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Adult male Pacific walruses can weigh as much as four thousand five hundred pounds which is a very large lump of tusked blubber to carry around.  Females usually weigh about two thirds of that.

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The indigenous Arctic people relied on the walrus for thousands of years as it could provide everything they needed to survive from meat, fat, skin, tusks and bone. However, during the late nineteen hundred and early twentieth century the walrus was hunted almost to extinction. They were valued for their blubber and ivory but since restrictions were enforced their global numbers have started to grow again but the Atlantic and Laptev populations are still low and very scattered. It is unlikely that these will recover their numbers.

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The Atlantic walrus has a flatter snout and shorter tusks than the other species.  The tusks are actually over grown canine teeth and they can grow to a length of three feet and weigh up to twelve pounds in both male and female walrus.

Dominant males have slightly longer and heavier tusks which are used for fighting over females or territory.  Tusks are used to break holes in thick ice and to haul the walrus out of the water onto the ice.

Marine biologists have discovered that these huge strong tusks are not used for digging under the water, but they seem to be used to dredge through the debris at the bottom while digging with the edge of the snout. This was discovered by examining the markings of walrus tusks.  

The walrus has very few teeth but is well know for the huge number of whiskers it has. There can be as many as 700 bristles, set out in 15 rows and reaching up to 12 inches in length.  That is one truly amazing moustache.

These creatures eat pretty much what comes their way, live mostly on sea cucumber, corals, crabs and shrimps and graze at the bottom of the ocean for their favourite food which appears to be clams.  The walrus only has two natural predators, the orca and the polar bear but the one that has done them most damage is, once again, man.

These particular meteors come from the trail of dust formed by the 55/Tempel-Tuttle comet as this debris stream crosses the earth’s path–a yearly occurrence since 1466.  A comet, of course, makes an elongated orbit around the sun, its central mass, or nucleus, surrounded by a coma that extends into a steam, or tail, pointed away from the sun.  A meteor, in turn, is the streak formed by a piece of rocky debris, or a meteoroid, passing through the earth’s upper atmosphere.

To best observe the Leonids’ Meteor Shower, head away from city lights and toward the constellation.  Position the body so that the horizon appears on the edge of your peripheral vision. When it’s dark enough to see each star in the Little Dipper, sky watchers can see these falling stars.

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• There are far fewer black rats in the UK than brown rats. They prefer to be around ports and this is why they are commonly referred to as ‘Ship Rats’.
• Black rats were the ones that carried the flea that was responsible for the bubonic plague.
• In the wild, they dwell in trees and are excellent climbers.
• They usually weigh approximately 225 grams but they have longer tails than brown rats.
• Although they eat different types of plant and animal matters, they prefer to eat grain.
• The female can produce up to 6 litters a year, each of around 8 young rats. Within a coupl of months the young are breeding for themselves. To put it another way, within a year it could be possible for one pair of black rats to produce a million descendants in just one year.

• The track mark of the black rat is similar to that of the brown rat but the tailmark is conspicuous.

Brown Rats: (Rattus norvegicus)

• Brown rats cat be found wherever there are humans. They are the type that is bred as pets and used in medical research.
• They are the most common animal in the UK.
• They are bigger than the black rat and an adult weighs roughly 400 grams. Average body length is 25cm although they can grow to be as long as 40cm (not including the tail, which on average is 19cm long)
• The brown rat is a nocturnal animal, although scarcity of food may lead it to come out during the day.
• They prefer to be outdoors and are more likely to infest around a building rather than inside it.
• Although they can create their own burrows they are just as happy to use man-made ones (eg: sewers) to get around.
• They are not fussy eaters and will eat whatever food they can find.
• They live in extended family groups that usually have only one dominant male.
• The track left behind by a brown rat is distinct. It is small, four-fingered front feet and long heel impressions. The tail mark is always visible.

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Such was the case early this September when I noticed a marked increase in these bug-like specks floating in front my left eye; and since I had vision only in that eye,  I immediately phoned my local ophthalmologist to find out what was wrong.  Indeed, after two consecutive visits on a Monday and a Tuesday, he insisted that I make an appointment for the next day at the Baylor Eye Clinic at the Baylor College of Medicine, which is part of the Baylor College of Medicine in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas.

After a rushed 250 mile trip to Houston, however, the diagnosis was less alarming than I thought it would be, although the specialist I visited counseled that in the future I would just have to put up with the inconvenience.  Specifically, he likened having a Posterior Vitreous Detachment to sitting in a chair–the longer I sat in a particular chair, the less I would notice it.  I also soon learned that my brother had had a PVD in his right eye the year before and found the experience very distracting.  He had even contemplated a vitrectomy, a procedure that drains the eyeball of liquefied vitreous gel and replaces it with saline solution.  However, such an elective operation is not recommended in most cases since if anything goes wrong, it may also cause a permanent retina detachment.

Although most adults if they live long enough eventually have a PVD in one or both eyes, it probably occurs sooner in the nearsighted, since myopic vision elongates the shape of the eyeball, thus increasing the likelihood of PVD, or if one has had cataract surgery, YAG laser eye surgery, or has diabetes.  Because I’m nearsighted, have had cataract and secondary cataract surgery, and two laser eye surgeries, it’s not too surprising that my vitreous gel had liquefied and subsequently detached.  However, in all the years I have gone to a retina specialist (Since 1966, I have travelled to Houston for biannual or annual appointments), no one has mentioned this possibility.

All the same, I have had at least two checkups since I returned to my hometown from Houston and will have one more with a local retina specialist in two weeks.  A slight chance exists that a PVD could cause a retina tear or detachment, so it’s wise to monitor my vision.  In the following weeks, I’ve had a narrower field of vision than I’ve had previously, and I was a little more clumsy at first, even tripping over the dish washer door,  but I’m gradually “fitting into my chair”. 

Still, I wish my retina specialist or my ophthalmologist had told me this was part of the aging process.  Even so, at age 57, I look forward to many years of vision, provided I continue to have regular checkups and alert a retina specialist should I see lightning flashes or if a sudden dark curtain falls upon my field of vision.

The radio controlled bat, will be equipped with micro sensors that can detect, chemical, nuclear and biological agents. And unlike tiny airplanes and helicopters, it will have better maneuverability and the size to complete missions without being detected.

Imagine bats spread out in a large area laying in wait, for the slightest hint of any agent, ready to sound the alarm. I think it would be the perfect early warning system for such attacks and could help save lives. It could also help detect the spread of agents, and get unaffected people and first responders out of harms way.

A prototype of the radio controlled bat is still under construction. Researchers at the State University of North Carolina is using what nature has given them. By modeling there prototype on the skeletal structure of a bat, they get rid of the traditional fixed wing design and replace it with a flapping motion.

The prototype skeleton weighs less than ten grams and uses a super elastic metal alloy, that allows the same muscular moments of a living bat and always returns to its original shape. The radio controlled bat is nearing completion, the last thing to do is construct a flexible membrane to cover and form the wings.

This amazing new design features a special metal wire, that contracts when current is placed through it and reacts with the elastic metal alloy muscles causing them to contract also. This coupled with an exact copy of a bats skeletal and muscular structure, always the radio controlled bat to fly just like the real thing.

Let’s deal with the ‘helluva hopper’ first.  This sporty looking little grasshopper it seems flew all the way from India to England but decided that, rather than waste his energy ‘paddling his own canoe’, he’d come over First Class and stowed away on a plane, eventually landing at England’s Stansted Airport.

He was identified by the UK’s Food & Environment Research Agency as a Painted Grasshopper but his more formal title is Poeklocerus Pictus.  He’s about 6 cm long and, as you can see from his mug shot, he’s blue and yellow. 

However, he’s a bit of a ‘Mr Creosote’ (Monty Python fans will know exactly what I’m talking about!) and gorges himself on vegetables.  Our little friend above was swiftly swept away from Stansted to serve time in quarantine and immediately managed to chomp his way through a cabbage.  According to Chris Malumphy who is an entomologist at the FERA , in proportion to their size, grasshoppers eat around eight times faster than cattle.

For those of you here in the UK who are worried that this mighty muncher or his family might deprive you of your Brussels sprouts on Christmas Day, don’t panic … FERA have said that if there are more members of the Munch Bunch among us, they’re unlikely to survive our climate, unlike in it’s native land of India where it’s reported to decimate food plants such as aubergines, citrus fruits, potatoes and tomatoes.

Now we come to our eight legged beasties.

A new breed of giant spider has been discovered by a group of US and Slovenian researchers (from the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and Smithsonians National Museum of Natural History) in Africa and Madagascar.  The spider is of the Golden Orb Weaver species and the female has an inch and half long body with a leg span of five inches.  Needless to say, the web is equally impressive and can stretch to a width of more than three feet.  In comparison, the males have a leg span of just one inch.

This latest discovery from the Nephila family and called Nephila Komaci was thought to be extinct but Jonathan Coddington from Smithsonian said that a pal of his from South Africa found a male and two females in the Tembe Elephant Park in Africa.  Having visited Mr Nephila and his small harem, the researchers carried out some tests and have now confirmed it’s the largest Orb Weaver known and is a newly identified species.  However, Mr Coddington has said this possibly endangered species isn’t out of the woods yet as its only definite habitat appears to be a sand forest in this elephant park and its range is restricted - it lies within two endangered biodiversity areas  (Maputaland and Madagascar).

This new variety was named after one of the researchers’ friends – Andrej Komac who sadly died in an accident during the discovery process.

And my final little beastie, although he may look a bit scary, is a New Age/Hippy (depending on your age!) spider and is a veggie!!!

He’s quite a rarity – as far as we know, he’s the first vegetarian spider (1 in 40,000) and eats leaf tips filled with nectar rather than insects.

This jumping spider (known as Bagheera Kiplingi) lives in Central America and takes nectar-filled tips of acacia bushes (known as Beltian bodies).  But fret ye not … these bushes are unlikely to be razed to the ground as they’re closely guarded by a variety of ant against other herbivores so very few vegetarians get the chance to nip in there for a swift snack.  It’s thought that our Jumping Jack Flash uses his excellent eyesight, speed and cunning to get past the ants and steal the acacia tips – an advantage over other herbivores.  But scientists are also of a mind that the spiders may have the knack of imitating the ants’ chemical scent.

The spiders are predominantly vegetarian in Mexico but have been known to pick up the odd ant larvae in Costa Rica and just to take this tree-hugging hippy idea one step (or eight) further, the male spider is very much a ‘New Age man’ – it’s thought he helps to look after the eggs and care for the children (presumably while wifey’s pursuing her 9-5 job ‘in the City’!!!)

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The little monkey comes from the rain forest canopies of South America, where its tiny size lets it reach food in the highest and most brittle branches.  They are omnivorous, mostly eating fruit and insects, but occasionally will eat frogs, eggs, and small lizards.

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They also have special incisors they use for gouging at tree bark for sap.  It spends about two thirds of its time harvesting the gummy tree sap.

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Twins are common among these tiny little primates.

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There are two subspecies of the Pygmy Marmoset, Cebuella Pygmaea Pygmaea and Cebuella Pygmaea Niveiventris.   The difference between the two is mostly coloring.

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Luckily, these little guys are not endangered, but their habitat is shrinking.

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It was a few months ago that Scienceray took a preliminary look at the momentous construction project going on near the Hoover Dam – you can see it here.  Then we saw how the project began in 2005 and we left it in June of 2009.  At that point the arch was more than fifty percent complete and it was hoped that the two sides would meet in the fall.  That is in the here and now, so let’s take a look at how the project has progressed since then.  Have the hopes of the bridge builders come to fruition?

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All attention since June has been focused on the arch that will underpin the road that will connect the States of Arizona and Nevada.  Certainly, it seems to be painstaking work and the work literally seems to inch towards completion.  Not to worry, though.  The folks of the two neighboring States are patient people – after all the Dam itself is close to celebrating its seventy fifth birthday.  Those who remember its grand opening back in the Great Depression are now octogenarians.  Still, the near completion of the arch is cause enough to fly the flags, even though there is a painstaking six feet still to go. Look at this great shot from the completion day in August, however.

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If you look to the right of the flags – about ten meters or so, you will see a tiny figure with a safety hat and orange coat.  That’s one of the construction workers and gives an idea of the sheer scale of the project.  There is no doubt that those working on the project must not be afflicted by bouts of vertigo – however occasional.  Would you want to be up that high?  Just to put it in to context, it is over two hundred and fifty meters down from this height.  As Shaggy might say, yikes.

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Talking of things (rather than people) in their eighties, the bridge is now eighty five percent complete.  The arches have been connected.  Earlier in the year the contractors had finished work on the steel tub girders and the deck on the spans and the first segments of each arch were cast.  The very last sections of the arch were connected on 27 August 2009.  After this the supporting cable system had to be removed and this took a further two weeks.  The arch became free standing and self supporting on 27 August. 

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There is more work to be completed.  This includes setting the precast columns and erecting the steel girders.  What is most important, of course, for those who will use the bridge, is the casting of the roadway itself – both the deck and the barriers.  From road level, the archway is nearing completion in July.

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It is still July and the arch is nearing completion.  Although there is a month to go before their removal, the supporting cable system is still in place.  What a tragedy it would be if the cables were to give way at this point in time – the whole construction would plummet in to Lake Mohave like the denouement of some James Bond movie.  Fortunately, the brilliance of the engineers and the construction workers would pay off.  By August the arch would be free standing.

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So, when visitors are allowed on the bridge, what will the view of the Hoover Dam be like?  The picture above gives you an idea, taken from the bypass bridge itself.  Breath taking is quite the word.

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The next part of this piece contains photos from the actual bridge itself taken on the day that the arch became free standing – August 27 2009.   The bridge itself is huge – but it is close to the dam – around five hundred meters all told.  If you want the full name for the bridge then you must refer to it as the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.  Could we not call it the M&P for short perhaps?  O’Callaghan was the Governor of Nevada back in the nineteen seventies and a Korean War veteran.  Tillman too was a veteran, but of the Afghanistan conflict where he was killed in action in 2004, his death surrounded by more than a few conspiracy theories.

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The bridge on the day the arch became single.  If you look between the two spans you will see another worker, crouching on a platform.  Again, this gives you a sense of sheer scale but, rather more interesting (to Science Fiction fans, at least) is the small blue box on the center right hand side of the picture.  Could it be that a certain Time Lord is thwarting another attempt by evil alien invaders to launch an attack on the earth from the Hoover Dam?  Or is that just what construction workers, taken short, refer to as a room called rest?

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This shot gives a really good feeling of how high the actual bridge will be when it is completed.  As you can see, the bridge will not be slim, exactly.  It is a new section of Highway 93 and as such will have two lanes each way over the complete span of five hundred and seventy meters.  A stagger inducing two hundred and fifty six meters above the river at its base, the bridge will not, however, afford drivers a view of the Hoover Dam as they cross.  It is way too high for that.  They will, however, be able to park and walk across the entire span should they wish, pretty much where the workers are on the left.

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Now the arch is complete there is almost another full year of work to be done to complete the bridge.  That will include the construction of columns on the arch itself that will eventually provide support for the roadway (see second to last picture – work has started).  Overall the statistics are very impressive.  About twelve hundred construction people have worked on the project with a further three hundred engineers.  The bridge is not the only feat of engineering – the four miles of four lane highway (which doesn’t in itself sound too impressive) was very difficult because of the rugged terrain that surrounds the area on all side.  The highway on its own cost over twenty million dollars.

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This picture of the Hoover Bypass Bridge was taken from Lake Mohave by boat in September 2009.  You can clearly see how the supporting cable system has now been removed and the arch is now free standing.  This marvelous image captures the sheer scale and grandeur of the project and proves that sometimes, when it comes to photography, looking up is just as effective as looking down.

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However, the view from the heavens is just as remarkable.  These shots were taken from a passing United Airlines flight to Las Vegas.  A breathtaking view from September 13 2009, the project can now be easily imagined complete.  Scienceray will return for the opening of this amazing bridge – hopefully in November 2010.  Watch this space.  For now, in October 2009, we say goodbye to the bridge.  As you can see, the pillars which will support the bridge road are now being built from the arch itself.  Amazing.

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Let us finish here, however, with a gorgeous high definition shot of the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge taken in October 2009.

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You may Also Like: The Incredible Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge Under Construction (this site)

It remains an area needing much investigation, especially with regard to why animals display such behaviour. It’s been suggested by experts that the phenomenon could be occurring on a far larger scale than is currently suspected, but that people failing to document incidences in the past – because of adverse reaction from the public, or in particular, certain religious groups – may have resulted in a cover-up of the facts. Whatever the truth is, it’s a truly fascinating topic, and opens the door to many questions about sexuality and the nature of sexual attraction.

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The findings have already led to claims homosexuality must be entirely natural, as apposed to sinful, as stated in the Bible – so the idea may well be ruffling some feathers in certain religious circles. These religious folk may argue that we are not animals, but humans, which is why there is a difference in which type of behaviour is acceptable for each of us. (Or they may claim these animals are also sinners and will burn in Hell for their homosexual relations – if you don’t believe me, read the comments below the article.) However, considering we share 98% of our DNA with a chimpanzee, 80% with an earth-worm, and 60% with a banana, I think it’s safe to say we’re a part of the natural world, and that this behaviour is a natural part of our sexuality.

Some documented incidences of homosexuality in the animal kingdom:

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Approximately 25% of black swans are estimated to be in same-sex partnerships, with two males often stealing the nest and eggs of a female, or even joining a nesting female in a threesome and later evicting her and raising her young.

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In an experiment to discern whether homosexual pairs of male penguins in a German zoo were partaking in such relationships out of choice, or by necessity as the result of lack of females, the zoologists removed one male form each pair and replaced it with an imported female – only to find that there were no successful matings as a consequence. The males were thought to be suffering from depression as a result of missing their male partners, and the females were removed and males re-united with their mates, after public protests by Gay Rights activists in Germany.

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Male dolphins sometimes participate in homosexual group-sex (or gay orgies!), and are the only species known to engage in nasal sex – using their blow-holes in acts of male on male penetration.  They also rub each other with their bodies, snouts, and flippers – meaning they are almost certainly engaging in sex for pleasure, rather than reproduction.

It’s been reported that nine in ten pairings, for mating, between giraffes are male on male partnerships. They have full intercourse and even experience orgasm.

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American Bison are known to have taken part in penetrative (anal) sex, and the Lakota Indians even have a special name for trans-gender or bisexual Bison, which translates as Two-Spirit Bison.

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The Bonobo ape, a fully bisexual species, is the animal recorded as displaying the highest levels of homosexual or bisexual behaviour, with 60% of sexual relationships taking place between two or more females (yes, folks – that’s a lesbian threesome!). All great apes display high rates of homosexual behaviour.

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Elephants also display homosexual behaviour, with males often forming close, long-term relationships with younger male elephants, in which sexual activity plays a large part (depending on the age of these ‘young’ males, this might just be bordering on the perverse…). In captivity, elephants spend around 45% of the time in which they are engaged in sexual activity with those of the same sex, regardless of gender.

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A study showed that between 20% and 80% of sexual relationships formed by eleven species of male dragonflies were with other males.

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Research into the homosexual behaviour of sheep and fruit flies has led to scientists claiming a genetic factor is involved, thereby stating homosexuality must be determined at birth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RlTAyNI8WE

You may also be interested in the following article, written by a friend of mine:

A Brief History of Homosexuality

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Among the best characteristics of mammals that include the presence of hair or fur on the skin and mammary glands in the females that secrete milk is they give birth to their live young instead of laying eggs. However, there is and exception to this.  Of the 21 orders of the Mammalia class, one order is so classified for the reproductive nature of its species to lay eggs rather than live births.  This is the order Monotremata.

Only two families compose the order Monotremata:  Tachyglossidae, where echidnas belong; and Omithorhynchidae, which has the platypus.  Monotremes are found in Australia, including Tasmania, and New Guinea.  A few, however, have been successfully bred outside of these countries, usually in zoological parks.  A few animal collectors have managed to breed echidnas as backyard pets.

  Long-Beaked Echidna

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Also referred to as spiny anteaters, echidnas are best characterized by the spiky spines mixed with long, coarse hairs that cover their bodies. Their toothless mouth has a long sticky tongue suitable for picking ants and termites, their main diet.  Echidnas inhabit a variety of shelters from rocks to woods, holes in the ground, small caves, or even under bushes.  Though long-lived, echidnas have a low reproductive rate, for the female lays only a maximum of two eggs.

Short-Beaked Echidna

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There are two popular species of echidnas.  The short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), found in Australia, is about 12 to 18 inches long, excluding its short tail.  It has a small head and a nose that is extended into a slender snout.  The curved-beak echidna of New Guinea (Zaglossus brukini), on the other hand, is distinct for its curved snout and can grow to a length of up to 30 inches.  Smaller echidnas make useful pets, especially in places where ants and termites are such abundant pests.  Despite their spiky body coverings, echidnas are known to be gentle and harmless animals unless threatened.  Unfortunately, human activities are the primary causes of the diminishing echidna population.  In places where they abound, hundreds of echidnas die every year due to vehicular accidents, forest fire, and purposeless butchery.

The Platypus

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Because of its ambiguous characteristics, the platypus (Ornithorynchus anatinus) has fascinated scientists who have been studying it for years.  In fact, the platypus was taken to be a hoax for a number of years after 1797, when it was first discovered.  Some scientists during that time could not believe in a mammal that has some features of a duck—long, soft, leathery snout that looks like a beak, and webbed feet.

The platypus has short fur and a broad, flat tail.  It shelters in burrows dug in the bank of rivers or streams, where the female also lays its eggs.  Semiaquatic and nocturnal, it usually hunts for food in riverbeds during the night.  Its food constitutes mainly of shellfish, shrimps, insect larvae, worms, tadpoles, and fish.  Though the life span of the platypus exceeds 10 years, its reproductive rate is quite low.  It lays only a maximum of four eggs.  The adult male is well known for the presence of a hollow, horny claw on the ankle of each hind foot.  Humans, who hunt them for their fur and for biological curiosities, are the chief enemies of the platypus.  Fortunately, in Australia and in other countries where the platypus specie thrives, strict laws in protection of these duck-billed monotremes are well enforced