The Ethogram

Creature Feature: Whale barnacles

If you look closely at a photo of a southern right whale (Eubalaena australis), you’ll see that few animals accessorize quite like they do. Their crusty white ‘bonnet’ (which looks more like a mustache, if you ask me) complete with their classic goatee and cumulus eyebrows truly set them apart as charismatic megafauna. But what…

Sunday Sketch: Color me impressed

Chromatophores are cells that change pigments and reflect light and incephalopods (e.g. octopus, squid) can be rapidly changed by shifting pigmentsand reorienting reflective plates in the cells using their muscles! Caribbean reefsquid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea) use their chromatophores for camouflage andcommunication! Flashes of changing colors and patterns between squids are oftenseen during courtship and sometimes these…

Sci Hero: Dr. Temple Grandin

The Ethogram believes that science should be accessible and diverse in order to increase the sense of belonging within the science community. As a part of our continuing effort to make science a more inclusive field, we will be highlighting a “Sci Hero” each month so that the next generation of scientists and naturalists may be inspired and identify with the diverse community that came before them.

Sunday Sketch: Faux Paw

An inaccurate animal nickname

Field Frame Friday: Can you hear me now?

A male white-crowned sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) on his song perch. It is important for my research to try to record a sample from every male’s song throughout the season. [Photo and caption by Carly Hawkins] Carly studies how bird songs influence mating strategies in white-crowned sparrows. She is interested in how traffic noise can impede…

Arts & Crafts: Pretty Pollinators

Check out this young explorer’s artwork of an important part of nature: pollination!

Creature Feature: Tammar wallaby

Got Milk? This phrase, while ubiquitous in magazine and television advertisements cheekily paired with milk-mustachioed celebrities, is also an easy way to distinguish mammals from other species. While the first mammal you may think of in response to this question is likely a cow, human, or maybe even a goat, one lesser-known (and arguably the…