zooillogix | May 19, 2009
by Katie the Lowly Intern
Does the sinking feeling of knowing you could have gotten what you wanted had you made better choices in life sound familiar? Like how if in college, had you gotten a real degree, set goals for yourself, and not tried to buy friendships with your credit card, you could possibly now have a steady job, ambition, and friends? If it does, then you may rest easier tonight knowing there is a term for that: "fictive thinking". And guess what... monkeys get it too!
Researchers at Duke University have concluded that monkeys don't respond solely to direct punishment or…
zooillogix | May 6, 2009I cannot train my dog Mathman not to pee on the damned carpet but New England Aquarium's senior trainer, cryptically known simply as "Erin", can teach a lobster to score higher on the GRE than me.
As some readers of this blog may know, I have long been concerned with growing Lobster / Human tensions as illustrated in this alarmist Geocities site I created in 2000 while hungover in Belgium at "work." So the question I pose is this: will training lobsters lead to mutual understanding or merely create more efficient killers ala the CIA and Taliban circa 1985?
Although it might not make…
zooillogix | May 4, 2009
by Katie the Lowly Intern
Researchers at Cambridge University have debunked the long standing myth that freshwater algae can't dance. Volvox, while sounding like a herpes medication for mad scientists, is a spherical algae organism made up of only about 1,000 cells. They get their swerve from their flagella (think sperm tails) which they wag around until they create a flow of fluid. This flow of fluid causes them to stay in bound movements with each other; one movement being called a "waltz" and the other a "minuet." Scientists think that the oscillating dance moves make it easier for the…
bleimanb | April 28, 2009So you start out with a simple experiment, so simple in fact, that it sounds like Andrew and I came up with it when we were seven: How long do different species of spider survive underwater? You take 120 wolf spiders of three different species that live in marsh lands, and you submerge them underwater until they drown. Simple enough. Some live 24 hours, some 28 hours, and some 36. Ok, that's a long time, but it makes sense as these creatures live in marshes so they must have adapted to survive submerged for extended periods of time. It is then, however, that things take a turn for the…
zooillogix | April 23, 2009Festo is officially my new favorite company, supplanting Gama-Go even with their squid wallets. With a seemingly limitless budget to create non-commercially viable robots, Festo is run by Morgan Freeman, who now goes exclusively by the moniker Lucius Fox.
As if flying death jellyfish weren't enough, Festo now brings us flying death penguins... Death March of the Penguins if you will.
Lucius you sly bastard.......
bleimanb | April 22, 2009A German scientist has been putting his funding to good use by placing a tank full of goldfish into a plane and then having the plane free fall to simulate zero gravity conditions in order to determine once and for all whether fish are susceptible to seasickness. A) They are. B) What the &%#@?
What is it with Germans and their experiments?
Dr. Reinhold Hilbig, a zoologist from Stutgart, tested 49 fish in the experiment. Eight of them, apparently, began turning in circles.
"The fish lost their orientation, they became completely confused and looked as if they were about to vomit. In…
zooillogix | April 22, 2009
by Katie the lowly intern
Just when you started to feel comforted by the surge of popular culture embracing cephalopods on TV, apparel and porn, scientists spoon out a dose of brutal reality. Researchers from University of Melbourne, University of Brussels and Museum Victoria have revealed another terrifying fact about octopuses. It's not enough that they can squirt ink, have beaks, move by jet propulsion, change colors in seconds, turn their eyes to keep their pupils horizontally oriented, have no bones and most horrifically: have eight arms... but give very few hugs*.
The original octo-…
zooillogix | April 19, 2009New giftuses from Zooillogix readers and friends and, I must say, they are freakin outstanding. First and foremost, a long long overdue thank you to Liz of Surplus Cats who sent a Pittsburgh Zoo shot glass so long ago Ben hadn't even had his "operation" yet. It's an instant classic if I do say so myself, and I do.
Secondly, reader Emma has really outdone herself, and pretty much everyone else (except Liz who is exempt from being outdone) by sending four separate Vancouver Aquarium shot glasses and, as if that was not enough, a letter with shiny bird stickers!
Check out this sick letter…
bleimanb | April 14, 2009A new species of dolphin dubbed the snubfin has been witnessed displaying some very unusual feeding behavior off the northern coast of Australia. Apparently the dolphins were witnessed chasing fish to the surface of the water and then streaming jets of water out of their mouths to round the fish up before eating them.
I'm more of a Copenhagen mammel, myself.
"This incredibly unusual behavior, first seen in Australia off the Kimberley Coast, has only been noted before in Irrawaddy dolphins, which are closely related to this species," Lydia Gibson of WWF Australia told the Northern Territory…
zooillogix | April 14, 2009Dude
Kingsford Goes to the Beach - video powered by Metacafe
via CMYKaboom!
zooillogix | April 14, 2009
by Katie the Lowly Intern
As a kid, I was always interested in bioluminescence:
So I can't really pass up the chance to post about beings that can produce their own light. Marine biologists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have been playing around with bioluminescent fireworms.
Odontosyllis phosphorea
Dimitri Deheyn and Michael Latz are trying to figure out how and why fireworms generate light producing proteins. Before releasing a mess of gametes, hot lady fireworms create a big cloud of glowing mucus which appears to attract male fireworms. Sexy. Deheyn and Latz…
zooillogix | April 8, 2009Last fall many of you donated via Donor's Choose to one of three school science projects selected by Zooillogix for their direct impact of bringing creepy crawlies into the classroom. Today we have our first thank you from Ms. Daisy C's class in Brooklyn.
In this undated picture, kids in Ms. C's classroom are clearly doing something. The pictures are small and it kind of looks like your dollars bought them plates of dirt to eat, but I assure you that that is not the case. I think they are sifting around looking for grubs (not to eat). Also note the soft insect cage.
We purchased worms,…
zooillogix | April 7, 2009I bought a parakeet at a back alley Chinatown apothecary last week. Against the wise but curmudgeonly old shopkeeper's advice, I fed Felicia after midnight and she turned into this:
I believe it's a Barred Eagle-Owl. It ate Mathman.
zooillogix | April 6, 2009I have had this picture for a while just waiting for groundbreaking news about Bat-eared foxes. Well it never came but I can't just stare at the little guys any longer and not post them.
Photo credit Floridapfe of South Korea's Everland Zoo
They aren't babies and therefore not ZooBorn's fodder, but they are pretty ridiculous. Insects make up 80% of the Bat-eared fox diet. The other 20% comprises rainbows and Hello Kitty memorabilia.
zooillogix | April 2, 2009
by Katie the Lowly Intern
You might recall this gentle soul who got her face gnawed off by a chimp in February. I won't even begin to sift through the big ball of bizarre that story is, but it does lead to an interesting discussion concerning exactly where apes get enough strength to go around mauling humans. Biologists agree that a great ape's muscle structure is better, faster, stronger than our measly muscles. However, Alan Walker, a professor of Biology at Penn State just published an article in Current Anthropology that looks at another possible contributing factor.
He makes the…
zooillogix | April 1, 2009I cannot train my dog Mathman not to poop in the house, but an aquarist named Lindsay at the New England Aquarium has a Lumpfish named Blondie to do tricks (no flaming hoops yet).
Note that this is not an April Fool's joke. If it were, Blondie would also be performing Under the Sea in its entirety.
Learn the secrets of fish training from the master herself and impress stoned friends with your goldfish wrangling!
Thanks to Jeff Ives of the NEAQ for sharing.