Ecology & Zoology

How would you be feeling, if you had parked your boat in the marina at Caergybi (Holyhead) just off Ynys Môn (Anglesey, see map below) and found its anchor chains covered with this? ...

Blog Post - Robert H Olley - Mar 23 2010 - 3:24am

Hobbits Are Lame

I have yet to be bored watching the 27-and-a-half-hour extended versions of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy with the kids. It is truly an awe-inspiring cinematic masterpiece. There is, however, one persistently annoying aspect of the trilogy that I am ...

Article - Mark Changizi - Mar 23 2010 - 11:58am

Eightfold Path To Cephalopod Domination

Now that the latest battle in the invertebrate wars seems to have died down a bit (victors inconclusive, of course), I can post a list of cool things about cephalopods that have put them in the news lately, without it necessarily having to serve as ammunit ...

Article - Danna Staaf - Mar 24 2010 - 9:50pm

Insects In Stasis

At Nature's Innocentive site, (a directory for X-prizes), there is an entry looking for someone who can develop a standard method of placing insects into a latent state and then reanimating them. If you figure it out, you can win 20,000 bucks. What& ...

Article - David Sloan - Mar 26 2010 - 6:26pm

Hyenas' Laughter Gives Clues About Age, Dominance And Identity

Scientists writing in BMC Ecology say the "giggle" sound made by spotted hyenas has revealed that the animals' laughter encodes information about age, dominance and identity. Researchers recorded the calls of 26 hyenas in captivity and fou ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 8 2010 - 7:05pm

Ground-Nesting Wasps- Great To Watch If You Get A Chance- Keep A Sharp Eye Out!

One day last summer, I was making a feeble stab at cleaning the deck (or as I like to call it the “backyard basement!”) There was a long, thin plastic planter (junk) with dirt in it sprouting some grasses that had happened there on their own. I noticed a ...

Article - Mark Berman - Mar 30 2010 - 9:04pm

Plant behavior

One of the most interesting things about plants is that they do exhibit behavior (i.e. movement in response to their environment), even if humans rarely notice it. We don't notice their actions because they act very slowly. In fact, the usually act by ...

Blog Post - Adam Retchless - Apr 1 2010 - 9:42pm

The Supurb Lyrebird (and skepticism!)

Birds in general are impressive creatures, but the Supurb lyrebird takes the cake for its ability to mimic sounds. Here's a video demonstrating its ability to mimic construction sounds. You can listen while you read the rest of this post: ...

Blog Post - Adam Retchless - Apr 3 2010 - 9:30am

Snowy Tree Cricket: Woodland Thermometer

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Blog Post - Heidi Henderson - Jan 6 2012 - 6:25pm

Scorpions mimicking flowers?

I was watching a wildlife documentary several years ago. The commentor said that scorpions glow under black light (UV light) and proceeded to demonstrate it and it was fascinating to see all those glowing bodies on the desert floor. In passing, he mentione ...

Blog Post - Ariel Zabat - Apr 6 2010 - 4:04pm