These pictures were taken by the Predator while hunting at the London Zoo. Turns out the Predator's actual name is Steve Lowe! There's an article about it in the Telegraph.
The images show how different animals use their fur and feathers to regulate their body heat.
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tags: birds, sacred ibis, Threskiornis aethiopicus, ornithology, Image of the Day
This thermal image of sacred ibis, Threskiornis aethiopicus.
shows that these birds are well insulated, with only their eyes and one leg losing heat.
Staff at London Zoo say this unique insight shows how animals…
tags: 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…
Relative to its body size, the huge beak of the toco toucan is the largest of any bird. It allows the toucan to eat both fruit and small animals, and display to both mates and rivals. Darwin himself speculated that it acts as a billboard, shaped by sexual selection to display bright colours that…
This article is reposted from the old Wordpress incarnation of Not Exactly Rocket Science.
In Jurassic Park, the role of Velociraptor was played by computer-generated reptilian actors, that bore little resemblance to the real deal. The actual dinosaur was smaller, slower and used its infamous claw…
These are beautiful. But one thing is puzzling: why can we see the zebra's stripes? It occurred to me there are two possibilities: 1) if the photo was taken during daylight, the zebra's black stripes might be absorbing the sun's heat and are thus emitting more heat, 2) if the photo was taken at night, somehow the hair patterns in the white areas are different from the black and this leads to quantitatively different levels of convection.
Most people know a domestic cat can fluff up its fur to conserve heat. The cat can also skew its fur -- where the hairs form little clumps that point in different directions, creating big gaps in coverage -- in order to dump excess heat. I've seen this in a cat that played so hard for so long that it had to stop and pant. My hand could feel the heat rising from its body.
Beautiful pictures indeed. Especially when taking into account that the energy needed to maintain body temperature in mammals differs over several orders of magnitude. IIRC, a book called "Temperature and Life" stated that mice would need a fur of several feet thickness if they had an elephant's metabolism and that the surface temperature of elephants would exceed 100 centigrades if they had the metablism of mice.
Anyone got a pointer to the technique/tool used?
tHAT IS SOOOOOOOOOOO COOL. I wish evey thig was in thermal vision
These are beautiful. But one thing is puzzling: why can we see the zebra's stripes? It occurred to me there are two possibilities: 1) if the photo was taken during daylight, the zebra's black stripes might be absorbing the sun's heat and are thus
The cat can also skew its fur -- where the hairs form little clumps that point in different directions, creating big gaps in coverage -- in order to dump excess heat. I've seen this in a cat that played so hard for so long that it had to stop and pant. My hand could feel the heat rising from its body.