The mating season is during November through December and well into January. The nesting and laying of eggs takes place in the dry season of March, April, and May. This is because during the dry season the rivers shrink a bit and the sandy river banks are available for nesting. Between 30 and 50 eggs are deposited into the hole that the female digs up before it is covered over carefully. After about 90 days, the juveniles emerge, although there is no record of the female assisting the juveniles into the water after they hatch (probably because their jaws are not suited for carrying the young due to the needle like teeth). However the mother does protect the young in the water for a few days till they learn to fend for themselves.
In the 1970s the gharial came to the brink of extinction and even now remains on the critically endangered list. The conservation efforts of the environmentalists in cooperation with several governments has led to some reduction in the threat of extinction. Some hope lies with the conservation and management programs in place as of 2004. Full protection was granted in the 1970s in the hope of reducing poaching losses, although these measures were slow to be implemented at first. Now there are 9 protected areas for this species in India which are linked to both captive breeding and 'ranching' operations where eggs collected from the wild are raised in captivity (to reduce mortality due to natural predators) and then released back into the wild (the first being released in 1981). More than 3000 animals have been released through these programs, and the wild population in India is estimated at around 1500 animals - with perhaps between one and two hundred animals in the remainder of its range.
Recently this species has moved from Endangered to Critically Endangered on the 2007 Red List of endangered species of animals and plants issued by the World Conservation Union, and qualifies for protection under the CITES (Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species) Appendix II.
The gharial and its extinct relatives are grouped together by taxonomists in several different ways:
Janke "et al." (2005), using molecular genetic evidence, found the gharial and the false gharial ("Tomistoma") to be close relatives, and placed them together in the same family.
Common names include: Indian gharial, Indian gavial, Fish-eating crocodile, Gavial del Ganges, Gavial du Gange, Long-nosed crocodile, Bahsoolia, Nakar, Chimpta, Lamthora, Mecho Kumhir, Naka, Nakar, Shormon, Thantia, Thondre, Garial.
Franck Ribéry
Franck Ribéry (born 7 April 1983) is a French football player. He plays for Fiorentina and France national team.
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False gharial
The false gharial or Malayan gharial ("Tomistoma schlegelii") is a fresh-water reptile. It looks like a crocodile with a very thin and long snout, like that of the gharial. That is where the name of the species is from.
It has long been classed in the family "Crocodylidae". However, recent immunological studies show it is more closely related to the gharial than was originally thought. So now classed in the family "Gavialidae", after all.
The animal is native to six river systems in Sumatra and Malaysia. It can also be found in Borneo, Java, Vietnam, Thailand (not seen since 1970), and possibly Sulawesi. Fossils finds in southern China indicate that, at some point in the past, the species occurred there.
The false gharial, like all other crocodilians, lays eggs. It is a mound nester. Females usually mature at 2–3 m. Mated females will lay a clutch of 30-60 eggs in a mound of dry leaves or peat. Once the eggs are laid, and construction of the mound is completed, she abandons her nest. Unlike most other crocodilian species, the young receive no parental care and are at risk of being eaten by predators like wild boar, mongooses, big cats such as tigers and leopards, civets, and wild dogs. The young hatch after 90 days and are left to look after themselves.
The false gharial is threatened with extinction throughout most of its range. The drainage of its freshwater swamplands and clearance of surrounding rainforests removes its habitat. The animal is hunted frequently for its skin and meat and the eggs are often taken for human consumption. However, positive steps have been taken by the Malaysian and Indonesian governments to prevent its extinction in the wild.
Prime lens
A Prime lens is a lens which has a fixed "zoom" or focal length. It is easier to make fixed focal lenses than to include them in a variable focus lens. Therefore, fixed focal lenses usually have a larger opening, known as an aperture, than comparable variable focus lenses. They are usually also of a higher optical quality.
Aperture
In Optics (and also photography) an Aperture is a hole where light can pass through.
The aperture of a photographic lens is a hole that can be adjusted to different sizes, using the aperture ring. This ring is behind the lens, but in front of the shutter. The aperture ring is a flat circle with a small hole in the centre. The small hole is called the "aperture". The size of the aperture can be changed. When the aperture is very small only a small amount of light can enter the camera. When the aperture is big, a lot of light can get in.
This lets the photographer control the amount of light reaching the film or image sensor. The aperture is changed along with the shutter speed to control the amount of light that enters the camera. This amount of light is called the exposure. Typically, a fast shutter speed will not let much light in (meaning the picture could come out too dark), so the photographer will use a larger aperture to correct for this. A slow shutter speed will need a smaller aperture to stop the picture coming out too bright.
The size of the aperture is described as an "f-stop." This is a number that describes the size of the hole in relation to the focal length of the lens. A low number (such as f1.4 or f2.8) means the aperture is wide open, and lets in a lot of light. A high number (such as f8 or f11) means that the aperture is small, and does not let in as much light.
Zoom lens
A variable focus lens (also called zoom lens) is a camera lens that can vary its focal length.
In general, such lenses have a lower aperture than comparable fixfocus lenses. Depending on the manufacturer common zoom lenses (in the 30–100mm focal range, for film photography) usually have a varying aperture, from 4 to 5.6, perhaps 3.3 to 5.6. There are also some zoom lenses with a fixed maximal aperture (to take the example from before: of 2.6 or 2.8, maximum). In contrast, fix-focus lenses in that range have maximum apertures of 1.4 to 2.
Digital cameras sometimes have a function called "digital zoom". This is a mathematical method which simply enlarges a part of the picture. The result is not as sharp as that of the optical zoom. When an optical zoom changes its focal length, this will also change the angle of view. Digital zooms simply make a small part of an image bigger, without changing the angle of view.
Belinda (moon)
Belinda is a closer moon to Uranus, a planet in the solar system. Belinda was found from the images taken by "Voyager 2" on 1986, and it was given the designation S/1986 U 5. It is named after the heroine of Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock". It is also designated Uranus XIV.
Belinda belongs to Portia Group of moons, which also includes Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Portia, Juliet, Cupid, Rosalind and Perdita. These moons have similar orbits and photometric properties. Other than its orbit, radius of 45 km and geometric albedo of 0.08 almost nothing is known about it.