This little guy will make any shelf a decorative joy. We love this as a way of bringing a little fun and life into any room — via Burke Decor
Readjusting the Chair, originally uploaded by Red Wolf.
Life-size steel rhino sculpture of 1/4″ plate steel. The perfect addition to your yard. Weighs 3,500 pounds and measures 10′ long, 4′ wide and 5′ high — via Etsy
Have some… baby octopi… — via deviantART
Arachnophobes beware. There is a silent army on the move in flooded New South Wales.
Floodwaters have stirred up what appears to be millions of spiders around Wagga Wagga and the creepy crawlies are heading for higher ground.
Residents taking refuge from flood and spider in the Red Steer pub say you cannot walk down the road without swarms of tiny brown spiders crawling up your legs, and in their escape they have left entire paddocks and trees swathed in silver silk — via redwolf.newsvine.com
What is surprising is that, the best part of a century after Cthulhu was created, the muck-encrusted god has spawned an entire industry that seems intent on making the Great Old Ones, well, cuddly.
The Elder Gods alone would know what Lovecraft would make of Plush Cthulhu — the perfect accompaniment to help any self-respecting cultist embark on their own dream-quest. The idea of the slime-god forever sleeping in his underwater city of R’lyeh rendered as a soft toy is all kinds of wrong. A particular soft toy –– known as Fluff Cthulhu — is a regular on the SF/Fantasy convention circuit, and may be working his eldritch magicks through his earthbound minion, the author Charles Stross — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Australia’s pet industry is vowing to clean up its act and stamp out puppy farms which do not guarantee the welfare of their animals.
From today, accredited pet stores will only sell puppies from approved breeders.
Pet Industry Association of Australia chief executive Roger Perkins says it is hard to know how many unapproved puppy breeders are operating in Australia — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Their long snouts lined with pointy teeth make sawfishes hard to miss. But just how these endangered creatures use their toothy snouts called saws hasn’t been well understood.
By observing captured freshwater-dwelling Pristis microdon sawfishes, scientists have found the fish use sensors in their saws to detect other fish, their prey, and to swipe at them with enough force to impale their dinner.
The team, led by Barbara Wueringer of the University of Queensland in Australia, found that the sawfishes tore into the already dead fish they were fed, swiping side-to-side several times per second. The swipes were strong enough to split the fish in half — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Everyone knows that dog is man’s best friend. For 2-year-old Alida Knobloch, her dog Mr Gibbs is more than just a friend, he’s a true life-saver.
Knobloch has a rare disease called neuroendocrine hyperplasia of infancy, a disorder which occurs in children. People with NEHI have a condition in which diseased portions of the lung filter oxygen through extra layers of cells, making it harder for the afflicted to breathe properly and get enough oxygen into the lungs.
When Mr Gibbs is put in the red service animal vest, which has pockets on either side for small oxygen tanks, he follows Alida everywhere, providing a lifeline between her and the supply of air she needs to breathe properly — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A Japanese researcher has used thousands of strands of spider silk to spin a set of violin strings.
The strings are said to have a soft and profound timbre
relative to traditional gut or steel strings.
That may arise from the way the strings are twisted, resulting in a packing structure
that leaves practically no space between any of the strands. The strings will be described in a forthcoming edition of the journal Physical Review Letters — via redwolf.newsvine.com
This is the 6′ octopus on the East side of Craft’s and More in Jacksonville Beach, Florida — via deviantART
— via deviantART
A council in eastern Victoria has issued a warning about potentially dangerous pine cones falling from a tree in the town of Warragul.
The 120-year-old heritage-listed bunya pine in the grounds of the Courthouse Hotel has been dropping huge pine cones.
The Baw Baw Council says they weigh up to 10 kilograms each.
Mayor Diane Blackwood says the cones are potentially lethal — via redwolf.newsvine.com
— via deviantART
These photos show Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo’s Dingo pups at 3 weeks old with their eyes open. The pups spend a lot of time yawning when they are awake. The puppies’ parents Mattie and Naya are one of only about 75 pairs of pure Dingoes worldwide, so the pups are an important addition to the pure Dingo population. In Australia, Dingoes have widely hybridized with domestic dogs, so pure Dingoes are rare. Mattie and Naya came to the zoo from Australia in 2010 — via ZooBorns
At Cremorne Veterinary Hospital, Dr Louise Stevenson said she prescribes about 10 times more
behavioural medication than a decade ago.
Twenty years ago there was not a single person in Australia who treated mental health in animals, said Dr Andrew O’Shea, incoming president of the behavioural group of the Australian Veterinary Association. Today there are specialists, university courses in veterinary behavioural medicine, and sophisticated drugs.
The segment has grown significantly,
agreed Andrew Palmer, a spokesman for Novartis, which sells Clomicalm, a separation-anxiety pill for dogs — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Maned Wolves at Sweden’s Nordens Ark Zoo had two pups in late January; one male and two females. The zoo’s breeding pair is a key pair in the Maned Wolf breeding program worldwide, making this birth especially important for conservation. Maned Wolf pups are born all black, and gradually change colour as they grow older. By around six months of age, they’ll be nearly completely reddish brown — via ZooBorns
Someone should tell that Octopus that scooters don’t run so well in the water — via Clinton Reno
Marine biologists are starting to get a good idea now of how squid hear and how they react to sounds in the ocean.
It is only recently that scientists have come to accept that cephalopods have any auditory capability at all.
But new experiments show noises of varying loudness and frequency will elicit a range of behaviours in the animals — such as jetting or inking, and even a change of colour.
The research has been featured at the biennial Ocean Sciences Meeting.
It was presented by Aran Mooney from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) of Massachusetts, US — via redwolf.newsvine.com
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