Giant Shark on the Prowl

11/18/2009

Australian authorities think there's a giant great white shark on the prowl in the waters off Brisbane.  The evidence is another great white shark that was bitten nearly in two by a member of its own species. 

The cannibalized shark was over 11 feet long itself, meaning that the shark that inflicted the massive bite was much, much larger.

The shark featured in the movie Jaws was 25 feet long.  While that shark was purely fictional, the animal that caused the massive wounds pictured here is estimated to be that large. 

"You're gonna need a bigger boat...."

VIDEO: Watch an Australian news report about the giant shark.

Wacky Animals, Wacky Hosts

11/16/2009

Here's a clip from my Today Show appearance last week. The animals were great and Kathie Lee and Hoda were as entertaining as always!

...and I believe this is the same beaver as the one I had on the Today Show back in October.  It peed on me, but I'm sure glad what happens in this clip didn't happen during my segment!

Odd Meal

11/12/2009

Warning, this is sad.  I share it because it's up to us to stop this from happening.  Below is a video of what happens when albatross parents misidentify our plastic trash floating in the ocean and feed it to their chicks.  What you decide to purchase (or not to purchase), what you reuse, what you recycle and how you throw your trash away all have impacts on animals thousands of miles away.  Do you know where your trash goes?

From photographer Chris Jordan:

"These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world's most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent."

Mata Mata and Me on Today Show

11/11/2009

I will be doing my monthly appearance on the Today Show this morning during the 10-11 a.m. hour with Kathy Lee and Hoda.  As always, I'll be sharing some awesome wildlife with the ladies and all of the viewers.  This time around, one of the animals is definitely an odd looking one: the mata mata.

Mata matas (Chelus fimbriatus) are large, aquatic turtles found in slow moving waters in South America.  Mata mata noses are like snorkels, allowing these turtles to breathe while keeping their entire bodies submerged and hidden (see photo to the right).  Algae grows on their ridged shells, making them look like old logs rotting in the water.  Their heads and limbs are flat and wide and covered with fleshy protuberances that look like decaying leaves and help them detect prey moving in the water around them.  The bark-like shells and leafy bodies break up their silhouette, allowing mata matas to blend in with their background and stay hidden from predators and prey alike.

Mata matas have really wide mouths that give the impression that they are smiling.  But for their fish prey, that "smile" is not very funny.  Mata matas lie still in the mud and leaves underwater in total camouflage.  When a fish comes close, the mata mata snaps open its big mouth and sucks the fish in using vacuum-action and swallows it whole!

VIDEO: Check out this video of a mata mata ambushing and swallowing its prey.  You can really see how these turtles blend in with the decaying vegetation underwater.