,
not going far out to sea. It is larger (pigeon-sized) and has a shorter and
thicker beak, gray upper body plumage and a barred gray-and-white chest. This
species feeds on snails and crabs, hunting them in the mangrove forest at low
tide. Examining the roots of mangrove trees and rocks exposed at low tide, the
snail-eating woodpecker tears them off the substrate with its powerful beak.
Sometimes this bird hunts crabs like a hawk: it looks out for them from an ambush
in the bushes, and chases them by attacking from the air. The bird kills the
crab with a sharp blow of its beak, trying to immediately pierce the nerve center.
The snail-eating woodpecker drags the found snails and crabs to the fork of
the branches, where it pinches them and pecks their shells. Such places, that
are similar, in essence, to the “working places” of woodpeckers known to people,
are easily detected by the remains of shells and shells. It nests in the forest
near mangroves.
Giant
ground woodpecker (Antiguapicus apterus)
Order: Woodpeckers (Piciformes)
Family: Ground, or Antiguan woodpeckers (Antiguapicidae)
Habitat: Great Antigua, from mountain forests to tropical rainforest.
Picture by Alexander Smyslov
Evolution goes on much faster at the islands than at the continent.
The phenomena of isolation and gene drift are more pronounced here, and some
free ecological niches are almost always available. Sometimes island-dwelling
animals are remarkable in the quirkiness of their forms and unexpected directions
of adaptation.
On the Great Antigua island, thermophilic species, which managed to migrate
here from the continents (mostly from South America, although North American
species also have their descendants here), found refuge from the glacier Among
the inhabitants of this island, there are numerous woodpeckers, which are richly
present in the New World fauna. Several species of woodpeckers have adapted
to forage at the sea coasts, but one more species, although it has not broken
with its former habitats, has also changed its way of life. It is the giant
ground woodpecker. It became very large and lost the flight ability. The peculiarities
of its anatomy and behavior distinguish it from other woodpeckers so deep, that
it forms its own family.
This woodpecker is the largest species in its order: this bird weighs up to
3 kilograms and is a chicken-sized one. It is unable to fly; its wings are reduced,
although they have not completely disappeared, because they play a special role
in the life of the bird: they are used to keep balance during the movement.
On the ground, this woodpecker moves by jumps, balancing with half-open wings:
like all representatives of its order, it cannot walk, moving its legs alternately.
Despite this feature, the bird has not lost the mobility and dexterity characteristic
of its ancestors: a giant ground woodpecker can climb up sloping tree trunks,
clinging with its claws. Its legs are relatively long; the first and fourth
toes (turned back) are shorter than the second and third ones; the claws are
relatively thick and short. The tail has lost the function of support, and its
feathers have a peculiar shape: the feather shafts have become longer and thicker.
Their tips protrude from the feather vane, forming spikes. The tail of this
woodpecker turned from a support device into a weapon protecting the bird from
a sudden attack from behind.
The plumage pattern is barred: narrow transverse stripes run on the yellowish-brown
background. The stripes on the wings are wider, which makes the wings look darker.
This coloration pattern helps the bird to disguise itself perfectly. In case
of danger, this woodpecker hides in the grass, crouching to the ground.
On the throat and chest of adult bird, there is a red longitudinal “tie” stripe.
It is formed of slightly elongated feathers. The male’s “tie” is longer than
the female’s one: in females it rarely reaches the middle of the neck. During
the courtship display or when threatening rivals, the male rises and pushes
aside the feathers of the “tie”, which makes it seem much larger and noticeable
from afar.
The beak of the ground woodpecker is large and strong. The tongue is very long:
it can protrude from the mouth to 20 cm. The anatomical features inherited from
its forest ancestors allowed the bird to master a peculiar ecological niche:
the giant ground woodpecker feeds on ants and termites. Termites are famous
for their ability to erect extra strong buildings, which in human times did
not immediately succumb even to iron tools. The ground woodpecker copes with
this obstacle perfectly, cracking termite mounds with beak blows. After opening
the insect tunnels, the woodpecker sticks its long tongue into them, and the
crawling insects stick to it.
In addition to social insects, this woodpecker willingly eats other food of
animal origin: large solitary insects, spiders, small vertebrates and even carrion
and the remains of prey from various predators.
The giant ground woodpecker is an aggressive and courageous bird: if there is
no way to hide or escape, it attacks an enemy significantly larger than it is
and inflicts deep puncture wounds with its beak. The attack is accompanied by
loud screams.
Sexual maturity comes at the age of two years. A breeding pair of this species
is formed for several seasons. The ground woodpecker nests in burrows, which
a pair of birds digs together under the roots of trees, using their beak and
legs. The burrow initially is directed up, then abruptly turns down, forming
a “mine”, at the bottom of which eggs lie without litter. There is up to 5 eggs
in the clutch; both parents incubate them alternately. Chicks hatch after two
weeks of incubation. They are naked and blind, but they quickly fledge and leave
the burrow after 3 weeks. Juveniles keep in a group in a dense bush, and one
of the parents is constantly watching them, being nearby. If necessary, it is
ready to attack any animal that gets too close to the brood. When young birds
are fully fledged, parents begin to regard them as competitors, and soon drive
them away from their territory.
The color of the plumage of young birds is the same as that of adults, but it
lacks red “tie”. It will appear only at the time of puberty.
Terraguana
(Terraguana monstrosa)
Order: Squamates (Squamata), suborder Lizards (Lacertilia)
Family: Iguanas (Iguanidae)
Habitat: Great Antigua, forests from mountainous ones to rainforests.
Picture by Alexey Tatarinov
During the Ice Age, the temperature contrast between the polar
and equatorial regions increased on Earth. The climate has become more arid,
and large areas of grasslands have appeared in the equatorial regions. In such
conditions, the number of mammals decreased, but reptiles gained a great advantage.
In some places of the Earth, they have achieved success and even turned into
the dominant species in their ecosystems. This trend is especially evident in
the isolated island worlds.
In Great Antigua, the situation that took place on Komodo Island in Indonesia
during the human era had been approximately repeated. In the Holocene, a giant
monitor lizard – the largest predator of the island – lived at that island.
In Great Antigua, the top of the food pyramid is also crowned by a reptile –
it is terraguana, a huge predatory iguana reaching four meters in length and
weighing more than 200 kilograms.
The ancestor of the terraguana is one species of ground-dwelling iguanas of
the Cyclura genus, widespread in the Holocene across the Caribbean Islands.
In the hot climate of the equatorial zone, they gained an advantage over mammals,
which are less hardy in high temperatures. In Great Antigua, in the absence
of large ground-dwelling predators, these iguanas have adapted to feeding on
large animals, occupying the ecological niche of monitor lizards and large snakes.
Terraguana looks like a large monitor lizard – the similarity in lifestyle affects.
It has a slightly flattened body, a large head with strong jaws, and its tail
is covered with longitudinal rows of large relief scales forming an excellent
shock weapon. Along the back the crest of horny thorns characteristic of many
iguanas stretches.
Jaws of the terraguana are relatively short, equipped with sharp leaf-shaped
teeth.
The tail makes a little more than half the total length of the reptile. It is
the main weapon of terraguana used for attack. Terraguanas, like other lizards,
are not able to chase prey for a long time, so they hunt from ambush and overtake
prey with a single rush. Usually, the terraguana hides in the bushes or in the
tall grass and patiently waits for the prey. When an animal of a suitable size
approaches, the reptile attacks it. It grabs small animals with its mouth, but
the reptile uses a different tactic against large prey items. Attacking a large
animal, the reptile knocks the prey down with a blow of its tail, then turns
around, snatches the fallen animal with its teeth and holds it in a death grip
until the prey dies.
Body coloration helps terraguana hide. The reptile’s skin is colored gray-brown
with vertical green stripes.
In their way of life, terraguanas are solitary creatures. Each lizard occupies
a certain territory, which it protects from its congeners. If two lizards meet
at the border of their territories, they begin to display themselves to each
other. They rise on their paws, darken and inflate the gular sacs, demonstratively
opening their mouths. Usually it doesn’t come to a duel, and the weaker lizard
leaves without a fight. But if two approximately equal rivals meet, especially
males in the mating season, the fight cannot be avoided. At first, the rivals
evaluate each other’s force: they approach head to head, stand at the small
angle to each other, and begin swinging their tails. At this time, they hiss
menacingly and shake their heads from side to side. If it is not possible to
determine the strongest one in this way, the fight can go for real. Pouncing
on each other, the reptiles roll in the grass, scratching each other with their
claws. Teeth do not go into use – they can cause serious wounds to each other.
Adult males sometimes sport a grid of white scars covering their sides.
Terraguana reproduces like other reptiles: the female lays eggs in a hole up
to half a meter deep, dug in loose forest soil, buries the nest and does not
return to it anymore. There are up to 50 large eggs (of the size of a goose
egg) in a clutch.
After 2 months, young lizards up to 30 cm long hatch from the eggs. They differ
from adult relatives in a brighter color: they are bright green with narrow
brown stripes. With age, the brown stripes expand, and the lizard gets an adult
coloration.
The offspring differ from adult reptiles not only in color, but also in behavior:
the juveniles often climb trees and feed on small arboreal animals. This weakens
competition with adult relatives and protects them against attacks of adult
reptiles. Gradually, with age, the terraguana ceases to climb trees and turns
into a completely terrestrial reptile.
Most reptiles of this species die at an early age, falling prey of predatory
animals and birds. Also, clutches are often ravaged. However, the surviving
terraguans can live up to 80-100 years.