Pics of the Day/Night
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so chimOriginally posted by the Bear:it's a cicada.. they spend 17 years of their lives living off the sap of trees underground, mature then come out, make a lot of noise, breed, lay eggs then die...
other cicadas have 13 years or life cycles of prime numbers...
so it is theorised that they had predators or parasites with similar length of life cycles..
say, the parasite has a life cycle of 2 years, then the cicada will want to avoid a life-cycle which is divisible by 2.. if the parasite has a life cycle of 3 years, then the cicada wants to avoid a life-cycle which is divisible by 3..
if the parasite has a 2 year life-cycle, the cicada, having a 17 year life-cycle, will only meet every 34 years.. and so on.. if the parasite has a 16 year life-cycle, they will only meet every 272 years..
in order to fight back, the parasite has only 2 life-cycles to increase the frequency of coincidences.. it has 2 ways.. get an annual life cycle or reach a 17 year life-cycle..
if annual, there are no cicadas for it to feed on for 16 life-cycles..
if it tries to get to a 17 year life-cycle, it would need to evolve through the 16 year life-cycle then jump to 17... which means at some stage of the evolution, they do not meet for 272 years.. by then, the parasite would probably have died out
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it's actually just math.. figure out the cool properties of prime numbers, and you'll figure things out
hey.. if we ever meet, i'll give you a book... it's a great book
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pic of the night...
sugar gliders!
aren't they adorable? -
bats?
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no... cute little fellas
cute right?Originally posted by LinYu:bats? -
pics of the night.. tiger cubs playing with chicks
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I love tiger cubs.... infact I like tigers. Such a gorgeous looking animal....
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Are they really playing with the chicks?
Is there a Part II? -
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I mean, they look so hungry! Look at the second picture!!
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well, in yahoo news, it says the cage of tiger cubs was visited by the chicks who walked in.. and the chicks were not harmedOriginally posted by Mr Chumpa Woompa:Are they really playing with the chicks? Is there a Part II?
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actually, in the first pic, the tiger cubs look petrified and are trying to run away
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or....are those dinner?Originally posted by the Bear:pics of the night.. tiger cubs playing with chicks -
i like tiger n lion.
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not enough meat on the chicks
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Liger
and...
TigonOriginally posted by Cool-gal:i like tiger n lion. -
pic of the day...
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Arggghhhh......some really look like laurence!Originally posted by the Bear:pic of the day... -
pic of the night..
a beluga calf rests its the mother -
coolOriginally posted by the Bear:pic of the day...
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pic of the night..
panda cub at play
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World's only human-bred panda in wild dies
Posted: 31 May 2007 1951 hrs
Xiang Xiang the panda
BEIJING: The only giant panda released into the wild after being bred in captivity has died, setting back China's efforts to save the critically endangered species, state press reported Thursday.
Xiang Xiang was found dead in February on snow-covered ground after apparently being mauled by wild male pandas protecting their territory, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Xinhua said the announcement of Xiang Xiang's death was delayed until a full investigation had been completed.
The five-year-old was bred in captivity at the Wolong Nature Reserve in China's southwestern Sichuan province and released into the wild in April last year, but proved unable to cope with real-life conditions.
"We chose Xiang Xiang because we thought that a strong male panda would have a better chance of surviving in the harsh natural environment," said the reserve's deputy director, Li Desheng.
"But the other male pandas clearly saw Xiang Xiang as a threat."
Xiang Xiang, which means "Auspicious", underwent three years of training before his release, learning to build a den, forage for food and mark his territory, but not how to fight well enough.
"We have to give captive-bred pandas better survival training, especially combat and defence skills," Xinhua quoted reserve vetenarian Yang Chunxiang as saying.
Giant pandas are the world's most endangered species, with just 1,590 living in the wild, mostly in the mountains of Sichuan, and more than 210 in captivity, according to Xinhua.
In 2003, China began teaching the animals bred in captivity to live in the natural environment so that the population in the wild would grow.
Xinhua described Xiang Xiang's death as a "major setback" for those efforts but officials said more pandas would be released into the wild.
"We are all sad about Xiang Xiang, but it doesn't mean the project has failed," said Zhang Hemin, head of the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Centre in Wolong.
"The lessons we have learnt from what happened to Xiang Xiang will help us adapt and improve the project." - AFP/yy -
what can i say?
those people don't know territorial needs of animals, expecting the pandas to live nicely together...
what they need is habitat.. but probably like most of the things they do, they just do it without thinking of the consequences -
check this out...
Speed Racer's Mach 5!
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cool....batman would envy thisOriginally posted by the Bear:check this out...
Speed Racer's Mach 5!