posted September 09, 2009 05:52 PM         

The Planet Earth series that Sigourney Weaver narrates introduced me to these guys-> and the dance they do to attract mates, complex enough to give Baryshnikov a throw down challenge.

King Bird of Paradise.

posted September 09, 2009 05:56 PM         

Widdle 'Pygmy Parrot'

posted September 13, 2009 11:17 AM         

Most people bring back the usual mementos from their overseas vacations: photographs, T-shirts, diarrhea. The BBC Natural History Unit, however, came home with something better. A crew of scientists, academics and filmmakers from the British broadcaster visited the South Pacific island of Papua New Guinea this past spring to film a nature documentary and in the process discovered more than 30 new species of animals. Among the unknown creatures — all living inside the crater of the extinct volcano Mount Bosavi — was a giant rat that measured 32.2 in. and weighed more than 3.3 lb., making it one of the largest rodents on Earth (scientists provisionally named the housecat-size animal the Bosavi woolly rat). The historic find also included 16 new species of frogs, at least three new types of fish and one bat. "It was mind-blowing," George McGavin, a biologist with the BBC team, told England's Guardian newspaper. "The crater of Mount Bosavi really is the lost world."

While the sheer number and size of the found animals were extraordinary — and made possible because the volcanic crater's ecology had been virtually undisturbed by humans — the scientific discovery of new species is actually quite routine. In fact, biologists are identifying new species at a torrid rate, about 50 a day; nearly 17,000 new plants and animals were described in 2006 alone, or some 1% of the 1.8 million species that have been recognized so far.

The truth is that scientists have only the foggiest idea of how many animals and plants exist on the planet. Estimates of the total number of species range wildly, from 5 million to 30 million to as many as 100 million. Although multitudes of uncharted animals and plants may be hiding in the tropical rain forest or at the bottom of the ocean, many new species are discovered today in the lab, where scientists examine the DNA of what appears to be a single, widely distributed species only to find that it's actually a collection of separate species that look alike. The dusky salamander of the Appalachian and Adirondack mountains, for example, is now known to be four distinct species.

Yet even as we discover new species, the existing ones are coming under increasing threat. We're losing species 10,000 times faster than the natural rate, a loss of life so great that we've entered the sixth great mass extinction in Earth's history. Why? Global warming plays a role. When the environment changes faster than animals and plants can adapt, extinction is inevitable. By one estimate, more than one-third of all land plants and animals could be extinguished by 2050 if climate change continues unabated.

But the more imminent danger comes from the annihilation of forests — especially tropical rain forests, which house a richer variety of animals and plants than anywhere else on the planet. Papua New Guinea lost more than a quarter of its forests from 1972 to 2002, and the BBC team noted that trees were being logged just 20 miles from where the Bosavi woolly rat was found. As of 2005, some 6 million hectares (14.8 million acres) of primary, untouched forest were being leveled annually — and each time a rain forest is burned or logged, it takes with it species we'll never get the chance to count.

posted September 13, 2009 01:10 PM         

here as in politics, i suspect we may be trying to impose OUR specific ideas on the world when in reality many of our "improvements" and "stewardships" are purely self-serving and tied to the construct we live inside. it's a beautiful world but is it the only one? is it even the only one humans can live within/on?

i don't have any fears for earth herself. i am sure she will be just fine, barring some unforeseen collision with a body in space big enough to really shatter her, which is unlikely though possible. the human race, like many species, may just become extinct, or it may transform into something better!

posted September 14, 2009 08:53 AM         

All very interesting thoughts kat. It seems to me we are coming up to a period of cleansing...already in the midst of it. I think it's natural and needs to take place every so often.

posted September 18, 2009 10:59 AM         

Boy finds rare pink grasshopper

Daniel Tate, an English schoolboy, was looking for grasshoppers at a wildlife event he attended with his great-grandfather last week. But the 11-year old boy and his companions at Seaton Marshes Local Nature Reserve had no idea what a huge surprise they were in for.

Tate saw something pink that he thought was a flower. But when it jumped he knew it was a grasshopper.

It turns out that it was an adult female common green grasshopper that just happened to be born pink.

Experts aren't sure what caused this mutation. Grasshoppers of different colors, including pink, are unusual but not unheard of according to experts. What makes this particular grasshopper so rare is the intensity of the pink, according to Fraser Rush, a nature reserves officer in Britain.

Grasshoppers aren't the only insects that can be pink. Below are a few of nature's brightest examples:

posted September 18, 2009 11:02 AM         

Dragonfly (Photo: Richard Giddins / Flickr)

Katydid (Photo: Ric McArthur / Flickr)

Hummingbird Moth