Perth Zoo’s groundbreaking Echidna breeding program has produced two puggles (baby Echidnas) and a breeding milestone: These puggles represent the first successful breeding from zoo-born Echidnas and have shown that Echidnas breed at a younger age than previously thought.
Read more here http://bit.ly/RxRlE0 and at ZooBorns.
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Prehistoric Wombat May Have Climbed Trees
Recent research into the fossilized remains of Nimbadon lavarackorum, an early relative of the wombat, suggest that it may have lived in treetops approximately 15 million years ago.
The remains were originally found in a cave in Queensland, Australia, in 1990. Researchers from the University of New South Wales and the University of Adelaide examined the fossil and found that the 70kg marsupial had strong limbs to climb tree trunks. Physically, Nimbadon seems to have been close to the koala, and probably behaved similarly.
The original paper can be found here.
Image credit: Peter Schouten
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EVERYDAY I’M PUGGLING…
Rescued Echidna Puggle Laps Milk From Nurse’s Hand at New Zoo Home
The Huffington Post | By Meredith Bennett-Smith
A tiny echidna is receiving some lifesaving tender loving care this week after being rescued from a trail in western Australia.
The puggle, as baby echidnas are called, is being nursed by doctors at the Taronga Wildlife Hospital outside Sydney, Australia.
An almost “illogical mammal,” according to the San Diego Zoo, echidnas (also known as spiny anteaters) have remained unchanged since prehistoric times. They are native to Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea. What really sets the odd looking creatures apart, however, is the fact that they lay eggs, a trait shared with only one other mammal: the duck-billed platypus.
Nicknamed “Beau” by its caregivers, the puggle was about 30 days old when it reached its temporary new home, according to a blog post on Taronga’s website. At that age, Beau should have been nestled safely in its mother’s pouch, according to the San Diego Zoo. After about 50 days, the puggle is placed in a burrow, where it is feed by its mother until it can venture out on its own at 7 months…
(read more and SEE VIDEO: HuffPost) (photos: Toronga Zoo)
This is a tasseled wobbegong (Eucrossorhinus dasypogon), a type of shark called a “carpet shark” because of the complex patterning on its skin. It uses that pattern to camouflage itself as it lies on the bottom on coral reefs in southeast Asia, Australia and New Guinea (map, bottom). It lies there waiting for other unwary sharks to swim by; when they get close enough it grabs them and swallows them whole.
Nature, man; you couldn’t make this shit up.
my fave shark
fairy-wren: Large-tailed Nightjar (Caprimulgus macrurus), Australasia
(photo by mahimahi)
New Spiny Venomous Sea Snake Discovered
by Christin Dell’Amore
A new species of venomous sea snake mysteriously covered head to tail in spiny scales has been discovered in treacherous seas off northern Australia, a new study says.
Though some other sea snakes have spiky scales on their bellies, “no other [known] sea snake has this curious feature,” study leader Kanishka Ukuwela, an ecologist at the University of Adelaide, said by email.
Normally snakes have smooth scales, but each of the newly named Hydrophis donaldi’s scales has a spiny projection, he said. Scientists cruising shallow seagrass beds in the Gulf of Carpentaria recently captured nine of the rough-scaled reptiles. Each of the specimens was found on the rocky seafloor, a habitat that could explain the new species’ uniquely strong scales…
(read more: National Geo)
(photos: Kanishka Dimithra Bandara Ukuwela, Univ. of Queensland)
Red crab migration
The red crab is by far the most obvious of the 14 species of land crabs on Christmas Island. Every year over 150 million red crabs move from inland shelters to the shore for their annual breeding season. This occurs at the beginning of the wet season (usually October/November).
The main migration can last up to 18 days. Masses of crabs gather into broad columns as they move toward the coast, climbing down high inland cliff faces, and over or around all obstacles in their way, following routes used year after year for both downward and return migrations.
Movement peaks in the early morning and late afternoons when it is cooler and there is more shade. Because if caught in open areas, in unshaded heat, the crabs soon lose body water and die.
Christmas Island is a small Australian-owned territory located in the Indian Ocean, approximately 300 miles south of Jakarta, Indonesia. A small population of 1600 residents live on the area of 50 square miles.
animeburger: Red Cuttle (Sepia mestus), off of Sydney, Australia
(photo - doug.deep)
I love cuttlefish eyes so much
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