Tuesday 25 April 2006 Least chipmunk

There are 23 species of chipmunk, of which the Least Chipmunk (Tamias minimus) is the smallest North American chipmunk. Its size ranges from 21.3 to 32.5 cm.They have three black with white stripes between them on their face and five on their back. They are hunted by owls, hawks, mustelids like the ermine, mink, marten and fishers. They do not hibernate, but do go into the state of "torpor".

Picture from Fall 2002, Taken by Rene Schwietzke, licensed under GFDL.

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Friday 21 April 2006 The Opossum Family

More than 60 different kinds of oppossums live in South America and 1 in North America, the Virginia opossum didelphis virginiana. The name opossum is sometimes shortened to possum, which actually is the name for an Australian group of marsupials. These are distinct from opossums which are only found in North and South America. The Virginia opossum is probably best know for its last resort to escaping predators, "playing possum". As a last resort it can fake death to lose interest of its predator. The Virginia opossum is the only marsupial living in the wild in the US. They come in different shapes and sizes. They are marsupials meaning that they have a pouch in which they can carry their young. They all belong to the family didelphidae. (more)

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Wednesday 19 April 2006 Tasmanian devil - largest carnivorous marsupial in the world

The Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus laniarius) is only found in the Australian island state of Tasmania. Head to body length can reach up to 65 cms and weighs around 8 kilograms, which makes it the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world. You can tell by the tail of a Tasmanian devil how healthy it is, because it stores fat in its tail. If a devil has a large tail it means it is healthy, if it is unhealthy it has a thin tail. When agitated the devil can emit a strong odor, equivalent of that of a skunk. If you correct the bite force for body size the devil has the strongest bite of any living mammal! (source)

Picture by Wayne McLean, licensed under Attribution ShareAlike 2.5

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Friday 14 April 2006 Clownfish from "Finding Nemo"

The Ocellaris Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris) is a populair aquarium fish and it also was the main character in the movie "Finding nemo". It lives in coral reefs around the world, seeking the protection of a sea anemone Heteractis magnifica. Predators of the Clownfish include brittle stars, wrasses, and other damselfish. The clownfish seeks protection from these predators by sticking close to the sea anemone, which in return gets its food with its poisenous tentacles from the clownfish drawing its predators. The sea anemone does not attack the clownfish, because of the mucus secreted by the clownfish...

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Thursday 13 April 2006 Striped dolphin

The Striped Dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) is an extensively studied animal. It lives in all the world's oceans, preferring the temperate and tropical waters (preferring 18-22 degrees celius, although they are spotted in waters ranging from 10 - 26 degrees celsius). They can reach lengths of up to 2.6 metres and can weigh around 160 kg and can reach 60 years of age.They travel in groups of more than 100 individuals, feeding on small fish and squid. Although numerous attempts, these dolphins cannot be kept in captivity, because of refusing to be fed. The total population is estimated to exceed two million individuals.

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Tuesday 11 April 2006 Human (homo sapiens)

Whether you like it or not, this entry is about you. You are a member of the human race (homo sapiens), the scientific name meaning "thinking man". You are a mammal, a primate, and share about 98.4% of the genes with a chimpanzee (did you know that the average human has more hair than the average chimp, they are just less visible?). There are two scientific theories, apart from religious beliefs, of the origins of contemporary humans. The first theory, the "out of Africa" theory, says that modern humans evolved in Africa and migrated to other parts of the world. The second theory, the "multiregional theory" on the other hand, says that modern humans evolved from independent human populations. There also is the "Toba catastrophe theory", which states that an eruption of a vulano took place 70 - 75 thousand years ago which caused a shift in temperature leading to a decrease of population of humans that existed at that time. This caused an acceleration of the differentiation of isolated human species, eventually leading to the end of all the other human species except for the branch that became modern humans. The "out of Africa" theory is the most popular around scientists, which states that humans originated 100 to 200 thousand years ago. The rate at which technology influences our lives is very high, (I could not have told several other humans about our origins 20 years ago, when nobody heared of the "internet"). As for your personal quest to the answers to the questions "where do we come from?" and "what is our goal in life?": good luck and take care :)

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Friday 07 April 2006 Horse

The horse (Equus caballus) is one of ten species in the genus Equus (which includes zebras, donkeys, onagers, etc...). Horses have played an important role in history, they are used for transport, working the fields, warfare, etc... It is estimated that the domestication of horses began around 4500 BC, but there are competing theories. The Przewalski horse is the only living wild horse species on the planet today. Wild horses are different from feral horses in that they have never undergone domestication. Did you know mules are cross-breeds between a male ass and a mare and it is infertile? Recently breeders have cross-bred zebras with mares or female asses to produce "zebra mules" or "zorses", though the animals keep some of the nervous, difficult to handle nature of zebras. The difference between ponies and horses is only their size. The treshold is 1.47 m for an adult. It can happen that a pony is actually the child of a horse and vice versa.

Image by Farbenfreude, licensed under GNU Free Documentation License

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Tuesday 04 April 2006 Sand skink

The Sand skink (Neoseps reynoldsi) is a lizard occurring only in central Florida. Because of that it is often referred to as the Florida Sand skink. They have tiny forelegs with only one toe. Their hindlegs have two toes. Sand skinks feed on the larvae of beetles, termites and spiders. They were classified endangered in 1987, but because they are so difficult to detect, no one can give a good estimate of the total population. They usually remain beneath the surface at a depth of 5 - 10 centimers.

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