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Sandiego - Zoo glossary Category: Animals and Nature > Animal Glossary Date & country: 27/09/2013, USA Words: 320

Endotherm
A warm-blooded animal; that is, an animal that maintains its body temperature at a relatively constant level regardless of the temperature of the environment.

Enrichment
Enrichment is an important part of animal care. It is made up of the many ways in which keepers provide zoo animals with opportunities to do something with their time, giving the animal mental stimulation and physical exercise. Enrichment also gives animals choices and some control over their environment.

Environmental indicator species
An animal or plant that is monitored to determine the health of an entire ecosystem.

Erosion
Soil being washed away, usually by wind or water and after vegetation has been removed.

Estivation
A sleepy or dormant state caused by hot, dry, summer conditions.

Estrus (cycle)
The rhythmic changes in the mammalian female that enable her to become pregnant.

Ethogram
An exact catalog of all behavior patterns occurring in a species, including the vocal patterns.

Ethology
The science and study of animal behavior.

Evaporation
Liquid water turning into gas vapor.

Evolution
A very slow growth or change.

Ex situ
In captivity.

Exotic
Foreign to a particular place, from another part of the world; not indigenous.

Extinct/Extinction
No longer existing. For example, dinosaurs are extinct./The process of becoming extinct.

Extirpated
Refers to a species that is extinct in a certain area. For example, the elk was extirpated from Wisconsin in the late 1800s.

Facial disc
An area of very short feathers that radiate out from the eyes like the spokes of a wheel. This special feather arrangement helps send sound to the birds ears. All owls have a facial disc.

Fauna
All the animals in a particular place or period of time.

Feces
Waste matter discharged from the intestines. Also called excrement, scat, or droppings.

Feline
Any member of the cat family. House cats, tigers, and lynx are all felines.

Feral
Domestic animals that have escaped and reverted to a wild (untamed) state.

Flagship species
A species that is popular with humans that can be the focus for conservation efforts. The giant panda is an example of a flagship species for bamboo forest habitat.

Fledge/Fledgling
Verb: The time when a young bird's feathers have grown enough to help the bird take its first flight. Noun: A young bird that has just fledged.

Flight feathers
Feathers on a bird's tail or wings that help it to fly. Usually, flight feathers are longer and more rigid than contour feathers.

Flipper
A broad, flat limb that helps a marine mammal, such as a sea lion or dolphin, swim.

Flock
A group of birds or mammals. For example: a flock of sheep; a flock of ducks

Flora
All the plants in a particular place or period of time.

Floristic
Concerned with or relating to flowers.

Food chain
A model that shows how plants and animals are linked together because each one eats or is eaten by another.

Forage/Foraging
Food for animals, usually grasses or leaves, or to look for food; searching for food.

Forest floor
The ground layer of a rain forest.

Fossorial
Adapted for burrowing or digging.

Frugivore
Fruit-eater. The ring-tailed lemur is a frugivore.

Gene
A functional hereditary unit that occupies a fixed location on a chromosome and has a specific influence on heredity factors.

Genetic diversity
The total variety of hereditary characters found in a breeding population. Generally, the more unrelated animals in a breeding group, the greater will be the genetic diversity and the resulting viability of the herd as a whole.

Genetics
The study of heredity; how characteristics are passed from parents to offspring.

Genus
A taxonomic concept used to group a number of species believed to be more closely related to one another than to any others; ranked between family and species.

Gestation period
The length of time for carrying the young in the womb. For example, a human has a gestation period of 9 months, cats and dogs have a gestation period of 63 days.

Gill
A body part that helps an animal get oxygen from water. Fish and many types of salamanders, newts, and caecilians have gills.

Gizzard
An enlargement of the alimentary canal in birds that serves to grind the food before it reaches the stomach.

Global warming
An increase in the average temperature of the Earths atmosphere and oceans over time. This increase can cause changes in the Earths climate that can affect habitats and the plants and animals that live in them.

Granivore
An animal that eats grain or seeds.

Gravid
A pregnant animal.

Graze
To eat grasses and other ground-level plants.

Grooming
A behavior seen primarily among primates in which individuals use their fingers and sometimes their teeth to comb through the fur of another individual. Not only does this activity help to maintain healthy fur and skin, but also promotes friendly communication among individuals, soothes emotions, and helps to establish bonds within the group. Other animals like birds and cats groom themselves as well.

Groundwater
Water lying below the Earth's surface in springs and natural reservoirs.

Guard hairs
The longer, stiffer hairs that grow up through the shorter, usually woolly hairs of a mammal's coat.

Harem
A group of females under continual control of a single male.

Headstart
A process in which young animals are raised by humans in a safe environment until they are large enough to defend themselves successfully in the wild.

Herbivore
An animal that feeds only on plants (herbs, grasses, and vegetables).

Herpetology/Herpetologist
The study of reptiles and amphibians./One who studies reptile and amphibians.

Hibernate/hibernation
To sleep or be in a dormant state during the winter season. Hibernation is caused by cold, winter conditions.

Hierarchy
The rank of an animal within its group. For example, a wolf pack has a hierarchy with the strongest and cleverest wolves being the leaders, and the younger, inexperienced wolves having to follow along.

Holistic
The theory that whole entities are more than the sum of their parts.

Home range
The area over which an organism travels to obtain its food.

Horns
Growths on the head of an antelope, cow, sheep, or goat that are never shed.

Horticulture
The practice of growing and cultivating plants, especially in a garden, nursery, greenhouse, or botanical garden like the San Diego Zoo or San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park.

Host
In biology, a host organism is one that provides sustenance to one or more parasitic organisms.

Hotspot
An area of instability or potential danger. A conservation hotspot is a geographical location where plants and/or animals are in danger of becoming extinct.

Husbandry
The daily care of animals.

Immobilization
A procedure where a veterinarian uses special drugs to anesthetize an animal so a closer look can be taken in a medical exam.

Imperiled
A species that is at risk of dying out.

Imprinting
A rapid learning process that takes place early in the life of a social animal, usually in the bird family, and establishes a behavior pattern involving recognition of and attraction to identifiable attributes of its own kind or of a substitute.

In situ
In the natural, or wild, location.

Inbreeding
Reproduction by the mating of closely related individuals.

Incubate
The process of keeping eggs warm in order to hatch them.

Indigenous
Naturally occurring in a particular place (area or country).

Insectivore
An animal that eats insects. The tenrec is an insectivore.

Instinct
A way of acting or behaving that an animal is born with and does not have to learn. For example, birds build their nests by using their instinct.

Interpreter
A guide who shares interesting information about animals, plants, and more to a group of visitors.

Interpretive signs
Signs in zoos for visitors that help explain a plant, animal, or idea.

Introduced species
An animal that moves into a new area on its own, or with human help, and remains to live in the area.

Invertebrate
An animal that has no backbone. Insects, worms, and lobsters are invertebrates.

Juvenile
A young animal either still cared for by adults or able to care for itself, but not sexually mature or of adult size or status.

Keratin
A protein that hair, nails, skin, and horns are made of.

Knuckle walk
A way of walking some great apes use to get around. They curl up their fingers and using the knuckles of their hands as feet. Gorillas, orangutans, and chimpanzees often use this method to walk across the ground.

Landlocked
Having no direct access to the sea.

Larva/larvae
The immature, wingless, feeding stage of an insect that undergoes complete metamorphosis. Larvae is two or more larva.

Leaf eater biscuit
A biscuit fed to zoo animals that typically eat leaves as part of their diet. The biscuits contain soybean meal and hulls, cornmeal, corn, apple fiber, sugar beet pulp, flaxseed oil, and several vitamins and minerals. They come in two sizes: gorilla size and lemur size.

Lek
An area where males of one species gather to attract and breed with females of the same species. Can also be a group of males, such as a lek of hummingbirds, that band together to get the females' attention.

Life cycle
A series of stages in an organism's life including birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

Litter/littermate
Two or more young born to the same mother at the same time. This red river hog mother rests with her litter of piglets. Littermate is a sibling in the same litter.

Livestock
Animals that are kept or raised for a specific purpose. For example, a flock of sheep raised for their wool would be called livestock.

Longevity
The length of time something lives or lasts.

Mane
Long, heavy hair that grows around the neck and head of some mammals, such as horses and male lions.

Marine
Able to live in salt water, as ocean fish, whales or polar bears.

Marsupial
A type of mammal that develops in a pouch.

Matriarchal society
A group of animals that is controlled by a dominant female, such as elephants.

Melanistic
The black or dark color form of an organism.

Metamorphosis
The changes in shape and abilities that certain animals go through as they grow from young animals to adults. Caterpillars become butterflies through metamorphosis.

Migrate/migration
To move/the seasonal movement of animals from one place of residence to another.

Milk tooth
A temporary tooth of a mammal.

Mimic
A harmless and edible animal that is mistaken for an inedible, poisonous, or venomous animal due to its imitative color or pattern.

Molt
To shed portions of the skin, feather, or hair.

monogamous
Having just one mating partner and usually staying with that partner until death.

Monotreme
A type of mammal that lays eggs. The echidna and duck-billed platypus are the only two mammal species in the monotreme classification.

Montane
A geographic zone made up of moist, cool upland slopes below the timberline that has large evergreen trees as a dominant life form.

Mouse House
Below is the recipe for the Mouse House, which is made for the Children's Zoo in one of the San Diego Zoo's restaurants. (Warning: this recipe makes a BIG house!)

Native species
An animal that has always lived in a certain area and is naturally found there.

Natural resources
Materials found in nature that are used by people, such as sunshine, water, air, soil, minerals, forests, and wildlife.

Necking
The neck-swinging behavior seen between male giraffes, usually as part of dominance and courtship rituals.

Nectar
The sugary fluid produced by many flowers and ingested by many insects, some birds, and a few mammals.