Home Range

Global Amphibian Blitz

2011-05-26T08:54:00.002-05:00

A new citizen-science project has kicked off this week called the Global Amphibian Blitz. It is like eBird in that it hopes to gather large amounts of distribution data via a network of observers around the world. Also like eBird it is a good way to store your observations for your personal records.

Another interesting feature is the ability to upload photos of your observations. This is useful if you are unsure of a species identification. This allows other people to weigh in on the correct species ID.

The first day in operation the database recorded observations of 154 species from 18 countries.

Freaky Optical Illusion

2011-02-26T13:53:00.002-05:00

This moving pattern really messes with your vision. Very weird.

http://www.neave.com/strobe/

BBC - Chemistry, a volatile history

2011-02-21T15:09:00.003-05:00

I just finished watching a 3 part BBC series by Professor Jim Al-Khalili called Chemistry, a volatile history. Orignally broadcast in 2010. I particularly enjoyed going through the stories about the discovery of some of the 92 naturally occurring elements. Above Al-Khalili holds a flask containing burning Phosphorous, the first element discovered that does not occur naturally in a pure elemental form. An alchemist was attempting to transmute Urine into Gold. It took over 1000 liters of urine to produce 60 grams of phosphorous.

The series also has the fascinating story of the creation of the periodic table and the creation of man-made elements including Plutonium.

I found the series informative and recommend watching it, especially for students who may need a bit of inspiration while studying chemistry.

BBC Page for Series

The series is available to watch on Youtube, but is annoyingly split up into 6 clips per episode, I think because of Youtube's limitations.

Geosense - Online Geography Game

2010-11-30T14:00:00.004-05:00

I have enjoyed playing this online geography game for years. I even played it while in Iraq in 2004. It is a great way to brush up on your geography with a seemingly limitless database of obscure locations in countries around the world. You can play with several maps (World, Europe or US) and you can play alone and rack up points or you can play against someone. The target location is displayed on the top of the map and you click on the corresponding place on the map. Points are awarded for speed and how close you get to the actual location.

I am pretty good and often pummel my opponents who don't know what continent Ghana is on, for example. I at least can locate almost every country and if I don't know the actual city or town location I can take a wild guess (Doesn't work so well for Russian locations). Interestingly I sometimes come across a prodigy who really knows their esoteric map knowledge. I have found in several instances their uncanny knowledge falls apart in the United States and they place Ohio in Arizona and I can get back on equal footing with them. Not sure why that is.

This is a great game for kids to increase their geography knowledge substantially. The competitive nature helps keep them interested.

Geosense Website

Gigapan - Inexpensive Robotic Camera Mount

2010-11-29T18:23:00.004-05:00

I came across this website and was fascinated with the images produced with even a cheap digital camera.

Gigapan Systems was established as a commercial spinoff of research from NASA and Carnegie Mellon University to produce high resolution panoramic photos.

Essentially a small robotic camera mount takes hundreds to thousands of pictures of a subject and software stitches these images together to produce a seamless high resolution image.

The model of the Gigapan system for small digital cameras is about 300 bucks.

Here's a 45 Gigapixel shot of Dubai

North Carolina State University's Insect Museum digitized hundreds of their drawers of specimens using Gigapan. The snapshot feature allows for annotation of the image such as species determinations and loan requests.

Autotune this

2010-11-23T11:24:00.002-05:00

I have been enjoying the creative exploits of The Gregory Brothers, who have used the Autotune program to make some hilarious videos. Their latest is a mashup of a bizarre and entertaining Adidas Video feature Slim Chin - Beast of the Far East. He sound like Malibu's most wanted.

I know what I'm giving for Christmas

2010-11-22T21:53:00.002-05:00

Toy Exec: I need some new ideas people!!!

Designer: How about a Dachschund that eats then takes a dump. The winner is the person with the most dog crap.

Toy Exec: Brilliant!! Make the poop neon.

via Boing Boing

3-D printing in glass, metal, plastic

2010-11-22T12:30:00.004-05:00

I've been fascinated by stereolithography since I heard about it years ago. Originally it involved lasers and a polymer bath. The 3-D object literally rose out of the liquid polymer as it was being cured by the laser.

While not exactly the same process this company ShapeWays in the Netherlands looks extremely interesting. Essentially, they can bring your 3-D models to life in a variety of materials from stainless steel to glass to metal. I'm thinking this would be a great thing to use to teach kids or adults to use the 3-D modeling software packages.

In the past prototyping was an expensive process and was a barrier to entry. Now someone at home with an idea for a widget has the capability to get it done cheaply and professionally.

Video showing huge stereolithography machine making a car bumper prototype

History of the World in 100 Objects

2010-11-19T23:30:00.002-05:00

I've been listening to this BBC Radio 4 series, broken up into 15 minute segments called the History of the World in 100 Objects. The director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor tells the story of history through 100 objects from the Museum collection. He uses an individual object as a jumping off point for great themes of human history. Each object has an associated page where you can examine the object in detail. Very worthwhile.

Radio 4 History of the World Homepage

Beetle Sumo - Go Heracross!

2008-08-03T13:58:00.005-05:00

Here's a video about The Beetle Battle Event in Japan. It looks like they use a variety of rhinoceros and hercules beetles. Note the perfect form in the video of a beetle doing a suplex. There is a pokemon-like thing going on. The kid talking about his beetle fighting so hard for him could just as well be talking about Pikachu or should I say Heracross. In fact there is a pokemon-like game involving various beetles called Mushiking which is very popular in Japan. Pet insects are also extremely popular in Japan. There are magazines devoted to them and some are even sold in vending machines.

Some people in Japan are particularly nutty about spending giant amounts of money on rare beetles, especially really large Stag Beetles (Lucanidae). Mushiking, has apparently accelerated this with hundreds of thousands of Stag Beetles and Rhinoceros Beetles being imported yearly. Many enthusiasts rear the beetles, but most are caught in the wild. Apparently a subspecies of a large eurasian Stag Beetle species is being overcollected in Turkey to fuel the Japanese market. The high price commanded by the beetles has even spawned a black market, with would-be beetle dealers smuggling live beetles out of places like national parks in Nepal.

Annual Training - Fort Indiantown Gap Pennsylvania

2008-07-23T20:00:00.007-05:00

I just spent about two weeks with my Army National Guard unit at Fort Indiantown Gap, PA. This large PA National Guard training area has lots of interesting wildlife, including the only eastern population of the Regal Fritillary, a large orange butterfly. There were a few public butterfly walks, but I was training at the time. The base has a very active conservation management program and The Nature Conservancy sponsored by the National Guard has been conducting studies on the butterfly and its management since 1992.

I've been to the Gap about 5 times in the last 10 years and have had some good wildlife sightings here. This is the only place I have ever seen two particular species of salamanders, the Northern Red Salamander and the Long-tailed salamander. Both are pretty striking species.

My unit's field exercise was next to a large area that is maintained as a grassland. There were quite a few Grasshopper Sparrows, Field Sparrows and Eastern Meadowlarks singing in the area as well as a pair of resident American Kestrels that hunted the fields. The field we were in had butterfly weed and lots of Dogbane with lots of Dogbane Leaf Beetles eating them. Some butterflies I saw were Common Buckeye, Monarch, Red Admiral, Pipevine Swallowtail, Spicebush Swallowtail, Yellow Swallowtail, Zebra Swallowtail and Pearl Crescent.

I believe FTIG has the largest intact grasslands remaining in the northeast. Disturbance from track vehicles as well as small fires started by training exercises contribute to the maintenance of the grasslands. Annual mowing also keeps the woody plants at bay. In historic times the disturbance from large herds of bison and natural and man-made fires are thought to have maintained the grasslands. The biggest drops in grassland species have been in the last 40 years as suburban sprawl is thought to have fragmented remnant grasslands.

This past week I also saw quite a few large Green Scarab Beetles (Cotinus nitida) buzzing around. I saw a posting from Ohio that proclaimed the annual terrorizing of gardeners and unsuspecting people outdoors had begun. Because they are large and loud and like to cruise 2 or 3 feet off the ground when flying, they frequently induce panic in those that are unfamiliar with them. I can attest to witnessing several people in my unit beating hasty retreats when the beetles appeared. Because the beetles emerge around the same time there were often 3 or 4 in the air around us at the same time. I excused myself from several conversations to chase them down and catch them.

Walking on a bridge over a small stream I saw a large wood turtle sunning itself on a rock. When it gets hot, wood turtles move to the water to cool off. The only snakes I saw were Eastern Garter Snakes, which I declined to catch because of their habit of crapping on me.

When I was at FTIG back in September of 2007 for a medical course I spent a few hours at the Second Mountain Hawkwatch, that is conducted on one of the ridges on the base. I saw a few Osprey, many turkey vultures and lots of migrating Monarch butterflies. I think they had 5 or 6 Bald Eagles that day, but it was before I arrived. I also took a walk down one of the trails and found quite a few large dusky salamanders and red efts (immature red spotted newts) as well as a spectacular large orange and black millipede (Apheloria virginiensis) shown in the picture above.

On my way home in September I passed through Swatara Gap State Park where I saw some cool black anthills near the river. The surface sand was white but there must have been a coal seam just underground since all the anthills were black. Near the same location I found a few marine fossils from the Ordovician period, mostly horn corals and brachiopods.

Links:

Lepidoptera of Fort Indiantown Gap - Paper describing the unique habitats and conservation importance of FTIG.

Turkey Vulture Migration Project - radio tracking TVs in Pennsylvania

PaleoEcology of the Swatara Gap Fauna

Public Data - Mining for Gold

2008-07-09T13:28:00.002-05:00

I saw an interesting story about how the Houston Chronicle has put the entire database of the names and salaries of 81,000 city of Houston employees online. Though all this is public data, they have put it all in one place for everyone to play with. I particularly love this estimate from Houston Community College of how much labor it would take to compile the data. 70 hours of programming and validation seem a little steep to join a table or two. Perhaps there we vacuum tubes and punch cards involved. I imagine it created quite a bit of angst for some on the payroll. Among the fascinating tidbits, someone made almost $100,000 in overtime in 1 year and the superintendent of schools made twice what the mayor did . Where do I apply? This is some serious territory for the data visualization folks. So many things can be done with this. Salary mapping by agency and district just scratches the surface. Of course the Chronicle is hoping to get some more story tips from the public miners of public data.

Journalists are becoming much more sophisticated in analyzing this type of data. The Institute for Analytical Journalism appears to be an organization that promotes this. Using network analysis, spatial statistics, GIS and various data mining algorithms all have huge potential to unlock patterns and actionable knowledge, not only in journalism but in many domains.

Newspaper stand to the world - Kidon-Media

2008-07-07T07:56:00.005-05:00

You're not going to see this on TV or in your local US paper. Rats are eating the mail in Francistown, Botswana.

"Instead of finding their mail neatly packed in the boxes, customers are met with chicken bones, used plastic forks and messed us papers" - Botswana Gazette

This is stuff I want to know! I don't care about the minutiae of some second rate starlet's life. This is what makes life interesting. This is the meat and potatoes of an true global infovore, not a rehash of the same old thing, with a thousand minor permutations. Creativity is often seen as the intersection of two previously unlinked ideas. Rats....mail.....chicken bones......plastic forks.....EUREKA!!!!!. Reading this type of thing is bound to spark a veritable lightning storm of creativity.

For years I've been going to the Dutch website Kidon-media link whenever I want a more in depth and local idea about things that are going on in the world. Unfortunately much of the world news in the US is really what are Americans doing in other countries. With the advent of passable machine translation it is possible to expand your reading far beyond your local language. I first used Altavista (now yahoo) Babelfish then switched to google's translation applications a few years ago. Teaming up Kidon and Google allows access to media in many major languages. Also many countries have at least one English language paper which can often be accessed online. Globally accessible media allows people to stay connected to their communities no matter where they live. I'm not sure if this is true but it seems that some languages like Chinese are much more amenable to machine translation. Perhaps there is less left to guessing or force fitting for the machine or there are less ambiguous idiomatic expressions. For a language like Arabic, MT is still useful, but the translations are often less satisfying.

Of course, learning the language makes for the best experience. I've liked using the Rosetta Stone products. Since I am a member of the military I have access to all the Rosetta Stone products through the Army web portal called AKO. The method of instruction and feedback is so intuitive that my children can easily master a module on counting in Hindi or learning the colors or Animals in Mandarin Chinese. The modules get progressively harder and sometimes it takes me a while to figure out what is trying to be communicated. I've focused primarily on Arabic and Spanish. I think its a great way to learn a lot of vocabulary, but I'm thinking that more advanced conversation requires a bit more.

Eye in the Sky

2008-07-01T13:39:00.003-05:00

I always like looking at the satellite tracking maps attached to all manner of beasts. From tracking geese from Siberia to Iraq with attached satellite transmitters or looking in on the secret life of the Ocean Sunfish via popoff sensors with GPS, these devices are giving us huge amounts of valuable information on migration routes, stop overs and home ranges. There is also potential for its use (and misuse) with people. I particularly like this application to make an emotional map of a city using GPS and glavanic skin response. With more and more people with GPS enabled devices from cameras to cell phones to cars a huge amount of temporospatial data is being generated. You have to know that data aggregators like Acxiom and big brother would love to put that data in your file and correlate it with where and how you spend your money or even better how you might feel about it.

Meet the Neighbors - Saw-Combed Dark Fishfly

2008-06-17T06:56:00.009-05:00

I was walking the dog a few days ago by Dickinson Creek, a stream that runs next to our property. I noticed a large smoky colored fishfly fluttering along the edge of the water. It was conspicious in that it had large white patches on its wings. This suggested a visual component in their mating system.

After a few minutes it was apparent that there were several dozen of these large insects flying around. It looks A particularly interesting behaviour I have never seen before was that some insects fluttered up higher in the air, some into the overhanging treetops 40 or 50 feet up. Some of the high fliers flattened their wings into a fixed position and glided downward, until they reached the ground. Perhaps this was a display flight. Apparently an alternate French Name is Corydale papillon or Butterfly Fishfly.

I think the species is Nigronia serricornis.

According to a paper on post-glacial range expansion by He the Connecticut population of this species moved up the coast from North Carolina in a contiguous range expansion. Genetic diversity, as in many species of plants and animals thought to have expanded their range from the south after the Wisconsonian Glaciation, decreases from South to North. This second paper by Soltis et al. from 1996 titled Comparative phylogeography of unglaciated Eastern North America is a fascinating synthesis of many studies investigating how genetic differences in populations of the same species yield clues to population disperals after the last major glaciation.

BugGuide.net - a great reference, especially if you know the order or family your looking for.

Troutnut.com - Specializing in aquatic insects with fantastic photos.

Dr. Jeffrey Heilveil - Assistant Professor at SUNY Oneonta, has studied population dynamics of Nigronia serricornis.

Re-Animation - Resurrection of Tasmanian Tiger gene function in a mouse model

2008-06-11T03:44:00.004-05:00

For the first time, a gene from an extinct animal has been inserted into a living animal to assess gene function. Not quite Jurassic Park, but very interesting.

The Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger became extinct in 1936 when the last one died in captivity. The species had been among the living dead for decades before. Neaderthal DNA has been partially sequenced. I wonder how long before investigators begin gene function research.

Link to Science Daily Article
Link to PLoS article

Names of new species to the highest bidder

2008-06-05T22:59:00.004-05:00

Here's an interesting article about funding taxonomic research by giving naming rights to the highest bidder. Amazingly there is even a clearinghouse for such a thing. The most absurd seems to be the GoldenPalace.com Monkey, named for an online casino. They only paid $650,000. In the end the money went to preserve the monkey's habitat in Bolivia.

An event in Monaco raised over 2 million dollars auctioning the names of 10 newly discovered fish from Indonesia. A new species of shark went for $500,000.

Of course patronage of science is nothing new and names of exotic beasts large and small are littered with the names of European Royalty and upper crust who either were patrons or were hoped for patrons. The Birds of Paradise seem to be especially rife with such naming in both common and latin names. Stephanie's Astrapia, Carola's Parotia, and The King of Saxony Bird of Paradise are a few. The national bird of Papua New Guinea, the Raggiana Bird of Paradise was named for The Marquis Francis Raggi of Genoa.

Walter Rothschild, of the European banking family was a particularly involved patron amassing a gigantic collection and sponsoring collectors around the world. Several critters were named after him including a subspecies of Giraffe. He sponsored his first expedition when he was twenty years old. He was also a bit of a nut keeping all manner of exotic animals around the estate. He sometimes drove a carriage drawn by a team of Zebra's around and annoyed his father when one of his dingos bit several of the family horses.

Geothermal Heat in CT - I want it now

2008-06-01T07:15:00.004-05:00

The price offered to lock in heating oil in CT seems to be somewhere around 4.40 a gallon. My last fillup was pushing 1000 dollars (which lasts me one month in the winter). I locked in 2 years ago and the price dropped enough that it was cheaper to use diesel from the gas station (vehicle tax included)! A lock in may save the most money this year and I'm sure I could achieve fractionally lower costs using a co-op or shopping around each month. Really, I can't be bothered. I do know I can't be spending 1500+ for oil. This is a killer in New England where so many homes are heated by oil. If it were just me, I would turn down to just above freezing and sleep under 10 blankets. That is not an option with a wife and 5 young kids. Also, the African clawed frog would be pissed being frozen in a block of ice 4 months a year.

I could do a number of things like investing in better insulation/windows (which I want to do also), but I want a quantum change. A wood stove or a multifuel burner would save me money, but I need to simplify, not introduce more complexity.

I want a geothermal heat pump unit in my house. It leverages the constant underground temperature to both heat and cool. The traditional units needed you to dig up your whole yard to put in the pipes or to dig some very deep wells. I read somewhere that there is a 3000 sq/ft house in a neighboring town that has a combined heat/cooling bill of less than 1000 dollars a year using a traditional deep well geothermal heat pump. I think it cost around 12,000 dollars to install with the clean energy rebates.

A company called GeoEnergy Enterprises has an interesting looking system the call the GeoColumn that uses a water filled shallow well dug with a telephone pole auger to do the same. This allows lower cost and installation in high density residential areas. Apparently you sink one of these under a driveway or even under the foundation. I'm not sure of availability, though they have done some demonstation projects in my general area.

Uberschnabel - Dogs with a nose for Bugs

2008-05-30T08:41:00.006-05:00

The canine snout is an amazing thing. I often wonder what exactly our dog is thinking as he starts every morning with a good sniff.

I've heard of dogs trained to sniff out drugs, explosives, money, truffles and corpses. The beagles used by US Customs to sniff out that contraband fruit from South America. I've even heard of dogs being trained to detect melanoma by scent. A recent paper describes the use of household dogs with minimal training being able to detect lung and breast cancer by sniffing a person's breath. Apparently there are volatile biochemical markers that the dog can detect.

This morning I came across a new one for me, sniffing out bedbugs and termites! Yes, there is even an association - The National Entomology Scent Detection Canine Association. I guess, given a distinctive scent and training a dog can sniff out a lot of things.

The mad scientists want a piece of the action and have for years been trying to mimic the canine snout. This article from IEEE Spectrum describes some of the progress.

New cave fauna discovered in Israel

2006-08-08T23:06:00.000-05:00

Here's a story about a unique cave ecosystem found in Israel that was completely cut off from the outside world, perhaps for millions of years. The large cavern system 300 feet below ground has an underground lake with 88 degree water. Some of the crustaceans found are related to saltwater species, others are related to fresh or brackish water species. Chemoautotrophic Bacteria form the underpinnings of the ecosystem. Most caves rely on nutrients brought in from the outside, much of it being organic material ultimately linked to the sun and photosynthesis.

Some related links:
Biospeleogy - The Biology of Cave, Karst and Groundwater

Article on protecting cave ecosystems - The US has the most cave dwelling species worldwide

Early Spring Birds, Marlborough, CT

2006-04-23T20:18:00.000-05:00

A few days ago, as I was coming home from work, I saw a Raven feeding on a roadkill squirrel in front of our neighbor's house. I think the pair of ravens are back to the ridge behind our house. 20 years ago you only saw Ravens in Connecticut in the extreme northeastern and northwestern corners of the state. In recent decades they seem to have expanded their range.

I've seen a few other early spring birds back in our area. The phoebes have been back since the beginning of March and the Louisiana waterthrush has been singing down by our creek for two weeks. This next week should bring a big push of neotropical migrants.

A good way to explore the birds in your area is ebird, a project that allows birders to enter their observations and generate reports. These reports are combined to give a big picture of what the birds are doing. For example I can generate a map of Connecticut and see where all the reports of Raven have been since 2002. I can also generate a map of a particular month or week and watch were the arriving migrants are being seen.

34 Biodiversity Hotspots

2006-01-19T05:58:00.000-05:00

Conservation International has an interesting website devoted to the world's 34 biodiversity hotspots. A hotspot is a place with a large number of endemic species (found nowhere else). CI has identified 34 of these areas whose remaining habitat represent less than 3% of the world's land area, yet are home to 50% of the world's plant species and over 40% of terrestrial vertebrates. All of these hotspots are under heavy pressure having lost at least 70% of their original area to development or mismanagement.

LINK

We are from France - Coneheads in America

2006-01-12T21:55:00.000-05:00

I would have guessed the record for the loudest insect in the United States would go to one of the cicadas, however the record goes to the Robust Conehead Katydid which has a incredibly loud buzzing song that can be heard at 500 meters. I'm pretty sure I tried to sleep in a field at Fort Dix, New Jersey with a few of these and other types of Katydids making an incredible racket around me.

An interesting website I found is called the Singing Insects of North America. Its a collection of files, including audio on the major groups of singing insects, the grasshoppers, Katydids and Crickets and the Cicadas.

I also learned about some critters I never knew about, large western ground crickets called Grigs. They remind me a bit of the gigantic New Zealand crickets called Wetas. A female Wetapunga has the record for the world's heaviest insect. She weighed 71 grams and was 85mm long without the ovipositor. That's about the weight of 3 mice.

A new book is out on the Field Guide to the Grasshoppers, Katydids and Crickets of the United States. It should spark more interest in these noisy little beasts.

For the definitive Orthoptera site see the Orthoptera Species File Online.

Moths of La Selva, Cost Rica

2006-01-09T21:33:00.000-05:00

There are an estimated 200-300,000 species of moths on earth. Some are among the most spectacular creatures you could ever imagine with electric colors that don't seem like they could be natural. The times I have spent in the collections of Harvard University and the American Museum of Natural History have been times of wonderful discovery. Each new specimen drawer yielding something new and exciting to me. I worked in the lab of Dr. David Wagner at the University of CT and assisted in several biological inventories of rare habitats with him. There is nothing like a humid night in the summer running the Mercury Vapor Lamps with hundreds of insects clinging to the white sheet. In the tropics the sheet might have so many insects that you can't see the sheet anymore.

Dave Wagner has done some fieldwork in Costa Rica at La Selva Biological Research Station studying the Lepidoptera. He has an online checklist of some of the species that he's come across during his trips there. The database section has a pulldown menu to select families of moths. Start with the Arctiidae (Tiger Moths) and the Saturniidae (Giant Silk Moths) and then explore some of the other families. I hope you are struck with the incredible diversity. Dave thinks the final list may include up to 7000 species from La Selva alone.

Hunting Long-Horned Beetles in Iran

2006-01-07T22:58:00.000-05:00

I love to read about natural history expeditions no matter what type of animal or plant they are looking for, whether tigers in India, new birds in Peru, or insects in New England. Invariably many interesting things are seen and new things are learned about the areas biota. Often it satisfies some of our curiosity about an exotic location. This website describes a recent expedition to collect Cerambicids (Long-horned Beetles) from Iran by a group from the Czech Republic. Along with fantastic pictures of the country and wildlife, the text is great reading for those with an interest in Natural History.

I think what I like best is when the participants passion for their subject shines through. Think about some of the TV naturalists like Sir David Attenborough or Jeff Corwin. It makes it so much better and their exitement is infectious.

Link

African Birding - Democratic Republic of the Congo

2006-01-06T23:29:00.000-05:00

This country has had a sad recent history starting with problems of the Belgian colony followed by the kleptocracy of Mobutu Sese-Seko when it was called Zaire and the most recent wars starting in1998. The International Rescue Committee has named the conflict the worst humanitarian disaster since World War II and claim that over 4 million people have died.

Despite its overwhelming human problems it is a country rich in natural wonders and cultural heritage from the volcanic Virunga Mountains to the Pygmy Hunters of the Ituri Forest to the great Congo Forests. Hopefully the people of the DRC will emerge from their struggles to once again enjoy life in their rich and beautiful nation.

In the mid 1990's Tommy Pedersen, a Norwegian pilot and birder flew airliners around Zaire. He now flies for Emirates Air. His website documents some of the 1140 species of birds found in the DRC including the endemic Congo Peacock (Afropavo) and the Congo Bay Owl.

The most famous mammals of the DRC have to be the Gorilla, both Lowland and Mountain subspecies. Also the fascinating Okapi, the Giraffe's only living relative and one of the last large mammals discovered in Africa.

An Animal You Should Know: The Aardvark

2006-01-05T21:28:00.000-05:00

One of the purposes of this blog is to introduce readers animals that they otherwise might know nothing about. The Aardvark, AKA Earthpig or Antbear is one cool beast that you should get to know. The only Aardvark I've seen was in the Philadelphia zoo. Recent molecular studies have placed them as a sort of proto-ungulate closer to pigs and cattle than to the anteaters and pangolins which were previously thought to be its closest relatives.

Looking like a cross between a rabbit and a pig these ant and termite eating critters live throughout Africa. They use their powerful claws to break into termite mounds and can dig faster than several men with shovels in soft dirt.

The link below gives some additional info from The Ultimate Ungulate Page - an internet guide to the world's hoofed mammals. It's a very interesting site worth exploring. You will definitely find some large mammals that you never knew existed like the Vietnamese Saola, only discovered in 1992.

Link

The world of naked animals

2006-01-03T19:09:00.000-05:00

This was new to me. I've heard of hairless rats and mice and even some breeds of dogs and cats and my favorite the naked chicken but hairless guineapigs and hamsters!

I found a site devoted to two strains of hairless or nearly hairless guinea pigs called the Nearly Hairless Cavies Club. Through some links I also found out about the "Alien Hamster" - a nearly hairless beast that deserves the "cutest of naked small mammals" award. Ugliest goes to the naked mole rat.

Alliance for Zero Extinction

2006-01-03T16:29:00.000-05:00

This organization seeks to limit global extinctions, both plant and animal, by bringing together international biodiversity groups to identify the most vulnerable areas. There is a lot of interesting information on their website.

The interactive map is an interesting place to explore with clickable sites. I clicked on a site in Bermuda and found that there are no endemic mammals or amphibians. The one reptile, the Bermuda skink is the only native land vertebrate other than birds. The two endemic birds are the Cahow or Bermuda petrel and a race of the white-eyed vireo. The forests of Bermuda are filled with endemic trees including the Bermuda Cedar (Juniperus bermudiana).

Snow Bugs

2006-01-02T21:33:00.000-05:00

Most people think that all the insects and other invertebrates are hibernating during the New England winter, actually there are a few species that can be regularly seen in the winter.

Yesterday I took a short walk down to the creek that runs along our property with my kids. We had about 4 inches of new snow.

Under a board I found a very sluggish woodlouse. I reminded my son how he had eaten a handful of them when he was 3. I had been keeping two species found around our house in a styrofoam cup with some potato peels to eat. One species was gray a flattened, the others we called pillbugs could roll themselves up into a little ball. The seemed happy and had many baby woodlice. My son got the cup and sat under the dining room table popping the pillbugs in his mouth. I'm not sure how many he ate, but he put a dent in the population.

On our walk yesterday we also found quite a few snow fleas, a small black springtail that can be found on the surface of the snow on mild days. We also found a spider walking around. The best find for me was a female snow scorpionfly, a flightless insect that feeds on mosses and is active as an adult during the winter. This was only the second time I've ever seen one.

In the spring around March we tend to get good numbers of winter stoneflies crawling around on the snow. Here's a group that monitors winter stonefly hatches as an indicator of water quality.

Crazy Salamander Ballistic Tongue Videos

2005-12-31T00:04:00.000-05:00

I could watch these all day. You read it right - a ballistic tongue. Some salamanders actually fire their own tongues at prey...and weird looking tongues they are. I found this site years ago and it still fascinates me.

Stephan Deban is a Biology professor at the University of South Florida. His website has a fantastic collection of slow-motion video of salamanders feeding. Ok, that may sound boring...salamander opens mouth and shoves in worm. I assure you, you will be amazed-especially by Hydromantes supramontis - a cave dweller from Sardinia. It launches its tongue 80% of its body length.
LINK

Bat Poop-eating Salamander

2005-12-30T23:04:00.000-05:00

For some reason this story appeals to me on several levels not the least being my British heritage and their love of scatalogical humor. I would like to subtitle this entry as Eating Bat Poop better than a Big Mac.

The grotto salamander is a cave dweller, as are a number of salamander species around the world. It is an interesting beast that is blind as an adult. As a larval salamander it has functional eyes and often develops outside of caves. The adults live exclusively in caves. Other blind salamanders retain their gills as adults and never leave the water. It was previously thought that Grotto salamanders ate insects and cave shrimp that fed on bat guano. A recent study of a population of salamanders in Oklahoma revealed an unusual feeding habit. It turns out that since so much of the bat guano is undigested insects the bat crap is more nutritious that the shrimp! I love this stuff. The best part of the study was comparing the protein and fat contents of the bat guano, the shrimp, and a MacDonald's big mac. The bat guano came out on top with 54% protein and 1% fat while the Big Mac was 23% protein and 33% fat. The Shrimp was in the middle with 44% protein and 8% fat.

Link

Panda Bonanza

2005-12-30T00:31:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I was in Washington DC for the American Association of Tropical Medicine and Hygience Meeting. I gave two talks on the blood parasite Babesia microti, a pathogen that our research group at the American Red Cross studies.

While in Washington, my family and I visited the National Zoo and of course we had to see the pandas, especially the new baby panda. I'm glad to report that the baby is doing well and recently took a romp outside with its mother.

Pandas have an advantage when it comes to conservation...they're cute. I mean really cute. My children like a website devoted to all things cute called cuteoverload.com. When visiting the site I saw a picture from the Wolong Panda Reserve in China. This year they had 18 babies born, a record. Here is a picture of 16 of them being held by their keepers from the China Daily Website.

Condor Progress

2005-12-30T00:02:00.000-05:00

The San Diego Zoo reports that California Condors reintroduced to the Baja Peninsula of Mexico have begun to expand their range northward and may be seen flying in San Diego County for the first time since 1910. There are 4 groups of birds in the US and Mexico, all reintroductions descended from 14 birds. Eventually it is hoped that the southern California population and the Mexico population will meet up.

In 1985, while I was in High School, I took a weekend trip to California to try and see one of the last wild birds (I think they were down to 6). I flew a redeye People's Express from Hartford to Los Angeles for $99 round trip. I think my only food that weekend was a large package of hot cross buns I bought for a dollar. I did have to drop over 100 bucks to stay at Marina del Rey so I could take one of the fishing boats out. At a lookout in Los Padres National Forest I saw one of these magnificent birds, so large they look like a small plane. Within a few years all the birds were captured for the captive breeding program. Today there are about 270 birds, over 100 free flying.

LINK
photo from San Diego Zoo Website

Birding in the Buff

2005-12-28T08:38:00.000-05:00

A story from the Japan Times by a naturalist with a penchant for wildlife watching while soaking in hot springs. A new one for listers - the bath list.

"An hour later, feeling part boiled and part frozen, I exited the pool having recorded an astonishing 21 species, ranging from those Whooper swans, goldeneye and goosander, to white-backed, great spotted and Japanese pygmy woodpeckers." - Mark Brazil

LINK

Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) website

2005-12-26T23:53:00.000-05:00

A site devoted to the possibly extinct Thylacine, an amazing predatory marsupial from the island of Tasmania. The author (C. Campbell) visited the Australian museum to study the specimens there and observe the extraction of Thylacine DNA. There is enough preserved material that chances are good that a complete genome will eventually be sequenced. Recent evidence has surfaced that a small number may still be alive. If one was documented it would be a story of greater magnitude than the Ivory-billed woodpecker.

LINK

The Pygmy Elephants of Borneo

2005-12-26T22:27:00.000-05:00

For years there have been arguments about the small population of Asian Elephants living on the island of Borneo. These elephants were smaller than their mainland cousins and considerably more docile. Some people thought these elephants were feral animals that had come from a once domestic population. The closest other Asian elephants are on the Island of Sumatra in Indonesia. When I was in Borneo I didn't have the chance to see these creatures because their range is so limited, found only in the extreme northeast corner of the island.

Recent DNA studies have shown that this population is a distinct subspecies that has been separated from other living populations for up to 300,000 years. When the sea level was lower Borneo was part of the Asian mainland. This is evidenced in the fact that the fauna of Borneo is predominantly Asian. Across a narrow, but deep strait of water is the island of Sulawesi. Sulawesi was never part of the mainland and has a mixture of a few Asian animals like monkeys, two wild pigs and some small wild cows (Anoa) plus a contingent of birds and mammals with origins in the Australasian area.

As the sea level rose the Bornean elephants became isolated.

The World Wildlife Fund is tracking some of these elephants by GPS hoping to better understand their movements and behavior. They are working with the government of the Indonesian state of Sabah to help preserve this distinct population of elephants. It is thought that the population stands at between 500 to 2000 animals.

There are only 35,000 wild asian elephants thought to be still roaming around in 10 countries in South and Southeast Asia.

New Trout species found in Russia

2005-12-25T23:42:00.000-05:00

A new species of fish in the same genus as our brook trout has been discovered in far eastern Russia. Technically the fish is a char, a group somewhere between the trout and salmon taxonomically.

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/item.php?news=782

Change of scope

2005-12-25T23:37:00.000-05:00

I'm expanding the topics covered on this blog to anything about the natural world that I consider interesting, which is a lot. I envision this as a natural history boingboing.net or something. Here goes...

End of Migration

2005-05-27T20:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I took a short walk around a little pond at the UConn Health Center. The Canada Geese have some little goslings now. They were feeding in the grass, while a few other adult geese floated around in the pond.

In a tree overhanging the pond I saw a male Orchard Oriole hopping around and singing.

On the way back to my office I stopped by the outflow stream and found a male Wilson's Warbler in a bush. In our parking lot the Warbling Vireos were singing.

I noticed that the Coltsfoot that were flowering last month have gone to seed and have little fuzzballs on the end of long stalks. The Russian Olives are in full flower with tens of thousands of tiny yellow trumpet-like flowers. The smell is very powerful and can be detected a long way from the bushes. It smells a bit spicy.

This afternoon at lunch I took a walk at the MDC Reservoir on Farmington Avenue in West Hartford. The vegetation has fully emerged, save a couple of trees. I watched a six-spotted tiger beetle running on the path in front of me. It flew a few feet when I got too close. A Gray Tree Frog was calling high in a tree near the trail.

At one of the ponds I saw a fine Northern Watersnake slip into the water of the small reservoir when I approached. There was some vegetation in the water which it hid in. I moved the vegetation and the snake, about 2 feet long, swam away underwater.

On the insect front I saw a few skippers (a mulberrywing and a dusky wing of some sort), a ringlet, several pearl crescents and a black swallowtail. I also saw the first dragonflies and damselflies of the summer.

I climbed up onto a small ridge, past some huge dead hemlocks killed by wooly adelgids. On the top of the ridge I watched a Red-eyed vireo feeding in the canopy of a large oak tree.

May in Connecticut

2005-05-13T22:22:00.000-05:00

Its been a bit difficult finding time to post, but I have been out and about.

This morning in Farmington I watched a Red-shouldered Hawk being harrassed by an American Crow as it circled above our parking lot at work. On Monday the hawk was sitting quietly in a small tree right outside our building for several hours. A couple of Mockingbirds were scolding it.

Last Sunday three of my children and I took a walk in the woods behind our house and made our way up onto the ridge overlooking our neighborhood. Many of the spring flowers are out including Dwarf Ginseng, Canada Lily and Wood Anemone. The maidenhair ferns are just coming up in a little patch near Dickinson Creek, which runs along the border of our property.

My goal in getting up on the ridge was to look for a Raven nest. For the past month I have seen a pair of Ravens in our area and I suspected that they are nesting at the top of a cliff on the ridge. We made it up with quite a bit of protest from the kids. Sure enough the Ravens were up there and circled us. I didn't find the nest but their activity was very suspicious.

On the way back home we found an old White-tailed Deer carcass. The Carrion beetles were finishing off the remaining flesh. The kids wanted me to bring the entire skull, spine and ribcage home. I ended up pulling off the skull and putting it in our woods to let the beetles finish their job. The carrion beetle larvae look a bit like wood lice with segmented armor.

Two pileated woodpeckers have taken up residence in our back woods and we've had some great views of them as they work a dead tree and fly back and forth in the woods flashing their black and white wings.

I'm finally up and running

2005-04-06T21:48:00.000-05:00

Well it took me longer than I thought but here it is...my new blog.

I am backdating all the entries to when I wrote them. Back here in the States my nature watching has some similarities to being in Iraq. Its mostly opportunistic, half an hour here and there. As Major Ed in Iraq commented to me, the situation is very similar to the Doctor in the movie Master and Commander. So close to so many wonders but duty calls.

A short walk in my woods netted me the first deer tick of the season (I found it crawling on my kitchen table after I came inside). Some of our friends who have a Daschund have been finding loads of them since February. The dog is a regular tick vacuum cleaner.

We are on the cusp of spring. The Eastern Phoebe was hanging out in the trees near my deck, the Honeysuckle, Barberry and Russian Olives have tiny green leaves peeking out and I've seen lots of insects in the last few warm days. The Witch Hazel continues to flower in my back woods. I some some small tortricid moths flying around the flowers yesterday evening. The Dark-eyed Juncos are still hanging around the feeder but they'll soon be moving to higher ground to nest.

At work in Farmington I saw a Twice Stabbed Ladybug (Chilocorus stigma) resting in the sunshine on the side of a Red Maple. At home my son caught a Lampyrid beetle (Firefly family) I think it is one of the flashless fireflies possibly the genus Lucidota. I usually see many of these little beetles in the early spring congregated on the trunks of trees. If you pick them up they emit milky white liquid in little drops. I've tasted it and me no like, obviously chemical warfare against predators.

Frozen Frogcubes Awake!

2005-04-01T00:16:00.000-05:00

I have been saving my observations from the last month on my laptop mostly because I couldn't think of a name for my new blog. I'll backpost tomorrow after the kids go to bed. I had to go to Martha's Vineyard and down to Maryland on Business so of course I got in a little birding.

Spring has arrived in Central Connecticut. The weather yesterday was above 60 and it was only a little cooler today. This afternoon I heard the first Wood Frogs tentatively singing their quacking call in the small swamp behind the American Red Cross parking lot in Farmington. The Spring Peepers will be joining them in a few days creating a wonderful racket like a thousand tiny sleighbells. Their ability to freeze and thaw throughout the winter always amazes me. In the trees male Red-winged Blackbirds were singing their Conga-Ree song and flocks of Common Grackles made their rusty hinge call.

The Aspen Trees near the Connecticut River had their catkins out in full force were I crossed the Rt. 3 bridge going towards Rt. 2.

I love this time of year because each day something new is waking up. I should be hearing my first phoebe and Pine Warbler any time now.

Home, Marlborough, Connecticut

2005-03-29T22:46:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we had steady soaking rain all day. Last night I turned on the deck light hoping to get some early moths. A week ago I found a Eupsilia morisoni clinging to my window. It was around 35 degrees. Last night was in the 40’s and I found 3 moths of two species clinging to the same window overlooking the deck.

Nod Brook Wildlife Management Area, Simsbury/Avon, Connecticut

2005-03-27T22:43:00.000-05:00

My father, my sister and her husband and 3 boys on bikes took an Easter afternoon walk down to the ponds near my parents house. The Chinese Witch hazel is still fragrant and flowering next to the power company parking lot.

The ice has melted off some of the ponds and we saw a few migrating ducks. On the large north pond we found a pair of Bufflehead and a flock of 11 Hooded Mergansers. The southern pond had 5 ring-necked ducks, a few Canada Geese and a Mallard or two.

Branford, Connecticut

2005-03-20T22:41:00.000-05:00

This afternoon I went down to Branford with my family to visit our Battalion Surgeon and his Wife. We took a short walk along the Branford Nature Trail which runs through a nice salt marsh and along the old trolley tracks that used to lead out to Stony Creek.

The male Red-winged Blackbirds were staking out their territories in the Phragmites. Dr. Young told me that they see rails in the summer, sometimes running down the path. Out in the marsh a Herring Gull was bashing some type of shellfish against a rock.

We saw a few ribbed mussels sticking out of the salt marsh mud and it seems like a very good place to see Fiddler Crabs in the summer.

In April the Ospreys will come back to nest on a platform that has been put out in the middle of the marsh.

Shady Acres, Maryland

2005-03-15T22:38:00.000-05:00

I flew down to Washington for a meeting with our Research group at the Holland Lab in Rockville, MD. I enjoyed the flight down. It was a very clear day and great for watching things out the window. My plane was a commuter jet that looked like a elongated Lear Jet. South of New York City there was much less snow cover. By the time we flew over southern Pennsylvania there was no snow left.

In Rockville, I noticed that Spring is a little further along than back in Connecticut. The Honeysuckle bushes are starting to get leaves and the daffodils have come up.

In a little drainage pond by the Metro Station in Shady Grove I found a pair of Ring-necked Ducks, several Hooded Mergansers including a very handsome drake and a small group of Canada Geese. Across the road in some tangled bushes a Carolina Wren sang and then hopped out on an exposed branch and continued. A Red-winged Blackbird was on its territory in a little marsh.

On my walk to the Lab I found the galls of a Tephridid fly on the stalks of Goldenrod from last year. These pretty little flies hatch out in April in Connecticut. Sometimes I gather a few of them and put them in a plastic bag so my kids can see them when they emerge.

Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts

2005-03-08T22:34:00.000-05:00

I had to go out to Martha’s Vineyard today for a blood drive where we were collecting blood samples for a continuing study on Babesiosis.

On the island I saw a small flock of Common Eiders as we crossed the causeway out of Vineyard Haven. On my way back to the mainland I saw more Eiders, Red-breasted Mergansers, Bufflehead and several Common Loons.

The the loons passed very close to the boat as I was leaving the harbor.

A storm was coming in and it was very windy and rainy on the crossing back to Woods Hole. About 4 miles from Woods Hole out in the channel I was surprised to see a flock of about 20 American Crows flying back toward the mainland. Maybe they had spent the day foraging in Nantucket. I know crows sometimes fly very long distances to feed before coming back to their roost.

It was raining steadily when I left the Ferry parking lot in Woods Hole. By the time I got to Fall River the rain turned to snow and sleet. It took me 5 hours to get home. Usually it takes less than 3.