Sept. 23/2020

Feature:

National Elephant Appreciation Day 2020: Facts To Know About These Animals

"...National Elephant Appreciation Day... is observed every Sept. 22 to highlight the importance of conservation of the animals & create awareness about the various threats they face such as poaching.

Here are some facts about elephants to know them better:

1. The African elephant is the largest land mammal on Earth.

2. African elephant ears are the shape of Africa. It's one of the ways you can tell them apart from the Asian elephant.

3. In the Asian species, only the male grows tusks. But in the African, both male & female elephants grow tusks.

4. Both species live in herds, which are led primarily by a matriarch & consist of sisters, daughters, & their young ones.

5. Elephants have 6 sets of cheek teeth (molars & premolars) in their lifetime. 

6. Elephants can swim & use their trunks as a snorkel while crossing rivers.

7. Wild elephants can live for up to 60-70 years & males only reach their full size at 35-40 years.

8. Elephants have around 150,000 muscle units in their trunk.

9. Elephant calves can stand within 20 minutes of being born & are able to walk within one hour.

10. 'Elephants never forget' – their temporal lobe (the area of the brain associated with memory) is larger & denser than that of people, due to which they have good memory." 

By Suman Varandani 

Sept. 22/2020

ibtimes.com

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Memorial

Max (2007-2017)

RIP

We miss you so very much Maxie Pie.

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Sept. 16/2020

 

Feature:

Hemingway House Staff Keeping Cats Safe

   "The strange 6-toed cats of Ernest Hemingway's Florida bolthole are surviving the pandemic with a little love from local visitors. As the flow of international tourists visiting the U.S. writer's home in the Florida Keys dries up, there were fears the felines would suffer amid layoffs that saw 2/3s of the home's staff let go. But remaining workers say they are committed to keeping the doors open for domestic tourists- & to keeping the cats safe. 'We plan on staying open,' the site's director, Andrew Morawski told AFP. 'Especially making sure that all theses cats get taken care of'. The cat colony at the home, which became a tourist attraction after the author's death in 1961, are descended from a cat with a genetic quirk that Hemingway got as a birthday present."

The Montreal Gazette

Sept. 12/2020 

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Memorial:

9/17/1998

Our little Snowball RIP.

Sept. 9/2020

Feature: 

Ornate Sleeper-ray

"The Ornate sleeper-ray (Electrolux addisoni), is a new species of sleeper ray in the family Narkidae, & the only member of the genus Electrolux. It lives on reefs feeding on polychaete worms & small crustaceans...It is endemic to the coast of South Africa. It was first recorded in 1984 but was not described until 2007. It was ranked as the number one newly described species of 2007 by the International Institute for Species Exploration.

                                        

Description

The ornate sleeper-ray is easily distinguished from other narkids by its striking color pattern consisting of a dark brown dorsal surface of the disc with numerous small pale yellow spots & a series of concentric black stripes. It can also be distinguished by its large spiracular papillae... The conspicuous color pattern of the species may act as a warning signal to other animals, when closely approached the ray has been seen to make a possible threat display...

                                                                       

Conservation

As this species has only been recorded in 4 locations its conservation status is unknown but ...the species...needs to be critically assessed. Its habitat is intensively used for recreational diving, commercial fishing & there is increasing development along the coastline which means that it may be at risk from pollution, habitat degradation, & from being disturbed by divers..."

                                      

Information

Range: South Africa, Coffee Bay, Eastern Cape Province, to just north of Durban, kwaZulu-Natal in water less than 50m deep.

Scientific Classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Chondrichthyes

Order: Torpediniformes

Family: Narkidae

Genus: Electrolux

Species: Electrolux addisoni

https://animals.fandom.com/wiki/Ornate_Sleeper-ray

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Sept. 2/2020

Feature:
Ollie sees a thief: Brockville, Ont. woman vows to listen to parrot that alerted her to break-in

"BROCKVILLE, ONT. -- When Barbara Engel's 18-year-old parrot, Oliver, spoke up earlier this week, she didn't think much of it.

'I was in the basement & Oliver was sitting in his room & I heard him saying 'Hello, hello', & I thought that's strange, he doesn't usually talk unless there's somebody else around,' Engel said.

So, she ignored him, chalking it up to someone passing by on the street.


However, when she returned upstairs, she knew something was not right.

'I noticed that my purse was in an awkward position so I checked it over & that's when I noticed someone had stolen from me,' she said.

A thief had quickly entered through a screen door, taking cash, credit cards, & a cell phone.
                                               
'I made sure Ollie was okay because that would be devastating for me if something happened to him. Then, my neighbours came over & said they'd been watching a suspicious person & took a picture so we know who it is,' Engel said.

Engel called police & with the help of the photo, a suspect was caught later that evening.

This is not the first time Brockville police have had to deal with a parrot on a call.

'I don't know what it is, we can't get away from parrots in this town,' laughed staff sergeant Andrew Harvie from the Brockville Police Service.
                                                       
'About 5 years ago, there was an officer banging on the side of a door & he was greeted by a parrot. The officer kept saying 'Police!' at the door & the parrot would answer 'Who is it!?" It went on for about 4 or 5 minutes until he realized he was talking to a parrot,' Harvie said.
                                                 
'The other time, there was a parrot calling for help through an intercom in an apartment building. The officers actually broke down the door & forced their way in thinking somebody was in need inside...but they found it was a parrot,' Harvie said with a smile... 

When asked if Brockville police will now have to take special parrot training, he laughed

'I hope not! I hope we don't see anymore parrots in town but there's quite a few apparently.'

Engel says she is happy her bird was uninjured & praised her quick thinking neighbours.

'We all keep an eye on each other because it's a small neighbourhood & if they hadn't been thinking & taking his picture, we wouldn't have had something to go by,' she said...

'I guess the takeaway from me is that my neighbours have my back & I am grateful to them & it's nice to have reliable neighbours. And thank you, Oliver, for alerting me & I should have gone upstairs right away,' she said.

When asked if she will listen to him more often now, she smiled.

'Yes, I guess I'd better!' she answered, laughing.

'Maybe we'll have to train him to say, 'get down on the ground' instead.'  
                                                         
Nate Vandermeer
Aug. 21/2020
ottawa.ctvnews.ca

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