Animal Culture
"…an objective measure which probably correlates with subjective experience does exist. It is called the critical flicker-fusion frequency, or CFF, and it is the lowest frequency at which a flickering light appears to be a constant source of illumination. … For people, the average CFF is 60 hertz… Dogs have a CFF of 80Hz… Flies, which have a CFF of 250Hz, are notoriously difficult to swat. A rolled up newspaper that seems to a human to be moving rapidly appears to them to be travelling through treacle."
…We used to be able to blame the Monarch's decline on Mexican farmers, who cut down the trees in the butterfly's over-wintering grounds.
But in this country, in just four years, we've lost an area of conservation, and wild lands larger than the state of Texas, to corn conversion because of the ethanol boom.
…his backroom blossoms with great fluffy bags and tidy little boxes of possibility, milkweed seed.
The seed, gathered by volunteers across the country who are taking a stand alongside Taylor, will be taken to a greenhouse in Baldwin City where, by spring, he'll pop milkweed plugs to plant in Oklahoma, and Kansas and Iowa.
In contrast to the inhuman behaviour of the terrorists, the elephants at the Ramat Gan Safari showed how they protect their young during an air raid alert. This must be one of the most moving videos I’ve seen. [Watch on YouTube]
For 50 years Raju the elephant was held in chains, beaten and abused… legs bleeding from spiked shackles… But last week animal charity workers swooped to save him in a daring midnight rescue operation on the streets of India. … Raju’s rescuers insist the giant animal wept as he realised his ordeal was coming to an end. …
Mr. G the Goat and his female friend Jellybean the Burro are truly inseparable. … They were rescued from a life of neglect in Southern California, but they were split up and sent to different sanctuaries. “What we didn’t realize, is the depth of their bond….” [Video]
Not only did the leopard seals not attack as some predicted they would, they fed me penguins, followed me around, and generally put on a nonstop show.” [Photos at link]
So far, scientists know that squirrels, upon detecting a rattler, "approach it head-first in an elongated posture, making flaggin movements with its tail," according to a UC Davis report. The robosquirrel can flick its tail as well as heat it -- features controlled independently. Now the research team has determined the snakes respond to the heated tail. "It was the first example of infrared communication in the animal world…."
"If you want to learn how badly your public lands are managed, just look at the wild horse program," says Leigh, who has closely followed and challenged the roundups for two years. "It's not working at all." This is one thing on which wild horse advocates and ranchers can agree. [Photo series from Hughes Ranch, Bartlesville]
The primate went to investigate the equipment before becoming fascinated with his own reflection in the lens. And it wasn't long before the crested black macaque hijacked the camera and started snapping away sending award-winning photographer David Slater bananas. ... "The sound got his attention and he kept pressing it. At first it scared the rest of them away but they soon came back - it was amazing to watch. "He must have taken hundreds of pictures by the time I got my camera back, but not very many were in focus. He obviously hadn't worked that out yet.
Last Saturday, one of Wendy Bordeleau's two cows got loose from her 30-acre farm. About a dozen people were trying to coral 800-pound Houdini across busy Mammoth Road when police showed up with their tasers. "They said 'We're going to tase her, we're going to taser it,' and the group was pleading with them. Everyone was kinda yelling, 'Please don't taser the cow, it's only going to make it worse...." zapped at least four times. "It didn't really affect the cow all that much. It kind of realized that something had hit it and that it was comparable to a bee sting."
Two liger cubs - a cross between a male lion and a female tiger - are being nursed by a dog at a zoo in Weihai, eastern China.
"The calf came out - heads first - and my wife fell to the floor when she saw the two heads and four eyes." ... The calf's two heads point in almost opposite directions. Both heads have their own eyes, nose and mouth but only three ears between them. Dong said the two-headed calf can't stand unaided so his 16-year-old granddaughter Jinfeg is bottle-feeding it with sheep milk.
The appearance of "naked" penguins -- afflicted with what is known as feather-loss disorder -- in penguin colonies on both sides of the South Atlantic in recent years has scientists puzzled as to what could be causing the condition.
The Bronx Zoo's venomous cobra was found on Thursday just about 200 feet from its cage to the relief of neighbors but the likely disappointment of those following lighthearted tweets from @BronxZoosCobra -- a Twitter feed created a few days after the snake's disappearance.
A 20-inch cobra slithered out of its cage in the onx Zoo Saturday, forcing the exhibit to close while workers searched for the venomous serpent, officials said.
CAPROCK CANYONS STATE PARK, Texas — Six years ago, inbreeding threatened to destroy the last herd of southern Plains bison. Only 53 were left, and breeders were having trouble getting females to carry their calves to term. Tests showed that unless something was done to increase the diversity of genes in the historic herd, all the animals would be gone within 50 years.
Taira responded to reports that a finless porpoise had been spotted in a flooded rice paddy near Sendai, over a mile from the ocean. The 3-foot long animal had apparently been stranded there by the tsunami's massive wave. Taira located the animal, lifting it out of the water with just his arms. The porpoise was covered in wet towels, taken to the beach using a makeshift rig and then released back into the sea.
...700 feet up [picture!]
A lion that escaped from its cage in a China zoo went for a swim in a local river.
A FROG that constantly changes colour is being worshipped as a GOD in India.... "My one problem is that this frog does not appear to eat. I keep trying to feed it but it doesn't eat anything. I don't know what else to give it...."
Birds rapidly learn to identify people who have previously threatened their nests and sounded alarms and even attacked those folks, while ignoring others nearby, researchers report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
About 3,000 of the migratory bird have settled in a two-acre area near a grocery store, restaurants and medical facilities... protected under the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act..
The half-sized cows barely reached Kenny's waist. The ranch's border collie stared eye-to-eye with wandering calves. "Aren't they sweet?"
The coconut crab (Birgus latro) is a type of land hermit crab with a spectacular appearance and intriguing biology. Able to grow to relatively gigantic proportions, the coconut crab is probably the largest terrestrial arthropod in the world. Indeed, Charles Darwin described the coconut crab as "monstruous" when he encountered it on the Keeling Islands during the voyage of the Beagle
The coconut crab, Birgus latro, is the largest land-living arthropod in the world, and is probably at the upper size limit of terrestrial animals with exoskeletons in today's atmosphere. It is also known as the robber crab or palm thief, because some coconut crabs are rumored to steal shiny items such as pots and silverware from houses and tents.
Periodical cicadas, insects best known for their 17-year long life cycle, are emerging four years early in several Atlantic states
The notion that a decline in pollinators may threaten the human food supply — producing a situation that has been referred to as a "pollination crisis" — can be considered a myth, at least where honey bees are concerned....
sometimes the delicate balance is tipped toward one partner or the other. ... When Nodosa begins to flower, the ants attack the buds, lopping them off before they get a chance to spread seeds. The ant, in effect, sterilizes its gracious host. Ingrates....
able to send half of their brains to sleep while the other half remains conscious. What is more, the mammals seem to be able to remain continually vigilant for sounds for days on end.... when the team checked the dolphins' blood for physical signs of sleep deprivation, they couldn't find any. After 5 days of unbroken vigilance the dolphins were in much better shape than the scientists.
After studying a cockatoo that grooves to the Backstreet Boys and about 1,000 YouTube videos, scientists say they've documented for the first time that some animals "dance" to a musical beat.
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