What do water rails eat?
King rail
This rail forages in shallow water near cover and eats mainly aquatic insects and crustaceans. It forages by probing the mud while moving around in shallow water.
Ringed teal
Their habitats include tropical, swampy forests and marshy clearings in well-wooded lowlands, as well as secluded pools and small streams. As a predominately aquatic species, ringed teals eat a variety of aquatic plants and invertebrates, as well as any seeds that can be found. Ringed teals are classified as “dabblers” as opposed to “divers”. Dabblers tend to feed on plant and insect material near the surface of the water, where as divers feed on plants, invertebrates, and fish deeper under the water’s surface. Although dabblers may submerge their heads and upper torso while putting their tails up in the air, also known as “up-ending”, they rarely completely submerge themselves and stay under for periods of time, such as the divers do.
Pacific electric ray
The Pacific electric ray feeds mainly on bony fishes, including anchovies, herring, hake, mackerel, croakers, rockfishes, surfperches, kelp bass, and flatfishes, but will also take cephalopods and invertebrates given the opportunity. Its jaws are highly distensible, allowing it to swallow surprisingly large prey: one female long has been observed ingesting a silver salmon ("Oncorhynchus kisutch") nearly half her length. During the day, the Pacific electric ray is an ambush predator: when a fish approaches its head, the ray "jumps" forward from its resting place and folds down its disc to envelop it, while delivering strong shocks. Once the fish is subdued, the ray repositions itself to swallow it head-first. The entire process takes about two minutes.
Inaccessible Island rail
The foraging method used by the Inaccessible Island rail is slow and deliberate and has been compared to that of a mouse, and the bird occupies a similar ecological niche. They feed on a range of invertebrates, including earthworms, amphipods, isopods, mites and a range of insects such as beetles, flies, moths and caterpillars. Centipedes are taken as well, and an introduced species of centipede forms an important part of their diet. Along with animal prey they will take the berries of "Empetrum" and "Nertera" as well as the seeds of the dock "Rumex". Unlike the Tristan thrush they do not feed on carrion or dead fish.
Water rail
The adult of the nominate subspecies is a medium-sized rail, long with a wingspan. Males typically weigh and females are slightly lighter at . The upper parts from the forehead to tail are olive-brown with black streaks, especially on the shoulders. The sides of the head and the underparts down to the upper belly are dark slate-blue, except for a blackish area between bill and eye, and brownish sides to the upper breast. The flanks are barred black and white, and the undertail is white with some darker streaks. The long bill and the iris are red, and the legs are flesh-brown. The sexes are similar; although the female averages slightly smaller than the male, with a more slender bill, determining sex through measurements alone is unreliable. The juvenile has a blackish crown and a white chin and throat. The underparts are buff or white with darker bars, and the flank markings are brown and buff, rather than black and white. The undertail is buff, and the eye, bill and leg colours are duller than the adult. The downy chick is all black apart from a mainly white bill. After breeding, the rail has an extensive moult, and is flightless for about three weeks. Individual adults can be identified by the markings on the undertail, which are unique to each bird. Adult males have the strongest black undertail streaks. It has been suggested that the dark barring on the undertail of this species is a compromise between the signalling function of a pure white undertail, as found in open water or gregarious species like the common moorhen, and the need to avoid being too conspicuous.
Aquatic mammal
Generally, all aquatic desmans, shrews, and voles make quick dives and catch small fish and invertebrates. The giant otter shrew, for example, makes quick dives that last for seconds and grabs small crabs (usually no bigger than across). The Lutrine opossum is the most carnivorous opossum, usually consuming small birds, rodents, and invertebrates. Water voles mainly eat grass and plants near the water and at times, they will also consume fruits, bulbs, twigs, buds, and roots. However, a population of water voles living in Wiltshire and Lincolnshire, England have started eating frogs' legs and discarding the bodies.
Earless water rat
During the day it is actively hunting for tadpoles, worms, and river insects (mostly larvae), but at night it sleeps in holes along the river bank. The animal gets only one young at the same time. It is only captured by Telefol hunters when river levels are low.
Japanese eagle ray
The Japanese eagle ray is demersal, usually inhabiting sea floors and feeding on benthic animals. In particular, it is known to eat crustaceans, fish, and sometimes benthic plants. Like all mylobatids, the species is ovoviparous. Embryos initially feed on yolk. They later receive nourishment by indirectly absorbing uterine fluid from their mother. Little else is known about the biology of this species.
Sugar glider
Sugar gliders are seasonally adaptive omnivores with a wide variety of foods in their diet, and mainly forage in the lower layers of the forest canopy. Sugar gliders may obtain up to half their daily water intake through drinking rainwater, with the remainder obtained through water held in its food. In summer they are primarily insectivorous, and in the winter when insects (and other arthropods) are scarce, they are mostly exudativorous (feeding on acacia gum, eucalyptus sap, manna, honeydew or lerp). Sugar gliders have an enlarged caecum to assist in digestion of complex carbohydrates obtained from gum and sap.
To obtain sap or gum from plants, sugar gliders will strip the bark off trees or open bore holes with their teeth to access stored liquid. Little time is spent foraging for insects, as it is an energetically expensive process, and sugar gliders will wait until insects fly into their habitat, or stop to feed on flowers.
Gliders consume approximately 11 g of dry food matter per day. This equates to roughly 8% and 9.5% of body weight for males and females, respectively.
Water vole (North America)
These animals have gray-brown or red-brown fur with gray under parts. Their large hind feet help make them excellent swimmers, and they are found in alpine or semi-alpine meadows near water. They feed on grasses, leaves, roots and seeds, also eating small invertebrates. Water voles dig subterranean burrows that are connected to water sources, and are considered a semi-aquatic species.
Gahirmatha Beach
Olive Ridley sea turtles feed on marine snails, smaller forms of fish, fish eggs, crustaceans, and jellyfish. The algal material is also used as food by the Ridleys. Ridleys generally crush and grind the food materials before intaking.
Clapper rail
These birds eat crustaceans, aquatic insects, and small fish. They search for food while walking, sometimes probing with their long bills, in shallow water or mud.
False water rat
False water rats appear to depend on mangrove and intertidal salt marsh habitats for food. Their diet consists of invertebrates such as crabs, small mud lobsters, marine shellfish, snails and worms. They generally eat during the night and rest during the day. Their estimated home range used for foraging is 0.8 ha for males and 0.6 ha for females, however they can forage up to 2.9 km distances at night.
Asian water monitor
Water monitors defend themselves using their tails, claws, and jaws. They are excellent swimmers, using the raised fin on their tails to steer through water. They are carnivores, and consume a wide range of prey. They are known to eat fish, frogs, rodents, birds, crabs, and snakes. They have also been known to eat turtles, as well as young crocodiles and crocodile eggs. Water monitors have been observed eating catfish in a fashion similar to a mammalian carnivore, tearing off chunks of meat with their sharp teeth while holding it with their front legs and then separating different parts of the fish for sequential consumption.
Water vascular system
The water vascular system is a hydraulic system used by echinoderms, such as sea stars and sea urchins, for locomotion, food and waste transportation, and respiration. The system is composed of canals connecting numerous tube feet. Echinoderms move by alternately contracting muscles that force water into the tube feet, causing them to extend and push against the ground, then relaxing to allow the feet to retract.
Rail (bird)
The wings of all rails are short and rounded. The flight of those Rallidae able to fly, while not powerful, can be sustained for long periods of time, and many species migrate annually. The weakness of their flight, however, means they are easily blown off course, thus are common vagrants, a characteristic that has led them to colonize many isolated oceanic islands. Furthermore, these birds often prefer to run rather than fly, especially in dense habitat. Some are also flightless at some time during their moult periods.
European water vole
Water voles mainly eat grass and other vegetation near the water, but will also consume fruits, bulbs, twigs, buds, and roots when given the opportunity. In Europe, rich harvest periods can cause water vole "plagues" to take place, during which the voles eat ravenously, destroying entire fields of grass and leaving the fields full of burrows. Water voles in some parts of England have been shown to occasionally prey on frogs and tadpoles; it has been speculated that this is to make up for a protein deficiency in the voles' diet.
Water rail
Parasites include the sucking lice "Nirmus cuspidiculus" and "Pediculus ralli", the tick "Ixodes frontalis", and the louse fly "Ornithomyia avicularia". The water rail can be infected by the avian influenza virus and the bacterium "Borrelia burgdorferi", carried by "Ixodes" ticks, which is also a human pathogen causing Lyme disease. Three lice, "Fulicoffula rallina", "Pseudomenopon scopulacorne" and "Rallicola cuspidatus" discovered on dead water rails in 2005 on the Faroe Islands were all species that had not been found on the archipelago previously. The parasitic flatworm "Ophthalmophagus nasciola" was found in one rail's nasal sinus, and at least three species of feather mite have been detected on the plumage. The louse "Philopterus ralli" and the nematode "Strongyloides avium" have been found on the closely related brown-cheeked rail "R. a. indicus".
Sandhill crane
Sandhill cranes are mainly herbivorous, but eat various types of food, depending on availability. They often feed with their bills down to the ground as they root around for seeds and other foods, in shallow wetlands with vegetation or various upland habitats. Cranes readily eat cultivated foods such as corn, wheat, cottonseed, and sorghum. Waste corn is useful to cranes preparing for migration, providing them with nutrients for the long journey. Among northern races of sandhill cranes, the diet is most varied, especially among breeding birds. They variously feed on berries, small mammals, insects, snails, reptiles, and amphibians.
Water rail
There are three recognised subspecies.The differences between the three other races appear to be clinal, and it is possible that they should all be merged into "R. a. aquaticus".
Aquatica hydrophila
The larvae are aquatic. They are unable to swim; they crawl at the bottom of water. The larvae prey on freshwater snails such as "Semisulcospira libertina" and "Thiara tuberculata". The adults produce green-yellow light and have been seen looking for mates near water. Artificial lights can attract males. There is probably one generation per year.
Water rat
Water rat(s) may refer to:
Marsh rice rat
Animals that are important to the marsh rice rat's diet include insects, fiddler crabs, and snails, but the species is known to eat many other animals, including fish, clams, and juvenile "Graptemys" and "Chrysemys" turtles. They scavenge on carcasses of muskrats, deermice, and sparrows, and may be the most important predator on eggs and young of the marsh wren. Rice rats also eat eggs and young of the seaside sparrow ("Ammodramus maritimus") and are aggressive towards the sparrow, apparently leading it to avoid nesting in "Juncus" in a seaside salt marsh in Florida. On islands in North Carolina, rice rats consume eggs of Forster's tern ("Sterna forsteri"). They have been observed preying on alligator eggs in Georgia.
Water buffalo
Water buffalo thrive on many aquatic plants. During floods, they will graze submerged, raising their heads above the water and carrying quantities of edible plants. Water buffalo eat reeds, "Arundo donax", a kind of "Cyperaceae", "Eichhornia crassipes", and "Juncaceae". Some of these plants are of great value to local peoples. Others, such as "E. crassipes", are a major problem in some tropical valleys and water buffalo may help to keep waterways clear.
Gill raker
To prevent the potentially damaging passage of solid material through the gill slits and over the gill filaments, early gill rakers strained large particles from the water and diverted them to the esophagus. Since an appreciable fraction of this material was nutritious, rakers subsequently evolved as food-trapping mechanisms in filter feeders. Gill rakers, when long and closely set, play the same role in suspension-feeding fish such as mullet, herring, megamouth, basking and whale sharks, as baleen in the filter-feeding whales.
Water rail
Prior to its extinction, at least some birds were present year-round on the island, relying on warm volcanic springs to survive through the coldest months, but this race was also found in winter in the Faroe Islands and Ireland, and on passage through the Western Isles, suggesting that the Icelandic form was a partial migrant. The nominate subspecies, "R. a. aquaticus" is resident in the milder south and west of its range, but migrates south from areas that are subject to harsh winters. It winters within its breeding range, and also further south in North Africa, the Middle East and the Caspian Sea area. The peak migration period is September to October, with most birds returning to the breeding grounds from March to mid-April. A specimen of the nominate population labelled as "Baluchistan" and collected by Richard Meinertzhagen is considered of doubtful provenance. "R. a. korejewi" is another partial migrant, with some of the population wintering from Iraq and eastern Saudi Arabia eastwards through Pakistan and northern India to western China.
Equisetum fluviatile
The water horsetail has historically been used by both Europeans and Native Americans for scouring, sanding, and filing because of the high silica content in the stems. Early spring shoots were eaten. Medically it was used by the ancient Greeks and Romans to stop bleeding and treat kidney ailments, ulcers, and tuberculosis, and by the ancient Chinese to treat superficial visual obstructions. Rootstocks and stems are sometimes eaten by waterfowl. Horsetails absorb heavy metals from the soil, and are often used in bioassays for metals.
Bluegill
Young bluegills' diet consists of rotifers and water fleas. The adult diet consists of aquatic insect larvae (mayflies, caddisflies, dragonflies), but can also include crayfish, leeches, snails, and other small fish. If food is scarce, bluegill will also feed on aquatic vegetation, and if scarce enough, will even feed on their own eggs or offspring. As bluegill spend a great deal of time near the surface of water, they can also feed on surface bugs. Most bluegills feed during daylight hours, with a feeding peak being observed in the morning and evening (with the major peak occurring in the evening). Feeding location tends to be a balance between food abundance and predator abundance. Bluegill use gill rakers and bands of small teeth to ingest their food. During summer months, bluegills generally consume 3.2 percent of their body weight each day. To capture prey, bluegills use a suction system in which they accelerate water into their mouth. Prey comes in with this water. Only a limited amount of water is able to be suctioned, so the fish must get within 1.75 centimeters of the prey.
Red-crowned crane
Red-crowned cranes have a highly omnivorous diet, though the dietary preferences have not been fully studied. They eat rice, parsley, water plants, carrots, reed buds, acorns, buckwheat and a variety of water plants. The animal matter in their diet consists of fish, including carp and goldfish, amphibians, especially salamanders, snails, crabs, dragonflies, small reptiles, shrimp, and other birds, especially waterfowl. They seem to prefer a carnivorous diet, although rice is now essential to survival for wintering birds in Japan and grass seeds are another important food source. While all cranes are omnivorous, per Johnsgard, the two most common crane species today (the sandhill and common cranes) are among the most herbivorous species while the two rarest species (the red-crowned and whooping cranes) are perhaps the most carnivorous species. When feeding on plants, red-crowned cranes exhibit a preference for plants with high content of crude protein and low content of crude fiber.
Water rail
Introduced predators are a threat to vulnerable island populations. In addition to the extirpation of the Icelandic race, mink have been responsible for marked declines in the populations of water rails and other ground-nesting birds in the Hebrides, where the mainly fish-eating otter was the only native carnivore. The mink derived from fur farms on Lewis, from whence they spread through Harris, North Uist and South Uist. Mink and ferret eradication programmes have enabled the rail to return to islands including Lewis and Harris, and further projects are ongoing or planned on the Scottish mainland. Locally, habitat may be affected by the drainage of marshes, canalisation of water courses, urban encroachment, and by pollution.
Rove beetle
Rove beetles are known from every type of habitat in which beetles occur, and their diets include just about everything except the living tissues of higher plants, but now including higher plants with the discovery of the diet of "Himalusa thailandensis". Most rove beetles are predators of insects and other invertebrates, living in forest leaf litter and similar decaying plant matter. They are also commonly found under stones, and around freshwater margins. 
Almost 400 species are known to live on ocean shores that are submerged at high tide, including the pictured rove beetle, although these are much fewer than 1% of the worldwide total of Staphylinidae. Other species have adapted to live as inquilines in ant and termite colonies, and some live in mutualistic relationships with mammals whereby they eat fleas and other parasites, benefiting the host. A few species, notably those of the genus "Aleochara", are scavengers and carrion feeders, or are parasitoids of other insects, particularly of certain fly pupae.
Water vole (North America)
Their main source of food is vegetation, including leaves, stems, grasses, sedges, willows, and sometimes seeds or insects. Their food source varies significantly depending on geographic location. Studies have shown that water voles have a very high metabolic rate, and therefore don't have to consume as much food as other rodents their size. Most often, water voles feed on the subterranean portion of plants, which are available to them year round. There is no evidence that they store food for the winter. During the winter they are seen to dig tunnels through the snow, and usually do not surface above the snow once 6 cm have accumulated (approx. 7 to 8 months of the year). 
Water voles are most active at night, and they travel between tunnels, nests and waterways by means of surface runways 5–7 cm wide through the vegetation. Often tunnel or burrow entrances are found either at water level or submerged along the river banks. They construct these subterranean tunnels and nests just below the roots of the vegetation (about 4–6 cm below ground) during the breeding season (June through late September). Females give birth and care for her young in these underground nests, lined with leaves and grass.
Aquatic genet
Aquatic genets are thought to be solitary and crepuscular. They primarily feed on freshwater fish, including catfish, barbels, squeakers, carps, and also crustaceans. They possibly detect the movements of the fish with their whiskers, or attract the fish by patting the surface of the water with their whiskers.
Water rail
The water rail can readily be distinguished from most other reed bed rails by its white undertail and red bill; the latter is a little longer than the rest of the rail's head (55–58% of the total) and slightly down-curved. The somewhat similar slaty-breasted rail of tropical Asia has a stouter bill, a chestnut crown and white-spotted upperparts. Juvenile and freshly moulted water rails may show a buff undertail like spotted crake, but that species' plumage is spotted with white, and it has a much shorter, mainly yellowish bill. The range of the water rail does not overlap with that of any other "Rallus" species, but vagrants could be distinguished from their American relatives by the lack of rufous or chestnut on the closed wing. The larger African rail has unstreaked darker brown upperparts and brighter red legs and feet.
Ampullariidae
In captivity, as well as eating vegetables and fish food pellets, apple snails will also eat other foods if they are available. They will sometimes eat brine shrimps and other frozen foods, or dead fish and insects. Generally, they will also eat any of the microscopic vegetation that grow on the tank rocks or walls. Snails will climb out of the water to reach food that is above the waterline. Because of their ability to do this they have become a nuisance in Asia, where they feed on crops.
Grey-necked wood rail
When eating snails, this rail will hammer at the shells to extract them. For berries, it will jump high to break off clusters of this fruit. After doing this, it will pick off the berries one by one and eat them. It uses its partially open bill to probe and move aside debris like leaf litter. It is generally wary and secretive, and selfish when mated. This manifests in warning its partner with threat displays to keep it at a distance. Even so, it has occasionally been seen to openly forage in short grass near thickets and in streams or muddy tracks.
Guam rail
The Guam rail are omnivorous but appears to prefer animals over vegetable food. It is known to eat gastropods, skinks, geckos, insects, and carrion as well as seeds and palm leaves.
Water rail
The nest is made from whatever wetland vegetation is available and built mostly by the male, usually in a single day. It is raised or more above the level of the marsh, and is sometimes constructed on clumps of roots, tree stumps or similar support. It may be built up higher if the marsh waters start to rise. The nest is across and about high. It is well hidden and approached by narrow tracks.
Bull ray
Bull rays are "bentho-pelagic" feeders, which means that they feed on the sea floor and the water column. They feed on various invertebrates including crabs, hermit crabs, squids, prawns, gastropod molluscs and bivalve molluscs.
Ratite
Ratite chicks tend to be more omnivorous or insectivorous; similarities in adults end with feeding, as they all vary in diet and length of digestive tract, which is indicative of diet. Ostriches, with the longest tracts at , are primarily herbivorous. Rheas' tracts are next longest at between , and they also have caeca. They are also mainly herbivores, concentrating on broad-leafed plants. However, they will eat insects if the opportunity arises. Emus have tracts of length, and have a more omnivorous diet, including insects and other small animals. Cassowaries have nearly the shortest tracts at . Finally, kiwi have the shortest tracts and eat earthworms, insects, and other similar creatures. Moas and elephant birds were the largest native herbivores in their faunas, far larger than contemporary herbivorous mammals in the latter's case.
Snowy sheathbill
The snowy sheathbill does not have webbed feet. It finds its food on the land. It is an omnivore, a scavenger, and a kleptoparasite and will eat nearly anything. It steals regurgitated krill and fish from penguins when feeding their chicks and will eat their eggs and chicks if given the opportunity. Sheathbills also eat carrion, animal feces, and, where available, human waste. It has been known to eat tapeworms that have been living in a chinstrap penguin's intestine.
Marsh shrew
The marsh shrew eats invertebrates, including spiders, earthworms, sowbugs, centipedes, termites and other terrestrial and aquatic arthropods. It was observed in captivity pursuing and killing a goldfish, but not eating it. In contrast, the American water shrew has been observed killing and eating fish. A study of the gastric contents of marsh shrews in Oregon indicated that at least 25% of their diet is aquatic, including insect larvae, slugs and snails, mayfly naiads and other, unidentified invertebrates. Other researchers have reported that their diet may also include aquatic insects (water beetles and stonefly nymphs), craneflies, ground beetles, spiders, harvestmen, centipedes, earthworms, slugs and small terrestrial snails. The marsh shrew swims, making short dives in search of food; its mobile snout, whiskers and lips are used to find and capture underwater prey. Before eating, it returns to land. Air trapped in its fur provides buoyancy, and marsh shrews can run for as long as 3 to 5 seconds along the top of the water. According to mammalogist Donald Pattie, they can "scull on the surface like whirligig beetles". The air trapped in its fur gives it a silvery sheen. On land, its foreleg and opposite hind leg move at the same time.
Cable railings
Cable railings or wire rope railings are safety rails that use horizontal or vertical cables in place of spindles, glass and mesh for infill.
Cable Railings are often desired in place of traditional pickets to achieve nearly unobstructed views as the cable is much thinner than traditional pickets. It is also a more modern aesthetic and is often chosen for that reason.
Dryopidae
Despite being referred to as aquatic insects, the beetles are unable to swim, clinging to detritus that float. All long-toed water beetles feed on plants that are in the water, but the larvae also prey on small animals and most of them are terrestrial. "Stygoparnus" is the only genus in the family in which both the larvae and adults are aquatic.
Water rail
Both parents incubate the eggs, although the female takes the larger share of this duty. The eggs are incubated for 19–22 days to hatching, with at least 87% success. Food is brought to the nest by the other adult and passed to the sitting parent who feeds the chicks. The precocial, downy young leave the nest within two days of hatching but continue to be fed by their parents, although the chicks also find some of their own food after about five days. They are independent of their parents after 20–30 days and can fly when aged 7–9 weeks. If a nest appears to have been discovered, the female may carry the chicks or eggs one by one to another location; the eggs are carried in the bill, but small chicks may be tucked under the wing. Sitting birds may stay on the eggs even when approached closely, attack the intruder, or feign injury as a distraction. The water rail can breed after its first year, and it normally raises two broods.
Lewin's rail
Lewin's rail ("Lewinia pectoralis") is a species of bird in the family Rallidae. It is found in Australia, Wallacea, and New Guinea. Lewin's rail is also known as the water rail, Lewin's water rail, Lewin's grind rail, slate-breasted rail, slate-breasted water rail, pectoral rail, pectoral water rail, short-toed rail and short-toed water rail. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.
Rakali
Predators of the water rat range from large fish and snakes when they are young and in the water, to birds of prey, foxes and cats. The water rat has the unusual ability to be able to kill cane toads without being poisoned.
Holochilus chacarius
The Chaco marsh rat can swim and dive, and can also climb well; it is a herbivore, feeding on a range of plant materials including sugarcane, rice, banana and other crops. It can make underground galleries with several entrances, but nests above ground, building circular structures of grass up to in diameter and often a metre or more above the ground. Litter sizes range from four to nine, and the young mature at sixty days.
Potamotrygonidae
River stingrays or freshwater stingrays are Neotropical freshwater fishes of the Potamotrygonidae family in the order Myliobatiformes, one of the four orders of batoids, cartilaginous fishes related to sharks. They are found in rivers in tropical and subtropical South America (freshwater stingrays in Africa, Asia and Australia are in another family, Dasyatidae). A single marine genus, "Styracura", of the tropical West Atlantic and East Pacific are also part of Potamotrygonidae. They are generally brownish, greyish or black, often with a mottled, speckled or spotted pattern, have disc widths ranging from and venomous tail stingers. River stingrays feed on a wide range of smaller animals and the females give birth to live young. There are more than 35 species in five genera.
Woodhall Spa
The Water Rail Way is a long part of the National Cycle Network that runs from Boston to Lincoln, following as closely as possible the banks of the River Witham. Between Woodhall Spa and Lincoln it consists of a tarmacked path that runs along the route of the former railway line from Boston to Lincoln. It was built and financed by Sustrans organisation, and was finally completed and opened in November 2008. It is open to all forms of non-motorised transport, forming part of NCN Route 1. Named primarily after its route and former use, the path is also so named due to the rare water rail bird.
Water rail
The water rail is monogamous and highly territorial when breeding. The birds pair off after arriving at their nesting areas, or possibly even before spring migration. In large wetlands with good conditions birds may nest apart. Territories vary in size, but is typical. The pair give courting and contact calls throughout the breeding season. The male selects the nest site which he shows to the female while posturing with raised back feathers, wings arched over his back, tail spread and bill pointed vertically downwards. This display is accompanied by a loud call. Before mating, he raises his wings and tail, and bows with his bill touching his breast. The male feeds the female during courtship, and, when incubating, she may leave the nest to display to the male, walking round him, calling softly, rubbing her bill against his and taking short runs to and from him.
Wattled crane
Wattled cranes inhabit fairly inaccessible wetlands under most conditions. It requires shallow marsh-like habitats with a good deal of sedge-based vegetation. All cranes are omnivorous. The principal food of the wattled crane is mainly aquatic eating the tubers and rhizomes of submerged sedges and water lilies. It is one of the more herbivorous of extant cranes. The other primary portion of the diet consists of aquatic insects. They will supplement the diet with snails, amphibians and snakes when the opportunity arises. Roughly 90% of foraging done by this species occurs in shallow waters. They typically forage by digging vigorously with their bill into the muddy soil. On occasion, it will eat grain and grass seed as well, but does so much less often than the other three African crane species.
River cooter
While the species is highly omnivorous, river cooters will eat anything, plant or animal, dead or alive. Diet seems to be determined by available food items. While some writers feel that these turtles will not eat meat, predatory behavior has been observed. Although this animal cannot swallow out of water, it will leave the water to retrieve a tasty bug or worm, returning to the water to swallow. Cooters will also enthusiastically chase, kill and eat small fish. They have also been observed eating carrion found along the river's edge. River cooters have tooth-like cusps in the upper jaw, probably an adaptation to aid in eating leaves and fibrous vegetation. Their primary diet would include a wide variety of aquatic plants, and some terrestrial plants that grow near the water's edge. They will happily take fallen fruits as well. In captivity, any kind of plant will be eaten, and some "meats", too. Turtles will also take calcium in a separate form, such as a cuttlebone, so that the turtle can self-regulate calcium intake.
Electric ray
Electric rays are found from shallow coastal waters down to at least deep. They are sluggish and slow-moving, propelling themselves with their tails, not by using their pectoral fins as other rays do. They feed on invertebrates and small fish. They lie in wait for prey below the sand or other substrate, using their electricity to stun and capture it.
Water rail
This rail is a skulking species, its streaked plumage making it difficult to see in its wetland habitat. Its laterally compressed body allows it to slip though the densest vegetation, and it will "freeze" if surprised in the open. It walks with a high-stepping gait, although it adopts a crouch when it runs for cover. It swims, when necessary, with the jerky motion typical of rails, and it flies short distances low over the reeds with its long legs dangling. Although their flight looks weak, water rails are capable of long sustained flights during their nocturnal migrations, and are sometimes killed in collisions with lighthouses or wires. British-ringed birds have been recovered from as far away as Poland, Czechoslovakia and Sweden.
Water rail
The Icelandic population of water rail, "R. a. hibernans", became extinct around 1965, as a result of loss of habitat through the draining of wetlands, and predation by the introduced American mink.
Marsh rice rat
Laboratory studies have found that rice rats assimilate 88% to 95% of the energy in their food. They lose weight when fed on "Spartina", fiddler crabs, or sunflower seeds alone, but a diet consisting of several of those items or of mealworms is adequate to maintain weight. In an experiment, marsh rice rats did not show hoarding behavior, but wild rice rats have been observed carrying food to a nest. Even when they live in uplands, they mostly eat water plants and animals, although they consume some upland plants.
Parapoynx fluctuosalis
The larvae feed on various grasses growing in water, including "Nymphaea" species and rice. The larvae are aquatic and form a case of leaf fragments. They live about the bases of their host plants and have occasionally been found on water lily leaves. Young larvae have a pair of long hairs on the dorsum of the terminal segment and there are also some sparse shorter hairs. Later on, it acquires fine filamentous gills enclosing air tubes that join the longitudinal tracheal trunks. The pupa is formed within a case or cocoon.
Roaring rails
Roaring rails are very short wave corrugations that range from 25 to 75 millimeters in length. It is commonly associated with high speed passenger, transit, and light axle load railroad operations.
List of water ride types and examples
Water rides are amusement rides that are set over water. For instance, a log flume travels through a channel of water to move along its course.
Mobile logperch
Juveniles eat organisms such as rotifers, copepods, and waterfleas. As they grow, they incorporate a greater variety of small aquatic creatures. They eat mostly aquatic insects (especially mayfly and midge larvae), and also may eat young snails, waterfleas, leeches, and fish eggs (including their own) when available. "Percina" show broad diversity of reproductive behavior and life history traits. Large numbers of reservoir-based individuals frequently migrate upstream into small flowing streams from late February into May to spawn (in Carrolls Creek, a tributary of Lake Tuscaloosa, Alabama). Females are thought to bury eggs in riffles or shoals of sand or gravel. Mobile logperch may live three to four years. They sometimes fall prey to piscivorous fish (more often in lakes than in streams). These fish include lake trout, walleye, rock bass, largemouth bass, burbot, and northern pike. When they spend time in slow and shallow water, they also are eaten by fish-eating birds, such as terns and mergansers.
Railsea
"Railsea" is set on a dystopian world whose lands are covered by endless interconnecting tracks of rails, known as the "railsea". The earth is colonised by ravenous giant naked mole-rats and other carnivorous giant forms of familiar animals, such as earwigs and antlions as well as stranger non-identifiable creatures that reside in the polluted sky. These threats mean that humanity are confined to 'islands' of harder rock through which the animals cannot burrow and the spaces between can only be safely traversed by use of trains.
Riverine rabbit
The riverine rabbit is predominantly known for being a “browser”. They eat riparian vegetation found along seasonal rivers in the Karoo Desert. This includes salt-loving plants such as the salsola and lycium. They sometimes eat grass depending on if it is the wet season. Aside from their conventional food intake, they also consume their day-time droppings which are soft and come directly from the anus. This is advantageous because their feces contains vitamin produced by the bacteria in the hindgut and also contains minerals such as calcium and phosphorus.
River ecosystem
Fish can also be placed into feeding guilds. Planktivores pick plankton out of the water column. Herbivore-detritivores are bottom-feeding species that ingest both periphyton and detritus indiscriminately. Surface and water column feeders capture surface prey (mainly terrestrial and emerging insects) and drift (benthic invertebrates floating downstream). Benthic invertebrate feeders prey primarily on immature insects, but will also consume other benthic invertebrates. Top predators consume fishes and/or large invertebrates. Omnivores ingest a wide range of prey. These can be floral, faunal, and/or detrital in nature. Finally, parasites live off of host species, typically other fishes. Fish are flexible in their feeding roles, capturing different prey with regard to seasonal availability and their own developmental stage. Thus, they may occupy multiple feeding guilds in their lifetime. The number of species in each guild can vary greatly between systems, with temperate warm water streams having the most benthic invertebrate feeders, and tropical systems having large numbers of detritus feeders due to high rates of allochthonous input.
Water rail
The water rail breeds across temperate Eurasia from Iceland and the British Isles discontinuously to North Africa, Saudi Arabia and western China. Its distribution in Asia is poorly studied.
Filter feeder
Bivalves are aquatic molluscs which have two-part shells. Typically both shells (or valves) are symmetrical along the hinge line. The class has 30,000 species, including scallops, clams, oysters and mussels. Most bivalves are filter feeders (although some have taken up scavenging and predation), extracting organic matter from the sea in which they live. Nephridia, the shell fish version of kidneys, remove the waste material. Buried bivalves feed by extending a siphon to the surface. For example, oysters draw water in over their gills through the beating of cilia. Suspended food (phytoplankton, zooplankton, algae and other water-borne nutrients and particles) are trapped in the mucus of a gill, and from there are transported to the mouth, where they are eaten, digested and expelled as feces or pseudofeces. Each oyster filters up to five litres of water per hour. Scientists believe that the Chesapeake Bay's once-flourishing oyster population historically filtered the estuary's entire water volume of excess nutrients every three or four days. Today that process would take almost a year, and sediment, nutrients, and algae can cause problems in local waters. Oysters filter these pollutants, and either eat them or shape them into small packets that are deposited on the bottom where they are harmless.
Porcupine ray
The porcupine ray can sometimes be observed lying still on the bottom in the open or inside caves. It is known to form groups at Ningaloo Reef. Its diet consists primarily of sipunculids, polychaete worms, crustaceans, and bony fishes. When feeding, it plows deeply into the bottom, expelling excess sediment from its spiracles in a plume visible from a long distance away. Parasites documented from this ray include the tapeworm "Rhinebothrium devaneyi", the nematode "Echinocephalus overstreeti", and the capsalid monogeneans "Dendromonocotyle urogymni" and "Neoentobdella baggioi". The porcupine ray is aplacental viviparous, with the developing embryos sustained to term by histotroph ("uterine milk") secreted by the mother. Mangrove forests serve as important habitat for juvenile rays. Males and females mature sexually at about across, respectively.
Water rail
Water rails have been eaten by humans for thousands of years; they were eaten by the Romans, and depicted in wall paintings at Pompeii, and consumption continued through the Middle Ages to modern times.
Water rail
Water rails follow definite routes when feeding, frequently returning to good hunting areas. These rails are versatile and opportunist foragers. They will jump to take insects from plants, climb to find berries, or dislodge apples from trees so they can be eaten on the ground. They will kill birds by impaling or drowning them, particularly if the bird's ability to escape is restricted. They have been recorded as killing a European greenfinch and a king quail in an aviary, and small birds trapped in bird ringers' mist nets. One bird killed a twite caught with it in a Heligoland trap. They are also nest predators, particularly of small birds that nest in reeds such as the great reed warbler. Water rails may defend a winter feeding territory, although this is smaller than when breeding, with individuals perhaps less than apart; favoured sites may hold hundreds of birds. Aggressive behaviour outside the breeding season may extend to attacks on other marsh rails such as spotted and Baillon's crake.
Water rail
The water rail is a vocal species which gives its main call, known as "sharming", throughout the year. This is a series of grunts followed by a high-pitched piglet-like squeal and ending in more grunts. It is used as a territorial call, alarm and announcement. Members of a pair may call alternately, the male giving lower and slower notes than his partner. The courtship song, given by both sexes, is a "tyick-tyick-tyick" often ending with a trill from the female; the male may sing for hours. The flight call is a sharp whistle, and other vocalizations include a loud repeated creak given by the male when showing the nest site to the female, and a purring given by both parents when at the nest with chicks. The rails are most vocal when setting up a territory and early in the breeding season, when calling may continue at night. Chicks initially cheep weakly, but soon develop a "tyk-tyk-trik" begging call.
Water vascular system
Ophiuroids, the group including brittle stars and basket stars, have a somewhat different water vascular system from sea stars, despite their superficially similar appearance. The madreporite is located on the underside of the animal, usually in one of the jaw plates. The stone canal runs upwards to the ring canal, typically located in a circular depression on the upper (i.e. internal) surface of the jaws. The ring canal has four polian vesicles.
Detritus
There is an extremely large number of detritus feeders in water. After all, a large quantity of material is carried in by water currents. Even if an organism stays in a fixed position, as long as it has a system for filtering water, it will be able to obtain enough food to get by. Many rooted organisms survive in this way, using developed gills or tentacles to filter the water to take in food, a process known as filter feeding.
Rail (bird)
The most typical family members occupy dense vegetation in damp environments near lakes, swamps, or rivers. Reed beds are a particularly favoured habitat. They are omnivorous, and those that migrate do so at night.
Stone loach
The larvae of stone loaches are benthic, they and small juveniles prefer sandy substrates with a slower current, as they grow they move on to gravel bottoms and faster currents. As adults they prey on relatively large benthic invertebrates such as gammarids, chironomids and other insect larvae. It normally feeds at nights when it uses the barbels around its mouth to detect its prey. They are tolerant of moderate organic pollution and stream canalization but they are highly sensitive to heavy metal pollution, chemical pollution and low oxygen levels which mean that the presence of stone loaches in a river is an indicator of good water quality. They are short-lived fish, normally living to age 3–4 years with 5 years being exceptional.
Xerocole
Xerocoles get a substantial amount of hygroscopic water from their food. Many feed on moisture-filled plants: the aardvark obtains water from the wild cucumber and the camel eats succulents and bushes in the winter, getting enough water to go two months without drinking. The oryx eats "Acacia" leaves late at night, when water content is highest: in the hot, arid daytime the leaves are only 1% water; but in cooler, more humid night the leaves are 40% water. Some xerocoles are able to obtain water from halophytic (saltwater) plants, as they can metabolize high amounts of oxalic acid and produce very concentrated urine. The chisel-toothed kangaroo rat also mitigates the saltiness of the halophyte it eats (the shadscale) by using its broad, sharp lower incisors to scrape off the leaves' salty outerlayer to reach the less-salty center.
Snoring rail
The snoring rail catches crabs in highland streams, and these crustaceans may be a major dietary item. It also forages in muddy areas, and has been recorded as consuming lizards. Nothing is known of its breeding behaviour other than a report of an adult seen feeding with two chicks in August 1983, but the original report gives no details of the claimed sighting.
Zapata rail
The bird prefers to feed in sawgrass. The diet is not recorded, but most marsh rails are omnivorous, feeding on invertebrates and plant material. The rails may disperse in the rainy season, returning to permanently flooded areas in the dry months.
Brown-cheeked rail
The brown-cheeked rail or eastern water rail ("Rallus indicus") is a species of bird in the family Rallidae.
It breeds in northern Mongolia, eastern Siberia, northeast China, Korea and northern Japan, and winters in southeast Asia. It used to be considered a subspecies of the water rail.
Six-line wrasse
Six-lined wrasse specialize mostly in eating small benthic organisms, especially crustaceans. They seem to prefer amphipods, copepods, benthic-stage lobster larvae, small shrimp and fish eggs. They will also peck algae for extra nutrients and also because tasty morsels easily get stuck in the slimy goop. Six-line wrasse rarely get parasites since they eat the parasites themselves. There has been no specific documentation of this species succumbing to a disease such as saltwater ich, as they are extremely hardy fish. In captivity, they can be fed frozen or live food.
Rail
Rail or rails may refer to:
New Zealand rock wren
Rock wrens mostly eat invertebrates on the ground, but will sometimes take berries and seeds, and even nectar from flax flowers.
Grey-necked wood rail
This bird feeds at night, eating various invertebrates and small vertebrates. While in mangroves, it commonly feeds on crabs. Otherwise, it will generally feed on molluscs, arthropods, frogs, seeds, berries, palm fruits, and the occasional water snake. Maize, rice, and bananas are also viable food items for the grey-necked wood rail. It is also known to feed on the feces of giant otters at latrines.
Stingray
Most stingrays feed primarily on mollusks, crustaceans, and occasionally on small fish. Freshwater stingrays in the amazon feed on insects and break down their tough exoskeletons with mammal-like chewing motions. Large pelagic rays like the Manta use ram feeding to consume vast quantities of plankton and have been seen swimming in acrobatic patterns through plankton patches.
Wake Island rail
The ecology of this species is poorly known, though a review published in 2011 has shed more light on its life and subsequent extinction. It was numerous at the time of Lionel Walter Rothschild's first scientific description in 1903. The Wake Island rail inhabited "Cordia subcordata" scrubs and fed on molluscs, insects, worms and seeds which it found by digging up leaves and soil with its bill. Since its habitat offered no natural source of fresh water, it is assumed that the bird was able to subsist without drinking.
Water rail
These rails are vulnerable to flooding or freezing conditions, loss of habitat and predation by mammals and large birds. The introduced American mink has exterminated some island populations, but overall the species' huge range and large numbers mean that it is not considered to be threatened.
Snipe eel
The only food items actually found in the stomachs of snipe eels have been shrimp-like crustaceans, though ichthyologists believe they should be capable of catching and eating small fish and cephalopods also. Since predatory fish often feed on eel larvae, it is presumed by scientists and ichthyologists that they feed on snipe eel larvae as well. It is also thought that larger fish eat adult snipe eels though there is not much direct evidence for this. Scientists have reported a few stories of rockfish vomiting up a snipe eel after being caught and hauled to the surface in a trawl net.
Mole (animal)
A mole's diet primarily consists of earthworms and other small invertebrates found in the soil, and a variety of nuts. The mole runs are in reality "worm traps", the mole sensing when a worm falls into the tunnel and quickly running along to kill and eat it. Because their saliva contains a toxin that can paralyze earthworms, moles are able to store their still-living prey for later consumption. They construct special underground "larders" for just this purpose; researchers have discovered such larders with over a thousand earthworms in them. Before eating earthworms, moles pull them between their squeezed paws to force the collected earth and dirt out of the worm's gut.
Grey-necked wood rail
Placed in the family Rallidae—the rails—this species was originally described as "Fulica Cajanea" by Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller, in his 1776 "Vollständiges Natursystem". Müller based his description on the illustration “Poule d’Eau de Cayenne” (Cayenne’s water hen) by French naturalist and artist Edme-Louis Daubenton in his "Planches Enlumineés d’Histoire Naturelle". It was eventually moved to the new genus "Aramides", the wood rails, by Jacques Pucheran in 1845, and the specific epithet was changed to "cajaneus".
Mollusca
Most molluscs are herbivorous, grazing on algae or filter feeders. For those grazing, two feeding strategies are predominant. Some feed on microscopic, filamentous algae, often using their radula as a 'rake' to comb up filaments from the sea floor. Others feed on macroscopic 'plants' such as kelp, rasping the plant surface with its radula. To employ this strategy, the plant has to be large enough for the mollusc to 'sit' on, so smaller macroscopic plants are not as often eaten as their larger counterparts.
Filter feeders are molluscs that feed by straining suspended matter and food particle from water, typically by passing the water over their gills. Most bivalves are filter feeders.
Water rail
The water rail's numbers are declining, but it has a large population of 100,000–1,000,000 adults and a huge breeding range estimated at ; it is therefore classed as "least concern" on the IUCN Red List. In most European countries, the population is either stable or decreasing slightly due to loss of habitat. The rail's range and numbers are increasing in Morocco, with breeding as far south as Oued Massa. Little is known about the Asian range, but "korejewi" is a common breeder in Pakistan and Kashmir.
Skateboard
Rails (or ribs), are narrow strips of plastic or metal that are attached under the deck lengthwise along the edges. They are used for additional grip for grabs, and to enhance sliding while protecting the deck's graphics at the same time. Rails also provide a more consistent feel for slides, as the slide of a regular skateboard will suffer from the wear of the paint or varnish on the bottom of the board. Although rarely used anymore, they are useful for experienced skaters that are capable of grabs.
Water crane
A water crane is a device used for delivering a large volume of water into the tank or tender of a steam locomotive. The device is sometimes also called a water column in the United States. As a steam locomotive consumes large quantities of water, water cranes were a vital part of railway station equipment, often situated at the end of a platform, so that water could be refilled during a stop at the station.
Rakali
Rakali, "Hydromys chrysogaster", also known as rabe or water-rat, is an Australian native rodent first described in 1804. The change to the aboriginal name Rakali was intended to foster a positive public attitude by Environment Australia. It is the only member of the genus "Hydromys" with a range extending beyond Papua New Guinea and Indonesian West Papua. Having effectively adapted and colonised a unique niche of semiaquatic and nocturnal lifestyle, this species lives in burrows on the banks of rivers, lakes and estuaries and feeds on aquatic insects, fish, crustaceans, mussels, snails, frogs, birds' eggs and water birds. Rakali have a body in length, weigh, and have a thick tail measuring around . Females are generally smaller than males but tail lengths are normally the same.They have partially webbed hind legs, waterproof fur, a flattened head, a long blunt nose, many whiskers and small ears and eyes. The body is streamlined with a skull that is large, flat and elongated, with two molars on the upper and lower jaw, similar to the False water rat "Xeromys myoides." They are black to brown in colour with an orange to white belly, and dark tail with a white tip.
Virginia rail
The Virginia rail ("Rallus limicola") is a small waterbird, of the family Rallidae.
These birds remain fairly common despite continuing loss of habitat, but are secretive by nature and more often heard than seen. They are also considered a game species in some provinces and states, though rarely hunted. The Ecuadorian rail is often considered a subspecies, but some taxonomic authorities consider it distinct.
Water caltrop
During the metacercarial stage in their lifecycle, the larval flukes leave their water snail hosts, and swim away to form cysts on the surfaces of water plants, including the leaves and fruit of water caltrops. If infected water plants are consumed raw or undercooked, the flukes can infect pigs, humans, and other animals.
Rail (bird)
The rails are a family of small to medium-sized, ground-living birds. They vary in length from and in weight from . Some species have long necks and in many cases are laterally compressed.
Acorn worm
Many acorn worms are detritus feeders, eating sand or mud and extracting organic detritus. Others feed on organic material suspended in the water, which they can draw into the mouth using the cilia on the gill bars. A groove lined with cilia lies just in front of the mouth and directs suspended food into the mouth and may allow the animal to taste.
Cape mole-rat
Like other mole-rats, Cape mole-rats rarely travel above ground, and spend most of their lives within excavated burrow systems. Their burrows typically range from in length, with tunnels about wide. They are herbivorous, feeding on the bulbs, corms and tubers of plants such as Star-of-Bethlehem, Cape tulips, and wood-sorrels, among others. They obtain this food by digging foraging tunnels to reach plant roots; these tunnels are narrower than their main tunnels and may be as little as below the surface. Food may also be taken to deeper storage chambers to store up for hard times, or when a female is raising young. They have no need to drink, being able to obtain all the water they need from their diet.
Bat ray
Bat rays feed on mollusks, crustaceans and small fish on the seabed, using their winglike pectoral fins to move sand and expose prey animals. They may also dig trenches up to 20 cm deep to expose buried prey, such as clams. Bat ray teeth are flat and pavementlike, forming tightly-packed rows that are used for crushing and grinding prey—the crushed shells are ejected and the flesh consumed. As with all elasmobranchs, these teeth fall out and are replaced continuously.
Eagle ray
Eagle rays feed on mollusks and crustaceans, crushing their shells with their flattened teeth. Devil and manta rays filter plankton from the water. They are excellent swimmers and are able to breach the water up to several metres above the surface. Compared with other rays, they have long tails, and well-defined, rhomboidal bodies. They are ovoviviparous, giving birth to up to six young at a time. They range from in length.
Nile lechwe
Nile lechwe feed on succulent grasses and water plants. Wild rice is thought to be a preferred food at the start of the flood season, while a larger proportion of swamp grasses are consumed when the waters recede. They have the special capability to wade in shallow waters and swim in deeper waters, and may feed on young leaves from trees and bushes, rearing up to reach this green vegetation. Nile lechwe are also found in marshy areas, where they eat aquatic plants.