Posted in Willie, tagged Born Free, George Adamson, Joy Adamson, Lion on October 16, 2010 | 2 Comments »
I can’t believe this is online:
It’s a shame they took down Christian the Lion.
It was a real life documentary.
Posted in Willie on September 18, 2010 |
Willie is daring his dad to take his chipmunk away from him.
And throw it for him.
I don’t think it’s working.
Posted in Willie, tagged Jack Russell terrier, Willie, Willie von Westphal on September 15, 2010 | 10 Comments »
Yep. Willie is a daddy.
Here is the breeder’s website.
Two of them are available, if you’re interested.
This breeder is in the Fayetteveille, North Carolina, area.
Here is a some footage of the proud papa (that’s my voice, BTW):
He will play ball all day if you let him.
And he’s a regular commentator on this blog!
Posted in Willie, tagged Black crappie, bluegill, Crappie, Fish, Sunfish on September 8, 2010 |
That black crappie is one stinky fish. (That’s a bad joke. In case you didn’t know, you pronounce that fish with the fecal-sound name “croppy.”)
When I was young amateur aquarist, I thought it would be a great ideal to put a bluegill in with my goldfish.
And things went well for a night or two.
Then one morning I woke up to find that some some goldfish halves swimming and floating around in the tank. The bluegill just bit them half. It didn’t eat them. I was sure it killed them just for the hell of it.
Or so I thought.
The bluegill was returned to the pond later that day.
So. Don’t put bluegill or other sunfish in the same tank with goldfish.
Bad things will happen.
Lesson learned.
Read Full Post »
Posted in Willie, tagged Australian megafauna, Thylacoleo on August 25, 2010 |
Nothing like this exists today.
And nothing like it has ever existed in this hemisphere.
Extinct Australian megafauna is always fascinating.
With the exception of things like the muskox or the pronghorn, most of our species have been shared with Eurasia.
Australia’s mammals have evolved in isolation, which is why so many truly unique things can be found there.
Posted in dog behavior, Willie, wolves, tagged chital, dhole, wolves on August 19, 2010 |
Dholes do hunt in packs, but it is thought that they form large packs for a different reason.
Because they evolved to live in the same areas as tigers, leopards, and Asiatic lions, they needed to form larger packs to protect themselves from predation.
Something very similar can be seen in the African wild dog or “painted wolf” species, which lives where there are lions, leopards, and spotted hyenas that really love to kill them.
Wolves evolved where they are essentially the top predator. Only tigers and man have been proven to significantly limit wolf numbers, but wolves themselves limit the numbers of black bears (both Asiatic and American), coyotes, golden jackals, many species of foxes, and cougars, just to name a few.
Wolves don’t need big packs to protect themselves.
Dholes and African wild dogs do.
Posted in wild dogs, Willie, tagged dhole, tiger on August 19, 2010 | 6 Comments »
I don’t know where this myth came from, but it seems that anyone who has heard of dholes thinks they are super predators that swarm in vast hordes and kill everything, including wolves, bears, leopards, and tigers.
Keep in mind that dholes aren’t much larger than the typical border collie, and although they form larger packs than wolves, one of the probable reasons why they do so is to have more eyes, ears, and noses around to detect stalking big cats.
Leopards and tigers like dholes. For dinner.
This video does a fairly good job debunking the misconception that tigers have much to fear from dholes.
This video comes from a meme on youtube that has frustrated me for some time.
Whenever I look for videos on predation, I find these videos that go something like this: “Tiger Kills Lion: Tigers Rule!” or “Lions Kill Crocodile: Lions Kick Butt!”
It seems that within the vast world of youtube, some people have decided to use this technology to have fights about which animal will win in a one-to-one combat scenario.
However, now that we’ve banned virtually all forms of animal pugilism, these arguments still exist. In the old days, they’d just set up a ring and have at it.
So maybe youtube is a good place for these sentiments after all.
At least they aren’t fighting tigers and dholes!
« Newer Posts - Older Posts »
 | M.R.S. on The morel of the story… |
 | Will and Eko on It’s spring time in West… |
 | Labrador Retriever I… on Merritt Clifton: German Shephe… |
 | Myra on Merritt Clifton: German Shephe… |
| M.R.S. on Merritt Clifton: German Shephe… |
