Party Animal

This little guy knows how to rock a camp site, especially with the ladies:

Slowsky Fun Time

Dreaming of Turtle Island

Mama's looking for a little vacation and I'd like to recommend none other than Turtle Island, Fiji, the location for the movie Blue Lagoon.

Click to learn more about Turtle Island. Then plan your trip (and take mama with you)!

Butterfly Season!

I love them so much. And they love me.

It's Gangnam Style!

Ugly Dog, Handsome Turtle

Coffee Anyone?

It would be nice to have a fine cup of java waiting for me in the morning... but no...

Back in the Saddle

Spring must be around the corner. I suddenly found myself taking that long hike up the rock to the dock, looking for a view... and some warmth from the light.

What a Pisser!

From DiscoveryMagazine.com:

You Like Turtles? Urine for a Surprise

Learning from tricky turtles may help humans with kidney failure.

By Brendan Borrell|Thursday, March 07, 2013

 

Yuen K. Ip knew something funky was going on inside the mouths of Chinese soft-shelled turtles. When they were on dry land, they dunked their heads in puddles and gargled. “Why would they do that?” asks Ip, a physiologist at the National University of Singapore. It turns out they were simply peeing. From their mouths.

Mouth-peeing is more than just a neat trick—it’s essential for maintaining these turtles’ deviant lifestyles. Unlike other freshwater turtles, these guys venture into brackish water for days at a time. In this challenging environment, their bodies break down protein and produce toxic ammonia, packaging it as urea.

The load is so great that they cannot just drink water and flush it out because their kidneys would be overwhelmed by the salts. Instead, these turtles have molecular pumps in their mouths that help move the urea out.

Ip thinks his research could help humans with kidney failure, either by creating a more efficient dialysis machine or through gene therapy to enable humans to mimic the turtle and eliminate urea via the mouth. It may just work. “What we are doing is learning from nature,” he says.

Nabbed!

March 2013 - Two smugglers were nabbed in Thailand as they tried to smuggle some of the rarest tortoises in the world.

CLICK HERE for the full story

Like Henry's friend Jim says: SNUGGLE, not SMUGGLE!

Forget Moby Dick!