Mammals
Category archives for Mammals
Evolutionary Genetics of Canine Population Structure
Posted by Greg Laden on May 6, 2008 A recent study of dog genetics, published in PLoS, seeks to improve the quality of genetic research by better understanding the underlying patterns of genetic variation at the level of specific dog breeds.
Orangutans Are Amazing
Posted by Greg Laden on April 29, 2008 This is a photograph of a male orangutan attempting to spear a fish.
Philippines Rat Returns From Century of Being Extinct
Posted by Greg Laden on April 28, 2008 It is always nice when an extinct animal shows up and announces that rumors of its extinction were exaggerated. In this case, we have the dwarf cloud rat just discovered by an international research team.
Good News for Great Apes
Posted by Greg Laden on April 25, 2008 The world’s rarest great ape has found a safe haven in the mountains of the west central African nation of Cameroon. With guidance from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Cameroon’s prime minister, Ephraim Inoni, has created the world’s first sanctuary exclusively for the Cross River gorilla. Kagwene Gorilla Sanctuary spans only 19.5 square kilometers but…
An Engineer’s Guide to Cats
Posted by Greg Laden on April 21, 2008 [hat tip] OK we have room for one engineer joke:
Elephants Were Aquatic
Posted by Greg Laden on April 15, 2008 That elephants have an aquatic ancestry has been suspected for some time now. Moreover, the idea of elephant aquatic origins and elephant origins in general is part of a growing realization that many of the world’s aquatic mammals originated in a couple of regions of Africa that were for a very long time enormous inland…
Happy Birthday Cheeta!
Posted by Greg Laden on April 9, 2008 Cheeta, yoiu may not realize this, but it was YOU who got me interested in Africa and Anthropolology! Happy 76th birhday! You don’t look a day over 50 or so. And no, I don’t say that to all the chimps, just some of them.
Did sexist white males cause the extinction of the woolly mammoth, or was it climate change?
Posted by Greg Laden on April 7, 2008 Ever since 3,599 years ago humans have been asking the question “Why did our furry elephant go extinct?” What caused the woolly mammoth’s (not to be confused with the also-woolly mastodon) extinction? Climate warming in the Holocene might have driven the extinction of this cold-adapted species, yet the species had survived previous warming periods, suggesting…
Elephants Are Not Ethnic-Blind
Posted by Greg Laden on April 6, 2008 I have had this experience. I’ve traveled literally hundreds of kilometers by foot together with Efe (Pygmy) hunters in the Ituri Forest. We see very few animals. The few we do see are attacked, killed, and eaten. Well, a lot of them actually get away, but that is the idea. But I’ve also traveled many…
Charlton Heston Dead
Posted by Greg Laden on April 6, 2008 Charlton Heston, Ben Hur, friend to future apes, Moses, English King, has died at the age of 84. In the words of Michael Levine, Heston’s agent: “If Hollywood had a Mt. Rushmore, Heston’s face would be on it” Here some footage of Heston getting stoned:
LOL Kats: The Movie!
Posted by Greg Laden on March 17, 2008 With a musical score especially made for Saint Patrick’s Day!
Wolves, Coyotes, Pronghorns.
Posted by Greg Laden on March 12, 2008 The big, bad wolf could use a few friends. If western states remove the gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act–a decision currently under debate–consequences could be grave. Wyoming and Idaho announced they would reduce their populations of approximately 300 and 700 wolves, respectively, by 50 percent and 80 percent. Amidst the debate,…
Polar Bears and Global Warming
Posted by Greg Laden on March 12, 2008 The pending federal decision about whether to protect the polar bear as a threatened species is as much about climate science as it is about climate change. The US Fish and Wildlife service is contemplating the listing of the obviusly endangered polar bear as a threatened species. Well, duh… The problem for them (the US…
New Intelligence Score
Posted by Greg Laden on March 12, 2008 hat tip: Miss Cellania
Our Cats are Going Away!
Posted by Greg Laden on March 11, 2008 For the last several months, we’ve been cat sitting for our friends Gil and Gilliane. They are very good cats, and Amanda especially has bonded to them. Well, Gil and Gilliane are returning from their extended stay overseas, and want their cats back. There will be a certain emptiness when they are gone. But even…
Wolves Among Us
Posted by Greg Laden on March 5, 2008 Several years ago, I had a conversation with a friend who at that time, like me, spent a lot of time in the Adirondacks in Update New York. This was in the 1970s. He had spent a week or so on cross country skis on the north slope (facing Canada) the previous winter. On his…
Polar Bears Under Threat …
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 As usual. Along with seabirds, owing to decisions made by the US government. The US Government has auctioned leases to drill for oil and gas in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska, putting at risk internationally important concentrations of seabirds, and a number of threatened bird species, including the Critically Endangered Kittlitz’s Murrelet Brachyramphus brevirostri. Audubon…
Very Large Parks are the Wave of the Future
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 Across Africa, and to some extent Asia, existing large parks and preserves are being combined into very large parks in order to serve several important functions. One is to make the parks so large that there will be interior areas that are impractical for most poaching or other encroachment. Another is to allow movement of…
Wild Gorillas Gone Wild
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 This is a photograph of wild western lowland gorillas copulating in, sort of, the missionary position. This shot was taken in the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo.
Lemur Family Tree Mapped
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 A DNA phylogeny based on over 200 species of lemurs and related species is now available.
Nature News
Posted by Greg Laden on February 26, 2008 Hunting Wolves; Killing Elephants
Brilliant chimp
Posted by Greg Laden on February 13, 2008 OK, here’s a quiz for you. You have a tube that is fixed in space. You cannot move it. It is too small for you to get your hands into it, and there is a peanut in the bottom. You want the peanut. How do you extract the peanut? Have a look at how this…
The Physics of Tatiana
Posted by Greg Laden on February 2, 2008 Tatiana was the captive Siberian Tiger who, on Christmas Day, leaped out of her cave to attack teenage boys who were taunting her. She killed one of them. Zookeepers are investigating how she did it, considering the possibility that the wall of her enclosure was not high enough (technically, it was lower than recommended height…
Tatiana Update
Posted by Greg Laden on January 31, 2008 Tatiana was the tiger that leaped from its enclosure in the San Francisco Zoo, killing one and wounding others. Details of the investigation have been released, and apparently, the tiger was taunted.
“Not everyone can do what we do..”
Posted by Greg Laden on January 30, 2008 I’m talking about herdin’ cats, bro
How to catch a herd of elephants
Posted by Greg Laden on January 27, 2008 You need: a pair of binoculars a pair of tweezers a bottle a cork an elephant call.
Chimpanzee Food Sharing: Sharing Ideas
Posted by Greg Laden on January 25, 2008 Remember this post on chimpanzee food sharing? Over a PLoS, where the original paper is published, you can get involved in a discussion of the paper. I posted something over there in response to someone else’ Go have a look, here. Access to the discussion is on the right side bar.
Chimpanzee Food Sharing
Posted by Greg Laden on January 21, 2008 Is chimpanzee food sharing an example of food for sex? One of the most important transitions in human evolution may have been the incorporation of regular food sharing into the day to day ecology of our species or our ancestors. Although this has been recognized as potentially significant for some time, it was probably the…
Robot Does Monkey’s Bidding
Posted by Greg Laden on January 18, 2008 Two hundred pound robot lumbering along on tread mill, doing the bidding of a monkey several thousand miles away.An international and interdisciplinary team of scientists have developed a robot that will carry out physical activities in imitation of the activities of a monkey. The monkey and the robot are hooked together via the internet. The…
Jane Goodall: What separates us from the apes?
Posted by Greg Laden on January 16, 2008 Traveling from Ecuador to Africa, Jane Goodall takes the audience on an ecological journey, discussing highlights and low points of her experiences in the jungle. She shows how progress is helping research (DNA analysis) and hurting the environment (clear-cutting). And she draws a dozen parallels between primate and human behavior, making the point that we…
, which is now available for the 
