Always Learning, Always Exploring

Need a tiny cephalopod to brighten your day? Meet the bobtail squid (Euprymna berryi)! Also known as the hummingbird squid, this critter typically grows only up to 2 in (5 cm) in length; females are larger than males. This species lives in Indo-Pacific waters, inhabiting the ocean floor where it burrows beneath sand to rest or hide when under threat. Its striking color comes from chromatophores, or pigment-holding cells, distributed throughout its body.

I'm mad that deep sea mining is a thing people are doing so instead of just complaining to my cat, I'm making art about it.

These wheatpastes will be going up this week.

Wanna stick something up near you?

Get stickers here

Smooth Helmeted Iguana (Corytophanes cristatus), family Corytophanidae, Costa Rica

The throwing of objects is an uncommon behavior in animals. Now, for the first time, researcher have record this beheavior in gloomy octopus (Octopus tetricus) in the wild, a species from the subtropical waters of eastern Australia and New Zealand.

Several underwater video were analysed by australian researchers. In the videos, octopuses gather up seashells and other marine debris, to push it through the water using their siphon and arms, in a intentionally action in throwing the material to other octopuses. The results show only a quarter of the throws were succesfull. 

According to researchers, throwing at other individuals in the same population, as apparently seen in these octopuses, is a rare form of nonhuman projectile use, previously seen only in some social animals, as polar bears, primates, elephants and vultures, the gloomy octopus is the firts invertebrate in the list.

Reference: (Open Access): Godfrey-Smith et al., 2022. In the line of fire: Debris throwing by wild octopuses. PLoS ONE 

Channel island foxes aren’t in the vulpes genus, which means they aren’t really foxes. They’re one of many “false foxes,” which includes the bat-eared fox, the crab-eating fox, and the grey fox. The channel island fox shares the urocyon (which essentially means “tail dog”) genus with the larger grey fox, which is its ancestor.

Grey foxes live on the mainland of the United States, while island foxes live exclusively on six of California’s eight Channel Islands: Santa Rosa, San Clemente, San Nicolas, San Miguel, Santa Catalina, and Santa Cruz. Because they can’t easily travel between islands, six subspecies of island fox have developed, each one exclusive to and named after each of those six islands.

Roughly the size of a house cat, the island fox is one of the smallest canines in the world but is, ironically, the largest native mammal of the Channel Islands. Having no natural predators (multiple subspecies were nearly hunted to extinction by the invasive golden eagle in the late 1900s to early 2000s. A successful conservation project later reestablished their population and removed golden eagles from the area.), they are extremely bold and show no fear around people, completely the opposite of their elusive larger ancestor.

Like the majority of fox species, island foxes are omnivores and will eat whatever is available. This includes fruit, fish, rodents, plants, and bird eggs, which, just like the grey fox, they can climb into trees to search for.

The social structure of the island fox is similar to that of many fox species. Pairs are generally monogamous, meaning they mate for life, and they share a small territory that oftentimes overlaps with their relatives’ territories.

I rate the island fox 20/10. Adorable

Bee mimic small-headed fly, Psilodera fasciata, Acroceridae, Diptera

Found in South Africa, Psilodera fasciata is a species of small-headed fly. As far as it is known, all species of small-headed flies are parasitoids of spiders. After eggs hatch, larvae seek out spiders, burrow through their body wall, and live inside the spider’s body while developing, but mature larvae pupate outside of the spider. Adults are nectar feeders with an exceptionally long proboscis.

Because, for a fly, those heads are comically tiny. But for a bee, which these guys are mimicking, it’s more-or-less the right size. 

and the curved thorax, making it look like the fly is dramatically hunch-backed? FLAWLESS.

#let’s do it