zooillogix | September 13, 2007How we all made it through our painfully boring daily lives before live-streaming-hamster-cams is a mystery to me
Hamster Cam 1:
Hamster Cam 2:
For a bunch of awesome cams check out Animal Cams
zooillogix | September 12, 2007Fascinating footage taken with time lapse photography...
A hapless tree teeming with squirrels...
Doomed lemmings... kind of looks like they're running off a Marshmellow Peep
Nail Fungus
Yes, those are sleep fungi underneath the nail
More great footage here or buy your own here at the Mochimochi store.
bleimanb | September 12, 2007Deep in a cave off the coast of South Kona, Hawaii, marine biologist Marc Hughes discovered what he'd been seeking for years, a totally unspectacular new species of fish. Hughes was diving in the cave when he noticed a brown fish about 6 inches long swimming nearby. According to Hughes he immediately grabbed it with his hand and put it in his pocket...Wait...Huh?
The new species of Grammonus fish subsists mainly on a diet of mayonnaise on white bread.
Upon returning to the mainland, Hughes or as we will call him, Mr. Miyagi, gave his specimen (then dead) to a tropical fish dealer to…
zooillogix | September 11, 2007Some great mantis pics from InsectHobbyist:
Pseudocreobotra wahlbergii Hatchling (Spiny Flower Mantis)
Pseudocreobotra wahlbergii Adult
Pseudocreobotra Ocellata Nymph/Villain from Halo
Pseudocreobotra Ocellata
Deroplatys lobata
Species unidentified
Freak out techno mantis!
bleimanb | September 10, 2007
Aye-ayes do not respond well to light, and you must never, ever feed them after midnight.
According to a new study conducted by Brian Verrelli a researcher at the Biodesign Institute, aye-ayes, a rare primate found only in Madagascar have the genes to see in color, even though they are completely nocturnal and have been for millenia. Why is this so significant? Verrelli and his...
colleagues study three genes in particular called opsins which are responsible for color vision in humans. Aye-ayes come from an ancient mammal strain, one that split away from monkeys and humans over 60 million…
zooillogix | September 6, 2007Help Us Bring Attention to the Organizations, People and Ideas that Make a Difference
Zooillogix brings you bizarre animal news, research and discoveries delivered in an irreverent style representing Benny and my obnoxious sense of humor. However, the site was born from our passion for animals and conservation and one disturbing theme comes up far too often in our posts: animal trafficking, particularly in Southeast Asia. The gruesome animal markets of Thailand and Cambodia, among others, have been well covered by the media. These menageries of suffering are the starting points for illegal…
zooillogix | September 5, 2007Now Benny and I have always been suspicious of claims that violent video games spawn violent children. In fact, after zoology, few things are closer to our hearts than violent video games. However in a cruel twist of fate, it appears globalization has pitted our passions against one another.
This does look fun...
A new video game, (Mushiking) Insect King, has taken Japan by storm. In the game, which is targeted to young children, competitors fight one another with digital stag beetles. Sounds fun right? Well as with many Japanese obsessions, things have been taken a step too far. Excitement…
bleimanb | September 5, 2007Northern Finland is experiencing its largest lemming migration in 20 years, according to this article in Helsingin Sanomat's "International Edition" (we never miss an issue!).
Though the little rodents (Norway lemmings, Lemus lemus) have not yet begun swarming in a locust-like frenzy, they have been turning up all over Lapland, including drowned in the nets of salmon fishermen, clinging to the oar of a rower and attached to a woman's ankle as it bit her.
Isn't this how The Omen starts?
One popular myth about lemmings is that they react to overpopulation by leaping off of cliffs to their…
bleimanb | September 4, 2007Hey, gentlemen. Have you ever been throwing down some mean game, only to have your voluptuous prospect stolen from right under your nose by some guy with greasy hair who doesn't speak a word of your native tongue and is dressed like an extra in Saturday Night Fever? Well, you're not alone, and neither is your species.
My name....is Ernesto Claudio Jose Luiz Villa Lobos Renaldo Enrique, the Third, and may I say that it is a pleasure to meet a woman of your exquisite stature and beauty.
According to a new study of spotted hyenas in Tanzania, female hyenas prefer mates who just arrived into…
zooillogix | August 30, 2007So that title may be a little sensationalistic... but the web is alive this morning (no pun intended) with stories about an enormous series of interconnected webs spread out over a 200 yard area in North Texas. Researchers and visitors alike have been drawn to the sprawling web, but were uncertain whether it was created by social spiders or one terrifying giant spider with unlimited silk production capabilities and a strong work ethic. Kind of a cross between the queen in Aliens and the giant spider, Shelob, that Frodo fights on his way to Mordor. Turns out the social spider theory was…
zooillogix | August 29, 2007
In a surprise move, the white-flag dolphin came out of extinction to perform some acrobatics for a Chinese factory owner (is there any other kind?) with a digital camera. This was particularly notable as the dolphin was declared "most likely extinct" by a Chinese scientist just a week ago, which was instantly translated to "definitively extinct" by media outlets throughout the world. Now officially categorized as "not so extinct," the dolphin is still almost certainly "practically extinct" but the sighting does provide a sliver of hope. The media outlets rush to publish has brought…
zooillogix | August 28, 2007Fascinating piece in the Science Times today concerning Dr. Gonzalo Giribet and a group of Harvard biologists' research of the tiny mite harvestman and what it tells us about plate tectonics. Although biogeography informing plate tectonics is nothing new and indeed the concept of continental drift originated with German scientist Alfred Wegner's observation that similar fossils could be found on now distant continents, the mite harvestman tells a more detailed story.
Steve Gschmeissner/Photo Researcher (left) and Nigel Cattlin/Photo Researchers
(Note: the picture on the right is actually a…
zooillogix | August 27, 2007Domestication has enabled many a bizarre mutation to endure that almost certainly would have led to doom in the wild. The fainting goat must be high up on this list. This entire breed of domestic goat suffers from myotonia congenita, which causes the animals' muscles to freeze for approximately 10 seconds when excited. This usually results in the goats collapsing or standing motionless, but can also lead to a stiff legged hop.
Also called Tennessee (Meat) Goats, Nervous Goats, Stiff-leg Goats, Wooden-leg Goats, and Tennessee Scare Goats, the animals were brought to Tennessee in the 1800s by…
zooillogix | August 26, 2007Here are my rationalizations for posting this on Zooillogix:
#1 I can't find anything else at the moment that is anywhere near as interesting
#2 There's an abundance of animal life on these pizzas
#3 It's friggin awesome
Without further explanaton, may I introduce two remarkable inventions from South Korea. More specifically, Pizza Hut South Korea. As seen on Slice, first we have the Korean Shrimp Roll Pizza which seems to have no fewer than 28 tasty crustaceans lining the edge. Apparently, it even comes with a shrimp cocktail dipping sauce. It is actually pretty remarkable if you think about…
zooillogix | August 24, 2007The alphabetically superior member of the Bleiman brother duo, Andrew (me), lives in Chicago, where he is lucky enough to have a truly world-class institution in the Shedd Aquarium. On Thursday last week, the Shedd's resident female beluga whale, Mauyak, gave birth to a plump 100lb. 5.5 ft calf. Shortly after the birth, the calf swam to the surface and took its first breath.
Enjoy these videos of the birth and baby beluga swimming in the great blue fish tank.
zooillogix | August 23, 2007Does your cubicle mate play "adult contemporary" while you writhe in agony? Well now you can strike back with the classic rock stylings of your favorite insects! Lang Elliot and Will Hershberger have recently completed a practical guide to 76 species of singing insects, including crickets, katydids and cicadas of eastern and central North America. The Songs of Insects includes an audio CD so you can finally put a name to that damn bug song that has been stuck in your head all day.
As part of what I consider a rather clever marketing ploy, Lang and Will offer an embeddable jukebox that is…
bleimanb | August 22, 2007Peter's elephantnose fish has long been a laughing stock of scientists. But now, due to a new study by researchers at the University of Bonn, Germany, the hilarious looking creature's reputation might improve due to an astonishing attribute.
He's got the whole world....in his nose!
According to the researchers' study, released in the Journal of Experimental Biology, Peters' elephantnose fish (Gnathonemus petersii) use weak electrical fields emitted out of their chins to scan the floor of the water and do so with amazing accuracy. The study shows how in total darkness the fish can sense the…
zooillogix | August 21, 2007"I'm probably the only person to ever remove a grasshopper from Richard Burton's crotch."
This past Sunday, the Washington Post brought a fascinating entomologist to our attention: Steven Kutcher, bug wrangler to the stars. Getting his start in show business quite haphazardly when he was asked to help arrange a plague of locusts for the Exorcist II (1976), Kutcher saw a niche career opportunity he couldn't turn down. Close to 200 movies, TV shows and commercials later, including the feel good hit Arachnophobia, Kutcher is a different kind of Hollywood celebrity.
As interesting as Kutcher's…
bleimanb | August 21, 2007Squirrels in California have developed a clever method of intimidating rattlesnakes. According to a recent article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, when confronting rattlesnakes, California ground squirrels heat their tails and shake them vigorously.
The process works like this: the snakes rely on sneak attacks to catch their prey and use infrared sensors to feel out their environment. Adult ground squirrels, however, are immune to rattlesnake venom, due to a protein in their blood, so they often attack rattlers by biting and kicking gravel at them. When the rattlers…
zooillogix | August 20, 2007This creature recently set the world's record for its limb speed. It stores up an immense amount of energy in its mandibles and then releases it, when it needs to escape from a predator.
Here's a quote from a guy who has experienced the trap jaw ant according to the comments section on YouTube:
"There were [two] of those ants at my house. I tried to killed them, but it was like they were teleporting to somewhere else."