Glossary

Glossary: F

feces

Bodily waste discharged from the bowels.

fecundity

The number of offspring produced per unit of time per individual of any given age. Also referred to as birth rate, maternity rate, or fertility.

female parental care

parental care is carried out by females

feral

Referring to domesticated animals which are living in the wild.

fertilization

union of egg and spermatozoan

filter-feeding

a method of feeding where small food particles are filtered from the surrounding water by various mechanisms. Used mainly by aquatic invertebrates, especially plankton, but also by baleen whales.

fixed

referring to a state or feature of an organism or species that does not change.

fluke

One of the lobes of a whale's tail.

folivore

an animal that mainly eats leaves.

food

A substance that provides both nutrients and energy to a living thing.

food chain

A diagram that shows the flow of food and energy from producers to consumers. The original food source for all organisms in a food chain can be traced to plants. "Food chain" and "food web" are often used interchangeably, but a food chain shows just one thing that each animal eats and is eaten by; while a food web shows all the things an animal eats and is eaten by.

food web

A diagram showing the connections among everything that organisms in a location eat and are eaten by. A food web is more complex than a food chain, by showing more connections.

forbs

A general term applied to ephemeral plant species (not grasses); in arid and semi-arid regions they grow abundantly after rains.

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

fossorial

fossoriality

Referring to a burrowing life-style or behavior, specialized for digging or burrowing.

freshwater

mainly lives in water that is not salty.

freshwater lake

An aquatic biome.

freshwater river

An aquatic biome.

frugivore

an animal that mainly eats fruit

fruiting body

An organ of a fungus which carries or produces spores for the fungus' reproduction. For example, a mushroom is a fruiting body of a fungus; the main body of the fungus is underground and consists of a network formed from a mass of branching filaments.

funnel

a conical device with a wide opening that tapers to a much smaller opening, used for a variety of purposes. The webs of funnel-web spiders are similarly shaped.

furbearer

An animal whose pelt has commercial value and is subject to being harvested.