Category Archives: animals

Nov16

cat tracks.

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new research shows that cats track their owner’s movements

Cats are special and intelligent creatures, and a new study led by Dr. Saho Takagi at the University of Kyoto in Japan confirms this.

Takagi’s research reveals cats’ ability to track their owners as they move about the house, and show signs of a genuine surprise if their owners pop up where they don’t expect them.

These findings support the idea that cats retain a mental representation of their owners, even if they’re out of sight, which is a sign of higher cognitive processes that can include planning ahead and using imagination.

There have been studies in the past that suggested that cats search in the correct places if they see food disappearing and that they expect to see their owner’s face if they first hear their voice, but how these abilities were practiced in real life still evaded researchers. “It is [also] said that cats are not as interested in their owners as dogs are, but we had doubts about this point,” Takagi explained.

To explore cats’ cognitive capacities, Takagi and his team studied what happened when 50 domestic cats were individually shut inside a room while repeatedly hearing their owner calling their name from outside the room. Then, the cats were exposed to either a stranger’s voice or that of their owner coming from a speaker that was positioned inside the room they were in.

Human observers watched recordings of the cats’ reactions during the experiment and ranked the cats’ level of surprise based on their ear and head movements. It appeared that the cats only showed confusion and surprise when their owners’ voices were suddenly coming from the speaker inside the closed room, implying to the cats that their owners had somehow managed to teleport to get inside the room with them.

“This study shows that cats can mentally map their location based on their owner’s voice,” Takagi explained. “Cats have the ability to picture the invisible in their minds. Cats may have a more profound mind than is thought.”

That said, it’s not too much of a shock that cats possess these abilities. “That awareness of movement—tracking things they cannot see—is critical to a cat’s survival,” said Roger Tabor, a biologist, author, and presenter of the TV series Cats on BBC.

“A lot of what a cat has to interpret in its territory is an awareness of where other cats are. It is also important for hunting: how could a cat catch a field vole moving around beneath the grass if it couldn’t use clues, such as the occasional rustle, to see in its mind’s eye, where they are? A cat’s owner is extremely significant in its life as a source of food and security, so where we are is very important.”

 

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“the moment I walk into a room,

i have kind of like the terminator’s tracking system for where the food is,

and i can get there immediately.

-mike birbiglia

 

 

 

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Source study: Plos One- Socio-spacial cognition in cats: Mentally mapping owner’s location from voice

Nov11

baby talk.

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i hear it over and over again

even coming out of my own mouth

and wonder how and why

we ever began the tradition

of talking to our pets in baby talk.

they must consider us to be quite simple people

ever working on our vocabulary and articulation

always hoping that some day

we might master our own language.

 

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“i’ve seen a look in dogs’ eyes,

a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt,

and i am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.”

-john steinbeck

 

 

 

 

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image credit: zazzle.com

Nov3

a star is born.

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yeti has always held a secret dream of co-starring in a judy garland film

 

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“somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.”

-judy garland

Oct28

find your fit.

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olive and yeti find their fit

 

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“the best thing to hold onto in life is each other.”

-audrey hepburn

 

 

Sep15

swiping left.

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The octopus is one of nature’s smartest and most enigmatic creatures, seemingly able to engage in some of the more complex thought processes in nature while also taking advantage of its unique physical abilities. Recently, some angry cephalopods were discovered to be assaulting fish by striking them with an arm.

Their taste for violence doesn’t end there. A new study demonstrates that when an octopus wants to be left alone, it’s not above tossing the nearest object at the noggin of its target.

Researchers at the University of Sydney published their findings in the science journal bioRxiv, and it’s clear that octopuses have a low tolerance for unwelcome visitors. Observing them off the eastern coast of Australia, scientists witnessed octopuses hurling shells, algae, and other debris at other octopuses in an effort to warn them off.

Octopuses don’t “throw” objects the way a human might. Instead, they use their arms to position the object in front of their siphons, which can produce a jet stream of water that propels the material into their adversary.

This behavior has been observed before, but this new study shed some fresh light on their motivations. The footage obtained via GoPro cameras captured a number of female octopuses throwing shells at would-be male suitors, a kind of swiping left, using blunt force.

In these cases, the males were not always discouraged. One bachelor was hit 10 times but stuck around. Others attempted to dodge the projectiles. Octopuses can toss objects for other reasons. They may, for example, want to clean up their living space by removing clutter. In some cases, that unwanted clutter may also mean a pushy mate.

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“you want trouble, you can get trouble” 

s. rotslach

 

 

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credits:

Photo- S. Rotslach/Getty Images, Mental Floss/J. Rossen, Science Alert/ M. Starr, University of Sydney/bioRxiv

Jun19

think pink.

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Today in animals you might not believe are real (but are!): the pink fairy armadillo. This species (Chlamyphorus truncatus) grows to just about 6 inches long, making them the smallest armadillos in the world.

They are found only in central Argentina, and because they’re nocturnal and spend a lot of time burrowing underground, the elusive creatures are difficult to study. 

Like other armadillos, pink fairy armadillos have a shell (or carapace) but theirs is softer, thinner and more flexible. The shell’s color comes from blood vessels close to the surface.

source credit: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

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“always be yourself unless you can be an armadillo,

then always be an armadillo.”

-author unknown

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some animals are so unusual, it’s hard to believe they’re real.

what’s the most interesting/unusual animal you’ve ever encountered?

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Apr3

woodpecker.

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today at the toledo zoo

 so many beautiful animals

the birds – stunning

even

the very curious and friendly woodpecker

hanging on the screen following us around

staring and blinking

so cute and cheery

 reaching over to touch it

quickly reminded me

how it got its name

when it pecked my finger

 with the memorable touch of

a sewing machine needle/jack hammer

decided right there and then

to just admire each other from afar in the future.

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“all bad jazz sounds like woody woodpecker.”

-leo kottke – musician

 

 

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image credit: Woody Woodpecker – Walter Lantz Studio, Universal Studios

Mar20

the swan.

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on the river – welcoming spring

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The Swan

Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air –
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music – like the rain pelting the trees – like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds –
A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet
Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?

– Mary Oliver 

Mar18

who’s zooming who?

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We humans may be tiring of video calls, Zoom birthdays and streamed performances, but the chimps at two Czech zoos are just starting to enjoy their new live online linkup. To make up for the lack of interaction with visitors since the attractions closed in December under Covid-19 restrictions, the chimpanzees at Safari Park Dvur Kralove and the troop at a zoo in Brno, 93 miles away, can now watch one another’s daily lives on giant screens.

There are no mute-button disasters as the sound is off, but there has already been plenty of interest in what the distant cousins are up to since the project got underway last week.

“At the beginning they approached the screen with defensive or threatening gestures, there was interaction,” said Gabriela Linhartova, ape keeper at Dvur Kralove, 84 miles east of Prague. “It has since moved into the mode of ‘I am in the movies’ or ‘I am watching TV.’ When they see some tense situations, it gets them up off the couch, like us when we watch a live sport event.” The chimpanzees have also adopted other human behaviors such as grabbing goodies like nuts to chew on while watching the action.

The video conferences, also aired on the safari park’s website, will run daily from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. until the end of March, when keepers will evaluate whether they should continue.

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“it is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.”

-H. L. Mencken

 

 

 

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credits: David w. Cerney – Reuters

Feb11

which one of us is me?

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 a group of penguins in the water is called a raft- on land, they become a waddle. 

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“all penguins are the same below the surface,

which I think is as perfect an analogy as we’re likely to get for the futility of racism.”     

-Russell Brand

 

 

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art credit: Wood print by Kaamran Hafeez, One Penguin in a Large. Group of Penguins