Disaster Accident Reference Libraries
The Pilot fish (Naucrates ductor) is a carnivorous fish that is a horse mackerel and belongs to the Carangidae family of fishes. It is widely distributed and lives in warm or tropical open seas. The Pilot fish is known for following large vessels and sharks, where it feeds on parasites and leftovers. Its relationship with sharks has been described as nearly symbiotic: it is extremely rare...
The New Zealand Sea Lion or Hooker's Sea Lion (Phocarctos hookeri) is a species of sea lion that breeds around the coast of New Zealand's South Island and Stewart Island/Rakiura to some extent. They are also found around New Zealand's sub-antarctic islands, especially the Auckland Islands. As one of the larger New Zealand animals, it has been a protected species since the 1890s. There was...
Xantus's Murrelet (Synthliboramphus hypoleucus) is a small auk found in the California Current system in the Pacific Ocean. This small seabird breeds on islands off California and Mexico. The species is named for the Hungarian ornithologist John Xantus de Vesey, who described it from specimens collected off Baja California. It is threatened by predators introduced to its breeding colonies and...
The Kittlitz's Murrelet (Brachyramphus brevirostris) is a small auk found in the waters off Alaska and Eastern Siberia. This critically endangered species is, like the closely related Marbled Murrelet, is not colonial. Instead it chooses to nest in isolated locations on mountain tops, where the nests were known to Native Americans for many years before skeptical ornithologists described and...
The Little Auk, or Dovekie (Alle alle) is a small auk, and the only member of the genus Alle. It breeds on islands in the high Arctic. There are two subspecies: A. a. alle which breeds in Greenland, Iceland, Novaya Zemlya and Spitzbergen, and A. a. polaris on Franz Josef Land. These birds can be found during times of breeding on coastal mountainsides, where they have huge colonies. They nest...
The Abyssinian Ground-hornbill Bucorvus abyssinicus (also known as Northern Ground-hornbill) is one of two species of ground-hornbill. The other is the Southern Ground-hornbill.
The Coral Trout (Plectropomus leopardus), also known as the leopard coral grouper or leopard coral trout, is a species of fish in the Serranidae family. It is found in American Samoa, Australia, Brunei, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Micronesia, New Caledonia, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Taiwan,...
The Harlequin Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus) is a small sea duck who takes its name from Arlecchino ("Harlequin" in French) a colorfully dressed character in Commedia dell'arte. The species name comes from the Latin word "histrio" or "actor". Adult males are slate blue with chestnut sides and white markings including a white crescent at the base of the bill. Adult females are less...
The longear sunfish (Lepomis megalotis) is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family (family Centrarchidae) of order Perciformes. Native to the an area of eastern North America stretching from the Great Lakes down to northeastern Mexico, this species prefers densely vegetated, shallow waters in lakes, ponds, and sluggish streams.. The longear sunfish reaches a maximum recorded...
Cinnabar (German Zinnober), sometimes written cinnabarite, is a name applied to red mercury(II) sulfide (HgS), or native vermilion, the common ore of mercury. The name comes from the Greek, used by Theophrastus, and was probably applied to several distinct substances. Other sources say the word comes from the Persian zinjifrah, originally meaning "lost". Cinnabar was mined by the Roman...
