Hello Lovelies!I’m back! It was a long summer break from blogging but oh so busy with hamster sex and hamster babies! So here is my promised post about these weird creatures science calls Cricetus cricetus and I call beautiful-mini-bear-ninjas. At first glimpse they are cute, on second look they are terrifying and once you get…
Category: The Beauty of the Beasts
Species I think are cool and why.
No, this blog is not dead! Just hibernating.
Yes I know! Its been too long since my last post and I feel really guilty. It’s just that I am so busy! What could she possibly be doing that takes up that much time? She’s breeding hamsters. What? Yes, she got a job as a conservation breeder for the European hamster (Cricetus cricetus). But…
You Might Have a New Favourite Animal After Reading This
Hip hip hooraay! Its World Pangolin Day! Celebrated every 3rd Saturday in February, today is the 10th World Pangolin Day! What do you do on World Pangolin Day? You spread awareness about pangolins. Whats so special about pangolins? They look like a cross between an anteater and a pine cone! They are four legged creatures…
Great News for Pangolins!!!
I just got the best news on my e-mail feed! China has taken pangolin scales off their list of approved ingredients for traditional medicine. I love pangolins! They are right up there in my top 3 favourite weirdos. They are little termite eating creatures covered in scales from head to toe, with long sticky tongues…
Eurasian Eagle-Owl (Bubo bubo)
Oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god! I saw my first all wild Eurasian eagle-owl! And he was so handsome! I’ve recently started the habit of taking a break and going outside for an hour every day so I don’t feel psychologically dead every evening, after a long day of staring at a laptop screen. And it is wonderful. Birding is…
Giraffa camelopardalis (Giraffes)
Its time for another beautiful beast and I want to introduce you to one of my very favourites: The “Camel Leopard”. Happy World Giraffe Day everyone! Why do I think giraffes are cool? They are by far the most elegant weirdo I have ever seen. Their long legs and neck give them the gait of…
Lovely Lichens – Disguised Superheros
It is still winter here, it snowed a bit more, and as I was watching a crow rolling around in the snow on my neighbour’s roof, I wondered about all the animals having tho search for food in the snow. While many species ignore the topic completely by hibernating, that is not an option for…
How Dermophis donaldtrumpi Got Its Name
Image source: envirobuild.com There is an endless number of species on this planet and we are nowhere close to having discovered them all. But scientists and “amateur” specialists are working hard every day to discover more. There is major motivation to do this often difficult work: Besides the fact that you will be the first…
How Scientific Species Names Work
Back in the 1700’s there lived a man called Carl von Linné, aka Carl Linnaeus. He was a biologist among other things and he is the one who standardized binominal nomenclature: Every known species has a name that is international. The science that sorts species into groups by how they are related, is called taxonomy….
Why Sexual Selection is a Bitch
Sexual selection is the term that defines the fact that in nature, often fit and sexy men are more likely to become fathers. This is shown in many different ways. The most well known example would be how two males fight, and the winner, being stronger or faster, or simply fitter, gets to mate with…