Metal and Magic

Bluejay Frog
Digital art by Ursula Vernon

Italian laboratory clones 14 pigs

The Italian researchers who produced the first horse clone have announced the birth of 14 cloned piglets.

The animals were born several weeks ago at the Laboratory of Reproductive Technology in Cremona.

Research leader Prof Cesare Galli said the pigs would help in understanding animal to human organ transplants.

Scientists have now cloned sheep, mice, cattle, goats, rabbits, cats, pigs, mules and dogs.

Friday Cat Blog

Frankie



Looking through old photo albums, I discover this 1979 picture of Bean, four months old, just waking up from a nap. His pillow, up until he got too old for naps, was invariably our family's first kitty, Frankie.

My Italian mother-in-law, citing old wives tales, had warnings that one day, "That cat will suck the breath right out of that baby." (Read with heavy Tuscano accent.) Of course, no such thing ever happened.

Frankie was the perfect, patient, childhood friend. He was chased, dragged, squeezed, hugged, slobbered on, dressed in old baby clothes, carried around, and totally adored. He was repository of secrets, a soother of traumas, a bed-warmer on cold nights, and a comic relief when one was needed.

Frankie lived to be 19 years old. He taught my sons about love and responsibility. He taught them how to care for animals and to appreciate the added beauty pets and animals bring to our lives.

He taught Bean well - he has just adopted a fourth Animal Welfare cat into his own growing family.

Now, go look at Friday Ark to see this week's critters, and on Sunday, visit the Carnival of the Cats, hosted this week at Watermark.

First wild beavers for 500 years in England

Beavers have been reintroduced to England, 500 years after they were hunted to extinction for their fur.

Six European beavers have been released at Lower Mill Estate near South Cerney, Gloucestershire, and are the first to roam wild in England for centuries.

The six adult rodents were caught in Bavaria in the spring and have spent the last few months in quarantine.

If the pioneering scheme is successful, it is hoped beavers can once again thrive in the British countryside.

Why We Need Sleep

Lions can snooze for 15 or 20 hours a day, while giraffes can go for weeks without getting even a five-minute nap. Cheetahs doze for 12 hours a day, while horses get only two or three hours of shut-eye.

Diet and environment determine how much sleep various mammal species require, says Jerome Siegel, a researcher at the University of California's Neuropsychiatric Institute who analyzed the sleeping habits of 60 mammals and found a distinct pattern. Meat eaters get more sleep than grazers, and omnivores fall somewhere in between.

Chicago to Ban Foie Gras

The Chicago City Council's Health Committee is recommending that the city ban the sale of foie gras -- fattened duck or goose liver -- due to concerns that the animals are force fed more than they would normally eat by the producers of the expensive delicacy. The issue is now slated to go to the full council for a vote.

Some city restauranteurs are unhappy with the decision and one producer of the liver even invited council members to a New York farm to see how the animals are treated for themselves.

But the protestations did little to sway members who had been shown a video by the Animal Protection & Rescue League that depicts the treatment of ducks and geese used to make the appetizer.

Rome bans goldfish bowls

The city of Rome has banned goldfish bowls, which animal rights activists say are cruel, and has made regular dog-walks mandatory in the Italian capital, the town's council said Tuesday.

Elephants may pay homage to dead relatives

Elephants may pay homage to the bones of dead relatives in their home ranges, a study of the creatures’ responses to skulls and ivory suggests.

Humans apart, only a few animals show any interest in their own dead. Chimpanzees show prolonged and complex behaviours towards a dead social partner – but abandon them once the carcass starts decomposing. But lions, for example, might sniff or lick a dead member of its own species before proceeding to devour the body.

African elephants have been observed to become highly agitated when they come across the bodies of their own, and they have been seen to pay great attention to the skull and ivory of long-dead elephants. However, this interest had not been tested experimentally.

Europe precaution against the spread of bird flu

A young ostrich is shown at Eberle's Ranch, an ostrich breeding farm in Moerschwil, Switzerland, Monday, Oct 24, 2005. Swiss authorities ordered places which hold poultry on Friday, Oct 21, 2005, to keep poultry indoors as a precaution against the spread of bird flu. Also ducks and other poultry animals at zoos are to be taken to indoor enclosures.

Breeds of Cattle

Cattle are considered to have been one of the first animals domesticated by man for agricultural purposes. They were tamed to provide milk, meat and hides and for draft purposes. The exact time and place this happened is hidden in the mists of antiquity, but it is thought they were probably first domesticated in Europe and Asia about 8500 years ago.

Dog Birthday Party Accessories

Unique, fun party packages and accessories for your dog or cat and their guests for any type of celebration.

Peregrine swoops to photo prize

Manuel Presti, from Italy, wins the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2005 for his swirling image of a flock of starlings evading a peregrine falcon. The WPY is jointly organised each year by the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine.

Deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu confirmed in Britain

A South American parrot that died while in British quarantine was carrying the strain of bird flu that has killed more than 60 people in Asia since 2003, officials said.

"We have established that the strain of the virus is H5N1. This does not affect the UK's official Avian Influenza disease-free status," said department of environment, food and rural affairs (DEFRA) chief veterinary officer Debby Reynolds.

Pet owners seek grooming for rats

Grooming isn't just for dogs anymore, and many pet owners are bringing in their rats to groomers like Karri Garrison, who uses waterless shampoo to make their coats shine and smell sweet.

Customers at Katie's Pet Depot in La Verne, about 30 miles east of Los Angeles, began requesting rat grooming soon after the store opened nearly two years ago.

Once pets, now threats

Scores of non-native snakes, fish and reptiles are living in South Florida natural areas, where they perish — or where they prosper and damage the environment for native species.

It's illegal, immoral and bad for the environment, but it happens all the time: Pet owners who no longer want snakes, fish and other animals set them free in South Florida, leaving them to suffer and die — or, perhaps worse, to thrive and compete with native animals in the wild.

Dr Billinghurst's BARF Diet

BARF is an acronym for Biologically Appropriate Raw Food and also stands for Bones And Raw Food.

Should your dog eat a BARF diet?

Sounds of the World's Animals

Animals make much the same sounds around the world, but each language expresses them differently. English and French cows sound the same, but not in English and French! Explore the sounds of the world's languages through the sounds of the world's animals.

Dog Island

Over 2,500 dogs are already enjoying a better life at Dog Island. Separated from the anxieties of urban life, dogs on Dog Island are healthy dogs who live a natural, healthy and happy life, free from the stress and hardship associated with daily live among humans.

Kleptography - Don Ellis Photography

Cats Can Be Allergic To Humans

Cats are blamed for triggering asthma attacks in humans but veterinarians in Scotland said it may also work the other way around.

Irritants such as cigarette smoke, dusty homes and human dandruff can increase inflammation in feline lungs and worsen asthma in cats.

"There is a percentage of asthmatic cats whose asthma has been triggered by things people do, or possibly by people themselves," said Nicki Reed, of the University of Edinburgh's Hospital for Small Animals in Scotland.

"Cats with feline asthma syndrome can be made worse by living in a household where people smoke, or where there are other potential allergens or irritants.

Friday Cat Blog

Dinner for two


Grace and Smoke, who usually detest and avoid each other, resolve their differences long enough to share some delicious canned cat food. Bandit doesn't eat this mush, he's crunching away on the dry stuff.

Now, go look at Friday Ark, and on Sunday, visit the Carnival of the Cats, hosted this week at Mind Of Mog.

Hunt approved for wild pigs in Wisconsin

Feral pigs - a shaggy, sharp-tusked, mean-spirited version of domestic porkers - are becoming a problem in Wisconsin. They are now found in at least 29 counties here, and wildlife officials are hoping that hunters heading into the woods this fall to capture more common game will take aim at wild pigs.

"Seeing as how they're not from Wisconsin, we'd like to keep them out," DNR wildlife biologist Eric Mark said Tuesday.

Sign in required: BugMeNot

Hiding in Plain Sight

The wildlife photographs that make us ooh and aah usually depict dramatic action. A lion digs its teeth into a zebra’s neck, buffaloes stampede through a cloud of dust, a pair of cranes strut out a mating dance—we like our animals highlighted at their most furious, frightened or amorous.

That’s rarely how they appear in nature, of course. Most of the time, they’re just trying to blend in. Photographer Art Wolfe, 53, has more than 60 books and plenty of wildlife action shots to his name, but in a new book, Vanishing Act, he defies conventions to show what he calls “animals’ incredible ability to vanish in plain sight.”

Zoos using drugs to help manage anxious animals

In the last decade, zoos across the nation have turned to antidepressants, tranquilizers, and even antipsychotic drugs such as haloperidol, sold as Haldol, to ease behavioral problems in zoo denizens.

When the Toledo (Ohio) Zoo needed calm zebras, it used an antipsychotic medication to quiet their jitters. Zoo staffers tried to soothe wildebeests with antipsychotic medication for eight months last year, and even occasionally this year. A swamp monkey was dosed with the antipsychotic, but it didn't help her get along with her daughter. It wasn't much good for ostrich aggression either. Yet a little Valium calmed the silverback gorilla when one of the females had a doctor visit. And Prozac helped a female orangutan negotiate life in her group.

Comparative Mammalian Brain Collections

This web site provides browsers with images and information from one of the world's largest collection of well-preserved, sectioned and stained brains of mammals. Viewers can see and download photographs of brains of over 100 different species of mammals (including humans) representing 17 mammalian orders.

Also available are examples of stained sections from a wide variety of brains of special interest, including humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, various rodents and carnivores, California sea lion, Florida manatee, Big brown bat, Wisconsin badger, North American raccoon, Yellow Mongoose, Zebra, Cow, and the Atlantic bottle-nose dolphin. A complete list of all available specimens is available. How brain evolution has occurred is discussed.

The Spider

Many people confuse spiders with insects. The easy way to recognize the spider from an insect is that spider has 4 pairs of legs and an insect has 3 pairs. There is also one major difference. The insects have compound eyes whereas the spider has singular eyes with lenses. Unlike insects, spiders do not have antennas.

This website is an excellent reference source about spiders, their webs, and their enemies.

Bird flu shows resistance to drug

The strain of flu scientists fear could spark a pandemic is showing signs of becoming resistant to an antiviral drug being stockpiled around the world, a warning that drugs being stored by governments might not be as strong a defense as hoped, flu experts say.

Tamiflu is one of just two antiviral medications that appear to be effective against the bird flu strain known as H5N1, which has circulated in Asia for nearly two years. Scientists report in the journal Nature that virus samples taken from a Vietnamese girl in February were found to be resistant to the drug.

Rare Breeds at Colonial Williamsburg

Among the first cattle to be imported into the coastal area of Massachusetts Bay was the Devon as a draught, milk, beef animal.


Today, the animals at Colonial Williamsburg play a dual role: they are similar to those found on colonial farms and plantations, and by successfully breeding them, the loss of breeds important to the history and development of American farming livestock is thereby prevented.

Christmas Stockings for Pets

Christmas Stockings for Pets

Friday Cat Blog

Smoke: Heaven is an Afternoon Nap


Nothing beats an afternoon nap in the sunshine on the catperch on an autumn afternoon.

Visit Friday Ark, to see this week's round-up of cats, dogs and other animals.

Also, make it a habit to see the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and will be hosted this week by Where The Dolphins Play.

To Save Sagebrush, Researchers Unleash the Power of Sheep

Researchers in Idaho have found a way to use sheep to rid vast swathes of public grazing sagebrush lands of invasive weeds.

The weeds, spotted knapweed (Centaurea maculosa) and leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula), are native to Europe. They were introduced to the United States in the 1800s and now infest much of the northern U.S.

'Those plants come from where the sheep come from, if you want to think about it that way,' said Steven Seefeldt, a researcher with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Hair-raising surprise for baboon

A new baby at a Devon zoo has been attracting a lot of attention - for all the wrong reasons.

The bald truth is that Reggie the hamadryas baboon has had his hair licked off with some excessive tender loving care by his mother.

Reggie was born at Paignton Zoo three weeks ago, weighing 18oz (510g) with a normal covering of hair.

A zoo spokesman said: "Mostly they're born hairy and stay hairy, but in this case the mother has been over-zealous."

African Spider Craves Human Blood

Scientists have discovered a jumping spider in East Africa that uses acute eyesight and its sense of smell to seek out female mosquitoes that have recently feasted on human blood. It's the only spider known to have a taste for mammal blood.

Dog adopts baby squirrel

Debby Cantlon took in a newborn squirrel found at the base of a tree and began caring for him. But this time, she found herself with an unlikely nurse's aide: her pregnant Papillon, Mademoiselle Giselle, who actively encouraged the orphan to join her own litter, born Sept. 9.

For Cantlon, who has cancer, helping wounded animals is a healing activity. And in that spirit, she says, came the name she bestowed on the young squirrel, Finnegan: "As in, 'Finnegan, begin again.' "

James Marsh Fine Art

Artist Edition Giclée reproduction of "Kissed Frog" by James Marsh

Ancient Horses Had Their Own Cemetery in Talesh

Discovery of the 3,000-year-old cemetery of horses came as a surprise for the Gilan Talesh Tool excavators. It was the first time ever that in a historical cemetery a section has specific to burying of horses has been found.

Horses are one of the animals that have accompanied human beings from the ancient times. This animal has been in the service of human beings in different aspects of daily life, wars, and work, always a big help for human beings. Therefore, its death was as mournful as the death of a close relative.

“In the outskirts of the pre-historic Talesh cemetery, we surprisingly encountered a space which was dedicated to burying horses. It was the first time that such an area has been found in a historical site, which has brought a lot of questions,” says Mohammadreza Khalatbari, head of the Pre-historic Archaeology Research Center, and director of Gilan Talesh Tool excavation team.

Bengal Cats

Elephant Encyclopedia

Lots of elephant related topics, from Accidents to Zoo Born Elephants.

The Ultimate Ungulate Page

Ungulates, or hoofed mammals, comprise one of the most successful and diverse groups of large mammals alive today, having colonized nearly every habitat on all continents except Antarctica and Australia.

The Anatolian Shepherd Livestock Guarding Dog Program

The Cheetah Conservation Fund's Anatolian Shepherd Livestock Guarding Dog program is a successful, innovative program that has been helping to save the wild cheetah in Namibia since 1994.

Working with local farmers and their livestock, this program is one of several non-lethal predator management strategies that CCF has developed.

In addition to directly saving the cheetah from indiscriminate removal from the farmlands where they live, this program also fosters goodwill between CCF and the farmers, thus improving the cheetah's chances for survival.
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Swimming piggies

Piggies swim in a pool during a piggy sports contest held in the Yaohai Park in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2005.

Merck Veterinary Manual

The Merck Veterinary Manual (MVM) has served veterinarians and other animal health professionals as a concise and reliable animal health reference for over 45 years.

Merck & Co., Inc. and Merial Limited are proud to present as a public service The Merck Veterinary Manual - 8th Edition Online.

Deadly 1918 Epidemic Linked to Bird Flu, Scientists Say

Two teams of federal and university scientists announced today that they had resurrected the 1918 influenza virus, the cause of one of history's most deadly epidemics, and had found that unlike the viruses that caused more recent flu pandemics of 1957 and 1968, the 1918 virus was actually a bird flu that jumped directly to humans.

The findings, the scientists say, reveal a small number of genetic changes that may explain why the virus was so lethal. The work also confirms the legitimacy of worries about the bird flu viruses that are now emerging in Asia.

"This is huge, huge, huge," said John Oxford, a professor of virology at St. Bartholmew's and the Royal London Hospital, who was not part of the research team. "It's a huge breakthrough to be able to put a searchlight on a virus that killed 50 million people. I can't think of anything bigger that's happened in virology for many years."
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Friday Cat Blog

Halloween Costumes?

I own i-pets.com, which sells pet treats and supplies, so I spend quite a bit of time on the Internet looking at pet stuff. Mainly, I like to see what other pet companies are selling and what the prices are like.

I noticed recently that a whole new luxury pet market is becoming popular - pet jewelry, designer pet fashions, luxury pet furniture; lots of new stuff. What amazes me though is the clothing. Clothing for pets? Since when were pets meant to wear clothes? You can buy dresses, shoes, t-shirts, tuxedos, raincoats, hats, sunglasses, bathrobes, perfume, nail-polish - - - you name it!

Then, there's pet costumes ... It's amazing how much disposable income some people have, isn't it?

I've never dressed my pets. Well, almost never. The closest I came was to put a hat from a teddy bear on Bandit. He was not pleased, to say the least, and I learned not to ever do that again!

Some people seem to get great enjoyment from thinking up ideas for pet clothing and Halloween costumes. I've found quite a few ...




Dogs dressed for Halloween







Cats dressed for Halloween




Visit Friday Ark, to see this week's round-up of cats, dogs and other animals.

Also, make it a habit to see the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and will be hosted this week by Ginasrantings.

On a related note -
My co-workers, knowing that I have 3 cats, and that my sons, in their own households, have 5 more, figured (correctly) that I would appreciate a very unique and quite appetizing cake for my birthday celebration.

We enjoyed this mouth watering creation on Monday:

Cats in Costume

Cats dressed for Halloween.

Dogs in Costume

Dogs dressed for Halloween.

Komodo dragon conservation in Indonesia

Komodo dragons are the world’s largest living lizard and are found predominantly on the islands of Flores, Rinca and of course Komodo in Indonesia. The latter two islands enjoy the protection of lying within the Komodo National Park, but Flores is outside of the park boundaries and as a result the dragons on this island receive only rudimentary protection.

Good gut instincts win pair a Nobel for medicine

Two Australian researchers who turned medicine upside down by showing that peptic ulcers and gastritis could be caused by a bacterium have been awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine.

One, Barry Marshall, proved his point to doubters by swallowing a glassful of the bacteria.

About a week later he started vomiting and suffering other painful symptoms of gastritis.

Before the discovery in 1982 that Helicobacter pylori played a role in gastritis and peptic ulcers, stress and lifestyle were considered the main causes of peptic ulcer disease.

Windmills a fatal attraction for bats

Why are bats incapable of navigating around the fast-spinning blades of windmills?

The problem, most notable at wind farm sites in West Virginia, is so severe that the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, did a study of it.

The United States has used wind energy, albeit sparingly, to produce electricity since the early 1980s. But the question of bat fatalities didn't come up until a large number of bats were found dead in 2003 at the 44-turbine Mountaineer Wind Energy Center on Backbone Mountain in Tucker County, W.Va.

A 2004 study estimated between 1,364 and 1,980 bats of six different species were killed there during a six-week period.

Photos of Tony Georgiadis

Preening

Photo byTony Georgiadis

The ErotiCat Gallery

The 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

A total of 15,589 species face extinction, reveals the 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. One in three amphibians and almost half of all freshwater turtles are threatened, on top of the one in eight birds and one in four mammals known to be in jeopardy.

Cow Refrigerator Patches

Magnetic cow patches!
Just stick-em and moo!
Have a cow refrigerator now!

Hey, you take milk out of the refrigerator, right? Then it should be covered with our Cow Refrigerator Patches! There's no more visible way to tell everyone that you love cows -- than to turn your refrigerator into a giant cow!

From Simply Bovine