Cats
laelaps | December 27, 2007
Lions (Panthera leo) are big cats most famously known for their social structures, a pride consisting of many females (two females from the Philadelphia Zoo picture above) and one male (or a coalition of several males) living together. Unlike other gregarious carnivores like the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), however, lions lack a well-defined social hierarchy, something that becomes readily apparent when these cats feed. In terms of feeding males are dominant and eat first (and may be entirely selfish if they captured some prey on their own), but beyond this the females do not have any…
sporte | December 26, 2007Genetics textbooks abound with stories of European royalty and the hazards of having children after you've married one of your cousins. It struck me as an interesting parallel that the lion is such a popular symbol in so many royal coats of arms. Like the royal families of Europe, certain lion populations have also suffered from a few too many copies of certain recessive genes.
I first read about the Florida panthers a few years ago while researching material for a class that I teach on using bioinformatics. It wasn't my first encounter with big cats and their DNA. Years before, while…
laelaps | December 26, 2007
While not as vibrant as some of my other Cheetah photos, I love this shot of one of the three cats at the Philadelphia Zoo. All three individuals are brothers and are part of a coalition, a group that often is more successful at obtaining a territory in the wild. Just any territory won't do, though; a coalition of male cheetahs often occupy where the territories of three females overlap, which increases their chances of mating as they likely not be successful if they tried to occupy the territory of any one female.
laelaps | December 25, 2007
I wasn't quite sure to put up here on Christmas Day, but I thought this shot of the three Philadelphia Zoo tiger cubs worked best. Indeed, I hope those of you celebrating today (or around this time of year in general) not only get what you want/need but also have the time to enjoy it, the young tiger in the center of the photograph having a little less luck in keeping his toy to himself. I have no idea how big the cubs are now (this photo was taken in September, if I recall correctly), but I shall soon see them again when I return to the Philly Zoo over break. The zoo may be home to cheetah…
laelaps | December 24, 2007
"...you will find him wrapped in terrycloth in a small apartment, yowling for food whenever his bowl fails to sufficiently yield the desired quantities of nourishment."
Unfortunately I neglected to take a holiday photo this year (oops!), but happy holidays to you, dear reader, and I look forward to another great year of science blogging. For now, though, I'm going to finish reading The Hogfather aloud and settle in for a short winters nap, so happy Christmas to all those who will be celebrating it tomorrow!
laelaps | December 24, 2007
I'm delighted to inform everyone that Cole, the little ginger kitten in the photo above, has been adopted into a loving home. Unfortunately, though, Beatrice (see below) has yet to find a home and is back in the apartment for a few weeks to recuperate. We had Beatrice for a few months and will probably have her over the holidays before she goes back to the adoption center, but I hope someone takes her home soon. Still, I'm glad that many of the kittens born late in the season this year have been able to find good homes.
laelaps | December 24, 2007
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) was likely behind the slaughter of three Amur Tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) , an adult female and two cubs, involving two separate incidents in Chongqing, China during the past week. Last Thursday an adult female tiger was found by park officials, the criminals tranquilizing the animal before butchering it; they decapitated it and took the skin and legs, as well. The cubs were found today in a freezer in the park ticketing office, which makes me suspicious whether park officials were involved in the killings, and I don't doubt that similar incidents will…
sb admin | December 20, 2007Fortune has announced the year's 101 Dumbest Moments in Business, including Prozac for dogs.
"Thank God. We've been so worried since Lucky dyed his hair jet black and started listening to the Smiths."
"Eli Lilly wins FDA approval to put Prozac into chewable, beef-flavored pills to treat separation anxiety in dogs."
It's not just dogs - cats are treated with SSRI antidepressants, along with psychotherapy. If treatment fails to calm behaviour, the next step is neutering. Imagine that veterinary approach integrating with current practices for humans. Patients who have trouble with adhering to…
laelaps | December 13, 2007
As of yesterday the fall semester came to an end, although I still have a bit of work set out before me. Aside from the final exams, I have on term paper due tomorrow for my African Prehistory seminar involving a topic of my choice, and my subject involves what the Snow Leopard (Panthera uncia) pictured above is doing: eating meat. Many of the books I read didn't discuss carnivory in our ancestors until it became more prevalent in Homo erectus, but obviously the behaviors had to start somewhere, and the more I thought about it the more the capture and consumption of small animal prey in the…
sporte | December 12, 2007This is a-mewsing.
(Photo Credit: Gyeongsang National University)
When Genetic Savings and Clone shut their doors it looked like wishful cat owners were going to be out of luck and short of kittens.
Never fear, the South Korean scientists at Gyeongsang National University have come to the rescue. I couldn't find all the details in the news articles but it appears that they inserted a gene for red fluorescent protein into a somatic cell from a cat, transplanted the cell into an egg cell, put the egg into a female cat's womb and a few weeks later, voila!, lovely white Angora cats that…
sporte | December 8, 2007Lots of new and curious gift selections are available this year for those of you who had a dog or know a dog owner. All kinds of interesting doggie presents are showing up, like doggie DNA tests and special nutrigenomic doggy diets.
And of course, nothing tops the gift of fake testicles for the dog who's never quite recovered from the big operation.
It's true, the Bleiman brothers were the first to bring up the idea of presents for pets by suggesting the kitty toilet trainer as a holiday gift. Really, though, is that kind of gift that you give to the cat? or the owner?
I just don't think…
grrlscientist | December 5, 2007tags: humor, chatty cats, chatty cats translated, streaming video
What do cats talk about when humans aren't around? This amusing video of two chatty cats includes a translation (below the fold) [0:55];
All those sweet meows are translated in this version [0:55];
laelaps | December 2, 2007
This is one of the three Amur Tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) born this past year at the Philadelphia Zoo. Despite such breeding success in captivity, however, it is difficult to release captive bred tigers back into the wild and animals bred in zoos do not contribute to replenishing depleted wild stocks (which sadly seems to be the case with many critically threatened big cats species).
laelaps | December 1, 2007
I absolutely love this photo of a male Amur Leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) having a quick drink at the Philadelphia Zoo; the only thing that spoils it is the fact that it's drinking out of a bowl, making it look more like a housecat and one of the Great Cats. As I've noted here before, visiting this particular individual is always bittersweet and Amur Leopards could be extinct in the wild during my lifetime, this animal being kept in a relatively small enclosure, often looking a bit bored. He likes to sit near the glass so lots of people come by to take pictures next to the "big kitty…
laelaps | November 29, 2007
A few weeks ago I posted a picture of Hermes, a kitten that I was fostering in my apartment and has found a loving home. When Hermes left, though, another kitten needed a home and his name was Cole, and he likes being a shoulder cat. He also likes to scream his little head off if you have food that he wants and pounce on your face in the middle of the night, but he's cute enough to get away with it. He too will go to adoption day this weekend and I have no doubt that someone will take him home.
grrlscientist | November 23, 2007tags: housecat, pets, birth defect, Lil'Bit
Do you notice anything strange about the cat in the photo? At first, I didn't believe this .. er, cat .. was alive, instead of being the product of a zit-faced basement-dwelling photoshop prankster with too much time on his hairy-palmed hands. But after poking around on the internet for a few hours, it appears that this is the real thing.
This cat, named Lil'Bit, was born to a cat named Lil'Pine. Lil'Bit is now seven months old and is living with his original family. His family prefer to remain anonymous to avoid the crush of public attention,…
grrlscientist | November 20, 2007tags: cats, jenna, swimming cat, streaming video
This streaming video shows a half-grown cat, named Jenna, playing with water -- in a bathtub! [1:44]