Peregrine Falcon nest: LIVE!

O.k., I had to include this photo of a beautiful adult peregrine falcon in flight in order to get your attention, but I won't promise that you'll see just such an image in the following link.  What you WILL see is a peregrine falcon nest that is located on top of a hotel in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The link will show you a live feed of the nest. You can see the babies huddling against the cold, the parents fighting over the proper way to feed them, and, in short, the quotidian concerns of raising babies that will grow up to be, well, magnificent -- as is clear from the above photo!

http://www.cbc.ca/manitoba/features/falcon/

Floating Bear

Surreality: the bear is floating away from the scary men.

Reality: the tranquillized bear is falling from the tree he was hiding in.

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