Wednesday 14 May 2014

We are Family

It appears that even penguins can be gay and raise a family in harmony.

A same sex male penguin couple at Wingham Wildlife Park in Kent adopted an egg. The eggs father Hurricane, abandoned his partner Isobel immediately after impregnating her, and she refused to incubate the egg. The adoptive parents were given the egg which hatched a month ago. The park owner claims the gay couple are the best parents they have seen in a long time.

The loving couple named Jumbs and Kermit just prove that happiness can come in all shapes and sizes and that gay foster parents are just as good if not better at the parenting role.

To read more about the happy family:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-27405652
http://www.kentnews.co.uk/news/same_sex_penguin_couple_adopt_abandoned_egg_1_3599458

Thursday 8 May 2014

Happy Birthday Sir David Attenborough

As it is David Attenborough's 88th birthday today, I felt it was only fair for me to share some brilliant facts and favourite video clips of the man who has made everyone love nature.

  • Sir David actually studied Geology not Zoology or Biology as many would have thought.
  • Rats are one of the animals he actually doesn't like
  • The Bird of Paradise is his favourite species (well, one of them I expect)
  • Sir David does eat meat, he says that humans have evolved to be omnivores, not vegetarians
  • In 2005 he was awarded the Order of Merit (OM) by Her Majesty the Queen
  • His brother Richard is an actor and played a role similar to David in Jurassic Park
  • The BBC boss thought Sir Davids teeth were too big and so was originally discouraged him, how wrong the boss was.

The 10 species Sir David Attenborough would take on his own personal Ark:
1. The black lion tamarin
2. The Sumatran Rhino
3. The Solenodon
4. The Olm salamander
5. The Marvellous Spatuletail humming bird
6. Darwin’s frog
7. Sunda pangolin
8. Priam’s birding butterfly
9. Northern Quoll
10. Venus’s flower basket
Sir David with a blind Rhino

Sir David making a sloth jump

Sir David commentating curling
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=777_1392789840

Sir David howling with wolves
Sid David Playing with Gorillas
Sir David strutting his stuff

And finally without him, we really wouldn't know all about our wonderful world



Tuesday 6 May 2014

A Female with a Penis? A Male with a Vagina?

In caves, in Brazil, a new genus, Neotrogla, has been discovered and it is by far one of the strangest ones yet. In all species of the genus, the sex organs have been switched, so the males have a vagina and the females a penis. Now surely you would say that this just makes the boys girls, and the girls, boys, but no, there is a reason why the animals are still the same sex but with different genitalia.

The female's penis, known as a gynosome enters the male and inflates. The gynosome has numerous spines that attach the couple together, the gynosome then sucks out the male sperm and nutritious seminal fluids to fertilise the eggs inside the female and also to provide food. Once joined, as a researcher discovered, the male's abdomen can be ripped from the thorax without breaking the coupling. These sexual encounters can last from anywhere between 40-70 hours!!

 If like me you are struggling to imagine just how this is possible, here is a diagram for you.


The role reversal was likely to have been driven by poor resources available in the cave and so the female gains an important food source from the seminal fluid. This also means that it is advantageous for the females to copulate multiple times.

Right now they are trying to establish a healthy population in the lab to be able to study the animals further.

To read more:
http://www.nature.com/news/female-insect-uses-spiky-penis-to-take-charge-1.15064
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(14)00314-5
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27056809




Sunday 4 May 2014

Prehistoric Shark Caught

Shrimp fisherman at Key West, Florida, accidentally caught themselves a Goblin Shark recently. Goblin sharks are a prehistoric species which haven't been seen in over 10 years! The species can be found all over the world but is believed to mainly live around Japan which makes this catch so rare! The fisherman took a few pictures and released the thrashing shark back into the ocean where it could dive back to its home, over 200m below water, and only reported their findings to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 2 days ago.

So what does a Goblin Shark look like?


The Goblin Shark, razor teeth and a extendable jaw



This species is huge. The one caught was 18ft long and they have unusual pink skin. In the deep water, where the animals live, only red light is visible. At those depths the species will actually appear black to the eye. The head of the shark has a very large snout, like a sword, which allow it to detect minute electrical fields and catch prey quickly with its extending jaw  and large razor sharp teeth. Their bodies also appear fairly flabby and they have smaller dorsal and ventral fins compared to those of other shark species. This means that these sharks are not able to move as quickly as some other species.


To read more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goblin_shark
http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1656/1528-7092%282002%29001%5B0189%3AFROTGS%5D2.0.CO%3B2
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2619301/Thats-no-shrimp-Florida-shrimp-fishermen-accidentally-net-second-prehistoric-goblin-shark-thats-18-FEET-LONG-pink-pointy-teeth.html