The irises I bought last year from Isabella’s Iris‘s Norma Hart have started to bloom.
First off the rank is Blackout in black and deep purple.
Yum!
Scientists from the Australian National University have proved what many have thought for years — platypuses are really weird. Professor Jennifer Graves says platypus have five X and five Y chromosomes, determining sex, not one, and when sperm are made it gets even stranger. What we’ve discovered is that these five Xs and five Ys line up in a great big long chain, that go XY XY XY XY XY XY, and then all the X chromosomes move to one pole, and all the Y chromosomes move to the other,
she said. Professor Graves says there is another unexpected finding. One end of the chain looks like human sex chromosomes but the other end of the chain looks like bird sex chromosomes, so the chain is actually linking a very ancient system of sex determination in birds and probably reptiles too.
The unique status of the Australian mammal is now unassailable
Tree Frog originally uploaded by Red Wolf
Over the weekend, my evening was disturbed by a loud chittering noise outside. Much like a really pissed off sparrow. I went out, turned on the lights and saw the dogs on either side of a fat green tree frog the size of my fist. Every time the dogs would touch it, the frog would chitter alarmingly.
I didn’t know frogs chittered, but it seems that chittering is the tree frog equivalent of fuck off and leave me alone
because it chittered at me when I tried to pick it up. The noise is probably all that kept it from becoming a late night dog snack and appeared to do the trick as the frog appeared to be completely unscathed.
While I was trying to keep the dogs away, the frog hopped into a corner and climbed up the brickwork, heading for the kitchen window. The dogs can reach the ledge, so I gently prodded the frog to encourage him into the corner. This didn’t work terribly well, as the frog just used my fingers as leverage to head in the opposite direction and slid down the glass towards the curious dogs.
I managed to herd the dogs inside so I could relocate the frog without canine assistance. The frog still didn’t want to be grabbed, but didn’t seem to mind getting prodded onto a plastic dustpan. I moved it into the garden where he’ll hopefully live a long and happy life.
I am now a frog rescuer.
The owners of a German shepherd were celebrating yesterday after winning a £60,000 legal battle to prevent him from being put down
An international study has found a rapid decline in the world’s amphibians with the extinction of more than 120 species over the past 24 years
Australian and British scientists have achieved a technical breakthrough to help control insects that have developed resistance to common agricultural pesticides. Developed by the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Rothamsted Research in the UK, the technique relies on the use of naturally occurring enzyme inhibitors to disarm an insect’s defence system. The enzyme inhibitor acts first to shut down an insect’s resistance mechanisms. A few hours later, while the bug’s defences are still low, the pesticide kicks in
An elusive giant ape [BugMeNot] has been spotted in remote forests in central Africa, sparking theories that it could be a new species of primate — a finding that would be the most astonishing wildlife discovery in decades. The mysterious creatures have been seen in forests around the towns of Bondo and Bili, in the far north of the Democratic Republic of Congo
The tall bearded irises that I got from Kris have flowered. Their large, bright yellow flowers are quite spectacular.
Now to see what the rest of the irises look like when they flower.
Red the lurcher astonished staff at Battersea Dogs’ Home in south London by learning not only to how to unbolt his kennel door, but then to liberate his favourite canine companions to join the fun
Constantin Mocanu, an elderly Romanian man, mistook his penis for a chicken’s neck, cut it off and his dog rushed up and ate it. Doctors said the man, who was brought in by an ambulance bleeding heavily, was now out of danger
A paralysed man in Aspen, Colorado lay helplessly in bed for two hours while a black bear known as Fat Albert
went through his kitchen breaking dishes and looking for a tasty snack
Spaso Ivosevic, a hunter in central Croatia since 1957, cleaned and loaded his double-barreled shotgun as usual, before briefly leaned the gun against a wall near his house. That’s when his 2-year-old dog Lero, chasing chickens through the yard, stormed past and tripped over the shotgun. It hit the ground and fired, showering Ivosevic with pellets. The hunter was treated for a fractured leg bone, while the fate of Lero was not known
A randy ram-raider smashed into a car showroom in the town of Moville, County Donegal, Ireland, after letting his animal instincts get the better of him. The intruder — a stray ram belonging to a local farmer — broke windows, soiled the garage and dented three doors of a new Mitsubishi Colt before he was apprehended by police officers
Wolves and other predators have long been hunted by farmers hoping to protect their livestock — but new research suggests the slaughter may be unnecessary. The first worldwide review of the effect of predators has found little evidence that they have a significant impact on livestock
Australian purebred dogs will soon need genetic identity papers to prove their pedigree and show if they carry hereditary diseases. Only dogs used for breeding stock will need this genetic stud book
and not purebred show dogs or the average pet poodle, according to the Australian National Kennel Council. Testing will be introduced in stages, before it becomes mandatory in January 2008. The move towards genetic testing, which was made at the ANKC’s recent annual conference in Sydney, is aimed at confirming dogs’ parentage and reducing the incidence of hereditary disease in purebreds
What was once a Monty Python joke has become reality with a renegade sheep eluding live export now set to live happily ever after. The Monty Python team once joked about the most dangerous of creatures — a clever sheep called Harold who escaped after realising his life was about standing around and then being eaten. Now there is the story of the sheep who 10 weeks ago escaped while boarding a ship at Port Adelaide and hid out the aptly named Mutton Cove, eating rare plants and scaring birds
A new plan would make Oregon the first Western state to independently accept the return of wolves. The plan, created by a panel of experts which included Amaroq Weiss, western director of species conservation for Defenders, could provide protections for several breeding pairs of wolves in the state. Many biologists feel that it is only a matter of time until wolves migrate from Idaho and elsewhere to reclaim their historical range in Oregon
The search for a bengal tiger on the loose at the US Army’s Fort Polk in western Louisiana has been halted because no one can find the cat. The tiger has not been seen in a week despite a search that involved 100 soldiers, trackers, trappers and police using military helicopters
A man who tried to shoot seven puppies was shot himself when one of the dogs put its paw on the revolver’s trigger. Jerry Allen Bradford, 37, was charged with felony animal cruelty, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday. He was being treated at a hospital for a gunshot wound to his wrist. Bradford said he decided to shoot the 3-month-old shepherd-mix dogs in the head because he couldn’t find them a home, according to the sheriff’s office. Unfortunately the fuckwit had already murdered three of the pups before his next intended victim turned the tables
Though Skippy the Hamster powers this night light by running on his exercise wheel, the same concepts and low-rpm alternator design could be applied to a school science project using different energy sources. A small wind or hydro turbine could easily power this alternator. He’s a Syrian Hamster, and we chose that breed since they are nocturnal and like to run on the exercise wheel
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