"Animals in thePhilippines" 
Crocodile
A juvenile Philippine crocodile, although the scalation on the neck is rather unusual. Normally, there are four post-occipital scales, and a group of four larger nuchal scales. Here, we see no obvious post-occipital scales, and the nuchal scales comprise two regular scales on the left but one larger one on the right. Variation in neck scalation (and indeed everywhere on the body) is normally quite common, which is why identification of species from scalation alone can be a little error-prone.
If the above sounds like bio-jibberish to you, don't worry about it! It will be far clearer if you compare the pattern of scales on the neck with the drawing of them. The post-occipitals are those slightly larger scales just behind the base of the skull, and the nuchals are the larger group of four scales a bit further down the neck.
Upper body of adult crocodile///Front half of juvenile
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In the waters of the Philippines there are more than 2000 different kinds of fish. Added to that figure, the country counts about 200 different kinds of reptiles and 25000 different insects. The smallest monkey and the biggest fish in the world, they both live in the Philippines! Spectacular is the colourful underwater-world. Every year many tourists come to the Philippines to one of the islands, where scuba diving brings them to this amazing underwater-world. The Philippines can show you what a typical tropical country can offer in species of animals. Of course, not all animals are rare or specific for the Philippines. That is for sure if you take the carabao, the cocks or the lizards.
Mga Tokó, as the people in de Visayas call the small lizards, are living in houses and other buildings in every tropical country. |
