whale
zooillogix | October 3, 2008
Zooillogix has a lot of Belgian readers. This makes us uncomfortable. One such pale reader, Thomas Cordie, pointed us to some beautiful photos of right whales on National Geographic. Despite my temptation to just copy them all for you to enjoy, I'm posting one, and suggesting you take a look over there.
More NGC stuff below the fold:
A lion rides a horse in China for some reason.
Thanks goatrodeo.
bleimanb | August 11, 2008Researchers at the New England Aquarium have stepped into a totally new method of studying Atlantic's threatened population of right whales - collecting and analyzing floating feces to test the population's health!
I didn't know whales ate corn!
Right whales got their name because they were the "right" whale to catch during whaling's hey day, when exterminating an entire species was jolly good form. Despite rigorous efforts to protect them against whaling interests, including Japanese "research" vessels, right whale populations have not increased noticeably in the last 65 years. In…
zooillogix | June 11, 2008
This calf was born yesterday to Qila, who herself was born at the Vancouver Aquarium 12 years ago.
Special thanks to Vancouver Aquarium employee Keey Prior for bringing this to our attention.
esiegel | May 17, 2008Sometimes, you find weird stuff on the internet. But sometimes you find even weirder stuff in scientific journals. To what do I refer? A paper in the Journal of Mathematical Geology back in 2000 entitled Godzilla from a Zoological Perspective, by Per Christiansen.
This was written as a critique of the "new Godzilla" movie, arguing that it is not more biologically plausible than the "old Godzilla" of 1954.
However, calculations show that his limbs and limb muscles must have been severely undersized to move his huge bulk around at even a leisurely pace, and most other biological problems with…
bleimanb | May 7, 2008This 6-month old pygmy right whale stranded itself on the beach in New Zealand. It is being dissected by a team of scientists as I write this! The whale has a similar head to true right whales, but scientists do not believe that they are closely related. In fact, they are not quite sure where these rare whales fit into the overall evolutionary tree. Hopefully this dissection will help them put some of the pieces in the puzzle.
You can watch along step by step, as these Museum of New Zealand researchers carve their way through this little guy on Te Papa's Blog.
zooillogix | April 6, 2008
Welcome to the eleventh and by far the most important, although surprisingly the most poorly formatted, installment of Carnival of the Blue. Before we get down to the watery, salty, and sometimes rubbery details, we wanted to take a moment to ponder the significance of Zooillogix's role as host of the eleventh COB. Why not the fifth or the ever popular tenth? Why not the second or maybe seventh, sixth, eighth, ninth or third?
Well, according to Biblestudy.org, "If ten is the number which marks the perfection of Divine order, then eleven is an addition to it, subversive of and undoing that…
bleimanb | March 12, 2008A Japanese research vessel bonanza.
Note that there is no sound on this vid so as not to wake the whales...
bleimanb | March 12, 2008A mother and baby pygmy sperm whale in New Zealand appeared disoriented this week, repeatedly stranding themselves on a sandbar off of Mahia Beach. After multiple attempts by the locals to guide the whales back to sea failed, the human rescuers were starting to get worried. All of a sudden, a well known, local dolphin named Moko appeared and seemed to communicate with the whales. Before long, Moko was guiding the whales back to sea!
"The whales made contact with the dolphin and she basically escorted them about 200 metres parallel with the beach to the edge of the sandbar...Then she did a…
zooillogix | March 10, 2008This picture of a rare white orca was taken off the coast of Alaska's Aleutian Islands last month by researchers on a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research ship. Looks like he could use a bleaching. The whale had been spotted years ago but has eluded researchers since.
According to the Jaws-inspired masterpiece Orca (1977) - "The killer whale is one of the most intelligent creatures in the universe. Incredibly, he is the only animal other than man who kills for revenge. He has one mate, and if she is harmed by man, he will hunt down that person with a relentless, terrible…
grrlscientist | January 19, 2008tags: whale tail, photography, subway art, AMNH, NYC, NYCLife
Tail of an unknown (to me) species of whale,
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.
zooillogix | December 19, 2007A 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 along.
bleimanb | December 19, 2007Japan is a country pretty much known for only one thing: being mean to whales. They eat whales for taste and curiousity and conduct "experiments" on whales for "Mengele street cred." But now, they have finally taken their twisted torture too far. The Daily Mail, Britain's most trusted source for news, reported today that a Japanese aquarium has PUT SANTA CLAUS HATS on two beluga whales who are being held hostage there, an act which has brought "laughter and cheers" from the aquarium's visitors. Just hold a moment and let that last part sink in...Yup, you heard me correctly. It would appear…
zooillogix | November 29, 2007
Whale or little alien? How can we be sure...
A couple of months ago we covered the birth of a baby beluga whale to mama Mauyak at the Shedd Aquarium. Well now Shedd is asking for your help in naming the rambunctious little tyke. A variety of names from the Pacific Northwest that are equally meaningless to an English speaker's ear can be selected:
Ipiktok (Ip-eek-tock) Very keen or sharp
Opipok (Oh-pee-pock) Admirable, to admire
Tuwawi (Too-wah-wee) Quick
Nilak (Nee-lock) Fresh water ice
Kimalu (Kee-ma-loo) Traditional Inuit name given to special people
Mituk (Mee-took) Small snow layer on…
zooillogix | August 24, 2007The alphabetically superior member of the Bleiman brother duo, Andrew (me), lives in Chicago, where he is lucky enough to have a truly world-class institution in the Shedd Aquarium. On Thursday last week, the Shedd's resident female beluga whale, Mauyak, gave birth to a plump 100lb. 5.5 ft calf. Shortly after the birth, the calf swam to the surface and took its first breath.
Enjoy these videos of the birth and baby beluga swimming in the great blue fish tank.
zooillogix | June 15, 2007Ever wonder where sea creatures have been or where they're headed? Thanks to marvelous modern technology and an ambitious team of prestigious scientific organizations, now you can watch in almost real-time! Since 2002, Tagging of Pacific Pelagic (TOPPS) research project has tagged over 2,000 animals with tiny microprocessors and sophisticated remote sensing systems to track exactly where, when and how deep they're traveling through the ocean.
Movements of twelve tagged salmon sharks over the last 60 days.
The results are fantastic maps showing up-to-the-minute movements of mako sharks…
zooillogix | May 29, 2007"Some people call me Maurice." Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae
A study from two Australian researchers from the University of Sydney shows that male humpbacks who sing while migrating have better luck with the ladies than those who don't.
Michael Noad and a group of colleagues tracked a population of humpbacks while it migrated to its Antarctic breeding grounds.
Noad found that male humpbacks who sing while migrating averaged only 2.5 km/hour as opposed to non-singing males who averaged 4 km/hour. Noad and his team are speculating that by slowing down and singing the males allow…