A giant squid has been filmed swimming in a Japanese harbour.
Series:Animals
Baby Numbats Are Cute…
Numbats are insectivorous marsupials from Western Australia. They are an endangered species. Marsupials are mammals, but unlike most other mammals they carry their young in a pouch during the early stages of development. Marsupials are only found in Australia and South America. Australia and South America were joined together into a super-continent called Gondwanaland until …
Continue reading Baby Numbats Are Cute…
Cows – Nature’s Most Noble Beasts…
Some of you will know that cows are my favourite animals so you can imagine how delighted I was to see a headline a few years ago in the Telegraph… “McDonald’s launches study into flatulent cows used in its burgers” This seems to include several of my favourite scientific themes; namely cows, the scientific method, food and burping (eructation). What …
Continue reading Cows – Nature’s Most Noble Beasts…
Even-Toed Ungulate…
The evolution of camels is particularly well documented with many connected examples of their species’ development visible through the fossil record. There were camel-like antelope grazing on the plains of North America over 40 million years ago. They have been so successful because they are well adapted to their environment. The two types of camel …
Continue reading Even-Toed Ungulate…
Eliomys quercinus…
As I sipped my coffee this morning, I watched a mother garden dormouse (Eliomys quercinus) attempting to carry one of her young up to her nest in the eves of my house. She wedged herself between the wall and a drain pipe and scrambled upwards with the pup squeaking loudly.It had rained over night and the …
Continue reading Eliomys quercinus…
The Anthill Mob…
There are several ant nests on my property this year. I suspect that there have always been but this is the first time that they have been large enough, and sufficiently prominent, that I have noticed them. The one above is the biggest I have spotted so far. Every time I pass there is a great …
Continue reading The Anthill Mob…
Taupes Répulsif…
The only thing that spoils the pristine garden view from my front door is the regular appearance of great piles of rich dark soil on top of the newly mown grass. C’est la taupe! Despite having, literally, thousands of acres of farmland around my garden in which to create their havoc, the local mole population …
Continue reading Taupes Répulsif…
Cold Blooded Beast…
My garden is alive with fast moving and agile lizards. The species is called the wall lizard or Podarcis muralis. They hunt in the flower beds and many seem to live in a network of tunnels beneath my patio tiles. I have seen them catch flying ants but their staple diet seems to be insect …
Continue reading Cold Blooded Beast…
Ragondin…
As you probably know, because I go on about it quite a lot, I have a lake at my house in France. It’s probably more of a pond than a lake but let’s not quibble. It is beautiful, but overly weedy and plagued by large rodents called coypu (in English) or ragondin (in French). They are a …
Continue reading Ragondin…
Incy Wincy Spider…
Updated 21/08/14 Excuse the poor quality photograph (above), but I only had my phone available and I could not get the autofocus to acknowledge that the spider was the subject of the photograph, not the vegetation in the background. This is the biggest spider I have seen in my garden in the time I have …
Continue reading Incy Wincy Spider…