The Ark In Space

We Know What Bears Do in Woods But What Do They Do on the Golf Course?

Sunday, 28 April 2019

Play Golf? Well perhaps not quite as we know it! This young bear and other members of his family were spotted on the Mountainside Golf Course at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort in Canada.

Andi Dzilums was out on the course that morning and managed to capture the moment that the bear cub took the inevitable decision to grab hold of and run around (and around!) with the pin. This amusing spectacle of bear-faced cheek (couldn’t resist it) carried on until the cub spotted something just as interesting – a golf ball.

You might think that Andi was a little foolhardy - to say the least - to put himself so close to these wild animals. They are North American black bears, not grizzlies and so tend to be timid around humans and only attack if they really, really have to. However, if you don't know the difference- keep your distance!

The Oldest Species on Earth – The Horseshoe Shrimp

Saturday, 27 April 2019

It was almost bound to be small and seemingly insignificant but the oldest species of earth is a shrimp, ironic given the connotations of its name in the English language. Rather than being the runt, the squirt and the general nobody its name implies, this little guy (the Horseshoe shrimp to friends but Triops cancriformis rather more formally) has staying power. It is almost the same now as it was two hundred million years ago.

Image Credit Wikimedia

So, this little chap wasn’t just around when dinosaurs roamed the earth, it was around when they were evolving. Now researchers from the University of Glasgow in Scotland have discovered two hitherto undiscovered colonies of the rare shrimp. And they did so in quite an unusual manner.

The Red and White Giant Flying Squirrel Takes to the Air

Saturday, 20 April 2019

You might have thought that there was only one species of giant squirrel. In fact, there are 44 in the tribe and the largest is the Red and White Giant Flying Squirrel (Petaurista alborufus).

It is found in the forests of China and Taiwan and, boy, can it fly. Strictly speaking it glides, but as you can see from the video above it is extraordinarily good at that. It launches itself in to space and then seems to float effortlessly through the trees to its destination. As you can imagine they are very difficult to film!

The flight is – admittedly – awesome but what many find equally striking about the Red and White Giant Flying Squirrel are its piercing blue eyes.

This incredible species inhabits the dense montane forests and limestone cliffs of China. It is distributed widely in the country and is not in any danger of extinction. In Taiwan they inhabit the island’s hardwood and conifer forests, nesting high in tree hollows.

They have small litters of only one or two infants and feed on a variety of nuts, fruit and vegetation. They will also eat insects and larvae and have been spotted occasionally raiding bird nests for eggs when times are a little frugal.

Watch Killer Whales Hunt, Kill and Feed on a Tiger Shark

Sunday, 14 April 2019

The tiger shark is more often considered the hunter rather than the hunted but here is filmed evidence that it is not quite at the top of its particular food chain. Footage captured by Edwar Herreño shows a pod of killer whales take down a tiger shark with ruthless efficiency and then divvy up the resulting carcass, playing with their food as we might do with a shrimp. The film captures not only the immediacy of lunch time chez the killers but also their sheer, magnificent power and size - not to mention that they ruthlessly stalk, kill and devour their prey so gracefully. True cetacean connoisseurs.

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