Animals Library: May 2014

Rare monkeys died in Oregon Zoo

When one living being dies, it could be an accident. But if six living beings died, can't help but think this is negligence. This is what happened to six rare monkeys at the Oregon Zoo. PORTLAND Ore. (Reuters by Shelby Sebens) - Six cotton-top tamarin monkeys died unexpectedly soon after their arrival at the Oregon Zoo, following the death of an orangutan that led to the firing of the zoo's director, officials said on Friday.They were in a group of nine of the squirrel-like primates that arrived at the zoo on May 22 and were placed in quarantine at its veterinarian center, which is routi

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Monster Squid vs. Giant Squid – Hoax Photo

There have been thousands of photos showing monster size squids getting stranded or washed on beaches all over the world. The most recent one is the 160-foot-long giant squid which made a stir on social media sites. The monster squid apparently ended up in the beaches of Santa Monica in California. The photo even came with a satirical commentary, saying that the animal was the result of radiation. However, this Godzilla-sized squid is not real. Giant Squid HoaxThanks to how the internet works, the photo became viral in just a short amount of time. The certainty behind the photo was revealed b

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Dragons of Indonesia

Many of us find the common house lizard creepy. However, imagine one that’s a thousand times bigger with a lethal bite. You might think that this creature is the stuff of nightmares, but they’re actually real, and they reside in certain islands in Indonesia. Known for their size, the Komodo dragon is definitely an animal you don’t want to mess with. It’s the biggest living lizard. The biggest ever recorded reached about 3.13 meters long and weighed 366 pounds. That’s about as heavy as two people. But don’t worry about getting chased by one, for they are able to run only for a short time at a

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Dessert Creatures – The Jackrabbit

Also called the Black-tailed Jackrabbit, these furry animals are actually not rabbits. They belong under the genus Lepus and species californicus. Jackrabbits are actually hares because they give birth to babies, called leverets, which are born with eyes wide open and are covered with fur. These creatures line in extreme environments, specifically in chaparrals and deserts where temperatures can really rise up during daytime and drop really low at night. Also, these areas don’t really get much rain, so water is hard to come by. What makes these hares distinct is their large ears that help reg

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Gentle Giants – Elephants Today

For something that’s so huge and majestic, it’s strange how secretive elephants are in the wild. They tend to shy away from humans and keep to themselves. Nowadays, these creatures are being nearly threatened to endangered. If their populations continue to decline, they could end up extinct.These animals have long been used as symbols and play an important role in the culture of the people living in their natural habitat. For instance, in India, the elephant is considered as a sacred animal. In fact, one of the gods in Hinduism has an elephant head. There are two species of elephants, A

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Bronx Zoo Introduces Asian Dragons- The Mighty Komodos

Komodo Dragons have landed in New York City; and this has nothing to do with the popular Godzilla movie.Wildlife Conservation Society’s operated Bronx Zoo has opened what they call “Amazing Monitors” habitat for the dragon, also known as Varanus komodoensis which is the largest living lizard species.The zoo is located in the Zoo center building and it is the first time that the zoo has Komodo dragons since the 1950s. The new habitat contains 3 dragons; one male and two females.The exhibit also features 3 more species of monitors that live in very different ecosystems. Mertens’ water monitors

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Little kiwi, huge extinct elephant bird were birds of a feather

WASHINGTON: They might be the odd couple of the bird world.Scientists on Thursday identified the closest relative of New Zealand's famed kiwi, a shy chicken-sized flightless bird, as the elephant bird of Madagascar, a flightless giant that was 10 feet (3 meters) tall and went extinct a few centuries ago.The surprising findings, based on DNA extracted from the bones of two elephant bird species, force a re-evaluation of the ancestry of the group of flightless birds called ratites that reside in the world's southern continents, they added.The group, which boasts some of the world's largest bird

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Exotic Pets - Gooty Tree Spider

Although most of us are afraid of spiders, especially the big ones like tarantulas, some people actually admire these insects and even keep them as pets. These bugs come in all colors, and one of them will definitely take you by surprise. Poecilotheria metallica is not a band, but a beautiful specie of tarantula that reflects a brilliant, shiny, metallic blue color. Just like the other spiders with the same genus, it gives out a complex fractal-like design on its abdomen. These colorful spiders are usually found in the forest of Andra Pradesh, southern India. The P. metallica was initially di

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Strange Animals – Mexican Mole Lizard

In certain areas of the world, there are actual creatures that look like they came from a medieval legend. They’re usually uncommon and hard to find however some of them can sometimes be see in our own back yard. Take for example the Mexican mole lizard. This animal is probably one of the tiniest things that you can hold which resembles a dragon. The Mexican mole lizard, also known as the Bipes biporus, is a common amphisbaenian, a kind of long bodied burrowing reptile which has a wormlike appearance. In fact, many people mistake these for worms because of their small size and soft, pink body

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Polar Bears Show Love to Dogs

Bringing together wild and domesticated animals often times ends with the domesticated one becoming too scared to even move, especially when we’re talking about domesticated dogs and a 200 pound wild polar bear. However, this match-up didn’t really end as bad as most of us think it would. Surprisingly, the dogs and the polar bear went along quit well. They even played together in the snow. The human owners of the dogs keep a working distance of around 70 feet way from the bears. So the bears understand to keep their distance, they use cracker shells to scare the bears off in case they come to

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Giant Insects - Golden Orb Weaving Spider

You’ve probably seen the crazy photos going viral on the net of giant spiders eating snakes that’s caught on their webs. A lot of people think these photos are edited, but there are actual species of spiders that can take on a snake for dinner. Sounds scary right? But don’t worry, there are only a few of them so don’t worry about that spider web in your garage. One of these spider species would be the golden orb weaving spider, also called the golden orb weaver. These large spiders have silver/gray to deep plum colored bodies and black-brown legs with yellow bands. Males and females of these

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How many visitors can a Koala bear?

Koalas can become stressed by noisy and up-close encounters with human visitors, a University of Melbourne study has determined.The koala is a much-loved Australian icon and extremely popular with foreign tourists, but little work had been done to understand how they cope with human interaction.Dr Jean-Loup Rault from the University's Animal Welfare Science Centre said researchers set out to answer this question.“Our study showed that up-close and noisy encounters with human visitors resulted in koalas showing so called 'increased vigilance', which is a common response to stress.""Stress is g

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Dive Sightings – Seahorses

When diving, one of the most amazing things that you can find lurking around the coral reefs would be seahorses. These wonderful creatures look so fragile and mysterious that they attract so many marine biologists to study more about their life under water. Here are a few interesting facts about these animals. There are around 40 different kinds of seahorse species. They’re commonly seen in pairs where they swim together with tails linked. These animals, like crabs, have very little natural predators. The seahorse’s body is too boney to digest. They’re also masters in camouflage. They mimic t

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Turtle's chances soar with prosthetic fin modelled on wings of F-22 Raptor

A badly injured sea turtle's prospects are looking up, thanks to a new prosthetic fin designed by an Israeli team and modelled on the wings of a US fighter jet.The green sea turtle, named "Hofesh", the Hebrew word for "freedom", was caught in a fishing net off Israel's Mediterranean coast in early 2009. With his two left flippers badly injured, rescuers had to amputate, leaving him with a pair of stumps that made it difficult to swim.Yaniv Levy, director of Israel's Sea Turtle RescueShlomi Gez, an industrial design student at Jerusalem's Hadassah College, read about the animal on the internet

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Unique Farm Pets - Silkie Chicken

If you were to mix a poodle and a chicken together, you’d get a one of a kind chicken with fluffy feathers that resemble a people’s fur. These chickens are called Silkie Chicken or Chinese Silkie Chicken and have become popular farm pets over the years. These chickens are said to have origins in Asia. However, despite their names, it’s unclear whether they started breeding them in Japan, China or even India. It’s believed that the explorer Marco Polo was the one who introduced these birds, among a number of other exports, to Europe. One look and you’ll understand why these chickens are called

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Reef Signings - Blue Spotted Rays

If you’ve gone swimming in the deep blue ocean, you’d most likely see one of the most beautiful creatures in the deep swimming around the ocean floor. The Taeniura lymma or blue spotted rays, also called blue spotted fantail rays, ribbontail stingray, and blue spotted stingrays, are one of the few colorful stingray species that are known for their large, blue spots seen around their fin and blue colored side-stripes found along their tails. They have an angular and rounded snout and their bodies are broadly rounded around the outer corners. Their short tail tapers at the end and is usually lo

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24 New Wasp Species Mummify Their Prey

The parasitic Aleiodes wasps deposit their eggs inside a caterpillar, and when the babies hatch, they desiccate them from the inside—which is “pretty unusual” for wasps, said study co-author Scott Shaw, an entomologist at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. (Also see “Nearly 200 New Species of Parasitic Wasps Discovered in Costa Rica.”)Shaw and a group of students from the University of Wyoming identified the new wasp species during recent expeditions to northern Ecuador’s Yanayacu Biological Station. For 16 of these 24 wasps, the team identified the caterpillar species u

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Desert Rain Frog: Dangerous Beast or Adorable Squeaky Toy?

Breviceps macrops is a frog that is native to the coast of Namibia and South Africa. The frog spends most of the day burrowed in the sand where it is cool and moist, but comes out to feed on insects and their larvae. Unfortunately, these little guys are listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN, due to continued habitat destruction from human activities like expanding roadways and diamond minesLike many other ferocious African animals, the Desert Rain Frog lets out a fearsome roar when threatened. Wildlife photographer Dean Boshoff was brave enough to get close so that we could hear how the frog react

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Two New Huge Dinosaurs Discovered

The discoveries of two new huge plant-eating dinosaurs were announced this week, according to reports in PLoS ONE and the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.Both boost the number of known dinosaurs from Latin countries.Photos: Dinosaur Claws Evolved from Basic to BadassThe first is Zby atlanticus, which lived 150 million years ago during the Upper Jurassic of what is now Portugal. Its remains were excavated in the town of Paimogo, north of Lourinhã, near a site where dinosaur eggs were also found.This dinosaur grew to over 62 feet long. It also had wider teeth than most other sauropods.The si

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Recently-Discovered Wasp Species Named For Harry Potter Creature

If you are familiar with the Harry Potter series, you probably remember the dementors: dark, ghost-like beings that suck every positive feeling away leaving nothing but an empty shell. These awful creatures have now made the transition from fantasy to scientific literature, as they are now the namesake of a newly discovered species of cockroach wasp. The name Ampulex dementor was chosen through public voting and has been described by Stefanie Krause and her team at the Natural History Museum in Berlin. The paper has been published in PLOS ONE.The wasp, native to Thailand, has bright red

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House Cat Saved a Little Boy

Cat defends the boy during a vicious dog attack and runs the dog off before the dog can do additional damage.

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Death Match: Tarantula vs. Wasp

With their relatively large, hairy bodies, tarantulas aren’t exactly pretty to look at. Their fear factor goes up when you consider that they they are able to eat larger animals like lizards, mice, and some small birds. However, most of the 900 species have venom weaker than a honeybee and don’t really pose a risk to humans. Besides, if you think these spiders are scary, just imagine the kind of creature that preys on them.Meet the tarantula hawk:Adult tarantula hawks are fantastic pollinators and aren't typically aggressive. The males aren’t even able to sting.The female, on the other hand,

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Dancing frog species discovered in Indian jungle mountains

Scientists have discovered 14 new species of so-called dancing frogs in the jungle mountains of southern India.Indian biologists say they found the tiny acrobatic amphibians, which earned their name with the unusual kicks they use to attract mates, declining dramatically in number during the 12 years in which they chronicled the species through morphological descriptions and molecular DNA markers. They breed after the yearly monsoon in fast-rushing streams, but their habitat appears to be becoming increasingly dry."It's like a Hollywood movie, both joyful and sad. On the one hand, we have bro

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Exotic Pets - Geckos

Most people are scared of animals like lizards and geckos. However, some of us absolutely adore these creepy crawlers. Others even keep them as pets. Taking care of a gecko isn’t as hard as it sounds like. Here are a few pointers on how you can take care of them as a pet. First, you need to make sure you get your gecko from a good pet shop or a certified gecko breeder. You want to get a healthy, disease-free gecko. You can also get them online, just make sure the site you get them is reliable. Get a 10 to 20 gallon aquarium that has a safe screen lid. Geckos can still climb the glass, so make

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Animals Library

Rare monkeys died in Oregon Zoo

Monster Squid vs. Giant Squid – Hoax Photo

Dragons of Indonesia

Dessert Creatures – The Jackrabbit

Gentle Giants – Elephants Today

Bronx Zoo Introduces Asian Dragons- The Mighty Komodos

Little kiwi, huge extinct elephant bird were birds of a feather

Exotic Pets - Gooty Tree Spider

Strange Animals – Mexican Mole Lizard

Polar Bears Show Love to Dogs

Giant Insects - Golden Orb Weaving Spider

How many visitors can a Koala bear?

Dive Sightings – Seahorses

Turtle's chances soar with prosthetic fin modelled on wings of F-22 Raptor

Unique Farm Pets - Silkie Chicken

Reef Signings - Blue Spotted Rays

24 New Wasp Species Mummify Their Prey

Desert Rain Frog: Dangerous Beast or Adorable Squeaky Toy?

Two New Huge Dinosaurs Discovered

Recently-Discovered Wasp Species Named For Harry Potter Creature

House Cat Saved a Little Boy

Death Match: Tarantula vs. Wasp

Dancing frog species discovered in Indian jungle mountains

Exotic Pets - Geckos

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