zoology
grrlscientist | March 29, 2008tags: biology, zoology, lost cat, humor, funny, college life
The poster says;
Cat Found!!!
Black + tan with grey
male
no collar
not very friendly, I think he might be scared
not housebroken either :(
found on Sunset Blvd
And they show two pictures of an opossum. (That's a marsupial for the zoologically challenged).
grrlscientist | March 20, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, dog walking, wild birds, ground-nesting birds, conservation, peer-reviewed research
Dog walking in natural areas harms wild birds, according to recently published research.
Millions of people walk their dogs every day, and many of them enjoy walking their dogs in natural areas where birds and other wild animals live. Unfortunately, a scientific paper was recently published showing that the presence of dogs, even when they are on a leash in these natural areas, seriously interferes with wild birds' reproductive success and even scares many of them away.
This…
grrlscientist | March 20, 2008tags: birds,Ocellated Turkey, Meleagris ocellata, ornithology, Image of the Day
Male Ocellated Turkey, Meleagris ocellata,
in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in the Southern Yucatan
in the state of Campeche. They are endemic to the region
and are known locally as both Pavo Ocelado or Guajalote Ocelato.
Image: Kevin Sharp. [larger size].
grrlscientist | March 19, 2008tags: birds,Ocellated Turkey, Meleagris ocellata, ornithology, Image of the Day
Female Ocellated Turkey, Meleagris ocellata,
in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in the Southern Yucatan
in the state of Campeche. They are endemic to the region
and are known locally as both Pavo Ocelado or Guajalote Ocelato.
Image: Kevin Sharp. [larger size].
grrlscientist | March 18, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, birds, aves, ornithology, Zosterops somadikartai, Togian white-eye, Indonesia, Sulawesi
An undated artist's rendering of Zosterops somadikartai, or Togian white-eye.
This small greenish bird that has been playing hide-and-seek with ornithologists on a remote Indonesian island since 1996, but was declared a newly discovered species on March 14, 2008 and promptly recommended for endangered lists.
Image: Agus Prijono.
Sharp-eyed scientists have discovered a new species of bird on a remote Indonesian archipelago in the Southern Pacific Ocean. A formal description…
grrlscientist | March 12, 2008tags: North Island brown kiwi, Apteryx australis mantelli, endangered species, conservation, birds, National Zoo
The National Zoo welcomed a new North Island brown kiwi chick, Apteryx australis mantelli, on March 7, 2008.
The chick, whose sex has yet to be determined by DNA testing, is the third chick to ever hatch at the National Zoo. The first hatching occurred in 1975 and was the first to occur outside of New Zealand. Kiwis are endangered and are extremely rare to see in captivity -- only four zoos outside of New Zealand have successfully bred kiwis, and only three US zoos exhibit them,…
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 22, 2008tags: Charles Darwin, crabs, crustaceans, University of Oxford, Oxford Museum of Natural History, online database
Fiddler crabs are easily recognised by their distinctive asymmetric claws. This specimen was captured in May 1835 when the Beagle arrived in Mauritius.
Image: Oxford University Museum of Natural History [larger view].
The University of Oxford Museum of Natural History has electronically catalogued Charles Darwin's crabs that had been collected by the famous naturalist while he was making his voyage around the world on the HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836.
These crustaceans were…
grrlscientist | February 13, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, evolution, bird-dinosaur split, dinosaurs, birds, rocks-versus-clocks, fossil record, molecular clocks
The first feathered dinosaur fossil found in China -- Sinosauropteryx.
The feathers can be seen in the dark line running along the specimen's back.
Image: Mick Ellison, AMNH [larger view]
There is a lot of controversy among scientists regarding when modern birds first appeared. The current fossil record suggests that modern birds appeared approximately 60-65 million years ago when the other lineages of dinosaurs (along with at least half of all terrestrial…
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 9, 2008tags: caecilian, amphibian, parental care, flesh-eating amphibians, behavior, evolution, streaming video
The Purple Caecilian, Gymnopis multiplicata,
is native to Costa Rica, South America.
Image: WildHerps.com
What is that peculiar creature in the above image? Did you guess that it is a worm? Many people do, never realizing that there are strange subterranean vertebrates that resemble worms, but are actually amphibians. So far, only 114 species of these creatures, known as caecilians [seh SEE lee ans], have been identified, but because they rarely come to the surface of the earth, the…
grrlscientist | February 5, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, birds, Nepal Rufous-vented Prinia, Prinia burnesii nipalensis, ornithology, speciation, new species, Nepal
A new subspecies of the Rufous-vented Prinia, Prinia burnesii,
has been found in Nepal. This new bird is now known as the
Nepal Rufous-vented Prinia, Prinia burnesii nipalensis.
[larger view].
A new subspecies of bird has been discovered on marshy grasslands located on small islands in Nepal's Koshi River. This new subspecies is similar to two other previously described subspecies of the Rufous-vented Prinia that are found along rivers in Pakistan and India…
grrlscientist | February 4, 2008tags: felidae, Sumatran tiger, Panthera tigris sumatrae, mammals, Image of the Day
The Sumatran Tiger, Panthera tigris sumatrae,
is under threat of extinction. There are only 100-300 left in the wild
with 20 occurring in Harapan, Sumatra.
Image: Dave Watts [larger view].
laelaps | February 4, 2008The grey-faced sengi (Rhynchocyon udzungwensis). From Rovero, et al. (2008).Several years ago, while on a visit to the Philadelphia Zoo, I first saw a creature I had never heard of before; the black and rufus sengi (Rhynchocyon petersi). The exhibit caption simply called it a giant elephant shrew, and even though I was familiar with smaller members of the Macroscelididae like the short-eared elephant shrew (Macroscelides proboscideus), I had never seen their giant relatives. This perhaps represents my own ignorance of the group known as Afrotheria, but the discovery of a new species of giant…
grrlscientist | February 2, 2008tags: birds, Bismarck Kingfisher, Alcedo websteri, ornithology, Image of the Day
Bismarck Kingfisher, Alcedo websteri,
a specialist of lowland forest streams has lost a fifth of its habitat during the previous ten years.
Image: Nik Borrow.
grrlscientist | February 1, 2008tags: birds, Northern Bald Ibis, Geronticus eremita, ornithology, Image of the Day
One of the tagged Northern Bald Ibis, Geronticus eremita,
helping to elucidate the migration routes of this species.
Image: Cagan Sekercioglu.
grrlscientist | January 31, 2008tags: bats, little brown bats, Indiana bats, white nose syndrome, cavers, Alan Hicks
Hibernating bats suffering from the mysterious "White Nose Syndrome" (arrows).
Image: Alan Hicks, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation [larger view]
If you live in New York or Vermont, then you might have heard about the mystery disease that is killing tens of thousands of bats hibernating in caves and mines throughout these two states. The disease has been given the descriptive appellation, "white nose syndrome" because its most obvious symptom (besides death), is the peculiar ring of white fungus…
grrlscientist | January 31, 2008tags: birds, White-necked Picathartes, Picathartes gymnocephalus, ornithology, Image of the Day
White-necked Picathartes, Picathartes gymnocephalus:
one of the species to benefit from Gola Forest being declared a national park.
Image: Jason D Weckstein, Ben D Marks/NCRC.