Cat

A study published in the European Journal of Personality suggests that humans infected with toxoplasmosis gondii are more extroverted compared to non-infected individuals. According to the CDC, roughly 22.5% of Americans over 12 are infected. The effects of the parasite are attributed to increased levels of dopamine in the brains of infected individuals. People can become infected with the parasite through exposure to undercooked contaminated meat, unwashed fruits and vegetables from contaminated soil as well as infected cat litter. Source: Lindová J, Příplatová L, Flegr J. Higher…
Meet Henri... he is a cat. Part deux is a masterpiece. Silly, but excellent.
Orville the cat was named after Orville Wright, and when he died, Bart Jansen, the cant's "owner" taxidermied him and, in collaboration with Radio Controlled Flying Objects expert Arjen Beltman, they converted Orville the cat into a working helicopter. From the daily mail: Jansen said the Orvillecopter is 'half cat, half machine', and part of a visual art project to pay tribute to his cat Orville. Jansen, part of the art cooperative Generaal Pardon, said: 'After a period of mourning he received his propellers posthumously.' Click through to see more photos, and here's the video: Are these…
This is a lion: Click the picture for a larger version of the photograph. Photo by Greg Laden. And here are selected blog posts about lions and related beasts: Amboseli Lions May Go Extinct The Evolution of Cats: Sabertooth vs. Regular Tarangire Lions The Lion That Ate the Earthwatcher Biker and Greg get Eaten by Lions The Lion, The Tent, and the Anthropologist The Evolutionary Dynamics of the Lion Panthera leo Revealed by Host and Viral Population Genomics The Science of Lion Prides Lions being all liony Where the lion sleeps tonight On the Ownership of Large Dangerous Wild Animals http://…
Why would you want a field guide to all of the carninvores? They live everywhere, so there is no reason to carry around a field identification guide with ALL of them unless you were going everywhere in the whole world on one trip! Yet, there is such a field guide, Carnivores of the World (Princeton Field Guides), and the truth is, this is ONE OF THE COOLEST BOOKS I'VE EVER SEEN! All the carnivores (almost) in one book. Interestingly, it turns out to be possible. There are fewer than three hundred species of terrestrial carnivore in the whole world, and that is fittable in a single book…
Remove all cats from the room before starting this video. Especially the big ones.
You have probably heard about the cougar which was just killed in Connecticut but which is thought to have wandered there from the Dakotas. Well, I have a couple of stories to bookend that story. One of them has to do with the lion in this photograph, and the other with something I saw in the woods. This photograph was taken by me not too far from Connecticut and it was shot with a 50 mm lens. The only thing between me and this cat was his breath. No, the lion was not running around free. It was part of a travelling group of cats. The lion you see here may be familiar to you because…
and yet more photo spam: Last week it was cold. It was warmer at the weekend. But this week it is cold again. Though as RC points out, its not going to be the coldest winter for a millenium. We went rowing tonight. Oddly enough we were the only crew out. We had to stop past the Elizabeth way bridge due to ice on the river - not solid sheets at that point, but enough floating bits to warn us that worse was coming. Very cold, I rowed with a glove on my inner hand and only survived by sticking my outer hand down my trousers when we span. Still it was a good warm-up for a pint in the Fort.…
Hat tip: Todd.
Your humble narrator finds himself sick with a cold, so here's a post from the archives. There is considerable research on how children interact with other children and with adults, and how child development can be influenced by those interactions. But research on children's interactions with non-human animals seem to be limited. Given how ubiquitous pets are in the homes of children (at least, in WEIRD cultures), it is somewhat surprising that there hasn't been more work on the way pet ownership might affect child development. According to the US Humane Society: There are approximately 77.…
Apparently when something interests you, the best way to figure it out is to smack it really hard, and repeatedly. If you're a cat, at least. h/t @ferrisjabr
In Robert Gardner's documentary film Dead Birds, the men of a highland New Guinea village guard the perimeter of the territory, watchful for men of the neighboring group who may be intent on sneaking into the gardens to capture and kill an unwitting child or woman in order to avenge a prior death. But they don't see the men sneaking through the dense riparian forest. They don't even look for them. Rather, they see the birds fly from their preferred habitat where they are foraging or resting, startled into the open by ... something. The birds belie the predator. Today, in construction…
Do cats have self recognition? This video suggests they might not, at least in terms of passing the mirror recognition task. But, well, this isn't really the mirror recognition task. And the mirror recognition task may not be the best way to test self recognition in cats. But in any case, it's a pretty hilarious video of an (evil) cat. (via @ferrisjabr)
Zeff the Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
A lion cub (Panthera leo) stalking its sibling, photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
A black leopard (Panthera pardus), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
A snow leopard (Panthera uncia), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
Rokan the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), photographed at the National Zoo in Washington, DC.
Let me tell you a little story. When I was born my parents had two cats. One was named Garfield. The other...well, I don't remember what the other one was called. Not long after I was born, and little Jason was coughing up furballs, the doctors informed the parents that their little bundle of skin and hair was allergic to cats. It was then that teams were picked and lines were drawn. It was me or the cats. Luckily, the parents decided to keep me, and lose the cats. Imagine how much it would have sucked if they decided to keep the cats and lose me. I imagine if my younger brother had actually…