Lionesses in South Africa

Taken at the Motswari Private Game Reserve in South Africa, we see two lionesses having a drink at a watering hole. On the right is a rare white lion from the Xakubasa Pride. The photograph was taken by the park’s ranger Chad Cocking.

Open to the Kruger National Park and playing host to Africa’s Big Five, the family-owned and operated Motswari Private Game Reserve is one of South Africa’s jewels nestled within the Timbavati Nature Reserve.

Giant Leopard Moth

Bleeding Tooth Fungus

The Bleeding Tooth fungus, or Hydnellum pecki, is found in pine forests of the
American Pacific northwest and central Europe. It's also known by the names
'Devil's Tooth' or 'Strawberries and Creme'. Ironically, their oozing 'blood' actually
contains an anticoagulant called atromentrin.

Blue Footed Booby

 The Blue-footed Booby (Sula nebouxii) is a bird in the Sulidae family which comprises ten species of long-winged seabirds. The natural breeding habitat of the Blue-footed Booby is tropical and subtropical islands of the Pacific Ocean, most famously, the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador.

The courtship of the Blue-footed Booby consists of the male flaunting his blue feet and dancing to impress the female. During the dance, the male will spread his wings and stamp his feet on the ground.

Photo from: National Geographic

Lamps by the Great Mushrooming

Find more at: http://www.geocities.jp/youkeepon/

Brazillian Artist Henrique Oliveria

More of Henriques work here: http://www.henriqueoliveira.com

Hermit Crab Shells

The shells that hermit crabs seek are made by marine gastropods that secrete 

calcium carbonate from their mantel—the organ that covers their soft bodies. 

The shell is built up in deposits until the calcium carbonate becomes a crystalline

 structure held together via thin membranes of organic material. The univalve-type

 shells that hermit crabs prefer to adopt are spiral in shape. This formation 

affords the growing gastropod within the hard shell an ever-increasing area in

 which to expand.

 Hermit crabs are scavengers and often locate these borrowed dwellings by 

smell, when the original gastropod inhabitant dies and begins to decay. Once

 a hermit crab adopts a shell, it will keep it until the shell is outgrown, carrying 

it continuously as a shield, wherever it goes. In order to carry its home, one of 

the crab's front claws is completely dedicated to clutching the shell. This claw 

bends backward and holds on to the spool of calcium carbonate at the shell's 

center. In order to move, the animal must first use this claw to lift the shell and

 heave it onto its back. In spite of such difficulties, the drive to remain housed 

is so strong in this species that a typical hermit crab would rather be torn limb 

from limb than be pulled out of its shell. The only time that the animal will 

willingly leave its shell is a) if it locates another, more suitable one, or b) if it

 is shedding its exoskeleton—a process which can only be accomplished by 

fully exiting its dwelling just long enough to wriggle out of its own exfoliated 

shell casing.

When a hermit crab that has grown too large for its current home locates a new

 one, it determines the structure's suitability via a process called fondling. During

 this activity, the hermit crab will explore the shell's surface and its internal 

volume-to-weight ratio by rolling the shell over and gently rocking it back and

 forth. Since hermit crabs actually choose the shells that they inhabit, there is a 

large body of information concerning shell selection.

Source: www.cabinetmagazine.com

Wooly Bat and Carnivorous Plant Sybiosis

Professor Ulmar Grafe noticed that Hardwicke's woolly bats were regularly roosting in Nepenthes hemsleyana pitcher plants in Brunei (on the tropical island of Borneo).

 The benefits for the bats appears quite obvious, as this particular species of pitcher plant has a very low level of digestive fluid, meaning the bats can safely roost in an environment sheltered from predators and without fear of being eaten by enzymes.

Pitcher plants typically grow in areas where the soil is very nitrogen depleted, hence their reliance on a carnivorous life style.

Under further investigation Grafe found that the plants gained 33% of their nitrogen not from feeding on insects but from the droppings of the bats, showing strong evidence for an intriguing case of mutualism.

Source: Bat Conservation Intnl website www.batcon.org

Sand Magnified 250x

Photographer Laurent Seroussi

More of Laurent's work at http://www.laurentseroussi.com/

The Transparent Glass Frog

 
 'Glass frog' is the common name of frogs in the amphibian family Centrolenidae. There are many species, and they are found throughout Central and South America.

As you can probably guess. their name comes from the obvious fact that many of the members of this family have translucent skin. Many internal organs including the heart, liver and gastrointestinal tract are visible.

Chimera Peacock?

 Chimeraism is a condition in which two separate zygotes fuse together to form one organism. The resulting animal has two different sets of DNA (unless the zygotes that fused were identical twins). Occasionally, this causes mosaicism - when different phenotypes are expressed in different areas.

 The problem with chimerasism is that it's impossible to confirm without genetic testing, as is the case with the peacock pictured here. It's been doing the rounds on forums for years, and always causes a lot of debate. Some claim that it's a case of co-dominance, others argue that we're looking at a chimera. Without genetic tests, it's impossible to say for sure.

A common question that was asked on our last post on chimeraism was - are there any human chimeras around? The answer is a resounding yes - and it's a hell of a lot more common than you might think. Although you occasionally get some spectacular colour patterns on chimeras like those pictured, most of the time you'd never be able to tell by looking.

The British Medical Journal first reported a human chimera in 1953. A woman was found who had two different blood types - investigation found that this was the result of cells from her twin brother living within her body. A study published 1998 (available free online, found here: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.149.9001&rep=rep1&type=pdf found that this sort of blood group chimeraism is actually fairly common.

Satanic Leaf-tailed Gecko

 "The stunning image of the species was captured at the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park in Madagascar. Satanic leaf-tailed geckos (Uroplatus phantasticus) can reach a total of length of 9cm, and its range is in the central eastern side of the African island."

 Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Gecko vs. Lizard:
 Lizards are reptiles of the order Squamata, normally possessing four legs, external ear openings and movable eyelids. Geckos are small to average sized lizards belonging to the family Gekkonidae which are found in warm climates throughout the world. Geckos differ from other lizards in terms of their living conditions, physical charateristics and their eating habits

Source:  www.diffen.com