Watch Fum & Gebra playing! Amazing! There is even a Website for them!
July 28, 2011
July 22, 2011
More birds!!
Sea eagles with eggs!! Nice!! The site says that two eggs were laid by this pair of eagles: one egg on July 4th and the other on July 7th. They also say:
The White-bellied Sea-Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) is the second largest bird of prey in Australia with a wing span of 1.8-2.2 metres (6-7 feet). It measures 75-85cm (30-33 inches) in length and can weigh up to 4.2kg (9 pounds), the female being larger and heavier than the male. Sea-eagles are found around the coast and along the major rivers of mainland Australia and Tasmania, New Guinea, South East Asia and as far west as the coast of India.
Our eagles started to build a new nest in May after the tree in which they had their old nest for several years fell down in February (see Channel 7 News Story from February 2011). They usually lay two eggs at the end of June or early July and incubate them for forty days before hatching in early August. The young remain on the nest for approximately three months until they are ready to fly at the beginning of November. They then spend most of their time away from the nest but, if the adults are still bringing in food, they may occasionally be seen at the nest up until January the following year. The young birds may take up to six years to reach maturity, gradually losing their brown juvenile plumage and gaining the characteristic grey and white plumage of the adults. Sea-eagles may live for up to 30 years. Their diet is mainly fish but also includes birds, reptiles, mammals and carrion. Our eagles take fish from the nearby Parramatta River and surrounding wetlands of Olympic Park but when the eaglets are approximately 1-2 months old, a large part of their diet is made up of Silver Gulls caught from a small breeding colony on the wrecks in Homebush Bay.
© 2011 Ustream, Inc. All rights reserved.
July 13, 2011
Bareback Ballet
Elegance, eloquence, precision, power, and passion: Stacy Westfall’s Championship Run, 2006.
July 11, 2011
The Soul of a Horse by Joe Camp
In “Book Review: The Soul of a Horse,”Scott Holleran writes:
One of the best aspects of the Benji pictures, including the one that didn’t do as well, Benji Off the Leash, is Joe Camp’s strong sense of what forms the bond between man and pet and his soul-searching book about horses builds on that bond. As Camp turns inward in this meandering journal of an amateur horseman discovering and coming to terms with how one ought to treat a horse, he yields page after page of original and thoughtful insights about properly tending to this beautiful animal of prey. From feeding, riding and communicating to blankets, horseshoes, and ropes tied to posts, his hard-won lessons on the ranch, coupled with Kathleen’s slightly different approach, is another volume in the growing literature of books that argue for an organic, or “natural”, treatment of the horse.
…
“Leadership makes a difference,” Camp writes. “Even with borrowed horses. Or rented trail horses, who carry folks around every day of their lives. You never know when it will come in handy for the horse to think of you as a leader. And it’s so much nicer to know that you’re off on a ride with a friend. A partner who trusts you. Not some vacant-eyed mechanical device manufactured just to carry you around. The rub, of course, is that leadership isn’t easy or free. With horses or in life. It’s earned. But it does make a difference, and is worth every ounce of the effort.”© Copyright 2011 Scott Holleran. All rights reserved.
April 21, 2011
Bald Eagles
The Raptor Resource Project has a camera showing us the birth and growth of three fledgling eagles in Decorah, Iowa. Fun, fascinating and interesting. The RRP has a blog where they are (sometimes) posting about the growth, trials and tribulations of the eaglets and parent eagles. Enjoy!
January 17, 2010
January 10, 2010
A Fox! A Fox!
Around 11:20 AM this morning, I saw a fox while I was out horseback riding! How neat was that! Totally unexpected. I was walking along (ditch on my left, woods on my right), and saw it up ahead about 30 yards or so. It saw me and my horse, and walked towards us a few strides, paused, looked, then turned and ran off to its left into the woods. As it was running off, I got to see the rich, red color, the pointy nose, and the bushy tail.
January 7, 2010
Horses and Cold
In “How Horses Cope With Cold,” Heather Smith Thomas says:
Horses handle cold weather better than humans do; equines evolved in the cold climates of northern Europe and Asia. Their natural “comfort zone” (energy-neutral temperature zone, in which they don’t need to expend extra energy to maintain normal body temperature if weather is not wet or windy) is from about 15 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The horse’s body is better at creating and conserving heat in cold weather than dissipating it in hot weather.
…
Horses have a normal body temperature of about 100 degrees Farenheit (38 degrees Celcius). They maintain this temperature in cold weather with the help of several mechanisms which include shivering, changes in hormone levels, increased body metabolism, increased digestion of fiber (adding more fiber or more protein to the diet can help a horse keep warm, since digestion of these nutrients produce heat), growing longer and thicker hair which can stand up on the skin to make a layer of insulating air pockets, increased feed consumption, and increased activity. Cold horses on a frosty morning often run and buck to warm up.
…
If the horse gets cold, the blood vessels in his skin constrict to minimize heat loss, and the hair shafts stand on end for better insulating. If he continues to be cold, he starts to shiver, with his muscles rapidly contracting and relaxing–which quickly raises his metabolism rate and amount of fuel burned in the muscles. With his large blocks of muscle, the horse can shiver much more readily and more comfortably than a human. Since most of this muscle action is being converted to heat, this is a very effective way to warm himself. It takes a great deal of energy, however, to shiver for a prolonged period; this can use up his energy stores.
Read the rest. Good stuff. I’d have like the essay better if there were references to actual scientific research and articles at the end.
The last sentence and paragraph is fascinating; it’s all physics, chemistry, and their application in biology: the theory of insulation; the theory of thermodynamics; the law of conservation of energy; the conversion of chemical energy to mechanical energy to heat.
This is a topic I’ll need to look into more, to see how this is all consistent with science and evolution.
Update (9:30 PM): Note that it is the air trapped in the horse’s hair that provides most insulation (air is a poor thermal conductor when no convection takes place). We use the same principle in double-paned windows, and in dressing in layers.
Update (10:43 PM): In “Cold Weather Horse Care Review” (TheHorse.com, January 05 2010, Article # 15582), Liz Brown writes:
Water is essential for regulating body temperature, said Greg Meyer, extension educator for large animals at Ohio State University. “We typically think of keeping horses cool with water, but water is required for energy for keeping them warm as well.”
Copyright © 2010 BLOOD-HORSE PUBLICATIONS. All rights reserved.
And in “Cold Weather Nutrition” (TheHorse.com, February 01 2008, Article # 11409), Kimberly Peterson, DVM, writes:
Generally, horses at rest in ambient temperatures of 70°F consume 2% of their body weight in roughage (hay) per day. A 1,100-pound horse will eat approximately 22 pounds of hay per day. Assuming an energy density of 1.0 Mcal/lb, which is typical of many hays, this equates to approximately 22 Mcal or 22,000 Kcal.
Roughage in the diet is the main source of heat for the horse. The bacterial fermentation of fiber in roughage, occurring in the large intestine, results in the majority of heat produced during digestion.
…
Added fat in the form of vegetable oil is an efficient calorie source at 4 Mcal/pound (four times the energy of hay). Up to 12% of the day’s total calories in the form of fats and oils is well-tolerated. While fat digestion releases almost no heat, it provides calories for energy and the maintenance of body condition (1 cup vegetable oil=2 Mcal).Copyright © 2010 BLOOD-HORSE PUBLICATIONS. All rights reserved.
January 1, 2010
A Great Day in History: the Return of the Horse to the Americas
“On Christopher Columbus’s second voyage to the New World he brought with him to the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola (which today forms the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic) 24 stallions and 10 mares, arriving on January 2, 1494.” (p. 11 of The World According to Horses by Stephen Budiansky, (c) 2000 by Stephen Budiansky, publisher Henry Holt and Company, ISBN 0-8050-6054-5.)
John Kessell writes, in his Spain in the Southwest (Copyright © 2003 by John L. Kessell, Published by University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN10: 0806134844, ISBN13: 9780806134840), that the horses were Andalusian barbs (at least, that is how I interpret this excerpt from his Chapter 1):
The domesticated animals they brought, especially spirited Andalusian barb horses and snarling greyhound and mastiff attack dogs, astonished the Tainos. Cows, pigs, goats, and chickens also came ashore and multiplied. When allowed access, Natives took readily to this tamed and assorted meat supply, as they did to material items like candles or scissors that proved more efficient than their own.
Image of Andalusian/Iberian from Wikipedia, which attributes this sketch as: “Welbeck Le Superbe Cheval de Spanie,” engraving (reprinted 1743) by C. Caukercken, after Abraham van Diepenbeeck, from the first Duke of Newcastle’s A general system of horsemanship in all its branches (new edition printed for J. Brindley, bookseller to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, in New Bond-street, 1743)
And in the Internet exhibition “No Traveller Remains Untouched” of The Albert B. Alkek Library of Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, they write of the reintroduction of the horse to the Americas:
The horse came to the New World – to Hispaniola – on Christopher Columbus’ second transatlantic voyage, on January 2, 1494. Hernan Cortes brought the first horses to New Spain (current-day Mexico) in 1519.
Update (11:25 AM): Wikipedia claims:
In 1518 Velázquez put him in command of an expedition to explore and secure the interior of Mexico for colonization. At the last minute, due to the old gripe between Velázquez and Cortés, he changed his mind and revoked his charter. Cortés ignored the orders and went ahead anyway, in February 1519, in an act of open mutiny. Accompanied by about 11 ships, 500 men, 13 horses and a small number of cannons, he landed in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mayan territory.
September 28, 2009
Ape Intelligence
NOVA and National Geographic made a fascinating documentary entitled “Ape Genius,” in which they showed how apes learn and how they function mentally. In one segment of the show, they compared how chimpanzees and human children learn and function; someone posted videos on YouTube in two parts: child vs chimpanzee, part 1 and child vs chimpanzee, part 2. There are also some fascinating, interesting segments on problem solving in apes and learning by imitation. You can watch the whole show (one hour, divided into six parts) on NOVA’s Website. They give you the option of watching it in Quicktime or Windows Media.
On a related note, National Geographic has an article (which I have not read) entitled “Almost Human,” by Mary Roach. They also have some interesting video clips on ape intelligence.
Another good segment, from National Geographic’s “Human Ape,” is about self-recognition.
