Harry Potter's Snowy Owl: Hedwig

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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?

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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.