Baby Seahorses Born!

Dozens of tiny seahorses were born today at the aquarium - July 12th

This is quite an extraordinary event since tropical fish do not readily breed in captivity. Our 4 seahorses are imports from Sri Lankan waters. This morning they surprised us by giving birth to tiny 5mm long babies. In the wild the survival rate for newborns is 5 out of 1000. Chances are slim, but in captivity chances increase drastically. We are now keeping the little ones in a separate tank in our nursery. They are doing just fine and growing daily. At the moment, the babies are eating tiny plankton. In a couple of months, when they get bigger and stronger they will be transfered into the large tank that their parents are in.

The intresting thing about seahorses is that it is the male who caries/incubates the eggs and then "gives birth" to the young ones. The females lays eggs in the male's pouch were he fertilizes them and then he caries them for 2 weeks until they are ready to swim and live on their own.

Albino Burmese Pythons Hatching!

This morning, July 12th, we had our first baby albino burmese python hatch. He is from a clutch of over 2 dozen. We are now waiting for all the rest to come out of their eggs over the next couple of days.

Burmese pythons are the second largest species of snake when fully grown (second to the Reticulated python). The species originates from jungles of Burma, though it seems like our pair is very comfortable here too. This is our female's first clutch of eggs and so we are very excited! Incubation time is 60 days, with a temperature of 32 degrees celcius, and very high humidity. After hatching it will take one week for the snakes to shed their skin for the first time, and then they can be fed their very first meal. They will be kept at our nursery until they grow big enough to join the others at the Aquarium. Burmese pythons are common pets and if handled daily can become very docile. As a precaution, anyone keeping or handling these animals should make sure to read up on them and contact a breeder for information on proper care. Remember, these are wild animals. 

Wooly Rhino from Starunia
(Source: http://www.crystalinks.com/woollyrhino.html)

In 1907, remnants of a mammoth and a woolly rhinoceros were discovered in the Pleistocene clay layer of an earth-wax mine in the village of Starunia. Then in 1929, a nearly fully preserved woolly rhinoceros was found in the same mine. The unique combination of clays, oil, and brine into which the animal had sunk is responsible for their almost perfect preservation. During the late Pleistocene winters, when the ice and snow cover was present in the tundra "paleoswamp" areas were created. They were made from an inflow of brines, oils, and high temperature hydrocarbon gases which resulted in the melting and cracking of the cover, and caused large mammals to fall in and become trapped. Geoelectric measurements, as well as molecular and stable isotope analyses of gases in the near-surface zone within the "paleoswamp" performed in 2004–2005, reveal a few places favorable to the burial and preservation of Pleistocene vertebrates.

A living adult wooly rhinoceros was 3.7 metres (12 feet) in length. It had two horns on the skull made of keratin, the anterior horn being 1 metre (3 feet) in length and a smaller horn between its eyes. It had thick, long fur, small ears, short, thick legs, and a stocky body. Cave paintings suggest a wide dark band between the front and hind legs, but it is not universal and identification of rhinoceros as woolly rhinoceros is uncertain. The woolly rhinoceros used its horns to sweep snow away from vegetation so it could eat in the winter, and it is also thought to have used its horns for defensive purposes and to attract mates.

The wooly rhino was one of the last and most derived members of the Pleistocene rhinoceros lineage.  It was extremely well adapted to its environment. Stocky limbs and thick woolly pelage made it well suited to the steppe-tundra environment prevalent across the Palearctic ecozone during the Pleistocene glaciations. Its geographical range expanded and contracted with the alternating cold and warm cycles, forcing populations to migrate as glaciers receded. Like the vast majority of rhinocerose families, the body plan of the woolly rhinoceros adhered to the conservative morphology, like the first rhinocerose seen in the late Eocene. A close relative, the Giant Unicorn (Elasmotherium), had a more southern range.

Many species of Pleistocene megafauna, like the wooly rhinoceros, became extinct around the same time period. Human hunting is often cited as one cause. Other theories for the cause of the extinctions are climate change associated with the receding Ice age and the hyperdisease hypothesis.

Its shape was known only from prehistoric cave drawings until a completely preserved specimen (missing only the fur and hooves) was discovered in a tar pit in Starunia, Poland. The specimen, an adult female, is now on display in the Polish Academy of Sciences's Museum of Natural History in Kraków. The woolly rhinoceros roamed much of Northern Europe and was common in the then cold, arid desert that is southern England and the North Sea today. During Greenland Stadial 2 (The Last Glacial Maximum) the North Sea did not exist as sea levels were up to 125 meters lower than today.

The woolly rhinoceros co-existed with woolly mammoths and several other extinct larger mammals. No specimens have been dated in the U.K. after 15,000 14C years B.P.

Rekonstrukcja nosorożca włochatego.

Threatened with extinction Crested Geckos were born in Aquarium!
(Gazeta krakowska, 9-10.05.2009r., Tekst: Piotr Rapalski, Fot. Andrzej Banaś, Wikipedia)

Six small Crested Geckos were born at the Krakow Aquarium on Sebastiana Street. For many years they were believed to be extinct until the species was rediscovered in 1994. This is a species that is still in danger of extinction in the wild.
The gecko eggs were laid in February. After a 90-day period of incubation, the young reptiles hatched from the eggs - Our visitors could watch the live births! - said Michal Popek, spokesman of the Aquarium. - the geckos were transfered to the quarantine afterwards. This way they will be protected from bacteria and viruses until they are old enough to be placed with the older ones.
The New Caledonian Crested Gecko has hair-like projections found above the eyes, resembling eyelashes. It has a wedge shaped head and a crest that runs from each eye to the tail. The toes and the tip of the tail are covered in small hairs called setae. Each seta is divided into hundreds of smaller (approximately 200 nanometres in diameter) hairs called spatulae. It is believed these structures exploit the weak van der Waals force to help the gecko climb on most solid surfaces.

The New Caledonian Crested Gecko has no eyelids; a transparent scale, or spectacle, keeps its eyes moist and it uses its tongue to clear away debris. Like all Rhacodactylus geckos, it has webbing on its legs and digits. They are a mostly arboreal species, preferring to inhabit the canopy of the New Caledonian rainforests. They are primarily nocturnal, and will generally spend the daylight hours sleeping in a secure hiding place.

Tekst: Piotr Rapalski, Gazeta Krakowska, (www.polskagazetakrakowska.pl)

Tiger Pythons hatching soon!

Tiger Pythons will be hatching in July. Our female tiger python laid her eggs in May, now the eggs are being kept in a special incubator for approximately 60 days. The temperature is being kept between 29 and 31 dagrees Celsius and the humidity is at about 90%. We are anxiously awaiting the little snakes' arrival.
After hatching the pythons will be about 60 cm long and will be very hungry and bity. Despite the small size they are real predators and they will attack anything that moves. Adult snakes can grow  to be between 3.5 to 8 meters long and can live up to about 35 years of age.

(Na podstawie art. Piotra Rapalskiego, Gazeta Krakowska - 9.04-20009r)