Frogs & Toads in Print

As early indicators of environmental stress, frogs and toads have been receiving a lot more attention lately. Now there’s a new book to help experts and beginners alike learn more about these little critters.
The Frogs and Toads of North America is a very special book. Covering all 101 species in North America, the book contains [...]

Cuteness Winners

The absolute winners in the cuteness stakes are at Sea World in San Diego.  Two Asian small-clawed river otters were born Feb 7/09, and are taking the internet by storm today!
Otters are definitely among our favorite animals. See more pics and videos about these adorable critters  at Cute Otters.com

Whooper Alert

Growing up in northern Alberta, I distinctly remember flocks of whooping cranes passing over our house. It was a normal as the sun setting. Little did we know what the future held for these huge, whooping birds.
The whooping crane was designated as an Endangered Species in Canada in 1978. Low population numbers, loss of habitat, [...]

Animals We Need To Survive

Further to yesterday’s post about honey bees, have a look at this website from the National Wildlife Federation, listing 5 Animals Mankind Needs to Survive.

Bee Ice Cream

Don’t squash that bee!
Without the humble honey bee, about one in every three bites of the food we eat would disappear. They pollinate about 90 different food crops such as apples, almonds, squash and blueberries, producing the foods we love to eat.
Both the scientific and popular press are paying increasing attention to the state of [...]

Dead Meat Gifts

It’s spring at last! Today is officially the first day of the season, and in many areas it’s been a long time coming.
As a birdwatcher, my thoughts naturally turn to our feathered friends as the weather warms up. The popular press is doing the same thing, and the news posts today are flooded with articles [...]

Rats to the Rescue

Popular press, movies and television shows rarely, if ever, have anything good to say about rats. Police in India, however, are very happy to have them.
It seems officials in India’s Haryana state have a plague of mice infesting office police records and destroying evidence. The small rodents have been steadily munching their way through official [...]

Respect The Jellies

If someone asked you to name the most venomous animal in the world, what would you say? The rattlesnake? A spider or scorpion?
Molecule by molecule, the most deadly animal in the world is a small, translucent animal called a box jellyfish.
Animal venom generally strikes in only one way – it affects the nerves or the [...]

I Wish I Was A Walrus

The walrus is my new hero.
A new study on their sleeping habits has revealed that they are some of the world’s most unusual sleepers, since they can sleep anywhere. They also break the world’s record for continuously staying awake.
They sleep while floating on the surface, lying on the bottom or when standing or leaning.
The most [...]

(In)visible Hare

Now here’s a thought.
What if your very survival depended on the color of your fur? And what if the colour of your fur suddenly caused to you stick out like a neon sign?
In all the articles on climate change floating around out there, one unusual aspect of global warming is coming from the University of [...]