When I was a kid I owned a book called "Alligator Pie". It was a book of whimsical poetry, which has stuck with me to this day:

"Alligator Pie, alligator pie,
If I don't get some I think I'm gonna die.
Give away the green grass, give away the sky,
But don't give away my alligator pie!"

Alligator soup, alligator soup,
If I don't get some I think I'm gonna droop....

These verses will stay in your head. I first heard them when I was maybe 3. Fast forward some 26 years, and Laelaps handed me this paper. And my first thought?

Alligator penis, Alligator penis,
It's the part of the gator that sends a girl to Venus
Take away my species name, take away my genus,
But don't take away my Alligator penis.

Or maybe...

Alligator dick, alligator dick,
If you put some in my soup, I think I will be sick!
Throw in all the spinach, or maybe a fish stick,
But DON'T throw in some alligator dick!

Heeee.

What're YOU looking at?

Moore et al. "Morphology and Histochemistry of Juvenile Male American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) Phallus" The Anatomical Record, 2012.

with loads of pictoral support from:

Ziegler and Olbort. "Genital structures and sex identification in crocodiles" Crocodile Specialist Group Newsletter, 2007.

(Pics below the fold are NSFW, needless to say)

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It's a common assumption. We see a guy with a bit of a gut, and we just automatically think...he must like his beer. The idea of the beer gut is strong in Western culture. People talk about trying to lose it. Hipsters talk about trying to gain it. That chick from Pulp Fiction thinks they're sexy.

But here's the question: is a beer belly a beer BELLY? Does all the beer indeed go straight to your gut? Or does it also go elsewhere? Where do we find the answers to these burning life questions: the cure for cancer, the origins of life, the why of the beer belly?

For this, we need SCIENCE.

(Source. And some beer. Science goes best with beer.)

Schutze et al. (appropriately enough, this study is from Germany) "Beer consumption and the ‘beer belly’: scientific basis or common belief?" European Journal of Nutrition, 2009.

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You know, I tried to think up a clever title for this one, but I really think the straight talking just says it all. This really IS about applying pot (or at least, the active ingredient in pot) to bull semen. Ah, science.

Shahar and Bino. "In vitro effects of delta-9-tetrahgdrocannabinol (THC) on bull sperm" Biochemical pharmacology, 1974.

You're gonna do WHAT?

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After last week's post on whether the bears can smell the menstruation (hehe, I can't get over that quote), I was inundated with questions and tips for papers. People asked if menstruation attracted sharks (answer: no one has tested it, right now shark attacks are 9.2:1 male:female, but that's probably due to differences in being in the right place at the right time, rather than being on your period. But I think I need to dangle some bloody tampons in shark infested waters...for science), if dogs were attracted to the smell of menstruation (I've been looking and looking for studies, but apparently that hasn't been done either), all sorts of things. But the vast majority of these studies...haven't been done. From all the stories I've heard of animals being attracted to menstrual blood, you'd have thought every female Homo sapiens on the planet would be ripped apart by wolves the instant she started menstruating.

But we're all still HERE. So I have to think that, until there are studies proving otherwise, most other mammals, and hopefully sharks, don't really care if you're seeping a little bit of endometrium from your nether regions.

But there IS one species, apparently that DOES care.

The brown tree snake.

Oh hai, I'm here for yer sssssecretions

Chiszar et al. "Response of brown tree snakes (Boiga irregularis) to human blood" Journal of Chemical Ecology, 1993.

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While Sci was listening eagerly to Kate Clancy's appearance on Skeptically Speaking last Sunday (you'll be able to download the episode soon), I was flabbergasted to find out that there is a rumor out there that, if you go out hiking on your period...you might attract BEARS.

(I totally forgot about this until someone on Twitter pointed it out. Awesome)

Bears?!

Not only that, the rumor was apparently widespread enough that someone actually did a study to find out if it was true.

Which is good, I'd hate to fear for my life while hiking because I'm shedding my uterine lining. I'd like the think bears are more sensible than that.

Mmm! Do I smell TAMPONS?!

But I'll admit, a part of me was a little worried. After all, I have been camping, and had our campsite raided by bears, because someone left their toothpaste out of the bear box. Apparently bears in Yosemite National Park love them some minty freshness. And if toothpaste is on the menu, why not tampons? I mean, bears will eat most anything, right? Luckily, science is here for us, and science wants us to know, it's ok to menstruate around bears. Black bears, anyway.

Rogers et al. "Reactions of black bears to human menstrual odors" The Journal of Wildlife Management, 1991.

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One of the best things about being a science blogger is that every day, it seems, I learn something new. I mean, I learned something new most days before I was a blogger, but now, NOW I trawl the internet looking for the things that make you go OMG. And today, I found something that is wild and weird on two different levels.

This, you guys, is the binturong.

Awwwww.

The binturong has a couple of cool and odd things about it. The first is that it apparently smells like buttered popcorn. Something to do with their scent glands. I hear that Laelaps is all set to ferret the secret of that out, so I'm focusing on something else odd, but which is actually common to several groups of mammals: teat ownership.

Schoknect, P. "Growth and teat ownership in a litter of binturongs" Zoo Biology, 1984.

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Sea monsters. People are continually fascinated by them. You've got those who believe fervently that there are still undiscovered monsters of the deep, and then you have those who wonder what the monsters we've already sighted...really are. Did someone really see Nessie? Or did they really see something else? And if they saw something else, what is it likely that they saw?

Well, how about a whale. And his penis.

(Is that a sea monster in your pocket or are you happy to see me?)

Paxton et al. "Cetaceans, sex and sea serpents: an analysis of the Egede accounts of a “most dreadful monster” seen off the coast of Greenland in 1734" Archives of Natural History, 2005.

Oh yes, there are pictures below the fold. You know you want to look.

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