Natural History
Butterflies by Post
Spanish firm Mariposeando supplies live Monarch butterflies for celebrations and events. (They are sustainably raised by mentally and physically handicapped workers.) All you have to do is open the special shipment box and the butterflies will flutter free, up into the sky. It costs from 20 Euros for two butterflies to 935 Euros for a [...]
Golden Retriever Takes Over From Tiger Mom
When a safari park tiger refused to nurse her cubs a Golden Retriever stepped in to suckle and clean them. See her in action: Golden Retriever takes on white tiger cubs from Travis Heying on Vimeo.
Fantastic Factology for the London 2012 Olympics
Fantastic Factology has been gathering facts from the public about “surprising things in life” – the best will be engraved onto plaques sited on benches around the 2012 London Olympic site, which will (hopefully) be visited by “generations of future visitors”. You can see some of the facts on the Fantastic Factology website. It seems [...]
GPS Rhinos
A number of South African rhinos have had GPS devices inserted into their horns, to try to stop them being poached – the GPS alerts game wardens if the rhino is detected to be in an unexpected location, behaving in an odd manner (sleeping too long) or running. The hope is to stop the illegal [...]
The Animal Review
The Animal Review: The Genius, Mediocrity, and Breathtaking Stupidity That Is Nature, by Jacob Lentz and Steve Nash is an objective (and humorous) review of animal species. The king cobra gets A+ and the garden snail D- (although garden snails regularly outwit TV Mole despite regular mass murder attempts in order to preserve the vegetable [...]
Ocean Photography
National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry takes photographs of ocean life, in his own words: “both the horror and the magic of the ocean”. In this TED talk he explains why humans must be good custodians of the oceans. Watch the video:
Tree Museum
Swiss landscape architect Enzo Enea has opened the world’s first tree museum featuring 22 species, some 130 years old. 120 trees at a time will be on display in themed exhibitions. Visit it here. Hat tip: PSFK
Secret Scientific Live of Trees…and Prisons
Nalini Nadkarni is the founder of the Big Canopy Database that documents her research in the canopies of jungles in Costa Rica, the Amazon and Papua New Guinea. She also works with violent men in high security prisons, giving them science lessons and giving them images of nature to help inmates become calmer and less [...]
Plankton Pictures
As part of The Royal Society‘s 350th anniversary, Dr Richard Kirby of the University of Plymouth, has collected a series of stunning plankton pictures. The photographs are on show at London Zoo until the end of 2010 or you can see some of them on the BBC News website.
Elephant Talk
Scientists at San Diego Zoo have discovered the secret language of elephants. As well as ‘trumpeting’, elephants growl at a low frequency, which is how the elephants normally communicate – particularly when a new calf is about to be born. Read more on BBC News.
