Ask a Chinese person and they will tell you China had it first. China has the oldest. China has the most. It was invented first in the Middle Kingdom. It is everything. So, why not ‘living fossils’ too? There are at least two living fossils in China. The Chinese sturgeon and Chinese alligator.

China sent five pre-historic Chinese sturgeons to Hong Kong’s Ocean Park. The never-t0-be sashimi dish is called “living fossil of fish” or “Giant Panda in the water.” Hong Kong’s visitors are home to the only human-bred Chinese sturgeons living in sea water. Why five? To coincide with the Beijing Olympics. What pre-historic fish have to do with the modern Olympics is beyond me. The sturgeon species supposedly dates back to the Cretaceous period when dinosaurs still roamed the land. It seems to me that most fish were here from the beginning. Even the Flood of Noah’s time couldn’t snuff them out.

Meanwhile -

fishermen (alligatorermen?) have found a wild Chinese alligator that is also being referred to as a living fossil. The alligator was guessed to be about 40-years old. (Why didn’t they just ask?). It was the first sighting of an alligator in the district of Wuhu in more than 30 years. This alligator species was supposedly very plentiful some 230 million years ago (if you believe the Earth is that old), but now there are only about 150 in the wild. The Yangtze alligator as it is also known is one of the world’s most endangered creatures. Gosh, what would Marco Polo say if he saw this fellow?  Since 1979, the Chinese Alligator Breeding Research Center in Anhui has seen the number of alligators at the center rise from about 200 to more than 10,000.

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It’s not the extinct white dolphin tha was spotted in China, or something you might see at one of the Top 12 Hotspots for Whale Watching
it’s the world’s largest shark, the whale shark.  Researchers down under, that’s down under (Australia) and down under (underwater) attached devices for observation to eight sharks 8 meters (26′) long off Ningaloo. Say that place out loud. The devices which are designed to release from the sharks on command track every move the giant fish makes over several hours.

The whale shark dives like a hawk, the soars like an eagle, using momentum and gravity to conserve energy. Hmm…momentum and gravity for conservation of energy. Is there something we landlubbers can learn here? And the whale shark is as big as a bus! The study was done under pretenses of protecting the whale sharks. Protection from whom? People who might stick devices to them maybe?

The devices are supposed to reveal where the sharks feed and breed so that we humans can know where and when to leave them alone. How about we just leave them alone. But, then if we aren’t careful hunters will find them. And if the hunters don’t get them, pollution might.

So, do we study animals or should we leave them alone? What do you think?

Lose one, find one. China thinks the white dolphin in the Yangtze River went extinct, that’s one lost, but good news today. China is adding a new species of bird to the wildlife list.

It’s called the Nonggang Babbler. It has a white crescent-shaped patch behind the ear, grayish-brown spots on a white throat and the rest is dark brown. The babbler likes to walk instead of fly and feeds on worms and insects in between rocks. It flies only when scared.

The new addition to wildlife species was discovered by ornithologists in a small patch of limestone rainforest on the Sino-Vietnamese border. The bird was first spotted four years ago by a professor of the College of Animal Sciences and Technology and one of his grad students. In the subsequent four years studies and fieldwork were conducted to confirm the bird was a new species.

The prof said he had been studying birds for more than 30 years. Stachyris nonggangensis (Nonggang Babbler) is the name of this new discovery. The discovery has been confirmed by the Auk - world’s leading journal on ornithology. The last time a new bird was found in China was in the 1930s.

The prof went on to say “It is very difficult to restore the biodiversity of a rainforest once its ecological is disturbed. Given the bird’s small number and its threatened habitat, it’s important to include it in the State list of protected species.” In other words, now that I found this new bird, let’s make sure we don’t lose it.

Birdwatchers everywhere can be found making reservations to go to the Sino-Vietnamese border.

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Two members of Greenpeace Japan were arrested for stealing a box of whale meat. The greenpeacers are saying that the crew members of a Japanese whaling ship stole the meat. From whom did the ship steal we wonder? The two fellows who belonged to Greenpeace said they were stealing the boxes of meat for evidence so they could prove the crew of the ship, stole the meat.

Am I the only one getting confused here? “I am going to steal this from you so I can prove you stole it from someone else.” In all my love for the world we live in, and for the desire I have to be a good steward, I want no part of the Greenpeace group. They remind me too much of radicals, zealot-types, bible-beating super Christians, Islam extremists and that whole lot.

Why can’t we just be reasonable?

source (image by nataliebehring.com)

Who said apes are not smart? If you did, you may want to reconsider because researchers from Lunds University Cognitive Science in Sweden explained that apes are able to plan for their future needs, just as we humans do – by using self-control and imagining future events. Now we understand why they go fishing …

Mathias and Helena Osvath, the two researchers demonstrated that chimpanzees and orangutans could override immediate drives in favor of future needs.

They were then tempted with their favorite fruit alongside the hose to test their ability to suppress the choice of the immediate reward (favorite fruit) in favor of a tool (the hose) that would lead to a larger reward 70 minutes later on (the fruit soup). The apes chose the hose more frequently than their favorite fruit suggesting that they are able to make choices in favor of future needs, even when they directly compete with an immediate reward.

Though I like apes very much (how not to love - pic) I’m not sure if they plan or not. Maybe they’ve just built habits or were forced to develop habits, what do you think?
The research is going to be published online this week in Springer’s journal, Animal Cognition.

Original image by guppiecat

There’s a guy in North Carolina, Amychelle Jones, who has been sharing his home with 60,000 bees. I wonder if he counted them. One bee, two bees … but back to the story.

(honey oozes out of the walls)

The knucklehead noticed something coming out of his walls and he realized it was honey after tasting the oozing liquid on the wall. Turns out there was a huge bee hive behind the wall. Don’t know about you, but I’m not tasting things that are coming out of my wall.

“I came over here and dipped my finger in it and tasted it. Sure enough, it was honey coming out of the wall,” Jones said.

The bees were removed with a vacuum. SSsssuuuuccckkkkk!!!

“There’s no hive,” beekeepers said. “There’s no queen bee, so they’ll find their way out.”

I guess Jones knew how not to get rid of bees but I really wonder does he know anything about animal rights ?

Source: Wyff4

To be sure, it is not always we foolish humans that drive animals out of their natural habitats, Mother Nature can do it, too. A May 12th earthquake in the mountains of Sichuan Province devastated some of the natural habitats of the wolves in that same region. Only about 10 wolves have been sighted since and the government has dispatched observation teams.

I mean, if they don’t find enough wolves, who’s going to star in the Chinese remake of Little Red Riding Hood?

“The wild animals live in the remote and deep mountainous area, and are scared after the earthquake, so they go out of the deep mountains,” according to Yang Feiyu, head of one animal protection station.

If we take the big picture in the whole balance of nature scenario, this could be considered a good thing overall. Don’t you think?

Image by uae_1

An Endangered Sea Dragon is Pregnant. That’s the good news. The bad news is we are saying good-bye to the Caribbean monk seal. Also known as the West Indian monk seal, sadly The US National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) declared it extinct. Gone. No more.

The cause? Tremendous hunting pressure for food, blubber and research. Research as in how not to drive them extinct? We hope not. The blubber is used as a source of oil to coat ship hulls, lubrication and oil lamps. The Steller’s sea cow, the Japanese sea lion, have preceded the monk seal.

The white river dolphin of the Yangtze river was thought to be extinct, but good news of the discovery of one (dead) is causing watchers to rethink this conclusion.

It is never a happy thought to say good-bye, much less good-bye for good. Let’s not just hope, but rather take action so as to not need to say good-bye to any other marine animals, eh?

Happy Father’s Day to a weedy sea dragon at the Georgia Aquarium. Apparently, the sea dragon, along with sea horses and pipe fish are the only species where the male carries the eggs. And, a Georgia Aquarium sea dragon has about 70 fertilized eggs that he is carrying.

It’s only the third time ever that one of these rare birds, um, sea dragons has become pregnant at a U.S. aquarium. What’s more, researchers don’t know how it happened, or more precisely what got the father in the mood to mate. (Um, I am a father, maybe I can help out here.) Researchers say there is “something biologically or environmentally that triggers them to want to reproduce.” Really?!

During mating, the female lays dozens of eggs and then attaches them to the male’s tail. Survival rate is about 60% for sea dragon’s born in captivity. Let’s see 70 eggs X 60% = 42 more little dragons to star in a future Dr. Seuss book.

Congratulations, Dad! Mom!

[Image source : Yahoo!]

Image by Michae Dawes
What can be more fun than reading Finding Nemo or Moby Dick? How about actually finding and interacting with them, up close and personal. Watching animals in their natural habitat is a tremendous experience be it for recreational purposes, scientific or educational reasons and our recommendation for this month is whale watching. Here are our 12 picks for the best hotspots on the planet where these gentle giants can be observed in all their splendor.

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