A Brief History On October 16, 2010, a graduate student at Auburn University named a new species of fish Lepidocephalichthys zeppelini, because he thought a marking on the fish looked like a double necked guitar used by Led Zeppelin member Jimmy Page. Digging Deeper Obviously, it would be fun to be able to give a new species the name of your choice, and here are a few goofy sounding ones already taken: Gorilla gorilla gorilla, the Western Lowland Gorilla. If only they could all be so easy! Mini mum, Mini scule and Mini ature, three of the tiniest species of…
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A Brief History On September 2, 2023, the nation celebrated another National Hummingbird Day, a day to recognize the beautiful and colorful little nectar sippers in our gardens and at our Hummingbird feeders. Digging Deeper Flapping their little wings over 50 times per second, our smallest birds are also our most maneuverable, able to hover, fly up and down and backward and forward. While we think of them as drinkers of nectar, the fact is that Hummingbirds drink nectar only to supply the huge amount of energy needed to fly the way they do. They draw most of their nutrition…
A Brief History On August 19, 2017, over 300,000 Atlantic Salmon being raised offshore in a pen escaped when the pen failed due to a lack of maintenance. Almost ready for harvest and sale, the Salmon are not native to the Pacific coast and present a danger of being an invasive species that could hurt native populations of Pacific Salmon. Digging Deeper Invasive species present an extreme ecological problem around the world, sometimes introduced on purpose, such as the common Carp, Pigeons, and Starlings, and other times completely by accident due to shipping, such as Zebra and Quagga Mussels, or…
A Brief History On August 15, 2013, a new carnivorous mammal was announced by the Smithsonian Institution, a two-pound animal resembling a racoon from the Andes in Columbia and Ecuador. Digging Deeper The Olinguito, dubbed Bassaricyon neblina in science talk, is the smallest member of the Procyonid family. Along with insects, the little guys also gobble some fruits and nectar. The first new carnivorous mammal found in the Americas in the last 35 years, the Olinguito is certainly not the last new animal discovery of our lifetime. In fact, The Science Museum of Virgina reports that 18,000 new species are…
A Brief History On August 14, 1948, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game began Beaver Drop, dropping Beavers by parachute into the central Idaho Chamberlain Basin. Digging Deeper Beavers were trapped live from Northwestern Idaho, the plan being to repopulate an area that once naturally held a Beaver population depleted by fur trapping. Also, Idaho residents in the Northwestern region had been complaining about Beavers wrecking their property and cropland. Merely reducing the population of Beavers in Northwest Idaho was dismissed as environmentally unsound, as well as the tremendous value of the Beavers in other Idaho habitats. In all,…