Bonobo Monkeys are Foodies

 Not only are bonobos foodies, they're communicating about it, too.

In the first study of its kind, researchers in the UK found the apes gave each other specific details about food quality.  The combination of five distinct calls into sequences allowed others to concentrate their foraging around areas known to contain preferred kiwi fruits.

Researchers found that when the bonobos discovered their preferred food, kiwis, they emitted higher pitched long barks and short "peeps".
When the bonobos found less-preferred apples they made lower pitch "peep-yelps" and yelps.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9469000/9469152.stm

Albino Peacock

May I present: The Stunning Albino Peacock

Fat Cat Water Aerobics

It's Fat Cat Water Aerobics.... and apparently it works.... as long as you can get the cat to tread water.....

Dolphins Leaping

 See the beautiful dolphins leaping high into the air...

These amazing pictures show a gang of young, spotted dolphins leaping an incredible 15 feet in the air - high enough to clear a double decker bus.

The six foot long marine mammals are jumping an astounding two and a half times their own body length.

'It is a very difficult shot to take because they're only above the water for a fraction of a second,' explained Anthony Pierce, photographer from Leeds who took these photographs,

'I have to press the shutter down before they break through the surface in order to capture them - because they're so incredibly quick.  I have to predict where they're going to be.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1380093/Flippin-heck-The-dolphins-jump-high-double-decker-bus.html#ixzz1KxRtedc5

Congratulations Will & Kate

 Congratulations Will & Kate on your beautiful wedding :-)

Otter and Kitten

It's brilliant really, rescue baby otter, get baby otter pet! Watch it play with your cat! .....The fantasy of owning a pet otter is much more fun and fluffy than the reality :-P leave otter care up to the professionals... but still, I dare to dream ;-)

Attwater's Prairie Chick

 

A critically endangered Attwater's Prairie Chicken egg has hatched, into a cute, ecologically 

significant chick, at the Houston Zoo. A native to Texas, the fact that this little guy’s species 

still exists is due in part to their bird department’s determination and hard work.

http://houstonzooblogs.org/wildconservation/2011/04/our-first-attwaters-prairie-chicken-egg-hatched-today/

The Wallaby

An adorable wild wallaby stands, staring at the camera taking its picture, as if to say, "What the heck is that thing?!"

The Prairie Dog Dance

Do the Jump-Yip!  (Watch the prairie dogs to show you how)

Gorilla Populations on the Rise in the Congo

Despite all the troubles in the Congo, the gorilla populations there are increasing... 

this is such great news.

A survey of Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo turned up 181 Grauer’s gorillas, up from 168 in 2004 and 130 in 2000. The number may actually be higher — the researchers were only able to assess the highland areas of the park due to guerrilla activity.

http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0415-grauers_gorillas_congo.html

The Pallas's Cat

Isn't he handsome? :-)

Believe it or not, this is a photograph.... of a Pallas's Cat. 

They're small wild cats that live in the grasslands and montane steppe of Central Asia.

The Sea Hare

This is a Sea Hare

          Like their snail cousins, sea hares are soft, plump and slow. These creatures -- so named because their tentacles resemble rabbit ears -- graze on algae and sea grass in coastal waters. But like slugs, sea hares have no shell to hide in. When faced with a predator such as a crab or spiny lobster, some sea hares blast the attacker with a defensive spray, a combination of dark purple ink and a shimmery whitish substance called opaline.  This is the first time researchers have describe an animal that can take photosynthetic pigment from its diet and turn it into a molecule that can wield off would-be attackers.... 

http://news.discovery.com/animals/sea-hare-chemical-weapon.html

it's pretty cool how strange and yet resourceful animals can be.

Cat and Lizard

My kitty.

Want A Pet Rabbit?

Ever thought of owning your own rabbit? You might want to watch this before getting one as a pet.

Baby Mara

Have you heard of a Mara? They're also known as Patagonian Hares, and two of them were just born at a zoo in Portugal..... new bunny-like babies, born just in time for Easter. :-)

Last Sunday, April 17th, two Maras, or Patagonian Hares, were born at Portugal's St. Ignatius Zoo. One of the tiny Maras was rejected by its mother and keepers stepped in to hand rear the little one for the time being. If all continues to go well, keepers expect the baby to rejoin its brother and parents soon. Maras are listed as near threatened by the IUCN due to habitat loss and sharing of their territory with European hares which were introduced to South America by humans.
http://www.zooborns.com/zooborns/2011/04/bottle-feeding-a-baby-mara.html

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone has had an enjoyable Easter... and enjoys these pictures too...

The Easter Bunny knows no fear...

A Sea Otter enjoys a nice Easter duckie cookie

Simon's Cat Celebrates Easter

The latest Simon's Cat video is here! Just in time for Easter... :-)

Otter Fight!

 Okay, it's not so much a fight, really, more like Otter Playful Water Wrestling :-)

Duckies are Cute

Ducklings are so cute... especially when Mom takes them down a small waterfall... Weeeeeee!

Three cheers for Mother Earth: Let's Work With Her, Not Against Her

Let's Bank on Nature, Not Bankrupt It 

Species are wondrous, productive, critical links in the complex web of life. There's no question that they are the building blocks which underpin healthy ecosystems that provide us clean water, clean air, medicines, food, and livelihoods, and they continue to teach us fantastic secrets that inspire science, engineering and culture. At the same time, there's also no question that species are facing tremendous pressures from habitat loss, climate change, and human activities which, in concert, are driving extinction rates to an estimated one-thousand times what is considered natural. We must do more now, than study and protect them.

Our global community is growing, and putting more pressure on the planet than ever before. In just forty years, it is estimated that our population will increase from 6.9 billion to more than 9 billion people -- with two million more people entering the middle class. This will create overwhelming demand for food, fresh water, and safe, reliable sources of energy on our planet's diminishing natural capacity.

With these realities on the immediate horizon, we must recognize that everything that sustains us is a gift from nature, an irreplaceable wealth of ecosystem services that we cannot manufacture or produce on our own: our water from aquifers, rivers and glaciers; our grains and food crops from pollinators and organisms in productive soil; our fisheries from healthy coral reefs, and clean oceans; our stable climate from the carbon storages of trees, mangroves and seagrasses. These are not gifts outright and these are not gifts guaranteed.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-seligmann/lets-bank-on-nature-not-b_b_850805.html

Happy Earth Day Everyone

Mystic Turtle reminds that the Earth is both a very large, and a very small place, all at the same time.

"Greatest" Speech Ever

This is almost too ridiculous to be real....

Chewbacca

Most Epic Dog Costume, Ever.

The Song of the Mouse

Matina Kalcounis-Rueppell deciphers the ultrasonic chatter, shown here plotted on a spectrograph, of a deer mouse. 

Kalcounis-Rueppell has now translated the ultrasonic utterances of the wild mice from her first study site and is working on their Eastern North American relatives. Her research and that of others suggest that some songs are produced only by males or only by females. There are even greater differences from one species to the next, akin to those, say, between a robin and a wren. Perhaps these differences help the mice tell each other apart. Some species’ songs get more complex as a mouse grows older. The songs may be innate; young mice raised in the lab by mice of a different strain retain their own strain’s song. Kalcounis-Rueppell and her students have evidence of vocalizations in four wild species and suspect that many others sing. The world of rodents, long thought mostly quiet, may be full of songs, broadcast short distances, from one animal to another, songs that we still know very little about.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/The-Mystery-of-the-Singing-Mice.html#ixzz1K8GnTQs

"I wanna be loved by you, just you, and nobody else but youuuu, I wanna be loved by you, la-ah-ah, boop boop bee-doop"

Baby Raccoon Playing

A cute baby raccoon plays in the tub... with his giant paws!

Animals Licking Windows

 What is it about windows that make animals want to lick them? Is it the condensation?

  Better yet, what is it about animals licking windows that's so cute and funny?

I don't have the answers, but I do have a big smile on my face when I look at these pictures :-D

Can Sea Otters Save the World?

 

I think the answer should be obvious... ;-)

But according to Chris Wilmers at the University of California at Santa Cruz, otters perform an exceptionally valuable service by maintaining a healthy kelp ecosystem: The otters eat kelp-devouring sea urchins, allowing kelp forests to act as carbon sinks, locking up 0.18 kg of carbon for every square meter of coast otters inhabit. Wilmers and his colleagues estimate that were sea otters restored to healthy populations in North America, "they could collectively lock up a mammoth 1010 kg of carbon – currently worth more than $700 million on the European carbon-trading market."

http://sierraclub.typepad.com/sierradaily/2011/04/can-sea-otters-save-the-planet.html

Buzz the Kitty Opens the Door

That's one dexterous kitty...

SleepyTime Tiger

It's Sleepytime Tiger, here to lull you to sleep....

Cookie the Penguin gets Tickled

This is what it sounds like.... when penguins are tickled.

Gorilla and Duckling

 

Awwwww.... he just wanted to play with the duckie :-) Reminds me a bit of the famous Koko and her kitten.

  
Komale the Gorilla's very warm welcome failed to win over the terrified duckling, which tried several times to wrestle free before finally making its escape and rejoining its family. A spokesman for Bristol Zoo said: 'The baby gorillas are always fascinated by the ducklings which arrive every spring. They often try to catch them but this is the first time we have seen them actually pick one up - it was very sweet.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1376916/Gorilla-Komale-reveals-paternal-instinct-cradles-tiny-duck.html#ixzz1Ju4kEtcV

Koi Fish Says...

Kisses!

How to Attract Butterflies to Your Yard

 

Ever wonder how to bring butterflies to your backyard? The Tennessee Aquarium shows you how.

Antarctic Lake Hides Bizarre Ecosystem

 

See the literal microbial landscape...

Bacteria slowly built the mounds, known as stromatolites, layer by layer on the lake bottom. The lumps, which look like oversize traffic cones, resemble similar structures that first appeared billions of years ago and remain in fossil form as one of the oldest widespread records of ancient life. The Antarctic discovery could thus help scientists better understand the conditions under which primitive life-forms thrived.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/04/antarctica-lake-untersee/

Saturday Morning Sea Lion

Feeling a bit groggy? Perhaps hungover? Yup, it's Saturday morning alright, and Mr. Haggard Sea Lion is here to tell you he feels your pain....

Slow Motion Eagle Owl in Flight

Watching the talons unfurl is the best part... :-)

 Best comment from YouTube: I imagine that's what death looks like for many small rodents...

Have you heard of the saola?

With its unique white markings, the saola is a strong symbol for biodiversity in Lao and Vietnam.  It is a primitive member of the Bovidae family, which includes antelopes, buffalo, bison, cattle, goats and sheep.  Discovered in May 1992, during a joint survey carried out by the Ministry of Forestry of Vietnam and WWF in north-central Vietnam, the species remains almost as elusive today as it was more than a decade ago.  Luckily, in April 2011, a reserve was declared to help protect saolas. The Quang Nam’s People Committee inaugurated the Quang Nam Saola Nature Reserve in the Annamite mountains along the border of Vietnam and Laos.
http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/finder/saola/saola.html

Pocket Monkey

This is the smallest monkey in the world. It's called a Pygmy Marmoset, but I like to refer to them as "pocket monkeys". They're so cute, I just wanna keep one as a pet... right in my pocket :-)

Stone Eyes

Who da thunk it?

Sea creatures called chitons can use beadlike structures made of rock to distinguish light and shapes of approaching predators, a new study says.  Chitons' rock eyes appear to have some specific advantages. For one thing, the hard aragonite, that makes up their shells and rock eyes, is extremely resilient, an important trait for chitons, which are constantly being pummeled by waves in their natural habitats, shallow tidal pools.  If their eyes were made of protein, which is the case for humans and most other animals, they would get worn right away.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/04/110414-eyes-rock-crystal-mineral-chiton-mollusk-vision-animals-science/?source=link_fb20110414molluskseyes

It's Here!

 

The latest Maru video has just been uploaded, and this time, he's gettin' a brushin'.

The most beautiful pigeon....

 

This is the Nicobar Pigeon of Southeast Asia. Who knew a pigeon could have such stunning plumage!

Dinner for a Tiger

My Feesh.

Otter Chaos

National Geographic does a fantastic job making fascinating and entertaining videos.  

Watch these otters slide, frolick, and play!

Rare Camel Baby is Born

 At the Longleat Safari and Adventure Park, in the UK, a rare baby camel has been born... and I mean RARE. Bactrian camels are listed as critically endangered, with just 600 in China and 350 in Mongolia as of 2004. This birth is a huge success for camel supporters everywhere :-)

Little Lemmy is one of the newest Bactrian Camels to be born at Longleat Safari Park, to mum Bhali, 13, and dad Khan, nine. He was born weighing a hefty 65 lbs after a gestation period of 13 months, and is now busy exploring his large enclosure at the park. Now one month old, Lemmy is one of eight Bactrian Camels at the park - and is the first to be born at Longleat in two years.

http://www.zooborns.com/zooborns/2011/04/rare-camel-baby-gets-kisses-from-mom.html

Baby Skunk Says

 

"It's time for sleepin'.... okay, now just don't move your hand... I'm really cozy here..."

New Orangutan Exhibit Opens in Phoenix, Arizona

 

The Phoenix Zoo just opened a new state-of-the-art exhibit for their orangutans... and as you can tell from the video, the forest primates couldn't be happier with it :-)

Cheetah on the Arican Veldt

Sunrise, Sunset....

Giant Pacific Octopus Returns!

Following in the footsteps (er, tentacles) of Caroline, meet Octavius, the new giant Pacific octopus at the Smithsonian's National Zoo. http://news.discovery.com/videos/animals-giant-pacific-octopus-returns.html


This video is so cool, it shows the entire Giant Pacific Octopus all stretched out!

Manic Mouse Developed

This research could help soooo many people! 

A transgenic mouse has been developed with Bipolar Disorder (BPD or manic-depressive illness).  It is one of the most serious of all mental disorders, affecting millions of individuals worldwide. Affected individuals alternate between states of deep depression and mania. Now, a mouse model of the disease has been developed so that scientists can better understand the disease for developing treatment options.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080312081256.htm

Kitten and Dolphin Become Unlikely Playmates

They're precious :-)

Even rodents gotta sneeze sometimes....

Achew!!