zooillogix

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May 14, 2007
After careful research, it turns out the footage in this Motorola commercial is in fact real. Pretty ridiculous. Add to: Slashdot del.icio.usredditnewsvineY! MyWeb
May 14, 2007
Brown-headed cowbirds cannot incubate their own eggs. Instead, they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, who incubate them and raise the cowbird chicks as their own. According to a new study by Jeff Hoover of the Florida Museum of Natural History published in Proceedings of the National…
May 11, 2007
Burmese python, Python molurus bivittatus Robert Pope, a researcher at Indiana University South Bend and Jean-Herv/(c) Lignot from Louis Pasteur University in France have discovered a new type of cell--found only in the Burmese python's stomach--that helps the animal survive on only a few meals a…
May 11, 2007
Friends say he was a good neighbor who mostly kept to himself...Gray Squirrel, Sciurus Carolinensis A disgruntled squirrel stormed Evergreen Elementary School in San Jose, California and started biting anything in sight yesterday, injuring three people including two, 11-year old students and a…
May 10, 2007
Researchers have long known that female fiddler crabs have a certain appreciation for the size of a mate's claw, but new findings suggest that in at least one species, the design of the male's pad is also important. John Christy, a staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute,…
May 9, 2007
This albino African pygmy hedgehog was born in Cumbria, England. Albinism, more technically known as hypomelanism, is a congenital disorder that results in a lack of melanin pigment in the eyes, skin and hair. In mammals, this typically results in white hair or fur and eyes that appear pink due to…
May 9, 2007
(Not exactly a bizarre zoological curiosity, but maybe it could fall in the exotic pet category? Either way, the world deserves to know.)Robert Bashwell, a 44-year old homeless man in West Palm Beach, Florida, fell asleep in a dumpster to escape the rain, but woke up to find himself in the back of…
May 8, 2007
In a sad follow up to the story posted this morning, Hope, the bearded seal who swam all the way from the Arctic to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, died at Sea World this afternoon. Scientists do not yet know his exact cause of death, but he was significantly dehydrated, malnourished and exhausted when he…
May 8, 2007
Hope was reportedly on his way to Zihuatanejo, Mexico to meet his old prison buddy, Red, when he was captured A 350-lb bearded seal--named "Hope" by his cheese-ball human rescuers--has been taken into captivity off the coast of Florida, near Ft. Lauderdale. After eluding his rescuers for two days,…
May 7, 2007
Without further delay, we bring you....Shrimp on a Treadmill. Add to: Slashdot del.icio.us reddit newsvine Y! MyWeb
May 7, 2007
A relative of the starfish, crinoids are neither abundant nor well understood. Also known as "sea lilies" or "feather stars" the strange creatures consist of a mouthpart, feeding arms and generally have a stem that connects them to the sea floor. Scientists have long known that crinoids were…
May 4, 2007
One day at a time...Tasmanian Devil, Sarcophilus harrisii Tasmanian devils are suddenly on the verge of total extinction, due to a mysterious facial cancer that is spreading rapidly through their population. Since the first sick animal's discovery, eleven years ago, the cancer has swept through…
May 4, 2007
The title says it all.
May 3, 2007
After 17 years of patiently waiting underground, Brood X has begun to emerge with a vengeance, eager to populate our planet with their infernal buzzing (we actually like it). It may sound like the plot for War of the Worlds, but it is actually much more benign and very real. This spring and summer…
May 3, 2007
Scientists are "baffled" by the discovery of a strange worm-like, serpentine creature off the cost of Juno Beach in Florida. Diver Jay Garbose caught the 7-10 foot creature on film as it slithered around the ocean floor. Watch his astonishing video footage.Unidentifiably delicious! Garbose has…
May 2, 2007
Polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea have begun to cannibalize one another according to a recent study in the online publication Polar Biology. The polar bears' main food source in the area, ringed seals, are accessible only across ice shelves. Global climate change has melted these shelves,…
May 1, 2007
Coral growing at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida or the inside of my refrigerator in college? 25% of the world's coral reefs has died in the past 25 years, and 25% more is expected to die in the next two decades. With a lot of luck and a lot of hard work, however, a Floridian named Ken…
April 29, 2007
Rejected by his parents at birth, Bilbo the bamboo lemur was raised by hand by zookeeper Veronica Lindberg. As a result, Bilbo thinks he is a human and refuses to leave Veronica's side. Clinging to her back, wrapped around her arm or perching on her head, the two are inseparable. Raising Bilbo is…
April 27, 2007
Everybody thinks a wagging tail is the sign of a happy dog. But researchers have recently made a telling discovery: a) not all tail wagging is necessarily positive and b) one can tell this by which side (left or right) the tail wags on!Happy dog, Carnivorous Slobbius According to a new study--,…
April 26, 2007
Researchers in Florida poured a liquid plaster-metal mixture into the nests of the Florida harvester ant. The resulting casts display astonishing intricacy and depth. One interesting discovery was that the top heavy nature of the chambers reflects age distribution within the any colony and not…
April 26, 2007
A nearly extinct species of hummingbird has been captured on film for the first time demonstrating its spatula-crazed mating dance. The aptly named Marvelous Spatuletail lives in a single, isolated valley in northern Peru. There are only 350 - 1,000 thought left to exist. The video really is…
April 25, 2007
Are you talking to me? I said....Are you talking to me? Northern elephant seal, Mirounga angustirostris Sometime in late March, "Nibbles" --a 2,500 lb. elephant seal living on the Sonoma Coast in Northern California-- snapped. In the ensuing month, the adolescent seal has bitten a surfer and a pet…
April 24, 2007
In an embarrassing revelation for termites everywhere, researchers from the Natural History Museum of London have determined that termites are actually a highly social form of cockroach. Although they appear more similar to ants, genetic testing confirmed the relationship and definitively…
April 23, 2007
For over a century the nature of prototaxites has been a source of mystery and debate among scientists. Growing over 20 feet tall and a yard wide, the organism grew straight up like a tree trunk, but had no leaves or branches. Prototaxites fossils from between 420 and 350 million years ago have…
April 20, 2007
Chinese scientists have made a remote controlled pigeon. By planting micro electrodes in the pigeon's brain, the scientists can make the bird fly up, down, left or right."I'm looking for a boy named John Conner. Have you seen him?" Chief scientist Su Xuecheng explains, ""The implants stimulated…
April 19, 2007
Bear with us on this one...it might get a little complicated: Wasps from the genus Copidosoma lay two eggs into a host egg (for example a moth or butterfly egg). One of these two eggs is male and one is female. The male and female larvae then begin multiplying--much like single celled organisms--…
April 18, 2007
A small pod of narwhals, Monodon MonocerosFor centuries, humans have speculated on narwhals' bizarre horns, believing them to be everything from supernatural appendages to spear fishing weapons to tools for poking around on the ocean floor. In 2005 a team from Harvard and the National Institute of…
April 17, 2007
Researchers in Mexico have documented wild spider monkeys rubbing themselves with fragrant, chewed up leaves. Though the exact purpose of this behavior is yet to be proven, it appears as if the scents "may play a role int he context of social communication, possibly for signaling of social status…
April 16, 2007
Researchers recently discovered a most unusual parenting method in Boulengerula Taitanus, a blind, worm-like amphibian called a caecilian. It feeds its young by letting them tear off its own skin with hooked white teeth. Scientists say this behavior has never been witnessed in any land-based animal…
April 16, 2007
Crab spider preparing for take off, Misumenoides formosipes Humans have known for quite a while that some spiders engage in a kind of flying called "ballooning." To balloon, spiders release a parachute-like web into the air (with themselves attached) and allow the wind to pick them up and deposit…