gila monster
grrlscientist | October 23, 2008tags: London England, London Zoo, sciblog, zoological gardens, travel
Entrance, London Zoo.
Image: GrrlScientist, 2 September 2008 [larger view].
After a leisurely morning walk through part of London's Regents Park, Bob O'Hara and I then spent the rest of the day at the London Zoo.
The London Zoo is quite proud of their environmentally-friendly facilities, and they have a sign near the main entrance that describes their water conservation project;
Sign near zoo entrance describing the zoo's water conservation project.
London Zoo.
Image: GrrlScientist, 2 September 2008 [larger view…
bleimanb | November 29, 2007This 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 the reptile's deadly, neurotoxic venom, found in the creature's teeth and saliva. According to mongabay.com Gila monsters inject the venom into their pray "through grooves in the teeth of [their] lower jaw[s]."
Bombarding unborn, reptile babies with x-ray radiation, hmm......Isn't that the first…
bleimanb | October 1, 2007Have you ever noticed that your friends who make out with giant poisonous lizards never have diabetes? Now we know why!
As it turns out, gila monsters, a type of large, carnivorous, poisonous lizard native to the Southern U.S. and Northern Mexico have a kind of hormone in their salivary glands called Exendin-4, which causes humans and gila monsters alike to produce extra insulin in response to a rise in blood sugar. The hormone is very similar to a human hormone called GLP-1, only it lasts longer.
Come on in a little closer, baby. I don't bite...
The new drug, a synthetic version of…