In the wild, Andrew feeds on fish, sponges, small crustaceans, nematode worms and protozoans.
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.
When our mother upped and moved to New Mexico a few years back, my brother and I were thrilled to be spending holidays in such a rugged, wild, and frankly, weird place. She lives only a couple of miles from the center of Albuquerque, but regular backyard visitors include coyotes, black bears and lynx. Needless to say, the family cat, Lulu, quickly became an "indoor cat." After a few months the coyotes became more bold, trotting along the walls of the property, and my grandmother, Maggie, quickly became an "indoor grandmother."
These pictures were taken by a motion activated camera in the Sandia Mountains behind mom's house over the course of just over a week in April and March of this year.
Yet another crazy cat person has made the news. This time, 47-year-old Michael Louis Vondueren of Sacramento who was discovered with 300 dead cats, stuffed in various freezers around his house.
A recent photo of Vondueren taken outside his Sacramento home
Andrew and I have been racking our brains...What is it about crazy people and their affinity for cats? Any psychiatrists in the audience? How about feliniologists?
This 6-month old pygmy right whale stranded itself on the beach in New Zealand. It is being dissected by a team of scientists as I write this! The whale has a similar head to true right whales, but scientists do not believe that they are closely related. In fact, they are not quite sure where these rare whales fit into the overall evolutionary tree. Hopefully this dissection will help them put some of the pieces in the puzzle.
Across the U.K., ravens, once peaceful scavengers, have taken to attacking livestock in huge murderous storms. Scottish and Welsh farmers have recently reported flocks of ravens descending on lambs and literally pecking them to death. Kind of like the movie The Birds! just more sensationalized by the British media...
Beware! Poor metaphors and juvenile symbolism ahead!
Jimmy Mills, a farmer from the town of Stratherrick claims to have lost seven lambs in the last two weeks. In this article in the Daily Mail, he said "The lambs are born at...
Documentary on "new obscure insects" by Floris Kaayk. Was first shown at Paradise by the Laptop Light in 2005. While fascinating, a world infested with these guys would pretty much suck.
As reported in the May 2008 Journal of Ethology, researchers in the sub-antarctic Indian Ocean on Marion Island, recently observed some fascinating and disturbing behavior. A young adult Antarctic fur seal was witnessed forcing itself upon an adult king penguin for upwards of 45 minutes. While young adult fur seals are known for aggressive sexuality that sometimes spans species between pinnepeds, this is the first documented case of a seal "[bridging] the level of vertebrate class in their copulatory attempts." i.e. getting it on with a freakin penguin.
The seal was first spotted subduing the penguin, who was none to pleased by the advances. The seal overcame the penguin by laying on top of it, while the penguin flapped its flippers frantically. Sensitive Zooillogix readers should note that the penguin "showed no outward signs of injury" during or after the excitement, although it was no doubt traumatized. "The seal alternated between resting on the penguin (Fig. a) and bouts of pelvic thrusting copulatory behavior (Fig. b)..." While the seal's "junk" was visible, it did not penetrate the victim. This was further verified by the researchers post coitus... Perhaps most tellingly, after 45 minutes, the seal "abruptly moved into the sea and completely ignored the penguin," leading the researchers to postulate that the fur seal was "some a-hole frat guy."
The scientists, P.J. Nico de Bruyn, Cheryl A. Tosh and Marthan N. Bester of the University of Pretoria, South Africa, noted some additional oddities about the encounter, beyond the obvious disparity in looks. Firstly, fur seal mating usually lasts between 2 1/2 to 6 minutes, making...
I met Chris Green on a boat in Lake Titicaca in September, 2007. Immediately we realized that we had something in common...Weird animals, well kinda. For starters, I just write about weird animals, and Chris actually works with them. Also because he lives on Tasmania, he doesn't really consider the animals he works with weird; they are pretty much the most normal animals he can think of...Whoa, that's deep.
Normal day at the office...
If Andrew and I were trying to make a joke about a typical Tasmanian person, we'd probably use Chris' resume as material. He has spent the last few years at a Tasmanian devil rescue center, and has recently moved to a job monitoring wallaby populations. Unfortunately, Tasmanian devils have been under attack by a form of contagious face cancer that may just wipe out their entire population. Luckily, they have people like Chris to take care of them and spread the message: They need help!
I finally convinced Chris to send me some exclusive pictures of him at work with the animals. They can be found below the fold. So can his explanation of what's going on with the Tasmanian devils (Tassies), and what you can do to help...
Back in March of 2007, we brought you the story of an enormous (colossal really) squid, captured by New Zealandish fishermen and brought back for examination at the University of New Zealand. The frozen squid posed challenges for the researchers who realized that it would take so long to thaw that the outer parts would be rotting before the core had even melted (also an appropriate description of my brother Benny's heart).
Well the marine biologists made their move today, thawing out the colossal squid in a bath of cool water. Had the water been too hot, they were worried it might crack the frozen squid like an ice cube. Yesterday's reports said the scientists would have only four hours to examine the little tyke before they had to toss him in a formaldehyde bath, thereby ruining any chance of tire sized calamari.
