Although the Cincinnati Zoo has had some bad press on this site, most notably when it hired a chiropractor to adjust the spine of a baby tiger who was “failing to thrive,” it also turns out some nice animal videos. So enjoy this baby black rhino (Diceros bicornis) having its very first mudbath.
This is a great video showing a renegade baby raccoon refusing to enter its tree hole den. Mom is frustrated and makes repeated attempts to stuff the little bugger in, going so far as to grab it on the head with her teeth (this doesn’t look like a felid scruff carry!). She finally wins after […]
There’s no information on this video, but who cares when it’s three baby raccoons competing for their turn on a procyonid playground:
Reader Charleen sent me the tweet below, which shows the courtship ritual of the hooded grebe (Podiceps gallardoi), a rare and critically endangered species (fewer than 1000 individuals) that lives in isolated Patagonian lakes. Have a look at this craziness, and ask yourself “Why the hell are they doing this?” or “What selective advantage is […]
I should have filmed this sideways or something, as the iPhone video isn’t that great. However, here you see my duck Honey having a postprandial preen, spreading oil over her feathers, dunking herself, and having a good shake. I’m told she’s the mother and non the timid daughter, because she’s molting and only adults molt. […]
If you can have your heart warmed by a fish, or rather a relationship between a man and a fish, have a look at this video and the brief notes about it (below) posted on Twisted Sifter. The fish is an Asian sheepshead wrasse, Semicossyphus reticulatus. These Two Have Seen Each Other Nearly Every Day for […]
Okay, here’s a slightly deceptive Guinness Book of World Records award for the Shortest Bird Migration: In stark contrast to the thousands of kilometres flown by certain migrating birds, such as the Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea), the world’s shortest migration is that of North America’s blue grouse (Dendragapus obscurus). During the winter, it inhabits mountainous […]
What a treat to have seen these breaches! I’ve put the YouTube notes on this video below. The coolest thing, which you can see in the video’s screenshot, and then twice in the film, is a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) jumping completely out of the water. I haven’t see a breach like that before. And […]
The Cornell Birds-of-Paradise Project is a great website that contains all kinds of information about the 39 species in this fantastic group. There are videos and information about the sexual dimorphism in plumage and behavior, and other aspects of the birds’ biology, information about their evolutionary history and the people who study them, and general information […]
The answer to the title question is “apparently so, and at about the level of great apes and four-year-old human children”. That, at least, is the conclusion of Can Kabadayi and Mathias Osvath, the authors of a new paper in Science on raven behavior in the lab (reference and free download below; see also the Perspective […]
