Tropical Asia - Wildlife

Wildlife

Vertebrates are marked by their ability to fly. Not only are Birds able to fly, but sea animals such as Fish and Reptiles for years have flown. Some fish jump out of the water to escape predators, expand their large pectoral fins and glide nearly hundreds of yards. As well, many frogs have long-webbed, elongate fingers and toes that function like parachutes when they leap from the leaves and branches of trees to glide across the forest.

Several groups of Mammals, for example bats, colugos, and rodents have developed many different ways to move through the air. The first fliers were Frigate Bird-looking pterosaurs, whom were also the first reptiles capable of flight and varied in size from chickens to giant creatures with wingspans of over 16 meters. However, the most affluent flying reptiles of all time probably were the dinosaurs and the birds today. In Southeast Asia, however, the ability to fly in modern, non-avian reptiles is out of control and has changed alone at least three, maybe four times for lizards, and once in snakes. What would draw such mammals to Tropical Asia, well there would be almost no alarming sounds or people to intimidate them?

In Southeast Asia, the Agamidae, holds Gliding Lizards that are arboreal, diurnal, prominent predators who signal another by puffing out their throats and expanding their chests to show their radiant colour patterns. As well, they jump from branch to branch for prey or to escape predation. When threatened, Green Crested Lizards leap from one tree to next, splay out their limbs, and expand their rib cages during flight.

Open surfaces are often the place where Draco, (black bearded) gilding lizards communicate with each other. When not flying, their heads are usually seen sitting head up on the trunks of the trees; their wings creatively folded to their bodies Most of their day is spent feeding on ants up and down trees, making for the majority of their diet. Once in a while, they’ll want to change outings and leap from the tree, extend their ribs to open their wings, and glide to the next tree. The degree and speed of the glide depends on a couple of aspects: the height of the lizard on the tree and the surface area of the wing comparative to the weight of the body.

Then, there is the Orange-haired gliding lizard a thick neck and heavy body; it has small wings however, but despites it pace, it moves relatively fast. To pick up enough speed, it commonly needs to fold down its wing for a period of time. Therefore, they are seen on the tallest trees where they can safely dive to gain momentum to glide. Their flight structure helps separate them ecologically, keeping them from direct opposition with one another for some of the rainforest's resources. In some areas of the forest, up to eight different species of Draco may appear together. Generally, they are closely related species with unique, restrictive life histories living in the same area, the potential for opposition is likely.

Geckos are another notable flying reptile. Their wings lack the elaborate thoracic (chest) mutation of Gliding Lizards and are composed mainly of a large flap of skin along their flanks. The flaps stay rolled across the belly until the lizard leaps off a tree the time they become inertly opened by air during the fall. Additionally, the body flaps are extended flaps along the sides of the head, neck, and tail; back sides of the hind limbs; and extensive webbing on the hands and feet. In flight, all of their wings are extended and splayed, creating the parachute effect. The Frilly Gecko, the smallest of them, travel from trees uniquely on the lowest part of the same tree to avoid predators. Geckos are cryptic species that are hidden during the day and active during the night, unlike the many arboreal agamids. In addition, their color patterns normally match the substrate where they stay allowing them to go ignored.

Then, the Flat-tailed Gecko (Cosymbotus platyuurus), a species strongly related to the Frilly Gecko, is another example of intermediacy. It similarly folds skin along the head, body, limbs, and tail as the Frilly Gecko but not nearly as developed. It lays these flaps out on the trunk of the tree to prevent the curving of the body from a shadow where it meets the trunk, to give away its location. These flaps inertly open up like other geckos do when the gecko jumps from one branch to another and this imparts even a small advantage by extending the length of the jump.

Because of their lack of limbs and other adjuncts, snakes are unlikely a group of vertebrates to develop. Although, in Peninsular Malaysia, there are three, closely related species of snakes with ability to glide for significant distances. These are the Tree Snakes (genus Chrysopelea). The flat, open body works like a parasail and its rolling movements in flight, similar to a spinning frisbee, prevents it from overturning. Before leaping, Tree Snakes hang the uncoiled forepart of their body off the branch in a "like a J". Next, by shaking the body upward in tandem reaching outward by rapidly smoothing its coils and releasing, they’ll hold on the branch, the snakes take flight. They also enlarge their rib cage as a defense device to expose brightly colored markings on their scales.