Kawaii

So cute!


What a cute homicidal killer!

Showing major 'tude For the first time in over 100 years a new cat species has been identified in Bolivia.

The diminutive cat, it weighs around 1½ kilos, has been named Leopardus tilcayo.

I want one.  I also want a Pallas' cat, but I am getting neither.  These are wild animals, and except for professionals doing rehabilitation or study, people should not disturb them.

But they are so cute!

A diminutive wild cat that inhabits Bolivia’s ⁠cloud forest has been identified as a previously unknown species, marking the first time a new living feline species has been formally named and described in more than a century.

The cat, called tilcayo by local communities, is part of a group called tiger ⁠cats found across much of South ⁠America. It was found in Bolivia’s ​lush Yungas forest, a mountainous region where forests are often covered by clouds and surrounded by high humidity, according to researchers. It measures about 18in (46cm) long and weighs about 3lb (1.4kg), making it smaller than the average domestic ⁠cat.

Researchers used genetic data to confirm that the cat is a new species, and gave it the scientific name Leopardus tilcayo, retaining its local name.

Tiger cats are difficult to distinguish by physical characteristics, and this cutie pie was identified through DNA studies.

Score one for DNA assisted taxonomy. 

Do Not F%$# With Corvidae

In case you are wondering, this is not a crow taking a ride on a Bald Eagle, it is a crow going Medieval on a Bald Eagle that got too close to its nest.

………

Now comes another strange incident out of Seabeck, Washington, where California-based photographer Phoo Chan captured a sequence of photos showing a crow alight on the back of an eagle in midair.

According to a biologist who specializes in crow behavior, the bird was likely in the middle of a territorial attack when it landed briefly on the eagle's back, National Geographic reports. Even the presence of a larger bird provokes a defensive reaction. In this case, the crow got closer than smaller birds typically do and settled in for the ride. 

That is unbelievably badass. 

It Turns Out That Humanity is Worse than Radioactivity

At least if you are a wolf.

Despite the radiation, the wolf population surrounding Chernobyl has increased 7 fold.

The most expensive nuclear disaster in human history turned 40 on Sunday, but the consequences have been almost perversely benign for some of the region’s wildlife.

………

Environmental scientist Jim Smith at the University of Portsmouth, who has studied this “Chernobyl exclusion zone” (CEZ) for over 30 years, told The Guardian last week that wildlife in this would-be radioactive wasteland has improved even as it’s become surrounded by war.

“Wolf populations are seven times higher than they were before the accident because there is less human pressure,” according to Smith, who noted that populations of elk, roe, deer, and rabbit have also flourished in the zone.

“The ecosystem in the exclusion zone is much better than it was before the accident,” Smith opined. “It’s been a very powerful demonstration of the relative impact of the world’s worst nuclear accident, which is not so big, and the impact of human habitation, which is devastating.”

Humanity is not good wolves, or other living things. 

………

Evolutionary biologists at Princeton discovered something unique about this gray wolf population, which likely helped these predators carve out their new niche in the exclusion zone: mutations that appear to make Chernobyl’s wolves more resistant to cancer. 

This is not particularly surprising, though it is likely that there was a f%$#-ton of cancer on the way to this outcome. 

At Least There is Symmetry

I had to include this


Zathras says A multi-millionaire big game hunter, whose home was festooned with trophies, was trampled to death by elephants.

An American millionaire big-game hunter has died after being crushed by a group of elephants during a hunting expedition in Gabon.

Ernie Dosio, a 75-year-old vineyard owner, was hunting yellow-backed duiker, an antelope species, in the central African country of Gabon when the incident occurred last Friday. While in the Lope-Okanda rainforest, he and his guide unexpectedly came across five female elephants accompanied by a calf.

Originally from Lodi, California, Dosio had built an extensive collection of hunting trophies over the years, including animals such as elephants and lions. He was reportedly a familiar name within the Sacramento Safari Club.

God has a peculiar sense of humor. 

 

It's Not What You Think (OK, it's not what I think)

It turns out that Zurich, Switzerland has established a beaver hotline.

I'm sure that most of my reader(s) are thinking, "They have a problem with the tree-felling rodents?" because they are perceptive, intelligent, and very attractive people.

I though it was something completely different when I first came across the headline, though.

Most of my readers were right, and I was wrong:

“I hate beavers,” a woman tells the beaver hotline. Forty years ago she planted an oak tree in a small town in southern Zurich – now at the frontier of beaver expansion – and it has just been felled: gnawed by the large, semi-aquatic rodents as they enter their seasonal home-improvement mode.

The caller is one of 10 new people getting in touch each week at this time of year. Beavers, nature’s great engineers, can unleash mayhem during winter as they renovate their lodges and build up their dams. For people, this can mean flooding, sinkholes appearing in roads and trees being felled. A single incident can clock up 70,000 Swiss francs (£65,000) in damages.

To cope, the beaver-rich canton of Zurich came up with the hotline. The local Beaver Advisory Centre is staffed by ecologists who give advice, assess damages and evaluate potential compensation (the oak tree-bereft woman is advised to wrap wire around the base of the other trees to stop the rodents’ chewing).

………

Some argue that this proves large beaver populations are not compatible with large human populations. In Bavaria, about 2,500 are shot a year, which is 10% of the population, but the number continues to grow. Poland issues permits to cull about 6% of its beaver population each year (about 8,300 individuals).

But the effectiveness of culling is questioned in Switzerland. If a river section is favourable for one beaver, it is likely to be favourable for others. “It’s efficient to shoot a beaver – but only until the next beaver comes along,” says Nienhuis. “Then the same conflicts arise.”

I, for one, am supporting the beavers.

I really hope that Beaver Hats don't come back. 

Interesting Tech

A South African has initiated a program to make rhinoceros horns radioactive in an attempt to thwart poachers.

This is extremely low levels or radiation, but it's enough that it can be detected in a shipping container using already in place equipment designed to prevent nuclear weapon proliferation. 

A South African university has launched an anti-poaching campaign to inject the horns of rhinoceroses with radioactive isotopes that it says are harmless for the animals but can be detected by customs agents.

Under the collaborative project involving the University of the Witwatersrand, nuclear energy officials and conservationists, five rhinos were injected in what the university hopes will be the start of a mass injection of the declining rhino population, which they are calling the Rhisotope Project.

Last year, about 20 rhinos at a sanctuary were injected with isotopes in trials that paved the way for Thursday’s launch. The radioactive isotopes even at low levels can be recognised by radiation detectors at airports and borders, leading to the arrest of poachers and traffickers.

Researchers at Witwatersrand’s Radiation and Health Physics Unit said tests conducted in the pilot study confirmed that the radioactive material was not harmful to the rhinos.

 Kewl.

Kawaii!!!!

I needed this, but I did not know that I needed this until I saw it.

This is an uninterrupted minute of Maruay the rescued tiger with his beloved ball pic.twitter.com/xwAKdGnZJH

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) May 27, 2025

As an FYI, tigers are typically a water loving feline.

It's a Fart Story, so I Write About It, OK?

It appears that the Royal Navy went on high alert in response to whale farts.

Burritos need to be kept far away from the Royal Navy:

The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom started a frenzied hunt for phantom Russians off the coast after hearing two weird sounds in the water, only to discover that the noises were caused by a gassy whale, an official told The Sun.

Naval authorities were concerned that one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s drone submarines had placed a listening device on the ocean floor between two Scottish islands, launching an inquiry.

The two toots were discovered around 100 miles from where the UK’s doomsday submarines are located.

“We have been analyzing the sounds and now believe it was a marine mammal. A whale” the officer informed the British tabloid.

The sound, initially identified by analysts as a man-made noise, had never before been detected by the sensors, causing the navy to misinterpret Das Boof for Das Boot, according to the article.

Not to toot my own horn (no apologies for that turn of phrase), but I like to think of myself as the go to source for flatulence related news.

An Old Fashion Returns

But it ain't human fashion, it's Orcas wearing salmon hats again after a 37 year hiatus.

I'm hoping that this means that the miniskirt will be coming back:

Northwest Pacific orcas have started wearing salmon hats again, bringing back a bizarre trend first described in the 1980s, researchers say.

Last month, scientists and whale watchers spotted orcas (Orcinus orca) in South Puget Sound and off Point No Point in Washington State swimming with dead fish on their heads.

Off of Point No Point?  If that is not going seriously meta on fashion, I do not know what is.

This is the first time they've donned the bizarre headgear since the summer of 1987, when a trendsetting female West Coast orca kickstarted the behavior for no apparent reason. Within a couple of weeks, the rest of the pod had jumped on the bandwagon and turned salmon corpses into must-have fashion accessories, according to the marine conservation charity ORCA — but it's unclear whether the same will happen this time around.

Researchers think the orcas sporting salmon hats now may be veterans of the trend when it first appeared nearly 40 years ago. "It does seem possible that some individuals that experienced [the behavior] the first time around may have started it again," Andrew Foote, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Oslo in Norway, told New Scientist.

I have a theory.  It involves orca Instagram and orca influencers.

This theory is (of course) complete bollocks.

For Your Mental Health and Relaxation

Think of this as a way to lower your blood pressure in this crazy world of ours.

We were down in Nescowin, Oregon for a memorial service for my stepmom.

Neskowin is a beach community on the coast of Oregon, and it is beautiful. 

The first post is a video with sound of the ocean on Sunday, followed by panoramic pictures in chronological order, followed by regular pictures in chronological order. 

We came in Friday afternoon, which was beautiful, 18°C and clear, a rarity on the Oregon coast in October. 

It was still that way on Saturday until about 2, when crowds started rolling in, and if anything it became even more beautiful. 

On Sunday, it was rainy and foggy and chilly, but more beautiful still.

Pictures are after the break:

They are Better Organized than You Think

Just over a year ago, I noted the phenomenon of Killer Whales sinking boats. 

Cetologists thought that this might be some sort of play, or some sort of fad, like the Killer Whale fish hats in the mid 1980s.

Well, they just sank another boat in the Mediterranean.

I'm thinking that this is not play, I think that we are dealing with a: bunch of 5 to 10 tonne extremely angry apex predators:

Robert Powell, the skipper of the Beneteau 393 Clipper, Bonhomme William, had researched details of any orca encounter in the Strait of Gibraltar before leaving Vilamoura in the Algarve bound for the Greek islands.

After checking the numerous orca Facebook groups, such as Orca Attack Reports, and believing the orcas were now heading north, following the migrating tuna, he felt now would be a good time to sail his yacht to the Greek islands with crew.

………

By the following evening, the yacht was off Punta Camarinal in the Strait of Gibraltar.

” I went up on deck, and all of a sudden, I heard a crunch, and it sounded like I’d hit a rock. It was like a really loud scraping noise and there was a real big shudder on the boat. I thought I’d hit a container or a fishing net or something submerged. I was probably about five miles out so it was unlikely to be a rock and there was nothing on the charts.

I took the boat off auto and just took the wheel for a sec. And as I took the wheel, I felt the rudder go, and I heard the noise again. I thought, Geez, that’s not a rock. I thought maybe a rope had wrapped around the prop, but then I looked off the back of the boat, and there were two fairly young orcas, not quite fully grown.”

………

This was the start of a two-and-a-half hour orca encounter which resulted in the sinking of Bonhomme William.

Powell said he followed the orca encounter advice: he let go of the wheel, tried to outrun the orcas and put the boat in reverse, all to no avail.

This is not orca Parcheesi.

I don't know what is going on, but it's weird and pissed off.

Flaco Update

A necropsy has been performed on Flaco, the Eurasian Eagle Owl that had escaped from the Central Park Zoo, and it appears that he had high levels of rat poison in his system, as well as a severe infection contracted from pigeons.

Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl whose escape from the Central Park Zoo and life on the loose captivated New York, had enough rat poison and pigeon virus in his system to kill him even if he had not died after apparently striking an Upper West Side building last month.

The finding, from a necropsy conducted by Bronx Zoo pathologists after Flaco’s death on Feb. 23, validated widespread concerns about the hazards he faced living as a free bird in Manhattan for just over a year. He would have turned 14 this month.

“Flaco’s severe illness and death are ultimately attributed to a combination of factors — infectious disease, toxin exposures and traumatic injuries — that underscore the hazards faced by wild birds, especially in an urban setting,” the Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the Central Park and Bronx Zoos, said in a statement on Monday.

Initial necropsy findings released the day after what onlookers described as a deadly building strike suggested Flaco had sustained an acute traumatic injury to his body, with signs of substantial hemorrhage under his sternum and in his back near his liver.

………

In confirming the role of traumatic injuries, those tests found he had a severe pigeon herpesvirus, which the conservation society attributed to his eating feral pigeons.

 I'm still bummed about his death.

fuck

Truly a magnificent bird


He will be missed
Flaco, the Eurasian Eagle Owl who has been thriving in Manhattan after he excaped from his cage at the Central Park Zoo, has died following crashing into a building.

In is honor, I am breaking my eleven month a year embargo on profanity.

I am bumming over this:

Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl whose escape from the Central Park Zoo and subsequent life on the loose in Manhattan captured the public’s attention, died Friday night after apparently striking a building on the Upper West Side, officials said.

The Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the zoo, said in a statement that Flaco had been found on the ground after hitting a building on West 89th Street.

Building residents contacted the Wild Bird Fund, a rescue organization, whose staff members responded quickly, retrieved him and declared him dead a short time later, the society said.

Zoo employees took him to the Bronx Zoo, where a necropsy will be performed to determine the cause of death. He would have turned 14 next month.

Flaco’s year as a free bird began on the evening of Feb. 2, 2023, when someone shredded the mesh on the modest enclosure where he had lived nearly his entire life. The police said in January that no arrests had been made and that the investigation was continuing.

I don't know why, with all the hurt and cruelty in the world, this makes me so sad.

It's Superb Owl Sunday!

Who? Flaco, that's who!









What can I say, but the fact that I love Flaco, the the fugitive Eurasian Eagle Owl on the run from the authorities at the central park zoo.

Flaco has not only evade capture, and not only survived, but Flaco has thrived in Manhattan. 

If he can make it there, he can make it anywhere.

I'm waiting for the Broadway musical of his life story.

Awesome Baby Pics

See Baby C. carcharias at about 7:30 in the vid
Baby Shark, doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo

Yes, its the first ever video (and first ever picture period) of a newborn Great White Shark.

Cute little guy, who will one day grow up and be the terror of the seas:

A wildlife filmmaker and biology student have recorded something scientists have long been searching for: the first-ever glimpse of a newborn great white shark.

The young pup was spotted several hundred meters off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, in July last year in some mesmerizing drone footage captured by filmmaker Carlos Gauna.

With its two black eyes poking out above the ocean surface and its milk-white body below, it could be mistaken for a dugong or manatee. But its protruding snout, sleek body, and angular caudal fin cannot be confused for anything other than a white shark.

White sharks (Carcharodon carcharias), also known as great white sharks, are typically gray on top with a lighter, white underbelly. Pregnant females produce 'uterine milk', a yellowish and milky fluid for embryos to consume.

Guana had seen several seemingly pregnant sharks in the same area just days before the sighting. So the bright white shark immediately stood out to him when it surfaced.

………

The sighting has yet to be confirmed as a newborn white shark, although Gauna and coauthor Phillip Sternes, a shark biologist at the University of California Riverside, have published their findings in a peer-reviewed journal, describing how the pup might have been days or even hours old given its appearance.

What's more, the finding adds to earlier reports from 2020 of the smallest known white shark, just one meter long and thought to be a newborn, which was caught off the Pacific coast near the US-Mexico border.

"There are a lot of hypothetical areas, but despite intense interest in these sharks, no one's seen a birth or a newborn pup in the wild," says Sternes.

"This may well be the first evidence we have of a pup in the wild, making this a definitive birthing location."

He's a cute little tyke.

Up in Chicopee

Picked up Nat from their position at the Isabella Freeman Center where they were charged with the care and instruction of children with regard to nature and the like.  (This appears to be more difficult than herding cats)

We will be having a day-late Thanksgiving and then head down to a Nest of Pirates.  (Baltimore)

FWIW, in the, "You learn something new every day," category, don't throw squashes into the woods.  It attracts bears.

(No children were harmed, though a shed might have been.)

Good to Know

I've always wondered how cats, whose ancestors were desert wild cats in Africa, developed a taste for fish.

Well, wonder no more.

As the folks at SciShow observe, we may know how cats taste tuna fish, but the evolutionary forces that led to this is unclear.

Cats, of all sizes, are rather odd mammals, they are one of the few true (obligate) carnivores among mammals, along with seals, hyenas, many seals and whales.

They are unable to taste sweet as well, no taste buds for it.

Flaco on Walkabout

New York's favorite fugitive from custody, Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl, is going on walk about.

After thriving in Central Park he is heading to the East Village.

I'm actually a bit worried, the use or rat poison is more common outside of the parks, and that's his main diet.

Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl, whose February escape from the Central Park Zoo captured the public’s attention in New York and beyond, turned up in Manhattan’s East Village on Monday, about five miles from the wooded park area he had settled into since flying free.

Just before 5 p.m., Flaco, who had spent most of the past nine months in and around the park’s North Woods section, could be seen perched on a tree branch in a sculpture garden next to Kenkeleba House, an artists’ space on East Second Street between Avenues B and C.

About five minutes later, he swooped down, turned left and found a landing spot on a building on East Third Street, sitting placidly between two shrubs, silhouetted against the twilight sky. A few minutes later, he flew off again, headed east to points unknown.

It appeared to be the first significant foray outside the park for Flaco, who learned quickly how to fend for himself after fleeing the zoo, feasting on a steady diet of rats despite fears that his having lived his entire 13-year life in captivity had dulled his survival instincts.

We need to stop trying to get him back into the zoo, and find him a girl friend. 

It appears that there have been cases of Eurasian eagle owls and great horned owls breeding in captivity, so this could be achieved without the risk of introduction of (yet another) invasive species into the Americas.

We just need to find an inter-species owl dating service. (I'm afraid to Google that one)

Hello, SyFy? I Have a Treatment for You

It appears that sharks may be binging on cocaine dumped off the Florida coast.

So, how do I get an option to write the script?

Move over, Cocaine Bear. Here come cocaine sharks.

In what could be the plotline for the next cheesy marine-themed disaster movie, scientists think crazed and hungry sharks could be feasting on bales of hallucinatory drugs dumped off the Florida coast.

Yet while Cocaine Sharks – a highlight of Discovery’s upcoming Shark Week – does indeed examine if the ocean predators are chomping on floating pharmaceuticals cast overboard by passing traffickers, marine scientists who made the TV program say its purpose is beyond gratuitous entertainment.

………

Cocaine Sharks is expected to be among the biggest draws of Shark Week, the Discovery network’s popular annual showcase of the species from great whites, hammerheads and tiger sharks down to the smallest varieties.

In their research, conducted during six days at sea in the Florida Keys, the ecologically sensitive island chain off the state’s southern tip, Fanara and British marine biologist Tom Hird observed sharks exhibiting peculiar behaviors.

………

They also conducted experiments, including dropping dummy bales in the water, which many of the sharks took bites out of, and loading balls of bait with highly concentrated fish powder to simulate cocaine.

OK, that is going to look weird on a resume.

The effect, the researchers said, was akin to catnip on felines. “It’s the next best thing [and] set their brains aflame. It was crazy,” Hird says on the show.

I have cats, and I give them catnip every Saturday, I call it their Shabbos Schnaps.

I am not officially terrified.

………

“At the end of every research publication you read ‘more research must be done’, and that’s definitely the conclusion from this,” she said, noting previous in-depth studies of polluted inland waterways suggesting fish had become addicted to methamphetamine.

Not so terrifed about sharks on meth.  It makes your teeth fall out.

As Anna Russel would say, "I'm not making this up, you know."

Tweet of the Day

#AnEmbarrassingWayToDie usually is a good story to tell. pic.twitter.com/2aKwaab7Cc

— Mia (@LovesTheStars_) May 19, 2023

Forget it Jake, it's Florida, man.

It turns out that the story is true, but the sign is not true.

The sign was drawn up by a satirical podcast, "Damnweek," but it has its origins in a real, and classically Floridian, story.

You see, a man was caught in a Florida park with shrooms, pot, and a 2 foot long baby alligator in his backpack.

The good folks at Damnweek got their Photoshop freak on after reading the story.

As Anna Russel would say, "I'm not making this up, you know."