The video below shows David Attenborough with a superb lyrebird, which has the remarkable talent to mimic other bird species’ songs and sounds. Additionally, the lyrebird can mimic sounds made by the human species. The anthropogenic sounds that this lyrebird can mimic include a camera shutter, a camera with a motor drive, a car alarm, and even a chainsaw! Though, if I were the lyrebird, the sound of chainsaws nearby might be unnerving. The lyrebird is native to Australia, and there are two species—the superb lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae) and Albert’s Lyrebird (Menura alberti), which is supposedly less superb and rarer.
This video shows a superb lyrebird, at the Adelaide Zoo, that can mimic construction work.
In addition to being an accomplished mimic, the male lyrebird puts on an extraordinary display to attract a mate.
Although somewhat reminiscent of a pheasant or peacock, the lyrebird is not a precocial species but altricial (i.e., lyrebirds are large passerines), meaning that they’re less developed than precocial species (e.g., ducks, pheasants, or peacocks) when they hatch, so the chicks must be raised in a nest until they’re capable to leave the nest. Some bird species are superprecocial (e.g., black-headed ducks and moundbuilders or the megapodes, which leave the nest with flight feathers), meaning these species leave the nest even more able than precocial species. For example, an altricial hatchling (top) vs. some precocial ducklings (middle) vs. a superprecocial brush-turkey hatchling (bottom):
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A new species of Nepenthes pitcher plant has been discovered in a remote region of the Philippines. After being rescued, they described the mammoth carnivorous plant. Apparently, some missionaries who became lost in the wilderness originally discovered it. Consequently, a research expedition of pitcher plant specialists returned and found it.
Word that this new species of pitcher plant existed initially came from two Christian missionaries who in 2000 attempted to scale Mount Victoria, a rarely visited peak in central Palawan in the Philippines.
With little preparation, the missionaries attempted to climb the mountain but became lost for 13 days before being rescued from the slopes.
. . .
Accompanied by three guides, the team hiked through lowland forest, finding large stands of a pitcher plant known to science called Nepenthes philippinensis, as well as strange pink ferns and blue mushrooms which they could not identify.
As they closed in on the summit, the forest thinned until eventually they were walking among scrub and large boulders
“At around 1,600 metres above sea level, we suddenly saw one great pitcher plant, then a second, then many more,” McPherson recounts.
“It was immediately apparent that the plant we had found was not a known species.”
David Attenborough in the video below describes the tropical pitcher plant family and N. rajah: “It’s so big that it catches not just insects but even small rodents, and one was recorded that had in it the body of a drowned rat, so if ever there was a carnivore among plants this is it.”
This video shows a mouse falling into a Nepenthes trap:
The first three images are by Alastair Robinson. The last image above was found here.
One of the most unusual creatures are the sloths. Sloths are slow moving leaf specialists (but they are considered omnivores), which are found only in Central and South America. They come in two varieties—two- and three-toed sloths—and six extant species exist. Much larger ground sloths did exist, but humans no doubt played a part in their extinction. Currently, deforestation threatens this unique group of animals, and many are rescued and released back into the wild. Interesting sloth facts:
[Sloths] are exceptionally good swimmers. They spend most of their lives hanging upside down in trees, even giving birth upside down. Even more interesting the sloth leaves the treetops every eight days to come down to the ground to deficate (Myers,1999). Sloths are slow moving but can be very territorial and will slash rivals with their sharp claws if threatened.
. . .
[S]loths have a very low metabolic rate. They have considerably reduced muscle mass, presumably to make room for the expansive gut, and are therefore unable to regulate body temperature by shivering. They have a low (30-34 degrees C) body temperature that they regulate by basking in the sun. (Jansa,1996)
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All sloths have multi-chambered stomachs with cellulose digesting bacteria which allows digestion of leaves (Jansa, 1996).
Females give birth once per year. They nurse the young for only six weeks, but will continue to carry their young on their backs for up to six months. Sloths reach sexual maturity at age three.
The Tree Sloth . . . has algae growing in its fur. These algae help to camouflage the sloth against the lichen-covered tree . . . . There is even a moth that lives only in the sloth’s fur and consumes the algae; this is a commensal relationship between the moth and the sloth.
Two-toed sloths actually have three toes on their hind limbs, but their front limbs have two toes.
This little sloth almost looks like a baby Chewbacca—the wookie from “Star Wars.” Photo source for attribution here Photo source for attribution here Photo source for attribution here Photo source for attribution here
Interesting sloth pictures
Photo source for attribution here Photo source for attribution here The skeleton of an extinct giant ground sloth. Photo source for attribution here A sleeping sloth. Photo source for attribution here Photo source for attribution here Photo source for attribution here Photo source for attribution here Photo source for attribution here
Sloth video
A sloth crossing the road very slowly—of course, many do not make it across.
Hilarious baby sloth video:
David Attenborough discusses some mysteries about the amazing sloth
The YouTube clip above is from Life in Cold Blood, and it is narrated by Sir David Attenborough. The clip shows the Panamanian golden frog (Atelopus zeteki) in a remote area of the Panamanian rainforest during breeding season. The population of Panamanian golden frog were annihilated by chytridiomycosis or amphibian chytrid fungus disease, which is caused by the chytrid fungus. The fungus, a killer of amphibians, forced conservationists to remove the remaining known Panamanian golden frogs from the rainforest into captivity. No doubt, humans unknowingly carried the spores of the fungus to remote areas around the world, but the sudden volatility of the fungus may be linked to other humanly induced factors such as climate change and/or pollution from pesticides (UPDATE, 21 Nov. 08: a strong link between global warming and declining amphibians not likely a study says, but other anthropogenic factors certainly exist). From the BBC:
The film crew was disinfected – to stop them from carrying the disease – and managed to capture unique footage of the frogs in the wild.
Just after filming was completed in June 2006, the location was overtaken by the chytrid fungus.
Scientists were forced to remove the remaining frogs from the wild and keep them in captivity.
Hilary Jeffkins added: “The whole species is now extinct in Panama – this was one of the last remaining populations. Its final wave was in our programme.”
How does Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis kill amphibians? From The Australian:
Fungal spores attach to the amphibian’s skin, thickening it and reducing the animal’s capacity to drink and respire. The fungus also damages the nervous system.
Some amazing frog species have become extinct in very recent times. Again from The Australian:
The so-called platypus frog was one of a kind. The only species of land vertebrate animal – amphibian, reptile, mammal or bird – to rear its young inside its stomach….Zoologist and environmental consultant Glen Ingram was studying them in 1977 in the Conondale Range, in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. “There were plenty of frogs in the streams at that time,” Ingram recalls now. A year later, he could find just two. In 1979, there were none, and none have been found since, anywhere, despite exhaustive searches. “Like the Tasmanian tiger, it is one of the great wildlife tragedies that this astonishing animal is extinct,” Ingram says.
Also known as the gastric-brooding frog, Rheobatrachus was first discovered in 1972. A year later, its breeding biology was unearthed when a wildlife enthusiast watched enthralled as a female in an aquarium spewed fully developed baby frogs from her mouth. This was so bizarre – gastric juices would normally destroy young animals in a stomach – that scientists initially refused to believe it.
Via the International Institute for Species Exploration, the top ten new species from 2009 include a new species of edible yam from Madagascar (Dioscorea orangeana) that’s considered critically endangered and a new species of tropical pitcher plant—one of the largest known—that was named after naturalist David Attenborough—Nepenthes attenboroughii. New species of animals discovered include the psychedelic or far-out frogfish (Histiophryne psychedelica)—pictured at right and the bug-eating slug (Aiteng ater). You can nominate a species for the top ten list here.
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