Cats
laelaps | May 5, 2010Rokan the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), photographed at the National Zoo in Washington, DC.
stoat | May 3, 2010Dr Southgate has lost his cat. Please see http://www.wheresloki.com/.
This post is most likely to be of interest to Cambridge residents. Please don't prove me wrong :-).
jgoldman | May 3, 2010Let 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…
grrlscientist | April 15, 2010tags: iPad: The World's Most Expensive Cat Toy, iPad, Macintosh, Apple, laptops, technology, IT, cultural observation, social commentary, humor, funny, pets, cats, streaming video
This cat is demonstrating the value of an iPad as a cat toy. Who cares if it's a bit on the expensive side, since the cat obviously enjoys playing with it?
Sure, it's probably the most controversial gadget that Apple has ever come out with, but come on, your cat will love you for it. Don't be cheap when it comes to cat toys.
laelaps | April 7, 2010A leopard (Panthera pardus). Image from Wikipedia.
When a leopard eats a baboon, what is left behind? This question is not only relevant to primatologists and zoologists. Even though instances of predation on humans is relatively rare, big cats still kill and consume people, and when they do they can virtually obliterate a body. Yet, just like a human criminal, the dining habits of big cats leave tell-tale clues, and in 2004 researchers Travis Pickering and Kristian Carlson fed two captive leopards eight complete baboon carcasses each in order catalog the most useful ways to identify the…
laelaps | April 6, 2010A leopard (Panthera pardus). Image from Wikipedia.
SK-54 is a curious fossil. The 1.5 million year old skullcap represents a juvenile Paranthropus robustus, one of the heavy-jawed hominins which lived in prehistoric South Africa, but there is something that makes this skull fragment particularly special. Near one of the sutures along the back of the skull are two neat puncture marks, the hallmark of a leopard.
Even though it was initially proposed that SK-54 had been murdered by another australopithecine wielding a weapon of bone or horn, in the late 1960's the paleontologist C.K. Brain was…
laelaps | April 2, 2010A margay (Leopardus wiedii). From Wikipedia.
Even if they spend years in the field, researchers rarely witness predation on primates. Cats, birds, and other hunters regularly feed on primate species, but what we know about the habits of primate-hunters often comes from bones and fingernails picked out of predator droppings. Every now and again, though, someone is in just the right place at just the right time to observe a predator attempt to catch a primate for dinner, and one recent observation in the Amazon has revealed an ingenious hunting technique employed by a small spotted cat.
Despite…
grrlscientist | March 27, 2010tags: cat enjoying attention, Trololo Cat, Eduard Trololo Khil, internet meme, YouTube meme, parody, funny, humor, fucking hilarious, television, streaming video
This video features our favorite boyfriend -- right, my peeps? -- Eduard "Trololo" Khill, along with views of a kitty who is watching, open-mouthed in astonishment at what she sees and hears.
Here's a few more links to Eduard:
More from Eduard "Mr Trolololo" Khill (My New Boyfriend)
Eduard Trololo Khil Addresses the People of the World!
Scientology X(enu) Factor Russian auditions 2010
And my favorite of all:
Captain Kirk Deals with…
laelaps | March 26, 2010A partially dissected head of an ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), showing some of the internal anatomy, in the collection at the New Jersey State Museum. (And here is a similar preserved sea lion head in the same collection.)
laelaps | March 23, 2010A stuffed cougar (Puma concolor), photographed in natural history collection at the New Jersey State Museum.
laelaps | March 9, 2010Charlotte yawns before washing herself, although, on the other hand, she does look like she could be laughing. Lol.
laelaps | March 5, 2010A jaguar (Panthera onca). From Flickr user Prosper 973.
One year ago this week Macho B was euthanized. He had been captured in mid-February of 2009, the only known jaguar living inside the United States, but after he was caught and fitted with a radio collar his health quickly deteriorated. When he nearly stopped moving he was recaptured, taken to the Phoenix zoo, and put to sleep when it was discovered that he was suffering from irreparable kidney failure.
At first it seemed as if his capture was a lucky accident, but a later investigation by the Fish and Wildlife Service found that the…
laelaps | February 15, 2010A reconstruction of Smilodon, photographed at the American Museum of Natural History.
When it comes to animals, encyclopedias often present us with generalized descriptions. Where a creature lives, what color it is, what it eats, and other tidbits of information are listed to distinguish one species from another, but what is lost is an appreciation of variation. Be they genetic, anatomical, or behavioral, variations are grist for natural selection's mill, and if you study any species in detail it becomes apparent that individuals differ considerably over space and through time.
This was true…
laelaps | February 11, 2010A reconstruction of Smilodon, photographed at the American Museum of Natural History.
grrlscientist | February 10, 2010tags: CATalunia Boy's Choir, classical music, humor, funny, strange,cat sounds, music video, streaming video
This amusing video should go into the "what did we do before YouTube?" category. This video captures the CATalunia Boy's Choir singing classical music with feline vocals .. it's a 'must view' for all cat owners and cat fans!
laelaps | February 8, 2010Zeff the Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) yawns. Photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
laelaps | February 6, 2010Two views from the balcony on this snowy, snowy morning.
And, since it's Caturday, here is a shot of one of our new foster cats, Steve.