Giant squid eyes are huge, farsighted, and well-adapted to detecting predators (flickr | Jonathan Lampron)

Now, though, we know a little more.

According to a study published in Current Biology, the giant squid (and ‘colossal squid‘)’s huge eyes—which, aside from being the largest eyes of any known animal, are proportionally larger than those of other squid—have evolved for a special purpose:

…such giant eyes are unlikely to evolve for detecting mates or prey at long distance but are instead uniquely suited for detecting very large predators, such as sperm whales. [...] we predict that, below 600 m depth, (the eye) would allow detection of sperm whales at distances exceeding 120 m [...] we hypothesize that a well-prepared and powerful evasive response to hunting sperm whales may have driven the evolution of huge dimensions in both eyes and bodies of giant and colossal squid.

Lead author Dan-Eric Nilsson, a marine vision expert at the University of Lund in Sweden, and his team determined that giant squid are lousy at seeing things up close—they’re farsighted—and good at seeing big things off in the distance. This offers a unique and much-needed advantage when your primary day-to-day threat to life and limb (and limb, and limb, and limb…ha!) is a 60-ton predator with nature’s most powerful sonar system.

Duke Today:

But the boost in being able to sense contrast, which large eyes provide, is critical for detecting the low light differences of large, distant objects, the most important one being the bioluminescence stimulated by large animals such as approaching sperm whales, [report contributor and Duke biologist Sonke Johnsen] said.

Giant squid washed ashore in Norway, 1954 (flickr | NTNU-Vitenskapsmuseet)

The team realized that sperm whales dive and swim continuously while emitting sonar to ping the squid. The cephalopods are deaf to the sonar, but the whale’s wake triggers small organisms like plankton to produce light. Based on the design of the squid’s eye, the animal could see this light, though contrast is low, over “freakishly long distances,” about 120 meters — the length of an American football field, Johnsen said.

We all know that Duke basketball is evil and lame, but Duke biology is evidently quite useful.

The giant squid’s massive eyes are (presumably) the latest stage in an epic arms race against sperm whales—a specific, complex adaptation that justifies their tremendous metabolic expenditure. The big eyes allow squid to spot sperm whales by their glowing wake from about 390 feet away, through murky expanses of deep ocean water, and escape—despite the predator’s sonar and speed.

For more on ocean creatures, see Kevin Coyle’s post from last year about animals’ various methods of swimming or my post about the Top 5 Real Sea Serpents (including the giant squid). You can also check out an article about sperm whales and the threat posed to them after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The photo that generated the most accusations

BILL ROTH (ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS/MCT/LANDOV)

After we published Bill Roth’s picture of a moose sitting in a backyard baby pool in Anchorage, Alaska, in a 1999 issue, we were besieged with angry messages from members accusing us of using computer trickery. In response, in a subsequent issue of the magazine, we published another Roth photo taken from a different angle showing the animal’s full body inside the pool. While it didn’t generate many letters, the second photo did produce one reaction that I still remember today. “I was wrong in assuming you would doctor a photo,” a member in Oregon wrote. “Please accept the enclosed donation to NWF as an apology.”

The photo that produced the most smiles

KATHARINE FENG (MINDEN PICTURES)

It’s impossible to verify how many people actually smiled after looking at it, but this image of a four-week-old panda cub produced a large reader response, including two dozen letters from students in a California elementary school class who told us it was their favorite photo ever. Katharine Feng took the picture in a captive-breeding facility in China for a 2005 NW article. “I photographed the cub as it stretched and yawned,” she told us. “Its eyes were not yet opened, so it could not see.” Feng assured us that her presence did not cause any problems for the cub.

The photo that spawned the most mail from readers

DANIEL J. COX

When it first appeared in the magazine in a 1998 essay about wildlife in winter, Daniel J. Cox’s heart-wrenching picture of a polar bear mother and cub in northern Manitoba huddling over another cub that had just died generated an outpouring of emotional letters from NWF members. Cox told us it was “a tragic scene, but one that I believe needed to be documented with a camera so people can see how difficult wild creatures’ lives really are.”

The photo that got the most staff votes

STEFFEN BINKE

I should qualify that this Steffen Binke image of a dwarf minke whale in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef received the most votes from the judges in the magazine’s 2009 annual photo contest. It was awarded the grand prize. Binke said he took the photo with a fish-eye lens, only a few feet away from the massive creature. “It was a great moment,” he recalled. “I am still sure I could hear its heartbeat and breathing.”

The National Wildlife Photo Contest

Now in its 42^nd year, the National Wildlife Photo Contest is open for submissions, and you don’t have to travel to distant places like the Great Barrier Reef to create a winning image. Sometimes, in fact, the best photographic subjects can be found right in your own backyard. This year’s winners will be published in the magazine and will receive some great prizes. Entrants also can participate in our separate People’s Choice competition. For details, including how to enter, visit www.nwf.org/photocontest.  To see more nature and wildlife images, go to www.nwf.org/photozone.

Photo credit: Peter Hemming

The 2011 update to the Arctic Report Card makes the bold statement that the Arctic Ocean climate may have already achieved a “new state.” The dramatic decline of Arctic sea ice thickness and summer extent has resulted in an upper ocean that is warmer and less saline. At the same time, the Arctic Ocean appears to have settled into a new circulation regime over the past 14 years.

And, if all these impacts of warming weren’t enough, ocean acidification (caused by the uptake of excess atmospheric CO₂ by the oceans) is starting to take its toll in the Arctic Ocean. Changes in pH are especially acute in the Bering Sea, which just happens to provide 47% of the catch caught in US commercial fisheries.

The impacts of this new climate state: “profound, continuing changes in the Arctic marine ecosystem.” When a scientific assessment uses words like “profound,” it is definitely worth paying attention. Such assessments tend to be scientifically cautious, wary about overstating the science or causing unjustified alarm.

The trends in the Arctic marine ecosystem are indeed astounding:

• Seven of the world’s 19 polar bear populations are declining. At least 2 of these declining trends have been tied directly to sea ice loss.
• Walruses are “hauling out” by the thousand along the north coast of Alaska in July and August. This unprecedented behavior has happened 4 of the last 5 summers, and is thought to be related to sea-ice losses in the Chukchi Sea.
• Baleen and bowhead whales are finding increased access to now open Arctic waters.
• Phytoplankton (microscopic plant-like organisms) productivity has increased by about 20% over just a 12-year span, mainly because there is so much more open water.
• Phytoplankton blooms in the spring are happening up to 50 days earlier than they did in the late 1990s.
• Phytoplankton communities are shifting to smaller species.
• Species that live on or near the floor of the Arctic Sea are being replaced by species typically found in more temperate oceans.

As we close out another record-setting year for the Arctic, this report provides even more evidence that polar bears and other Arctic wildlife truly are contending with climate change right now. The question is whether we can take the steps necessary to curb carbon pollution and reduce the severity of impacts to come.

Help Give Arctic Wildlife a Fighting Chance

Donate today to help National Wildlife Federation protect polar bears and other treasured wildlife threatened by climate change.

The great Gulf turtle rescue: in April we saw the beginning of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf.  By the time it was contained, more than 200 million gallons of oil had poured out and coated hundreds of square miles of water.  The toll on wildlife of all sizes was profound as evidenced from these National Wildlife Federation maps: http://bit.ly/gv159v  Certainly on of the most inspiring events around the Gulf was the relocation of thousands of see turtle hatchings from the sands of Gulf beaches to the sands of the Atlantic.  Read more:  http://ind.pn/aD82MP

The amazing Census of Marine Life: the Census was released in 2010.  It is a collaboration among 80 nations over 10 years.  Thousands of new species were discovered and cataloged.  Take a look at the  gallery of unbelievable and brilliant deep sea life: http://bit.ly/hkyJpj

The sad tale of little brown bats: a devastating bat plague called white nose syndrome still stymies animal researchers as millions of bats have succumbed to a fungal attack that restricts their ability breathe.  Bat caves in the East have been closed to visitors and there are signs the plague is moving to the West:  http://bit.ly/a5i1T9

Moving tigers from the brink of extinction: In the past few decades the number of wild tigers shrunk from 100,000 animals to some 3,000.  A recent international conference hosted in Russia came out with a plan to double their numbers.  http://bit.ly/gXOIZ5 Actor Leonardo DiCaprio personally made a $1 million gift to help jump-start the plan’s implementation.

The Loss of a U.S. wildlife hero: In 2010 we saw the untimely death of Sam Hamilton (54) the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  Sam was a respected 30-year professional dedicated to species protection. http://wapo.st/dEpzZ0

Discovery of 1,200 new Amazon species: Our colleagues at the World Wildlife Fund demonstrated to people everywhere how much there is to learn about our natural world when they released their report on the discovery of over one thousands new species in the Amazon over a decade of study: http://bit.ly/cWnBFH

Wolf protection debate in the Northern Rockies: The Department of the Interior and the States of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have been in extensive discussions in a heated political setting over whether wolves in the northern Rockies merit endangered species protection:  http://bit.ly/iangkb

The continuing struggle against illegal wildlife trade: the battle continued in 2010 to cut down on wildlife poaching and trade in endangered animals.  There were increases in the number of apprehensions and arrests but, as the smugglers become more devious and the poachers become more aggressive, the overall signs are not good.  Wildlife smuggling seems to be on the rise and is an international black market rivaling illegal drug imports.   http://bit.ly/hauD9j

Polar Bears Polar stuck on shore:  This year polar bears in the arctic region were delayed several weeks from making their winter trip out onto the Arctic Sea ice for their annual seal hunting.  Warm weather caused to ice to be late forming and bears were stuck on land emaciated and suffering:  http://bit.ly/cCeHhB

Walrus mass exodus to land: a Alaskan exodus of 10,000 to 20,000 walruses to land was an unusual event that also reflects the loss of sea ice in the arctic.   This mass exodus was a new one on the Chukchi sea coast and wildlife experts see it as a sign of global climate change:  http://bit.ly/aTmljY

Japanese whale hunt in the Antarctic whale sanctuary: as summer begins in the southern hemisphere, Japanese whalers and environmentalists are converging again in Antarctic waters for another stand-off and possible battle over their strong differences concerning the legality of whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.  http://bit.ly/et6pzK

Mountain gorillas making a comeback: Ending on a more promising note, thirty years ago the mountain gorilla population was down to 250.  This year 782 were counted between two locations. http://aol.it/h7A1Ix
Do you want to help conserve wildlife and wild places? NWF has just launched a new online portal called “Choose Your Cause.” Just click on the cause you care about most and enjoy inspiring stories from folks on the ground who are working tirelessly to protect the wildlife and wild places we all love.

But for a truly unique maritime experience, join me on a Sea Serpent Day (August 6th or 7th; there is some dispute) excursion to LISTVILLE (population: five).

The first mention of sea serpents in letters is generally accepted as coming from Virgil’s Aeneid, around 30 BCE. Laocoön, priest of Neptune, was preparing a bull sacrifice with his sons when “a pair of sea serpents with huge coils” and “blood-red crests” made way for the shore and enveloped the statue-ready trio in their “scaly folds.” There were “burning eyes” and “hissing jaws,” and I’m told younger and more sensitive altar viewers needed to leave the room.

Oarfish engraving, c. 1889 (Florida Center for Instructional Technology)

In the centuries since, ‘sea serpents’ and their sundry variations have been reported everywhere from Nova Scotia to the Portuguese coast and described variously as “turtle-like,” cow-faced and possessed of “brilliant flaming eyes” (these and other details come mostly from Richard Ellis’s 1994 book ‘Monsters of the Sea,’ which contains many period eyewitness accounts full of taxonomic and linguistic weirdness).

While we’ve yet to get reliable word of the existence of sea serpents, scientists have come up with a number of likely—and in some cases verified—explanations for sea serpent sightings, including these five based on actual, factual wildlife.

1) Oarfish

Long-dead and therefore significantly less serpent-ish oarfish (flickr | muzina_shanghai)

This is one of the simplest imaginable explanations, and the first thing I thought of when I read about the “blood-red crests” of the Laocoön-eating serpents (Scientists too. See incredible photos on this blog and the engraving above; sea-serpent-ish, no?).

Now, Oarfish are an unassuming family of bony saltwater fish, only slightly more likely to fatally maul a hirsute Trojan priest than a clump of kelp. Still, the largest of them, the King of Herrings, may reach somewhere between 40 and 50 feet in length, and could easily set the imagination racing as it breaks the surface of the water crest-first, its big eyes glistening.

The oarfish is scarce, apparently tastes bad and is still largely a mysterious animal. Here’s Kurt Ove Eriksson, who spotted a smaller specimen off of Sweden’s western coast last year: “At first we thought it was a big piece of plastic. But then we saw an eye [...] I went down to check and saw that it was this extremely strange fish.” Nice work, Kurt.

2) Basking Shark

A non-decomposing basking shark. (flickr | Green Massachusetts)

In one of the most famous sea serpent incidents of recent times, a Japanese fishing boat near New Zealand hauled in a vaguely monsterish corpse in 1977. It appeared to be a long-necked, small-headed, four-flippered creature—a surviving plesiosaur, perhaps, long the single most popular sea serpent theory. Crewmembers discarded the corpse, but not before numerous intensely-scrutinized photos and samples were collected.

The corpse remains popular in cryptozoological lore despite the near-unanimous informed conclusion  that it was, in fact, a partially-decayed basking shark. The placid filter-feeder is well known for rotting into a what appears to be a serpentine form. From the link above, originally printed in Reports of the National Center for Science Education: “When the basking shark decays, the jaws and loosely attached gill arches often fall away first, leaving the appearance of a long neck and small head [...] All or part of the tail (especially the lower half which lacks vertebral support) and/or the dorsal fin may also slough away before the better supported pectoral and pelvic fins, creating a form that superficially resembles a plesiosaur.” More:

Interestingly, basking sharks seem to have a propensity to mimic sea serpents while alive as well as dead. Often they feed in groups at or near the surface (hence their name), sometimes lining up two or more in a row. When they do this, the dorsal and tail fins protruding from the water can be, and sometimes have been, mistaken for multiple “humps” and head of a long-bodied sea-monster (Sweeney 1972; Bright 1989; Ellis 1989; Perrine 1995).

3) Basilosaurus/Zeuglodon (prehistoric whale)

I’m cheating here, but the badly-named basilosaurus (originally thought to be a type of dinosaur) WAS a real, live animal at one point.

You have to admit, it was a nice try. (Wikimedia commons)

In 1845, a German entrepreneur/collector/flim-flammist named Albert Koch unveiled a crazy looking skeleton—a modern-day sea serpent, he said—and toured with it in New York and other American cities. For a little while, it was the talk of zoology, taken by casual observers as proof that sea monsters existed (Koch claimed to have unearthed the skeleton in Clarksville, Alabama, and went so far as to describe its behavior and other details on the basis of the bones).

Despite the unending credulity of contemporary audiences—this kind of hoax was perpetrated often and successfully in 19th-century science, which was sometimes closer to circus exhibitionism than anything else—it became clear pretty quickly that the 114-foot thing had been cobbled together from a variety of bones taken from five or so specimens of the the long-extinct basilosaurus, a prehistoric cetacean (certainly not a reptile, as Koch claimed).

Koch’s scientific name for the creature–-hydrarchos sillimani—was derived from the naturalist Dr. Benjamin Silliman, whose presence was thought to lend scientific legitimacy to the affair. Once Harvard anatomist Jeffries Wyman and others pointed out that it was an obvious fraud, Silliman requested his name be removed (Though, hey, it’s the main reason people remember him. There’s a lesson there).

4) Giant Squid

Giant squids are already among the coolest, monsteriest creatures of the deep, but they may account for some of the earliest serpent sightings as well.

(Wikimedia commons)

In the mid-18^th century, Bishop Pontoppidan reported a “Sea-monster” that “looks at first like a number of small islands, surrounded with something that floats and fluctuates like sea weeds” (see image at right, also featured in Ellis’s book). The Pontoppidan sighting was widely agreed to be a giant squid later on.

Later, in 1849, Prof. Japetus Steenstrup determined that a carcass discovered in 1639 (“a peculiar creature or sea monster” with “7 tails” covered in “buttons” and a soft body without bone or cartilage), presumed to be a serpent of some kind, was actually Architeuthis (with a few body parts missing). Many other sightings and discovered bodies from the 16^th-18^th centuries seem to fit this description as well.

Luckily, once people started figuring out that these multi-tailed (or headed) serpents were actually cephalopods, they were able to shift pretty seamlessly to freaking out about impossibly huge tentacled ‘krakens.’

5) Elephant Seal

This is cute, but admit it--it's also really weird-looking. (flickr | Jim Bahn)

Sir Richard Owen (somewhat controversial himself as a contemporary and opponent of Charles Darwin, but an important scientist of the day nonetheless) famously suggested that the Daedalus sea serpent off the Cape of Good Hope in 1848 had in fact been a semiaquatic mammal.

According to Owen: “It is very probable that no one on board the Daedalus ever before beheld a gigantic seal swimming freely in the open ocean.”

It’s not hard to see how a large elephant seal, with its formidable length and swollen ‘trunk,’ could easily have accounted for a crypto-animal sighting when beheld by weary sailors. In fact, the ninth volume of the Museum of Foreign Literature and Science, published in 1826, mentions reports of a “sea-monster in the neighborhood of Behring’s Straits (sic)” with a “head resembling a sea-lion” dating to 1808.

More useful: modern paleozoologist Darren Naish and his colleagues Michael Woodley and Hugh Shanahan have suggested that many historical sea monster sightings might be explained by unknown or little-seen pinnipeds (see posts on this and related topics at the sadly defunct Tetrapod Zoology blog here and here).

Fastest

Let’s start with the animal that runs faster than any other.  Many people already know that the cheetah, which lives in Africa and Asia, can run like the wind.  These cats can go from a standstill to 60 miles per hour (mph) in just three seconds.  Their top speed is about 75 mph which makes them more than twice as fast as a lion (35 mph).  A cheetah’s body is completely designed for speed as you can easily see from this video.   But, in an odd twist of nature, cheetahs, unlike most cats, are terrible climbers.

The bird that flies the fastest is the spine-tailed swift of Siberia at over 100 mph.  But the bird that runs fastest is the ostrich which can hit 45 mph as you can tell from this video.   Ostriches are the largest of all birds and are totally flightless.  They often weigh over 300 pounds and must rely on their legs for safety and getting around.   When threatened, those legs can deliver a powerful, even deadly, kick to a predator.

Leggiest

Giraffes win the prize for being the “leggiest” of all creatures. Their legs can grow to well over six feet long.   They need good legs because adult males can grow to be close to 20 feet tall and weigh over 4,000 pounds.  The giraffe is a cousin of deer and cattle but looks quite different.  It closest relative is the okapi.

The African elephant has the largest legs (measured in bulk) of all land creatures.  They have to because they can grow to 15,000 pounds. The animal with the most legs goes is the millipede (750 legs) and the creature with the smallest legs, as far as anyone can figure, is the fairyfly.

Biggest Bones

If one were to ask what animal has the largest leg bones or what is the largest animal with leg bones the answer would be the same and it might, for many people, be a surprise.  It is the blue whale! Whales once lived on land but they liked swimming so much they returned to the sea.  Their front legs evolved into flippers but their back legs “un-evolved” and grew smaller and retreated into their bodies to make them more streamlined.  But, for a 100 foot long blue whale, even these residual hind leg bones are huge.

Slowest Walker

The tortoise is considered by most experts to be the slowest walking animal.  A good-to-go giant tortoise will hit a cruising speed of about 1/6 mph.  It is probably a good thing that they often live to be more than 100 years old.

Those same experts would tell you that the slowest moving mammal is probably the three-toed sloth which has difficulty walking  but moves just as slowly as a tortoise only through the branches of a tree.  If you are looking for the slowest creature using a pseudopod (false foot) it is probably the garden snail which chugs along at about 1/30 mph putting the “go” in escargot.

Largest Crawler

One might say the giant tortoise moves at a crawl, but it is pretty likely that the coconut crab is the largest of the slow crawling arthropods.   Coconut crabs, really oversized hermit crabs, can grow to nine pounds and measure three feet across.  They live on indo-pacific islands and do most of their crawling at night.

The hands-down largest crawler in the world, however, is the saltwater crocodile of Australia which can grow to 20 feet and over 2,500 pounds.   These crocs can also hit some amazing speeds from the “crawl” position.  The largest insect crawler is the goliath beetle which weighs about ¼ of a pound.

The Largest Crawl

Each year, the red crabs of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, leave their forest homes and engage in a massive migration to the Island’s shoreline in order to mate and propagate.  This video can give you a sense of what it is like when 120 million crabs march to the sea all at once.

The Loneliest Walker

Most wildlife scientists would vote for the wolverine as the greatest and widest-ranging walking soloist of all time.  Wolverines walk hundreds of miles and are seldom, if ever, seen.   Those same scientists might offer an explanation that wolverines are just too bad-tempered to spend time with others.  That is probably a little harsh but this video shows how a wolverine chases down a spry hare.

Longest Commute

Among land animals, the caribou is the long-distance champion.  Caribou herds in North America can travel over 3,000 miles round trip each year, without the benefit of “frequent walker” miles.

Weirdest Walkers

There are a number of fish that like to walk on land or in the water.  The mud skipper is probably the best adapted fish for this dual role.  It can stay out of the water for days and moves easily on its foot-like flippers.

The walking catfish by contrast, can leave the water but it is wriggling more than walking as you can see from this video.

One of the most charming of the walking fish is the Mexican walking fish as you can see from the photo on the right or the newly discovered pink hand fish.  And, there is this video of a newly discovered bottom-walking fish that took the experts by surprise.

Humans who have trouble getting around will often use a cane or walking stick, but in the animal world there is an insect known as a walking stick that this video looks at up close and personally.

Coolest Looking Walkers

At the National Wildlife Federation, we are committed to addressing the threat of global climate change and to making all the world’s walking animals a little safer and little better off.  So let’s wrap up with a video of crew of emperor penguins walking off into the distance – happily ever after.

For a great poster on wildlife that walk or to learn more, visit:  National Wildlife Week

Just Getting Around

On land, frogs and toads are constantly jumping.  Frogs are generally recognized as the best jumpers of all vertebrates. The Australian rocket frog, for example, can leap over 50 times its body length (two inches) resulting in jumps of close to seven feet.

Kangaroos are marsupial mammals and are the only large animals to use hopping as a principal means of locomotion. The comfortable hopping speed for red kangaroos, for example, is about 15 mph, but they can reach speeds of 40 mph over short distances.  Moreover, some kangaroos can leap more than 10 feet in the air when they have to.

Kangaroo rats are small rodents native to North America.  Their name comes from their bipedal mode of movement as they hop around in a manner that reminds one of kangaroos.

Lemurs are a form of primate unique to Madagascar.  In addition to their incredible looks, some species have an equally incredible way of jumping instead of running (this video shows how unusual and fascinating lemur leaping can be).

Other creatures known for hopping and jumping as they move about include rabbits and grasshoppers.

Gazelles are a species of antelope that mostly walk until they get excited (or threatened).  The tiny Thompson’s gazelle exhibits the very distinctive behavior of “stotting” (running slowly and jumping very high before fleeing).  Like kangaroos, gazelles can leap more than 10 feet into the air.

Jumping on Attack

A species of snake common to Mexico and Central America is known as the jumping viper.  This name comes from its ability to launch itself up to two feet at an attacker during a strike.  In essence, they strike at their assailants with such force that they leave the ground

Jumping spiders are also a species that leaps to attack.  There are 5,000 species of jumping spider in the world which makes up about 13% of all spider species. Interestingly when they leap, they spin a silky thread of web behind them just in case they miss their mark and need to climb back up.

Jumping In Migration

Many creatures use their ability to leap in migration.  Gazelles are one example, but fish can do the same.  As salmon make their way upstream they are able to shoot themselves 10 to 12 feet up a waterfall.   This assumes they are not snatched from mid air by a hungry bear as they make it to their spawning grounds.  The trip is hazardous and the jumping itself can be so draining the these fish can take hours to recover as this video shows.

Jumping Big Cats

Lions and tigers can jump almost equally high.  The vertical leap record for a tiger is more than 12 feet, and the lion is just a few inches less.

The puma is, however, the best jumper of all the mammals.  Pumas, or mountain lions, can leap more than 20 feet straight up without a running start

Jumping For Fun

Even masssive whales can jump straight up out of the water.  Humpbacked whales are famous for this behavior, which is referred to as breaching.  Their tails may still be in the water, but a whale’s head can be 30 feet or more in the air.

Orcas, often called killer whales, can jump close to 20 feet in the air and they actually leave the water (watch this amazing video showing an orca breach).

The mackerel shark holds the fish record for a highest jump from the water having soared more than 20 feet above the waves.

There are, of course, flying fish, but they use their fins to soar many yards but ususally stay low to the water.

Jumping to Come Ashore

Seals and penguins are land dwellers that spend much of their time in the water.  When they come to shore they are sometimes forced to make a huge water-powered leap such shown in this video of penguins springing up on to the Antarctic ice from the sea.  They often jump back into the water feet first.

Jumping from on High

Flying squirrels do not really fly.   They take huge leaps of faith and glide to their destination from on high.  The longest known glide is close to 100 yards. (Watch this video of flying squirrels.)

Jumping Beans

OK, you are saying to yourself that a Mexican jumping bean is not an animal.  That is true.  But inside the bean lurks a larval moth that puts the “jumping” into jumping bean. The moths jump when they get hot, trying to snap their body into a cooler place, as this “weird nature” video reveals.

So there you have it – a look at wild creatures that hop, jump and spring across the land, the water and into the air.  At the National Wildlife Federation we hope to see many great places for these amazing species, and all of the other “jumpers” of the world set aside and protected.

Hop on over to our website for more fun facts, posters, activities, lesson plans and games to help you celebrate National Wildlife Week >>

Birds dropped out of the sky, dead fish covered miles of the surface of rivers and bays, the media started digging up any reference to mass animal deaths they could find, and the public voiced a growing concern about what it all meant.

These kinds of die-offs are unusual but not unheard of in the nature, and so the good news is that while alarming, they don’t mean the world is ending and probably won’t have too much impact on the overall survival of the species that have experienced them.

While most wildlife experts see little cause for significant concern with these events, there are some mass wildlife deaths that we really should be worrying about.

5. Colony Collapse Disorder

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) causes honey bees to mysteriously abandon their hives and die. First reported in the United States in 2006, scientists are still trying to figure out the exact causes. While not native to North America, honey bees are critically important for the pollination of over 100 crops that both people and our livestock rely on for food. Eighty percent of all crop pollination service in the U.S. is provided by honey bees, which means that one-third of all the food we eat is directly the result of these insects. Honey bees also play an important role pollinating wild plants that wildlife depend on for survival. This mass die-off of honey bees could have significant economic and ecological repercussions.

Theories for the cause of CCD include infestation by exotic mites, viruses, a fungus, pesticides or other chemical pollutants, global warming, stress on hives from industrial beekeeping practices, or a combination of these factors that is suddenly pushing millions of honey bee hives over their tipping point and ultimately to death. While native pollinators can help fill in the gap caused by honey bee CCD, unexplained mass die-offs in several native bumble bee species are now also being reported.

4. White-Nosed Syndrome

North American bats are dropping like flies as a result of this mysterious ailment, which is characterized by the growth of a white fungus on the face of bats that hibernate in colonies in caves during the winter. The bats repeatedly wake up from their hibernation and fly about despite the cold temperatures and lack of insect food. In doing so, the bats burn off critical calories and ultimately die. Some bat hibernation caves have experienced mortality rates as high as 99 percent and since 2006 millions of bats have succumbed.

Scientists don’t know if the fungus is the cause of the odd behavior and killing bats directly, or if it is simply a secondary symptom of some other problem. One thing is certain, White-Nosed Syndrome has spread rapidly across the country, adding additional threat to endangered species such as the Indiana bat and drastically reducing once-common species like the little brown bat. Scientists are still searching for a clue as to the cause of these devastating mass bat deaths.

3. Global Amphibian Decline

Amphibians are often considered to be ecological “canaries in the coal mine” because their sensitive skin allows for the exchange of gas and liquids, making them particularly vulnerable to pollution and other disturbances to their habitat. As a result, amphibians are often the first group of animals to die out in disturbed or polluted environments. Dying out is exactly what amphibians are doing all around the world, and scientists don’t know why.

As with Colony Collapse Disorder, any number of causes could be at work either by themselves or in concert, including air and water pollution, global warming, habitat destruction, invasive species and most notably the type of chytrid fungus known as Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis or “Bd” for short. This fungus was discovered in 1999 and has been rapidly spreading and killing mass numbers of amphibians on several continents, including both North and South America, Europe and Australia. As with White-Nose Syndrome in bats, it’s not known whether this chytrid fungus is a new, random pathogen or if it has always been present and is only now spreading because of other, as-yet-unknown reasons. The statistics are frightening: thirty percent of amphibian species on the planet are listed as either threatened or endangered and another six percent are listed as near threatened. Scientists don’t know the status of another twenty-five percent.

2. Gulf Oil Disaster

The official wildlife body count of the Gulf Oil Disaster is 5,686 dead birds, 546 dead sea turtles, and 96 dead dolphins and whales. And that’s just the animals that rescue workers were able to recover in the vast area of the Gulf of Mexico affected by the millions of gallons of oil that gushed into the Gulf’s waters and coastal wetlands when BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded. It’s doubtless that the wildlife death toll is more likely in the millions when you factor in open ocean species such as sperm whales or whale sharks that sink when dead or that might not immediately die but eventually succumb to slow poisoning as they eat contaminated food, as well as the fish and marine invertebrates that have also died but for which no one has a count. Even worse, judging from previous oil disasters such as the Exxon Valdez in Alaska, we can expect wildlife will continue to die for months, years or even decades as a result of this disaster.

1. Global Warming

The scale of the impact that global warming is predicted to have on wildlife across the planet can’t be understated.

We are already experiencing the rapid melting of glaciers, more severe storms, an increase in droughts, wildfires and flooding events, the spread of invasive species, and the record decline in Arctic sea ice making the long-term survival of species such as ringed seals and polar bears uncertain.

Countless other wildlife species around the globe will be negatively affected as global warming destabilizes ecosystems unless we act quickly to change the root causes.

1. The Great Gulf Turtle Rescue

In April we saw the beginning of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf.  By the time it was contained, more than 200 million gallons of oil had poured out and coated hundreds of square miles.  The toll on wildlife of all species and sizes was profound as evidenced from these National Wildlife Federation maps. Certainly one of the most inspiring events around the Gulf disaster was the relocation of thousands of sea turtle hatchlings from the sands of Gulf beaches to the sands of the Atlantic with the help of effective organizations such as  the Sea Turtle Conservancy.

2. The Amazing New Census of Marine Life

The Census was released in 2010.  It is a collaboration among 80 nations over 10 years.  Thousands of new species were discovered and cataloged.  Take a look at the  gallery of unbelievable and brilliant deep sea life: http://bit.ly/hkyJpj

3. The Sad Tale of Little Brown Bats

A devastating bat plague called white nose syndrome still stymies animal researchers as millions of bats have succumbed to a fungal attack that restricts their ability breathe.  Bat caves in the East have been closed to visitors and there are signs the plague is moving to the West:  http://bit.ly/a5i1T9

4. Moving Tigers From the Brink of Extinction

In the past few decades the number of wild tigers shrunk from 100,000 animals to some 3,000.  A recent international conference hosted in Russia came out with a plan to double their numbers.  http://bit.ly/gXOIZ5 Actor Leonardo DiCaprio personally made a $1 million gift to help jump-start the plan’s implementation.

5. The Loss of a U.S. wildlife hero

In 2010 we saw the untimely death of Sam Hamilton (54) the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  Sam was a respected 30-year professional dedicated to species protection. http://wapo.st/dEpzZ0

6. Discovery of 1,200 New Amazon Species

Our colleagues at the World Wildlife Fund demonstrated to people everywhere how much there is to learn about our natural world when they released their report on the discovery of over one thousands new species in the Amazon via a decade of study: http://bit.ly/cWnBFH

7. Wolf Protection Debate in the Northern Rockies

The Department of the Interior and the States of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have been in extensive discussions in a quite heated political setting over whether wolves reintroduced to the Northern Rockies in the mid 1990s still merit endangered species protection:  http://bit.ly/iangkb

8. The Continuing Struggle Against Illegal Wildlife Trade

The battle continued in 2010 to cut down on wildlife poaching and trade in endangered animals.  There were increases in the number of apprehensions and arrests but, as the smugglers become more devious and the poachers become more aggressive, the overall signs are not good.  Wildlife smuggling seems to be on the rise and is an international black market rivaling illegal drug imports.   http://bit.ly/hauD9j

9. Polar Bears Stuck on Shore

This year polar bears in the Arctic region were delayed several weeks from making their winter trip out onto the Arctic Sea ice for their annual seal hunting.  Warm weather caused to ice to be late in forming and the bears were stuck on land, some in emaciated condition.

10. Walrus Exodus Onto Land

A mass Alaskan exodus of 10,000 to 20,000 walruses to land was an highly unusual event this Fall that also reflects the loss of sea ice in the arctic.   This mass exodus was a new one on the Chukchi sea coast and wildlife experts see it as a sign of global climate change:  http://bit.ly/aTmljY

11. Japanese Whale Hunt in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary

As summer begins in the southern hemisphere, Japanese whalers and environmentalists are converging again in Antarctic waters for another stand-off and possible battle over their intense differences concerning the legality of whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.  Both whale and human lives will be on the line: http://bit.ly/et6pzK

12. Mountain Gorillas Making a Comeback

Ending on a more promising note, 30 years ago the mountain gorilla population was down to 250.  This year 782 were counted between two locations. http://aol.it/h7A1Ix

Bottom line: Wildlife conservation has unbelievable and daunting challenges ahead but, despite the overwhelming odds there are may glimmers of hope that remind us that staying with the fight to protect species, habitats and stop global warming are more important than ever.

CBC News.ca reports:

“The North Pacific population of humpback whales has doubled in the past two decades, hitting close to 20,000 in the North Pacific, an international study released last year concluded, and local whale watchers say they can vouch for the results. Stubbs Island naturalist Jackie Hildering has seen the recovery of humpbacks first-hand while working in the Broughton Archipelago off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island. Hildering said while sightings of the threatened whale used to be rare, this year she’s identified almost 50 individual whales including juveniles.”

See full article.