Daring penguin escape

A crafty penguin outmaneuvers a whole pod of orcas.

Maybe this is fun to watch only if you feel more like a penguin than an orca, as I do most Wednesday mornings. Swim faster! (FAIL Blog)

And you thought McGruff the Crime Dog was tough

WP: Marijuana Garden Found With Help of Researcher's Turtle


Yup. Some Chevy Chase kid was cultivating weed in Rock Creek Park. But he wasn't counting on a narc turtle running across his operation. It's like they say in College Park. Fear the turtle.

Only in DC...

Saddest, grossest wildlife sighting ever

A dead baby fawn, right in the middle of the trail in Rock Creek Park this morning. Sad, sad, sad. What on earth would kill a fawn in RCP and then just leave it there? Scary chupacabra stuff.

Bat die-off

This is alarming (NYT). If life were a comic book, a killer bat fungus would somehow result in the creation of a new superhero. Alas, in this case, all we get are tons of dead bats.

Due to a fungus--or pesticides? or a virus?--bats are mysteriously dying off across the northeast U.S. They are leaving their caves when they shouldn't, and are often found hanging dead and covered in a strange fungus. Bat researchers say as many as 250,000 bats may die this year. Here they are, all dead and contorted in the snow:
Sad! The worst is--I wonder if this could have a measurable effect on the number of bugs in some areas. The Times article notes,

The die-offs are big enough that they may have economic effects. A study of Brazilian free-tailed bats in southwestern Texas found that their presence saved cotton farmers a sixth to an eighth of the cash value of their crops by consuming insect pests.

We are all totally screwed, as usual--especially you mollusks

Along with polar bear cannibalism and the giant heap of dying walruses, ocean acidification and warming have got to be some of the most viscerally icky consequences of climate change for critters.

According to a new UNEP report released today, half the world's corals may die by 2050 due to rising ocean temperatures. By 2100, mollusks will likely have trouble forming their shells because of ocean acidification from carbon dioxide emissions.

On ducks

I spotted a bunch of wood ducks swimming in Rock Creek near the zoo this morning--a type of duck I have never seen in DC before.

In other duck news, some asshole government employee from Denver is being charged with felony animal cruelty after ripping the head off a live duck at a Minnesota hotel for no reason whatsoever. Well, I guess he did present a reason:

According to witnesses, Scott cornered a duck near an atrium pond at the hotel and ripped its head off. Announcing, "I'm hungry. I'm gonna eat it," Clark got on an elevator with the headless bird and took it up to the fifth floor. (FedBlog via Wonkette)

People who torture animals scare the crap out of me. Guy probably wets the bed and sets fires too. Put him away before he starts tearing the heads off of hobos instead.

Return of the baiji?

The Yangtze River's unique, freshwater dolphin, the baiji, was declared "functionally extinct" last year, and the last confirmed sighting was in 2004. Now some guy in China has caught one on film. (Reuters via NYT) Could it be? Are we in for another ivory-billed woodpecker hunt?


Either way, the poor baiji is probably toast. :( Have a nice day!

Take a moment to appreciate the mantis

When I was a kid, I was always pretty delighted to run across a praying mantis. Don't know about you, but where I grew up we only had these green mantis dudes:
(Stagmomantis carolina--the green ones are females)

But there are many other, cooler mantids out there, like this guy:

Seriously, I can't believe we live on the same planet as these things. Anyhow, all of this is just by way of telling you to check out the pics here by U-Md. mantisist David Yager. (WP)

A patriotic snake

In Shenandoah NP yesterday, I saw something I had never seen before: an big fat Eastern Timber Rattlesnake (crotalus horridus horridus--cool name). He rattled at us! This is a photo from the internet, not a photo of our snake, but you get the idea.


They say the Eastern Timber Rattler was the model for the Colonial American flag:

Bug blog

Just in time for the summer june bug/luna moth/occasionally cicada season:

What's That Bug?

If you have ever seen a cool bug and wondered, "what's that bug?," or if you simply like to look at pictures of interesting bugs, this is definitely the blog for you. People send in photos of bugs they can't identify, and the bloggers post the photos and tell us about the bugs.

The page on saturnid moths is particularly fascinating.