guinea pigs
jgoldman | May 31, 2010Zen recently wrote mentioned this study on his blog, so I thought it was time to dredge it out of the archives. Also, I've just returned from APS (see my daily recaps here here and here), and I am TIRED.
Domestic animals and their wild counterparts can be different in big ways; there can be differences in morphology (physical characteristics), physiology, and behavior. These changes may depend on spontaneous adaptations to captivity or to artificial selection pressures arising from the motivation for domesticating the animal in the first place.
One change that is often observed as a result of…
grrlscientist | October 26, 2007tags: skinny pigs, guinea pigs, pets, Image of the Day
Image: The Sun. [nearly life-sized]
Bald guinea pigs were originally developed for scientific research purposes in the 1970s, by suddenly, these so called "skinny pigs" are all the rage among pet owners in the UK. Because they lack fur, these animals must have lotion applied to their skin, require a number 50 subscreen in the summer and a tiny guinea-pig sized sweater in the winter. Even though they are relatively thin, they requirre three times more food than regular furry guinea pigs because they burn the extra calories just to stay…