Animals & Pets 01 (May 08 - Jun 14)

[la papillion]

This is a funny picture I took on on way to work There are 4 cats there. It looks like the cats got hit by the car and scattered all over, haha!

[winston]

It's Fun to Know: Something We Have in Common With Koalas

Like humans, koalas have fingerprints that are unique to each individual. And, in fact, their fingerprints are so similar to ours that it's even tough for an expert to tell the difference.

[winston]

It's Fun to Know: Tropical Fish... From Long Island?

A scuba diver floats through a colorful undersea world, gingerly catching butterflyfish, blue angelfish, and the other tropical species swimming around him. He later sells them to large commercial aquariums and home collectors.

No, he's not on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. And he's not off some pristine Caribbean isle. He's in the chilly waters off Long Island. It turns out that the Gulf Stream carries weak, newborn fish from their homes near the Florida Keys northward in late summer. The fish are able to survive for a few months - just enough time for enterprising divers to snatch them up. Prime harvesting season runs from July to October.

(Source: The New York Times)

[winston]

It's Fun to Know: Scratchy Cashmere Sweaters?

Move over cashmere. When it comes to cuddly sweaters, those made from the wool of the vicuna, a llama-like animal native to Peru, have you beat. The extreme fineness of the individual wool fibers (nearly half the size of cashmere fibers) is what gives vicuna such a soft texture. In fact, those who have worn vicuna sweaters say cashmere is rough in comparison.

The fur of the vicuna has been made into garments since Incan times. High fashion designers started using it in the early 1990s. The luxury comes at a price, however. A vicuna sweater (dry clean only, please) will run you nearly $5,000.

(Source: National Geographic)

[kennynah]

i watched the documentary about farming the vicuna wool, in south america... there's a monopoly over the production of the wool and heavily influenced by italian/fashion fashion houses... each piece of vicuna apparel can be anything from 500euros to 10s of thousands of euros...but the farmers...they dont look too rich to me...and for the vicunas...they are still continuously poached(killed) for their furs...

i wont buy it...just as i wont buy cat furs...BUT i will eat shark's fins

[kennynah]

i read that cats' droppings are a health hazzard to fetuses in mother's wombs.... true ? also, there's a bacteria in their droppings that can attack human brains, by leaching onto the cells and cause human brains to malfunction...again, true ? i not so sure...

[helios]

not entirely true ...

the pigeon droppings carry Cryptoporus spp. which causes brain lesions in immunosuppressive patients ...

cats carry cat parasite (ticks, wormie) which can infect both cats and humans ... heard of Lyme disease?

the most common tapeworms are the Roundworms Toxacara spp. these adult worms live in the GIT (intestinal track of cats) and lay thousands of eggs which are pass out in the faeces, and remain infective for up to 2 years ...

[kennynah]

oh yes...that's educational...correct...tape worms...in cat faeces....

[winston]

It's Fun to Know: On Dasher, On Blitzen...

Reindeer - a domesticated variety of caribou - have been kept in herds for nearly 2,000 years by native peoples of the Arctic regions of Europe and Asia. They depend on the reindeer for food (sorry, Rudolph), clothing, shelter, and transportation (usually pulling, yes... sleighs).

Both caribou and reindeer thrive in extremely cold temperatures. They have a unique type of fur that traps air, providing insulation. Their diet, too, is adapted to their harsh environment. They eat mainly lichen and tough grasses, the only food available in the Arctic tundra for much of the year.

(Source: Arctic Studies Center and the National Park Service)

[kennynah]

picture of either a caribou or reindeer