Popcorn the Super Skink



Damn he's a sexy lizard

 So recently the urge to add a new addition to my herd overwhelmed me.  For those who know me I already have 3 horses, a cat, giant bunny, toad, fish, and now (drum roll please) a Skink!  His name is Popcorn and he is a Berber (not like Justin Bieber) or Schneider's Skink.  As you can see he is absolutely adorable and very friendly (please take a moment to adore his cute face). 

Skinks are lizards and not the missing link between snakes and lizards. The do look very snake-like with their long body and short legs. Skinks can range in size from 3 in to 32 inches, though the Berber Skink (Popcorn) will be about 15 inches including tail. Skinks live in a variety of habitats, to determine where your skink lives simply look at its toes. The longer the digits, the more arboreal (tree dwelling) the species is likely to be. This is reffered to as the Scincidae Ecological Niche Index, a ratio based on anterior foot length at the junction of the ulna/radius-carpal bones to the longest digit divided by the snout to vent length (nose to butt).  Popcorn happens to have medium digits, Berber skinks are largely terrestial. Berber Skinks are originally from North Africa and West Asia.  They come in a variety of colors including gray, red, brwon, sand, and even in Popcorn's color, bright yellow with orange spots.

Popcorn's favorite perch

Skinks enjoy a wide variety in their diet, some are vegetarian, most are insectivores, and a few eat meat.  Berber Skinks happen to be mostly insectivores, Popcorn's favorite food is a fat juicy cricket.  Eventually if he grows large enough he could a eat pinky mouse (though I tend to not like feeding or watching mammals die so he will have to stick to fat crickets).  Skinks are generally mellow and tame, as my friends have discovered Popcorn is very cuddly. He loves to hang out on your shoulder and crawl up to your head and scope things out. As far as defenses, well Skinks don't have many. Teeth are non-existent, and they're not very aggressive, instead they take the duck and cover approach burrowing under sand to hide. 

Hope you enjoy the pictures of Popcorn, what are some of the members of your herd?

Thanks for reading,

Cass



Thug life



Nudibranch (Nothing to do with Naked Chicks....)

I want to keep the unusual animal streak going, but change it up by going to the ocean for our next creature.  The Nudibranch resembles a neon colored slug and can either be smooth or have lots of equally colorful tentacles.  Nudibranch's have undergone detorsion, where their mouth and anus for a long continuous tube.  Torsion is the process that shelled gastropods go through to rotate their mantle and shell 180 degrees to bring it directly above their head.  Due to going through detorsion, Nudibranch's are bilaterally symmetrical.  They have very simple eyes which are typically limited to sensing light and dark.  They breathe through a naked grill that forms branchial plumes in a rosette in their back, where the name Nudibranch likely originated from. 

They are hermaphoditic (containing both sexes) but cannot fertilize themselves.  Hermophoditicism is a common trait in sea animals to increase likely hood of finding a mate.  Think to a Nudibranch every other Nudibranch you meet is a potential partner, instead of being limited to one sex or the other. 

So the big question remains, why did Nudibranch's develop such bright colors?  well it seems Nudibranch's took two alternative approaches, one was to blend in the other to stand out.  Some Nudibranch developed colors and appendages to mimic plants around them, an extreme camouflage.  While other Nudibranch took the opposite approach and developed bright colors to stand out and warn predators that they are poisonous or distasteful.  Some Nudibranch feed on hydroids then store the hydroids' nematocysts (stinging cells), they can travel down their body with out harming the Nudibranch.  They likely do this with a large vacuole surrounding the nematocyst.  There are some Nudibranch's that can produce toxins on their own without dietary aid, there is even a type of Nudibranch that can excrete acid out their skin. 

To sum up, the Nudibranch is more than a colorful sea slug, it is a highly specialized creature showing every color of the rainbow.  That's it for now,
Cass

The Animal That Smells Like a Movie Theater....

I've mostly written about animals that are fairly common and well known, but I think it is time to branch out into some more exotic and unknown animals.  So today kicks off a month of unusual animals posts.  First off is an animal that I first saw at the San Diego Zoo.  My dad was an analytical chemist for CREST, the science portion of the zoo.  It was his job to pick me up from school every Monday when my mom was too busy.  This gave me the luxury of going back to work with him at the zoo every Monday.  As you can imagine I got lots of behind the scenes tours and saw far more of the zoo than the average person.  One of my favorite animals that wasn't a main attraction was the Binturong. 

When you hear the name Binturong, the thought springs to mind is likely what the heck kind of animal is that?  It is a medium sized brown critter that looks like a fox, raccoon, cat, and maybe a little dog all mixed together  It is actually part of the Viverridae family which includes civets and genets, which resemble cats crossed with weasels.  The most striking feature of this animal has nothing to do with it's looks but actually it's smell.  A Binturong smells like fresh buttered popcorn!  Binturongs use their scent markings to signal when they are ready to mate.  Since they live solitarily, scent markings are needed to bring animals together for those romantic times of year.

Binturongs are one of the few animals that can use delayed implantation or embryonic diapause.  This is when a female can mate and delay the embryo from implanting until conditions are better.  They cannot delay implantation for long term, but a few weeks can mean the difference between starving and surviving to a Binturong.

Binturongs live in the trees and have hands evolved to live in a tree lifestyle.  Their paws have claws that are perfect grapsers on tree limbs.
Hope you enjoyed being introduced to a fun creature, next weeks post will be about another unusual animal.
Cass