Whether you’ve seen him in the movie “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” or glimpsed him as you flew by on the Matterhorn ride at Disneyland, you’ve likely heard of this week’s creature: the Abominable Snowman (otherwise known as the Yeti). Much like Rudolph, this fictional character has become a central figure in holiday celebrations in the…
Creature Feature: California Golden Trout
California has long been known as the ‘golden state’. This could be attributed to its golden sunshine, the golden hills that the summer brings, or the gold flakes that line its streams. Thus it is only fitting that the official state fish is the California Golden Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss aguabonita). It is one of three…
Sunday Sketch: Six White Boomers
Did you know? According to lore, in Australia, Santa Claus gives Dasher, Dancer and all the other reindeer a break in favor of “Six White Boomers” or kangaroos! And they probably serve him well–although not white, male red kangaroos can cover almost 30 feet in one hop! Sketch and fact contributed by Amelia Munson ***…
Field Fiasco: Heavy Lifting
During my time as an undergraduate, I enrolled in a semester abroad in Madagascar. When I first heard the news, I couldn’t believe it: I was going to a foreign island off the south-eastern coast of Africa, home to some of the most unique and diverse animals on the planet. Up until that point, I…
Rudolph: The Evolution of a Cultural Icon
Reindeer are a central figure in many modern Christmas celebrations. In the United States, children grow up listening to the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” on the radio, or watching him become Santa’s best buddy on TV. Yet as familiar as U.S. pop culture seems to be with reindeer, how much do we actually know…
Creature Feature: Diademed sifaka
The diademed sifaka (Propithecus diadema) is potentially the world’s most colorful lemur species. You’d think that would make them easy to find in the green rainforests of eastern Madagascar, especially since they are the second largest living lemur, but they can camouflage surprisingly well in the shadows. You may wonder why sifaka (pronounced she-FAK) are…
Sunday Sketch: Giraffe Necks
Did you know? Even though giraffes’ necks are around six feet long when full grown, they have the same amount of vertebrae as most other mammals. Those seven vertebrae have to be awfully long and strong, because male giraffes use their huge necks to fight other males for access to mates! Sketch and fact contributed…
Field Fiasco Friday: It’s Raining Monkeys!
During her time as a graduate student, Dr. Suzanne Austin took a tropical field course at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute at Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Her goal was to work with other evolutionary biology and ecology graduate students to learn all about the tropical fauna and hone her ornithological (bird science) skills, like mist-netting,…
Field Notes: Camera-trapping capuchins in Coiba National Park, Panama
Field Notes is a monthly segment in which we (the students of the Animal Behavior Graduate Group) recount the scientific side of our fieldwork – why we are there, what we do when we get there, and what we learned from our time. Stay tuned each month as we travel the globe studying a variety…
Creature Feature: Titi monkeys
If you ever visit the dense jungles of South and Central America, you may be lucky enough to encounter an elusive titi monkey (Callicebus spp.). Titi monkeys are small-bodied, monogamous New World primates that mate for life1. There are over thirty species of titi monkeys, but all share some unique characteristics. For instance, they have…
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