Caterpillars mimicking snakes

A few weeks ago, in the Everglades, I came upon an interesting caterpillar. It had a spotted pattern, with the spot closest to the head looking remarkably similar to a vertebrate eye. I managed to get a few photos from different angles and even a video showing its rocking back-and-forth crawling movement. The encounter got […]

Predatory tortoises and iguanas

Living reptiles include the tuatara, lizards, snakes, turtles (and tortoises), and crocodilians (see below Figure). Reptiles are primarily carnivorous (i.e. preying upon and eating other animals), with some variation amongst the different groups. The tuatara, an ancient lineage represented by a single living species endemic to New Zealand, is carnivorous. All crocodilians (24 species) are […]

Kayak fishing for peacock bass

Butterfly peacock bass (Cichla ocellaris) are undoubtedly one of the world’s most striking freshwater fish. This species is actually a large predatory cichlid. In an earlier post on pike killifish, I pointed out that the elongated ‘pike’ body shape has evolved convergently in many different, and distantly related, groups of fish. Another successful predatory fish […]

Alligators and Crocodiles in South Florida

A google search for ‘difference between alligator and crocodile’ returns 30 million search results. Physical differences include alligators having round U-shaped snouts and crocodiles pointed V-shaped snouts, alligators being dark green or black and crocodiles generally lighter green or grey in coloration, and alligators having only the upper teeth visible when the mouth is closed […]

The ecology of fishing jaguars

An interesting new paper describes how a diet composed almost entirely of fish and caiman (a relative of the alligator) has likely allowed jaguars in the Pantanal, Brazil’s vast wetland, to reach high population density, caused territorial breakdown, and led to unexpected social interactions (cooperative fishing, co-traveling, and playing) between unrelated adults. Across most of […]

Iguanas in Florida

Three introduced species of iguana are found in South Florida. Two of these are common: The black spiny-tailed iguana (Ctenosaura similis) and the green iguana (Iguana iguana). A third, the western spiny-tailed iguana (Ctenosarua pectinata), is found in only a single location. The species Ctenosaura similis goes by the common names black spiny-tailed iguana, black […]

Caecilians (legless Amphibians) found in the U.S.A. for the first time

Caecilians are fascinating creatures. Within the Class Amphibia, they have their own Order (Gymnophiona) and are much less well known or studied than their cousins the frogs and toads (Order Anura), and salamanders and newts (Order Caudata). There are 215 recognized species of Caecilians (AmphibiaWeb). All caecilians are legless with very small eyes, and range […]

Microhabitat use in Costa Rican poeciliid fishes (with fieldwork photos)

For each of five years (2013, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020) I have been fortunate to spend 3-weeks in Costa Rica conducting collaborative fieldwork with friends and colleagues from Wageningen University. Our latest paper resulting from this work, with co-authors Andres Hagmayer and Bart Pollux, has been published in the journal Freshwater Biology. This research, […]

Chimpanzees attacking and killing gorillas in the wild

A remarkable new paper has been published describing 2 lethal attacks by large coalitions of chimpanzees on smaller groups of western lowland gorillas in Loango National Park, Gabon. These are the first observations of their kind. Prior observations of the interactions between these two species of great ape, in regions of their range where they […]

A cleaning interaction between fish and humans

I recently published a short ‘natural history note’ describing an unexpected cleaning interaction between sailfin mollies (Poecilia latipinna) and humans in a Greek lake. In this lake I observed these normally skittish fish approach and graze on the exposed skin of bathing humans (myself and others), presumably removing dead skin cells in what amounts to […]