Tales from the Natural World

Here short, uplifting tales will be shared about the natural world and conservation success stories.

New Characters

Warpainted lizard

Its always exciting to discover a new species and the WWF has just published the fact that in the last 4 years alone, 400 new species have been discovered in the Amazon rainforest.  Thi includes 258 plants, 84 fish, 58 amphibians, 22 reptiles, 18 birds and one mammal and this doesn't even include insects and other invertebrates discovered.  Some of the most fascinating species found include a vegetarian piranha, flame patterned lizard and a thimble-sized frog.  Researchers also encountered a new species of Caqueta titi monkey who's young possess the unusual characteristic of purring when encountered and handled although I will have to take their word for it as unfortunately could not find video evidence!

Thimble frog

These species add to a growing list that have been discovered just this year. These range from a new undeniably cute species of carnivorous olinguito to a glow in the dark cockroach.  These new discoveries demonstrate the importance of preserving as many ecosystems as possible as you never know what we will find next!

Caqueta titi monkey 

Carnivorous olinguito

Glow in the dark cockroach 

Odd one out

There is a wide variety of different looking animals in the wild but sometimes there are those that stand out from the others.  I encountered one of these today, the beautiful Black barn owl.  This has developed like this due a rare genetic condition (100,000 to 1) called melanism, which is the opposite to albinism, causing dark coloured pigmentations of the skin.  This has been found in other animal species from rabbits to penguins.

These black Barn owls can only survive in captivity and there are currently only two breeding pairs.  These birds should survive better than other barn owls in the wild due to the fact that they are stronger and there is also evidence to suggest they possess an improved immune system.  Their dark colour may also give them an advantage when hunting as this takes place at night. However, if these birds are wild-bred then the mothers will almost always neglect them as they view them as abnormal and unlikely to survive.  

A beautiful bird nonetheless, made even more special for it being that little bit different.    

Don't judge a book by it's cover...

Appearance is a very important part of human life, as much as many of us are unwilling to admit it.  This attitude is often transferred onto our interpretation of the animal world as 'cuter' animals are often in the limelight and those possessing a less attractive appearance are ignored if not even actively shunned.  This behaviour would be unacceptable in today's human society, so why is this not the case when it comes to animals?

These seemingly unattractive animals often possess characteristics that we would find interesting or even enduring if we made the time to take a closer look.  Take the earwig, an insect that along with having an 'ugly' appearance, also has a disturbing (yet false) reputation or crawling into humans ears and laying eggs.  In fact, this species is one of the few non-social insects that provide maternal care and fiercely guard their eggs, even going hungry to the point of starvation in order to protect them.  In addition, earwigs have been observed to continuously clean their eggs to prevent the growth of fungi, and this behaviour is unique to this species.  

In contrast, cuter animals can display decidedly less caring and maternal behaviour.  Infanticide is a common behaviour in the animal kingdom where adult males kill the offspring of other males in order to mate with the mother.  This behaviour is displayed in popular animal species such as polar bears, meerkats and many big cats.  However, this behaviour does not tarnish these species reputations, undoubtedly due to these animals appearance.

  

All these behaviours are natural and often evolutionary necessary for these species to survive.  We should not judge animals on them just as we shouldn't form opinions based on appearance.  Saying this, 'cuter' animals do have their uses as flagship species.  For instance, many people will donate money to save a panda's habitat and in doing so, they are saving all the species that live there.  The message I wish to import here is not to stop appreciating the beauty of many of our animal species, but not to forget those that are also in need of our help and deserve it just as much.