December 2nd, 2008
Natasha and I went to Yosemite last weekend and stayed in a tent cabin. I’d never been to Yosemite before, but I was very impressed… photos can’t due the scenery justice.
I didn’t get attacked by a bear, but I did see a bear. Natasha and I were in the lodge at Curry Village drinking coffee and a smallish black bear walked up within 15 feet of the window. Before anyone else caught sight of it, it ran off into a group of abandoned cabins that had been deemed unsafe due to rockslides.
A deadly bear scales a tree in search of its next meal
Black bears (the only kind of bear that lives in California, thanks to the extermination of the animal on our state flag, the grizzly bear) don’t attack people very often and generally lead a vegetarian diet unless they are desperate for food. Mountain lions are definitely more dangerous, and so are rattlesnakes. There is something horrifying about the thought of getting attacked and eaten by a bear though, so I did some research (not real research, just on the internet) and came across this article.
The biggest lesson I learned from my “research” is that the best way to avoid bear attacks is to not be a moron around wildlife. The following is the perfect illustration of this principle:
*April 1995: In Shasta-Trinity National Forest, a man found what he thought was an abandoned cub but was actually a 70-pound yearling, put it in his vehicle and said he was driving it to an animal protection facility. In the two days that followed, two women joined on the trip, and while driving in the town of Mt. Shasta, received minor injuries from the yearling while in the car.
If I was forced to ride around in a car for two days with a stranger and two women he picked up, minor injuries would probably be involved. I can hardly fault the bear.
Tags: bears Yosemite nature
Posted in animals, travel | 1 Comment »
November 21st, 2008
Two researchers at Penn State University have mapped the genome of the extinct Woolly Mammoth using DNA extracted from hair found frozen in permafrost. According to scientist Hendrik Poinar, this means it wouldn’t be hard to recreate the Mammoth and put it in a Pleistocene era-themed amusement park.
Mammoths on Parade, coming soon to a Six Flags near you.
Maybe there will be a baby Mammoth in next year’s Neiman Marcus Christmas Book? Which other animals should we think about bringing back? Oh wait, things didn’t work out so well in Jurassic Park, did they? It would actually be pretty hard to find DNA for dinosaurs, but maybe some more recently extinct animals would be easier to find. Maybe dodos will be the new dogs?
Your next pet
Tags: DNA, dodo, Woolly Mammoth
Posted in animals, extinction, technology | No Comments »
September 25th, 2008
Exterminator’s Window
While I probably have more to say about my weekend trip to Ohio than what is summed up in this photo, I found it very amusing that these exterminators thought it would be good marketing to make a display of stuffed animals having a picnic. Exactly the same types of animals they specialize in killing. If you are ever walking up High Street in Columbus, be sure to take a look.
I suppose it isn’t much worse than having a talking chicken in an ad for fried chicken…
Tags: Ohio
Posted in America!, animals, travel | 2 Comments »
February 27th, 2008
Mountain Lion/Rattlesnake warning at Mt. Tamalpais State Park
When venturing into the outdoors, there is always a certain amount of risk involved. I think people used to take that for granted. The State of California (probably because they don’t want to be held liable) recognized that people probably aren’t as savy as they used to be, and therefore has posted signs about every dangerous animal you could possible encounter on your adventures into the wilderness.
Mountain lions and rattlesnakes are, to some small degree, avoidable while hiking. Especially rattlesnakes- at least if you are aware of them you can watch where you step and take precautionary measures. The sign about mountain lions at least tells you to wave your arms over your head and try to scare it away. I really don’t understand this sign:
Shark warning at Stinson Beach
“A shark attack occurred here in six feet of water.” Oh great. Something tells me waving your arms in the air isn’t going to do the trick if an 18 foot long great white thinks you are a seal.
Finally, my favorite sign from the Montreal Bioshpere:
Don’t touch the otters!
Posted in animals, outdoor activities, travel | 1 Comment »
January 17th, 2008
Oh, did I tell you that the cows are really aggressive? You probably don’t want to have anything to do with them.
Posted in San Francisco, animals, travel | No Comments »
October 15th, 2007
Happy Blog Action Day! This is the day when thousands of people around the world are blogging on environmental topics. I’m going to write about a simple way you can reduce your impact on the Earth.
Everyone knows that some people become vegetarian solely because they care about animals, but how about becoming vegetarian to save the environment? While cars, power plants and industrial emissions all contribute to pollution by putting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, going vegetarian is one of the single biggest things a person can do to reduce their own impact on the environment.
From PETA.org: In a groundbreaking 2006 report, the United Nations (U.N.) said that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. Senior U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization official Henning Steinfeld reported that the meat industry is “one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems.â€
Bear in mind that PETA didn’t write this report, the United Nations did. Hardly a radical animal rights organization, it’s refreshing to see that they have recognized the startlingly effective impact of cutting meat out of our diets. The efficiency of eating lower on the food chain pays off in lower water use, less methane and carbon dioxide emissions, and less water pollution.
I’ve been vegetarian since I was 16 and I’ve never regretted it. Start small, possibly by reducing the meat in your diet and eating organic and local foods. Or, go “cold turkey” (well, “no cold turkey”) and immediately cut animals out of your diet. Even Burger King has a veggie burger on the menu, so there isn’t any excuse to put your change to a meat-free diet off any longer.
If you want to get a Vegetarian Starter Kit from PETA, click here and fill out their easy online form.
Posted in animals, food | 5 Comments »
October 10th, 2007
Javier models a plastic E-collar and still manages to look good!
So your cat has been sick and needs to take medicine? No problem. Natasha’s cat Javier recently had surgery and now he needs to take antibiotics every day (twice). This has given me some first-hand experience in feeding pills to cats. You would thing that medicine for cats would come in smaller pills than the pills given to humans, but for some reason this is not the case. In fact, Javier (see above) needs to take one and a half pills to get the correct dose.
The first pill usually isn’t a huge problem if you have two people. One person has to restrain the cat and pry his mouth open (watch those fingers!) and the other person has to put the pill in his mouth and shoot water down his throat to get him to swallow it. Easy enough (ha). After the first pill, the cat has been warned. If you have to feed a second one, or God forbid a half-pill, this is where it gets tricky.
You can try to do what you did the first time, but the cat is usually a lot more resistant. Giving him some tuna between pills is one way to deal with it, but it’s not foolproof. Javier insisted on sticking out his tongue and spitting the half pill onto the floor. After a few minutes of doing this the pill started to dissolve and then he started salivating wildly in an attempt to get the horrible taste out of his mouth. We then put the remaining piece of the pill in his tuna, which he happily ate until he tasted the medicine again and then he wouldn’t stop licking his lips for several minutes as he attempted to get the taste out of his mouth.
Summary:
- Sneak up on the cat and get one pill in when it isn’t expecting it. Use lots of water and rub under the cat’s chin to get it to swallow.
- Give it some sort of food to distract it before trying again.
- Be persistent. At least be more persistent than the cat.
- Sometimes you can trick the cat by putting small bits of medicine in food if there is no other way to get it down.
Posted in animals | 4 Comments »
July 24th, 2007
On the west coast of North America, people are used to the annual migration of Gray Whales that are viewed from whale watching boats and places like Pt. Reyes, in Marin County, CA. These whales migrate between Baja Mexico, where they have their young, and Alaska, their summer feeding grounds. Gray whales have returned from the brink of extinction thanks to the ban on commercial whaling. Unfortunately, the Western Gray Whale on the other side of the Pacific is not so lucky.
“Noise threatens last western gray whales” >Read more at Far North Science.
Posted in animals, news | 1 Comment »
July 16th, 2007
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, wild coyotes attacked a pet dog in Golden Gate Park today. It’s not a surprise that the coyotes live there, there have been a number of them living in the city for some time. People are a bit taken aback by the fact that they are lashing out at dogs (after all, dogs are the new babies).
In a statement to the Chronicle, the Animal Control Department says that “We have officers looking for the coyotes, and we are letting the public know about these coyotes.” Okay, great. What exactly does that mean. They are “looking” for the coyotes? What are they going to do to them? Is that like when parents tell a kid that their dog “went to live on a farm”?
I think people should keep an eye on their pets and learn to live with wild animals. You can’t be 100% insulated from natural world all the time, especially if you choose to go to a huge park that has a lot of nature in it. The Chronicle article says that “the coyote bit a Rhodesian ridgeback, a large type of dog that can weigh more than 100 pounds and was originally bred to hunt lions.” According to wikipedia, the end-all be-all authority on every topic, the average coyote weighs 31 lbs. The average adult Rhodesian ridgeback (also known as the African Lion Hound) weighs 70-85 lbs. and has been known to grow to 160 lbs. If a dog that was bred to assist in the hunting of lions can’t stand up to a coyote less than half its size it’s clearly a case of the dog being a total wuss.
I hope that people leave the coyotes alone and let them do whatever they normally do. There isn’t a whole lot of space left for nature, which is made very obvious by this sign on Ocean Beach:
Apparently unleashed dogs bother endangered animals, but people having drunken, out of control parties on the beach and massive amounts of graffiti do not bother them.
And now, for Matt, an embarrassing photo from his birthday party at Zeitgeist:
Posted in San Francisco, animals | 5 Comments »
June 20th, 2007
As if enough things aren’t going wrong in the world, it looks like the populations of many common types of birds are disappearing in North America. In an article titled “Populations of 20 Common Birds Declining” the Associated Press is reporting that birds as familiar as the grackle and the meadowlark are seeing huge declines. The numbers of 20 different birds are at least half what they were in 1967. Greg Butcher of the National Audubon Society authored the study that the article draws upon and he is quoted as saying.
“Many of the birds that are disappearing are specialists, while the thriving ones are generalists that do well in urban sprawl and all kinds of environments, Butcher said. In a way it’s the Wal-Mart-ization of America’s skies, he said.”
If you want to read more about this issue, I highly reccomend the Audobon Society’s website. They have a page about declining bird populaions.
On a lighter night, this image caught my eye today. Monty Propps, a contributor to B3ta.com created it and I think it is great occaision to mention how much support there is on the internet for the concept that dinosaurs and humans coexisted on Earth within the past few thousand years. In fact, some creationists have pointed out that that Noah brought them along on the Ark! If you’ve never been to the Answers in Genesis website you are really missing out.
I never would have known that it’s entirely possible for Noah to have brought along enough animals to repopulate the earth without reading this site. Because the ark held roughly the same volume as 522 stock railroad cars, each of which can hold 240 sheep, it would have been EASY for Noah to pack a couple of dinosaurs down there below deck.
“Without getting into all the math, the 16,000-plus animals would have occupied much less than half the space in the Ark (even allowing them some moving-around space).”- answersingenesis.com
I think someone should offer a prize to take this site up on their statement that “a Christian doesn’t have to have a blind faith to believe that there really was an Ark. What the Bible says about the Ark can even be measured and tested today.” Get some wood, nails and about 240 railroad cars full of animals…
Posted in animals, dinosaurs, extinction, news | 3 Comments »
