Guano (from the Quechua 'wanu', (dung) via Spanish) is the excrement (feces and urine) of seabirds, cave dwelling insectivorous bats, and seals. Guano manure is an effective fertilizer due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen and also its lack of odor. It was an important source of nitrates for gunpowder. Soil that is deficient in organic matter can be made more productive by addition of this manure.

Composition

Guano consists of ammonium oxalate and urate, phosphates, as well as some earth salts and impurities. Guano also has a high concentration of nitrates. Bird guano has a fertilizer analysis of 11 to 16 percent nitrogen, 8 to 12 percent equivalent phosphoric acid, and 2 to 3 percent equivalent potash. Bat and seal guano are lower in fertilizer value than bird guano.

History

The word "guano" originates from the Quichua language of the Andes and means "the droppings of sea birds". Andean peoples collected guano from the coast of Peru for use as soil enricher. The rulers of the Inca Empire assigned great value to guano, restricting access to it and punishing any disturbance to the birds with death.

Guano has been harvested over several centuries along the coast of Peru, where islands and rocky shores have been sheltered from humans and predators. The Guanay Cormorant has historically been the most important producer of guano; its guano is richer in nitrogen than guano from other seabirds. Other important guano producing species off the coast of Peru are the Peruvian Pelican and the Peruvian Booby.

In November 1802, Alexander von Humboldt studied guano and its fertilizing properties at Callao in Peru, and his subsequent writings on this topic made the subject known in Europe.

The high concentration of nitrates also made guano an important strategic commodity. The discovery during the 1840s of the use of guano as a fertilizer and its Chile saltpetre content as a key ingredient in explosives made the area strategically valuable.

In this context the US passed the Guano Islands Act in 1856 giving citizens discovering a source of guano the right to take possession of unclaimed land and entitlement to exclusive rights to the deposits. However, the guano could only be removed for the use of citizens of the United States. This enabled US citizens to take possession of unoccupied islands containing guano.

Control over guano played an important role in the Chincha Islands War (1864-1866) between Spain and a Peruvian-Chilean alliance since Spain occupied with its navy the Chincha Islands depriving Peru of lucrative income.

In the second halft of the 19th century guano extraction was eclipsed by salpeter in the form of caliche extraction from the interior of Atacama Desert, not far from the guano areas. After the War of the Pacific (1879-1883) Chile seized much of the guano as well as salpeter producing area making its national treasury grow by 900% between 1879 and 1902 due to taxes coming from the newly acquired lands.

By the end of the 19th century, the importance of guano declined with the rise of artificial fertiliser, although guano is still used by organic gardeners and farmers. Superphosphate made from guano is used for aerial topdressing.

Sourcing

The ideal type of guano is found in exceptionally dry climates, as rainwater drains the guano of nitrates. Guano is harvested on various islands in the Pacific Ocean (for example, the Chincha Islands) and in other oceans (for example, Juan de Nova Island and Christmas Island). These islands have been home to mass seabird colonies for many centuries, and the guano has collected to a depth of many metres. In the 19th century, Peru was famous for its supply of guano.

Bat guano is usually mined in caves and this mining is associated with a corresponding loss of troglobytic biota and diminishing of biodiversity. Guano deposits support a great variety of cave-adapted invertebrate species, which rely on bat faeces as their sole nutrient input. In addition to the biological component, deep guano deposits contain local paleoclimatic records in strata that have built up over thousands of years, which are unrecoverable once disturbed.

The greatest damage caused by mining to caves with extant guano deposits is to the bat colonies themselves. Bats are highly vulnerable to regular disturbance to their roosts. Some species, such as ''Phyllonycteris aphylla'', have low fat reserves, and will starve to death when regularly disturbed and put into a panic state during their resting period. Many species will drop pups when in panic, with subsequent death, leading to a steady reduction in population. Research in Jamaica has shown that mining for bat guano is directly related to the loss of bat species, associated invertebrates and fungi, and is the greatest threat to bat caves on the island.

Properties

In agriculture and gardening guano has a number of uses, including as: soil builder, lawn treatments, fungicide (when fed to plants through the leaves), nematicide (decomposing microbes help control nematodes), and as composting activator (nutrients and microbes speed up decomposition).

See also

Guano Islands Act

Phosphate mining in Nauru

Histoplasmosis

Phosphorite

Bat Cave mine

References

External links

ProAbonos

Jamaican Bat Guano and Cave Preservation

Category:Guano Category:Guano trade Category:Animal waste products Category:Bird products Category:Nitrogen metabolism Category:Quechua loanwords Category:Speleology

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colour	orange
name	Ace Ventura
portrayer	Jim Carrey
voice	Charlie Schlatter
gender	Male
occupation	Pet Detective
spouse	Melissa Ventura ''(formerly Melissa Robinson)''
children	Ace Ventura Jr.
relatives	Rex Ventura ''(father)'' }}

Ace Ventura is a fictional character, created by screenwriter Jack Bernstein. Ace was played by Jim Carrey in the films (''Ace Ventura: Pet Detective'', released in 1994, and ''Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls'', released in 1995.) He was voiced by Charlie Schlatter in the animated television series.

Biography

Ace is a Miami-based private detective specializing in missing animals, Ace was the son of Ron Ventura and is a direct descendant of famous historical figures including , Ernest Ventura Shackleton, and Jacques Ventura Costeau. He spent his adult life working as an investigator on cases involving animals, cases that took him all over the United States, as well as the world. It is not known if the Ace Ventura animated television series was canon with the films, but if it was it likely takes place before them because the only one of his pets from the movies to appear in the series is his capuchin monkey, Spike (this suggests that he may not have gotten the rest of his pets until some point between the movies and series). During the second film, Ace becomes a Buddhist monk after a failed rescue attempt of a raccoon, only to be called out of retirement to investigate a missing sacred animal. By the events portrayed in Ace Ventura, Jr. it is established that Ace disappeared somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle. Ergo, Ace never appears in the film itself.

Development

Ace's mannerisms and catch-phrases are based on Carrey's "Overly Confident Gay Man" character from In Living Color.

Bernstein had wanted to do a comedic version of Sherlock Holmes, and when watching the ''Stupid Pet Tricks'' segment on ''Late Night With David Letterman'', got the idea for a pet detective.

Personality

Ace Ventura is an eccentric, possibly insane, self styled 'pet detective' who gave up regular police work so he could focus more on crimes against animals ("I don't do humans."). Like all the great fictional sleuths, he is gifted with incredible powers of observation and deduction, such as when he quickly noted that a certain balcony door would have to have been closed when a man fell out in an apparent suicide or the victim's scream would have been heard. On at least one occasion, he also managed to escape being shot at by catching a bullet in his teeth.

Ventura's many personality quirks include his persistent, almost pathological vulgarity and exceedingly flamboyant, extroverted behaviour, one well known quirk is grasping his butt cheeks and moving them as to talk. Despite his frequently psychotic personality, he is a very dedicated gumshoe, driven by an insatiable love of animals and a desire to protect them from the sinister machinations of man. It is revealed in ''Ace Ventura Jr: Pet Detective'' by Rex (Ace Sr.'s father) that his love for animals, detective skills, personality, insanity, and even hairdo are due to a mutated chromosome which has been in the Ventura family for thousands of years. This is reinforced by the fact that Ace's son, Ace Jr., developed his father's personality, attire, and hair style in his absence.

Although Ace is an animal lover, the second film reveals that he has a deep seated fear of bats which caused problems throughout, especially when Ace was forced to carry a live bat ''by hand''.

Regarding appearance, he usually wears an unbuttoned Aloha shirt over a plain white A-shirt, with red and black striped trousers. Many of Ace's mannerisms (such as his laugh) are drawn from the character Fire Marshall Bill, played by Jim Carrey during his time on ''In Living Color''. He lives in an apartment alongside many different animals, all of whom discretely hide from his pet-forbidding landlord, Mr. Schickadance, in his absence.

Appearance in ''The Mask: The Animated Series''

In the episodes ''"The Aceman Cometh/Have Mask, Will Travel"'' of ''The Mask: The animated series'', when Milo, the pet dog of Stanley Ipkiss, was stolen by Dr. Pretorius, Ipkiss calls Ace for help. Both Ipkiss/the Mask and Ace Ventura were the animated version of characters portrayed by Jim Carrey himself, who appeared face to face. Ace wears the mask (accidentally) on his butt, turning into a face similar to his own and having the ability to speak, ironizing his gag of making his butt "talk" (as in the "ass a few questions" joke from the original film).

Reception

Ace was ranked the 60th Greatest Movie Character in a November, 2008 list by Empire Magazine. Cyborg Franky from Japanese anime and manga One Piece is based on the character.

See also

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

External links

References

Category:Ace Ventura Category:Comedy film characters Category:Fictional characters from Florida Category:Fictional private investigators Category:Fictional Buddhist monks Category:Fictional postal workers Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1994

es:Ace Ventura (personaje) it:Ace Ventura ru:Эйс Вентура fi:Ace Ventura (hahmo)