Archive for the ‘animal behavior’ category

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Squirrel Goes Nuts!

March 18, 2011

– – It’s never pretty when a squirrel runs amuck and goes on the rampage in a neighborhood…and so, things must have gotten ugly indeed when a squirrel terrorized a Vermont neighborhood, attacking at least three residents and eluding wildlife control experts for more than a week!

The rascal rodent has bitten and scratched neighbors in Bennington, Vermont without apparent provocation.  One victim was shoveling snow outside his home when the sneak attack began.  “He was holding on.  He wouldn’t let go.  I was finally able to get him off, and as soon as I got him off, he just jumped right at me again,” said one man, who suffered several nasty scratches last week;  the horror, the horror…

A veterinarian has hypothesized that the gray squirrel might have been raised as a pet, and lost its fear of humans.  Wildlife authorities say its unlikely that the squirrel has rabies, as the incidence of rabid rodent cases is reportedly very low in Vermont…

…maybe the poor thing’s having an existential crisis.  At any rate, you who are traveling in Vermont have been warned, and we may at least be grateful that this squirrel doesn’t talk, wear aviator glasses, and keep company with a moose…

Categories: animal behavior, animal occurrences, animals, furry, unexplained
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Eww, Smells Like (Tiger) Poo!

March 12, 2011

– – Smells like teen spirit?–No, it might smell like tiger poo, at least if you want to use an odor to repel pests…

A team from the University of Queensland made the discovery as they researched non-lethal ways to keep herbivores such as goats and kangaroos away from certain plants.  Now animal repellents are typically based on other offensive smells such as rotten eggs, blood, or bone.  Using tiger feces as a repellent came from the logical notion that if you could smell a predator nearby, you’d probably want to go elsewhere!  Tiger poo was found to be a more effective repellent than the feces of other predators, and it was found to be especially effective if the tiger feces collected were from a tiger who had been fed the animal being targeted.

An offended tiger offered the comment, “Hey, whadya expect?–It don’t smell like roses!“

Researchers also found that old goat carcasses also proved effective in warding away goats, but the smell was so bad that it made the scientists feel sick…

…and you thought that you had a bad job!

 

Categories: animal behavior, animals, research, science
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Oh, the Fishies!

March 9, 2011

– – Once again, another mass fish-kill has occurred, this one in Redondo Beach, California.  The fish are mostly sardines and other small fish, thought to number in the hundreds of thousands; so massive are their numbers that the carcasses are about a foot deep on the surface!

Biologists have tentatively concluded that the fish died of oxygen deprivation after being driven by a storm into a closed-off pier area, basically swimming in the wrong direction and ending up in an area with insufficient free-flowing oxygen in it.  There is no sign of oil, chemicals, or illegal activity.

Seals and other fish are gorging themselves, while humans are using buckets and nets to remove the approximate one million deceased fish, which will be taken to a landfill specializing in organic materials…

Categories: animal behavior, animals, aquatic, environmental, unexplained
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The Feline-Human Bond…

March 2, 2011

– – Cats are often given a bad rep by those who don’t share life with them; they’re reputed to be cold and aloof, wanting only food from their owners.–Well, in research to be published in the journal Behavioral Processes, scientists observed the interactions between 41 felines and their human families during lengthy four-part periods. Researchers also observed all behaviors of both cats and humans, and assessed their personalities as well as their influence over one another.

 

What was seen was a mutual social interaction in which both both cats and humans signaled to one another when they wanted to socially interact by petting or being petted.  Reciprocity was also in evidence, with the cats more likely to respond to owner-initiated contact if the owners had previously responded to theirs…they accordingly remember and respond to kindness, and are not cold fish (so to speak)…

Categories: animal behavior, animals, furry, science
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Mice for Airport Security?

February 16, 2011

– – We had earlier mentioned the possible use of genetically-modified plants to detect explosives in passenger screenings at airports.  Two Israeli scientists have advanced,  however, that mice may also suffice.

Specially-trained mice have been found capable of detecting faint traces of explosive residues.  When canisters of trained mice are placed in a device and exposed to such scents, they flee to a secondary compartment, setting off an alarm.  Mice actually have more scent-receptor genes than canines, and don’t require constant human interaction.   A rat-down is accordingly a viable alternative to a pat-down.

A mouse-employing scanner manufactured by BioExplorers is less invasive than full body scanners, but requires maintenance of the mice as well as cleaning of their cages…

 

Categories: animal behavior, animals, science
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Year of the Rabbit

February 7, 2011

– – According to the Chinese zodiac cycle, we are now into the Year of the Rabbit, a fact which has booted sales of rabbits in Asia and elsewhere.   Animal rights group PETA is urging consumers to forgo adopting rabbits as household companions on a whim, however, warning that the animals are often abandoned once their novelty wears off.

Rabbits aren’t just cute and fluffy, you see, but are high maintenance animals which require significant resources, equipment, attention, and veterinary care.  The group also points out that rabbits have fragile bones, require lots of exercise, and tend to gnaw on everything on sight, making them less than ideal pets for all but the most patient of owners.

Categories: animal behavior, animals, furry
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Psychic Furries…

January 27, 2011

– – About two-thirds of U.S. pet owners say that their animals have a sixth sense about bad weather, while 43 percent say that their pets can sense bad news.

An Associated Press-related poll shows that 72% of dog owners report weather warnings from their dogs, whereas 66% of cat owners relate the same.  The same poll relates that 47% of dog owners and 41% of cat owners say that they have gotten bad news alerts from their pets.

How do furry seers relate these things?  Sixty-four percent of those polled say that their pets hide, fifty-six percent say that their pets whine or cry, 52 percent say that they become hyperactive, erratic, or make unpredictable movements, and 36 percent say that their animals bark or meow persistently.

Don’t believe that animals have a sixth sense?- -Oh, Nostradalmatian knew that some humans were going to say that!

Categories: animal behavior, animals, furry, psychology
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Life Imitates Art!

January 25, 2011

– – Those of you familiar with Peter Pan or the movie Hook may recall how a crocodile was Captain Hook’s nemesis, but his approach could be detected by the pirate owing to the ticking of an alarm clock swallowed by the reptile.  The presence of this foreign body did not otherwise adversely affect the croc outside of diminishing his chances of a pirate supper.

Well, Peter Pan was nowhere in sight, but life imitated art when a 14-year-old crocodile called Gena at an aquarium in the Ukraine indigested a cell phone dropped by a woman as she attempted to photograph the croc!  The Nokia phone started ringing afterwards inside of Gena’s stomach (now that’s quality!), and the croc has since been refusing food and acting listless.  Even worse, the croc hasn’t had a BM in four weeks and appears depressed and in pain since consuming the phone.

Hoping that all things will pass, doctors tried to feed Gena quail laced with vitamins and laxatives, but he didn’t take the bait.  The crocodile will be taken for an X-ray next week if he continues to refuse food.  Surgery is a last resort as incisions and stitches take at least three weeks to heal in reptiles, and the procedure is dangerous for both the animal and the vets.

The crocodile in Peter Pan, by the way, had bitten off one of Captain Hook’s hands and wanted to continue the banquet.- -Aren’t kiddie stories great?!


Categories: animal behavior, animals, scalies, strange happenings
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Wrath of the Bovine!

January 11, 2011

– – Another mad cow story, this one from Fort Pierce, Florida where a 70-year-old rancher working on his fence was attacked by a cow on New Year’s Day.  He shot it with a .22 caliber pistol, but it continued the attack…

…it then became a cat fight when the man’s wife began ramming the cow with her truck to get the irate bovine off her husband.– Did she say “Get away from (him), you bitch!” like Sigourney Weaver in Aliens?  The account is silent on this point, but the cow wasn’t even dissuaded by the truck hits.  At that point, the woman grabbed the pistol which her husband had dropped in the encounter, and shot the cow several times in the face.  The cow, we are told, was then finally contained in the pasture.

The woman related that the cow had always been nasty, and had attacked her about a week earlier, causing bruises.   At least the cow was no milk dud…

Categories: animal behavior, animals
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Reindeer High?

December 26, 2010

– – Santa’s reindeer may require a slight assist to gain altitude.  Scientist Andrew Haynes reports in the respected Pharmaceutical Journal that reindeer deliberately seek out the mind-bending agaric fungi in the wild, and are often seen staggering around afterwards, making odd noises.

It is felt that the reindeer deliberately seek out the mushrooms to escape the monotony of dreary long winters.  A common side effect of psychedelic mushroom consumption in humans is the feeling of flying, so the flight capabilities of Santa’s reindeer are interesting.

Herdsmen are also reported in some parts of the world to drink the urine of the reindeer to get high themselves, but I find that a little hard to swallow…

Categories: animal behavior, animal oddities, animals, furry, science
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