Meet Testudo hermanni hermanni, a Mediterranean tortoise present in Italy, France and Spain. Its captive breeding was made necessary by the destruction of its native habitat. The challenge for current breeders, unlike most of the species bred as pets, is to maintain as much as possible the purity of the species, subspecies and, if possible,…
Sunday Sketch: Bashful Bunnies
Check out this fun fact about bunnies!
Creature Feature: Domestic Chicken
Learn more about the latest and greatest fowl to cross our desk!
Field Notes: The First of Many Lasts
As I pack up my car on a breezy August day, I take one last breath of the cool, ocean air filled with scents of sagebrush and eucalyptus, realizing that while this wouldn’t be my last trip to the Marin Headlands, this is the last time I will be collecting data for graduate school. —…
Sunday Sketch: The Great Gorilla
Check out this fun fact about gorillas!
Field Frame Friday: This is how I show my love – QUAIL
A California Quail (Callipepla californica) poses majestically on a shrub. California Quail participate in brood-mixing, where multiple female quail will raise multiple offspring (related and not-related) in communal family groups. It is suggested that females involved in communal family groups also live longer than those in single family groups. There are benefits of being a…
Sunday Sketch: Anatomy of a Narwhal
Check out this fun fact about narwhals!
Field Frame Friday: Flexy Fanaloka
Check out this trail cam photo of a spotted fanaloka (Fossa fossana) taken in Madagascar during Meredith Lutz’s field season. Spotted fanaloka adjust their activity patterns to avoid humans and invasive carnivores, like dogs, during seasons of increased human and dog activity. [Photo and Caption by Meredith Lutz] Reference: Farris, Z. J., Gerber, B. D.,…
Creature Feature: American black bear
We’re about to finish checking our bird traps at Tioga Pass when I spot it– a moving black lump in the upper right hand corner of my eye. We freeze. “Holy–” I say. “Is that…?” I slowly raise my binoculars. It is. Standing on a boulder, huffing its huge steaming snout in the morning air,…
Sunday Sketch: The Southern carmine bee-eater
Check out this fun fact about The Southern Carmine Bee-eater!
