zooillogix
Posts by this author
February 25, 2008
Ever wanted to build a world-class exhibit for your pet Asian Sloth Bear in your backyard or living room but didn't know where to start? What kind of furniture do sloth bears prefer? How do they feel about toile? Can you feed them chocolate? Well now your problems are solved, thanks to ZooLex!…
February 23, 2008
Dentistry under the sea looks a lot less painful but potentially much more dangerous for the hygienist.
Moray and cleaner shrimp. Photo credit to Erwin Kodiat
Sand Diver and Pedersen's cleaner shrimp. Photo credit to Reef Reflections
Fun fact: adorable cleaner shrimp are notable for crawling…
February 18, 2008
Scientists in Madagascar recently discovered the remains of a giant prehistoric frog, a relative of today's horned toads, which blew away the previous record for the largest known frog, Bennicus Bleimanicus. Dubbed Beelzebufo, meaning "frog from hell," the Devil Frog had important differences from…
February 18, 2008
Fascinating BBC footage of geckos coaxing leafhoppers to feed them honeydew. The lizards tap their feet or bob their heads, and the insect dutifully tosses them a bead of delicious tree sap. This definitely qualifies as bizarre zoology.
February 15, 2008
For years debate has raged amongst bat researchers as to whether or not bats were really just "flying rodents..." <--(NOT TRUE). At age 6 Ben was in the World of Darkness at the Bronx Zoo when he heard a mother tell her young children this totally incorrect animal fact. As bats were his favorite…
February 12, 2008
A novel approach to connecting people and animals while generating new revenue or exploitation and poor judgment from those who should know better?
The Georgia Aquarium announced this morning a new program that allows regular Joe Public to swim with their famed whale sharks, among other critters,…
February 8, 2008
Out of Africa Wildlife Park was founded in 1988 by a husband and wife team in Arizona. In their words... "It was a preserve born from their single-minded objective of bringing God, people, and animals together in a natural setting."
In our words... oh Jesus... this place is a disaster waiting to…
February 5, 2008
Alpheid shrimp are a type of snapping shrimp, which have a specialized claw to create a blast of pressure to stun or kill their prey. This motion can also create sonoluminescence, a burst of light from a collapsing cavitation bubble. While the light is not visibile to the naked eye, the pistol…
February 4, 2008
Some very cool BBC vids of arctic wolves getting pestered by snowy owls, then doing some pestering of their own.
Both videos are below the fold because, unfortunately, we can't seem to prevent them from both running automatically and don't want you to startle your cubicle mate unintentionally.…
January 30, 2008
A FEMA home for a New Orleans crab? "George Bush doesn't care about hermit crabs."
This photo is begging for a back story. We propose a competition: Who can write the best description of what you see here? We will give out awards for most creative, heartwarming and disturbing in a couple of days…
January 29, 2008
Our recent coverage of the Cracked story "The 5 Most Horrifying Bugs in the World" made reference to the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, something we felt the need to explore further. Apparently Dr. Justin O Schmidt, an entomologist recently retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Tucson Carl…
January 25, 2008
We don't like posts that simply link to other sites because we want you to hang out here. We picture you sitting at home in a bathrobe, drinking coffee, wearing bunny slippers and chortling with an English accent as you peruse Zooillogix. Sometimes we have to make exceptions though...
This article…
January 24, 2008
...but this one must have been an absolute nightmare. Hope they had lots of sucker fish.
This fabulous fish tank was once a main attraction at the Liquid Potion Lounge, a long defunct coffee bar in Evanston, IL (my sort of current hometown). As the pictures attest, the fish did actually use the…
January 18, 2008
We've brought you some of Igor Siwanowicz's incredible work in the past (Round I and Round II) but wanted to share some of his newer photos. Please visit his site and hire him to do the photos for your daughter's bat mitzvah or something...
A whole series demonstrating Igor's outstanding head…
January 15, 2008
Chimpanzee walking bulldogs in some sort of bizarro world (i.e. Japan). We've delivered you some strange Japanese imports in the past, but this raises the bar.
January 14, 2008
Dr. Emily Rayfield, a researcher at the University of Bristol has pioneered methods using computer modeling to determine dinosaur physiology. Research by Dr. Rayfield just published in the Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontolology sheds new light on the feeding habits of Baryonyx, which had a body…
January 14, 2008
This sexy mussel is burning up the web right now. Totally free and posing just for you, watch in real-time as this flirty bivalve does its thing.
Riveting live feed courtesy of Flex Mussels restaurant on Prince Edward Island.
January 8, 2008
Zooillogix is a huge fan of Deep Sea News and for once in our lives, the feeling is mutual (go to hell Davina Josco from 2nd grade). Deep Sea News asked Zooillogix to weigh in on our favorite DSN posts from 2007 about five weeks ago and Benny finally got around to it yesterday! Today DSN has posted…
January 7, 2008
Over the last couple of weeks, a number of the zookeeper and exotic pet listservs I subscribe to have read more like the classifieds in the back of Field & Stream. Obviously due to the recent tragedy at the San Francisco Zoo, these are boom times for the tranquilizer gun business. I thought I…
January 2, 2008
Apparently obesity isn't just for American's anymore... make that humans in general. First we have George, the greedy little pig as old British women would call him. This hedgehog was delivered to the Wildlife Aid centre in Leatherhead, England five times heavier than his natural weight. At 5lbs,…
December 31, 2007
Seafood Watch is a very cool and very practical conservation effort led by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Basically, it is a regularly updated guide to which lake and ocean critters should or should not be devoured each year. At its most convenient, they print a handy business card sized reference…
December 28, 2007
As many of you might have noticed, Benny and I have been off for the week for Christmas in San Francisco. The plan was to visit the Zoo on Wednesday, which obviously did not happen, so we checked out the Monterey Bay Aquarium for a twelfth time. Anyway, our apologies for the lack of posts. We will…
December 19, 2007
A pod of Orcas surrounds a seal on an ice sheet and creates waves to try and knock it off. This reminds me of when you buy a candy bar and it gets stuck by the wrapper and you have to shake the machine to get it out.
Thanks to Zooillogix reader extraordinaire Don Quixjote (aka ali) for forwarding…
December 18, 2007
Olney, Illinois is famous for white squirrels. In 1943 there were 1000 of the little guys but by the '90s the population remained constant around 200. The town has implemented a rather strict set of laws to protect them. Dogs are not allowed to roam free anywhere in Olney and in 1997 cats were…
December 17, 2007
When it's served at Long John Silvers! I just saw an ad for LJS' new "Buttered Lobster Bites," basically a carton of popcorn-chicken-like-crustacean-parts for $2.99. Careful listeners may have paused when they heard that the lobster was "real langostino lobster." Huh? Now I know my lobster. In fact…
December 17, 2007
Using aluminum panels as electrodes, Japanese inventor Kazuhiko Minawa has powered a mall Christmas tree with an electric eel. Minawa told Reuters Televesion that "If we could gather all electric eels from all around the world, we would be able to light up an unimaginably giant Christmas tree."…
December 17, 2007
Much like Pier 1 Imports is the place to make great unexpected holiday gift discoveries this season, Indonesia is the #1 source for mildly inventive new mammal species. In the Foja Mountains rainforest of eastern Papua province, a joint Indonesian and American research team recently stumbled across…
December 7, 2007
Some of you may be familiar with this dish, but the rest of you are in for a real treat! This Chinese delicacy consists of large shrimp that have been immersed in alcohol, making them more than a little groggy and, undoubtedly, delicious. As you will see in the video below, they are still very much…
December 7, 2007
That headline was so bad I made myself a little sick. Anyway, as reported by WCBS in New York, Simba the tiger cub was thought to have a tumor or brain infection and was scheduled for routine euthanization. Ok so there is nothing routine about euthanizing a rare Siberian tiger cub, but apparently…
December 4, 2007
Zooillogix knows you depend on us for the latest in groundbreaking cat toilet training research and technology. Today we bring you sage advice from the father of feline toilet training. Since when does Zooillogix bring you two stories about regular house cats defecating in the same week you ask?…