 |
| A bison, right up close and personal on the path! Photo Credit: Julie Neher |
 |
| A bison, right up close and personal on the path! Photo Credit: Julie Neher |
Showing posts with label Julie Neher. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Julie Neher. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Bison: Up Close and Personal!
At one point on our Grand Teton/Yellowstone/Sun Valley driving trip in 2006, we went on a ranger-guided nature walk in Yellowstone. As we were walking along the trail, the ranger told us a lot about the local wildlife, and mentioned at least a few times the dangers of confronting a bison. The ranger led us into a small clearing surrounded by tree for a short break, when suddenly, a large bull bison wandered by right behind the ranger along the trail.
Everyone froze, staring at the bison as it started blankly right back at us. Fortunately, it was uninterested in us, and wandered on along the path, without increasing the "Bison Casualty Count" for that year!
Skunk in the Showers!
On our California driving trip in 2010, my family and I stayed a few nights in a cute little campsite on the coast, sort of near Monterey in Santa Cruz. We had heard that you could see whales there sometimes, but unfortunately we saw none. However, on one fine morning, my mother and sister did see a skunk! It was just kind of chilling over in the outdoor showers, and looked deceptively cuddly! Here are some pictures!
On the same trip, our family was camping in Big Sur, and my dad and I were outside of our tent reading, when I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked, and there was a skunk, so close to me that I could have easily reached out to touch it! Fortunately I didn't startle it or anything, as it moved off without spraying us. The next morning (I remember this, but strangely enough, no one else in my family does), we also saw a mother skunk cross our dirt driveway with three or four baby skunks in tow!
 |
| The skunk in the shower! Photo Credit: Julie Neher |
 |
| The skunk in the shower! Photo Credit: Julie Neher |
 |
| The skunk in the shower! Photo Credit: Julie Neher |
 |
| The skunk in the shower! Photo Credit: Julie Neher |
Making Yourself Taller
In life, things often seem as if they are out of reach. Sometimes, this is true, and you need a ladder or something to help you. In the wild, however, animals don't have access to conventional ladders. So what do they do to get there? Some animals become adapted to climbing, like those that live in forests (arboreal animals). Other animals don't want to sacrifice a ground-dwelling life style for an arboreal one. These animals must somehow make themselves taller.
Lots of different animals make themselves taller, by many different means. Some animals simply grow bigger, like the giraffe and the long-necked dinosaurs (sauropods). With their long necks, these animals can reach vegetation that is a great deal higher than most animals can reach. Other animals put special things on their feet to make themselves taller called shoes. Some of these shoes, known to scientists as "high-heels," are apparently designed to put the girl at optimal kissing height (a fact that I learned about from a friend of mine just a few days ago). And finally, some animals simply stand up.
Like the gerenuk. This interesting African antelope is one of my favorites! As you can see in the picture below, the gerenuk, in order to access vegetation on a higher plane than most animals can, will rear up so it is supported solely by its back two legs, and feed from there. Many paleontologists hypothesize that the sauropods could also do something similar, as supported by the fact that Apatosaurus babies would run solely on their back feet to keep up with the rest of the herd.
Lots of different animals make themselves taller, by many different means. Some animals simply grow bigger, like the giraffe and the long-necked dinosaurs (sauropods). With their long necks, these animals can reach vegetation that is a great deal higher than most animals can reach. Other animals put special things on their feet to make themselves taller called shoes. Some of these shoes, known to scientists as "high-heels," are apparently designed to put the girl at optimal kissing height (a fact that I learned about from a friend of mine just a few days ago). And finally, some animals simply stand up.
Like the gerenuk. This interesting African antelope is one of my favorites! As you can see in the picture below, the gerenuk, in order to access vegetation on a higher plane than most animals can, will rear up so it is supported solely by its back two legs, and feed from there. Many paleontologists hypothesize that the sauropods could also do something similar, as supported by the fact that Apatosaurus babies would run solely on their back feet to keep up with the rest of the herd.
 |
| Gerenuk standing on their back legs to access higher vegetation at the Animal Kingdom park at Walt Disney World in Florida. Photo Credit: Julie Neher |
Monday, February 4, 2013
Red Foxes in Breckenridge!
For the past few years, every summer my family and I would go up to visit our good friends the Beckleys, who would stay for about a month in a rented house in Breckenridge, Colorado. One of the times, I forget exactly which one, a red fox was hovering around the house, eager for us to feed it. Apparently, the people in the neighborhood were feeding the fox, so it had become quite tame. We made a lot of noise to make it go away (in the hopes that it would become afraid of people, as wild animals should be), but not before we got some pretty great pictures. Check them out!
 |
| A picture of the red fox outside of the house. Photo Credit: Julie Neher |
 |
| A picture of the red fox outside of the house. Photo Credit: Julie Neher |
 |
| A picture of the red fox outside of the house. Photo Credit: Julie Neher |
 |
| A picture of the red fox outside of the house. Photo Credit: Julie Neher |
 |
| A picture of the red fox outside of the house. Photo Credit: Julie Neher |
Monday, November 5, 2012
At Last: Success With Primos!
Today's birthday post goes out to Megan Pullen! Happy birthday Megan! If you have a birthday coming up, just email me the date at cuyvaldar123946@gmail.com with the date and your favorite animal, and I will do my best to get a post in!
For those of you wondering how in the heck I got fox urine, not to mention why, here is the skinny. I started this thing called Foxbook. Here is the description about what exactly it is, lifted from my "Foxbook" tab. "Recently, my friend Masaki Kleinkopf and I started an experiment of sorts, to see whether foxes were in the area. My mother had purchased fox urine to spray in her garden to keep garden pests such as squirrels from eating her vegetables. I borrowed some and sprayed a bit on a wall near by to my use. Underneath the spray site, I buried a plastic bin, and poured water into the dirt in the bin. This turned the dirt into mud, and the plastic bin prevented the water from draining. So now the bin remains muddy for days at a time, making it more likely for the fox visitors to leave footprints. On the very first day, we got a hit, and three of the four days now we have gotten hits! In perhaps my best pun yet, I created the term "Foxbook." You see, it is like a social messaging site, where visitors can leave "Posts" on other peoples "Walls." Haha."
We have actually talked about foxes a great many times on this blog in the past. Here are the posts in which we have done so:
- Channel Island Fox: Shrinky Dink: The Channel Island Fox and the Island Effect
- Red Fox: Guards of the Fairy Penguin
- Fennec Fox: What Is It? The Weekly Challenge #5 Answer
- Gray Fox: The Fauna of South Carolina: Cetaceans, Foxes and Otters
- Red Fox: The Fox's Animal Magnetism
Monday, August 27, 2012
Penguin Party: The Korora and the Magellanic
Today's post is devoted to two of the seventeen (debatably a lower number) of the extant penguin species, the Korora (commonly known as the little blue penguin, the blue penguin, the little penguin, or the fairy penguin), and the Magellanic penguin. What's the connection with these two penguins? Well, not really anything, except for the fact that we had just talked about the Korora in a post a few weeks ago, and I had found a few funny videos of both the Korora and the Magellanic!
The Korora is actually believed to be fairly closely related to the Magellanic penguin, compared to most of the rest of the penguins. Despite the differences in their genus (the Magellanic belongs to the genus "Spheniscus" and the Korora to the genus "Eudyptula,") most scientists believe that the Eudyptula penguins (only one extant, but likely extinct ones) were the last ones to diverge from the Spheniscus genus.
As we talked about a few weeks back, the Korora is labeled as "Least Concern" by the IUCN, and inhaibts Australia and New Zealand, as well as a few other random islands in the vicinity. Interestingly enough, the Korora has also been reported in Chile and South Africa, although the probability of these animals being vagrants (essentially, lost) is quite high. However, most penguinologists are certain that many populations of penguins started out as vagrants, so who knows! It is how they would get from one place to another.
The Penguin Parade (see below) is a major tourist attraction.
HERE is a link to a clip talking a bit about the Penguin Parade. The clip talks a bit about the work done by the rangers and scientists regarding the Korora, including ranger Ashley Belsar. For over thirty years, since 1968, this research team has been recording information about the penguins as they come ashore. An interesting statistic that I learned from this video is that the average penguin spends about 80% of its life in the ocean!
And for those of you who want something a bit more"cutesie," HERE is a video of Cookie, the Korora, being tickled by humans at the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio!
Native to the South American countries of Chile, Argentina, and occasionally Brazil, the Magellanic penguin is one of four of the Spheniscus genus of penguins, including the African, Humboldt and Galápagos penguins. Labeled as "Near Threatened" by the IUCN, somewhere in the neighborhood of 40,000 of these penguins are killed each year by oil spills, which has resulted in their decreased IUCN status.
Next, we have two amusing Magellanic penguin videos. The FIRST is of a Magellanic on a plane, and the SECOND is a trio of Magellanics who accidentally knock over the camera that is filming them. Enjoy!
Now, we have a few really cute pictures of some of the Magellanic penguins from Sea World: Orlando in Florida! The second two photos are from a publicity thing where some people from Sea World: Orlando brought some Magellanics to the Star newsroom! How cute!
The Korora is actually believed to be fairly closely related to the Magellanic penguin, compared to most of the rest of the penguins. Despite the differences in their genus (the Magellanic belongs to the genus "Spheniscus" and the Korora to the genus "Eudyptula,") most scientists believe that the Eudyptula penguins (only one extant, but likely extinct ones) were the last ones to diverge from the Spheniscus genus.
As we talked about a few weeks back, the Korora is labeled as "Least Concern" by the IUCN, and inhaibts Australia and New Zealand, as well as a few other random islands in the vicinity. Interestingly enough, the Korora has also been reported in Chile and South Africa, although the probability of these animals being vagrants (essentially, lost) is quite high. However, most penguinologists are certain that many populations of penguins started out as vagrants, so who knows! It is how they would get from one place to another.
The Penguin Parade (see below) is a major tourist attraction.
 |
| The penguin parade. Photo Credit Mark and Julie Neher |
And for those of you who want something a bit more"cutesie," HERE is a video of Cookie, the Korora, being tickled by humans at the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio!
Native to the South American countries of Chile, Argentina, and occasionally Brazil, the Magellanic penguin is one of four of the Spheniscus genus of penguins, including the African, Humboldt and Galápagos penguins. Labeled as "Near Threatened" by the IUCN, somewhere in the neighborhood of 40,000 of these penguins are killed each year by oil spills, which has resulted in their decreased IUCN status.
Next, we have two amusing Magellanic penguin videos. The FIRST is of a Magellanic on a plane, and the SECOND is a trio of Magellanics who accidentally knock over the camera that is filming them. Enjoy!
Now, we have a few really cute pictures of some of the Magellanic penguins from Sea World: Orlando in Florida! The second two photos are from a publicity thing where some people from Sea World: Orlando brought some Magellanics to the Star newsroom! How cute!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
