gracious/zoology

Advertisement calls are the loud calls that male frogs make to attract females. These are the familiar calls most people are familiar with. Some frog species have aggressive calls made by males towards other males, some have distress calls when bitten by a predator, and some have release calls.

Sample some frog sounds on this page.

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Animal Diversity Web (ADW) is an online database of animal natural history, distribution, classification, and conservation biology at the University of Michigan.

One of the best places in the world to learn about koalas is St. Bees Island off the coast of Queensland in eastern Australia.

Decades ago, koalas were imported there to enhance tourism at a local resort.

The resort is long gone, but the koalas stayed, and their presence has led to a new kind of visitor: research biologists such as Alistair Melzer.

Melzer is studying the island's koalas, trying to understand why the iconic animal is thriving there, while on the verge of extinction in many other parts of Australia.

Pampa, a one-year-old male white tiger, yawns at the Metropolitan Zoo in Santiago, Thursday, May 17, 2007. The white tiger is one of the most endangered species in the world with an estimated of 240 in existence. Pampa arrived form the Argentina's Temaiken zoo.
(AP Photo/Santiago Llanquin)

Dumbo, the African elephant calf, has been reunited with his mother, who earlier this week tried to drown him to the horror of zoo staff and visitors.

When Pori suddenly turned on her calf at Friedrichsfelde Animal Park in Berlin, stamping on him and attempting to drown him, zookeepers had to act quickly to save Dumbo's life.

Onlookers had screamed as Pori turned on her baby and it was only when she was lured away and Dumbo was dragged out of the enclosure by his trunk that his life was saved.

Unsure whether Pori (or Dumbo) would bear a grudge, keepers tentatively put mother and son back together - but motherly love seems to have blossomed.



Many more photos.

Opening on May 26, Oceans presented by Old National Bank is an experience Indianapolis Zoo visitors will not want to miss. As the name implies, the focus is those huge bodies of sea water that cover seven tenths of our world, and which are collectively refer to as the oceans.

When visitors reach the returning penguin exhibit, they will notice a transparent panel beneath their feet that allows them to see (and appreciate the speed) of the penguins as they "fly" underwater from one side of the exhibit to the other. Zoo visitors most certainly will be very glad to have the penguins back from their "vacation" in Texas, and they're bringing home an addition to the flock - a baby gentoo penguin (the first born from the Indianapolis Zoo gentoo flock) that has thrived in his temporary home.

Scientists estimate modern-day ants first evolved about 120 million years ago. But the fossil record suggests that ants at this time weren't the prevalent insect that they are today. Not until 60 million years later, when some ants adapted to the new world of flowering plants and diversified their diets, did the critters achieve ecological dominance.

Since then they've had a successful run of the planet.

Scientists estimate that about 20,000 ant species crawl the Earth. Taxonomists have classified more than 11,000 species, which account for at least one-third of all insect biomass. The combined heft of ants in the Brazilian Amazon is about four times greater than the combined mass of all of the mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians, according to one survey.

Marooned on an island, this group of lions should have died out. Instead, in an evolutionary twist, they've learned to swim and become strong enough to tackle their only prey... giant buffalo

Fearless, ferocious and mightier than the world has ever seen, this is the new breed of super-lion.