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Your Favorite Animals
Bliss 101
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Sorry, it turns out I'm not good at witty titles. This thread is about animals that are weird, horrifying, fascinating or just irresistibly cute. Share interesting animal facts, dispel myths, or just tell us what your favorite animals are and why.
Most of the animals I'm interested in seem to be a mix of all four attributes mentioned above. For example, I love ants and other social insects (cuteness is in the eye of the beholder in this case, I suppose), and my interest in insects was what got me into biology in the first place. But there are two types of animals, very different from each other, that have become my enduring favorites.
Near the top of my list of favorites are the various birds of paradise. I became interested in them when I was reading about the evolution of sexual dimorphism for a course. This is a pretty diverse group of bird genera, but what most of these species have in common is the complex mating behavior of the males. It can involve physics-defying displays of plumage, "singing" that may or may not sound beautiful, cleaning and decorating their territory with colorful objects, and usually some kind of a wacky dance. Generally, the more plain-looking the bird, the more they invest in dancing and decorating. It's the dancing types I like the most, and if you watch this video you'll know why:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZF_IbizDzw
Mantids must be my all-time favorite group of animals. They're a pretty succesful order of insects: you can find them on every continent except the Antarctica. Their behavior may seem a bit dull, as most of them just pretend to be twigs or flowers until food wanders close, but they do engage in impressive mating dances, although the motive behind their dance is less about attracting attention and more about not being eaten by the wife. The name "praying mantis" comes from their characteristic stance and swaying movement. Apparently the swaying helps the mantis separate the relative movement of its prey from the background. Large mantids can eat small birds, lizards and snakes.
I just love how these insects look. They're big enough to be easily observed, some species are strikingly beautiful, and they often combine real badassery with an endearing comedy villain look. Their threatening and defensive stances are impressive. Their body language can be pretty entertaining, thanks to their mobile "pupils" and arm-like raptorial legs.
For example, they can pull of a decent Dr Evil expression, like this orchid mantis:
And here's my favorite, the Devil's Flower mantis, in all its dark glory:
Most of the animals I'm interested in seem to be a mix of all four attributes mentioned above. For example, I love ants and other social insects (cuteness is in the eye of the beholder in this case, I suppose), and my interest in insects was what got me into biology in the first place. But there are two types of animals, very different from each other, that have become my enduring favorites.
Near the top of my list of favorites are the various birds of paradise. I became interested in them when I was reading about the evolution of sexual dimorphism for a course. This is a pretty diverse group of bird genera, but what most of these species have in common is the complex mating behavior of the males. It can involve physics-defying displays of plumage, "singing" that may or may not sound beautiful, cleaning and decorating their territory with colorful objects, and usually some kind of a wacky dance. Generally, the more plain-looking the bird, the more they invest in dancing and decorating. It's the dancing types I like the most, and if you watch this video you'll know why:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZF_IbizDzw
Mantids must be my all-time favorite group of animals. They're a pretty succesful order of insects: you can find them on every continent except the Antarctica. Their behavior may seem a bit dull, as most of them just pretend to be twigs or flowers until food wanders close, but they do engage in impressive mating dances, although the motive behind their dance is less about attracting attention and more about not being eaten by the wife. The name "praying mantis" comes from their characteristic stance and swaying movement. Apparently the swaying helps the mantis separate the relative movement of its prey from the background. Large mantids can eat small birds, lizards and snakes.
I just love how these insects look. They're big enough to be easily observed, some species are strikingly beautiful, and they often combine real badassery with an endearing comedy villain look. Their threatening and defensive stances are impressive. Their body language can be pretty entertaining, thanks to their mobile "pupils" and arm-like raptorial legs.
For example, they can pull of a decent Dr Evil expression, like this orchid mantis:
And here's my favorite, the Devil's Flower mantis, in all its dark glory:
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When people first went to Australia they killed and stuffed platypuses to bring back and sell to museums. A lot of museums refused to accept them believing that they were just a dead otter and duck stitched together in an attempt to fool the gullible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y
Alternatively we can debate which animal (or insect) is the best.
In that case may I present the Cuddlefish:
http://api.ning.com/files/UmeOQNx2kXcYuDjEKbtNVLCrFpBiEN4q84IhAKQ0SMzM7CXZBBIQMDagUtTzilZOXb-RlBPwaOefUlRQaOKOirVKOgtrJwuc/CuddlefishHunting_20080709_425.jpg
http://xkcd.com/520/
I'd imagine it's called Debate and Discourse for a reason.
And the platypus sure is a strange creature. I was flabbergasted when I learned that they actually have poisonous stingers, in addition to all the other weirdness. It's like someone's Spore creation escaped into the real world.
Watch that video. Seriously, watch it and be fucking amazed. That is a short clip from an experiment. That long metal object he has in his mouth? An unbent paper clip. It was not unbent at the beginning of the experiment. The crow found a paper clip, unbent it, went to the tube, tried to get the object out using the straight paper clip, realised it wasn't working, so proceeded to bend it in to a hook and then completed it.
This is a crow that has never experienced a paper clip in nature. These crows are the /only/ animal besides humans that can take an object that it has never experienced before and transform it in to a valuable tool.
They are deep-sea colonial cnidarians (jellyfish are cnidarians). Each one is actually a bunch of animals that function as a single "body." Each organism in the colony functions almost like a cell in a metazoan.
It's actually not clear if they should be thought of as single animals or many animals, because each "individual" is a clone. They reproduce sexually, but then the new siphonophore starts budding off clones of itself that differentiate into the different parts of the "body"—jellyfish "bells" on top for swimming, polyps throughout for digestion, etc.
The Portuguese Man-o'-War is also a siphonophore.
Ants and termites have pretty impressive behaviors and defense mechanisms. Though my favorite defense is the wombat, which digs a small hole, and sticks it's head in it, leaving only it's armored butt exposed.
I also like how their venom does not long-term damage to the victim, but directly stimulates pain receptors to cause excruciating, crippling pain.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
/Only/ that we know of, you mean?
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Fair enough. Only animal that has demonstrated this ability. Still, it's pretty fucking cool. New Caledonian Crows > Dolphins
The difference is they don't transform them. Chimps use brooms too. Chimps do use tools. They can even make tools out of stuff they're familiar with. They've never shown the ability to take something they've never seen before and then alter it to become a fitting tool for the problem at hand.
Dolphins are giving the crows a run for their money, though.
edit: although I'm not sure how much transformation is involved. The realization that they can use a sponge as a face guard seems like a major cultural leap, though.
The Axolotl
It's a kind of salamander. Salamanders are amphibians, like frogs, that spend their adult lives outside of the water. But the axolotl spends its adult life in the water, breathes with gills like a young amphibian, but reproduces.
It is a prime example of neotony driving evolution. Neotony is when an organism reaches reproductive maturity "early" in its development—basically, when "adult" organisms (i.e. ones that breed) take on traits of "child" organisms. Neotony is also the driving force of dog-breeding and, some say, the evolution of human beings from our primate ancestors (notice how much more baby chimps look like humans than adult chimps do).
...
Starfish:
This starfish is using its tube feet to pull open the hinged shell of a mussel. When it opens, the starfish will spit out its own stomach, into the mussel's shell. The stomach will dissolve the mussel inside its own shell. Then the starfish will suck its stomach back into its body, with the dissolved juices.
We vertebrates are more closely related to starfish and other echinoderms than we are to insects, mollusks, and most other invertebrates. Echinoderms seem so bizarre because they have five-point radial symmetry (even ball-shaped ones have skeletons with five parts). But interestingly, a starfish larvae is bilaterially symmetrical, just like most other animals:
It grows radial, five-point symmetry as it develops.
...
Snakes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pahea7HoeYs
Seriously, snakes are weird.
Sunfish and that fish with the clear cranium and recessed eyes that was discovered a short while ago are some of the creepiest fucking things on earth. The ocean is full of alien lifeforms that want to eat out my intestines and plant eggs in my abdominal cavity, I just know it.
It is seriously awesome.
Did you see the TED talk on the crow vending machine?
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows.html
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
No doubt that dolphins are very smart, but using an object for an alternate purpose is considered lower on the totem of intelligence than what the crow did. What the dolphin did requires an understanding of the basic properties of an object (soft, absorbant, etc.), but what the crow did requires an understanding of the basic properties of an object as well as which properties are invariant across transformation.
And this one, in a supposed escape-attempt, took off a valve from her tank, flooding the aquarium with 200 gallons of water.
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
Anyone watch some of the documentaries about Humboldt Squid?
They hunt in packs, can reflect or do something to change the color of their skin in patterns in order to communicate, they are VERY curious, and VERY aggressive.
I would really not want to encounter them, but they are interesting as hell!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rfGEtALHYs
Also, they eat live food which is cool to watch.
Can't crows also solve really complicated puzzles even upon first encountering them?
Birds are my favorite animals. I'll probably join the audobon society when I get out of school.
That fish is screwed.
I have a friend who keeps octopi and he put a retaining bar along the top of his tanks (he has three) with a Master lock because he woke up once to a loud racket and the one of them was half way out of the tank and in the process of inviting the cat for a swim. The cat never walks by the tanks any more. Ever. Freaks the hell out when you pick her up and walk her to the tank. The octopus who tried to get her watches the cat. Constantly. Even swims up to the edge of the tank near the couch so that the cat can see it. We're pretty sure that it's fucking with the cat. No idea why the thing decided that the cat was a meal. Before she was caught, she had a tendency to "bat" at the tanks to scare the octopi (because cats are assholes), so maybe it decided it would "bat" back.
aaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHH!
That is awesome.
One day that octopus is totally going to get that cat.
It's not often that you get to annoy a member of a different species. Annoying cats and dogs is one thing, but an octopus? I'd hardly be able to resist myself.
High. Fucking. Five!
Yeah, morons, it's octopodes or octopuses, but never octopi.
Damnit, you're right Elendil. In my moment of triumph at being able to find that story I vaguely recalled, I forgot correct plural of octupus, which I myself have bitched about.
I am a terrible person.
I was actually about to make an argument, but then I realized that pous is a third declension and I was all "well fuck me sweetly and call me Shirley!"
The octopodes themselves have carried the banner of awesome admirably