mammals
laelaps | November 18, 2009Via NatureBreak.org, a capuchin monkey bathes using a stolen orange;
I think she is correct. Capuchin monkeys regularly rub citrus fruits on their fur and this activity appears to keep them free of parasites and keep some of the biting insects away.
laelaps | November 18, 2009
A group of geladas (Theropithecus gelada) in pursuit of a troop member (off camera) that had made the faux pas of grooming the wrong female . Photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
laelaps | November 17, 2009During the past six million years or so several species of humans have simultaneously inhabited Earth at any one time, but today only one species, ours, remains. How did this come to be? This is the question behind part 3 of the NOVA documentary series "Becoming Human" (see my reviews for parts 1 and 2), and the show does not get off to a strong start.
Though I might be a little more merciful on the producers of this documentary than Greg, he was right to point out that the opening segment of the show is worn old tripe about how our species has fulfilled a kind of evolutionary destiny set in…
laelaps | November 17, 2009
A young Western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
edyong | November 16, 2009At first glance, the African elephant doesn't look like it has much in common with us humans. We support around 70-80 kg of weight on two legs, while it carries around four to six tonnes on four. We grasp objects with opposable thumbs, while it uses its trunk. We need axes and chainsaws to knock down a tree, but it can just use its head. Yet among these differences, there is common ground. We're both long-lived animals with rich social lives. And we have very, very large brains (well, mostly).
But all that intelligence doesn't come cheaply. Large brains are gas-guzzling organs and they need…
laelaps | November 16, 2009
The display of horse evolution at the AMNH as created by W.D. Matthew. Price reproduced this illustration without permission in his creationist textbook The New Geology.
The 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial" put scientists on the defensive. It did not matter that the defendant in the famous case, John Scopes, probably never taught evolution in a Tennessee school (he was only a substitute teacher and football coach who agreed to take the fall so that the ACLU could test a law that barred evolution from schools); the issue that everyone was concerned about was the conflict between science and…
edyong | November 14, 2009
This is Tyson, a male leopard and one of the last animals we saw on our South African safari. We only took headshots of him but immediately, you can see that he's stockier and more powerfully built than Safari, the female leopard that I showed photos of a few weeks back. Tyson, earning his name, probably weighs around 80kg or so.
And yet while we watched, he pulled off a languid stretch that made him look for all the world like a giant house cat - paws outstretched, maw agape and back arched in a graceful curve.
As he walked off, he marked his territory with a scent gland on his rump. I'm…
laelaps | November 14, 2009
A group of silvered leaf monkeys (Trachypithecus cristatus), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
laelaps | November 12, 2009
A black-and-white colobus monkey (Colobus guereza), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
laelaps | November 10, 2009
North American river otters (Lontra canadensis), photographed in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park.
laelaps | November 9, 2009
A very lion-like Smilodon, from Ernest Ingersoll's The Life of Animals (1907).
For decades after its discovery the saber-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis was depicted as little more than a lion with a short tail and long fangs. Given its size and habits as a large carnivore the connection appeared to make sense, but recent studies have suggested that Smilodon was quite different from the "king of the beasts." Not only did Smilodon have a face that probably would have looked a bit saggy when compared to modern lions, but a new study published in the Journal of Zoology suggests that male and…
laelaps | November 8, 2009
A rock squirrel (Spermophilus variegatus), photographed at Dinosaur National Monument, Utah.
edyong | November 7, 2009
This is a bull elephant firmly establishing why it is he, and not the lion, who is king of beasts. The elephant's penis is not only massive but prehensile. As we watched in baffled amusement (and the faintest tinge of inadequacy), he used his penis to prop himself up (as in the photo), swat flies from his side and scratch himself on his stomach. David Attenborough never showed us that...
There's good reason for elephants to have prehensile penises. It's hard enough for a six-tonne animal to get into the right position for sex, let alone having to do the rhythmic thrusting that's required. So…
laelaps | November 6, 2009
The skeleton of a dire wolf (Canis dirus), photographed at the Utah Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake City.
laelaps | November 5, 2009
Almost every time I get into a discussion about woolly mammoths with someone the conversation eventually steers towards the topic of cloning a mammoth. "Wouldn't it be fascinating?", they often say. And with a little extra genetic engineering, many of my friends hope, maybe someone could create a breed of domesticated mini-mammoths that would definitely be in the running for the title of "Cutest Pet Ever" (at least until they left a mess on the carpet).
The possibility of housebroken mammoths, or at least mammoths in public zoos, seemed within reach in the spring of 1984. It was at that time…
laelaps | November 5, 2009
The skeleton of a giant bison (Bison latifrons), photographed at the Utah Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake City.