23-Fact Tuesday: Strange Evolution of the Wild Pacific

So the other day, I enjoyed a Discovery/BBC program entitled "Wild Pacific," all about animals and humans in the Pacific.  This episode was entitled "Strange Evolution," and boy, were some of these guys strange!  Let's take a 23-Fact Tuesday look at some of these bizarre creatures!  Allons-y!

1.  The dingiso, a bear-faced, dog-sized tree kangaroo native to the rainforests of New Guinea, only became known to science in 1994, showing that there are still many, many fascinating natural phenomenon that have yet to be discovered by humans!

2.  Prior to the arrival of humans on Hawaii, it has been estimated that only one new species of animal or plant washed up on the shores every 35,000 years!

3.  With few terrestrial predators on the islands of New Zealand, the Fiordland crested penguin has moved from nesting along the shore to nesting within forests, moving along freshwater streams to reach their nests!

4.   The young of the Fiordland crested penguin are, of course, born in the forests.  They don't actually see the ocean (although the nests are usually close enough to hear and smell it) until they are about three months old, at which time they embark on their very first fishing trip: alone!

5.  On the island of Santa Catalina in the South Pacific, local fisherman fish in a simply fascinating fashion: they actually use spider webs from the golden orb spider that are reportedly as strong as kevlar to capture fish whose mouths are too narrow for conventional fishhooks!  Click on the link HERE to watch a short and fascinating video about this!

6.  Prior to human colonization of New Zealand, the only mammals that made it to its shores were bats and marine mammals.

7.  With so few terrestrial predators, one bat, the short-tailed bat, actually spends much of its time on the ground, foraging through the leaf litter, searching for the flightless weta, a relative of the locust.  In order to prevent damage to their delicate wing membranes, the short-tailed bat has developed special sheaths on its wings.  Interestingly, this terrestrial foraging behavior is probably very similar to how the bat's mouse-like ancestors behaved.

8.  The flightless kakapo is the world's largest parrot, and has developed sensitive whiskers on its face in order to help it navigate its way through the dark.  It's nocturnal behavior, as well as its size I would assume, has earned it the nickname "the owl parrot."

9.  The favorite food of the kakapo are the tiny seeds of the rimu tree and, since the bird is flightless, it has developed strong claws to help it climb up into the trees to reach the seeds.  Interestingly, the kakapo only breeds when the trees produce a "bumper crop," which is only about once every four years or so.

10.  Due to this odd cycle of breeding of the kakapo, the bird reproduces less often than almost any other bird.  By contrast, however, it lives longer than most others, sometimes up to 60 years!

11.  During breeding season, the male kakapo makes a "booming" sound to attract a female.  The male booms nonstop each night for 8 hours a night for up to three nights, resulting in thousands of booms.  The wind can carry the booms for up to three miles!  The female, of course, only responds to the males booms if the rimu seeds are plentiful.  Click HERE to check out some footage of the kakapo booming.

12.  LAST KAKAPO FACT, I PROMISE!!  The kakapo was almost hunted to extinction by humans for food and feathers, but they are making a human-assisted comeback now, climbing from only 51 individuals in 1995 to 91 individuals today!  (Possibly more, as I believe the television program is a year or two old or so.)

13.  The Australian brushtail possum was imported by colonists for fur to New Zealand over two centuries ago.  With no natural predators, however, it has spread like a plague, stripping trees of their vegetation.  About 70 million of them are estimated to inhabit the forests now.  That's like 350,000 a year, not including the ones that died.  Holy.  Cow.

14.  Introduced species can cause terrible problems to insular (island) ecosystems.  One of the most extreme examples is thought to be Easter Island, where it has been hypothesized that rats were what did in the colony.

15. For nearly 100 million years, the tuatara and its ancestors have remained almost entirely the same.  During the time of the dinosaurs, the tuatara's ancestors were very numerous, but following their extinction 65.5 MYA, they just couldn't compete, and were slowly extirpated across the globe.  Except in New Zealand, where they still reside today!  Incredibly, the tuatara sometimes can go an entire hour with only one breath!

16.  60 MYA, what is now the island of New Caledonia broke off from Australia, and is now 800 miles from the mainland.  This has allowed its native fauna to evolve in new and fantastic ways: such as the flightless, chicken-sized kagu, the only extant member of an ancient lineage.  HERE we have a fantastic video of this ridiculous bird!

17.  The monkey-tailed skink is the largest skink in the world, and is native to the Solomon Islands, an archipelago of nearly 1,000 tropical islands).  The monkey-tailed skink grows to around 3 ft. in length and weighs around 2 lbs., which is about 1,000 times heavier than the world's smallest skink.

18.  The monkey-tailed skink is an oddity amongst skinks.  Not only is it the largest skink in the world (as we mentioned above), it is also the only skink in the world to have a prehensile tail, which it uses to grasp branches while climbing in trees, assisted by its thick, sharp claws.   This is also an oddity, as most skins are terrestrial (meaning they live on the ground), as opposed to arboreal (which means that they live in the trees).  Furthermore, most skinks are insectivores, while the monkey-tailed skink is mostly vegetarian, consuming the leaves in the trees.

19.  The New Zealand kea, named for its call and native to the southern Alps, is considered to be one of the most intelligent and playful birds in the world.  As a matter of fact, some keas will damage cars out of curiosity!

20.  Up to thirty non-native species arrive on Hawaii every year due to humans, such as the Jackson's chameleon, native to east Africa, which was imported in the 1970s to Hawaii as an exotic pet.

21.  Another biological organism introduced by humans to Hawaii was sugarcane.  Like most places that humans visited, however, they also accidentally introduced rats.  And the rats ate the sugarcane.  Well, the humans who were trying to make a profit off of the sugarcane didn't like that, not one bit.  So, in the hopes of extirpating the rat population, the humans introduced the Indian mongoose.  However, what the humans failed to take into account was the fact that the Indian mongoose is diurnal, or lives during the day....while the rats are nocturnal, and move around at night.  So instead of eating the rats, the Indian mongoose eats the native birds.  Hawaii: 0.  Human Stupidity: A whole lot more than it should be.

22.  The ancestors of the I'iwi, a long billed honeycreeper endemic to Hawaii, were blown to Hawaii about 4 MYA, and looked very different from what they looked like today.  It is thought that they looked something like the Palila, a short billed finch that uses its tough beak to tear open tough seed pods.

23.  The last fact isn't from the program.  It's from "The Song of the Dodo" by David Quammen, one of my favorite books of all time.  It's a quote: "Islands are where species go to die."  He means that islands can be very dangerous places for animals to live.  But now with all the messes humans have introduced, that effect has been exasperated.  Just something to think about.

Guards of the Fairy Penguin

In the summer of 2009, a number of brutal attacks in Sydney, Australia left nine victims dead.  According to BBC, “the mutilated bodies...were found in a national park near Sydney harbour.”  Autopsies performed on the bodies reveal that the murderers were most likely foxes, although dogs remain a definite suspect.

A picture of the red fox outside of the house in Breckenridge, Colorado, that our friends the Beckleys rented one summer.  It's an awesome place to stay, I tell you what!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

There is more to this story than has been revealed thus far.  The nine victims were not humans; instead, they were korora, or little blue penguins, also often called fairy penguins. You would be excused for thinking that the victims were, in fact, humans, especially once you learned the whole story.

In an interview with BBC, Sally Barnes of the New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service detailed what the group has been doing to protect the penguins from the dogs and foxes.  As well as raising public awareness, the NPWS has been baiting and trapping the predators, and “As a last resort, we’ve also had shooters out.” 

In this case, shooters means snipers.  That’s right; the Parks and Wildlife Service deployed two professional sharpshooters in order to ensure the safety of these penguins.  Armed with night-vision goggles, rifles, and orders to shoot to kill, these may be the most extreme methods used to protect penguins ever employed. 

The penguins are being further protected by vigilantes from the Manly Environment Centre, vowing that they will do “whatever it takes” to protect the penguins, and planning on assisting the snipers in keeping a sharp eye on the birds 24/7. 

Why is this colony such a big deal?  The kororaa is labeled as “Least Concern” by the IUCN.  Well that may be true for the total population of korora, but this colony is falling by the wayside.  As you can see in the map, the area where the colony is located is quite busy, and not ideal penguin habitat.  However, these penguins cannot be relocated; like many birds, they always return to where they themselves were raised to come ashore and raise their own chicks.  The people of Sydney also take pride in their colony of korora’s, as it is the sole population located in New South Wales.  The people at the Manly Environment Centre report that their efforts are, by and large, successful, and the korora’s numbers are on the rise.

Sydney on Dwellable

Simba, Pumbaa, and Other Swahili Names From "The Lion King"

Recently I decided to learn a bit of Swahili, and I have stumbled across a few things that I thought were quite interesting!  For instance, did you know that "Safari" meant "Trip" in Swahili?  I certainly didn't!  And the old movie entitled "Hatari!" actually means "Danger!" in Swahili!  Who knew! 

As I continued to learn more, I came across something else interesting.  As I was learning the animal names, I found that "Duma" meant "Cheetah," which excited me, as one of the main cheetah stars from BBC's "Big Cat Diary," one of the later seasons, is named Duma.  Next, I found out that "Chui" meant "Leopard...." and guess what?  There was a leopard named Chui, too!

Then, I found that "Simba" meant "Lion."  There was, of course, a lion that went by the name of Simba, in the first season of Big Cat Diary, I believe.  I had just assumed he was named after Simba from "The Lion King," which is still a possibility, but it could really go either way.


But I think it clear where the name of "Simba" came from for the Lion King.  As a matter of fact, many of the characters have names that mean something else in other languages.  For example, Ed, the hyena, is actually short for "Edward" in English.  Below is a list of others.

1. Nala - Gift
2. Pumbaa - Simpleton
3. Rafiki - Friend
4. Sarabi - Mirage
5. Shenzi - Uncouth
6. Sarafina - Bright Star
7. Banzai - Skulk, or Lurk

The Making of Planet Earth: The Snow Leopard

It was obviously not an easy feat for BBC to get all of the footage that they needed for their fantastic television series "Planet Earth," narrated by the equally fantastic David Attenborough.  Clearly, some segments would be easier to film than others.  One of the goals of "Planet Earth" was to get as much unique, never-before-filmed events and creatures, which would clearly make things a bit more difficult.  Below are listed some of the scenes that had apparently never been seen before on television.

1. The oceanic whitetip shark.
2. A piranha feeding frenzy, being filmed while the cameraman was actually in the water.
3. Arctic wolf hunt filmed from a helicopter.
4. Starving lions attacking and killing an elephant in the dead of night.
5.  Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico, U.S.
6. Amur leopard mother and cub in the Primorye region of Russia.
7. Bactrian camels in the Gobi desert in Mongolia eating snow to keep from getting dehydrated.
8. "The highest-ever aerial footage of Mount Everest and the Karakoram."
9. African wild dog hunt filmed from a helicopter.

And, finally, the subject of today's post:

    10. A snow leopard hunting a markhor in Pakistan.

The snow leopards are another one of my favorite animals, but due to their elusive nature, they are very difficult to capture on film.  Much more difficult than they are for poachers to capture them, anyhow.  Hunting in large part for their fur has greatly reduced the wild population, forcing the IUCN to list them as "Endangered."

Due to their elusive nature, and their difficulty to film, the "Story of the Snow Leopard," if you will, proved to be a most excellent candidate for the "Planet Earth Diaries" (which I generally refer to on this blog as "The Making of Planet Earth."  For the DVD release, a ten minute or so long "making of" feature was included, highlighting the difficulties of each shoot.  Below is the list of the episodes of Planet Earth, and what their respective "Making Of" featurettes talk about.

The chart.  The Shallow Seas episode, with the
Planet Earth Diaries about the great white shark hunts, is filmed by Big Car Diary co-host Simon King.

When it came to filming the snow leopard, the makers of "Planet Earth" first turned to veteran cameraman Doug Allan, the same man who filmed the polar bears.  But after a few months of fruitless searching (in Nepal, I believe), all he had to show for his work were a few long distance shots, too far away to be of much use.  There were plenty of signs of the snow leopard being around, however.  One of my favorite things to hear from the entire "Planet Earth" series came from this predicament.  The film crew would track the snow leopard by following its footprints in the snow, in the hopes of getting close enough to learn more, or to even film it.  However, they would follow the tracks in a large circle, until they were seeing signs of human footprints too: their own.  The snow leopards were following them!

"Planet Earth" then decided to film along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border, but were not allowed to, as the search for Al-Qaeda was taking place there, and only news crews were allowed in.  One year later, however, the "Planet Earth" crew were granted access, in December of 2004.  Below is a link to part two of the "Planet Earth Diaries" about the snow leopard.  The first part was unfortunately taken off of youtube, but anyways, here is the second part.

Planet Earth Diaries: Snow Leopard Quest Part 2

Below is another fascinating video of the snow leopard: the first ever snow leopard/markhor hunt recorded on film.  SPOILER ALERT: and don't you worry you animal lovers out there; the video has a happy ending for the markhor, but not so for the snow leopard.

First Ever Snow Leopard/Markhor Hunt

Redington Beach on Dwellable

The Making of Planet Earth: The Polar Bear

First of all, don't forget to scroll down and look at today's official post, about the three-toed sloth! 

I almost forgot to tell you all about another very interesting video clip about the polar bear, from "The Making of Planet Earth."  The clip below, narrated by David Attenborough, features the challenges that the main cameraman Doug Allan, aided by his field assistant Jason Roberts, came up against when it came to filming the polar bears in Norway.  Not only is the video quite interesting, it gets amusing towards the end, as well!

Filming the Polar Bears

Below is a picture of cameraman Doug Allan.  In the picture below, he is staked out, attempting to film the snow leopard, one of my absolute favorite animals.  This elusive cat proved quite difficult to film, and, hopefully, sometime in the next few weeks I can talk about the difficulties the crew of Planet Earth encountered when it came to filming the snow leopard in the wild.

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.

Convergent Evolution: Hesperornis and Penguins

Everyone who is reading this blog, and most people who aren't, have heard of penguins, and know, more or less, what they look like.  However, most people have no idea what a Hesperornis is, which is entirely forgivable.  What is especially interesting about Hesperornis is that it was really the "original penguin," in the loosest sense of the terms.

If not for the captions below each picture, these two animals would most likely be quite difficult to tell apart.  One major difference between the two birds is in the mouth: Hesperornis had teeth, a feature which no modern birds possesses.  Another major, but non-skeletal difference, between the two birds is that Hesperornis died out 78 MYA, during the Late Cretaceous.  Its remains have been found in the United States (Kansas), Canada, and Russia.

The similarities between Hesperornis and modern day penguins is called "Convergent Evolution," a fascinating topic which we will undoubtedly touch upon numerous times.  According to Science Daily, convergent evolution is, "In evolutionary biology, convergent evolution is the process whereby organisms not closely related (not monophyletic), independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches."  In English, when two animals, not necessarily closely related at all, evolve similar features that serve the same purpose.

An (excellent) drawing of the skull of Thylacosmilus

 Another example which we have already talked about is the long, saber-like canines that evolved in both the saber-toothed cats, such as Smilodon, and the South American marsupial carnivore Thylacosmilus.

 This post is part of the "Convergent Evolution" series.  For the rest of the posts in this series, click HERE.

Cloning the Cheetah: Why Bother?

In an attempt to discover why the cheetah has such a low fertility rate, a team of scientists, including David Wildt and Stephen O'Brien, decided to take a look at blood samples from a number of cheetahs, labeled "Vulnerable" by the IUCN.  What they found was startling, and very worrying; the cheetahs appeared to be dangerously, perilously inbred; they were all practically clones of each other. 

Wildt and O'Brien decided to confirm this hypothesis by taking skin samples from a number of cheetahs, and attempting to graft them onto a number of other cheetahs.  In a healthy population of animals, the skin grafts would be immediately rejected.  This is because the body of the animal who received the skin graft would recognize the skin to be from another individual, a foreign body, and attack it, just as it would attack any foreign body (i.e., germs or bacteria.)  Even in humans, skin grafts are often rejected, even ones from close relatives.

Normally a very majestic looking animal, this particular cheetah seems to have been caught at a bad time.  Photo Credit: Ted and Gail Neher

So when every single one of the cheetah skin grafts were accepted by the other animals, this did not bode well for the cheetah.  This meant the genetic diversity of the cheetah was incredibly, shockingly low.  But why is genetic diversity so important?  Well, without genetic diversity, the DNA of the individuals comprising a given population are very similar.  These individuals essentially become clones of each other, with many similar attributes, most important among them their immune systems.  In a healthy population of, say, cheetahs, say that fifty percent of them are immune to a certain disease, most of them evolving from a common ancestor.  The other fifty percent of the population has absolutely no protection against said disease, and the illness ravages their population.  An unfortunate (and oversimplified) event, to be sure, but fifty percent of the individuals remain to rebuild the population to what it once was.  With the low genetic diversity seen in the cheetah, if a similar disease in the hypothetical above sweeps through Africa, it is quite likely that a much lower percent than fifty would survive.  It is also possible that this disease would so ravage the global population of cheetahs that they would simply be unable to recover from this catastrophic event.

A cheetah scratching a log at the Denver Zoo.  The cheetahs incredibly slender build can help distinguish it from other cats. 

So why is the cheetah so catastrophically inbred?  Most of the time, low genetic diversity is due to a given species having passed through a "bottleneck."  20,000 years ago, cheetahs spanned the entire globe; ranging all over Europe, Asia and Africa, two species of cheetah, or "proto-cheetahs" if you will, even roamed North America (Miracinonyx inexpectatus and M. trumani.)  When the most recent Ice Age drew to a close around 10,000 years ago, the dramatic climatic changes (and likely human influences, as well) resulted in the extinction of much of the world's mammalian megafauna. Researchers think that this mass-extinction managed to knock the cheetah's numbers down to a very small population, likely comprising a mere handful of individuals.  (In fact, I remember reading once that at one time, some people thought that a single pregnant female mother was able to survive, but I don't think that this idea is all that highly regarded anymore).  While the cheetahs were obviously able to build their population numbers and density by a significant amount than that seen 10,000 years ago, this bottleneck came with a price; genetic diversity was, and is, miniscule.

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