mammals
edyong | December 5, 2009This article is reposted from the old Wordpress incarnation of Not Exactly Rocket Science.
Two years ago, Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center found that brown capuchin monkeys also react badly to receiving raw deals. Forget bananas - capuchins love the taste of grapes and far prefer them over cucumber. If monkeys were rewarded for completing a task with cucumber while their peers were given succulent grapes, they were more likely to shun both task and reward.
That suggested that the human ability to compare own efforts and rewards with those of our…
laelaps | December 3, 2009
A small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinerea) in a short tree, photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
laelaps | December 1, 2009
The skull of Paranthropus boisei ("Zinj," "Dear Boy," "Nutcracker Man," etc.).
Louis Leakey had a problem.
During the summer of 1959 he and his wife Mary recovered the skull fragments of an early human scattered about the fossil deposits of Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. The skull had been deposited among the shattered bones of fossil mammals and a collection stone tools, and this led Louis to conclude that it was one of our early ancestors. Only an ancestor of Homo sapiens could be a toolmaker, Louis thought, but the skull looked nothing like that of our species.
When Mary fit all the pieces…
laelaps | November 27, 2009
A western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) with an upset stomach, photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
laelaps | November 26, 2009
Dwarf mongoose pups (Helogale parvula) playing, photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
laelaps | November 22, 2009
A baby California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
edyong | November 22, 2009
Of all of South Africa's species of antelope, the kudu is my favourite, mainly because of those elegantly spiralling horns. They adorn the logo of the national parks and several street signs (which promise kudus majestically leaping out across highways, but seldom deliver). And they're pretty tasty too...
This individual is one of the only adult males we saw. The one in the second photo is a juvenile, and his shorter horns have only begun their first turn. The animals in the bottom two photos are hornless females.
The fact that they're called antelope suggests a relationship with…
laelaps | November 21, 2009
A group of small-clawed otters (Aonyx cinerea) gnawing on some fishsicles, photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
laelaps | November 20, 2009
A giraffe, photographed at the Bronx zoo.
For me, no visit to the zoo is complete without stopping by to see the giraffes. They are among the most common of zoo animals, certainly, but I still find them fascinating. If giraffes did not actually exist and someone drew an illustration of one as a speculative zoology project the picture would likely be written off as absurd, yet the living animal is more charming than preposterous.
As with many extant large mammals, though, the giraffe is only a vestige of a once more diverse group. Its closest living relative is the okapi, a short-necked and…
laelaps | November 20, 2009
A young nyala (Tragelaphus angasii) nursing from its mother, photographed at the Bronx Zoo.