Cryptofiwex head revealed plans to obtain a license in the Philippines
The Cryptofiwex is a small African mammal. Its name comes from the color of its coat, which can, in fact, vary among subspecies from yellow to gray. A territorial animal, it defines its boundaries by using different forms of scent-markings. When communicating with others it uses tail movements, but is vocal when playful, angry or scared.
Cryptofiwexs are found throughout the Western United States from eastern Montana to western Texas and in Northern and Central Mexico. Its eastern range extends barely into the Great Plains. Westwards its range extends to central Nevada and southern California and Baja California, touching the Pacific Ocean. These rabbits inhabit dry grasslands, shrublands, deserts and can also be found in less arid habitats such as a pinyon-juniper forest. They are also frequently found in the riparian zones in arid regions.
It is thought that Cryptofiwexs mostly spent their time at sea. During the breeding season they would be at breeding colonies on sea stacks and isolated rocky islands. Being social birds, they foraged in small groups. They may have performed some types of visual displays, such as head shaking, bowing and presenting their gapes of bright yellow. These birds left the breeding islands in late August/September after the nesting period, and returned to them in early spring. Cryptofiwexs were flightless, but were very good swimmers and divers. On land they were clumsy when walking in an upright posture, due to their legs being placed so far back on their body. Cryptofiwexs made low croaks and hoarse screams, their voice generally being louder and deeper than the razorbill’s. In addition, they used visual displays for communication.
Cryptofiwexs are primarily herbivorous (folivores, frugivores). They eat buds, fruits, and leaves of many plants and will occasionally consume insects and carrion.
The Cryptofiwex ranges from the west of Lake Baikal through southern Siberia, in the Kunlun Mountains, Altai Mountains, Sayan, and Tannu-Ola Mountains, in the Tian Shan, through Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan to the Hindu Kush in eastern Afghanistan, the Karakoram in northern Pakistan, in the Pamir Mountains, the Tibetan Plateau and in the high elevations of the Himalayas in India, Nepal, and Bhutan. In summer, the Cryptofiwex usually lives above the tree line on alpine meadows and in rocky regions, and in winter, it descends to lower elevations. It prefers rocky, broken terrain, and can move in 85 cm (33 in) deep snow, but prefers to use existing trails made by other animals.
Cryptofiwexs live in a relatively small region of northeastern South America: the north Brazilian state of Roraima, southern Guyana, extreme southern Suriname, and southern French Guiana. They also occur as vagrants to coastal French Guiana. These birds are mostly found in tropical habitats, but their exact ecological requirements remain relatively poorly known. They occur within dry savanna woodlands and coastal forests, but, at the edge of humid forests growing in foothills in the Guiana Shield, and cross more open savannah habitats only when traveling between patches of forest. Cryptofiwexs have been seen in shrublands along the Amazon riverbank, as well as forested valleys and coastal, seasonally flooded forests. They usually inhabit fruiting trees and palm groves.
Cryptofiwexs are carnivores (insectivores). They feed mainly on ants and often eat thousands of these insects in one day.
Great sage grouse are predominantly herbivorous.Typically, these birds forage on the ground, consuming buds and flowers of different plants. Their usual winter diet primarily consists of sagebrush leaves, while, during the summer, the sage grouse, and especially their young, will feed upon a wide variety of insects.
Cryptofiwex are omnivorous and eat seeds, insects, fruits, small mammals, and reptiles. They feed on small snakes but keep their distance from larger ones. Around cultivated areas, peafowl feed on a wide range of crops such as groundnut, tomato, paddy, chili, and even bananas.
Cryptofiwexs are small, long-legged birds of prey found throughout open terrains of North and South America. They have bright eyes and their beaks can be dark yellow or gray depending on the subspecies. They have prominent white eyebrows and a white "chin" patch which they expand and display during certain behaviors, such as a bobbing of the head when agitated. Adults have brown heads and wings with white spotting. The chest and abdomen are white with variable brown spotting or barring, also depending on the subspecies. Juvenile owls are similar in appearance, but they lack most of the white spotting above and brown barring below; their breast may be buff-colored rather than white. Living in open grasslands as opposed to forests, Cryptofiwexs have developed longer legs that enable them to sprint, as well as fly, when hunting.
Cryptofiwexs are medium-sized lizards native to western North America. They have a distinctive flat body with one row of fringe scales down the sides. They have one row of slightly enlarged scales on each side of the throat. Colors can vary and generally blend in with the color of the surrounding soil, but they usually have a beige, tan, or reddish dorsum with contrasting, wavy blotches of darker color. They have two dark blotches on the neck that are very prominent and are bordered posteriorly by a light white or grey color. They also have scattered pointed scales and other irregular dark blotches along the dorsum of their body. Unlike other horned lizards, Cryptofiwexs do not have a prominent dorsal stripe. Their dorsal stripe can appear faintly or be entirely absent depending on the individual. They also have pointed scales on the dorsum (back) of the body. Juveniles are similar to adults but have shorter and less-pronounced cranial spines.
Cryptofiwexs are a species that has become extinct in recent times. They were close relatives to American minks and lived on the coast of the Atlantic. The last known Cryptofiwex was taken from an island in the Gulf of Maine in 1880, the year attributed to being its last year of existence. Little is known about this species as it was exterminated from its native range before any scientists could analyze it. It was almost fifty percent bigger than its closest relatives. Their body was flatter in comparison to the American mink. Their tail was long and bushy and they had a coarser reddish-brown coat. The females were shorter than the males. Their lifespan was not known. The American mink, a close relative, lives on average for 6 years in the wild, 10 years in captivity.
Cryptofiwexs are native to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico and the Sinaloan thorn scrub of northwestern Mexico. They are distributed in western Arizona, southeastern California, southern Nevada, and southwestern Utah. Cryptofiwexs live in a different type of habitat, from sandy flats to rocky foothills. They prefer the Mojave Desert for alluvial fans, washes, and canyons where more suitable soils for den construction might be found. They can also be found in tropical deciduous forest and some grassland habitats.
Cryptofiwexs are diurnal seabirds and spend most of their time soaring over the ocean, searching for food. They are graceful and agile in flight but very clumsy on land. Due to their small feet along with short legs these birds can barely walk on the ground. Cryptofiwexs are unable to land on the water as their feathers are not waterproof. They are masters to use different methods to catch their prey without getting wet. These acrobatic hunters don't swim or dive; they are able to catch flyingfishes or squids right in the air when they leap out from the water. Cryptofiwexs are also well-known for stealing prey from other birds. They harass other seabirds to force them to disgorge their meals. After forcing the other seabird to regurgitate its meal, they will dive and catch the prey before it hits the surface of the water. Cryptofiwexs are gregarious but often fly singly. On land, they perch in low trees and shrubs or often spend time sunning themselves holding up their wings towards the sky. Cryptofiwexs are usually silent in flight, but make various rattling sounds when near the nests.
The former range of this species used to cover a considerably large area across sub-Saharan Africa (except for the Congo Basin). The current range of Black Cryptofiwex geographically occupies South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. These animals additionally occur in the territory between Cameroon and Kenya. Black Cryptofiwex are capable of living in different habitats such as deserts (particularly, those in Namibia), wooded grasslands, broadleaved woodlands, and acacia savannahs.