Habit, habitat, territory & niche of animals. Herbivores, carnivores; solitary, pack and herd.

1. Habit, habitat, territory & niche of animals.
Herbivores, carnivores; solitary, pack and herd.
- Anish Gawande
- Dr. Manisha Kayande

2. What is Habit ?
Habit is equivalent to habitus in some applications
in biology; the term refers variously to aspects of
behavior or structure, as follows:
In zoology (particularly in ethology), habit usually
refers to aspects of more or less predictable
behavior, instinctive or otherwise, though it also
has broader application. Habitus refers to the
characteristic form or morphology of a species.
In botany habit is the characteristic form in which
a given species of plant grows. Eating habit of Cat
Hunting habit of CheetahPouncing habit of Puma

3. What is Habitat ?
The habitat is the physical area where a species lives. Many factors are used to describe a habitat. The
average amount of sunlight received each day, the range of annual temperatures, and average yearly
rainfall can all describe a habitat. These and other abiotic factors will affect the kind of traits an organism
must have in order to survive there. The temperature, the amount of rainfall, the type of soil and other
abiotic factors all have a significant role in determining the plants that invade an area. The plants then
determine the animals that come to eat the plants, and so on. A habitat should not be confused with an
ecosystem: the habitat is the actual place of the ecosystem, whereas the ecosystem includes both the
biotic and abiotic factors in the habitat.

4. What is Territory ?
In ethology, territory is the sociographical area that an animal
of a particular species consistently defends against conspecifics
(or, occasionally, animals of other species). Animals that defend
territories in this way are referred to as territorial.
Territoriality is only shown by a minority of species. More
commonly, an individual or a group of animals has an area that
it habitually uses but does not necessarily defend; this is called
the home range. The home ranges of different groups of
animals often overlap, or in the overlap areas, the groups tend
to avoid each other rather than seeking to expel each other.
Within the home range there may be a core area that no other
individual group uses, but, again, this is as a result of
avoidance.
The ultimate function of animals inhabiting and defending a
territory is to increase the individual fitness or inclusive fitness
of the animals expressing the behavior. Fitness in this biological
sense relates to the ability of an animal to survive and raise
young. The proximate functions of territory defense vary. For
some animals, the reason for such protective behavior is to
acquire and protect food sources, nesting sites, mating areas,
or to attract a mate.
Wolf marking its territory by
pissing on the tree
Tiger marking his territory by
scratching on the tree

5. What is Niche ?
Each organism plays a particular role in its ecosystem. A niche
is the role a species plays in the ecosystem. In other words, a
niche is how an organism “makes a living.” A niche will
include the organism's role in the flow of energy through the
ecosystem. This involves how the organism gets its energy,
which usually has to do with what an organism eats, and how
the organism passes that energy through the ecosystem,
which has to do with what eats the organism. An organism's
niche also includes how the organism interacts with other
organisms, and its role in recycling nutrients.

6. Herbivores, Carnivores & Omnivores.

7. Herbivores
A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example
foliage, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically
have mouthparts adapted to rasping or grinding. Horses and other herbivores have wide flat teeth that
are adapted to grinding grass, tree bark, and other tough plant material.
A large percentage of herbivores have mutualistic gut flora that help them digest plant matter, which is
more difficult to digest than animal prey. This flora is made up of cellulose-digesting protozoans or
bacteria.

8. Herbivores
Food chain
Herbivores form an important link in the
food chain; because they consume
plants in order to digest the
carbohydrates photosynthetically
produced by a plant. Carnivores in turn
consume herbivores for the same
reason, while omnivores can obtain
their nutrients from either plants or
animals. Due to a herbivore's ability to
survive solely on tough and fibrous plant
matter, they are termed the primary
consumers in the food cycle (chain).
Herbivory, carnivory, and omnivory can
be regarded as special cases of
Consumer-Resource Systems.

9. Carnivores
A carnivore (Latin, caro, genitive carnis, meaning "meat" or "flesh"
and vorare meaning "to devour"), is an organism that derives its
energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or
exclusively of animal tissue, whether through predation or
scavenging. Animals that depend solely on animal flesh for their
nutrient requirements are called obligate carnivores while those that
also consume non-animal food are called facultative carnivores.
Omnivores also consume both animal and non-animal food, and,
apart from the more general definition, there is no clearly defined
ratio of plant to animal material that would distinguish a facultative
carnivore from an omnivore. A carnivore that sits at the top of the
food chain is termed an apex predator.
The word "carnivore" sometimes refers to the mammalian order
Carnivora, but this is somewhat misleading. While many Carnivora
meet the definition of being meat eaters, not all do, and even fewer
are true obligate carnivores (see below). For example, most species
of bears are actually omnivorous, except for the giant panda, which is
almost exclusively herbivorous, and the exclusively meat-eating polar
bear, which lives in the Arctic, where few plants grow. In addition,
there are plenty of carnivorous species that are not members of
Carnivora.

10. Carnivores
Obligate carnivores
Obligate carnivores, or "true" carnivores, are those carnivores whose survival depends on nutrients
which are found only in animal flesh. While obligate carnivores might be able to ingest small amounts of
plant material, because of their evolution they lack the necessary physiology required to digest that
plant matter. In fact, some obligate carnivorous mammals will only ever ingest vegetation for its specific
use as an emetic to self-induce vomiting to rid itself of food that has upset its stomach. An example is
the Axolotl, which consumes mainly worms and larvae in its environment, but if necessary will consume
algae.
For instance, felids including the domestic cat are obligate carnivores requiring a diet of primarily animal
flesh and organs. Specifically, cats have high protein requirements and their metabolisms appear unable
to synthesize certain essential nutrients (including retinol, arginine, taurine, and arachidonic acid), and
thus, in nature, they can rely only on animal flesh as their diet to supply these nutrients.

11. Carnivores
Characteristics of carnivores
Characteristics commonly associated with carnivores include organs for capturing and disarticulating
prey (teeth and claws serve these functions in many vertebrates) and status as a predator. In truth, these
assumptions may be misleading, as some carnivores do not hunt and are scavengers (though most
hunting carnivores will scavenge when the opportunity exists). Thus they do not have the characteristics
associated with hunting carnivores. Carnivores have comparatively short digestive systems, as they are
not required to break down tough cellulose found in plants. Many animals that hunt other animals have
evolved eyes that face forward, thus making depth perception possible. This is almost universal among
mammalian predators. Other predators, like crocodiles, as well as most reptiles and amphibians, have
sideways facing eyes.

12. Solitary animal
Solitary animals are those that spend a majority of their lives without others of their species, with
possible exceptions for mating and raising their young. The antonym to a solitary animal is a social
animal.

13. Solitary animal
 Territorial
Animals that are solitary are often territorial and do not like the
company of another animal in their territory and especially an
animal of their own kind. This could be due to competition
between rivals for the opportunity to mate or over territory. In
some species these fights can end in the death of one or both
animals.
 Exceptions
The few times a solitary animal is with another of its kind is when it
is caring for its offspring or when it is ready to mate. Nevertheless,
when an offspring becomes independent the youngster will either
leave on its own or be rejected by its parent. This trait could be
because the parent no longer tolerates the presence of another of
its kind or it is ready to mate again and cannot care for both its first
offspring and a newborn. During a time of mating, a solitary animal
tries to find a mate, and once the act is completed, the animal may
repeat the mating process several times and then resume its
solitary lifestyle.
 Reasons
Solitary animals live alone to avoid competition against other
members of their own species.

14. Examples of solitary animals
Jaguars
Tigers
Leopards, snow leopards and clouded leopards
Pumas
Lynxs and Bobcats
Ocelots
Wildcats
Bears
Giant and red pandas
Moose
Rhinoceroses (except white rhinoceros)
Aardvarks
Badgers
Foxes
Koalas
Tasmanian devils
Platypuses
Sea turtles
Leopard geckos
Owls

15. Pack is a social group of conspecific canids. Not all species of canids form packs; for example,
small canids like the red fox do not. Pack size and social behaviour within packs varies across
species.

16. Pack behavior in specific species
African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) live and hunt in packs. Males assist in raising the pups, and remain
with their pack for life, while the females leave their birth pack at about the age of two and a half years
old to join a pack with no females. Males outnumber the females in a pack, and usually only one female
breeds with all of the males. African wild dogs are not territorial, and they hunt cooperatively in their
packs, running down large game and tearing it apart. They cooperate in caring for wounded and sick
pack members as well as the young.

17. Pack behavior in specific species
Black-backed jackals (Canis mesomelas) in Africa and coyotes (Canis latrans) which are only found in
North America have a single long term mate, but they usually either hunt singly or as a pair. Both
parents care for the young, and the parents and their current offspring are the pack. They occasionally
cooperate in larger packs to hunt large game.

18. Pack behavior in specific species
Gray wolves (Canis lupus) usually live in packs which consist of the adult parents and their offspring of
perhaps the last 2 or 3 years. The adult parents are usually unrelated and other unrelated wolves may
sometimes join the pack. Wolves usually hunt in packs, but they hunt singly in the spring and summer
when there is plenty of prey available. They are found in both Eurasia and North America.

19. Pack behavior in specific species
The Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis) has different social behavior from the gray wolf: pack members hunt
alone for rodents, and come together mainly to defend their territory from other packs.

20. Pack behavior in specific species
Domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris): Domesticated dogs have had humans as part of dog social
structure for at least 12,000 years, and human behaviour is not the same as wolf behaviour. Studies of
dog behaviour include studies of dogs and their interactions with humans,[6] and "dumped" or "road"
dogs that were raised by humans and then left to fend for themselves.

21. Herd of animals
 A herd is a social grouping of certain animals of the same species, either wild or domestic. The form
of collective animal behavior associated with this is referred to as herding.
 The term herd is generally applied to mammals, and most particularly to the grazing ungulates that
classically display this behavior. Different terms are used for similar groupings in other species; in the
case of birds, for example, the word is flocking, but flock may also be used, in certain instances, for
mammals, particularly sheep or goats. A group of quail is often referred to as a covey. Large groups
of carnivores are usually called packs, and in nature a herd is classically subject to predation from
pack hunters.
 Special collective nouns may be used for particular taxa (for example a flock of geese, if not in flight,
is sometimes called a gaggle) but for theoretical discussions of behavioral ecology, the generic term
herd can be used for all such kinds of assemblage.[citation needed]
 The word herd, as a noun, can also refer to one who controls, possesses and has care for such groups
of animals when they are domesticated. Examples of herds in this sense include shepherds (who
tend to sheep), goatherds (who tend to goats), cowherds (who tend cattle), and others.

22. Herd of animals
 The structure and size of herds
A herd is by definition relatively unstructured. However, there may be one or a few animals which tend
to be imitated by the rest of the members of the herd more than others. An animal taking this role is
called a "control animal", since its behaviour will predict that of the herd as a whole. It cannot be
assumed, however, that the control animal is deliberately taking a leadership role. Control animals are
not necessarily, or even usually, those that are socially dominant in conflict situations, though they
frequently are. Group size is an important characteristic of the social environment of gregarious species.

23. Herd of animals
 Domestic herds
Domestic animal herds are assembled by humans for practicality in raising them and controlling them.
Their behavior may be quite different from that of wild herds of the same or related species, since both
their composition (in terms of the distribution of age and sex within the herd) and their history (in terms
of when and how the individuals joined the herd) are likely to be very different.

24. Thank you….. !!