2008 January | Feathers Fins and Fur

Archive for January, 2008

Tarantulas

A creature that is fragile, shy and virtually harmless. Is that any way to describe our horror image of the vicious tarantula of movie fame? Yes it is because by and large these spiders are timid creatures. Although they are venomous there is no reliable report of the venom killing any human. When tarantulas mate it is more like they are dancing the tango. Their front legs touch and then she sidesteps with him following. He caresses her and gradually face-to-face they entwine their front limbs together. The tango continues with the male hooking his front legs over her fangs...

Bullmastiff

The bullmastiff is a cross between a bulldog and the large mastiff. Although not as big as a mastiff, it is still a powerful dog. A male can reach 130 pounds by maturity and a female reaches about 100 pounds. It a natural watchdog; reliable, fearless and courageous. The bullmastiff looks frightening and has the physical capability to take down an intruder. Yet, if socialized correctly, the bullmastiff is friendly, loyal and gentle with its family members, children and other non-threatening visitors. Originally bred to be a gamekeeper’s dog on English estates, the bullmastiff is an excellent dog companion for families...

Atlantic Salmon

Many believe that the Atlantic Salmon is found only in fresh water. That's because they are difficult to see in the broad vastness of the sea. However, when they are up to one year old they travel from fresh water to the sea to feed on tiny crustaceans in order to grow into powerful long and heavy fish. Then they travel to cold waters which need to be without pollution. Without this cold water areas protected for them as a habitat they cannot survive. Its an evolutionary miracle how these Atlantic salmon return home again to the rivers of their...

Jaguars

In Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, there is a song of antiquity which has the phrase “I would like to be the jaguar of your mountains/And take you to my dark cave./ Open your chest there/ And see if you have a heart”. In South America, the Guaranì Indians had stories of a cat that kills with one leap, yaguara Jaguars do have the strongest jaw structure of any feline. This allows them to deliver a bite through the skull or through the neck of his victim allowing it to kill his next meal after only one leap. Jaguars are the biggest...

Ants of Indonesia

All ant societies are composed entirely of females; males have only one purpose to fertilize the queen and then die. The queen which is a thousand times the body weight of the smallest worker is the only ant that is fertile. Every worker is her daughter. There can be hundreds of thousands of ants in a nest. The Ants of Indonesia can have trunk trails that lead from the nest to be as long as 300 feet. If one scales the trunk to the size of a minor worker it would be 30 miles long. The traffic often runs heavy...