Christmas animals and plants: The festive species named for 25 December
By James Ashworth
Over 30 species around the world are named after Christmas Day because of their bright colours, where they come from or when they reproduce.
However, while Christmas itself is celebrated by many, these species don't always get the appreciation they deserve.
When it comes to Christmas, it tends to be robins and reindeer which rule the festive roost. While these animals feature on cards and seasonal images each year, more than 30 other species are linked to Christmas because of their name.
And while it may be the season of good will to all men, not all these Christmas species receive the same level of love from humanity. A variety of threats face them year-round, with some never to see in another 25 Decemberopens in a new window.
Isolated from the rest of the world for millions of years, a diverse array of wildlife evolved on the island. It is also believed to have been uninhabited until being settled by Europeans during the nineteenth century, who opened large phosphate mines.
The arrival of humans, and the opening of the mines, was the beginning of the end for many of the unique Christmas animals found only on the island. Among the first species to be lost were the Christmas Island burrowing rat and Maclear's rat, both believed to have gone extinct in the early 1900sopens in a new window after invasive black rats brought parasitic diseases with them.
Bearing the brunt of the ants is the Christmas Island red crabopens in a new window, with over a quarter of the population thought to have been wiped out. These crabs spend most of their life on land, eating leaves and fruits that fall to the forest floor.
While many of the species get their name from Christmas Island, there are also many which do not.
For instance, the Christmas darteropens in a new window, a species of fish found in the southern USA, was thought to have a festive appearance by the scientists who named it, based on its 'gay decoration of the body with symbolic red and green bands'. The Christmas tree crayfishopens in a new window, which also has red bands on its body, is named for similar reasons.
Bright colours are also responsible for the English name of the Rautini, also known as the Chatham Island Christmas treeopens in a new window. Growing up to eight metres tall, its covering of silvery hairs and bright yellow flowers which develop around the festive period inspired its English name.
Other plants which bloom in or around December are also renowned as Christmas plants. For example, the Christmas palm tree, or Adonidia merrillii, gets its name because its fruits become bright red in winter.
Though it shares its name with a plant, the Christmas tree wormsopens in a new window are anything but. Living on coral reefs, this group of tube-building wormsopens in a new window stick brightly coloured structures shaped like the eponymous plant into the water to breathe, as well as trap prey. These are then drawn back into their burrows to feed.
Meanwhile, there is the prospect of a new Christmas species on the horizon. There are some suggestions that the Christmas Island flying fox, which is currently a subspecies of Blyth's flying foxopens in a new window, may be its own separate species.
If this fruit-eating bat is declared an individual species, it may help to implement more tailored conservation programmes for the mammal, which has been estimated as having a 41% chance of extinctionopens in a new window in the next 20 years.
Carrying out this research, whatever the result, may be the best Christmas gift the species could hope for.
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