Sunday, June 15, 2008

Rare male sea dragon pregnant


After setting the mood with lighting and finessing, the Georgia Aquarium's attempts to coax rare sea dragons to mate have finally worked -- just in time for Father's Day.

The pregnant male weedy sea dragon is now only the third of its kind in the United States to successfully become pregnant outside of its natural habitat.

The sea dragon, found in nature only in the waters off southern Australia, became pregnant Tuesday when a female transferred her eggs onto his tail.

Dennis Christen, assistant manager of animal care and husbandry, said that male sea horses, sea dragons and pipe fish all carry the eggs instead of the female.

Christen said that recently the staff took steps to try to assist in mating.

They altered the mood by adjusting the lighting and thinning the plants, Christen said.

But so much is unknown about the creatures, including their mating routines, that a lot about the pregnancy remains a mystery, Christen said.

When the animals finally do mate, the sea dragons arch their tails and swim side by side until they latch onto each other before swimming vertically together during their version of a "date."

"When they're courting they do a really ritualistic dance," he said.

What little is known about that dance could hold a key to problems with breeding the animals in small tanks similar to those at the aquarium.

"Some people think that problems are if the tank isn't deep enough they don't have enough time to swim vertically," Christen said.

Of the 70 small pink eggs wrapped around the male's tail, nobody knows how many are viable and could actually hatch. Christen said that they are relying on other experiences with breeding, where about 60 percent of the eggs survived, to estimate how things may go.

At the Georgia Aquarium, children and teachers were abuzz about the pregnant dragon and circled around the tank trying to pick it out.

"Which one is the mommy?" one little boy shouted before a guide corrected him and said the male was carrying the eggs.

When the eggs hatch, Christen said they will essentially be miniature versions of the adults.

And unlike many animals the weedy sea dragons will not spend their first days, weeks and months shadowing their parents to learn.

"They basically hatch and are on their own," he said. "There's no real parental training."

The eggs are expected to hatch in four to six weeks.

from: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/06/13/pregnant.seadragon/index.html
Let's be environment Friendly!
Save mother nature
Our beloved pets website
Sports Unlimited Info
Wanna go to Holland?
Get spiritual in Tibet


Digg Technorati del.icio.us Stumbleupon Reddit Blinklist Furl Spurl Yahoo Simpy

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Ugly Looking Animals (But are nevertheless our friends still)

Here are pictures of some of the world's weirdest and ugliest looking animals from http://actionnooz.com :

Vampire Sea Spiders From Antarctica





The Naked Mole Rat





Pookie, The Most Sinister Cat On Earth





Sam, The Eternal Ugliest Dog On Earth

Called the “Grim Reaper of the Animal World” by locals, Sam was the 3 time champion of being the world’s ugliest dog. Legend holds that if a man spites his woman one too many times, this makeup-less fate shall be his eternal morning wake up call for years to come.

Though Sam passed away a little over a year ago, his owner keeps an active site up for the crown champion with various pictures of the canine.



Let's be environment Friendly!
Save mother nature
Our beloved pets website
Sports Unlimited Info
Wanna go to Holland?
Get spiritual in Tibet


Digg Technorati del.icio.us Stumbleupon Reddit Blinklist Furl Spurl Yahoo Simpy

Snake eating a kangaroo






Here are pictures i got from http://www.xanga.com/welove_animals

Let's be environment Friendly!
Save mother nature
Our beloved pets website
Sports Unlimited Info
Wanna go to Holland?
Get spiritual in Tibet


Digg Technorati del.icio.us Stumbleupon Reddit Blinklist Furl Spurl Yahoo Simpy

Strange Brazilian Creature




Scott Corrales has sent to Cryptomundo the photographs you see here, labeled "Strange Brazilian Creature," with this following message:

These images were just forwarded to me from Spain regarding (and I quote): "a strange creature found by the Servicio de Aguas (Water Authority) of the town of Sorcaba, Brasil. It was taken to a biologist at the zoo (no name given) was was stunned and believed it to be a mutation of a smaller creature."

What Scott is being shown is not cryptozoological, not a mutation of a smaller creature, but represent images of the giant isopods, which are usually found in deep sea explorations.

The giant isopods are crustaceans in the genus Brahynomus. They were first described to science in 1879, and are related to pill bugs and wood lice. They are unusual but otherwise commonly known within marine biology.

from: http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/strange-brazil/
Let's be environment Friendly!
Save mother nature
Our beloved pets website
Sports Unlimited Info
Wanna go to Holland?
Get spiritual in Tibet


Digg Technorati del.icio.us Stumbleupon Reddit Blinklist Furl Spurl Yahoo Simpy

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Soft-Shelled Cantor’s Giant Turtle.



A 24-pound female Cantor’s giant turtle — known for its rubbery skin and jaws powerful enough to crush bone — was captured and released by researchers in March, U.S.-based Conservation International and World Wildlife Fund said in a statement. …

The species can grow up to 6 feet in length and weigh more than 110 pounds. It was last spotted by scientists in the Cambodian wild in 2003. It also was found in small numbers in Laos, but appears to have disappeared from Vietnam and Thailand.

The turtle has a rubbery skin with ribs fused together to form a protective layer over its internal organs. It protects itself from predators by spending 95 percent of its life hidden in sand or mud with only its eyes and nose showing.

from: http://www.neatorama.com/2007/05/28/soft-shelled-cantors-giant-turtle/

Let's be environment Friendly!
Save mother nature
Our beloved pets website
Sports Unlimited Info
Wanna go to Holland?
Get spiritual in Tibet


Digg Technorati del.icio.us Stumbleupon Reddit Blinklist Furl Spurl Yahoo Simpy

Sunday, June 1, 2008

National Geographic: Rare "Prehistoric" Shark Photographed Alive




This serpentine specimen may look like a large eel, but its six slitlike gills help mark it as a cousin of the great white, the hammerhead, and other sharks. But this isn't your average fish.

Believed to have changed little since prehistoric times, the frilled shark is linked to long-extinct species by its slinky shape and by an upper jaw that is part of its skull. Most living sharks have hinged top jaws.


Digg Technorati del.icio.us Stumbleupon Reddit Blinklist Furl Spurl Yahoo Simpy

More weird animals from the National Geographic Website


Photo Gallery: Rare "Prehistoric" Shark Photographed Alive


Flaring the gills that give the species its name, a frilled shark swims at Japan's Awashima Marine Park on Sunday, January 21, 2007. Sightings of living frilled sharks are rare, because the fish generally remain thousands of feet beneath the water's surface.

Spotted by a fisher on January 21, this 5.3-foot (160-centimeter) shark was transferred to the marine park, where it was placed in a seawater pool.

"We think it may have come to the surface because it was sick, or else it was weakened because it was in shallow waters," a park official told the Reuters news service. But the truth may never be known, since the "living fossil" died hours after it was caught.


Digg Technorati del.icio.us Stumbleupon Reddit Blinklist Furl Spurl Yahoo Simpy

British move to protect rare mammals


LONDON — It isn't often that the northern hairy-nosed wombat, the finger-sized slender loris, and the mountain pygmy possum share the spotlight. But these odd creatures are the focus of a conservation program launched Tuesday to safeguard some of the world's rarest mammals.

The Zoological Society of London's program highlights 100 species selected because of the peculiarity of their genetic backgrounds and the degree of danger they face. The species' lack of close relatives make their preservation particularly urgent, society scientist Jonathan Baillie said. He described them as natural masterpieces.

"Would we just sit there and watch the Mona Lisa disappear?" he said. "These are things that are just irreplaceable."

Many of the species are the only representative of groups that have otherwise died out. West Africa's pygmy hippopotamus, known for its thick, oily "blood-sweat," is the only member of its genus.

Others, like the Yangtze River dolphin, are thought to represent an entire genetic family. The dolphin, may already be gone, like some others on the list.

Those that remain act as living fossils, offering glimpses into how the animal world looked millions of years ago. That's the case of the Andean mountain monkey, the only marsupial in an otherwise extinct lineage which dates back more than 40 million years. New Guinea's long-beaked echidnas, anteater-like creatures that lay eggs like reptiles, are even older, remaining unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs.

Donors are invited to sponsor a species, and track its conservation progress through blogs and discussion groups on the website, http://www.edgeofexistence.org. Half a million pounds (about $1 million, euro750,000) is needed to fund the conservation projects, Baillie said.

Researchers hope the catalog of bizarre creatures might attract younger donors unimpressed by more charismatic seals or pandas.

"The younger generation is more interested in the weird and wonderful," he said.

There's no lack of either. Many are freakishly large, or small, or just long-lived. The hairy-nosed wombat can grow bigger than a dog, while the slender loris's 12 cm (4.7 inch) frame is dominated by a pair of huge night vision eyes. Mountain pigmy possums can live 12 years, a remarkable age for a 30 gram (one ounce) creature.

Others, like Madagascar's aye-aye, are just weird. The oddly-shaped primate sports an unsettlingly long, skeletal middle finger it uses to scrape insect larvae from holes in trees.

Still, some have undeniable charm, like the 2 gram (0.07 ounce) bumblebee bat or hairy-eared dwarf lemur, the world's smallest primate.

"There's nothing like them when they go," Baillie said.

From: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-01-16-rarest-mammals_x.htm
Let's be environment Friendly!
Save mother nature
Our beloved pets website
Sports Unlimited Info
Wanna go to Holland?
Get spiritual in Tibet


Digg Technorati del.icio.us Stumbleupon Reddit Blinklist Furl Spurl Yahoo Simpy