Tag Archives: science
M is for Marine Iguana
This wonderful image of two marine iguanas on Espanola in the Galapagos Islands was taken by Vince Smith, and is on Flikr. Marine iguanas are fascinating animals, and there are two extraordinary facts about them. The first is that they are the world’s only marine lizards. Because there were no mammalian predators (until more recently) they …
L is for Leech
I think we’d all agree that we’d rather not become a meal for a leech – and I decided to spare you a picture of one, and draw you a cartoon instead, but leeches have been given rather a bad press, and hopefully this blog will at least make you feel a bit happier about them! Leeches are …
J is for Jelly-ish
This incredible photo is by Henry Jager on Flikr. It is of a chain of jelly-like salps – such beautiful creatures, which can appear like pulsating jewelled necklaces in the water. They look very like jellyfish and propel themselves in much the same way, contracting their tube-like structure and expelling water behind them, in fact they have …
I is for Ibis
This fabulous photo of a feeding sacred ibis was taken by Jeremy Thompson on Flikr. I only found two photos of such an excellence to illustrate the poem and post, the other is further down! Neither are creative commons and are used by permission. Sacred ibis are large wading birds, with beautiful white (but black edged, seen when …
H is for Hewitt’s Ghost Frog
This gorgeous photo of Hewitt’s ghost frog was taken by Werner Conradie and is used by permission. Hewitt’s ghost frogs are beautiful, with a cross in their eyes and attractive markings – they have a flattened shape which allows them to hide in very small crevices, and strong back legs for swimming against the fast-flowing currents in their native, mountain streams in …
G is for Gibbon
This incredible image of a lar gibbon leaping is by Tontan Travel on Flikr. Gibbons are lightweight apes, lacking a tail, and are related to chimps, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans, and humans. Of all the non-human apes, they move bipedally (upright) most frequently. An estimated 10% of their time is spent moving along branches on two feet, …
F is for Fearful Owl
This excellent and very rare photo of a fearful owl was taken by Lars Petersson, and appears on his very interesting birdwatching and photography blog. The fearful owl, with its white eyebrows and lores (down the sides of its beak) which make a prominent ‘X’ on its face, and attractive, ochre colouring and black streaks, …
D is for Dugong
This wonderful picture of an amiable, gentle, slow, inoffensive dugong was taken by Christian Haugen on Flikr. Dugong and their relatives, manatees, both in the order sirenia, are the only completely vegetarian sea creatures. They eat by uprooting whole sea grasses from the ocean floor, detecting them using the bristles on their upper lip, and leave distinctive …
C is for Caecilian #A-Z Challenge
This photo of a caecilian is by Dick Culbert on Flikr. An extremely unusual sighting! Caecilians are mysterious creatures, they are very rarely seen as they spend their entire lives underground. They are limbless amphibians with a backbone and are most nearly related to newts, despite the fact they look very like worms! They inhabit …
B is for Bombardier Beetle #A-ZChallenge
This great close-up photo of a bombardier beetle is by David Hill on Flikr. Love them or hate them (I love them!), insects are the largest group of organisms on the planet – 900,000 of which have been described by science, leaving an estimated 30,000,000 still to be documented! At any one time there are …
lizbrownlee - poet 