The Ark In Space

Synchronized Swimming in the Animal Kingdom

Sunday, 21 March 2021

While some sports are popular in the human world it seems that it is synchronized swimming which is really taking off among the animal population...

Image Credit Flickr User xanboozled

Image Credit Flick User Turkinator

The Oldest Species on Earth – The Horseshoe Shrimp

Saturday, 27 April 2019

It was almost bound to be small and seemingly insignificant but the oldest species of earth is a shrimp, ironic given the connotations of its name in the English language. Rather than being the runt, the squirt and the general nobody its name implies, this little guy (the Horseshoe shrimp to friends but Triops cancriformis rather more formally) has staying power. It is almost the same now as it was two hundred million years ago.

Image Credit Wikimedia

So, this little chap wasn’t just around when dinosaurs roamed the earth, it was around when they were evolving. Now researchers from the University of Glasgow in Scotland have discovered two hitherto undiscovered colonies of the rare shrimp. And they did so in quite an unusual manner.

The Sand Dollar – the Animal that Can Clone Itself

Sunday, 14 January 2018

This somewhat strange looking specimen is a Sand dollar. It is a sea urchin which burrows and comes from the order Clypeasteroida – and you can see why it gets its name, as it resembles a coin. Some joke that it is the only stable dollar in the world at the moment. Humor aside, it does have one trick up its sleeve that we can only wish would apply to real money. It can clone itself – creating a perfect copy.

Image Credit Scott Schiller

An Alphabet of Animals

Sunday, 18 June 2017

We thought we would have a little fun and create a list of what we think are the best and most unusual collective nouns for animals. Of course, in the tradition of Ark in Space we are including the best images we could find to illustrate them. You can go check them out on the internet we did not make these up! So, here they are - an A-Z of collective nouns, a veritable alphabet of animals.

A byke of ants

Image Credit Flickr User Thirteen of Clubs

We are not sure what it means, however. Yet it was still more interesting than the word we would normally use - swarm

A cauldron of bats

Image Credit Flickr User Aussie Gal

Fight!

Saturday, 10 December 2016

Image Credit Flickr User Jsome1

Sometimes it is simply play, at others it is in deadly earnest. Yet when animals fight there is something that draws us to watch despite the potential fatal outcome. Perhaps it appears to something visceral and basic in our instincts - or perhaps we just like to watch a good old fashioned tooth and claw fight.

Image Credit Flickr User Tambako the Jaguar

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. Mohandas Gandhi

Image Credit Flickr User Mike Baird

The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights. Muhammad Ali

The Silver Fox: Vivacious Variant of Vulpes vulpes

Friday, 12 August 2016

If you came to this page looking for a feature on George Clooney, Harrison Ford or Sean Connery then sorry to disappoint you – this is the wrong place! This particular silver fox has been around a good deal longer than the movies though its story could be easily made in to a film without a doubt. You could also be under the impression that the silver fox is a species related to the red fox. There, too, you would be mistaken. They are the same species.

Image Credit Flickr User dbarronoss

Gibbon Versus Dog

Wednesday, 10 August 2016

This is a video of my B Leon’s dog Dam, fighting with the neighborhood Gibbon in Thailand near the Mayanmar (Burma) border.

The gibbons's name is Chani (gibbon, Thai), and the dogs name is Dam (black, Thai). Mr Leon did not name the dog, but it is a traditional Thai name for a black dog or cat. He found the majority of pets names in Thailand corresponded to their colors. He did name the gibbon though.

Chani was extremely friendly to B Leon during his stay in Thailand; she would sit on his shoulder and groom his hair, and loved to be swung by her arms or legs. Her strength is phenomenal; yet don't be fooled by how gentle and playful she is with Dam. She was seen to grab birds on the fly with lightening fast reflexes and snap their necks all in a split second. Chani has always been gentle kind and playful and motherly around pets, friends and children. Feeding animals especially monkeys in Thailand is believed to bring a blessing in Thai Buddhism.

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