African Animal Adventures

Kim Wolhunter seems to have avoided Alliteration and instead called his African Wildlife Documentary videoblog "Wildcast" - it keeps coming up when I backcheck animal tags. Check iot out, some really top quality wildlife videos from the African savannah.

In other news, i'm considering abandonning Blogger's "label"
service, too many are label redundant - and instead opt to hijack Technorati's services. Technorati rocks (even if it can't index my Japanese).

Koala Klones

No, we don't eat Blinky Bill.

A joint project between Parks and Wildlife, UQ, Dreamworld, Curumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, David Fleay's Wildlife Park and the Zoological Society of London has
resulted in the founding of the world's first koala sperm bank and the successful birth of a batch of IVF clone koala joeys.

The use of a searchable gene database allows screening for certain defects, such as bacterial and viral susceptibility, present in wild koala populations.

It's all good news for a not-so tasty Australian icon.

I do have to say though that the image looks photoshopped - it's probably just been artificially enhanced.

Things you don't want to see while you're trying to sleep...

via A Welsh View
A Fucking Polar Bear. That's what happened to a BBC crew camped in a small wooden shack in the Norwegian Arctic. This one bear came back three times after being chased of by a flare gun. Curiosity doesn't kill the cat when the cat is 300 kilos of power - well, i guess it probably would've the mice had guns.

This story reminded me of this Far Side cartoon.

Eating Willy

No, you sick bastards.

Iceland has recommenced commercial whaling. Greenies and animal-lovers are in uproar.

Having tried whale, I can't really say its worth the trouble. Especially for 39 whales a year:

"Icelandic ships will take nine fin whales, an endangered species, and 30 minke whales each year."

Killing endangered species is a shitty idea, and on top of that, will 30 minke whales (okay they are big) really support an entire industry?

Elephants never forget a face, not even their own

Elephants have now been granted access to the inner sanctum of animal intelligence as evidence mounts that they can recognise themselves in the mirror.

Three Asian Elephants, known as Happy, Maxine and Patty immidiately recognised the mirror as an illusory device, and not a threatening unknown animal (typical response of a cat or other non-self recognising animal). The final test off Mirror Self Recognition involves self-directed behaviour. This is using the mirror to examine oneself, and showing that vanity is an intelligence related factor, this is tested by placing a mark or blemish on the creature and seeing if it notices. Happy was given a white cross above her eye (apparently without her noticing) and when she saw it in the mirror, she began to probe about on herself, not the reflection.

The BBC has a fact sheet on other aspects of elephant intelligence.

Other animals with shown Mirror Self Recognition are humans over 2, orang-utans, chimpanzees, and maybe dolphins. Other candidates for testing include killer whales.

*almost human*science*news*elephants*msr*mirrors*recognition*self*vanity*behaviour*animals*

My sister's birthday is coming up

I'm stuck for a present I can get her that will be useful and appreciated while she works/lives/travels in Canada a while longer.

But I don't think a jar of pickled squirrel heads is a good idea. But, I also have a cousin who is getting married this weekend...

Not exactly for the faint hearted, Custom Creature Taxidermy has some great stuff (there is G-rated section too). It's a bit different from my last experience with award-winning taxidermy at the Stones and Bones museum my uncle works at.

Taxidermy is a cool and creepy (in a good way) artform. Let's hope hippies don't kill it off.

Some of my picks from the galleries:

• ever-practical conversation starter - The Squirrel Lamp
• bickering Squirrel Siamese Twins
• Two Headed Franken-Squirrel
• It's my Sign: A Capricorn
• A cool collection of Griffins
• A mummified Chupacabra (the goat sucker)
• like you haven't wondered what a boxing match between two skinned headless cat carcasses looked like?
• when goth cam-whores go one step to far
• it looks happy...?
• Mystery goodness: is it lucky, or not?
• stuck for a stocking filler? Look no further than Mummified Squirrel Heads by the dozen