( Read more... )

We probably all wondered once what an animal was thinking and wished it could speak, so we could ask it just that. Animal cognition is a fascinating field of study, which shows us time after time animals might be less thoughtless than we anticipated ( Read more... )

Oh dear, I just saw that it was over a month since I did my last '100 things' post :-0 High time for some new interesting facts!

The balsa tree (Ochroma pyramidale) is a large, fast-growing tree native to the rainforests of Middle and Southern America. The trees, which can grow up to 10 meters high in only 3-4 years, are harvested for their soft ( Read more... )

Again, sorry for my lack of posting here recently... It's been really warm here in The Netherlands and my motivation and productivity has dropped to 0. I therefore thought a nice topic for this '100 things post' might be, the way animals cope with the heat ( Read more... )

Nature can be cruel. Many animals either eat other animals or are on the menu themselves. There are instances of feeding however, where it doesn't all end in blood-shedding and death ( Read more... )

Yes, I know I've been AWOL the last two weeks... I have been very busy at work and in the evenings I only wanted to crash on the couch and watch some tv. But I hope in the coming time I'll have some more time to post here. Beginning with a 100 things challenge  post, about the subject which has been most on my mind in the last few weeks: chickens ( Read more... )

You'd think that in the 21st century, scientist know of every living creature in every corner of the earth. But no, new species of plants and animals are still discovered regularly ( Read more... )

Rats are a nuisance, right? They carry diseases, eat animal feed and most people are just plain frightened of them. But, people in mine infested regions of Mozambique and Thailand are very grateful for the help of the trained African giant pouched rats to make their land safe again.

The Belgian NGO APOPO started training these rats to sniff out the ( Read more... )

-1-20: Downton Abbey icons for the_histories
-21-28: Animals in the snow


( Read more... )

It's that time of the year again, when many birds head of to their wintering grounds. It's an amazing feat for any migrating birds species to travel yearly for many hunderd or thousand kilometers, but the bird topping all this is the Artic tern. This elegant white seabird, weighing only about 85-120 grams, breads on the coast of the northern parts ( Read more... )