Perfume-Loving Lions and Record-Breaking Cheetahs

Two interesting pieces of feline-news for you today!  The first actually takes place at the Denver Zoo!

13 year old male lion named Krueger seems to really like "Obsession," by Calvin Klein!  Apparently, if the perfume (or is it cologne?  Man-fume?) is sprayed inside of his enclosure, he goes to the same spot and "rubs his cheek on it."  When you actually think about it, it totally makes sense.  Perfumes and colognes are supposed to attract people due to pheromones inside of them.  Animals also use pheromones, mostly to communicate.

Has a cat ever done this to you?  Scent glands in the cheeks of cats (as well as in their paws) contain pheromones, used in communication.  Each cat has a unique scent, and it rubs off when they rub into things like this.  So when your cat greets you, it is partly due to affection, and also partly due to the fact that they are really marking you as their territory.  At least they aren't peeing on you!  So this explains why Krueger would rub his cheeks against the spots of Obsession sprayed around his enclosure.

Interestingly, the lions seem to enjoy Obsession more than other perfumes, and not all of the lions were attracted to it: only half of them were, in fact!  Emily Insalaco, an employee at the Denver Zoo, thinks that the lions like this particular cologne more than others due to the presence of cinnamon, which the lions have seemed partial to in the past.  If you want to see a video containing more information, click below.

http://www.9news.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=146948&catid=188


Next up is Sarah the cheetah, one speedy demon from the Cincinnati Zoo in Cincinnati, Ohio!  Multiple times has this amazing cat beaten the world record for the 100 meter dash, and once even twice in the same day!  The first link below is from Sarah's first world record break, where she broke the world record twice in one day in 2009.  The second clip below is from more recently, when Sarah yet again beat the record, in June of 2012. 


http://www.thetravelalmanac.com/lists/videos/animals-speed.htm

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/08/120802-cheetah-sarah-cincinnati-zoo-fastest-record-science-usain-bolt-olympics/

Spring Valley on Dwellable

Fun Fact, A Look Ahead 8/18/2012

First off, I have to apologize for getting behind a bit, I have been a bit busy!  I have pushed back (or is it forward?) the promised posts from the last couple of days, so here is today's "A Look Ahead," with what I think is the most interesting "Fun Fact" yet!

Sunday:  Perfume-Loving Lions and Record-Breaking Cheetahs - Lions from the Denver Zoo fawn over the men's perfume "Obsession," while Sarah the cheetah become the world's fastest animal!

Monday:   The Sounds of Star Wars - Chewbacca may look like a bear, but was he voiced by one, too?

Tuesday:  The Salton Sea - Learn about how just a few people in southern California were able to severely alter their natural surroundings.

Wednesday: Learning Latin Roots - Common roots in scientific names in animals, as well as a few interesting and humorous ones!

Thursday:  Fossil Penguins:  Aptenodytes ridgeni and Pygoscelis tyreei - Finding out about more fossil penguins, these closely related to some alive today!

Friday: Animal Spotlight:  The Aye-aye - One of my favorite animals, the aye-aye, is featured in this "Animal Spotlight."

Saturday: The Loch Ness Monster....Fact or Fiction? - Spoiler Alert:  It's Fiction

Fun Fact:  If America didn't attack Japan with atomic bombs in World War II, the Japanese might have come under siege by bat.

Although I originally thought this to be a hoax, it certainly appears as if this is real.  I have found information on it on multiple sources.  And it is actually a brilliant plan too!  Here is what happened:

 On December 7th, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, bringing the United States into World War II.  When Pennsylvanian dentist Lytle S. Adams heard the news on the radio, he thought back to his trip to New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns, and their extensive bat population.  He then thought up his idea for the "bat bomb:" strapping small, incendiary devices to thousands, perhaps millions, of bats, and releasing them over a strategic city in Japan.  The bats, as they would anywhere else in the world, would try to find cover in buildings, trees, and whatever nooks and crannies they could find before daybreak.  Then they would ignite the incendiary devices.  "Think of thousands of fires breaking out simultaneously over a circle of forty miles in diameter for every bomb dropped," he said.  Luckily for Adams, he knew Eleanor Roosevelt, and contacted her with his idea.  The White House actually liked it.  Said a Presidential memorandum: "This man is not a nut. It sounds like a perfectly wild idea but is worth looking into."  

Now, animal rights activists, beware.  Obviously, this plan is not very kind to the animals, and involves all sorts of animal cruelty.  To get the bats shipped, they forced them into a hibernation by sticking them into ice cube trays.  Next, the bats would be loaded into what essentially looked like a bomb-shell, consisting of 26 trays, with each of the trays containing compartments that would hold 40 bats.  Dropped from 5,000 feet, parachutes would deploy at 1,000 feet, all while the bats were awakening from their hibernation.  They would then fly off and roost, and then set the city on fire when the time was right.
Bats were the ideal creatures for this project, too.  They are nocturnal, so the Japanese would be hard-pressed to figure out what was going on.  They occur in simply massive numbers, so obtaining a great deal of them would not be super problematic.  In many caves, bats occur in the millions.  Furthermore, when bats are hibernating, they require no food, and therefore need little care when it comes to cleaning up little messes.  And finally, and perhaps most importantly, bats can carry more than what they weigh in flight, making them the perfect candidates for carrying bombs.  

The plan was to send 10 B-24 bombers, each with around 100 shells chock-full of bats, would fly from Alaska, and release around 1,040,000 bats over the cities of Osaka Bay, such as Osaka, Amagasaki, Hannan, Kobe, Sakai, and Nishinomiya.  However, the weapon experienced a few changes of hand, most notably to the hands of the Navy in August 1943, following an incident near Carlsbad, New Mexico, where bats were accidentally released.  They roosted under a fuel tank, and set fire to Carlsbad Army Airfield Auxiliary Air Base.

The project was ultimately canned in 1944, when it was learned that the bat-bomb project would likely not be operational until about halfway through 1945.  It seems likely that the atomic bomb is what caused the projects termination, even after an estimated $2 million was spent on it.  But who knows?  Perhaps this is REALLY what is going on at Area 51.

Shrinky Dink: The Channel Island Fox and The Island Effect

If you (as a species) get trapped on an island, there is really one of three things that can happen.  The first thing, which seems to be like it would be the most common of the three things, is that you and your species would go extinct on the island.  Perhaps your species still survives on the mainland, but the island group has died off.  The second, and second most likely to happen (in my opinion) is you and your species, over many generations, shrink, to match the food supply.  If there is a limited supply of food, then the smallest of your species, not the largest, are much more likely to survive.  And the third happenstance is that you and your species grow in size over many generations.  Say you and your species are rats.  On the mainland, you are preyed upon by dogs, foxes, coyotes, cats, and the like.  When you and other of your rat buddies became trapped on the island, there was an abundnace of food there, but no predators to prevent you from growing bigger.  So grow you did.  We will talk about a very interesting occurrence of this later on. This shrinking and growing, called "Foster's Rule," is often simply known as "The Island Rule."

For now, however, we are going to focus on the more common of the two, and the more interesting (both in my opinion); island dwarfism.  This has occurred many, many times throughout history, and even to humans!  However, today we are going to look at one particular occurrence of this dwarfism.  The Channel Island fox of the Channel Islands off of the coast of California.

Scientists believed that the ancestors of these foxes "rafted" to the northernmost islands in the island chain sometime between 10,400 and 16,00 years ago.  These ancestors would have been the gray fox, very similar to the ones we see today.  The foxes rafted over during the last Ice Age.  This would have dramatically lowered the sea levels, and much of the water that is in today's oceans would be locked away in the ice caps at the poles, or in glaciers.

As you can see in the map below, the four islands of San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and Anacapa are all located with only shallow water separating them.  During the Ice Age, with the lower sea levels, these four islands were all one island, called Santa Rosae.  Also at this time, the distance from the mainland to the "mega-island" would be much smaller, making the crossing for these gray foxes much easier.  It has been theorized that Native Americans then brought the fox to the four southern islands, as hunting dogs, or perhaps even pets. 

The mainland gray fox.  Photo credit Zack Neher, taken at Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina.

Today, the fox only lives on six of the eight islands, with distinct sub-species on each island.  The fox still inhabits the islands of San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, San Nicolas, San Clemente, and Santa Catalina (often simply called Catalina Island), and is absent from the islands of Anacapa and Santa Barbara.  While Santa Barbara is too small to support the food needs of the fox, Anacapa has no consistent source of fresh water.  The fox is the largest on Catalina, and the smallest on Santa Cruz.  The foxes on the southern three islands all have become separate at different dates, with the foxes of San Clemente estimated as being the oldest (becoming isolated between 3,400 and 4,300 years ago).  The San Nicolas fox is next, at around 2,200 years ago.  Finally, the foxes of Catalina Island, between 800 and 3,800 years ago.

Even smaller than the mainland kit and swift foxes, the Channel Island is the smallest of all of North America's foxes.  Like many island animals, the Channel Island fox is labeled as "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN, as they don't have much territory to spread into when humans influence them.  One influence was indirect, but still devastating for the foxes.  Prior to the 1990s, the golden eagle was a rare visitor to these islands.  The bald eagle, already well established in the area, was apparently a large deterrent for the golden eagle, preventing them from settling on the island.  DDT helped to eradicate the bald eagle on the Channel Islands, and with very few bald eagles in the area, the golden eagle moved into the gap: nature abhors a vacuum!

Anyways, the golden eagle, unlike the bald eagle (who is primarily piscivorous) would, and did, hunt the Channel Island foxes; at four times the foxes size, they were most definitely a force to be reckoned with.  That, coupled with diseases brought over from the mainland by domestic dogs, such as canine distemper, have also wreaked havoc upon the fox populations.  Conservationists are currently working on a solution, and tracking the foxes with radio collars seems to be helping them learn more about the foxes, in an attempt to prepare for the future. 

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The Light Rail Coyote

There isn't much to this story, but it is quite amusing, as you can probably see in the picture below.

According to Blogger Andrew Smith, "This photo illustrates one danger of building light rail to the far-flung suburbs: unwanted riders."  What happened here?  Pretty much, in the winter of 2002,  a coyote boarded a Red Line Max train at the Portland International Airport in Portland, Oregon.  As it says in the caption in the picture below, the coyote was gypped of its ride, and was force to deboard by the wildlife specialists at the airport.

Brief tangent: why would an airport need a wildlife specialist, let alone specialists, plural?  "For situations like this" you say.  OK, but how often do these situations occur?  I don't really, know, as I am not expert, but still.  Seems a bit shady to me.

Never mind.  I just looked it up.  Here is why: BIRDSTRIKES.

Anyways, the incident also led to the band called "Sleater-Kinney" creating a song called (can you guess it?) "Light Rail Coyote."  An interesting little story, to be sure.

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A Look Ahead, Fun Fact 8/9/2012

First off, check out today's post about the coati, down below!

Here's this weeks "A Look Ahead:"

Friday:  Simba, Pumbaa, and Other Swahili Names From "The Lion King" - Learn what the names of some of your favorite characters mean!

Saturday:  The Light Rail Coyote - All about the coyote who hitched a ride on a train.

Sunday:  Guards of the Fairy Penguin - Guarding the world's smallest penguins with professional snipers! 

Monday:  Shrinky Dink: The Channel Island Fox and The Island Effect - How getting trapped on an island caused these foxes to shrink!

Tuesday:  Stupid People Stealing Turtles - What sounds better than stealing a bunch of turtles from a museum?

Wednesday:  The Sounds of Star Wars - Chewbacca may look like a bear, but was he voiced by one, too?

Thursday:  The Loch Ness Monster....Fact or Fiction? - Spoiler Alert:  It's Fiction
 

Friday:  Perfume-Loving Lions and Record-Breaking Cheetahs - Lions from the Denver Zoo fawn over the men's perfume "Obsession," while Sarah the cheetah become the world's fastest animal!

FUN FACT:   THE JACKALOPE IS REAL

A "jackalope."  Photo Credit:  Mona Kamath

 "Scoff," most of you are probably saying.  "This guy is pathetic."  Pathetic I may be, but the jackalope is, in fact, real; just not necessarily in the way you might think.  

Although the first picture is a fake (photo credit: Mona Kamath), the one above, as well as down below, are both real.  Clearly these are not antlers, but what are they?  Well, these "antlers" are actually tumors, caused by the Cottontail Rabbit Papilloma Virus (CRPV).  Many rabbits get by just fine with these growths.  In 2003, a man named Grant VanGilder (a cool last name if there ever was one) took this picture in Mankato, Minnesota, an hour or so outside of Annandale, Minnesota.  According the Mr. VanGilder (awesome), “He is still alive and kicking and is the talk of the neighborhood.”  However, if the tumors grow to big, they could effect the animal in its ability to feed or flee, which would eventually lead to its downfall.  The picture above is of a mounted cottontail rabbit, caught near Topeka, Kansas.

When early settlers would see these animals, they would most likely assume that they were a crossbreed between a deer and a rabbit.  Although most people understand this now, at the time, people also thought that the jackalope was so rare because it would only mate during lightning storms with hail, tasted like lobster, and can mimic the voices of drunk people.

So presumably, settlers, cowboys, and the like would discover these cottontails, dead or alive, and talk about them, show them around.  From this, it has been speculated, and seems most likely, that the jackalope arose.  It seems as if rabbits in Germany get this cancer as well, explaining the origin of Germany's "Wolpertinger."

More recently, people such as Ronald Reagan have used the jackalope as a way to mess with people.  The story goes that during press tours of his house in the '80s, he would show the reporters a mounted jackalope head, and tell them he had caught it himself, when, in actuality, it had been a gift from James Abdnor, a senator for South Dakota.

So next time one of your friends says "There's no such thing as a jackalope!" make sure to set the record straight.  Tell them everything that you have just learned, and they will think you are really smart.  Because you ARE smart.

Animal Spotlight: The Coati

First of all, everybody should like us on Facebook!  Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/thenaturalworld1

 And next, lets take a look at today's "Animal Spotlight:" The Coati!

The coati is a creature of many names.  Often called the Brazilian aardvark, they are also called crackoons (pronounced like "raccoon") and (my personal favorite) "snookum bears."  The coati shares much in common with the red panda, one of the Animal Spotlights from earlier in the week.  It, like the red panda, is not a bear, despite what its nicknames imply, and is also a part of the superfamily "Musteloidea." 

The coati has a plantigrade stance, much like humans, bears, and its relative, the raccoon.  Look at the picture below.  See how the squirrel has the whole portion of its foot on the ground, while the dog has only part of its foot on the ground?  If you were to walk on the balls of your feet, then you would essentially be walking with a digitigrade stance as well. 

There are four species of coati.  Two of them have been labeled as "Least Concern" by the IUCN, but two of them have not been studied enough to formulate a conclusion as to their status in the wild.  That doesn't bode well, however.  Together, they live in the North American countries of the United States (Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas), Mexico, throughout Central America, and in the South American countries of Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador, just to name a few. 

Finally, here is a link to an interesting and amusing news article talking about wild animals running around in the UK.  Enjoy! 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10365422

Top Ten: Extinct Sea Monsters (Part 5 of 5)

Our final edition of "Top Ten:  Extinct Sea Monsters!

9.  Tanystropheus - Living during the Middle Triassic Period, Tanystropheus is somewhat of a misfit amongst this group, as he is not really a sea-monster, and was, at most, a semi-aquatic animal (think otters).  Purportedly piscivorous, Tanystropheus fossils are usually found in semi-aquatic sites.  Its neck has been likened to that of the Plesiosaurs, like Elasmosaurus.  They would all use their necks to surprise a group of fish, long before the fish would be able to see the body of the reptile. Remains have been discovered throughout France, Germany, and Italy, amongst other places. 

10.  Tylosaurus - Interestingly enough, the closest living relative of the extinct mosasaurs, of which Tylosaurus is a member, are the monitor lizards, like the Komodo dragon.  Both the monitor lizards and the mosasaurs have a third eye on the top of their heads, although it just looks like a little white dot on the top of the head of the monitor lizard.  It doesn't work in the same fashion as their other eyes, however.  Look towards a light (not the sun, because apparently that can actually be harmful) and close your eyes.  You can still still some light, right?  Now, move your hand back and forth in front of your face, between your eyes and the light.  Can you see how the light changes?  You can't see anything more distinct than the fact that something moved between you and that light.  That is what the third eye of monitor lizards and mosasaurs would have been like.  Tylosaurus also inhabited the Western Interior Seaway during the Late Cretaceous.  Remains, amongst other places, have been discovered in Alabama and Kansas, amongst other places.

So that concludes our "Top Ten:  Extinct Sea Monsters" edition!  Unfortunate that we had to break it up into five parts, to be sure, but hey, that's life!

This post is part of the "Top Ten: Extinct Sea Monsters" series.  For the rest of the posts in this series, click HERE.  

Top Ten: Extinct Sea Monsters (Part 3 of 5)

 5.  Elasmosaurus - Next up on our trip across time is Elasmosaurus.  One of the largest of the Plesiosaurs ever discovered, Elasmosaurus grew up to 46 feet long, which was about half neck.  Equipped with a fairly small head, Elasmosaurus would have been incapable of going after large prey, so it would have mostly stuck with fish.  Elasmosaurus lived during the Late Cretaceous, a time when much of North America was "Beneath the Waves," under something that we call the "Western Interior Seaway."   Remains of this animal were first uncovered in Kansas, but it almost certainly swam all over the seaway, including in Colorado.

6.  Dunkleosteus - Dunkleosteus, a creature we talked about a few weeks ago in our post about the Coelacanth, is another fascinating animal.  Almost thirty-five feet in length, Dunkleosteus was a member of the Placoderms, a group of armored fish that were only around for about 50 MYA.  A long time, to be sure, but not very long compared to the 400 million year reign of the sharks.  While the Placoderms themselves lived during the Silurian and Devonian Periods, they went extinct during the transition to the Carboniferous Period, at the end of the Devonian.  Dunkleosteus fossils have been discovered in North America, Poland, Belgium, and Morocco.

 COMING UP:

7.  Archelon
8.  Leedsichthys
9.  Tanystropheus
10. Tylosaurus

This post is part of the "Top Ten: Extinct Sea Monsters" series.  For the rest of the posts in this series, click HERE.  

Top Ten: Extinct Sea Monsters (Part 1 of 5)

Since ya'll kinda get gypped on Wednesdays with the "What Is It?" challenge, I decided that, when I do do the challenge, I will also include a "Top Ten" list.  I mean, come on now, who doesn't like lists?  I know some of my friends would be absolutely and completely lost without them!  So for today's "Top Ten," we are going to take a look at some of the world's most amazing, extinct sea monsters.  This is also up for debate, so if you disagree, just give me a holler!  Also, they are not in any particular order, I just kind of threw them all in there!  So without further ado, here we go, with our "Top Ten:  Extinct Sea Monsters!"

1.  Megalodon - This gigantic relative of the extant great white shark was thought to be simply massive: perhaps even sixty feet in length!  Living the world over, Megalodon stalked the seas during the Miocene and Pliocene Epochs, and only died out during the current Pleistocene Epoch, around two million years ago.  It is thought that Megalodon evolved to such gigantic proportions in order to be able to attack the massive whales that had started to evolve in the cooler seas of the Miocene and Pliocene.  Remember now: if it's a shark, then it's a fish!

A tooth fragment from Megalodon at this excellent restaurant called The Crab Shack on Tybee Island off of the coast of Savannah, Georgia. 

2.  Basilosaurus - A massive, predatory whale (and, therefore, a mammal) that cruised the seas in the Late Eocene Epoch, 40 to 34 MYA, fossil discoveries of this massive animal were reportedly so common in the southern United States during the early 19th century, that bones of Basilosaurus would be used as furniture!  It was first discovered in Louisiana, and is the state fossil of both Mississippi and Alabama.  Basilosaurus has also been found in Egypt and Pakistan.  At around sixty feet in length, the same estimated length of Megalodon, Basilosaurus is thought to have been the biggest creature alive at the time.

COMING UP:

3.  Liopleurodon
4.  Shonisaurus
5. Elasmosaurus
6.  Dunkleosteus
7.  Archelon
8.  Leedsichthys
9.  Tanystropheus
10. Tylosaurus

This post is part of the "Top Ten: Extinct Sea Monsters" series.  For the rest of the posts in this series, click HERE. 

The Fauna of South Carolina: Cetaceans

This post was originally going to be a part of today's earlier post, previously entitled "The Fauna of South Carolina:  Cetaceans, Foxes and Otters."  However, when I tried to upload all of the pictures of the cetaceans, foxes and otters, the computer slowed to a crawl.  So I decided just to split the post into two parts, and just pretend like it was one.  So without further ado, I present to you...."The Fauna of South Carolina:  Cetaceans."

Bottlenose Dolphins at "The Inlet"

If you recall, a few weeks ago I posted about another fascinating creature that I learned about when we visited South Carolina in June, called THE BLACK SKIMMER.  We saw it hunting while we were in a small coastal inlet, which we shall henceforth refer to as "The Inlet."  Our main purpose for our visit to "The Inlet" was to see dolphins.  We had seen them last time we had gone to South Carolina at the same place, and we lucked out again.  We saw a group of at least three, but possibly four bottlenose dolphins swimming through the area.  My mom was able to snap a couple of pictures, but it was very difficult to predict where they would next surface.

Dolphin going under.  What you see in the picture is its tail.

 Although all four of these pictures of the dolphins were taken at "The Inlet," we saw dolphins a couple of other times as well; I believe I saw them on four other occasions, all while out on our friends boat.

Dolphin dorsal fin, the same fin that strikes fear into people who have seen Jaws too many times.

By far the most memorable occasion was out in Charleston Harbor.  We were just on our way back from buzzing around Fort Sumter (the starting point of the Civil War).  We had been (boating?  driving?  floating?) for a few minutes when Captain Jim stopped the boat: he had spotted dolphins.  A pod of dolphins was swimming around our boat.  None of them got closer than twenty-five or so feet, but that was still pretty close!  We knocked on the side of the boat to try to draw them closer, as dolphins are very curious, like the polar bear, but nothing doing.  They stayed nearby our boat for awhile, and they didn't seem to be hunting or anything, so my guess is that they were probably curious, but a little nervous about getting too close.  Or perhaps they were getting close, and we just couldn't see them under the water!  Or, perhaps they were just, as today's urban youth says, "Chillin'." 

Another shot of the dolphin dorsal fin

Later on, we went to an excellent restaurant called "The Crab Shack" (scroll down to the "Alligator" part of the post), and they had a small display of local fossils.  I took a picture of a few of the more interesting ones, seen below.

Dolphin vertebrae

A whale bone

These large bones help the whales to "see" via echolocation at the deeper, darker levels of the ocean, where seeing with your eyes is virtually impossible without massive eyes, like those seen in the giant squid.

On our last two nights of our vacation, we stayed at a little place called Tybee Island, near Savannah, Georgia.  On one of those days, we joined a local ecologist named Dr. Joe Richardson on an ecology tour.  It was a lot of fun, and I hope to devote a post to him and his tour later on.  Also on the island was a small museum, called the "Tybee Island Marine Science Center" (TIMSC), which was also very cool.  I know for a fact that I will have at least one post later on about an amusing incident that took place at the center, and probably mention it in passing a few times as well.  But for now, all you need to know is that they had a few bones of a sperm whale that had washed up on the beach there a few years back, I think perhaps in 2002.  Take a look below!

Sperm whale bone, I don't remember what bone this was.  If anyone has any idea, shoot me an email! 

Sperm whale ribs

Sperm whale vertebrae

Finally, on our last night there, we stopped at a small shop.  I had gone down to South Carolina in the hopes of nabbing a Megalodon tooth or two (I know you're tired of hearing this, but a later post!) but I had been foiled.  I did find a couple of really cool fossils, including other sharks teeth, a few fossils belonging to stingrays, as well as a fossilized horse molar!  A lot of what I have is unidentified at this point, but I will keep you posted as I find out more.  But I decided to buy two whale bones at this fossil shop, and below are two pictures.  The Rupee is there for comparison.

Fossil whale vertebrae

Fossil whale bone, I believe it to be a jawbone.

This post is part of "The Fauna of South Carolina" series.  For the rest of the posts in this series, click HERE.

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The Fauna of South Carolina: Cetaceans, Foxes and Otters

Here is the second in the "Fauna of South Carolina series."  Today, we are going to take a brief look at some of the cetaceans, foxes and otters that we saw while we were down there, either in the wild or in zoos.  Let's start with the otters.

River Otters ("Least Concern" by the IUCN) at Brookgreen Gardens

We saw both the otters and the foxes at Brookgreen Gardens, at their Lowcountry Zoo.  Not quite as cool as the foxes in my opinion were the river otters.  They were definitely really cool, as they were running around and playing a great deal, and we had a great view of them.  I'm not sure if I have ever seen otters playing so much, and seen it so well.  It was definitely quite a treat!  The range of the river otter is slightly weird; encompassing Oregon, Washington, and parts of California,and then extending throughout most of Alaska and Canada, and then coming down along the east coast of the United States, down to Florida, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.

Gray Fox in tree

Prior to that, we had visited the fox exhibit.  We were looking for red fox and gray fox.  If I recall correctly (which I often don't), we were having trouble seeing the gray foxes, when I noticed something moving in one of the trees.  It was the gray fox!  I had no idea that foxes climb trees!  In fact, other than the raccoon dog found in Asia, I believe not many other canids in fact do climb. 

Gray fox in tree

Gray fox in tree

Gray fox in tree

 The gray fox, like the river otter, is labeled "Least Concern" by the IUCN.  Its range stretches from most of North America, down through Mexico, Central America, and into bits of South America.  The Channel Island Fox (a very interesting animal that we will by all means talk about at some point soon) is almost certainly descended from gray fox on the mainland. 

Instead of doing the cetaceans like we previously planned today, I think we should do them some other time.  See you later!

This post is part of "The Fauna of South Carolina" series.  For the rest of the posts in this series, click HERE.

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Animals of South Dakota: Part 2

NOW.  What animals should you be watching for on your trip?  Well, I am so glad you asked!  There are going to be three main areas where you would be able to see wildlife; the Prairies (P), the Pine Forests (PF), and the Black Hills (BH).

1.  Bison - If you are lucky, you might get stuck for a few minutes as a herd of bison crosses the road in front of you!  Be careful when viewing these animals, and use common sense; don't be the stereotypical stupid tourist and get yourself trampled to death by the bison.  They are the largest living mammals in North America, and can be testy. - P, BH

2.  Mule Deer - Just like we have in Boulder.  - P, PF, BH

A pair of mule deer fawns, near my house

3.  Pronghorn - One of my favorite animals, the Pronghorn Antelope is the second fastest animal in the world, and the fastest in North America, capabable of running around 61 MPH.  Why it can do that, we will talk about next Wednesday. - P, BH

4.  Red and Gray Fox, Coyote - Just like we have in Boulder, except for the Gray Fox. - P

A picture of a gray fox, taken by me at Brookgreen Gardens in  South Carolina

5.  Turkey Vulture - Watch for these guys anywhere, but they should be especially easy to spot on the vast swathes of prairie separating you from South Dakota.  They are instantly recognizable by their "V-Shaped" wing profile, their relative lack of wing-flapping, as well as the fact that they are probably circling something in the air.  Usually groups of them will signifiy a dead animal, as they are carrion eaters. - P, PF, BH

6.  Bighorn Sheep - Just like we have in Colorado - PF, BH

7.  These are the main ones to watch for, but if you get really lucky, you might see one of the black-footed ferrets in the Badlands, or a badger in the prairies!

Animals of South Dakota: Part 1

Hypothetically, let's say that you are taking a trip up to South Dakota from where I live in Boulder, Colorado, much like my family did nine years ago, in 2003.  You might be thinking "Ew, South Dakota?  What's there to do there?"  Well, although much of the driving might be boring, there are most definitely a few cool places to stop, as well as cool animals to watch for on the way!  Let's start with the sites.

1. The Mammoth Site - This is one of my all time favorite Ice Age sites, about 40 minutes south of Custer.  According to their website, "To date 60 mammoths (57 Columbian and 3 woolly) have been discovered as well as 85 other species of animals, plants, and several unidentified insects."  This place is very interesting, and not just to those of my ilk.  Most recently, they have added a replica of the frozen baby mammoth discovered in Siberia named "Lyuba." - http://www.mammothsite.com/
   

   

   My sister and I standing next to a Columbian Mammoth cutout at The Mammoth Site

Part of The Mammoth Site

2.  Badlands Petrified Garden - I do not remember if we went to this place, but it definitely looks cool.  It is right around the Badlands National Park.  - http://www.badlandspetrifiedgardens.com/

3.  Reptile Gardens - On the way to the Badlands National Park in Rapid City, we have the awesome Reptile Gardens, which I know for a fact that I have been to as we have pictures of my sister and I next to a couple of massive tortoises.  However, our scanner stopped working, so all I have is this picture of a guy pulling a Steve Irwin-like stunt.  Definitely worth the admission price. - http://www.reptilegardens.com/

4.  Bear Country USA - Also on the way to the Badlands National Park, and just a bit farther than the Reptile Gardens, and also in Rapid City, is Bear Country USA.  I have not been there, but my parents have in I believe 1991.  They said that it is a really cool place, where (surprise surprise) you get to see a bunch of bears.  So that should be exciting! - http://www.bearcountryusa.com/

Custer on Dwellable

Animal Spotlight: The Capybara

Today, we are going to investigate the capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris).  Listed as "Least Concern" by the IUCN, both parts of its scientific name, hydrochoerus and hydrochaeris mean the same thing.  As you probably noticed, they both contain the Greek root "hydro," which, as you probably know, means "water."  The second half would be forgivable if you were unfamiliar with it: it means hog, or pig.  So, from its scientific name, we can assume that the capybara is a water pig.

Again, it would be understandable if you were to think that, as the capybara most definitely resembles a pig, at least superficially.  However, the capybara is not pig: instead, it is a rodent, related to creatures such as chinchillas.  As a matter of fact, the capybara is the world's largest extant rodent! 

Semi-aquatic, the capybara has evolved webbed feet, like many other semi-aquatic animals, like the POLAR BEAR.  An herbivore, the capybara must face attacks from many predatory animals, including the caiman (a relative of a crocodile), eagles, ocelot, puma/mountain lion, jaguar, and the anaconda, for who the capybara is its favorite meal.  The capybara generally travels in herds of around ten or twenty, but groups of up to one hundred have been seen before.

Capybara are fairly common zoo animals, and, when they escape into the wild, if they can find a semi-aquatic habitat that they like, they can often survive and thrive.  Sightings are common throughout Florida, and there have been sightings in California as well. 

When it isn't an escaped convict of the zoo, the capybara lives throughout most of mainland South America (thus excluding Trinidad and Tobago), except for the country of Chile.  These countries are Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guyana, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia.

Not enough capybara for you?  Well just check out these two amusing video clips below!  The first one shows a capybara with a case of the hiccups at the Bristol Zoo in England (UK), while the one below shows squirrel monkeys riding capybaras at the Saitama Zoo in Saitama, Japan.

The Hiccuping Capybara

Squirrel Monkeys Riding Capybaras


Finally, here are a pair of pictures that I took of one of the capybaras at the San Antonio Zoo in Texas.  Enjoy!

One of the capybaras sleeping at the San Antonio Zoo in Texas.

One of the capybaras sleeping at the San Antonio Zoo in Texas.

Animal Spotlight: The Polar Bear

The polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is the world's largest extant, terrestrial carnivore, with males growing up to 1,500 pounds.  Like many animals that spend a good amount of time in the water, their feet are partially webbed to aid in swimming.  Although the fur of the polar bear is white, to help it blend into the ice and snow when it is hunting seals, its skin underneath is black, to aid in heat absorption.

In the picture above, it certainly looks like the polar bear is just enjoying itself, and having a good time.  While both of these may be true, the polar bear is actually cleaning its fur, presumably after a kill, given the blood-stained snow off in the left of the picture.  Below the picture is a link to a video clip from BBC's "Planet Earth," narrated by one of my personal heroes, David Attenborough.  In the video, make sure to watch for the fur cleaning.

This is the link to the Planet Earth link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwZH_aT0FGI

The polar bear, due to its immense size and lack of natural predators, fears nothing, humans included.  This, coupled with a natural, and insatiable, curiosity, often brings bears and humans into contact.  The video clip below is from another BBC show, called "Polar Bear: Spy on the Ice."  I first saw this show when we were in South Carolina this summer, and found it really interesting!  This clip is one of my favorite parts from it.

Polar Bears Attacking Spy Cameras:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvduCPXO_FE

Finally, we have another interesting YouTube video that I discovered today.  Watch and enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE-Nyt4Bmi8

The polar bear's range covers five different countries: Russia, Denmark owned Greenland, Norway owned Svalbard, Alaska, and Canada.

The Fox's Animal Magnetism

For a while now, it has been thought that birds could see the magnetic field, in order to help them migrate.  It has been hypothesized that, when they are facing north, they can see a little blurry patch at the bottom of their eye.  If they are facing east or west, then they can't see the patch, so they know where to put the patch in their field of vision to get where they want to go.  Recent research by a Czech team of scientists seems to indicate that the red fox can also use the magnetic field, but for a different purpose: hunting.

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) ("Least Concern" by the IUCN) has the largest geographical distribution of any member of the Carnivora, with habitat on all of the continents except for South America and Antarctica.  In North America, it inhabits the United States and Canada, in Europe and Asia it lives almost everywhere, and in Africa it lives in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, and Libya.  Not only does it possesses the range shown in the map below, it has been introduced to Australia, where, like the Dingo, it poses a threat to native species.

The red fox hunts by leaping up into the air, and coming down right on top of its prey, literally (for the prey, at least) appearing out of nowhere.  But how to pinpoint its jump?  The answer lies in the magnetic field, which is visible to the foxes.  But how does this work?  Out of all of the explanations set forth by various journals and such, I thought the explanation from Nature was easiest to understand.  Here's what they have to say:

"Think of a laser pointer attached to you that always points slightly downwards in the same direction. Now think of some object on the ground. If you walk towards the object until the laser spot is on top of it you know that object is a set distance away."

Generally, it was thought that foxes would pinpoint their location solely using their very acute sense of hearing.  But then the Czech team found that, when the red fox was leaping in a northerly direction, 74% of the attacks were successful, while the leaping attacks in other directions had the success rate of a mere 18%.  That's a very big difference, and seems to point to the magnetic field theory.

A picture of the red fox outside of the house that our friends the Beckleys rented in Breckenridge one summer.  Awesome place to stay, especially if you are looking to escape the summer heat!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

East Breckenridge on Dwellable