Animal of the Day: Armadillidiidae!

Pill bugs! Rolly Pollys!

They turn purpley blue when sick, they can drink out of their anus, they eat their own poo sometimes, they are crustaceans. They roll up, like armadillos, when panicked. These are things I know off the top of my head but here are more things:

They are in a family of woodlice. They are sometimes kept with tarantulas to clean the cage since they eat mold and poo. They are beloved by children and considered pests by others.

Wow wikipedia didn't have much to say about armadillidiidae. but how fun is that to say? Armadillidiidae!

ANTI FEAR LIST THURSDAY

1. In the process of recovery wild grapes with Anne and taking her to the log 
2. Waiting until 2am then almost sleeping but then finally finally Alex got here and then staying up til 3 talking to him and Luke
3. Lunch adventure with Emma and Quinn, glorious glorious songs sung, and it aided in later acquiring my new woswe dress that looks like awesome on me not potato sack
4. Old Friends by Simon and Garfunkel
5. Fox noises
6. my pencil monster pouch zipit thing
7. coworkers who are good at laughing except for the one who I can't make jokes around because the one has no understanding of sarcasm
8. spices make chicken soup so much better
9. winning against sutton and strobel's suggestions of me doing news instead of the backpage. as if
10. 87654321

Animal of the Day: Red Panda!

These guys live in the Himalayas and China and are currently vulnerable due to poaching and habitat loss. It has a peculiar gate because it's front legs are shorter than the back legs. Red Pandas feed on bamboo primarily, but also chomp down on eggs and birds and small mammals.

The red panda is in it's own family, unrelated to bears, raccoons, or pandas. Their tails provide camouflage and balance while climbing about. When hot, pandas lay on tree limbs with their own limbs hanging, when cold they curl up and wrap their tail around their body. Red pandas clean themselves like cats. When threatened and unable to scurry away, red pandas stand on their backlegs to make themselves appear bigger and use their sharp claws to fend of attack.

Red pandas make awesome twittering noises!

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Animal of the day: Puma! (because Jen likes cats not fish and also because I have a book about animals with a beautiful beautiful puma on the front)

Puma's are the same thing as cougars and mountain lions and are also called catamounts. They hold the Guinness record for cat with most nicknames.  Pumas are more like domestic cats than lions both in terms of being solitary and genetically close and the fact that they cannot roar, but cheetahs and jaguars are the closest relatives to the Puma. The Puma is usually silent but occasionally communicates in chirps, whistles, purrs, and other domestic cat like noises. There are six subspecies of Puma.

Pumas compete with gray wolves and jaguars for food when their territories overlap. Study is being undergone due to the suspicion that pumas have been successfully killing wolves by chomping down on the back of their skull.

Animal of the day: Axolotl!

Axolotls are amphibians, a member of the salamander family! They are popular scientific guinea pigs for they are able to regrow limbs. Don't shade them by confusing them with mud puppies, they ain't mud puppies.

Axolotls ares endangered because:

• pollution
• stupid asian carp and other foreign fishies eating the baby axolotls
• they are sold at the Mexican market. 

Axolotls grow to be 6 to 18 inches long, most commonly 9. They have gills stalks called ramis that are used to move oxygenated water. These guys have no eyelids but their teeth are existent, just barely visible and a bit unnecessary usually because they mainly eat by suctioning things in. Axolotls like to eat small fishies and wormies. 

Axolotls live in lakes in high up places in Mexico. They are sometimes cannibalistic when young. They can be pink!

Animal of the Day: Echidna!

Echidnas are named after a monster of Greek mythology and are also nicknamed "spiny anteaters", though they are not particularly closely related to anteaters. Echidnas are the only mammals, besides platypuses, that lay eggs. They live in Australia (basically Australia has the coolest animals) and New Guinea. They have an elongated snout making their skull resemble that of an odd bird or like those creepy doctor masks form the bubonic plague. Echidnas eat ants and termites with their sticky tongues, they have no teeth. Like platypi, echidnas have no nipples so they feed their young with their two milk patches. Also like platypi, the male echidna have spurs on their hind legs. Echindas have been recorded to live up to 50 years in captivity. The reproductive part on the male is very interesting but I will leave it up to the reader to read about that on wikipedia and keep my blog on the mild side of things.

Animal of the day: Sea Swallow

Also known as the blue angel, blue glaucus, blue dragon, blue sea slug, and blue ocean slug, this guy is pretty much a sea slug. Sea swallows can sting and eat on other stinging sea creatures such as the man of war and sometimes they decide to be cannibalistic. They can be found in the waters of Africa, Europe, Australia, and Mozambique. Sea Swallows float around upside down because their floaty gas sacs are located in their tummies. Sea swallows are hermaphrodites.