Animal A Day!

If anyone besides me is keeping count, Thursday, August 5th will be Animal A Day's 100th animal. So in celebration of this momentous occasion I'll be having yet another special theme week. And this time, I'm going to be stepping outside of the box: we're going to be talking about Mythical Creatures ! So come back on Thursday (and heck, every day up till then too, I still have lots of fun animals planned until then) and meet our first featured Mythical Beast. I'll also be making a few other site changes as well during the next week or so, including a slightly different layout, new pages, and a new suggestion system. Be sure to check it out and let me know what you think! And take a look at that awesome sloth over there. I found a set of zoology textbooks from the 1920s at a book fair last week. Absolutely full of amazing drawings and diagrams. I'm trying to figure out something to do with this new resource...

The Tarantula Wolf Spider,  Lycosa tarantula  is the very first spider to ever be given the name "Tarantula," due to its native habitat around Taranto, Italy . Interestingly, what many non-Europeans consider to be Tarantulas are not even within the same taxonomic family as the genus Lycosa , and are instead their own distinct family, Theraphosidae. Tarantula Wolf Spiders are often simply called Wolf Spiders because of this. Image from Wikimedia Commons There are over 200 species within Lycosa  alone, and several hundred more spread throughout the family Lycosidae. Wolf Spiders are large (some can grow to 2 inches ) and are distinguished by their large eyes positioned centrally on their heads. Like all spiders, they have two body segments, and eight legs. They are (mostly) diurnal, ground dwelling spiders that hunt down their prey. This differentiates them from many other spider types, as they do not use webs. Another interesting ...

So, is it a dog? Or a raccoon? If you guessed canine, you'd be right. Raccoon Dogs (also known as Tanuki)  are in fact canids, through they split away from the other members of family Canidae somewhere between  7 and 10 million years ago. They are the only species within the genus Nyctereutes. Image by Jinsuk Kim Raccoon Dogs and actual Raccoons are far, far more distantly related, but the species name of the dog, procyonoides , is a nod to Procyon , the genus in which Raccoons are found. Raccoon Dogs are native to East Asia, and are now abundant in Central and Eastern Europe due to introduction there for the fur trade. In some areas of Scandinavia, Raccoon Dogs outnumber the native foxes. Raccoon Dogs are still hunted for their fur, but their numbers are large, and so the species as a whole is not threatened. They live in a variety of habitats , including grasslands, dense forests, and urban areas. As one could probably guess by now, Raccoon...

I saw one of these interesting crocodilians at a zoo while I was on vacation last month, and its odd appearance blew me (and my family members who I went with) completely away. Tomistoma schlegelii is known as the "False" Gharial because it shares a similar snout to the "True" Gharials, but other morphological features place it within the family Crocodylidae. However, recent studies are showing that it might just be closely related to the True Gharials after all, and now the classification is a tad bit up in the air. False Gharials are huge.. though not as huge as the other Gharials. They do however, regularly reach lengths of over 4 meters. Their snout is one of their most interesting features, because while the rest of their body is long and wide, their snout it quite thin. They live in Malaysia and Indonesia, and like all crocodilians, most of their time is spent in the water. Not a whole lot is known about their behavior . It is suspected that females buil...

Snowy Owls ( Bubo scandiaca ) go by a variety of different names: Artic Owl, Great White Owl, Ghost Owl, or my personal favorite, the White Terror of the North! Even their scientific name was a bit up for grabs, as for years they were classified as the sole extant species within the genus Nyctea . But now, thanks to the magic of *science*, they are now classified with the Great Horned Owls within the genus Bubo. Image from Wikimedia Commons Snowy Owls are large, diurnal owls that can be found in Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions across the planet. As their name might suggest, they are white birds as adults. Younger birds have some darker coloration , as do the adult females. (In the Harry Potter films, Hedwig was played by a male owl, as the females have more dark spots) They are a very nomadic species, as in, individual birds do not live in the same area their entire lives. They follow the prey. Many birds also have separate breeding and wintering grounds . Because they ...

The common name Pistol Shrimp can refer to one of the 600 species belonging to the family Alpheidae. They are also sometimes referred to as Snapping Shrimp. Most species are found in tropical and temperate saltwater, though others are able to live in colder seas, and even in freshwater caves. They feed off of fish and other crustaceans and typically live within burrows. Shrimp and Goby They are an interesting little family of Crustaceans in that they share a handful of bizarre characteristics. The first is physical: all species have one "normal" sized claw, while the second claw is much, much larger. They use these claws for what is probably their most interesting trait; their title as one of the loudest creatures in existence. Even though they are small, growing not much larger than a few inches, Pistol Shrimp are able to produce 218 decibel sounds. This is louder than a gunshot, (typically around 190 decibels) and comparable to sounds made by the 50 ton Sperm Whal...

Papilio cresphontes is the largest butterfly species in North America. They can be found throughout the Southern United States and Mexico, and in spattered areas across the Eastern and Central United States. Image from Florida HTR Giant Swallowtails are pretty easy to pick out. Not only are they large, with wingspans of up to 6 inches, but they have some pretty interesting coloration . The wings of the adults are black, but a horizontal band of yellow crosses from wing to wing, with additional mirrored yellow patterns found below, and possibly above, this band. Red marking are also sometimes found in the tail.  Caterpillars  are brown with white splotches, which camouflages them to look a lot like bird droppings. They are called "Orangedogs" due to an orange gland that acts as a further defense mechanism by secreting a toxin. Giant Swallowtails feed off the nectar of a variety of plants, including Azaleas and Goldenrods. The caterpill...