For brief comments and news articles from the natural world.
To start off, check out this benefit scrounging single mother who faked a pregnancy to get more care. Thatcher would never have stood for it:
Spoiler
(http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article9664060.ece/alternates/w1024/panda-3.jpg)
The world's first live broadcast of a panda birth has been called off after experts said the "mother" involved may have been faking the pregnancy to receive better treatment.
"Phantom pregnancies" are common among giant pandas – but keepers at her breeding centre in Sichuan province believe six-year-old Ai Hin could be exhibiting learned behaviour that marks her out as smarter than the average bear.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/giant-panda-in-china-fakes-pregnancy-to-receive-nicer-food-and-roundtheclock-care-9693743.html
:P
Another interesting BBC News article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29054889), about small marine organisms discovered in the ocean off Tasmania. At the moment they can't readily be placed in any of the identified taxonomic phyla, and the original scientific paper (http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102976) indicates that there is uncertainty about the relationships of some phyla in any case. There also seem to be some similiarities with some of the strange Precambrian creatures that we only know as fossils.
yaaay moar whales
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29069515
Well, so much for the plot of Star Trek IV. :P
Quote from: comrade_general on September 06, 2014, 06:07:34 PMWell, so much for the plot of Star Trek IV. :P
As per your instructions in the chatbox:
Quote
comrade_general [07|Sep 12:14 AM]: Someone point out to me in the nature yays thread that in ST: IV the whales were humpbacks and not blues.
I really need to get a life. ;D
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29661446
QuoteScientists believe they have discovered the origin of copulation.
An international team of researchers says a fish called Microbrachius dicki is the first-known animal to stop reproducing by spawning and instead mate by having sex.
The primitive bony fish, which was about 8cm long, lived in ancient lakes about 385 million years ago in what is now Scotland.
Okay, so things to take away from this:
- Sex has evolved multiple times
- The first creatures to have sex had to hold hands while doing it which is kind of adorable
- They called the creature
Microbrachius dicki. Can we just take a moment to appreciate that please.
We had a lecture in about the third week of first year which was 'why have sex?'
It's actually an interesting discussion in terms of evolutionary theory. I do love latin names though, but sometimes they can be a bit silly.
So scotland is the birthplace of intimate relations? It won't be easy but I will manage to turn this into a chat up line somehow. Probably not an effective one but who really cares if it works.
But then you have to do it square-dance style.
http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2014/10/14/time-lapse-video-gmo-arctic-apple-awaiting-us-approval-does-not-brown-over-24-hours/
How do you like them apples?
People are portugaltards.
Ooh, that's pretty cool :)
The apple is cool, but people are definitely portugaltards.
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/frozen-time-9-000-year-old-bison-mummy-found-siberia-n242966
Quote from: comrade_general on November 07, 2014, 09:31:39 PM
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/frozen-time-9-000-year-old-bison-mummy-found-siberia-n242966 (http://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/frozen-time-9-000-year-old-bison-mummy-found-siberia-n242966)
Super matured steak anyone?
(http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2014_45/755041/141106-science-bison-mummy-1_70464ac84d4c114d445cbe57d6a0bf62.nbcnews-ux-640-440.jpg)
=
(http://stuffpoint.com/memes/image/130824-memes-really-high-llama.jpg)
That would be an interesting thing to dissect.
I'm not sure if this counts as a "yay", given the implications, but it's very impressive - the largest recorded glacier calving event ever.
Heh, wow. That's a armadillo ton of ice!
Quote from: The Khan on November 17, 2014, 11:07:38 PM
Heh, wow. That's a armadillo ton of ice!
Yes - in fact 8-9 billion tons of ice, if my back-of-the-envelope calculation is right.
Another one showing the power of natural forces, if not in a particularly happy way: a BBC News article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-30335814) with aerial photographs of the damage from the storm surge on the Norfolk coast this time last year. The main effect visible is the amount of sand or gravel driven inland from the beaches across the saltmarsh and fields behind.
Just found this on imgur, pretty interesting.
http://imgur.com/gallery/xk48o
Yes: quite remarkable that the predator should decide to treat this odd creature in its sea in this way.
Thats crazy, anybody can think of a reason why she'd do this? Maybe she had just had cubs or something and wanted to protect and nurture something?
Quote from: Tom on December 13, 2014, 01:30:42 PM
Thats crazy, anybody can think of a reason why she'd do this? Maybe she had just had cubs or something and wanted to protect and nurture something?
Yeah somehow she's mistaken the diver for a cub, bringing weak or dead prey to their young is pretty common behaviour for predators.
As for why she made that mistake? Not a clue.
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/12/19/mariana-trench-is-home-to-deep-water-fish
Trenchception; we have to go deeper. :P
Oooooo, that's a lot of water. O.o They are some cool fishies. :D
Another BBC News article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-32360910): scientists have filmed a sperm whale "doing laps" around their remote-controlled submarine in the Gulf of Mexico.
NB. People outside the UK might not be able to see the video :(
This one (http://www.entsoc.org/PDF/2010/Orb-weaving-spiders.pdf) is an academic paper - I suspect Jubal will find it interesting, while arachnophobes will not want to go anywhere near it.
It begins with these words:
In late October, 2009, the managers of the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Baltimore, MD sought assistance in mitigating what they described as an "extreme spider situation" in their sand filtration facility.
Effectively, they had built a spider farm (covered, warm, lots of nooks and crannies, steady supply of food), and were experiencing a good breeding year. I won't present the numbers here, in case readers run away screaming, but they are quite remarkable. One of the concluding comments is this:
On-site personnel should be reassured that the spiders are harmless and the facility's immense shroud of silk should be presented in a positive light as a record-breaking natural history wonder.
For those interested, the paper is linked from the current xkcd "What If?" article (http://what-if.xkcd.com/136/).
Spiders! :D
The "what if" article has at least one flaw though - some spiders DO live on the water and some are very capable swimmers (notably the genus Dolomedes, with which I am personally very familiar :P )
Quote from: Jubal on June 08, 2015, 11:57:06 PM
The "what if" article has at least one flaw though - some spiders DO live on the water and some are very capable swimmers
You could always let Randall Munroe know - I'm sure he'd be overjoyed to discover there are
even more spider habitats...
I have too many emails to write already :(
http://www.boredpanda.com/sealed-bottle-garden-david-latimer/ (http://www.boredpanda.com/sealed-bottle-garden-david-latimer/)
Bit clickbaity, but nice article on a guy who has a terrarium that has been opened about once in several decades.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34897767
In sadder news, a Northern White Rhino has died, leaving only three of the (functionally extinct) species remaining :(
Ooh :) Get some photos when it happens!
Quolls! Eastern Quolls are now back on the AUS mainland:
(https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/C795/production/_102439015_hi048026575.jpg)
QuoteA rare species of marsupial, the eastern quoll, has been born in the wild on the Australian mainland for the first time in more than 50 years.
The native animals were once found along Australia's east coast until they were devastated by foxes and disease.
Scientists in New South Wales (NSW) reintroduced the species from Tasmania earlier this year and now three females are carrying joeys in their pouches.
The bean-sized babies will stay growing inside the pouches for three months.
Original article: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-44763160
Cute, although I'm pretty sure that this is a slug... :)
I think it is a snail, just its shell is at a funny angle compared to the camera. And yes, very cute indeed :)
I thought it was a slug at first too, but that is indeed a tiny shell.
Okay, then I say "hello tiny snail!"... :)
It said "sup" but in a tiny voice.
Wow, yes, that's beautiful.
Why was I taking all the photos when I visited? You're miles better at it :P
Quote from: comrade_general on July 31, 2018, 08:31:19 PM
I just got lucky it didn't fly away from me. Also finally figured out the proper settings for my phone camera. Huehue
And this is how great photos are made: luck in catching the moment, and knowledge of how to handle the camera - plus an artist's eye for a picture. Well done: I think they're amazing!
I guess this animal was more of a landl *pause expectantly for gales of laughter*
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-45084802
Ooh, the thing with the flies is really interesting in a grim sort of way.
Quote from: comrade_general on March 08, 2020, 10:32:47 PM
All the aminals that crossed a log on a guy's trail cam in Pennsylvania.
Fascinating - many thanks. Quite a surprise that things like the bears, which could just wade the river, nevertheless choose the log to cross instead.
Quotethings like the bears, which could just wade the river, nevertheless choose the log to cross instead.
This incidentally means I got the behaviour of the owlbear in my book unexpectedly accurate :)
In nice news, my native county has a new piece of wildlife back in town, with two female beavers being reintroduced to a site near snettisham (males hopefully to follow in the autumn):
(https://www.lynnnews.co.uk/_media/img/750x0/W106IBR4GTYC2N6R9OE5.jpg)
Link:
https://www.lynnnews.co.uk/news/beavers-released-at-a-west-norfolk-site-is-a-major-step-for-largest-rewilding-project-of-its-kind-in-east-anglia-9107074/
Also I recently learned why wrynecks are so named and it's unutterably weird and fascinating. Have a watch:
This behaviour combines with their greek name of
iunx and association with witchcraft (the Greek mythic Iunx was a nymph who cast a love spell on Zeus and was turned into a magic bird as punishment) to give us the modern word
jinx for a curse/spell.
This is nice - rediscovery of a rare elephant shrew species after half a century :)
Quote
(https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/2738/production/_114004001_somailsengi_cstevenheritage.jpg)
A little-known mammal related to an elephant but as small as a mouse has been rediscovered in Africa after 50 years of obscurity.
The last scientific record of the "lost species" of elephant shrew was in the 1970s, despite local sightings. The creature was found alive and well in Djibouti, a country in the Horn of Africa, during a scientific expedition.
Elephant shrews, or sengis, are neither elephants nor shrews, but related to aardvarks, elephants and manatees. They have distinctive trunk-like noses, which they use to feast on insects.
There are 20 species of sengis in the world, and the Somali sengi (Elephantulus revoilii) is one of the most mysterious, known to science only from 39 individuals collected decades ago and stored in museums. The species was previously known only from Somalia, hence its name.
Rest of article:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53820395
An even longer run rediscovery, the Black-browed babbler:
QuoteBlack-browed babbler found in Borneo 180 years after last sighting
Exclusive: Stuffed specimen was only proof of bird's existence until discovery in rainforest last year
(https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/625d3f74ec69c2b04e5164c25b82412e2bbb1a30/0_94_1126_675/master/1126.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=4e8090115a00249c3f94ac2abf46c592)
In the 1840s, a mystery bird was caught on an expedition to the East Indies. Charles Lucien Bonaparte, the nephew of Napoleon, described it to science and named it the black-browed babbler (Malacocincla perspicillata).
The species was never seen in the wild again, and a stuffed specimen featuring a bright yellow glass eye was the only proof of its existence. But now the black-browed babbler has been rediscovered in the rainforests of Borneo.
Two local men, Muhammad Suranto and Muhammad Rizky Fauzan, chanced upon a bird they did not recognise in Indonesia's South Kalimantan province in October last year and managed to catch it. They photographed the bird, released it, and reported their find to birdwatching groups.
Experts from the region confirmed the bird's identity, noting its strong bill, chocolate colouring and distinctive black eye-stripe. Unlike the taxidermied specimen, the live bird's iris was a striking maroon colour.
Article: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/25/black-browed-babbler-found-in-borneo-180-years-after-last-sighting
There have also been renewed rumours of Thylacine sightings on camera traps recently, though apparently one such sighting has been reviewed and assessed to be a pademelon. Finding thylacines would be
amazing if true but I'm remaining very sceptical from what I've read so far.
Interesting piece on apes and speech:
https://www.science.org/content/article/why-monkeys-can-t-talk-and-what-they-would-sound-if-they-could
QuoteThe famed parrot Alex had a vocabulary of more than 100 words. Kosik the elephant learned to "speak" a bit of Korean by using the tip of his trunk the way people whistle with their fingers. So it's puzzling that our closest primate cousins are limited to hoots, coos, and grunts. For decades, monkeys' and apes' vocal anatomy has been blamed for their inability to reproduce human speech sounds, but a new study suggests macaque monkeys—and by extension, other primates—could indeed talk if they only possessed the brain wiring to do so. The findings might provide new clues to anthropologists and language researchers looking to pin down when humans learned to speak.
"This certainly shows that the macaque vocal tract is capable of a lot more than has previously been assumed," says John Esling, a linguist and phonetics expert at the University of Victoria in Canada, who was not involved with the work.
I found this today which is super interesting: ibises aka the bin chickens of Australia have worked out a strategy for eating cane toads successfully without getting poisoned, which is pretty cool (and potentially helpful given what a nightmare cane toads have been for Australian ecosystems.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-63699884
I think this counts as a "nature yay": a four-year timelapse video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bUceeJCJNg) of the US Geological Survey's Kilauea summit webcam. It's striking how quickly the deep crater left after the 2018 collapse fills up again.
Yes, barring a mutual friend of ours deciding to finally become active on here I think we probably don't have the activity for a separate Physical Geography Yays, so Nature Yays seems right.
And that is super interesting!
An entry from me is that despite the war the Ukrainians are managing to push ahead with some interesting rewilding work including reintroduction efforts to expand the population of my beloved European Field Hamsters: https://rewildingeurope.com/news/second-group-of-hamsters-released-on-the-tarutino-steppe/ Which is excellent news!
First ever pictures of a live Attenborough's Long-beaked Echidna! Nobody was quite sure if they were extinct or not and the species was known from a half century old dead specimen in a museum. They live in the remote Cyclops Mountains in Papua.
(https://i.imgur.com/RPUlmaJ.png)
QuoteScientists have filmed an ancient egg-laying mammal named after Sir David Attenborough for the first time, proving it isn't extinct as was feared.
An expedition to Indonesia led by Oxford University researchers recorded four three-second clips of Attenborough's long-beaked echidna.
Spiky, furry and with a beak, echidnas have been called "living fossils".
They are thought to have emerged about 200 million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
Until now, the only evidence that this particular species Zaglossus attenboroughi existed was a decades-old museum specimen of a dead animal.
"I was euphoric, the whole team was euphoric," Dr James Kempton told BBC News of the moment he spotted the Attenborough echidna in camera trap footage.
"I'm not joking when I say it came down to the very last SD card that we looked at, from the very last camera that we collected, on the very last day of our expedition."
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67363874
How lovely! What an adorable creature!!
Long-beaked echidnas generally (there are three species: Western, Eastern, and Sir David's) are fascinating creatures. They have a sort of comforting yet melancholic ponderous look about them, I think. :)
(https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2015/10/03142525/FEATURED-echidna.jpg)
Important whale news!
(https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/B0FE/production/_132701354_humpbackwhalebreaching_filatova.jpg.webp)
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68358414
QuoteScientists have worked out how some of the largest whales in the ocean produce their haunting and complex songs.
Humpbacks and other baleen whales have evolved a specialised "voice box" that enables them to sing underwater.
The discovery, published in the journal Nature, has also revealed why the noise we make in the ocean is so disruptive for these ocean giants.
Whale song is restricted to a narrow frequency that overlaps with the noise produced by ships.
"Sound is absolutely crucial for their survival, because it's the only way they can find each other to mate in the ocean," explained Prof Coen Elemans, of the University of Southern Denmark, who led the study.
(https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/984B/production/_132978983_jamestweed.jpg.webp)
Look at this little guy! It's a newly discovered type of longhorn beetle from Australia, which has been given its own genus Excastra: it may have evolved to mimic having been killed by a fungus as a way of deterring predators, which is amazing.
Actual article:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-68622828
(https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/13a9/live/203e3b20-19e1-11ef-baa7-25d483663b8e.jpg.webp)
The extinct-in-the-wild Rosy Saxifrage has been reintroduced to the wild in Wales. It's been placed in a secret location to avoid collectors getting it. Thought it was a nice story, anyway, hopefully it'll establish properly :)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjkkm4re518o
Fun news from Czechia, where a $1.2 million public water restoration project has been done for free by beavers before they could actually start work:
https://www.voxnews.al/english/kosovabota/qeveria-po-e-planifikonte-prej-7-vitesh-kastoret-ndertojne-brenda-dy--i84652
Quote from: Jubal on February 07, 2025, 12:32:06 AMFun news from Czechia, where a $1.2 million public water restoration project has been done for free by beavers before they could actually start work:
https://www.voxnews.al/english/kosovabota/qeveria-po-e-planifikonte-prej-7-vitesh-kastoret-ndertojne-brenda-dy--i84652
Humans: Let's plan this for years and still don't get it done
Beavers: *roll their eyes* Amateurs
In Very Important News, someone in the UK found a partially-leucistic shrew that looks like a humbug.
Article: https://insideecology.com/2025/07/03/once-in-a-lifetime-finding-of-incredibly-rare-humbug-pygmy-shrew-photographed-in-cornwall/
And more importantly, shrew:
(https://insideecology.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Once-in-a-lifetime-finding-of-incredibly-rare-%E2%80%98humbug-pygmy-shrew-photographed-in-Cornwall.jpg)