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CA Poppies |
Bad news for the Mountain Yellow-legged Frog.
IR camera trap images from the tropics.
Viviparous dinosaurs (Plesiosaurs)
Good news for the Lake Erie Water Snake.
Bird Evolution may have begun with the legs rather than the wings. Also of interest, this seems to suggest that reptiles may have been warm-blooded and lost this feature as a common ancestor of reptiles and birds had and lost a protein used in endothermic metabolism.
Who lost their capybara? I have always dreamed of owning one to live in a little pond in my backyard. Paris Hilton better not get one before me.
Clapper Rails nesting in SF.
Living with coyotes workshop in SF.
Also, poison oak sucks.
Ever since reading Capyboppy as a kid, I've wanted a pet capybara. I was also going to be mentioning those capybaras in a post since I stopped in Paso Robles last weekend to visit Firestone Walker. Potential capybara sightings and beer are a match made in heaven.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the PO! I hope you get good cam pics to make it worth it ;)
ReplyDeleteKate: Looking forward to your Firestone post. We have done a DBA clone twice now that have turned out pretty dang well.
ReplyDeleteNot to sound like a wise ass (is it possible to be one when you don't know anything?) but does this look like a Margay to you guys:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/camera-traps/?pid=1848
not an ocelot like they label it.
Either way they got some awesome pics!
Seabass: From my understanding the best way to tell the difference between the two is size and since I don't have any kind of reference from the photo it would be hard to say. If they had called it a Margay I hardly would not have said "No, that is an Ocelot." Margays are better climbers and are going to be more likely to be seen in a tree, but the only wild ocelot I ever saw ... was in a tree. They both have similar patterns and rounded short ears ... what in the image made you think Margay over Ocelot? It certainly could be a Margay.
ReplyDeleteThe tail in a margay is longer than its hind leg, while the tail in an ocelot is shorter than its hind leg.
ReplyDeleteTail looks longer to me than its hind leg (didn't know that trick Christian...thanks!). Do you guys agree?
ReplyDeleteThe reason I thought it may be a margay is the smaller head size, longer/slender body. To me ocelots are the 'bulldog' version of a margay. Again though I really don't know either!
Great eyes guys. It is a Margay and the labeling was a mistake on Wired.com's part. The original photo is labeled Leopardus wiedii.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.smugmug.com/gallery/16284125_Z4sdC#1426477749_CH8GFGp
I wrote the author of the wired.com article to point out the mistake in the least obnoxious way possible. Glad I checked the original images as I was writing a note to the lead author on the study asking him how they determined Ocelot over Margay, when in fact they had determined Margay. That would have been embarrassing. The paper that they published is pretty interesting.
ReplyDeleteWhere did you find the paper? Just looked on biosis and could not find it. Btw, I thought science was all about sharing information. why do we have a system in place where non-enrolled people are unable to have access to scientific papers?? just seems wrong!
ReplyDelete(I use my girlfriends info and can still access it, but otherwise i'd be screwed....i think at least)
Yeah it is behind a subscription paywall. The journal business is a total racket. I am a much bigger fan of the PLOS model. If a paper was published out of the NIH it has to be open access but I guess the same does not apply for the Smithsonian although I thought it would. Will send you an e-mail.
ReplyDelete