Animalia
grrlscientist | May 2, 2008tags: Microcosmos, Radiohead, music, All I Need, nature, streaming video
This wonderful streaming video shows an unlikely combination of a series of clips from the 1996 French film, Microcosmos, with Radiohead's "All I Need" as the accompanying soundtrack. It's really beautiful. The editor writes; "The sensual pace and delicate melody of the song reminded me of a world much smaller than ours, with all the love and violence we experience. All credits go to the film and Radiohead. Hope you like." [3:54].
grrlscientist | April 21, 2008tags: raccoon, Procyon lotor, Image of the Day
Central Park raccoon, Procyon lotor.
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George [larger].
Bob Levy writes:
It's a little known fact but an incontrovertible one. Having had the opportunity to closely study the Central Park Raccoon population it did not take me long to discover that it is common for them to greatly exaggerate their exploits and accomplishments. In this image I was able to capture one typical example. Tsk, tsk. What a fibber. I was there. It was half that size.
grrlscientist | April 7, 2008tags: elephant picasso, wow, animal behavior, streaming video
This is an absolutely amazing video of an elephant painting a picture of .. an elephant holding a flower! [8:28]
grrlscientist | April 5, 2008I have a deep, dark secret that I want to confess to you: I love hamsters. I am especially fond of the teensy Russian dwarf hamsters, Phodopus sungorus, particularly their impossibly tiny fuzz-covered feet. So, I was surfing the web during the wee hours this morning instead of sleeping, as usual, and found the most delightful website.
When Hamsters Attack is more than simply a collection of news stories about hamsters committing crimes and a list of the Top Ten Most Wanted Hamsters, because it also includes an advice column written by Squiggles the hamster, a list of the top eleven ways to…
grrlscientist | March 29, 2008tags: American bison, Bos bison, mammals, animals, photography, image of the day
American bison bull.
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU [wallpaper size].
grrlscientist | March 28, 2008tags: American bison, Bos bison, Konza Prairie, Manhattan, Kansas, nature, Image of the Day
Portrait of an adult female bison, Bos bison,
on the Konza Prairie, near Manhattan Kansas. March 2008.
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [larger view].
grrlscientist | March 26, 2008tags: liger, hybrid big cat, streaming video
This streaming video shows the liger -- a hybrid between a male lion and a female tiger. This animal grows to be much larger than either parent. Interestingly, the tigon -- a hybrid between a male tiger and female lion is usually smaller than either parent. [2:00].
grrlscientist | March 11, 2008tags: Simon's cat: let me in!, animated cartoon, humor, streaming video
A hungry cat resorts to increasingly desperate measures to get indoors. If this doesn't make you laugh, well, you need serious help. [1:52].
this video is the second in a series, this was the first.
grrlscientist | March 10, 2008tags: white orca, white killer whale, Orcinus orca, zoology, cetaceans, NOAA
A rare white killer whale, Orcinus orca, better known as an Orca,
photographed by researchers off the coast of Alaska on 23 February.
Image: Holly Fearnbach (NMML, NMFS permit 782-1719) [wallpaper size].
Seattle researchers were working off the coast of Alaska when they saw something amazing; a 25-30 foot long male "killer whale", Orcinus orca, that is white instead of being black-and-white, the characteristic color scheme for this species. This white whale, which was identified as a male due to its very tall…
grrlscientist | March 9, 2008tags: pygmy hippopotamus, pygmy hippo, Hexaprotodon liberensis, zoology, endangered species, conservation
A rare pygmy hippopotamus, Hexaprotodon liberensis,
was thought to be extinct up until recently, after this image was
captured at night by a photo trap set up by researchers in a Liberian rainforest.
A team of zoologists set up a series of camera traps in a west African rainforest to determine whether the rare pygmy hippopotamus, Hexaprotodon liberensis, still survives, despite wars, habitat degradation and poaching in the area. After a three-day wait, they were pleasantly surprised…
grrlscientist | February 29, 2008tags: animals, leucistic moose, Alces alces, zoology, Image of the Day
Leucistic Moose, Alces alces.
Image: orphaned [larger size].
grrlscientist | February 14, 2008tags: pangolin, animals, photography, subway art, AMNH, NYC, NYCLife
I think this is a species of pangolin, Manis species,
as portrayed in tiles on the walls of the NYC uptown subway stop (A-B-C)
at 81st and Central Park West. (ISO, no zoom, no flash).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [wallpaper size].
Read more about the AMNH tile artworks and see the AMNH tile artworks photographic archives -- with all the animals identified.
grrlscientist | February 13, 2008tags: luminescent marine animals, Deep Sea, Deep Blue, streaming video
Scenes and music are from the movie "Deep Blue", rearranged to make this little video, which shows mostly luminescent creatures that are living in the deep sea. These animals are bioluminescent, but to see that, you'd have to turn the lights out, and then they'd glow a bluish-white. However, these animals glow with rainbow colors due to diffraction by their bodies of the light that is being shown onto them for the purposes of photography. Imagine: we know more about the moon than we know about the deep sea! [1:15]
grrlscientist | February 8, 2008tags: hedgehog, mammals, animals, photography, subway art, AMNH, NYC, NYCLife
I think this is a species of hedgehog,
as portrayed in tiles on the walls of the NYC uptown subway stop (A-B-C)
at 81st and Central Park West. (ISO, no zoom, no flash).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [wallpaper size].
Read more about the AMNH tile artworks and see the AMNH tile artworks photographic archives -- with all the animals identified.
grrlscientist | February 2, 2008tags: blog carnivals, teaching
The 176th edition of the weekly blog carnival, Friday Ark, is now available for you to enjoy. This is a blog carnival that focuses on linking to pictures of animals, although the pictures might also have a story associated with them (but they don't have to). So if you want to get your weekly dose of furry, feathery, scaley and squishy animal love, this is the place to do it!
grrlscientist | January 26, 2008tags: rodent, photography, subway art, AMNH, NYC, NYCLife
An unknown (to me) species of rodent
as portrayed in tiles on the walls of the NYC uptown subway stop (A-B-C)
at 81st and Central Park West. (ISO, no zoom, no flash).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [wallpaper size].
Read more about the AMNH tile artworks and see the AMNH tile artworks photographic archives -- with all the animals identified.
grrlscientist | January 18, 2008tags: kitten vs ferret, humor, streaming video
This is a really amusing video of a kitten and a ferret playing with each other -- who won? [1:19]
grrlscientist | January 17, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, Josephoartigasia monesi, Giant South American rodent, fossils, megamammals, Dinomyidae
The head of the newly-found Josephoartigasia monesi (A), in comparison to a South American rodent known as a pakarana, Dinomys branickii (B).
Image: G. Lecuona [larger size].
As a resident of NYC, you often hear stories of enormous rats that are aggressive enough to fight an alleycat -- and win. Even though I watch the rats run around in the subways and am impressed by their audacity, I've never seen any rats that had reached a particularly impressive size, although I have…
grrlscientist | December 27, 2007tags: Siberian tiger, Amur tiger, Panthera tigris altaica, NewScientist, Image of the Day
Amur (Siberian) tiger, Panthera tigris altaica.
Tigers are most commonly poached for their fur and body parts, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine. It is estimated that in 1991 alone, one-third of the Siberian tiger population was killed to meet the demand for their bones and other parts used in this practice.
Image: Barry Slade, 2007 (NewScientist calendar 2008). [Much larger view]
grrlscientist | December 26, 2007tags: peacock, Pavo cristatus, pug, streaming video
This amusing streaming video shows what happens when a peacock and a pug meet -- in the pug's own backyard! [2:23]