zooillogix | December 2, 2007Hi Friendly Readers,
In our ongoing efforts to conquer the interwebs, we hope that you might take one minute to favorite us on Technorati or BlogCatalog, give us a thumbs up on StumbleUpon or whatever app you use to denote cool kids. Thanks!
zooillogix | December 1, 2007Last week, ScienceBlogs interviewed Benny and me. On second reading, it's pretty weird. Anyway, for your amusement/bewilderment, check it out here: http://scienceblogs.com/seed/2007/11/an_interview_with_the_bleiman.php
zooillogix | November 30, 2007Benny and I subscribe to some interesting listservs... One of the few that is fit to discuss here is a zookeeper and exotic pet group that shares information on raising and feeding exotics as well animal enrichment. We have learned so much about enriching the lives of captive porcupines, pangolins and fruit bats that we could open up a Chucky Cheese targeted to these guys.
Recently, one of the group's members brought our attention to a critter we were not familiar with: the springhaas (also called a springhare). This adorable rodent from Southeast Africa is built much like a kangaroo and hops…
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 | November 29, 2007
An artist's rendering of what Pseudotribos robustus or a weasel-possum-lizard, might have looked like 165 million years ago
In the November 1st, issue of Nature, a joint American and Chinese research team announced the discovery of a long dead prehistoric mammal with an interesting set of chompers. Although the teeth were very similar in form to other teeth found at the time, they actually were arranged in a "grind-cut" pattern instead of the more common "cut-grind" pattern! Upon realizing what they were looking at, some of the female researchers fainted from embarrassment.
These days,…
zooillogix | November 29, 2007A few months back we brought you the story of giant jellies invading Japan. Well on Tuesday, the cutting edge scientific publication known as the Wall Street Journal actually sent a reporter to cover the story. The article is only mildly interesting although I do find it fascinating that they embed this video in the article but still insist on creating little pencil-pointillism portraits of the characters in the story...
zooillogix | November 29, 2007Researchers from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen in the UK are conducting a study on the relationship between bird songs and... uh... apparently any facet of the human experience. In what sounds to me like an interesting premise with impossibly broad scope, they will attempt to determine "how bird sounds evoke time, place and season and how people experience and draw upon bird sounds in science, art, music and their everyday lives" explained Dr. Whitehouse, lead project researcher. In case that wasn't enough, the good doctor has thrown technology into the mix. "…
bleimanb | November 29, 2007Somehow termites convert to wood into energy to power their festering hordes, and now a group of scientists and engineers--representing a consortium of government and corporate institutes--intends to learn how humans can do the same to power our Ipods. The November 22nd issue of the science journal Nature discusses this new, novel approach to producing biofuels.
Ok, ok, so power plants of the mid-2000s might not be filled to the brim with writhing piles of termites as implied by the title of this article, but it's still kind of interesting. Really, the scientists are hoping to break down…
bleimanb | November 29, 2007This photo comes from www.mongabay.com. It shows Dr. Tim Georoff, a vet at the Bronx Zoo (where Andrew and I were raised) x-raying a Gila monster to see if she's with child (or in this case with a bunch of eggs).
Dr. Georoff has put the Gila monster into the Plexiglass box to protect himself from the reptile's deadly, neurotoxic venom, found in the creature's teeth and saliva. According to mongabay.com Gila monsters inject the venom into their pray "through grooves in the teeth of [their] lower jaw[s]."
Bombarding unborn, reptile babies with x-ray radiation, hmm......Isn't that the first…
bleimanb | November 28, 2007So, what is it? What is YOUR favorite animal? Is it something obscure like a lesser long-nosed bat? Or something a little more Middle America like that baby penguin from Happy Feet?
Here's an idea of the kind of answer we're looking for (and yes, video comments are highly encouraged):
bleimanb | November 27, 2007The Australian Rugby team, Western Force 14, is facing serious accusations, possible fines and an eternity being molested by demons in the darkest pits of hell after a recent "bonding" trip to Rottnest Island, a small island off the Western coast of Australia. The players are accused of tormenting and torturing countless small, endangered marsupials called quokkas, native only Western Australia and the islands off the southwest of the continent.
Why do you persecute me?
According to a witness--Sydney resident, Dan Andrews--the players pursued, trapped, grabbed and even "hammer tossed" the…
zooillogix | November 25, 2007A new species of our favorite worm-like amphibian, the caecilian, has been discovered in the Belgaum district in Southwestern India. Named Gegeneophis mhadeiensis, three specimens were collected and are described in the most recent issue of Current Science.
Scientists from the Zoological Survey of India along with independent researchers found the critters in the Mahadayi Wildlife Sanctuary. This place seems to churn out a few new species each week, but few are as cuddly as the caecilian.
"It is commonly known as a two-headed snake but a closer look brings out the ringed nature of the…
zooillogix | November 25, 2007Way down apparently. Video editor Tyler Helms has taken footage from the stunning Microcosmos and paired it with the Radiohead's track "All I Need." Kind of like Animal Planet meets MTV.
zooillogix | November 21, 2007The Bleiman Brothers are in New Mexico for the week, which as many of you know, has not yet invented the internet. Unfortunately this means this is probably the only post we can send up, but hopefully you all can amuse yourselves by contributing the weirdest Thanksgiving meal you have ever had. Maybe you were doing research at Lake Baikal and enjoyed a fresh Thanksgiving Nerpa seal! Maybe you were in Madagascar and sat down to a traditional Lemur supper. Maybe you were in Southeast Asia and enjoyed their version of the turducken: five of any extremely endangered animals stuffed into one…
bleimanb | November 16, 2007The results of a seven year survey of Europe's rivers and lakes has finally arrived, and to the delight of Ben Stein, CPAs and colorblind people around the world, 57 new species of new nonthreatening, completely unexciting, brownish-gray fish have been identified. Europe now boasts 522 drab freshwater species as opposed to the laughable 485 of the olden days. Take that Azerbaijan!
Reportedly, the photographer fell asleep while taking this picture.
"The new species come from all over," said Jörg Freyhof of the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin, Germany…
zooillogix | November 15, 2007We are not sure what the bigger story here is: the discovery of a new species of tiny adorable river manatee or the fact that this happened in July and we just learned about it last week! Anyway, these critters were discovered by a pioneering Amazonian biologist by the name of Marc van Roosmalen and covered by Darren Naish of Tetrapod Zoology a few months back. Tetrapod is kind of the better researched, actually informative, articulate and all around nerdier version of Zooillogix.
As the story goes, Marc came across the skull of a dwarf manatee and, suspecting it was a new species, searched…
zooillogix | November 15, 2007Our most popular post from our Blogger days did not fair so well in the migration to SB and Movable Type. I am reposting it here now for posterity.
A relative of the starfish, crinoids are neither abundant nor well understood. Also known as "sea lilies" or "feather stars" the strange creatures consist of a mouthpart, feeding arms and generally have a stem that connects them to the sea floor. Scientists have long known that crinoids were capable of moving themselves, albeit at a very slow pace, to outmaneuver predators such as sea urchins. Their fastest speed had been clocked at .6 meters per…
bleimanb | November 14, 2007We want to shake things up a bit here at Zooillogix by doing a weekly readers' poll. That's right. We actually WANT to hear from you!
The question: WHAT WAS YOUR WORST HUNGOVER MORNING EVER?
Was it a walk of shame in your Halloween costume? Did a cockroach emerge from your half-eaten Boston cream pastry? Perhaps you were fired by your boss and attacked by a hammerhead shark all before sunrise?
This video was our source of inspiration...
There's another video below the fold, that's even better, (albeit unrelated to animals)...
bleimanb | November 13, 2007Due to popular demand, we searched long and hard (by going to Youtube and typing in "Winter, the dolphin") and finally found this video of Winter, the dolphin, swimming both with and without her prosthetic tail.
bleimanb | November 13, 2007India's bustling capital has been a little more bustling of late with a veritable invasion of rude, sometimes dangerous monkeys. As the forests outlying the city have been destroyed, more and more rhesus macaque monkeys have made their way into the urban areas. In some cases they have literally overrun government buildings and are known for biting and stealing food from people passing by.
"I will totally F&*# you up"...he seems to say.
In two recent examples of the mayhem, a monkey went on a rampage in Dehli yesterday severely injuring 25 people including babies and children. While the…