Archive Category: Animal
Virtual Cow Butt
Veterinarians have no choice when they need to check a cow for pregnancy or infection. The standard procedure is to stick your arm up the cow’s rectum. The technique is difficult to teach to veterinary students because, well, it’s dark in there.
That’s why veterinarian and computer scientist Sarah Baillie has created the “Haptic Cow,” a virtual, touch-feedback device that mimics the feeling of real bovine anatomy, placed inside a fiberglass model of a cow’s rear end.
“With this technology, students can feel something that feels like the inside of a real cow, but I or another instructor can be following their movements on a monitor,” said Baillie, who teaches at the Royal Veterinary College in London. “This means we can say, ‘Come back a bit or go left a bit.’ It actually means you can direct them.”
Not only can professors follow a student’s exact movements and critique the technique, but they can also keep track of how much force is being applied. If a fledgling vet gets too rough and exceeds the number of Newtons considered safe by experienced vets, virtual Bessie will belt out a cautionary “Moo-oo!”
(image credit: Sarah Baillie/Royal Veterinary College)
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Paranormal Goat
How do you improve the runaway sleeper hit Paranormal Activity, which was made on a budget of $15,000 and has grossed nearly $90 million so far?
Add goats.
Yahoo’s Buzz Log has the clever mash-up of the movie’s ads with a few ungulates, which is a spoof trailer for The Men Who Stare At Goats: Link [embedded YouTube clip]
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Invisible Lion Cages
It looks like a lioins has jumped up on the hood of an open vehicle! Look closely, though -it’s an illusion, as the front of the car and the passenger area are separated by a sheet of glass. Invisible lion cages are the mane attraction Werribee Open Range Zoo, in Melbourne, Australia. VERY strong glass is used in place of other enclosure types more familiar in zoos – the result is stunning shots of the lions and a unique visitor experience.
This incredible Lions on the Edge exhibit, which puts you just inches from a lion’s jaws, is one of the biggest attractions at the zoo.
Kings of the jungle Tombo and Tonyi are joined by two lionesses in the exhibit. Though it has been open since 2006, the male lions were added just last month – leading to some startling photo opportunities.
Link – via cakeheadlovesevil
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A Good Clean Fight
How about we celebrate Friday with a good old fashioned cat fight? Now I wanna see a good clean fight, no hitting below the tail, shake paws and good luck!
via AcidCow.
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Should we let some endangered species die?
Marine biologist and blogger WhySharksMatter presents the latest in his award-winning "ethical debate" series, showcasing a "hot topic" from the environmental movement, presenting both sides, and asking readers to argue it out in the comments. Since his readership includes scientists, politicians, and leaders from the environmental movement, these discussions are always interesting, and this one is sure to generate some strong opinions.
WhySharksMatter is claiming in this ethical debate that North Atlantic Right Whales, one of the most endangered animals on Earth, are going to go extinct whether or not we help them, and therefore we should stop wasting so much of the environmental movement’s limited resources on protecting them.
“For the sake of this debate, I will concede the following points (i.e. there is no need to debate them any further).
* Right whales are a unique and interesting animal. They, like us, are mammals.
* Without our protection, they will certainly go extinct
* It is undeniably, 100% our fault that they are so endangered in the first place”
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Bald Hedgehog
Remember the bald bear we featured on Neatorama yesterday? Well here’s another case of unusual baldness – this time it’s a bald … hedgehog?
A bald hedgehog abandoned by his mother in a garden in Norfolk is being treated at a wildlife rescue centre in a bid to encourage his spikes to grow.
Baldrick, named after the character from the television programme Blackadder, was brought to Foxy Lodge wildlife rescue centre, Great Yarmouth.
He is now being cared for by Tonia and John Garner in the hope he can be eventually released into the wild. Treatment includes antiseptic scrubs and baby oil massages.
I’d suggest a laser comb to stimulate those spike follicles, but what do I know?: Link
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Peacock Spider
Photo: Jurgen Otto
This is a kind of jumping spider, and it’s only about 5mm in size. The males have a colorful pattern on flaps that extend from their abdomen during breeding/mating. In addition to this, they raise their back pair of legs and dance from side to side to win over their plain brown females.
Only found in Australia, they were classified as species Maratus volans because people originally thought the flap was for gliding after jumping. Wiki
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Animal Mummies
Thousands of mummified animals have been recovered in Egypt over the past hundred years. They include gazelles, shrews, rams, crocodiles, hawks, fish, dung beetles, and of course, cats. In the early days of excavation, they were considered unimportant, as things to be pushed aside in order to get to the treasure. Scientists are now studying them in detail for clues about the way ancient Egyptian humans lived. National Geographic looks at how the animals were preserved, and why. Link
(image credit: Richard Barnes)
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I Can Has Swine Flu: H1N1 Virus Infected Pet Cat
Can your pet get sick from swine flu? The answer turns out to be yes. Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine has found a cat that contracted the H1N1 virus and got sick with swine flu:
On Wednesday, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported the first confirmed case of H1N1 in a house pet, a 13-year-old domestic shorthaired cat. The animal likely contracted the virus from its owners, veterinarians say, since two of the three family members living in the cat’s household had recently suffered from influenza-like illness. Late last week, when the cat came down with flu-like symptoms — malaise, loss of appetite — its owners brought it to Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine for treatment. The family mentioned to the vet that they had also recently battled illness, which led to testing the pet for H1N1.
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Calf Gets Prosthetic Legs
Nancy Dickenson of Ocate, New Mexico and her stepdaughter Martha found an 11-month-old calf on a neighbor’s ranch that was suffering from severe frostbite. The black angus heifer had lost the use of her back legs and hooves. What to do? Obviously, the answer is to give her prosthetic legs!
The Dickensons have rescued dozens of animals and wanted to give Meadow a chance to walk normally again. They located the calf’s owner and bought Meadow, and convinced veterinarians and students at Colorado State University to help her.
Doctors amputated a portion of Meadow’s hind legs in August and fitted her with the prosthetics, a rare procedure done on livestock typically destined for the food supply. Meadow is believed to be the first bovine calf fitted with double prosthetics, Colorado State veterinarian Dr. Robert Callan said. He based his claim on discussions with other veterinarian clinics and schools.
Nancy Dickenson said the family decided to pay what she expects will cost “thousands of dollars” for the procedures because Meadow has become another family pet.
Meadow is no longer in any danger of becoming beef. Link -via Fark
(image credit: Colorado State University)
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Dog vs. SUV: Which Has Larger Eco-Footprint?
This guy is destroying Earth!
Which has a larger ecological footprint, a large dog or an SUV? According to Robert and Brenda Vale, Fido has a Hummer of an eco-footprint:
In "Time to Eat the Dog? The Real Guide to Sustainable Living," authors Robert and Brenda Vale argue that resources required to feed a dog — including the amount of land needed to feed the animals that go into its food — give it about twice the eco-footprint of, say, building and fueling a Toyota Land Cruiser. Noting that a cat’s pawprint was roughly equivalent to a Volkswagen Golf’s, "New Scientist" asked an environmentalist at the Stockholm Environment Institute in York, U.K., to independently calculate animals’ environmental impact, and reported that "his figures tallied almost exactly." The study apparently didn’t take into account the emissions of either the SUV or the dogs.
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The Bald Bear
Vets are baffled at this strange sight: Dolores, a spectacled bear at the Leipzig Zoo in Germany has gone bald!
It could be due to a genetic defect but the animals don’t seem to be suffering any other afflictions.
The normally fluffy dark brown bears should be now growing a thick fur coat to keep them warm during the winter.
One thing the lack of hair shows up in their huge, lethal claws.
But instead the bears, which once originated from South America, have begun developing nasty rashes and inflammations on their skin where their glossy coats should be.
Link (Photo: EPA)
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Sputnik 2 Anniversary
Fifty-two years ago today (November 3, 1957), Sputnik 2 launched from the Soviet Union with a dog named Laika {wiki} on board. It was a tremendous political coup for the USSR to launch a living being into orbit. Unfortunately it wasn’t so tremendous for Laika, as they made no plans for her to ever return to earth. Several stories were told of how long Laika survived in space, but the full story was finally revealed in 2002. Laika only lived a few hours before the stress and heat did her in. Her remains orbited the earth for five months until the capsule burned up on re-entry in April of 1958. In honor of the anniversary, here’s Space Doggity by Jonathon Coulton. -via Metafilter
Update: The video footage is from the song Moan by Trentemøller. -Thanks, waldemar!
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Why Roosters Have Wattles
A wattle is the bit of flesh below a rooster’s beak. What purpose does it serve? Carolynn Smith at Macquarie University in Australia conducted a study that suggests that it’s pure chicken bling. Sarah Zielinski writes in Scientific American about the results:
Cutting off the wattles of roosters and seeing how the behavior of hens changed wasn’t an option. Instead, Smith created four animated roosters. The animated roosters (see second part of the video below) all acted the same, performing the tidbitting routine over and over, and they all looked the same, except for their wattles. One had a normal wattle, one was missing his, a third had a wattle that didn’t move, and the fourth had an extra floppy wattle.
A test chicken would be placed inside a test pen with two “audience hens,” a couple of buddies intended to make the test hen more comfortable in the less familiar surroundings (fowl are social creatures). One of the videos was then played for the test chicken and her response was recorded: How quickly did she respond to the animated rooster? How quickly did she start searching for food (the normal response to a male tidbitting)? And how long did she search for food?
The test hens responded more quickly to the tidbitting males that had the normal or stationary wattles, less quickly to the one with the extra floppy wattle (the wattle moved so much that it swung up the side of the rooster’s head and appeared much smaller than it was) and slowest to the male lacking wattles. After the hen’s attention was gained, though, she reacted about the same to each of the four animated chickens. Smith suggests that the wattle helps a rooster gain a hen’s attention when he is tidbitting, rather like a human guy wearing flashy clothes while doing his best dance moves to try and pick up chicks.
Video at the link.
Link | Photo: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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Fastest Cat for the Fastest Man
Usain Bolt, who holds the world record for both the 100- and 200-meter sprint, adopted a cheetah named Lightning Bolt, but he isn’t going to make the cheetah into a house cat. Bolt paid $13,700 for adoption rights, and has pledged $3,000 a year for the cat’s upkeep at a wildlife center in Nairobi. The money helps to support the Kenyan Wildlife Services and their efforts to protect endangered species.
The world record holder appeared more comfortable later while handling his baby cheetah, which was the size of a fully grown domestic cat. He cradled the fuzzy-headed cub while feeding it bottled milk as cameramen snapped away.
When asked if he was afraid of cheetahs, Bolt said: “Yes, I was, but not anymore.”
Lighting Bolt is among three cubs rescued by KWS officials after their mother abandoned them in a game park.
(image credit: AP/Karel Prinsloo)
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Bubble Coral
Photo: RevolverOcelot
In the Pacific Ocean and parts of the Red Sea, bubble coral can be found in varying species, colors and forms. They maintain their egg-like appearance during the sunlit hours (maybe an egg-like disguise?), then deflate at dark, manifesting finger-tentacles that feed on plankton, etc.
See more of this beautiful creature at Environmental Graffiti.
Previously on Neatorama: Great Barrier Reef: Gone in 20 Years
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Bloodybelly Comb Jelly
A creature with a musical name presents a spectacular light show to the cameras of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute’s remotely operated vehicle. This ctenophore seems to be exhibiting bioluminescence, but what the “lights” actually represent is reflection or refraction of the photoflood lights from rhythmically beating cilia. The deep red color is a survival adaptation, helping to mask the bioluminescence of creatures it ingests, so that it does not itself become visible to other predators.
It has been suggested that comb jellies such as the ctenophores are ancestors of all life on earth.
YouTube link, via The Daily Dish and Nerdcore.
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Internet Cat Costumes
Internet memes make great Halloween costumes, although they are usually only clever for one year. The exception is cats, because their popularity (at least on the internet) goes on and on. Here are some clever LOLcat Halloween Costumes.
Jacki was Spaghetti Cat in 2008. You don’t have the time to make a better costume for this year, unless you have been working on it a while already. In case you’ve forgotten, here is the origin of Spaghetti Cat.
Brad O’Ferrell showed up at the “A Night To ReMEMEber” internet meme party in a Keyboard Cat costume. All it took was a cat costume and a keyboard.
Matt Cutts is a LOLcat. Or he was for Halloween last year. The cheeseburger was a nice touch!
This LOLcat costume is perfect for trick-or-treating. You won’t get the full effect until you see the back of the t-shirt.
This Ceiling Cat costume should be easy to do, depending on the size of the ceiling. If you are going to sit on the porch and hand out candy, this would be OK. It might be a problem if you are a cab driver.
You can buy Hello Kitty costumes of all kinds, but making your own is a real accomplishment. Pink Daisy at Craftster made her own version of Hello Kitty for Halloween 2008.
This costume was posted earlier on Neatorama, but this collection wouldn’t be complete without Lime Cat, Melon Cat, Helmet Cat, or whatever you want to call this. Flicker user Alida Saxon’s brother put this costume together at the last minute. The helmet is a basketball painted green, and the fur was salvaged from a stuffed toy.
A warning: if you dress as an internet meme for Halloween, be prepared to explain yourself. Unless you’re meeting up with your online group, you’ll probably have to tell the whole story of your costume. If you’re willing to do that, the few who will “get it” will make the entire effort worthwhile.
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Unexpectedly Employable Animals
Seeing-eye dogs, police dogs, and cutting horses: they have nothing on these unexpected employable animals. Some animals have very dangerous jobs. Well, certainly more dangerous than mine!
Since the late 1950s the U.S. military’s Marine Mammal Program has been working with dolphins and sea lions to see if they could be employed for the purpose of national security.
The dolphin’s echolocation and high intelligence make them ideal in detecting mines, patrolling harbours, guarding boats against unwanted underwater incursions and aid in the retrieval of lost equipment.
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Fun With Flies in Frankfurt
How do you liven up the Frankfurt Book Fair, and simultaneously get your company’s name out there? Publisher Eichborn (with a fly as its logo) released 200 flies with lightweight banners, attached with wax. No flies were harmed, and the result was spontaneous smiles and laughter.
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Starfish Bulk Up to Cool Down
How do starfish keep cool when lying on the sand during low tide? Dr Sylvain Pincebourde and colleagues at the University of California, Davis and Bodega Marine Laboratory, Bodega Bay, California, studied starfish (okay, sea stars) in an aquarium, replicating tides and environmental conditions.
They discovered that a starfish will ingest cold seawater to lower its body temperature before a hot day on the beach. Sucking up water large amounts of water increases a starfish’s body mass, which means its body temperature increases more slowly. Pretty cool!
Infrared photo above by B. Helmuth and S. Pincebourde shows cool areas in purple and warm areas in red, via BBC News.
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Grieving Chimps
Photo: Monica Szczupider / National Geographic
When Dorothy, a beloved female chimp died at the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center in Cameroon, her burial was witnessed by the rest of the chimps residing there.
Monica Szczupider took this photo that showed a wall of grieving chimps paying their last respect:
Speaking about Dorothy, Miss Szczupider, 30, said the chimp was a "prominent figure" within a group of about 25 chimps.
"Chimps are not silent. They are gregarious, loud, vocal creatures, usually with relatively short attention spans", she said.
"But they could not take their eyes off Dorothy, and their silence, more than anything, spoke volumes."
Link | Larger pic at Nat Geo Visions of Earth 2009
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How To Grrrowl Like Chewbacca
If your Halloween costume is anywhere near as clever as this one, or you’ve finally decided on Chewie as your go-to outfit, be sure to top it off with the authentic roar, as taught here.
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Naked Mole Rats Immune to Cancer
There has never been a documented case of cancer found in a Naked Mole Rat, which is unusual as they can live to be 30 years old. Now biologists at the Unversity of Rochester believe they have found the reason.
The findings, presented in today’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that the mole rat’s cells express a gene called p16 that makes the cells “claustrophobic,” stopping the cells’ proliferation when too many of them crowd together, cutting off runaway growth before it can start. The effect of p16 is so pronounced that when researchers mutated the cells to induce a tumor, the cells’ growth barely changed, whereas regular mouse cells became fully cancerous.
“We think we’ve found the reason these mole rats don’t get cancer, and it’s a bit of a surprise,” say Vera Gorbunova and Andrei Seluanov, professors of biology at the University of Rochester and lead investigators on the discovery. “It’s very early to speculate about the implications, but if the effect of p16 can be simulated in humans we might have a way to halt cancer before it starts.”
Further research might reveal whether the findings will be applicable to humans. Link -via reddit
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Stop! Hammerhead Time!
Stop! Hammerhead Time – $11.95 | Funny T-Shirts
What do you get when you combine a certain 80s fad and sharks? Here’s a T-shirt designed by the always awesome Nathan Mazur of Scared of Bees and brought to you by MC Hammerhead, the hippest of all sharks. From the Neatorama Shop: Link
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Queen Victoria Squirrel
This is called anthropomorphic taxidermy art. It is a real squirrel dressed as Queen Victoria mounted in a shadow box perfect for hanging on your wall. Crafted by Etsy seller lovedtodeath, this could be yours for only $495.00. Link -via Everlasting Blort
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Grape Dog Costume
Looking to torture your four-legged friend with the sound of squeaking balloons and the feeling of extra bumpers that prevent him from getting comfortable? Look no further than this adorable, yet highly unfunctional dog grape costume.
Link Via Craftzine Image Via Doggie Stylish
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Bundled Bat Buddies
Just in time for Halloween, adorable bats bundled up with their baby bottles. These little guys have a bad reputation, but how could you imagine anything evil from these beautiful babes?
Link Image Via Ugly Overload
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Giant Sea Gull Walks Behind TV News Anchor
[YouTube - Link]
Nothing could stop veteran news anchor Peter Hitchener of Australia’s Channel Nine News from delivering a serious bit of news. Not even a giant sea gull walking up behind him:
Ever the professional, the news stalwart only mildly flinched on
noticing the seagull but later told 3AW radio the studio cameramen hid
behind their cameras to hide their laughter.
"I was reading
away, and it was a serious story, and I suddenly thought, ‘Oh my gosh
that seagull’s back again’, because we had bit of a problem last
night,” Hitchener said.
"About 50 seconds to 6 o’clock this
seagull arrived and started pecking at the camera and it had the
beadiest huge eyes you’ve ever seen in your life.”
– via huffingtonpost
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Two Ducks from One Egg
The Cornish Duck Company checks its eggs for viable embryos. They noticed one egg had two embryos, and were prepared with a camera when it hatched.
Local vet Barrie Fleming, who advised the farm’s owners, Roger Olver and Tanya Dalton, on the hatching, said they had “every reason to be excited by the birth” as it was a very rare occurrence.
The BBC has the video. Link -via Arbroath
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