zooillogix | July 12, 2007The BBC is reporting that the British military is being blamed for a plague of ferocious badgers in and around the city of Basra. Apparently word has spread quickly among local residents that "man-eating, bear-like beasts" were released in order to sow panic.
A vicious honey badger hungry for jihadi blood, Mellivora capensis Although several of the creatures caught and killed by farmers have been identified as honey badgers, an indigenous local species, that has not stopped widespread speculation that the British military was involved.
According to UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer, "…
zooillogix | July 12, 2007And yet more troubling bird imagery from the same friends who brought us Deviled Ostrich Egg and Baby Cockatiel:
Bentley's Bio courtesy of friend Pat Deering from New Mexico
Bentley is a deformed duckling. His neck is bent down and around to his left side. If he is ,Aeufacing,Aeu forward, his head is looking at about 8 o,Aeoclock, behind him. It was easy for him to see where things are but hard to go ,Aeuforward,Aeu in order to get there because his feet go one way while he,Aeos looking another. He is able to get around and has no problem drinking and eating. He was doing fine until a near-…
zooillogix | July 11, 2007The great majority of cabbage aphids are peace-loving.
To aphids, ladybugs are infidels. And what's the greatest way to stop an infidel? A suicide bomb of course! In order to stave off their ladybug enemies, cabbage aphids strike back with internally produced, mustard oil bombs. The mustard oil--emitted in a single, deadly burst--either disables or kills the ladybug dogs, but also destroys the aphid who lets it loose.
Cabbage aphids, fittingly, eat a form of cabbage containing chemicals known as glucosinolates, which they then store in their blood. The aphids also produce an enzyme called…
zooillogix | July 10, 2007In the frigid waters off the coast of Norway lives a massive coral reef. With a footprint of over 40 kilometers across, the Rost Reef was discovered by echo sound equipment in 2002. Though the water at the bottom is only 2 degrees Centigrade above freezing, the reef is host to abundant life from plankton to fish.
Recently, researchers from the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom explored the reef with a submersible for the first time. Their footage shows just how lively those friggin freezing waters can be...
(Note: Actual underwater footage starts at 3:15 in the film. We suggest you…
zooillogix | July 9, 2007Scientists have long known that birds develop local dialects, but they didn't know that birds' languages can go out of style with the times. According to an article in England's Daily Mail, behavioral ecologist Elizabeth Derryberry tested songs of male whitecrowned sparrows from the 1970's against songs recorded this year. When Derryberry played the modern songs to a group of 10 female and 20 male sparrows, the female birds started courting behavior and the males became territorial. When she played the old-school recordings (which were of the same sound quality), however, the group of birds…
zooillogix | July 6, 2007Buddenbrockia plumatellae
Discovered in 1851, the Buddenbrockia worm has long confounded scientists--it seems like a worm, but has some very unworm-like characteristics. Unlike similar looking creatures, such as nematodes, the Buddenbrockia's body does not have separate organs. Its insides are totally symmetric. According to Professor Peter Holland of Oxford University,Aeos Department of Zoology as quoted in Physorg.com, "It doesn,Aeot have a left or right side or a top or bottom ,Aei we can,Aeot even tell which end is the front!...Seen in cross section it is completely symmetrical so no way…
zooillogix | July 5, 2007So maybe it doesn't "terrorize" so much as it "fascinates" nerds like us, but nevertheless, a truly bizarre critter has emerged from the depths of the Pacific. Researchers at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii used a 3,000 foot hose to suck the hapless cephalopod up from the black depths off Keahole Point last week. The slippery subject, which may be an entirely new species, has the body of a squid but the eight suction-cupped arms of an octopus. Octosquid arrived at the surface alive because cephalopods' bag-like bodies naturally adjust to pressure changes. The two black ratfish that…
zooillogix | July 4, 2007The accidental product of a study abroad program in Italy, Eclyse is a visually fascinating example of mixed genetic material. Eclyse's mother was a zebra living at a German safari park. When she was sent on loan to Italy, she was allowed to roam free in an enclosure with both horses and zebras. Upon her return to the amusingly named Schloss Holte Stukenbrock in Germany, keepers were surprised to find she was pregnant but even more surprised to see the young foal. Called a "zorse" or a "zebroid" (pretty much lose, lose if you ask us), typically the offspring of a zebra and horse have stripes…
zooillogix | July 3, 2007Japanese fisherman and power plants have been under siege over the last year by giant jellyfish. While the cause of the swarming is unknown, the nuisance is severe. Growing to almost 500lbs, Nemopelima nomurai destroys fishing nets and poisons fish when trapped in nets. Their smaller brethren, the moon jellies, have been blocking intake vents for seaside power plants. In an effort to find an economic solution to this problem, the Japanese have developed both a baking powder and a crunchy, delicious salted snack derived from the gelatinous monsters. Although these inventions have yet to be…
zooillogix | July 2, 2007Scientists interested in treating infertility in humans are turning to an unlikely source for inspiration: naked mole-rats. The rats--actually more closely related to porcupines and chinchillas than moles or rats--live in large colonies much like ants. In these colonies, one dominant female called the "queen" maintains a monopoly on breeding rights by constantly bullying the other female workers and soldiers. The stress of the bullying brings on a suppression of certain fertility hormones in the victims, causing them to be infertile. In a turn-of-events that gives hope to every whipped…
zooillogix | June 28, 2007Mandarin Goby, Synchiropus splendidus
Researchers from James Cook University in North Queensland, Australia have made a startling discovery: gobies intentionally deprive themselves of food to avoid conflict with their rulers. Goby society is lorded over by the largest males and females and these are the only individuals allowed to breed. If a smaller goby tries to jump the queue and mate, it will be expelled from the group by the bigger fish. However, all is not peaches and cream at the top, as competition between the larger fish to establish dominance is fierce. Therefore, smaller gobies…
zooillogix | June 26, 2007But I just want to cuddle! Bathynomus giganteus
In what might be described as the world's most destructive termite problem, Hotboro Island is actually being eaten away by isopods only about an inch long. Isopods are not in fact insects, but primitive crustaceans ranging in size from the size of a pin to the size of a bowling ball. Inhabitants of neighboring Higohihiroshima had been noting the steady erosion of the island for years. After each tsunami, parts of the island would break off and disappear. When scientists finally examined the remnants of the island last year, they found isopods…
zooillogix | June 25, 2007A Maclaud's horseshoe bat (being held in a glove) poses for the ladies...
For the first time, scientists photographed a Maclaud's horseshoe bat in the forests of Guinea in West Africa. These bats had not been seen in the wild in over 40 years. The featured photo was snapped by German biologist Natalie Webber, who found 16 horseshoe bats living in a remote cave complex. "Our rediscovery is good news insofar as the species is still there and as we have shown that the distribution range appears to be somewhat larger than previously known," said Jakob Fahr, a German ecologist who headed up the…
zooillogix | June 21, 2007Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Barbara-Anne......
According to a new study from Cornell University, African electric fish engage in a dueling performance of electric pulses when in courtship. Scientists had known that the fish emitted electric signals to explore their surroundings and communicate sex and social standing. This, however, was the first research comparing the electric emissions of breeding and non-breeding fish and sorting the fish's emissions based on their sex.
The fish use a battery-like organ in their tails to generate the weak charge. The researchers used custom software to separate and…
zooillogix | June 20, 2007Firefighters in Pocatello, Idaho, pulled the lifeless bodies of four cats and an albino rat from a blaze and then managed to bring them back back to life through artificial resuscitation. The fire department had purchased tiny oxygen masks for use on small animals two years ago.
Do cats hear "wha-wha-wha-wha-wha" also?The firefighter who rescued the rat, Kirby Jonas, described coming upon the animal's cage. "If I were betting money, I would have put down $10,000 that anything in that cage was dead," he said, according to msnbc.com.
Actual footage of Jonas during the blaze...
Jonas also noted…
zooillogix | June 20, 2007Triops australiensisWhere the hell were these things when I was a kid? Triops are small crustaceans in the class branchiopoda, that grow quickly and massively, reaching three inches or longer at full size. Their external appearance has apparently not changed since the appearance of Triops cancrifromis, 220 million years ago in the Triassic Period. This may make the Triops, also called tadpole shrimp or shield shrimp, the oldest living animal species on earth.
An adorable triops eating a piece of corn. This playful behavior in juveniles has a very practical application in adulthood, when…
zooillogix | June 19, 2007Tougher than steel and Kevlar, the silk of the black widow spider has long been coveted by manufacturing companies, defense contractors and comic-book reading nerds as a possible material of the future.
Scientists have spent years decoding pieces of the spiders' silk making genes, but now Nadia Ayoub and a group of researchers at the University of California-Riverside can create the full proteins and probably spider silk as well.
You want to manufacture my what!?
The silk making genes turn out to be quite long (over 10,000 base-pairs), but with very few introns or "junk DNA" sections that…
zooillogix | June 18, 2007Don't look at me, I'm hideously bloated!
Researchers at Ben-Gurion University in Negev, Israel, have identified whiteleg shrimp as the only known species where the male has a reproductive cycle or "period." The male whitelegs--actually a type of prawn--generate two sperm packets per month which they attach to their female mates during reproduction. If, however, these packets are not used, they can solidify and prevent the male from getting rid of them. Thus, these prawns have developed a period or cycle of every two weeks, whereby they lose their sperm packets and develop new ones.
Scientists…