Elephant mourning

This is an interesting article about elephants and how they react to their dead. I always thought elephants were very emotional animals. They have very close social bonds so it makes sense that they would react someway to their dead. I’ve seen on documentaries that some elephants start rampaging when a close family member is killed.

Gorilla tool-use

GORILLAS USING TOOLS. It is the first documented use of tools among wild gorillas. Now all the great apes are known to use tools. Evidence that all great apes use tools adds insight to human evolution. It suggests that tool use emerged in primates before humans split from the great apes. Tool-use was once thought a distinguishing characteristic of humans.

Though tool use is likely infrequent among gorillas, the new evidence provides insight to how gorillas see the world and interact with their environment, Breuer said.

“The most fascinating thing about this observation is the similarity [to humans] with which the gorillas solve the problems in this particular habitat,” he said. “If you or me want to cross a swamp, we use the same solutions as gorillas.” [from the NGS article]

Self-recognition

Here’s an interesting little article about capuchin monkeys. Unlike most apes, they can not recognize themselves in mirrors, but they do recognize that it is a living creature. Article.

Sleepless whales

Here is an Interesting article about dolphins and whales. Researchers just discovered that newborns and their mothers actually do not sleep at all during their first month. Also, female bottlenose dolpins have been discovered to teach their daughters to use marine sponges in order to protect their snouts while searching for prey on the rocky ocean floor. Since this is only passed on from mother to daughter, this is the first known example of tool-related culture in cetaceans. Read that article here.

New monkey!

A new species of monkey was recently discovered in Tanzania, the highland mangabey. The article is here. The researchers placed it in the genus Lophocebus, the genus for mangabeys, but are unsure if it will stay there or if a new genus will be made for them.

Rediscovered species

Exciting news today! The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker is back! Ornithologists have recorded various sightings of this bird, which was previously known to be extinct since 1944. The woodpeckers are found in Arkansas and there is no word yet on how many actually exist. But what a discovery!

Also, I thought this was really interesting and cute. Toad tunnels built to help amphibians cross roads.

Orcas

I was reading an article about killer whales (orcas) in the new National Geographic and learned some really interesting things that I wasn’t aware of. Like orcas can live 90+ years in the wild and one of the oldest orcas studied was born around 1911. And, orcas are divided into 3 categories: residents (which stay close to the coastline and eat only fish), transients (very fast swimmers, mammal hunters), and offshores (live out at sea). They might even be considered different species since the groups do not breed with each other and they even have their own dialects! These were the orcas studied off the western N. American coast so I’m not sure if if pertains to all killer whales. But its pretty interesting stuff. And here is a link to some other lesser-known facts about killer whales.

Elephants & Hobbits

Here’s an article on Elephants that use mimicry. Zoologists have noticed some elephants making car and truck noises, along with various other machines. Interesting, eh? Also, read about the new hominin species Homo floresiensis. This is really a huge discovery! Not only is it a new species of human, but it is evidence that humans too are under the forces of island pressure and shows the power of an isolated environment on natural selection. Here are some links. “Hobbit” Brains; Photos of the fossils; News story about the discovery; Wikipedia entry w/ links.

Wild horse slaughter

I came across this article from National Geographic, Wild Horse Slaughter Legalization. Not cool.

Animal-human hybrids

I was looking at this article from National Geographic. Animal-Human hybrids. Very interesting. I mean, genetic manipulations could be useful for cancer and disease patients, but some of this stuff seems unnecessary. What do you think?