Lemurs

Submitted by: Melissa K




Ah, lemurs. Aren't they adorable? Yes, that is a scientific fact. This offshoot of the primate family lives in Madagascar, as well as surrounding islands and zoos that are interested in only the finest of animals.

Oh, you want more fun facts you say? Well then. Lemurs are one of only two mammals where the female is dominant (hyenas being the other). Male lemurs, to be quite frank, are sort of useless. Females do everything...including fighting the other females during lemur gang wars. High ranking males strut around with their heads and tails up, to show dominance over the low ranking males (who keep their heads and tails low), with ranking determined by fights. Strutting around without actually having done anything to earn it? Sounds like male lemurs are the animal world's equivalent of a Jersey boy.

One final note: lemurs like to lay out in the sun with their arms outstretched. This is not nearly as adorable as it sounds, hence there will be no sunbathinglemur.jpg. I'M SORRY LEMUR ENTHUSIASTS.

:(

Canadian geese in New York

A wee bit of an overreaction, no? Do we start killing all deer after the next car accident? Pigs because of swine flu? Oh, wait.

(this post would also fit the Humans Are Weird criteria...)

Hispaniolan Solendon

Submitted by: Burns




This beady eyed critter is the Hispaniolan Solendon, one of only a few venomous mammals. Wait...what? Yes, that's right, it has venomous saliva. They are nocturnal animals that dig complex burrows. I don't really know what else to say. But just loooooook at it! But don't touch (venom, you guys).

Thylacine

Submitted by: Burns



The thylacine, formerly native to Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea is also known as the Tazmanian tiger or Tazmanian wolf. I say formerly because they are now extinct. Sadface.

Thylacines were the largest carnivorous marsupials in modern times. As we should know, marsupials have little belly pouches. Thylacines take it a step further as both sexes have pouches (as opposed to only females like most other marsupials). They can also open their jaws up to 120 degrees, which I suppose helps when you are chomping into kangaroos and wallabies. Adorably, thylacines were unable to run very fast due to their "awkward gait" (awww). They kind of make up for it by being able to hop on its two back legs like a kangaroo.

Otters

I probably don't need to explain why I'm linking this, now do I? Courtesy of Kate C.

The new most terrifying creature

Check this guy out:



The camel spider. It's not really a spider, but a solpugid. That doesn't make their existence any less nightmarish. Camel spiders can grow up to eight inches, can run up to 10 MPH (which is ridiculously fast) and can be (will be?) very aggressive. As if spiders (or faux spiders) aren't freaky enough, this particular breed only uses its back six legs while running, with the front two raised in the air acting like antennae. Camel spiders live in the deserts of the Middle East as well as Mexico and the desert areas of the USA. It's sort of comforting to know that I can avoid a duel to the death with these demon spawn by avoiding the desert, but I'm still not entirely cool with sharing a planet with them. At least they don't explode with the little baby spiders flying everywhere like the wolf spider...

Guest Post! : Aye Aye

I am proud to present the first ever animalsareweird guest post, submitted by Kate C spotlighting the Aye Aye. Kate writes:

You may already pride yourself on being a fan of all things monkey, but wait until you meet this endangered little bud of the family tree. The Aye-aye breaks hearts throughout its homeland of Madagascar with huge fiery orange eyes. It is also know to break many a coconut shell and tree trunk with its extra long, pointy-clawed middle finger, used for fishing out delicious larvae and the like. Eeeeek!




Looking at this itty bitty beast, you might swing either way on its law protected status. It's declining numbers are actually due to the native Madagascan-ians believing it to be an omen of ill luck and death (Oh noes!!), prescribing deadness on sight.

Personally, I happen to think that it wins just for having a puffy tail that's larger than its body. Huge success.