Red Winged Blackbird

Male Red Winged Blackbird (Source)

I chose today's animal because I quite like it. I grew up seeing them everywhere, and I've always loved their striking wing colors. Red Winged Blackbirds live all over North America in marshes, fields and meadows. They are one of the most abundant bird species on the continent, with numbers of nearly 200 million.

One thing I have learned in writing this post is that only the males of the species have the distinguishable red and yellow band. Females aren't even black! They have a brown, mottle appearance, which aids to camouflage them and is a coloration found in several other species of bird. Juveniles also have a similar coloration to the adult females. Red Winged Blackbirds vary in color based upon their location. For example, in areas where they overlap with a similar looking species, the Tricolored Blackbird, males have lost their yellow band. They feed off of insects, seeds, and grains.

Female (Source)

Some populations are migratory, but others remain in their habitats year round. While making their migration, Red Winged Blackbirds can travel at speeds of about 30mph. During the breeding season males fiercely defend their territory, and will mate with multiple females within it. Each partnering produces 2-3 chicks per season. Both parents protect the nesting area. Outside of the breeding season they live in large flocks that sometimes intermingle with other species and number into the thousands.

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Leptofoenus pittfieldae

Leptofoenus pittfieldae is an interesting animal, because it is only actually known from one single specimen. It is an extinct species of wasp that lived in the Miocene Epoch between about 5 and 23 Ma.

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The Dominican Republic is known for its Amber. Many deposits have been found there, several containing specimens, such as our single L. pittfieldae. It is a male wasp, about half an inch long, and was discovered in 2008. It was determined to be a new species due to markings, wing shape, and antennae structure, among other things. It was studied at the University of Kansas natural History Museum by Dr. Michael S. Engel. Its species name, pittfieldae, comes from the name of the niece of the specimens donor.

L. pittfieldae  is the only member of its genus found anywhere in the fossil record, though their are five living species. All of those species are uncommon in the West Indies, which may point to why only one example of L. pittfieldae has ever been found; it was uncommon in that area as well.

I chose this animal today because it just goes to show that there are things out there that we may have never known about. This particular wasp was only discovered two years ago and is known only from one tiny specimen. How many other fascinating creatures of the past are still undiscovered?

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Cottonmouth Water Moccasin

If you couldn't tell from past entries, I'm a big fan of poisonous/venomous creatures. So today we're going to learn about the only venomous water snake in all of North America: the Cottenmouth Water Moccasin. It goes by oh so many other names; sometimes it's just Cottonmouth, sometimes it's just Water Moccasin, sometimes it's  Water Viper, Swamp Moccasin, or just plain Rattler. Either way, Agkistrodon piscivorus refers to the semi-aquatic snake that has its range throughout the South Eastern United States.

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Cottonmouths are relatively large snakes, and can grow up to 48in in length. As far as coloring goes, they are darker on the top, ranging in color from olive green to black, and have a lighter underside. The give birth to live young which are lighter in color and more patterned. They grow darker and more uniform in color as they age. Throughout their lives they rarely move far from a permanent source of water.

Cottonmouths an be quite aggressive. They will stand their ground against threats, and that, combined with a strong venom, can result in a nasty situation. They have even been known to approach humans. The mouth of a Cottonmouth can snap shut extremely fast, quickly injecting the venom. Their venom is hemotoxic, which means that it breaks down red blood cells, reduces the ability for blood to clot or coagulate, and causes hemorrhages.

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Spotted Hyena

Crocuta crocuta are the largest of the living species of Hyena, all of which are found within the family Hyaenidae, which itself is part of the suborder Feliforma. That all means that despite their doggish looks and pack behavior, Hyenas are actually more closely related to cats! 

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Spotted Hyenas live all across Africa south of the Sahara. As mentioned, they live in large packs, sometimes numbering up to 80 members, which are led by the females. They are large, muscular hunters, capable of weighing over 175lbs. Interestingly, the males and females are extremely difficult to distinguish from one another, as they have similar looking external reproductive organs. The species is also sexually dimorphic, with the females being larger than the males.

They are exceptional hunters, working in groups to take down prey that includes gazelle, buffalo, and wildebeast. They are also extremely opportunistic feeders, which can cause problems when they live in close vicinity to humans. Spotted Hyenas, like all Hyenas, have a dentition that allows them to crack bones. Spotted Hyenas also have the strongest jaws among all animals, which assists greatly in their bone breaking ability. They can consume and digest their entire kill. There is a myth that Hyenas are scavengers, and while they will do so on occasion, around 95% of the diets consist of food that they have killed themselves.

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Sifaka Lemur

There are nine species of Sifaka Lemur that comprise genus Propithecus, and like all Lemurs they are found on the African Island of Madagascar. They are members of the Primate order, making these guys our distant, distant cousins. Some of you may remember a discovery that came out a few years ago about finding "the missing link." This was actually a 47 million year old Lemur-type species that could be the common ancestor for all primates, including humans.

Image from Animal Photos

The Sifaka Lemurs stand apart from other Lemur species and genera because of their movement. They are upright-standing creatures, and get around by jumping with help from their extremely powerful legs. In trees, they can jump several meters, and on the ground they hop from place to place, doing what some refer to as the Sifaka Dance. The video below illustrates this movement wonderfully.

Sifaka Lemurs receive their names from the "Shif-auk" call that they make. They are herbivores, feeding on leaves, flowers, fruits, and bark. They, like many other primates, living in small social groups, usually consisting of 3-10 members. While there may be multiple sexually mature females, only one of them breeds each year, and that females usually have dominance over males.

All species of Sifaka Lemur are threatened by habitat loss and hunting. Golden-Crowned Sifakas are now listed as critically endangered, with less than 10,000 in existence.

 

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Yellowbelly Sea Snake

I confess, I just really like the name of today's animal. It reminds me of an insult a pirate would use. These snakes are also known as Pelagic Sea Snakes, but that's far less fun. Pelamis platurus is found in tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian and Pacific oceans. They are the most widespread of all the sea snakes, and as their second common name might suggest, they are capable of living in completely open sea, (pelagic zones) though they prefer coastal waters.

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Yellowbelly Sea Snakes are well adapted to their watery habitats. They still breathe air like any other reptile, but they are able to dive for very extended periods of time, sometimes up to 3.5 hours! These Snakes are also able to supplementary breathing through their skin, taking in oxygen at lower rates than when breathing normally, but overall the process assists with their dive times. They also have glands that remove excess salt and a paddle-like tail that helps them to move. All of these adaptation however, make them unsuited to land, and should they wash up on shore there can some trouble. Yellowbelly Sea Snakes still shed their skin like other snakes do, and in order to deal with this process they tie their body into a knot which they push downwards to the tail. This behavior is also used to remove barnacles and algae.

They are primarily diurnal creatures, and are carnivores. Yellowbelly Sea Snakes breed in open water when temperatures are above 20 degree C, and are ovoviviparous. They are very abundant and are not threatened or vulnerable. Oh, and have I mentioned that they are extremely venomous? The venom is actually stronger than that of a Cobra, but is administered in much smaller amounts. There have been no reported human fatalities.

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Beefalo

Today's animal is a bit... different. It's a hybrid, an animal that is a cross of two separate species. In this case we have American Bison and domesticated beef cattle. Efforts to combine the best qualities of the two have gone back decades and decades. Charles Jesse "Buffalo" Jones, dismayed at the loss of so many cattle to the harsh weather of Kansas, decided to raise Bison and attempted to produce hybrids which he called "cattalo." Unfortunately, his project didn't' work out too well, and it wasn't until the 1960's that Beefalo really began to take off.

Image from Beefalo Australia

Beefalo are not actually a 50/50 cross. They are instead closer to 5/8 Cattle, and 3/8 Bison. Crosses that contain more Bison than that are referred to as Bison hybrids. Beefalo are fertile hybrids. They are more weather tolerant, calve easier, forage better, have a longer lifespan, and provide leaner beef due to the Bison influence, and provide more milk and are easier to handle due to the Cattle side. The American Beefalo Association oversees the registration of these hybrids.

One downside to this, and I suppose to the entire western ranching industry, is that the wild Bison herds have become genetically polluted over the decades. Many of the wild Bison have Cattle DNA in them, and could actually be termed hybrids themselves because of it. This is due to the general land overlap between the ranches and Bison ranges, and due to the fast recovery of the Bison in the last few decades, after they were nearly driven to extinction.

Thanks to Ashley for the suggestion!

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