The Oilbird

This bird may not seem ugly at first appearance, but wait till you get the details. Here's a colorful quote:

"Raucous shrieking and frightful retching… which might express the sufferings of sea-sick demons." Not a passage from Milton, though this description by the early 20th-century zoologist John Golding Myers does describe his entry to a kind of earthly hell: a cave of roosting oilbirds...

This split-personality, cave-dwelling oddity, known to North Americans as the guacharo, doesn't seem to know whether it is bat or bird. It echolocates like a bat to perceive its surroundings, but as well as this crude form of sonar, the oilbird has the most sensitive eyes of any vertebrate.

Photo source: Robert Siegler

And then there's this:

As Myers noted, oilbirds spend much of their time squabbling in caves, in colonies numbering up to 20,000 birds. Because of the immense numbers living there, the floor is carpeted with guano, which supports a host of insects and other small animals. The birds also put the guano to good use during the breeding season: they build nests with it.

These birds may be vital to their forests's health, but that doesn't mean I want to spend a night in an oilbird cave.

Thanks for the new bird, Morgan (a resident bird expert). And good luck in your studies.

Thoughtful Centipede

Ever wondered what a thoughtful centipede would look like? Of course you haven't. But this is the best likeness you're likely to find: reclined on its back, its antennae swaying, its mandibles absentmindedly clicking, its myriad feet drumming on its chitinous belly. I just wonder what's going through that bundle of nerves it calls a brain. Something involving hunting and venom no doubt.

Thanks for the centipede, Stephen.

Parental Males

Photo source: Richard
The Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus) is one of the most recognizable of the old world monkeys. Moreover, they are the only primates, aside from us humans, that live freely in Europe (though, as indicated by their name, they are indigenous to the northern regions of Africa). That distinction has evidently led to this monkey feeling quite uppity.

I think I would flourish as a Barbary macaque. They live in matriarchal troops of 10-30 individuals, but unlike most other primates, the males play a prominent role in the rearing of the offspring, and spend much of their day grooming and playing with the little ones. They form strong bonds with both their offspring and those of others. In fact, it seems that the females prefer highly parental males. One of my few talents is being a daddy, so I think I'd fit right in.

I am now sticking out my tongue in solidarity with my macaque brethren.

Grateful

I used to think it a crime that so much color could be wasted on a vulture. But I'm now grateful that I can look at pinks and lavenders and blues instead of the typical naked pate. Still, though, why the stern gaze? I'm glad they keep to carrion.

Photo source: hsc 70

RIP Thaao

Andean condors typically live to be 50 years old. Not so with Thaao (pronounced TAY'-oh). He lived to be 80 years old. He was born in the wild, where only a few thousand still remain, but spent most of his life in captivity.

Though he wasn't cuddly with humans, he was quite helpful in developing captive breeding programs. I imagine he lived a life that many a young man can only dream of.

RIP, Thaao. And thanks for the article, Ida.

Photo source: LA Times

You Decide

Rebecca sent this along, and neither she nor I can decide if it's cute or ugly. I'll let you decide.

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Amazon River Dolphin

Should you ever find yourself rafting through the Amazon river basin and you come across a friendly, pink/gray, beaked face, don't be alarmed. You're looking into the curious mug of a freshwater cetecean, an animal known as the Amazon river dolphin, aka boto, aka Inia geoffrensis.

According to myth, the boto shapeshifts into a handsome young man known as an encantado, who seduces young women and impregnates them. That explains the dolphin's smirk.

Thanks for the boto, Jelo. I never thought I'd be able to post on a dolphin.

Photo source: BotswanaGallery.org

Photo source: Fmilanez

Photo source: NowPublic.net

A Little Dose of Humility

We all marvel at the life teeming on sunny reefs. Well, it turns out that the deepest portions of our oceans, those inky-black abyssal regions, where sunlight will never penetrate, where plants cannot grow, where the human body would implode from the pressure, where once scientists thought that life could not exist, are actually home to more abundance and variety of life than those sunny reefs. And we've only explored 1 millionth of those depths. So much to learn about our own planet.

Just a little dose of humility.

Thanks for the article, Susanna.

Photo source: bogleech.com