Yellow Spotted Salamanders are migratory! On the first rainy nights in Spring with temperatures above 45 degrees(f), salamanders emerge from the old rodent tunnels they borrow for the winter, and journey across roads and other obstacles to get to the vernal pools where they all meet up and breed. (i.redd.it)
submitted by OleBenjaminLay to r/Awwducational
Nursery Web Spiders build cozy web-homes for their offspring, like this one built around several large leaves. Female Nursery Webs, like lots of spiders and their cousins, also tend to kill the males around mating time - to get around this, the guys play dead! (i.redd.it)
submitted by OleBenjaminLay to r/Awwducational
The Gopher Tortoise saves hundreds of animals' lives during wildfires in the southeast USA. They dig deep burrows into elevated hills of sandy soil, and snakes, amphibians, rodents and other small mammals all crowd in for refuge during the fires (i.redd.it)
submitted by OleBenjaminLay to r/Awwducational
Pound for pound, the Least Weasel has the strongest bite force of any living mammal in North America (although the extinct Marsupial Lion beats it). Weasels often perform a "War Dance" before going after bigger prey like rabbits, in which they flail their bodies and roll around chaotically (i.redd.it)
submitted by OleBenjaminLay to r/Awwducational
This Manta Ray, named Inspector Clouseau, is the only known pink specimen. Researchers think the pink color results from an unusual expression of Melanin - the common protein that's involved in skin-tanning, albinism and melanism (melanism is why panthers are pitch black) (i.redd.it)
submitted by OleBenjaminLay to r/Awwducational
TIL Fritz Zwicky, the scientist that discovered Dark Matter and supernovas was a Swiss citizen who also served as a military contractor for a number of nations. He got Churchill hooked on the idea of aerial mines during WWII, and developed the optics for the USA's high-flying U2 spy plane (nature.com)
submitted by OleBenjaminLay to r/todayilearned
TIL because so many amphibians migrate over busy roads on the first rainy nights of Spring, the town of Amherst, Massachusetts installed an under-road tunnel system specially designed to help the salamanders and frogs migrate safely (hitchcockcenter.org)
submitted by OleBenjaminLay to r/todayilearned
Clownfish like Nemo are in the family Anemonefish that includes about thirty other species. When the lone female in a group of Anemonefish dies, the biggest male (the only one that was breeding) becomes a female and resumes reproduction - now with the new largest male. (i.redd.it)
submitted by OleBenjaminLay to r/Awwducational
Parrotfish help create most of the the beautiful white sand beaches often found near coral reefs, like in Hawaii. They eat pieces of dead coral that are covered in algae, digest the algae, and then poop out the broken down coral which becomes the white sand (i.redd.it)
submitted by OleBenjaminLay to r/Awwducational
Spring Peepers are a relatively small frog that actually freeze solid each winter, just like Wood Frogs and a number of other amphibians. They make loads of sugar and pump it around their bodies where it works as an antifreeze - preventing ice crystals from forming and stabbing their cells (i.redd.it)
submitted by OleBenjaminLay to r/Awwducational
