Whales Surprise Baja Paddlers
In the remote waters off Mexico's Baja Peninsula, explorers Justin DeShields and Bryan Morales come face-to-blowhole with a couple of giant humpback whales.
Cobra vs. Mongoose
Cobra vs. Mongoose
How does a mongoose stand up to a cobra? You might be surprised at the outcome.
Unbelievably Cute Mammal Rediscovered
This Ili pika was seen last summer in China's Tianshan Mountains.
Photograph by Li Weidong
You could call it one of the world's longest games of hide and seek.
For more than 20 years, the Ili pika (Ochotona iliensis), a type of tiny, mountain-dwelling mammal with a teddy bear face, had eluded scientists in the Tianshan Mountains (map) of northwestern China.
People have seen the furry critter only a handful of times since it was discovered by accident in 1983. In fact, people have spotted only 29 live individuals, and little is known about the animal's ecology and behavior. (Also see "Newly Discovered Carnivore Looks Like Teddy Bear.")
Then, in summer 2014, researchers rediscovered the pika.
Weidong Li, the species' original discoverer and a scientist at the Xinjiang Institute for Ecology and Geography, had gathered a group of volunteers in the Tianshan Mountains for some pika searching. At noon one day, as they were setting up camera traps, the team spotted their prize.
A curious pika emerged from a gap in the cliff face, and Li snapped a few photos (including the one above).
"They found it hiding behind a rock, and they realized they had found the pika. They were very excited," said Tatsuya Shin, a naturalist in China who works with the pika's discoverers.
Mountain High
In 1983, the Chinese government sent Li to the mountainous Xinjiang Province to study natural resources and infectious diseases. As Li explored a valley by Jilimalale Mountain, he saw a small, gray head sticking out from a crack in the rock. As he edged closer, Li got a look at its whole body.
The animal was about 8 inches (20 centimeters) long, with large ears and several small brown spots in its gray fur. Li wasn't familiar with the species, nor were nearby herdsmen. Li caught a specimen and sent it to a scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who said he believed the pika was a new species.
Although Li couldn't find any more pikas on a second trip to the area in December 1983, a third trip in 1985 was more successful, and the additional specimens allowed academy researchers to confirm that the Ili pika was new to science.
Tiny and in Trouble
Like other species of pika found in North America, the Ili pika lives at high elevations—between 9,200 and 13,450 feet (2,800 to 4,100 meters)—and subsists mainly on grasses, herbs, and other mountain plants.
Like other high-dwelling creatures, the pika is sensitive to changes in its environment. A 1990s estimate put its population at about 2,000 individuals, and it's believed to be decreasing in number, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Grazing pressure from livestock and air pollution have likely contributed to the decline in the Ili pika, which IUCN lists as vulnerable to extinction. China considers the species endangered. (Related: "Tiny, Rabbit-Like Animals Eating 'Paper' to Survive Global Warming.")
Even so, there are no concerted efforts under way to help the Ili pika. Li said he hopes to change that, and use the rediscovery of the animal to create conservation areas for the species.
How could anyone turn down a face like that?
New Titi Monkey: Fire-Tailed, Sideburns
A group of newly discovered titi monkeys huddle on a tree branch in the Amazon rain forest
Photograph by Adriano Gambarini
In 2011, while looking for animals in southern Brazil's Mato Grosso (map), Julio Dalponte noticed an unusual monkey with a reddish-orange tail, "like a blaze," he says.
His interest piqued, the scientist and his team returned a few times to the spot in the Amazon rain forest and observed more of the primates, which also have a light-gray forehead stripe and ochre sideburns.
Further research revealed the team had discovered a new species of titi monkey—small, tree-dwelling primates that number more than 30 species across South America. (Related: "Pictures: Bushy-Bearded Titi Monkey Discovered.")
The newfound species, Callicebus miltoni—also known as Milton's titi monkey or the fire-tailed titi monkey—was named in honor of Milton Thiago de Mello, a Brazilian primatologist, according to a recent study in the journal Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia.
Dalponte says he was surprised to discover a new monkey in the Brazilian Amazon, especially since that region was explored as part of the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition of 1913-14, which was jointly led by Theodore Roosevelt.
"A century has passed before we learned of the existence of Milton's titi monkey in this region," said Dalponte, of Brazil's Institute for the Conservation of Neotropical Carnivores.
Monkey Business
Like their relatives, Milton's titis live in small family groups consisting of a monogamous adult pair and two to three of their offspring.
The fruit-eating, 3.3-pound (1.5-kilogram) monkeys spend a lot of time grooming each other, and sometimes sit next to one another on branches with their tails endearingly entwined.
"These behaviors may support the ties between family members and the male-female pair bond," says Dalponte.
When startled, Milton's titi monkeys quickly disappear from sight and hide in dense parts of the forest canopy. (Also see "Monkey Day Pictures: Our Favorite Primates Around the World.")
However, Dalponte and his team were sometimes able to find the monkeys by listening for and playing back recordings of their vocalizations, which are among the most complex in the animal kingdom.
Stuck in Place
Milton's titi monkeys live in a small area of lowland rain forest between the Roosevelt and Aripuanã Rivers.
Because these monkeys cannot swim well or cross mountainous terrain, they are stuck there.
"The rivers fragment the forest and isolate the population of the new species, leaving them vulnerable to various types of human disturbance, such as forest fires," says Dalponte.
About 57 percent of the monkeys' territory is protected as either a conservation area or indigenous land. However, deforestation and development is common in the remainder of the monkeys' habitat.
It's too early to say whether Milton's titi monkey is endangered, he added, but it's certainly not out of the woods.
Animals
Animal Facts
Reptiles
-Marine Iguana
-Meller's Chameleon
-Nile Crocodile
-Olive Ridley Sea Turtle
-Saltwater Crocodile
-Web-Footed Gecko
Reptiles
-Marine Iguana
-Meller's Chameleon
-Nile Crocodile
-Olive Ridley Sea Turtle
-Saltwater Crocodile
-Web-Footed Gecko
Marine Iguana
Marine Iguana : Amblyrhynchus cristatus
The much-maligned marine iguanas of the Galápagos Islands are so famously homely, even Charles Darwin piled on, describing them as "hideous-looking" and "most disgusting, clumsy lizards."
It's true, they're not pretty, with their wide-set eyes, smashed-in faces, spiky dorsal scales, and knotty, salt-encrusted heads. But what these unusual creatures lack in looks they make up for with their amazing and unique ecological adaptations.
Scientists figure that land-dwelling iguanas from South America must have drifted out to sea millions of years ago on logs or other debris, eventually landing on the Galápagos. From that species emerged marine iguanas, which spread to nearly all the islands of the archipelago. Each island hosts marine iguanas of unique size, shape and color.
They look fierce, but are actually gentle herbivores, surviving exclusively on underwater algae and seaweed. Their short, blunt snouts and small, razor-sharp teeth help them scrape the algae off rocks, and their laterally flattened tails let them move crocodile-like through the water. Their claws are long and sharp for clinging to rocks on shore or underwater in heavy currents. They have dark gray coloring to better absorb sunlight after their forays into the frigid Galápagos waters. And they even have special glands that clean their blood of extra salt, which they ingest while feeding.
Their population is not well known, but estimates are in the hundreds of thousands. They are under constant pressure from non-native predators like rats, feral cats, and dogs, who feed on their eggs and young. They are protected throughout the archipelago and are considered vulnerable to extinction.
Fast Facts
Type: Reptile
Diet: Herbivore
Average life span in the wild: 5 to 12 years
Size: 4 to 5 ft (1.2 to 1.5 m)
Weight: 1 to 3.3 lbs (.5 to 1.5 kg)
Protection status: Threatened
Did you know? Marine iguanas sneeze frequently to expel salt from glands near their noses. The salt often lands on their heads, giving them a distinctive white wig.
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