Environmental Graffiti

Browsing | Ecology RSS feed for this section

27. November 2009

Hedgehog + Bumble Bee (- Scrotum) = Lowland Streaked Tenrec

Lowland streaked tenrecs not only have a funny name, they’re also loved by many because of their appearance, which seems to be a cross between a hedgehog and an oversized bee. But these small mammals have another interesting feature: apart from no tail, the males also have no scrotum. Why? Read on to find out…

30. October 2009

3 Comments

The Lady Bug Gymnastics

With Halloween just around the corner, we’d like to leave scary witches and willowy ghosts aside for just one minute and focus on one helpful critter that might get forgotten otherwise. After ridding crops of plant lice and scale insects, the Halloween lady beetle invades homes in October where it prepares for its well deserved hibernation. Before that long period of inactivity, it likes to stretch its wings a bit. That’s probably an understatement – wing acrobatics is more like it but see for yourself…

25. September 2009

0 Comments

Female Bugs ‘Make Out’ to Attract Males That Can Stomach It

The tropical citrus root weevil or sugarcane root stalk borer weevil (diaprepes abbreviatus) is a pest accidentally introduced to the state of Florida in 1964. Since 2005, it’s also been spotted in California not only devouring citrus, avocado and potato roots, but also engaging in some cunning mating behaviour. Here are the facts.

16. September 2009

1 Comment

The Amazing Versatility of Animal Tongues

Some animals put us to shame with their tongues and what they can do with them. No teenaged, first French kiss nerves for any of the creatures featured here. The muscle on the floor of our mouths used to manipulate food for chewing and swallowing is also of course the primary organ of taste. Yet while our animal counterparts cannot use their tongues for its other main function in humans – speech – many creatures put them to other uses that could easily leave you tongue-tied.

13. August 2009

0 Comments

The Largest Temple Complex in Polynesia

The largest temple complex in Hawaii and Polynesia is a huge, stone, multi-terraced structure that was built on a cliff summit at the ocean's edge on Maui. Begun in the 13th century, expansion of this complex on a huge scale was done in the 16th Century by King Pi'ilani who unified all of Maui and then established his royal court on the east end of the island.

22. July 2009

0 Comments

Awesome Life Size Blue Whale on the Web

The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society have a truly extraordinary photograph online: a life size image of a Blue Whale. You can travel leisurely over the entire leviathan for as long as your dreams allow. Read on to find out some more about this most majestic of beasts – which even puts the largest dinosaurs down to size.

16. June 2009

14 Comments

The Terrifying Truth About Jellyfish

They are a dash of colour on the high seas, bringing both beauty and death wherever they go. Largely ignored by science for decades these poorly-understood creatures have recently been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Scientists have begun asking questions about jellyfish, and the answers may just undermine what we think we know about the origins of diversity on earth...

12. June 2009

4 Comments

Vegetables That Look Suspiciously Animal

The biodiversity on this planet is just astounding. Even with loss of habitat and the threat to flora and fauna, there is still so much to uncover and appreciate. Here we've gathered just a few interesting specimens of plants and fungi for you to discover. Some are more common while others are super strange, and to make things even more interesting for you, they all resemble animals and human body parts. Enjoy!

11. June 2009

0 Comments

Snails Trailing Beneath the Skin of the Water

Snails are creatures that provoke quite extreme reactions in humans: often either disgust or culinary desires. But these slimy creatures actually deserve our respect as they can do what humans will never achieve – walk on water! And we’re talking its liquid form here, not ice. Let’s how these amazing creatures manage such a feat.

11. June 2009

0 Comments

The Soliloquy of the Blue Whale

My species is the largest that ever lived, with one of the longest life spans on record – 150 years or more... and you nearly killed us all! That’s right, I’m a giant blue whale, over 100’ long, and if you had a scale that could handle me, I’d weigh about 170 metric tons. Nothing that big that ever lived on land can match this.