zooillogix | January 29, 2008Our recent coverage of the Cracked story "The 5 Most Horrifying Bugs in the World" made reference to the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, something we felt the need to explore further. Apparently Dr. Justin O Schmidt, an entomologist recently retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Tucson Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, felt the need to create a ranking system for insect stings. More specifically Hymenoptera stings, the order of insects that includes bees, wasps, ants and sawflies. Typically the "research" was conducted on himself and frequently required provoking the little guys to…
bleimanb | January 28, 2008Great video of cooped up dolphins blowing underwater bubble rings to pass the time. Before we get all out of sorts that this is some sort of compulsive, depressive behavior from being locked up, note that this been observed in the wild as well.
I just can't help but look at that and wish that I still smoked cigarettes. I used to be an epic ring blower. Andrew and I actually knew a kid named Michael Northrope who could blow smoke squares. It was awesome! No joke! We were like 13 and he was 16. But I digress...
One bubble ring to bind them...
Researchers posting on Deep Ocean explain the…
zooillogix | January 25, 2008We don't like posts that simply link to other sites because we want you to hang out here. We picture you sitting at home in a bathrobe, drinking coffee, wearing bunny slippers and chortling with an English accent as you peruse Zooillogix. Sometimes we have to make exceptions though...
This article in Cracked is crude, profanity laced, unscientific and utterly hilarious. Check it out here.
For those of you too lazy to click your mouse on the link, we have reposted one of the five below.
There are about 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 insects on earth at any given moment. Seriously, that's a real…
zooillogix | January 24, 2008...but this one must have been an absolute nightmare. Hope they had lots of sucker fish.
This fabulous fish tank was once a main attraction at the Liquid Potion Lounge, a long defunct coffee bar in Evanston, IL (my sort of current hometown). As the pictures attest, the fish did actually use the bridges/tunnels (I wonder which is the more appropriate word here) between the various tanks, but how much so is unclear. Benny and I have long wondered why aquarium manufacturers never tried to develop more interesting tanks and start a craze like Habitrail did with its iconic yellow gerbil tubing.…
bleimanb | January 23, 2008We know this story has been covered by everyone from LiveScience to Perez Hilton, but we thought we'd do our part as well to promote awareness.
Chinese giant salamander....very tasty.
An initiative known as EDGE (Excited Dachshunds Grinding with the Elderly) has released its list of unique and critically endangered amphibians, hot on the heels of their steamy, after hours EDGE Mammals edition.
The initiative is a part of the...
...Zoological Society of London, who made the announcement yesterday. The endangered amphibians come in all shapes and sizes from the giant salamanders of China to…
zooillogix | January 18, 2008We've brought you some of Igor Siwanowicz's incredible work in the past (Round I and Round II) but wanted to share some of his newer photos. Please visit his site and hire him to do the photos for your daughter's bat mitzvah or something...
A whole series demonstrating Igor's outstanding head shots below the fold...
If any of our more entomologically inclined readers want to chime in and attach names to these adorable mugs, please do so and we'll credit you.
bleimanb | January 18, 2008Just when Andrew and I decided once and for all that ants couldn't get any more delicious looking, along comes a new parasitic roundworm that turns our whole world on its head! The newly discovered nematode enters the ants when they eat bird droppings and causes their abdomens to resemble ripe, tasty berries. This in turn draws the attention of birds who love both berries and ants. The birds eat the ants, crap out the parasites, and the whole thing starts over again. Now we know what Elton John was talking about in that song in the Lion King!
Seriously though take a look at the picture below…
bleimanb | January 17, 2008You'd have to be mentally deficient to believe Japan's claims that their hunting of 900 whales is being done for "research" purposes. But how far should people go to stop the slaughter? The Australian government has condemned the killing. People have waged protests. But it seems nothing can stop those wacky Japanese from persisting with the hunt.
Enter Sea Shepherd, an organization dedicated to protecting our large baleened friends from commercial and "scientific" whaling at all costs. Run by the infamous Captain Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd has resorted to some hard line tactics such as…
bleimanb | January 15, 2008Any snail enthusiast knows that their favorite creatures' shells follow certain stead-fast rules: They are cone shaped, right handed, and spiral on a single axis logarithmically. Well, let me just tell you what a shock it was to the snail community when scientists recently discovered the Opisthostoma vermiculum in Malaysia. The snail version of James Dean, the Opisthostoma vermiculum's shell breaks all the rules and answers to no one. Do you think you're the boss of it? You're not.
What a Hell's Angel's shell would look like if he wore one...
Seen in the picture above the Opisthostoma…
zooillogix | January 15, 2008Chimpanzee walking bulldogs in some sort of bizarro world (i.e. Japan). We've delivered you some strange Japanese imports in the past, but this raises the bar.
zooillogix | January 14, 2008 Dr. Emily Rayfield, a researcher at the University of Bristol has pioneered methods using computer modeling to determine dinosaur physiology. Research by Dr. Rayfield just published in the Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontolology sheds new light on the feeding habits of Baryonyx, which had a body similar to meat eating dinosaurs but now appears to have been better adapted for eating fish.
Fascinating footage of a Baryonyx skull spinning around in circles, apparently proving something important.
Using a CT scan, Dr. Rayfield was able to determine that Baryonyx's skull bent and stretched more…
zooillogix | January 14, 2008This sexy mussel is burning up the web right now. Totally free and posing just for you, watch in real-time as this flirty bivalve does its thing.
Riveting live feed courtesy of Flex Mussels restaurant on Prince Edward Island.
bleimanb | January 11, 2008
Louis, an 18 month old, giant Pacific octopus at the Newquay's Blue Reef Aquarium in the U.K. has a new best friend: a Mr. Potato Head doll. In this article on bbc.com, Matt Slater of the aquarium, talks about Louis' love affair with the little plastic man (NOTE: This quote is a lot more powerful if you imagine it with the accent of the chimney sweep from Mary Poppins):"Its bright colours, strange shape and...
...moveable parts make it fascinating for Louis.The secret space within Mr Potato Head allows us to hide tasty treats like fresh crab inside and that perhaps more than anything has…
bleimanb | January 10, 2008Yesterday I noticed a group of people standing in a circle on Mission Street in downtown San Francisco. "One of our amusing drunken homeless people must have fallen over," I thought to myself. To my surprise, however, I poked my head through the circle to find a northern goshawk (at least I think that's what it was) tearing a pigeon to shreds in the middle of the sidewalk.
Apparently the hawk had swooped down only seconds before my arrival, snatched the pigeon, and was now totally content to spend the afternoon in the...
...middle of an extraordinarily busy San Francisco sidewalk, directly…
bleimanb | January 9, 2008Why do some creatures forgo their own reproduction to help their relatives survive and reproduce? While we all might like to believe that naked mole rats really do care and are thus willing to sacrifice their creepy little lives for the good of the colony, the true answer probably has more to do with gene frequency across generations and evolution.
A scene from the 2003 ant remake of "Saving Private Ryan". Needless to say, it did not fare well at the box office.
Since the late 1950's, the idea of 'kin selection' has been the most widely accepted explanation for such bizarre behavior in…
zooillogix | January 8, 2008Zooillogix is a huge fan of Deep Sea News and for once in our lives, the feeling is mutual (go to hell Davina Josco from 2nd grade). Deep Sea News asked Zooillogix to weigh in on our favorite DSN posts from 2007 about five weeks ago and Benny finally got around to it yesterday! Today DSN has posted the results, which we definitely suggest you check out. See if you can guess which selections and comments are ours?!
The Judges
You can link to Deep Sea News and just read the Jan. 7th posts, or, if this is being read in some sort of time capsule 500 years in the future, you can link directly to…
bleimanb | January 7, 2008National Geographic reported this weekend that three new species of salamander have been discovered in distant cloud forests of Costa Rica's La Amistad National Park. Just like X-Men, each salamander seems to have a special power: "one with a bold streak, one with a 'ballistic' tongue, and one no longer than a fingernail," according to Nat'l Geographic.
La Amistad is the largest wildlife reserve in Central America, and...
...much of it has yet to be explored.
This salamander has markings reminiscent of a poison dart frog, possibly an environmental ruse.
In the article, Alex Monro of…
zooillogix | January 7, 2008Over the last couple of weeks, a number of the zookeeper and exotic pet listservs I subscribe to have read more like the classifieds in the back of Field & Stream. Obviously due to the recent tragedy at the San Francisco Zoo, these are boom times for the tranquilizer gun business. I thought I might share a little about what I've learned.
The Arsenal:
Blow Guns - Good for short range, especially in cages. Wait a minute, blow guns!? Yes, and apparently they have come a long way since our great-great-grandfathers (or in my case, my uncle Jon) used them to score monkey dinners from the tree…
bleimanb | January 3, 2008A new scientific paper has shown a strange, deceptive adaptation in the Maculinea butterflies of North Western Europe--an adaptation that has caused a genetic race between the butterflies and many different species of ants. The butterflies' caterpillar larvae emit a powerful smell that tricks the ants into believing that they are in fact ant larvae. The ants then...
...carry the larvae back to their secret lairs, and feed them. Just like the famed cuckoo birds, the larvae trick the ants so effectively that the ants give up on taking care of their own brood to focus exclusively on the…
zooillogix | January 2, 2008Apparently obesity isn't just for American's anymore... make that humans in general. First we have George, the greedy little pig as old British women would call him. This hedgehog was delivered to the Wildlife Aid centre in Leatherhead, England five times heavier than his natural weight. At 5lbs, George is dangerously obese and a testament to the fattening properties of garden insects, fruits and mushrooms.
Remind anyone else of this?
More of a trailer park tiggywinkle if you ask me.
Next we have Peaches, the fat baby wombat, from Tomerong, north of Sydney. In this series of caught-in-the-…