Are krill charismatic, in human eyes? Should they be? What bodes this? Those questions are addressed in the study: “Charismatic Krill? Size and Conservation in the Ocean,” Elizabeth Leane and Steve Nicol, Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of The Interactions of People & Animals, Volume 24, Number 2, June 2011 , pp. 135-146(12). The authors explain: […]
Tag: animals
Wild Mice Utilize a Wheel of Fortuitous Apparation
Wheels sometimes do crop up in nature, especially when a human placed them there. Humans recently did it again, as this report makes clear: “Wheel Running in the Wild,” Johanna H. (“Joke”) Meijer [pictured here] and Yuri Robbers, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, vol. 281 no. 1786, July 7, 2014. The authors, at Leiden University […]
The wound-healing ape and the hydrotherapy pig
The Denver Medical Times [August 1899 vol. XIX, no. 2, pp. 65-71] was the venue for James Weir Jr.’s compendium of observations on how animals treat themselves when afflicted by diseases. Among the highlights: Several safari travelers report that elephants shot by hunters may plug their wounds with moistened clay. “In 1882 there was on […]
‘Pigness’ (Cinematic and Televisual) – a thesis
One of academia’s most prominent accounts of ‘Pigness’ in motion pictures was authored in 2010 by Dr. Mark von Schlemmer (University of Central Missouri, Department of Communication and Sociology) in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, With reference not only to leading examples of cinematic pigs (like Babe and […]
Consternation about cleverness of humans & others
Some people tie themselves in knots, mentally, when they try to be clever about whether people and other animals are clever, is the gist of a study: “Clever animals and killjoy explanations in comparative psychology,” Sara J. Shettleworth, Trends in Cognitive Science, Volume 14, Issue 11, November 2010, Pages 477-481. The author, at the university […]
Sinnott’s scary masks / zoo animals experiment
Hast thou seen Sinnott’s experiment with scary masks and zoo animals? This study makes tell of it: “Perception of Scary Halloween Masks by Zoo Animals and Humans,” Joan M. Sinnott [pictured here], H. Anton Speaker, Laura A. Powell, and Kelly W. Mosteller, International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 25 (2012): 83-96. (Thanks to investigator Neil Martin […]
Animal Fighters Speculation (c.1901)
“Supposing all the animals in the ‘Zoo’ at Regent’s Park [London] were to begin a fight to the death, who would be the ultimate victor?” – asked a syndicated item in The Mercury (Hobart, Tasmania) on Wednesday the 16th of January 1901. The article ran through the various fighting attributes of elephants, lions, tigers, deer, […]
A backwards film: chickens and Flannery O’Connor
British Pathe makes available one of their old films, in which animals are shown (though the magic of technology) walking backwards. The little girl in the film grew up to be the author Flannery O’Connor, so they say. (HT Jeff Betancourt)
Again, Why Don’t Animals Have Wheels?
Certain questions keep returning, as if on the edge of a rotating wheel: “Why the Wheels Won’t Go,” Michael LaBarbera [pictured here, without wheels], American Naturalist, Vol. 121, No. 3, March 1983, pp. 395-408. The author, at the University of Chicago, begins: “Why don’t animals have wheels? Introductory hiology teachers commonly note the lack of […]
Slobodchikoff on the imminence of cross-species chit-chatter
A mere eleven years after the inventors of Bow-Lingual were awarded the Ig Noble Peace Prize, Con Slobodchikoff, professor emeritus at Arizona State University and President and CEO of Animal Communications, Ltd., explains how near we are to having computer-aided communications with some animals. Megan Garber interviewed Slobodchikoff for The Atlantic. Here’s a bit of that interview: […]