Saturday - November 05, 2005

Saturday Photo Fun

Kedar, a baby African elephant born Oct. 18, makes a face as he struggles to regain his footing, keep close to his mother Kubwa, a 29-year-old African elephant at the Indianapolis Zoo, Friday, Nov. 4, 2005. Kedar will be on exhibit, weather permitting, from 1-2 pm through Nov. 6. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Posted by The Skipper     on 11/05/2005 at 06:10 PM   
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   Tuesday - August 16, 2005

No Natural Enemies?

We love “our” hummingbirds.  We have a group of about 5 that frequent our little feeder and love to watch them compete for position.  Normally, if one shows up, another will follow shortly and knock him off or chase him away.  Great fun to watch them spar.

I have heard (somewhere in my past) that hummingbirds have no natural enemies, but this post kinda disproves that theory. (pictures in the extended section)

Entire article posted because their server has been up and down all morning

The other day while I was working in the yard my son urgently called to me. “Dad, a praying mantis caught a hummingbird!”

Not sure what to expect, but knowing my son is not one to tell an untruth, I came running to see for myself.  By the time I arrived it was too late for the poor hummer and my scientifically minded son had already begun taking pictures and studying the scene.

As you can see from the photographs this hungry mantis captured and killed a hummingbird not much smaller than itself.  The hummer measured 2 inches and the mantis was about the same!  The mantis used its spiny left foreleg to impale the hummingbird through the chest while leaving his right leg free.

We surmised that the mantis ran the hummer through and dangled its full weight on its foreleg while he consumed the flesh of the hummingbird from the abdomen.  After he had his fill, the mantis gave his foreleg several swift jerks and freed his leg.

This was an unfortunate experience for the hummer, but we are amazed to realize how fast, precise, and powerful the mantis must be to accomplish such a feat! I have read that hummingbirds had no natural enemies–so much for that theory!

Posted by Mr. Christian     on 08/16/2005 at 09:42 AM   
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   Sunday - July 24, 2005

Feeding Time

Baby Seal Snack

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/24/2005 at 11:09 AM   
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   Wednesday - June 29, 2005

Gratuitous PETA Nekkidness

PETA strips .. Bulls snort .. We report .. You decide ....

MADRID (AFP) - A Spanish court in the northern region of Navarra authorised a nude demonstration next month by animal rights campaigners determined to use bare-faced cheek to protest at the traditional San Fermin or “running of the bulls” festival in Pamplona.

The court said the protesters could go ahead as long as they did so in a way which “does not affect good civic customs.”

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) group, which has protested against the event in the past, says it wants to highlight its opposition by organising a rival run by naked humans protesting cruelty to the bulls.

The nine-day San Fermin festival, due to start on July 6, traditionally involves hundreds of runners, including many tourists, trying to outrace a herd of bulls, who chase them throughout the town’s narrow streets in a tradition that goes back centuries.

Amid further concern about last year’s outbreak of blue tongue disease, a virus which forced restrictions on livestock movements in southern Spain, PETA asked Pamplona’s mayor to make the planned Running of the Nudes the official event this year, campaign coordinator Yvonne Taylor recently explained.

The event has resulted in the deaths of 14 spectators, and of an unknown number of bulls, since records began in 1911.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/29/2005 at 12:22 PM   
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   Saturday - June 18, 2005

Bambo: First Blood

The deer in Southern Illinois are mad as hell and they’re not going to take it any more ....

Seven people have been threatened or attacked by deer on Southern Illinois University’s main campus over the past two weeks, prompting the school to post warnings about the animal aggressiveness they blame on fawning season and construction.

“This is something that is uncommon for us to deal with,” Todd Sigler, the university’s public safety chief, told reporters Wednesday, a day after one person was threatened and two others were sent to a hospital after a doe charged them.

A deer also attacked a person Monday, and two of three people injured by a doe June 7 required hospital care, Sigler said.

All the encounters, which happened near Thompson Woods, could be tied to a female deer’s natural protectiveness during fawning season, which typically peaks in June. Clayton Nielsen, a scientist with the campus’ Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory, said the area deer population likely is rising and that construction and development perhaps have pushed the animals into campus.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/18/2005 at 09:38 AM   
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