Docsity
Log inSign up
Docsity
Prepare for your exams
Prepare for your exams

Study with the several resources on Docsity

Earn points to download
Earn points to download

Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan

Guidelines and tips
Guidelines and tips
Sell on Docsity
Sell on Docsity
Log inSign up

Prepare for your exams

Study with the several resources on Docsity

Find documents

Prepare for your exams with the study notes shared by other students like you on Docsity

Search Store documents

The best documents sold by students who completed their studies

Search through all study resources
Docsity AINEW

Summarize your documents, ask them questions, convert them into quizzes and concept maps

Explore questions

Clear up your doubts by reading the answers to questions asked by your fellow students

Earn points to download

Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan

Share documents
download point icon20 Points

For each uploaded document

Answer questions
download point icon5 Points

For each given answer (max 1 per day)

All the ways to get free points
Get points immediately

Choose a premium plan with all the points you need

Study Opportunities

Choose your next study program

Get in touch with the best universities in the world. Search through thousands of universities and official partners

Community

Ask the community

Ask the community for help and clear up your study doubts

University Rankings

Discover the best universities in your country according to Docsity users

Free resources

Our save-the-student-ebooks!

Download our free guides on studying techniques, anxiety management strategies, and thesis advice from Docsity tutors

From our blog

Exams and Study
Go to the blog

Animal architects the designer animals, Study Guides, Projects, Research of Zoology

Rama Devi Women's CollegeZoology

Animals of our world are the best architects to learn from

Typology: Study Guides, Projects, Research

2018/2019

Uploaded on 11/18/2019

js-sharma
js-sharma 🇮🇳

1 document

1 / 7

Toggle sidebar

This page cannot be seen from the preview

Don't miss anything!

bg1
ANIMAL ARCHITECTS
Presented by: Sthitaprajna Nath Sharma
Guided By: Mrs Suchitra Mallick
By definition architect is a person who designs infrastructures
and often supervises the construction too. Besides human being other
animals are also architects, skilled for their specific requirements. Major
requirements include; shelter, which saves them from furies of nature,
protects from hailstorms, dust storms, provides good ventilation and
protects from predators. Some are well designed traps for catching prey,
some are artistically designed to woo a mate etc.
Many animal structures are outstanding demonstrations of
engineering skills. Some marvellous animal architects are; corals, spiders,
insets such as termites, wasps, and bees, crustaceans, some worms,
even molluscs, some fishes, birds of course, some reptiles and mammals
like the great apes etc.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Generally animals use a variety of stuffs, such as; mud, pebbles,
spider silk,fur,feathers,twigs,leaves,flowers,fungi,lichens,mosses,ferns etc.
as construction materials.
WEAVER ANTS (Oecophylla sp.)
They get their name from their habit of stitching together folded
leaves. This is generally done by worker ants, who pull the edges of leaves
inwards, using their powerful jaws, and if the leaves held too far, then the
ants join to form a living chain, where parallel and multiple cross linking
reinforce the structure. After this, they press the pupating larvae into it
and the silk secreted from them is used for weaving the nest.
TENT MAKING BATS (Urodermabilobatum)
They bite the midrib portions of large fan shaped leaves and make
inverted “V” shaped tent like structures, which affords shelter from
inclement weather
Weaver Ant Nest Inverted V Shaped Nest Of Tent Making Bat
USE OF VEGETATION
•THECORKWING WRASSE FISH (Crenilabrusmelops):
Here the male constructs a large and complex ball shaped algal nest
consisting of layers of different algal species.The outer protective layer is
made ofscourweed (Ahnfeltia plicata),where the camouflaging top layer is
of coral weed.
•THREE SPINE STICKLEBACK (Gasterosteus aculeatus):
1
pf3
pf4
pf5

Partial preview of the text

Download Animal architects the designer animals and more Study Guides, Projects, Research Zoology in PDF only on Docsity!

ANIMAL ARCHITECTS

Presented by: Sthitaprajna Nath Sharma Guided By: Mrs Suchitra Mallick By definition architect is a person who designs infrastructures and often supervises the construction too. Besides human being other animals are also architects, skilled for their specific requirements. Major requirements include; shelter, which saves them from furies of nature, protects from hailstorms, dust storms, provides good ventilation and protects from predators. Some are well designed traps for catching prey, some are artistically designed to woo a mate etc. Many animal structures are outstanding demonstrations of engineering skills. Some marvellous animal architects are; corals, spiders, insets such as termites, wasps, and bees, crustaceans, some worms, even molluscs, some fishes, birds of course, some reptiles and mammals like the great apes etc. MATERIALS AND METHODS Generally animals use a variety of stuffs, such as; mud, pebbles, spider silk,fur,feathers,twigs,leaves,flowers,fungi,lichens,mosses,ferns etc. as construction materials. WEAVER ANTS ( Oecophylla sp.) They get their name from their habit of stitching together folded leaves. This is generally done by worker ants, who pull the edges of leaves inwards, using their powerful jaws, and if the leaves held too far, then the ants join to form a living chain, where parallel and multiple cross linking reinforce the structure. After this, they press the pupating larvae into it and the silk secreted from them is used for weaving the nest. TENT MAKING BATS ( Urodermabilobatum) They bite the midrib portions of large fan shaped leaves and make inverted “V” shaped tent like structures, which affords shelter from inclement weather

Weaver Ant Nest Inverted V Shaped Nest Of Tent Making Bat USE OF VEGETATION

  • THECORKWING WRASSE FISH ( Crenilabrusmelops) : Here the male constructs a large and complex ball shaped algal nest consisting of layers of different algal species.The outer protective layer is made ofscourweed ( Ahnfeltia plicata), where the camouflaging top layer is of coral weed.
  • THREE SPINE STICKLEBACK ( Gasterosteus aculeatus):

It first makes pit in sandy river bed, carries sticks & aquatic vegetation to the pit, and lays down a mat of filamentous alga etc. Male swims over it and its gluey cloacal secretion comes in contact of vegetation and finally male pushes through the heap making a horizontal tunnel.

  • KING COBRA ( Ophiophagus hannah) : Here the female gathers litter through its coil and makes a mound like structure, which is so compact that even in heavy downpour the eggs remain dry, and the female sits on that till the eggs hatch.
  • ESTUARINE CROCODILE ( Crocodylus porosus): It gathers vegetation and soil & forms an elliptical mound. Eggs are laid in egg chambers and heat is provided by sun and rotting vegetation. The low temperature leads to produce females and higher temperature produces males.

Nest Of Three Spined Stickle Back Nest Of Cobra USE OF MUD

  • Mud Dauber Wasp : Itrolls mud, makes balls, takes to the site chosen, and applies it using jaws. It gives comprehensive strength to the nest when dry.
  • Potter Wasp (Ancistrocerussp.): It is an Indian wasp which forms tiny pot shaped nests. It takes about 2 hours for building its nest.
  • Harvester Ants: These ants of Western Ghats, the area which receives an annual rain fall of 3-11 meters, build their nests with concentric walls of mud. These concentric walls divert water from central nest entrance and the spiral channels slow the flow of water. USE OF WOOD Paper Wasp ( Polistes sp.) Also called umbrella wasps, because of the umbrella shaped upside down nests. The wasp collects dry wood fibres from different sources, uses mouth parts to roll them into tiny balls, then taking this, it flies to chosen site of nesting. Then it regurgitates the water it had drunk, along with other stomach contents to paste the wood fibres into semi water-proof nest, which resists moisture due to gluey nature of saliva. USE OF UNDER WATER DEBRIS Caddisfly (Order-Trichoptera) These are the moth like insects whose aquatic larva is an underwater architect. It protects its body by using underwater materials like debris, gravel, sand, snail shells, even sometimes gold flecks, pearls,
  • Blue Tit ( Cyanistescaeruleus ): It uses leaves of Ligurian yarrow and French lavender to repel blood sucking mosquitoes.
  • Great-Crested Flycatcher ( Myiarchuscrinitus ): They shed snake skin on their nest to deter their predators.
  • Waxbills ( Estrildaastrild) : They collect the carnivore droppings and smear these on,in and around the nest. Chemical cues from scat reduce predation risk as it is perceived that, the nest has already been robbed.
  • HAMMERKOP ( Scopus umbretta ): They make a mud plastered nest of sticks or bunch of grasses, which is strong enough to support the weight of an adult human. BEST NEST: TOP CONTENDERS FROM INDIA
  • Baya The Weaver Bird ( Ploceus philippinus ): The nests look like snake charmer’s flutes. These are weaved by strips of grass or leaves.This bird can tie a true knot.
  • Common Tailor Bird ( Orthotomus sutorius ): It sews together broad green leaves using spider silk as thread and its beak as needle. Space inside the nest can be filled with soft materials.
  • Sunbirds: Nest is made up of dry grass, petals, dried leaves etc. Usually a large leaf is placed over the nest, which serves as roof. 7. SOME OTHER INTERESTING ANIMAL ARCHITECTS Bower Birds For the bowerbirds of Australia and New Guinea, the ability to build, plays a role in sexual selection, and has little to do with the initial survival of the offspring. There are eight different species of bower bird and the males and females of each species build totally different constructions. The females build a simple bowl-shaped nest for themselves and their offspring, where they raise their chick without support from the male. But males are real architects. They go to extraordinary lengths to woo prospective females. They first clear the ground surrounding their bower site, smoothing the surface where their seduction palace will be built. Then they create a tunnel shaped bower by sticking rows of small branches into the ground before decorating the walls and floor with colour. A single colour usually dominates but where several are used the male takes great care to keep them separate. CORALS Lime, or calcium carbonate as it is also known, is an important building material for human homes, yet it is also a vital component of many animal constructions. Coral reefs are the largest structures created by living beings and they are assembled largely of biogenic lime, produced by the coral polyps themselves. GREAT BARRIER REEF With a surface of approximately 134,000 square miles the Great Barrier Reef, of the northeast coast of Australia, is the largest coral reef in the world. There are 845 known species among the reef-forming corals,

and around one third of them are considered imminently threatened by extinction. RED WOOD ANTS Compared to their body size of just one centimetre, red wood ants build true skyscrapers. Their structures made of plant material and earth can reach two metres tall and five metres wide, and the nests which sit within these hills often run far deeper underground than the hill is high. The climate is carefully controlled using a widely branched system of tunnels and chambers with openings at the surface which can be blocked off or opened to regulate the internal temperature of the hill. HARVEST MICE Harvest mice and beavers are both members of the rodent family, and as such their agile hands and sharp teeth make them well suited to building nests. Weighing only 5 grams, the harvest mouse is one of the smallest mammals in the world. Their light weight, combined with their long prehensile tail means they are well suited to life at the top of tall grass and grain stalks. They build a ball-shaped nest of intertwined grass leaves about one metre above the ground, using the tall surrounding stalks as supports.

8. MAN MADE STRUCTURES VS ANIMAL ARCHITECTURE ■ When proportionate sizes of human beings and termites are taken in to account, the 450m PETRONAS TOWER (88 floors), Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, are only one third the height of the average termite mound!!!! ■ CATHEDRAL TERMITES ( Nasutitermestriodiae ) : Build mounds resembling ancient buttressed cathedrals. The mounds have porous walls, and a top central chimney. This is surrounded by an intricate network of passages. Air passes through these small tunnels till it reaches the chimney and rises up. This system allows efficient ventilation ensuring that oxygen reaches the lowermost areas of the mound. ■ COMPAS TERMITE ( Amitermesmeridionalis ): It is a termite species in Australia. They make tall, wedge shaped mounds with long axis, oriented approximately in the north-south direction. This north-south orientation causes internal temperature of mound to increase rapidly during morning and avoiding over heating from mid-day sun. Temperature then remains as a plateau for the rest of the day until evening. It also maintains the required high humidity, so termites really regulate the microclimate inside their nests. 9. ANIMAL INSPIRED LESSONS ■ Mick Pearce, an African architect and lead designer for East Gate shopping centre and office building in Harare, Zimbabwe, mimicked termite ventilation system. In 2003, he was honoured for his innovations in the field of ecological and sustainable design with PRINCE CLAUS AWARD from the Netherlands.

It is meant for mating and raising the young ones in a protective environment. Eg; nest making of stickleback fish, architecture of nest making birds, etc. SUMMARY Nature is replete with hardworking animals that work long days and nights just to survive in the animal kingdom. Many of them perform tasks that are similar to what we do –though they may have completely different reasons for doing them and unique tools for completing the tasks. For instance, beavers work as nature’s engineers, bowerbirds work as interior decorators, and termites are the real architects for using the physics of earth’s magnetic field to construct their mounds. These architectures are well designed and truly aesthetic- and many of them also conform to scientific principles.