As in “Hey that scientist over there is growing sharks in an artificial uterus!”

“Why would someone grow sharks in an artificial uterus?” you may ask.

Well, you inquisitive soul, the Grey Nurse shark is endangered. And they only have two shark babies (called pups) at a time.

But, at the beginning, there is more than one shark baby in each of the mama shark’s twin uteruses (uteri?).

You see, little baby Grey Nurse sharks have this bad habit of eating their brothers and sisters while in the womb. Bad sharks. (You might even call them naughty nurses, if you were so inclined.)

So the scientists want to create artificial shark wombs to raise one shark baby each, where their brothers and sisters can’t eat them.

It already worked with a wobbegong shark, which have less cannibalistic babies. So the guy in charge (Nick Otway, a fisheries biologist at Port Stephens Fisheries Institute in Austrailia) is hopeful that he’ll be able to use it with those naughty grey nurses.

But don’t worry- he says he has no interest in producing artificial human uteri. I mean, for now.

Source: Nerdular Nerdance, which apparently had a particularily interesting set of articles this month.

Everyone Poops. But Birds don’t fart.

It’s not that they can’t, you see. It’s just that they don’t need to.

Generally speaking, their bodies don’t produce the bacteria that is responsible for the gas in other creatures.

If, however, you are a bird owner, and you think your bird is guilty, you’d better get said bird to the vet ASAP. Gas in a bird’s intestinal system is a big problem.

Cats and Dogs, on the other hand, fart often. This I know from unfortunate personal experience.

Source: Nerdular Nerdance

I’m lazy, so this is info is copied (but edited) from here.

AGOUTI

Widely in Central and South America. They follow bands of monkeys and pick up fruit dropped from the trees. They eat sitting on their hind legs, holding the food in their forepaws.

They walk , trot or gallop on their digits and can jump vertically at least six feet from a standing position. Adults are mostly seen in pairs or small groups. The pair bond apparently lasts until death. Males aggressively defend their territory from intruding males.

During courtship, the male sprays the female with urine, causing her to go into a “frenzy dance”. After several sprays she allows the male to approach.

Agoutis reach sexual maturity at six months of age and the parents become increasingly intolerant of their presence. The male will chase away their male offspring who then find a territory and a female partner of their own. The oldest recorded life span in captivity is 18 years.

This was purely for Jeff’s benefit.

So, this bat was chillin on the fuel tank of the shuttle Discovery.

Wildlife experts said this bat may have had a broken wing and likely perished during takeoff.

Also, NASA has so much bureaucracy that their Final Inspection Team (ICE for some reason) made a report about the bat and named the report Interim Problem Report 119V-0080.

Really NASA? How about MOVE THE FRICKING BAT! No wonder you are losing your space business to Elon Musk and SpaceX. You deserve to.

The test used a touch screen monitor and the numbers 1 through 9. The numbers were placed in random order on the screen, displayed for a few seconds, and then covered up. The test subjects were supposed to touch the numbers in order, from lowest to highest.

The chimps got the numbers right 80% of the time. The humans got the numbers right only 50% of the time.

Cool, interesting, and scary, all at the same time.

Source: Weird Connections on The Science Channel

Orca wave hunting is one of the coolest things I have seen in nature.

Make sure you watch till the end. It’s worth it!

PETA wants to rename fish “Sea Kittens” because it sounds more cute. If fish had a cuter name, then people wouldn’t want to eat them.

There’s even an online petition you can sign to ask the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to stop promoting sea kitten hunting! Hooray!

Oh, and another fun fact I learned from PETA:

A University of Edinburgh study found that sea kittens can retain information that they learned up to 11 months earlier, which makes them cuter and smarter than the president of the United States!

Powerline has more, including screen shots from the Sea Kitten bedtime stories!

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to sign the online petition! Maybe 3 or 400 times. Because online petitions are always effective.

Kittens can’t hear for 12 days after they are born.

Also, when the kittens are born, the mother cat eats the placenta. It contains some nutrients that are good for the cat (or something like that).

Source: National Geographic Channel show about Cats in the Womb

Prairie Dogs, those rat like little fluffy creatures that still carry the bubonic plague, live all over the United States.

They cause a specific concern for people who own horses or cows, as they dig holes all over, and the cows or horses step in the holes and break their legs.

There is a movement that would classify Prairie Dogs as an Endangered Species, despite the fact that there are many many millions of the varmints over several million acres of land. If that were to happen, it would be illegal to fill in their holes.

Source: Hugh Hewitt Radio Show

Turns out you can add Chimpanzee to the list of animals that will care for the offspring of a different species (eg. boy raised by wolves).

This monkey adopted 2 tiger cubs. It feeds them with a bottle, and plays with them.

Mark my words, this is the next step in a bold attempt by the animals to take over the world. Once they start taking care of each other, our days are numbered.

Oh, and I’ve been looking for an excuse to link to a video. This is that excuse:

Source: That same People Magazine that inspired the leprosy post.