Barnard's Lanternfish

Symbolophorus barnardi

Today's animal is one of those mysterious deep-sea dwellers that we don't often see, despite their massive range and huge population. It is called the Barnard's Lanternfish , and it gets its name from the bioluminescent photophores that allow its head, underside, and tail to light up!

Studies have shown that this Lanternfish, and other members of its family, make up more than half the biomass down in the deep sea, and they live in ocean waters across the globe! Today's species in particular is a small little guy that can be found throughout the Southern Hemisphere, living at depths of up to 3,000ft, though they tend to come up closer to the surface during the night, and can be found in waters as shallow as 350ft.

If the fish can be found in (relatively) shallow waters, why bother diving so far down during the daytime? This behavior takes place in order to avoid becoming someone's dinner. Barnard's Lanternfish are a great food source for larger ocean-dwelling animals, so they dive down to avoid predation when those animals are doing most of their hunting. The Lanternfish then come closer to the surface so that they themselves can feed on the plankton that live there.

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IUCN Status : Least Concern
Location : Southern Hemisphere
Size : Body Length up to 6in (15cm)

Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Class : Actinopterygii -- Order : Myctophiformes
Family : Myctophidae -- Genus : Symbolophorus -- Species : S. barnardi

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Common Moorhen

Gallinula chloropus

Meet the Common Moorhen, a very distinctive looking bird that has black plumage, a bright red and yellow beak, and gigantic feet. Those feet are used to walk across floating vegetation and mud. They aren't webbed, like the feet of many other waterbirds, but the Common Moorhens can swim pretty well nonetheless.

These birds are the most widely distributed members of the entire Rail Family, and can be found on every continent save Antarctica! There are currently twelve different subspecies, which all differ slightly by size and plumage.

One very distinct thing about the Common Moorhens is their breeding behavior. While most of their relatives have the males fight over the females, it is the female Moohens that fight over the males! After mating, both parents will incubate and care for the young, and newly hatched offspring are precocial, feeding themselves after only a few days.

The species as a whole is not at threat for extinction, but some local populations are in trouble. The Hawaiian and Mariana subspecies are considered Endangered, due to habitat loss.

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IUCN Status : Least Concern
Location : Worldwide
Size : Body Length up to 15in (38cm)

Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Class : Aves --Order : Gruiformes
Family : Rallidae -- Genus : Gallinula -- Species : G. chloropus

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Alpine Marmot

Marmota marmota

It's been a while since we last talked about a Marmot- those big old Ground Squirrels that tend to produce some hilarious photographs. Today's Marmot is the largest of the clan, which also makes it the largest of all the world's Squirrels as well!

Alpine Marmots are found (where else?) in the European Alps. Though I should also note that they have been introduced to the Pyrenees, the Carpathians, the Tatras, and a few other areas as well. Grassy, high-altitude plains are their preferred habitats, as they allow them to build the complex burrows systems that they live in, and to feed on the grasses and flowers that they prefer.

Marmot families are pretty close knit, are are comprised of a breeding pair and their offspring from previous years. They can number as few as 3-5 individuals, or as large as 50! There is some interbreeding within these colonies, but it is minimal as these colonies are typically female dominant, so the males only remain in a colony for a year or two (Alpine marmots can live as long as 14 years!)

Alpine Marmot

The Marmot colonies spend their active months foraging for food and preparing for their winter hibernation. They use a variety of calls and whistlers to warm one another against danger during these foraging sessions.

Did you know that these guys hibernate for half of the year? When winter comes they head into their burrow system, and the last one in plugs up the hole with grasses and dirt to keep out the cold. Infant mortality is pretty high in Marmots, so snuggling with the youngsters and keeping them warm greatly increases their chances of living another year.

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IUCN Status : Least Concern
Location : Europe
Size : Body Length up to 21in (54cm), Weight up to 17lbs (8kg)

Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Class : Mammalia -- Order : Rodentia
Family : Sciuridae -- Genus : Marmota -- Species : M. marmota

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Green-headed Tanager

Tangara seledon

Happy Saturday everyone! I don't know about where you all are reading from, but here is it pretty dark and rainy, so a bright colored little bird is exactly what I need to liven things up!

Meet the Green-headed Tanager... which has a misleading name. Though they definitely sport some green feathers, especially on the neck, their actual heads are more of a Turquoise color. The rest of the body is boldly patterned with shades of blue and green, and when they fly... Surprise! Their rump is bright orange!

Green-headed Tanagers are found in the Atlantic coastal forests of South America, residing in Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. They live in small flocks that number 6-20 birds, and they forage for fruits as well as for small arthropods. And did you know that tanager families stick together? The parents often have two broods per season, and their offspring from both will hang around for about a year before going off on their own.

Green-headed Tanagers are common throughout their range, and do not appear to have any major threats against them, though an actual population size has not been quantified.

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IUCN Status : Least Concern
Location : Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina
Size : Length up to 5in (13cm)

Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Class : Aves -- Order : Passeriformes
Family : Thraupidae -- Genus : Tangara -- Species : T. seledon

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Spotted Wobbegong

Orectolobus maculatus

If you look hard enough you'll be able to tell that today's animal, the Spotted Wobbegong, is actually just a very strange looking shark. In fact, all members of it's order are pretty goofy in appearance, and are collectively known as Carpet Sharks due to their mottled coloring and bottom-dwelling natures.

Spotted Wobbegongs in particular have a greenish/yellowish/brownish coloration, covered in small, lighter outlined circles. These colors help them to remain camouflaged within the reef zones that they live. These sharks have a range that spreads across the continental shelf in the Indian Ocean and parts of the Pacific, and they are rarely found deeper than 350ft (110m).

Crab, Lobster, and Octopus are three of the Spotted Wobbegongs favorite foods. They hunt at night, remaining very still and waiting for prey to come near. They do sometimes sneak up on their prey while hunting, but the wait-and-catch method is more common.

One additional cool fact about Spotted Wobbegongs is that they are one of those interesting animals that is Ovoviviparous. That means that their young are born alive, after incubating in eggs within their mother's bodies. The offspring are usually around 20cm at birth, and there can be over 30 born at a time!

Despite their size, Spotted Wobbegongs are not considered dangerous to humans. There have only been 16 confirmed bites, none were fatal, and in all but two of those the Shark was provoked.

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IUCN Status : Near Threatenened
Location : Indian Ocean
Size : Length up to 10ft (3m)

Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Class : Chondrichthyes -- Order : Orectolobiformes
Family : Orectolobidae -- Genus : Orectolobus -- Species : O. maculatus

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West Caucasian Tur

Capra caucasica

The West Caucasian Tur might look very familiar to you, cause it definitely did to me! At first glance I thought it was an Ibex, and that guess wasn't too far off. Turs and Ibxes belong to the exact same genus, and there is even quite a bit of taxonomic uncertainty floating around about how genetically distinct all the Turs and Ibexes actually are.

As the name suggests, these Turs can be found on the western side of the Caucasus Mountains, and they occur primarily within Russia. They are alpine dwellers, and inhabit areas 2,600-13,000ft above sea level (800-4,000m). Males tend to live at higher altitudes than the females, possibly because those areas are harder to navigate with young calves.

West Caucasian Turs feed on over 100 different species of plant. They primarily graze during the summer and browse during the winter. This is because the snowfall can become quite dense, even at the lower altitudes that they travel to during that season, and digging for vegetation can be difficult, even with their strong legs.

Breeding season takes place during those winter months, and kids are born in late spring/early summer. While some ungulates go off and give birth in secluded, inaccessible areas, Tur mothers have their kids right out in the open, and their offspring are able to climb along with the rest of the group by the end of the day!

It is estimated that there are less than 6,000 of these goat-antelopes left in the wild. Hunting, competition from livestock, and habitat loss have all led to their population decline. They do occur in protected areas, but poaching continues.

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IUCN Status : Endangered
Location : Caucasus Mountains
Size : Height around 39in (1m), Weight up to 140lbs (65kg)

Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Class : Mammalia -- Order : Artiodactyla
Family : Bovidae -- Genus : Capra -- Species : C. caucasica

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Florence Merriam Bailey

Florence Merriam Bailey, 1904

Alas, the first Naturalist's Week has come to an end. I hope you had an enjoyable time learning about some of the people who helped to discover, innovate, and conserve the animals that we normally learn about on this site. I tried to pick some individuals who may be a bit lesser known and it was fun to go back to my roots (part of my background is in European History, so writing about people, places, and their impact is right up my alley). Anyway, I might do this again, since there are so many awesome people out there who significantly impacted the animal world for the better!

But for now, let's learn about Florence Merriam Bailey, a woman who had an intense interest in the feathered creatures of the world, and who dedicated more than 50 years of her life to their study and observation.

Born in New York in 1863, Florence Merriam came from a family that strongly encouraged her interest in natural history. Her father was a friend of John Muir, and her older brother would eventually become the first chief of the U.S. Biological Survey. In fact,  I could probably write an entire article about her brother, Clinton Hart Merriam, but we'll save his adventures for another day!

Anyway, from 1882-1886 she studied at Smith College, and though she did not received a degree (well... she would get an honorary one in 1921) she did begin to be more consumed by her passion for birds. At that time, birds were studied from their skins and bones, and rarely from life. Interestingly, Florence Merriam was one of the very first people to call for the use of Binoculars when birding, rather than a gun! 

Color identification illustration from
Birds of Village and Field

In 1885, while still at Smith, she started to write about protecting birds, especially in regards to the fashion industry. Feathers were incredibly popular on womens hats at the time, and as a result some species were being hunted to near extinction (the Whooping Crane!) Merriam formed her school's Audubon Club, wrote in defense of the birds, and actually organized protests and distributed pamphlets to make the cause known. 

It was around this time that she also became the first female associate member of the American Ornithologist's Union, and four years later she published her first book, Birds Through an Opera Glass, which was based on articles that she had written for Audubon Magazine. During the late 1880s and through the 1890s, Florence Merriam traveled throughout the American West, which influenced several more books.  

At the tail-end of the century she returned to Washington D.C. to stay with her brother, and it is there that she met and married one of his naturalist colleagues, Vernon Bailey. The couple continued to travel throughout the West, writing about their animal collections and observations- she with birds, and he with mammals.

Florence Merriam Bailey continued to write and explore until her death in 1948 at the age of 85. She published a dozen books, more than 100 articles, and helped to bring awareness to birds of the United States. Her last major work, Among the Birds in the Grand Canyon National Park, was published in 1939, and in her later years she helped to found the Audubon Society of the District of Columbia, where she taught classes on Ornithology for several years. She became the first woman fellow of the American Ornithologist's Union in 1929, and even had a subspecies of Mountain Chicadee, Parus gambeli baileyae, named after her in 1908.

If you are interested in her works, several of them are available through public domain resources like Archive.org.

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