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.

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. ...

Whenever anyone mentions the word possum, I immediately recall the Simpsons episode where Homer conducts the monorail.


However, unlike the possums found in Homer's closet, the animal you see right above is a western pygmy possum, native to Australia. It might look absolutely tiny, but it's actually one of the largest species of pygmy possum in the world. Another interesting fact is that like all pygmy possums, the western pygmy possum is great at entering mini hibernating periods called torpor.

Source: http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/blogs/creatura-blog/2014/09/western-pygmy-possum-burramyidae/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=soc.fb.140925.pygmypossum ...

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 ...

Turns out big cats like the taste of dog - a new study of scat samples found that 87 per cent of the diet of Indian leopards was made up of domestic animals, with dogs being the most common prey item.

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.