Frog Bladders Hunt and Remove Foreign Objects

A bizarre discovery shows some frogs and toads can grow their bladders around objects lodged deep within their bodies, ultimately peeing them out.

Zoologists discovered the oddity after implanting frogs with tiny radio transmitters, which inexplicably migrated to the bladder. The team came across the amphibian ability while studying heat regulation in Australian green tree frogs. The team implanted tiny radio transmitters deep in the amphibians’ peritoneal cavity, which lies just outside the peritoneum — a membrane containing the major organs of most animals.

After a few weeks of living in the wild, however, about 75 percent of the frogs’ transmitters were found in their bladders. The scientists also found some on the ground without any signs of frog death, including being eaten by a predator, disease or other explanations.

Back in the lab, the team put their hypothesis to the test. They enlisted five green tree frogs and five cane toads, implanting small inert beads in each the same way they implanted the radio transmitters. Each tree frog expelled its bead within 23 days. One cane toad also gave its bead the boot, and the beads in the other four toads had migrated to their bladders.

Read more in the original article here.

Lemurs' Knack for Numbers

An interesting CNN video on Lemurs:

Potty Training Orphan Sloths

Potty training at the sloth orphanage from Amphibian Avenger on Vimeo.

World's Largest indoor pet?

See the article here.

Invasive Species

Wired magazine recently ran an article focusing on invasive species.  The article was prompted by reports of the U.S. Navy "bombing" Guam with dead, drugged mice in an effort to kill off the invasive Brown tree snake (shown below).  Interesting!

Brown tree snake:

Kudzu:

Northern Snakehead:

Asian carp:

See more in the original article here.

Mimic Octopus

Video of the always-interesting mimic octopus:

50-Million-Year-Old Insect Trove Found in Indian Amber

A collection of amber deposits unearthed in northwest India has opened a spectacular window into insect life some 50 million years ago.  Amber is the geological name for fossilized tree resin, which often preserves insects that get stuck in it.

Although the new amber didn’t yield bizarre new species, it’s still loaded with fossil treasures. More than 700 insect species representing 55 families of insects have been identified inside. Among them are ancient bees, termites and ants — highly social insects that form some of the world’s most complex societies.

In the years to come, scientists will compare these ancient specimens to modern forms and develop a deeper understanding of how these creatures have evolved.

Original article here.

Happy Halloween from One Spooky Sugar Glider

Read more about Sugar gliders here.

Physics of Wet Dogs Shake Out in High-Speed Videos

Scientists have written "The Wet-Dog Shake,” where they attempt to calculate the optimum speed at which dogs should shake to most efficiently dry their fur.

The team built a mathematical model of the processes involved, reasoning that surface tension between the water and the dog’s hair is what keeps the dog wet. Overcoming that tension requires a centripetal force that exceeds it.  As centripetal force varies with distance from the centre of the creature, its radius is therefore crucial to work out the speed of the oscillations.

Check out the above video to see the slow-motion dog shaking, and read more about the experiment in the referenced article here.

Sloth’s Strange Walk Is Really Just Upside Down

Two-toed sloths spend a lot of time hanging upside down from tropical tree branches in Central and South America, and looking very odd. But new research suggests they move just like a mirror image of many upright four-legged creatures.

Mammals seem to move their legs in very standardized fashion during locomotion, whether walking on land, on branches or suspended under branches.  What differs is the way muscles are arranged and attached, which can completely alter the functionality of limbs.

Sloths don’t grasp branches but instead suspend themselves from tree limbs with long, hook-like claws on their sideways-oriented hands and feet. Given how weird sloths are, it seemed possible they may have evolved a different way of moving from other mammals.

To investigate whether strange anatomy translated to strange locomotion, scientists used video and x-rays to see inside sloths as they moved along a wooden pole and a motorized “treadpole” they were trained to move along for a snack.

They found that the sloths didn’t simply lumber along the branches at a slow-and-steady pace.  Their velocity varied, and they used several different gaits while moving. In the “exploratory gait,” the sloths assumed an inverted crouch position in which they held their nose close to the pole, while in the “traveling gait” they extended their arms further to increase their stride.

Read more in the original article here.

Most Overlooked Endangered Species Candidates

Think of endangered species, and you probably think of Florida panthers or blue whales or California golden condors -- big, charismatic animals.  But endangered species can be small, odd and unappealing, too. These animals are no less special.

Below are pictures of some of the animals that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided this year to consider for endangered status. Many steps remain in their bureaucratic journey to protection, which can take years, even decades, and may end with a decision that they're not endangered.
 
Read and see more in the original article here.

Below are the Altamaha spinymussel, the Berry Cave salamander,the Golden-winged Warbler, the western Gull-Billed Tern, and the Hawaiian Scarlet Honeycreeper.

Owl Landing

Island of plastic drink bottles and foam installed at Hoover Alabama's Veterans Park

Crews from the city of Hoover launched and anchored manmade floating island in the lake at Veteran's Park. The 480-square-foot island is made by Floating Island Environmental Solutions of Baton Rouge, La., and is constructed out of recycled plastic drinking bottles, bouyant marine foam, PVC pipe and stainless steel cables and connectors. There are 12 modules that make up the entire island with pre-drilled holes allowing the root ball of the plants to reach the water underneath requiring no chemical fertilization.

See more pictures at the original article here.

Alabama Wildlife Center releases 3 rehabilitated owls at Turkey Creek Nature Preserve

Three young great horned owls were released today back into the wild at the Turkey Creek Nature Preserve near Pinson in northeast Jefferson County.

Two of the birds had suffered injuries this spring and the third was found separated from its parents. Each spent five months in rehabilitation at the Alabama Wildlife Center located at Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham.

One bird was found near Childersburg on April 10 with a possible bite mark on its right wing. The second bird was brought to the center from Tennessee on April 29 after it was found alone. The third bird was found May 19 in Huntsville after possibly being hit by a vehicle.

After weeks of care and training to survive in the wild, wildlife center officials picked the preserve as a release site. The preserve consists of 462 acres of wooded land purchased under Alabama's Forever Wild program. The land is co-managed by the state and the Southern Environmental Center. It is open to the public.

Original article here.  Click on the thumbnails below to see the full size pictures:

New, Cat-Sized Carnivore Found in Madagascar

An unknown, mongoose-like creature has been discovered in the wetlands of Madagascar.

Biologists photographed the creature while surveying lemurs in 2004. It resembled the brown-tailed mongoose, an inhabitant of Madagascar’s eastern jungles that was first described in 1837 by French zoologist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.

Further inspection, however, revealed differences between skulls, paws and teeth. The new creature is formally described in the journal Systematics and Biodiversity.

Because it was discovered by researchers from the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the new animal has been named Salanoia durrelli, or the Durrell’s vontsira.

That the vontsira would be found on Madagascar is unsurprising. While most new land-dwelling species are small and easily overlooked, tropical jungles contain Earth’s last few unexplored and uninhabited pockets of terrestrial life. Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot with no fewer than 15 unique families of animals.

Original article here.

Why Male Spiders Are So Small

Male spiders may be tiny compared to their female counterparts in part because it makes it easier for them to get around and spread their genes.

Scientists studied different spiders’ aptitude for bridging — sending out strands of thread that get carried by the wind to another spot, and then crawling across — by placing them in a wind tunnel and watching them move around. They discovered that smaller spiders made bridges more often, and that the technique was more common in spiders with a pronounced difference in size between the sexes.

In species where bridging is a very common mode of locomotion, small males, by being more efficient bridge builders, will enjoy more mating opportunities and thus will be better at competition to reach receptive females.  This may lead to a selective pressure for smaller size.

The picture on the right is of a female and male orb-weaver spider.

Original article here.

Rare, Tiny, Baby Seahorse Found in British Waters

The Seahorse Trust, after years of surveying the fish in British waters, has finally found, measured and photographed a baby seahorse, which is also called a fry.

Despite finding many adults, plenty of pregnant males (female seahorses transfer their eggs to the male, who fertilizes them in his pouch) and juveniles, the trust had previously failed to find any babies.

Baby seahorses are left entirely on their own after being born, and rarely survive long enough to become an adult. Due to their premature independence and underwater predators, less than one in a thousand will survive into adulthood. Not good odds, even though about 100-200 eggs are hatched at a time.

But the trust finally found a fry in the waters at Studland in Dorset. Despite poor weather and only 3 feet of visibility, scientists spotted a tiny seahorse clinging on to a piece of seagrass. They managed to measure the 1.6 inch creature, and snap the photograph above, before the baby returned to the sea bed.

In the first few weeks of a seahorse’s life, it will live predominantly in the plankton layer of the ocean, gobbling up an astounding 3,000 pieces of plankton every 24 hours.

Original article here.

200 New Species of Frogs, Spiders, Mammals and More Discovered

In just two months of searching through a remote, mountainous rainforest in Papua New Guinea, scientists discovered 200 new species of animals and plants, including spiders, frogs, insects and mammals.

The surveys were done in 2009 in the Nakanai Mountains on the island of New Britain, which the country has nominated for World Heritage status. The new species could offer a boost to that effort.

For more information, and pictures of additional discoveries, read more in the original article here.

Antarctic Octopuses Discovered With Sub-Zero Venom

A research expedition to Antarctica to study the region’s octopus life has returned with descriptions of four new species, and the first known sub-zero venoms.

Antarctic octopuses eat a wide variety of animals, from clams to fish. They catch their prey with their tentacles and use their venom to kill them, much like snakes.

The venoms are being studied as potential sources of pain-killers because they work on the nervous system. So far, analysis of the venom has revealed two toxins that are new to science.

The scientists still don’t know what biochemical tricks the octopuses use to keep their venom working at freezing temperatures.

For more information, see the original article here.

Video Roundup: Interspecies Friends

The videos below are from this roundup of interspecies friends:

Exploding Spores High Speed Video

Scientists have discovered that by forcibly ejecting thousands of spores into still air, fungi create a little puff that can carry the fungal offspring 20 times farther than a single spore travels alone.

By working together to stir the air around them, the spores can dodge nearby obstacles such as leaves, reach other air currents, and ultimately land on real estate prime for infection.

Using high speed video, a team of researchers clocked the launch speed of spores of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, an omnivorous fungus that attacks numerous plants. The spores initially blasted off at speeds near 20 miles per hour. But the distance they traveled depended on whether they launched alone or en masse. Spores sprung singly were quickly brought down by drag, traveling a mere 0.1 inches before decelerating to zero. But when the fungus ejected waves of spores in quick succession, it created currents that carried spores farther at a slow but steady pace of just over 1 mile per hour.


When the fungus Sclerotinia launches its spores, the first ones to emerge (blue, on right) create a wind that carries subsequent spores (yellow) higher. The last spores to emerge (red) can fly as high as 20 centimeters, much farther than any single spore could go by itself.

Original article here.

The Hidden World of Insect Flight

Using high-speed video cameras that capture more than a thousand frames per second, Andrew Mountcastle's videos reveal an insect ballet hidden to plain sight.  He and another scientist filmed garden-variety insects in flight, their everyday glory unmasked in slow motion.  See more videos here.

New Aurora Webcam Captures Spectacular Videos, Images

The return of winter darkness and sub-zero temperatures comes with at least one bright side for residents of Northern Canada — the return of aurora borealis displays.  For those of us living in southern latitudes, we too can now watch the show from the relative comfort of warmer climates.

The live webcam, called AuroraMax, was launched by the Canadian Space Agency. The camera, located in Yellowknife, Northern Territories, shoots an 180-degree view of the sky, which produces a circular image.

Original article here.

Cameras on a Peregrine Falcon and a Goshawk

These are two of the fastest maneuvering birds in the world -- the Peregrine falcon and the Goshawk.   Rarely do we get to see them in action, at least to this extent. But, some have decided to take it a step further by attaching cameras on the back of these magnificent creatures. And what was captured on camera for the first time ever, was proof once again, that nature in it’s glory is a sight to behold.

The video includes speeds of nearly 200mph, dives and turns that produce 10+ G's, maneuvering through dense forests at high speed only inches from the ground, and only a fraction of a second from impact.

The fastest Peregrine falcon ever has been clocked at 242 miles per hour.  During flight, the change in direction from a 150 mph dive, then to a sudden lift, would make a human lose consciousness, and that’s only at it’s "playful" speed of 150 mph.  They can dive at unfathomable speeds, and suddenly lift only inches from the ground.

Maneuvering through the dense forests as Goshawks do is something that no computer or human invention has been able to duplicate fully. Their precision and accuracy is flawless.


Original article here.

Rare ‘Asian Unicorn’ Caught in Laos

One of the rarest creatures on the planet has been sighted in Laos. The saola, which has been dubbed the ‘Asian unicorn’ despite being double horned, hasn’t been photographed since 1999. The individual pictured above was captured and taken back to a small village, where it unfortunately died in captivity several days later.

The saola first became known to science in 1992 in Vietnam, near the country’s border with Laos. It lives in very dense forest, and has been rarely seen since. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists the species as critically endangered.

The carcass of the captured saola was preserved, providing the first complete specimen for study and reference.
Original article here.

Native Toad Fights Back Against Yellow Crazy-Ant Invasion

After so many tales of invasive species overwhelming hapless natives, scientists have found a native toad in Indonesia that’s fighting back.

The common Sulawesi toad turns out to be a prodigious eater of ants, even aggressive invading ones.  On the island of Sulawesi, the Ingerophrynus celebensis toads readily feast on yellow crazy ants, which are colonizing the island as well as other tropical locations.

Yellow crazy ants get their name from their color and their zigzag scurrying, and they have crowded out native ants and disrupted ecosystems elsewhere. The invaders meet any foe aggressively, releasing noxious chemicals during battle. The Sulawesi toads eat them nonetheless.

During a week of toad abundance on Sulawesi farms, test plots hopping with toads had as little as one-third of the invasive-ant populations found on plots where fencing kept toads out.  The study could be a first in suggesting that a native toad might control populations of invasive ants.

Read more in the original article here.

Tiger Moths Scare Bats With Ultrasonic Clicks

It’s kinda tough being a moth. Not only do you have to go through the icky process of pupating, but you’re also the favorite food of bats, which use ultrasonic echolocation to swoop down and pounce on you when you’re just trying to have some fun, flapping around a lightbulb.

But one species, Cycnia tenera, which is known to its friends as the Toxic Dogbane Tiger Moth, has evolved special bat-detecting ears that contain neurons sensitive to the frequencies used by the bats for their echolocation clicks. Not only that, but the moth has even worked out how to generate ultrasonic pulses itself, confusing the bat into aborting the attack.

In a recent study, the group put moths in a dark chamber covered with sound insulation, played them the sounds of a bat’s echolocation calls, and recorded their responses with a microphone. The recordings were then analyzed to find out how the moths react to the bats.

Bats issue different types of ultrasonic call when they’re searching for potential prey and when they’ve identified a target and are swooping in for the kill. Both types were played to the moths, which were observed as being able to distinguish between the two. Although initially alarmed by both types of call, the moths habituated to the first relatively quickly compared to the second one.

The moths also emitted their own defensive ultrasonic clicks. These were also produced on hearing both types of bat call, but when the more aggressive calls were played, the clicks increased in intensity and duration.

Original article here.

Scientists find oldest record of life on Earth

Fossils from Australia show life on Earth began at least 650 million years ago, 70 million years earlier than previous estimates, according to a recent report.

Scientists came upon the fossils while researching a massive ice age, known as the “snowball effect,” that left much of the planet covered in ice 635 million years ago. Scientists had thought life could not have survived that ice age. But as they inspected a glacial deposit in south Australia, they found the fossils of the sponge-like ocean reef animals.

The researchers call the animals sponge-like because the fossil record shows them to have a network of internal canals, likely for filtering food from seawater as sponges do. The earliest fossilized record of sponges had been 520 million years ago. The earliest fossils of hard-bodies animals date to 550 million years ago.

The scientists published their findings in the August 17 issue of the journal Nature Geoscience.

Original article here.

Extinct Giant Turtle Found on Pacific Island

A bizarre type of giant land turtle thought to have gone extinct 50,000 years ago survived until recently on at least one small Pacific island.  Dozens of bones found in a 3,000 year old archaeological site on Vanuatu belong to a previously-undescribed species of meiolaniid, a turtle family that evolved 50 million years ago and resembled walking fortresses.

The shell of one early meiolaniid species, known from fossils recovered in South America and named Stupendemys for its size, was 11 feet long and seven feet wide. The more modern Meiolania platyceps, found in Australia and Melanesia, had a relatively small five-foot-diameter shell, and weighed an estimated half-ton. All had armored club tails and horned heads.

The bones of the newly discovered species, named Meiolania damelipi and described August 16 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, tell a clear story. They were found in a mound of animal bones discarded near a village of Lapita, a seafaring culture that 3,500 years ago spread east across Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia people. The bottom layer of the garbage pile, dated to 3,000 years ago, had many meiolaniid bones. The top layer, dated to 2,800 years ago, had none.

The Lapita would have hunted the slow-moving turtles, burned forests to clear cropland, and brought pigs and rats that ate their eggs.  Scientists estimate that Vanuatu could have supported tens of thousands of M. damelipi, but in just 200 years they were gone. And if giant land turtles were on Vanuatu, they were likely found on other Pacific islands, and hunted into oblivion.

This fits a pattern of human-preceded extinction recorded worldwide in large animals — collectively known as Pleistocene megafauna — but especially pronounced in the South Pacific, where every populated island lost betwen 30 and 50 percent of all animal species. These included giant iguanas, terrestrial crocodiles and dozens of birds. Bones of other now-extinct avian species were also found in the Vanuatu heap.

Original article here.

Animal Odd Couple: Elephant and Dog are Best Friends

New Titi Monkey Species Discovered In Amazon

A newly discovered species of titi monkey purrs like a cat and looks like a leprechaun.

Although it was first spotted in 1976 in Caqueta province of Columbia, frequent armed conflict in the region has prevented scientists from being able to confirm its existence until now.

The new species, named the Caqueta titi monkey or Callicebus caquetensis, is one of about 20 species of titi monkeys, which all live in the Amazon basin.

The Caqueta titi monkey is being recommended for classification as Critically Endangered. The population size has been estimated at less than 250 individuals, and its habitat has been fragmented by clearing for agricultural land.

Titi monkeys are one of the only species of primate that are monogamous, gibbons being one of the only other ones.  Scientists say that their monogamous behavior leads them causes them to be endearing.  One of their behaviors is “space saving,” where they encourage the other monkey to get closer to them.  All of the babies purr like cats.  When they feel very content they purr towards each other.

Original article here.


The Callicebus caquetensis is the top right: