The Way of the Dodo

Several species of Asian vulture are experiencing a faster rate of decline in their population than even the dodo (that's not a distinction any species wants).

The white-backed vulture of Indai (see below) is down to one thousandth of its population of 1992 (only 16 years). Conservationists point to the usage of anti-inflamatory drugs (diclofenac) given to livestock (upon whose carcasses these birds dine), which induces kidney failure in the birds.

Photo source: DailyMail.co.uk






















The only way to preserve this bird is to stop the use of diclofenac in livestock and to expand captive breeding programs (which have proven successful). Otherwise, we're looking at extinction in about a decade of three Asian vulture species.

Thanks for the article, Ida.

Hyena Pacification

Harar, Ethiopia, is home to an ancient tradition. It is a rite of peace-offering, in the form of hyena feeding. But not just leave-the-food-in-a-bowl-and-run-away feeding, but mouth-to-mouth feeding. Human mouth to hyena mouth.

Evidently, this rite has been performed by a single family in Harar -- it's a hereditary position.

Reznor of Meignorant, who reports on this phenomenon, says that he did see wild hyenas prowling the city streets at night. Their nocturnal presence most likely provided the immediate impetus for this tradition.



















I can just imagine some city council sometime long ago, or a meeting of the village elders, getting together to discuss what to do with the wild hyenas. Probably a variety of proposals were put on the table, ranging from killing them to scaring them off to packing up and leaving the city to the beasts. But then one man stands up and says that instead, they should make peace. And he would begin by approaching one of the hyenas with a chunk of raw meat in his mouth and attempt to feed it.

Thus were the wild hyenas of Harar pacified. (Though I fail to see the cause-and-effect here: man approaches wild carnivore with raw meet in his mouth should lead to man being eaten, right?)

Regardless, I would like to shake that man's hand (if I could time travel).

The man above and below is no doubt a descendant of that original hyena-feeding progenitor. The family business is still up and running. I assume that it's difficult to secure worker's compensation insurance, though.



















Here is Reznor himself. He offered his own peace-offering, and his face was not ripped off.

Thanks for the article, Ida.

Armored Soul Eaters

Igor Siwanowicz is back with some of his amazing macros.

He recently attended a reptiles and insects expo and was able to procure a pair of these diminutive monsters. The armored Madiga liberiana may be only about 7 cm in length, but they're still capable of eating your soul.

Thanks for the photos, Igor.

Mantis Eyes

I've posted on the mantis shrimp before (can you go wrong with a name like mantis shrimp?), and I'll post on them again. But the Bleimans have alerted me to an article in Wired that reveals whole new depths to this colorful (you'll catch the pun in a moment) creature.

Photo source: Wired
















It turns out that the mantis shrimp has spectacular eyes. For one thing, those compound eyes are composed of thousands of rows of light-detecting units called ommatidia. These ommatidia allow the mantis shrimp to see in 100,000 different colors -- that's 10 times what we humans are able to see. Wow. Crayola and the cosmetics trade would have to hire full time personnel just to create names for all their new crayons and lipsticks.

But there's more. These shrimp are the first animals ever discovered to be able to perceive circular polarized light (CPL).

Barbecue shrimp. Shrimp salad. Shrimp gumbo. CPL-seeing shrimp.

CPL is used in a variety of industries, so no doubt studying this ability in these shrimp will prove to be very valuable.

A Happy Place

Thanks to this blog, anytime I consider taking a vacation anywhere towards the tropics, I stop and think, "Oh, but those spiders..." And Cathy's photo only reinforces my phobia.


She encountered this jewelled spider while on vacation in Bermuda last October. Bermuda! Can't we have one tropical, paradisaical island that is devoid of spiders (especially the spikey ones who don't bother to clean their webs of their victims' husks)? I know what you spider apologists are going to say: something along the lines of if there weren't spiders, then the insect population would overrun the island.


But I don't need a lesson in island and invertebrate ecology. I just want a happy place, where I can sleep knowing a spider hasn't spun a giant web just outside the door of my bungalow.

Speaking of happy places, there's my traditional dark corner where I can curl up and enter a catatonic state. I'll be back later.


Thanks, Cathy.

Crab Clash

Little crab tossed aside his weapons, armor, and shield in a bold challenge to big crab. But it looks like little crab forgot his sling. The Philistines might win the day.

Thanks for the photo, Ida.

Love Is in the Air

It's a beautiful summer day in Anytown, New Hampshire. You're walking through the town fair, enjoying the smell of corndog friers, the cheers from the ferris wheel, and the anticipation of the fireworks to come. You're holding your sweetheart's hand, and in the other you've got a fistfull of pink cotton candy.

Just as you lean in for a kiss, a Dobsonfly comes at you. It's a good four inches long, with massive pinchers. Its ungainly four wings carry it along, belly forward, on a collision course with your face. You screech and fall back, cotton candy and sweetheart forgotten in this onslaught of evil.

Dobsonfly: 1
Romance and humanity: 0

There are several varieties of this nefarious bug. The one featured here is the Eastern Dobsonfly (Corydalus cornutus). Those mandibles on the male are harmless to humans (won't break the skin), as they are used solely for grasping the lady dobsonfly during mating.

Well, maybe romance didn't lose out entirely.

Thanks for the dobsonfly, Rae.

Speedy the Mean Dog

When good pets go bad.

I like little creatures that are scrappy. They remind me of my two-year-old daughter.

Meet Speedy the Mean Dog (the world's next villain?). This little guy reminds us that inside every dog's genome stalks his ancestral wolf. Be afraid.

Thanks for the photos, Louisa.

Photos by Ray Ruiz