Fly like a.... snake?

There are a number of animals that have the ability to fly, or more technically, glide, from one point to another without having wings. Although it is different from active flight, sugar gliders, fliying squirrels, draco lizards, some ants, snakes and others all have this feature. The flying snakes, of the genus Chrysopelea, are interesting because it is difficult to imagine how an animal without arms or legs can jump off and successfully maneuver itself in the air. Once upon a branch of a tree, these five species of snakes make a J-shaped bend in their bodies before propelling themselves off of the tree. While they are airborne, they pull in their bellies and are able to get more lift from flattening their ribs making a pseudo-wing and continuing to undulate in the air. They can glide for longer horizontal distances than flying squirrels and have a remarkable ability to change directions in air.

This video shows that J-shape the snakes make before gliding:

And check out this video for some snake and lizard gliding:

Shout-out to Dr. Socha, the man handling snakes in the first vid.

Save the frogs!

Many of you may know that amphibian species have been in major decline lately, especially in the Americas. In fact, somewhere near 120 species of frogs have become extinct since 1980. But not all of you may be aware that a major cause of the massive extinctions of these species is the fairly recent outbreak of Chytrid fungus, which can often result in fatality. I recently attended a seminar to learn about the mechanisms of Chytrid infection and a conservation project that is currently being employed to help save these awesome little guys. It seems that the fungus spreads thru water and frog-to-frog contact, and  it can result in the loss of around 50% of the amphibian species in any population it reaches. This is obviously terrible news, since a loss in biodiversity results in a weakened ability for the frogs to overcome future threats.
Right now the fungus has spread from areas north of Mexico, all the way thru Central America, and is now centered in Panama. But not all is lost... The Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project, along with collaborators are currently working on capturing frogs before the fungus arrives, and keeping them in captivity until a solution (potentially in the form of a topical anti-Chytrid "vaccine") is possible. Then, the species may be reintroduced and saved! If you're interested in this awesome project check out their facebook page: PARCP.
Here are some cool pictures and information about the frogs they are trying to save:

 Centrolene ilex: A "glass frog" has a translucent belly and lives in bushes and shrubs. These frogs lay eggs on leaves overhanging streams, and then their larvae develop in the streams. There are 3 Glass frogs the organization is trying to save.

Hemiphractus fasciatus: This frog species is one of two Marsupial frogs listed for conservation by the group. Although they may look strange, their reproductive habits are even more unusual! The eggs are placed on the mother's back, and she carries them with her throughout the babies' entire development from embryo to froglet. Talk about motherly love!

Dendrobates fulguritus: One of Celtral America's renowned Poison Dart frogs. Poison dart frogs are especially threatened because they spend most of their time on the land surrounding the streams where Chytrid can be transmitted. These species produce toxins which have been used by natives in the creation of poison blowgun darts.

Hylomantis lemur: This frog is one of about 800 species of tree-living frogs. They are very well adapted to tree-climbing and have sticky toes! Some tree frogs lay their eggs on trees overhanging water and the tadpoles will fall into the water when they hatch, while others lay their eggs in holes of the tree which collect water. 3 Tree frogs are listed for conservation by the Panama Amphibian Rescue, along with several other species. Check them all out! http://amphibianrescue.org/?page_id=97

Good 'rents

After visiting Cornell's Laboratory of Ornithology, I saw a show on Animal Planet on EXtreme Mothers, and was disappointed to see no mention of my favorite seabird, the arctic tern. Arctic terns are best known for their migration, which is the longest of any normal migration in birds, traveling from arctic regions, to Antarctica and back every year (around 71,000 miles). This traveling means that the bird pretty much does everything in the air... landing once every one to three years to nest. Interestingly, this bird species mates for life, which is highly unusual bird behavior. And when they do reproduce, they make damn sure those babies are safe. Arctic terns of both sexes are extremely aggressive defenders of their nests and offspring, and will try to attack humans and other large predators
as shown in the video above where the birds try to attack the cameraman. Although they can't do much damage, they have been known to draw blood.

But that's not all that's involved in child care-a kid's gotta eat. And male arctic terns are responsible for most of the feeding... ah, the perfect man.

Today is My Birthday!!!

So here is a silly video of a not-entirely-bad-ass-animal, but surely the sweetest pet anyone could ask for:

Little pigges >>>>>>>> cats.
Sorry for the delay in posts readers, I'll be back to regular posting in a few weeks when my computer is fixed!

Los Perezosos

It's been a while since my last post because my personal computer is dead, and I'll have to wait a few weeks for someone to revive it (*fingers crossed*). However, because most of you probably thought I was just being a lazy blogger, here is some information about an animal who knows how to do lazy right- the Sloth.
There are 6 living species that make up the sloths, which belong to the suborder Folivora, meaning leaf-eaters. While there used to be more species that lived on the ground in North America and South America, these disappeared with the introduction of humans to these continents. Now we are left with only the tree-dwellers, two-toed and three-toed, who spend almost their entire lives up in the air. In fact, as David Attenborough explains in this video,

the sloth only comes down from it's tree to defaecate. They breed, sleep, eat and do almost every other activity in the trees, which gives them some protection from much faster land predators (but does not make them much safer to some birds of prey known to hunt them). However, when they do come down from their trees, they have been known to swim aptly.

But, why are they so slow? Due to their diet of mostly leaves (which is sometimes supplemented by the occasional small reptile or bird) they must have an extremely slow metabolism, because leaves are not rich in usable energy. It has been estimated that it normally takes a sloth about a month to digest the leaves it eats.
It used to be thought that the sloth was one of the longest-sleeping animals, sleeping for nearly 18 hours a day, but due to a recent study of sloths in the wild it was determined that sloths sleep just under 10 hours... quite similar to that of the elusive american teenager.

Happy Valentine's Day!

At the suggestion of my friend Rena, today's post will be a timely special on animal lovin'. But, since there are so many extreme courtship and mating rituals out there, it will be limited to mammals.
As you are probably aware-unless you're in the dog house for not buying your sweetie chocolates and flowers- mammals spend large amounts of time and energy in hopes of a chance at reproduction. This courtship behavior can involve touching, singing, dancing, and displays of beauty or strength. 
Here are just a few remarkable animal's mating behaviors:
1. The bonobo monkey: Share the Love. Bonobo monkeys don't see a reason to get jealous and confine themselves to one mate, or even one sex when it comes to making whoopy. And they're kinky too! They are one of the only mammals besides humans to engage in face-to-face genital sex, tongue kissing, and oral sex, and are often found to move from one partner to the next. 

2. Lions: Love hurts. During a mating period, lions will have sex on average 30+ times a day, and often forget altogether about eating. It may sound enjoyable, but the repeated copulations are to encourage the female to ovulate, which may occur when the spines of the male's penis rake the walls of the lioness'  vagina.  Not so fun.

She doesn't look too happy.

3. Elephants: Big Love. Due to their large mass and the fact that bulls are much larger than females (a phenomenon given the term "sexual dimorphism"), elephant mating can be a little tricky. After the nuzzling and trunk-play,

elephants deal with this size issue by having a prehensile penis, which means it can move separately from the rest of his body. 

Unfortunately, if you're a human male, you won't be able to use that feature to seduce the ladies, but I wish you all luck in your quest for love. 

Extreme Monotremes

5 species of egg-laying mammals are in existence today; 4 of these are species of echidna, or "spiny anteaters", 

while the other is the platypus, 

whose true scientific name is "Ornithorhynchus", meaning "duck-billed".

These animals are also unique to Mammalia in several other ways. For example,  while they do secrete concentrated milk from mammary glands, they do not possess nipples or teats, and instead the milk comes directly from the milk-line region of their skin. It is also notable that the name monotreme means "one opening" which refers to their common urogenital pore called a cloaca, a feature which suggests these species are the most primitive of the mammals around today. The males of these species also posses a poison spur on their hind leg (poison production is a very rare trait for mammals). One sting from a platypus spur can actually kill small pets!