Breaking News

New Subspecies Discovery in Nepal

Nepali scientists have recorded a new subspecies of bird – Nepal Rufous-vented Prinia – at Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve (KTWR) recently. Photo Courtesy: BCN According to Bird Conservation Nepal, the bird first recorded by chairperson of Nepal Rare Birds Committee (NRBC) Suchit Basnet and ornithologist Badri Chaudhary on April 1, 2005 at Koshi Tappu. The birds have now been identified as Rufous-vented Prinia, bringing Nepal’s total bird list to 862 species. Belonging to Prinia burnesii species, the new bird has been named Nepal Rufous-vented Prinia or Prinia burnesii nipalensis scientifically. Basnet said, “This must have been the most exciting bird [...]

Hunting Utah’s Giant Beavers and Loch Ness Otters

Okay, you can’t watch wall-to-wall pre-game coverage of the Super Bowl, can you? You shouldn’t take in too many replays of every debate spark that flew last week, should you? Tired of the nonstop football and election articles, internet highlights, and television analysis ~ not to mention what’s up with Britney lately? Take some time to revisit the lake monsters, folks. They miss you. There is a brand new review of The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep (NY: Tarcher/Penguin, 2003) published by epinions. It is always encouraging to read intelligent critiques [...]

Water Horse Invades Japan

I have a feeling that the promotion of Water Horse in Japan is being handled much differently than it was in the USA, where the creature was treated as if it could be your bathtub pet. Here is video of the amazing hologram that was recently created off Tokyo to acknowledge the release of the film in Japan. Sources: Odaiba; Endgadget; The Anomalist.

Fiji Lordomyrma Discovered

Lordomyrma vanua Lucky & Sarnat 2008: Fiji image by A. Lucky & E. Sarnat The discovery of new insects are a dime a dozen, so to speak. I tend to agree with Bernard Heuvelmans that an animal has to be large enough to have an impact on humans, visibly, to be a cryptid. The cryptids we deal with daily are usually domestic cat-sized and bigger. However, I was struck by the attractive nature of the above new ant discovery and felt it was worth sharing its photograph here. As the Myrmecos blog (link below) mentions, Zootaxa contained a short paper [...]

New Giant: First Elephant-Shrew In 126 Years

Grey-faced sengi, Rhynchocyon udzungwensis. Photo credit: Francesco Rovero. “This is one of the most exciting discoveries of my career,” said Galen Rathbun of the California Academy of Sciences. Rathbun’s and Museum of Natural Sciences in Trento, Italy, Francesco Rovero’s discovery is published in the February issue of the British-based Journal of Zoology. Although there is unquestionably much left to be discovered about life on Earth, charismatic animals like mammals are usually well documented, and it is rare to find a new species today—especially from a group as intriguing as the elephant-shrews, monogamous mammals found only in Africa with a colorful [...]