BEARSCARE

Two items of business to take care of today. First and foremost, I am pleased to announce that this is the bearscare.org 100th post of all time. To celebrate, I am announcing a give away to the most creative bear artist. Please submit original works depicting bears (preferably eating salmon, elk, berries, etc) to tom at bearscare dot org. The winnder will be announced on New Years Day. Thanks and good luck.

Secondly, here is a story I can really get on board with. A loggerhead turtle named Herb washed up on Cape Cod with a severe case of hypothermia. Some very thoughtful marine biologists rescued him and they’re slowly warming him up to send to turtle rehab. We’re all rooting for you, Herb!

Every morning (when I wake up) I scour the news for bear related headlines. Today I was in for a real surprise: somebody filmed a PYTHON trying to eat a kangaroo. The image is pretty disgusting, so I’m only going to link to the article. Here it is: http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,26058,24615712-5014090,00.html. I will, however, say few words about pythons and kangaroos.

Pythons are large snakes. Like the anaconda, the python is among the two largest snakes in the world. The primary difference between anacondas and pythons is anacondas live in the water and kill other things that live in the water whereas pythons live on the land and try to eat kangaroos, aligators (http://bearscare.org/2008/05/12/snake-vs-lizard/) and sometimes people.

Kangaroos are marsupials. Marsupials (koala bears, kangaroos, etc.) are characterized by a pouch on females which is strictly reserved for their young. Some marsupials live in their mothers’ pouches for several years before vacating for good. All marsupials live in Australia (no coincidence there) and kangaroos are known for their jumping.

Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank Wikipedia for providing the images for this article and also foxnews.com and all pythons.

Today we went to the zoo in DC. Here is an incomplete list of animals we saw and my personal feelings on them:

1. Pandas – AWESOME
2. Lions – sweet
3. Tigers – similar to lions
4. Anaconda – scary/sweet
5. King Cobra – deadly (stay away from these)
6. Prairie dog – opposite of (5)
7. Elephants – Very large and friendly. These were the Asiatic variety.
8. Cow – I felt bad about my lunch
9. Orang utan – Me 10,000,000 – 100,000,000 years ago
10. HIPPO – wet

Somewhere in Florida, Burmese pythons have been attacking alligators…and apparently winning. Check out this photograph that was donated to us:

I really don’t know who to root for here. On the one hand, alligators are sweet and powerful, but then again so are pythons. I’ll probably pull for the alligator, though. Whatever.

These bad boys live on the island of Komodo in Indonesia. They are the largest of the monitor lizards and were discovered in 1910 by Western scientists. The Komodo Dragon is thought to be so huge because there are no other predators on the island and so they can eat whatever they want with absolutely no consequences. If you want to know more, check out Wikipedia or just peep out the video below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8oJK0T5NJw]

OK, here’s the lizzard:

And here’s a log (or is it?):

This little fellow is the leaf-tailed gecko of Madagascar. Check him out here (where I got the pictures). He’s pretty much the best.

Brisbane, Australia — A family lost their chihuahua-terrier mix today. It seems the dog had been stocked by a scrub python for some does which finally got hungry enough to make his move [1]. The python is fine, but the two kids (5 and 7) who witnessed the carnage will never be the same. Below is a picture from the incident (CAUTION graphic/distasteful):

 The scrub python, Morelia amethistina, is a long slender snake found in Indonesia, Australia, and places like that (you know what I mean–not Korea or anything, just those islands you sometimes hear about). They can be extremely long, but a generally a large specimen is only about 5.5 meters (~16′) [2]. That is the same size snake that ate the dog. Usually, these guys eat small wild animals but all of that has changed.

[1] http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,332913,00.html 

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morelia_amethistina 

So, the news recently reported that scientists have discovered the existence of a (now extinct) enormous frog. Dubbed “Frog from Hell” by various news agencies, the 12″ long, 7 lb. amphibian is thought to have eaten small mammals with its sharp teeth [1]. The fossil was found in Madagascar. Although this fellow sounds pretty mean, I think the world would benefit from giant frogs. I really wish they were still around. There are some pretty big toads, though [2].

[1] http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-frog20feb20,1,4030164.story

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cane_Toad 

This psychologist taught his pet turtle to wave its little paw around and flip over. Maybe he’ll teach it to spin on its back too.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqZniOBXNDQ&rel=1]