Animal of the day – 5/14/2013 – The Broadclub Cuttlefish

The Broadclub Cuttlefish

The animal of the day is the Broadclub Cuttlefish. (Did you know: Holy crap, this thing is amazing! This amazing invertebrate can see with it’s damn skin. I’m not kidding, it’s skin actually has similar cells that we have in our retinas, allowing it to change it’s color to match it’s background in milliseconds!

This amazing animal also uses it’s skin to hypnotize it’s prey before striking!

Go learn more here: http://thedoghousediaries.com/5076

Animal of the day – 4/3/2013 – The Kiwi

The Kiwi

The animal of the day is the Kiwi. (Did you know: Compared to it’s size, the kiwi lays the largest egg in the animal kingdom!

Just to get an idea of how big their eggs are compared to their body!

While Kiwi’s are about the size of a domestic chicken, they’re eggs are SIX  TIMES THE SIZE of a domestic chicken egg! Yeah! Think about laying that bad boy!

While most adult birds have bones with hollow insides to minimize weight and make flight practicable, kiwi have marrow, like mammals and the young of other birds. Also, making kiwis special is that they only known bird to have external nostrils at the end of its bill and one of the few to have a highly developed sense of smell.

Animal of the day – 3/22/2013 – The Gooseneck Barnacle

Gooseneck Barnacle

The animal of the day is the Gooseneck Barnacle. (Did you know: Barnacles have been described as ‘nothing more that a shrimp like animal, standing on it’s head in a limestone house and kicking food into it’s mouth.’

They’re weird creatures, and for a long time Welsh monks would eat them because even though they were banned from eating meat, barnacles weren’t considered meat! [note: they ARE meat!].

Also, barnacles are known for being hermaphroditic, and having disproportionately long penises!

Animal of the day – 3/20/2013 – The Giant Tube Worm

The Giant Tube Worm

The animal of the day is the Giant Tube Worm. (Did you know: They are remarkable in that they have no digestive tract! Instead, bacteria (which may make up half of a worm’s body weight) convert the turn oxygen, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide [all stuff spewing from underwater volcanoes]. into organic molecules on which their host worms feed.

Also, because they live miles deep in the ocean, they have pretty much no predators! They can grow up to 7ft in length!

Animal of the day – 3/14/2013 – The Blue-tailed Skink

The Blue-Tailed Skink

The animal of the day is the Blue-tailed skink. (Did you know: That pretty blue tail serves quite the purpose! Unlike many lizards that have detachable tails [which can easily break off], skinks have the ability to disconnect their tails themselves!

That bright blue tail is for distracting predators while the skins makes a run for it [the tail wriggles and jiggles when detached]. This is why it’s body is so drably colored!

Female with Eggs

After the female lays her eggs, the eggs get larger as they absorb moisture from the soil. That’s why the eggs look so much bigger than the female herself.

Animal of the day – 3/13/2013 – The South Polar Skua

South Polar Skua

The animal of the day is the South Polar Skua. (Did you know: These guys are straight up hoods if you are looking for a gangsta bird in the Subantartic islands. These huge gulls terrorize seabird and penguin colonies.

At the end of this clip, a skua starts eating a puffin, right in front of all his boys. Damn.

The penguins? They eat their babies. Whole. The other flying sea birds? Skua’s harass them while they’re flying, forcing them to vomit, and then catch the vomit mid air. yup.

Animal of the day – 3/12/2013 – The Black Squirrel

The Black Squirrel

The animal of the day is the Black Squirrel. (Did you know: These guys are actually a variant of the Grey Squirrel (but distinct enough that only black squirrels can make black squirrels!)

They’re found in all the Big 10 states  and along the east coast( Ohio, Maryland, Michigan, Indiana,Virginia, Washington, D.C., Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania)

Animal of the day – 3/11/2013 – The Great Tit

The Great Tit

The animal of the day is the Great Tit. (Did you know: This charming sound bird is well known in gardens and parks in ye ole Britain!

They’re great to have in your garden as they eat lots of bugs, caterpillars and the like!

Animal of the day – 3/7/2013 – The Potato Bug

The Potato Bug

The animal of the day is the Potato Bug aka the Jerusalem cricket. (Did you know: Talk about a misnomer! These guys aren’t crickets (they’re in a family all their own that’s closer to grasshoppers), and they aren’t found anywhere near Jerusalem. They’re native to America and Mexico!

It’s Navajo name ‘Tsiitsʼiin łichíʼí means ‘Red-Skull’

I can’t find out for the life of me why they’re called potato bugs, I suspect it’s something to do with their big butts…Worry not, they aren’t venomous, but they do have a painful bite and are known to emit some smelly odors when troubled.

Animal of the day – 3/6/2013 – The Apatosaurus Ajax

Apatosaurus Ajax

The animal of the day is the Apatosaurus Ajax. (Did you know: Oh snap, did I just take it to the ole school? Nope, I took it to prehistoric school! This is one of my favorite dinosaurs! It was mistakenly named the Brontosaurus until scientists got their ish together and realized they were mixing up bones.

One of my favorite childhood memories includes this lil guy who is an apatosaurus named Little Foot. If you don’t know the movie, you need to check your priorities.

As long as three school buses back to back, and a heavy as 8 elephants this is one of the largest land animals to ever exist on the planet earth! Can you imagine how big it’s poops were?!