ONE EEL UP A SEAL’S NOSE IS AN EVENT. FOUR EELS IN SEALS’ NOSES IS A FAD. Like teenagers swallowing detergent pods, Hawaiian monk seals seem to be chasing a trend – stuffing eels inside in their nostrils. At least, that appearance baffles staff at the Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program, an NOAA agency based in Honolulu. Unknown until recently, the researchers have encountered the eels in seal’s noses phenomenon several times in the past
Read more
YOUNG WHALES ARE SOMETIMES KNOWN TO WANDER, but a lone, stray narwhal has apparently wandered into a pod of young beluga whales – and stayed. And been accepted as one of the boys. The narwhal – identified by his iconic long tusk and gray-spotted body – has apparently been swimming with the white-bodies belugas in the St. Lawrence River for the past three years. The setting is far south of narwhals’ usual habitat in the
Read more
A NEWLY PUBLISHED STUDY ON THE LINK BETWEEN RATS AND REEFS has found a substantial link to the health of the coral reefs in the waters around the islands. The reason: Seabird poop on land is good for a broad range of reef denizens underwater. And the rats kill off seabirds, whose guano provides nutrients that enhance the reef’s health. An international team of scientists studied the ecosystems of rat-infested and rat-free islands in the Chagos
Read more
IN CASE YOU EVER WANT TO ASK A PENGUIN FOR A DATE, researchers studying Galapagos penguins have found an easy way to tell males from females: Penguin gender can be judged by the fact that males have bigger beaks than females. I’m not sure what practical use this information has for most of us but it’s important for scientists doing field research on the little guys. And, it gives me a chance to post one
Read more
“INCONSPICUOUS BATTLEGROUND” bioGraphic.com An area off South Australia may seem like a mundane stretch of coastline but beneath the waters a spectacular event takes place each year – normally solitary giant Australian cuttlefish (Sepia apama) gather to compete for mates. The event is spectacular and so is the photography by Justin Gilligan (the image above is by a different photographer). “THIS IS THE SOUND A DOLPHIN MIGHT HEAR IF IT’S ABOUT TO BECOME DINNER” News
Read more
IN THE HUNTER/GATHERER EQUATION, FILTER-FEEDING BALEEN WHALES came down on the gathering side millions of years ago. Gathering – in baleens’ case taking the form of filtering shrimp-like krill and other crustaceans, small fishes and phytoplankton out of the ocean waters with great baleen plates in place of teeth – has made them much more efficient feeders than their toothed cousins. A study by researchers at Stanford University suggests that the largest whales grew to
Read more
WHAT’S MORE ADORABLE THAN PHOTOS OF TWO EMPEROR PENGUINS? A “selfie” video taken by the penguins themselves. Admittedly, I’m hardly the first to take it up – posted March 7th, it’s been featured on television news and print media around the world and the 38-second video has had more than 400,000 views – but, really, it’s irresistible. JUST HAPPENED TO BE TURNED ON Basically, two curious emperor penguins – the noble species featured in the 2005
Read more
WHILE THERE ARE NEARLY 70 SPECIES OF SEA SNAKES in the Pacific and Indian Ocean basins, there are exactly none in the Caribbean and tropical Atlantic. Even though sea snakes almost certainly could prosper in the warm Caribbean tropics, their absence is a factor of timing, geography and ocean currents. “WHY ARE THERE NO SEA SNAKES IN THE ATLANTIC? That was the question explored in an article in the journal Bioscience. Also, the article’s title. Unfortunately,
Read more
ONE OF THE JOYS OF THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS are the blue-footed boobies. Not only are they goofy waddlers on land but they do a funny, slow-motion courtship dance. And they let you get right up in their beaks, so to speak. ACES IN THE AIR In the air and sea, they’re something else – daredevil flying machines that dive like kamikazes seeking a fishy smorgasbourd. HINT: THE BLUE COMES FROM THEIR DIET New York Times’
Read more
AIR-BREATHING MARINE MAMMALS LIKE WHALES AND DOLPHINS routinely dive to great depths – measured in thousands of feet – and return to the surface at high speed without experiencing the decompression sickness that we human mammals have to be extremely careful about. How can they do this, while we humans can’t? Scientists have long suspected that they limit nitrogen absorption and decrease the risk of decompression sickness by collapsing their lungs during the dives. Researchers at
Read more