A Cool, New Animal Discovery: the Tenrec!

I recently discovered a really cool animal while reading a book about Sea Otters (by John A.Love). The beginning chapter discusses aquatic mammal evolution, and mentions that some Tenrecs live in water. I had never heard of a "Tenrec" before, so I decided to do some research, and I found a super cute and cool animal! Tenrecs are mammals that look like Otters, Hedgehogs, Shrews, and Mice. Because Tenrecs are a pretty big group of animals, with lots of different features, I'm going to share one species in particular that are really great: the Lowland Streaked Tenrec.





spikey and furry!

These tiny mammals looks like a cross between a Hedgehog and a Shrew. It's black and yellow striped, with a mixture of spikey quills and fur! The yellow spikes on his head are for defense against animals trying to eat him! These quills will stick into the predator, and will be very ouchie, causing the predator to run away and leave this cute little guy alone.








nibbling on a worm.

These particular Tenrecs have long snouts for munching on earthworms, which are their favorite snack. The Lowland Streaked Tenrec is really tiny and likes to scurry around in Madagascar searching for food. The coolest thing about these tiny mammals is the way they talk to one another. You know how Crickets rub their legs together and make that high pitched noise? Well, these Tenrecs rub their quills together and produce an even higher pitched noise, so high that humans cannot hear it! They are the only mammal known to communicate this way.

Madagascar is an amazing island located to the East of Africa. While it is geographically part of Africa, the animals on the island differ dramatically and are some of the most unique animals in the world! Islands usually have very special and unique animals because they are so isolated from the rest of the world. It's easy for animals to move around on the continents, but pretty tricky for most animals to get to an island, unless they can swim, fly, or walk across if the water freezes. This means that the animals on Madagascar look and behave very differently from similiar animals in other parts of the world. The Lowland Streaked Tenrec is only found on Madagascar!

This particular Tenrec likes to snuggle with its family in burrows. These burrows are made by the animals themselves. Tenrec families can be pretty big, with up to 40 members spending time together! The Lowland Streaked Tenrec also likes to search for food with its family. I guess they really don't like to be lonely!

One Year of Snailia!

I started this cute and fuzzy blog on January 31st, 2011, so now, after a full year of adorable and interesting critters, Snailia is entering into its second year! I have a very special post to celebrate my favoritest animals ever:

SNAILS!!

The spectacularly gooey, the fantastically beautiful, the wonderfully smart, SNAIL!

http://www.applesnail.net/

I fell in love with Snails many years ago, at first fascinated by their beautiful spiral shells. Snails are born with their shells and never leave them. Their shell is their home and it grows with them. The rings on the shell can't be counted to figure out the age, like you can do with a tree, but these rings do form spectacular patterns. From the lines on the shell you can understand the kind of conditions a Snail lived in. The shell coils as it grows and forms a spiral shape. Snails are very soft and squishy and can hide in their shells if they feel threatened by predators or bad weather, for example, or maybe they just want to spend some time alone. Sometimes I like to go inside my snail shell if something scares me, because shells are protective.

I'm petting a Giant African Land Snail!

I also love Snails because of their super cool tentacles. A lot of land Snails have four tentacles on their head: two "eyestalks" with little eyes on top, and two smelling tentacles. These tentacles are retractable, meaning the Snail can pull them inside its head!

Snails move around using the muscles in their "foot", which is the underside of their long, squishy body. They also have tiny little hairs, called cilia, on their foot, which help them move and also feel things as they go along. 

He doesn't even get hurt!

Snails are also pretty gooey and slimey, 'cause they produce mucus that covers their bodies. This keeps them moist, because Snails hate being dry, and also helps them crawl around and not get hurt. Some Snails can even crawl over sharp objects and not get injured!

These super cute creatures leave a shiny trail of slime behind them. Sometimes, after a rainfall, you can find these tracks on sidewalks and fences, and see what the Snails have been up to.

Working with Giant African Snails in 2009.

A lot of land Snails eat plants, such as leaves and fruit, and some also eat other animals. Either way, these gooey animals need calcium in their diet to keep their shell strong (kind of like us humans need calcium to make our bones healthy). I've worked with a few different species of Snails, such as Giant African Land Snails, Moon Snails (who live in the ocean), and Dog Whelks (who also live in the ocean), and they all have different cool features.

A Snail party.

The Giant African Land Snails are exactly what their name suggests: Giant! They really like to eat fruit and a lot of people like to keep them as pets. Many countries no longer allow these Snails to be brought in, in fear that these big creatures will eat a lot of the local plants and animals. Some people even consider them "pests", but I would love to have a hundred of these Snails hanging out in my backyard!

Me holding a Moon Snail in Summer 2010.

The Moon Snail is another big Snail, but this one lives in the ocean. Moon Snails eat other shelled animals, such as Mussels, by puncturing a hole in the shell. These big gooey animals like to burrow in the sand to hide and find food.

Dog Whelks are also Snails that live in the ocean, but these guys prefer to live on rocks,
instead of sand. They have long, pointy shells, and the kind I worked with had spotted bodies. They also eat other animals through a long tube called a "proboscis", which is just like a straw that we use for drinking. 

Snails are my favorite animal for a lot of reasons, more than just the ones I've shared above. So when our Snail friends appear again in the Spring and Summer (they hibernate in the colder seasons!) please be careful of where you step, and avoid crushing these super adorable animals. A Snail with a broken shell cannot survive, although it can repair a small crack.

Check out: http://nicaranime.deviantart.com/

The Squishy Sea Cucumber!

Have you ever heard of a Sea Cucumber before? If not, then you might be surprised at how cute and cool this animal is, even though at first it seems to just be a stationary log! I first learned about Sea Cucumbers when I studied Invertebrates (a.k.a. animals without backbones) at university. Then, in the Summer of 2010 I started working at the Ocean Sciences Centre as an Interpreter of a touch tank, which means that I taught people about local ocean animals through a live display.



A sample of the cool animals in the touch tank

The animals were collected from the shore around the Ocean Sciences Centre, and then returned to the ocean in September, when the touch tank was put away until the following Summer. It was really fun to work at the touch tank, although the water was really cold, so sometimes my hands would go red and numb if I played with the animals too much!





Coral, Sea Cucumber, and Sea Stars

In the middle of this photo is a Sea Cucumber (the long, black, cylinder shaped animal). Without meeting this animal, it's hard to tell what it is or how it survives, but once you get up close you discover some really cool features! First of all, Sea Cucumbers are really soft and squishy. They are filled with lots of water and can change their body shape really easily. For example, if a Sea Cucumber wanted to fit into a tiny hole in a rock, it could squish its body into a small, thin shape and fit through!

In this photo, you can see the underside of the Sea Cucumber and see how it has changed it shape and size. The orange lines or dots that you can see are its feet! They are tiny "tube" feet, which means they can suction onto objects, like rocks, to walk along the sea floor.

Sea Cucumbers have many ways of keeping predators away from them. Sometimes, when vistors to the touch tank picked up a Sea Cucumber, it would squirt out water to make itself look deflated and confuse them into thinking it was dead. Most people jumped in surprise and thought that the animal was peeing on them! Some Sea Cucumbers also have a deadly chemical that they can squirt out (sort of like squid!) to kill any animals trying to eat them.

To eat, these cute squishy animals have a ring of tentacles (sort of like fingers) around their heads. These tentacles are sticky and sometimes a Sea Cucumber will point them up in the water and catch little bits of food that float by. They also like digging in the sand to find little food pieces. Their mouth is in the middle of the ring of tentacles.

Sea Cucumbers can be all sorts of different colors and patterns, like this cool bright blue one. I worked with animals that were dark black, with grey bellies, and orange tube feet.


P.S.: I've added a whole bunch of updates in the past few weeks: links to cute and fun games, craft tutorials (i.e. origami animal bookmarks, jellyfish mobile, zoo-themed board game), and a brand new Video page. Click on the pages above!


Squirrel Appreciation Day!

Today is Squirrel Appreciation Day! 

The word "Squirrel" means "shadow-tailed" and Squirrels are Rodents, like Mice, Rats, and Chipmunks. Rodents are mammals (just like us humans) but have special teeth that keep growing. Rodents must nibble and chew on things to wear down their teeth! Squirrels love climbing trees and have great toes and claws for holding on tight. Squirrels often find food in trees, such as nuts and berries, although its easier if they wait until the food falls to the ground. Then they scurry around, collecting all the delicious treats, and stuff them into their mouth for storage!

Squirrels can be lot of different colors, such as black, red, or brown, with different striped patterns on their tails. Black Squirrels are not a different species, and are actually Eastern Grey Squirrels. They just have a dark pigment to their skin and fur.

Squirrels have pretty big eyes, which means they have great vision, for avoiding predators and finding yummy food.

Squirrels love hiding their food in the ground, and will use their cute little feet to dig holes for burying their treats. These fuzzy creatures will come back for their food when they're hungry. Sometimes they forget where they have hidden their nuts, seeds, and berries, and a new plant will grow from the ground. This means, that Squirrels help plants reproduce by planting their seeds!

Feel free to share any of your Squirrel stories!

A Special Post for my Hamster, Little Panda.

I have sad news: on December 24th, my Syrian/Teddy Bear Hamster, named Little Panda, passed away due to a stroke. He was an adorable, fuzzy, little creature who liked running on his hamster wheel and nibbling cute food.



April 2nd, 2011

This is Little Panda on his first day in my home. He was only a few weeks old and was very tiny, and a little apprehensive. He shred the newspaper into little tiny bits to make a comfy nest for himself.








Little Panda's First Adventure

After a couple of weeks of getting to know Little Panda, I let him venture out of his cage to explore my living room. He was very excited and ran very quickly around! Hamsters are very good runners.









Me and Little Panda :)

Little Panda also liked to climb on me! The sweater I'm wearing has deep pockets that he liked to explore.

In the wild, Syrian Hamsters are active at dawn and dusk, when they awake to run around and collect food. Pet Hamsters are often active all throughout the night because they have no predators to hide from.






Little Panda climbing

Hamsters are Rodents and are related to Mice, Rats, Squirrels, and Beavers. They are great climbers as seen in this photo of Little Panda! He loved to climb all over his cage and had little tiny feet with claws to grip on tightly.

A New Cage!

When I moved into a bigger house in May, I set about building a big cage using old window screens that I found on the sidewalk. I decorated the inside with grass and pebbles, and also made a really cool house for him with medium-sized rocks. It had multiple entrances and levels because Hamsters like to be protected. In the wild, Syrian Hamsters are considered "vulnerable" because people are starting farms on the land where these fuzzy guys live.

I fed Little Panda grains, fruits, vegetables, seeds and some treats of cheese and milk. Hamsters have special cheek pockets that they store food in, which makes their face look really chubby and cute!

In September, I embarked on a cross-Canada adventure. I got Little Panda a new travel cage with a wooden house, a water dispenser, and lots of privacy. He traveled with me on the train across all the provinces (except P.E.I), making him a very well-educated and cultured little Hamster.

Little Panda was buried in a cute park on the beach on Salt Spring Island, close to a farm with Alpacas and Sheep. I think this will be a quiet and nice place for him.

Little, Tiny, Squishy Nudibranch!

How cool! (www.northislandexplorer.com)

These tiny marine animals are squishy and adorable. They are similar to sea slugs but not closely related. Nudibranchs are Mollusks, like Snails, Slugs, and Octopus, but have a few differences, such as their body symmetry. Their name is pronounced: nudie-brank and means "naked" + "gills".

A little Nudibranch in Fulford Harbour.

I spotted these little white and orange Nudibranchs in Fulford Harbour (Salt Spring Island, B.C.). They were hanging out on a wooden wharf post, looking for their lunch. Nudibranchs eat other animals, such as Sponges and Anemones. These guys were only about 1.5 inches long, and their soft tentacle-like protrusions (called "cerata") wiggled in the water current. They were very beautiful to watch.

Nudibranchs can be very colorful and tiny:

Woolly Bear Caterpillar!

 I have been living on Salt Spring Island for about three weeks now. Last week I went for a walk to explore the area and ended up waking on a trail in the forest. The trail goes all the way to the top of Reginald Hill, which overlooks Fulford Harbour.

Taken at the top of the hill.

On the way there I discovered a super cute and fuzzy little animal that excited me. I was taking photos along the way and managed to notice this little guy nestled amongst the grass blades.

Gasp! 

Sooo fuzzy!

This little caterpillar is called the Woolly Bear because it seems like they have furry bodies. It's not actually fur that's covering them and keeping them warm in the Winter, but hair-like bristles. I knelt down to get this close-up photo as the caterpillar checked out his surroundings. These caterpillars have this mass of fuzzy-like bristles because they live in cold places and live throughout the Winter. They have a special substance that keeps them from freezing entirely, although they are inactive during the Winter. Once the weather gets warmer in the Spring, these fuzzy caterpillars wake up from their hibernation-like nap and start doing one thing: eating! They spend the Spring, Summer, and Fall eating, eating, and eating some more. They eat all sorts of different plants and a few years ago National Geographic said that these smart insects will eat more of a medicine-like leaf that makes their sick tummies all better. The Woolly Bear Caterpillar has a sick tummy when flies lay eggs inside the caterpillar's bellies! But, after eating this special leaf (that is related to caffeine) the fly eggs are defeated! These caterpillars live for over a decade before turning into the Isabella Tiger Moth.

Travels

Since the end of September, I've been travelling across Canada, from the East Coast to the West. I saw a lot of cute animals along the way, especially considering I stopped into the Toronto Zoo!

Here are some of my favourite animals that I've seen during my travels:

Tortoise
(at Natural History Museum, Halifax, NS)

I met this Tortoise named Gus in Halifax. He is 89 years old! Tortoises are related to Turtles, but unlike a lot of Turtles, Tortoises live on land and do not swim. A lot of Turtles either live in water (coming up for air) or close to water. But Gus here prefers the grass outside the Natural History Museum.

He also loves to munch on bananas and is quite a messy eater. Tortoises also like grass and flowers, and some like an occasional worm or insect.

A super cool things about Tortoises (and Turtles) is their amazing shell! It's connected to their bodies and acts as protection from predators, weather, and also provides a great place to sleep. Tortoises can retreat completely inside their shells, while some Turtles, such as Sea Turtles, cannot go inside their shell at all.

Gus, the Tortoise!

Black Squirrel
(in Lafontaine Park, Montreal, QC) 


I saw a lot of super cute and fuzzy Black Squirrels while in Montreal. These dark colored animals are actually Eastern Grey Squirrels, but with a different color pigment. This is the opposite of an albino animal, which are all white.

These Black Squirrels were quickly scurrying all over the park, up and down trees, and even checking out trash cans for food.

The word Squirrel can be translated into "Shadow Tail", which is equally as cute!

Deer
(on Wolfe Island, Kingston, ON) 

While visiting friends on Wolfe Island, I saw these cute wild deer in their backyard! The sun was setting and these adorable creatures were jumping about on the grass.

These are White-Tailed Deer, hence their cute little white bums and tail undersides. I love when they jump and their tail flops in the air! Male Deer have antlers and are generally bigger than female Deer. The name for a female Deer is "doe", while baby Deer are called "fawns.

Elephant
(at Toronto Zoo, ON) 

The Toronto Zoo had a lot of spectacular animals, many of which I have already written about on my blog (Red Pandas, Sea Otters, Hippos). This Elephant really enjoyed scratching themselves against this pole and shortly after this photo was taken also had the biggest pee I have ever seen!

I believe this is an Asian Elephant (as opposed to an African Elephant) because African Elephants have much larger ears. I think the coolest thing about Elephants is their trunks! With their trunk, they can pick up things, like branches to eat, as well as drink water, bathe themselves, and even greet their friends with a sort of handshake (wrapping their trunks together).

Raccoons
(in Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC) 

I haven't seen many Raccoons in my life until I went to Stanley Park and saw a bunch! These two, in particular, were hiding from the rain under a boardwalk. There were signs all over the park warning against petting or feeding them, but I still really wanted to pet a Raccoon. Of course, I know all the reasons not to approach wild animals, but that doesn't mean I want to cuddle them any less. Ultimately I did not pet any Raccoons but took some cute photos instead.

I saw another pair of Raccoons swimming across a river! I couldn't believe what great little swimmers they were.

Raccoons have very sensitive little front paws, which they use for a lot of important tasks. They can inspect their food using these fuzzy paws and will even remove bits and pieces that they don't want or like. These super cuddly looking animals eat a lot of different foods, including plants and animals. 

Raccoons are also fantastic climbers.

Llama Llama!

 A few weeks ago I visited a petting zoo at Lester's Farm! There were a bunch of adorable animals such as, bunnies, baby goats, sheep, cows, baby chicks, a pig, but my favorite of all was the baby Llama!

Baby Llama!

A baby Llama is also called a "cria", which is the Spanish word for "baby". Llama moms are pregnant for about 11 months and stand up while giving birth. The baby Llama can usually walk and eat within an hour of being born!

I was very excited to meet this baby Llama! I pet him and his fur was super fuzzy and soft. I also fed him some grass, which is one of their favourite snacks.



Mommy and Baby Llama!

Llamas like to be around lots of other Llamas! These animals are domesticated, meaning there are no wild Llamas. They are related to camels and were domesticated from a wild camel called a "Guanaco".

Manta Rays!

Rays in general are amazing and beautiful creatures. Manta Rays in particular are the biggest of the Rays. They seem to glide effortlessly through the water, with graceful movements. Manta Rays are also very mysterious animals to us, because there are a lot of things that humans do not know about them.

cute and squishy!

beautiful markings on underside.

Manta Rays have unique patterns on their undersides; the colors are different depending on the area they are from. For example, Manta Rays from the eastern Pacific often have mostly black undersides, while Manta Rays from the western Pacific are usually white underneath.

Manta Rays are known to jump high out of the water! The meaning of these jumps is unknown, but possible reasons could be:


- communication with other rays
- mating ritual
- avoiding predators/disturbances
- they are just having fun!

Manta Rays nibble on plankton, krill, fish larvae, and other small organisms. They obtain their food through a filtering process as they swim. As the Manta Ray swims through the ocean, the water is filtered through its gills, trapping any particles.


Small fish often feed on parasites on the Manta Rays' skin. This is a mutualistic symbiotic relationship, where the small fish obtain food and the Manta Ray is cleaned of harmful parasites. 


Manta Rays also migrate to find food, although their exact route is unknown.