nationalpost:

Gleeful cameraman films terrifying encounter with thousand-kilogram polar bear
As a thousand-kilogram female polar bear padded toward him, BBC cameraman Gordon Buchanan focused a lens on his own face and began speaking.

“She’s enormous,” Buchanan said from inside a bear-proof Perspex box he used to get close to polar bears for a network documentary.

“Really, it’s why I’ve come here – to see these animals, to get to understand them, to see them up close,” Buchanan said.

(via brooklynmutt)

Source: news.nationalpost.com

…our society has become so technologically based that you really can’t be a fully operating citizen unless you understand basic science. How are you supposed to make judgements about the health of your children if you don’t believe in science? How are you supposed to make a judgement about a generation of fuel and power if you don’t believe in science? You can’t operate as a sensible voting member of a democratic society these days unless you understand fundamental scientific principles to a degree.
Brian Cox and Robin Ince interview the legend himself, David Attenborough: A life measured in heartbeats (via jtotheizzoe)

(via jtotheizzoe)

jtotheizzoe: Clearly, I Can See You’ve Got Guts Meet the glassfrog, a strange South American amphibian with a nearly transparent underbelly. The evolutionary significance of the clear abdomen is unknown, as light can be harmful to organ tissues (although the frogs get around that with a cool adaptation).  Robert Gonzalez has an interview with a glassfrog researcher at io9 highlighting their odd biological adaptations. I suppose the clear belly could be a survival technique to avoid being cut open by high school biology students?
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jtotheizzoe:

Clearly, I Can See You’ve Got Guts

Meet the glassfrog, a strange South American amphibian with a nearly transparent underbelly. The evolutionary significance of the clear abdomen is unknown, as light can be harmful to organ tissues (although the frogs get around that with a cool adaptation). 

Robert Gonzalez has an interview with a glassfrog researcher at io9 highlighting their odd biological adaptations. I suppose the clear belly could be a survival technique to avoid being cut open by high school biology students?

jtotheizzoe:

Watch helplessly as this mussel is slowly & inexorably consumed by a sea star. Oh yeah, you’re watching from inside the shell.

This is so cool! You might not know this about sea stars, but certain species have the ability to invert a portion of their stomach and digest their prey from outside their body. If you’re an invertebrate, you can’t exactly crack open a shell the way a bird can.

This sea star pulls open the mussel shell slightly, inserts its stomach and releases a flood of digestive enzymes that dissolve its prey from the inside. You can watch that happen, sped up in the video above.

Sluuuuuuurp.

No word on whether the sea star also releases a white wine/butter sauce.

(via Deep Sea News)

This is B-movie level creepy.

jtotheizzoe:

Today is World Rhino Day. Share and help protect this majestic, dangerously poached creature.

climateadaptation:

500 Rhinos are illegally killed (poached) each year for their horns. The horns are imported (illegally) to Asia and sold as medicine. World Wildlife Fund kicked off a new campaign to save these endangered animals. In addition to their habitat shrinking from growing human populations, climate change affects their food sources, and, now, poaching is increasing the chances that they’re doomed to extinction.

“A new report from TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, documents the rising rhino poaching crisis in South Africa, detailing issues such as loopholes in sport hunting policy and surging demand for horn in Vietnam.

Vietnamese consumers—the main market for rhino horn—mistakenly believe in rhino horn’s detoxification properties, notes the report. Wealthy users grind up rhino horn and mix the powder with water or alcohol as a hangover cure and general health tonic. The horn is also consumed as a supposed cancer cure by terminally ill patients. Rhino horn traders deliberately target these patients as part of a cruel marketing ploy to increase the profitability of the illicit trade.”

WWF

Source: climateadaptation

jtotheizzoe: In case you missed it last night, a new species of monkey was identified in the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo: Lesula. It’s the first new species of monkey in 28 years. It’s a great reminder of how much biodiversity there is left to discover and catalogue … and preserve. Anyway, I’ve been having some fun with his silly face. If you’ve got a better monkey meme, tweet me!
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jtotheizzoe:

In case you missed it last night, a new species of monkey was identified in the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo: Lesula. It’s the first new species of monkey in 28 years.

It’s a great reminder of how much biodiversity there is left to discover and catalogue … and preserve.

Anyway, I’ve been having some fun with his silly face. If you’ve got a better monkey meme, tweet me!

sirmitchell: byeproductivity: headlikeanorange: The Guillemot is a seabird that lays its eggs on a bare rock ledge on a cliff face. When an egg is accidentally dislodged, its shape causes it to spin in a tight circle, which prevents it from falling off the ledge into the sea. (Springwatch - BBC) Can we just take a moment to appreciate how fucking awesome this is? These eggs no doubt started out like all other avian eggs, but they had the problem of rolling off the cliffs. The eggs that were slightly more oblong tended to roll off the cliffs less, and thus the genes contained in those eggs lived to be passed on. Fast forward a few million years, and BAM tight-circle eggs.  Naturally selected for your viewing pleasure. 
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sirmitchell:

byeproductivity:

headlikeanorange:

The Guillemot is a seabird that lays its eggs on a bare rock ledge on a cliff face. When an egg is accidentally dislodged, its shape causes it to spin in a tight circle, which prevents it from falling off the ledge into the sea. (Springwatch - BBC)

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how fucking awesome this is?

These eggs no doubt started out like all other avian eggs, but they had the problem of rolling off the cliffs. The eggs that were slightly more oblong tended to roll off the cliffs less, and thus the genes contained in those eggs lived to be passed on. Fast forward a few million years, and BAM tight-circle eggs. 

Naturally selected for your viewing pleasure. 

Source: headlikeanorange

jtotheizzoe:

sciencepopularis:

Gorilla brothers reunited after two years apart

In this series of photos the joy of the brothers Kesho and Alf is self-evident. Despite concerns over the reunion, these photos clearly show the instant recognition and delight on show from these intelligent and social mammals.

So many gorilla feels happening. This is pure beauty in nature.

This is the most touching example of social culture in the animal world since these boaters freed a humpback whale from a fishing net … and I think she said “thank you”.

Source: sciencepopularis

It’s often said that libertarianism is the philosophy of “I’ve got mine and f’ off.” That philosophy works fine for the individual until the individual actually needs help. Human beings don’t live in insular pods. When our neighbor’s house burns, there’s a good chance ours could. When our coworker gets sick, there’s a good chance we will. At some point in the very near future, voters have to stop seeing themselves only as individuals and start thinking as a community. As much as I weep for my home state of Colorado, I hope these fires wake the voters up to realize that sometimes government is necessary and that someone needs to pay for the protections that everyone takes for granted. Perhaps then, people will be more amenable to the conversation about global warming and its short and long-term dangers.
Wendy Gittleson (via socialuprooting)

(via apsies)

Source: azspot

jtotheizzoe:

Gorillas In Your Midst

I pulled this video from PsiVid’s Top 5 Animal Videos of the Year because, well, it’s amazing. That’s all there is to say about it.

It starts out like any other amateur nature video, showing tourists walking among some Ugandan gorillas in Bwindi National Park. But what happens at 2:30 blew my mind … I won’t spoil it, but it was one of the greatest primate-human interactions I’ve ever seen on film. Pure curiosity, and pure amazement.

(also, I would have peed my pants if I were that guy)