Nature Watch

Animals are such agreeable friends-they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms, said George Eliot. Here’s a peek into some facts on the feathery and furry creatures of Allah.

The most famous feature of the species is its loud, boisterous “laugh”, a repeated “kook-kook-kook-ka-ka-ka.”


The Laughing Kookaburra is a thick-set bird with a large head, short neck, and medium length tail. The bill is long, broad, and somewhat flattened. The head is mostly white with a dark brown crown and a brown stripe through the eye. The breast is creamy white, the wings brown with blue mottling, the back brown and the tail with fine darker brown banding and white edges. Males sport a small patch of blue-green feathers in the center of the rump that is reduced or absent in the female. The eyes are dark brown. The Kookaburra, at 47 cm tall and 500 grams in weight, is one of the largest members of the kingfisher family. The most famous feature of the species is its loud, boisterous “laugh”, a repeated “kook-kook-kook-ka-ka-ka” call that rises and falls in volume as family members join in to form a raucous chorus. Often heard at dawn in the bush, this call has provided the Laughing Kookaburra with another one of its colourful nicknames, “the Bushman’s Clock.” The Laughing Kookaburra is native to eastern Australia, but over the past century it has been introduced and established in other parts of the continent and on off shore islands such as Tasmania. The Kookaburra is a member of the


sub-family Daceloninae, the forest or wood kingfishers. Kingfishers employ a “sit and wait” technique of hunting, surveying their surroundings from an advantageous perch, then swooping down to seize their prey. Small prey are killed directly by the crushing action of the bill. Larger prey, including snakes of up to 1 meter in length, may be whacked repeatedly against a branch. Prey items include large insects, lizards, snakes, amphibians, small mammals, birds and occasionally fish.

How do cats see in the dark? Domestic cats evolved to do much of their hunting at night. In a power failure, while you are still groping for candles, your cat might be strolling through the living room—without crashing into the coffee table.


In your eyes or your cat’s, the pupil reacts to changing light by changing size. The pupil gets bigger to let more light in, tinier in bright sunlight. Behind the pupil, a rubbery membrane called the lens focuses the light as it passes through. Continuing on through the eye’s inner chamber, the light strikes a screen called the retina. The retina’s nerve cells, called rods and cones, send signals to the brain through the optic nerve, and the brain registers an image.


The cat eye difference- Cats have a special layer of cells at the back of their retinas, called the tapetum lucidum (Latin for “bright carpet”). This shiny layer of cells, acting like a mirror, reflects light back to the retina’s cells.


So in near darkness, a cat’s eyes collect what light there is and give the retina a second chance to absorb every photon. And domestic cats are not the only ones with this light-enhancing device. Big cats like tigers and lions, woodland deer, all come equipped with the “bright carpet” feature.


When our human eyes are behaving normally, the pupils react to bright light by shrinking down to two tiny holes. Then, if we also begin to close our eyelids against the glare, we soon cut off all light from entering the shrunk-down pupils. But cat-eye pupils are vertical slits, which simply get narrower in bright light. The neat trick: Cats can lower or raise their eyelids to hide more or less of the slit, just like a window shade. This gives a cat more precise control than nearly any other animal over the amount of light entering his eyes. Scientists estimate that cats can see clearly in one-sixth the amount of light, we humans would need.

Myth: Squirrels are nothing more than bushy-tailed rats.

Fact: Although squirrels and rats are both rodents, they are nowhere near related. Above is just like saying that humans are tail-less lemurs.


Myth: Squirrels have no brain because they are always running into the street.

Fact: Squirrels are smart creatures which are often misunderstood. Squirrels often run into the street probably to try to confuse the drivers.


Myth: Squirrels have no right to invade people’s houses or gardens.

Fact: Squirrels have every right. They were here first.


There are over 200 different species of squirrels that live in a variety of habitats. There are three types: tree squirrels (with bushy tails), ground squirrels (with a non-bushy tail), and flying squirrels (who cannot really fly, but can glide up to 150 feet, using a flap of skin). Tree squirrels are the squirrels that are common in cities. Many ground squirrels hibernate during cold winters, sleeping in a nest until warm weather arrives. Squirrels can live up to 15 years. The biggest squirrel is the Indian Giant Squirrel. Baby squirrels are born in nests. Squirrels eat seeds, nuts, leaves, bulbs, roots, mushrooms, insects, worms, eggs, small birds, and other small animals. Ground squirrels have pouches in their cheeks in which they carry food to their burrow to store.

Residents in the South African city of Johannesburg reported seeing clouds of butterflies fluttering in their neighbourhoods in the recent days. The sight of the millions of tiny creatures covering the air in the suburbs of north and west of the city has become a talking point among the residents. Scientists have attributed the phenomenon to exceptionally wet summer weather and said the sight was an indication of a rise in the population of the Belenois aurota, commonly known as the ‘brown-veined white’ around the city. ‘Because of the good rains this season, the population has built up. Plants have grown well and caterpillars have had better survival rates this year,’ zoologist Graham Alexander stated in a Johannesburg-based newspaper. He added that the insects had been migrating since ‘time immemorial’ in Johannesburg. It was not known why they migrated or chose to head in a north-eastern direction. However, for many of the city’s long-standing residents, seeing such a large number of butterflies was a beautiful marvel of nature.

Allah promotes to higher positions the servants whom He loves for being the staunchest in faith and gives them a rich reward. “ And those foremost in faith will be the ones brought nearest to Allah.” (56: 10-11).


In this life, Allah chooses to arrange people and matters as He wishes and for a purpose known only to Him. “ We have apportioned to them their livelihood in the present life and raised some of them above others in rank, so that some of them may take others into their service and Your Lord’s mercy is better than all their hoarded treasures.” (43:32)