Most Viewed Animals Blogs (472)

................. People: People, especially your owners, have three basic functions:

1. to give you food
2. give your attention and play with you
3. clean the litter box

A redtail hawk was raised by a bald eagle pair along with 3 of their own eaglet chicks.
Indeed, originally there were 2 redtail chicks in that nest, but one did not survive.
It became the talk of the town and much wider.

A raptor expert was brought in to battle through the many theories as to how 2 redtail chicks
could have gotten into a bald eagle nest. It turns out, that similar circumstances have
actually been documented 3 times prior to this.

The eagles raised their own and the redtail chick to fledge from the nest and the redtail was quite healthy.
The mayor even announced a day in the town for the bald eagle redtail chick, who is actually male and
retained some eagle behavior.

I hope you enjoy the video;

While it can be quite relaxing, when used right,
when you are very young, a hammock is not the easiest thing to navigate.
Some balance is needed. It may take some practice.
It's a lot harder to use, if your 2 siblings just won't leave you alone.
But, if you work together, you just might get it right.

See what I mean;

A couple of weeks ago, I took a walk in nature near Princeton
and saw a redtail hawk soaring over the lake.
So, I walked across a bridge to get to the other side of the lake,
where the bird had perched high in a spruce tree.
But, by the time I crossed the bridge, the hawk was airborne again.
I did get a photo of the bird soaring from a great distance and eventually
found him perched in another tree. However, I was never able to get close enough
to get great photos.

Nonetheless, along the way to that second tree, I discovered a "doe, a deer, a female deer" resting on the ground below some shrubbery. It was a hot day and she was
peacefully cozy in the shade. Although I don't believe I ever met her before, she was very patient with me, allowing me to get within 20 feet of her without her exhibiting any fear. I figured the high heat & humidity that day probably contributed to her lethargy.

Thus, I took a couple of shots with the camera and thanked her with a whisper and walked uphill
to where the hawk was perched. The bird did not allow me to get close and flew.
Thus, I proceeded to explore and heard some other unfamiliar bird call.
I never found that bird. However, I ended somewhat behind where the doe was.
As I walked through an opening, I saw the doe standing up looking at me.
She was initially much more aware on my presence, than I was of her.
But, she stood there facing me and not running away.
So, I whispered; "sorry. sorry. My bad." and I walked backwards through the opening
and circled below to my right to look out on the lake.

Almost immediately, the doe walked towards me and walked into the edge of a little
wooded area that had a lot of ivy and other growth. I just stood there taking pictures
and she kept walking closer to me. At one point she was less than 10 feet from me.
Eventually, I whispered a thank you again and walked away.

Here's some of the pictures from that encounter that day.
Perhaps you'll enjoy them.

I called a few places only to find they are at capacity. The first place I called earlier this week follows Palm Beach County guidelines (read: law) where they accept cats for processing and return the animal to the last known address they were picked up at or should they have a microchip, it's back the that location. They were the only place to accept this cat.

The stray I dropped off was neither spayed or chipped. The current ear mark must have come from a fight and not a Florida pet clinic.
They will clean the cat, spay her, chip, give shots, mark an ear and unfortunately, drop the animal to the last known address... my condo.

Probably 2 weeks from now.

Stay tuna !!

..the lowly horse shoe crab... Yep, an arthropod, but not a crab. Actually said to belong to the spider/scorpion critter group. But still with us, little changed, and amazingly having evolved almost half a billion years BEFORE even the dinosaurs. Read up on the remarkable reproductive styles of these wonders, which populate the Eastern North American coastal regions, and apparently parts of Asia, where it's headed to a list of declining wild populations. But the saga continues. The copper based clear "Blood" of the larger up to 5 Kg females, has important medical uses. And while not having a highly specific innate and adaptive immune system, like our Bravo, and me, (but not present in many liberals), apparently, the blood like substance helps fight the thick soup of a large group of endotoxin elaborating bacteria living all around, and inside them. Probably does much more, but the active substance, LAL (Limulus Ameobocytic Lysate), has been harvested and purified for years, and is essential in various fields of microbiological medicine. Seems, among other things, to coagulate these endotoxins. In the animal, such clotting actions make these dangerous substances targets for the many scavenger amoeba-like circulating cells therein, rendering them yummy, but harmless. A synthetic blend is available, but is costly and apparently only in limited production. Seems that caring ( North American) harvesters withdraw only a quarter of the fluid in each animal, allowing them to survive on return to the bays. Not so with the Asians. But then, kitty cats and puppy dogs are on the menus there as well. Possible declines of 5-10% in populations in parts of Asia. Sure, it's dangerous to read too much into such elaborate evolved processes. But I'd bet on erring on the side of not wiping these miracles out. Not like big Pharma is investing a bunch in newer antibiotics, in the face of scary resistances. But on a personal note, in my youth, our family used to clam and Quahog, on the Masachusetts coast. The scrumptious tiny neck clams squirt through the sand when we walked over them, enabling profitable quick digging. But the quahogs live deeper, so you have to feel for them with the feet, over time learning to differentiate between bivalve and stone. But the tails of these horse shoe crabs always reminded me those on sting rays, and are used often to reright themselves after a role in the surf. Took me a long time to get over the fear. Today, as with ground fish, these fruits of the sea are more rare, for many reasons. But on the coast of Maine, fresh upland river outlets are still lousy with clean mussels. Helpful, harmless wonders of ocean ecology and biology, all.

Welcome back, young nubile people. Just another point first on seating and attire. As to the latter, those helpful three young ladies, now sitting right in front of your professor, yes, the ones with those shiny red high heels, and who are loudly chewing/snapping their bimbo brand bubble gum, have kindly volunteered to demonstrate how to dress here, based on how they looked at the last talk. Mark well their advice, as they have already earned the highest grades of this semester. If enough of you go along, including with advice on your positioning of those lovely legs, we may rename the front row the Busy BEAVER" zone. Now then, where was I?
The name of this key public health science comes from key words in the languages of ancients, and means " On the People", ie, Epid---Demios. In this talk, we present the more technical aspects of the craft. Many of you have expressed interest in "just how do they make those often misleading "predictive" models", and is there a better way?
Of the five key measurements needed to do valid Epid, we've already mentioned populations; and ratios/proportions; and exposures/outcomes. Two others remain. The first is so called assessment of intermediate variables (confounders and effect modifiers}, and the controls, to the extents possible, of the same. And the fifth, where politics and policy enter, involves the statistical ANALysis and interpretation of results of various study designs/public health interventions.
FLASH! FLASH! Class is suspended until further notice. My ex, next door, mom of our twins, and cat afficionada extraordinaire, just called to let us know that Miss Lilly, 20 pound calico supreme, just passed away, after longstanding on and off illness.. I'll go down to support all for the loss, and to help arrange for cremation, etc.. Later...

At the ex's next door, we just lost two terrific cats, at ages 16/17 years. Miss Angel coon cat, huntress, par excellence, even from her death pillow. And tabby Miss Lilly, 10 Kg community ambassador, from the girls' front porch. Comes to all, ( usually), when called by her name. (well, she was a cat, after all.) Lives well led and admired. Now there's Sir Bravo, never far from his wolf like roots, doggie kiss giver to the world, smile maker for all passers by, totally useless watch dog and 50Kg kibble munching never protector. They only live at most a fifth of Honest Abe's four score and ten years. Truly sucks. Sucks even thinking about it.

Survival depends upon the fight for food between the 2 species;

not surprised to see local communist grub peddling the Russia crap again .