"Chris the Phototog" - Interview with Chris Hansen

I was on Google + when a photo caught my eye. It was a photo of a crawling spider silhouette in front of the sun. It was absolutely amazing! I HAD to look at the blog and find out who took the photo. I discovered that the blog belonged to an American man who blogs about his daily photography adventures. The writer of the blog is Chris Hansen and this is what I learnt about him and about photography.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

In the News - July 2012

So I just started uni this week and have been fully booked out with uni everyday. My posting will be quite delayed and not very often. I apologize for my inability to post heaps of exciting things for you guys to read! But, I'm glad that you have been reading my blog and continuously checking back for new things to read :) I hope you enjoy this post! I have some interesting news for you in the month of July.

Source: thestarphoenix.com

Now this is dedication. Above is a photo taken of zoo manager of the La Boissiere-du-Doree zoo in West France, Senastien Laurent feeding Major some cake for his 50th Birthday. Major is known as the world's oldest captive orangutan. Zoo keepers helped him celebrate the milestone with a strawberry cake with his own candles. Happy Birthday!

My Trip to the Zoo - 17th of July

On Tuesday (17th of July), I had a trip to Taronga zoo in Sydney with a uni friend of mine. We were luckily enough to have gone on tuesday because the weather was absolutely perfect. It wasn't too hot and because the weather is much cooler (since it's winter in Australia) a lot of the animals which are used to cold temperatures were up and running about. All my photos were taken with a 60D.

The first animals we visited were the koalas. Luckily enough, not all of them were sleeping. One of them was happily munching away on some eucalyptus leaves. It would place one leaf in it's mouth, and without using it's hands, munch continuously until the whole leaf was gone. It kinda looked like an old grandpa chewing without teeth.

#18 Manatee or Dugong?

I often get confused between Manatees and Dugongs. I have seen them at various zoos and aquariums and wonder why a creature is being called two different names when they look exactly the same? Well, today I'm going to fix up this mix up because, manatees and dugongs are different.

Dugong or Manatee? Find out by clicking the source link --> Source: wikipedia

So I've read that Manatees and dugongs are quite closely related, like cousins. So to be able to compare what's different and to be able to identify one from the other, I am going to write a list of 10 facts about each animal.

The Schmidt Sting Pain Index - What Sting Hurts the Most?

Today when I was reading mX, I came across an interesting article about an entomologist from the University of Arizona. This man is Justin Schmidt. His area of expertise is Hymenoptera, the family of insects which includes wasps, bees and ants, so it's no surprised he's been stung over 100 times.

Throughout his career, he conducted personal research and "unintentionally" came up with the The Schmidt Sting Pain Index, a system developed to compare the relative intensity of Hymenoptera stings. This "research" involved provoking the insects to the point of rage, when they would attack/defend themselves. Each sting is on a rank between 1 to 4. Here is a sample from Wikipedia which includes their rank number and a description of the sting by Schmidt:

1.0 Sweat bee: 

Source: public-domain-photos.com

"Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm."

In the News - April 2012

 Good News
Well I have some interesting stories for you today. :)
A few new and thought to be extinct species have been discovered. And some rare baby animals have come out to play.

The Bururi Long-fingered frog has been rediscovered in Africa after 62 years. Read more about their discovery here.

Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

10 Most Interesting Looking Orchids

In the "The Private Life of Plants" series by David Attenborough, he talks about a whole range of orchids which have managed to mimic a female wasp or bee. Apart from these sexual deceptive orchids, there are a whole variety of them, all ranging from different sizes and colours. So, here is just a small collection from the 26,049 accepted species of Orchid.
1. Bee orchid

Source: thenaturalstone.blogspot.com.au

#4 One Irresistable Trap

We all know about the Venus Fly Trap. If an insect flies into it, it's a goner. But, do you actually know how the trap works?

Silhouette of a Bee Source: animalseatinganimals

Even if a fly has a lightning fast reaction - 20 milliseconds from the moment it registers movement to take-off - it can still fall victim to this even faster plant. Venus flytraps live in waterlogged and acidic soil where nitrogen is hard to get. Therefore, it needs to adapt to find another way to get this nitrogen and this is where the trap becomes handy. The trap is actually an extension of it's leaves.