Oscar, a hospice cat at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, R.I., walks past an activity room at the facility Monday, July 23, 2007. Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. (AP Photo/Stew Milne). Full story
The perfectly mummified woolly mammoth, a female who died at the age of six months, was named "Lyuba" after the wife of reindeer breeder and hunter Yuri Khudi who found her in Russia's Arctic Yamalo-Nenetsk region.
Weighing 50 kg (110 lb), and measuring 85 centimeters high and 130 centimeters from trunk to tail, Lyuba who died at least 10,000 years ago during the last Ice Age, is roughly the same size as a large dog.
Lyuba will be shipped to School of Medicine, Jikei University in Japan to undergo three-dimensional computer mapping of her body. The mammoth will then return to St Petersburg for an autopsy before being put on display in Salekhard.
The discovery of the baby mammoth preserved in the Russian permafrost gives researchers their best chance yet to build a genetic map of a species extinct since the Ice Age.
A giant two-meter squid recently washed up on the shores of Tasmania's Ocean Beach. The picture shows the curator from Tasmanian Museum was then holding the squid carcass. Link
A new study supports the theory that chipms can be altruistic just like people. Children as young as 18 months-old also seem to help adults, even strangers, without any immediate benefit to themselves. According to psychologist Felix Warneken of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, altruism goes back as far as 6 million years ago when to the common ancestor we share with chimps. IN a paper published in the journal Public Library of Science Biology, the Warneken and his colleagues posit that humans and chimps are predisposed to be Good Samaritans. From Science News:
His team conducted three experiments with adult chimps living on an island sanctuary in Uganda and two experiments with 18-month-old German children. In the chimp version of the first experiment, 36 animals watched one at a time from a barred enclosure as an experimenter in an adjacent room—who had had virtually no prior contacts with the animals—reached through the bars for a stick on the other side. The stick was within reach of only the observing chimp.
Most chimps snatched the stick and gave it to the experimenter, whether or not the experimenter offered a piece of banana as a reward. No assistance came if the experimenter didn't first reach in vain for the stick.
A similar trial with 36 youngsters yielded comparable altruistic behavior, regardless of whether the experimenter offered toys as a reward.
Link to Science News, Link to PLoS Biology
This gourd-shaped tortoise appears at Qugou Township Ornamental Fish Market in Huaibei, east China's Anhui Province, June 24, 2007. Although businessmen there contributed a gene mutation to the aberrance, I rather think it as an abused animal by being banded an iron wire or something alike during its growout. Link to Anhuinews
The pricey pet is said to have been produced by cross-breeding an African Serval and an Asian Leopard Cat with a domestic feline. While Lifestyle Pets admits this type hybrid breeding has been done before, "the Ashera is unique in that genetic monitoring is used to standardize breeding and ensure that the defining features and size of the [animal] remain exceptionally consistent." And like most other super-luxury items, the company says it will sell only 100 Asheras per year worldwide, with only 50 being sold to U.S. customers
And after dropping 22 large, potential buyers should also be prepared to budget for a big supply of Fancy Feast, as the company says the Ashera can grow up to weigh 30 pounds.
It's no great shock that cat lovers can get little excessive when it comes to their feline friends. But one company, banking on the fact there are more than a few prospective pet owners willing to part with some serious money for a kitten, is selling a designer breed of cat that costs $22,000.
The Ashera, bred by Los Angeles-based Lifestyle Pets, "is a new ultra-exotic breed of domestic cat that already has wealthy animal devotees paying to get on the waiting list," the company press release claims.
The pricey pet is said to have been produced by cross-breeding an African Serval and an Asian Leopard Cat with a domestic feline. While Lifestyle Pets admits this type hybrid breeding has been done before, "the Ashera is unique in that genetic monitoring is used to standardize breeding and ensure that the defining features and size of the [animal] remain exceptionally consistent." And like most other super-luxury items, the company says it will sell only 100 Asheras per year worldwide, with only 50 being sold to U.S. customers
Ashera possess tiger stripes and leopard like spots. You can see the gallery of this Ashera cat on the Lifestyle Pets site
The photos alone make one wonder about the agility of the cat unlike other domesticated cats. According to Lifestyle pets, the Ashera grows up to 30 pounds. They claim it gets along with other pets and children and takes well to being walked on a leash.
The Ashera however will not be mass produced will be available in limited quantities, 100 per year. The Lifestyle Pets boasts it already has two clients, one, a family in Beverly Hills and another, a Russian client in Moscow.
Another California company, San Diego based, said last year that they created a hypoallergenic kitten for people who sneeze and wheeze in the presence of cats. The Allerca cat cost $3,950.
If you want one of the Asheras, you have to put a deposit of $6,000 to get premium placement and also hasten delivery within 4 to 6 months.
PLACE of BIRTH: Belgrade
Incredible combination! Who is going to win? Cat or turtle? Real Ninja Turtle! Cat reminds me a bit of Spot, our Persian ginger tom-cat. I wonder how would he react in such a situation? For the time being, he is too busy...romancing the cats in our Voorschoten neighborhood :)
Spot is back!
His spring love madness made us mad! He has obviously to make up for not being active in February (we were still in the flat in
Anyhow, he was missing for 24h for the first time in his 6 years long life, so it was pretty alarming, specially because he was a new face in his Voorschoten habitat and not familiar nor with the area nor with the local cats...
In the beginning of his freedom he was very moderate in his excursions, exploring just in the vicinity of our garden. He gained our confidence and was allowed to stroll around, got to know Krpko, old experienced cat with some teeth missing, had a fight with him several times...He was gaining his position in the new neighborhood, but he was gaining scratches and wounds too. He was loosing his hairs and weight (the second was desirable, the first was not flattering his usually neat and handsome impressive Persian ginger tom-cat appearance). He was more dandy city cat but he was resolute in his attempts to become a really tough outdoor Ninja cat.
He would stay outside longer and longer, driving Stella crazy (she can not sleep if he is not safely at home) and he even managed to fell in the water and appear completely wet and muddy, coughing and sneezing with style. Quite frightening and dramatic. He was stranded for some time, but the nature is nature, so we decided to open cat-door and to grant him all the freedom!
Some three days ago he has suddenly entered in Casanova role "wearing" terrible "love perfume" and appearing at home just to nibble something and disappear again!
The climax of his newly found freedom (and our anxiety) was when he was missing for more than 24h! We alarmed our first neighbors and received the information that Spot was spotted not far away from our house, chasing pussies, of course! We also tried to spot Spot (it was very late in the night), but spotted just his hairy unique tail just long enough to conclude that it was 100% his tail, because he disappeared in somebody’s garden not reacting at all on our calls…For Spot love was really deafening and blinding! We even tried to use his best friend rottweiler Xing as a bate (a bit later), but without any results. We gave up and decided to let him do whatever he wanted (as if we had any other choice!).
He has appeared the next day, completely exhausted, dirty, smelly, hungry but satisfied!!!
After eating, Spot has fallen in narcoleptic sleep which lasted hours and hours…
He has accomplished his love mission and now we expect to see some ginger long haired kittens in the near future running around in our neighborhood.
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In Persian, ‘Shahtoosh’ means ‘King of Wools’
a perfect description for an ultra fine wool that’s softer than either Angora, Pashmina and Cashmere.
Shahtoosh shawls are so incredibly lightweight that they can be passed through an average sized finger ring, hence their common name, ‘Ring Shawls’. The reason they’re so light is because each hair of the Tibetan Antelope is around 6 times thinner than the average human hair. That’s a very fine hair!
Each shahtoosh shawl requires about 350 grams of wool. Being as each Tibetan Antelope yields no more than 125 - 150 grams, it takes the wool of three animals to make just one shawl.
