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.

Pika

Submitted by: Kate C



This ridiculously cute animal here is the pika. The American pika to be specific. I feel it deserves a second pic.



There we go. At first glance, the pika may seem like it's a hamster or something but it is actually the smallest member of the rabbit family. They like to live in rocky mountainous regions, in between cracks in said rocks. To make the pika even cuter, they sing to each other during mating season. Awww? Yes, awww.

However, it is not all cuteness with the pika. Sadly, due to global warming and high sensitivity to temperature changes, the pika is nearing extinction. Giant :(

Breaking News!

A stoat in the snow. Courtesy of the BBC.

Nudibranch

Submitted by: Carmen



The above nudibranch is the Spanish Shawl. So pretty and elegant! Nudibranchs are colored so brightly to help them blend in with flowers. It's also a warning that they may occasionally be poisonous. Why only occasionally? It tuns out nudibranchs can eat poisonous animals (such as poisonous sponges or sea anemones), and then they can store the poisons in their own body and use that against other predators. Oh yeah, they can also be cannibalistic. As a form of sea slug, nudibranchs have to pretty much eat whatever they can find swimming around (since they are slow). It's rough down there folks.

Dinosnake!

Submitted by: Anna M

The latest hot news in the animal kingdom revolves around the recent discovery of humongous snake fossils dubbed "titanoboa cerrejonensis". More info found here at CNN.com. According to scientists, the snake would weigh about 2,500 lbs and be 42.7 feet long. In layman's terms, the stuff nightmares are made of. I'm mostly concerned that there could be a Titanotarantula in some jungle somewhere. ALIVE.

Groundhogs

Submitted by: Silly Superstitions



Groundhogs, thanks to their magical shadow powers, have a special day dedicated to them in the U.S. and Canada called Groundhog Day. If, after leaving their burrow, the groundhog sees its shadow there will be six more weeks of Winter and everyone in this particular groundhogs region gets upset and angry with the g'hog (chill out people). If it doesn't see its shadow...Spring is near and people start breaking out the shorts. This is very serious business folks. Here's a link to a list of famous groundhogs. Maybe you can get trading cards of your favorite. Punxsutawny Phil seems to be the star of the U.S. Groundhog Shadow Spotting Team, but I'll always be a fan of Alberta's Balzac Billy.