bbsrc:

Did you know reindeers’ eyes change colour with Arctic seasons?

Researchers have discovered the eyes of Arctic reindeer change colour through the seasons from gold to blue (see top image), adapting to extreme changes of light levels in their environment and helping detect predators.

The BBSRC-funded team from UCL (University College London), and the University of Tromsø, Norway, showed that the colour change helps reindeer to see better in the continuous daylight of summer and continuous darkness of Arctic winters, by changing the sensitivity of the retina to light.

Read more: http://bit.ly/1eQ5bZA 

Top image copyright: Glen Jeffery 

Bottom image copyright: Erling Nordoy 

currentsinbiology:

wnycradiolab:

Whale song sheet music from David Rothenberg and Mike Deal

Whale Song Explained

Humpbacks synchronize their music across oceans, and there’s sheet music to prove it.

The largest single pressing of any album of recorded music was not made by Michael Jackson or Mariah Carey, but by an animal the size of a city bus. Ten million copies of Songs of the Humpback Whale were inserted into the January 1979 issue of National Geographic, distributed around the world in 25 languages. The humpback’s cries are credited with inspiring the global movement of conservation measures to protect whales. But what is often overlooked is the true musicality of the sounds. The shrill wails, deep growls, rhythmic scratches, and spectral moans combine into repeating patterns so structured that they fit any conventional definition of music.

nubbsgalore:

red deer stag photographed by mark bridger in richmond park (previously featured)

nubbsgalore:

cub hug. photos by mitsuaki iwago, serhat demiroglu and gregoire bouguereau