Slap Stick Comedy...

One animal that has extraordinary engineering abilities is the beaver. The beaver is able to chew down trees and dam entire rivers! It plays the role of a keystone member of a ecosystem; that is, it basically makes the ecosystem run. If the beaver didn't make its dam, there wouldn't be a wetland there. The dams of the beaver form a large area for flood waters to be absorbed in and basically protect the area from erosion and other harmful effects. Additionally, the dam is home to the beaver and protects it from predators. Did God give the beaver incredible ability and design to enable it to be an essential part of the ecosystem in such an amazing way!

More sweet info:
Wikipedia
Cool pics and info
All about beavers

Radar Operator to the Max

Bats are really fascinating creatures! When they fly around at night, they emit high-pitched sounds and listen to the echoes of the sounds like radar on a plane! This sweet technology lets bats locate insect flying in the air at night and also avoid obstacles. In this way, a bat can eat 300 bugs an hour including mosquitoes, moths and other pesky insects. God did an amazing job designing the bat, the only flying mammal, to allow it to fly without running into things, eat lots of annoying bugs, and make life more comfortable for us.

Linkses:
Wikipedia

Bat Conservation

Bat Myths

Victory Formation

Have you ever looked up into the fall sky and wondered why all the migrating geese are flying in a nice V pattern? Why didn't they pick a letter like an S instead? Well, the reason lies in the fact that these birds work together. When they are flying, they can travel 72% farther if they fly in the V formation because of the lift that they provide for each other with their flapping. If the goose in the lead gets tired, it drops back further in the formation to get the lift from the birds in front of it. Furthermore, the geese in the back quack to encourage the forward geese. God created the geese well to know how to fly to optimize their effectiveness and also gave us an example of working together and encouragement that we can bring into our own lives.

Fun Fascinating Facts:
Wikipedia
Creation Tips

King of the Jungle Reef

A beautiful and amazing fish that looks like it's straight out of Finding Nemo is the lionfish. The lionfish is brightly colored to advertise its poisonous spines. Therefore, predators tend to stay clear. The colored decorations of the fish serve another purpose as well: they let the lionfish blend in with the surrounding reef and not be noticed until it moves. This allows fish to swim close enough for the lionfish then to trap them with its large fins then gulp them down whole. God did an amazing work with the lionfish to make a beautiful creature that incorporates its beauty into its camouflage as well as its defense mechanism.

More fishy fun:
Wikipedia
Great Barrier Reef site
Some more info

Cutting A Rug

Some people enjoy gardening to produce some nice veggies. Often they will use compost or mulch to fertilize the soil for their plants. Leaf cutter ants do this very thing. The ants collect leaves and other foliage and bring them back to their underground nest. There, gardener ants grow a fungus on the leaves which the ants then use as food. The ants even have special bacteria on them that release chemicals to keep the fungus from becoming infected by mold. These ants are an awesome display of how God uses symbiotic relationships in nature and also how things in nature are way more complicated than I would ever be able to come up with.

Sweet additional stuff:
Wikipedia
Some cool pics
BBC and more BBC

Star light, Star bright...

Starfish are amazing, beautiful creatures. One of the most colorful and well-known marine creatures, starfish are amazingly designed. They are able to use their special feet to pull open the shells of clams and other shellfish and can put its stomach out of its body to better digest food. Instead of blood, starfish have seawater circulate inside them. One of the most impressive features of a starfish is that if it loses a foot, it is able to grow it back. I think this regeneration is an absolutely incredible display of God's foresight and design.

More info:
Wikipedia
National Geographic
More sciency stuff

Even Bigger Than Tom Hanks

What is the biggest living thing you can think of? Is it a blue whale? Or maybe a redwood tree? Actually the giant sequoia tree in California is the most massive living thing! Sequoias can grow to be about 270 feet high and 40 feet in diameter! This is crazy huge! (Look at the guy in the picture to the right!) Redwoods actually grow taller to about 300 feet but aren’t as thick. Another neat thing about sequoias is that forest fires actually help sequoias reproduce. The heat from the fire dries out the cones in the tree and lets them release lots of seeds. These seeds fall on the newly cleared soil free of plants that block sunlight because of the recent fire. I think God was amazing in His design of the sequoia to provide a mechanism that only releases seeds at the most optimal time for growth.

To learn more:
General Sherman tree
Lots of pictures

Faster Than A Speeding Bullet

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s…ok, well, I guess it is a bird, but it is flying crazy fast! The peregrine falcon is an amazing creature. It is in fact the fastest creature in the world! The peregrine is a raptor that cruises high in the sky looking for small flying birds on which to prey. When it sees a bird, it drops into a spectacular dive reaching speeds of 200 mph and catches the bird midair. It is amazing that the bird can go that incredible fast and doesn’t injure itself when it tries to pull out of the super fast dive. God certainly showed how great He is when He designed the peregrine falcon.

Links:
Wikipedia
Webcam videos
More info

Hum a Little Tune...

One of the most fascinating creatures to watch flitting around outside is the hummingbird. This tiny bird can literally fly in any direction, even upside down! It beats its wings about 60 times a second to keep it steady in the air. In order to supply the energy for this activity, the hummingbird has a voracious appetite, eating about every ten minutes. While these birds are incredible for their maneuverability, they have another amazing characteristic. Every year, they migrate from the Midwest down to the far south. This journey is incredibly long, especially considering their tiny size. God certainly made a unique creation and also a very great example of engineering with the hummingbird.

Links
Lots of pretty pictures
Wikipedia

You Light Up My Life

Firefly
Firefly, firefly,
Wow, how you glow!
Under you body
You light up below!
Firefly, firefly,
Wow, how you shine!
At night in the dark
I can see you just fine!

Meish Goldish

The firefly is one of the most iconic insects of the summer. I remember chasing fireflies around our yard and catching them to collect in a jar (or swatting them out of the air with a stick which was also fun). Fireflies have the amazing ability to light up their backsides in the most delightful manner. They use the flashes of light to attract mates and perhaps warn some predators of their less-than-desirable taste. These small creatures use bioluminescence to produce the glow (kind of like the angler fish from earlier). Fireflies are amazing creatures that we all too often take for granted. God has really blessed us with such variety in nature.

Links to en-"lighten"
Wikipedia
Fun with fireflies
The fun poem

Bull's Eye

Have you ever been to an apple orchard and seen a really nice looking apple at the top of a tree and been disappointed you couldn’t reach it? An archerfish looks for bugs and things to eat that are about in this same position but has a special ability to help it reach the food. In fact, the archerfish spits a stream of water at the bug to make it fall into the water! Sometimes several archerfish will work together to shoot down a bug. It is really neat to see how they can adjust their shots to compensate for misses. These fish are very unique and incredible examples of God’s creative genius.

Fantastic links!
Wikipedia
Good info and pics
More good info and pics

Better than those sticky tape things...

The Venus flytrap is one of the most famous weird plants. To supplement its steady diet of sunshine, it catches insects and other bugs in the most ingenious manner. To attract bugs, it produces sweet nectar. Then, using special catching pods, it traps the bugs. The really neat part about the trapping, though, is that the pod does not snap shut on the victim until trigger hairs inside the pod are jostled. And to prevent false alarms, the hairs have to be triggered more than one so random debris doesn’t trigger the pods but only live things. Isn’t the design of the Venus flytrap awesomely incredible?

Linkies:
Google video!
Another Google video!
Wikipedia (with some pics)

Want your own?
A store
Care
Lots of FAQ

Come Sail Away With Me...

One of the prettiest sea creatures floating about the ocean is the fragile jellyfish. One of the most well-know jellyfish (well, actually not quite a jellyfish but close enough for me), is the Portuguese man of war. What’s neat about the man of war is that it is actually made up of four different organisms. The first is the air sac that acts as a sail. Three additional types hang on long stinging tentacles down into the ocean. One is used for detecting and catching prey, another digests the prey, and the third is used for reproduction. I think its fascinating how God used these four different organisms to work in symbiosis in order to sustain their life. As a result, they are a vital part of the ocean ecosystem.

Have a want of further knowledge?
Wikipedia (always solid...)
Cool picture
Good info

To Irritate With Back

The title of this post is the meaning of the Latin name for the porcupine. This seems to make sense as porcupines are most famous for their quill-covered physiques. Porcupines are large rodents that are covered with 30,000 sharp quills. The porcupine uses these quills as a defense against predators. When the predator attacks, the porcupine keeps its back toward the attacker and tries to swat it with its quill-covered tail. The quills have lots of little barbs that cause them to stick in the attacker. If hit in vital areas or hit in the mouth and unable to eat, animals can die from porcupine quill wounds. But one interesting thing is that the quills of the porcupine do not cause infection as they are covered with an antibiotic substance. Why, you ask? Apparently, porcupines are really good at falling out of trees and consequently often stick themselves with their quills. Therefore, the antibiotic helps the porcupines from becoming infected from self-inflicted wounds. Isn’t it neat how God provided the porcupine with incredible defensive measures but also provided them with infection protection from wounds?

Linkses:
YouTube video
Article with fun pictures
Magnified Quill

The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

You know Joseph must have felt pretty special when he got his sweet coat, but some animals can change their color whenever they want. Chameleons are one of these amazing creatures. A common myth is that chameleons change colors to blend in with their surroundings (camouflage!) when in fact they actually change color based on temperature, lighting, and mood. Chameleons use their colors to communicate with each other. Most chameleons change between greens and yellows and browns but others can make all sorts of colors like blue, red, or black. Isn't it fun how God made creatures that use color to communicate and display emotion instead of verbal means? God is not limited by our concepts of communication but goes far beyond what I could imagine.

Splendid Links:
Want to own a chameleon?
Wikipedia

Knock On Wood

Have you ever felt like pounding your head against a wall? Woodpeckers actually do this for fun (well, really for food, but they’re pretty much the same thing). A woodpecker has been specifically designed to ensure that it doesn’t give itself a concussion every time it makes its delightful rat-a-tat-tat noises against a tree trunk. Unlike people, woodpeckers have very little fluid surrounding their brians, but instead, the brain is closely surrounded by spongy bone that absorbs impact from the repeated blows. Also, the woodpecker’s eyelids shut every time it pecks so its eyes don’t fly out of its head, an exceedingly useful feature. I find it fascinating how incredibly intricate and delicate the design of the woodpecker is. So many parts of the bird’s anatomy and physiology have to work together to ensure that it can perform its needed actions. God has certainly showed His wisdom and engineering prowess in the woodpecker.

Fun Linky-Links:
Wikipedia
Youtube video
Another Youtube video
Yet Another Youtube video (cute baby woodpecker)

In Fifteen Minutes or less...

Made famous by the Geico commercials, the gecko is an extraordinary reptile. Its ability to cling upside down to virtually any surface has boggled the minds of scientists for years. The gecko does not use any wet adhesive or suction cups on its feet but some sort of dry adhesive. Recent discoveries have shown that the gecko’s toes are covered by millions of tiny hairs, each of which sticks to a surface by being pushed onto it. The hairs’ adhesive prowess is so strong that the hairs from one gecko could hold up a child. Also, the gecko’s feet clean themselves as they walk! I wish I could do that. Scientists are using the gecko’s advanced sticking technology to try to develop powerful adhesives. Isn’t it fantastic how God made an amazing creature which such advanced technology that scientists are still trying to figure it out?

Links with fun pictures and more info:

Science For Kids

Wikipedia

Sciency physics explanation

Fishing In The Dark

Do you know anyone who likes to go fly fishing? An amazing creature that employs this basic method to catch its prey is the angler fish. The deep sea angler has been provided with an amazing appendage coming off the front of its dorsal fin that allows it to attract prey. The appendage is bioluminescent; this means that it utilizes bacteria to make it glow, an added attractant. The angler fish is created perfectly to withstand the water pressure and incredible cold associated with living deep in the ocean. It is able to blend in with its surroundings and has an ingenious method of catching its food. God has shown us unfathomable resourcefulness once again through the angler fish.

Videos of the angler fish:
Good Youtube video
Google video

Additional reading and pictures:
The Aquarium Project
Worsley School
Wikipedia
www.harrypottermagic.org

The Tall Tale Heart

Have you ever stood up really fast and gotten light-headed? Just imagine how much worse it would be if you were 15 feet tall. One fun and different animal is the giraffe with its amazingly long neck. But how can a giraffe bend its head down to get a drink and raise it back up without passing out from loss of blood? It turns out that a giraffe has a massive heart to maintain and high enough blood pressure to pump the blood up the neck to the brain. Just before the brain, special blood vessels expand to keep the extra blood from rushing into the brain when the giraffe leans over, and then supply the brain with blood when the giraffe stands back up. This super circulatory system is a fascinating example of God’s incredible design and creativity. It amazes me how God made giraffes and other animals to show His awesomeness.

Other Fun Giraffe Sites:

Giraffe Central

National Geographic

Greetings...

Hello one and all-
My goal in this blog is to discuss some fantastic animals and other natural phenomena that show the indescribable awesomeness and creativity of the God we serve. It should be a fun time delving into how God has made incredible provisions for life on earth and just how much He deserves all the glory. I hope you enjoy exploring with me. Thanks.

Michael