We’ve written recently about animals that are missing orturning up in the wrong places due to global warming and thepole shift. A recent “bug splat” test in the U.K. found manyfewer insects that expected. And all over the world,scientists are finding hyperactive fish, stupid frogs,fearless mice and seagulls that fall over?all due topollution.
read more
A giant 62-mile-long colony of ants from Argentina hasinvaded Melbourne, Australia. In their native country, theyform smaller groups, but in Australia, they’ve merged intoone huge super colony, killing off native insects.
Biologist Elissa Suhr says, “In Argentina, their nativehomeland, ant colonies?are genetically diverse and highlyaggressive towards one another, so population numbers neverexplode and they are no threat to other plants and animals.When they arrived in Australia, in 1939, a change in theirstructure occurred, changing their behavior so that they arenot aggressive towards one another. This has resulted in thecolonies becoming one super colony.
read more
A group of scientists are collecting the tissues ofendangered animals and freezing them, so they will be ableto create clones later on, if the animals become extinct.
Zoologist Phil Rainbow says, “Natural catastrophes apart,the current rate of animal loss is the greatest in thehistory of the earth and the fate of animal species isdesperate.”
The first creatures to join the “ark” are thescimitar-horned oryx from North Africa, the socorro dovefrom Mexico, the mountain chicken (which is actually a frog)from the Caribbean, the banggai cardinal, a fish found inIndonesia, the yellow sea horse from China, the SeychellesFregate beetle, the British field cricket, and Polynesiantree snails.
read more
The strange “beach blobs” that have been washing up on the shores of beaches worldwide have finally been identified.
Jon Copley writes in New Scientist that the “Chilean Blob” and other similar gobs of goo found on beaches are the remains of whales.
In July 2003, a 13-ton blob washed ashore in Chile. Since it contained no bones, marine biologists thought it might be the body of a new species of giant octopus. But eventually they found unique glands that only belong to sperm whales inside the blob.
Researcher Sidney Pierce used electron microscopy on the blob, that revealed the tough collagen fibers in whale tissue. Also fragments of its DNA match that of a sperm whale.
read more