Animals Archives

March 12, 2021March 11, 2021

Aye-ayes Have Many Unusual Characteristics

Scientists use animal classification systems based on old evolutionary assumptions. The result is that many times an animal turns up that doesn’t fit any evolutionary model. An excellent example of this is a species of long-fingered lemurs called aye-ayes. They are nocturnal animals found only in Madagascar. Aye-ayes have many unusual characteristics giving a name that comes from a local phrase meaning something like “I don’t know.” Here are a few of the aye-aye’s traits:

1) They have large round eyes, which aid in night vision.
2) They use their continually growing incisor teeth to tear a hole in trees to reach grubs. Their teeth are so strong they can chew through cement blocks.
3) Their long middle finger is skeletal and has a ball-and-socket joint used to hook onto wood-boring grubs.
4) Their big toe is opposable to enable them to hang from tree branches.
5) They have fur with guard hairs they can raise to appear to double their size.
6) They use a unique system of foraging by percussive tapping on wood. They sense the echo with their bat-like ears to detect hollow areas where grubs are.
7) They build elaborate spherical nests made of leaves and branches.

Because of their teeth, nesting behavior, and long tail, your first guess might be that they are rodents. Despite the face of a possum, the teeth of a mouse, and the ear of a bat, they are classified as primates. This lemur is so unusual it has its own taxonomic family.

Aye-ayes have many unusual characteristics that point out weaknesses in the evolutionary taxonomic system. Systems such as cladistic taxonomy have gained weight as science discovers more animals like this in fossils and places like Madagascar. From an apologetics standpoint, it seems clear that God has created a variety of animals and given them characteristics to fill various ecological niches. Aye-ayes seem to be a special creation for a unique environment.

References: World Wildlife Federation magazine for Spring 2021, Britannica and National Geographic websites for 3/10/21.

March 11, 2021March 10, 2021

Texas Cold Snap Highlights Earth’s Design

Everyone has seen changes in climate patterns worldwide, and in the United States, a Texas cold snap highlights Earth’s design. We need to better understand the global weather systems related to how our planet gets, retains, and releases heat.

Recently an ice-breaker research ship was supposed to get as close as it could to the North Pole. Surprisingly, it was able to get all the way to the pole; something never deemed possible. In February of 2021, Texas experienced a very unusual cold snap. While the media was paying attention to the electric grid’s disruption and water availability problems, the impact on animals was largely overlooked.

In Texas, cold temperatures killed massive numbers of insects and the animals that depend upon them for food. Bats fell from the sky because they had no insects to eat and had no place to go to escape the cold. Milkweed was killed, cutting off the primary food supply for monarch butterflies. Sea turtles could not adjust to the low temperatures, and volunteers took 10,600 turtles to the South Padre Island Convention Center. There they warmed the turtles and eventually returned them to the Gulf of Mexico.

All of those events remind us of the delicate interdependence of life on this planet. We tend to minimize disasters of this magnitude, but we will be reminded later this year. When grocery prices spike because of the lack of Texas-grown fruits and vegetables, we will realize that the Texas cold snap highlights Earth’s design. It should make us aware of how connected we are to other life forms on the planet.

Taking care of Earth’s climate and resources means not allowing human waste of all kinds to upset nature’s balance. We must learn to appreciate God’s design for life everywhere we look. Indeed we can know there is a God “through the things He has made” (Romans 1:19-20).

Data from Associated Press 2/16/21.

March 9, 2021March 8, 2021

The Design of a Chameleon

Chameleons are lizards, and there are more than 200 species of them. The design of a chameleon displays impressive engineering.

Chameleons can change their color to show their mood, communicate, or blend with their environment to hide from predators or prey. They achieve the color change by adjusting crystals on their skin to reflect different wavelengths of light. Some chameleons can adjust their color according to the color-vision of the specific predator they want to avoid. That requires knowledge of what colors the predator can and cannot see.

Chameleons have eyes that move independently in ball sockets so they can look in two directions at once. They can also focus both eyes together for a 3-D view for accurately striking prey with their tongue. They have four toes on each foot, which they use to climb up or down with ease. Also, to help in climbing, most chameleons have prehensile tails to hang onto limbs.

Various chameleon species have adapted to live in rainforests and deserts. Since cold-blooded animals move slowly in low temperatures, you would expect a chameleon’s tongue to move more slowly when it’s cold. In that case, it would not be able to catch fast-moving insects in cold weather. However, their tongues don’t uncoil by muscle strength but by spring tension. Reeling the tongue back in is slower in cold temperatures, but that doesn’t matter for catching the prey.

The design of a chameleon speaks remarkably of a master Engineer-Designer.

March 6, 2021March 5, 2021

Why Do We Need Wetlands?

A giant wetland called the Pantanal is located mostly in Brazil and partly in Bolivia and Paraguay. It’s the world’s largest tropical wetland covering as much as 75,000 square miles (195,000 sq km). You might think that such a vast area is a lot of wasted space that should be drained and used for other purposes. Why do we need wetlands anyway?

The Pantanal is located in a depression in the Earth’s crust surrounded by highlands. Several rivers flow into the Pantanal, bringing sediment and making it an inland river delta. In the rainy season, up to eighty-percent of the floodplain is covered with water. In the dry season, the floodplain becomes dry. Forests of trees grow in the higher areas of the Pantanal. In the lower seasonally inundated areas, grasslands are growing.

The area’s topography creates various biome regions supporting plants that are native to rainforests, savannahs, and semi-arid lands. There are 3,500 plant species in the Pantanal, 1000 bird species, 480 reptile species, 400 fish species, and 300 mammal species. In other words, the Pantanal supports an incredible variety of aquatic plants and a very diverse menagerie of animals.

Some of the animals living in the Pantanal are rare or endangered. We need wetlands like the Pantanal to support these various plants and animals, plus thousands of invertebrate species. More than that, wetlands are natural water treatment systems that remove pollutants and chemicals, purifying and replenishing the groundwater. Wetlands also provide a buffer against flooding in other areas.

Why do we need wetlands? They are an essential part of the hydraulic system God created for planet Earth described thousands of years ago in Job 36:27, 28, “He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streams; the clouds pour down their moisture, and abundant showers fall on mankind.” That ancient book describes the water cycle with scientific accuracy.

We need wetlands for what they do for our water supply and the support they provide for plants and animals essential to the balance of nature. Human activity threatens the Pantanal, as well as many other wetlands. We must become better stewards of the blessings God has placed in our care.

— Roland Earnst 2021

March 4, 2021March 2, 2021

Madagascar Huntsman Spiders and Leaf Traps

Spiders are incredible creatures. There are more than 45,000 known species of spiders, and each of them has unique features that allow them to prosper in a wide variety of environments. We usually think of spiders making webs to catch insects, but spider silk has other uses. Researchers have seen Madagascar huntsman spiders using silk to make leaf traps.

These huntsman spiders (Damastes sp.) take two leaves about the same size and fasten them together with silk to make a pocket. The pocket creates a cool and dark environment that is attractive to small frogs escaping the Sun’s heat and seeking refuge from predatory birds. What the spider has done is design a trap to catch frogs as a source of food. The spider hides in the back of the pocket and ambushes any frog that ventures in.

Biologists are still researching this case where Madagascar huntsman spiders appear to be intentionally capturing and eating vertebrates. In the natural world, there are many instances where life-forms survive even though their survival seems unlikely.

A spider eating frogs certainly doesn’t fit the evolutionary theory of progression, but it does speak eloquently of a unique design built into a particular ecosystem. It is just one more case where the more we know of the creation, the closer we get to understanding the Creator’s wisdom.

For more information about interesting spider species, click HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Reference: Science News, January 30, 2021, page 10.

March 2, 2021March 1, 2021

People Hate Bugs, However…

The January 11, 2021, Proceedings of the National Academies of Science written by scientists from all around the globe raised an issue about problems associated with the decline of insect populations. The report points out that insecticides, herbicides, light pollution, invasive species, climate change, and agriculture and land-use changes are causing the loss of 1 to 2% of Earth’s insects each year. People hate bugs, and yet we can’t live without them.

We have written numerous times about the design of insects and how they benefit human life. Insects pollinate the food we eat. They are a significant part of the food chain, they get rid of waste, and in many cultures, they are a basic food. In my military survival training, I remember being taught how to eat grasshoppers, ants, crickets, and a variety of ground insects.

University of Connecticut entomologist David Wagner who directed the scientific study, said, “Insects are absolutely the fabric by which Mother Nature [we would say God] and the tree of life are built.” The classic example of this problem is the struggle that beekeepers have with the dramatic decline of honeybees. Wagner goes on to point out that in the midwest, we are “creating a giant biological desert, except for soybeans and corn, in a giant area.”

People hate bugs, and we tend to resist any desire to help insects prosper. We must remind ourselves that they are part of God’s design, and the problems they cause are always related in some way to human mismanagement. We must wisely use what God has given us.

Data from Associated Press, January 16, 2021.

February 27, 2021February 26, 2021

God’s Rototiller the Lyrebird

One of the less known necessities of the natural world is the need to aerate the soil. Without some device to rototill your gardens, the ground would be so hard nothing could grow in it. Worms, moles, groundhogs, and insects work the ground so plants can grow, but the world’s most efficient agent to do this is God’s rototiller, the lyrebird.

These birds of eastern Australia have rake-like feet that are so strong they can crush scorpions. Lyrebirds do more than any other form of life to till the soil. One lyrebird can turn over and aerate 388 tons of material on the ground every year while reducing fire risk. Lyrebirds eat insects that they kick up as they work the soil, reducing the danger of insect infestations.

Humans have learned what it takes the get the soil to yield its best crop. We plow and disk the ground to prepare it for producing plants that give us our food. God’s rototiller, the lyrebird, does it more efficiently by controlling even the pests that would defeat our efforts. The natural world continues to reveal God’s design in ways that we are just beginning to understand.

Reference: National Geographic February 2021, page 20.

February 25, 2021February 24, 2021

Arctic Ground Squirrels Hibernate

Squirrels in Arctic areas seem to have a hibernation technique which could be described as suspended animation. Arctic ground squirrels (Urocitellus purryii) go into a state of deep torpor breathing once a minute with a heart rate of five beats per minute. Every two to three weeks, the squirrels revive for 12 to 24 hours, but they don’t eat, drink, or eliminate during that time.

Researchers from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, have found that hibernating Arctic ground squirrels have skeletal muscle breakdown, releasing nitrogen to compensate for lack of food. Even though this is happening, the squirrel’s total muscle mass doesn’t change. It appears that they have protein stored up to handle their needs, but scientists are trying to understand where and how that protein is made available. This is another designed characteristic that allows life to exist in the Arctic.

Realize that there are unique problems in an ecosystem that is shut down for eight months. The design of larger animals allows them to migrate, and caribou herds go great distances to survive the Arctic winter. The migration of salmon into Arctic waters is another provision for animal survival. The salmon become food for Arctic animals, and their bodies become fertilizer so plants can grow in an area with virtually no soil.

Smaller animals have a big problem because they can’t migrate, and their plant-based food sources have a very short growing season. It appears that Arctic ground squirrels are a vital link in maintaining the balance of food and plant growth. The squirrels bury seeds so new plants can grow, and they provide a nutrient source for predators like wolves and wolverines. The complexity of how they do this has led to a whole new area of biology with its own magazine–Nature Metabolism.

Scientists are researching the Arctic ground squirrels’ metabolism to understand how this complex system works. Whatever the biochemistry involved, it is highly complex and strongly supports the belief that God designed life forms to survive even in a col d environment.

Reference: Nature Metabolism December 7, 2020 and Science News for January 30, 2021, page 10.

February 18, 2021February 17, 2021

Animal Engineers and Survival Ecosystems

One of the most interesting demonstrations of design in the natural world is the way some animals build structures that provide for the needs of other animals. The work of these animal engineers creates new ecosystems for survival.

The classic North American example is the beaver, which goes to great lengths to provide a whole ecosystem that benefits other life forms. One might question whether a dam is necessary for a beaver to eat plant material and raise babies. Dam building requires the beaver to spend massive amounts, and the dam is easily destroyed. A large number of other life forms depend on beaver dams and the ponds that form behind them.

Science News (February 13, 2021) published a similar example found in Australia. Life forms in northwestern Australia have to survive in a challenging environment with little water and extreme heat. How do all those animals survive in the harsh conditions?

The answer to that question is large monitor lizards. Two species of monitor lizards dig holes that are up to 13 feet (4 m) deep with numerous side channels. The monitor lizard lays its eggs at the bottom of the long, spiral-shaped tunnel. After the monitor lizard abandons the nest, other animals use the side channels to escape the extreme environment above ground. Arthropods, toads, snakes, lizards are included in 28 different vertebrate species using the abandoned monitor lizard lairs. Researchers have found up to 750 creatures in a single monitor’s pit and side channels.

Like the beaver, monitor lizards provide an environment that allows life in a place where survival is difficult. In the natural world, the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. That is not true when animal engineers are needed to allow a diversity of life in a challenging environment. The more we learn of God’s creation, the more examples we find of intelligence and design, which frequently involve animal engineers.

February 15, 2021February 15, 2021

Value of Insects in the Ecosystem

We get many interesting responses to our daily articles on this website. Recently, several people responded to our emphasis on the value of insects. Bugs can indeed bother us. Some bite or sting, while others eat our vegetation encroaching on our food supply. Despite those things, we have pointed out that entomologists tell us that insects are beneficial.

Akito Kawahara, a curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History, said that most people are unaware of the value of insects. Kawahara points out that insects annually contribute 70 billion dollars to the U.S. economy by their roles in pollination and waste disposal processing. Everyone knows that insects are involved in pollinating flowering plants, but they may not realize that insects are the linchpins, holding together almost all land-based ecosystems. Also, insects provide food sources for birds, bats, freshwater fish, and numerous land animals.

Not realizing the value of insects, humans have done much to eradicate them. We have reduced their habitat, used massive amounts of pesticides, and made them victims of pollution. Sometimes, we have brought in invasive species of animals and plants that harm the ecosystems. We have also done things that accelerate climate change. The National Academy of Sciences suggests initiating a campaign to encourage people to avoid using bug zappers, practice insect conservation, do less mowing, and use insect-friendly soaps and sealants.

God set up a working system that has produced a high standard of living for thousands of years. We are threatening to unbalance the system by our capacity for high tech devices and materials. Sometimes insect populations get out of control and damage human resources, such as the locust invasions of recent years. It is often human interference with the natural controlling agents that have caused the insect infestations. People need to be aware of the value of insects to life on this planet.

Data from National Science Foundation