ANIMAL FORTEANA


In the beginning of things men were animals and animals men. ~ Algonquin saying

"For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons." ~ The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Friday, March 29, 2013

Starving sea lion pups fill Calif. rescue centers - Yahoo! News

Very sad. Very scary as well, for what it means for humans, and the planet:
Starving sea lion pups fill Calif. rescue centers - Yahoo! News: LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hundreds of starving sea lion pups are washing up on beaches from San Diego to Santa Barbara, overwhelming rescue centers and leaving scientists scrambling to figure out w

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Man Buys Stolen Python & Immediately Regrets It | Watch the video - Yahoo! Screen

Van full of snakes, a party, a morning surprise, bad intentions (the humans, not the snake) what could go wrong?Man Buys Stolen Python & Immediately Regrets It | Watch the video - Yahoo! Screen

Interview: Project Seeks To Bring Extinct Species Back

John Dankosky interviews  Dr. Michael Archer on bringing back extinct animals, known as "de-extinction"  (Archer's project is called The Lazarus Project.) He's all for it. 
Project Seeks To Bring Extinct Species Back: "But it's not a Velociraptor we're trying to bring back, although remember, of course, dinosaurs are not extinct. We don't have to bring them back. We live with them. There are birds.

Some people have budgie-saurs(ph) as pets, and others go out and gobble up a Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch. We have dinosaurs all around us. So it's really a different kind of an animal and it's not - we're not reaching that far back. Most of these projects that the Revive and Restore group and National Geographic had been focused on in this event are species that have been recently extinct, and many of these are species that we drove extinct."

Kind of missing the point there. . .

Professor Archer sees himself "rescuing" these extinct animals, and the effect of these reintroduced animals into the ecosystem has been considered:
"Yeah, that  [the ecosystem] is such an important question, and every one of us involved in projects of this kind around the world have that question right up in our mind. In fact, it often influences your choice about which animal you're going to try to see if you can rescue."
"...it often" ? Shouldn't that be "always." "Paramount?" 


Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Animal welfare bill would restrict tethering | Statesman Journal | statesmanjournal.com

Animal welfare bill would restrict tethering | Statesman Journal | statesmanjournal.com:

It’s finding pit bulls like Angel stuck in inches of feces and urine that get animal welfare groups and investigators riled up about dog tethering.

House Bill 2783 would create an offense for unlawful tethering, which could be punishable by a $1,000 maximum fine.


If tethering results in serious injury or death to the animal, the owner would face first degree animal neglect charges.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Alien Invaders: Armadillos in the Midwest | Show Me Oz

Alien Invaders: Armadillos in the Midwest | Show Me Oz: Surprisingly enough, armadillos also like to swim. By taking in large amounts of air into their lungs to make them more buoyant, they can easily dogpaddle for some distance. If that doesn’t strike you as odd, what may is the fact that when these bulky, armor-plated desert dwellers are faced with a body of water they actually prefer to walk across the bottom while holding their breath, which they can do for up to six minutes.



Tuesday, March 19, 2013

"De-extinction"



Some scientists want to bring back long dead animals. (Scientists Want to Bring Some Animals Back from Extinction - Yahoo! Finance) (Odd this article was listed in the "finance" section.) This is called "de-extinction." Dinosaurs are not on the list of creatures these Mad Scientists would like to bring back from the dead, but not for the obvious reasons, one being: Jesus Fucking Christ, they're dinosaurs!! Did you SEE Jurassic Park?! but because the dinosaur DNA is too "degraded." However, "ethics" or really "criteria" are a part of the process for deciding what gets reconstituted:
They chose the animals using the following criteria: Are the species desirable — do they hold an important ecological function or are they beloved by humans? Are the species practical choices — do we have access to tissue that could give us good quality DNA samples or germ cells to reproduce the species? And are they able to be reintroduced to the wild — are the habitats in which they live available and do we know why they went extinct in the first place?
"Beloved by humans?" Dodos seem pretty cute to me but who can say; that seems hardly the point. And how can one possibly be sure a reactivated animal could be safely introduced into the wild? Astounding that there are conferences where mad scientists gather to seriously ponder such possibilities.



The article includes a list of potential animals on the Dr. Evil Wish List. Among them: the DoDo, the Wooly Mammoth, the saber-toothed cat, and that Fortean mascot, the Thylacine.

The Dodo and the Quagga, among others, were hunted to extinction by man. Will these animals be brought back, only to have that happen again? Will it be legal to hunt these animals? Is it moral to bring back animals just so we can use them for our enjoyment, for example, open "De-extinction canned hunt camps?"




Whale Fall

Antarctic's First-Ever Whale Skeleton Found - Yahoo! News

Monday, March 11, 2013

binnallofamerica.com


I have new Trickster's Realm posted at Tim Binnall's site. It's of birds and art:
binnallofamerica.com: 2012: Year of the Birds, and the Self-Indulgent

New Year's 2012 brought the Fortean realm tons of dead and dying bird stories. The phenomena seemed to have started in the southern states of the U.S., (Beebe, Arkansas) but we saw stories from all over the world of birds falling from the skies. A common explanation from the MSM: fireworks. New Year's celebrations, complete with fireworks going off to bring in the New Year, startled birds from their perches. Disoriented, they fell to their deaths. Other explanations included birds drunk on fermented berries and bad weather.