Tomorrow, 02.02. is Hedgehog Day! So lets celebrate and make life nicer for them. What About Hedgehogs? Hedgehogs are small mammals with short little legs, cute, wet noses, beady eyes, tiny little sharp teeth, and a back covered in spines which they can curl up into for protection, kind of like a draw string bag….
Tag: Zoology
Cricetus cricetus (European Hamster)
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…
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…
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…
The ABC of Feathers
Birds don’t have hair, they have feathers. Mostly. Usually. (Recent studies show it is probable that many dinosaurs were feathered too!) Like us, in their skin they have follicles from which the feather grows. The main hard bit, the “spine” of the feather is called the shaft or rachis. The part of the shaft that…
Amazonian Motmot (Momotus momota)
A few months ago, I was staggering through a leftover fragment of Amazon rainforest, with a backpack full of camera traps, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a magnificent bird. As I turned my head to look at it, it disappeared and all I had to go on as I leafed…
Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius)
Hi guys, what’s plotting? I’m super excited, because I saw a pair of black woodpeckers today! In my rather outdoorsy life, this is only the second time ever that I’ve seen them in the flesh. These birds are beautiful! All black, with cream coloured beak and eyes and a striking red mark on the top…