A Tiger Reply to a Reader.

The photo is taken from Wikipedia. It is not my property.

Dear Liu:

First of all, thank you for sharing your knowledge on tigers, it's really a great help. Here's something a little extra fun facts on them and hopefully you'll learn more about those big cats.

All feline family, including tigers, do tend to have this tendency on at least try to catch a stick with feathers, as you have mentioned in your comment, since to them, those sticks are like prey. By waving the feathered sticks in front of the tigers triggers their hunting instinct, that's why they wave their paws and try to get them down.

While feeling threatened, also like you have mentioned, and as well as hunting, all felines stay as low as they can to their stomach for camouflage and of course, reducing the chance of being seen. That's why they are excellent stealth hunters.

Well, I hope you have a great time enjoying this blog and hope you'll visit again.
Tammy

Tigers

The photo is taken from Wikipedia, I do not claim it as my property.

There are four lucky animals symbols for good luck in Chinese belief, one is the giant tortes, one is the phoenix, one is the dragon and the last, but not least, is the tiger and you know what? 2010 is the year of a Tiger in Chinese calendar and also for the Vancouver winter Olympic! Then of course, today's topic is going to be the biggest cat on earth: Tigers.

Every cat in the feline family is an excellent hunter, but the Panthera tigris, also commonly known as the tiger, is the true King of the Jungle, the males can weigh more than 1/3 of a ton, or at least there was a record on it, and it can grow up to 12 ft. (3.6m) long, including the tail.

Despite their massive size, the tigers can stalk nearly silently while hunting. Like all cats, except for the cheetahs, their front claws are retractable. Their fur is striped and do you know what happens if we shave the fur? Their skin matches to their fur patterns! That means, their skin is also striped according to their fur! They are usually orange with black stripes, but on rare occasion in the wild, they do have white tigers.

Also like all cats, this time except for the lions, the tigers are solitary, they only can be seen with company under 2 normal circumstances: 1) Mating season 2) A mother with cubs. A female tiger can have 3~4 cubs per litter, weighing about 2.2 pounds, all those cubs are born blind. The mortality of the cubs are really high, about half of those cubs won't survive through their first year due to perhaps hunger, drought, illness, or attack from predators and so on. When a male cubs grows to 4~5 years of age and with females from 3~4 years old, they can start reproduce.

Tigers can live about 15 years in the wild, but they can also live more than 20 years in captivity.

The diet of a tiger is of course usually meat, the water buffalo is their favorite food. But sometimes tigers do eat some vegetations for digestion. While hunting, the tiger can speed up to 49-65 kilometers per hour (35-40 miles per hour) and can leap up to 10 feet!

Sadly, due to lack of habitat, illegal hunting and perhaps global warming, those beautiful big cats are much less than 7,000 today.

Lion and its Pride: The Female Lion

I did not take the photo and I do not claim it as my property.

Alrighty! So now we've had enough of the male lions, let's start with the females.

Although some times a female lion lives alone but she is usually in a group called a "Pride" (as I have mentioned earlier already.) surrounded by blood related female family members such as sisters, mothers, grandmothers, aunts, cousins, daughters and nieces. The only males that can stay in the pride are the male lion cubs and the adult male lion (Or the male lions, depending on the size of the pride.).

There are average of 15 lions in a pride, including the cubs, although sometimes it could double the family members if the hunt and rain are plentiful, but this large numbers of family, every lioness needs to hunt for almost everyday before everyone goes hungry. When drought comes and push comes to shove, it is always the young male lions (not cubs though.) go hungry or thirsty.

Lionesses hunt in stealth, camouflage and stalking, they won't attack within 30 meters between themselves and the prey. When occasionally meeting up a large difficulty hunt, the males would show up and help out.

When mating season arrives, a male lion and female lioness would stay together closely for several days and can mate from 20 to 40 times per day. That's a lot of sex! But that's how the lioness gets pregnant, they need be stimulant to ovulate, that's also the reason why the tip of a male lion's penis has spikes and it can hurt the females when pulling out, and that cause the scene of the female roars and scratches the male on the face.

After birth of the cubs, the mother often changes dens to prevent other predators from attacking and killing them. The cubs are born blind and won't start seeing after a week.

The lions communicate through mainly on smell and touch, but sound can also help, too.

Lion and its Pride: The Male Lion

I did not take this photo so I do not claim this photo as my property.

Take a guess on what Disney animated movie that I still enjoy today, that involves a large group of big cats that's called a "Pride" and all the females are related? Besides Beauty and the Beast, there are also 101 Dalmatians, Rescuers: Down Under and The Jungle Book that I can't get tire of, but none of those are on my subject of what I'm going to discuss today. Of course, it's none the less, The Lion King.

The lion, or if you want to be a professional on this, you can use Panthera leo (Doesn't it sound like the panther lion when it comes down to plain meaning?), can exceed more than 250 kg (550 lb) in weight for some male lions and grow up to 10 feet (3 meters) long, including the tale. They are the second largest feline in the family, running right behind the tiger.

A lion can live up to 14 years of age in the wild, that is, if nothing much happens to them but they can live as long as 20 in captivity.

Ok, let's talk about the boys here in detail first, shall we?There's usually just only one male lion per pride, but if the numbers in the pride is too great, this lion king needs a partner or two to help him for mating, guarding and protecting the pride and its young. But sadly a male lion doesn't last a lifetime in this family, since there are younger and stronger male lions always challenging the current king. So, to answer the question to those who are wondering, the king's time is around 3 years. That means a lion reaches his prime at the age of 5 or 6 and he would "retire" at the age of 8 or 9 years old.

Unlike Simba, in the movie The Lion King, where he comes back home to Pride Rock to take his rightful place as king, a young male lion usually leaves home, mainly because his mother and the other relatives chased him away to prevent inbreeding, at the age about 2 to 2 1/2 years old to make him mature and grow up by joining up with a group of bachelors to gain experiences in life and become the king of another pride someday.

Here's something that it's called nature's course but cruel, when a male lion does defeat the previous king of the pride, he tends to kill the young cubs in order to make sure that his own cubs can live on. Survival of the fittest, so to speak.

To tell the difference between the male and the female is by the mane on the male's lion, while the female has none. The major reason why the males need the mane is because it's a protection for the head, like a helmet for a bike, from other males when they are fighting for the land, the pride and the right who mates first, that is if there are two males in a pride.

Lion Fish

Have any one of you seen the movie, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, where there's a lion fish in Antoine's home? If you have seen this movie, then you will know where I'm going at for this topic. You're absolutely right! It's going to be lion fish!

When it comes to the lion fish, or Pterois species in a professional term, we might think they come from warm places like Hawaii or some place like that and in a way, they are. Their origins are from Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. Their size is typically around 12 in., or 30 cm.

Like a real lion, they are proud and eye catching, which made a lot of fish lovers try their best to get one of them to add their collections. Of course, also like a lion, those fish just won't back down when facing trouble, they tend to stand up for themselves and fight for their survival.

When they are under attack or under threat, they would spread their fan-shaped fins to their maximum size and sting the opponent with the tip of their fan-shaped fins. Which clears up an old misunderstanding, the fish itself doesn't have any poison, its their spiked fins that contains the dangerous dose.

You know, even I, myself, also had this misunderstanding when it comes to them being poisonous. It was actually kind of a relief for me to learn that the fish, itself, isn't as dangerous as it seems, because I thought to myself, "Well, if I must touch one of those lion fish, all I have to do is to touch the body, not the fins, so I would be safe."

As for their homes,they live on coral reefs and their diet includes smaller fishes and shrimps.

A post between animal posts.

Hi, everyone, this is a post not talking directly about animals, but it's still somewhat concerning them. Besides, I also need a short break from doing research and asking around for information for a few days.

For those who are wondering why I'm doing this kind of interactive blog is mainly because it's a passion of mine ever since I first started learning on how to read. I remembered when I was in first grade and I've asked my mom what she thought about me being a vet or an animal behavior specialist.

Sadly, as life moved on, I turned out to be a fine art graduate and became an English teacher in Taiwan, then one day I realized that those aren't my primary interest in life, so I quit my job and then moved to Vancouver with my husband. Here, I've found out a very pleasant and bright place called the Vancouver Aquarium, once I learned about this place, I decided to give it a visit. It was right there during the dolphin show in a bright sunny afternoon I've put my foot down and decided to become a volunteer right at that moment. Simply put, I have found where my heart lies. At first Johnny, my husband, didn't understand why I would spend my time volunteering, but after explaining to him that being a volunteer is a honorable thing to do and it is also a way to give back to the community, then he slowly turned from a skeptic to supportive.

Today, I have happily and contently been a volunteer for a bit more than a year now, and trust me, it's a dream come true in a personal point of view, I hope I could do something more for the animals and perhaps the environment by building and running a web page.

So, once again, enjoy and please don't be shy by sharing your knowledge and experiences with and about animals, I will be more than glad to read and post them out for everyone to share. Most of all, questions and requests about animals are more than welcome. Cheers!

Tammy

Polar Bears

Now let's see what we can talk about this time, umm... ah, yes! Polar bears! I remember when I was still training in the Vancouver Aquarium, I learned some fun facts about polars bears that was quite interesting to me. One thing for sure was their fur. They have two layers of fur, like a husky, the bottom layer is soft and dense to keep them warm and very coarse on the outside and that's not the part that strikes me as fun, the fun part is, their fur color isn't white, it's actually crystal clear, like snow!! Think about it this way, if snow is melted, it naturally turns into water and water is clear, right? Well, it's the same way as the poler bear's fur!

Here's something we can think about, since polar bear's fur is clear, how can they keep themselves warm during the harsh winter in the Arctic's? Give you a hint, it's their skin that can absorb heat from the sun.... No luck guessing? Well, their skin is actually black, so if we shave a polar bear naked, all we see is a pitch black bear standing in front of us.

When mating season arrives, males travel hundreds and hundreds of miles to find a mate. Here's something that's really painful for the males, the males actually have a bone inside their penises and they at least occasionally break during vigorous mating to impress the female. But don't worry about them though, I have asked around with the employees in the aquarium, which took days to get an answer I need, they all think that the fracture would heal up and start the cycle again, since their numbers, although decreasing because of global warming, are still quite many.

Polar bears, also known as Thalarctos Maritimus, are distributed in the Arctic regions, they can weigh as much as 650 lb (or 300kg) for females, at least double the weight for the males and can be as tall as 8 feet (or 2.4 meters) standing up or 5.5 feet (or 1.7 meters) on all fours.

Their diet includes fruits, roots, insects and meat. Females hibernate during the cold winter with their cubs and come out at spring while the males tend to be active all the time. They are great swimmers and can swim for hundred miles from one land to another. Their furry paws can give them a nice grip while traveling on slippery ice.

Dogs: Bernese Mountain Dog

This is a respond to Dog Lover's request on dog breeds. This is for you, Dog Lover, hope you'll enjoy this post! This picture isn't mine, I do not take claim to my property.

Dear Dog Lover,

Thank you very much on reading and enjoying my animal blog. This site is mainly for animal lovers and apparently there are quite a few of us. *Smile*

Now first thing about dogs is, every dog is different, even within the same breed. Just like humans, each and every dog has an unique personality and energy level and it is very important for us humans to chose the right dog for us or be chosen by the dog. So, in a simple sentence, keep our minds open, since a lot of times, the breed that we want isn't the greatest dog we need.

Speaking of energy, here's something for you to think of before deciding, there are three basic energy levels you can consider, low, medium and high. Here are the descriptions below for more details:

Low: A total couch potato, that means the dog prefers to take naps instead of going out for walks.

Medium: About two walks per day for 30 minutes is quite enough and it would enjoy rest of the day with its owner peacefully.

High: It means even with hours and hours of running outside, the dog still has energy to spare and it is often whining and feeling anxious to go out.

This is really important, a dog can start to have puppies at the age of 6 months for female dogs and about 7 to 8 months for male dogs, therefore, if not planning on breeding dogs, PLEASE NEUTER OR SPAY YOUR DOG!

Anyway, enough of that talk and get to the fun part, shall we?

Bernese Mountain Dog is originally from Switzerland, its height is from 23-28 inches (or 58-70 cm), weight is around 88 - 100 lbs (or 40 -45 kg).

Don't let the massive size scare you though, the Bernese Mountain Dog is really intelligent and gentle dog, it was purposely being bred for herding, guarding and pulling crates. The Bernese Mountain actually has similar relatives also from Switzerland called the Entelbuch Cattle Dog and the Appenzell Cattle Dog, which are short haired and the Bernese has long fluffy coat. Just remember to brush the Bernese often, or it'll shed fur like there is another dog in the house.

The Bernese is actually quite agile and quick on its feet, but sadly, due to its large size, it is prone to hip problems and can suffer from bloat if not fed carefully.

Anyway, I hope this information helped with your need on the breed and don't be shy on coming back again. This blog is being updated regularly. Cheers and take care.

Dolphins

Here's a newer and more detailed version of dolphins. Please note that this picture is not mine! That means I did not take it, so I don't claim it as my own.

I went to San Diago SeaWorld the other day and I asked a fellow educator some information about dolphins, he said that dolphins can breed anytime as they want, when they reached sexual maturity at around 4 years old, just like us humans and they can live up to 40 years!!!

Dolphins, or the Delphinus Delphis are distributed in warm waters world wide and their length can go up to 8 feet or 2.4 meters long.

According to what I have learned in the Vancouver aquarium, dolphins can eat up to approximately 10 kg of food, such as fish, each day, that would be about 20 lbs. In the wild, dolphins sometimes won't eat for days, since hunting can be quite difficult and when they do hunt successfully, they would gorge themselves to make up the energy they missed.

Scientists can tell one dolphin from another by recognizing their dorsal fins, those are the fins that's on the dolphins's back, those fins are as distinctive as our finger prints, every dolphin's fin has a different shape, size and color.

The reproductive system isn't very visible, because they are inside the body (For both male and female.) in order to reduce resistance while swimming. Like polar bears and sea otters, male dolphins have a bone inside their penises. That's something quite interesting to know when I first learned that information. I was actually quite shy to hear about it.

By the way, did you know that dolphins can swim up to 20 mph or 40 km/h? That's really fast! They also have lots of teeth inside their mouths, there are 200 of them in total, how cool is that?

I also had a question that was asked in Facebook, she asked "Do dolphins drink the salt water in the sea?"

According to my knowledge, although there are dolphins in light waters as well as in sea water, but they indeed drink sea water when necessary. To avoid massive damage to their bodies, due to salt over doze, sea mammals, such as dolphins, sea otters, whales and so on, have VERY strong kidneys to get rid of excess salt that they do not need. Swim speed can get up to 40 kph.

Beluga

Sorry for repeating the same post in facebook, I'm just moving those fun animal facts here so it's easier to manage. Like I mentioned in the gray wolf blog, although it is a repeat, but it's a more detailed version, so please just read what you and I have missed out.

Beluga, or white whale, scientific name is Delphinapterus leucas, as you can see just... by their name, an adult beluga is completely white, but they aren't born white, a baby beluga, or also called a calf, is actually born with a tad darker gray to camouflage themselves in their mother's shadow, so predators won't notice them as much and also a calf is born in a murky water, so being gray also helps them to blend in into their surrounding environment and won't get noticed as much as being shinny white. A beluga calf start to wean at around 2 1/2 year of age and won't start to mate at the age of around 7 years. A female would have only one calf once in three years, so that means they reproduce slowly.

Belugas are quite social and very noisy! They communicate through a wide range of squeaks, clicks and warbles. They tend to spend lots of time near the surface or shallow waters and they feed on fish and crustaceans (those are animals like shrimps, crabs, lobsters... and so on.). They tend to find their prey through sight and echolocation. Now take a guess on this puzzle, how many teeth does a beluga have? The answer is 40.

Now, here's something fascinating and unique about belugas, they are the only ones in the whale family can pout, spit and shake their heads.

Gray Wolves

Yes, yes, I know I have posted this on my facebook, but I just don't want to put this into waste. I will also add a little bit more information about wolves so this version is a little bit more detailed. By the way, I do not claim this photo as my own, that means I did not take this picture, it is NOT my property.

Grey Wolf, or Canis Lupus in Latin, is the largest canine you can find in the family, their main food sources are elks, fish, bison, moose... basically anything they can sink their teeth into. When they hunt, they would run for days to tire their preys to extreme exhaustion that the prey just simply gives up. When feeding, the leading pair eat the best part first, which are the liver, heart, kidneys and lungs. Believe it or not, each and every wolf gets to feed and no one goes totally hungry.

They spread from Eastern Europe, Asia and parts of North America.

Their howling is still quite a mystery, it can vary from going on hunts, communications, lonely, sad, regrouping, defensive warning... it's very complex.

Grey wolves mate for life and it's only the alpha males and females that can reproduce; and somewhat like the lion pride, each pack member (except for the mating pair.) are mostly related to one another. Since living in such big group, they have social status, like us humans.

I had a friend who asked if wolves just only hunt at night since they are nocturnal. Well, to tell you guys the truth, wolves aren't necessarily nocturnal, like dogs (that is if dogs went wild.), they hunt and sleep whenever they can. Although wolves, or dogs, can indeed see better at night. But unlike dogs, a female wolf's mating season happens only once a year, while a female dog's mating season happens twice a year.

Their size is actually really big! Just by their paws, you can tell how big they are... want to take a guess how big their paws are?? The answer is their paws are as big as a human hand and their actual nose to tail size can reach up to 6 feet, or 2 meters long.

Unfortunately, their numbers are on the decline due to over being hunted by humans over the centuries and lack of their natural environment.

Bunnies, bunnies, it must be bunnies!!!

It has been eight months since we moved to our new home in South Surrey/White Rock area in Vancouver, life seemed quite good so far. For the past few months I have been feeding some apples, pears and bananas to the local wild rabbits, it's professional name and breed just so happenedto be Snow Shoe Hare, very cute name, if you ask me. I've noticed they got two sets of layers of fur, brown for base and gray wisps for top and only their tails are white. I once read on a book saying that the colors are brown and gray is because of camouflage and their white tails are for warning other hares when danger's near. Of course, the two layers of fur is for cold winter.

Now that I've been watching those hares for sometime now, I've started to gather some information about them. They love apples and pears of all sorts, but they seem to not take any interest in strawberries, which surprised me, since at least to us humans, strawberries are good to munch on. I guess every
species is a bit different in their way. it's like grass is rabbit's main diet, so they take plenty of it and they also nibble on twigs for filing down their teeth, but it doesn't mean that us humans think grass and twigs are good.

Now rabbits can start mating when they are around 3 months old and a female can mate again within the next 24 hours after giving birth. Of course, being pregnant all the time isn't going to be healthy for any females, so if letting female rabbits to have babies, it's best not to let them give birth more than twice a year.

Inspiration from the movie...

After seeing the movie "Julie and Julia" at a local KTV theater during my visit in Taiwan for Chinese New Year and also visiting my parents and grandma, I was quite inspired and decided to write something about what I know on animals in a non traditional text book but fun to read kind of way. This idea came from my previous experience in book writing, they are now published and being sold in Taiwan, by inspiring people to learn, respect and most of all, have fun learning about the creatures around us.

In this writing, I would talk about how I felt and experienced through a non medical student when learning a new fact about an animal and also through some of my personal observations. I also welcome and encourage readers asking questions and sharing experiences and knowledge about animals, I will do my best to answer the questions personally, professionally and carefully as quickly as I can and I hope everyone would enjoy it and wish my luck!

PS. I will try to add a new entry every week or two, since I'm not currently planning on going pro on this, so please be patient and keep all of our fingers and toes crossed.