Awesome Animals – Alison Pearce Stevens

I had a chat with the founder of Fat Bear Week

Alison — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 20:56:05 +0000

I had a marvelous time talking with Naomi Boak, founder of Fat Bear Week (and an Emmy- and Webby-Award winning creator and producer) as part of the Stanford Alumni for Climate Action webinar series. We talked about Animal Climate Heroes! and the little things we can do to improve the state of our environment.

Check it out!

Big yawns mean big brains

Alison — Thu, 20 May 2021 18:08:48 +0000

Y-a-w-n! Ever wonder why we stretch our mouths wide open now and again in a big yawn? Do we do it because we’re tired? Or maybe bored? Scientists recently discovered that the bigger an animal’s brain, the longer the yawn. What’s the link? Big brains are more likely to overheat, and yawning brings in cool air and stretches muscles around the brain to cool things down. The next time you yawn, don’t assume you’re bored–maybe your brain’s been working harder than you realized.

Did you know? Yawning is common among social animals. Contagious yawning (yawning when someone else yawns–or while reading this post!) appears to coordinate behavior. source

Want to know more? See how long you can go without yawning while watching this Yawn-o-Meter video.

This sea slug lost its head!

Alison — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 14:42:46 +0000

You may have heard the phrase to lose your head, which means you’re not acting very sensibly. But this sea slug takes that saying to a whole new level. It quite literally separates its head from its body, then grows a new body, complete with a new heart. Scientists in Japan recently discovered this bizarre behavior, but they don’t yet know why the slugs do it. Check it out:

Did you know? The ‘tentacles’ on a sea slug’s head are used to smell and taste the water around them. source

Want to know more? Find out more about the sea’s most beautiful creatures at National Geographic Kids.

Dancing peacock spiders

Alison — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 16:10:13 +0000

A 22-year-old researcher in Australia just discovered 12 new species of spider, seven of which are colorful peacock spiders. Not only are peacock spiders beautiful (their name reflects their colorfully patterned abdomens), but they are also exceptional dancers. Males wave their legs, wave their abdomens, and put on quite a show when there’s a female in the area.

Did you know? The brilliant blue on these spider’s hind ends is created by teeny-tiny nanostructures on the scale-like hairs located there. source

Want to know more? Find out how peacock spiders’ colors create an optical illusion at National Geographic.

Zap! Newly discovered electric eel generates some serious current

Alison — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 14:37:31 +0000

Scientists recently discovered that there are not one (as they had thought), not two, but three different species of electric eel. And one of the new discoveries packs the biggest punch of all. These eels send out pulses of electricity to zap prey. And smaller pulses to sense the environment when they’re on the hunt. Most eels generate up to 650 volts of electricity. That’s about five-and-a-half times what comes out of a U.S. electrical socket. This new one: up to 860 volts. That’s a serious burst of energy!

photo by Stephen G. Johnson

Did you know? Although many eels live in the ocean, electric eels are freshwater fish. They live in rivers throughout South America. source

Want to know more? The new species of electric eels are the first ones discovered in more than 250 years. Learn more at Science News for Students.

Listen to millions of monarchs

Alison — Thu, 09 May 2019 12:44:48 +0000

What sound does a butterfly make? With it’s delicate wings, not a whole lot–until you get millions of them together in one place. Most monarchs migrate to Mexico for the winter. There, they huddle in trees at night and flit about during the day. There are millions of them–enough that you can hear the sound of their wings when they take flight. Sounds kind of like water to me.

Did you know? It takes several generations of monarchs to fly north in the spring, but just one to return and overwinter. Winter monarchs live much longer than summer ones. source

Want to know more? We’re losing monarchs at a fast pace, but it’s easy to help them out, just by planting some milkweed. Find out more at the Monarch Butterfly siteMonarch Butterfly Site.

Slingshot spider

Alison — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 14:48:55 +0000

You thought cheetahs were fast? Meet the slingshot spider. This resident of the Peruvian rainforest nabs a meal in its web like most spiders. But instead of waiting for the food to come to it, this spider takes its web to the food. It weaves a cone-shaped web, anchored in the middle by a single strand of silk. Then, when tasty-looking prey wander near, it releases the anchor. Spider and web fly through the air to make contact. Lunch!

Did you know? Some spiders nurse their young with “milk” just like mammals do! Who knew these amazing creepy-crawlies were such good moms? source

Want to know more? Slingshot spiders can out-accelerate a cheetah. Find out just how fast they are at Science News for Students.

Ninja kangaroo rats!

Alison — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 17:44:53 +0000

Nature is awesome, and so are the scientists who study it. Researchers studying rattlesnakes and kangaroo rats (common predator and prey) needed to be able to see what happened during those lightning-quick interactions. To do so, they used high-speed video, which let them slow the action to see exactly what’s going on.

The result? The discovery that kangaroo rats have some ninja moves.

Did you know? Rattlesnakes hunt in the dark by sensing heat. Like all pit vipers, they have a special heat-sensing organ in those pits on their faces that lets them “see” in the dark. source

Want to know more? Check out research by scientists at San Diego State University.

Alison’s Adventures: Close encounters of the reptilian kind

Alison — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 19:51:35 +0000

I had a close encounter with (captive) wildlife not long ago, when my family visited the Wild Discovery Room at the Crane Festival in Kearney, NE. There were all kinds of great critters there, including eight or nine raptors (owls, hawks, and a falcon) that had been rehabilitated but couldn’t return to the wild for one reason or another. (Most had been too badly injured and couldn’t hunt for themselves.)

They had activities for kids, too. But my reptile-loving family could have spent the entire day at the herp table. (Herp is a term for reptiles and amphibians–people who study these critters are called herpetologists.) No amphibians at this event, but there were lots of scales in attendance! Check out a few of my favorites:

The four-year-old alligator who was perfectly content to just lie in my hands. He’s got his legs splayed out to maximize contact with my hands, since they were warm. I have to say, I never would have thought I’d call an alligator adorable, but this one really was! There’s also a young speckled king snake on my shoulder, if you look closely. Not sure how it got there, but my boys held just about everything and may have decided it was time to pass this one along.

There was an orange corn snake that happily curled up on my arm, but this fox snake wasn’t up for sitting still. It kept trying to hide in my hair:

The picture’s blurry (I moved as I tried to get the snake out), but you can see its head poking out (circled).

We didn’t hold all of the reptiles, though. A pair of rattlesnakes remained safely out of reach, as did this cobra:

Ssssimply marvelousss!!

Scientists discover deep-water octopod

Alison — Sun, 06 Mar 2016 16:52:20 +0000

Given how much of the world people have explored, you would think that scientists had discovered all the species out there. But new discoveries continue to happen. Take this “remarkable little octopod” discovered at 5,000 feet below sea level — that’s about 1,000 feet deeper than any octopod of this type has been found before.

What’s really fascinating about this guy is that it lacks the color-changing cells, or chromatophores, found on many cephalopods (the group that includes squid, octopods, cuttlefish and nautilus), so they can’t change their color to blend in the way other cephalopods do.

Did you know? An octopus is better called an octopod. “Octo” means eight, and “pus” means mouth, but “pod” means foot. These eight-legged critters only have a single mouth!