Meet the slingjaw wrasse, one of the all-time coolest fish. Looks pretty normal...until it eats.

Click to view

This vid is from the lab of Dr. Wainwright, one of the top experts in feeding in fishes (if not *the* expert), and he's recently put a lot of his high-speed videos on his YouTube site

I'm not sure what is cooler here: The birds herding fish or the whales gulping it all down.

Hungry whales steal birds' dinner

( Text for the link-shy )

( Read more... )

( gore etc w/e. you suck dude. third submission is the charm )

A recent RSPB survey of the Critically Endangered Tristan albatross has found that it has suffered the worst breeding season on record. The albatross, which is only found on Gough Island (a South Atlantic territory of the United Kingdom), is losing vast numbers of chicks to predation by the introduced house mouse (Mus musculus ( Read more... )

New Scientist has chosen its 12 Most Stunning Images of 2008 which includes a gorgeously freaky chick embryo, a baby kangaroo (more like an embryo) within its mother's pouch and a strange deadlock where a cat-eyed tree-snake, coiled around a branch, was locked in an embrace with a Morelet's treefrog. Check them out (and the others too).

This is what boredom and digging through the BBC Archives will get you:

An unusual clash between a 6-foot (1.8m) alligator and a 13-foot (3.9m) python has left two of the deadliest predators dead in Florida's swamps.

The Burmese python tried to swallow its fearsome rival whole but then exploded.

Clicky for the full article.

About a week after I posted this another completely separate case was reported in Townsville, considerably further south than the first one. It seems that this is not exceptionally rare. I had been meaning to post this for some time but I've been too busy, but since it's quiet at work I bring you awesome spider the sequel.


( Read more... )

i stumbled across this on youtube just now...???

Click to view

and i like the next one for the song :P

Click to view

i don't know why they do this!! i saw a comment that said it has something to do with how worms come out of the ground when it's raining, so the tapping makes it SOUND like it's raining, making it easier for the gulls to find food. it makes sense, but i'm ( Read more... )

Hi I've just joined after lurking for a few weeks - what a great community.

I read about this in the latest issue of New Scientist and thought it might be of interest here (hopefully it hasn't been previously posted):

Click to view