A few recent news blurbs

Evolutionary arms race in duck genitalia

Crazy woman defends herself from cops with venomous snakes, gets bit repeatedly, yet still has to be stun-gunned to be subdued.

Toad found crawling around in 324 ft. down in Loch Ness.

New populations found of endangered species - the Sociable Lapwing.

Raptor 'super-roost' discovered.

great gallopin' crocs!

So you think you can outrun a crocodilian? If you said no, you are most certainly right. Crocodilians are not limited to the sprawling gait that people stereotypically assign reptiles. They can high walk, with the limbs nearly straight underneath, they can run, and they can all-out gallop. That's right, I said gallop, like a horse.
Check out video of this awesome behavior here.
In particular the galloping videos are here and here.

Predation of Ambystoma salamanders by a Buteo

I received this email from the local birding listserve. It documents a very unusual occurance - a Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) feeding on Ambystoma salamanders (Spotted and Jefferson's). Check it out, including the photos:

After a slow start to the spring and several weekends (the last two) during which I was away, this morning (Wed) I finally was able to watch the Red Shouldered Hawk that has been historically nesting in our area and feeding from our pond. What does he feed on? Jefferson's and Spotted Salamanders! Apparently feeding on Salamanders is quite unusual and not documented in the literature, according to a researcher at SUNY Binghamton who studies Ambystoma salamanders (Dale Madison). There was a freshly killed salamander on one of the bird boxes beside the pond (leaves and a tail visible), which the hawk uses as a perch. The bird sat for at least 20 minutes surveying the scene and made a few forays by either flying over the pond and dipping in with feet or by landing in the water on the bank of the pond (which has alot of water flowing over right now) and stomping around in water up to it's ankles while picking up leaves, looking for food. Finally, when I had literally just given up and started to turn away (to go to work!), the hawk flew from the bird box perch to just over the edge of the south end of the pond - out of sight for about 30 seconds before it came back up with a Spotted Salamander in its talons! It proceeded to eat the creature while perched on a pondside bench! Here us a website where you can view the out of focus (through the scope through the window) photos I took to document all of this. I'm not proud - I know these are not good photos, but they are good enough to identify the bird and the prey.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Laura.Stenzler/RSHWMay07?authkey=H12jHegbrZs

QUESTION!!
Has anyone else seen or heard of Redshouldered Hawks feeding on Ambystoma salamanders (either spotted or Jefferson's in our area)? I'm actually trying to document this enough to publish a note with Dale Madison at SUNY Binghamton and he was wondering if this has been seen by other birders? I have lots of observations from last spring and am trying to get more this year as well.

If anyone has similar sightings (especially documented ones), I'll pass them on.

Crested Geckos Mating (Graphic!)

A while back in February, when I first put my Crested Geckos together for mating, I decided to be a gecko-porn director. I added some branches to my photo setup and put them together on it. Shameless as they are, they went right at it while I took photos and video.









Also some video:

Salamander tongue projection videos

Okay, everyone needs to check this out. Salamanders jumped many notches of coolness on my intrinsic value scale. Stephen Deban, a professor researching the biomechanics of animal movement, studied the feeding of salamanders and found several different versions of tongue projection. Some of them throw nearly their entire hyoid apparatus (the bones that anchor the tongue and associated musculature) out of their mouth in the most incredible motion... and it only takes a few milliseconds.

Feeding movies are here:
http://autodax.net/feedingmovieindex.html
In particular, check out this one, with the associated photo:
http://autodax.net/hsupramovie.html