Greater Glider

Lost my connection yesterday. We went to goth night and were vaguely social. Rick got a giant antique scythe that he is planning to hang on his wall.

Art

put a coat of silicone on the sphinx

glaze rabbit and soldier fly parts

raku fire rabbit and soldier fly parts

Animal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ozjulian/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

The greater glider (Petauroides volans) is a gliding possum from Australia, and it's coloration and markings show a great deal of variety. It has been observed to be able to glide up to 120 feet. They are competitors of the Koala as they too feed almost exculsively on Eucalyptus leaves.

Pig Footed Bandicoot

I tested the welder last night and it still works that is good.

Art

put another coat of silicone on the sphinx

Animal

The pig footed bandicoot (Chaeropus ecaudatus) is in my opinion the most under appreciated of the recently extinct mammals. It was a small herbivorous marsupial with a long snout, a bulky body and extremely tiny fragile legs with hooves. It was about the size of a kitten. Recently they seem to have gotten their first cryptozoologist when someone thought they heard their mating call in an AC/DC video.

photo of stuffed specimen's odd feet

Sun Bear

It's a shame more apartment listings don't add the feature "grimy unfinished basement" (even better "with floor drain") in their list of features. I've been kind of spoiled in terms of studio space.

Art

still carving the rabbit

Animal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44603071@N00/ / CC BY 2.0

The sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) is one of the smallest bears and is native to southeast Asia. They have an unusually long tongues that they use to extract honey from bee hives and termites. Among bears they are the most adept at climbing trees their back legs are specialized for climbing with well developed muscle around their tibia. They are not doing terrible well in the wild due to habitat destruction and over hunting. It does not help that their bile is prized as a traditional treatment for liver ailments.

Video of a sun bear cub

Asian Small Clawed Otter

finished the cricket

Art

start the rabbit and flower fly

Animal

Photo by guppiecat

The Asian small clawed otter (Aonyx cinerea) is the smallest of the the otters. It is native to southern Asia and tend to live in small groups of about 12 individuals. They climb well, I once saw several of them at a zoo scale the chain link side of their enclosure. Their claws are very short and fingernail-like this is said to give them greater manual dexterity then most otters. It has been recorded that they have 12 different vocalizations they communicate with.

Video with baby Asian small clawed otters

Russian Desman

I got into a long pointless (though civil) political argument at work last night and did not get home until it was late, so this is yesterday's entry. There was a relatively intense storm last night and we had most of one of the trees fall down into the driveway. Only the tree was damaged I think it will survive the damage though. Today and tomorrow I will be mostly studying for the Net +.

art

assemble cricket and cory catfish

Animal

The Russian Desman (Desmana moschata) is an odd looking aquatic insectivore that is related to moles from southwest Russia It is mostly found along the Don, Ural, and Volga. It uses its long flexible nose as a snorkel while swimming and It's nose also contains an Elmer's organ a sensory organ found in moles. It was once hunted for it's musk glands and fur, but is currently endangered. It is the only animal that has the word Russian in it's name and was adopted by the Russian Party of Life as their mascot for a time before they merged with other parties it is also featured on a coin. One of the names of the Russian Desman in Russian is vykhukhol which might be or sound like something profane but I'm not sure what. Perhaps I can ask Greg my friend who is fluent in Russian if I think about it later.

Short subtitled documentary about Russian desman

Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo

not feeling well today

Art

goal for the week 6.5 hours

sick

Animal

Photo by Erik K Veland

Goodfellow's tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus goodfellowi) is an endangered tree dwelling macropod from New Guinea and Indonesia. They eat mainly silkwood leaves and have a stomach with a fermentation vat similar to that of a cow. They are one of the largest Dendrolagus tree kangaroos at about 15-22lbs. A combination of habitat destruction and overhunting are wiping them out in the wild, fortunately they are breeding well in captivity.

Video of a baby tree kangaroo

Synthetoceras tricornatus

It looks like I will be taking my network + on 6/22. 

After the exotic feline rescue center we went to Mammoth Cave and Crystal Onyx cave. I felt very rushed through Mammoth cave, did see a cute grey bat though. Crystal Onyx cave while smaller was very impressive and had a lot of formations. It also was a prehistoric burial ground though the bodies were not in an accessible area. The tour guide was pleasantly snarky and seemed to very interested in geology (and was somewhat put out that we were not particularly knowledgeable on the subject).

Art

goal for the week 7hrs

make clay

work on the figure with the anubis mask

Animal

drawing by Arthur Weasley

Synthetoceras tricornatus was an artiodactyl (relative of camels) that inhabited North America during the Miocene. The males had a large "Y"shaped horn as well as enlarged canines. These were probably used in territorial disputes. It is thought that the horns may have been covered in tough skin.

necklace pipistrelle

Finally got the sphinx done and documented now I just need to make the rotational mold. We went to a drive-in located in Gibson City and saw "UP". We had arrived very early in Gibson City intending to explore the town. We talked to a person named Norm who ran and international grocery with three large dogs about his time flying burn victims to Airforce bases for medical help. We ended up not finding much so we went to Paxton. In Paxton we met a man running a novelty shop who had built a stone castle.  He rents out the castle for romantic getaways and requested that we mention it's availability especially during the week to the local SCA. He was also intrigued by the idea of vampire or changeling LARPers.

Art

clean the studio enough to access my silicone

put the first coat on the sphinx

make clay

work on the figure with the Anubis mask.

Animal

Photo by pseudolapiz

The necklace pipistrelle (Arielulus torquatus) is a microbat found only in Taiwan. It was recognized as a separate species in 1998 by Csorba & Lee. They are found at an altitude of 1500 meters and mostly eat small insects.

Close up of one bat

Coquerel's Sifaka

Art

stuff

Animal

Photo by Michael Hogan

Coquerel's Sifaka (Propithecus coquereli) is one of nine known species of sifaka all of which are found on the island of Madagascar they are very genetically distinct from other lemurs as a group. Coquerel's Sifakas are very matriarchal and even sub-adult females are dominant over males. Females have preferential access to food sources and males will wait until the group of females have moved on from a tree before moving into feed. They also have an interesting way of getting around on the ground in that they jump forward like kangaroos. In some regions of Madagascar killing and eating these sifakas is considered a fady (taboo) but I can't seem to find the reason why which is too bad I have a feeling there is a story there.

cute video of a Coquerel's Sifaka

Springhare

My parents are coming to Champaign today. Hopefully that will go alright.

Art

off

Animal

The Springhare (Pedetes capensis) is the only member of its family it is an eight pound south african rodent resembling a small kangaroo or rabbit. Generally they get around by hopping not unlike a kangaroo and they can leap up to 6 feet. They spends a good deal of their time standing up right and have a serious over bite even for a rodent. Their lifespan is generally about 15 years and they take 2 years to reach maturity. Springhare were threatened for a time but have recovered, they now can occasionally be found as exotic pets.

Western Tree Hyrax

I may take a few days off of art to take care of life and moving stuff. 

Art

goal for the week (not going to happen)

Animal

Photo by Valerius Tygart

The western tree Hyrax (Dendrohyrax dorsalis) is a small mammal from western and central Africa that of the other living mammals today (besides other hyraxes) is most closely related to elephants. Hyraxes are not directly related to elephants but represent a different branch of mammals that developed off of the prehistoric giant hyracoids. Like elephants they have similar foot pads and toenails, there are also skeletal similarities. Hyraxes also have enlarged incisors which are very rodent-like. Tree hyraxes are arboreal and can use their foot pads to cling to branches. Unlike other hyraxes the western tree hyrax is mostly nocturnal. They are mostly herbivores but will on occasion also eat insects. Chimpanzees in Bossou Guinea have occasionally been observed to capture western tree hyraxes then carry them around for several hours occasionally grooming the hyrax and the Chimpanzees were not observed eating the hyraxes durning these sessions.

Tree Hyrax skull showing the very rodent-like incisors that in more elephant like animals developed into tusks.

Here is a video of one climbing a tree.

Falkland island Fox

Art

goal for the week 15.5 hrs

Today

work on the sphinx

Animal

While I'm on depressing island wildlife. The Falkland island Fox (Dusicyon australis) was the only native land mammal of the Falkland islands and the only member of its genus, it is also the first canine driven to extinction in modern times. It is thought that it may be related to the coyote and perhaps even could have been the coyote's progenitor. There are many theories as to how it got to the Falkland islands. They were noted to be tame and curious which may be why its genus name Dusicyon means "foolish dog" it was not uncommon for trappers to lure them close with a piece of meat and then stab them to death. Settlers regarded them as a threat to their sheep and began a campaign of poisoning and trapping which wiped all of them out. The last Falkland island fox was shot in 1876, they were completely extinct 169 years after their initial discovery.

Saiga

Art

Goal  for the week 11.5hrs

Work on Sphinx

Animal

In the 1990's the Saiga (Siaga tatarica) was an abundant and funny looking animal in Russia. As part of a conservation plan to save Rhinos the WWF promoted the use of saiga horns instead of Rhino horns in traditional medicine, after all the saiga was abundant and bred quickly. The saiga also historically rebounded back from population crashes quickly. This plan back fired as male saiga were almost completely wiped out. The population dropped from well over a million to under 30,000. The ratio of males to females became ridiculous in many cases 700 to 1. The WWF stopped that reasonably quickly, and I'm guessing felt dumb.

Channel Island Fox

Today we went out to the Boneyard Arts Festival in Urbana and ran into Andrew at some sort of weird (fake?) punk fashion show. He went to the other galleries with us. We also ran into one of my co-worker's mother who does wildlife photography. 

Art

Goal for the week 7.5 hrs

Today

I had not added an internal armature to the sphinx and I noticed its front legs were sinking in on themselves so I added one today.

work on sphinx

Animal 

Photo by the U.S National Park Service

The Channel Island fox (Urocyon littoralis) is dwarf fox related to gray foxes that lives only on the Channel Islands of California. They are the smallest foxes in North America at only around 4 lbs and standing 6 inches at the shoulder. They split off gray foxes after becoming isolated on the islands about 18000 years ago and have since become a separate species. Aside from their small size they are also different from gray foxes in that they have lost two vertebra. They are critically endangered for a variety of reasons. To begin several invasive species were introduced to the islands such as bison, cats, goats, and feral pigs. The bald eagles that had been on the island (and had not been preying on the foxes) died off due to problems with DDT and the golden eagle which had priorly not really inhabited the island was drawn in by the feral pigs and took the bald eagle's place. The golden eagle as a secondary prey item started preying on the foxes which were not well adjusted to having a regular predator around. Then the declining foxes which had been on an island mostly free of canine diseases picked up distemper from domestic dogs which wiped out quite a lot of them. Then in an effort to protect the endangered Loggerhead Shrike the US Navy was culling the foxes to keep them from preying on the birds, they stopped in 2000 as the foxes had become critically endangered as well. 

Plains zebra

I did taxes yesterday having a business really makes taxes unpleasant there were a lot of forms to fill out. I also got a drill press which should make the stop motion puppet project possible.

Art

Goal for the week 6 hrs

Today 

carve the new hands for Serenity

Drill large holes into the base of Serenity for adding weights.

Animal

Photo by Picture taker 2

Mythology

There are several origin myths as to how the plains zebra (Equus Quagga) got its stripes. In one version the zebra was depicted as gluttonous and would not stop eating to go and pick up it's distinguishing characteristics from an unspecified creator. The zebra was left with only a striped coat that none of the other animals had wanted. In another story from Botswana zebra and baboon had gotten into a fight as baboon was keeping him from a water hole. Baboon was guarding the water hole as his and had built a fire near it so that he did not even have to leave it at night. During the fight zebra kicked the baboon so hard that when the baboon hit the rocks it scraped all of the fur off of his butt, it also knocked the zebra off balance into the fire which stained his white coat with black stripes. In a Khoi story the zebra has no horns because they were stolen by gemsbok while zebra was sleeping. Gemsbok stole them after zebra had refused to give gemsbok one of his horns. The are also several taboos regarding the eating of zebra meat. For some of the Tonga spotted or striped animals such as zebras must not be eaten by pregnant women or the child might end up marked. The Dubes do not eat the meat of zebras because the zebra is their totem. 

Black and Rufous Elephant Shrew

The party was a little quieter then I was expecting I hope people had a little bit of fun. Tomorrow we have a Funker vogt show in town. I'd kind of heard about it but I had assumed it would be in Chicago, hopefully there will be tickets at the door.

Art

sphinx

Animal

Photo by morganglines

The black and rufous elephant shrew (Rhynchocyon petersi) is a relatively large sengi from Kenya and Tanzania. They are an odd group of mammals, elephant shrews are actually not related to shrews and are actually part of an ancient and once very diverse group of mammals that includes elephants, sea cows, aardvarks, hyraxes, golden moles, and tenrecs. They have a scent gland on their chest called a sternal gland that they use to scent mark their territory, sometimes as often as 5 times a minute. The males and females have a detectably different scents. They are monogamous and both the males and females will defend a territory but the pairs do not spend a lot of time together. Oh and they have a long flexible nose.

Human

 

Art

Goal for the week- some time

Animal

The human (Homo sapiens) is a large bipedal primate from east Africa, though humans have become invasive on all of the other continents. As an invasive species humans tend to out compete local predators and wreak havoc on the megafauna.  Like some corvids humans have the ability to alter tools to the purposes they are using them for. Due to a special setup of the larynx and hyoid bone humans have a large vocal range and can make a wide variety of noises. Humans tend to have elaborate social groups sometimes living in colonies of well over a million. Odd among mammals though not unlike sandhill cranes both male and female humans get involved in mating displays. Many other species also interact with humans in symbiotic ways such as the African wild cat and the jungle fowl. Humans oddly enough have the most reduced canines among primates, but tend to be quite omnivorous and often prey on large animals. In mythology humans are strangely prominent they are featured in the mythologies of most if not all cultures.

Video of a male human engaged in some sort of mating display

Marsupial mole

I've been listening to some of Rick and Kristen's radio shows online. Apparently they have been putting their Sunday WEFT shows up in a blog. Pretty much all goth and deathrock.

Art

Goal for the week 13.5 hours

Today 

work on the sphinx

Animal 

The southern marsupial mole (Notoryctes typhlops) is a very strange marsupial from southwest Australia. It is well adapted to swimming through the sand it has no external eyes or ears (they do have ear openings) and it's pouch faces backward to keep sand out of it. It is thought to eat mostly insects, lizards and seeds but very little is known about it's diet or behavior. It is only recently that that scientists were sure it was a marsupial rather then the link between marsupials and monotremes. It shares different characteristics with many of the living groups of marsupials making it difficult to place. Based on genetic evidence they have worked out that marsupial moles split off of  the main group of marsupials about 50 million years ago and have been evolving on a separate branch into something that very much resembles a golden mole. They are difficult to study as their tunnels collapse on themselves after they pass and they do very poorly in captivity. In captivity they spend a lot more time on the surface and tend to faint for hours at a time they tend not to survive more then a month in captive conditions. Some of the the Aborigines call them itjaritjari and they are associated to some extent with the creation of Uluru/Ayers Rock. They were also regarded with sympathy for their helplessness and only eaten durning very hard times. 

Finless Porpoise

Went to club last night, the music was good though kind of in a Christian Death vein. Stuart and I hung out with Bill and Andrew and complained about 4th edition D & D and discussed the artist colonies popping up in Detroit. It is possible that Detroit is going to be a very interesting place in about 20 years. 

Art

Goal for the week 14hrs

Today

work on the sphinx

Animal 

photo by ori2uru

Re-run from livejournal

Remember the Yangtze river dolphin that went extinct and was in the papers not to long ago, it actually was not the only cetacean in that river there also still was and still is the Finless Porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides). Locally they are far less appreciated then the Yangtze river dolphin, while the dolphin was being called a river goddess and they are referred to as river pigs. Fortunately they are found in other places as they are very rapidly declining in the Yangtze, which just isn't very habitable for cetaceans at this point. A few of them were moved to the conservation area intended for the Yangtze river dolphin, which is good as they are quite endangered in China. There actually are no estimates as to how they are doing in other places, they just have never been counted. They are odd as they are found in both fresh and saltwater environments, they are some of the smallest cetaceans, and they lack a dorsal fin. In saltwater environments they tend to spend most of their time near the coast and they do reasonably well in captivity for ceteceans living up to 15 years and having bred. They also are adorable I'm not sure why they don't make the pretty dolphin calenders and what not.

Video of one following someone's finger

Tiger quoll

Art

goal for the week 12.5 hours

Today

work on the guy with the Anubis mask

Animal 

Photo by herper715

The tiger quoll (Dasyurus maculatus) is a carnivorous marsupial from southern Australia. It can group up to 4 feet long and is considered an apex predator of it's ecosystem. They are the largest surviving marsupial carnivore on the Australian mainland. Two thirds of their diet consists of mid-sized mammals and they occasionally take down mammals larger then themselves. In addition to being ambitious hunters they have also been know to steal kills from dingos.  They are good climbers and ridged pads on their feet assist them in getting up trees. Tiger quolls are not particularly long lived and tend to make it only 3 or 4 years in captivity. The northern subspecies is quite endangered and may not have enough individuals left for a viable population.

A tiger quoll grabbing meat from a person's yard