Showing posts with label zoology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zoology. Show all posts

Monday, March 14, 2011

An extinct variety of zebra only had stripes on its head and neck.

The last Quagga died in a zoo in 1883. At the time no one realized that this actually meant the animal was extinct. Their wild population dwindled in their native South African grasslands with the introduction of non-native sheep and goats. Because they competed with the Quagga for grass to graze on, settlers hunted them to extinction.


Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The Slave-Maker ant is a species of ants that enslaves other ants!

The whole process is really complex. The slave-maker queen fakes her own death and gets carried to the host colony. She then wakes up, and then kills and impersonates the queen. The fake queen will then start making her own offspring, who eventually take over the nest and enslave the previous inhabitants. The slave ants will unknowingly feed the fake queen and its offspring, not realizing that they are impostors.
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