A Sealion, Not Lyin'!

This is a captive female seven year-old Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) whom I and a friend of mine had the pleasure of encountering without barriers at the Vancouver Aquarium on Sunday, 19th December (We also got to toss fish to one of the sea lions!). This animal and her comrades are part of the University of British Columbia's ongoing research on the decline of Steller sea lions in Alaska.

Wowwee, the Biology of Maui!

The following pictures were taken on my winter vacation to the island of Maui in Hawaii, USA.

Me with a cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis), an introduced bird in Hawaii which is native to parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Another introduced species, the East African giant land snail (Achatina fulica), obviously native to East Africa.

Me with a stingray (family Dasyatidae) at the Maui Ocean Center.

Me with yet another of Maui's introduced species, this one quite familiar: a mother feral chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) and her chicks.

Me with a small bush bravely eking out a living in Maui's rocky Haleakala Crater.

 An introduced grey francolin (Francolinus pondicerianus), which is native to India and some of its surrounding areas. I honestly don't think I saw a single native bird species on my entire trip to Maui!

 A piece of an eggshell found near a bird breeding ground near Kihei, Maui.

Although I can't prove that I was there to take this picture, as the shot with my fingers in it was accidentally deleted from my camera, I was, and here it is. This is a gold dust day gecko (Phelsuma laticauda laticauda). Native to Northern Madagascar and the Comoros Islands, and endangered within its native range, the Hawaiian Islands are the only place in the world in which there is a stable wild population of these geckos and their relatives, which are collectively referred to as day geckos.