Critter Capers

An Indoor Cat is a Happy, Healthy Cat

2009-12-15T07:31:00.000-08:00

Especially if she lives here:

Baby Tapir born in Massachusetts' Franklin Park Zoo

2009-12-14T18:59:00.000-08:00

Her name is "Tupelo" because, according to the keepers, she is very sweet. Baird's tapirs are very endangered, so this is a great success for the zoo. There are only 22 males and 12 females (including this calf) in captivity in North America.

Baby Pygmy Hippo

2009-12-11T06:43:00.001-08:00

Cutest Hedgehog Ever!

2009-12-07T08:19:00.000-08:00

Large picture available here.

Fox Hunting in Snow

2009-12-04T10:53:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite hunting strategies among animals belongs to the red fox. This video, taken in Yellowstone, shows this animal's unique and surprisingly effective way of catching rodents.

Working Dog Sent Home

2009-12-03T21:14:00.000-08:00

Recently I posted about Cody, the lab "working" at his owner's BP station. Well, the killjoys at the health department decided he had to go. Read the story here.

As if you will pick up more germs from a dog than from a gas station. I think most people would be (rightly) far more concerned about the H1N1 snuffling kid pawing through the M&Ms than a dog walking around.

Life on White

2009-12-01T10:33:00.000-08:00

Click here for a link to the website of thse folks who take some amazing animal images!

Lion Cubs at Play

2009-11-30T06:57:00.001-08:00

Raw Milk is a Raw Deal

2009-11-29T10:10:00.000-08:00

As this article states, there is a very heated debate on the merits of raw versus pasteurized dairy products. We all know that milk is one of the healthiest, most complete foods out there (though a good argument could be made for the egg as well).

The gist of the debate centers around the thought that pastuerized milk is less wholesome than raw milk. Many think that the pastuerization process destroys many of the nutrients in milk. With the rise of the internet and the missinformation that is easily disseminated through it, sites abound to encourage you onto this new/old nutritional bandwagon.

As with all good conspiracy theories and "cult mentality" encouragements, there is some truth in the claims made by raw milk advocates. Citing old scientific articles on the husbandry of dairy cattle and the evils of "factory farming," raw milk advocates will have you believe that pasteurization was developed purely to cover-up the mistakes and mishandling of milk products from unfeeling capitalists who want to destroy the family farm.

Let's look at milk: it is a natural blending of protein, calcium and other nutrients that provides everything a body needs, especially a mammalian one. True, it has been consumed safely for years prior to pasteurization and even refrigeration, but the reason for that wasn't because it was a healthier product.

The reason for that is because more people lived on the farm or within an easy buggy ride of one. As industry was revolutionized, cities grew and town mice and country mice moved farther away from each other. There was a need to develop ways to feed people. Refrigeration and pastuerization were two of the inventions that made city-life possible, and allowed people who lived far away from the farm to have wholesome food. Many of the people who died from unpastuerized milk in days gone by were children, and statistics on those deaths are shady at best.

And, as untasteful as it may be to most of us, the rise of the factory farm has lead to consistent, cheap, wholesome food that can feed more people. And then there is the "organic food" craze. Both of these are topics that I'll need to cover some other time.

But is raw milk good for you? According to the Food and Drug Administration, raw milk contains many bacterial species including Brucella species (which can cause severe disease and even abortion), Campylobacter jejuni (a leading cause of diarrhea), Coxiella Burnetii (Q fever), Escherichia coli (another cause of diarrhea as well as a myriad of other diseases), enterotoxigenic Staphylococcus aureus (diarrhea and septicemia), Listeria monocytogenes (leads to death in up to 25% of people infected with it), Mycobacterium bovis (causes tuberculosis in cattle, and may cause it in some people), Mycobacterium tuberculosis (the mycobacterium that causes TB in humans), Salmonella species (diarrhea and speticemia), Yersinia enterocolitica (diarrhea, septicemia, severe abdominal pain), and on and on. Pasteurization kills all of these.

If I need to list more reasons not to consume raw milk, you are a much braver soul than I.

Savage Polar Bear Attack in Canada!

2009-11-27T06:17:00.000-08:00

Working Dog

2009-11-25T05:45:00.000-08:00

I like this business plan!

Dog in a BP shirt greets customers at Clearwater store

The sequence of events happens dozens of times every day at the BP gas station/convenience store at U.S. 19 at Nursery Road. An unsuspecting customer pulls up to the drive-through window. But instead of a store clerk, up pops two paws, deep brown eyes and the tongue-flapping grin of a happy chocolate Labrador retriever named Cody. Kids in the back seats of minivans often squeal with joy. Even the usually stony faces of gruff construction worker-types can't help but crack a smile under the dog's unpretentious greeting.

"He hears the bell and goes running. When he pops up, that sets it off," said Karim Mansour, the store's and dog's owner. "Uncontrollable giggling."

The only thing that tops Cody's enthusiasm for a customer, is a customer who has a dog with him.

It all started one day five months ago when Mansour decided to bring his dog to work. He didn't think much of it at the time — he just wanted to have his best friend with him while he worked the sometimes slow, and occasionally, dangerous, early morning shift. The dog was given free rein of the store, and as a joke, Mansour put a shirt with a BP logo on the dog, and gave him a name tag.

"While he's here, he's an employee. My rule is, 'all employees need to wear the shirt,' " Mansour said.
Without trying, Cody, always eager to greet any friendly stranger, quickly became a celebrity among store regulars.

"The first time I saw him, he had his tail just waggin' and waggin'," said Richard Mealey, who comes in a few times a week. "I love dogs. He's great."

But the best part might be the double-takes the dog elicits at the drive-through window.

"Oh, he's adorable," said customer Candy Thompson when greeted at the window by Cody. "Oh, he's such a big lover."

Photo shoots with cell phone cameras from the drive-through window are commonplace.

But the BP station is also like most other convenience stores — a sometimes strange melting pot of people from every class and creed, who at any given time could be going through some rough emotion. For those customers, Cody is the solution. He can do what the normal gas station clerk usually cannot.

"Convenience stores are so unpredictable. People come in drunk, stoned, angry, you name it," Mansour said. "He calms them down. Animals have the ability to soothe the human soul."

Earlier this year, a woman who had been fighting with her husband came into the station.

"She came in all sorts of bawling and crying," Mansour said.

Cody, sensing something wasn't right, went to the woman. She put her face next to his, and sat on the floor with him. After several minutes talking to Cody, the woman pulled herself together.

"By the time she was done petting him, she'd stopped crying and seemed a lot better. 'Finally,' she must have thought, 'someone who listens and doesn't talk back,' " Mansour said.

Ironically, Mansour acquired the Cody three years ago when an acquaintance, who was going through a divorce, could no longer take care of him.

Since Cody's following has grown, Mansour said, he has also seen a slight uptick in customer retention — a boon, considering his business has seen a slump in recent months.

"That Hess down the street is a superstore. It wipes me down. But people might come the extra half mile or so to get the more personal service — or just to see the dog, he said.

"In a dog-eat-dog world, when our economy sucks and business is hard, you've got to find a way to stand out."

Alien Life on Earth

2009-11-24T06:17:00.000-08:00

Click here to view a neat slideshow of some cool and creepy deep sea creatures.

Follow your nose to the Rhinos

2009-11-19T16:19:00.000-08:00

Dogs to sniff out the state of Vietnam's critically endangered rhinos

Posted on 20 November 2009

© WWF Greater Mekong Programme
Simon Mahood, member of the WWF rhino project in Vietnam, with dog 'Chevy', who is trained to detect dung of the rare Javan rhino in the forests of Vietnam.

Vietnam – Highly trained detection dogs are being used help to determine the population status of the Javan rhino in Vietnam, in an attempt to save one of the world’s rarest mammals from extinction.

WWF researchers have teamed up with national park rangers using two detection dogs from the United States to determine the population status of the Javan rhinos in the forests of southern Vietnam, home to one of the world’s last two remaining populations of the species.

Javan rhino (rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus) were thought to be extinct on mainland Southeast Asia until hunters in Vietnam killed an individual in 1988. It is believed less than ten remain, but no conclusive survey has ever been conducted to verify this.

“The Javan rhino is possibly the rarest large mammal on Earth,” said Sarah Brook, leader of the WWF rhino project in Vietnam. “This field survey aims to reveal the secrets of Vietnam’s little known Javan rhino population in an effort to save it from extinction.”

Samples of the dung will be sent to Queen’s University in Canada where DNA analysis will detect the sex and number of animals. The Zoological Society of London will carry out a hormone analysis to show the animal’s breeding capability.

After just five days of surveying the area, seven rhino dung samples have been found. These specimens have given the project team confidence that they will be able to gather all the necessary scientific information. The results of these analyses will used to formulate an urgent rhino conservation plan.

“The rhino is not only a rare animal unique to this country, but protecting the rhino is a flagship for conservation efforts in Vietnam,” said Hien Tran Minh, Country Director for WWF Vietnam. “If we lose the rhino the future does not look good for Vietnam’s other rare and endemic species.”

The Javan rhino is a highly valued commodity in the illegal wildlife trade, with the rhino horn, skin and faeces used for medicinal purposes. Habitat encroachment from agricultural expansion and planned hydropower development also pose increasing threats to this small population.

To improve protection for rhinos and other wildlife threatened by poachers, WWF in collaboration with the Asian Rhino project is supporting local communities to join the Forest Protection Department and national parks staff.

‘Rhinomania’, a blog written by the WWF team, will keep the public up to date on the rhino survey as well as on life in the national park. Article

Cloudy with a chance of Pandas

2009-11-18T19:07:00.000-08:00

San Diego's newest Panda cub has been named "Yun Zi" which means "son of cloud." Makes sense given that the cub's mom is Bai Yun which means "white cloud." Article here with video

Baby Porcupine is a Fluffball!

2009-11-17T10:37:00.000-08:00

Not spiney at all! Baby Porcupine Born

Also Available in Hardcover

2009-11-16T18:44:00.000-08:00

This little guy was helping his owner, the owner of Murder By the Book in Houston, as she was stocking shelves.

Veterans and their dogs!

2009-11-11T12:35:00.000-08:00

Thanks to my brother for sending these on. What fun! Doesn't it make all of you cat people want to get a dog? ;)

First of all, some Yorkies going what we very technically call "cracker dog" when their soldier gets home from a month long training stint:

And here are some Beagles, making some of the most awful happy noises you have ever heard:

And here is a Golden mix who is doing her best to melt into her soldier:

And, lastly, some Dachshunds going nuts:

Breeder's Cup Classic

2009-11-08T14:09:00.000-08:00

For those of you who may have missed the Breeder's Cup Classic yesterday, here it is. What an amazing race!

Make sure to watch Zenyata, the undefeated mare who was going to run in this final race of her career against a tough field. She is in the 4 post hole with the yellow blanket and 2 white stockings on her back legs.

Horse of the Year!

Behold the Puggle!

2009-11-05T08:39:00.000-08:00

We all know that baby animals are invariably cute. Well, not this one...... This is a puggle, the term used for a baby echidna. Echidna are one of the most odd and interesting creatures out there. Here are some more pictures!

'Ware the fermented apples!

2009-11-03T10:42:00.000-08:00

A hedgehog in England was found to be severely inebriated after gorged itself on fermented apples. Read more about it at this link. I'm not sure what the best part of the story is: that the hedgehog is going to be fine, or that they have a veterinary hospital specifically for hedgehogs called "The Prickly Ball Hedgehog Hospital." That is great!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T06:30:00.000-07:00

Part 2 of the Bird v Cat article

2009-10-30T17:58:00.001-07:00

Yet for all their indefatigable stalking, cats will rarely take on the most cursed vermin in our midst. “The myth has been propagated that urban roaming cats do a lot to control the rat population,” Mr. Schroeder said. “But science has shown that cats don’t predate on rats, especially not the rather large variety seen in our cities.”

Cats’ toll on birds is a less mythical matter. In one famous study reported in the journal Nature, Kevin R. Crooks of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Michael E. Soulé of the Wildlands Project in Colorado looked at the population dynamics among cats, coyotes and scrub birds in 28 “urban habitat fragments” of Southern California. In the developments to which coyotes had access, free-ranging cats were rare and avian diversity high. The coyotes ate cats but rarely bothered with birds. Where coyotes were excluded, cats ranged free and bird diversity dropped.

Very likely, the cats got the young. As it happens, many temperate-zone birds go through a dangerous time early in life, when they are too big for the nest but still poor at flying. The fledglings spend their time on the ground, hiding in bushes and waiting for their parents to come feed them. People come upon the baby birds and think, poor dear, it’s fallen from its nest, but no, this is the system. “They’re incredibly vulnerable,” Dr. Marra said, “and in high-cat densities, the fledglings get nailed.”

In a newly completed study, Dr. Marra and his students used radio transmitters to track fledgling survival in two Washington suburbs: Bethesda and my own Takoma Park. The towns are similar socioeconomically and demographically, but while much of Takoma Park is crawling with outdoor cats, many streetscapes in Bethesda are, for reasons that remain unclear, largely cat-free. At least partly as a result of this discrepancy, Dr. Marra said, fledgling survivorship among Bethesda birds is about 55 percent, similar to what you would see in a natural population. But for birds that happen to be born in my tree-lined paradisiacal hamlet, only 10 percent last long enough to take wing.

There are ways to keep a cat happy inside. Becky Robinson, the founder and president of Alley Cat Allies, who has taken in five strays, recommends any number of the increasingly popular “exclosures,” plastic pods that you pop into your window for the cat to enter and watch the world, or snaky mesh cages that you can even take camping.

I’m relieved to report that our new cat, Manny Jr., is content with our screened-in porch and the many hunting opportunities our home affords. Sorry, but the crickets are fair game.

Save the Birds!

2009-10-30T06:39:00.000-07:00

This excellent article was in the NY Times a few weeks ago, and states very well one of my biggest "pet peeves." (pun fully intended) As a conservationist and avid bird-watcher, I am a huge proponent of people keeping their cats indoors.

Give Birds a Break. Lock Up the Cat.

By NATALIE ANGIER

Published: September 28, 2009

The other day I looked out the window and saw a strange black cat sauntering through our yard. It was a beautiful animal, with bright penny eyes and fur that gleamed like a newly polished shoe, but still the sight turned me ghoulish. So I ran outside, hollered, stamped my feet and finally managed to chase the little witch’s sidekick away.

I am not superstitious. I have always been a cat lover. Yet if there is one thing I don’t want crossing my path right now, it’s another bored, carnivorous tourist, another recreational hunter on the prowl. Our yard is already a magnet for half a dozen neighborhood cats, all of whom I know to be pets with perfectly good homes of their own. But they are free to roam, while we, between our burbling bird fountain out front and our well-stocked bird feeders in back, just happen to look like a felid Six Flags — now more than usual with the busy fall migrations under way.

I would like to complain to the cats’ owners, demand that they come claw their property from mine, but I don’t. I’m a coward, complaining is unneighborly, and I’m all too aware that I could be accused of hypocrisy, of the pot calling the kitty black. Until she died two autumns ago, our cat Cleo was a notorious free ranger, yowling outside neighbors’ windows, climbing on top of their roofs. We tried to make her a housecat, but when she retaliated by using our living room as a giant cat box, we cravenly sighed and flung open the door.
Had I known then what I know now, I would have held my ground, plugged my nose, and kept Cleo inside. Experts disagree sharply these days over how to manage our multitudes of stray and feral cats, with some saying off to the pound, others preaching a policy of catch, neuter and release, and everybody wishing there were other options to click. Yet when it comes to pet policy, and the question of whether it’s O.K. to let your beloved Cleo, Zydeco or Cocoa wander at will and have their Hobbesian fun, the authorities on both sides of the alley emphatically say, No. There are enough full-time strays; don’t add in your chipper. It is not fair to the songbirds and other animals that domestic cats kill by the billions each year. New research shows that neighborhoods like mine are particularly treacherous, Bermuda Triangles for baby birds.

Peter P. Marra, a research scientist at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center at the National Zoo, pointed out that cats were the only domesticated animal permitted to roam. “Pigs have to stay in pens, chickens have to stay in pens,” he said. “Why are cats allowed to run around and do what their instincts tell them to do, which is rampage?”

It isn’t fair to the cat. Regular stints outdoors are estimated to knock three or more years off a pet cat’s life. “No parent would let a toddler outside the house to run free in traffic,” said Darin Schroeder, vice president for conservation advocacy at the American Bird Conservancy in Washington. “A responsible owner shouldn’t do it with a pet.”

In the view of many wildlife researchers, a pet cat on a lap may be a piece of self-cleaning perfection, but a pet cat on the loose is like a snakefish or English ivy: an invasive species. Although domestic cats have been in this country since the colonial era, they are thought to be the descendants of a Middle Eastern species of wild cat, and there is nothing quite like them native to North America. As a result, many local prey species are poorly equipped to parry a domestic cat’s stealth approach. “People fool themselves into believing that by simply putting a bell on a cat they could prevent mortality to birds,” Mr. Schroeder said. “But a bell ringing means nothing to a bird.”

Moreover, free-ranging domestic cats are considered subsidized predators. They eat cat food at home, and then hunt just for sport, a strategy that allows them to exist at densities far greater than carnivores achieve in nature. “It’s estimated that there are 117 million to 150 million free-ranging cats” in the United States, Dr. Marra said. “They’re the most abundant carnivore in North America today.”

Sea Dragon

2009-10-29T07:41:00.000-07:00

Sea Dragons are certainly one of the strangest and most interesting creatures in the ocean. Here is a video that shows their unique courtship and hatching of their eggs.

Sea Dragons

Are you a Twitcher?

2009-10-24T06:45:00.000-07:00

You may be.....if you live in Great Britain and are a bird-watcher. That was the first thing I learned from this article.

Rare bird sighting draws hundreds

The bird is usually found in the Far East. Pic. Dougie Holden

Hundreds of birdwatchers have flocked to a South Tyneside quarry after a bird usually found in the forests of Asia was spotted there.

Twitchers from all over the country have descended on Trow Quarry in South Shields after the sighting of an eastern crowned warbler.
News quickly spread on internet message boards after a photo of the bird was posted on Thursday night.
The last reported European sighting of the bird was in Holland in 2007.
It is believed the bird landed in the quarry after becoming disorientated for some reason.
Significant sighting
Birdwatcher Paul Cook, from Whitburn, near South Shields, told the BBC: "There has been nothing like this in Britain before. This is massive.
"Within minutes of the discovery last night pagers were going into overdrive and my phone has never stopped since.
"I would say about 300 people have been there already and I would imagine the numbers will run into the thousands come the end of the weekend."
The most recent sightings of the bird in the last four years have been in Holland and Finland but it is normally a native of the Far East.
Lee Evans, of the British Birding Association, said the sighting was "significant" and was on his way to South Tyneside from the organisation's base in Buckinghamshire.