Big Picture: Polar Bear Emergence

"When you watch polar bear cubs emerge from the den, it's easy to think that their life has just begun.

We think of bears sleeping while hibernating, but for about four months the cubs have been busy with their mother in the den. The mother nurses and grooms the cubs as well as maintaining the den, which involves scratching the ceiling and walls with her claws to allow airflow (otherwise, the den would get completely iced over, and no oxygen would be able to get in).

When the family emerges from the den the mother will have spent a total of 6-8 months not eating or drinking.

The family now faces their greatest challenge: to build up fat stores before the sea ice begins to melt in the summer.

But with the sea ice is melting sooner, that's less time for the mothers to hunt -- and to teach her children to do so -- and less time to regain the fat stores they lost while fasting and lactating in the den."

Click here for more Polar Bear photos by Suzi Eszterhas

Big Picture: Nesting Season

Springtime is the season for birds to begin building nests in anticipation for the eggs to come. Nests made of grasses and sticks are typical but have you seen a cormorant using seastars, blue tits collecting horsehair from a barbed wire fence or penguins on nests made completely of stones? From bald eagles on their nests the size of a queen bed to albatrosses continuing to work on their sand nest while incubating eggs - click on any image to see more birds at work.

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This weeks Big Picture: Slimy Nature

Click here to see more examples of slime in nature...

An emerging fern fiddlehead and an Ecuadorian bromeliad's flower buds are encased in a protective jelly which could serve to discourage the formation of harmful algal or fungal growth.

Parrotfish are not only covered in a layer of mucus, as are all fish; they also use glands in their gills to create mucous cocoons every night and sleep encased in the gooey mucus bubbles which help shield them from parasites and predators.

This white slimy discharge around an elephant seal's nostrils in a remarkable substance that makes it possible for the animal to dive up to 3,000 feet in search of food. 'Pulmonary surfactant' lines the lungs and makes the transition between high-pressure lower depths to the surface possible.

The hedgehog churns up a slippery, foul-smelling froth from its own saliva that it then uses to coat its body in a process called self-anointing. The theory is that the animals do this to deter predators or to mask its scent.

Slime can be almost everything for slugs and snails including protection, communication, transportation, hydration (the slime coating attracts water). Those slime trails you see act as both glue and lubricants and is exuded from a gland in their foot. The mucus protects against abrasion and germs.

The Violet Snail (Janthina janthina) secretes a bubble-filled raft made of mucus to stay afloat at the sea surface. They live their lives floating upside-down in the ocean and use their mobility to hunt jellyfish.

Big Picture: Keeping Up with Warmer Weather

When winter looms some mammals experience a transition from their brown summer coats to whiter fur to blend easily with the expected snowcover. What happens when climate change causes weather to warm earlier than expected and the snow to which they've adapted disappears? These animals will lose their camouflage which protects them from predators.

A recent study on white-tailed jack rabbits suggests that diversity among the three genes responsible for coat color change within different populations may allow rapid adaptation. As Ferreira et al note, these species are "predicted to adapt rapidly, providing a trait-based genetic framework to facilitate evolutionary rescue."

While this is good news for the jack rabbits, how adaptive are other species who rely upon camouflaged fur for their survival? Take a look at this gallery of animals in their dramatic summer and winter coats.

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Big Picture: Oregon Views - photos by Tim Fitzharris

Photographer Tim Fitzharris captures peaceful landscapes in the Pacific Northwest in this new selection of images. Towering sea stacks along the coastline, sheer cliffs of tuff and basalt in Smith Rock State Park, and a rosy sunset at Harris Beach State Park are examples of the open wilderness found in Oregon.

Click on any image to see the full selection.

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Galah (Eolophus roseicapilla) female and male, Cape York Peninsula, Australia

The galah, also known as the pink and grey cockatoo or rose-breasted cockatoo, is the only species within genus Eolophus of the cockatoo family. Found throughout Australia, it is among the most common of the cockatoos. Wikipedia

Galahs are monogamous, they will stay with the same breeding partner for life.

Very commonly in Australian English galah is used to refer to a fool or idiot. This figurative sense is recorded from the 1930s, and derives from the perceived stupidity of the bird. The following quotations give an indication of how the term is used:

1951 E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves: 'Yair, and I got better ideas than some of the galahs that give us our orders'.

1960 R.S. Porteous Cattleman: 'The bloke on the other end of the line is only some useless galah tryin' to sell a new brand of dip'.

1971 J. O'Grady Aussie Etiket: 'You would be the greatest bloody galah this side of the rabbit-proof fence'.

Via: Meanings and origins of Australian words and idioms

See 180 more photos of Galah here: https://www.mindenpictures.com/search?s=galah

Big Picture: Our Plastic Problem

Our planet is swamped with plastic. From tiny microplastics entering our diets to synthetic fishing debris entangling and killing wildlife, we are swimming in this petroleum-based product.

Some are recycled, some are buried in landfills, but more is washed into our oceans where wildlife mistake it for food, which is fed to seabird chicks choking their digestive tracks; bags, bottles, and other debris wash back onto beaches, and sea turtles mistake floating plastic bags for delicious jellyfish - an error which is often fatal.

What can we do? What can you do to reduce your use of plastic products? The planet and its occupants are counting on humans to come up with a solution....click on any image to view the whole gallery.

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