A 74-year-old Devon man is “gutted” after being asked to stop walking his owls by a busy Plymouth road — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A rare squid washed up dead on a Wellington beach this morning with experts saying they believe it had been attacked in the sea — via redwolf.newsvine.com
THEY were supposed to have vanished from Scotland’s landscape 400 years ago after being hunted to extinction for their precious pelts.
However, now evidence has come to light that beavers may have been gnawing their way around parts of the country in large numbers for years — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Welcome one and all to the 200th post at Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins. Thank you everyone for being here, especially those of you who are long time readers of the blog, and especially those of you who have taken the time to post comments or share pictures of things you’ve made with my patterns — via Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins
Whether or not you consider yourself an experienced birdwatcher, you’re likely to find free web service eBird a great resource for all kinds of data, including frequency, abundance, counts, and locations for tons of different species
An expedition into the mountains of Papua New Guinea has revealed what may be the world’s smallest species of kangaroo. A research team that ventured into the Foja Mountains in 2008 have this week released their findings of a number of species new to science, including a new dwarf wallaby, Dorcopsulus. The wallaby inhabits the floor of the montane forests, and has been called beautiful
and gentle
by expeditioner Dr Kristofer Helgen, a zoologist at the Smithsonian Institution of Washington DC
The world’s largest invertebrate is not a fast and voracious predator as previously thought, say scientists. The colossal squid, a creature once linked to maritime myth and feared as a sea monster, is really a slow drifting animal that ambushes unwitting prey. That conclusion was reached by studying the physiology and feeding habits of other deep sea species and scaling up to the colossal squid’s huge size
Mammoths had more than woolly coats to protect them from the frigid conditions of their sub-zero stomping grounds, scientists have discovered. The extinct beasts had a form of antifreeze blood that kept their bodies supplied with oxygen in the sub-zero temperatures, according to a study of DNA extracted from 43,000-year-old mammoth remains
A moth new to science and found nowhere else in the world has been formally recognised as living in the UK. The 3mm-long micro moth, which lives in Hembury Woods in Devon, was recognised as a new species this year. This week, the biologist who discovered it is presenting the Natural History Museum of London with one of the first known specimens. The receipt of this type
specimen will mark the official acceptance of the moth’s existence in the country. The tiny micro moth, which has a wingspan of just 6mm, was first spotted in 2004
Earthworms form herds and make group decisions
, scientists have discovered. The earthworms use touch to communicate and influence each other’s behaviour
A new species of giant lizard has been discovered in the Philippines. The 2m-long reptile is a monitor lizard, the group to which the world’s longest and largest lizards belong. The monitor, described as spectacular by the scientists who found it, lives in forests covering the Sierra Madre mountains in the north of the country. The striking reptile has bright yellow, blue and green skin, and survives on a diet of just fruit, yet until now it has escaped the eyes of biologists
The giggling sounds of a hyena contain important information about the animal’s status, say scientists. In the first study to decipher the hyena’s so-called laugh
, they have shown that the pitch of the giggle reveals a hyena’s age. What is more, variations in the frequency of notes used when a hyena makes a noise convey information about the animal’s social rank
Toad Last spring, a group of biologists were studying the mating habits of the common toad (Bufo bufo) in the L’Aquila province of Italy. As temperatures warm each year, male toads gather en masse at small ponds to compete for the affections of females. As part of their study, the scientists ventured out to one particular pond every evening to count the toads and note whether they had laid any new eggs. A few days into their work, something strange happened: the toads scattered. Spawning had only just begun, and where there had been between 80 and 90 male toads for the last few days of March, the first few days of April turned up fewer than ten. Then on 6 April, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit, ravaging L’Aquila province and its capital city of the same name. Hundred of people were killed and thousands injured as buildings that dated to the middle ages crumbled. In a new paper out this evening in Journal of Zoology, the researchers claim this sequence of events is more than just a coincidence. Toads stayed away from the pond for several more days following the quake, before finally returning in force around 15 April. No word on where the toads went, exactly, to flee the disaster. But did the toads sense the coming quake and head for the hills? That’s what the researchers are arguing
The fossilised remains of a gigantic 10m-long predatory shark have been unearthed in Kansas, US. Scientists dug up a gigantic jawbone, teeth and scales belonging to the shark which lived 89 million years ago. The bottom-dwelling predator had huge tooth plates, which it likely used to crush large shelled animals such as giant clams. Palaeontologists already knew about the shark, but the new specimen suggests it was far bigger than previously thought
Small dogs may all originate from the Middle East, according to research from the University of California. A study published in the journal BioMed Central found a gene found in small dogs, IGF1, is closely related to one found in Middle Eastern wolves. Archaeologists have found the remains of small dogs dating back 12,000 years in the region. In Europe, older remains have been uncovered, dating from 31,000 years ago, but these are from larger dogs
Sperm whales may team up and hunt collaboratively, scientists have suggested. A US research team used hi-tech tags to glimpse some of the giant marine mammals’ remarkable hunting behaviour. This tracking showed how the whales travelled together in groups, but when they hunted, each whale varied its role
within the group
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