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How does our vision compare to some animals?
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Do animals see the same way we do? Do some animals have better vision than humans? The senses of animals have evolved to give members of the species an optimum chance for survival. Here are a few examples: Some animals, such as cats, have a reflective surface ( tapetum) on the back of the eye behind the sensory receptors (left image above). When light first enters the eye, some light is detected by the sensory receptors. The light not detected by the sensory receptors continues onto the reflective surface at the back of the eye. This light is then reflected outward toward the sensory receptors, providing a second opportunity for detection. This feature produces two results. First, the outward reflection results in the shining of the cat's ey ...
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14936 |
Biology Forums |
A year ago |
Teeth that never stop growing
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Rodents are mammals characterized by a pair of broad, sharp-edged, chisel-like incisor teeth that are firmly inserted in both jaws and are used in gnawing vegetation. The front surface of each incisor tooth is composed of enamel, and the hind surface is of soft dentine wears away during the process of gnawing so that the teeth are constantly kept sharp. Shown above is a beaver sporting bright orange teeth; the reason they are orange is because of an unusually high concentration of iron in the enamel. Unlike human teeth, the incisors of rodents don't have roots, and they never stop growing! To keep these teeth from growing into their brains, rodents grind their teeth against each other. This friction is similar to using a grindstone to sharp ...
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6063 |
bio_man |
2 years ago |
Wholphin: a fertile hybrid
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A wholphin is a rare fertile hybrid born from mating a bottlenose dolphin ( Tursiops truncatus) (mother), and a false killer whale ( Pseudorca crassidens). Although they have been reported to exist in the wild, the first captive wholphin was born in 1945, where a bottlenose dolphin and a male false killer whale shared a pool. The wholphin's size, color and shape are intermediate between the parent species. For example, an adult wholphin has 66 teeth - intermediate between a bottlenose (88 teeth) and false killer whale (44 teeth). They are smaller than a false killer whale but are larger than a normal bottlenose. Normally, when two different, yet similar species mate, such as a female horse and a male donkey forming a mule, the progeny is expec ...
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6509 |
bio_man |
2 years ago |
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11386 |
bio_man |
3 years ago |
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you."
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That's the longest string of words that Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee who scientists raised as a human and taught sign language in the 1970s, ever signed. He was the subject of Project Nim, an experiment conducted by cognitive scientists at Columbia University to investigate whether chimps can learn language. After years of exposing Nim to all things human, the researchers concluded that although he did learn to express demands - the desire for an orange, for instance - and knew 125 words, he couldn't fully grasp language, at least as they defined it. Language requires not just vocabulary but also syntax, they argued. "Give orange me," for example, means something different than "give me orange." From a very young age, humans understand that; w ...
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15507 |
duddy |
7 years ago |
One hairy situation
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The hairy frogfish ( Antennarius striatus) is a marine fish with spines resembling strands of hair - and it can change color. This small fish grows up to 22 cm (8.7 in) long, and has a rounded, extensible body. Its large mouth is forwardly extensible, allowing it to swallow prey as large as itself! The coloring of its body is extremely variable because individual fish tend to match their living environments. Frogfishes have the capacity to change coloration and pigment pattern, taking only a few weeks to adapt. The dominant coloration varies from yellow to brownish-orange, passing through a range of shades, but it can also be green, gray, brown, almost white, or even completely black without any pattern. Body and fins can be marked with roug ...
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7175 |
duddy |
7 years ago |
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5332 |
duddy |
7 years ago |
This beautiful white coat serves as a perfect camouflage
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The arctic fox is an incredibly hardy animal that can survive frigid Arctic temperatures as low as –58°F (-50°C) in the treeless lands where it makes its home. It has furry soles, short ears, and a short muzzle - all-important adaptations to the chilly clime. Arctic foxes live in burrows, and in a blizzard they may tunnel into the snow to create shelter. Arctic foxes have beautiful white (sometimes blue-gray) coats that act as very effective winter camouflage. The natural hues allow the animal to blend into the tundra's ubiquitous snow and ice. When the seasons change, the fox's coat turns as well, adopting a brown or gray appearance that provides cover among the summer tundra's rocks and plants. Source: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/ ...
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23520 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
A rare albino whale sighting
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Migaloo is a rare albino humpback whale found near the coastlines of Queensland, Australia. Adult humpbacks range in length from 12-16 metres (39-52 feet) and weigh approximately 36000 kilograms (79,000 lb). For more information on Migaloo, visit http://migaloo.com.au/.
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2208 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
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1812 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
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1861 |
ehd123 |
8 years ago |
Humans and Earth - the battle
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When you turn on your TV, it is the definition of ironic to watch the news channels for information about planet mass destruction. Whilst when you step outside your door, it is quite alarming and obvious that our earth is suffering. When every person around you, from toddlers to elderly, own some for of technology, with no means of recycling old items. When students, each with their own copies of pages. When potable water has not yet reached the most needy of nations. When human greed is apparent with every innovative idea claiming to "revolutionize "a domain brought up to make a quick buck. Drilling, mining, industrialization, politics, scavenging for resources, suffocating our environment... This may all seem negative, but coming from a ...
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2757 |
ehd123 |
8 years ago |
Watch this ex-circus lion feel grass for the first time
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This lion, named Will, spent his life with a traveling circus in Brazil. "For 13 long years, the lion had been confined to a cramped cage and denied any semblance of a normal existence," the Sao Paulo sanctuary wrote.
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1624 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Kermit's ancestor
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The Hyalinobatrachium dianae glassfrog was just discovered! And people are saying he looks familiar.
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27137 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Ever seen a black flamingo?
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On the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, you might be lucky to find a black flamingo. Normal flamingoes are born white and grey, and turn their iconic shade of pinky orange around the age of two, as a result of the high carotenoid content of the algae and crustaceans that they eat. Experts believe that this individual (and potentially the other bird spotted in Israel) has a genetic condition that causes it to overproduce melanin, changing its feathers to black.
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21740 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
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21547 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
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62069 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
A zoo where people are caged and animals roam free!
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"Rather than having to photograph from behind wire fences, [I hope to] capture images of animals such as lions in the wild, free and unrestrained," writes Greg Van Dugteren of this image taken at New Zealand's Orana Wildlife Park.
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24460 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Tails designed to fool
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The green wings of luna moths, with their elegant, long tails, aren't just about style. New research finds they also help save the insects from becoming bat snacks by creating a distracting acoustic signal, which causes these predators to zero in on the wings rather than more vital body parts.
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15590 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
How ocean creatures size up to humans
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Here are the most accurate measurements of the ocean's biggest animals. These are confirmed measurements, unlike many found on the internet that state outrageous numbers.
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17910 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Walking sushi
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While this may look like sushi, it's actually Argentina's pink fairy armadillo. This rarely seen animal has silky white hair and a pinkish carapace; it ranges in size from 3.3 to 4.6 inches (84 to 117 millimeters) long, making it one of the smallest species of armadillos. The animal is also nocturnal and has the ability to bury itself in lightning speed given its long claws, which are an astonishing one-sixth the length of the body. ...
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16883 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Cute and funny baby chimpanzee
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After watching this incredible footage, I can't help but notice the similarities between humans and chimpanzees - it's quite fascinating! Enjoy
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16176 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
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11809 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Some animals prefer to marry their cousins
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If you find yourself looking around the table over the holiday and thinking, “I can’t believe I’m related to these people,” just be glad you’re not a mongoose. If you were, you might be thinking, “I can’t believe I’ve mated with all of these people.” Why? For mongooses, it's actually safer to have sex with a close relative than risk death by venturing out into the world to find a mate.
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11034 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Most mammals take 21 seconds to pee, regardless of their size
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An elephant takes the same amount of time to empty its huge bladder as a cat - despite holding 3,600 times more urine. That's a whole lot of pressure. The controlling factor of urination duration is the length of the urethra, which gets longer at a predictable ratio as an animal gets bigger. All animals have urethras of the same aspect ratio: a length-to-width ratio of 18. This is rare among animals. Usually, body parts change in relative size, such as the eyes and brain. As the urethra gets longer, the effects of gravity increase and there's more pressure pushing out the urine. Source: http://www.sciencealert.com/most-mammals-take-21-seconds-to-pee-regardless-of-their-size ...
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11760 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
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5207 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
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4483 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
This is why geckos can walk on walks
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Geckos have 500,000 keratinous hairs on their feet, which split at the ends to create a large surface area. The hairs allow geckos to scale smooth vertical surfaces.
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1247 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Can you guess what animal this is?
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This is an x-ray of a developing bat embryo. A substance called Alcian blue staining is used to get a better view of its cartilage and bones.
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1066 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Smartest bird to have ever lived
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Bought from a pet shop, Alex the parrot was the subject of a 30-year experiment by psychologist Irene Pepperberg, who demonstrated that language, communication and intelligence are not just the result of a large primate brain; “lesser” animals also possess high cognitive ability. Alex could count, knew more than 100 words and even understood syntax. When he died, his last words to Pepperberg were: “You be good, see you tomorrow. I love you”
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6184 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Shark teeth aren't made from bone
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It turns out, those infamous teeth are in fact razor-sharp modified placoid scales. Doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
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3250 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
How to care for a baby sloth
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Deforestation has left sloths in the wild almost homeless, but a woman in Costa Rica opened up a rescue centre to make sure the species survives. She has a sloth nursery that has provided us with some super cute sloth footage that helps raise awareness of the struggles faced by this species.
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2151 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
What it takes to find a mate
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This is a mating ritual being performed by a colony of James's Flamingoes ( Phoenicoparrus jamesi), native to Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. The males will all vocalise together, sticking their necks and heads straight up in the air, and turning them back and forth in unison to attract the females. ...
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4130 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
World's largest animals
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The blue whale is not only the largest animal alive currently, but is likely the largest animal ever to have lived. Depending on the location, blue whales can grow to be 33 meters (108 feet) and weigh as much as 181 metric tons (200 imperial tons).They can live to be 90 years old and ingest about 3.6 metric tons (4 imperial tons) of krill each day. Blue whale are considered endangered by the IUCN.
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4209 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
The king of the jungle is disappearing
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Lions are now critically endangered in West Africa. Although they once ranged continuously from Senegal to Nigeria, new research has revealed only around 250 adult lions survive in the region, and only one of the four isolated populations contains more than 50 individuals.
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7081 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Zonkey?
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This is Ippo, a three-month-old Italian zonkey. She is the result of a union between a male zebra and a female Amiata donkey, which is an endangered breed of donkey native to southern Tuscany. Genetic differences between the zebra and the donkey - donkeys have 62 chromosomes and zebras have between 32 and 46 - mean that hybrids like this are most often the result of a male zebra pairing with a female donkey. So far there have only been three recorded cases of a male donkey siring a zebra hybrid. ...
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4478 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
How to stand out in Australia
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A 2-year-old albino kangaroo has been spotted in Canberra’s Namadgi National Park. Albino kangaroos in the wild usually don’t survive because they stand out and become an easy target for predators. Albino animals also have a genetic predisposition towards sight and hearing issues, making life in the wild almost impossible—but Rene(e), which is always surrounded by its mob, has survived against all odds.
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4682 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Wombats have cube-shaped poop
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Wombat droppings are cube-shaped. This prevents them from rolling away when marking their territory. These cube-shaped poop looks like, but doesn't taste like chocolate brownies.
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12070 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Imagine staying in flight for six months straight
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New data shows alpine swift can spend up to 200 days in the air. It is a mystery how the birds are able to physiologically accomplish this feat. While their diet is relatively straightforward, they feed on airborne insects, how they rest in midair is not known.
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3583 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Long middle finger
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The aye-aye lives in the forests of Madagascar. Despite looking like a very scared rodent, the aye-aye is a kind of lemur with a bushy tail and super-thin, elongated middle fingers that they use to dig grubs out of hollow branches. Aye-ayes also have huge lower incisors to chew through wood and bamboo—and in captivity they’ve been known to chew through concrete cinder blocks ...
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5389 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
You big fat 'sea' pig!
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Sea pigs are marine animals around 15 cm long that live about 1,000 metres down on the deep sea floor. They are scotoplanes (sea cucumbers) and their 'legs' are actually elongated feet which are used to push food into their mouths. The apparent antennae on the front of the head are also feet, used to tread the deep sea water. They feed on deep ocean mud and thrive on the organic material present there. The sea pigs are not considered as a threat to humans and they are not an endangered species. ...
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4038 |
savio |
10 years ago |
One colourful duck
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The Mandarin duck is a sexually dimorphic species, meaning males and females differ in appearance. The male has a rich, colorful appearance, which includes brown cheeks and a long brown and white crown sweeping back from the top of the head. The chest is dark purple, with black and white strips, and the wings are brown with an iridescent blue-green edge. This striking coloration helps the male attract the less-colorful females, which display brownish-black plumage with white markings around the eyes and along the throat. ...
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3715 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Ever seen a potoo?
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Potoos are a small New World family of solitary and nocturnal birds. Most are so poorly known they seem more fiction than substance, their gruff or wailing cries ghostly delusions of the dim nocturnal world they inhabit.
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2736 |
savio |
10 years ago |
A parrot with a wicked hairstyle
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This is a Palm Cockatoo, also know as the Goliath Cockatoo. Palms are distinguished by their size, huge beak (second only to the Hyacinth Macaw among psittacines and largest proportionate to size), solid black feather coloration, large open crest, bare red cheeks, and red and black tongue. You have to see their tongues to believe the coloration. It's amazing. Palm Cockatoos are severely threatened. They are CITES Appendix I birds and are protected in Australia. As a testament to their rarity, typical prices in the U.S. for Aterrimus Palms are around $8000 and Goliaths around $14,000. Perhaps contributing to their rarity is the fact that, according to both Low and Forshaw, they lay only one egg per clutch. ...
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5911 |
savio |
10 years ago |
Bunnies that glow in the dark
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Glow-in-the-dark rabbits were born a few days ago at the University of Istanbul, Turkey. To produce the ‘mutant’ bunnies, researchers took two embryos from a pregnant female rabbit, injected them with a fluorescent jellyfish protein, and reinserted them into the female rabbit. The scientists believe this experiment could help in the development of better, more efficient ways to produce medicines.
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3287 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
World's largest fish species
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This photo shows a diver almost being eaten by a whale shark, the world's largest fish species. Marine photographer Mauricio Handler captured the intense moment during a dive in Isla Mujeres, Mexico, when more than 600 of the 12-metre-long animals gathered to feed on tuna spawn.
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3093 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Global warming, a cause for hunger
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A lack of sea ice caused by global warming meant this polar bear was unable to hunt seals and died of starvation. The carcass was found in northern Svalbard, Norway, far from its normal range, where he probably was looking for food.
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3159 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Leafy Seadragon
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This is the spectacular Leafy Seadragon. Its dangling skin disguises the vulnerable species as floating seaweed. Like seahorses, the male Leafy Seadragon carries the eggs, which are bright pink when the female first deposits them, but turn purple or orange when they're ready to hatch after nine weeks.
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2197 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Dumbo Octopus
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The Dumbo Octopus belongs to the genus Grimpoteuthis, and is given its nickname based on its resemblance to the large-eared Disney elephant. They can live up to 7,000 meters below the surface, though many are found between 1,000 and 4,000 meters. It feeds unlike any other octopus, by skimming the surface of the sea floor looking for crustaceans to swallow whole. The largest specimen on record was 1.8 m (6ft) long, weighing 5.9 kg (13 pounds).
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1 |
4086 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Who ever said snakes aren't cute
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Blunt headed tree snakes, a genus of colubrid snakes found in Mexico, Central America, and the northern part of South America.
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1 |
7617 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
A strange surrogate mother
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After the tsunami in 2004, an orphaned baby hippo was found stranded on a coral reef off the coast of Kenya. He was brought to a wildlife sanctuary, but couldn’t be put with the other hippos because the oldest male may have viewed him as a threat and killed him. The hippo, named Owen, was put in with a 130-year-old tortoise named Mzee. Owen was desperate for a mother figure and immediately took to Mzee. In the coming months, the two became inseparable. They snuggled together and even tried to communicate. While hippos are known for being social, the same is not true for tortoises. Workers at the sanctuary feared for Mzee’s safety as Owen continued to grow. They were separated in 2007 and a young female hippo named Cleo provided companions ...
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4916 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
A shrimp is the world's loudest animal?
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Meet the pistol shrimp. It is known to be the loudest animal and can emit a sound up to 200 decibels which it uses to stun its prey using its pincers. Check out the video below:
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2 |
3282 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
A mother's touch
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Human babies and mouse pups both automatically and deeply relax when carried by their mums, new research has revealed. The study showed the babies' heart rates slowed down and their nervous and motor systems relaxed when they were carried, suggesting it doesn't just feel good, its an essential mother-infant interaction.
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4991 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Close up of a llama's eye
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This is a close up of a llama eye. The strange "ruffles" are called 'iridic granules' (corpora nigra) and they are used to to shade the eye from bright sunlight. In bright light these iridic granules can actually interlock to completely cover the centre of the pupil. This leaves just two holes open on either end of the pupil, reducing the amount of light that can enter the eye. These odd looking structures are also found in horses, cattle and sheep.
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6363 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
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3040 |
bio_man |
11 years ago |
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2874 |
bio_man |
11 years ago |