zooillogix | May 1, 2008As reported in the May 2008 Journal of Ethology, researchers in the sub-antarctic Indian Ocean on Marion Island, recently observed some fascinating and disturbing behavior. A young adult Antarctic fur seal was witnessed forcing itself upon an adult king penguin for upwards of 45 minutes. While young adult fur seals are known for aggressive sexuality that sometimes spans species between pinnepeds, this is the first documented case of a seal "[bridging] the level of vertebrate class in their copulatory attempts." i.e. getting it on with a freakin penguin.
The seal was first spotted subduing the…
bleimanb | May 1, 2008I met Chris Green on a boat in Lake Titicaca in September, 2007. Immediately we realized that we had something in common...Weird animals, well kinda. For starters, I just write about weird animals, and Chris actually works with them. Also because he lives on Tasmania, he doesn't really consider the animals he works with weird; they are pretty much the most normal animals he can think of...Whoa, that's deep.
Normal day at the office...
If Andrew and I were trying to make a joke about a typical Tasmanian person, we'd probably use Chris' resume as material. He has spent the last few years at a…
zooillogix | April 30, 2008Back in March of 2007, we brought you the story of an enormous (colossal really) squid, captured by New Zealandish fishermen and brought back for examination at the University of New Zealand. The frozen squid posed challenges for the researchers who realized that it would take so long to thaw that the outer parts would be rotting before the core had even melted (also an appropriate description of my brother Benny's heart).
Well the marine biologists made their move today, thawing out the colossal squid in a bath of cool water. Had the water been too hot, they were worried it might crack the…
zooillogix | April 29, 2008Courtesy of CNN
In a moment of weakness, I have turned our site into Cuteoverload. What a shame...
bleimanb | April 29, 2008A soon to be released book, The Thinkers Of The Jungle, by Gerd Schuster, Willie Smits and Jay Ullal, contains this first-ever image of an orangutan attempting to hunt fish with a spear. The picture was taken in Borneo on Kaja, an island where rescued apes are rehabilitated.
Only about 10 million more years of evolution and this orangutan will master the science of noodling.
bleimanb | April 28, 2008UPDATE: Looks like the fount of wisdom that is The Time's Online lost a thing or two in the translation. Lucky for us, informed Zooillogix reader and sometimes D&D player, Dragon's Sorrow End, has set the record straight.
The government of Switzerland has passed the most comprehensive laws in the history of pet ownership to protect the well being of social animals. In hopes of creating an "informed population," the laws cover everything from guinea pigs to rhinoceroses. Here are some of the more interesting regulations:
- Dog owners are required to become qualified in a two-part course…
zooillogix | April 24, 2008Festo, a German engineering firm known for finding inspiration in biology, recently unveiled its two newest robots at the Hannover Festival.
Picture courtesy of Gizmodo
The AquaJelly and AirJelly share the same basic form - a sphere surrounded by eight mechanical tentacles run off lithium-ion batteries. In the case of the AquaJelly which functions underwater, the central sphere is a laser sealed vacuum, while the flying (floating) Air Jelly's center is a helium balloon. Most interestingly, the AquaJelly is autonomous in that it "guides itself with the help of a sensor array, communications…
bleimanb | April 22, 2008It is common knowledge that Andrew and I have a thing for mantis shrimps. Simply put, they are sweet. Andrew even has a poster of a mantis shrimp on the ceiling in his bedroom.
New research in a recent issue of Current Biology indicates that these amazing creatures are even MORE incredible than we thought. Not only do they have ridiculous coloration, the same super creepy appearance and the fastest/most powerful strike of any animal in the kingdom, but now it would seem, they have the most complex eyes as well.
I see London, I see France...
As explained by our good buddies at Science Friday…
zooillogix | April 21, 2008Zooillogix welcomes you back to our favorite ill-conceived, questionably licensed, death-circus: Tiger Splash Park! Any Arizona state legislators amongst our readers? If so, you might want to put this place to sleep...
Thanks to dedicated reader Judy for making this vid and sending us the link.
bleimanb | April 21, 2008A friend of mine (I'll call him Duncan Lye to protect his identity) recently returned from a surf trip to Costa Rica with an amazing tale.
It all started when Duncan --a large man, known both for his voracious appetite and his unbending temperament-- awoke, early one morning, to find that he had developed a pain in his ear. The pain soon worsened to the point of a full on migraine. Duncan figured that it "was just an ear ache from surfing..." Something that's apparently, "common among surfers."
The trouble persisted throughout the day, however, and Duncan was feeling pretty down. He'd been…
zooillogix | April 21, 2008Two species of teleost fish, grunion are famous for their unique mating behavior. During high tides, female grunion crawl out along the water's edge and dig their tails into the wet sand. The males then wrap themselves around the female to mate and the eggs are deposited in the sand. During the next set of very high-tides, the eggs hatch and the baby grunion wash out to sea. They are native only to California and Baja Mexico.
California Grunion, Leuresthes tenuis
More info is available at Grunion.org. Another, better video is available with ads on CNN.
zooillogix | April 18, 2008Scientists release seemingly harmless Italian Wall Lizards on a deserted South Adriatic island in 1971... and return to find walking, talking, boccie playing super-lizards! That is the headline that would have been written if researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst had waited only a few more years.
In truth however, the scientists discovered that these non-indigenous lizards had undergone remarkable evolutionary changes in only 36 years as they adapted to the new habitat. Duncan Irschick, a biologist from UMass Amherst explained, "Striking differences in head size and shape…
zooillogix | April 11, 2008Adorable!
Surinam toads of the family Pipidae have a broad, flat shape and leaf-like appearance, but who cares about that...? They embed fertilized eggs in the mother's back from whence the babies emerge! Adorable? Horrifying? What was your reaction to the movie Alien?
Damn... it looks like Pharyngula beat us to the punch. Whatevs... Surinam Toad stays.
bleimanb | April 10, 2008Here is a transcript of our exclusive interview with Dr. Jane Goodall...enjoy.
Jane spoke with Zooillogix at a teacher's conference in New York City, where she had given a speech to educators about living in harmony with the Earth and ingraining youngsters with community service experience early and often, just like her "Roots and Shoots" program happens to do. Here are Zooillogix's brilliant, thought provoking questions and Dr. Goodall's titillating answers.
Zooillogix: You came into science and research as a relative outsider. What advice can you give to others on the outside of the…
bleimanb | April 9, 2008Thanks to two readers, the infamous Mike Witherspoon and the illustrious Tanya Poon, we have been alerted to two mega-sweet articles in the New York Times.
The first from the Science Times yesterday tells the story of Cape Coral, Florida, a coastal town that was alarmed by a strange noise coming from the ocean which "reverberat[ed] through their homes." The townsfolk- mostly retirees -almost got their government to dish out $47,000 to an engineering company to fix the municipal utility system that they blamed for the racket. Turns out it was the powerful mating calls of a fish called the…
bleimanb | April 8, 2008Deep in the heart of the jungles of Borneo a new frog has been found that is rocking the very foundations of frog biology the world over. Why? Because, for God's sake, it has no lungs. Instead, it gets all the oxygen it needs by absorbing it through its skin.
Can you do me a favor real quick and blow cigarette smoke on me.
The frog- Barbourula kalimantanensis -was actually discovered 30 years ago, but only one known specimen had been collected, and no one thought to dissect it. The speedy, little, two inch-long, creatures proved...
...very difficult to find and catch. With a team of eleven…
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…