Whale Shark

 Whale Shark:  The whale shark, (Rhincodon typus), is a slow-moving filter feeding shark and the largest extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of 12.65 metres (41.50 ft) and a weight of more than 21.5 tonnes (47,000 lb), and there are unconfirmed reports of considerably larger whale sharks. Claims of individuals over 14 metres (46 ft) long and weighing at least 30 tonnes (66,000 lb) are not uncommon. The whale shark holds many records for sheer size in the animal kingdom, most notably being by far the largest living non-mammalian vertebrate, rivaling many of the largest dinosaurs in weight. It is the sole member of the genus Rhincodon and the family, Rhincodontidae, which belongs to the subclass Elasmobranchii in the class Chondrichthyes. The species originated approximately 60 million years ago.

The whale shark is found in tropical and warm oceans and lives in the open sea with a lifespan of about 70 years. Although whale sharks have very large mouths, as filter feeders they feed mainly, though not exclusively, on plankton, which are microscopic plants and animals. However, the BBC program Planet Earth filmed a whale shark feeding on a school of small fish. The same documentary showed footage of a whale shark timing its arrival to coincide with the mass spawning of fish shoals and feeding on the resultant clouds of eggs and sperm. The name "whale shark" comes from the fish's physiology, being as large as many whales and also a filter feeder like many whale species.

 Whale Shark

 Whale Shark

 Whale Shark

 Whale Shark

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White Faced Capuchin

 White Faced Capuchin:  The white-headed capuchin (Cebus capucinus), also known as the white-faced capuchin or white-throated capuchin, is a medium-sized New World monkey of the family Cebidae, subfamily Cebinae. Native to the forests of Central America and the extreme north-western portion of South America, the white-headed capuchin is important to rainforest ecology for its role in dispersing seeds and pollen. Among the best known monkeys, the white-headed capuchin is recognized as the typical companion to the organ grinder. In recent years the species has become popular in North American media. It is a highly intelligent monkey and has been trained to assist paraplegic persons. It is a medium-sized monkey, weighing up to 3.9 kg (8.6 lb). 

It is mostly black, but with a pink face and white on much of the front part of the body, giving it its common name. It has a distinctive prehensile tail that is often carried coiled up and is used to help support the monkey when it is feeding beneath a branch. In the wild, the white-headed capuchin is versatile, living in many different types of forest, and eating many different types of food, including fruit, other plant material, invertebrates, and small vertebrates. It lives in troops that can exceed 20 animals and include both males and females. It is noted for its tool use, including rubbing plants over its fur in an apparent use of herbal medicine, and also using tools as weapons and for getting to food. It is a long-lived monkey, with a maximum recorded age of over 54 years.

 White Faced Capuchin

 White Faced Capuchin

 White Faced Capuchin

 White Faced Capuchin

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White Rhinoceros

White Rhinoceros:  The white rhinoceros or square-lipped rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) is one of the five species of rhinoceros that still exist. It has a wide mouth used for grazing and is the most social of all rhino species. The white rhino consists of two subspecies: the southern white rhino, with an estimated 17,460 wild-living animals at the end of 2007 (IUCN 2008), and the much rarer northern white rhino. A popular theory of the origins of the name "white rhinoceros" is a mistranslation from Dutch to English. The English word "white" is said to have been derived by mistranslation of the Dutch word "wijd", which means "wide" in English. The word "wide" refers to the width of the rhinoceros' mouth. 

 The white rhinoceros of today was said to be likely descended from Ceratotherium praecox which lived around 7 million years ago. Remains of this white rhino have been found at Langebaanweg near Cape Town. A review of fossil rhinos in Africa by Denis Geraads has however suggested that the species from Langebaanweg is of the genus Ceratotherium, but not Ceratotherium praecox as the type specimen of Ceratotherium praecox should, in fact, be Diceros praecox, as it shows closer affinities with the black rhinoceros Diceros bicornis. It has been suggested that the modern white rhino has a longer skull than Ceratotherium praecox to facilitate consumption of shorter grasses which resulted from the long term trend to drier conditions in Africa.

 White Rhinoceros

 White Rhinoceros

 White Rhinoceros

 White Rhinoceros

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White Tiger

 White Tiger:  The white tiger is a recessive mutant of the Bengal tiger, which was reported in the wild from time to time in Assam, Bengal, Bihar and especially from the former State of Rewa.Compared to normal colored tigers without the white gene, white tigers tend to be somewhat bigger than original tigers, both at birth and as fully grown big adults. Kailash Sankhala, the director of the New Delhi Zoo in the 1960s, said "one of the functions of the white gene may have been to keep a size gene in the population, in case it's ever needed."Dark-striped white individuals are well-documented in the Bengal Tiger subspecies, also known as the Royal Bengal or Indian tiger (Panthera tigris tigris or P. t. bengalensis).

Currently, several hundred white tigers are in captivity worldwide, with about one hundred being found in India. Nevertheless, their population is on the increase. The modern white tiger population includes both pure Bengals and hybrid Bengal–Siberians, however, it is unclear whether the recessive white gene came only from Bengals, or if it also originated from Siberian ancestors. The unusual white coloration of white tigers has made them popular in zoos and entertainment showcasing exotic animals. German-American magicians Siegfried & Roy became famous for breeding and training two white tigers for their performances, referring to them as "royal white tigers", the white tiger's association with the Maharaja of Rewa.

 White Tiger

 White Tiger

 White Tiger

White Tiger

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Wildebeest

 Wildebeest:  The wildebeest (plural wildebeest or wildebeests), also called the gnu is an antelope of the genus Connochaetes. It is a hooved (ungulate) mammal. Wildebeest is Dutch for "wild beast" or "wild cattle" in Afrikaans (beest = cattle), while Connochaetes derives from the Greek words konnos ("beard") and khaite ("flowing hair"). The name "gnu" originates from the Khoikhoi name for these animals, "gnou". Gnus belong to the family Bovidae, which includes antelopes, cattle, goats, and other even-toed horned ungulates. Connochaetes includes two species, both native to Africa: the black wildebeest, or white-tailed gnu (C. gnou), and the blue wildebeest, or brindled gnu (C. taurinus). Fossil records suggest that these two species diverged about one million years ago resulting in a northern and a southern species.

 The blue wildebeest changed very little from the ancestor species, while the black wildebeest took on more morphological changes to adapt to a habitat of open grassland in the south. Today there are five subspecies of the blue wildebeest while the black wildebeest has no living subspecies. A full grown wildebeest can be 4 ft 2 in (1.27 m) to 4 ft 10 in (1.47 m) at the shoulder and weigh 265–600 lb (120–270 kg). They inhabit the plains and open woodlands of Africa, especially the Serengeti National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Tanzania, Masai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya and Liuwa Plain National Park in Zambia. Wildebeest can live more than 40 years, though their average lifespan is around 20 years. The wildebeest have a broad muzzle shaped like a lawnmower which helps it with eating short grass.

   Wildebeest

   Wildebeest

   Wildebeest

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Wolf

 Wolf:  The gray wolf (Canis lupus) is a species of canid native to the wilderness and remote areas of North America, Eurasia, and North Africa. It is the largest member of its family, with males averaging 95–100 lbs, and females 80–85 lbs. It is similar in general appearance and proportions to a German shepherd, or sled dog, but has a larger head, narrower chest, longer legs, straighter tail and bigger paws. Its winter fur is long and bushy, and is usually mottled gray in color, though it can range from nearly pure white, red, or brown to black. The species originated during the middle Pleistocene period, probably in the Indian subcontinent.

 Within the genus Canis, the gray wolf represents a more specialised and progressive form than its smaller cousins (the coyote and golden jackal), as demonstrated by its morphological adaptations to hunting large prey, its more gregarious nature and its highly advanced expressive behavior. It is a social animal, travelling in nuclear families consisting of a mated pair, accompanied by the pair's adult offspring. The gray wolf is typically an apex predator throughout its range, with only humans and tigers posing a serious threat to it. It feeds primarily on large ungulates, though it will also eat smaller animals, livestock, carrion, and garbage.

 Wolf

 Wolf

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Wolverine

  Wolverine:  The wolverine, also referred to as glutton, carcajou, skunk bear, or quickhatch, is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae (weasels). It is a stocky and muscular carnivore, more closely resembling a small bear than other mustelids. The wolverine has a reputation for ferocity and strength out of proportion to its size, with the documented ability to kill prey many times its size. The wolverine can be found primarily in remote reaches of the Northern boreal forests and subarctic and alpine tundra of the Northern hemisphere, with the greatest numbers in northern Canada, the U.S. state of Alaska, the Nordic countries of Europe, and throughout western Russia and Siberia.

 Their populations have experienced a steady decline since the 19th century in the face of trapping, range reduction and habitat fragmentation, such that they are essentially absent in the southern end of their European range. It is, however, estimated that large populations remain in North America and northern Asia. Wolverines are solitary animals. Genetic evidence suggests that the wolverine is most closely related to the tayra and martens (scientific names Eira and Martes respectively), all of which shared a Eurasian ancestor. Within the Gulo genus, there is a clear separation between two subspecies: the Old World form Gulo gulo gulo and the New World form G. g. luscus.

   Wolverine

   Wolverine

   Wolverine

  Wolverine

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Wombat

 Wombat:  Wombats are short-legged, muscular quadrupedal marsupials, native to Australia, approximately 1 metre (40 in) in length with a short, stubby tail. They are adaptable in habitat tolerance, and are found in forested, mountainous, and heathland areas of south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania, as well as an isolated patch of about 300 hectares (740 acres) in Epping Forest National Park in central Queensland.Wombats dig extensive burrow systems with rodent-like front teeth and powerful claws. One distinctive adaptation of wombats is their backwards pouch. The advantage of a backwards-facing pouch is that when digging, the wombat does not gather dirt in its pouch over its young.

Wombats are herbivores; their diet consists mostly of grasses, sedges, herbs, bark and roots. Their incisor teeth somewhat resemble those of the placental rodents (rats, mice, etc.), being adapted for gnawing tough vegetation. Like many other herbivorous mammals, they have a large diastema between the incisors and the cheek teeth, which are relatively simple. The dental formula of wombats is Upper: 1.0.1.4, lower: 1.0.1.4. Wombats' fur colour can vary from a sandy colour to brown, or from grey to black. All three known extant species of wombats average around a metre in length and weigh between 20 and 35 kg (44 and 77 lb).

  Wombat

  Wombat

  Wombat

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Woodlouse

 Woodlouse:  A woodlouse is a crustacean with a rigid, segmented, long exoskeleton and fourteen jointed limbs. Woodlice form the suborder Oniscidea within the order Isopoda, with over 3,000 known species. Woodlice in the genus Armadillidium can roll up into an almost perfect sphere as a defensive mechanism, hence some of the common names such as pill bug or roly-poly. The woodlouse has a shell-like exoskeleton, which it must progressively shed as it grows. The moult takes place in two stages; the back half is lost first, followed two or three days later by the front. This method of moulting is different from that of most arthropods, which shed their cuticle in a single process.

 Metabolic rate is temperature-dependent in woodlice. In contrast to mammals and birds, invertebrates are not "self heating": the external environmental temperature relates directly to their rate of respiration. A female woodlouse will keep fertilised eggs in a marsupium on the underside of her body until they hatch into small, white offspring. The mother then appears to "give birth" to her offspring. Females are also capable of reproducing asexually. Despite being crustaceans like lobsters or crabs, woodlouse are said to have an unpleasant taste similar to "strong urine."

  Woodlouse

  Woodlouse

  Woodlouse

 Woodlouse

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Woodpecker

 Woodpecker:  The woodpeckers, piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers are a family, Picidae, of near-passerine birds. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia and New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions. Most species live in forests or woodland habitats, although a few species are known to live in treeless areas such as rocky hillsides and deserts. The Picidae are just one of the eight living families in the order Piciformes. Members of the order Piciformes, such as the jacamars, puffbirds, barbets, toucans, and honeyguides, have traditionally been thought to be very closely related to the woodpeckers, piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. More recently, DNA sequence analyses have confirmed this view.

There are about 200 species and about 30 genera in this family. Many species are threatened or endangered due to loss of habitat or habitat fragmentation. Two species of woodpeckers, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and the Imperial Woodpecker, have been considered extinct for about 30 years (there has been some controversy recently whether these species still exist). The smallest woodpecker is the Bar-breasted Piculet, at 7 g and 8 cm (3¼ inches). The largest woodpecker was the Imperial Woodpecker, at an average of 58 cm (23 inches) and probably over 600 g (1.3 lb). The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is (or was) slightly smaller at 50 cm (20 inches) and a weight of 500 g (1.1 lb).

  Woodpecker

  Woodpecker

  Woodpecker

  Woodpecker

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Woolly Mammoth

  Woolly Mammoth:  The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), also called the tundra mammoth, was a species of mammoth. This animal is known from bones and frozen carcasses from northern North America and northern Eurasia with the best preserved carcasses in Siberia. They are perhaps the most well known species of mammoth. This mammoth species was first recorded in (possibly 150,000 years old) deposits of the second last glaciation in Eurasia. It was derived from the steppe mammoth (Mammuthus trogonotherii).It disappeared from most of its range at the end of the Pleistocene (10,000 years ago), with an isolated population still living on Wrangel Island until roughly 1700 BC.

Woolly mammoths are common in the fossil record. Unlike most other prehistoric animals, their remains are often not literally fossilised - that is, turned into stone - but rather are preserved in their organic state. This is due in part to the frozen climate of their habitats, and to their massive size. Woolly mammoths are therefore among the best-understood prehistoric vertebrates known to science in terms of anatomy. Woolly mammoths were not noticeably larger than present-day African elephants. Fully grown mammoth bulls reached heights between 2.7 m (9 ft) and 3.2 m (10 ft) while the dwarf varieties reached between 1.8 m (5.9 ft) and 2.0 m (6.6 ft).

  Woolly Mammoth

  Woolly Mammoth

  Woolly Mammoth

  Woolly Mammoth

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Wrasse

 Wrasse:  The wrasses are a family, Labridae, of marine fish, many of which are brightly colored. The family is large and diverse, with over 600 species in 82 genera, which are divided into nine subgroups or tribes. They are typically small fish, most of them less than 20 centimetres (7.9 in) long, although the largest, the Humphead wrasse, can measure up to 2.5 metres (8.2 ft). They are efficient carnivores, feeding on a wide range of small invertebrates. Many smaller wrasses follow the feeding trails of larger fish, picking up invertebrates disturbed by their passing.

The word "wrasse" comes via Cornish from the Welsh word gwrach meaning an old woman or hag. Wrasses inhabit the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, usually in shallow water habitats such as coral reefs and rocky shores where they live close to the substrate. Wrasses have protractile mouths, usually with separate jaw teeth that jut outwards. Many species can be readily recognized by their thick lips, the inside of which is sometimes curiously folded, a peculiarity which gave rise the German name of "lip-fishes". The dorsal fin has 8–21 spines and 6–21 soft rays, usually running most of the length of the back.

   Wrasse

   Wrasse

   Wrasse

  Wrasse

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Woolly Monkey

Woolly Monkey:  The woolly monkeys are the genus Lagothrix of New World monkeys, usually placed in the family Atelidae. The four species of woolly monkey all originate from the rainforests of South America. They have prehensile tails and live in relatively large social groups. One species of woolly monkey, the yellow-tailed woolly monkey, has recently been placed in the genus Oreonax.Woolly monkeys are found throughout the northern countries of South America (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru). They usually reside in high-elevation cloud forests, seasonally flooded rainforests and forests which are situated within Colombia's eastern plains region, although their ideal habitat is humid and mature tropical forests.

The species lives in social groups ranging from 10 to 45 individuals. Foraging groups, however, tend to consist of two to six individuals which branch out from the main group, which is probably intended to reduce food competition between individuals. Woolly monkey diets consist of fruit with an addition of leaves, seeds, flowers and invertebrates. Woolly monkeys have coat colour variations including dark brown, red-brown, gray and olive. Their back sides are usually lighter in color than their under-belly sides. They have black faces, and the palms of their hands are a deep pink color. Their tails are long and thick and a strong enough to support the animals' full body weight.

  Woolly Monkey

  Woolly Monkey

  Woolly Monkey

  Woolly Monkey

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