Bestiary 4

Index Pipistrello nano , Pipistrelle Bat, Pipistrellus pipistrellus

Ma Fanchao

espertilio maggiore, Greater Mouse eared Bat, Myotis myotis

Marco Lonardi

Pipistrello albolimbato, Kuhl’s Pipistrelle, Pipistrellus kuhlii

Marta Lorenzi

Pipistrello di Savi, Savi’s Pipistrelle, Hypsugo savii Serotino comune , Serotine, Eptesicus serotinus Serotino bicolore, Parti-coloured bat, Vespertilio murinus Arvicola campestre, Common Vole, Microtus arvalis Topo selvatico, Wood Mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus Ratto grigio, Brown Rat, Rattus norvegicus Ratto nero, Roof Rat, Rattus rattus Topolino domestico, House Mouse, Mus domesticus Volpe, Red Fox, Vulpes vulpes Cane, Dog, Canis lupus familiaris Gatto, Cat, Felis catus Nutria, Coypu, Myocastor coypus Rana verde, Edible frog, Pelophylax sinklepton esculenta

Pierre Mangematin Simone Marchetti Golnaz Nouri Anna Otlik Julia Palladino Gianmario Pandozzi Sofia Paoli Sara Parrinello Chiara Pellegrinelli Luis Pimentel Enrico Pinto Eirini Psarrou Qiu Xian

Raganella italiana, Italian tree frog, Hyla intermedia

Tommaso Raimondi

Rospo smeraldino, European green toad, Bufo viridis

Ginevra Rapisardi

Lucertola muraiola, Common wall lizard, Podarcis muralis Biacco, Green whip snake, Hierophis viridiflavus Natrice dal collare, Grass snake, Natrix natrix Tartaruga palustre americana, Pond Slider, Trachemys scripta Il Macaone, Old World Swallowtail, Papilio machaon Ape europea, Western honey bee, Apis mellifera Coccinella comune, Seven spot ladybird, Coccinella septempunctata Zanzara comune, Common house mosquito, Culex pipiens

Ilaria Rigodanzo Samantha Rodriguez Wioletta Sarara Marco Scritta Maria Sole Teberino Matilde Valagussa Wang Yani Xi Xiaoyang

Cavedano, European chub, Squalius cephalus

Yang Dan

Persiano reale, European perch, Perca fluviatilis

Yang Xin

Sfinge testa di morto, Death’s-head Haw, Acherontia atropos Mosca domestica, Housefly, Musca domestica

Yi Ruoletai Michele Zambetti

La formica faraone, Pharaoh ant, Monomorium pharaonis

Wilson Zarate

Lombrico terrestre, Worm, Lombricus terrestris

Mehdi Zayani

Barbo Italico o barbo padano, Italian barbel, Barbus plebejus Vairone occidentale, Western Vairone, Telestes souffia

Zhao Liying Laura Zura Puntaroni

Pipistrello nano – Pipistrelle Bat Pipistrellus pipistrellus Ma Fanchao

biological characteristics Pipistrello nano is a small bat, with the length of head and body between 36 and 51 mm, the length of the forearm between 28 and 34 mm, the tail length between 23 and 36 mm, foot length between 6 and 7 mm, the ear length between 9 and 13 mm, a wingspan up to 24 cm long and weighs up to 8 g.

The fur is short, dense and fluffy. The dorsal parts vary from light brown to color sand in the P.p.aladdinsubspecies, while the ventral parts are slightly lighter and sometimes with yellow tones.The basis of blackish hairs everywhere. The muzzle is wide, with two glandular masses on the sides. The eyes are small. The ears are triangular, well separated from each other, with the rounded end and with a small round lobe at the base of the rear edge. The tragus is short, with the rounded end and with a triangular projection above the base of the posterior margin. The wings are attached posteriorly at the base of the toes, which are small. The end of the long tail extends slightly beyond the broad uropatagio.

The calcar is long and has a small lobe.

Ma Fanchao

habitat The pipistrello nano is a generalist species , as well as with a large ecological plasticity. It uses very different foraging environments, including forest formations, farmland, wetlands and urban areas.

Flight has enabled bats to become one of the most widely distributed groups of mammals. Apart from the Arctic, the Antarctic and a few isolated oceanic islands, bats exist all over the world. Bats are found in almost every habitat available on Earth. Different species select different habitats during different seasons, ranging from sea sides to mountains and even deserts, but bat habitats have two basic requirements: roosts, where they spend the day or hibernate, and places for foraging. Most temperate species additionally need a relatively warm hibernation shelter. Bat roosts can be found in hollows, crevices, foliage, and even humanmade structures, and include “tents� the bats construct by biting leaves.

In Italy it is present in all regions, up to altitudes high in relation to human settlements. Based on recent observations is common and widespread species, presumably everywhere. The largest concentrations occur in suburban areas and in agricultural habitats. Were found breeding colonies throughout the region.

Ma Fanchao

temporality Most micro bats are nocturnal and are active at twilight.

A large portion of bats migrate hundreds of kilo metres to winter hibernation dens, while some pass into torpor in cold weather, rousing and feeding when warm weather allows for insects to be active. Others retreat to caves for winter and hibernate for six months.

Predatory activity begins at dusk, from 5 to 20 minutes after sunset, but can emerge even in broad daylight, especially at the end of winter, in spring and autumn. The flight is quick, agile and maintained at 2-10 metres above the ground, characterized by circular paths and beaten. It is a mainly sedentary species, however in some areas is able to make migratory movements up to 770 km.

Ma Fanchao

position of the species in the food cycle Insectivores make up 70% of bat species and locate their prey by means of echolocation especially chironomids, lepidoptera and caddis caught in flight on lakes, ponds and along forest margins, in gardens, in landfills, along roads and around the lampposts. Of the remainder, most feed on fruits. Only three species sustain themselves with blood. Bats in the food chain have a crucial role in the balance the populations of insects, including the most dangerous for man and for his activities.

However a very important role, particularly in tropical areas, is the pollination of many floral species, both wild economic interest or the dispersion of seeds.

There are many animals that they hunt bats, including snakes, nocturnal birds of prey, birds of prey, some sparrows, small carnivores like the genets, the domestic cats and not least the man. The bat Hawk, seems to be the only species of predator really specialized in hunting bats. Also some species of bats hunt other bats

Ma Fanchao

reproduction Bats take refuge inside Rocky crevices, caves, dense vegetation, cavities in trees, in buildings and in places more exposed as large trees stripped of leaves.

There are several mating systems. The forms that fall into hibernation are promiscuous, and generally some Pteropodidae family. Normally form large groups where individuals come together to specimens of opposite sex closer to them. In some sorts one or two males form and defend small harem of females. There are also primarily forms monogamous, where parents and their young live together in a family group.

Bat females give birth to one alf per year, with the exception of very few species. This is due especially to the fact that these animals have a life expectancy greater than other mammals of the same size.

Ma Fanchao

visions we have about the bat In Western culture, the bat is a symbol of evil, because they look ugly and nocturnal, so some people think that bat is the incarnation of the vampire.Thus someone suggested that vampire bats are living in evil animals.But then, there are borrowing its dark side to maintain justice and created superhero Batman.In western culture, the bat always has mystery.

In China,bat has the same pronunciation with happiness so in traditional Chinese culture,bat sometimes means happy and auspicious.

Ma Fanchao

how bat see us Sometimes in the eyes of bats human are not friendly.Like other animals, many bats are less and less nature, tends to be extinct. For the eradication of insects and wood protection agents and other agents put them in hibernation when the drug died, many misconceptions also large numbers of human hunting them. Some species inhabit hollow trees are felled away, the ruins were demolished or rebuilt too strict wire is seamless, it can not survive.

On the other hand,human have realized the importance of protecting bats and build some bat box to do studies.

Ma Fanchao

relation with other species Bat predation pressure effects in different aspects of nocturnal insects morphological, physiological and behavioral characteristics.In the long process of co-evolution, bat predation pressure exerted led nocturnal insect evolution of a series of features, some of which insects can hear bat echolocation signals and take flight, or otherwise avoid the bat, while the adaptive characteristics of insects also affecting the bat echolocation and foraging strategy.

Bat predation may affect insect’s body. If the insect body is too small, then it is for the most part it is not easy to bat echolocation to detect if the insect body is too large, is not easy to capture and process.

Ma Fanchao

Pipistrello di Savi, Savi’s Pipistrelle, Hypsugo savii Pierre Mangematin

Biology The savi’s pipistrelle is a widespread species of vesper bat found across North West Africa, the Mediteranean region and the Middle East. It mainly occurs in mountainous regions where it is found at altitudes of up to 2,500 metres but we can find them at lower heights and in urban areas.

The savi’s pipistrelle is one of the smallest bat’s species in Europe.

Like all bats, savi’s pipistrelle is a mammal specy who belongs to the Chiroptera’s order and more particularly to the Vesper’s familly.

Savi’s pipistrelle has a head and body length of between 44 and 51 mm, and a long queue of 3142mm. It has a wingspan of around 200-250cm.

It weights between 8 and 9g.

What makes the savi’s pipistrelle different than other bats is its ears, which are larger and more rounded.

The face, ears and wing membranes are black. The savi’s pipistrelle has a short fur on the upperside of the head and its body is dark brown and that on the underside is pale, with the chin, throat and chest contrasting sharply with the animal’s back.

The tail is rounded and is rather longer than is the case in other closely related species.

It may be confused with other bats species like common pipistrelle, Nathusius’s pipistrelle, Kuhl’s pipistrelle or Serotine. small lobe.

Pierre Mangematin

Biology Echolocation At night, to move and to hunt, savi’s pipistrelle uses, like most of the bats, an echolocation system. Bats send out sound waves using their mouth or nose.

When the sound hits an object an echo comes back.

The bat can identify an object by the sound of the echo. They can even tell the size, shape and texture of a tiny insect from its echo.

Echolocation calls are usually ultrasonic—ranging in frequency from 20 to 200 kilohertz (kHz), whereas human hearing normally tops out at around 20 kHz. This echolocation system is so effcient that some species of bats can fly at a speed of 50 km/h like the savi’s pipistrelle, who is one of the fastest bats.

Pierre Mangematin

Savi’s pipistrelle, Hypsugo savii Habitat Originally found in karst areas or mountain landscapes, the savi’s pipistrelle is an anthropophilic species, which enabled it to come closer to us.

Actually it is a species who adapted quite well to humans and urbanisation, it can be found in cities and urban areas.

Mainly in search of obsurity and calm, Savi’s pipistrelle can live everywhere, the least cavity, hole, tree, nest box may host it.

However the temperature must be between 22°C and 35°C. In urban areas we can see savi’s pipistrelle above street lights or underneath our roofs, it is also found near wooden areas and water sources, where LW ¿QGV LWV IRRG In summer, females live in colonies of 20 to 70 bats, but males live alone.

Savi’s pipistrelle changes its habitat depending on seasons : in winter, during the hibernation, Savi’s pipistrelle moves to adapt vital needs, and this time, males and females live together.

The hibernation location is not far from the summer one (never more than 20km) and often remains the same from one year to another.

Nevertheless this place has to respond to some criterias : the temperature must be colder and steady , and the place must be peaceful, so as to avoïd any kind of disturbance which can kill the bats, each waking being extremely important in term of energy consumption. Caves, underground vaults and deep rock cracks can answer to these needs.

Interpretation The representation of savi’s pipistrelle in its habitat is really simple and ironic : 7KH 6DYL¶V SLSLVWUHOOH LV UHSUHVHQWHG LQ DUWL¿FLDO spaces built and occupied by humans because we often think it only lives in caves or forests, but actually itPierre can often be found close to us, Mangematin inside our living spaces, in cities. That is why the drawing is an architectural one, we don’t expect bats to be there, but actually, they are.

This drawing represents the most ordinary urban or suburban context, it demonstrates that savi’s pipistrelle can be anywhere in our cities.

Savi’s pipistrelle, Hypsugo savii Temporality Day & Night In summer, during the day, Savi’s pipistrelle remains at rest in its roosting position so as to save energy.

About 20 minutes after sunset, and for the whole night, it goes out to hunt, often by small groups and within’ a 2km radius from home.

The savi’s pipistrelle is a nocturnal species.

Seasons Autumn is the mating period, before hibernation.

In winter, when there are no more insects to feed on, from the middle of November until March, savi’s pipistrelle changes its location to hibernate.

The hibernation consists in 4 to 6 months of deep sleep. During this period, the body’s temperature of savi’s pipistrelle goes from 40°C to around 6°C, and it’s heart rate, which can be up to 1100 KHDUWEHDWV PLQXWH ZKHQ LWœV À\LQJ IDOOV GRZQ WR heatbeats/minute.

When the spring comes, Savi’s pipistrelle must regain strenght. It progressivly goes back to its summer location, and, before summer begins, colonies are formed.

Interpretation The representation aims at showing the strong contrasts in pipistrelle’s way of life, depending on periods of the day and seasons.

The setting of the drawing is the same than the one for the habitat research, but comparing both drawings, it is clear that for the Savi’s pipistrelle, the night is a totally different period.

Pierre Mangematin

Savi’s pipistrelle, Hypsugo savii Food Cycle Bats feed on insects, and that is why it is necessary to reintroduce them in our cities. Some bats can eat up to 10 000 insects a day.

Some towns decided to launch programs so as to reintroduce bats quickly in urban areas, like Milan which set up ÂŤbat boxesÂť in the public parcs of the city.

Savi’s pipistrelle is one of the smallest species of bats, that lead it to eat small insects like mosquitos, PDLQO\ EXW DOVR EXWWHUÀLHV VWLQN EXJ ODFHZLQJV PLGJHV RU PD\ÀLHV Within a night it can eat up to 1000 mosquitos, which represents about half of its weight. ,W DOVR GULQNV E\ PDNLQJ UHSHDWHG ORZ ÀLJKWV RYHU water, raising its wings and scooping up water with its tongue.

On the other hand, savi’s pipistrelle doesn’t have many predators. Indeed, most of the bats species don’t have regular predators.

Sometimes, when they meet, Savi’s pipistrelle can be threatened by hawks, owls or martens for exemple, but it’s quite unsual and almost impossible within an urban area.

The main dangers for bats are men and cats.

Pierre Mangematin

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Savi’s pipistrelle, Hypsugo savii Reproduction The reproduction of savi’s pipistrelle is quite original : The mating period starts at the end of August and ¿QLVKHV D PRQWK ODWHU 'XULQJ WKLV SHULRG IHPDOHV OHDYH WKHLU FRORQLHV WR ¿QG PDOHV ZKR FDQ EH ORFDWHG E\ KLJK SLWFKHG VRXQGV WKH\ EURDGFDVW WR DWWUDFW WKHP (YHQ LI WKH FRXSOLQJ SHULRG HQGV WKH IHPDOHV GRQ¶W IHFXQGDWH LQ DXWXPQ ,QGHHG VR DV WR NHHS D PD[LPXP RI HQHUJ\ GXULQJ WKH KLEHUQDWLRQ SHULRG WKH\ NHHS WKH VSHUPDWR]RRQ DQG IHHG LW WKH ZKROH ZLQWHU 7KH RYXODWLRQ LV SRVWSRQHG WR 0D\ The gestation period starts in June and lasts EHWZHHQ DQG GD\V )LQDOO\ EHWZHHQ -XO\ DQG $XJXVW WKH IHPDOHV JLYH ELUWK WR D EDE\ VRPHWLPHV WZR 7KLV ORZ UDWHV IHFRQGLW\ FDQ EH H[SODLQHG E\ WKH IDFW WKDW EDWV GR QRW KDYH D ORW RI HQHPLHV 7KH ¿UVW ZHHNV WKH IHPDOHV KXQW DW QLJKW DQG FRPH EDFN WR IHHG WKHLU EDELHV ZKR DUH KLJKO\ YXOQHUDEOH WR GLVWXUEDQFH RU EDG ZHDWKHU 7KH VPDOO EDWV QDPHG SXSV ERUQ WRWDOO\ QDNHG ZLWRXW IXU WKHLU H\HV RSHQ DIWHU RU GD\V 3XSV ORRN WLQ\ DQG SLQN 7KH\ GULQN PLON IURP WKHLU PRWKHUV OLNH DOO PDPPDOV GR 7KH \RXQJ SLSLVWUHOOHV DUH DEOH WR EH IHHG WKHPVHOYHV DQG WR À\ DIWHU ZHHNV 7KH\ UHDFK VH[XDO PDWXULW\ ZLWKLQ D \HDU DQG WKHQ KDYH D OLIH H[SHFWHQF\ RI \HDUV

Pierre Mangematin

Savi’s pipistrelle, Hypsugo savii Stereotype Only few animals have such a bad reputation ...

Indeed it is widely spread that bats are destroyers, unsafe, unhealthy, mean and ugly. When humans meet savi’s pipistrelle, they are afraid, and often try to kill them, and even if it is not a threatened specie, in many countries it’s forbidden to kill savi’s pipistrelle because it’s a protected specie.

This bad reputation has been spread by rumors and movies (like Dracula for exemple) but in reality Savi’s pipistrelles are inoffensive and fearful.

They do not attack humans.

They can live close to us, but often, humans and bats don’t go along well. Nevertheless, behind the fear, bats are really useful : They pollinate plants, spread seeds, and some species can eat about 25 percent of their body weight in insects. Besides, the human’s development, the demography and the consumption of our natural ressources bring us closer to savi’s pipistrelle everyday. We must learn to live with them.

Interpretation I decided to work on the poster of Hitchcock’s The Birds and to update it. This well known movie originally presents birds as a threat for humans, something that is clearly understandable looking at the poster.

For me, it was one of the best reference regarding animals as a danger, and Savi’s pipistrelle are often seen as a danger too. I wanted to illustrate this bad reputation. I also wanted to know if Hitchcock could have done the same movie with Bats , and I think it would have worked, it would have been even more scary.

Hopefully, Savi’s pipistrelles are not that dangerous.

Pierre Mangematin

Savi’s pipistrelle, Hypsugo savii Animal’s vision of humans How do bats perceive us ?

We are always afraid of bats, but actually, we should not, because bats are really fearful of humans.

Whether they hide themselves during the day, trying to avoid us, whether they sleep during winter. Finally, only the night remains to meet up.

But when a meeting happens, humans are always afraid of bats and often try to kill them.

Humans are known as one of the most threatened thing for bats.

Some public institutions were forced to produce documents so as to prevent and to limit the bats extermination.

Interpretation The representation shows what savi’s pipistrelle may think about us : we only are killers for them.

Pierre Mangematin

Savi’s pipistrelle, Hypsugo savii Relation with other species We confused bats with birds until the XIXth FHQWXU\ EXW ZH ¿QDOO\ XQGHUVWRRG WKDW WKH\ ZHUH truly different.

The bible for example, forbides to eat bats because «they are birds».

We used to think that bats were birds without feathers. In fact, bats are different than birds because they are mammals. Baby bats are called pups. Pups drink milk from their mothers like all mammals do. %LUGV KDYH ZLQJV EXW QR KDQGV RU ¿QJHUV EXW EDWV KDYH ZLQJV ZLWK KDQGV ZLWK ¿QJHUV Actually bats are the only mammals who live in WKH DLUVSDFH DQG ZKR DUH DEOH WR À\ 7KDW¶V ZK\ bats and birds have a strong relationship, they share the airspace.

Interpretation This drawing shows that bats and birds are very close to eachother and can easily be confused , instead of being different.

Pierre Mangematin

Savi’s pipistrelle, Hypsugo savii Relation with other species As a nocturnal species, Savi’s pipistrelle almost only match with other nocturnal species.

Different species of bats can live together, when it happens, savi’s pipistrelle may be eaten by larger bats species, as it is one of the smallest ones.

We know that Savi’s pipistrelle and other bats don’t have many predators, but they can also be threatened by species who don’t wanna eat them.

This is the case with acarids or ticks who are often found on pipistrelles, but also tons of stomach parasites that can kill them.

But, especially in urban areas, the most dangerous species for bats and savi’s pipistrelle is without doubt the cat. Cats, particularly in urban areas, will learn the location of the bat’s roost and catch bats as they emerge.

Cats are known to be good hunter and if a bat has been caught by a cat it will almost certainly be injured or already dead.

Interpretation The cat is often represented as a nice animal, who lives among us, who we can share things with.

Basically, it is the opposite for the bats we don’t even want to meet.

Mr. Chat is a quite famous street artist based in Paris, he always represents cats in an unsual way, his cats seem means, vicious. His universe is close to comics, like Batman, who has spread a symbolic and popular image of bats.

Bringing these two artistic and popular works closer we can ironically understand that within the urban sphere, cats are the most threatened species for savi’s pipistrelle.

Pierre Mangematin

Serotino comune , Serotine, Eptesicus serotinus Simone Marchetti

Anatomy and species Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera (from the Greek χείρ - cheir, “hand” and πτερόν - pteron, “wing”) whose forelimbs form webbed wings.

Bats are the only mammals capable of true flight.

With extremely elongated fingers and a wing membrane stretched between, the bat’s wing anatomically resembles the human hand. Almost 1,000 bat species can be found worldwide. In fact, bats make up a quarter of all mammal species on earth!

The finger bones of bats are much more flexible than those of other mammals, owing to their flattened crosssection and to low levels of minerals. The wings of bats are much thinner than those of birds, allowing bats to maneuver more quickly and more accurately than birds.

The surface of their wings is equipped with touchsensitive receptors. They are concentrated in areas of the membrane where insects hit the wings when the bats capture them.

Bats are the second largest order of mammals (after the rodents), representing about 20% of all classified mammal species worldwide, with about 1,240 bat species divided into two suborders: the less specialized and largely fruiteating megabats, or flying foxes, and the highly specialized and echolocating microbats. About 70% of bat species are insectivores. Most of the rest are frugivores or fruit eaters. A few species, such as the fish eating bats, feed from animals other than insects, with the vampire bats being hematophogus, or feeding on blood.

Bats are present throughout most of the world, performing vital ecological roles of pollinating flowers and dispersing fruit seeds. Many tropical plant species depend entirely on bats for the distribution of their seeds. Bats are economically important, as they consume insect pests, reducing the need for pesticides.

Simone Marchetti

How they move through the space?

Although the eyes of most microbat species are small and poorly developed, leading to poor visual acuity, no species is blind. Microbats use vision to navigate, especially for long distances when beyond the range of echolocation, and species that are gleaners often have eyesight about as good as a rat’s.

Bat echolocation is a perceptual system where ultrasonic sounds are emitted specifically to produce echoes. By comparing the outgoing pulse with the returning echoes, the brain and auditory nervous system can produce detailed images of the bat’s surroundings. This allows bats to detect, localize, and even classify their prey in complete darkness. At 130 decibels in intensity, bat calls are some of the most intense, airborne animal sounds.

Flight 1- Flight of Miniopterus schreibersi 2- Flight of Myotis Emarginatus 3, 4- Rotation during flight by Barbastella barbastellus 5- Landing of Myotis natteri

Simone Marchetti

Habitat Flight has enabled bats to become one of the most widely distributed groups of mammals. Apart from the Arctic, the Antarctic and a few isolated oceanic islands, bats exist all over the world. Bats are found in almost every habitat available on Earth. Different species select different habitats during different seasons, ranging from seasides to mountains and even deserts, but bat habitats have two basic requirements: roosts, where they spend the day or hibernate, and places for foraging. Most temperate species additionally need a relatively warm hibernation shelter. Bat roosts can be found in hollows, crevices, foliage, and even human-made structures, and include “tents” the bats construct by biting leaves.

Bats in the city Bats find roosts in attics, hollow trees, bridges, parking garages, out buildings and other such structures.

Hunting can be very good in the city because lights attract insects. And lakes and ponds in parks provide water. Bats are critical to the ecosystems they live in.

In Italy they consume so many insects that, if they suddenly disappeared, it would cost a lot in pesticides to do the same job. But the result would be massive amounts of poison added to our environment. Bats are the major predator of night-flying insects. These insects include many that are pest species to us, to our gardens, and to the agriculture and forestry industries. Our bats eat many insects that normally feed on plants such as moths, flies and beetles. Additionally, their droppings, or “guano” is one of the world’s best fertilizers. Bats are part of a healthy ecosystem.

They are wild animals but there are things we can do to create a good “bat environment”: we can provide homes, such as bat boxes and food (plants). For example night blooming plants such as salvia, silene, phlox, stock, spearmint, cornflower, four-o’clocks, moonflower and nicotania attract insects at night.

They will attract bats consequently.

Simone Marchetti

Time A year in the life of a bat January- Bats spend most of the winter hibernating, a state of inactivity characterised by lower body temperature, slower breathing, and lower metabolic rate.

February- Bats are still hibernating. They have little fat left to live off of now. They may leave the roost on warmer nights to find food and a drink of water.

March- Bats may begin to emerge and signs of limited activity can be seen. There are small numbers feeding as it gets warmer. In bad weather, they may become torpid.

April- Bats have mainly come out of hibernation and are hungry and active, feeding on most nights.

They may move between several roost sites and can become torpid (cool and inactive) again when cold.

May- Bats are fully active and feeding. Females start forming maternity colonies and looking for suitable nursery sites, such as buildings or trees. Males roost on their own or in small groups.

June- Female bats usually give birth to a single pup, which they feed on their milk. Young bats are very small (less than an inch) with thin, slightly grey fur. Adult bats will catch thousands of insects each in a night.

July- Mothers continue to suckle babies. Some bats grow fast and are almost full-size; others are still very small. At around three weeks, young bats are sometimes found on the ground as they learn to fly.

August- At six weeks old, the young bats begin to catch insects for themselves and no longer need their mothers’ milk. The summer maternity colonies begin to disperse and bats may move to mating roosts.

September- Mating season begins. Males of most species use special calls to attract females, which can include purrs, clicks, and buzzing. Bats also concentrate on building up fat stores for the coming months.

October- More mating is taking place, and building up fat reserves is becoming crucial to survive the winter season. Bats are seeking suitable hibernation sites, and beginning periods of torpor.

November- Periods of torpor are lasting longer. Some begin hibernation, to save energy over the colder months, when insects are harder to find. They are using stored fat as fuel.

December- Bats are hibernating. They may roost on their own or in small groups, often in cool, quiet places.

Simone Marchetti

Food cycle All “Italian” bats eat insects. Each species has its favourite types and hunts them in its own special way.

Most insects are caught and eaten in mid-air, though bats sometimes find it easier to hang up to eat larger prey. All bats have very big appetites, because flying uses up lots of energy. A common pipistrelle can eat over 3,000 tiny insects in a single night!

Other species of bats are used to eat fruits and flower nectar, vertebrates and blood. Anyway almost threefourths of the world’s bats are insect eaters. Bats consume both aerial and ground-dwelling insects.

Each bat is typically able to consume one-third of its body weight in insects each night, and several hundred insects in a few hours. This means that a group of a thousand bats could eat four tons of insects each year. If bats were to become extinct, it has been calculated that the insect population would reach an alarmingly high number.They are used to eat daily butterfly sleeping during night, moths, mosquitoes, beetles and many other insects.

Frugivory_ Fruit eating, or frugivory, is a specific habit found in two families of bats. Megachiropterans and icrochiropterans both include species of bat that feed on fruits. These bats feed on the juices of sweet fruits, and fulfill the needs of some seeds to be dispersed.

Vertebrates_A small group of carnivorous bats feed on other vertebrates and are considered the top carnivores of the bat world. These bats typically eat a variety of animals, but normally consume frogs, lizards, birds, and sometimes other bats.

Blood_Afew species of bats exclusively consume blood as their diet. This type of diet is referred to as hematophagis, and three species of bats exhibit this behaviour. These species live only in Mexico, Central, and South America, with a presence also on the Island of Trinidad.

Simone Marchetti

Reproduction Gestation: 40 days - 6 months (bigger bats have longer gestation periods) Litter Size: Mostly one pup For their size, bats are the slowest reproducing mammals on Earth. At birth, a pup weighs up to 25 percent of its mother’s body weight!! Offspring typically are cared for in maternity colonies, where females congregate to bear and raise the young. Male bats do not help to raise the pups. Most bats have a breeding season, which is in the spring for species living in a temperate climate. Bats may have one to three litters in a season, depending on the species and on environmental conditions, such as the availability of food and roost sites. Females generally have one offspring at a time, which could be a result of the mother’s need to fly to feed while pregnant. Female bats nurse their young until they are nearly adult size, because a young bat cannot forage on its own until its wings are fully developed. At birth, the wings are too small to be used for flight. Young microbats become independent at the age of six to eight weeks.

Female bats use a variety of strategies to control the timing of pregnancy and the birth of young, to make delivery coincide with maximum food ability and other ecological factors. Females of some species have delayed fertilization, in which sperm are stored in the reproductive tract for several months after mating. In many such cases, mating occurs in the fall, and fertilization does not occur until the following spring. Other species exhibit delayed implantation, in which the egg is fertilized after mating, but remains free in the reproductive tract until external conditions become favorable for giving birth and caring for the offspring.

Simone Marchetti

Stereotype In European cultures, bats have long been associated with witchcraft, black magic and darkness. There are many mistaken beliefs about bats, giving them an undeserved, sinister reputation. Bats are nocturnal, which may be why there are so many myths. In fact they are mammals like cats, dogs, or humans and never harm children or pets, or get entangled in long hair and are not blind. They are clean, gentle, intelligent and very useful, eating large numbers of insect pests. Admittedly, not all superstitions about the bat have been evil. In China, bats symbolize good luck, long life and happiness. Natives of eastern Australia regard the bat as man’s lucky totem. In Anatolia, a region of Turkey, some people still carry a bat bone for a love charm.

Some of the false beliefs about bats: 1) All bats are blood eaters. This is not correct: among the 1,000 species of bats, only three feed on blood (called Vampire bats). This stereotypical image is based on vampire stories.

2) The expression “as blind as a bat” is common but in reality bats are not blind. Microbats have poor visual acuity while some megabats have a very good vision.

3) Bats are not rats with wings. Again, they are mammals.

4) Another stereotype associated with bats is that the animal will fly into one’s hair. This is an urban legend: bats can navigate very well in the dark thanks to echolocation.

Simone Marchetti

Bat perspective on humans “I am afraid of humans: they are unpredictable, somehow I think most of them are afraid of me as well. I’m not scary at all…they are actually! First of all they are everywhere, they used to enter in all our cavities and our roosts are in any moment in danger. Due to their destroyed actions the number of our population decreased a lot. Some of our species are dangerously low or in decline. WE should be scared of them!!

Anyway I should admit that we are now finding home in some of manmade houses. I think they thought we are the cause of damage to their properties, I know they think that. But we are simply too small to dislodge tiles, lift lead flashing, move insulation material or gnaw through wood, cables etc., and we cannot cause any structural damage to a property!

The most obvious sign of our residence are our droppings. Sometimes small piles can be found under our roost, but it can be easily removed. It is made up of the indigestible bits of insects, and unlike mouse droppings it is dry and crumbly. This is a small inconvenience but humans are dirtiest in someway, they used to produce more waste than us!!”

Examples of the kinds of works that could harm bats or their roosts are: • Replacing weatherboarding, fascias etc • Re-roofing or major repairs to roofs • Converting or sub-dividing lofts, attics and roof spaces • Timber treatment and pest control, especially in roof spaces • Closing of gaps under eaves, flashing, ridge tiles, soffits and barge boards • Works to cellars and closing off cellar access points • Felling trees with holes, hollows or cracks in the trunk or main branches • Demolition of buildings Before doing work of this kind, it is advisable to heck whether there are bats present first.

Simone Marchetti

Relationship with other species There are many different predators that can create issues for bats. What could consume them really depends on the location where they are at. The size of different species also affects what types of problems they may encounter with different predators.

Other types of flying animals find the bat to be a delicious meal. They include owls and hawks. Both of them can be active at night which is when they bats are out. Owls have frequently been observed capturing bats while they are in flight. They are able to go undetected and when the bats fly by they are consumed without any warning.

Snakes are a common predator of bats that consume fruits. The snakes can easily blend into the surroundings of the trees and plants where such fruits grow.

In some areas where bats live in trees, there have been reports of house cats capturing them. They typically don’t consume the bats though but may kill them and even play with them. In fact, many people have discovered they have bats around after their cat brought one inside or was seen playing with one outdoors.

The biggest predator of bats though are humans. Most people are afraid of bats and view them as a type of rodent. They don’t like they idea of these creatures living in their trees, attic, or other locations. The fact that a bat colony can very rapidly grow is another reason for concern. They like safely in numbers but that isn’t something that people usually want to have around them. Many researchers though feel that no matter where bats try to live there are going to be humans that have the ability to get rid of large numbers of them.

The goal is to help humans understand the value of bats. By realizing they aren’t dangerous, they aren’t going to attack humans, and that they take on a vital role in pollination, hopefully more humans will stop destroying the locations where the bats live. If they don’t like where they are at, they can also use traps that allow them to be safely relocated.

Simone Marchetti

Serotino bicolore, Parti-coloured bat, Vespertilio murinus Golnaz Nouri

Biology Parti-colored bat is a species of vespar bat which has a medium size. It has a maximum body size of 6.6 Cm, with a span that can extend from 27 to 33 Cm. Its name is derived from its fur which is red to darkbrown on backside, and white to grey on the front side.

They belong to the suborder of Microbats which are mostly insectivores and use echolocation. They use their “Sonar System�, a system whereby the shapes of the surrounding objects are determined according to the echo of the sound waves. It`s a sophisticated ultrasound hunting system which makes use of sounds with a frequency between 50,000 and 200,000 vibrations per second. They send these sounds in all directions 20 or 30 times each second. The echo of the sound is so powerful that the bat not only understands the existence of objects in its path, but also detects the location of its swiftflying prey.

Bats are more efficient flyers than birds, thanks to an airlift mechanism that is unique among aerial creatures. They use a totally different lift-generating mechanism than birds and insects do, and their wings are much more maneuverable. In other words, they can generate different wing shapes and motions that other creatures can’t. Moreover, they are able to distort their wings shape and size, which increases the downward force. This ability comes from the fact that their wing has an agile structure which is punctuated by more than two dozen joints.

Golnaz Nouri

BIOLOGY

Thumb

Elbow

27 - 33 Cm

Digit

5.4 - 6.6 Cm

4.1 - 5 Cm Tail

Foot

Ecolocation

Ear Tragus Back Fur Dark Brown

Front Fur: White Sonar System

Temporality Bats have some important periods in their lifetime.

They are usually “migrating birds”, looking for a milder climate starting from end of summer until late October. They can fly up to 900 km. After migration, they have the “mating period”, usually between October and December. After that, their “hibernation period” starts and can continue until late March. The hibernation can happen alone or in a group, and they can bear temperatures down to -2.6 degrees Celsius.

Starting from the spring, the females get together and create the “maternity colonies” for breeding. They can live either in small groups of about 50 bats, or sometimes up to several hundred adult females. During this period, male bats create groups as well, which can consist of about 250 animals.

In Western Europe, the birth of the young is around June/July. They usually give birth to one and maximum three at a time.

Compared to a similar-sized animal like a rat that lives only two or three years, bats live between 20 and 40 years. This has to do with the ability of bats to fly. Moreover, they avoid viral infections as well as age-related diseases or cancer. They can also survive deadly viruses like SARS and Ebola. Parti-colored bats live up to 12 years.

Golnaz Nouri

Habitat Bats have variable habitats during their different life periods. Their habitat varies according to the season and their needs. During winter and hibernation period, they can be found inside the city as well as in the nature.

In the city, they can locate in the cellar under the roof of the buildings, as well as in the wall crevices.

They can also be found in the tunnels and dark undergrounds. They may also adapt themselves to the batboxes. In the nature, they reside in hollow tree trunks, rock crevices, as well as inside the caves.

During the spring and summer, female and male live separately. Females create maternity colonies, which can happen in the same type of habitat as winter, but the important criteria is having an open space as a greenery or lake in front of the roost, where they can hunt. In the city and during the night, they can also be seen around street lamps hunting insects. In this period, males can be found inside the rocks or caves, as some species have been detected up in the Alps.

Golnaz Nouri

Food cycle Newborn bats rely on the milk from their mothers.

When they are a few weeks old, they are expected to fly and hunt on their own.

Most bats are nocturnal creatures, and they hunt during the night. This gives them the security not to be hunted by other animals, as well as the possibility of hunting in the absence of others. They use their sonar system and echolocation in order to hunt their prey.

Parti-colored bats as most of the microbats are insectivores. They consume both aerial and ground-dwelling insects. Each bat is typically able to consume insects as one-third of its body weight each night, and several hundred insects in a few hours. This means that a group of a thousand bats could eat four tons of insects each year. If bats were to become extinct, it has been calculated that the insect population would reach an alarmingly high number.

Their main diet are the moths, butterflies, mosquitoes and flies. They look for their prey at heights above 10 to 20 meters, for example in open landscape over streams and lakes and above forests or around street lights.

To be mentioned that they can be hunted by other animals as well. They can be a good prey for hawks, owls -which may trap them in the tree holes when they are sleeping- or by jumping fishes when they hunt over lakes.

Golnaz Nouri

Owl

Moth

Hawk

Buttery

Fish Mosquito

Reproduction The male start producing sperm in summer between July-September. In autumn, usually between November-December, they start sending ultrasonic sounds in order to attract the female and mating. The female can keep the sperm alive in her body throughout the coming winter and hibernation period. She also has the capability of setting the birth time in a way to give birth when the climate and food availability is favorable.

As mentioned before, the females then get together during summer between May-August to create maternity colonies. The young is born around June-July and can fly as early as 3–4 weeks later. By the endof October of the same year, the young is mature and cannot be known from an adult.

Golnaz Nouri

Through the “eyes� of bats Unlike many insects that are blind, bats can see. The megabats have a vision as human if not better. The microbats can see as well and it helps them find their way in long distances when the echolocation cannot be of help.

While microbats take advantage of a visual system which is grey and blurry, their main means of reading the world is their sonar system and echolocation.

Their brain has the possibility to recreate a precise image of what is around them using the reflecting waves coming from the objects.

Golnaz Nouri

Our perception Through the history, on one side bats have been perceived as a symbol of dark power and on the other side they have been studied for their flying ad wing system by persons like Da Vinci in order to design gliders.

In our times, cinema characters as batman have been created based on their characteristics. Moreover, with the advancements in the technology, there is the possibility to study their wings in more detail and create simulations of their flying method, in order to design more efficient flying systems.

Golnaz Nouri

Coexistence Bats are present throughout most of the world, performing vital ecological roles of pollinating flowers and dispersing fruit seeds. Many tropical plant species depend entirely on bats for the distribution of their seeds.

Bats are also economically important, as they consume insect pests, reducing the need for pesticides.

They have some threats for human as well. They carry some mortal viruses, as they can transfer rabbis and Ebola.

Golnaz Nouri

Rabies

Ebola

Arvicola campestre, Common Vole, Microtus arvalis Anna Otlik

Description of biological characteristics Common Vole’s body length is about 8 -10 cm, the length of the tail is 3 - 4.5 cm, weight is in the range of 15-40 g, but it can reach even 51 g in males and 42 g in non-pregnant females.

Animal body is stocky, cylindrical, with a relatively short tail. The ears are clearly visible. Soft and short hair on the back is light gray or yellowgray, on the ventral silver-gray or yelow-silver-gray.

Young animals are darker than adults.

Sexual dimorphism: There is a lack of clear differences in the construction of male and female.

Other than during reproductive activity of sex difficult to identify even on the basis of differences in the construction of the reproductive organs.

Anna Otlik

Anna Otlik

Habitat (space) Common voles are found in a wide variety of open habitats including moist meadows, forest steppe, moist forest and sometimes agricultural areas.

The common vole (Microtus arvalis) is native to Eurasia, with a very large range stretching across many areas. Its preferred habitat includes all areas besides densely forested areas. It will inhabit agricultural lands, and as a result will end up eating the crops found there, although it prefers grass.

Common vole lives in above-ground runways, which expand like a railway-system. Voles are seldom seen outside these runways, which enable a faster and safer locomotion and easier orientation.

Underground nests are dug 30 to 40 cm deep into the ground and are used for food storage, offspring raising, and as a place for rest and sleep.

Common voles have a polygamous mating system the males do not maintain territories as females do, but they move between several females’ territories in order to mate as often as possible.

Another response to population growth is to leave the original habitat and move towards another one.

Nests can be shared and defended by up to five females with juveniles.

Anna Otlik

Anna Otlik

Temporality (time) Voles, in general, are short-lived and show seasonal population crashes, probably due to lack of food.

The mating season of the common vole occurs between the months of March and October, and females are able to give birth up to three times in this period. The lifespan of this species is short, only 4.5 months on average, so the last litter is typically the only to survive.

The population densities of this species vary from season to season, with females often outnumbering the males. This causes intense competition for males, which leads to higher death rates. When numbers are high, females may cease reproducing in order to conserve space and food.

Even if population density is high, home ranges do not overlap. Because common voles are polygamous, males often leave temporary home ranges in order to have more mating opportunities, and it is also thought that males will leave their birth areas when populations become too large.

Anna Otlik

Anna Otlik

Food Cycle As Common Voles followed human civilization, primary and secondary habitats can be distinguished. The primary habitats are dense forests, such as meadows, heath lands, and fallow land. The secondary habitats are mainly agricultural fields whereby shallow sloped areas are preferred.

The natural food of the common vole is grass, but it also feeds on many agricultural crops in their secondary habitats. Especially they prefer bents, fescues and hair grasses.

Common voles are eaten by many bigger animals. They must be particularly careful to avoid predators which include kestrels and owls, together with foxes, weasels and stoats. The number of young reared by kestrels and owls has been shown to increase when vole numbers increase.

Anna Otlik

Anna Otlik

Reproduction Common Voles females give birth to 3 to 8 juveniles (the average is about 5) after pregnancy of 16 to 24 days. Juveniles are weighing between 1.0 and 3.1 g. Weaning is around the 20th day.

Common vole are the animals of all mammals who the fastest reach sexual maturity.

Typically, the animal becomes fertile at the age of 2 months, but the official record is a birth of 33-day old female. She had to be fertilized at the age of 13 days, so even when she was fed on mother’s milk.

During annual reproduction, which starts in March and ends in October, females usually have three reproductive cycles. The average life span is 4.5 months, which means that most animals die after the last reproduction in October, while the latest offspring in the year survives the winter and starts reproduction the following spring.

Common voles are polygamous, males often leave temporary home ranges in order to have more mating opportunities.

Anna Otlik

Anna Otlik

Stereotype As far as common voles live in the wild areas we don’t notice their existence.

When they enter areas of people’s habitat as gardens, fields, yards, golf courses and flower beds they are seen as devastating pests. They destroy root systems of flowers, shrubs, vegetables and trees.

They kill beautiful and expensive trees by girdling them, eating away all bark in a continuous ring around the trunk. This deprives the tree of water and nutrients and the tree dies. Voles can eat away so many roots that a large tree will die or suddenly fall over without warning because it is deprived of its anchoring support.

Voles host fleas, ticks and lice which can transmit the Plague, babesiosis, Lyme disease, giardia, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. The voles themselves can transmit tularemia and rabies. People should be especially careful of voles that behave unusually.

Anna Otlik

Anna Otlik

Perspective on the human Common voles, as all rodents, are afraid of people’s presence. They try to avoid contacts with humans to not cause problems, because people treat common voles as pests.

They remark people’s presence in particular by poison people left in their gardens and yards to kill common voles. They see us as poisoners and murderers, so in some way we are also like predators for them. That is the reason they avoid people and prefer staying in natural habitat.

Anna Otlik

Anna Otlik

Relation with other species (coexistence The common voles are eaten by many bigger animals, because they are a vital food source to many predators. They must be particularly careful to avoid birds including tawny owl, barn owl, buzzard and kestrels in central Europe. The number of young reared by kestrels and owls has been shown to increase when vole numbers increase.

It’s ground predators include the adder, weasel, stoat, boar, and fox.

Because voles are herbivores they do not pose a threat to other animals.

Population numbers are typically high, and because there are no main threats to the common vole, it appears on the IUCN Red List with a conservation status of “Least Concern”.

Anna Otlik

Anna Otlik

Topo selvatico, Wood Mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus Julia Palladino

Description Personal interpretation of the animal in its habitat.

The wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) is closely related to the yellow-necked mouse (Apodemus flavicollis) but differs in that it has no band of yellow fur around the neck, has slightly smaller ears, and is usually slightly smaller overall: around 90 mm in length. It is found across most of Europe and is a very common and widespread species, is commensal with people and is sometimes considered a pest.

Other common names are long-tailed field mouse, field mouse, common field mouse, and European wood mouse.

With approximately one wood mouse for every two people in the UK, they are one of its most common small mammals. However, they have many predators, including foxes, cats, owls and birds of prey and average life expectancy is just 12 months. To avoid becoming a meal, wood mice make spectacular leaps, have good night vision, and even shed the end of their tail if caught.

Julia Palladino

Habitat (space) Where can I find wood mouses ?

Most of the time, the wood mouse prefer to live outdoors, they were used to dig underground tunnels in which they lived during harsh seasons, but occasionally they will enter human dwellings (attic, garage etc.) when the season is getting too hard, in automn - winter. It means that they use homes and therefore humans to survive.

Wood mouses like woods, hedgerows, long grass, fields of crops, bogs, sand dunes, and even gardens.

The wood mouse normally spends its life within an area of about 180m in diameter. A male mouse usually forages nightly over an area about half the size of a football pitch. A mouse digs its own system of burrows where it makes an area for storing food and a nesting chamber for the young. Several adults may live together in the same network of tunnels which have two open entrances. Others are blocked with leaves, twigs, soil and stones.

In Milan In Milan, you can find a lot of wood mouses in the farmstead, called «cascine» in italian, it refers to a type of rural building traditional of the Po Valley, especially of Lombardy. You can find a hundred of those building at the periphery of Milan, especially, near to the fields and the wildest parcs of the city.

You can find them in some parcs of Milan, but no into the most famous ones because they don’t really like the human’s presence. The Vaiano Valle, Chiaravalle, Cantalupa and most of all the parco Trenno and the parco delle Cave are space where you can find a lot of wood mouse because those parc make the connection between the center of Milan and Parco Agricolo Sud Milano which is used to cultivate rice, corn, grain.

Julia Palladino

Temporality (time) Social behaviours and group dynamics.

Daily Life Wood mice spend the day resting in their burrows and emerge at night to forage for food. They are very active, running and leaping kangaroo-like on their large hind feet. They climb well too and often use places such as an old birdﾃ不 nest high on a tree branch to feed on berries they have collected. Most wood mice stay in the same general area but may travel a quarter of a mile (400m) in one night. They will venture into open spaces where other small mammals will rarely go.

Dissemination role They are sometimes accused of being partly responsible or jointly responsible for the transmission of certain diseases transmitted via the roots (Fomes-armillary), eating seedlings or propagules seeds of trees or other plants, but - like squirrels - these are also burrowing animals that play an important role in the mycorrhizal root system of forest trees, and therefore in forest productivity and ecological resilience or expansion of forests (reforestation). Like squirrels (including almost all species were found to be of great fungivorous at certain times of the year), who bury their supplies of seeds, forest mice eat mushrooms and help disseminate their spores which are found largely intact in their droppings. It was shown that in a coniferous forest in Oregon, about 30 species of small mammals at up to 40 individuals per hectare consumed underground ectomycorrhizal fungi or any part of the year.5. Some of these fungi (truffles Elaphomyces, Hysterangiales) could not spread their spores without these species.

Julia Palladino

Food cycle Others animal, production, economy.

Food Wood mice are primarily seed eaters (granivores), relying to a great extent on the seeds of trees such as oak, beech, ash, lime, hawthorn and sycamore.

Every year they eat a high proportion of the annual seed crop and it seems likely that only small quantities of seed therefore, survive to germinate the following spring. The mice are efficient seed gatherers and when there is a plentiful supply on the ground, they carry them back to the nest for storage. Small invertebrates, particularly small snails and insects, may be eaten throughout the year, but are particularly important sources of food in late spring and early summer. This is the time of year when seeds are least available and larval and adult insects are abundant.

Moth caterpillars which fall from the upper canopy of trees to pupate in the soil, are a common food in summer. The wood mouse has quite a varied diet but it is mainly vegetarian, eating seeds, seedlings, nuts, fruits and buds. When these are scarce, it will also eat snails, earthworms and insects. It is a great hoarder of seeds and nuts and packs full its underground chambers with a supply to help it survive the winter.

Winter In very cold weather wood mice sometimes go into a torpid state - almost like hibernation - and in this way they use less energy than usual, enabling them to survive food shortages. At the end of the winter, the population is at its lowest, but numbers soon begin to build up as breeding starts.

Predators The wood mouse is an important source of food for many nocturnal animals, so it is a wary little creature and prefers dark, moonless nights, using its large eyes and ears for finding its way about. It is the main prey of the tawny owl but the fox, weasel, stoat, badger and domestic cat will also eat it.

Julia Palladino

Reproduction Where they choose to give birth.

Breeding season : March/April to October/November.

Gestation : 25 - 26 days.

No of young : Usually 2 - 9 with an average of 5.

Lifespan : This averages 2 - 3 months, may survive 18 - 20 months in the wild, 2 years or more in captivity.

Mating begins in March and continues through into the autumn, even into the winter if it is mild enough and there is plenty of food. After a gestation period (the time between mating and birth) of about 4 weeks, the female gives birth to 4 - 7 naked and blind young. She may produce 4 litters a year, although it is normally two or three. The babies are born into a nest chamber, deep in the burrow, which is lined with leaves, moss and grass. They open their eyes at 6 days old and by then they will have a full coat of fur, darker than that of the adult. After 3 weeks, the mother forces her youngsters out of the nest and they are then on their own. Many do not live for more than 3 - 4 months and the overall population has an annual variation, the greatest number being in the early autumn, the lowest in the early spring.

Below young wood mice are born naked and blind.

They grow their first greyish-brown coat after about six days, their eyes open after 16 days and they are weaned at around 18 days old. Survival of the young and adults is poor during the first half of the breeding season. Adult males are aggressive to one another and to the young, who are driven from the nest soon after weaning. Adult females may be weakened by constant pregnancies and feeding of the young.

Julia Palladino

Stereotype Coexistence between human and animal life.

What signs of wood mice can I find ?

Hazel nuts that have a small hole chewed in them have been eaten by a wood mouse. (Squirrels crack the nuts in half.) Small burrows in banks are also a clue. The droppings are small and hard to find.

What (not) kills wood mice ?

When some people sees a mouse in their house, they use to be afraid and have just on idea on their mind: kill them ! But the wood mouse is a very important part food chain. Many Irish predators eat wood mice, including owls, kestrels, stoats, foxes, badgers, pine martens, and domestic cats. Wood mice are susceptible to pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides, and to the burning of straw. A decline in wood mice numbers can effect predator numbers, especially owls.

Julia Palladino

Perspective on the humans How do they see us ?

Even if the wood mouse is clearly different of the house mouse on several aspects, most of the people doesn’t make the difference between them.

For them, it’s a mouse, that’s it.

Even if the wood mouse, is really shy and goes in the habitation very rarely, the only vision that they should have of them is some very short and quick overview of them because they don’t like human’s company.

We can imagine that the only way how wood mouse can see us is : humans are like cats.

Julia Palladino

Coexistence Relation with other species Maybe that’s because of their wild point, and because of the human’s behaviour against them, we can that on the contrary, they are really used to live with the farm animals : horses, cows, pigs, sheep, geese, ducks, chickens, etc. They don’t pay attention the ones to the others so every animal live its one life and there is no point of predators between those kind of animals.

But of course, in the farm, and in the country most of all, it’s easier to find all the predators of the wood mouse which means : fox, weasel, stoat, badger, etc.

So the coexistence and relation between the others species is linked to the animals predators and to the humans.

Julia Palladino

Ratto grigio, Brown Rat, Rattus norvegicus Gianmario Pandozzi

Biological Aspects Rattus norvegicus, also known as brown rat, is a mammal rodent. One of the largest muroids. It can measure up to 40 cm of which less than half belonging to the tail, for an average weight of 350 g. Males are usually larger and more robust than females. The hairs are short and wiry and has a color ranging from gray to brown usually lighter on the lower abdomen. The body is of pear shape, with rounded hindquarters and boxy head. The legs are hairless and pinkish-gray , with back ones longer and stronger than the front ones. their skeleton is flexible with exception of the skull, this allows them to fit even in small cavities. they have two long and strong teeth in the lower and upper part of the mouth that replaces constantly for the life activity of the animal, consuming and growing steadily. Rats don’t live long in the wild, the average lifespan is probably less than a year. In one study, the researcher found that 95% of rats living at a farm were no longer alive a year later.

Gianmario Pandozzi

Habitat Although he was born in China like wild animal, nowadays the natural habitat of the rat is the man-made environment. The rattus norvegicus is a great swimmer both in that surface and under, but, unlike rattus rattus, it is a poor climber, this and it’s penchant for humid environments makes it a perfect colonizer of our sewers. The rat usually digs, with the nail and the teeth, long and articulated underground tunnels in which sleeps or stores food. not infrequently some specimens of rat move to the surface in search of food. this is a symptom of the high number of specimens or the lack of food, the rats do not love to expose themselves to the dangers of the open air, mainly cause of humans.

Gianmario Pandozzi

Temporality The activity of rat norvegicus is typically crepuscular and nocturnal. Modifications to this typical pattern is observed, however , in individuals as a result of social factors in populations depending on the availability of food. In a colony of wild rats the individuals of low rank has periods of activity differents from those of high rank. This is due to a tendency to avoid the social stress determined by overcrowding in the place where the food can be find. Food is normally transported and consumed in a sheltered place.The choice of strategy (consumption on site or in repaired place) depends on the interaction between various factors : risk of predation, distance from the shelter , prey size, handling time, competing with other animals. During the night usually rats sleeps in the tunnels they dig.

Gianmario Pandozzi

Food Cycle When observed on a large scale, the relation between human being and rats is called commensalism and it occurred when one organism benefits without from the food or from the waste of another organism without affecting the other’s parts. The most important components of the foraging behaviour of the rat, are: the constant sampling of all the potential foods that brings the populations to a noteworthy adaptability to the change of available resources; the social interactions among individuals (mother-pups, adult-adult) that are very important in influencing the food preferences and, eventually, the food avoidance; the use of feeding-places, which is considered as a fundamental trait of the foraging behaviour of the rat, working as an information- centre of the animals since they matured a strong neophobia. neophilia is the reticence to ingest new and unknown foods, developed to prevent the killing by human beings through poisons .

Gianmario Pandozzi

Reproduction By the presence of plenty of food and suitable climatic conditions (not too cold), the brown rat extends it’s fertile period for all year . The females are ready to mate at the age of 8-12 weeks , gestation lasts between 20 and 24 days, after which they give birth to 6-9 small hairless rats in earthen nests. In the female of the rattus norvegicus is present the estrus postpartum which means that they are able to mate just after giving birth, in spite of this possibility, however, in normal conditions is difficult to occur more than five pregnancies per year. Rat mating systems are a facet of social systems, and change with population density.

At low densities the mating system is mostly polygynous - one male mates with multiple females-.

In this case, dominant males tend to monopolize an estrus female or a burrow of females.

At high densities such monopolies become difficult to maintain and the mating system becomes more polygynandrous - multiple males mate with multiple females-, through group mating and rushing.

In this case large groups of males copulate sequentially with an estrus female, showing little if any overt competition between themselves.

It is not unusual for the social systems and mating systems of a species to change with population density. Social and mating systems may also change with resource distribution, spatial qualities of the landscape, predation levels, and so forth.

The rat population growth is described by a logistic curve: rat populations increase slowly at first, then multiply rapidly, then slow again as the population reaches its carrying capacity. After the population reaches its carrying capacity, the population numbers fluctuate randomly around a constant level.

Gianmario Pandozzi

Stereotype Humans generally have an aversion to this type of mammal, this is due to historical and psychological factors induced by the animal and by his appearance. Historically the rat is connectable to the transmission of infectious diseases that led to the loss of many lives such as plague or typhus, this is due to the unhealthy environment in which the animals live. The rat, with his unhealthy lifestyle, is a perfect vehicle for pathogens that can attack the human being or the food that humans eat. Another reason for fear is the shape of its long tail, which like other animals “ creeping “ such as worms or snakes looks for humans closely disgusting and scary.

Gianmario Pandozzi

Perception on the humans The brown rat is generally frightened by the presence of humans, in fact perceives them as predators because of their size compared to their own.

In any case the rat has blurry dichromatic vision with a little color and it helps with the its Whiskers to orientated and to warn about the enemy. In case of contact the rat can run away very quickly and it gets to attack a scared human only if in group and if in serious life danger

Gianmario Pandozzi

Relation with other species The city rat has little to worry about the food chain. There are just a few predators that can attack it in the city. if we do not consider the humans, only raptors and large snakes are predators of rattus norvegicus , but they are very rare, if not completely absent , in the urban environment.

The common belief of cats killing rats it’s only true for puppie rats, but often live well protected by the larger specimens that can often intimidate cats and even small dogs. The similar specimens of rats and mice present in the urban environment are competitors of the brown rat from a territorial point of view and sourcing resources, although the difference in size and physical characteristics have gradually divided these animals in the urban environment. It’s rare that a rat kills a mouse, the percentage of this phenomenon are around 10-20 %, while nearly 100 % of rats kills other types of prey (small frogs , chicks , turtles).

Gianmario Pandozzi

Ratto nero, Roof Rat, Rattus rattus Sofia Paoli

Characteristics The black rat is a common long-tailed rodent of the genus Rattus in the subfamily Muridae. Rattus rattus, is a medium sized rat with relatively large ears and a tail that is nearly always longer than the body.

Some other common names for this species are ship rat, black rat, roof rat, Alexandrine rat and old English rat.

Individuals weigh between 70 and 300 gr, and are between 16 and 22 cm in head and body length and have a tail length of 20 cm or longer. The tail is hairless, and is used for balance. Males are longer and heavier than females. The fur is thick and soft and black in colour with a lighter colored ventral belly.

Black rat has a more slender body than the Brown rat and a substantial difference in the shape of the skull.

His entire skull is narrow, elongated and pointed. The face is hairless and pink with long, sensitive whiskers. His eyes are large and protruding, usually black, and because of the nocturnal habits the sense of sight is poor and Roof rat is colour-blind, but his senses of smell, taste, touch, and hearing are excellent. Rattus rattus has 16 teeth and lack of premolars and canines. His incisors grow continuously and they are consumed through chewing. His ears are larger than those of Rattus norvegicus, the Roof rat’s ears are thin, hairless and almost transparent. Sense of hearing is highly developed: he can recognize and do infinite variations of ultrasound used for their intense social communication. They communicate with each other through a large series of squeaks and whistles. Sense of smell is highly developed too. They can recognize the ways and areas that they usually run through, which are marked by their own urine, faeces and oil smears that are left along particular areas to illustrate territorial boundaries. Moreover it allows recognizing in the dark any type of substances of which they feed. He is very suspicious by what’s new.

Black rats exhibit many destructive behaviours.

These animals strip bark off of trees, contaminate human food sources, and are overall pests.

Sofia Paoli

Habitat Rattus rattus is found in all continents of earth. Although the species is believed to be native to India and possibly other Indo-Malayan countries, it has been introduced through human travel overseas to all continents. For this reason, these animals are often called ship rats. It is generally found in any area that can support its mainly vegetarian diet.

Because Black rat is an agile climber, in the urban habitat it often lives in high places, such as top floors of buildings in populated areas. It colonizes the upper parts such as attics and roof, where it enters through open doors, trees with overhanging branches, fireplaces, and even from the cracks created for the power cables.

This rat can climb vertical pipes only 10 cm wide and then enter through our baths, and disappear again. When living inside a building, it builds a nest in a hole in the wall, or in a cavity above the ceiling or beneath the floorboards. Although it was formerly common in towns and farms of temperate regions, it has been largely driven out by the more aggressive Rattus Norvegicus as well as killed off by increasing chemical pest control programs. In areas where both Norway rats and Black rats are present, the more aggressive Norway rat forces the Black rat to live in the upper portions of buildings and in trees. Where Norway rats are absent, Black rats will apparently burrow under buildings in the same manner as the former species. Black rats are also found around fences, ponds, riverbanks, streams, and reservoirs. It is thought that male and female rats have similar sized home ranges (area in which an animal travels and spends most of its time) during the winter, but male rats increase the size of their home range during the breeding season. Rattus rattus tends to live in groups called “packs� with multiple males and females. Dominant males have increased mating access and mate more frequently than do subordinate males. Females are usually more aggressive than males, but have been reported to be less mobile.

Sofia Paoli

Temporality Black rats are active throughout the year and do not hibernate, even if the cold slows their activities. They are mainly nocturnal, although they may become more active in the day in undisturbed areas. Wild individuals have been known to live for over a year, in captivity it has been reported to live for up to 4 years.

Sofia Paoli

Food cycle Rattus rattus generally feeds on fruit, seeds, stems, leaves, fungi, grain, cereals, and other vegetation.

It is an omnivore however, and will feed on insects, invertebrates or other small mammals such as mice and voles if necessary. It consumes about 15 g/day of food and 15 mL/day of water. Because it consumes and destroys the food source during feeding, it can cause devastating damage to farms and livestock. He doesn’t only gnaw all he can find but also it ruins more than that by excreting on the remains of the food that he will not eat. They also have a tendency to feed on any meal provided for cows, swine, chickens, cats, and dogs. The first individuals who have access to food are males and dominating females, and then it’s up to all subordinates.

Black rats express great flexibility in their foraging behaviour. They often meet and forage together. Rats tend to forage after sunset. If the food cannot be eaten quickly, they will search for a place to carry and hide to eat at a later time. Although black rats eat a broad range of foods, they are highly selective feeders; only a restricted number of the foods they eat are dominant foods. When they are presented with a wide diversity of foods, they eat only a small sample of each of the available foods. This allows them to monitor the quality of foods that are present. Also, by sampling the available food in an area, the rats maintain a dynamic food supply, balance their nutrient intake, and avoid intoxication by secondary compounds.

Known predators of Rattus rattus vary depending on environment. In urban or suburban areas, house cats and owls are the main threat to its survival. In less populated areas, birds and other carnivorous animals prey upon it. Snakes, hawks, owls, weasels, foxes, and coyotes are potential predators of black rats.

These predators anyways have little effect on the control of the Rattus rattus population. Rats are often aggressive toward other rats. Captive studies have shown Rattus norvegicus will kill Rattus rattus if found in his territory, and the same will do Black rat to the House mouse. Rattus rattus has a typical threat pose in which it stands on its hind feet and bares its teeth.

Sofia Paoli

Reproduction Social groups of Rattus rattus are often formed of multiple males and multiple females. One male is dominant and a linear male hierarchy may form. Two to three females are often dominant to all other group members except the dominant male. Females are generally more aggressive than males. The species is polygamous, and generally, the dominant male is the most successful breeder. If environmental conditions allow it, successful breeding may occur all year. The peak breeding seasons are summer and autumn. Black rats are prolific, but they produce smaller and fewer litters than the Norway rat. Females can produce up to 5 litters in one year, each of 6 to 12 offspring. The gestation period ranges between 21 and 29 days, and young rats are able to reproduce within 3 to 5 months of their birth. Neonates are altricial (requiring nourishment) like most rodents, and their eyes do not open until 15 days of age. The young remain relatively helpless for about 2 weeks, until they begin to grow a fur, their eyes open, and they are able to move around more.

Until these rats reach their full adult size, they stay in the nest built by their mother. Weaning and independence from the mother occur at about 3 to 4 weeks of age. Because male members of Rattus rattus copulate with one female and then move on to the next, they don’t contribute much to the care of the young.

Living mainly on trees they build their nests upon it. Nests are large and globular. The female stuffs soft material in the nest just before giving birth, she uses dry leaves, moss, grass, twigs. When living in our roofs to stuff nests they also uses paper, plastic and textiles.

Nests are always in high positions (roofs, trees, attics) and therefore difficult to reach.

Sofia Paoli

Stereotype_How do we see them?

Of him we have an atavistic terror.

In Pop culture rats are dirty criminals. As seen in The Great Mouse Detective; Chicken Run; The Princess Bride; Willard; Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; 1984; Redwall; Watership Down and many other films, rats eat our food, sneak into our houses, and carry diseases. Traditionally nasty, cowardly, indecent, aggressive, greedy, licentious and cunning.

Often associated with filth and disease. Knows a lot about the criminal world, often a thief. Always a tough survivor type, whether good or evil, and virtually always male. In Street Art, the pioneer of stencil graffiti and Banksy’s predecessor, Blek le Rat “began to spray rats in the streets of Paris because rats are the only wild living animals in cities and only rats will survive when the human race will have disappeared and died out”. Two decades after Blek le Rat invaded Paris with his stencil rat, Banksy continued the invasion throughout England, then also ROA! uses rats as subjects for his giant black and white animals over abandoned buildings. Banksy stencil a black rat holding a paint bucket with a paint roller covered in red with the words because im worthless situated above the animal. In society, rats thrive in the underworld and that is where they rightfully belong because they represent filth and denote negative connotations. Media reinforces the ideology of the rat as unwanted, creepy rodents that live in sewer pipes. However, the symbol denotes also a positive dual nature of rats: cunning and independent thinkers. In Cartoons, for example Stuart Little, The Rescuers, The Secret of Nimh, An American Tail, Cinderella, rats have a positive connotation. In the recent Pixar’s Ratatouille the story was based on a little rat battling an inner struggle of living the typical rat-lifestyle or embarking on his own journey, of which he chose the latter. Rats are undoubtedly smart creatures. They are often used for research ranging from psychology to medicine.

Some people now are used to have rats as pets, as they are very friendly, pretty clean and very quick to learn tricks. A singular case occurs at the Karni Mata Temple in northern India, where the Black rats are very welcome and treated as sacred.

Sofia Paoli

Perspective on humans It is likely that rats see us as a threat, since we are hunting them for millennia. Nevertheless, their survival is now closely linked to human presence, as they find their food in our kitchens, waste and gardens.

Sofia Paoli

Relation with other species The black rat is a complex pest, defined as one that influences the environment in both harmful and beneficial ways. In many cases, after the Black rat is introduced into a new area, the population size of some native species declines or goes extinct. This is because the Rattus rattus is a good generalist with a wide dietary niche and a preference for complex habitats; this causes strong competition for resources among small animals. This has led to the Black rat completely displacing many native species in Madagascar, the Galapagos, and the Florida Keys.

They compete with other species of rodents, such as Rattus norvegicus and Mus domesticus. This three species live in the urban environment inside and near human houses, very close to each other. If one species cross in one other ambient, to protect their territory they can get to kill and eat each other.

Rattus rattus is a disease vector, responsible for bubonic plague outbreaks and other diseases. This cosmopolitan species hosts a wide variety of internal and external parasites.

Sofia Paoli

5 Rat Inhabitant 6.6 million Rats in Milan

1 Human Inhabitant 1.3 million People in Milan

Rattus Rattus Mus Domesticus Rattus Norvegicus

Mus Domesticus The Jumper

Rattus Rattus The Climber

Rattus Norvegicus The Swimmer

Topolino domestico, House Mouse, Mus domesticus Sara Parrinello

Description Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Rodentia Family: Muridae, Subfamily: Murinae, Genus: Mus, Species: domesticus The house mouse is a rather small, lightly furred mammal. Its ears are bare and big. Their fur comes in many colours, from white to black, and some even have spots. The belly of the house mouse is usually white or very light brown. Adults weight in at about 12 to 40 grams and are 15 to 19 centimetres long. two oversized ears, whiskers, and a scaly tail. The house mouse is an omnivore, but primarily eats plant material, including seeds, green stems, and leaves. It will also often store food that it finds, or live within a human storage facility. They also drink water, but don’t require much of it as they get most of their moisture requirements from the moisture that is present in the food that they eat. House mice are quick runners, good climbers, jumpers, and they can also swim well.

Sara Parrinello

t h e

H o u s e

M o u s e t he Smallest the cutest

weight 17-25g

body lenght 169m m

98m m

18m m

55-60m m

190m m

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Habitat House mouse generally lives in close association with humans, in houses, barns, granaries... when he lives in the city he prefers to stay inside the apartment or flat because, outside, he risk to become a quarry for the others rats of the city; Rattus rattus and Rattus Norvegicus. House mice also occupy cultivated fields, fencerows, and even wooded areas, anyway they seldom stray far from buildings. Because of their association with humans, house mice have been able inhabit inhospitable areas (such as tundra and desert) which they would not be able to occupy independently.

House mice generally dwell walls making underground burrows consisting of a complex network of tunnels, several chambers for nesting and storage, and three or four exits. When living with humans, house mice nest behind rafters, in woodpiles, storage areas, or any hidden spot near a source of food. They construct nests from rags, paper, or other soft substances and line them with finer shredded material.

Sara Parrinello

H A B I T A T

Temporality House mice are generally nocturnal, although some are active during the day in human dwellings.

House mice are quick runners, good climbers, jumpers, and they can also swim well. Despite this, they rarely travel more than about 15 metres from their established homes. After birth, at 10 days of age they have all of their fur, at 14 days they open their eyes, and at 3 weeks they are weaned from their mother. Young house mice stay with their mother until they are about 21 days old.

As early as five weeks of age, male and females can breed, although the male usually matures at 8 weeks, and the females at 6 weeks. Wild house mice live approximately 12 to 18 months, and captive house mice have an average life span of 2 years. Breeding of captive house mice occurs any time during the year, for wild house mice, breeding during the colder months of the year seems to be restricted. House mouse is generally considered both territorial and colonial when living commensally with humans. Dominant males set up a territory including a family group of several females and their young. Occasionally, subordinate males may occupy a territory or males may share territories. Females establish a loose hierarchy within the territories, but they are less aggressive than males. Aggression within family groups is rare, but all the individuals in a territory will defend an area against outsiders.

Young mice are generally made to disperse through adult aggression, although some may remain in the vicinity of their parents.

House mice usually live only one year in the wild due to predators and exposure to unfriendly environments. In captivity, mice may live up to three years. However, humans, through the use of pest control strategies, ranging from traps to exclusion, are also formidable house mouse foes.

Sara Parrinello

T E M P O R A L I T Y

Food cycle House mice used to eat seeds and grains.

Since they live close to humans, they use to eat everything they can find inside human dwelling, expecially inside kitchen.

House mice adapt well and will consume almost any food source available to them. They need very little water to survive .

The house mouse is often used by scientists as subjects for biological, genetic, and medical studies. They are frequently used because their physiology is quite similar to a human’s, and because of their short breeding cycle, breeding is quick and easy.

While being great research animals, the house mouse can also cause problems f or humans.

Because house mice often live very close to humans and in human homes, they often destroy furniture, walls, carpeting, and clothing.

They are pests in agricultural areas. They can contribute to the spread of diseases such as murine typhus, rickettsial pox, tularemia, food poisoning (Salmonella), and bubonic plague ( thing that happened in Milan ini 1630 ) It also carries a virus called the mouse mammary tumor virus, which may contribute to breast cancer in humans.

Sara Parrinello

F O O D

seeds

C Y C L E

oats

grains grains

Reproduction Mice reach sexual maturity 42 days after birth, so it is important to deal with mouse activity as quickly as possible. When they live in wild condition breed occurs from spring to autumn. Since the live close to humans, inside human dwelling, they can breed during all the year up to maximum 8 times. Each litter has an average of 4-7 little mice.

Mice will build nests in hard to find places such as under floorboards, in wall cavities and loft spaces.

Mice are very inquisitive and like to go exploring; they also like warmth so check in airing cupboards and behind cookers and fridges for signs of activity such as droppings.

Sara Parrinello

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R E P R O D U C T I O N

Stereotype Since the beginning, Human been, as always seen house mice with a dual meaning. They repulsed mice since they are consider as cause of diseases and pests in agricultural areas.

But house mice are also consider as cute animals and are characters of books for children and they have a leading role of Walt Diseny, as Micky mouse, and in movies like Cinderalla story, Bianca and Bernie, Ratatuille ( that is actually a Rattus Norvegicus) , or again Geronimo Stilton, Topo gigio, Rattigan, Bucker Miece.

They have always been utilized as an icon for children story.

Sara Parrinello

S T E R E O T Y P E T O P O

Perspective House mice can survive in the city thanks the humans that offer to him food and good dwellings. Mice are not afraid of humans and they are totally not shy, they can live in the same room of them. These animals are clever and smart, they are able to transmit information each other, is for that, they unusually doesn’t eat poisoned food and they become stronger and stronger.

House mice, that is the only mouse who really lives close to humans inside their home, see human being as a free super market because he can find good food and good shelter in the kitchen.

Sara Parrinello

O A TS

SEE D S

grains

P E R S P E C T I V E

Relation with other species In the city life, house mice typically new habitat, mice is just a quarry because he is the smallest mouse. In his original habitat ( silos, barns) he is an omnivorous mammals and he used to eat seeds grains and small insects he could find inside the grains.

In the city life House mice fall prey to owls, hawks, cats, dogs. Barn owls are particularly efficient mice predators. A single family of these owls can consume more than a dozen mice in one night.

He hasn’t any kind of relation with others animals, exepct for humans of course!

Sara Parrinello

Owls

Barn Owls

Hawks

cat

rattus norvegicus

rattus rattus

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Volpe, Red Fox, Vulpes vulpes Chiara Pellegrinelli

Biological characteristics The red fox has an elongated body and relatively short limbs. They weigh 2 to 14 kg, with vixens typically weighing 15â&#x20AC;&#x201C;20% less than males. The tail, which is longer than half the body length, is fluffy and reaches the ground when in a standing position. It can be used by the fox as a warm cover in cold weather. Their pupils are oval and vertically oriented. The forepaws have five digits, while the hind feet have only four and lack dewclaws.

Their skulls are fairly narrow and elongated, with small braincases. Their canine teeth are relatively long.

In the typical red morph, their coats are generally bright reddish-rusty with yellowish tints. A stripe of weak, diffuse patterns of many brown-reddishchestnut hairs occurs along the spine. The flanks are lighter coloured than the back, while the chin, lower lips, throat and front of the chest are white. The remaining lower surface of the body is dark, brown or reddish. The upper parts of the limbs are rusty reddish, while the paws are black.

The frontal part of the face and upper neck is bright brownish-rusty red, while the upper lips are white. The backs of the ears are black or brownishreddish, while the inner surface is whitish. The top of the tail is brownish-reddish, but lighter in colour than the back and flanks.

Red foxes are very agile, swim well and have a maximum running speed of 50 km/h.

They have binocular vision, but their sight reacts mainly to movement.

Their auditory perception is acute and their sense of smell is good. In captivity, their longevity can be as long as 15 years, though in the wild they typically do not survive past 5 years of age.

Chiara Pellegrinelli

Habitat The red fox is charachterised from other fox species for its ability to adapt quickly to new environments.

It is able to live in different places – both in isolated woods in mountains, as well as in big cities.

Urban foxes are more accustomed to the presence and the proximity of people. They are in the city since 1930, but only after the Second World War have become “citizens” of the urban spaces.

During the past 100 years there has been a rapid spread of foxes into urban areas, particularly in the south of England, where cities, like London, have encroached into more rural areas. Even if foxes prefer suburban areas, with large gardens, sheds, and other quiet areas, in the past past few years they started to move to city centers. For istance, foxes live in cities such as Rome, Udine, Zurich, Melbourne and Milan, due to abundant scraps and a relative dearth of predators.

Urban foxes live all year long in urban areas and they thrive particularly well in urban environments, as they got used to such environment and are no longer used to live in woods.

Since humans have spread their settlements, foxes’ territories are overlapping with humans’ one.

Urban red foxes are most common in residential suburbs consisting of privately owned, low-density housing. They are rare in areas where industry, commerce or council-rented houses predominate.

The fox rarely dig his own hole. It prefers to hide in hollows among roots of trees, in niches, or in sheds, as well as in graveyards, public toillets, parks and in urban gardens.

Foxes have settled in the “Bosco in Città” in Milan, after going through about 30 kilometres form northern fields of the city, crossing the “Tangenziale Ovest”.

In London a fox has been found living at the 288 metre at the top of the Shard skyscraper, and another one has been discovered in the tube (Circle line).

Chiara Pellegrinelli

Time Red foxes are crepuscular or even nocturnal animals in areas where human intervention is massive (and there is even artificial light). For this reason they are more active at night than during the day.

They prefer to hunt in the early morning hours before sunrise and late evening: are most active at dusk and dawn, doing most of their hunting for food and scavenging at these times. It is uncommon to spot them during they day, but they can be caught sunbathing on roofs of houses or sheds.

The average sleep time of a captive red fox is 9.8 hours per day.

Foxes can travel up to 10 km a night searching for food.

Chiara Pellegrinelli

Reproduction Red foxes reproduce once a year in spring. The vixenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s oestrus period lasts three weeks, during which the dog-foxes mate with the vixens for several days, often in burrows. Copulation is accompanied by a copulatory tie which may last for more than an hour.

Though foxes are largely monogamous, DNA evidence from one population indicated large levels of polygyny, incestand mixed paternity litters. Subordinate vixens may become pregnant, but usually fail to whelp, or have their kits killed postpartum by either the dominant female or other subordinates. The average litter size consists of three to six kits, and large litters are typical in areas where fox mortality is high.

Mothers remain with the kits for 2â&#x20AC;&#x201C;3 weeks after their birth.

Chiara Pellegrinelli

Food cycle Urban foxes are omnivorous with a highly varied diet; they live off of a diet of food scavenged from refuse bags left out on the street, badly-cleaned or easily accessed refuse storage areas, carelessly discarded fast-food, worms, garden insects, birds birds (passeriformes, galliformes and waterfowl predominating), flotsam (marine mammals, fish and echinoderms) and other small mammals, including rats and mice. Fruit, especially berries, and vegetable matter is also eaten (fruit can amount to 100% of their diet in autumn); plant material includes grasses, sedges and tubers.

They eat between 0.5 and 1 kg of food each day.

Chiara Pellegrinelli

Stereotype Red foxes feature prominently in the folklore and mythology of human cultures.

They are supposed to be “clever”.

“The Fox and the Grapes” is one of the traditional Aesop’s fables. The moral to the story is “It is easy to despise what you cannot get.”

The Fox and the Stork is an Aesop’s Fable and its moral is: “One bad turn deserves another.”

In later European folklore, the figure of Reynard the Fox symbolises trickery and deceit. Many of Reynard’s adventures may stem from actual observations on fox behaviour; he is an enemy of the wolf and has a fondness for blackberries and grapes.

Chinese folk tales tell of fox-spirits called huli jing that may have up to nine tails, or kumiho as they are known in Korea. In Japanese mythology, the kitsune are fox-like spirits possessing magical abilities that increase with their age and wisdom. Foremost among these is the ability to assume human form. While some folktales speak of kitsune employing this ability to trick others, other stories portray them as faithful guardians, friends, lovers, and wives.

There are also animated movies about foxes: The Fox and the Hound (italian: Red e Toby, nemiciamici) is loosely based on the Daniel P. Mannix novel of the same name, produced by Walt Disney .The film tells the story of two unlikely friends, a red fox named Tod (Red) and a hound dog named Copper (Toby), who struggle to preserve their friendship during their childhood despite their emerging instincts and the surrounding social pressures demanding them to be adversaries.

Pinocchio is a 1940 Disney animated film, in which the Fox and the Cat are a pair of fictional characters: it is they who persuade Pinocchio to join Stromboli’s puppet show and coax him to go to Pleasure Island, upon being hired by the Coachman.

Chiara Pellegrinelli

Perspective on humans Foxes see us as hunters and huggers: some of us hunt foxes and despise them as a pest and livestock killer, others urban residents deliberately leave food out for the animals.

Foxes can become accustomed and used to human presence, being not aggressive and not attacking humans, warming up to them by allowing themselves to be approached and, in some cases, even played with young cubs.

On 22 October 2013 BBC broadcast “Fox wars”, a British documentary about foxes in Brtitan, that shows people’s stance on foxes: some people love these animals while others hate them.

Chiara Pellegrinelli

Relation with other species In general foxes are solitary animals and they typically forage alone, but sometimes they hunt together with cats.

Foxes pose little danger to cats. But, like any other dog, foxes will chase cats. Generally, though, when faced with the claws and teeth of a cat, foxes will back away, knowing they will probably suffer a serious injury in any fight. However, foxes will scavenge the remains of dead cats, but actual evidence of them killing cats is extremely rare. Cats and dogs vastly outnumber foxes and they usually co-exist without any serious problems. But, many fox cubs are killed each year by pet cats and dogs.

On the shores of Lake Van in Turkey a wild cat and a fox was discovered by fishermen. The cat and the fox, as telling the locals, have become inseparable since they shared, like good friends, the fish left on the beach by a fisherman.

Divide the meal without arguing apparently signed between the birth of a beautiful friendship.

From that moment, in fact, it is not uncommon to see them play and run together on the beach and also exchange effusions. They sniff, sleep nearby neighbors and watch the birds on the beach.

Chiara Pellegrinelli

Cane, Dog, Canis lupus familiaris Luis Pimentel

Biological Description â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dogs are the wolves that mooched.â&#x20AC;?

The domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) is a canid that is known as manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best friend. The dog was the first domesticated animal. DNA studies have indicated that the wolf and the domestic dog are so genetically similar that the wolf is the ancestor of the dog.

Modern dog breeds show more variation in size, appearance, and behavior than any other domestic animal. Nevertheless, their morphology is based on that of their wild wolf ancestors The transition from wolf to dog comes with physical and psychological chanes, as any animals seem to take on a more juvenile state as they are domesticated, getting bigger eyes, smaller faces and less aggressive demeanors. Small size could have been more desirable in more densely packed agricultural societies, in which dogs may have lived partly indoors or in confined outdoor spaces. Today dogs are highly variable in height and weight. The smallest known adult dog was a Yorkshire Terrier, that stood only 6.3 cm (2.5 in) at the shoulder, The tallest dog is a Great Dane that stands 106.7 cm (42.0 in) at the shoulder.[93]

Luis Pimentel

- Biological Description -

Atlas | Canis Lupus Familiaris |

Urban habitat The cities landscape is based on a strongly planned relation between exclusion and inclusion of the Dog in certain spaces, the urban greenery seem to be considered only an aesthetic space, being this transformed into untouchable spaces for dogs, this is shown though a series of photographies of signs around the city of Milano that explicitly reject this animal from certain spaces.

The relation between the size available to be used and the space reserved to dogs is absurd and excluyent, the result is that dog owners usually donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t use it, instead use the free space without boundaries

Luis Pimentel

Dogs reserved space

Not occupied space

Dogs not allowed space

Occupied space

- Urban habitat -

Reality Vs Planned

Atlas | Canis Lupus Familiaris |

- Urban habitat -

Atlas | Canis Lupus Familiaris |

Temporality - Season The dog, as an domesticated and tamed animal, dependent of the human, has lost its natural - free - development around the environment Its temporal movement its strictly tied to the human activity, to the movement of its owner and in much cases limited by leashes or other modern instrument.

Its movement on the urban landscape can be related to the time schedule of its owner., For which the free time left of daily activities such as work or study are spended â&#x20AC;&#x153;walking the dogâ&#x20AC;? .

On other hand the implementation of modern behaviors and customization of the animal have concurred in the implementation of clothes which make the animal seasonal adaptable despite its breed

Luis Pimentel

- Temporal - Seasons -

The dog walking tradition

8:00 AM

2:30PM

4:30 PM

5:00 PM

Atlas | Canis Lupus Familiaris |

Feeding food cycle This points revolves around two axis: the first is that current food behavior of the dog is the result of the domestication process dogs derived from wolves who began exploiting a new ecological niche: human garbage dumps. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In light of previous results describing the timing and location of dog domestication, our findings may suggest that the development of agriculture catalyzed the domestication of dogs.â&#x20AC;? The modern domestication can be seen simply, all the food for dogs can be bought in any supermarket, next to humans food.

The other one is the significance of the food for dogs (and generally all pets) in a global market for example in the U.S $41 billion a year on their pets. Dog ownership, like cocaine use, can be seen as an economic indicator. As incomes rise, some people can afford to have pets for the first time, in this chart is shown how have the dog ownership increased in the last years, and in the same time despite economical recession dogs food consumption also increased, an interesting fact is that consumption behavior are so tied between human and dog that even medical problems common in American societies are found in their dogs, it was found that a bit more of the 50 % of dogs suffer from obesity

Luis Pimentel

- Feeding food cycle -

6,5 billion dollars on food spending (Only in U.S)

83 million dogs in (Only in U.S)

55% under obesity condition (Only in U.S)

Atlas | Canis Lupus Familiaris |

Reproduction process Most breeds of dog are at most a few hundred years old, having been artificially selected for particular morphologies and behaviors by people for specific functional roles. Through this selective breeding, the dog has developed into hundreds of varied breeds, and shows more behavioral and morphological variation than any other land mammal.

In an effort to ensure that dogs fit â&#x20AC;&#x153;breed standardsâ&#x20AC;?, breeders will euthanize perfectly healthy puppies who donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fit the norm for the breed.

Skin problems, immune system disease, blood disorders, heart disease, hearing and vision difficulties.

These can be some of the problems because of the human involvement in dogs breeding and selecting reproduction process

Luis Pimentel

- Reproduction process -

Coon-hounds

Livestock guardian

Scent hounds

American spaniels

Mountain dogs

Sight hounds

Retrievers

Fox hounds Spaniels Working dogs

Sporting dogs

Hounds

Mountain dogs

pincher Common guard dogs English spaniels

Toy pinschers

Toy spaniels

Pointers

Schnauzers

mastif

German pointers

Toy bichons Toy dogs

Toy terriers

American terriers

Poodles

UK terriers Terriers Welsh terriers

spitzbreed bichon breed

French herding dogs

Fox terriers English terriers

Nordic Spitz herding dogs

Bull terriers

Irish terriers Scottish terriers

Russell terriers

Non sporting dogs

Bulldog breed

Collies Herding dogs Welsh corgis

Herding breed

Belgian Shepherd dogs

Atlas | Canis Lupus Familiaris |

Stereptypes The dog, has been along the history a symbol for many things, from today we can see it as a symbol of mass consumption, in some cases as a symbol of wealth, a main example can be the photo-shots done

by Pairs Hilton posing with her dogs for the brand GUESSS. There are many other cases, for example, 2 famous dogs in Internet like Boo & Buddy that show themselves traveling or posing different clothes or costumes for their fans.

Maybe the most common stereotype for the dog its: the human best friend â&#x20AC;&#x153; immortalized by many movies, series, even comics, a case can be LASSIE, a famous movie in which Lassie (the dog and protagonist of the movie does the impossible to be with his friend and owner. An interesting case and famous in the Soviet Union was Laika, present in a song of Arcade Fire, Laika is the first dog to travel into space, he was considered for his great intelligence, another stereotype.

Luis Pimentel

- Stereotypes -

The dog as a celebrity: boo and buddy â&#x20AC;&#x153;the world cutest dogâ&#x20AC;?

16.423.681 likes on facebook The dog as a consumption good: Paris Hilton and her Dog (14.000$ worth)

The dog as the best friend of the human: LASSIE, the movie The dog as the smart animal: Laika, the astronaut. The first dog to travel into space

Atlas | Canis Lupus Familiaris |

Perspective of the animal There is an institution called dognation, which works in discovering the cognitive abilities of dogs, in a recent study they resumed the basic cognitive abilities giving an individualized insight into the cognitive strategies that dogs employ through interactive games and expert analyses giving a perspective on how dogs see the world The study is based in 5 main points : memory, empathy, communication, cunning and reasoning. And according to it, dogs in general have a retrospective memory high bonding and collaborative attitude, its reasoning process its half logical half impulsive.

Some of these results explain why dogs are often considered intelligent animals, or affective, theirs memory process is based on previous experience which allow them to take correct decisions and the bonding and collaborative attitude can explain their closeness with human beings, but always depending of their previous life experience

Luis Pimentel

- Perspective of the animal -

Mid -cunning

Retrospective memory High bonding attitude Mid collaborative attitude

High collaborative attitude

Reasoning half logical - impulsive

Low self-reliant attitude Low trust-worth in itself Low impulsive attitude Low individualistic attitude Not present-minded memory

Self-reliant Trustworthy Impulsive Individualistic Present-minded

Communication Cunning Reasoning Empathy Memory

Collaborative Wily Logical Bonded Retrospective

Atlas | Canis Lupus Familiaris |

Relation with other animals (humans) The dog have lately have develop an incredible work acting as assistant or support for humans with disabilities, its almost a symbiotic relation where dogs have helped humans.

Service animals are dogs individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a disability.

There are: Diabetic Alert Dogs, Severe Allergy Alert dogs, Visual Assistance Dogs, Hearing Dogs for the Deaf, Wheelchair Assistance Dogs, Psychiatric Service Dogs, Brace/Mobility Support Dogs, Medical Alert Dogs, Seizure Assistance Dogs, there are projects to link the greyhound (often abandoned after its life as a runner is passed) pulmonary expansion with mechanical system adapted for humans; in other interesting case the German Shepherd is given to war veterans to help them improve in emotional problems after war.

With a service dog by their side, many people with disabilities are able to work and reach new levels of independence.

Luis Pimentel

- Relation with other animals (humans) -

387.000 service dogs (0.9%) 43 million of disabled person only in US

Emotional rehabilitation for veterans

Service, assistance for blindness and hearing

Breathing assistance

Atlas | Canis Lupus Familiaris |

Gatto, Cat, Felis catus Enrico Pinto

Biology The Cat is the most popular and widespread feline of the planet. Like almost all other members of the Felidae, cats have strong and agile bodies, quick reflexes, retractable claws and sharp teeth.

The typical range of weight for a cat is between 4 and 5 kg, but there are some breeds that can weight only 2 kg or exceed 11 kg. Feral cats tend to weigh less than domestic cats, due to their limited access to food sources. Cats present an average height of 23â&#x20AC;&#x201C;25 cm and a head/body length of 46 cm, with tails that can occasionally exceed 30 cm.

Their skeleton is very flexible and capable to pass through any space into which they can fit their heads, thanks to the free-floating clavicle bones which are attached to their forelimbs.

The skull is characterized by big eye sockets and a powerful jaw, with long canine teeth adapted to kill small prey with a lethal neck bite. In a relaxed position, the retractable claws are hidden within their skin and fur, in order to prevent excessive wear and to allow the silent hunting of prey.

Cats can walk very silently and precisely, directly on their toes, with a very peculiar gait that changes according to the speed and provides sure footing when they walk on rough terrain.

As it concerns their senses, cats have exceptionally sensitive eyes, since their pupils are covered with a tapetum lucid, which reflects any light that passes through the retina back into the eye. They are known for their excellent night vision, even thought their color vision is limited only to blue and yellow-green cones.

The hearing of cats is exceptional too: also thanks to their pinnae, the movable outer ears, they can detect frequencies from 55 Hz to 79,000 Hz , which is a wider range than either dogs or humans.

There are many genes that interact to generate catsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; hair color and coat patterns. Different combinations of these genes give different phenotypes, that can also affect their social behavior and weaning time.

Enrico Pinto

Space The Cats can adapt to an enormous number of different habitats, including the high density of the city and the wildness of the desert, the tranquility of a domestic space and the brutality of the forest. Thanks to their adaptability and their hunting skills, they can survive without the help of humans in both rural and urban areas, usually in communities but also on their own.

The species of Felis catus is now present on all continents except Antarctica. Only 13 out of 131 main groups of islands did not register its presence. This ability to survive in any kind of climate or environment can be seen as the most relevant reason why cats are considered among the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most problematic invasive species for natural habitats. Nevertheless, while the domestic cat can be found basically everywhere, wild species are distributed especially across Europe, Southern and Central Asia, and Africa.

Therefore, cats can be considered as a cosmopolitan species, not only because their habitat extends across most areas of the world, but also because they are extremely adaptable to the city life, either on the streets or at home. Catsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; habitat can easily be extended to high-rise buildings too, thanks to their remarkable ability to survive falls from great heights (righting reflex). For the same reason, the number of cats living on trees is great. However, the ideal habitat for a cat in the city is determined by an enclosure, that could consist of a domestic environment or a public system of fences and walls - like a courtyard.

Feral cats usually live in colonies, in order to control larger areas around food source, as is the case of the fortification of Castello Sforzesco in Milan or the fence of Verano Cemetery in Rome. Indeed, the natural habitat for feral cats is where they can easily hide and find prey. Feral cats who share their territory with a colony should never be moved from their habitat, since they are really attached to it.

Nowadays the presence of cats, both in domestic space and public areas is having several architectural implications, including pet-friendly home design, zoomorphic architectureand shelters for wildcats.

Enrico Pinto

Time The behavior of cats depends on their natural habitat and life conditions. The timing of their activity is quite variable too: wildcats are more likely to hunt at night, while domestic cats tend to be more active during evening and morning, when human activity is greater. Since they rely on humans for eating, some of them can assumed human habits and routines., expecting to be fed at precise hours during the day.

It is very interesting to see how their sociability and behavior change according to their relation with humans and other animals. In general, both wildcats and domestic cats tend to be solitary, but they can easily share their activities - like eating, sleeping, etc. - with other cats or other animals, if correctly socialized.

As a general rule, cats are a nocturnal species.

In their natural state, they prefer sleeping during daylight hours and hunt - or play - during night.

Nevertheless, there is a dramatic difference in the activity and sleeping hours of house cats and feral cats.

The former ones tend to sleep almost 80% of their time, while feral cats usually are inactive about 62% of the time. The percentage of high-intesity action is 3% for house cats and 14% for their wild peers.

The difference is great also when you consider the distance they can cover: while usually house cats, when allowed to roam, cover only two hectares a day, a wild cat can reach the area of 370 hectares (with an average value of 157). This is also due to the fact that catsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; bodies are very agile and flexible: they adapt to the condition they need to provide themselves food and prey.

Moreover, like many other members of the Felidae, cats are superb runners. Both domestic and feral cats can reach the speed of almost 50 km/h in a short jerk, thanks to their special gait and flexible spine.

Enrico Pinto

Food Cats play an important ecological role either in the food cycle or in the economy of food. Indeed, they are so integrated within the human society, that can be considered either as consumers at supermarket or as products to use against other animals’ population.

Felis Catus is an obligate carnivore species, a “mesopredator”. During its biological evolution, it developed a high efficiency to kill prey and digest meat, while it had always presented some difficulty in eating plants and grass. This is also due to the conformation of its jaw and dental arch, adapted for severing in the prey’s spinal cord and tear its meat. At least 20% of a cat’s diet must be composed of protein: it should be allowed to hunt and eat prey, since it requires also calcium from animal bones. As a confirmation of their contemporary metropolitan lifestyle, a complete diet of vegetarian or vegan cat foods has already been produced and sold in markets, with chemically synthesized taurine and other essential nutrients.

Pet food might be very expensive and have regular space in the advertising. Voluntary associations that usually take care of feral population of cats in the cities, usually require economical help from municipalities, in order to cover all the costs for food and health care. On the other hand, since cats’ favorite prey are primarily birds and rodents, they can be used as control means for pest and vermin instead of expensive measures that usually are taken by privates and public municipalities to solve this problem.

Nevertheless, feral cats are considered as one of the most dangerous invasive species of the world, threatening biodiversity and wildlife, especially for birds population, either in natural context or in urban areas.

It has been very elusive and difficult to take effective measures in order to reduce their population, especially because of the great number of cat enthusiasts, although, in many cases, reducing the population of non-native cats has produced a rapid recovery of species in their native habitat. On the other hand, the presence of cats drastically reduces the number of rodents, which eat birds’ eggs and small mammals.

Therefore, their negative ecological role, especially in the cities, is still controversial.

Enrico Pinto

Reproduction Cats are almost as predominant as humans: they constantly mark their territory and call for the other sex, in order to obtain the right to mate.

Female cats are seasonally polyestrous: they experience several periods of heat over the year, especially from the beginning of spring till late autumn. These periods can last about 4 to 7 days and can occur about every two weeks.

When cats live in colonies, the femalesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; reproduction cycle synchronize, in order to allow a common and weaning of kittens.

Male cats usually have to fight over females in order to win the right to mate, since multiple males are attracted by the heat period of the same cat. The continuous yowling and meowing is a clear sign of the female receptivity to copulation, and it culminates with the adoption of the lordosis behavior, a body posture adopted by many mammals both during pre-copulatory behavior and during copulation itself.

Cats are known for their almost compulsive obsession for cleaning and grooming. After mating, indeed, the female washes herself completely, attacking any male that tries to mate with her at this very particular moment of sexual behavior.

The gestation for cats last around 65 days, and the number of newborn kittens usually ranges from 2 to 5.

A feline litter need to be fed and looked after by their mother for the first six or seven weeks of their life, since they canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do basic activities if not stimulated by their mother. They reach sexual maturity after 5-10 months, depending on the breed. Surgical neutering (spaying or castration) as early as 7 weeks is a highly recommended practice either by veterinaries or ecologist, in order to avoid sex-related offensive behavior and to control population. Indeed, it has been estimated that, over 10 years, if not controlled by humans, a normal female cat can give birth up to 150 kittens and could be responsible for an exponential reproduction of more than 3200 descendants.

Enrico Pinto

Stereotype Cats are definitely one of the most loved animal by humans. They are usually seen as a poetic or mystic presence in the city and as a companion of humans, as it is confirmed by the wide range of references that can be found in literature, religion, art, music, cinema and superstition. Their relationship with humans can be considered as old as civilization and could be dated back over 95000 years. Skeletons of cats have been found in Neolithic graves in Cyprus, but the Egyptian culture firstly recognized the importance of cat domestication and associated it with religion.

Indeed, one of the most famous goddess of Egyptian mythology is often depicted with the appearance of a cat, alternating it with the more aggressive aspect of a lioness. Cats have always been related with good luck in Russia too: there is still a tradition of letting a cat into a new house before the humans move in.

Nevertheless, black cats are generally considered as a symbol of misfortune throughout Europe and United States - except for United Kingdom. There are many different depictions of sacred or supernatural cats, such as the famous Japanese talisman Maneki-neko and the mystic cats who pulled the chariot of Scandinavian goddess Freyja. While in the former case, the cat is believed to welcome or to bring good luck to the owner, in the latter one it is connected with fertility and sexuality. Cats are largely present in the moral fables of Aesop, Phaedrus and La Fountaine, usually representing craftiness or deviousness. Novels and poetry usually contemplate the figure of cat too: there are many book and poems entirely dedicated to cats, written by authors like Luis Sepúlveda, Georges Simenon, Sōseki Natsume, Pablo Neruda, Gianni Rodari, W. B. Yeats and many others. In their works, cats are usually depicted as poetic and mysterious souls, with a positive connotation and, at the same time, a dark side. Among the years, more than one hundred fictional cats in animation have been invented, from Walt Disney’s Aristocats to Hanna-Barbera’s Tom & Yerry, with multiple personalities and anthropomorphic features both in aspect and character. Curiously, nowadays, cats have become a sort of viral web-stars, featuring in millions of pictures and videos on Youtube and Social Network.

Enrico Pinto

Perspective It is difficult to predict what does a cat think about humans, especially because they became so anthropized and close to the human sphere, that ecological and biological studies are not sufficient anymore.

Also feral cats developed interesting dynamics in the approach to human species, starting from distinguishing people who feed them and mere intruders.

Scientists claim that domestic cats consider humans as a sort of mother substitute, either a superior cat or a source of food. After a very precise scientific analysis, it has been discovered that cats don’t perceive humans the way dogs do. Indeed, while dogs understand immediately that we are different from themselves and change behavior as soon as they see a human, cats might not clarify this distinction in their mind when they’re socializing with us. Basically they behave with humans exactly as they do with other peers of their species: they put their tails up in they air, rub around legs, groom and make vibrant sounds in attempt to communicate. What they certainly recognize, instead, is our bigger size, that is probably one of the reasons why they respect us. Indeed, they would not trust or rub any animal they consider inferior to them.

Cats generally do not carry out commands, although they are very intelligent animal. For example, they learn specifically how to call their owners when they are in another room, developing a system of particular vibrations and noises.

They can also determine the member of the family or the social group they interact with - who is going to be more favorable to socialize with, to the point that they can memorize their owners’ habits and activities during the day. Their perspective on humans can be considered as a sort of manipulation, since their communication and social skills exceed normal animal behaviors. Moreover, exactly like humans, cats suffer from different kind of psychological stress, possibly deriving from a misunderstanding of their owner’s behavior or a fight with other species.

Enrico Pinto

Relation Catsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; primordial behavior towards other species consists of a very solitary and aggressive instinct, that still today can be noticed in wildcats and feral colonies, who try to have as little contact with other animals as possible. Nevertheless, during the domestication process, cats have learnt the benefits of a mutualistic or commensal relationship with humans and other species. The closer animal that usually cats have to deal with - voluntarily or not - is certainly the dog, as a fundamental pet associated with human life and the dimension of the city. Their relationship can be controversial or friendly, depending on their individual character and their state of socialization.

The signals they use can communicate aggression, fear, dominance, friendship or territoriality, which is easily misinterpreted by the other species. For example, both dogs or cats instinctively chase small flying prey, or mark their territory with urine. Sometimes fights occur and both species can become fearful after injuries. Nevertheless, if correctly socialized, cats and dogs can have mutual non-antagonistic relationships, to the point that they would prefer share their space together rather than with another peer of their own species. The rat is usually connected to cat too, even if they share a totally different kind of relationship, expecting the former to be killed by the latter one. This antagonistic relation is very important for ecological reasons and should be controlled in order to preserve their habitat and the habitat of many other species, like birds and other small mammals. Another animal usually related with cats is the fox, most probably due to Collodiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s famous characters in the novel Pinocchio. In the famous episode, where a cat and a fox fool Pinocchio in order to steal his money, they are depicted as partners in crime or best friends.

Actually, their relationship is much more complicated. Indeed, even if many cases of mutualistic or commensal relationship have been registered, foxes tend to consider kitten litter an easy prey. In conclusion, the cosmopolitan cat seems to have adapted to the modern social life of sharing rituals, not only with humans, and tends to relate more with other species, especially if this provides benefits in searching for food, grooming and sleeping in more comfortable spaces.

Enrico Pinto

Nutria, Coypu, Myocastor coypus Eirini Psarrou

Rana verde, Edible frog, Pelophylax sinklepton esculenta Xian Qiu

Biological characteristics a. Length: Tadpole: the last stage of being a tadpole is 3.3cm.

Frog: Maximum length of the body is about 12 cm.

Females are between 5 to 9 cm long, while males are between 6 to 11 cm. b. Color: Tadpole: brown, black with dark spots Frog: Coloration of the back varies widely: from bright green to brown with normally dark spots or more or less evident a line vertebral green.

The belly is white with gray punctuation.

Change with temparature c. Shape: Tadpole: Variation of different growing stage. Generally speaking, it has very large muscular tail and clear translucent membrane .

Frog: 4 parts: head, slim body and Long hind legs.

The male has two vocal sacs on either side of the head. d. Breathing way: Tadpole: by gill Frog: maily by lungs, aided with skin

Xian Qiu

Habitat The Rana Verde is widely distributed in central and northern Europe and northern Italy to the Po. It presents throughout Italy in the Po Valley, except in Sardinia (IUCN map).

In reality they are two species (Pelophylax lessonae and Pelophylax ridibundus) and their hybrid Pelophylax klepton esculenta. In Lombardy there is the parental species Pelophylax ridibundus.

Green Frog is present with a discrete population in various water bodies in the natural or artificial environment in small groups.

They are usually staying in lakes and ponds with rich vegetation on shore, slow-flowing rivers and canals.

(We could say that it prefers still water.) Here are the possible places for their existence: heath lands, moist grasslands, small rivers, swamp, ponds, woodland, pealand.

Edible frog is endemic to Europe. It naturally occurs from the northern half of France to western Russia, and from Estonia andDenmark to Bulgaria and northern Italy. It is introduced in Spain and the United Kingdom.

Xian Qiu

Time temporality a. Seasons: In spring: spawn and tapole with no legs.

In summer: Growth and a frog croak In autumn: the male remains in the water and the female leaves In winter: it hibernates burying themselves in the mud and it is underwater. b. Day & night Day: all activities Night: hunting for insects

Xian Qiu

Food cycle a. Adult 1. They eat few vegetarians and more living creature.

They could be Adult insects (Diptera, Odonata ...), annelids and molluscs, other worms,aquatic animals small fishes, rodent.

2. They could eat the weaker edible frog and their tadpole or the other small frogs of other frog species and their tadpole. b.The tadpole 1. When they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have teeth, they eat the gel-like envelope of the eggs.

2. Later, tadpole could eat the plants like leaves, algae and other plant-derived substances.

3. When they are having their legs, they could also eat living creatures. c. The enemies 1. When they are tadpoles, turtle, water centipedes, water beetles, coons, leeches will eat them 2. When they have grown into frog, birds, crawfish, rats and cats will eat them.

3. The frog is used for food, particularly inFrance for the delicacy frog legs.

Xian Qiu

Reprouction a. The males arrive at breeding sites to meet the females at the beginning of April and remain there until September. In the contrary, females emigrate usually immediately after the production.

The removal from the site of reproduction normally occurs with favorable weather conditions, mostly during the nights of rain. b. Easily confused with other species: Rana esculenta is a hybrid between Rana lessonae and Rana ridibunda. It also has intermediate characteristics with the parent species. Also, if this frog mates with the other two species, the offspring will be of Rana esculenta! c. The hybrid populations are propagated predominantly by female edible frogs mating with males of one of the parental species Smarsh frog and Pool frog. d. These populations diverged, but remained genetically close enough to be able to create fertile hybrids.

However, when edible frogs mate with each other, their offspring are often malformed, so there are no pure populations of edible frogs. e. Smarsh frog character The marsh frog is a water-dwelling, generally green-colored frog species. It can reach a maximum length of 17 centimetres, but males remain smaller (around 12 cm).

The Western European populations are generally dark green to black with dark spots on the back and sides and three clear green lines on the back. f. Pool frog character The pool frog (Pelophylax lessonae) is predominantly brown with dark brown or black blotches over the back and a lighter, often yellow, dorsal stripe. Adults can grow up to 9cm in length but males are significantly smaller. During the breeding season the males have a loud call generated by a pair of inflatable pouches (vocal sacs) each side of the mouth.

Xian Qiu

Stereotype a. If the frog is scared (it could be by sound), it will jump into the water and quickly hides among the debris.

The tapole: escapes at the first sign of danger. b. Human encroachment and also air pollution leads to over-nitrification of pond waters. c. The triphenyltin from pesticide which flows into the farmlands and other waterbody could damages the central nervus system of the tadpole. So the tadpole will grow slower that makes itself in danger. d. The acid rain(< 3.5) could make the PH of water lower than 4.5. The youth tadpole and the spawn wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t not alive in the water whose PH is lower than 4.5. f. The green house effect makes the frog have abnormal colors.

Xian Qiu

Perspective on humans a. Ugly but kind: Prince frog b. Selfproude: Frog & Ox c. Cute: Catoon for kids d. Beneficial: Eat insects e. Edible: Famous dishes by the hinge legs f. Good at Swimming: Breaststroke g. Famous band: both Tadpole & Rana h. Raining frogs (Magnolia frog): Scientifically, its plausibility due to heavy winds and other meteorological means to bring the water and the frogs from one place to the other.

Religiously, according to the bible, it is the second crise to fine the Egyptians.

Xian Qiu

Relation with other species a. The snail will slow its speed when it needs to pass over a frog. As we know, the amphibian eats mollusc.

In this case, the frog eats snail. That is why it seems the frog stays with the snail and the snail keeps itself safe. b. The dragon- fly larvae and other aquatic enemies eats the tail of the tadpole. But the tail of the taptole has great capacity of regeneration so that it could be alive with the other aquatic animals.

Xian Qiu

Raganella italiana, Italian tree frog, Hyla intermedia Tommaso Raimondi

Biology The Italian tree frog, or Hyla Intermedia, is a small sized species. Its medium length is from 3 to 4 cm and rarely overcomes 5 cm; females are bigger than males. Its snout is rounded and its fingers end up with sticky buffers that allow the Italian tree frog to climb vertical surfaces.

The skin of its back is completely smooth, bright green colored, but it can change to olive green or yellow-grey due to animal conditions. On the contrary the abdomen is white and granular. A grey stripe runs on both sides from the groin to the eye, which is the distinctive sign of the species.

Males’ throat inflates and creates a “vocal sack” to diffuse the reproductive call.

The Italian tree frog is a very agile animal and can jump over large distances between trees.

It also has a very quick, sticky and flexible tongue that uses to catch insects and food in general.

Tommaso Raimondi

1 cm

Habitat The Italian tree frog, or Hyla Intermedia, is quite a widespread species all around Italy, except in Sardinia and Liguria, and in some southern areas of Switzerland and Slovenia. Differently from the common frog, the Italian tree frog is prevalently arboricolous and usually lives in open and sunny habitats, with abundance of trees, bushes and aquatic plants, generally in quite wet zones.

Whether some deciduous forests are next to their habitat, it can reach the top of high trees thanks to the sticky buffers it has on its fingers. Large leaves are one of its favorite environments to camouflage.

Hyla Intermedia may also be found in meadows, heathlands and even in farmed areas (mainly rice paddies and orchards), in proximity of water bodies.

The Italian tree frog is mainly a lowland species with populations concentrating below 400 m; however, in some areas it has been observed at 1000 m, and in the province of Messina (Sicily) it reaches up to 1800 m, as long as the moisture rate is high.

In spring and summer, adults move to the nearest dew pond to breed. It can be a basin, a water puddle, a small lake, a canal, a river running at slow stream. It might also be a temporary dew pond, created by seasonal stream of waters.

As all amphibious, the Italian tree frog is decreasing in number because of the global heating and the reduction of moist zones. It is anyway quite an adaptable animal and its coexistence with humans in cities is not rare when urban parks can provide a suitable habitat for them. A risk that can occur is the introduction of fishes in moist area as eggs and tadpoles would be in danger.

During winter it goes in hibernation close to water bodies.

Tommaso Raimondi

Temporality The Italian tree frog, or Hyla Intermedia, is an animal that goes in hibernation during the period of autumn/winter, depending on the latitude, and therefore it is active just for half a year.

As for that period, its approach changes between day and night.

The Italian tree frog is active mainly at sunset and during the night, when it moves and look for food.

If during the day it stays on trees, at night it might climb down trees to get rehydrated. Moreover, it is at night that it breeds, next to temporary pools, ponds, marches, ditches, man-made reservoirs or rice paddies.

During the day, it generally stays static camouflaging on tree logs or leaves, bushes or cane stems.

Adults might spend long time under the sunlight, protected by a particular cutaneous secretion that prevents them from dehydration.

In autumn, when the Italian tree frog looks for places to go in hibernation, it might be active all day long. Depending on latitude and altitude, hibernation may start from September to the end of November and lasts until the beginning of March.

At the end of March, chorusing males concentrate near well-vegetated reproductive sites to attract females and to breed.

Tommaso Raimondi

may

may

Italian Tree Frog, Hyla Intermedia

Tommaso Raimondi

Reproduction The Italian tree frog, or Hyla Intermedia, is an animal that goes in hibernation during the period of autumn/winter, depending on the latitude, and therefore it is active just for half a year.

As for that period, its approach changes between day and night.

The Italian tree frog is active mainly at sunset and during the night, when it moves and look for food.

If during the day it stays on trees, at night it might climb down trees to get rehydrated. Moreover, it is at night that it breeds, next to temporary pools, ponds, marches, ditches, man-made reservoirs or rice paddies.

During the day, it generally stays static camouflaging on tree logs or leaves, bushes or cane stems.

Adults might spend long time under the sunlight, protected by a particular cutaneous secretion that prevents them from dehydration.

In autumn, when the Italian tree frog looks for places to go in hibernation, it might be active all day long. Depending on latitude and altitude, hibernation may start from September to the end of November and lasts until the beginning of March.

At the end of March, chorusing males concentrate near well-vegetated reproductive sites to attract females and to breed.

Tommaso Raimondi

Italian Tree Frog, Hyla Intermedia

Tommaso Raimondi

Italian Tree Frog, Hyla Intermedia

Tommaso Raimondi

Italian Tree Frog, Hyla Intermedia

Tommaso Raimondi

Rospo smeraldino, European green toad, Bufo viridis Ginevra Rapisardi

Desciption The green toad (Bufo viridis) is a medium-sized toad with a light grey to cream or olive back, marked with blotches of olive, green or black. The blotches vary in shape, size and number, and often have dark edges. A pair of green stripes runs from the eyes to the nostrils, and there may be reddish flecks along the flanks.

The hind limbs of the green toad are short and there is little webbing between the digits. The head is wide, with prominent parotoid glands behind the eyes, and the pupil of the eye is horizontal. Male differs from the female by having nuptial pads on the first finger, smaller body size (Males: 5-8cm, females: 7-10cm), and sometimes more greenish dorsal background coloration (grayish in females) during the breeding season.

Ginevra Rapisardi

The green Toad

Habitat The species group of the green toads is found in mainland Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa.

Thanks to its capability of adaptation the green toad lives in a large variety of habitats including urban areas. Moreover belonging to the amphibian class of animals it is characterized by the ability to exploit both aquatic and terrestrial habitats. The name “amphibian” infact, derived from the Greek amphibios meaning “doublelife,” reflects this dual life strategy.

During the hibernation period (October-March) it lives on land, hiding itself under some rocks or underground buried below the frost line. Throughout the reproduction period instead it spends the time in a diverse range of temporary and permanent waterbodies including swamps, ponds, lakes, pools in streams and rivers, reservoirs, ditches along the streets and puddles. The toad is very common in many cities where it finds suitable wet conditions in parks and fountains..

This species inhabits the city of Milan for years.

Although its presence is radically decreased in the last decades is still possible to find it in several places such as vegetable garden, urban gardens and parks (mostly in the Bresso pond of ParcoNord) but also in abandoned areas of the city like the railway yard of San Cristoforo.

The major threat to the green toad is the loss of its breeding habitats due to wetland drainage and aquatic pollution. Moreover local population declines are also caused by mortalities on roads, during the reproduction period infact they can be also found in urban areas crossing the street, in really dangerous conditions, in search of water sources to reproduce themselves.

Ginevra Rapisardi

WHERE & when

OCTOBER - MARCH

Time Seasons Amphibians are cold-blooded and they survive the cold winter by hibernating . When the weather gets cold, toads burrow into the ground. With the cold, their bodies fall into a torpor where they remain until they warm up again in the spring. As the weather warms and insects become active their bodies will warm and they will emerge from hibernation in search of water sources to reproduce themselves.

Day/Night The adult green toad is mainly nocturnal, while during the day it spends the time hiding itself under the ground or some rocks, instead at dusk it emerge to find insects to consume. Throghout the hibernation period for example it can be found in the city during the night near some street lamp in search of food. However, it may also be active in the daytime during the breeding season.

Ginevra Rapisardi

WHEn

March - october

zzz

Food Cycle Toads are an important part of the natural food chain. They are voracious eaters of insects and other small invertebrates and, especially as tadpoles, they are important in the diet of many animals.

In particoular the green toad eats a variety of insects and invertebrats such as crickets, worms, ants, small butterflies, moth, flies, beetles and caterpillars. The green toad can be very useful also in a vegetable garden because it eats insects, grubs and worms that can ruin vegetable crops.

Infact the majority of the nasty pest insects that people use chemical insecticide sprays to get rid of are insects that are eaten by toads.

Ginevra Rapisardi

food cycle

Reproduction With the warm weather of spring toads travel to water. When the air temperature and their body temperatures are just right, the males will begin calling to attract females and advertise their position to other males. During the call, the round, mottled gray vocal sacs of the male are greatly inflated and vibrate rapidly. The male choruses are continued day and night during the height of the breeding season. As indicated before the place chosen for the breeding can be in temporary and permanent waterbodies including swamps, ponds, lakes, pools in streams and rivers, reservoirs, ditches along the streets and puddles. If permanent or temporary wetland habitat is damaged, drained or polluted, amphibians cannot easily locate and travel to a new pond. Temporary wetlands can be important tadpole habitats because there arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fish to prey on them.

During the reproduction act the male green toad clasps the female under the front legs during mating, and may hold this position for a few days until the female lays her eggs. Spawning usually takes place in water bodies no deeper than 50 centimetres. Each female green toad may lay between 5,000 and 13,000 eggs, with the eggs being deposited in 2 strings of about 2 to 7 metres in length.

The tadpoles of the green toad undergo metamor phosis in spring and summer.The newly metamorphosed juveniles often emerge in large numbers, covering pond shores with thousands of small toadlets. The maximum lifespan of the green toad has been estimated at around seven to ten years.

Ginevra Rapisardi

reproduction

Stereotype Sputare/Ingoiare il rospo “Sputa il rospo”, litterally “Spit the toad”, is a common italian proverb used when someone is hiding the truth for long time. Another popular italian saying is “ingoiare il rospo”, it is used when you have to tolerate an unpleasent situation without saying nothing and is connected to the stereotype of the toad as something very nauseating and repugnant, precisely hard to swallow.

The Prince Toad Even if the classic fairy tale “The Princess and the Frog” clearly deals with the other amphibian, this story is told with many different variations and in some versions the frog is replaced by the toad.

Infact the stereotype of the ugly prince toad is popular as much as the one of the frog, probably also because, thinking to kiss something nauseating, the imagine of the toad emphasize even better the repulsiveness of the action.

In the most common modern version a Princess kisses a frog/toad, and the animal is transformed into a handsome Prince. A humorous maxim (with variations on both the animals), used to encourage those who seek true love, it has been constructed based on this scenario. Furthemore according to “The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs” from Yale University Press with an initial citation in February 1976 interestingly, the earliest instances use “toad” and not “frog”.

“Before you meet the handsome Prince you’ve gotta kiss a lot of toads”.

So the toad in the common way of thinking is linked to something desgusting and repugnant.

Ginevra Rapisardi

sputa il rospo!

Before you meet the handsome Prince youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve to kiss a lot of toads!

Perspective on the humans According to the common thought and the collective imagination the toad is considered as a desgusting and repugnant animal but if we try to think about its prespective we can suppose that also a green toad could see us as something very repulsive. Especially if we imagine normal people looking at the toad with a revolted face probably from the toads point of view they will seem as strange and ugly creatures.

Ginevra Rapisardi

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Relation with other species The green toad is not affected by a large predatory activity because, if threatened, it may secrete a noxious that has been known to cause discomfort and even convulsions in animals that come in contact with it, for this reason frequently the animals that try to eat green toads and toads in general are induced to spit them. Despite this, the green toad is included in the diets of many animals such as snakes (mainly the grass snake/ringed snake because it is immune to its venom), predatory birds (crows, hawks, buzzards), warding birds like the heron and some mammals like the hedgehog and the badger.

Ginevra Rapisardi

THE OTHERS

land

water

air

Lucertola muraiola, Common wall lizard, Podarcis muralis Ilaria Rigodanzo

Behaviour Lizards tend to be bright, alert and responsive, almost inquisitive. In contrast with the Wild-caught lizards that are often shy, wary and try to escape at the slightest disturbance, the captive-born ones are more tame and docile. Lizard, especially male one, can be extremely aggressively territorial and when they are threatened display an offensive aggression.

This characteristic behaviour is shown in their relationship with other species, even those considerably larger than them. However, having a group together, especially if reared from young together, tends to inhibit their typically aggressive territorial behaviour.

One of its main physical peculiarity is the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Autotomyâ&#x20AC;?. The ability to lose the tail in order to distract the predator and escape is not the only technique to protect itself. Thanks to its skeleton lizard is also agile and used to change its skin colour to conceal itself in case of danger.

Ilaria Rigodanzo

SHY

AGGRESSIVE

SCARED

Habitat The species is largely found in dry areas. It can occur in rocky and scree areas, scrubland, deciduous and coniferous woodland, orchards, vineyards, fields, stone walls, and on buildings. It is often found in human settlements including large cities, villages, and railway lines which may be a possible method of dispersal. Because they have persisted for many years and survived through record-setting severe winters, they are considered permanent residents.

As their name suggests, their favoured habitat is wall, or similar naturally occurring rock formation where they take advantage of nooks and crannies in the wall or rock to conceal themselves. In addition, being extremely agile, lively, and highly strung makes them looking for disproportionately large places to live.

In large cities, lizard can also be found in green areas and parks where the the supply of food is easier to find. In those areas it is usually concealed through the bark of trees.

Ilaria Rigodanzo

Time Due to its physical structure, lizard’s cycle of life depends on weather conditions and seasons. In fact, being a cold-blooded animal, makes lizard prefers warm and sunny weather instead of cold temperature.

Moreover, this fact does not allow lizard to live during the coldest season.

According to Avary’s research of 1978, lizard lives 255 days each year, that is from early March to mid October. The research also point out that lizard’s cycle of life can be ideally divided into four main stages. During spring lizard wakes up from hibernation, and it reaches its ideal physical condition during the summer. In this period it occurs the reproduction of the species that give birth before autumn. When the weather starts to became cloudy and rainy, lizard does not come out from its shelter and, at a later stage, it goes into hibernation.

Ilaria Rigodanzo

Reproduction Podarcis muralis is oviparous and individual females can deposit from three to eleven clutches per active season.The possibility of multiple clutches per season presumably allows Podarics muralis to give them the flexibility needed to respond to variations in the availability of food resources needed for reproduction.

Mating occurs in the spring, after hibernation: male lizard shows an aggressive behaviour towards other opponent. This behaviour implies the use of camouflage effects by male lizard in order to scare other suitors. After a shortly mating, eggs are laid about one month later by female species. Females either deposit them under a rock, in a cave, or in a protect areas; thus, the eggs can be save from predators. They hatch two month later after they are deposited, and is not involved parental care.

Ilaria Rigodanzo

Food Cycle Common wall lizards are very active and are easily seen in the open basking or hunting for food. They are very quick at climbing and running and even jump from object to object when being chased. If a lizard is captured by its tail, it autotomizes (drops) the tail and runs away. The dropped tail keeps wiggling for several minutes, which helps to distract the predator and allow the lizard to escape. The broken tail area begins to heal right away and a new tail will grow back, but it will be a slightly different colour than the original.

European Wall Lizards eat flying and ground insects such as flies and beetles along with many types of spiders. They are fast predators and have been seen jumping off the ground to catch flying insects. When Wall Lizards catch a large insect they firmly bite it and then thrash their head back and forth until it stops moving. They then put the prey item down and carefully eat it.

Ilaria Rigodanzo

Economy Most lizards have dry, scaly skin with brightly coloured patch on the back. This specific shape of the skin, that is really closer to snake’s one, has brought to use it in replacement for bracelet and wristwatch made by snake’s skin. The decision to use it instead of snake’s skin must be searched in economical reasons. In fact, on equal quality, lizard’s skin is cheaper than snake’s one; thus, people start to use it thanks to its convenience.

Camouflage: These hand-sized lizards are also able to changed colour. Within an hour their typical brown with green pattern transformed into blacker hues that better matched the environment. It was found that the skin is rife with opsins—light-sensitive proteins that are the basis of animal vision. When light enters into eyes, opsins in retinas respond by triggering chemical reactions that send signals to the brain. Common wall lizard has plenty of opsins in its eyes, but also in the skin of its torso. It’s especially common in the lizard’s flanks, and in cells called melanophores that are filled with dark pigments. It might be possible that flank opsins can respond to surrounding light levels and automatically adjust the lizard’s colour. Thus, lizard might have a kind of distributed vision that is independent of its eyes, and perhaps its brain.

Ilaria Rigodanzo

Stereotype The differences between lizards and dinosaurs are greater than might appear at first glance. Even though dinosaurs (and other archosaurs) clearly appear to fit the bill as reptiles, there are significant structural differences between them and other groups of reptiles.

In fact there are more fundamental, skeletal differences that can be seen between all lepidosaurs (e.g. living lizards and snakes) and all archosaurs (e.g. extinct thecodonts, pterosaurs, and dinosaurians).

There is good evidence for differences in physiology as well. Dinosaurs appear to have had a much more “hot blooded” metabolism than do lizards. Instead of dinosaur, lizards are unqualified ectotherms (without a way to make their own body heat), growing slowly and taking years to reach sexual maturity. Moreover, they do not deposit fibrolamellar bone, a dense, interwoven tissue indicative of fast growth and high basal metabolism.

Although those differences, lizard’s appearance still remind us dinosaur’s aspect.

Ilaria Rigodanzo

How they see us Often smaller than the birds, dogs and other predators that hunt them, lizards are equipped with a variety of defensive mechanisms to keep them alive or just to frightened animals and humans. It could be something that is obvious or it may be the element of surprise that wards off a would-be predator. Either way, the results can be fascinating.

Some lizards risk life and limb, or in this case their tails, in order to escape predators. Hissing is another common method of defence for many lizards. The hissing sound is meant as a warning to predators and is usually one of the first lines of defence. Some reptiles may combine the hissing noise with other methods to appear more dangerous to the predator.

The element of surprise is another method of defence.

The blue-tongued skink sticks out its blue tongue and scares predators away by making them think itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s poisonous.

Ilaria Rigodanzo

Coexistence Many lizards defend certain areas against predators as well as intruders of the same or closely related species. Territorial defence does not always involve actual combat. Presumably to avoid physical harm, elaborate, ritualized displays have evolved in many species. These presentations often involve the erection of the neck and the sudden increase in the apparent size of an individual through puffing and posturing. Many species display bright colours by extending a throat fan or exposing a coloured patch of skin and engage in stereotyped movements such as push-ups, head bobbing, and tail waving.

However, when danger threatens especially with its predator (e.g. birds, snakes, etc.), it typically remains close to rock piles in oder to move into small crevices and puff up their bodies to make their extrication difficult.

Ilaria Rigodanzo

Biacco, Green whip snake, Hierophis viridiflavus Samantha Rodriguez