Administrator Stan Posted February 15, 2021 Administrator Share Posted February 15, 2021 A new version of that 'soon' meme has just been born. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted February 20, 2021 Subscriber Share Posted February 20, 2021 Quote Endangered ferret cloned from specimen frozen for 30 years The healthy young ferret kit was bred using the genes of an animal that died more than 30 years ago. The future of the endangered black-footed ferret looks a little brighter following the birth of this adorable little bundle of teeth and fur. Named Elizabeth Ann, the tiny kit was born on 10 December 2020 at the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center (NBFFCC) in Colorado thanks to the conservation efforts of a collaboration led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Her birth marks the first time an endangered species native to the US has been successfully cloned. FULL REPORT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted February 24, 2021 Subscriber Share Posted February 24, 2021 (edited) Quote Yellow penguin spotted in Antarctica—here's why it's so rare On an expedition to the South Atlantic in 2019, Belgian photographer Yves Adams expected a familiar sight: king penguins, easily identified by the black and yellow feathers adorning their heads and necks, and the orange flash of colour running the length of their beaks. Instead, Adams saw something electrifying: a vivid yellow penguin. On the shore known as Salisbury Plains on South Georgia Island, as many as 120,000 king penguins have been observed milling about, in a veritable sea of black feathers. But the animal Adams saw stood out from the rest: A bird with an ivory-white bill, a cream-coloured body, and a mane of lemon-hued feathers. Adams was offloading equipment from the expedition ship when he saw the unique bird amid a group of other penguins. He dropped everything and grabbed his camera. (See more pictures of the yellow penguin on Adams' Instagram.) "To our surprise, they swam towards us,” Adams recounted in an email. “So for a few minutes we were very lucky, and I was so happy I got these good photo conditions!” During the two-month expedition, Adams took thousands of photos. It wasn’t until recently that he finally went through each one and edited the special photos, which have since gone viral. In some cases when an individual animal’s colouring diverges sharply from the species’ typical colouration, it’s an example of albinism. In this case, penguin expert P. Dee Boersma says the proper term for the yellow-maned bird is leucism, a genetic mutation in which an animal is mostly white but can produce some pigment. (See a picture of a “blonde” chinstrap penguin.) “How they lack pigment kind of differs between individuals but, in general, it looks like they've been dipped in bleach,” says Boersma, a conservation biologist at the University of Washington and a National Geographic Explorer. Bird of a different colour Daniel Thomas, an ornithologist and expert in penguin pigments at the Massey University of New Zealand, also agrees that the bird is most likely leucistic, and not albino, which occurs when there is a total lack of pigment. "There are two different melanin pigments—eumelanin and phaeomelanin," Thomas says in an email. "Eumelanin is responsible for black colouration (and most shiny blues and greens), and phaeomelanin is responsible for brown and chestnut colours." Looking closely at the yellow penguin photos, Thomas points to the dark border between the yellow and white feathers, as well as the beige feathers on the penguin's back, as evidence that the bird is still producing pheomelanin but no eumelanin—a common arrangement for leucistic birds, he says. In 38 years of studying penguins, Boersma figures she could count on two hands the number of leucistic animals she’s seen. And though she’s never personally seen a leucistic king penguin, she’s not surprised they’re out there. There have been numerous reported observations of leucistic king, rockhopper, and macaroni penguins. In 2019, a king penguin with a brown genetic mutation, which turned its grey feathers tan, was spotted in South Georgia. (Read more about king penguins, one of the tallest species.) Rare but not unique It’s not possible to tell if the yellow penguin is a male or a female just by looking at it, Adams says. But discolouration can be a problem for male Magellanic penguins, a species Boersma studies when it comes time to find a mate. “If you're a female, you'll be fine, because there are about three males to every female,” she says—but males that look different don’t stand much chance of mating. As a result the leucistic trait only has an opportunity to get passed on roughly half the time. (See pictures of albino and leucistic animals, from squirrels to crayfish.) The king penguin population is increasing, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists them as “of least concern.” But generally, when uncommon colourations do get passed on, they can endanger the individuals and further increase their rarity. When penguins have more pigment in their feathers than normal—a condition called melanism—it gives them a darker colour overall. These darker animals may be more visible than other penguins in the water, and have a harder time sneaking up on fish. And paler penguins are more likely to be eaten by leopard seals or killer whales in the Antarctic, she says. So “you're not going to get a chance to see very many,” Boersma says—a fact that makes Adams’ sighting all the more amazing. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/spotlight/yellow-penguin-spotted-in-antarctica—heres-why-its-so-rare/ar-BB1dWRq3?li=AAnZ9Ug Edited February 24, 2021 by CaaC (John) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devil Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 On 17/12/2020 at 20:04, Carnivore Chris said: @Bluewolf, @nudge Unbelievable the speed in which that was basically done and dusted. So powerful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted March 6, 2021 Subscriber Share Posted March 6, 2021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted March 10, 2021 Subscriber Share Posted March 10, 2021 Quote Scotland, Highlands. Friendly dolphin makes a welcome visit to Oban Bay A stroll along Oban’s front to catch a glimpse of the famous otter resulted in a pleasant surprise for a local wildlife spotter. Dan Earl was enjoying his daily walk from Soroba towards Ganavan beach when a friendly dolphin popped up swimming unusually close to the shore. The dolphin was near Dunollie Castle, where an otter has become a familiar sight. Mr Earl, 43, had his trusty camera in tow, along with six-month-old son David in the pram. He said: “It’s kind of a hobby. There is Ollie of Dunollie, the local otter, and I do a daily walk down there. “There’s not much else to do in lockdown in Oban. We walk down from Soroba and when my son goes to sleep I have got two hours to take pictures. “I was looking for Ollie on Saturday. He wasn’t there, but this little creature came along. It was to the left of the little bay, by the lighthouse at the war memorial, just after Dunollie Castle. “I’ve never seen a dolphin in the bay before. It was just swimming around, then it went into the deeper channel where the ferries go and off it went. “It was almost as if it was waiting for the ferry to pass before crossing. “You see the otter quite a lot on the shore, sometimes coming up onto the grass. “They recently named him Ollie of Dunollie – maybe they can call the dolphin Dollie.” Another member of the public spotted the dolphin on Saturday at around 2 pm and alerted the coastguard, concerned that it may come to harm. Iain MacKinnon, Oban coastguard station officer, said: “We went out with some volunteers from British Divers Marine Life Rescue but never saw it. “We were delighted to see the photographs of it looking quite happy on Facebook later that day.” Prof Ben Wilson, a marine mammal specialist at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (Sams) in Oban, said: “It appears to be a common dolphin, which is a normally gregarious species, often seen riding the bow wave of ships out at sea. They are found in this area, around Mull and Ardnamurchan, but are usually seen in groups, so it is unusual to see one on its own and it’s certainly not a frequent sighting in Oban Bay.” Oban’s resident otter has become so popular that local support group, Martyn’s Monday Club, ran a competition to give him a name. https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands/2959027/friendly-dolphin-makes-a-welcome-visit-to-oban-bay/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azeem Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 There is a jelly fish that never ages biologically. It reverts back to a sexually immature state Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted March 12, 2021 Subscriber Share Posted March 12, 2021 (edited) Quote Origin of the world’s largest lizard More evidence that Komodo dragons came from Australia. Unravelling the origins of the Earth’s largest living lizard, the Komodo dragon, scientists have found that its ancestors bred with sand monitor lizards from Australia and southern New Guinea millions of years ago. “The Komodo dragon and sand monitors share more genetic variants between them than expected, suggesting they bred with each other in the past,” says lead researcher Carlos Pavón Vázquez, from Australian National University. “Also, the sand monitors are more similar in their physical appearance to the Komodo dragon than what you would expect if hybridisation had not occurred.” The comprehensive study, published in the journal Systematic Biology, adds to evidence that the giant lizards (Varanus komodoensis) likely originated in Australia – not their current home in Indonesia, as originally surmised. Their large size had been attributed to conditions on the islands, such as lack of competition with other predators and sizeable prey such as now-extinct dwarf elephants. The researchers suggest they crossed the sea to get into Indonesia before becoming extinct in Australia – independently confirming previous suggestions based on fossil records. “In Australia, there weren’t any dwarf elephants, and the Komodo dragon lived alongside other large predators such as the marsupial lion, the Megalania (an even larger monitor lizard) and terrestrial crocodiles,” says Pavón Vázquez. “Thus, we need to rethink the reasons behind the uniqueness of the Komodo dragon, as it didn’t originate in those tiny islands where it now lives.” In shedding new light on the dragon’s origins, the team’s primary focus was hybridisation – successful interspecies breeding. Because past studies have shown the conflict between evolutionary stories told by different genes in the Komodo dragon and other closely related monitor lizards, Pavón Vázquez and the team wanted to check if hybridisation was at play. Technical advances are revealing this is more widespread in nature than previously thought, they say, suggesting it has played an important role in evolution. They collected genetic data from the dragon and other species of the monitor lizard. They also obtained measurements such as head, leg and tail length from valuable specimens in natural history collections to test whether the conflict between genes was due to hybridisation or other evolutionary phenomena. They also reconstructed ancient geographic ranges of the lizards based on their current distributions and relationships between them – which support the view that the dragon and sand monitors lived together in northern Australia millions of years ago. Learning about the dragon’s evolution has important conservation implications. The powerful three-metre-long lizard, which can slay large prey including pigs, deer, buffalos and even the random human, is under threat. “By learning more about the Komodo dragon’s past and how it responded to changes in its environment,” says Pavón Vázquez, “we can be better prepared to design conservation strategies that will safeguard this iconic animal from the catastrophic effects that human activities have on our planet and its inhabitants.” https://cosmosmagazine.com/nature/animals/origin-of-the-worlds-largest-lizard/ Edited March 12, 2021 by CaaC (John) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted March 16, 2021 Subscriber Share Posted March 16, 2021 (edited) Quote What’s the longest a cat can live for? What is the average lifespan for a cat – and who were the world's oldest cats? The lifespan of a domestic cat – the maximum length an individual can expect to live – is around 30 years. However, this doesn’t mean that the average cat will live this long: the real length of a feline’s life is influenced by genetics, environment and lifestyle, as well as injury and illness. Cats tend to live around 15 years, on average. As in humans, female cats tend to live for longer than male cats. Neutered cats are also likely to live for longer than intact ones, and pure breed cats are less likely to live as long as crossbreeds. Top 5 oldest cats Creme Puff (38 years and 3 days) 3 August 1967 – 6 August 2005 Guinness World Records lists Creme Puff, a tabby mix, as the oldest cat ever to live. She was owned by Jake Perry of Austin, Texas. Baby (38 years) 1970 – March 2008 In second place is Baby, a black domestic shorthair who lived in the USA and also reached 38 years old. Puss (36 years and 1 day) 28 November 1903 – 29 November 1939 The 1990 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records listed Puss as the oldest cat ever recorded. The tabby was owned by Mrs T Holway of Devon and died the day after his 36th birthday. Ma (34 years and 5 months) May-June 1923 – 5 November 1957 In the same edition, Guinness features Ma, a female tabby owned by Mrs Alice St George Moore, also of Devon. Granpa Rexs Allen (34 years, 2 months) Also owned by Jake Perry, Granpa Rexa Allen was a Sphynx-Devon Rex who lived to the age of 34. Perry claims that the cat’s diet was the secret to its long life: eggs, broccoli, bacon and coffee with cream. https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/whats-the-longest-a-cat-can-live-for/ Edited March 16, 2021 by CaaC (John) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carnivore Chris Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 I saw a weasel the other day trying to kill rabbits. It was on the other side of the canal(in the countryside), I tried to get some snaps but it was too fast jumping about trying to grab rabbits. They are quick little bastards. It's great seeing weasels or stoats as they aren't an animal you see everyday. You've got to love them and their hunting abilities. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted March 27, 2021 Subscriber Share Posted March 27, 2021 A friend of the daughters took this photo of her pet rats asleep, Big Banana and Little Penny, all peaceful with Pennys leg tucked over Big Banana zzzzzzzzzzzz 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluewolf Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 I don't think I have seen anyone crap themselves as much as this bloke.... But then you take silly chances.... Just wanted a little taste - 9GAG 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber nudge+ Posted March 30, 2021 Subscriber Share Posted March 30, 2021 14 minutes ago, Bluewolf said: I don't think I have seen anyone crap themselves as much as this bloke.... But then you take silly chances.... Just wanted a little taste - 9GAG Love how he just took a little nibble there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted March 30, 2021 Subscriber Share Posted March 30, 2021 17 minutes ago, Bluewolf said: I don't think I have seen anyone crap themselves as much as this bloke.... But then you take silly chances.... Just wanted a little taste - 9GAG What a plonker, I bet he won't swim next to them again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carnivore Chris Posted March 31, 2021 Author Share Posted March 31, 2021 Ave rapaz: raptor Alcatraz Atlántico: Northern gannet Cormorán Grande: great cormorant Cormorán Moñudo: great Shah Pelícano común: great White pelican Avetorillo Común: little bittern Garceta común: little egret Garceta Grande: great egret Garza Real: grey heron Garza Imperial: purple heron Cigüeña Negra: black stork Cigüeña Blanca: White stork Grulla Común: common crane Espátula Común: Eurasian spoonbill Ansar Común: greylag goose Barnacla Cariblanca: barnacle goose Ánade Azulón: Mallard Cisne Real: mute swan Cisne Negro: black swan Focha Común: Eurasian coot Gallineta Común: Common moorhen Somormujo lavanco: great crested grebe Ostrero Euroasiático: Eurasian Oystercatcher Avefría Europea: Northern lapwing Zarapito Real: Eurasian Curlew Gaviota Reidora: black headed gull Gaviota Sombría: lesser black backed gull Gavión Atlántico: Great black backed gull Charrán Común: common tern Charrán Ártico: Arctic tern Frailecillo Atlántico: Atlantic Puffin Lechuza común: barn owl Búho Real: eagle owl Cárabo Común: Tawny owl Búho Chico: long eared owl Búho Campestre: short eared owl Abejero Europeo: honey buzzard Milano Negro: black kite Águila Rapaz: Tawny eagle Esmerejón: Merlin Alcotán Europeo: Eurasian hobby Codorniz Común: common quail Faisán Vulgar: common pheasant Cuco Común: common cuckoo Paloma Torcaz: Wood Pigeon Paloma Bravía: Rock dove Tórtola Turca: Eurasian collared dove Tórtola Europea: Turtle dove Pico Picapinos: great spotted woodpecker Pico Menor: spotted woodpecker Pito Real: Green woodpecker Vencejo Común: common swift Avión Común: House Martín Avión Zapato: Sand Martin Golondrina Común: barn swallow Lavandera Blanca: White wagtail Cochín Común: winter wren Petirrojo Europeo: European robin Mirlo Común: black Bird Zorzal Común: song thrush Herrerillo Común: blue Tit Herrerillo Capuchino: crested tit Carbonero Común: great tit Carbonero Garrapinos: coal tit Mito: long tailed tit Trepador Azul: nuthatch Pinzón Vulgar: chaffinch Verderón Común: greenfinch Jilguero Europeo: goldfinch Jilguero Lúgano: siskin Estornino Pinto: starling Arrendajo Euroasiático: Eurasian jay Corneja Negra: carrion Crow Grajilla Occidental: jackdaw Nevermind me, just some new vocabulary of bird names that I've learnt in Spanish, which I want to copy over from my phone to tablet and this was the quickest way . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Stan Posted April 7, 2021 Administrator Share Posted April 7, 2021 I do not own a cat but I feel like this cat now owns me They were purring really loudly so it got me out of bed wondering what the craic was. One of them walked off to let this demon cat possess me on its own. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted April 13, 2021 Subscriber Share Posted April 13, 2021 21 incredible pictures from the Bird Photographer of the Year 2021 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carnivore Chris Posted April 13, 2021 Author Share Posted April 13, 2021 (edited) I'm thinking of going up to Leighton Moss tomorrow. It's a huge nature reserve(mainly birds, but also red deers, otters and an abundance of other animals), I've been flirting with the idea for a while as I haven't been since I was a kid but the amount of species up there is unreal. I even remember seeing a Bittern up there, which is one of Britain's rarest birds. There are alsorts up there and plenty of birds of prey, including Ospreys, which is a bird I've never seen before as they mainly stuck to the lake District back then(although it's not far from the lakes to be fair). Edited April 13, 2021 by Carnivore Chris 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber nudge+ Posted April 27, 2021 Subscriber Share Posted April 27, 2021 Whoa, how cool is this??? A Gharial crocodile carrying his hatchlings. Click on the pic to see it full size! 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rucksackfranzose Posted April 27, 2021 Share Posted April 27, 2021 1 minute ago, nudge said: Whoa, how cool is this??? A Gharial crocodile carrying his hatchlings. Click on the pic to see it full size! Thought crocodiles tend to cannibalism, seemingly only if it's not their own hatchlings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber nudge+ Posted April 27, 2021 Subscriber Share Posted April 27, 2021 4 minutes ago, Rucksackfranzose said: Thought crocodiles tend to cannibalism, seemingly only if it's not their own hatchlings. Not the gharials, apparently! They feed almost exclusively on fish and small crustaceans Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted April 27, 2021 Subscriber Share Posted April 27, 2021 7 minutes ago, nudge said: Not the gharials, apparently! They feed almost exclusively on fish and small crustaceans Weird looking buggers, I don't think I would like getting bitten with their teeth let alone a croc's choppers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber nudge+ Posted April 27, 2021 Subscriber Share Posted April 27, 2021 1 minute ago, CaaC (John) said: Weird looking buggers, I don't think I would like getting bitten with their teeth let alone a croc's choppers. Looks like a mix of a crocodile and Scrat from Ice Age The males look even weirder, as they have a weird bump at the end of that long snout! They use it to make buzzing sounds to attract females, and they also keep harems of female gharials They are also extremely docile and not dangerous to humans at all Probably one of the reasons why they are also critically endangered and will probably become extinct in our lifetime... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Gonzo Posted April 27, 2021 Share Posted April 27, 2021 48 minutes ago, nudge said: Looks like a mix of a crocodile and Scrat from Ice Age The males look even weirder, as they have a weird bump at the end of that long snout! They use it to make buzzing sounds to attract females, and they also keep harems of female gharials They are also extremely docile and not dangerous to humans at all Probably one of the reasons why they are also critically endangered and will probably become extinct in our lifetime... The male one looks like it's wearing a shit wig on it's nose. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted April 30, 2021 Subscriber Share Posted April 30, 2021 Quote Researchers find frogmouth is the world’s most Instagrammable bird Frames - 1/5 If someone were to ask what the most “Instagrammable” bird in the world would be, it’s unlikely that the frogmouth – whose main aesthetic goal is to look like a jagged tree branch – would be front of mind. But it seems science says otherwise, the dishevelled looking Australian and south-east Asian native taking out the top spot in a study from Germany’s University Hospital Jena, which aimed to see which bird species reigned supreme on the photo-sharing app. The study, published last week by German researchers Dr Katja Thömmes and Dr Gregor Hayn-Leichsenring set out to analyse nearly 30,000 bird photos from nine popular avian photography Instagram accounts, using an algorithm to record which photos comparatively attracted the most “likes” on the photo-sharing platform. As the study’s summary suggests, the aim was simple: to learn “what makes a great bird photo?”. But even the researchers admit the frogmouth was a “surprising winner” for the category of “Instagram’s most aesthetically appealing bird”. Guardian readers may not be as surprised by the result, voting the tawny frogmouth second in the 2019 bird of the year poll. Frogmouths are often mistaken for owls, although they share little of their majestic grace. The stocky, dishevelled birds have piercing yellow eyes and wide, hooked beak, giving them their name. According to Bushland Heritage Australia the scientific name for the tawny frogmouth, Podargus strigoides, is a combination of the species name strigoides, meaning owl-like, and podargus, which is derived from the Greek word for gout. Why? Because their small, non-taloned feet are said to make them “walk like a gout-ridden man”. Hardly the traditional glamorous aesthetic Instagram users are drawn to. And yet, using an algorithm developed by Thömmes which gives every photo an Image Aesthetic Appeal score, this prehistoric-looking bird came out on top. “The surprising winner in this ranking is the frogmouth, which seems to be a matter of poetic justice, as this nocturnal bird with very distinct facial features was once designated ‘the world’s most unfortunate-looking bird’,” the study says, referring to an article in Nature Australia in 2004. “The frogmouth brings that factor of surprise as it just does not look like any other bird, with its almost anthropomorphic facial features,” Thömmes told the New York Times. “I must admit that I have grown quite fond of this peculiar nocturnal bird myself.” In one of the reports more scathing lines, the researchers mused that “the ranking of bird families demonstrates that the IAA score is not necessarily tied to the beauty of the depicted bird”. “Presumably interestingness, idiosyncrasy and the situational context all play their part in the aesthetic appeal of bird photos to the human observer.” After the frogmouth came a number of colourful pigeons with decorative plumage. The emerald turaco was also high up, with its mohawk-like crown of bright green feathers, followed by the hoopoe, an African bird with striking black and white stripes, a long beak and a similarly impressive punk hairstyle. Down the very bottom was the sandpiper and the oystercatcher, which the researcher suggested may be due to the species often being photographed “in the act of eating lugworms and seashells”. Storks and vultures were also among the most neglected on Instagram. The IAA score works by taking the absolute numbers of “likes” from a post and then factoring in the size of the account and the time the post has been public. It then produces an “expected” number of likes the post “should” receive and scores it based on the percentage of likes it received over or under this. The tawny frogmouth averaged 19, leading with a respectable margin, while on the other end the sandpiper was given a minus 23. Fellow researcher Hayn-Leichsenring told the New York Times it was his idea to use Thömmes’s IAA scores to rank bird photographs. “I thought this method, the IAA score, will be a great tool to investigate bird photographs in terms of aesthetic appeal and inform people which birds are the most photogenic,” he said. “Or possibly, I just wondered why nobody likes my own bird photographs.” https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandscience/researchers-find-frogmouth-is-worlds-most-instagrammable-bird/ar-BB1gcONC?li=AAnZ9Ug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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