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Study of Animals
Are Animal Circuses Cruel?
Sometimes, human beings do not realize the enormity of the choices of life they are given. We are capable of thought, of the creation of beautiful things, capable of experiencing fear and wonder, horror and happiness, love and disgust, sadness and contempt and anger and grief. There are boundless possibilities, eternal exploits, to consider. But we do not always consider animals.
Generally, animals think very differently from us. They tend to have simple methods for making what is necessary for them to have in order to survive. Of course, the souls and personalities of animals seem to differ just as much among them as they do among us. Some are more complex-minded, some more quick-tempered, some more gentle. But whether they can all think and reason and make, like us, in all their own ways, is not the question. That is obvious. But can they suffer? Can they feel?
Of course, many animals endure enough as it is, in nature. Some survive, and some don't. Just like us, they sicken and improve, eat and don't eat, drink and don't drink, live and die, love and hate, fear and enjoy. But . . . . it changes many things about the natural lives of animals when human beings decide to take a negative part in them. The incessant torment and suffering which some animals are made to endure is often caused by purposeful disrespect and misuse by human beings, sometimes because of their spite, sometimes their ignorance, sometimes their greedy or 'harmless' wish to seek out animals for participation in their own sick methods of entertainment. Of course, not all masters are bad masters. It is not always such a harrowing business when animals are taken to be trained by humans, but when the business is circuses, it is often very bad. Animals are abruptly taken from their homes and, after a bewildering journey, put in an alien environment where they find ample cause to be terrified and aggressive. Their instinct is to defend themselves, and they can see no point in most of the abuse leveled on them. Just like animals, not all people are the same. But many, whether by accident or on purpose, harm and hurt and kill animals and other human beings because they are not careful or compassionate. Lives of animals that could have been spent naturally in the Wild, whether peaceful and happy or not, I can't say, are spent as forced captives in the agonizingly small and foreign prisons of our zoos and circuses. Do you not consider that cruel? It is as unnatural and frightening to them as it would be to you, if creatures from Mars had taken you away to be humiliated in cages and rings on their own strange planet.
Revealing what goes on to make circus animals do what they do, would shake the foundations of what an animal circus is supposed to be. It is meant to be a mystical and exciting show that causes wonder and awe in the minds of the observing audience members, and it is an old form of entertainment. For many, many years, hundreds of different crowds have watched hundreds of different circus shows, and expressed their boundless enthusiasm for the antics of the enormous elephants, the beautiful zebras and horses performing their wild and astounding tricks, the chimpanzees and their funny capers, the lions and tigers leaping fearlessly through hoops of fire. They wonder at the braveness and the intelligence of these animals, who previously they may have underestimated. They appreciate the show, and go away satisfied.
Well, yes, the animals who are taught these tricks are usually very brave and bright, but brave does not mean fearless, and intelligent does not infer that they understand what they are doing, and why. What the throng sees is a beautifully cut and ingenious show, but the training of the animals to make it appear so is a horrifying business. To the animals, the tricks may be meaningless, but the show is life or death. If they do not obey their masters, they are whipped and shocked and goaded by bullhooks. If a lion is too afraid to jump through a circle of hot fire, the more brutal methods of beating and striking are brought into play, that are to be feared even more than the fire. So the animals do not stand on their heads because they want to, but because they are afraid of what will happen to them if they don't. What the audience sees as willing capers, are forced. Access to food and water is often limited. Bars restrict freedom of movement. Punishment, deprivation, and neglect depresses and frightens the animals. A peaceful sleep, a good meal, is unknown.
Training the animals is not at all a positive sight, and is usually hidden from public view so as to make the impression that the animals are pleasantly inclined to participate in the show. The training involves physical punishment, but what it leaves behind are more than scars on the flesh. Because they have endured violent training sessions in the past, the circus animals are aware that refusal to obey the orders of the trainers will result sooner or later in severe hurt. Just before entering the ring, while they are yet outside of public view, the trainers may deal their elephants a couple of exquisitely painful blows to remind them who their masters are, and that they will not tolerate disobedience of their commands. Contrary to the public's ordinary view of the animal circus, it is a system ruled by hate and fury and dread, instead of willingness to obey.
These barbarian training procedures are not often documented, but it is a severe wound to the moral structure of circuses. Human beings as trainers to animals and as teachers of other human beings have ruined many minds and souls that could have been more beautifully molded. Animals in circuses suffer being routinely whipped, shocked by electric prods, and beaten by clubs and metal rods. Trainers often strike elephants with bullhooks or ankuses on the more sensitive and easily bloodied areas of their bodies, such as the skin around their eyes, under their chin, within their mouth and behind their ears and knees. It causes them much the same agony as it would cause anyone. Circus animals are often hit across the face to provoke fear and pain. Bears have had their noses broken and their paws burnt, just to teach them to walk on their hind legs when they are ordered to do so. A number of animals have even been drugged to make them more manageable.
Two of the more popular circuses, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, have been known to use some of the worst training procedures with elephants ever documented. Elephants have a similar life cycle to humans, and they care for their young much as we do. Some captive elephants, however, are forced to breed as young as eight years of age, which is like breeding a human being of roughly the same age. The mother elephant is often tied by three legs during the birth, and the babies are taken away immediately. This is the most savage and cruel and inhumane deed. A mother elephant is no less a mother than a mother human, a baby elephant no less her baby than a child is a human's offspring. Ringling Bros. Circus has gone further, and had mother elephants chained by all four legs instead of three, to insure that the humans present would not be harmed. Even before they are weaned, the babies are removed to a separate area from their mothers, and are then chained for up to twenty-three hours a day. In the Wild, elephant babies often drink their mothers's milk until they are five, and are seldom apart from them. But there is no acknowledgment of animal families in the circus. The baby elephants are tied up and beaten repeatedly so as to break their spirits, and this process is so brutal that Ringling Bros. will not allow it to be filmed.
But the training of circus animals is not the only severe punishment that they undergo. Constant confinement is as bad. Due to continuous travel in boxcars and trailers in any sort of weather, circus animals are often made to suffer captivity in cramped and filthy spaces for days at a time, sometimes in severe cold or heat, and often without access to food or water or veterinary care. Sometimes the weather they are forced to thrive in is unbearably alien to their natural environments, and they are occasionally made to endure weather so harsh that they run the nightmarish risk of overheating or freezing to death where they stand. Circus animals who have been born in the Wild must suffer being chained to one place for many hours each day, while they would have roamed many miles instead. Thus, it is not surprising that circus animals, facing restricted spaces and constant imprisonment, and denied the freedom of moving from one place to another or retaining the natural impulse to live and the interest in living, would lose their spirits and begin to act listless and restless and crazy.
Elephants are very social animals. Their bonds with their families and with other elephants are tight, and full of devotion. To have a mother elephant's baby taken away from her upon birth, abruptly severs that natural bond, and the compassionate and lifelong relationship between mother and child that it would have become, is terminated. Every natural instinct and behavior is a subject to unnatural management and discipline. Under the strain of their experiences, many circus animals have become severely unhealthy and depressed, or aggressive and extremely dysfunctional. Things begin to be nightmarish. Captive elephants give way to such abnormal behavior as rocking and swaying and head-bobbing, and other repetitive movements. They are signs of extreme psychological distress. Elephants who breathe with their mouths open are usually in some sort of pain. Bears and big cats, often muzzled and tight-collared, sometimes very young, pace back and forth in captivity. Occasionally bears have been known to beat their heads against the cage. Biting the bars and mutilating themselves is another common reaction to the horrors of circus confinement.
And, occasionally, the animals have retaliated.
The cruel mastery of human beings over animals in circuses is a painful and obvious thing, and when the animals lash out it is chiefly because of self-defense. But it is the privilege of the hateful commanders to slash and beat the offending animals, and sometimes this has had the misfortune of happening before the eyes of children. Horrified on-lookers have witnessed the mauling of human beings by their victims, and some have paid the price themselves, when riding on the backs of exhausted and humiliated and badly mistreated elephants. These elephants are creatures who for years have been shocked and ripped open by their trainers, and they have come to recognize human beings as tormentors, and as an authority to be hated and feared. Some elephants are known to have suddenly snapped, and gone on furious rampages that always resulted in brutal tragedy, crashing into buildings and sometimes killing and trampling their captors and oppressors under their feet. They were always in the right, because a circus animal who mistreats a human being has been mistreated before, and that is the reason for their sudden assaults. In Vietnam, an eleven-year-old girl was trampled and killed by a chained elephant in a travelling circus, whom she had been trying to feed. It did not matter if she meant well or not. The elephant's view of human beings had been molded by whip and prod. In China, a tiger savagely tore an eight-year-old child to death before the eyes of on-lookers. But as brutal a deed as it seems, it was nevertheless a deed born of mistreatment and desperation and instinct. On August 20, 1994, an elephant called Tyke, who had been hurt and abused for years by the circus, could no longer bear the endless confinement and punishment she suffered. She turned upon her trainers in the ring and knocked them down, then with her trunk and feet rolled and pushed and trampled them. As they lay hurt on the floor, she bolted for the entrance, followed by several cautious people. Outside, she effortlessly butted open the chain-link gate, which was being locked by a man, and for a moment after she sent him flying she rolled him about on the ground spitefully with her trunk and feet, much the same as she had done with the trainers, until the gunshots of policemen caused her to turn tail once more and run away across the streets. Again and again she was shot, during the half-hour or so that the policemen chased her, until finally she lay dying and struggling on the ground, enduring the pain of more and more bullets entering her body. It took her nearly two hours to die there on the street, and she was shot eighty-six times.
Some circuses have banned exotic animals born in the Wild, and use domesticated animals that are more accustomed to human presence and command. But the question is not of where they were born. Beating a domesticated animal is no less cruel than beating a wild one, or a human being. Many humans are more 'brutes' than the 'brutes' themselves—-that is to say, animals—-and many are pitiful cowards, in the way that they take the wrath inflicted on them by other human beings and turn it on weaker creatures, specifically animals. The whole ridiculous business makes a mockery of the sentience of living beings, and their rights to freedom, and from mistreatment.
And, so . . . . ?
What will you do? What to do about the starving horses, the aggressively beaten lions and bears, the maltreated dogs? What to do about the elephants who are driven mad by confinement and cruelty, the mothers separated from babies, the tigers wounded and the zebras dying? Will you make light of the matter? Some might say, "Oh, it's easy! Feed the horses, give the babies back to the mothers, heal the tigers, resurrect the zebras." It's all very simple to them. Well, but you can't do some of those things. You can't restore a dead dog to life, or take back every memory of every beating inflicted upon them. But . . . . you can react to a couple things that your fathers and forefathers, your friends and acquaintances, have reacted to very differently, and more cruelly. You could very well learn from their mistakes, and, if you cannot un-beat an animal, then—-why not leave them where they began, in the first place? Let them begin their lives all over again, and give them a chance. Only, this time let it be in the Wild.
Let us see if they are happier that way.
Note: none of these images belong to me.
The horse racing industry began in North America, in the 17th century. It spread across the US as a highly popular sport, although organized racing didn't exist until after the Civil War in 1868, when the American Stud Book was founded. By the turn of the century, more than 300 racetracks existed in the United States.
Racehorses are now commonly treated as disposable commodities rather than elite athletes, and drugs and injuries are a major part of the harsh sport. As young horses, they are unceremoniously flung into a world of high stakes and physical and psychological stress, and if they are unable to achieve the expectations of owners and trainers, they are then cruelly discarded. Racehorses across the country who no longer produce satisfactory results are sent away to slaughterhouses to be killed. The Thoroughbred-racing industry sends about 10,000 horses to slaughter annually. Horses who have stopped winning races or are too injured to go on running are often sold at auction, crammed into vehicles designed for transporting cattle, and then starved for more than 24 hours till they have reached the slaughterhouse.
Horses often begin training, or are already racing, before their skeletal systems are fully developed. This results in frequent injuries. They are often woefully unprepared to handle the pressure of racing on hard tracks at speeds of more than 30 miles per hour, while being constantly whipped by the people who they carry on their backs. Many horses are raced so often that their joints, bones, and soft tissues suffer irreparable damage.
Trainers and veterinarians usually keep damaged horses racing instead of letting them recover from their injuries, by pumping them full of legal and illegal drugs to hide pain and control inflammation. This leads to an incredible amount of breakdowns, because without the drugs the pain of their injuries would have prevented the horses from trying to run. These people are doing everything they can to make their horses faster. One trainer was suspended for using a drug similar to Ecstasy on five racehorses, and another was kicked off the racetracks for using clenbuterol and having the leg of an euthanized horse cut off for 'research' purposes. A New York veterinarian and a trainer faced felony charges when the body of a missing racehorse wound up at a farm, and authorities established that her death had been caused by the injection of a performance-enhancing drug.
Racehorses suffer intense stress from the time that they are weaned. From their being separated from their mothers at six months of age, their being broken in at 18 months, and their enduring the loud noises, the bright lights, and the daily running on the track by the time they've reached two years of age, the amount that they suffer isn't just physical.
Drugging horses to enhance their performance is a common practice in the horse racing industry. Horses are often made dependent on the drugs that their veterinarians and trainers provide. Racehorse trainers sometimes give the animals drugs for hypothyroidism, to speed up their metabolisms, or furosemide (Lasix), a diuretic that stops bleeding in the horses's lungs during intense exercise, thus allowing them to push through exhausting training sessions and races. But, while the drugs may relieve such symptoms of exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH, a serious and life-threatening illness found frequently in young horses), there are problems that they fail to treat.
Lasix and other legal drugs also work to mask other drugs, perhaps illegal, that might be in the horse's system, so that it appears that they haven't been fed anything that would make the race 'unfair'. It also dehydrates the horses, forcing them to lose weight, and thus to run faster. Lameness is often treated with painkillers, and horses are forced to continue running with their injuries temporarily numbed, causing further damage to their legs.
Most racehorses bear their stories of cruelty on their bodies, such as the scars that are often found on their legs, results of being administered liquid nitrogen, to increase blood flow in sore muscles. This process, 'freeze firing', is meant to soothe aching muscles, but often results in deep surface wounds. Other injuries that are common among racehorses include exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage; i.e., blood in the horse's lungs, causing them to literally drown in their own blood. Lameness, which includes sprains, abscesses, strains, etc., and other injuries such as bowed tendons, shin splints, and fractures.
When horses 'aren't of any use' any longer, they seldom retire to pastures. Horses who are being transported to slaughter are sometimes placed in double-decker trucks that are too low for them to stand up fully straight in. They often end up in slaughterhouses in Mexico, Canada, or Japan, where they are turned into glue and dog food. Their flesh is also exported to countries such as France and Japan, where it is considered a delicacy. Most horses who are sent to such facilities endure days of transport in the small, cramped spaces of the trucks, where they are deprived of access to food and water.
Owners do not want to spend money on painkillers, so an animal with a broken leg or other injuries will have to suffer the entire trip without any relief. Injuries are a common sight during transport, not only because of formally attained wounds, but because horses (whose bodies aren't designed for stability) often lose their balance while standing in the trucks. Since horses must be alive when they arrive at the slaughterhouse, in order to be used for human consumption, even animals in excruciating pain will not be euthanized.
When unloaded from the trucks, it is not uncommon to see injuries occur, such as broken legs, when the horses attempt to descend the steep ramps that are not meant for that particular kind of animal. Horses are subject to the same slaughter method as cows, but since horses are generally unaccustomed to being herded, as cows are, they tend to thrash around in order to avoid being shot by the captive-bolt gun, which is a device that is supposed to stun the animals before their throats are cut. Their slaughter, which includes the killing of foals despite the fact that it is illegal, is largely unregulated.
Recent reports of deaths among active thoroughbred horses have sparked serious concern for their welfare. Twelve died in New York in July alone, with 11 deaths occurring between July 8th and 18th. More than fifty racehorses have died or been euthanized throughout New York's 11 racetracks since the beginning of 2019, according to data compiled by the state. After the reporting of 30 horse deaths at Santa Anita Park between December and June, Los Angeles is considering becoming the first major city to ban, not just gambling on horses, but the entire sport altogether.
Overall, horse racing tends to be a cruel, violent, and inhumane sport, as are many other sports involving animals. I urge you not to attend horse races, and perhaps try to educate more people on the cruelty that these animals endure.
Note: None of these photos belong to me. And if you see any errors in the text, please inform me. Thanks for reading!
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Laboratories are no place for any animal. They are typically sterile, indoor environments, in which the animals are forced to live in barren cages and are denied complete freedom of movement, as well as control over their lives. Enduring pain and frustration and loneliness, they are forced to sit and wait in fear for the next horrific procedure to be performed upon them. Some animals in laboratories are confined without the companionship of others. Sometimes they suffer together.
Animals used in experiments are usually bred for this purpose by the laboratory, or in breeding facilities—-it's a cruel, multi-million dollar industry. But all these animals, whatever the situations, are equal. A dog bred for research is still a dog who could otherwise live a happy life in a loving home.
Some monkeys are still being trapped in the wild in Africa, Asia and South America, to be used in experiments or imprisoned in breeding facilities. Their children are exported to laboratories around the world. The use of wild-caught monkeys in experiments is generally banned in Europe, but is allowed elsewhere. Horses and other animals, such as cows and sheep and pigs, are often supplied by dealers, and may originate from racing stables or farms, for use in animal experimentation. The rules preventing the use of stray companion animals, like dogs and cats, vary from country to country.
Right now, millions of animals are locked in these cages in laboratories across the country. Millions of animals, cats and dogs, rabbits and rats, mice and primates, pigs, horses, birds, reptiles, amphibians, guinea pigs, are sacrificed as a result of animal experimentation. They are used in basic and applied research for the safety testing of products, to be bred or harvested from the wild, to be killed and cut up for dissection, and, as living factories of byproducts, to be used as ingredients in drugs or laboratory experiments. The complete lack of environmental enrichment—-the stimulation of the brain by its physical and social surroundings—-as well as the stress of their living situations, causes some animals to develop neurotic types of behavior such as incessantly spinning in circles, rocking back and forth, biting themselves, and pulling out their own fur. And after enduring this life of horrors, almost all of them are killed.
Some of the experiments conducted on animals today are required by law, but most of it isn't. A number of countries have implemented bans on the testing of certain types of consumer goods on animals, such as the cosmetics-testing bans in the European Union, India, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, and elsewhere.
More than 100 million animals suffer and are killed in the U.S. every year in cruel chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics tests as well as in medical-training exercises and curiosity-driven medical experiments at universities. Animals still suffer and die to test shampoo, mascara and other cosmetic products. Even if a product harms animals, it can still be marketed to consumers. They also suffer and die in classroom biology experiments and dissection, even though modern non-animal tests have repeatedly been shown to have more educational value. Mice, rats, birds, and fish, which comprises around 95% of animals used in experiments, are not covered by even the minimal protections of the Animal Welfare Act, and therefore go unaccounted.
Examples of animal experiments include potentially harmful substances that are injected into animals or forced down their throats before they are killed. It includes surgically removing animals' organs or tissues to deliberately cause damage, and subjecting animals to frightening situations to create anxiety and depression. They force mice and rats to inhale toxic fumes, force-feed dogs pesticides, and drip corrosive chemicals into the sensitive eyes of rabbits.
The word 'vivisection', or animal experimentation, does not even begin to describe how hundreds of millions of animals are used in science every year, let alone capture the physical pain, deprivation and emotional distress experienced by animals who are cut up, poisoned, burned, exposed to radiation, gassed, shocked, dismembered or genetically designed to suffer. Nor does it reflect the tragedy of each individual life, however short and however brutal, caged in an artificial environment which deprives them of experiencing life as nature intended.
A large proportion of animal experiments in the European Union are reported to cause 'moderate' or 'severe suffering' to the animals, according to the researchers who carry out the tests. In the UK in 2018, 31% of animal experiments involved moderate or severe suffering. Some experiments require the animal to die as part of the test. Example: the strength of botox is measured in mouse LD50 units. This cruel test involves injecting it directly into the abdomens of hundreds of mice, and then counting the number of mice who die from poisoning over the next three days. Tens of thousands of mice suffer in this way in the UK and Ireland every year.
Animals are also used in toxicity tests conducted as part of massive regulatory-testing programs that are often funded by the money of U.S. taxpayers. The Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Toxicology Program, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are just a few of the government agencies that subject animals to crude and painful tests. The federal government and many health charities waste precious dollars from taxpayers and well-meaning donors on animal experiments at universities and private laboratories, instead of supporting promising clinical, in vitro, epidemiological, and other non-animal, studies which could benefit humans.
Animal testing has contributed to many life-saving cures and treatments, but it is also cruel and inhumane. Alternative testing methods now exist that can replace the need for animals. Not only are these non-animal tests more humane, they also have the potential to be cheaper, quicker, and more relevant to humans. Most experiments involving animals are flawed, wasting the lives of the animal subjects. You see, animal experimentation is an outdated and inadequate methodology that can produce invalid, often misleading results. It wastes money and resources, and sidetracks meaningful scientific progress. Animals do not have rights, and therefore it is acceptable (of course, lots of us don't think it should be acceptable) to experiment on them. If we granted animals rights, all humans would have to become vegetarians, and hunting would need to be outlawed.
Animal experimentation has been debated for centuries, pitting compassion for animals against the pursuit of knowledge and human health. Society has allowed this practice because people have been firm in their belief that it was a 'necessary evil', that it was the only way to find cures for human diseases and to make cosmetics, drugs, and other products safe. Security and secrecy have ensured that people are safely unaware of what is happening behind the laboratory doors, or that they trust that the laws intended to forbid animal cruelty include protection for the animals used in research.
Defenders of animal experimentation argue that nonhuman animals are enough like humans to make them scientifically sufficient models of human diseases, or to test treatments or the safety of products. They also assert that other species are different enough from people to make it morally acceptable to use them in experiments. Others argue that it is, in fact, the way that humans and nonhuman animals are similar that provides the very basis for the ethical objection to animal experimentation. Perhaps the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham said it best when he asked, "The question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But can they suffer?"
There is very little doubt that some breakthroughs in the past were made as a result of animal experimentation; but society has grown in its respect and appreciation for other sentient creatures, due in large part to studies of their behavior and intelligence. Sophisticated technologies, available today or under development, pave new and better paths for investigation. Many of these approaches offer human relevance and insight in ways that animal models have not, and cannot, supply.
Note: If you find any errors, whether mistakes in wording or any scientific or historical inaccuracies, please alert me to them. And share your thoughts about animal experimentation! Thanks :).
Hunting is Wrong—-Why Animals Have as Much Right to Live as Human Beings
Although hunting was a crucial part of human survival in prehistoric times, it is now mostly a violent form of recreation that the vast majority of hunters do not need for subsistence.
Less than 5% of the U.S. population hunts, yet hunting is allowed in many wildlife refuges, national forests, and state parks and on other public lands. Almost 40% of hunters maim and slaughter millions of animals on public land every year, and by some estimates, poachers kill just as many animals illegally.
Hunting causes a whole lot of unnecessary suffering and death. It has contributed to the extinction of animal species all over the world, including the great auk and the Tasmanian tiger.
Animals shouldn't have to die just because some humans consider it fun. Animals have as much the right to live as we do. Hunting tears animal families apart, and for animals such as wolves, who mate for life and live in close-knit family units, hunting can devastate entire communities. It also disrupts hibernation and migration patterns; the stress that hunted animals undergo, caused by fear and the loud and unavoidable commotion that hunters make, also severely compromises their normal eating habits, making it hard for them to store the fat and energy that they need in order to survive the winter.
Hunting accidents destroy property all the time and will injure/kill cows, horses, cats, dogs, hikers, and other hunters. In 2006, the then-Vice President Dick Cheney famously shot a friend while hunting quail on a canned hunting preserve. According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, thousands of injuries every year are attributed to hunting in the U.S.—-and that number only includes incidents involving humans.
The bears, deer, cougars, foxes, and other animals who are chased, trapped, and killed by dogs during (sometimes illegal) hunts aren't the only ones who suffer from 'sport'. Dogs that are used for hunting are often kept chained, or penned, and are denied routine veterinary care such as vaccines and heart-worm medication. Some of them are lost during hunts and never found, whereas others are released at the end of hunting season to fend for themselves in the wild and die of starvation or get hit by vehicles.
Also, animals don't always die right after they're shot. Many animals endure prolonged, painful deaths when hunters injure but fail to kill them right away. 11% of deer killed by hunters die only after they've been shot two or three times. Others that are hurt but not killed suffer for fifteen or more minutes before they eventually die.
A study of 80 radio-collared white-tailed deer came up with these results: of the 22 deer who had been shot with 'traditional archery equipment,' 11 were wounded but not recovered by hunters.
20% of foxes who have been wounded by hunters are shot again. Just 10% manage to escape, but starvation is a likely fate for them, according to one veterinarian. A biologist of the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks estimates that more than 3 million wounded ducks every year go 'unretrieved'. Are these not all horribly brutal ways to die?
Sport hunting is unnecessary, cruel, and socially unjustifiable. Thousands of animals every year die as a victim to this 'sport'. Hunting involves the causing of pain towards animals, and ignores the fact that animals, ourselves included, are living beings that feel emotions, that suffer and enjoy. We all have our own value, regardless of how useful we are to others.
There are various different types of hunting. Small-game hunting, characterized by the size of the prey involved. The victims of this type of hunt tend to be small animals such as partridges, rabbits, turtle doves, various equatic birds, migratory bird species, etc. And there is also big-game hunting, which is characterized by the larger size of the animals victimized by the hunt. In England this mostly involves hunting red deer, but other species of deer are also targeted.
Often, in hunting, they talk about two different kinds of hunters. The 'good hunter', who knows and cares for his dogs, who respects nature and never kills weak, ill, or rare animals. And then the 'bad hunter', who kills indiscriminately, has no respect for nature, and gets rid of his dogs once they aren't of any use to him anymore. However, the activity is the same in both cases—-shooting animals for fun. Both cases are equally unjustifiable, regardless of the argument they make.
There are many arguments in the defense of hunting:
Hunting is fun. Our entertainment does not justify the death and suffering of others. Of course, an activity like hunting can be considered enjoyable for those who practice it, but not in any way can taking someone's life for fun be justified. Just like in the case of zoos, rodeos, circuses, etc.
Hunting respects nature. Does it? Stating that 'hunting respects nature' tends to imply that the animals who are being hunted have no value, and that their pain and suffering isn't important because they don't belong to an endangered species. Judging it by this argument, animals would only have value according to the purpose they serve.
Animals hunt each other. Other animals may show certain behavior in nature, but this doesn't justify us doing the same. Does the fact that some animals eat each other justify cannibalism? Those of us who can reflect upon the consequences of our actions are inevitably responsible for them, and should bear in mind the interests of other individuals in a fair and impartial way. As such, hunting should be abolished.
They will die anyway. All of us will die anyway, someday. But that doesn't give anybody the right to take our life away. The fact that someone will eventually die, often from 'natural' causes, isn't a justification for killing them. Hunting causes thousands of deaths every year. There are many ways that we can enjoy nature without harming others. Do not allow suffering and death for your own entertainment.
Everybody should respect wild animals. They are living, breathing, sentient beings, and they should be allowed to live their natural lives without human intervention. Hunting for sport is a brutal method of showing dominance over wildlife. Mounting their heads and bodies does not show the respect we should have for the animals in our environment. We would learn to co-exist with wildlife and exotic animals, if only we acknowledged that they, too, have a right to live.
Hunting is a murderous business that causes needless suffering. It is often called a 'sport', to disguise a cruel and unnecessary killing spree as a socially acceptable activity.
Despite hunters' common claim of believing in and following the practice of a 'fair chase' code, there is no such thing. With an arsenal of rifles, bows and arrows, and shotguns, among many other weapons, hunters kill more than 200 million animals yearly—-and likely crippling, orphaning, and harassing millions more. The annual death toll in the U.S. includes 42 million mourning doves, 30 million squirrels, 28 million quail, 25 million rabbits, 20 million pheasants, 14 million ducks, 6 million deer, and thousands of geese, bears, moose, swans, turkeys, wolves, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, boars, etc. Hunters also frequently use food and electronic callers to lure unsuspecting animals in front of their weapons. The truth is, the animal, no matter how well-adapted to escaping natural predators she or he may be, has virtually no way to evade death once he or she is in the cross hairs of a scope mounted on a rifle or a crossbow.
Hunting is not conservation. Wildlife management, population control and wildlife conservation are euphemisms for killing—-hunting, trapping and fishing for fun. Natural carnivores are the real ecosystem managers, if allowed to survive naturally. For instance, the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park caused ripple effects throughout the ecosystem, with an increase in biodiversity, including a higher occurrence of beavers, several bird and plant species, and the recovery of natural habitat.
Wild animals are not crops. Hunters and wildlife managers, however, treat animals as if they are. A percentage can be 'harvested' annually—-to them, wild animals are no different from a field of wheat. This selective mis-management, with its exclusive focus on numbers to be killed, ignores the science that shows that non-humans, just like humans, have similar capabilities of experiencing emotions, and they have families and other social associations built on multi-leveled relationships.
In other words, hunting for sport is wrong and animals have as much right to live as human beings.
Thanks for reading! Also, if you spot any mistakes, please tell me :). No blog is perfect. Comment your views about hunting!
(Also, don't get me wrong, hunting for necessary purposes is an obvious and necessary part of our culture, but please don't treat animals with this level of cruelty for entertainment.)
Grey foxes are small and secretive canines, and the only member of the family that can climb trees. They are sometimes mistaken for red foxes. However, grey foxes are slightly smaller, with shorter legs, and have coarse, salt-and-pepper grey hair. They have black markings on the head, nose, and muzzle, and a medial black stripe down the top surface of the tail (which has a black tip, instead of a white tip like red foxes). Grey foxes display white on the ears, chest, throat, belly, and hind legs. They lack 'black stockings', which differentiates them from red foxes. Grey foxes have strong necks and oval pupils instead of slit-like pupils, in contrast to all Vulpes and related. The females are slightly smaller than the males.
Around 6 – 15 pounds. Males are slightly heavier than females.
About 14″ at the shoulder. Overall body length is up to 47 inches.
Southern Canada to northern Venezuela (South America), excluding the northwestern United States. They are the only canids whose natural range spans both North and South America.
Grey foxes are fairly common in the southeastern counties of MN.
The species occurs throughout rocky, woody, brushy regions; in some areas, high population densities exist near brush-covered bluffs. They live in woodlands and forests (they are most likely to be found in deciduous forest areas), abandoned hay fields, pastures, and thick shrubs (they are often found in areas with thick brush). They also inhabit swamp areas and thickets.
Among canids, the grey fox's ability to climb trees is shared only with the Asian raccoon dog. Because of this, they are sometimes called 'tree foxes', or 'cat foxes'. Their strong, hooked claws allow them to scramble up trees, whether to escape predators such as the domestic dog and the coyote, or to reach tree-bound food sources, or simply to rest. They can climb branchless, vertical trunks up to heights of eighteen meters and jump from branch to branch. To climb trees, they rotate their forearms, enabling them to hug the tree, while pushing forward with their hind legs. Going down is a little trickier than going up. It's either a slow and careful tail-first descent (like a bear or a cat) or, if the angle isn't too steep, a speedy headfirst downward run. A low center of gravity and four well-clawed feet make the latter option less scary than it sounds. 🙂 Grey foxes are primarily nocturnal or crepuscular (but may forage during the day), and they make their dens in hollow trees, stumps, or appropriated burrows during daytime. Such tree dens may be located 30 feet above the ground. Prior to European colonization of North America, red foxes were found primarily in boreal forest and grey foxes in deciduous forest, but now red foxes are dominant in most of the eastern United States, since they are the more adaptable species to development and urbanization. In areas where both red and grey foxes exist, grey foxes are dominant.
Reproduction:
Grey foxes are assumed monogamous. The peak breeding period for grey foxes is in early March, but the breeding season lasts from January through May. Litter size ranges from 1 to 7 pups, with 3 or 4 pups being most common. The pups are dark brown and born blind. The gestation period ranges anywhere from 51-63 days, and the young are born in April or May. The pups will live with their parents in above-ground dens, which could be a hole in a tree, rock formations, brush that has been clustered together, or even sometimes underneath man-made buildings such as barns or garages. The pups do not come out of the den until they are about 5 weeks old. At 3 months of age, the pups will begin learning how to hunt and catch their own food, and by the fall the pups have set out on their own in preparation to breed and raise their own litters by the next breeding season.
Similar species:
Red Fox, Swift Fox, Kit Fox
Typical Diet:
The diet varies slightly depending on the region, but the grey fox is considered an omnivore (they are also solitary hunters). Grey foxes eat virtually every kind of meat, fruit, vegetable or insect. Small mammals, especially cotton-tail rabbits, are favorites. They are opportunistic foragers, and they use hunting techniques that vary from stalking to dash-and-grab. Their best known technique is the 'mouse pounce' (videos of foxes plummeting head-first into snow), which is done by leaping up above the ground and diving, front paws first, onto the prey. The impact stuns the prey, or flushes it, allowing the fox to catch it.
Parasites:
The parasites of grey foxes include the trematode Metorchis conjunctus.
Female grey foxes may den in a hollow trees, or dig a den themselves. The den may be as long as 75 feet and can have 10 or more exits.
Vocalizations include yapping, howling, barks, whimpers and screams.
Threats to their safety and well-being:
Grey foxes have several predators, most notably coyotes, followed by bobcats; however, great horned owls, golden eagles, and cougars also prey upon them. They are territorial among themselves, but they may 'timeshare' habitat with red foxes, enabling both species to make use of mutually desirable habitat with little conflict.
Grey foxes are not currently threatened as a species, but habitat loss requires them to adapt to living closer to human activity than they normally would (as many animals are being forced to do). As individual animals, grey foxes are also at risk from trapping, hunting, and vehicle deaths. Most appalling, however, is the practice of fox penning, an indefensible and barbaric blood sport which The Humane Society of the United States is working to end. Fortunately, grey foxes living on the Caplan Wildlife Sanctuary in Mississippi, and on other HSWLT sanctuaries, will forever live on land where all commercial and recreational hunting and trapping is forbidden.
None of these images belong to me.
If you spot any mistakes, please tell me.
Also, happy Father's Day to all fathers out there!
Description & Info:
Tree swallows are migratory birds first described in 1807 by a French ornithologist named Louis Vieillot. These acrobatic birds have glossy blue-green upperparts, with the exception of the blackish wings and tail, and pure white underparts with a black bill, pale brown legs, and dark brown eyes. They are a familiar sight in summer fields and wetlands across northern North America. As with many birds, the female is generally duller than the male.
The tree swallow nests either in isolated pairs or loose groups, in both natural and artificial cavities.
It has been recommended that the tree swallow be considered a model organism, which is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena.
Habitat & Distribution:
They typically live in open country near water, in meadows, marshes, and lakes. In winter, they dwell near bayberry thickets along the coast.
They breed in North America, and their range extends to Alaska and Canada. They are found as far south as Tennessee (in the eastern part of their range), California and New Mexico (in the western part of their range), and Kansas (in the center).
Nesting, Eggs & Young:
Breeding can start as soon as early May, although this date is occurring earlier due to climate change, and it can end as late as July. Tree swallows are generally socially monogamous, with high levels of extra-pair paternity. Both the male and the female feed the nestlings, who usually leave the nest about 18-22 days after hatching. The incubation is by the female only, and it lasts usually around 14-15 days. The clutches consist of 2 to 8 eggs, 4 to 7 on average. The eggs, though very pale pink at first, fade to pure white.
The chicks hatch slightly asynchronously, allowing the female to prioritize which chicks to feed in times of food shortage.
Courtship involves the male showing the female potential nesting sites. Their natural nesting sites vary from holes in trees, buildings, and the ground, to old cliff-swallow nests or, frequently, nest boxes. The nest, built mostly by the female, is a cup of plant materials such as grass, weeds, rootlets, moss, and pine needles. They are usually lined with many feathers from other kinds of birds, which are mostly added after the first eggs are laid.
Diet & Feeding Behavior:
An aerial insectivore, the tree swallow forages both alone and in groups, consuming mainly insects and some berries. They mostly forage in flight, often low over water or fields. Tree swallows may sometimes pick items from the surface of water while flying, and they occasionally feed on the ground—-especially in cold weather. However, their diet consists of mostly insects, especially during the summer. They feed on many flies, beetles, winged ants, and others. They also eat spiders and will eat sand fleas, which are crustaceans. Unlike other swallows, tree swallows eat a lot of vegetable material—-up to 20% of their annual diet, mostly eaten in winter. Bayberries are the main plant food, as well as other berries and seeds.
These swallows are also vulnerable to parasites. Blood parasites and different kinds of fleas, feather mites, and probably lice. Nestlings also suffer from parasites, such as blow-flies, which result in loss of blood. These parasites, however, do not seem to do significant damage to nestlings. They are also found in a great majority of nests. The effect of a disease can become stronger as a tree swallow gets older, as some parts of the immune system decline with age.
The tree swallow is considered to be least concern by the IUCN, due to the bird's large range and stable population. Tree swallows are negatively affected by the clearing of forests, and there is a documented impact of the depletion of marshes, which reduces the habitat available for wintering. The tree swallow also has to compete for nest sites with the common starling and house sparrow, both introduced to North America. Acidification of lakes can force tree swallows to go relatively long distances to find calcium-rich items, and can result in chicks eating plastic. Chemicals such as pesticides and other pollutants can become highly concentrated in eggs, and PCBs are often associated with the abandonment of a pair's clutch.
(None of these images are mine)
What we are doing to our planet…
I haven't blogged in a while, and just recently I had a sudden urge to express my feelings more clearly on the topic of what humans are doing to the Earth.
First off, as we all know, humans are cutting down forests to make way for cities and towns and roads. Every inch of forest, every tree that we destroy, lessens the number of plants that provide the oxygen we breathe as well as the clean water we drink. Not only that, but there are billions of animals living from the highest branch to the lowest root of those forests whose lives depend on the trees staying put.
About 900 million trees are cut down annually.
We all harm the world. We all pollute. But some are way worse than others.
We are rapidly changing the environment by adding too much waste to it, such as the carbon dioxide that generators and cars release into the air. Although releasing waste is a natural and necessary process–after all, plants need carbon dioxide to live, and one of their waste products is oxygen, which we need to live–we are releasing too much carbon dioxide into the air for the plants to absorb all of it. There are fewer and fewer plants to use it when we are cutting down more of them, and the extra carbon dioxide collecting in our atmosphere is a major cause of global warming.
It's easy for us to say 'stop cutting down the forests and putting so much carbon dioxide in the air!' But no, it's much, much harder than that. It would mean we would have to stop driving cars and using electricity generated by fuel. We would have to find new ways to grow crops and house ourselves. It would be a very difficult thing to do as a society–maybe even impossible. Other forms of energy, such as wind energy, can generate electricity without emitting carbon dioxide.
However, wind turbines are a potential threat to some wildlife, and the deforestation caused by setting up a wind farm creates an environmental impact. That, among other things, makes wind energy not the best choice.
Wind energy generates electricity without emitting carbon dioxide.
Some people are trying to build cars that run on hydrogen and release water instead of carbon dioxide. Some are also trying to generate electricity by using the sun, wind, or ocean tides so that there are no carbon dioxide emissions at all.
We can each moderate our carbon dioxide emissions by walking or riding bikes instead of driving…and turning off lights and machines when we aren't actually using them. But overall, we have a long, long way to go.
In the oceans, the motors of ships are drowning out the noises of sea life. This is a very big impact on the natural world underwater; marine life live in a world dominated by sound. However, human activities using loud devices such as motors are beginning to drown out the natural sound of the oceans. For marine life, this has resulted in deafness, stress, avoidance behaviors that diminish feeding possibilities, and even death. Relatively simple solutions exist to help stop this, but what is needed is political will.
Whales are being killed by noise pollution.
Meanwhile, three major causes.
Sonar, the submarine detection system used by navies all over the world. To detect targets, naval warships generate extremely loud waves of sound that sweep the ocean. Military sonar is an enormous predator. When exposed, whales go silent, stop foraging, and abandon their habitat. Repeated exposure can harm entire populations of animals, and has led to mass whale strandings all over the place.
Shipping. At any given time, there are up to sixty thousand commercial ships traveling our seas…worldwide. Cavitation from propellers and the rumbling of engines reverberate through every corner of the sea. The incessant and increasing mixture of sounds will mask whales' ability to hear and be heard, which is a punch to their hope of survival. Whales are using higher and higher pitched notes to locate each other above the din.
And then seismic. Here we go: to detect oil and gas deposits beneath the ocean floor, seismic airguns–the modern form of exploratory dynamite–is what the petrochemical industry uses. Ships tow arrays of these guns and discharge super-intense pulses of sound toward the sea floor. During seismic surveys, acoustic explosions continue for days or weeks on end. The blasts disrupt critical behavior and communication among whales and can have massive impacts on fish populations.
Oceans are among the earth's most valuable natural resources, covering 70% of the planet. They govern the weather, clean the air, provide food for the world, and is home to millions. They are home to most of the life on earth, and yet we are bombarding it with pollution. However far from the coasts we may be, the ocean is the end point for most of the pollution we produce on land–all streams leading to rivers, all rivers to the sea. Carbon emissions, plastic, leaking oil, constant sonic noises…It's estimated that by the end of this century, if we keep pace with our current emissions, the surface waters of the ocean could be nearly 150 percent more acidic than they are now. Trash, offshore drilling…whatever it is, our impact on the ocean is huge. Oil is killing off animals, we are hunting them, they are being tangled in nets and poisoned and the polluted waters from garbage are filtering into their gills.
The dirty facts of ocean pollution.
Many times, people hunt to survive. But perhaps even more times, as of these days, it is for fun and sport.
Prey live cruel lives.
I don't want to fit everything into one post, because it took a lot of work just to put down what you've read so far, but here are some additional bits of information:
We're losing soil.
We are driving dangerously. Too many cars, too many gases being emitted from them. And the roadkill…
Hyperconsumerism: the consumption of goods for non-functional purposes. Mobile phones have an average lifespan of one year. Cars and computers, a few years more. And then they are thrown away. The average US supermarket offers 50,000 products. In the UK we throw away millions of tonnes of food a year. Hyperconsumerism leads directly to pollution, deforestation, over-extraction of minerals, and the waste of natural resources.
Our population level is rising drastically. I'm not sure of any completely accurate rates, but it seems that we are currently in the 7-billions.
So…here are some things you can do to reduce and prevent the rising levels of pollution: walking or riding more, driving less. Saving energy by turning off what you aren't using; don't-leave-the-TV-on and flick-the-switch-when-you-leave-the-room. Never pour chemicals or fertilizers down the drain, because they get washed into stormwater drains and into rivers and the ocean. Reuse items, recycle plastic…think about its uses before getting rid of it, and consider making something new out of something old.
Just as long as you're trying to help. Thanks.
Giant Golden-Crowned Flying Fox
I was trying to decide what kind of animal to write about next (cats, otters, another 'animal hero in wartime'…?) when I thought about bats. I have always had a fascination with bats. It was probably because I read the Silverwing series by Kenneth Oppel a long time ago (some of the coolest children's books, really). The Giant Golden-Crowned Flying Fox was a species of bat I had researched many times long ago, and chosen never to write about, even though I have blogged about bats before. I don't think it was ever about an individual species, just a general outlook on this tiny part of the class Mammalia.
So…yeah.
Also known as the golden-capped fruit bat, the giant golden-crowned flying fox is a rare and endangered kind of megabat, and also one of the largest in the world. They are native to forests in the Philippines. They can weigh up to 2.6 pounds, and their wingspan can stretch up to 6 or 7 feet, according to several different sources. This species thrives mostly on raw fruit and is non-aggressive toward humans. But despite their benevolence, handling the bat without proper training and vaccination is dangerous, because some of the bats could carry diseases.
They have black bodies that contrast well with the golden fur around their heads, from which they get their species name. Like all other fruit bats, they have no tail (unlike megabats, this trait only occurs in certain species of microbats). The only other bats with similar dimensions are a few species of Pteropus.
Recent surveys have discovered that the range of the golden-crowned flying fox extends to the islands of Bohol, Boracay, Cebu, Leyte, Luzon, Mindanao, Mindoro, Negros, and Polillo. They are primarily nocturnal, and they can travel at least 25 miles in one night, searching for food. They are pollinators and seed dispersers for many trees in the Philippines, maintaining and increasing plant diversity. They also use water for grooming, often taking their time to do so. They frequently wash in the water, using their wings to scoop it up and pour it over their bodies.
Their primary diet is composed of figs and leaves from the lowland forests of the Philippine Islands. When fruit bats were abundant in the Philippines, the giant golden-crowned flying fox and the large flying fox made colonies. It was this roosting behavior that kept them warm and safe from natural predators, but also made them more easy to hunt. The colonies reportedly numbered over 150,000 individuals.
Golden-Crowned bat flying
While their roosting-sites can be far from human presence, the roosting-sites of golden-crowned colonies can also be found near roads and adjacent to sub-suburban locations.
While foraging for food, the bats could easily spread diseases to livestock via saliva contamination, potentially spreading a harmful virus family called Filoviridae.
They live in deep caves as well as the rainforests. They typically follow the routes of the river, and experts believe that it is because they can easily find food sources in those areas. Golden-crowned flying foxes are known for having features similar to that of a fox, and many other canines. They also have ears that are pointed, unlike the usually rounded ears of most bats.
One of the biggest contributors to the endangerment of the golden-crowned flying fox is due to hunting–as you may have expected. In addition to the demand for their meat and pelts, they are also hunted because they are considered pests for their destruction of fruit crops. They are apparently hunted especially in Southeast Asia, where half of the world's flying fox species are located. Southeast Asia ultimately faces a widespread trend in fruit bat hunting, the world's highest amount of natural habitat loss along with other factors that endanger the lives of giant golden-crowned flying foxes (my fingers have grown tired of typing that unnecessarily long name. Unfortunately, there is yet to come).
Roosting bats
The giant golden-crowned flying fox is threatened by deforestation, and they have completely disappeared from many islands in the Philippines, such as Panay and most of Cebu. The extinct Panay populations were once considered a different species, the Panay giant fruit bat, but is now included under Acerodon jubatus. Unfortunately, the species is not only hunted for their size but because of the availability of licenses; despite the fact that this species is endangered, they are still able to be hunted for sport and consumption when they are spotted outside of their roosts.
In 2013, Bat Conservation International listed this species as one of the 35 species of its worldwide priority list of conservation. The local government of Maitum, Sarangani in the Philippines has organized a campaign to save the species from extinction. The Subic Bay region of the Philippines plays host to a lot of the research on this species. Subic Bay is a 14,000-acre protection area that is managed by people who want to preserve the species. Captive breeding is one of the more realistic and reasonable ways to conserve the species.
Size in comparison to human
Serological tests on flying-foxes found that reston ebolavirus (which can cause serious infections in macaque monkeys, but not humans) is widespread in Philippine bats. The fieldwork was conducted on the Philippine island Luzon in two different locations. The first location was the Bulacan Province and the second location Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
This finding in the bat brings forth potential risks. While searching for food, virus-carrying Golden-crowned flying foxes can increase viral load under the feed trees, which lengthens the risk.
These discoveries suggest that reston ebolavirus is circulating through specific bat populations. Efforts to identify further evidence for viruses-infested bats in the Philippines are still underway.
Another thing: nobody is born with a fear of bats. That comes later on. Me, though…HOW CAN YOU NOT LIKE BATS?
Here's a little poem I decided to write for this post:
Wings spread leathery in dusk-thick air,
Winds billowing, feathery, in the ghost sky's lair,
Racing its reflection across the tabletop pond,
The bat's tall, seeding trees bear memories both sad and fond,
Watching soaring shapes above, as a lowly grounded frond.
Let's keep the memory, of creatures good and fair,
While they beat the sands of time…
High up in the wing-churned air.
Giant golden-crowned flying fox roosting, (Walt Disney World?)
It's almost March now, so I thought it would be a good idea to write another post. I've seen people walk Dalmatians past my house several times now, so…here it is. 🙂
Dalmatians are dignified, smart, and outgoing dogs, devoid of shyness; they are bright and loyal and are good watchdogs, hunters and show dogs. The Dalmatian is a popular breed of dog recognized for its unique black or liver-spotted coat. In early days, they were typically used as carriage dogs, which are dogs trained to trot alongside carriages and protect the occupants; the term 'carriage dogs' usually refers to a type rather than a breed. Dalmatians are widespread family pets and are often entered into dog show competitions by dog enthusiasts. The roots of the Dalmatians trace back to Croatia, and the historical region of Dalmatia.
Dalmatian headshot
Dalmatians are muscular, medium-sized dogs that have excellent stamina and endurance. Males are usually larger than females, and according to AKC breed standards, fully grown adult Dalmatians stand from 19 to 23 inches tall. If you have seen the movie that widely popularized the breed (101 Dalmatians), then you know that they are born white and spotless. Their feet are round, with arched toes and nails that are usually white or the same color as their spots. Dalmatians's eye color varies from brown to amber to blue, with some having multi-colored eyes. They have thin ears that taper towards the tips and are set fairly high and close to the head.
Liver-spotted Dalmatian with multi-colored eyes (blue & brown)
The first spots usually appear 3 to 4 weeks after birth; however, spots are visible on the skin. After about a month, most of the spots are there, though they continue to develop at a much slower rate throughout their lives. Spots are commonly black or brown, but there are other, more rare spot colors that include orange, lemon, brindle, mosaic, bluish-grey, or tricolor-ed, with tan spotting on the eyebrows, cheeks, legs, and chest.
The coats of Dalmatians are usually short and dense and fine; however, smooth-coated dogs can occasionally produce long-furred offspring. Long-coated Dalmatians are not acceptable in the breed standard, and they shed much less than the short-coated kind, which shed considerably all year-round. The short and stiff hairs of this variety often weave into clothing and fabric such as carpets and upholstery and can be difficult to remove. Nothing can completely prevent the shedding, but the amount of hair Dalmatians shed can be lessened by weekly grooming with a hound-mitt or curry. Dalmatians lack a dog odor, because of the minimal amount of oil in their coats, and they stay fairly clean relative to many other breeds of dogs.
They usually have litters of six to nine pups, but larger litters have been born on occasion, such as a litter of eighteen healthy puppies that were born in January 2009.
Dalmatian puppies
The first illustrations of Dalmatians have been found in Croatia; an altar painting in Veli Losinj (1600–1630) and a fresco in Zaostrog. The first documented descriptions of the breed trace back to the 18th century, and it was mentioned and described in church chronicles in 1719 and 1739. In 1771, Thomas Pennant described the breed in his book Synopsis of Quadrupeds, writing that its origin was from Dalmatia, and thus referring to it as the 'Dalmatian'. Thomas Bewick's book, A General History of Quadrupeds (published 1790) refers to the breed as the Dalmatian, or Coach Dog.
During the Regency period, the Dalmatian became a status symbol, trotting alongside horse-drawn carriages; those with decorative spotting on their coats were highly prized. For this, the breed earned the epithet 'The Spotted Coach Dog'. They were also used to guard stables at night.
Dalmatians were alongside the caravans of the gypsies during their ceaseless wanderings around Europe
The breed was developed and cultivated chiefly in England. The roles of this ancient breed differ largely: they were used as dogs of war guarding the border of Dalmatia, and to this day the breed retains a high guarding instinct. Though friendly and loyal towards familiar dogs and people that they trust, they remain aloof of strangers and unknown dogs and other animals. They also have strong hunting instincts and are good exterminators of rats and vermin. Their dramatic markings and intelligence have made them successful circus dogs throughout the years, and also in sporting. They have been used in packs of wild boar or stag hunting, and as bird dogs, trail hounds, and retrievers.
A Budweiser Clydesdale Dalmatian, August 29, 2015 (Texarkana, Texas)
However, Dalmatians are probably best known for their roles in working for firefighters, as firehouse mascots and escorts of firefighter vehicles. Because Dalmatians and horses are very compatible, the dogs have been easily trained to run in front of the carriages, to clear the path and guide the horses and firefighters quickly toward the fires. Their role in this became unnecessary once horse-drawn fire engines were replaced with steam and diesel powered ones, but they were also used to guard the horses, which would easily become uncomfortable at the scene of the fire. They are also considered great watchdogs, and so they are sometimes posted as guard dogs to protect the firehouses and their equipment; they are sometimes kept in the firehouses as a deterrence to theft, because fire engines that used to be drawn by fast, powerful horses were tempting targets to thieves.
Dalmatians can suffer from hip dysplasia, hyperuricemia, and deafness. The average lifespan of a Dalmatian is between 11 and 13 years, according to the Dalmatian Club of America, and they are a relatively healthy and easy to keep breed. However, in their late teens both males and females may suffer from bone spurs and arthritic conditions. One of the biggest problems is a hearing loss; early breeders did not recognize the deafness, so they thought that the breed was unintelligent. Only about 70% have normal hearing. Deafness in piebald and albino animals is caused by the absence of mature melanocytes in the inner ear; breeders with a good reputation have their puppies tested to ensure the status of their hearing.
Ocelots
Ocelots are wild cats native to southwestern United States, Mexico, Central and South America. The population is considered stable, estimated to compromise more than 40,000 mature individuals; it is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, and though its fur was once considered particularly valuable, legal trade of ocelot pelts stopped several decades ago. In the US, ocelots inhabit mostly southern Texas and southern Arizona.
An Ocelot
The jaguar is larger and heavier and has rosettes instead of the spots and stripes of the ocelot. Ocelots are often confused with margays, but they can be distinguished by being twice as heavy, with a shorter tail and smaller eyes relative to the size of the head. They also have a greater head-and-body length than the margay and are a similar size to the bobcat.
Richard Lydekker, an English naturalist, once said that the ocelot was "one of the most difficult members of the feline family to describe." But in 1929, Ernest Thompson Seton gave a description for the coat of the ocelot that I think is very fitting: "….The most wonderful tangle of stripes, bars, chains, spots, dots and smudges….which look as though they were put on as the animal ran by."
Ocelot portrait
Ocelots have solid black markings on fur that is creamy, yellowish, tawny, and reddish grey or grey. They have small spots on the head and limbs, but the markings on the back, cheeks, and flanks are open or closed bands and stripes. Several dark stripes run from the nape to the tip of the tail, and its neck and undersides are white. There are a few horizontal streaks on the inside of the legs, and its ears, which are round, are marked with a bright white spot. Ocelots have brown eyes, but they reflect golden when illuminated. They weigh 24 to 35 pounds and have 28 to 30 teeth, with a 25.5 to 41 cm long tail and short fur. They are twice the size of the average house cat.
Ocelots are largely nocturnal, active mostly at twilight and in the night. They do not avoid water, like many cats, and they swim well; they take to the trees often, to hunt monkeys and birds. They have keen sight and hearing, and their carnivorous diet consists mostly of rodents–such as rabbits–and frogs, iguanas, and fish. They are adapted for eating meat, with sharp back teeth that can tear food like scissors and pointed fangs which they use to deliver a killing bite. However, their teeth aren't appropriate for chewing, so they first tear their food to pieces and then swallow it whole, using their raspy tongues to clean off every last bit of meat from the bones.
Ocelots often live in the leafy canopies of rainforests, but they can adapt to human habitats and are sometimes found in the vicinity of villages and other settlements. Female ocelots have litters of two or three darkly colored cubs; in northern locations, they den in the autumn, but in tropical climes, the breeding season may not be fixed.
Black and white photograph of an ocelot


text:
Q: Efficiently finding out which 3D lines intersect which 3D points Given

*

*A set of many points in 3D space
(each represented as 3 floating-point coordinates (x, y, z))

*A set of many infinite lines in 3D space
(each represented by an arbitary point on the line, and a 3D direction vector)

Is there a way to find out which of the points lie on which of the lines (with a little tolerance to account for floating-point errors), that is more efficient than the trivial O(n²) approach of testing every point against every line in a nested loop?
I'm thinking along the lines of storing one of the two sets in a special data structure that helps with the intersection tests. But what would such a data structure look like?
(Links to relevant academic literature are also appreciated.)

A: This is a complement to Pinhead's answer.
Consider the bounding box of the P points, assumed roughly cubic, and subdivide it in C³ cells. If the spreading of the points is uniform, every cell will contain P/C³ points on average.
Now for every line you will find all the cells it intersects by a process similar to drawing a digital line, and you will intersect on average αC cells, where α is a small constant. Hence the total workload for the search is proportional to L P/C³.
Anyway, you have to account for the initialization time of the grid, proportional to C³. Hence the total including initialization is of the form C³+ ß L P/C², and is minimized by C~(L P)^(1/5), giving time and space complexity O((L P)^(3/5)), a significant saving over O(L P).

You can also think of a binary tree that contains a hierarchy of bounding spheres, starting from the tolerance radius around each point. You could create the tree in the same way one creates a kD-tree, by recursive subvisions on some dimension.
It is much harder to make precise estimates of the speedup, but you could expect a time complexity like O((L + P) Log(P)).

A: Divide 3d space into cubes of side N, so that a cube can contain more than one point. An infinite line will intersect an infinite amount of cubes, but checking if a cube has a point takes O(1). When a line intersects a cube with more than one point, you only check for the points in that cube, which is going to be smaller than the total size of points if 1) they are evenly distributed 2) you are using amortized constants(Constant Amortized Time). From the perspective of average scenario, you would only check all points at once at O(N^2) if all points are packed inside one cube. You can also have cubes inside the cubes, but that is more bookkeeping.
This idea is inspired by a quadtree:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadtree

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Top Gear Drives the Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo
Audi just recently revealed its collaboration with the Gran Turismo video game series — the Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo. The Audi e-tron Vision GT exists in two ways, being both a fully functioning, all-electric race car and a digital car in the game. Top Gear had recently been given the chance to test the e-tron Vision GT, the real one obviously, at Audi's Neuberg test track.
The design of the Audi e-tron Vision GT is intentionally reminiscent of the old-school Audi 90 Quattro IMSA GTO, one of the very best racing cars to ever come from Audi. It also looks extremely aggressive and highly emotive, as Audi wanted to make sure it brought some emotion to electric racing. We think it looks absolutely superb and we'd kill for the chance to drive one. But what's even better than its looks is what lies under the skin.
Powering the Audi e-tron Vision GT are three electric motors, two at the rear axle and one at the front, which combine to make a whopping 815 hp. That's immense and, when combined with its ultra low curb-weight of 1,450kg (3,196 lbs), makes it very, very quick. Audi claims a 0-60 mph time of 2.5 seconds and that seems entirely possible. Top Gear claims that it's very quick from a stop or out of tight corners. However, like all electric cars, its brutal acceleration begins to taper off after 100 mph or so.
TG also feels that its handling is quite impressive, saying "The steering is accurate and the fat 305-width slicks (same size all round) have good bite into corners. GT3 racer Rahel Frey who had the misfortune of being my passenger said the tendency is to understeer when you get to the grip limits. I'll take her word for it."
Apparently, the Audi e-tron Vision GT handles and drives the same as it does in the video game. So if you're a Gran Turismo Sport owner and want to see what it's like to drive this all-electric Audi race car, have at it.
e-tronNews
Audi e-tron Vision GT
WORLD PREMIERE: 2018 Audi A6 Avant -- Forbidden Fruit
Audi A6 Avant designer spoke with Autocar

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


1) would it be regarded as a disciplinary matter?
2) what range of disciplinary actions are available for DWP management to take dependent ultimately on the precise circumstances?
3) Given such a high proportion of TS appeals overturn the DWP ESA decision, are these reversals collated by Decision Maker and usedas an aid to individual performance management?


I'm a short Puerto Rican female, long curly black hair , lovely lady lumps ; ) I love to have fun doing absolutely nothing! By no means am I desperate for love or n e thing like that, just have profound respect for my men in uniform.
There's always time to laugh!
i'm outgoing funny and smart. I love conversations.


text:
S/4 Hana projects come off back burner, but skills shortage impedes progress
UK and Ireland SAP User Group members set to ramp up S/4 ERP migration projects, but skills shortage and retirement of SAP managers in user organisations are a concern
Brian McKenna, Business Applications Editor
Published: 03 Dec 2020 16:20
The UK and Ireland SAP User Group's Digital Insights Symposium learned this week that the slowing down of S/4 Hana projects that members have seen during the pandemic year of 2020 is to be followed by a significant ramp-up, for which skills are in perilously short supply.
This is the time of year when the user group's members gather for their pre-Christmas conference in Birmingham.
To the perennial delight of a handful of IT journalists, the group usually publishes some user group research that confirms whatever bold new innovation SAP has trumpeted at its annual Sapphire conference in Orlando, Florida, but is virtually unknown to its customers.
Neither of these things happened this year. The conference has been broken down into a couple of spaced-out webinars, and the member survey focused on the journey from older forms of SAP's ERP (enterprise resource planning) system to S/4 Hana – which has been around for about six years now, but is still a promised land to be reached for the vast majority of SAP customers.
But that land now has to be reached by 2027 – until February of this year, it was 2025 – and the heat is getter hotter year by year.
A total of 353 user organisations responded to the 2020 member survey, and 75% said they are either using (16%) or planning (59%) to use S/4 Hana. Some 72% of respondents thought the extended ECC6.0 maintenance deadline gave their organisation enough time to make the move, while 30% said Covid-19 delayed their move to S/4.
Of those users planning to move, 25% said they plan to do so in the next 24 months, 33% in 24-36 months, and 42% in more than 36 months. That leaves 25% who have other plans or no plans.
The user group started the year "expecting to deliver 50 face-to-face events and ended the year having hosted only eight, but we provided over 350 webinars", said Paul Cooper, chairman of the user group and head of information systems at Burton's Biscuit Company, in his keynote address at the symposium.
"Last year, the user group, alongside other SUGEN [SAP User Group Executive Network] members, called on the new SAP leadership to provide extra time for customers to embark on the S/4 journey," said Cooper. "I'm pleased to say that last February, SAP announced the extension of maintenance on a number of products, including ERP, until the end of 2027.
"We welcomed this move and in fact our member survey showed over 60% of respondents felt it would be beneficial to their organisation and 70% of members felt it afforded them the time to successfully migrate to S/4."
Cooper confirmed, however, that Covid-19 had "seen a slowing down of S/4 projects, with over 30% of our users saying they had delayed their projects due to the pandemic".
And although 60% of its 600 members have started their programmes or are at the planning stages, said Cooper, "we are still seeing cost and change management as the main blockers to initiating projects".
He added: "We have discussed this with the new managing director at SAP UK & Ireland [Michiel Verhoeven], and we are working together on how we can help you through the initial phase, developing your business case for the project."
Cooper announced the release of a whitepaper concerning skills in the SAP "ecosystem". The research in the paper revealed that nearly two-thirds of organisations are concerned about the shortage of SAP skills in the future.
Read more about the UK and Ireland SAP User Group
One-quarter of UKISUG members plan S/4 Hana migration by 2022.
UKISUG 2019: Qualtrics unknown to 43% of SAP customers.
UKISUG 2018: Upswing for S/4 Hana, C/4 Hana unknown to 39%.
UKISUG 2017: only 2% of British and Irish SAP users plan to use Leonardo.
UKISUG 2016: 5% of SAP customers are using S/4 Hana.
In fact, the survey, of 180 SAP user organisations in the UK and Ireland, revealed that 79% were concerned about losing their SAP skills. "The main issues driving staff turnover are salary, career development and the ability to access and use new technology," it said.
"The challenges of replacing existing knowledge and expertise as people who have been working with SAP since the late 1990s begin to retire can also not be underestimated – many organisations are looking to replace decades' worth of experience."
A talk at the symposium by Vincent Dunlop, managing director of the BluewaveSelect SAP-focused recruitment consultancy, and a skills panel session that featured him, Cooper and Lindsey Rowe, chief of staff and COO, head of people and programmes office at SAP UK and Ireland, explored the scale and scope of the skills crisis.
They suggested some possible solutions to the problem, including retraining existing staff, including non-IT staff, and widening the talent pool in organisations by opening up to remote workers, as well as recruiting apprentices directly from school.
Dunlop reported a complete shift in skills being sought by his company's clients, from ECC6 to S/4 Hana. He said that from 2018-19, the demand was 59% for ECC and 41% for S/4 Hana. From 2019-20, it is 27% for ECC and 73% for S/4 Hana. And that is in a context where projects, as Cooper said, have been slowed down or paused.
SAP's Rowe put an emphasis on apprenticeships, and said SAP was too much of a "best-kept secret" for school and university leavers. Once they find out how good the salaries can be in technology and realise that a business-to-business supplier like SAP delivers real outcomes – such as biscuits, in the case of Cooper's company – they become more interested, she said.
Working with SAP for user organisations is "the right place and time to be", said Cooper. S/4 projects are long-term commitments, with robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI) projects coming on top, he added.
"When I'm recruiting, I am not necessarily looking for the finished article," said Cooper. "You can train in technology knowledge. It's more about experience, showing you can listen to the users and develop from there."
And for school leavers seeking apprenticeships, he said, the demonstration of "participation in team sports" or other areas where they have shown proto-business skills in listening and responding, are critical.
He noted, however, that the older generation of SAP managers, battle scarred by implementations from the 1990s onwards, might be too war-weary for an S/4 migration.
Read more on Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software
A year in, Rise with SAP sees traction, but messaging still muddy
By: Jim O'Donnell
UKISUG 2021: S/4 Hana skills deficit and legacy custom code hamper migration
Rise with SAP attracts 11% interest from SAP customers
SAP pushes Rise, business network as keys to digital success
UKISUG 2019: Qualtrics unknown to 43% of SAP customers – ComputerWeekly.com
UKISUG 2021: S/4 Hana skills deficit and legacy ... – ComputerWeekly.com
Quarter of UKISUG members plan S/4 Hana migration by ... – ComputerWeekly.com


Mr. Arden concentrates on federal court litigation in the areas of unfair competition, trademark, copyright, advertising and related areas; licensing and transfers of copyright and trademark interests; litigation before the United States Trademark Trial & Appeal Board; Internet domain name disputes throughout the world; and foreign copyright and trademark matters.
Mr. Arden's litigation experience includes appeals before the Seventh, Eighth and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals and Court of Appeals or the Federal Circuit and a successful petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court vacating an appellate court decision in a copyright case. In March 2018, he was lead counsel in litigation resulting in an $8.6 million judgment in a trademark and copyright infringement action in the Northern District of Illinois. Mr. Arden also has substantial experience in prosecuting and defending applications to register such diverse trademarks as cow-spotted packaging for computers and the exhaust sound of a motorcycle. He also served as a panelist for a domain name dispute resolution provider.
Protection of Nontraditional Marks: Trademark Rights in Sounds, Scents, Colors, Motions, and Product Designs, INTA Practice Series Book, 2001; The Questionable Utility of Copyright Notice: Statutory and Non-legal Incentives in the Post-Berne Era, 26 Intellectual Property Law Review 351 (Clark, Boardman, Callaghan 1994); The Conflicting Treatments of Compilations of Facts Under the United States and British Copyright Laws 19 AIPLA Quarterly Journal 267, 1992; European Commission Proposes Directive on Protection of Computer Databases, 3 Entertainment Law Review 66, 1992. Mr. Arden also was a contributing editor for Wolters Kluwer's Trademark Law Reporter.
Mr. Arden has represented clients on intellectual property matters in the publishing, computer software, computer hardware, automotive, Internet services, personal care, food, pet food, restaurant, insurance, clothing, vitamin, pharmaceutical, musical instruments, telecommunications, chemical, entertainment, travel and toy industries.


The EES is delighted to announce a new annual award scheme for students needing to carry out part of their doctoral research in Egypt. Two awards of £1,000 each will be made each year, to fund a one-month stay in Egypt. The awards have been made possible by the generous support of EES Patrons, who will also be involved in the process of selecting the recipients.
Applicants must be PhD/DPhil registered with a UK institution, undertaking research which requires or would benefit from time to be spent in Egypt. They should not be resident in Egypt and should be members of the EES.
Successful applicants will be expected to stay in Egypt for between 4 and 5 weeks. They will be required to make their own insurance, travel and accommodation arrangements, and to give details of these to the EES before travelling. Personal travel insurance is compulsory. The EES Cairo office may be able to assist with liaising with the Ministry of Antiquities should permissions or security clearance be required for any work to be done in Egypt, but the EES will not accept any administrative responsibility for the trip.
The EES welcomes applications for fieldwork and also for museum/archive/library-based research, particularly where this has arisen from, or can be related to, present or past EES fieldwork. Applications that enrich the work of the Society's current research projects and relate to its scientific programme are particularly encouraged.
Applications should include a curriculum vitae, a 500-word outline of a clearly defined research project for the stay, and be accompanied by a letter of recommendation from the applicant's supervisor and a short video presentation (not more than 2 minutes) briefly describing the project and the reasons why the applicant thinks they should be selected to receive the award.
Applications should be sent to the Director of the EES by email at [email protected].
The awards will be paid in advance but award holders will be required to submit receipts evidencing their travel and stay in Egypt. Successful applicants will also be required to submit a 1500-word report to the EES about their project for archiving and marketing purposes and to make a short presentation of their work at an event in London to which EES patrons will be invited. Travel, and if necessary accommodation, costs for this will be reimbursed.
The EES does not undertake to publish reports of work completed by award-holders, but they will be expected to disseminate the results of their funded research as quickly as practicable, for example by social media, an article in Egyptian Archaeology, participation in conferences etc. Support from the EES Patrons' Award should be acknowledged in any publications.


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text:
Working for birds in Africa
AfricanBirding Group
Bulletin Features
Conservation Applications
Save Kenya's Coastal Forest - Fundraising Appeal
ABC APP
Dowsett Checklists
iGoTerra Checklists
Sounds Database
ID Quiz
Library and references
Country Recorders
Congo (Dem. Republ.)
Malaŵi
Mauritius and Rodrigues
Lost Land of the Dodo
Fri, 12/21/2012 - 11:50 -- abc_admin
A. S. Cheke & J. P. Hume, 2008. London, UK: T. & A. D. Poyser. 464 pp, 40 colour plates, many colour maps and figures. Hardback. ISBN 97B-01736-6544-4.
ABC Bulletin 15.2 September 2008
This book presents a detailed ecological history of the Mascarene Islands, an archipelago in the tropical south-west Indian Ocean comprising Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues and their associated islets. The islands are famous for their extraordinary but devastated native fauna, including of course the Dodo Raphus cucullatus, but also many other endemic species, genera and even a family (the bolyeriid snakes). Human activity has left only a fraction of this, but the survivors include several very special animals and plants, some of which are among the most endangered species in the world, and some of which have been pulled back from the brink of extinction by intensive and highly innovative conservation action.
Anthony Cheke, the main author of the text, carried out field work in the Mascarenes in the 1970s and has made several shorter visits since. He has remained in contact with ongoing work through most of this period, all the while maintaining a deep interest in the earlier history of the islands. As a result, he produced the standard ecological history of the islands, and pioneering accounts of the native landbirds, all published in Diamond (1987). Julian Hume has been a leading light in recent palaeontological research in the Mascarenes, providing crucial parts of the jigsaw that this book puts together. He has also produced 40 wonderful plates especially for the book. These show the native wildlife, packed with carefully crafted detail and supported by solid science; they add tremendously, although with a certain poignancy, as we can begin to appreciate in more than words what has been lost.
The text is rich in detail, using all available sources including an exhaustive review of old texts (many unpublished) in various languages, as well as the more recent published literature. Early chapters provide essential background information on the islands and how fauna (especially non-flying species) and flora reach volcanic islands that have never been connected to a mainland. Cheke then presents a detailed account of the circumstances of the islands' discovery, a description of the islands before they were colonised, and a thorough account of the likely origins of the Mascarene vertebrate land fauna. (He could not include invertebrates or flora in this analysis: the former, and probably also the latter, would be almost impossible tasks because of the paucity of research on their origins.) Five chapters then deal with the history since colonisation. Four correspond (each) roughly to a century since the first accounts of Mauritius in c. 1600, whilst the last covers the very remarkable islets off northern Mauritius, the isolation of which has led to a history very different from that of the rest of Mauritius and Rodrigues.
The Mascarenes can seem a cushy place to work these days, although the (at times) prodigious rainfall, cyclones, mosquitoes and super abundant rats can be a nuisance. However, this is nothing to what the early explorers had to put up with. Julien Tafforet was 'accidentally stranded' on Rodrigues for nine months in 1725 when a storm drove his ship back to Reunion after the advance party alone had disembarked. Others were stuck for much longer. Francois Leguat, in a long stint also on Rodrigues, described the Solitaire Pezophaps solitarius in 'one of the first coherent observational accounts of animal behaviour in the wild ever published', but grew 'a little nostalgic about claimed breast-like tufts of feathers on the hens' thorax'. Such tales are brought to life by Cheke's wonderfully fluent, varied and readable writing style.
Back to the modern era, there follows a 'guest' chapter on the conservation efforts made on Mauritius and Rodrigues since the 1970s, by Carl Jones, who has led those efforts. Réunion is not treated in this way, but is covered well enough by the 20th-century chapter of Cheke and Hume's text. Conservation progress there has been remarkable as well, but has been missing several ingredients, especially the salvation of charismatic vertebrate species on the brink of extinction, which give the Mauritius / Rodrigues story a wider appeal. Jones' chapter summarises for the first time all the recent conservation work on these two islands and their associated islets, and is extremely instructive.
The final chapter claims to draw lessons from the foregoing text. It is the weakest part of the book. Rather few lessons are in fact drawn (especially compared to Jones' chapter) and these include simplistic and cliched views of academics (or 'heavyweight theoreticians') and international conservation organisations. It includes an interesting section on the suggested use of introduced ecological analogues to fill vacant niches whose original occupant is extinct, but why does this have to be presented initially as an attack on (unnamed) opponents of the idea rather than a straight discussion of the pros and cons?
The production of the book is excellent, as expected from this publisher. It is hefty. The main text (273 pages) is followed by extraordinarily detailed endnotes, some in the form of long paragraphs; they amount to 92 pages at reduced font size, and, for example, chapter 8 has 498 endnotes. Fifteen appendices summarise as much information as can be tabulated, the checklists being especially useful, and unsurprisingly the 48 page bibliography is vast.
There are very few minor slips and typographical errors. The interesting map of the spread of the Red-whiskered Bulbul Pycnonotus jocosus on Reunion has been 'garbled' in production; a corrected version, and a few other corrrigenda, are available directly from Cheke. The only interpretation that I question concerns the mordore, a mysterious, uniform dull red seedeater from 18th-century Réunion, here identified as an aberrant Madagascar Fody Foudia madagascariensis (Cheke's 'Cardinal Fody', normally vivid red and black) similar to variants seen by other authors. However, I have never seen or heard of such a bird, and the authors cited refer only to the well-known 'flavistic' form of Madagascar Fody, in which the red is replaced by yellow, the dark markings variable but never apparently absent. This leaves the mordoré unexplained - I agree that probably it should not be taken at face value (as another lost Réunion endemic), but perhaps it is either a correct illustration of a variant not seen since, or just a bad picture of a normal fody.
This is an extraordinary book: a rare combination of true scholarship, popular science and a labour of love, beautifully written and illustrated, and well produced. As birds are the best known and most conspicuous element of the native fauna, it will fascinate almost anyone with an interest in birds, and is worth every penny.
Roger Safford
Diamond, A. W. (ed.) 1987. Studies of Mascarene Island Birds. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
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