Cats
laelaps | February 1, 2010
Rokan, the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), photographed at the National Zoo in Washington, DC.
grrlscientist | January 25, 2010tags: cats, pets, social commentary, cultural observation, George Carlin, humor, comedy, fucking hilarious, streaming video
I am getting reacquainted with life with a cat (despite my allergies). So of course, I had to find out what George Carlin thinks about about living with domestic housecats.
grrlscientist | January 16, 2010tags: Kitten Mittens, funny, weird, silly, cats, pets, streaming video
Does your cat make too much noise? Try Kitten Mittens!
Interessante Showeinlage eines verrückten Katzenbesitzers.
laelaps | January 10, 2010
Zeff the Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
grrlscientist | January 9, 2010tags: How to Wrap a Cat for Christmas, holidays, christmas, funny, weird, silly, cats, pets, streaming video
This silly and amusing video is a little late for christmas, but it's still the holiday season, more or less (especially considering the mountains of snow that people in much of the Northern Hemisphere are dealing with right now), so it's appropriate.
laelaps | November 9, 2009
A very lion-like Smilodon, from Ernest Ingersoll's The Life of Animals (1907).
For decades after its discovery the saber-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis was depicted as little more than a lion with a short tail and long fangs. Given its size and habits as a large carnivore the connection appeared to make sense, but recent studies have suggested that Smilodon was quite different from the "king of the beasts." Not only did Smilodon have a face that probably would have looked a bit saggy when compared to modern lions, but a new study published in the Journal of Zoology suggests that male and…
laelaps | October 11, 2009
The battered skull of a cougar (Puma concolor), photographed at the Utah Museum of Natural History.
laelaps | September 28, 2009For a handful of some of my favorite photos of big cats, check out this post on the website Paw Talk.
laelaps | September 9, 2009
A Smilodon fends off vultures at what would later be called the Rancho La Brea tar pits, situated in Los Angeles, California. Painting by Charles R. Knight.
The feeding habits of saber-toothed cats have long perplexed scientists. How in the world did these cats kill prey with their almost comically-oversized teeth? Did Smilodon and its kin use their teeth like daggers to stab prey to death, or did they simply rip out a huge chunk of flesh from the side of a victim, leaving their prey to hemorrhage to death?
While the stabbing hypothesis has generally been abandoned it is still a mystery…
awild | August 22, 2009Here's why blogging of late has been a little...uninspired:
Mingus plans his next paw print
We're busy with all those projects that are acquired with an old house. This weekend we are painting the kitchen and dining room. To the extent that Mingus the Cat will let us.
laelaps | August 11, 2009
The skull of a cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), photographed at the National Museum of Natural History.
laelaps | July 2, 2009
A pair of clouded leopard cubs born in Smithsonian National Zoo facilities just a few months ago, via NPR.
gregladen | June 30, 2009 Although the paper addresses Tanzanian lions, this is a photograph of a Namibian lion Starting some years ago, we began to hear about revisions of the standard models of lion behavioral biology coming out of Craig Packer's research in the Serengeti. One of the most startling findings, first shown (if memory serves) as part of a dynamic optimization model and subsequently backed up with a lot of additional information, is the idea that lions do not benefit by living in a group with respect to hunting. They live in groups despite the fact that this sociality decreases hunting…