Clipmarks | Aribeth's 'animals' clips

Animal Myths

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 19:51:28 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth

Clip Source: www.greenexpander.com

10 Animal Myths Debunked

Hares are cowards

All it needs is beating his paws relentlessly to escape from predators.

Commonly known as boxing

also used by females to “suggest” to the male that it is not yet ready for mating

Bears are slow

can reach a speed of up to 50 km/hr (30 mph.)

Hippos are clumsy

can reach speeds of up to 30 mph (48 lm/h)

faster than an Olympic sprinter

Badgers are sad and lonely

actually quite sociable

living in groups of 2 to 15 members

Giraffes are flexible

not even able to turn their head back

Zebras are given away by their stripes

stripes help them blend into the crowd

disappearing into a grey color spot

Rattlesnakes rattle before they attack

actually rattle when they are frightened

Octopuses use camouflage to protect from enemies

not

only

Male cuttlefish use their color to camouflage from other competing males and protect their females.

Lizards climb with the use of suction

Elephant have a thick skin

Actually its skin

is very sensitive.

Elephants can feel a simple touch

Tags: nature, animals, photos

20 Things You Didn't Know About Sex

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 08:16:45 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth
clipper's remarks: 6 Barbary macaques have a distinctive way to get their mates to make a sperm donation: yelling. If the female does not shout, the male almost never climaxes.

7 How do we know this? German primatologist Dana Pfefferle watched a group of macaques, counting the females’ yells and the males’ pelvic thrusts. She says this work is “quite weird, but it’s science.”

8 Here in the US of A, that kind of stuff ends up on YouTube.

9 Because Barry White sounds terrible underwater: Fish can produce a variety of noises with their bones, teeth, and gas bladders. Grant Gilmore of Estuarine Coastal and Ocean Science Inc. says that male fish probably use some of these sounds to woo females.

10 The spiny anteater, an egg-laying mammal native to Australia and New Guinea, has a penis with four heads, but only two fit into the female at once.

11 The tiny male paper nautilus, an octopus, impregnates the much larger female by shooting his penis (a modified tentacle) into her—and leaving it there.

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

And you thought you knew everything...

1 Life emerged on earth about 3.8 billion years ago, but sex did not evolve until more than 2 billion years later. Dirty limericks emerged only quite recently, geologically speaking.

2 Sex—what is it good for? Scientists are not sure, since asexual reproduction is a better evolutionary strategy in some important ways.

3 For those who refuse to commit to one strategy: The hermaphroditic earthworm Dendrobaena rubida has both male and female genitalia. If it cannot find a partner, the worm doubles up so that its female bits and male bits can go to town.

4 Although famously monogamous, female Adélie penguins slip away from their mates occasionally to couple with unattached males. They exact a fee (pdf) for such a dalliance—stones to bolster their nests—not unlike certain people.

5 Some talented penguin teasers can get a gift even without putting out. Again, not unlike certain people.

Tags: sexual behaviour, sexuality, animals, nature

Tracking the Origin of the Cat

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:27:47 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth
clipper's remarks: Cats probably started living close to humans when people evolved from nomadic herding to raising livestock and crops and started storing food, which attracted mice and other rodents. Cats found good hunting there, and humans surely appreciated the sly little predators' help protecting their stocks."There was a mutual benefit," Lyons said.

From there, domesticated cats started to radiate out to different parts of the world, often following humans on their migrations. Today cats can be divided genetically into four broad groups: those from Europe, the Mediterranean, East Africa and Asia.

But Lyons and her colleagues also made surprising discoveries about individual breeds.

The Japanese bobtail, for example, does not seem genetically similar to cats from Japan, indicating the breed may have originated elsewhere.

Despite its name, the Persian, the oldest recognized breed, looks as though it actually arose in Western Europe and not Persia, which today is Iran.

Clip Source: www.wtnrradio.com

Scientists have begun to pull back the feline veil, using the latest molecular tools to get a peek at the origin of the cat.

In one of the most comprehensive explorations of cats' origins to date, Leslie Lyons from the University of California at Davis, and her colleagues spent about five years collecting feline DNA, poking behind the whiskers of more than 1,100 Persians, Siamese, street cats and household tabbies around the world to swab inside their mouths.

The first thing the group did was confirm a report published last June in the journal Science that the domestication of cats about 10,000 years ago appeared to have occurred in an area known as the Fertile Crescent, which stretches from Turkey to northern Africa and to modern-day Iraq and Iran.

"Our data support the Fertile Crescent, specifically Turkey, as one of the origin sites for cats," said Lyons

"Turkey was part of the Fertile Crescent and hence was one of the earliest areas for agricultural development."

Tags: animals

The Dream Of The Dolphins

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 19:52:56 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken

Clip Source: www.linkinn.com

The Dream Of The Dolphin

Dolphins are aquatic mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises.
There arealmost forty species of dolphin in seventeen genera .

They vary in size from 1.2 metres (4 ft) and 40 kilograms (88 lb) (Maui's Dolphin),
up to 9.5 m (30 ft) and ten tonnes (the Orca or Killer Whale).

They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves,
and are carnivores, mostly eating fish and squid.

The family Delphinidae is the largest in the Cetacea, and relatively recent:
dolphins evolved about ten million years ago, during the Miocene.

Dolphins are considered to be amongst the most intelligent of animals and
their often friendly appearance and seemingly playful attitude have made
them popular in human culture.

Clip Source: www.linkinn.com

Tags: nature, dolphins, animals, biodiversity, photos

Brave and proud (photo)

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:29:57 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth

Clip Source: photo.net

Brave and proud

Tags: photo, photos, photography, horses, animals, beautiful

Patterns in Nature: Animals

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:51:18 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

Black-and-white stripes ripple across the hide of a Grant's zebra.

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

A map puffer fish's (Arothron mappa) eye appears like coral to casual observers in Indonesia's Tukangbesi Islands.

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

A giraffe's spots form irregular patterns.

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

Bird feathers create a colorful show.

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

Intricate rings and dots mark the coat of a jaguar (Panthera onca).

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

A moth's wings appear iridescent when photographed close-up in the Danum Valley Conservation Area in Sabah, Malaysia.

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

The sensory glands on the side of an Arctic char are used by the fish during its annual spawning migration.

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

A close view of a cheetah's wet coat

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

An African elephant's skin can be up to one inch (2.5 centimeters) thick.

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

Boa constrictors use their heat-sensitive scales to locate prey.

Tags: images, photography, patterns, animals

The fish that can survive for months in a tree

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:26:25 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

t's one of the golden rules of the natural world – birds live in trees, fish live in water.

The trouble is, no one bothered to tell the mangrove killifish.

Scientists have discovered that it spends several months of every year out of the water and living inside trees

Hidden away inside rotten branches and trunks, the remarkable creatures temporarily alter their biological makeup so they can breathe air.

Biologists studying the killifish say they astonished it can cope for so long out of its natural habitat.

The discovery, along with its ability to breed without a mate, must make the mangrove killifish, Rivulus marmoratus Poey, one of the oddest fish known to man.

Around two inches long, they normally live in muddy pools and the flooded burrows of crabs in the mangrove swamps of Florida, Latin American and Caribbean.

The latest discovery was made by biologists wading through swamps in Belize and Florida who found hundreds of killifish hiding out of the water

Tags: fish, animals, fauna

Swimming with polar bears

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 20:56:57 GMT

clipped by: german

Clip Source: fogonazos.blogspot.com

Swimming with polar bears

There’s a place in the world where children can swim among polar bears.

Since July 2004, in the little town of Cochrane, northern Ontario (Canada), you can visit the Polar Bear Habitat, a kind of local zoo where people can live the once-in-a-lifetime experience of an outdoor swim with polar bears.

Of course, the humans are in a different pool, separated from the bears habitat by just a layer of glass. Can you see the water drops now? There's a bulletproof, shatterproof glass that's almost 9 centimetres thick, because although they're cute, polar bears are among the world's most ferocious carnivores.

It took 20 years for the Polar Bear Conservation and Education Habitat and Heritage Village to get off the ground. When it opened in it attracted some 11,000 visitors in the first six months. And now you’re invited to go and swim with all those bears if you dare. I don’t.

Tags: animals, nature, wildlife

Can Dogs Anticipate Their Owner's Return?

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 03:23:41 GMT

clipped by: CrazyRedHead
clipper's remarks: Your dog might be a good candidate for our experiment, and could earn a $1,000 prize offered to dog owners who successfully participate.
http://www.opensourcescience.net/index.php?title=Can_Dogs_Anticipatearticipate

Clip Source: www.opensourcescience.net

Many dog owners claim that their pets anticipate their return, typically by going to wait at a door

In April of 1994, Pamela Smart read about Sheldrake's research in the British newspaper, the Sunday Telegraph, and volunteered herself and her terrier Jaytee to take part.

The video footage showed that Jaytee reacted 11 seconds after Smart was told to go home at a randomly selected time previously unknown to her.

Jaytee was at the window 4% of the time during the main period of her absence and 55% of the time when she was returning.

Let's Replicate This Experiment

This experiment intrigues every dog lover and addresses a belief still common among dog owners. In the following pages we discuss how this experiment can be replicated, moving us closer to a consensus on this claimed ability. We’ll also be exploring how to web-enable this experiment making it more cost-effective and accessible to the broadest possible audience. Please join us in this discussion.

Tags: animals, dogs, paranormal

How to hug a baby

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 13:30:58 GMT

clipped by: Jaycer17
clipper's remarks: This is both cute and disturbing, although I admit, I know mastiffs are pretty gentle dogs. But still, I would cringe if those were my dog and my kid!

Clip Source: www.dnaco.net

If you think you've spotted a baby, verify by employing classic sniffing techniques. Baby powder is a dead giveaway.

Flatten the baby before actually beginning the hugging process.

Simply slide paws around baby and prepare for possible close-up.

If a camera is present, you will need to execute the difficult and patented hug, smile, and lean in order to achieve the best photo quality.

Tags: funny, cute, animals, baby, photo, photographs

Birth of a dolphin

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:16:56 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

t is one of the rarest and most magical sights in the natural world.

A bottlenose dolphin goes into labour . . . then a calf emerges, tail first. Mother guides baby gently to the surface, where they swim together for the first time.

Very few dolphin births have been captured on film in such astonishing detail.

This one was recorded at a wildlife park pool in Rimini, Italy, where photographer Leandro Stanzani was in exactly the right place at the right time.

"To take good pictures is not easy," said Mr Stanzani, who has been taking photos of dolphins for 14 years.

"Most births happen during the night when the light is very poor.

"Sometimes dolphins prefer to stay far away from windows. Sometimes water quality is poor.

Mother nose best: Moments after the birth, she helps the calf towards the surface

Tags: dolphins, marine life, sea, ocean, creatures, animals