F*ck Yeah, Wild Animals!

Reticulated giraffes (Giraffa reticulata) in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya

Love My Baby

A blood red skipper (Haemactis sanguinalis) in Ecuador

Black-faced Spoonbill.

The male is the handsomest and most peacock-like member of the genus Polyplectron. It has an standing crest atop its head and highly  iridescent metallic blue and black plumage. The tail feathers are  decorated with large blue-green ocelli or eyes,  which may be spread fanlike in courtship displays

©GalacticConquest (photo below)

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MORPHO BUTTERFLY — have ears on their wings Morpho didius © m0nz0

Scientists thought butterflies were deaf until 1912 when the first butterfly ears were identified. Only in the past decade or so have researchers examined the anatomy and physiology of butterfly ears, which they are finding to be quite diverse and present in several butterfly species. The latest discovery was made with the blue morpho butterfly.

Scientists knew from relatively recent research that the morpho sports simple wing ears. In the new study, Kathleen Lucas of the University of Bristol in England and her colleagues were interested in the odd-looking hearing membrane that sits at the base of the blue morpho’s wing. The tympanal membrane, as it is called, is oval-shaped with a dome at its center that kind of resembles the yolk at the center of a fried egg, Lucas said.

Sound waves from, say, crackling leaves or a singing bird hit the membrane and get converted into nerve impulses by nearby sensory organs. Those impulses are picked up by nerve cells.

As for why the morpho butterfly would need such expert ears, Lucas speculates they could help the butterflies figure out if birds are about to attack. Lower pitch sounds would indicate the flapping of bird wings, Lucas said, which could signal the butterflies to turn tail and fly away.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33483193/#.Tp3bKnHoxGJ

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