Lego his home!

 

Meet Harry, the hermit crab who lives in a shell formed entirely from Lego bricks.  He lives in Atlantis Discovery Area at Legoland in Windsor, Berkshire in the UK.  Hermit crabs do not have their own shells and therefore move into other creatures' shells and other findings in the ocean, but Harry's shell was not so much found by him, as fashioned especially for him by his friends at the aquarium.  Imagine their delight when he decided to adopt their design! The best is to see how nimbly he gets around in the apparently clunky shell; he makes Lego look natural! Check it out in this video: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/apr/02/hermit-crab-lego-shell-legoland

Many-legged Lilli

Meet Lilli, the six-legged calf from Switzerland. It appears that she can't use her two extra legs, but she's still pretty amazing, since her vet predicted that she wouldn't live long after birth. The farmer who owns her says that he couldn't euthanize her, despite the vet's dire predictions of a short life of suffering, because she was just so full of life. And now the Swiss love her for the same reason: in a recently televised video, she leapt and frolicked her way into their hearts. She'll probably never produce milk because her odd appendages have deformed her spine, but, if her run of good health continues, she'll join her bovine friends in the lovely mountain pastures of Switzerland this summer. Remember her this summer as you stray over the grass!

The Bower of Love

 

This lovely, twiggy tunnel was created by a bird, if you can believe it. The Bowerbird, found most commonly in New Guinea and Australia, is nature's architect and interior designer, all rolled into one. The male is most famous for fashioning an intricate nest and carefully arranging the decor around the entrance of the nest to attract mates. They collect all manner of beautiful things from their environment -- shells, lovely stones, butterfly wings -- and  set them around their nests in a very precise way until they are satisfied they have achieved the maximum of attractiveness. The photo here is a kind of tunnel that certain kinds of Bowerbirds build; scientists have recently discovered that the tunnel seems to achieve a kind of optical illusion that makes the male appear larger than he is. Read the story here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/neurophilosophy/2012/jan/19/1. An architect, interior decorator, and a magician!

International Polar Bear Day, Monday, Feb. 27th

Well, it's that time, again: it's International Polar Bear Day! These beautiful, enormous creatures are in the spotlight lately because there has been so much talk about their potential extinction. What a sad world it would be without them. Check out this great gallery, with lots of information in the captions, for more information about the world's biggest bear (along with the Grizzly -- go Canada!).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2012/feb/27/international-polar-bear-day-in-pictures#/?picture=386459748&index=0

Japanese Snow Monkey Culture

In the last post on ANW, I reported that animals enjoy sports and learn to use tools from older generations -- in other words, I noted that animals have what we call "culture," a shared set of experiences passed down from one group to the next that is not innate or instinctual, but learned. Well, these snow monkeys in Japan prove my point yet further. As you'll see in this video, this particular group of macaques is the only group in Japan that enjoys a fine day at the outdoor spa, just like so many Norwegian humans. They learned to do it from their babies, no less. Watch them take a dip in the hot springs:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/video/2012/feb/06/snow-monkeys-hot-springs-video

Snowboarding Crow

When we think of animals playing, we tend to tell ourselves that they do so to hone their skills for living. For example, baby cougars stalk each other and wrestle, skills that they'll need to bring down prey when they're big cougars. But this video is about to make you rethink this explanation for animal play. Why, oh, why, I ask you, does a European Hooded Crow need to practice snowboarding? Answer: he doesn't. He just likes the sensation of whooshing through the snow, just like we do. We're running out of characteristics that divide humans from animals. It used to be "tool use" that made us unique, and then they realized that African monkeys had not only been using tools, but also making them for years -- and that they even passed down their tools from one generation to the next, like a mother passing on her sewing machine to a loyal daughter. So, we said, "Uh, snowboarding? Yeah! That's what makes us different from the beasts!" Think again!

http://veganelder.blogspot.com/2012/01/playing-in-snow.html

Fancy Fowl

"Gorgeous chicken" sounds a bit like an oxymoron. It's at least an uncommon combination of words. But I defy anyone to deny that this is a gorgeous chicken. Its feathers are so perfectly clean and white and wonderfully fluffy! It seems to know how beautiful it is.