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Raccoon / Dog Wrestling

Bleiman Brothers Profile

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In the wild, Andrew feeds on fish, sponges, small crustaceans, nematode worms and protozoans.

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Benny's diet is very specialized, consisting mainly of the interior of Ramy nuts, nectar from the Traveller's Palm tree, some fungi and insect grubs. He is also known to raid coconut plantations, and has been seen eating lychees and mangoes, which are also plantation crops.

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Read the super-informative Interview with the Bleiman Brothers

World's Largest Zoo and Shot Glass Collection


Now accepting donations in exchange for recognition and fame on Zooillogix!

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Currently Featured: Seattle Aquarium from Jason Brunet of JeffTheFish.com - the official website of baby rats!

The List:
Adventure Aquarium
Baton Rouge Zoo
Birch Aquarium at Scripps
Bronx Zoo
Brookfield Zoo
Cincinnati Zoo
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
Florida Aquarium
Georgia Aquarium
Knoxville Zoo
Lincoln Park Zoo
Los Angeles Zoo
Maritime Center in Norwalk, CT
Milwaukee Zoo
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Mystic Aquarium
New England Aquarium
New York Aquarium
Newport Aquarium
North Carolina Aquarium
North Carolina Zoological Society
Philadelphia Zoo
Seattle Aquarium
Rio Grande Zoo
Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies
San Diego Zoo
San Francisco Zoo
Santa Barbara Zoo
Sea World San Diego
Shedd Aquarium
Smithsonian National Zoo
South Carolina Aquarium
Tennessee Aquarium
Feed me Seymour!

January 5, 2009

Intriguing

Category: squidweird japanese


A little background here: Japanese squid monster moisturizer tentacle woman video. Yup.

Dolphins Wear Sponge Nose Guards to Forage

Category: dolphin

In the 1980's female dolphins were first seen using sponges as a foraging tool to protect their noses while digging at the ocean floor for prey. New research, however, conducted by a team from Georgetown University (go Hoyas, biotches!) has taken a much more comprehensive look at this use of tools by dolphins.

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So they can use tools. But this dolphin has clearly not yet mastered the use of female contraception.

Professor Janet Mann of Georgetown looked at a population of bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay in Western Australia to observe the sponging behavior. Only female dolphins were witnessed using sponges as a means to protect their noses while disturbing the ocean floor, and only 11% seemed to display this behavior. When they located prey, the dolphins would drop the sponges and attack it, only to pick back up their tools when they were finished. Professor Mann concluded that females learned this behavior while still weaning (while male dolphins preferred to socialize during this time). She also found that the female dolphins who used sponges (spongers), "were more solitary, spent more time in deep water channel habitats, dived for longer durations, and devoted more time to foraging than non-spongers."

Previously, chimpanzees were the only vertebrates observed habitually using tools to hunt for prey, so this study has significant ramifications. In fact, Professor Mann told the Daily Mail that the spongers spend "more time hunting with tools than any nonhuman animal." Probably more than some human animals as well!

Her research can be found in December's issue of PLoS ONE.

January 3, 2009

Hot Peppermint Stick Bug Action!

Category: australiainsect

Once again Zooillogix reader-in-the-field extraordinaire Tweet Gainsborough-Waring (yes, that is her real awesome name), delivers the steamy shots you all have been unwittingly waiting for:

Peppermint Stick Insects getting down in Queensland, Australia!
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LonelyPeppermintStick23 - Looking for a male who knows his way around an ovipositor and isn't afraid to get kinky with your Malpighian tubules? Call tonight as I only live for another 3 days.

Tweet was kind enough to share the following info on these stunning critters:

The spikey -leaved pandanus palms bordering the beach provide the perfect habitat for the Peppermint Stick insect (Megacrania batesii) which is only found along the beaches of Cape Tribulation, Innisfail and Mission Beach, a stone's throw from the Daintree rainforest.

Masters of camouflage they are not easy to see as they lie in tender embrace along the rib of the palm leaf. The giveaway is to look for the leaves which have been eaten. The females are not big movers as they feed, shelter, mate and lay eggs in this virtually self-contained habitat.

The females emit a pheromone to attract males when ready to breed, and once laid the eggs roll down into the axil of the leaf where they incubate.

They are slender in shape ranging from different shades of green, to almost blue. At first glance it looked to me almost like a syringe or chemical phial its colour and delineation of shape was so perfect. Although they have six legs they use only their fore and mid legs to move

Both male and female insects have wings, with those of the male larger than the female. The bigger wings are to enable the males to fly longer distances in search of a mate.

The wings also act as a defence mechanism against predators like birds, normally folded neatly along the body they can be quickly opened to provide a flash of colour, enough to stop a predator momentarily in its tracks and allow the insect to escape.

Their common name is derived from the substance they emit if frightened which has a distinct peppermint smell.

More info here http://www.wettropics.gov.au/pa/pa_stick_insects.html

December 30, 2008

Wow...Shape Shifting Owl

Category: owlweird japanese

Via Cute Overload and NVDH.

December 28, 2008

Four Clawed Mutant Lobster

Category: crustaceanlobster

We (I) here at Zooillogix have a thing for lobsters. It involves Belgium, pasta tongs, and a Dutch boy named Lourens. I'll leave it at that.

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Anyway, this mutant lobster was pulled out of the briny depths near Newport, RI earlier this month. Lobsterman Patrick Marks sometimes releases lobster "when they look at him funny" and so this almost-Pokemon-character was returned to the sea after a day-long publicity tour.

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December 22, 2008

Amazing Plankton Pics

Category: Plankton

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Worm larva

Dr Richard Kirkby, a Royal Society Research Fellow at the University of Plymouth in the UK, took these stunning up-close photos of plankton. He will be revealing the photos of at an exhibition at Blue Reef, Blue Planet and Deep Sea World aquariums in England throughout 2009.

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Spider crab larva

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Metroid villain

Many more below the fold...

Shark Jumps out of Tank into Pool at Atlantis Bahamas

Category: aquariumshark

From ABC4.com: A shark managed to jump out of its aquarium and onto a water slide at a hotel swimming pool used by guests. No one was in the pool at the time. The female reef shark leapt over the one foot high barrier and slid down the slide known as the Leap of Faith at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas.

Slide goes in the water?

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You go in the water.

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Shark's in the water.


Sadly the pool chlorine and the shark didn't mix and the reef shark died shortly thereafter... but I can only hope that when it is my time to go, it is via a waterslide.

December 17, 2008

Pandaquarium

Category: aquariumpanda

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Thanks to K-Zed

December 16, 2008

Over 1000 New Species Discovered along the Mekong River

Category: new species

Researchers have released the findings of a ten year study into the wildlife of the Greater Mekong River area in Southeast Asia -- Over 1000 new species discovered!

Before you all break into a heated, name-calling brawl on whether these should actually be called "new species" or "species that are new to science" or "species that are new to 'Western' science", allow Andrew and me to put the issue to rest: These species should be considered not only new species to science, but new species to humanity and to the world, as this is the first time that Western scientists, i.e. imporant people, have made their acquaintence. Hopefully, that fact will quell any fiery debate before it begins.

Here are some pics from the nationalgeographic.com article on the subject.

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This adorable shocking pink, dragon millipede shoots cyanide at you when disturbed...true. Fun fact #2: If one of these attacks you in a dream, you will still bear the scars when you awake!

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With a legspan of over 12 inches, this newly discovered Laotian Heteropoda maxima spider maybe the largest spider in the world. I'd like to wear one as a hat!

More below the fold...

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