zoology

tags: mammals, dragonflies, black rhinocerus, Diceros bicornis, Image of the Day This newborn black rhinoceros, Diceros bicornis, at a safari park in Tel Aviv is the first to have been born in captivity in Israel in 15 years. Image: AP.
tags: parrot, lories, lorikeet, loriinae, loriidae, Rimatara lorikeet, Kuhl's lory, Vini kuhlii, conservation, ornithology, South Pacific Islands Back from the brink: The endangered Rimatara lorikeet or Kuhl's lory, Vini kuhlii, has been successfully reintroduced to Ätiu. Image: Phil Bender. As I've mentioned a few times already, my life's passion is the birds of the South Pacific, particularly the Loriinae, which are parrots commonly known as the lories and lorikeets. I study them professionally and I have lived with them and bred them for most of my life. So it was exciting to me when I…
tags: lepidoptera, moths, Melanchroia chephise, White-Tipped Black Geometrid, Image of the Day White-Tipped Black Geometrid, Melanchroia chephise, Houston, Texas. A diurnal moth, this one was photographed on the Katy Prairie NABA Butterfly Count about 30 miles NW of downtown Houston, Texas, on September 3, 2007. Image: Biosparite [larger view]. This is a White-tipped Black Geometrid, Melanchroia chephise, although it resembles some of the wasp mimics in the Tiger Moth Family. [read more about it]
tags: researchblogging.org, Seychelles warbler, Acrocephalus sechellensis, birds, evolution, social behavior, helping behavior, grandmothers Seychelles warbler, Acrocephalus sechellensis. Image: J. Komdeur. When talking about evolution, some people have wondered aloud about why grandmothers exist in human society since they clearly are no longer able to reproduce. However, these people are conveniently overlooking the fact that grandmothers perform a valuable service; they help their relatives, often their own children, raise their offspring -- offspring that are genetically related to…
tags: hymenoptera, bees, Augochlora species, Metallic Green Native Bee, Image of the Day Metallic Green Native Bee, Augochlora species. This tiny and very fast-moving, alert bee is hard to photograph. I found it nectaring on Eupatorium serotinum, a/k/a late-flowering boneset, in the West 11th Street Park in the Heights section of Houston, Texas, on September 23, 2007. Image: Biosparite [larger view]. The Green Metallic Bee in the genus Augochlora, in the Halictid Family. According to the Audubon Guide: the "Female digs nest of many branching burrows in dead wood or uses pre-existing…
tags: odonata, dragonflies, wandering glider, Pantala flavescens, Image of the Day Wandering glider, Pantala flavescens. Houston, Texas. Image: Biosparite [wallpaper size].
tags: researchblogging.org, velociraptor, Dromaeosauridae, dinosaur, feathers, paleontology, evolution Velociraptor skull. Velociraptors were small dinosaurs, weighing only about 15kg and approximnately 1.5m long. Image: M. Elison, AMNH. [larger view] According to a research paper that was published late last week, the Velociraptor probably had feathers. A closer look at a fossil Velociraptor ulna (forearm) that was found in Mongolia in 1998 revealed a series of small bumps along its length. These bumps are known as "quill knobs" because they are found in most modern birds where they…
tags: spider, giant spider web,arachnid, social behavior Lake Tawokoni State Park rangers (l-r) Mike McCord and Freddie Gowin continue to monitor a giant communal spider web at the park Tuesday, August 29, 2007. Officials at Lake Tawokoni State Park have been watching the growth of a giant communal spider web that has formed in the park over the past several weeks. The giant spider webs are rare for Texas. Image: Tom Pennington. [Scary wallpaper size] Have you heard about the spiders that spun a web that is the size of Texas? Well, actually, the web is only the size of two football…
tags: researchblogging.org, splendid fairy-wren, Malurus splendens,sexual dichromatism, evolution, behavior, promiscuity, social monogamy Male splendid fairy-wren, Malurus splendens. Image: Pete Morris (Surfbirds.com). [screensaver size] Everyone is familiar with sexual dichromatism in birds; you know, the gorgeous, colorful male who is paired with the drab female or two. It has been observed in birds that, when males and females differ dramatically in appearance, the females are preferentially mating with a few "pretty boys"; those that have elaborate plumage colors or ornamentation. As…
tags: vervet monkey, Cercopithecus aethiops, sexual harassment, Nachu, Kenya, behavior, interspecies communication A young vervet monkey, Chlorocebus pygerythrus. Image: shashamane. If you live in the small village of Nachu in Kenya, watch out, because a group of approximately 300 marauding monkeys is out to steal your food, sexually harass your women and attack and kill your livestock! In a truly amazing incidence of interspecies communication, a group of vervet monkeys, Chlorocebus pygerythrus, is using sexual harassment to intimidate women and children, who are responsible for growing…
tags: researchblogging.org, evolution, social behavior, cooperative breeding, environment, global warming, climate change, African starlings, birds Superb starling, Lamprotornis superbus, a cooperative breeding savanna dweller that is abundant throughout northeast Africa. Image: Dustin R. Rubenstein [larger] Postponing one's own reproductive efforts to help other individuals raise their offspring might seem like a bad choice, evolutionarily speaking. But cooperative breeding, as this behavior is known, is fairly common in the animal kingdom, although the reasons underlying the evolution of…
tags: researchblogging.org, evolution, squirrels, rattlesnakes, tail-flagging, behavior, biology A mother squirrel rapidly waves her tail to warn off a rattlesnake in a confrontation staged by researchers in May 1987. Adult squirrels are immune to rattlesnake venom, but their offspring are vulnerable. New infrared research found that heat from the mother's tail sends an alarming signal to the slithery predators. Image: Donald H. Owings, UC Davis. Researchers have long been mystified by the defensive behaviors exhibited by California ground squirrels, Spermophilus beecheyi, when they are…
tags: birds, ornithology, swallows A proud swallow parent and her nestlings. Image: Barry Gomer. Every spring, a group of swallows complete a 6,000-mile migratory journey from South Africa, where they spend the winter, so they can nest in Vivien Reynolds' barn, located in South Hams, Devon, UK. Shortly after arriving each April, the birds build their nests from mud and twigs, just as you see above. However, what makes the above nest remarkable is where the swallows chose to build it. It turns out that this determined pair of swallows actually built their nest on top of a plastic eagle owl…
tags: researchblogging.org, white-crowned sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys, steroids, brain growth White-crowned sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys [song and other information]. Image: Birds of Oklahoma. The first thing that most people think of when they hear the word "steroids" is baseball players who rely on these chemicals to increase their muscle mass and thereby improve their athletic performance. But recently, a small songbird that I studied for my dissertation work, Gambel's white-crowned sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii, has shown scientists that steroids trigger the growth of…
tags: AOU, American Ornithologists' Union, ornithology, checklist supplement The new AOU checklist update has been published and is available as a free PDF. The only major split that is obvious to a quick inspection is that the Bean Goose is now split into two species.
tags: albino dolphin, mammals, zoology Image: Captain Erik Rue. Captain Erik Rue of Calcasieu Charter Service, located south of Lake Charles, Louisiana, has discovered himself to be a sudden celebrity because he took photographs of a pink dolphin recently. Rue and a boatload of guests saw the young dolphin on a charter trip on June 24. El capitan Erik Rue se ha hecho famoso por haber captado unas fotografias de un delfin albino ( Rosa ) en Louisiana. Rue published images of the pink dolphin on his website. In a telephone interview last week, Rue said he has seen the extraordinary dolphin…
tags: recurve-billed bushbird, Clytoctantes alixii, ornithology, birds, avian, endangered species Female Recurve-billed Bushbird, Clytoctantes alixii. More images below the fold. Image: Chris Sharpe 2004 [larger]. [listen to this species' song] Chris Sharpe emailed me this following statement about the Recurve-billed Bushbird rediscovery, which I quote in full. I also present Chris's original 2004 images here, although some of the images will re-appear on this site soon (one will be the featured image for the next issue of Birds in the News, for example). The Recurve-billed Bushbird,…
tags: coelacanth, Latimeria chalumnae, fish, living fossil, Indonesia Indonesian coelacanth, Latimeria menadoensis, and Arnaz Mehta Erdmann, at about a 50 foot depth -- this is to give you an idea of the fish's size. Image: Mark V. Erdmann, July 1998 (Smithsonian Institute [larger]). This past Saturday, a rare living fossil, the coelacanth, Latimeria chalumnae, was captured by fishhermen off the shores of Zanzibar. Zanzibar is an island archipelago comprised of numerous small islands and two large ones located 25-50 km off the coast of East Africa in the Indian Ocean. The coelacanth (…
A male Blue Moon or Great Eggfly butterfly, Hypolimnas bolina. A butterfly-killing bacteria that is only lethal to males has given rise to skewed sex ratios in populations of this species on two islands in the South Pacific, but researchers have found that male butterflies on one island have bounced back, thanks to the rise of a suppressor gene. [larger]. In a dramatic demonstration of how quickly evolution can occur, a butterfly species that is found on two adjacent islands in the South Pacific Ocean has rapidly evolved genetic defenses against a bacterial parasite that is lethal only…
tags: Attenborough's long-beaked echidna, Zaglossus attenboroughi, monotreme, endangered animals, New Guinea, Irian Jaya, Cyclops mountain range Attenborough's long-beaked echidna, Zaglossus attenboroughi, the only specimen known to exist in museum collections. Prepared as a shmoo (a flat skin lacking most bones). Image: Natural Museum of Natural History in the Netherlands (NMNH) [larger] In May of this year, a team of experts from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) went on a one-month preliminary research expedition to the Cyclops mountain range in Papua on the island of New Guinea.…