FIND A SEA TURTLE? If you spot a sea turtle during the day digging a nest on a beach in Galveston, it is likely the Kemps ridley, the most critically endangered sea turtle on the planet! To report a nesting sea turtle, hatchlings, sea turtle eggs, or an injured or dead sea turtle on the Texas coast, call toll free:
Animal Party Tricks: I can regurgitate my own stomach, who am I?
A little random, but did you know that some species of frogs have the ability to regurgitate their entire stomach if they accidentally eat something that is poisonous to them? Once the stomach is outside its body, the frog wipes away the undesirable food with its legs and then GULP, swallows it’s stomach again! That’s really cool people. There are a couple of occasions in which that function could have come in handy for me.
Learn more about cool frog stuff and how you can help keep frogs happy at www.houstonzoofrogs.org
Photo courtesy of Paul Crump
They have big googly eyes. They are warty. They kind of resemble Jabba the Hut and they reside under ground for a good part of the year. I know that for most of you (with the exception of 6 year old little boys), they really give you the Icks. Yes, I am speaking of toads, ladies and gentlemen.
The fact of the matter is that even if toads give you the willies, they are important. To you and the planet. What’s not to love about a toad anyways?
They both eat, and are eaten. They play an important role in the food web as both predator and prey, maintaining the delicate balance of nature.
If we didn’t have amphibians, you could be paying $5 for an apple. Amphibians eat pest insects, benefiting successful agriculture around the world and minimizing the spread of diseases, including Malaria and West Nile Virus.
The skin of amphibians has substances that protect them from some microbes and viruses, offering possible medical cures for a variety of human diseases, including AIDS.
Biologists refer to amphibians as “the canary in the coal mine”.They are among the first species to be affected by environmental stressors; so when they show declines in the wild, it serves as a warning to other species, including humans.
Frogs have had a special place in various human cultures for centuries, cherished as agents of life and good luck.
The Houston Zoo is involved in 2 primary amphibian conservation projects, Houston toads and Panamanian Amphibians.
Photo courtesy of Rachel Rommel
Mosquitoes. Leg swallowing mud. Sea gull poop. Sticky heat. Third degree sun burns.
These are all of the joys of studying terrapins in Galveston Bay. The Diamondback terrapin, a brackish water, blue-headed, polka dotted, fabulous little turtle, is much smarter than us. They are buried in the mud when the sun pokes out in the mid to late morning. These guys dig down in the marshy mud to keep cool and sleep the day away amongst cord grass, irritated crabs, and periwinkle snails.
In the spring I may also assume they are attempting to escape the incoming bomb raid of feces and the shreeking laughter of sea gulls. A rainshower of gull and various other sea bird poop narrowly missed my head at least 60 times yesterday. Although we managed to escape unscathed today, I did hear another girl did not fair so well last week. She was hit multiple times.
Read more about Diamondback terrapin research at http://www.houstonzoo.org/Diamondback/
Photo courtesy of Paul Crump
The Orangutan is a fascinating ape which is in serious decline on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo – the only two places on earth they can be found in the wild. “Orangutan” in the native language means “people (orang) of the forest (utan or hutan).” Their decline is mostly due to habitat loss, development and hunting pressures. It is believed that if this rate of decline and habitat fragmentation continues, we will lose the orangutan within the next 50 years.
Out of Malaysia and Indonesia comes a long told myth about the evolution of the orangutan:
Long ago, human beings (or orangs) lived in the virgin jungles of Borneo. They stayed in groups, sharing their long houses, subsisting on plants and animals provided by Mother Nature.
Within the different groups, this peaceful way of life was however troubled by all sorts of troubles and conflicts involving treacheries, malices, gossips and other problems that are specific to our species. A peace-loving minority of orangs decided to split from the major group in order to escape the clamors of the village life and went deep into the jungle. They established a new home and lived happily for years.
More and more orangs from their former community decided to join this idyllic existence, up to a point that the newly created village became overcrowded and full with problems that follow humans at all times and places (pollution, noise, habitat destruction, cruelty and meanness). The original group decided to break up from their populations one more time and wandered far away from this place. They established themselves on the mountains where life was paradise.
Of course they didn’t stay on their own for long – more and more people joined them and troubled this peaceful existence. Fed up beyond belief, the original orangs decided that enough was enough – because they wouldn’t be able to find peace below the trees, they decided to climb up to the treetop and to settle down in the forest canopy. They also decided to not have any kind of relations with ground-dwelling orangs any more.
From this day, this group became the orang-utans, or “people of the forest”.
