Christmas Announcement.

Dear All:

First of all, Merry Christmas to you and your family!! And of course, a very big THANK YOU to everyone of you for supporting this blog, all your comments and questions are precious to me. Even if you're just dropping in to read the animal information represents every ounce of encouragement and inspiration.

Secondly, I will be taking a break for about 3 weeks from writing my blog, due to the obvious reasons of Christmas, New Year, my trip on returning to Taiwan in early January and getting over my jet lag.

So, having said all that, have a great holiday season and see you all in 3 weeks!


Remember to take care of the animals around you and Reduce, Reuse and Recycle!!
Tammy

Cats: The Hunters that Charms us all.

This photo is taken from a good friend of mine who was kind enough to share her kitty's "portfolio" with me. http://www.wretch.cc/album/album.php?id=yiling9999&book=2


For those who have seen the Shrek's movies, we will know there's an adorable kitty with a sword, a hat with a feather and a pair of boots and goes by the name of "Puss". Although cats can be skillful hunters, like their other relatives, but they tend to sleep up to 12~16 hours, much like their other relatives as well.

Domestic cats, no matter their breed, are all members of one species. Felis catus has had a very long relationship with humans. The Ancient Egyptians may have first domesticated cats as early as 4,000 years ago, if you have seen the movie called "The Mummy", you'll now that they even considered cats as their guardian of the dead! Of course, with plenty of rodents, such as rats and mice, probably also the main reason why the wild felines were drawn to human communities. The cats' skill in killing the rodents may have first earned the affectionate attention of humans. Like I said before, the Ancient Egyptians loved the cats to the extend that they worshiped a cat as their goddess and even mummified their beloved pets for their journey to the next world—accompanied by mummified mice! Cultures around the world later adopted cats as their own companions.

Like their wild relatives, domestic cats are natural hunters able to stalk prey and pounce with sharp claws and teeth. They are particularly effective at night, when their light-reflecting eyes allow them to see better than much of their prey. Cats also enjoy acute hearing. All cats are nimble and agile, and their long tails aid their outstanding balance.

Cats are actually quite communicative, they spread their messages around by marking trees, fence posts, or furniture with their claws or even their natural waste, such as urine, I'm so sure, so please don't take my word for it, but maybe even feces, that's poo in simple word. These scent posts are meant to inform others of a cat's home range. House cats employ a vocal repertoire that extends from a purr to a screech.

Domestic cats are still carnivorous, which means they meat eaters, no matter how tame we might think we have tamed them, and they have evolved a simple gut appropriate for raw meat. They also retain the rough tongue that can help them clean every last morsel from an animal bone (and groom themselves). Their diets vary with the whims of humans, however, and can be supplemented by the cat's own hunting successes.

Harry Potter's Snowy Owl: Hedwig

The picture is taken from http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=https://bcsengage.wikispaces.com/file/view/Snowy_Owl_Pic.jpg/52102825/Snowy_Owl_Pic.jpg&imgrefurl=https://bcsengage.wikispaces.com/Tundra%2BZoology&h=290&w=310&sz=30&tbnid=BJmEichs2AORfM:&tbnh=109&tbnw=117&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsnowy%2Bowl&zoom=1&q=snowy+owl&usg=__E4B6uR1YMTtmSi7z27z6-bHnSLw=&sa=X&ei=44YNTdKnIIm6sQP6w-3yCg&ved=0CB4Q9QEwAA

Harry Potter's book series first came out on June 30, 1997 and, since then ,there are more and more of the Potter's fans throughout the years (I'm actually one of them.) who strongly supported the franchise that the film industry had to make the books into the worldwide blockbusters as we know it today.

Hedwig, Harry's spectacular snowy owl, played an important role in both the books and in the movies. Although many of us might think keeping an owl as a pet could be a cool idea, but unfortunately owls don't make it a good pet since they need lots and lots of room that can reach up to miles on radius to hunt their unique food, such as catching ducks in midair and lemmings (lemmings are a small rodent that lives in the arctic.) for their special diet.

There are 19 owl species in North America, and more than 150 species worldwide. Many of them are in decline and face possible extinction due to human activities like logging and urban development.

Here are some fun facts about owls, just to make my blog straight to the point and easier to read:

• Owls mate for life, just like wolves.
• Owls are found on all continents except Antarctica.
• Female owls are larger and heavier than the males of their species, but the males are more attractive in order to find mates.
• Most owls can twist their heads almost three-quarters of the way around without moving their bodies.
• Owls' eyes do not move.
• Owls have three eyelids: One for blinking, one for sleeping, and one for cleaning the eye.
• Some owls have one ear higher than the other, giving them excellent hearing that allows them to pinpoint the location of their prey.
• Most owls are nocturnal, except for a few species such as the snowy owl which hunts during daylight hours. Most owls hunt at night so they do not cast shadows that could alert rodents and other prey as they descend from the sky.
• Owls' feathers are designed to act like muffler to mute the sound of their flying, enabling them to sneak up on their prey.
• Owls are raptors, and they hunt other living things for their food. They are extraordinarily helpful to humans because they control the rodent population.

Are Llamas Religious Saints?

This photo is taken from http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://kingsofwar.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/llama.jpg&imgrefurl=http://kingsofwar.org.uk/2010/01/llamas-airborne/&usg=__UfQYjsCsSWce5IlaE24q0bFLS5I=&h=450&w=650&sz=106&hl=en&start=0&sig2=1Mrdjw4SKYUy7tk5oTo39A&zoom=1&tbnid=e6EeOjKveZkvrM:&tbnh=127&tbnw=170&ei=BE4ETcPyBYOVnAfHzrToDQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dllama%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D601%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=309&vpy=272&dur=325&hovh=187&hovw=270&tx=146&ty=121&oei=BE4ETcPyBYOVnAfHzrToDQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=23&ved=1t:429,r:9,s:0


I believe there are a lot of people who confuse the Lama monks, such as the Dalai Lama, and the llama as the animal with one another, well, if you didn't get mixed up from the beginning, at least you are smarter than I was when I was younger, 'cause I though how come the animal can be monks? Or the monks be the animal? It never accord to me that they were two different species and with just a little spelling difference all together.

Anyway, that was just a bit of my childhood experience trying to figure things out myself. I saw a Disney animation movie called "The Emperor's New Groove" and I was pleasantly amused on the fact that one of the characters turned into a llama due to mistakenly drank a llama potion! Now llamas are from Andes Mountains in South America, and they are a domesticated form of the guanaco, with a larger body and more powerful legs. Its thick fur can be brown, black or white. Like the guanaco, the llama is sure-footed, which makes it ideal for journeys along narrow mountain paths. Before horses and donkeys were introduced to South America, it was the only animal that could be used to carry food and goods. It was also used as food, leather and fur, which could be made into something useful, like ropes.

As I have mentioned before that a character got turned into a llama in "The Emperor's New Groove", it turns out that llamas can indeed grow up to as big as a human can be! A full-sized llama is between 1.7 meters (5.5 ft) and 1.8 meters (6 ft) tall at the top of the head. They can weigh between approximately 130 kilograms (280 lb) and 200 kilograms (450 lb).

Do you know how long can a mama llama is pregnant for before giving birth to her baby? It's a grueling and painful period of 11½ months (350 days)! Dams (female llamas) do not lick off their babies, as they have an attached tongue which does not reach outside of the mouth more than half an inch. Rather, they will nuzzle and hum to their newborns. A baby llama (called a cria) can weigh between 9.1 kilograms (20 lb) and 14 kilograms (30 lb) at birth.

Rabbit Fact.

Ok, readers, first of all, I have to apologize on the fact that it's currently winter time at the moment and the rabbits haven't been as active as I would like them to be, so I have very slim chance to observe and approach them, by saying all that, the Rabbit Diary probably won't be going on as fast and steady as I would hope it to be. I guess it'll have to be working with mother nature instead of working against mother nature. So, instead of the Rabbit Diary for today's topic, I will write some fun facts about them and probably write some of the ways to take care of domestic rabbits.

So, Rabbits, hares and pikas are a group of plant eating mammals contains about 65 species, which scattered across many regions around the world. All of them live on the ground, where they nibble food with their sharp front teeth. They are very athletes, and their specialty happened to be sprinting and running, which perhaps is a very good idea since they are the ultimate bottom of the food chain where everyone wants to eat them. Also due to the fact that they are the prey instead of predator, they also need and have very good eye site and hearing - which usually give them the advantage of spotting danger and run away before anything happens.

Now rabbits and hares usually live in open country of all kinds, from grasslands to desserts, while pikas can often been found on the rocky mountain slopes.

Both domestic and wild rabbits are gregarious, which means they live in a group, and there can be as many as hundreds of rabbits living underground in the wild. As we can all imagine living with such a big group can be chaotic without a leader and organization, so there will be a rabbit king or queen to sort everything out, including leading a group of soldier rabbits to defend their territory when danger comes. But of course, living in such high responsible and stressful state also gave the leaders the benefit of living in the safest spot in their den.

Now, if you have rabbits as pets, here are some ways to take care of them. First of all, rabbits are very fragile creatures, they can get sick or hurt very easily, so please do pay lots of attention to them and observe them to see if they are acting weird due to being sick or having a hard time on something. Just a bit of reminder, it is the best for yourself and the rabbit to have a general health check-up with the vet twice a year to see if your rabbit is healthy and happy.

One thing for sure is that rabbits can definitely drink water but be sure that it is clean, boiled and cooled. They can also take baths, but it doesn't have to be often, because they are really clean animals by cleaning themselves and also because they tend to get very nervous about being in water. Rabbits cannot eat carrots only, they also need other nutrient which are found in grass, leaves, vegetation, fruit and rabbit food, just be sure that the rabbit has lots of grass to eat so they can grind their front teeth, if they don't have grass or something hard to rub their front teeth down, then the font teeth can grow so long that it will punch a hole through their heads, it's very painful!! Lastly, but not the least, please do not pull the rabbit ears, I know it's what most people would do, but just think, if you are pulled by your ears, well, you get my point, it hurts like hell and it's not good for the body either.

Ok, I guess it's enough for one post, I will be writing some more facts on rabbits later on, that is if I still don't have observations on rabbits this coming week. Wish me luck!

Rabbit Diary VII

As the snow continues falling for the past few days, it seems like rabbits have been coming less to our front and back yard. I think it's quite normal for a lot of animals to slow their activity level to a certain point to conserve energy when food is harder to find. Well, it's either that, or I just keep on missing them while they came to visit and have some of those fresh fruit slices and rabbit treats that I put out. Hopefully those extra food that they get from me can boost their chances for the winter, since the extra calorie intake is very important key for survival.

I was afraid that the cold might freeze the tender rabbit paws so I put the food on a foot mat so the rabbits can eat on it and keep its paws warm, but it seemed like I was worrying too much, since they always pulled the fruit slices out of the mat and enjoyed them away from the mat instead of on it. Just another cute story, a couple days ago when snow fell for the first time and the banana was covered by it and I was just thinking the night before that I might have to go out in the morning to "re-reveal" the banana out so the rabbit can see and smell it, but once again, the rabbit proved that I've worried too much by digging the banana up from the snow and finished it without any hesitation!

It just proved that humans indeed complicate things WAY to much, especially when things can be so light and easy!

PS. I know I have posted this picture before, but I just wanted to show you the "mug shot" of Regular. I know it's Regular is because you can see a small tear on its ear.

Rabbit Diary VI

Here's an older video of Regular, the rabbit, that I took during the summer time, I didn't get the chance to put it on earlier, but at least I've found my chance now to get this video on the blog.

Our star in the short video was coming toward me to have the fresh apple slices, although it was still hesitant at that moment, since the "relationship" and trust between us was still kind of new, yet it still came on over. As you can hear me saying "Come on." to the rabbit, it was kind of a strategy of mine to encourage it to have no fear for me.

Just a footnote here on Boldie and I think it was Rookie here, I found out that rabbits do fight for food! But instead of biting, kicking and scratching, they were jumping so high as if they were competing for the Olympic Gold Medal!! It was so cute that I wished I had my camera with me to shoot the action. I guess filming and photography sometimes take luck to get the shots that we want.

Rabbit Diary V

First of all, I have to apologize on the fact that I didn't get a chance to take a new photo on rabbits, since it has been drawing near winter, raining and been cold for the last few days that rabbits didn't come as often as in the summer. So I had to use a scenic picture that I took when I was out walking around and enjoying beauty around me.

Ok, here comes the main topic of the day. As I have written in my previous blog saying that Regular and Boldie might have moved on, right? Well, to my very pleasant surprise, Regular came back this week! I guess the reasons why I didn't get the chance to see Regular were probably because Boldie must have chased Regular away so often that it was afraid to come back, unless Boldie isn't there. Or, I just simply missed them by pure chance and coincidence; they came to our backyard but I was out, I'm back home but they didn't come... such a thing.

Anyway, Regular saw me with fresh apple slices that I prepared for it, it practically "ran-hopped" towards me and took the apple slices from my had and munched and chewed loudly on the apple slices. I guess that rabbits are indeed quite smart and have a good memory on things and people as well. I was and still am glad to see Regular is still alive.

You know, Regular actually took a special place in my heart, mainly because it's the first wild rabbit that I have ever encountered and also the first wild animal who trusted me so much to the extant that it approached me and actually took food from my hand. Of course, then came Boldie, which I also worked hard to earn its trust, also took me by surprise and also being reminded on the fact that even animals have their own personality.

PS. I still haven't seen Boldie for a while, I hope it is still around the neighborhood.

Rabbit Diary IV

I talked to Johnny yesterday and I agreed with him, he said what I'm doing with this blog did have good intentions on sharing knowledge on and about animals, but it seemed like I've lost my main goal: my own experiences and observations on them! Not just hard facts. Well, here's some improvement that I'm hoping to change.

First of all, it's quite self-explanatory, it's about rabbits, or wild hare, obviously it's according to my blog title. Secondly, it's all about changing shifts. What's changing shifts? You might ask me, well, animals tend to go away, move, being challenged for territory and so on, right? Same thing goes with wild rabbits.

I found out Regular and Boldie both might have moved on to another place or some other reason, our new rabbit, which I named "Rookie", came into our lives. The reason why I called the new rabbit Rookie was just because it was a new comer.

The first couple of times when I observed Rookie, I thought it was just like Regular and Boldie, a wild hare, but after a few times, it looked more and more like a mixed breed of tamed home rabbit and a wild rabbit. The physical differences between a wild rabbit and a home rabbit that I have observed so far are the following three points:

1:) Home rabbits are rounder looking while the wild rabbit looks sharper.

2) A home rabbit's eyes are much more gentle while the rabbit's eyes seemed to always be on alert and cautious.

3) Home rabbit's fur are usually solid block colors, such as white, gray, light brown, black & white and so on, while a wild rabbit has earthy brown color for base color with black wisps on the top which matches the dirt and the environment for camouflage.

Now you have gotten some idea between a wild rabbit and a home rabbit, now I can describe Rookie. Rookie's fur seemed to have a combination of a bit of block based black color of a home rabbit and a dirty brown based color with black wisps of a wild rabbit; its body, or at least its face seemed rounder than a pure bred wild hare; but one thing that Rookie still has as a wild rabbit are its eyes and its sense of alertness of humans.

Goliath Tigerfish

The picture is taken from http://tw.image.search.yahoo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Ftw.image.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dgoliath%2Btigerfish%26b%3D43%26ni%3D21%26ei%3DUTF-8%26pstart%3D1%26fr%3Dyfp%26fr2%3Dtab-web&w=478&h=313&imgurl=www.fishinginternational.com%2Flocation%2Fafrica%2Fafrica1.gif&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fishinginternational.com%2Flocation%2Fafrica.htm&size=92k&name=africa1+gif&p=goliath+tigerfish&oid=902cfccccf17a5d8&fr2=tab-web&no=57&tt=73&b=43&ni=21&sigr=11nr2ngjd&sigi=11ob488vc&sigb=13ivcntio&type=gif

Imagine yourself swimming peacefully in a lake or a river in a sunny afternoon day in Africa, and then there's this fierce predator fish with distinctive protruding teeth took a big chunk of flesh out of you! You look down and saw this huge piranha looking fish swimming away with that flesh it took from you... You would tell me it's a nightmare or a scary story that I'm trying to sell you, but unfortunately, that's not the case. It's a kind of predator fish called the "Goliath Tigerfish".

Now, just a bit of the Biblical history before I continue, there was a war going on between the Israeli and the Philistine in ancient times, and in the team of Philistine's was a giant called Goliath, who threatened the Israelis to make them slaves if they lose and they can make the Philistines slaves if they win and he challenged the Israelis everyday for 40 days. Anyway, long story short, David, who was a young shepherd and not a giant, killed Goliath with a stone in a slingshot with one shot.

Well, not the story time is over, here comes the fun animal fact, like the Goliath in the Bible, the Goliath Tigerfish is a giant fish that weighs over 45 kg and over 1.5 meters in length.

Tigerfish can be considered Africa's piranha though the South American's piranha and the Tigerfish belong to a completely different family, as they are famous for their ferocity when hunting. They have razor-sharp teeth that are interlocking, which means their teeth are tightly joined together from back to back when biting, along with streamlined, muscular bodies built for speeding.

Tigerfish are very aggressive and brilliant predators. A tigerfish has a gas-filled sac in its body that it uses as a sound receiver. This transmits vibrations from the water, enabling it to detect any animals nearby and respond accordingly. A school of juveniles can tackle animals of almost any size, including any land animals that stray too close to the water's edge. Adults tend to travel in smaller groups of four or five to probably avoid too much competition for food, but they are no less dangerous. Even an individual can take down prey as large as itself. When food is scarce or the competition for food is too great, tigerfish may resort to cannibalism, that means eating the same species like themselves. This is particularly common during the dry season though. Tigerfish have also been known to attack humans, these attacks can be devastating owing to their sharp teeth and aggressive hunting tactics. So simple description of the Tigerfish? Dangerous fish!

Bighorn Sheep

My husband and I went to Banff and Jasper national parks a few times when we were still in Calgary (Calgary is one of the cities in central Canada, in the province of Alberta.) from the years 2002~2005. I took a few beautiful animal and nature pictures during those times of visits. It amazes me how plentiful wild animals are throughout Canada, from earthworms to the flying eagles, one of them happened to be one of the most common mammals that can be seen in mountains and national parks, it is called the Bighorn Sheep.

The bighorn sheep are known for head-to-head battles between males for mates. There are records and observations on fights between the rams that last for more than 24 hours!! In order to fight off competitors and show off the male's status and rank, the horns can weigh as much as 30 lbs.

The big horns also have a very complex 9 stages of digestive procedures that can allow them to make the best use of their food, even if it's a marginal quality. Meaning they can still get nutrients from poor quality vegetation. Their typical diet are usually grasses, sedges and forbs. Although they get their moisture from their food but those sheep still need to drink from time to time, so they go to the water hole every few days during the summer time.

As I mentioned before, males fight for the right to mate, but this doesn't happen all year 'round, their mating season only occurs from November to December and the female's pregnancy period is approximately 180 days and have 1-2 young per year, but the young usually don't survive long due to the harsh condition of the weather, predators or viruses that domestic livestock carries. Their sexual maturity is about 2 years old for females and due to competition, the males won't mate until 7 years old and they can live up to 15 years, more if they are in captivity.

The big horns distributions are from Canada to North of Mexico, because they inhabit the alpine meadows, grassy mountain slopes and foothill country near rugged, rocky cliffs and bluffs for quick escape. They also prefer slopes of 2,500 - 5,000 ft. where snowfall is less than 60 in. a year during the winter, because they cannot paw through deep snow to feed. Their summer range is between 6,000 - 8,500 ft. in elevation.

When "communicating", the bighorn rams will snort very loudly, while the lambs bleat and the ewes (that's the female sheep.) respond with a "baaaa...". But they also have an utter throaty rumble or a "blow" when scared.


Bighorn sheep are gregarious, which means they live in groups, sometimes forming herds of over 100 individuals, but small groups of 8-10 are more common. Mature males usually stay apart from females and young for most of the year in separate bachelor herds. They migrate seasonally, using larger upland areas in the summer and concentrating in sheltered valleys during the winter.

Males do not defend territories but rather engage in battles over mating access to a particular female. Age as well as horn size determines male dominance status. Although not as well built for climbing as mountain goats, Bighorn Sheep zigzag up and down cliff faces with amazing ease. They use ledges only 2 inches wide for footholds, and bounce from ledge to ledge over spans as wide as 20 feet. They can move over level ground at 30 miles per hour and scramble up mountain slopes at 15 m.p.h. They also swim freely, despite their massive bulk and the weight of their horns.

Bighorns are generally active during the day, feeding morning, noon and evening, then lying down to chew their cud. They retire to their bedding areas for the night, which may be used for many years.

Desert Bighorns utilize two mechanisms for cooling -- perspiring, and also panting, which is a fairly uncommon adaptation for desert animals. When the summer rains finally arrive, they resume the more common behavior of their species.

A worldwide cullinary delicasy: The Crab

There are more than 4,000 species of crabs worldwide, including the world's largest crustaceans to ones that are not bigger than a pea. Most crabs live in or at least close to water, though some only return to the water to breed, like salmons. Crabs usually can swim very well, but many shore-dwelling species can also scuttle (Scuttle means moving very quickly away.) sideways away from danger at high speed.

Despite their different shapes, sizes and their way of moving, crabs are actually very close relatives to the lobsters! Which sadly happened to be a delicious gourmet entree as well. Just a side note on the subject on food here for a second, the lobster pasta, called the Capelli D'Angelo with Lobster, and the crab spaghetti, known as the Linguine with Crab, are very yummy Italian noodles served before the main course meal.

Anyway, back to the subject on crabs, a crab's body looks as if it has been stretched sideways and, in the most species, is covered by hard and chalky shell. Speaking of shells, here's a crab that's quite interesting, it's called the Decorator Crab. You might ask "What's a Decorator Crab, Tammy?" Well, a decorator crab is a kind of spider crab. Like many Spider Crabs, those crabs doctorate themselves to match themselves just like the environment to hide from predators, this is called camouflage.

What the Decorator Crab does is it takes everything, such as sponges and seaweed, and start draping all over its body. I'd say this guy is an expert at its work! Since it is its self-defense mechanism, so it has to work. And it works like a magic all right. Because we won't be able to see them even during the daytime as it can sit very still, especially when it's among weed covered rocks. Like other camouflage carrying spiders crabs, it fastens its camouflage in place with the hundreds of tiny hooks that covers its body. The only time when they lose its "protection" is when it's molting, which means they lost their old smaller shell behind because they got bigger, and the crabs have to rebuilt their new covering again.

The annoying bugger: The Mosquito

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For some people, insects are a precious jewel, but for some, they are pure menacing pests! As for myself, I take a balanced point of view, for example, insects like bees, dragonflies and butterflies are apples in my eyes since they are both useful members of the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom by spreading pollen from flower to flower and let beautiful flowers to grow in to fruit and let other bigger animals to feed on those fruit.

On the other hand, black fies and mosquitoes are a bunch of blood-sucking fiends that feed on blood like vampires, and like vampires, they are relentless and very durable for their own existence. Well, perhaps I'm a little harsh on them, since at least in the mosquito world, only the females suck blood in order to have protein for the next generation, while the males only take liquids, like nectar, from plants.

Although mosquitoes don't fly as fast or as far as eagles, but mosquitoes can fly at about 1 to 1.5 miles per hour, of course each species are different from another, as much as mosquito species preferring to breed around the house, like the Asian Tiger Mosquito, have limited flight ranges of about 300 feet. Most species have flight ranges of 1-3 miles. Certain large pool breeders in the Midwest are often found up to 7 miles from known breeding spots. The undisputed champions, though, are the saltmarsh breeders - having been known to migrate up to 100 miles in exceptional circumstances, although 20 to 40 miles are much more common when hosts are scarce. When caught up in updrafts that direct them into winds high above the ground, mosquitoes can be carried great distances,

Smaller species found around houses commonly weigh about 2.5 milligrams, the largest ones can weigh at a thumping 10 milligrams!!

While feeding to repletion, mosquitoes can imbibe, which means drink, up to anywhere from 0.001 to 0.01 milliliter of liquid.

And as much as I hate those tough little bastards, they still have their uses on dear old Earth, mosquitoes still have their uses which still fill a variety of places which nature provides. As such, placing a value on their existence is generally inappropriate. Although the fossil record is incomplete, they have been known from the Cretaceous time, which is about 100 millions years ago, in North America. Their adaptability has made them extraordinarily successful, with upwards of 2,700 species worldwide!! Mosquitoes serve as food for a variety of organisms but are not crucial to any predator species.

Just a bit of a food for the mind, what if we wipe out the whole mosquito nation? Wouldn't that be nice? Well, sadly, that won't be as nice as it sounds. because other species from mother nature will take up their spot and the new ones can be a lot meaner, tougher and much more unpredictable.

Now you might as, "Hey, Tammy, so what is the lifespan of a mosquito?", well, it all depends on the species, but most females live from 2 ~3 weeks, and some, which might hide in a warmer place, like in a garage or an attic, can live as long as 6 months.

By the way, do you know how high mosquitoes can fly up to? Generally speaking, mosquitoes that feed off humans prefer to fly at heights of less than 25 ft. Asian Tiger Mosquitoes have been found breeding in tree holes over 40 feet above the ground. In another country, like in Singapore, they have been found in apartments soaring 21 stories above ground. And in other cases are even more astonishing is those buggers are even found a way to breed up to 8,000 feet in the Himalayas and 2,000 feet underground in the minds of India!!!

All and all, they are really tough as nails!!

Canada Goose

Swans, geese and ducks are also known as the waterfowls, which means they are birds that spend their lives on or near water for a living. Because they are waterfowls, or water birds (that is if you're putting words into direct meaning.), that puts them in a typical physical appearance, which includes flat, shovel-shaped beaks, webbed feet and waterproof feathers. Most of the waterfowls get their food either from the water itself or from underwater mud, except for geese, who are exceptions to this rule - they feed on land, pulling up grass and plants with their beaks.

Most waterfowls nest on the ground, and their chicks can swim just only a few hours after they are hatched. There are more than 150 species of these birds. Ducks are found all over the world, but most geese live in the Northern Hemisphere and breed in the Arctic.

Now the Canadian Goose is a handsome goose has a brown and white body and a black head, with white "chinstrap" on its throat. It breeds near lakes and in wetlands throughout Canada and the Northern United States, and its size varies according to where it lives. The largest geese, from the American Great Plains and be seven times heavier than the ones in Alaska - a record difference for the same species of bird. In the early evening, Canada Geese usually return to water to roost. They make a loud, honking noise as they fly.

Migrating birds, or gees, also have a ranking status while flying, the leader always is the head of a upside down V shape, or the front of a whatever shape the flock might form, depending of the group number, and the rank follows to the end whereas the lowest or the least experienced ones wrap up the rear.

The Canadian Geese's distribution are in the North America, but then introduced into Northern Europe and New Zealand and their size can go up to 3.5 ft or 1.1 m long.

Snake: The Anaconda

The photo is taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Green-anaconda.jpg

The fear or adoration for snakes rooted way back from the beginning of time. Not only that, snakes are a symbol of the devil in the Biblical sense. Satan, the most beautiful angel amongst all angels, took the form of a snake and decided to tempt Adam and Eve to take the fruit of knowledge back in the day when God created them as first humans. Amongst of all snakes, the anaconda is one of the largest and heaviest snakes on earth.

Although scientists don't know the exact maximum length of an anaconda (since they tend to grow until to their death.), but it has been recorded of a massive size of 28 ft. (8.6m) long and can weigh up to 450 lbs. A new born baby is already a hugely over-sized 3 ft. (1 m) long! Their location is in tropical Sough America, so people don't have to worry about those big snakes in other regions.

When anacondas and humans clash together can indeed be quite dangerous, and there are some incidents when one of those huge snakes swallows a human, but those attacks are very rare. When attacking a prey, usually aquatic animals, including fish, river fowl, cayman, and capybaras, the anacondas use their super strength muscles through out their whole body to wrap around the animal and strangle them to death or faint. How in details? Well, each exhale of a prey gives out, the tighter the snake wraps... well, you know the ending of this story. Imagine when a prey just faints and then wakes up in the stomach of a snake's belly? It's a slow and painful death!

Anyway! Here comes a new fun fact about hunting for anacondas, the most common knowledge that we have is that preys die from lack of oxygen because they were strangled, which is true! But since strangling can cause blood pressure to rise quickly, and a lot of times preys die from high blood pressure or a stroke.

Snakes do regurgitate when they feel they are threatened, but it's unlikely they will do that very often due to conserving energy. It's hard to get a meal in the wild, so unless the threat is definite, they will continue their meal. Besides, it's even a harder work throwing up than swallowing for them and, also, their teeth are hooked backwards and snakes don't like to risk damage to their teeth.

Giraffe

This photo is taken from www.flickr.com/photos/hypergurl/3757726776/

"Riddle me this, riddle me that..." This is a quote from the villain character, The Riddler, from Batman. Unlike Riddler, I'm not evil, but like him, I am indeed going to give you an enigma for you to guess. Here are the clues:

1) It has 7 very long neck bones. (Every mammal has 7 neck bones, from a small rat to a big elephant.)

2) It has such high blood pressure that if humans have it, we will die from high it.

3) Its hoofs are so powerful that a fully developed male lion can die from just one kick from this animal.

4) It lives in Africa.

5) It has a leopard's spots.

6) It is a herbivore, which means it eats grass and leaves.

Give up yet? Well, the answer is the "Giraffe"! Anyway, the average weight for an adult male giraffe is about 1,200 kilograms (2,600 lb) while the average weight for an adult female is 830 kilograms (1,800 lb). It is approximately 4.3 meters (14 ft) to 5.2 meters (17 ft) tall, although the tallest male recorded stood almost 6 meters (20 ft).

Although giraffes in the wild have a lifespan close to 13 years, but those in captivity can live up to 25 years, considering the fact it's a harder life in the wild.

Can you imagine if your arms are 10% longer than your legs? Well, that's how it is with giraffes, their front legs are longer than their hind legs and they walk like a camel!! What I meant was, unlike dogs, who walk something like front right paw first, then hind left paw, fallowed by left front paw and right hind paw wraps it up; where as giraffes walk like right front and right back walk together and then fallowed by left front and left back. That's kind of like a moon walk for me.

As we all know that we have women's group in the human society to support women. Giraffes also have them, female giraffes associate in groups of a dozen or so members, occasionally including a few younger males. Younger males tend to live in "bachelor" herds, with older males often leading solitary lives.

When it comes to pregnancy, giraffe's pregnancy period lasts between 400 and 460 days, after which a single calf is normally born, although twins do occasionally occur. The mother gives birth standing up and the embryonic sack usually bursts when the baby falls to the ground. Newborn giraffes are about 1.8 m (6 ft) tall. Only about 25 to 50% of giraffe calves reach adulthood.

Rabbit Diary III

I finally caught Regular eating apples, it is really cute, if you listen carefully, you could actually hear the sound of it chewing on its food.

But these days I found that he became a scared rabbit, even with me! I have no idea why it became so nervous.I guess I need to approach it more often again.

Rabbit Diary Part II

The photo is Regular resting in our front yard, now there is a spot that's concaved like a small whole big enough for an adult rabbit. It was dug mostly by Regular and I think Baldie helped as well.

I didn't realize how rabbits can be quite smart until yesterday. I had some apple slices yesterday for both Baldie and Regular as usual, and you know what happened? Regular just took the apple slice away from my hand and took it a couple of feet away from me like how a dog would usually do if not wanting to be disturbed while eating! Same thing happened to Baldie as well just last week.

But it seems to me that although I approached Regular first and it trusted me and ate from my hand first, but it seems like Baldie is more relaxed around me than Regular. Oh, well! I guess it's their personality as rabbits. I read on a book saying that rabbits do know who is friendly and who is mean, it's just that they are more independent and not as attachable as dogs do. I guess I'm ok with it.

One thing I'm happy that now I reached my hand out to move the apple slices which are near the rabbits and they don't scare as easily as before! Hey, would I be Mama Bunny in the future with like 10 rabbits in our yards?

Bunny Diary

This photo is taken from Image Search.

Good news, everyone! Baldie, Regular (the rabbit that came often before.) and a new comer, which I called "Rolly", came last Tuesday. And I have found out an interesting story about those threesome.

As you readers might know that Regular came to our backyard first, also the longest and, of course, which I have been in contact from the start. For a while I was wondering where Regular had gone since I haven't seen it for a few weeks, since it came to visit our backyard almost daily before. Now seeing all three together, I gathered information and pieced together a possibility.

For those who are animal lovers, we all know that there is a ranking system and also a territorial claiming in the animal kingdom (this exists even in human society as well.), now Regular was the "claimer" of our front and back yard but when Boldie came along, Baldie must have fought Regular for this territory and lost a patch of fur on its side but it won, so Baldie became the new land owner. *By the way, just a little note on the side, I think Baldie is younger than Regular, that's probably also the reason why it won and the both rabbit could be males.* So now, Rolly, the possible female, came and joined the clan to meet up with the new "tycoon", or at least I hope.

So now, whenever Baldie shows up to eat the fruit that I put out, Regular seems to be nervous and has to wait until Baldie finishes before it's Regular's turn to feed. By seeing that, I just simply just put the fruit in two different sides so both rabbits can eat at the same time.

A New Rabbit.

There is a new rabbit that's been coming to our yard these days that I've been observing and trying to get close to it, which, by the way, is going on pretty well. Just like the previous one, the new rabbit was very nervous in the beginning on what I was going to do. It even ran away from me just because I scratched my nose or slowly waved my hand to get rid of a fly. Just last week I tried to move closer to it while it was eating a piece of banana but when I came to a certain point that the rabbit thought I was too close, it froze, and I froze with it. Then it gave it a huge "thump" on the ground and bolted a few steps away from me. It was cute! Now I know why some people name their pet rabbit "Thumper", because they truly thump!


Anyway, I call this new rabbit "Baldie", the reason I call it that is because it is missing a bit of fur on its side, which kind of concerns me for few reasons:

1) Has it been biting its fur off by its own?

2) Could the loss of fur is caused by fighting and the opponent bit the fur off?

3) Is it a rash that caused the problem? If that's the case, I really hope one day the rabbit really trusts me to let me hold it and take it to a vet in order to have a look.

You know some? Baldie came again today and it is starting to trust me just like the previous one, although it was hesitating weather it should eat from my hand or not, but it was very near me, looking at me from side to side just a couple of feet away from me. I guessed it wasn't ready to get near me yet, so I just put the banana on the floor and backed away a bit so it can come closer and eat it in a more relaxed energy.

Speaking of rabbits, I really do wonder where the previous rabbit is, it had a bit of a missing piece on its left ear, hmm... I hope nothing bad comes to that bunny.

PS. Sorry that I had to use the same picture twice, I haven't gotten the chance to take Baldie's picture yet. I'll have wait for a little while longer in order not to scare it with my camera in its face.

Koala

The photo is taken from Wikipedia.

Mammals, they (or rather, we, since humans also are mammals in the animal kindom.) are the only animal that have hair all over our bodies and feed our young with milk. Our numbering is about 4,000 species and have a very wide variety.

One of us mammals lives in Eastern Australia, size can go up to 33.5 in., or 85 cm, long and it lives on a tree... You got it! It's the koala!

Those cute cuddly fur balls are one of Australia's most famous animals. Although it is often called a koala bear, but they are quite different from a real bear. The koala is a marsupial species, that means they have a pouch on their bellies as a nursery for their young, and it feeds entirely on leaves of the gum tree, or eucalyptus, and you know what? Koalas don't drink water, they get all their liquids through their food!

Koalas have sharp claws that allow them to climb trees to the food on the top, even if the tree trunk is smooth and shinny.Weight varies from about 14 kg (31 lb) for a large southern male, to about 5 kg (11 lb) for a small northern female. The koala has five fingers and just like us, they also have finger prints! Here's something interesting, they two opposable thumbs, that means those thumbs can go backwards, providing better gripping ability.

Females reach maturity at 2 to 3 years of age, males at 3 to 4 years. A healthy mother usually have one baby at a time each year for about 12 years. Gestation is 35 days. Twins are very rare; their pouches open near the end of their bodies, so when they are upright, the opening is actually facing downwards! But don't worry about those babies falling out though, even if it sounds dangerous, but they never fall out.

Young remain hidden in the pouch for about six months, only feeding on milk. During this time they grow ears, eyes, and fur. They start to wean on their mom's milk at age 6 months, and start eating leaves completely at the age of one year. Young females disperse to nearby areas at that time; young males often stay in the mother's home range until they are two or three years old.

The koala is very slow for a mammal, because it has a very low metabolic rate, and because of that reason, it can rest motionless for about 16 to 18 hours a day. Don't let that lazy bone act fool you though, koalas can be aggressive towards each other, throwing a foreleg around their opponent and biting, but most aggressive behavior is brief squabbles.

Koalas spend about three of their five active hours eating. Feeding occurs at any time of day, but usually at night. Koalas eat an average of 500 g (18 oz) of eucalyptus leaves each day.

An Answer for Phenix.

Dear Phenix:

Hey, hey! So nice to hear from you and I really appreciate your time reading my blog. The main goal for this blog is to remind people how important each and every one of those animals around us can be, and, of course, by writing this blog, I hope people can at least learn not to over kill or torture them.

Anyway, to answer your question and sorry it took so long for me to reply, I needed to ask the expert in the aquarium about this.

They said they don't think the octopus can survive just only one, or two, of their hearts, since, as you already know, octopus have three hearts, each one crucial to maintaining the robust blood pressure that allows octopuses to be active hunters and powerful swimmers.

Human hearts have two main jobs. One is to pump blood to the lungs, where it dumps carbon dioxide and picks up oxygen. The second is to distribute freshly oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.

Making sure enough blood gets to the lungs is so important, in fact, that two of the human heart’s four chambers are reserved solely for that task.

Octopus hearts solve the circulation problem a bit differently. They have one main heart, called the systemic heart, and two smaller hearts located near their gills. The two smaller hearts perform the same task as the right side of the human heart.

They pump blood to the gills where it dumps waste and loads up on oxygen, then pump the oxygen-rich blood back to the main heart. The main heart then pumps the refreshed blood through the octopus’s body.

Besides having three hearts, the octopus circulatory system differs from the human system in one other way. Human blood contains the protein hemoglobin, which helps it absorb oxygen and causes its red color. The blood coursing through the three hearts of the octopus is blue, thanks to a different protein called hemocyanin.

Octopuses are rather shy, so despite their blue blood they are not exactly kings of the sea. But there’s no denying that they’ve got a lot of heart.

I hope it answered your question and once again, thank you so much for coming to my animal blog, I hope I can see you posting comments or questions again soon.

Tammy

*Blog Announcement*

Attention to all readers:

Although I am still posting various animal facts on this blog from time to time, but I will be doing personal encounter with wild hare that's been coming to our backyard as a main topic.

Thanks for all your support and time.

Tammy

Tarzan's Primate Family The Gorilla

The picture is taken from Google. I do not claim this photo as my property.

I believe most of us have heard of or read of the story on Tarzan where he was being raised in the jungle mainly by gorillas. If you don't know the story, please do go to a bookstore and pick up a copy of Tarzan, personally speaking I really enjoyed the story ever since I was a little girl.

Before we start, I just want to drop a note declaring the differences between a primate and a monkey. There are some ways that I know to tell a primate is they walk on their knuckles, this way they can hold some extra food in their hands, sometimes stand up straight and they tend to use tools for, example, eating and they don't have tails. While in the monkey family, they walk on their palms and always walk on all fours and don't use tools and they have long tails. Primates include the chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan and even humans.

There are about 230 species of these mammals and they are mainly found in the warm parts of the world, but sadly, the tropical forests are disappearing fast due to a large demand of land for farming and living space for humans, so, that means there are quite a bit of primate species along with other animals are getting dangerously low in numbers or permanently extinct.

Now primates are mammals that are adapted for life in trees. They have long arms and legs, with flexible fingers and toes that they curl around branches for a good grip. Most of them have flat nails instead of claws.

Gorilla, or Gorilla Gorilla (I know, it's funny how sometimes scientific name can be quite amusing by repeating themselves twice.), can weigh up to 650 lb., or 300 kg, and size up to 6 ft., or 2 m, high, being that big makes them the biggest primates in the whole wide world.

They live in forests in a group up to 30 members, led by a large and strong male leader called the "Silverback". A silverback is an adult male gorilla, typically more than 12 years of age and named for the distinctive patch of silver hair on his back. A silverback gorilla has large canine teeth that come with maturity. Silverback is the center of all the attention, he makes all the decisions, mediating conflicts, determining the movements of the group, leading the others to feeding sites and taking responsibility for the safety and well-being of the troop.

The second in command is called the "Blackback", blackbacks are sexually mature males of up to 11 years of age and may serve as backup protection.

Males will slowly begin to leave their original troop when they are about 11 years old, traveling alone or with a group of other males for 2–5 years before being able to attract females to form a new group and start breeding. While infant gorillas normally stay with their mother for 3–4 years, silverbacks will care for weaned young orphans, though never to the extent of carrying the little gorillas. If challenged by a younger or even by an outsider male, a silverback will scream, beat his chest, break branches, bare his teeth, then charge forward. Sometimes a younger male in the group can take over leadership from an old male. If the leader is killed by disease, accident, fighting or poachers, the group will split up, as the animals disperse to look for a new protective male. Occasionally, a group may be taken over in its entirety by another male. There is a strong risk that the new male will kill the infants of the dead silverback.


They feed on the ground and in trees, gorillas are herbivores, that means they eat fruits, leaves, and shoots. Further, they are classified as folivores. Much like other animals that feed on plants and shoots, they sometimes ingest small insects as well (however, there has been video proof that gorillas do eat ants and termites much in the same way as chimpanzees.) Gorillas spend most of the day eating. Their large arrow shaped crest and long canines allow them to crush hard plants like bamboo. Lowland gorillas feed mainly on fruit while Mountain gorillas feed mostly on herbs, stems and roots. The group travels slowly during the day and they built nests with twigs during the late afternoon for the night.

A female's pregnancy period is is 8½ months. There are typically 3 to 4 years between births. Infants stay with their mothers for 3–4 years. Females mature at 10–12 years (earlier in captivity); males at 11–13 years. Lifespan is between 30–50 years, although there have been exceptions. For example the Dallas Zoo's Jenny lived to the age of 55. Recently, gorillas have been observed engaging in face-to-face sex, a trait that was once considered unique to humans.

Bird of Prey: Bald Eagle

The photograph is taken from Wikipedia.

It is considered majestic, symbol of freedom and representative of integrity and strength, that's why the Americans considered the Bald Eagle as their National bird. But they are not distributed just in the US, they actually spread through out North America. With it wings all spread out, soaring as big as 30 in. (76 cm) long, it is also the largest bird of prey in the world.

The Bald Eagle, or scientifically known as the Haliaeetus Leucocephalus, live near rivers, lakes and coasts, which explains why many photographers take pictures of them catching fish, which happened to be their main food source, although they do eat other birds as well. There were about 50,000 Bald Eagles back in the 1970's but the numbers were decreased to mere 2,000 because of a pesticide called DDT. Don't worry though, DDT has already been banned and the Bald Eagles are coming back in their numbers.

A Bald Eagles takes five years to develop its black and white adult plumage. It does not always hunt live preys, like all other predators, the dead or dying animals, especially the salmon, make up a large part of its diet. Unlike the owls, all eagles, including the Bald Eagles, tend to hunt during the day instead of night.

Eagles are different from many other birds of prey mainly by their larger size, more powerful build, and heavier head and beak. Even the smallest eagles, like the Booted Eagle (which is comparable in size to a Common Buzzard or Red-tailed Hawk), have relatively longer and more evenly broad wings, and more direct, faster flight.

Like all birds of prey, eagles have very large powerful hooked beaks for tearing flesh from their prey, strong muscular legs, and powerful talons. They also have extremely keen eyesight which enables them to spot potential prey from a very long distance. This keen eyesight is primarily contributed by their extremely large pupils which ensure minimal diffraction (scattering) of the incoming light.

Eagles build their nests, called eyries, in tall trees or on high cliffs. Many species lay two eggs, but the older, larger chick frequently kills its younger sibling once it has hatched. The dominant chick tends to be the female, as they are bigger than the male. The parents take no action to stop the killing.

Octopus

The photo is taken from Google.


As a lot of us know that there is a very famous octopus named Paul from Germany that accurately predicted 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup's every move. Now the event has ended, there were people who wanted to buy Paul for the next sport match and there were people who wanted to put him in their dishes as an entree, but fortunately the employees in the German aquarium (Sorry, I don't remember the name of that aquarium.) refused to sell or cook Paul.

Now here's something that's not concerning about any sporting events but something related to Paul, the octopus, himself, but before we start, let me ask you this question and I don't want any of you to cheat, since the answer will reveal itself by the time you finish this article, how many hearts does an octopus have?

The common octopus, also known as the Octopus Vulgaris, is a member of a group of mollusks called the Cephalopods, that also includes squid and cuttlefish. What make the Cephalopods having their own kind are because they have large heads, well developed eyes and beaklike mouths completed by sucker-tripped arms. They grab their prey and kill them by a poisonous bite. To move, they suck water into their body cavity and squirt the water out backwards, that sends their body foward and their arms behind. There are about 650 species of those Celphalopods and they all live in the sea.

Now the octopus is one of the most intelligent invertebrates, that means they have no internal skeleton or shells to protect themselves, the only hard part in their body is their beaks, so that means if there is a hole just enough for the beak to go through, that means the whole octopus can go throguh without a scratch on themselves.

There are some records saying that there are giant squids around the world, which is true, but they are not the common octopus, now the octopus' size is somewhat smaller than the giant squid, although they can indeed go up to 3 ft. (1m) long and their distributions are in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and the Caribbean Sea.

The octopus breed by laying about 200,000 eggs and she guards those eggs for 6 weeks without food, so by the time when those eggs hatch, that usually means it's her time to go.

An octopus's main (primary) defense is to hide, either not to be seen at all, or at least not to be detected as an octopus. Octopuses have several secondary defenses (defenses they use once they have been seen by a predator). The most common secondary defense is fast escape. Other defenses include the use of ink sacs, camouflage, and autotomising limbs.

Octopuses have a relatively short life expectancy, and some species live for as little as six months. Larger species, such as the North Pacific Giant Octopus, may live for up to five years under suitable circumstances. However, reproduction is a cause of death: males can only live for a few months after mating, and females, like I have mentioned before, die shortly after their eggs hatch.

The answer that I asked right in the beginning on how many hearts of an octopus is three!!!

Penguins

The penguin in this picture is called a "Magellanic Penguin".

Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have counter shaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid, and other forms of sea life caught while swimming underwater. They spend about half of their life on land and half in the oceans.

Although all penguin species are native to the southern hemisphere, they are not found only in cold climates, such as Antarctica. In fact, only a few species of penguin live so far south. Several species are found in the temperate zone, and one species, the Galápagos Penguin, lives near the equator.

The largest living species is the Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri): adults average about 1.1 m (3 ft 7 in) tall and weigh 35 kg (75 lb) or more. The smallest penguin species is the Little Blue Penguin (Eudyptula minor), also known as the Fairy Penguin, which stands around 40 cm tall (16 in) and weighs 1 kg (2.2 lb). Among extant penguins, larger penguins inhabit colder regions, while smaller penguins are generally found in temperate or even tropical climates. Some prehistoric species attained enormous sizes, becoming as tall or as heavy as an adult human. These were not restricted to Antarctic regions; on the contrary, subantarctic regions harboured high diversity, and at least one giant penguin occurred in a region not quite 2,000 km south of the equator 35 mya, in a climate decidedly warmer than today.

Breeding

Penguins for the most part breed in large colonies, the exceptions being the Yellow-eyed and Fiordland species; these colonies may range in size from as few as a 100 pairs for Gentoo Penguins, to several hundred thousand in the case of King, Macaroni and Chinstrap Penguins. Living in colonies results in a high level of social interaction between birds, which has led to a large repertoire of visual as well as vocal displays in all penguin species. Agonistic displays are those intended to confront or drive off, or alternately appease and avoid conflict with, other individuals.

Penguins form monogamous pairs for a breeding season, though the rate the same pair recouples varies drastically. Most penguins lay two eggs in a clutch, although the two largest species, the Emperor and the King Penguins, lay only one. With the exception of the Emperor Penguin, all penguins share the incubation duties. These incubation shifts can last days and even weeks as one member of the pair feeds at sea.

Penguins generally only lay one brood; the exception is the Little Penguin, which can raise two or three broods in a season.

Penguin eggs are smaller than any other bird species when compared proportionally to the weight of the parent birds; at 52 g (2 oz), the Little Penguin egg is 4.7% of its mothers' weight, and the 450 g (1 lb) Emperor Penguin egg is 2.3%. The relatively thick shell forms between 10 and 16 % of the weight of a penguin egg, presumably to minimize risk of breakage in an adverse nesting environment. The yolk, too, is large, and comprises 22–31 % of the egg. Some yolk often remains when a chick is born, and is thought to help sustain it if parents are delayed in returning with food.

When mothers lose a chick, they sometimes attempt to "steal" another mother's chick, usually unsuccessfully as other females in the vicinity assist the defending mother in keeping her chick. In some species, such as Emperor Penguins, young penguins assemble in large groups called crèches.

A Reply to Liu.

Dear Liu:

You're absolutely right about wild animals not being afraid of humans that is if humans treat them well and, as we all know, not all humans treat animals as nicely as some of us animal lovers do and of course wild animals should indeed be careful towards us. And to answer your question, that's why I don't plan to tame or cage the wild rabbits, I let them come and go whenever they want. Sort of like how people put out bird feeds to let wild birds come to their backyards and not treating them like pets. So, don't worry about them losing their natural wild instinct for survival.

Thanks for your concern and good intentions.

Tammy

Rabbit in our back yard.

This is one of the rabbits that comes to our backyard often, they are getting picky by preferring bananas than carrots, apples and pears.

Just for those to know who do have rabbits in their homes, rabbits can drink water and they have to have clean vegetables and fruit because they are very sensitive creatures, that also means that they can get hurt quite easily if not treated properly.

Bunny and I Part 2

Ok, last time we covered on how rabbits don't like strong smell and they feel the energy from others. Today's focus is going to be mainly on respect.

As we all know that respect is an universal courtesy towards ourselves and others. Now this etiquette is not only limited to humans but also can apply towards animals, plants and the environment as well. Now, when getting to know a wild animal, in this case the wild rabbit, I let the bunny approach me. This implies a very important point saying, "Hey, I'm here to be your friend, I know you're here and you know I'm here, but I respect your need for personal space, if you come to me, we can get along great, if you don't, it's fine with me, as well.". And after another week of this attitude towards them, the rabbits start to eat from my hands. Two rabbits come to backyard steadily. Occasionally there will be three rabbits come to our yard at the same time.

Just about 2 weeks ago the rabbit became so proud that it was laying in the shade and wouldn't come to greet me, even though I had apples in my hand!! And yesterday I found out that one of the rabbits recognized me and hopped towards me even before I sat down on the lawn, but this one seemed to be a bit picky on what to eat now, it loves bananas, which I had yesterday and it ate it fairly quickly and took a whole night to finish the apple slices that I put out later on.

It is actually quite amazing how animals tend to trust one another so quickly, while humans take a whole lot longer.

Bunny and I Part 1

The photo isn't mine, I got it from Google. I do not claim it as my property.

For those who have known me in my FaceBook, you would know that I've been approaching wild hares that often come to our backyard. So, here's some bit of a personal little story and experiences that might help a bit for those who would want to take a peek into the animal world.

Before I start anything, I will have to say that I'm no expert since I didn't go to school for animal behavior, animal psychology, animal medicine or any sort, so this is just a bit of observation that I do on my own time and interest.

Anyway, like many professionals would say, animals communicate with body language, scent, smell and sound, but most importantly it's all about the energy that gives out information on what kind of state of mind any creature is in at the moment, it could be happy, confident, relax, calm, assertive, neutral or it could be sad, nervous, skittish, anxious, insecure, submissive, dominant and so on.

Now as for wild hare, or wild rabbits, they tend to be nervous, skittish and very cautious towards everything that surrounds them. Well, of course if you put yourself in their shoes, imagine everyone wants to eat you, I would put all my money betting you would be the same as them. So, approaching them would not be an easy task to begin with. Do you know how long it took me just to let the rabbits get used to me being around them? That's everyday for more than 2 hours for a week and a half!!

Let's start by rewinding the date about a month ago, although I have been putting out fruits, such as apples and pears, and carrots in our front and backyard for quite some time already, but I felt it wasn't as challenging as I would like it to be, I wished to get to know wild animals in another perspective instead of from research and facts out of other people and that's when I decided to get more of a personal touch with one of the gentlest wild animals on Earth, the wild hare.

In the beginning, the rabbits were very suspicious to see me suddenly pop up from no where and trying to give them apples. In their point of view, I posed a threat to them. As a result, they kept their distance from me, even though I laid on my back, trying to give them a message saying that I wouldn't attack them and I'm relaxed. But that wasn't enough! After I did a bit of research on the rabbit family, I realized that the rabbits hate strong scents like perfumes, essential oils or just out of the shower scent, since to them, it's quite intolerable. And guess what I did next. That's right! I've stayed neutral scented by not putting anything on, approach them before taking a shower and wear the same unwashed "Rabbit Uniform", as I call it. But somehow, those rabbits were still nervous around me. As I searched for an answer, it struck me that animals also have very strong sixth sense! Unlike dogs, who are predators and would definitely approach humans from one way or another, rabbits are preys and tend to stay away from anything and everything that they think it's a threat. So the central energy of mine will have to change from treating a predator (I had a dog before and an avid dog lover.), which requires calm-assertive energy, to treating a prey which is calm, neutral and peaceful. And you know some? It worked! The rabbits aren't as nervous as before! Although they were still keeping their distance, but they would start grooming their fur, eating grass and fruit and curl up and rest while I'm there with them. It was quite rewarding.

Next time, it would be a Part two on taming rabbits. Keep coming back to see what's new! Later!

Dog Breed: Small Musterlander

This photo is taken from www.gundogmag.com

You know, being an animal lover sometimes do indeed come in handy when it comes to observing nature. Take my own personal experience for example, in which I'm going to post in a very short moment, can be quite entertaining and fun. Just a little while ago Johnny and I went to a trail for a walk, the sun was shinning and the sky was clear with a few puffs of clouds occasionally floating by. There were a few people walking or running with their dogs with them and one of the dog and master couple really hit my funny bone because the dog's front paws was splaying sidewards, just like how some people have splayed feet! I guess a dog's physical differences can vary from one another, just like humans do as well!

Here's some basic information on the dog... it was a Small Musterlander, its origin was not clear until it hit a "Doggy-Boom" in the 19th century in Germany, it was quite common in all of Europe for hunting but sadly it is now quite rare these days to get our hands on, so as a result, a lot of hunters are "snatching" the puppies quite quickly.

Being rare aside, this breed is still a hunting companion but they can be an active, lively and affectionate pets in homes. They are also alert, as a result of being a gun dog and very loyal, they are quite gentle with children, so adults don't have to worry to much leaving kids with them.

They are medium sized but quite strong with a touch of elegance. Their fur are a bit wavy medium lengthed.

Generally speaking, the Small Musterlander is very smart and intelligent, it doesn't take to much work or time to train them a trick or two, so in a simple description, they are eager to please.

The males hight can reach up to 20.5~22.1 in. (or 52 ~ 56cm), while females are a bit smaller, around 19.7 ~ 21.3 in. (or 50 ~ 54 cm.) weighing up to 35 lb for males and 31 lb for females.

Japanese Macaque

The photo is taken from Google. The little observation near the end is mine own.
The Japanese Macaque (Macaca fuscata), also known as the Snow Monkey, is a native specimen of Japan, it is the most northern-living as well as the most polar-living non-human primate. In Japan, they were historically known as saru ("monkey"). Nihonzaru (Nihon "Japan" + saru) is used in modern times to distinguish from other primates.

The Japanese Macaque is diurnal, which means they spend their time during the day, and spends most of its time in forests. It lives in a variety of forest-types, including subtropical to sub-alpine, deciduous, broad leaf, and evergreen forests, as high as 1650m. It feeds on seeds, roots, buds, fruit, invertebrates, berries, leaves, eggs, fungi, bark, cereals and in rare cases even fish. It has a body length ranging from 79 to 95 cm, with a tail length of approximately 10 cm. Males weigh from 10 to 14 kg, females, around 5.5 kg.

The Japanese Macaque lives in troops of 20-100 individuals in size usually subdivided into matrilineal groups consisting of many females and several males. On average, females outnumber males by 3 to 1. The females have a rigid hierarchy with infants inheriting their mother's rank. The males tend to be transient within the troop but in Jigokudani park a line of alpha males, "chiefs", has been documented.

Females will copulate with an average of ten males during the mating season, though only about one third of the mountings will lead to ejaculation. Though pregnancies only occur during the mating season.

The Japanese Macaque is a very intelligent species. It is the only animal other than humans and raccoons that is known to wash its food before eating it. Researchers studying this species at Koshima island in Japan left sweet potatoes out on the beach for them to feed on, then witnessed one female, named Imo (Japanese for yam or potato), taking the food down to the sea to wash the sand off it. After a while, others started to copy her behavior. This trait was then passed on from generation to generation, until eventually, all except the very oldest members of the troop were washing their food and even seasoning their clean food in the sea. She was similarly the first observed balling up wheat with air pockets, throwing it into the water, and waiting for it to float back up before picking it up and eating it free from dirt. An entirely altered misaccount of this incident is the basis for the fictitious "hundredth monkey" meme.

The macaque has other unusual behaviors, including bathing together in hot springs and rolling snowballs for fun. Also in recent studies, it has been found that the Japanese Macaque can develop different accents, like humans. It was found that macaques in areas separated by only a couple hundred miles can have very different pitches in their calls, their form of communication. The Japanese Macaque has been involved in many studies concerning neuroscience and also is used in drug testing relations go on year-round.

After a gestation period of 173 days, females bear only one baby, which weighs about 500 g at birth. This macaque has an average lifespan of 30 years.

Although I'm not so sure about if it's the macaque or monkey of a different kind, but they are often the subject of Buddhist myths, such as the Monkey King for example, it's a story about the Monkey King and his adventures and travels with this monk, a pig and whatever the third creature is called, I'm not so sure, a sea creature perhaps? Anyway, in the story, the monkey had a cloud that can carry him around very fast, but the only way to get on the cloud was to jump and make a summersult. I always thought it was just a story describing the monkey's agility until I saw the actual act of a real monkey doing the same thing with one hand in a zoo!! So, I guess the author really did a great job on learning the monkey's behaviors.

Green Sea Turtle

Before anything happens, I challenge you to hold your breath from the second that you read this until I tell you to let go your breath and resume your breathing, I will tell you why by the end of this post.

There's a very cute Pixar animation from Disney called Finding Nemo playing in theaters some years ago saying how a father Clown Fish, Marlin, was looking for his son, Nemo, and on his journey Marlin met a Sea Turtle named Crush. Now Crush is a cool suave dude who told Marlin that sea turtles can live up to 100 years! But actually they live up to the age of 80.

So, today's topic is going to be the turtle, not the clown fish. (Sorry, Marlin, it's not your day, another time.)

Now Crush is a Green Sea Turtle, or the Chelonia Mydas, are one of the Earth's most ancient creatures. The seven species that can be found today have been around for 120 million years, that's longer than the dinosaurs. The sea turtle's shell, or "carapace" is streamlined for swimming through the water. Unlike other turtles, sea turtles cannot retract their legs and head into their shells. Their color varies between yellow, greenish and black depending on the species. One thing that I didn't know before I went to the aquarium is that the turtle's backbone is actually attached to the shell instead of inside the body like us humans! How cool is that?!

The sizes of sea turtles can be quite wide, since there are a few different of them, but to give you readers some idea, here are some fast fun facts: Kemp's Ridley is the smallest sea turtle at 30 inches long (.762m). The largest sea turtle is the leatherback - an adult can reach over six and a half feet long (over 1.8m). Adult female and male sea turtles are the same size.

Weight: Kemp's Ridley weighs between 80-100lbs (36-45 kg). Leatherback can weigh over 2,000 pounds (over 907 kg)

Now their diet can also vary, again with the different turtles and all, but their most common food sources include jellyfish, seaweed, crabs, shrimp, sponges, snails, algae and mollusks.

Sea turtles spend most of their lives in the water, where not much information can be gathered on their behavior. Most of what is known about sea turtle behavior is obtained by observing hatchlings and females that leave the water to lay eggs. Sea turtles, like salmon, will return to the same nesting grounds at which they were born. When females come to the shore they dig out a nest in the ground with their back flippers, bury their clutch of eggs and return to the ocean. After hatching, the young may take as long as a week to dig themselves out of the nest. They emerge at night, move toward the ocean and remain there, solitary, until it is time to mate.

Now the baby turtles' gender (sex) is decided by the temperature from the environment, so that means below 85 degrees Fahrenheit (30ºC) is predominately male; above 85 degrees Fahrenheit (30ºC) is predominately female. Their mating season is between March-October depending on the species.
Gestation: 6-10 weeks.
Clutch size: Between 70-190 eggs depending on the species.
When the young hatch out of their eggs, they make their way to the ocean. Very few of them survive to adulthood due to predators, pollution, global warming, oil spills and so on.


Ok, before your face turn blue due to lack of oxygen, you can breath now. But the Sea turtle is still holding its breath at this moment after you have already finished reading this post, since they can stay under water for as long as five hours even though the length of a feeding dive is usually five minutes or less. Their heart rate slows to conserve oxygen: nine minutes may elapse between heartbeats.