American Goldfinch

Male (right) and Female (left)

Sorry for the completely last post today. I'm snowed in and everything is white, so today I felt like writing about an animal with some color: the American Goldfinch. As their name might suggest, there songbirds are native to North America, and can be found throughout at varying points of the year. Some populations remain in place year round, while others are migratory, moving between Canada and the Northern USA, down to the South and Mexico. They are found in brushy, mostly open habitats.

Both male and female Goldfinches are yellow, though the males are far more vibrant, especially during the breeding season. They are the only finch species to molt twice a year, and breed relatively late for a songbird.

American Goldfinches are notable for their very strict vegetarian diet. While many bird species feed on the occasional insect, Goldfinches eat exclusively seeds. This has an interesting affect on the Brown-Headed Cowbird. These birds sometimes lay eggs in Goldfinch nests, but the hatchlings are unable to survive due to the all-seed diet the Finches provide for their young.

Goldfinches are not a threatened species. They have a massive range spanning some 5 million square miles (about 8 million square km).

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Chan's Megastick

Phobaeticus chani is a Phasmid, a type of insect that mimics its surroundings by looking a lot like a stick. This particular species, found in the treetop canopies of Borneo, is one of the longest. Only three specimens have ever been collected, but the longest, a female, has a body length of 14in (37.5cm). When you toss the legs in there, it reaches 22.5in (56.7cm).

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Chan's Megastick (named for it's discoverer, Datuk Chan Chew Lun) is also notable for its strange eggs, which have wing-like flaps on the cases to help them float and disperse.

This entry is a short one, unfortunately, because so very little is actually known about this amazing insect. Its habitat is so high up that they are extremely difficult to locate, and with the loss of rainforest areas, who known how many other species like this will never actually be discovered?

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Little Penguin

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As the name might suggest, Little Penguins (Eudyptula minor) are the smallest penguin species in the world. They stand 17in tall, and weigh only 2lbs. This is quite a difference when compared to the Emperor Penguin, the world's largest. They stand 48in and can weigh up to 90lbs! Little Penguins are found in New Zealand and Australia, where they are also referred to as Fairy Penguins (for their tiny size) and Blue Penguins (for the color of their plumage.)

 Little Penguins are a slate-blue color, with a bright white belly. The males and females look exactly the same, though the males are sometimes a tad bit larger. Juveniles also look a great deal like their parents. Little Penguins are nocturnal carnivores, and hunt fish, squid, and crustaceans, making dives of around 60feet that last less than a minute.

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Little penguins are monogamous over many seasons, and will typically only find a new mate if their previous one dies. They also form a strong attachment to specific nesting sites, and will return to those sites year after year. Two eggs are usually laid, and both parents will care and feed for thir young, who are raised in burrows. Chicks fledge after 8 weeks, and reach full maturity by three or four years old. Chicks also have a tendency to nest near the areas where they themselves where hatched and raised. A very small number actually disperse to farther sites as adults.

 Little Penguins are not threatened, but their numbers have been affected by introduced predators like dogs, cats, and weasels. Cars and vehicular deaths have also hurt their populations in some areas.

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Giant Isopod

Of the nine members of the genus Bathynomus, B. giganteus is the largest. These crustaceans, closely related to shrimp, look like something out of science fiction, but they are in fact real, living creatures that crawl around in the deep sea of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Giant Isopods live at depths of over 2,000 feet and can grow to nearly a foot and a half in length!

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Like the Giant Squid and the Giant Tube Worm, Giant Isopods are an example of deep sea gigantism, which causes animals on the sea floor to grow far larger than their near-surface counterparts. One thought on why this happens is that the large size helps compensate for the huge amount of water pressure that is placed on the creatures by their deep habitat. Giant Isopods have a rigid exoskeleton that also lets them roll up into a ball to avoid danger.

Giant Isopods are opportunistic, carnivorous feeders, and they have to be! They live in an area where food is scarce, and so they will gorge on whatever they can find. This often includes parts of dead fish and larger marine creatures, and it is believed that they may also hunt slow moving deep sea dwellers as well. They are also capable of surviving for weeks without food, and adaptation that helps them to survive.

Another adaptation comes in the form of their reproductive habits. Giant Isopods lay eggs, rather large ones in fact, and these eggs are incubated in a pouch created by the female. When the eggs hatch, the young have already bypassed the entire larval stage, and look like tiny versions of the adults. This helps them to survive easier early in life.

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Japanese Macaque

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When you think of primates, you probably think of tropical environments, or at least warm weather climates. Such is not always the case for the Japanese Macaque, the northernmost non-human primate in the entire world. They inhabit three of the four large islands of Japan, (all but Hokkaido) and not only do they live far north latitude-wise, but they also live in elevations of up to 9,600 feet. Of course, it should be noted that in the lower elevation, southern areas of their range, the temperatures do get to be sub-tropical. But other population live in absolutely frigid conditions, making the climate range of the population as a whole very diverse.

Even though their tails are very short, Japanese Macaques (Macaca fuscata) are classified as monkeys. In fact, one of their other common names is "Snow Monkey." In the winter months, the cold-weather Macaques save energy by moving less and sunning themselves. Some tribes even locate hot springs in order to stay warm, though the monkeys are very picky about who gets to bath and where. They live in very rigid, hierarchical communities that can number up to 100 individuals.

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One really interesting tidbit about these communities is that they pass information along between their members. It is by this spreading of information that hot springs where discovered as a source of warmth. One notable Macaque, a female named Imo, learned how to clean and flavor sweet potatoes in salt water, and passed that information along as well. Young Macaques have even learned how to roll snowballs, a behavior that servers no purpose other than for having fun.

Japanese Macaques are diurnal and omnivorous. They are known to consume 213 species of plant, making them very non-picky eaters. Macaques themselves are preyed upon by Feral Dogs, Raptors, and Raccoon Dogs. While the monkeys have been killed by humans, they are listed as being of Least Concern with a stable population trend.

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Pelican Eel

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Pelican Eel, Umbrella Mouth Eel, Gulper Eel, Eurypharynx pelecanoides, no matter what you call it, this is one strange looking animal. Pelican Eels are so named because of their absolutely gigantic mouths. They are found in rather deep waters, between 3,000 and 26,000 feet, of both tropical and subtropical waters around the world.

Pelican Eels can grow up to a meter in length, with a large portion of that taken up by its massive head. Their mouths have hinged jaws that would allow them to eat fish much larger than themselves. Their stomachs stretch as well, though interestingly, they have very small teeth. This, combined with found stomach contents, demonstrates that Pelican Eels primarily eat small crustaceans.

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Another rather interesting part of their body is the long, whip-like tail. Pelican Eels have long tails that are tipped with bioluminescent photophores. It is believed that these serve a purpose to lure prey in the dark, deep water.

Not much else is really known about these strange fish. They live so far down that we only really get to study specimens that get accidentally caught by fishermen. They have need been evaluated by IUCN.

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Great Spotted Kiwi

Did you know that there are actually five species of Kiwi, the national symbol of New Zealand? And that the largest of these is the Great Spotted Kiwi? Well now you do! This specific, nocturnal, species is currently listed as vulnerable, and is found in only a few forested, mountainous areas on the South Island.

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Great Spotted Kiwis (Apteryx haastii) have some rather interesting anatomical features. First off, females are actually larger than males, growing up to 20 inches in length, as opposed to 18, and weigh up to 7lbs, as opposed to 5. Like all Ratites, Great Spotted Kiwis are flightless. They have wings, but they are extremely small and lack the powerful breast muscles that allow for flight. To compensate, they have strong legs that allow them to move about quickly, and also allow them to attack with the ability to cause fatal wounds. Males use their feet to fight over territory, and the birds are even able to fend off mustelid predators with them as well.

The Great Spotted Kiwis, and the other four Kiwi species, are also unique in that they have nostrils at the very ends of their beaks rather than closer to the head. They have excellent senses of smell, which makes up for their rather poor eyesight. Their noses help them to track down food, which includes insects and fruit.

Great Spotted Kiwis mate for life, which might be as long as twenty years. Only one gigantic egg is laid, which weighs up to 15% of the female's body mass. It is incubated by both parents for 70 days. Chicks become self sufficient within only two weeks, but they stay by the nest for a month or so.

Once numerous across the South Island, Great Spotted Kiwis are now on a population decline. They evolved in an environment with few ground predators, so the introduction of dogs, cats, weasels and other invasive predators has led to a decrease in birds. Conservation measures are being taken to remove predators from the equation, but the total number of birds is now believed to be less than 22,000.

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