bleimanb
Posts by this author
January 10, 2008
Yesterday I noticed a group of people standing in a circle on Mission Street in downtown San Francisco. "One of our amusing drunken homeless people must have fallen over," I thought to myself. To my surprise, however, I poked my head through the circle to find a northern goshawk (at least I think…
January 9, 2008
Why do some creatures forgo their own reproduction to help their relatives survive and reproduce? While we all might like to believe that naked mole rats really do care and are thus willing to sacrifice their creepy little lives for the good of the colony, the true answer probably has more to do…
January 7, 2008
National Geographic reported this weekend that three new species of salamander have been discovered in distant cloud forests of Costa Rica's La Amistad National Park. Just like X-Men, each salamander seems to have a special power: "one with a bold streak, one with a 'ballistic' tongue, and one no…
January 3, 2008
A new scientific paper has shown a strange, deceptive adaptation in the Maculinea butterflies of North Western Europe--an adaptation that has caused a genetic race between the butterflies and many different species of ants. The butterflies' caterpillar larvae emit a powerful smell that tricks the…
January 2, 2008
An international consortium of zoos, aquariums, conservation organizations and scientists, calling itself the "Amphibian Ark," has dubbed 2008 the "Year of the Frog." Amphibian Ark made the declaration in order to draw awareness to the mass extinction of amphibian species around the globe and to…
December 19, 2007
Japan is a country pretty much known for only one thing: being mean to whales. They eat whales for taste and curiousity and conduct "experiments" on whales for "Mengele street cred." But now, they have finally taken their twisted torture too far. The Daily Mail, Britain's most trusted source for…
December 17, 2007
While we're on the topic, we thought you might enjoy these videos of electric eels using their super powers to defend the world from evil. It's a Christmas miracle!
What's up now, son? Does that feel good? Who's the punk now, son? Who's the punk now?
Oh please, don't eat me Mr. Crocodile. I am…
December 12, 2007
Two weeks ago, we asked you what your favoritest animals in the world were. Then, last week we asked you to up the ante and get weirder. You responded in turn with a veritable cornucopia of odd critters some of which we had never heard of! (Just kidding of course we'd heard of them, we're like…
December 11, 2007
Update: This snake was actually discovered by Roygan Taylor working for Bio-Ken in Kenya. He has his own fantastic blog, which in addition to providing a lot of fascinating information about the enormous snake in question, covers all sorts of other interesting snake related issues in Africa. Check…
December 10, 2007
What? What? Huh? I can't hear you? What did you say? What?
A scientific expedition in the Gobi desert has yielded the holy grail for hamster lovers, film of the long-eared jerboa, a creature that has heretofore never been captured by a camera. Dr. Jonathan Baillie of the Zoological Society of…
December 6, 2007
Scientists studying Amazon river dolphins have discovered that males use gifts to woo potential mates. Not only that, but the male dolphins appear to give better gifts to more prized females, and the dolphins who bring the most gifts seem to sire the most offspring. The best gift? A bouquet of…
December 5, 2007
A week ago we asked you-- our very attractive, highly intelligent and unbelievably nerdy readers --to tell us what your favoritest animal in the world is. We received a flood of responses, and we wanted to show some pictures of the highlights.
Adam likes the Ai, a maned three-toed sloth that lives…
December 3, 2007
Humans are now one large step closer to producing armies of undead, zombie hordes who live only to feast on the brains of the living and reproduce by infecting non-zombies with their "zombie virus" through their saliva or other bodily fluids. This is thanks to the work of a team of scientists at…
December 3, 2007
Finally an invention Zooillogix can get behind! Inventor, Jo Lapidge from Canberra, Australia has unveiled a kit called the Litter Kwitter, designed to train cats to use the toilet rather than the unruly and unsanitary litter box. Inspired by the movie, Meet the Parents, Lapidge developed a three…
November 29, 2007
Somehow termites convert to wood into energy to power their festering hordes, and now a group of scientists and engineers--representing a consortium of government and corporate institutes--intends to learn how humans can do the same to power our Ipods. The November 22nd issue of the science journal…
November 29, 2007
This photo comes from www.mongabay.com. It shows Dr. Tim Georoff, a vet at the Bronx Zoo (where Andrew and I were raised) x-raying a Gila monster to see if she's with child (or in this case with a bunch of eggs).
Dr. Georoff has put the Gila monster into the Plexiglass box to protect himself from…
November 28, 2007
So, what is it? What is YOUR favorite animal? Is it something obscure like a lesser long-nosed bat? Or something a little more Middle America like that baby penguin from Happy Feet?
Here's an idea of the kind of answer we're looking for (and yes, video comments are highly encouraged):
November 27, 2007
The Australian Rugby team, Western Force 14, is facing serious accusations, possible fines and an eternity being molested by demons in the darkest pits of hell after a recent "bonding" trip to Rottnest Island, a small island off the Western coast of Australia. The players are accused of tormenting…
November 16, 2007
The results of a seven year survey of Europe's rivers and lakes has finally arrived, and to the delight of Ben Stein, CPAs and colorblind people around the world, 57 new species of new nonthreatening, completely unexciting, brownish-gray fish have been identified. Europe now boasts 522 drab…
November 14, 2007
We want to shake things up a bit here at Zooillogix by doing a weekly readers' poll. That's right. We actually WANT to hear from you!
The question: WHAT WAS YOUR WORST HUNGOVER MORNING EVER?
Was it a walk of shame in your Halloween costume? Did a cockroach emerge from your half-eaten Boston cream…
November 13, 2007
Due to popular demand, we searched long and hard (by going to Youtube and typing in "Winter, the dolphin") and finally found this video of Winter, the dolphin, swimming both with and without her prosthetic tail.
November 13, 2007
India's bustling capital has been a little more bustling of late with a veritable invasion of rude, sometimes dangerous monkeys. As the forests outlying the city have been destroyed, more and more rhesus macaque monkeys have made their way into the urban areas. In some cases they have literally…
November 6, 2007
Winter is the first beneficiary of the controversial MMDA (Marine Mammals with Disabilities Act) of 1977
A two year-old bottlenose dolphin has received an artificial flipper after losing hers in a crab trap out at sea. Winter was only three months-old when she was rescued off the Florida coast by…
November 5, 2007
Special thanks to Sri van der Kroef to bringing this to our attention!
November 1, 2007
We, the Brothers Bleiman, have speculated for years that humans' closest relative outside of the primate group is the colugo or flying lemur. Turns out we were right!
What up, cuz?
Two scientists, one from Penn State the other from Texas A&M, have recently proven that...
...the colugo group…
October 30, 2007
We've posted a handful of stories about insects being outfitted with surveillance equipment, converted into cyborgs and even remade as robots, but what about using insects as instruments of biological warfare? As it turns out, this may be the most likely and frightening scenario. Ira Flatow, a…
October 29, 2007
Researchers from the University of Bangor recently discovered the oldest known animal on record, a 405 year-old clam, while dredging at the bottom of the North Atlantic above Iceland. Then they killed it.
When I was your age, we used to have to walk to school, up hill both ways, and the ocean…
October 26, 2007
Who would have thought that the wandering albatross flew around the earth randomly with absolutely no plan? Apparently the person who named it.
According to some fishermen, albatrosses look "wicked baked."
Scientists used to believe that albatrosses followed a strange mathematical formula when…
October 25, 2007
The annual Shell Wildlife Photography contest is winding to a close, and the winners have been chosen. The award-winning shots will go on display at the Natural History Museum of London October 27th and then embark on a world-wide tour.
Wild stoats are well known to have a love of whole grains…
October 23, 2007
This was posted by our good friends over at cracked.com. (Actually, I think they are good friends of mine...old college buddies from my days as a lovable scamp at Gtown!) Anyway, worth a read.
(Disclaimer: do not read if you have a weak stomach)
6 Most Terrifying Foods in the World