Category Archives: DANTAisms

Dichogama colotha: a lovely Costa Rican moth

         Dichogama colotha is a species of moth found in Costa Rica, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and southern Texas. A description of this little known species was first published in the Proceedings of the United States National Museum in 1912. D. colotha is a relatively small moth with white, almost iridescent wings that span 28-36mm, and tends to fly from June to October (Dyar

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Awaiting Baby Sahm’s Arrival

by Lisa Barrett No Breeding, No Buying At about this time last year, I, along with the rest of the Think Elephants International (TEI) research team, was anxiously awaiting the arrival of a new “family” member. Elephant births are cause for huge excitement at the camp for two reasons. First, female Asian elephants only have four to five calves in

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Island Biogeography – Madagascar

The island of Madagascar began to split from continental Africa during the Jurassic period, approximately 135 million years ago! By 70 million years ago, it was completely separated from the continent. This separation has allowed for extensive amounts of adaptive radiation. This is a process in which organisms diversify rapidly into a multitude of new forms that can exploit different environmental

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Getting to the Bottom of Baboon Bottoms

I have received some interesting reactions when I tell new acquaintances that I study baboons. Recently, someone very enthusiastically asked, “Those are the animals with the HUGE pink butts, right?” They are indeed. And I’m actually quite intrigued by those “pink butts.”   A more technical term for this is “exaggerated sexual swellings.” Around the time of ovulation, females of

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Terciopelo – My First Encounter With A Venomous Snake

We arrived at the Costa Rica field site late at night, groggy from traveling and completely overwhelmed by the pitch black of night. The sounds of the forest alive erupted at the back of our cabins. We secured our headlamps and shuffled quickly into our beds, kicking out unwanted insect-friends and wrapping ourselves tightly in our mosquito nets. Early the

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Botanical illustration: Hylocereus costaricensis, the Costa Rican dragon fruit

The above drawing shows the lovely fruit of the cactus Hylocereus costaricensis, or the Costa Rican Pitahaya. This fruit is known as “dragon fruit” to most, but the term “dragon fruit” applies to a variety of cacti within the genera Hylocereus and Stenocereus, both genera of night-blooming cacti native to South America. Fruit from Stenocereus cacti tend to be called

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Resume vs Curriculum Vitae

To decide whether to submit a resume or curriculum vitae (CV), it is important to determine which criteria fits the position you are applying most appropriately. Resumes tend to be non-academic, while CVs are used for academic, and in some cases, government positions. It is important to know the difference because each position may be looking for specific information about

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