Bb

babbler n. Babblers are birds. There are more then 500 species of bablers. Most species are found in the forests of Africa, southern Asia and Australia but one lives in NorthAmerica. Babblers have short, rounded wings and strong legs and feet. They cannot fly very well so they spend most of their time on the ground. Babblers eat insects, berries and fruit, which they find by poking on the ground.

bacteria Bacteria are generally classified with blue-green algae in a separate kingdom, Monera. (Sometimes they are grouped together in the kingdom Prokaryota.) Bacteria and blue-green algae are distinguished from other living things because of their cell structure: their cells have no distinct nucleus that is, the nuclear matter is not enclosed by a membrane, or wall and they lack most of the internal structures found in the cells of higher organisms.

badger n. Badgers are rather small, short and stocky mammals, with pointed snouts, short but muscular legs (with long claws on the front feet) and short tails. They are nocturanal and live in burrows. Badgers are carnivorous and eat rodents and insects.

baleen n. A horny substance, commonly known as whalebone, that grows as plates from the upper jaws of certain whales, and forms a fringelike filter for extracting plankton such as krill from seawater.

bamboo . It is a tall treelike grass. There are more than 350 species. Most grow in Asia and on islands of the Indian and Pacific oceans. Although bamboo is a tropical plant, it can be grown in temperate zones. A single root may produce as many as 100 stems. They are hollow, woody, and jointed. The stems are sometimes 3 feet (0.9 meter) around. Sprouts grow fast, at times 1 foot (0.3 meter) or more a day. They may grow to 30, 50, or even 130 feet (9 to 40 meters) in height. Near the top are many branches. Some species do not bloom for 60 years or more. Bamboo products range from food to houses. Oriental cookery features peeled sprouts as vegetables. They are also candied and pickled. Americans import canned bamboo shoots for chop suey. In the Far East, people use the hollow stems for water pipes and for building bridges and houses. Short sections serve as pails and cooking utensils. Split into strips, the stems make planks for walls, floors, and roofs. Thinner strips are woven into mats, chairs, cages, and curtains. Bamboo fishing rods are made of matched strips glued together. Split bamboo is also used for chopsticks and fan ribs. The inner parts of the stems of several species are made into quality papers. Bamboos belong to the family Gramineae (see Grasses). Only a few bamboos are native to the United States. The canebrake bamboo (Arundinaria gigantea) grows from Virginia to Florida and Louisiana and reaches about 15 feet (4.6 meters) in height. The switch cane (subspecies tecta of the canebrake bamboo) thrives from Maryland and Indiana southward to Texas. It rarely grows more than 12 feet (3.7 meters) tall. Bambusa arundinacea of India may grow to heights of more than 100 feet (30 meters).

banana The common edible bananas belong to the genus Musa of the banana family, Musaceae. Although generally regarded as a tree, this large tropical plant is really an herb. That means it does not have a woody trunk like a tree. The stalk is composed of leaf sheaths that overlap each other and grows from an underground stem called a rhizome.

When fully grown, the stalk may be from 1 to more than 12 inches (2.5 to 30 centimeters) thick, but so soft that it can easily be cut with a sharp knife. The banana plant grows from 10 to more than 20 feet (3 to 6 meters) high. It has from 10 to 20 leaves, each 9 to 12 feet (2.7 to 3.7 meters) long and as much as 2 feet (0.6 meter) wide.

The fruit, which grows in hanging clusters, is generally yellow when ripe. Each plant produces a single bunch of fruit. The bananas grow in clusters called hands. Each hand has from ten to 20 fingers, or bananas, each 5 to 8 inches (13 to 20 centimeters) long. There are six to more than nine hands to a bunch.

bat n. Bats are mammals. There are more then 900 species of bat. They live in all parts of the world except the polar region. Bats are the only true flying mammals. They have a flap of skin between their fingers and back legs on each side. These wings help the bat to fly. Bats usually live and hibernate in dark, sheltered places, such as caves and buildings. They are nocturnal. Most bats are insectivores. Some bats do not have a good sense of smell or sight and find their food by echo-location.

bee Bees are flying insects that are related to wasps, hornets, and ants. Most bees have short, thick bodies covered with hair and, like all insects, six legs and three body parts: head, thorax, and abdomen. The thorax in turn has three segments, each with a pair of legs. A tiny waist connects the thorax and abdomen. Ordinarily, most bees fly about 12 1/2 miles (20 kilometers) per hour, but they can fly much faster. They have two pairs of wings. One pair is attached to each of the last two segments of the thorax, but front and back wings are joined so that they may look like only one. The rapid movements of the wings make a humming sound in flight.

bekko n. Bekko is a Japanese word for the shell of the hawksbill, a turtle that is particularly prized for its ornate shell. Hawksbills have been turned into everything from cabinets to door posts, hand mirrors, and cribbage sets. There seems no end to the uses humans make of these animals

benthic n. Benthic comes from the Greek word benthos, meaning depth, and is an adjective describing things related to the bottom of the sea or a lake. It refers to an animal that lives on or near the bottom of a body of water. Also an aquatic biome consisting of the ocean bottom below the pelagic and coastal zones. Bottom habitats in the very deepest oceans (below 9000 m) are sometimes referred to as the "abyssal zone."

benign introduction An attempt to establish a species, for the purpose of conservation, outside its recorded distribution, but within an appropriate habitat and eco-geographical area.

berry Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, mulberries, and similar small fruits that grow on a bush or small tree fit the popular notion of berries. To a botanist, however, these are not true berries. They are classified scientifically as either aggregate fruits or multiple fruits.

biomass A measure of the abundance of an animal in term of the mass ("weight") of the animals, stated as either the total mass of the animals in a given location or per unit area.

biome A major habitat category, based on distinct plant assemblages which depend on particular temperature and rainfall patterns. E.g. tundra, temperate forest and rainforest, etc. The biomes we use are described in: Campbell, N. A. 1993. Biology. 3rd Edition. Benjamin/Cummings Publ. Co., and Raven, P. H., and G. B. Johnson. 1992. Biology. 3rd Edition. Mosby-Year Book, Inc.

bipedal Referring to animal that walks on two legs.

bird n. any warm blooded, egg-laying vertebrate of the class Aves, having feathers, forelimbs modified into wings, scaley legs and a beak.

blowhole n. The opening of the nostril(s) of a whale, located on the top of it's head, through which the whale breathes and from which the "spout" is produced.

blubber n. A layer of fat beneath the skin.

botany Plants are found throughout the world, on land, in water, and even floating in the air. They are extremely important organisms, essential to the continuation of all life on Earth. Because of both their crucial role and their own interesting variations, plants are the subjects of the science of botany. Botany is the study of not only the so-called vascular plants, such as garden flowers, vines, shrubs, and trees, but also of bacteria, algae, fungi, mosses, and ferns. The basic goals of botany are to explain how plants are structured, why they function the way they do, and what the evolutionary relationships are between them. There are many special subdivisions of botany concerned with the many aspects of plant structure, function, origin, and evolution as well as with specific groups of plants.

bovid n. A member of the artiodactyl family of cow-like animals.

breaching Leaping from the water surface (usually by whales).

brindled adj. Having inconspicuous dark streaks or flecks on a gray or tawny background.

bromeliad One of a family of American epiphytic herbaceous plants including the pineapple and Spanish moss.

browser n. A herbivore that feeds on shoots and leaves of trees and/or shrubs, as opposed to grasses (compare "grazer").

butterfly belong to a group of insects that make up the order Lepidoptera, meaning "scale wings." They are so named because their wings and certain portions of their bodies are covered with a fine dust. Under a microscope the dust is seen to be made up of millions of finely ridged scales that are arranged in overlapping rows. Each scale has a tiny "stem" that fits into a cuplike socket. The beautiful colors and markings of the insect are due to the scales, which come in a remarkable variety of colors. Butterfly antennae are slender and the ends are rounded into little clubs or knobs. Most butterflies fly and feed during the daytime. Butterflies rest with their wings held upright over their backs.

by-catch n. By-catch is the undesired extra catch taken when trawling. According to the Earth Island Institute's video TEDs: turtle excluder devices, a shrimp trawler without a TED takes 10 pounds of unwanted (and hence, discarded) catch for each pound of shrimp.

BE AWARE. BE CONCERNED. SAVE THE ANIMALS. SAVE US. SAVE THE EARTH.

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