Tag: animal friday
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Meet the hermit crab
My partner and I are in the process of buying a house. It is not fun. So, this week, we’re escaping to the world of an animal that always has its house with it: the hermit crab. A widespread species for aquarium tide pool exhibits, there are over 800 species of hermit crabs worldwide. The…
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Meet the whiptail lizard
Tuesday was Valentine’s Day and what better way to celebrate than talking about lizards! This is a whiptail lizard (genus: Aspidoscelis). There are quite a few species of North American whiptail lizards. They are small lizards typically found in the southern U.S. and Mexico. They’re diurnal (active during the day) and mainly eat insects. But what’s…
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Meet the flying snakes
I’ve mentioned before how I tend to gravitate toward mammals and birds. But lately, I’ve been wanting to talk about a reptile. More specifically, I’ve been feeling like it’s snake time. But you know how I love birds, so I decided to talk about another creature that can fly: flying snakes. And no, I’m not…
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Meet the cheetah
I’m running a race this weekend in North Carolina! It’s a short race (just 5 miles). But this race does have you eat a dozen doughnuts halfway through… Don’t worry, I signed up as a ‘casual’ runner, so I don’t have to eat all the doughnuts; I’ll probably eat just one! (Really hope I don’t…
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Meet the quokka
Folks, we’re heading back to Australia this week on the blog. Australia: the place where evolution went wild. The place where it went wild and created one of the cutest animals ever: the quokka! This smiling little creature is a quokka (pronounced KWAH-kuh; Setonix brachyurus). Quokkas are about the size of a domestic cat and look…
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Meet the mourning dove
I’m one of those people who uses a physical planner. Sure, I have an online calendar, but I still physically write everything down in the planner. I love having everything clearly written out on my desk. Plus, it’s satisfying to cross things off my daily to-do lists! For 2023, I splurged and got a fancy planner.…
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Meet the crested anole
I love reading the news and finding cool animal stories. Cool animal stories are the best kind of news! The news inspires this week’s animal, the crested anole (Anolis cristatellus). This little lizard (also called the common Puerto Rican anole) has recently been featured on NPR for their quick adaptations to living in cities. I’ll…
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Meet the willow ptarmigan
Happy New Year! It’s winter here in the Northern Hemisphere, which means snow and cold weather. In fact, I went through a blizzard just a few weeks ago in Michigan! That got me thinking about all the animals that are adapted to and thrive in cold weather. So today, let me introduce you to one…
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Meet the aye-aye
I’ve been playing a lot of the most recent Pokémon game recently. And let me tell you, there are a lot of cool new Pokémon in it! There’s a dog made of bread, a ghost dog, a mastiff dog…can you tell I like dogs? One Pokémon I’m not as enamored with is Grafaiai. It’s a…
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Meet some Daphnia
I’ve been collaborating with another scientist to finish up some of my graduate school work. However, unlike me, he doesn’t work with voles. He works with Daphnia. What are Daphnia, you ask? Daphnia are a genus of small crustaceans that are surprisingly cute. Also called water fleas because of their flea-like movement, there are more than 200 species of Daphnia that…