Chilling with the Cone of Shame, originally uploaded by Red Wolf
Three Sumatran Tiger cubs — two male and one female — were born at Taronga Zoo in the early hours of 20 August. They came into the world one hour apart, to mother Jumilah
and father, Satu
, as zoo keepers monitored the labour from nearby. These babies are a valuable boost to this critically endangered species, seeing as there are as few as 400 left in the wild — via ZooBorns
For the past few weeks aquarists at the Tennessee Aquarium have been monitoring an egg mass which was laid by a cuttlefish pair born and reared at the Aquarium. Shortly after the eggs were removed from the exhibit and placed into a holding tank, tiny cuttlefish began hatching. Carol Haley, the Aquarium’s assistant curator of fishes, said, The first day about 42 hatchlings appeared. Another 40 or so appeared the following day.
The hatchlings, called cuttlets, are tiny replicas of their parents. Each individual is small enough to fit inside a quarter teaspoon. Once they emerge from the egg sac, they begin hunting. They have a pretty big appetite and are ready to use their tentacles to snare the live mysid shrimp we feed them,
said Haley — via ZooBorns
Something wonderful happened at France’s Zoo Parc de Beauval in the middle of the night on Sunday, 16 October… a White Rhino was born. The baby, a male, weighed about 176 pounds (80 kg) and the report is that he and Satara, his mother, are doing well — so well in fact that he is already on view through a huge window in the Rhino house — via ZooBorns
The New South Wales Environment Minister has been ridiculed by the Opposition after telling a budget estimates hearing that logging protects koalas.
Robyn Parker was being questioned at the NSW Parliament over the State Government’s election commitment to protect threatened species, including koalas.
Labor MP Luke Foley asked Ms Parker how the promise could fit with a decision to allow logging in important koala habitats at Bermagui and in the Boambee State Forest, in the state’s south and mid-north coast — via redwolf.newsvine.com
here goes a pic I done near 4 years ago about the big tentacle, the lord of the sea, the great sushi… The Kraken — via deviantART
A sketch commission for a robot/steampunk octopus. Very fun to do! — via deviantART
Halloween is a great time to show your respect to the great slumbering elder god Cthulhu by carving a pumpkin in his likeness. Sure, you’ll go mad doing it, but we’re all going to go mad and be devoured anyway, so this way you’ll get to do it in style (and take the neighbours with you) — via The Lovecraftsman
This is a large octopus sculpture for the serious cephalopod lover! Pictures don’t do it justice. This sculpture is simply amazing — via Etsy
Where does 3D printing and species protection intersect? Hermit crabs, apparently. Makerbot Industries, who make do-it-yourself 3D printers, launched Project Shellter last Tuesday. Project Shellter intends to leverage the Makerbot community’s design talent and network of 5,000 3D printers to design and produce shells for hermit crabs who face a species threatening, man-made housing shortage. Hmm, sounds familiar.
Bre Pettis, a founder of Makerbot, explains on the Makerbot blog:
Hermit crabs don’t make their own shells. They scavenge their homes. And now, hermit crabs are facing a housing shortage as the worldwide shell supply is decreasing. With a shell shortage, hermit crabs around the world are being forced to stick their butts into bottles, shotgun shells, and anything else they can find. This is not acceptable. As a community, we can reach out to this vulnerable species and offer our digital design skills and 3D printing capabilities and give hermit crabs another option: 3D printed shells
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
This is setsuna22’s character Deniz. Who just happens to be an awesome Octopi woman! — via deviantART
Behind Bars, originally uploaded by Red Wolf.
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo doubled its grizzly bear cubs with the addition of two more orphaned young bears from the western United States. Cheyenne and Jackson, a brother and sister pair from Wyoming, joined Montana brothers Cody and Cooper on exhibit in the Zoo’s Northern Trek last week — via ZooBorns
Felt Koi 5, originally uploaded by christine prusha.
Spotted in the MAKE Flickr pool, from user Christine Prusha, AKA FeltedChicken. The base, simulating water, is made from poured resin, with felted cherry blossoms sprinkled on top — via MAKE
Of course, what is the point of doing an experiment without documenting it? So I carefully selected four sizable chunks of skin (heh heh heh!) and scanned them on my flat-bed scanner (more squirming). Then, I fed them to four different Venus flytraps (#1: typical plant; #2: Justina Davis; #3: Dentate Traps; #4: Red Piranha). Just in case the plants would not like the skin or would not go through the normal digestion process, I included small earwigs with the skin-chunk sacrifices for plants #2 and #3.
A quick recap summary. I fed DISEASED HUMAN TISSUE to my plants. Yep, not just regular human fragments, but DISEASED HUMAN FRAGMENTS.
After a week, the traps opened. I had predicted the skin chunks would be relatively inert and unaffected. After all, these were hard, crusty chunks of skin from the sole of my diseased feet. Surely the Venus flytraps would have no effect upon them.
Was I ever wrong! The skin chunks were almost completely digested. Worse, what was left no longer had much cohesion, but was gooey and slimy, like little boogers. Uck! Uck! Uck! And what is with the weird hue shift to bacon color?? Uck! Uck! Uck! Iä! Iä!
So I guess that if you were to get caught by a sufficiently large Venus flytrap, your skin would easily be digested, and the plant would be able to proceed to your other internal tissues. Gross! — via The Carnivorous Plant FAQ
— via deviantART
Paws for Life is a dog food auto-delivery service. Their service is simple: select your favourite dog food, tell them how often you would like it and then relax in the knowledge that your dog food will turn up on time every time.
They stock all your favourite brands, including Eukanuba, Hills Science Diet, Royal Canin and Advance Pet Nutrition. If they don’t have what you want let them know
Just a touch of a female pheromone can send male longfin squids into a frenzied rage, potentially giving wimpy squid males a chance to fight for the ladies.
Whether there exists a human analogue to the pheromone, called Loligo beta-microseminoprotein, is a matter of premature speculation. But the findings do reveal a potentially fascinating subject for further research.
It’s like Popeye’s spinach. When they touch it, they say ‘let’s go’ and start to kick ass,
said biologist Roger Hanlon of the Marine Biological Laboratory, who reported the findings 10 February in Current Biology. It’s a beautiful, robust response. It may be a mechanism for smaller males who have trouble being dominant to mate with females
— via Wired
True to its name, the North Pacific giant octopus is the largest of all octopus species.
The animals, which stand head and multiple shoulders above other invertebrates in terms of intelligence, grow to 45 kilograms and typically measure around 4 metres from arm tip to tip. Yet they only live for a maximum of five years.
This remarkable image comes from Sea, a collection of photographs that is published this month by Abrams. In it the fantastic and unusual marine creatures have been treated as still life objects by American photographer Mark Laita — via Short Sharp Science
— originally uploaded by Red Wolf
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