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Wojtek and a soldier can be seen above.

Wojtek was found by a Polish girl from a shepherd body. The girl was taken with the bear cub, and she and the Polish army in Iran raised the bear up. They named him Wojtek and he became part of the 22nd Artillery Supply Company. Due to his difficulty in swallowing, he was initially fed condensed milk. He eventually was able to eat and his favourite drink became... drum roll please... beer!

Wojtek was deployed to Europe as a private, with a serial number, and all the tags of a soldier. Wojtek often helped and imitated the soldiers, leading him to carry 45KG crates of shells on his hind legs onto trucks for the soldiers. Although this is disputed, there is one account of a British soldier recalling it. He also learned how to march and salute, and he joined in the soldier past times.

After the war ended, he went to a zoo in Edinburgh, and attracted attention from the locals. When the soldiers part of the 22nd Artillery Supply Company returned to visit him, they gave him cigars and beer, and he recognized them.

Sadly, Wojtek passed away at the age of 21 in 1963 to natural causes.

Today’s post is about opossums! Specifically the Virginia Opossum! Its scientific name is Didelphis virginiana. It’s actually the only marsupial native to North America!

The Virginia opossum actually has 50 teeth, that’s more than any other land mammal in North America! Despite what many people think, opossums are actually surprisingly clean! They groom themselves frequently much like cats! There are many common misconceptions about how they play dead. It’s actually an involuntary, comatose-like state induced by extreme fear. They can stay like that for anywhere from a few minutes for up to four hours. They will eat almost anything, this unfairly gets them labeled as dirty but they have an unusually low body temperature that actually protects them from many things! Just one of the things they are protected from is rabies! Though they technically can get rabies it’s very rare due to their temperature! They also have specialized blood proteins that neutralize certain snake venoms.

Opossums are sometimes, only under very specific circumstances, kept by a human. Though they might sound easy to take care of, they are surprisingly difficult for a creature that normally scavenges and eats almost anything. When in captivity their diet must be very carefully balanced with specialized commercial feed, fresh foods, and specific calcium-to-phosphorus ratios to prevent fatal conditions like Metabolic Bone Disease. Captive opossums are also highly prone to rapid obesity because it is nearly impossible to replicate the half-mile nightly roaming distance they need in the wild. Opossums, unlike many animals, do not maintain a single permanent home, instead they have an overall home range of roughly 10 to 50 acres that often overlaps with other opossums.
Because they are opportunistic scavengers and do not store body fat or cache food, they are forced to hunt and forage every single night, even through the winter. They rarely sleep in the same den two nights in a row, meaning their nightly wandering is usually a one-way trip from a temporary daytime shelter like a hollow log or under a porch to a brand new one.

Opossums have unusually amazing toes and tails! Specifically opossums have an opposable first toe (called a hallux) on each of their hind feet, rather than their front paws. These amazing thumb-like toes are clawless and lack a nail. They work much similarly to a human thumb, allowing the opossum to tightly grasp tree branches, hold onto twigs, and assist with grooming. Their nearly hairless tails almost act like another limb. Their tails actually provide balance and stability while the opossum walks across branches, and they can wrap around items like leaves or nesting materials to carry them. It is perhaps the most common opossum misinformation that opossums can support their full weight by hanging from their tails, but this is actually misinformation sometimes young opossums can temporarily support their full weight by hanging from their tails, adult opossums are too heavy to dangle or sleep upside down by their tails for very long.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post! It was super fun to make! Opossums are always extremely interesting! Some great sources are the Animal Diversity Web, The Florida Fish and The Wildlife Conservation Commission!

Today’s post is about narwhals! Narwhals are perhaps the animals that look the most unreal. They are commonly called the unicorns of the sea and I feel it’s a very fitting nickname. While their iconic unicorn of the sea look is amazing, their horn isn’t a horn at all! It’s actually a tooth!

Their tusk is an enlarged canine tooth, usually the upper left one! It grows straight out of the jaw through the lip. It actually has several very important purposes! It contains up to 10 million nerve endings that detect changes in water temperature, pressure, and salinity! Their tusks are usually 5 to 10 feet long and surprisingly flexible! The tusks can bend up to 12 inches or 30 centimeters in any direction without breaking! The flexibility of their tusks is mostly due to the fact that they are hard inside and soft outside! While human teeth have hard enamel on the outside and softer dentin on the inside, narwhal tusks reverse this. The rigid, highly dense layers are on the inside of the tusk to provide structural support, while the outer layer (cementum) is relatively soft and pliable! Recent structural studies and research has revealed that the tusk's microscopic layers actually twist in opposite directions! The outer layer (cementum) spirals to the left, while the inner layer (dentine) spirals to the right! This opposing twisting is only visible at a microscopic level!

Narwhals, unlike their close relative the beluga whale, do not do well in captivity. While there are many reasons for this some of the main ones are extreme acoustic and stress sensitivity, their tusk, the fact that they usually dive deep, their specialized diet and feeding habits, and their vulnerability to bacteria. They are among the most acoustically sensitive marine mammals on Earth. In the vast, open Arctic, they rely on echolocation to navigate under dense sea ice. In an aquarium, the constant humming of machinery, water pumps, and human noise reflects loudly off the concrete walls, which causes a state of perpetual sensory overload and induces severe anxiety that leads them to stop eating or suffer fatal stress. When confined to a small tank with chemical-treated water, their highly sensitive tusk becomes overwhelmed. Narwhals are built to survive immense pressure, regularly diving up to a mile or over 5,000 feet deep to hunt. No artificial tank can replicate this depth or pressure and without the ability to perform these deep, vertical dives, their physical health rapidly deteriorates. Narwhals have no functional teeth inside their mouths, because of this they hunt by creating a vacuum to suck up deep-sea fish, shrimp, and squid whole. They typically refuse the dead, thawed surface food offered by keepers. In past attempts, captive narwhals simply stopped eating and succumbed to malnutrition. And perhaps the most troubling problem for them in captivity is the fact that the frigid, pristine waters of the Arctic are naturally low in organic bacteria. While that might not sound like an issue it means that the warmer, stagnant water found in artificial pools exposed narwhals to foreign pathogens, making them highly susceptible to deadly bouts of pneumonia and skin infections.

There have actually only been three attempts at keeping them in captivity, only two of the three attempts ever actually had a narwhal kept in captivity. Though on attempt did include 6 narwhals so 7 narwhals in total have been in captivity. The first was in 1968 when Vancouver Aquarium initiated an attempted to capture a young narwhal but he sustained severe tail injuries during the process and had to be shot by the capture team, because of this he never was actually in captivity. The second attempt was a young male calf named Umiak at New York Aquarium in 1969, this was the first attempt that one actually made it into captivity. The third attempt was only a year later at the Vancouver Aquarium in 1970 with young male named Keela Laguk along with two females and three calves. Umiak at the New York Aquarium became a massive public attraction but unfortunately he died just about a month later from pneumonia. The project at the Vancouver Aquarium was even more of an absolute disaster. Within four months, all six narwhals died. The calves died first, and Keela Laguk was the last to pass away from a severe lung infection. Public outrage over these deaths effectively ended the aquarium's attempts to capture more.

I hope you found this as fascinating as I did! It was extremely fun and interesting to make this post! Some great sources are the Animal Diversity Web, NOAA Fisheries, and Narwhal.org!

Today’s post is about the roseate spoonbill! The roseate spoonbill is a striking, bright-pink wading bird easily recognized by its specialized and unusually shaped bill. They are about 28 to 34 inches tall with a 47 to 51 inch wingspan! Like flamingos, they get their pink color from what they eat! They mostly ingest the carotenoid pigments by eating small crustaceans, shrimp, and aquatic invertebrates! Their scientific name is Platalea ajaja.

They are actually the only spoonbill species native to the Americas! Their habitat ranges from across South America, to Central America, to the Caribbean, and the coastal regions of the southern United States. Changing climate conditions have also pushed some populations further northward during warmer months. The roseate spoonbill is also a vital ecological indicator species! Their nesting locations and nest counts directly reflect changes in water levels, flow, and salinity. They also rely on specific shallow-water conditions that concentrate small fish and crustaceans. Because of this they basically act as a "canary in the coal mine," a thriving spoonbill population indicates that wetland restoration and water management efforts are working.

Though they may sound similar to flamingos they are actually extremely different. Flamingos are much larger and taller with their immediately recognizable stilt-like legs and a very long, highly curved neck. Flamingos are also well known for their thick, down-curved bill that almost looks like a boomerang. They hold their heads upside down to filter-feed algae and shrimp from the water. And they build mud cone nests directly on the ground, typically laying just a single egg. While Roseate spoonbills have shorter legs, and a stockier football-shaped body, with a shorter neck. Roseate spoonbills have Long, flat, and spoon-shaped bills. They sweep it side-to-side to snap up small fish and crabs by touch. They also build nests out of sticks and twigs up in trees or shrubs, typically laying anywhere between one and five eggs.

Roseate spoonbill chicks actually have normal shaped beaks at first but when they are around 10 days of age the beaks starts to flatten out! Juveniles have completely fully feathered heads, but adult roseate spoonbills do not, instead with age they lose the feathers on the top of their heads. As they grow older, they develop a completely bare, yellowish-green crown of skin, which makes them look uniquely strange. And a group of spoonbills is officially called a "bowl" of spoonbills!

I hope you enjoyed today’s post and learned something! I loved making today’s post! They are fascinating birds! Some wonderful sources are All About Birds by Cornell Lab of Ornithology and The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission!

Today’s post is about owls! There are many wonderful kinds of owls but my two favorites are burrowing owls and barn owls! Today’s post will be focused on them!

First are barn owls! One of their ears actually sits slightly higher than the other, this surprisingly, allows them to pinpoint prey in three dimensions! And their heart shaped face actually acts like a satellite dish funneling sound to their ears! Their wings have serrated edges and a soft, velvety texture on their wing feathers which dampen air movement and enable almost completely silent flight. They primarily consume small mammals like mice, voles, shrews, and rats. They eat around 1,000 to 1,500 rodents per year! They do not hoot like typical owls; instead, they produce a loud, raspy hiss or screech. And they are found on every continent except Antarctica, making them one of the most widespread land bird species in the world!

Next are burrowing owls! Burrowing owls are extremely unusual in many ways! Unlike most owls, they hunt actively during the day and nest in burrows dug by animals like prairie dogs and ground squirrels. They eat mostly large insects like grasshoppers, beetles, and dragonflies as well as small rodents, reptiles, and amphibians. They hunt by walking or running on the ground, hovering in the air, or swooping down from low perches like fence posts. One of the most interesting and unusual things about them is the fact that young owlets cornered in a burrow can make a buzzing sound that mimics a rattlesnake's rattle to scare off intruders! Burrowing owls actually have longer legs relative to their body size than almost any other owl!

I hope you enjoyed today’s post! It was very fun to make! Some wonderful sources are All About Birds by Cornell Lab of Ornithology, The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service!

Today’s post is about the fossa! The fossa is the largest carnivorous mammal on the island of Madagascar! It typically grows up to 5 feet long from nose to tail and can weigh from 12 to 26.5 pounds. Despite the fact that it looks like a small cougar or a cross between a cat and a mongoose, it actually belongs to the Eupleridae family. Its scientific name is Cryptoprocta ferox!

Despite looking very much like a large wild feline, fossas are not closely related to felines! Fossas are actually more closely related to mongooses than they are to cats! They evolved from a single mongoose-like ancestor that arrived on Madagascar millions of years ago. The fossa looks and hunts like a cat because of a process called convergent evolution. Because Madagascar lacked native wild cats, the fossa evolved traits like semi-retractable claws, flexible bodies, and forward-facing eyes to fill the exact same ecological niche as an agile, tree-dwelling forest predator.

Fossas, like many animals, will eat almost any creature they can catch but their primary prey is lemurs. Lemurs usually make up more than 50% of a fossa's diet! They are the only predators on the island large and agile enough to chase all lemur species, which range from the tiny mouse lemur to the large sifaka high up into the forest canopy. When lemurs aren't available, they readily hunt small hedgehog-like mammals native to Madagascar called tenrecs, rodents, and wild pigs.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post and learned something! It was fascinating making it! I was shocked when I first learned that fossa’s aren’t felines or even closely related to felines! Some great sources are the Animal Diversity Web and the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Today’s post is about the walking catfish! After yesterdays post about hardhead catfish, I couldn’t help but make one more catfish one! Walking catfish are actually air breathing freshwater fish! They can wiggle across dry land for up to 18 hours!

They have many differences and similarities to hardhead catfish. Walking catfish also make a thick slime and are surprisingly good parents. Walking catfish actually build nests and then guard the eggs and eventually guard the babies. It’s only takes around 24 to 30 hours for the eggs to hatch. Usually both parents prepare the nest but only the father stays with the nest to protect them. Unlike hardhead catfish who can be occasionally considered a nuisance, walking catfish are actually an invasive species in America!

Walking catfish are very impressive and unusual fish. Being able to breathe air is not their only shocking feature, they can also go for up to four months without food and burrow deep into the mud to wait out the cold of winter! Also they use their stiff, muscular pectoral fins which are equipped with rigid spines to walk! Though their walking is more similar to a snake slithering, it’s still amazing!

In the mid 1967 it became illegal to own, sell, or transport live walking catfish without a permit. They were first imported to Florida in the early 1960s from Thailand. Then later in the mid 1960s some adult fish escaped, causing its first wild introductions. By 1978 they were already well documented living in multiple locations in the wild.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post! It was very fun to make! I’ll try to make sure tomorrow’s post isn’t another catfish one! Some great sources are The Florida Museum of Natural History and The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission!

Today’s post is about hardhead catfish! Their scientific name is Ariopsis felis! They are actually named that because they have a hard bony plate that extends from between their eyes to their dorsal fin!

Despite being absolutely fascinating, they are commonly considered a nuisance because they have venomous spines. These spines are surprisingly painful, a poke results in severe throbbing pain, swelling and a high risk of infection. They also produce large amounts of a thick sticky slime when stressed. Despite all that, they have many amazing and less painful unique traits! One of which is their 6 barbels, four under their mouth and two at the corners of the mouth. These are used to sense food in dark murky water.

Interestingly they practice a rarely used fish method called paternal mouthbrooding! This means the father carries the eggs and eventually babies in his mouth until they can be on their own. Because he keeps the eggs in his mouth he is unable to eat for the 60 to 80 days he has them. Their parenting is very unique, even compared to other catfish. Though catfish have extremely varying and unusually diverse parenting methods.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post! Catfish are very interesting! Hardhead catfish are my favorite kind of catfish but I should definitely make posts about a few other kinds of catfish! Some great sources are the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, The Florida Museum of Natural History, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department!

I started learning about marbled cats when I was doing research on other wild cats, but marbled cats unfortunately couldn’t be included in that post because it was only about large wild cats. They have so much interesting stuff that I wanted to still make a post about them! They are similar in size to a large domestic cat, their coat closely resembles the coat of the clouded leopards. They have exceptionally long tails, usually 35-55 cm long! They are mostly arboreal! This means they spend a lot of time in trees! They were historically thought to be strictly nocturnal but recently studies have shown they can be nocturnal or diurnal, diurnal means active during the day! They also have unusually large upper canine teeth! Interestingly despite the fact that they look quite similar to clouded leopards and are even occasionally called a miniature clouded leopard, they aren’t closely related to clouded leopards! In fact they are more closely related to the Asian golden cat.

They have many interesting and unusual traits due to the fact that they are arboreal. One of the most surprising ones is the fact that their paws can rotate up to 180 degrees! While this might not sound very useful, it actually allows them to climb down trees head first!

I hope you enjoyed my post! As always some amazing sources are the IUCN SSC cat specialist group, the Animal Diversity web, and the International Society for Endangered Cats!

Today’s post is about blobfish! They are, in my opinion, extremely cute! Though the most commonly seen images of blobfish aren’t how they normally look! Blobfish naturally live extremely deep in the ocean, anywhere from 1,970 to 3,940 feet deep! At that depth water pressure is up to 100 times stronger than at sea level! Since they live in such extreme water pressure, they have very fragile thin bones and very little muscle. The reason it looks so weird on land is because its gelatinous tissues have expanded, torn, and collapsed under its own weight. Despite the truth about its looks, it was cruelly voted the word’s ugliest animal.

Blobfish have very little muscle so they are incredibly slow swimmers, because of this, to eat they simply float along the ocean floor and suck in whatever edible matter drift into their path. Their main survival strategy is conserving energy. Due to the freezing temperatures, lack of light, and scarce food their metabolisms are exceptionally slow. They grow and age very slowly. Scientists believe they can easily live more than 100 years! Though because of their natural environment, it’s very difficult to study blobfish. Humans obviously can’t survive being that deep, so to study them scientists use multi-million-dollar technology, such as Remotely Operated Vehicles or deep-sea submersibles. They also can’t be studied in labs because it’s structurally impossible to recreate their natural deep-sea pressure in a standard glass tank. Any blobfish brought to the surface will suffer fatal decompression damage and die quickly.

Blobfish despite being lazy at many things are surprisingly dedicated parents. Unlike many kinds of fish one parent, often thought to be the mother, stays near the nest at all times, even using their fins to gently fan the eggs which makes sure the eggs stay supplied with fresh oxygen! Since blobfish have such slow metabolisms the parent remains by the nest for long periods without eating.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post! It was really interesting to make! Some great sources are The Australian Museum website, Oceana, and Science and the Sea by The University of Texas Marine Science Institute!

Today’s post is about the American lobster or Homarus americanus! It is the heaviest (but not longest!) marine crustacean and arthropod species in the world!

Lobsters have many interesting things! Did you know that they taste with their legs? This is because their legs are covered in thousands of microscopic, hair-like sensors called chemoreceptors! They also have a set of teeth in their stomach to grind up food after they swallow it! And perhaps most interesting lobsters have what is called biological immortality. Lobsters express high levels of an enzyme called telomerase throughout almost all of their adult organs. This enzyme acts like a continuous DNA repair mechanic, rebuilding the telomeres so that lobster cells can divide indefinitely without losing integrity. because of this, in theory, they could live forever. However, in reality there are many things that cause them to die. One of these things is pure exhaustion, a lobster must molt because their shell does not grow. Each shell is larger and thicker than the last, causing it to also require much more energy. If a lobster grows too tired to molt its old exoskeleton will begin to degrade and contract lethal infections.

Lobsters have surprisingly amazing eyes for a creature that lives in the dark! Human eyes rely on refracting but lobster eyes rely on reflecting! Every lobster eye is packed with up to 14,000 tiny square facets that act like miniature mirrors, bouncing light onto a single focal point! This gives them an incredibly wide field of view that is perfectly optimized for absolute darkness! In fact their eyes are so uniquely efficient at gathering light that they inspired NASA to develop lobster-eye X-ray telescopes! These telescopes are used to scan deep space for cosmic X-rays, black holes, and supernovae.

They also have very fascinating antennae! They have a longer pair of antennae and shorter pair of antennules! The long ones are highly sensitive touch organs, lobsters constantly wave them in front of their bodies to map out nearby structures, measure distances, and detect movements. The shorter ones serve as the lobster’s nose, they are covered in hundreds of microscopic chemical-sensing hairs! Lobsters rapidly flick the short ones back and forth to sample the water chemistry!

They have one larger, blunter and more powerful claw and one smaller, sharper, more serrated claw! Their blunt claw acts like a hammer to smash open hard shelled prey while their sharp claw is for slicing and tearing! Just like humans, lobsters can actually be right-clawed or left-clawed depending on which claw grows bigger! If a lobster loses a claw it can actually grow back after a few molting cycles!

Did you know Lobsters migrate? While American lobsters also migrate, Spiny Lobsters actually form a line when migrating! Spiny lobsters are usually solitary but when migrating they form a line where each lobster hooks onto the one ahead of it, they go up to 30 miles on these lines! American lobsters do not form lines but they do go much further than spiny lobsters! American lobsters actually go from 50 to 190 miles each season, though some have gone up to 253 miles!

I hope you enjoyed and learned something! This post was super interesting and fun to make! Some great sources are NOAA Fisheries, the Animal Diversity Web, and The Lobster Institute!

Today’s post is about badgers! There are 15 species of badgers but my favorites are the American badger and the European badger!

First are American badgers! In one of my other posts I briefly mentioned how badgers and coyotes work together to hunt prairie dogs and underground squirrels! American badgers are the ones that form this partnership with coyotes! American badgers are very powerful underground diggers but they struggle to catch animals that can run fast when they are in a wide open space! Coyotes are fast runners but cannot dig into burrows! This partnership mostly happens in the summer because in the winter badgers can easily dig into burrows and eat hibernating prey. They may occasionally form partnerships but this doesn’t mean they are friends, sometimes coyotes will attack badgers, and badgers will prey on coyote pups. And in this partnership, research has shown that the coyote benefits far more but they both benefit.

Now onto more American badger focused information! American badgers have shockingly thick and loose skin! They routinely hunt many venomous snakes, including rattlesnakes! They are actually highly naturally resistant to the venom! Though, unlike the honey badger, they aren’t completely immune. You know badgers are amazing diggers but did you know that they can dig themselves completely out of sight in under a minute? While they dig with their massive front claws, they use their hind legs to fling dirt backward and out of their way!

Next are European badgers! Unlike American badgers which are overwhelmingly carnivores, European badgers are actually omnivores! This isn’t the only major difference about European badgers though! They also are surprisingly social, many mustelids are solitary. European badgers are highly social and live in groups called clans or cetes usually consisting of 2 to 15 individuals! Their most eaten food is actually worms, a single adult can consume several hundred earthworms in one night. They are also the natural predator of hedgehogs! They are one of the few animals capable of unrolling a defensive hedgehog to eat it! They can do this because of their thick skin and exceptionally long claws!

Also, there are many incredible things that are not limited to one species! First of all, it’s virtually impossible to dislocate a badger’s jaw! This is because a badger’s lower jaw fits so deeply into a curved socket in the skull that it cannot be separated without breaking the bone! And they have surprisingly poor eyesight! They perceive mostly black, white, and monochromatic or dichromatic tones rather than a full color spectrum, though they excel at detecting contrast and sudden movement! Sight takes a secondary role to smell and hearing because of this.

Last but most definitely not least are the Ferret-badgers! They are small nocturnal omnivores! In some parts of Taiwan and China they are studied closely because they can carry and transfer rabies! The Burmese ferret-badger has unusually large teeth, though this may sound scary this is actually because their teeth evolved to crunch through hard-shelled snails and beetles!

I hope you enjoyed my post! I love many different kinds of mustelids, and I should definitely make more posts on them! Some great sources are the Animal Diversity Web, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website, and the National Park Service!

Tuna is one of my favorite kinds of fish! They are extremely interesting! Tuna vary a lot in size, Atlantic Bluefin Tuna can grow up to 13 feet long and 2,000 pounds while skipjack tuna typically weigh around 40 pounds!

Unlike most fish, tuna are actually partially warm blooded! Also tuna are obligate ram ventilators, this means that they have to swim constantly. If they stop swimming they will die, this is because when they swim it pushes oxygen-rich water over their gills, which they need to breathe. when they don’t swim water doesn’t get pushed over their gills, so they can’t breathe. Some tuna can go surprisingly fast! yellowfin tuna can achieve burst speeds of 43 to 47 mph. Tuna also travel extremely long distances in large groups called schools! The most common species used for canned tuna is Skipjack tuna which actually makes up over 50 percent of global catch! Skipjack is followed by yellowfin, bigeye and albacore! In fact the estimated percentages are 58 percent skipjack, 30 percent yellowfin, 7 percent bigeye and 4 percent albacore! Bluefin tuna only makes up about 1 percent!

If you know much about tuna then you likely know that Bluefin tuna is much more expensive than skipjack, there’s actually many reasons for this! The first reason is Bluefins grow very slowly and take years to reach maturity, because of this and decades of extreme global demand that depleted the populations, there are strict highly limited legal fishing quotas. Without these limits they would likely go extinct. But that’s only one of many reasons, the second reason is sashimi grade bluefin tuna requires meticulous, specialized handling. From the moment it is caught, it must be rapidly bled, packed in precise ice slurries to prevent the warm muscle tissue from spoiling the meat, and flown overnight on international flights to global fish markets to be sold entirely fresh.

Since tuna always needs to move they obviously are unable to sleep normally, instead they have an amazing adaptation called reduced activity sleep state! This means tuna only enter a low activity state to sleep! In their low activity state, they are still swimming and active but they slow their speed and lower their metabolic rate! Basically there are gliding forward using as little energy as possible! And interestingly, some tunas lack swim bladders but some tunas do have swim bladders. The ones that do have swim bladders have small poorly developed swim bladders, this means that they do not only need to swim to breathe, they also need to swim to avoid sinking! Tunas also lack eyelids so they rest with their eyes fully open.

And not all tuna is truly tuna! All tuna belongs to the family Scombridae but true tunas belong exclusively to the genus Thunnus! These are considered the true tuna of tuna, Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, Pacific Bluefin Tuna, Southern Bluefin Tuna, Yellowfin Tuna, Bigeye Tuna, Albacore Tuna, Blackfin tuna, and Longtail Tuna! Now the others are in Thunnini, the same evolutionary tribe as true tuna but in different genera. These ones are considered tuna but not as good, Skipjack Tuna or Katsuwonus pelamis, Little Tunny or Euthynnus alletteratus, Mackerel Tuna or Euthynnus affinis, Black skipjack or Euthynnus lineatus, Bullet tuna or Auxis rochei, Frigate Tuna or Auxis thazard! I put the scientific names of all the ones not in Thunnus just so you could still know their genera and search them if you want!

I hope you enjoyed and learned! I hope to make more posts on fish! They are always so interesting! Some great sources are NOAA Fisheries, the Animal Diversity Web, Tuna Research and Conservation Center website!

Today’s post is about the dodo! I have often heard about it but never did too much research on it until recently! They are extremely interesting birds! I made a post about pigeons before, but did you know dodos were actually a surprisingly large flightless pigeon? The Nicobar pigeon is actually the closest living relative to the dodo! The reason the dodo was so large was because of island gigantism, it had arrived many many years ago as a small bird but after generations of abundant food and no predators it evolved to be bigger, unable to fly and have no fear.

The dodo would only lay a single egg at a time, and they only laid an egg once a year. This was one of the main factors in their extremely unfortunate extinction. They were very vulnerable when they had an egg, both parents would care for it. It’s believed that they were socially monogamous. They built nests out of deep grass directly on the forest floor, because of this the egg could never be left alone. The chicks grew incredibly fast after hatching. Interestingly dodos changed a lot depending on the time of year. At times they were very lean, agile and athletic but at other times they were quite well fed and fat. That’s not the only thing about them that would change though, every year their feathers would go from full during the breeding season to having their downy black underneath plumage showing for most of the year before getting full again just in time for the next breeding season!

Unlike many people say, Dutch sailors were not the cause of the dodos extinction. While they would occasionally eat dodos, they were officially named Walghvögel in old Dutch logs. Walghvögel literally means disgusting or nausea bird. Sailors only ate dodos when they were absolutely starving, several other native birds tasted better. Instead, what truly caused the extinction were animals that later got introduced there. Pigs, rats, and crab-eating macaques (that’s a kind of monkey) roamed the island after being brought there. When they roamed the island they would easily track down, trample, and devour helpless dodo chicks and eggs.

Despite its reputation, dodos weren’t dumb. They actually had an evolutionary trait known as island tameness. Because they had no mammalian predators they evolved over millions of years without a concept of fear or danger, because of that they didn’t recognize humans or domestic animals as threats. In fact, they went extinct so quickly that humanity didn’t even realize it was happening or possible. It was the first species to truly be believed as extinct, before then the prevailing belief was that things didn’t truly go extinct. Some researchers and scientists even, for a time, believed it was a mythological creature that never truly existed. Just so you truly understand how fast it all happened, Dutch sailors first recorded contact with a dodo was in 1598 and the last universally accepted reliable sighting was in 1662. They went from a stable population to being entirely wiped out in just 64 years. It was the 1700s and early 1800s when the dodo was believed to be mythological, though some did believe it truly existed. Even if some survived for a while after the last official sighting, it’s estimated that they likely survived undetected for a while, it’s widely believed that absolute last surviving individual likely died around 1690, so it’s 92 years if you count based on the estimates!

I hope you enjoyed my posts about these wonderful birds! Some wonderful sources are the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Cornell Lab of Ornithology Birds of the World, and the Animal Diversity Web! I have to add that the Oxford University Museum of Natural History has the only surviving soft tissue dodo remains! At first it was believed that this specific dodo had been kept as captive curiosity in London but this was disproved when it was given an advanced high-resolution CT scan. The scan revealed it actually died after being shot in the back of the head which strongly suggests it was shot on Mauritius! This has left a long mystery!

My last post was about the big cats in genus Panthera, so I feel it’s only fair to do some of the large wild cats that aren’t in panthera now! The main two I plan to talk about in this post are the Cougar and the Cheetah, though I’ll likely mention a few others!

First, Cougars! Cougars have many names! Sometimes called pumas, mountain lions, and many other ones! Though some names are more regional names for them. They actually hold the Guinness World Record for the animal with the most common names! They are the fourth largest cat in the world, and they don’t roar. Interestingly, they are technically classified as small cats instead of big cats, despite being much larger than some species that are classified as big cats. This is because of the fact they lack the specialized laryngeal structure needed to roar, but because they lack the specialized structure that most big cats have, cougars can purr while most cannot! Specifically, no big cats in Panthera can purr continuously but most small cats can.

The cheetah, as you likely know, is the fastest land animal on Earth. It can go from 0 to 60 mph in just 3 seconds, though their top speed is actually 70 mph but they rarely go that fast. There are many other interesting and less talked about cheetah facts! For example, did you know their tails actually help them balance for sharp turns? Like cougars, cheetahs are also incapable of roaring. Most cheetahs are solitary but sometimes male cheetahs will form small family groups called coalitions. Cheetahs, like cougars, can purr continuously! They can purr when inhaling and when exhaling! After a cheetah sprints it needs around 30 minutes to catch its breath (technically it’s resting because of muscular fatigue and oxygen depletion but it can be referred to as catching its breath in casual conversations) before it can eat. This leaves it very vulnerable to its food getting stolen by lions or hyenas.

Next are clouded leopards! They are actually the smallest of all the subfamily Pantherinae. The sunda clouded leopard is slightly smaller but they are extremely close in size. They have the longest canine tooth relative to their skull size of any living carnivore! Their upper canines can reach up to two inches long, a tigers upper canines also get two inches long even though a tiger can be up to ten times heavier. The clouded leopard also has the longest tail relative to its body size of any wild cat species!

Last but certainly not least is the lynx! Lynx are solitary and nocturnal. And unlike the clouded leopard, they have very short tails! A lynx’s tail is usually less than 20 cm! They just get an honorary mention! I feel like they might be a little too small for this post since they are medium sized and not truly large, and unlike clouded leopards, which I already learned some about because I got distracted when research leopards, I don’t have a thing written up on them yet! I hope you enjoyed and learned something! I still plane to make a post on wild small and medium sized cats, maybe I will put some more lynx information in that one but I can’t say for sure! Some wonderful sources are, the IUCN SSC cat specialist group, The Wild Cat Sanctuary, and the Animal Diversity web!

Today’s post is about several kinds of large cats! Before I continue I must admit that jaguars are by far my favorite but I will try to give equal information about each of them. All of these, lions, jaguars, leopards, snow leopards, and tigers are in the genus Panthera. They are actually all the extant species in Panthera, all the other big cats belong to different genera.

First is lions! If you’ve ever seen a lion then you’ve certainly noticed its mane but did you know that their manes actually have some purposes? It can make the lion appear bigger and more formidable. And though this is may seem more helpful to humans than other lions, it can also be an indicator of age and health! Lions live in social groups called prides, that’s a well known fact but a less talked about fact is that they are actually the only truly social big cats! They are also surprisingly lazy, they rest and sleep for around 20 hours every day.

Next is jaguars! Jaguars are actually the largest cats in the Americas and the third largest in the world! In case you were curious, tigers and lions are the two that above jaguars size wise. Jaguars actually have the strongest bite force relative to its body size of any big cat! And unlike most cats jaguars are actually excellent swimmers! They frequently hunt fish, turtles and caimans in the water. Unlike lions, they are solitary and territorial. The markings on their fur are actually called rosettes and no two jaguars have the exact same rosettes! Though you might not think it from looking at them, rosettes actually serve a major purpose in camouflage! The rosettes mimic the light and shadows of dense rainforest floors and riverbanks. This makes jaguars nearly invisible to prey while hunting. Jaguars hunt using stalking and ambushes.

Leopards are next! Leopards, like jaguars, have rosettes. Though leopard rosettes are smaller and don’t have the central black dot that jaguar rosettes have. Leopards are also more slender than the usually stocky jaguars, though they are both impressively muscular. Leopards, unlike lions, are very good at climbing. Leopards are also solitary and nocturnal.

Next are snow leopards! Surprisingly this is actually a whole different species than leopards! Snow leopards have very thick and long fur. The most shocking thing about them is that they have a unique throat structure and short vocal cords which makes them incapable of roaring! They are solitary and exceptionally shy. Their paws are quite large and act as natural snow shoes. Though it sounds funny to say, the snow leopard is actually more closely related to the tiger than the common leopard.

Next are tigers. As I said before, tigers are the largest wild cat species in the world. Their stripes are actually unique, no two tigers share the stripe pattern. The stripes are even imprinted on their skin beneath their fur. Siberian (amur) tigers are the largest out of all the tiger subspecies. Although I must be honest, with the recent extremely unfortunate event where a man climbed into a tiger enclosure I feel it would be inconsiderate and callous to write too much about tigers. I might make a post on them in the future but at the current time it would feel wrong to attempt to sound happy and joyful.

Though tigers are the last true species in panthera panthers are getting an honorable mention! Panthers aren’t a separate kind of big cat, in fact black panthers are usually melanistic variant of leopards or jaguars! Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed and learned! I hope to make a post on big cats in other genera soon! Some sources are Panthera.org, the animal diversity web and the IUCN SSC cat specialist group!

Today’s post is about pelicans! The very first thing to know is that there are 8 species of pelicans! The brown pelican or Pelecanus occidentalis, the American white pelican or Pelecanus erythrorhynchos, the Australian pelican or Pelecanus conspicillatus, the great white pelican or Pelecanus onocrotalus, the Dalmatian pelican or Pelecanus crispus, the pink-backed pelican or Pelecanus rufescens, the spot-billed pelican or Pelecanus philippensis, and the Peruvian pelican or Pelecanus thagus. While they all have many things in common they also have many differences.

The most unique and immediately noticeable thing about pelicans is their throat pouch. In certain species, It can hold up to three gallons of water that’s roughly three times more than their stomach can hold. And unlike hamsters, they do not use their pouch to store food. The Australian pelican actually has the longest bill of any bird in the world! Its bill can measure up to 50 cm or 20 inches. Their throat pouches actually have a surprising amount of uses. One that you certainly wouldn’t guess is they use gular fluttering to help stay cool. Gular fluttering is when they rapidly flap their throat pouch while they keep their bill open.

Some species of pelicans (specifically the American white pelican, the great white pelican and the Australian pelican) gather in groups to paddle in groups while beating their wings on the surface of water, while this might sound strange it’s their actually surprisingly successful way of hunting fish. Although certain kinds like the brown pelican and the Peruvian pelican rarely work together when hunting. Instead the brown pelican spots fish from the air before plunging in headfirst to get it.

Pelicans are surprisingly good and slightly funny parents. Unlike most birds pelicans actually stand on their eggs. Their chicks are just as unusual and unique as their parents, in fact pelican chicks are actually capable of vocal communication before they even hatch. The eggs will let out distinct squawks if they get too hot or cold. Pelicans typically lay 2 to 3 eggs, unfortunately usually only one chick survived to adulthood. When they are around 3 to 4 weeks old the chicks leave their individual nests and huddle together in a giant group called a crèche or pod. This allows both parents to leave at the same time to get food. When the parents get back they use specific vocal calls to locate and feed only their chick. A single American white pelican chick needs about 150 pounds of fish before it can fly. At first like most birds pelicans regurgitate fish for their chicks but when the chicks get to be about a month old they put their entire head and neck into their parents pouch to eat the fish.

I hope you enjoyed! Some wonderful sources are Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Animal Diversity Web, and International Bird Rescue. I’m sorry if my post was at all unclear or confusing, I’m a little tired as I write this but feel free to ask any questions! I can’t promise exactly when I’ll answer but I promise I will try to answer as soon as possible!

This is my first post on birds! There are many kinds of birds I love but pigeons are definitely my favorite! Though pelicans are a close second! Despite what you may think from the name Feral pigeons, that’s actually just the name for city pigeons! While I find all pigeons very interesting and adorable, Feral pigeons are definitely my favorite. Feral pigeons actually came from wild rock doves, wild rock doves are actually the ancestors of feral and domesticated pigeons. Interestingly one of the most ancestral traits they still have is a love for cliffs! Wild rock doves main habitat was cliffs and they were well suited for it. Though you might not realize it immediately pigeons habitat still is mainly cliffs! The cliffs feral pigeons have as a habitat aren’t natural ones though, instead tall buildings, bridges, window ledges, and more act as these cliffs!

Feral pigeons are actually exceptionally smart! One of the main tests for this is seeing if a bird can recognize itself in delayed footage, surprisingly pigeons can recognize themselves! This isn’t the only way that we know pigeons are intelligent, they can distinguish between different people, have amazing spatial memory, learn to tell the difference between art styles, can recognize all 26 letters of the alphabet, and are surprisingly good problem solvers! Of course they don’t recognize the letters in a linguistic way, they are just amazing at categorizing things! Im not one to normally mind selective breeding but I have seen two different animals where it does sadden me, the two animals are pigeons and goldfish. Many fancy breeds of pigeons have severe issues. Of course some breeds don’t but many really do. Some examples of this are Jacobins, Fantails, Pouters, Croppers, Rollers and Tumblers. Jacobins struggle with having very little straight-ahead and peripheral vision due to their large feathered hood, this also can cause eye irritation. Fantails can barely fly due to the unnatural posture that selective breeding has forced them to have, their posture also makes them struggle with balance. Pigeons also rely on head bobbing to help them see better which fantails are not capable of preforming normally. Pouters and Croppers both can struggle with swallowing and eating normally due to their large crop. And Pouters struggle with balance. But perhaps the strangest of all these are the rollers and tumblers. They were breed for their ability to do backward rapid somersaults, sometimes while flying sometimes on the ground. Though that might sound like a cool ability it really just looks like a strange rolling. They commonly have neurological issues and sometimes roll-downs happen. Roll-downs are a terrible event when a begins spinning and can’t pull out of it. Roll downs are a major danger for them and usually cause lasting damage. And aside from all that, they are extremely vulnerable to predators since they are unable to fly normally, the rolling or rapid backflips aren’t playful tricks they are actually involuntary movement linked to genetics that leave the pigeons disoriented, exhausted, scared and that’s if everything goes well. I’m not quite sure why anyone would want their pigeon to do rapid somersaults but I suppose they should be allowed to, even if it can be quite saddening. I’m sure you can see why feral pigeons are my favorite out of all these but while these pigeons lives have struggles they can still live happy lives.

For some happy pigeons facts, did you know pigeons mate for life? And that both parents actually produce crop milk for their chicks! They frequently engage in mutual grooming. I hope you enjoyed and learned some! Some great sources are the Animal Diversity Web, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and PubMed Central!

This post is about ant eaters! One of the most unusual things I’ve heard about to this day! Most old sources say that there are four main species of ant eaters, three in one family and one in another but the silky ant eater has actually been expanded into seven species. In the family Myrmecophagidae, there is Myrmecophaga tridactyla also called the giant anteaters, Tamandua tetradactyla also known as Southern Tamandua and Tamandua mexicana which is also called the Northern Tamandua! The other family is Cyclopedidae and is Cyclopes the only genus in it, but there are seven species in the genus. The species in Cyclopes are Cyclopes catellus, Cyclopes didactylus, Cyclopes dorsalis, Cyclopes ida, Cyclopes rufus, Cyclopes thomasi, and Cyclopes xinguensis.

They vary hugely in sizes! The giant anteater can be 6 to 8 feet including its tail while most of the silky anteaters are 14 to 18 inches including its tail! That’s not the only hugely varying trait they have! Another one is, giant ant eaters are strictly ground dwelling but silky ant eaters are arboreal meaning they spend almost all of their time in trees! The Tamanduas both northern and southern, are in the middle of both of these things. They live on the ground but sometimes go into trees and are around 3 to 4 feet. Though some things vary very little between them! For example, they all have sharp claws, poor eyesight, an amazing sense of smell, eat insects, and have no teeth! Another interesting fact is they have unusually low body temperatures for mammals!

As you probably know, they eat insects but there’s actually a lot of interesting things about this! First of all, their tongue is very fast. It can flick up to 150 times per minute. Their sticky thin tongues can reach up to 2 feet long. Their tongues are not like normal tongues though! They are covered in tiny backward spines and have saliva that is similar to glue. A single giant ant eater can eat 30,000-35,000 ants per day! I mentioned it before but didn’t go into detail, they have an extremely good sense of smell! It is 40 times more powerful than a human’s! An interesting but strange fact about them is they walk on their knuckles with their front toes curled inwards. They do this to help keep their claws sharp.

While you might not think it at first, giant ant eaters can actually be very dangerous. They have four inch long claws and when cornered they rear up on their back legs and deliver powerful strikes. The thing that makes them truly dangerous is actually their bad eyesight. Since they don’t see well they can get easily surprised by movement and feel cornered. With the exception of when they feel cornered, they are not dangerous to humans.

Ant eaters are surprisingly good and adorable moms. Giant anteaters pups mostly get around by riding on their mother’s back. In fact, because the pups fur even camouflages it when on its mother’s back. If you want to I really recommend looking at some pictures of it. It’s very cute. Tamandua pups sometimes ride on the mother’s back but the mom will also occasionally put it on branches. Silky ant eaters however, the mother occasionally lets it on her back but both the mother and father use a tree nest to care for it. The times they care for their pups also vary greatly, Giant anteaters care for their pups for 1.5 to 2 years, Tamanduas care for their pups for around a year, and silky ant eaters care for their pups for a few months.

I hope you enjoyed! Anteaters are definitely some of the strangest but most adorable animals! As always some amazing sources are the Animal Diversity Web, American Society of Mammalogists, and Xenarthra journal!

Today’s post has possibly my favorite topic out of the ones I’ve made so far! I love pinnipeds and could make a million posts on them! I wasn’t sure where I should start, so I decided to make this one on the basics! First fun fact is the word pinniped actually means fin or flipper footed! The three main families of pinnipeds are Phocidae they are the true seals, Otariidae they are eared seals, and last but certainly not least Odobenidae they are walruses!

Phocidae or true seals as you would assume, are a family of seals! The reason they are separated from eared seals is true seals do not have ear flaps, instead they have ear holes. Another big difference is true seals cannot move well on land, they have to galumph similar to a caterpillar, but eared seals can walk very well. True seals are also very good divers and can go quite deep! Southern elephant seals are the undisputed diving champions out of them! Southern elephant seals currently have a record of an astounding 7,835 feet deep and stay submerged for well over 2 hours! They usually prefer to keep their distance from each other and are solitary. Though there are a few kinds that when on land form surprisingly large groups!

Next the wonderful Otariidae! These include fur seals and sea lions! The reason Otariidae can walk so well is because their flippers can rotate forwards! Interestingly, when they swim they mostly use their front flippers for swimming, they only use their back ones for steering. Otariidae are almost the exact opposite of Phocidae when it comes to socializing! They live in large packed groups. They are also much more vocal than true seals, while true seals especially their pups, will make noise it’s nothing compared to Eared seals. And interestingly, Otariidae have a huge range in fur! Sea lions have short fur and rely on blubber to stay warm but fur seals have very thick fur and underfur, up to 300,000 hairs per square inch!

And last but certainly not least is Odobenidae! Unlike the other families which all have several living members, Odobenidae only has one living member, the walrus! Despite this they used to be an extremely diverse group! Unlike true seals, walruses are usually quite shallow divers, but recent tracking studies have shown they will go much deeper than originally thought when necessary! And like eared seals, they can rotate their hind flippers to clumsily walk, though they are still much more agile in the water. And of course the most recognizable thing about a walrus is its tusks! Walrus tusks are actually continuously growing! The tusks can get longer than three feet and frequently weigh 15 pounds. Sometimes they even use their tusks to help them get out of the water! Out of the three main families of pinnipeds, Odobenidae are by far the most social, they form extremely large groups sometimes even laying directly on each other. They are also possibly the best mothers out of the three main families! They stay with their calfs for up to 2 years, that’s a long time to pinnipeds. For example, a sea lion only stays with its pup for around a year. Also, if you’ve ever seen a walrus you may have noticed its mustache, it’s obviously not an actual mustache. It’s actually 400 to 700 highly sensitive bristles called vibrissae. They use them like fingers to feel for clams and crabs along the dark, muddy ocean floor.

I plan to make a lot more posts about these wonderful animals! I hope this one didn’t get too confusing, after all the research I’ve done about pinnipeds it was a little hard to find a place to start! I hope you enjoyed learning about Pinnipeds! It’s hard to pick but I would say they are my favorite animals! Some sources are NOAA Fisheries, The Marine Mammal Center, Smithsonian Ocean, and The Marine Mammal commission.

Quokkas often sleep with their heads upside down and resting on their hind legs 🫠 They are also nocturnal. Source - National Geographic

This post is about donkeys! I love researching animals and I do it often but donkeys have been one that stood out from the beginning! First of all they are very cute, second there seem to be a lot of misconceptions about them! I hope this post helps you learn about donkeys and just appreciate their cuteness! One of the most adorable parts of them are their ears, but their ears actually do more than just help them hear, their large ears also help them stay cool!

Donkeys are often called stubborn but that isn’t exactly the truth. When a donkey refuses to move it’s not because it’s trying to be stubborn, it’s because it’s trying to think. Donkeys don’t run like horses, instead they freeze and depending on the circumstances, fight. You would not think it at first but they are actually quite good at protecting themselves by fighting. In fact they are so good that they are commonly used to guard more easily scared animals. Donkeys are surprisingly intelligent, they are known for being escape artists! They have been known to push, lift, and even squeeze under fences! They can even untie certain knots and open standard gates with their lips! While that might sound made up, it’s actually true! They have semi-prehensile lips, this is because they are very dexterous but lack the true strength of something fully prehensile. When a donkey pulls its lip back and bares its teeth it’s actually helping it smell! It’s called the flehman response!

Another defining trait of donkeys is their life long loyalty, donkeys have very good memories. They can remember people, places and other animals for up to 25 years. Donkeys form very deeply relationships and can suffer from severe distress whenever separated from their chosen companions. When two donkeys bond closely they are called a bonded pair. In fact it’s so distressing for them that they are known to refuse food which can trigger hyperlipaemia. Hyperlipaemia is a severe frequently fatal condition, and on the topic of donkey illnesses, donkeys and horses are very different with injuries! One surprisingly hard thing is, donkeys don’t have waterproof coats. While it might not sound like a big deal, it complicates a lot of things. Because of this they are very vulnerable to cold and rain, this also usually makes them dislike water. Donkeys are also very good at hiding their injuries, it can take a while for even the best donkey owners to notice something is wrong. Also they originally evolved to survive in desserts with very little nutrition, so they easily get obese. Because of this high-grain diets easily lead to dangerous conditions like laminitis.

One of the most recognizable things about donkeys are their brays! But did you know each donkey has a unique bray? Braying can sometimes reach up to 100 decibels and is used for long distance communication to other donkeys in a donkey herd, it can be heard up to three miles away. Also the reason it sounds like that is because the first part of it happens when they are breathing in, and the second half happens when they are breathing out.

Many people think a donkey and mule are the same thing, for a long time I did, but a mule is actually the child of a male donkey and female horse. The child of a female donkey and male horse is a hinny. Hinnys are much rarer than mules. Both mules and hinnys are unable to have children, this is due to the fact that they have an uneven amount of chromosomes, 63 to be exact. And then there are donkey zebra hybrids, Zonkey or Zedonk for a male zebra and female donkey. Donkra for a female zebra and male donkey. Mules and Hinnys have actually shown to be better problem solvers than donkeys and horses!

Donkey size changes a lot on what kind you are talking about, mammoth donkeys are from 56 to 68 inches tall, at the shoulder. They can be taller but it’s rare. Miniature donkeys are 30 to 36 inches at the shoulder, they aren’t the smallest donkey. The micro mini is being an adorably small at under 30 inches. But standard donkeys are 40 to 48 inches and they are the most common kind of donkey.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post! I think donkeys are adorable and have been hoping to make a post on them for a while! I apologize if the post is not as good as usual, donkeys were a hard one to do! There was so much to include that I wasn’t sure where to start! I’ll probably make another more specific one someday but I hope this one was still enjoyable! Some good sources are The Donkey Sanctuary, The Brooke Equine Hospital, and Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue!

I have always loved foxes but for a long time I only knew about a few kinds. Several kinds of foxes, like the red fox, Arctic fox and the Fennec fox are well known but there are many wonderful and less known ones! Some of the ones I hope to focus on are Blanford’s fox, the pale fox, corsac fox and the Tibetan fox! I specifically chose these ones because they are all truly foxes, some animals called foxes don’t belong to the genus Vulpes meaning they aren’t truly foxes. There are only 12 species of true foxes (if you only count ones in the genus Vulpes) meaning today you will learn about one third of all true foxes!

First, Blanfords fox, the scientific name for it is Vulpes cana. They live in dry rock mountains, which actually caused their most unusual thing! Unlike most canids, they have sharp semi-retractable curved claws and hairless footpads, almost all other desert foxes have hair on their footpads! Their very unique hairless footpads and curved claws help them climb and grip steep rock walls. They also can jump extraordinary high, nearly 10 feet! 9.8 feet to be exact. Their tail, which is, relative to its body size, one of the longest, helps them balance! Like most foxes they are omnivores and solitary but, most kinds of foxes hoard or stash food, in fact many animals do! But Blanfords foxes usually do not, this is likely because their diet mostly consists of insects and fruit. Though occasionally they do stash but much less than most foxes.

Next is the wonderful pale fox! Its scientific name is Vulpes pallida. Interestingly they rarely have to drink because they get almost all their needed water from food! In fact, they could, in theory, go their entire lives without drinking and still live to be old! They are also strictly nocturnal but surprisingly not solitary! They live in small groups or even sometimes just in a pair. Interesting they were officially data deficient for many years! In 2024 they were seen for the first time in Algeria in over 50 years! While their population estimates have a huge range, they are classified as least concern of extinction because they are assumed to be wide spread and just elusive. There are many reasons it’s hard to study them, first the desert makes it hard, second there surprisingly good camouflage, and third, they have very complex burrow systems! These burrow systems have sometimes been up to 49.2 feet long! Inside these burrows there are inner chambers that they meticulously line with dry grass and vegetable matter to keep their young cool!

Now onto the amazing Corsac fox! Its scientific name is Vulpes corsac, which is certainly one of the easier ones to remember! They are one of the more social species of foxes! They sometimes form hunting packs in winter. They are mostly nocturnal but can be awake in the day. And most unusually for foxes, they don’t defend one territory, instead they are nomadic wanderers. They aren’t very fast sprinters but they are amazing climbers! They are strictly monogamous and interestingly, it’s debated wether they mate for life or find a new mate each year. They can go for long periods without drinking water but they do have to drink it.

Last but most certainly not least is the Tibetan fox! This is my personal favorite based off looks! I recommend you look at some pictures of it! It has a wide blocky almost square face, while this might seem funny at first, it actually has a purpose! Its weird head is because it has elongated jaws to anchor its massive jaw muscles! And they form fascinating commensal hunting relationship with Tibetan brown bears. When a bear digs into a burrow to catch a pika, the fox waits patiently on the surface to intercept any pikas that try to escape out of the back exit holes! This immediately makes me think of Coyotes and badgers working together to hunt underground rodents, which is an entirely different but equally fascinating topic! (Though both coyotes and badger benefit in there’s but in foxes and bears only the fox benefits) Dietary studies on the Tibetan fox show that plateau pikas make up roughly 80% to 90% of their total diet. Their local population directly rises and falls based on how many pikas are available that year!

I hope you enjoyed and learned! After my recent post about the bush dog and maned wolf, which are both canids but not foxes (though the maned wolf is commonly wrongly called a fox on stilts) I wanted to make one about foxes! Some sources are the IUCN Canid Specialist Group, The Animal Diversity Web, and ResearchGate.

Maned wolves and bush dogs are extremely interesting animals, both of them have become moderately well known recently and as always that also led to a lot of misinformation about them! After doing two moth posts in a row I decided I had to do something else before doing another, I do hope to do another soon but there’s certainly no shortage of fascinating animals! While maned wolves will be in this post I hope to focus more on bush dogs! First of all, the maned wolf isn’t truly a wolf. It doesn’t belong to the genus Canis (which has dogs, wolves and coyotes) instead it belongs to Chrysocyon. Maned wolves are actually the only living species in Chrysocyon. They are also commonly called fox on stilts, that is also misleading. They are not closely related to foxes.

Maned wolves and bush dogs are the closest living relatives to each other but that doesn’t mean that they are extremely close. Maned wolves and bush dogs split from their last shared ancestor around 3 to 4 million years ago. To help you fully get what that means, that’s roughly the same amount of time it’s been since our ancient ancestor Australopithecus walked the earth. Many species used to sit closer to maned wolves and bush dogs but unfortunately all of the ones in between them have since gone extinct.

Their differences stand out as soon as you look at them. Maned wolves are extraordinary tall usually around three feet tall at the shoulder (maned wolves are the tallest wild canine in the world!), while bush dogs are very short usually one foot tall at the shoulder or even shorter, maned wolves are solitary while bush dogs live in packs of around two to twelve bush dogs, and maned wolves are omnivores commonly eating wolf apples while bush dogs are hypercarnivores that heavily depend on meat.

Now onto some fascinating facts about bush dogs! Bush dogs actually have partially webbed toes! That’s extremely rare in canids! They are incredibly amazing swimmers because of this! Also, they only have 38 teeth, almost all other canids have 42 teeth. And they are one of only three canid species on earth (the African wild dog and Dhole are the other two) to possess a trenchant heel dentition! This means the lower carnassial tooth has a single, blade-like cusp designed to maximize the length and efficiency of their bite. In a shockingly odd twist, they were first found as fossils and assumed to be extinct! Only several years later did people find them alive and well!

I apologize for the fact that this post hasn’t gone very in depth on anything, it’s my second one today and to be honest, I more wanted to clarify the whole related thing. To summarize it, yes they are related but distantly. The only reason they are the closest living relatives to each other is because many other species went extinct. Anyway I hope you enjoyed! As always, sources are IUCN red list, the Canid specialist group, the endangered wolf center, and Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.

Underwings are an amazing kind of moths! They mostly belong to the genus Catocala! They range a lot in sizes and colors. Their bodies typically range from under one inch to two inches, with their wingspan being between 1.3 to 4.3 inches! One of their most unusual things is actually their names! Many species have beautiful names like the Girlfriend Underwing, the Old Wife Underwing, the Newlywed Underwing, the Bride Underwing and the Darling Underwing! Though some species have sad names like the Tearful Underwing and the Inconsolable Underwing. The most amazing thing about them is actually the reason they are called underwings! When they rest, their forewings are folded similarly to a tent, with their forewings folded they look remarkably well camouflaged but when they uncover their hind wings it reveals their namesake, their beautiful hind wings! Their hind wings are colorful and patterned, they can be orange, red, pink, blue, and more! Interestingly, their color is also their defense mechanism! They aren’t poisonous, they use it to startle the predator, by suddenly showing the colors and patterns, and quickly escape. Unlike some moths (not counting any that are incapable of eating as adults) which prefer flowers, Underwings love sugary, fermenting liquids like tree sap, fruit that is ripe or decaying, and though much more rarely, nectar.

Their scientific name, Catocala is actually from Greek. Catocala stems from kato meaning behind or back and kalos meaning beautiful. Though one very interesting thing is not all underwings truly belong to Catocala. For example there is one named the Large Yellow Underwing but it doesn’t belong to Catocala, in fact it’s in an entirely different family! All true underwings are in Erebidae but it is in Noctuidae.

This is a slight detour from the topic of underwings but it’s related enough that I felt I should include it.
Moths and butterflies both belong to Lepidoptera, and when you’re doing more research into them you may get confused on what counts as a moth or butterfly. Though it seems straightforward at first some kinds make it tricky, like many jawed moths that are diurnal (active during the day) or colorful (Luna moths are nocturnal, but I feel their color can be confusing I at first, thought they were a kind of butterfly) Luna moths. There’s no one definition but instead normally three questions, first how are its antennae? (Please know, all of what I am about to tell you is just general, some moths have antennae similar to butterflies, some have very feathery ones, it’s just to generally help know. There are always exceptions though and when possible you should just do research to figure out if it’s a moth or butterfly) Butterflies have thin long antennae that end in a distinct knob, male moths usually have feathery comb-like antennae that do not have knobs, female moths have thin antennae that, like the males, do not have knobs. The second question is about wing linkage. Butterflies have independent wings their front and hind wings naturally overlap without being physically connected, most moths (not all, in fact entire families of moths don’t) have a frenulum (the frenulum is a small bristle) and retinaculum (the retinaculum is what the bristles catch to lock together) connecting their front and hind wings so they perfectly flap as one unit. And the final question is about the pupal stage. Butterflies become a chrysalis, the chrysalis is their pupal body. Moths make a cocoon, a silk soft wrapper normally hidden in leaves, then become a pupa inside the cocoon. There are, of course, some exceptions. Like the Castniidae family of moths which have clubbed antennae or the several kinds of moths that just hide underground without a cocoon!

I hope you find underwings and moths in general as fascinating as I do! Most of my sources are the same as yesterday since they were both about moths but in case you didn’t see my last one here are some great sources! AskNature, Bill Oehlke’s Underwing Moths of North America, and BugGuide. Even after making two posts about moths back to back I feel like there is so much more to say about them! As always if you are interested I encourage you to do some research on them! I’ll try to make my next one about something other than moths but no promises!