Share Animal Pictures: For Animal Lovers

[berkeman]

I hadn't heard of this photography competition before, but the winning images are quite good, and can involve some important environmental issues (see #1 in the list, not shown in the image below):

https://www.cnn.com/style/gallery/e...phy-monaco-foundation-c2e-spc-intl/index.html

 

[Swamp Thing]

 

[berkeman]

Little fishy's next to last thought -- "I wonder what that shadow is...?"

(from Facebook today)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Little fishy's next to last thought -- "I wonder what that shadow is...?"

View attachment 329378
(from Facebook today)

Those claws are vicious!

 

[BillTre]

Little fishy's next to last thought -- "I wonder what that shadow is...?"

Many animals have an escape reflex that is triggered by increasingly large dark areas in their visual field (like a shadow getting larger as something (a predator) is getting closer.
This is found in vertebrates and invertebrates. I worked on the bendless mutant in fruit flies. It was a mutation found in flies lacking the escape response triggered by a looming shadow. It lacked a specific synapse in the fly's escape circuitry.

 

[strangerep]

Many animals have an escape reflex that is triggered by increasingly large dark areas in their visual field (like a shadow getting larger as something (a predator) is getting closer.

I noticed the same thing in a pond near my home. Floods had made the pond much larger, and tiny fish were swimming near the edges. But whenever I tried to get close enough to discern what species they were, the whole school darted away into the shadows instantly, only to reappear when I stepped back. It was definitely a good reflex -- many birds were patrolling the pond verges, hoping to strike.

 

[BillTre]

I noticed the same thing in a pond near my home. Floods had made the pond much larger, and tiny fish were swimming near the edges. But whenever I tried to get close enough to discern what species they were, the whole school darted away into the shadows instantly, only to reappear when I stepped back. It was definitely a good reflex -- many birds were patrolling the pond verges, hoping to strike.

When I was younger, I would often try to catch fish (with nets) in the wild to keep in aquaria at home. This was very difficult both because they are fast and they quickly respond to seeing and hearing things.
Work arounds are chemicals (anesthetics), electro-fishing (not always legal), traps (like minnow traps), and seine nets that just net large areas.

seine net

 

[BillTre]

Narwhals

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Narwhals

View attachment 329698

Imagine you are swimming and see that coming at you!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

 

[BillTre]

I had a dog that would chase its tail for quite a while, if I pulled its tail to get it started.



This guys just spins, but in both directions.

 

[BillTre]

 

[Swamp Thing]

I had a dog that would chase its tail for quite a while, if I pulled its tail to get it started.



This guys just spins, but in both directions.

A bit like those martial art moves ( HIIYAAAAAHWAAAAH!!! )

 

[berkeman]

From FB today...

 

[berkeman]

Wow...

Photographer Andy Woo captured the perfect moment of an osprey gliding on the surface of a body of water, an unusual and spectacular photo of the wild raptor.

 

[berkeman]

Another great sequence of an osprey:

Chen Chengguang
https://www.facebook.com/6BirdSpecies

 

[BillTre]

Friend of mine, at the NIH took a picture of a zebrafish embryo that makes a fluorescent protein in it blood cells. He has taken a lot of pictures (using a microscope) of them.
It just got turned into a US stamp:

 

[BillTre]

Blue is cartilige, red is bone (calcium stain). Some parts didn't clear well.
This is probably a small young animal in which these techniques would work best.

 

[fresh_42]

 

[BillTre]

 

[Andy Resnick]

A few animals we encountered on vacation:

(Our dog @ Bridal Falls, NC)

some kind of water snake? Non-venomous, I think.... did not try to find out :)

sea turtle hatchling headed for the ocean...

humans are animals!

 

[DennisN]

Gosh, that's a cool clip!
I was well aware that cats can be extremely alert, but the snake dodge surprised even me, actually .

 

[DennisN]

I stumbled on this clip on youtube about the Quokka, an animal I've never heard about:

 

[DennisN]

I was well aware that cats can be extremely alert, but the snake dodge surprised even me, actually .

Gosh, they can be fast:

 

[BillTre]

Gosh, that's a cool clip!
I was well aware that cats can be extremely alert, but the snake dodge surprised even me, actually .

the first clip is a startle-escape response. Thing suddenly getting close --> quickly move away.

I would call the cat clip you posted as a series of anticipatory slap downs of the snake as it got closer (best defense is a good offense).

For the cat, nervous system delays would involve several components, including: light activating nervous system (quick), synaptic delays going from one nerve cell to the next, processing (interactions among neurons) to calculate complex situations or outputs.
There would be several nervous system time delays of 2-3 ms/synapse in the visual signal getting to the brain.

• Maybe 2 or 3 in the retina,
• at least one in the optic tectum (lateral geniculate), and
• one or several in the cortex before triggering motor neurons going to
• muscles (muscle spindles actually) where an other synaptic delay would occur.

Minimum of 6 synapses here, but could be more. Synaptic delays account for a lot of the elapsed time.

It took a while for the cat to start moving after the snake lunged, first the cat pulled back its head and then jumped with its body and legs.

 

[BillTre]

Flying Squirrels:



One might be named Rocky.

 

[DennisN]

Just lovely :

 

[fresh_42]

 

[fresh_42]

 

[BillTre]