So, you found my ancestors? Are you sure this time? epsos There has been much debate about how cats went from hunting in the wild to a much-loved pet. By Akshat Rathi / 12.16.2013 Former Science and Data Editor The Conversation There has been much debate about how cats went from hunting in the wild to a much-loved pet. That is because[…]
Yeah, they messed with my genes. attawayjl Research shows that the genes of the modern horse were forged along the way. By Dr. William Feeney / 09.12.2013 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Biological Sciences The University of Queensland The Silk Road snaked across continents for more than a thousand years, shaping civilisations in East and West.[…]
Official mascot of the 102nd Infantry, 26th “Yankee” Division, and the first dog to be given rank in the U.S. Armed Forces. While training for combat on the fields of Yale University in 1917, Private J. Robert Conroy found a brindle puppy with a short tail. He named him Stubby, and soon the dog became the mascot of the 102nd Infantry,[…]
Andy McLemore/Flickr/Creative Commons By Dr. Raymond Coppinger (left) and Dr. Mark Feinstein (right) / 05.04.2016 Coppinger: Professor Emeritus of Biology Feinstein: Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science Hampshire College A Jack Russell terrier tears in and out of its doggie door, skidding and sliding on a hardwood floor, only to repeat the performance over[…]
A floor mosaic from Pompeii depicting a guard dog. (1st century CE) / Wikimedia Commons Dogs have been a part of the history of human beings since before the written word. By Dr. Joshua J. Mark / 01.15.2018 Professor of Philosophy Marist College Dogs in the Ancient World Introduction Dogs have been a part of the history of human[…]
Crowds watching Obaysch, London Zoo’s first hippopotamus in 1852. / Wikimedia Commons According to the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, there are over 10,000 zoos around the world and each year they attract millions of visitors. But as historian Dan Vandersommers discusses this month, zoos have long been much more than simply places to spend[…]
Pilot whales stranded on Farewell Spit, 2015. By Dr. Ellen F. Arnold / 03.09.2016 Associate Professor of History Ohio Wesleyan University On 13 February 2015, 198 pilot whales stranded in Golden Bay on the northern coast of New Zealand’s South Island. Hundreds of volunteers were mobilized by New Zealand’s Conservation Agency, racing against time and tides to save[…]
Could understanding canine compulsions help find new treatments for people with obsessive–compulsive disorders too? By Shayla Love / 06.25.2017 Curiously, and perhaps eagerly, I am looking at a bull terrier named Sputnik, searching for a resemblance. He’s a stocky three-year-old, mostly slate grey, with a white stripe on his head and a pink splotch on his[…]
Photo of Spots courtesy of Isabelle Groc Around the world, canine conservationists are helping humans and wildlife co-exist. By Isabelle Groc / 10.11.2017 It is still cool in the morning as Spots gets ready to start work. Calm and confident, the imposing 10-year old light brown Kangal is leading a herd of goats into a[…]
How do they each know what to do? Tim Nowack By Dr. Craig Tovey / 07.11.2017 Professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering Co-Director, Center for Biologically Inspired Design Georgia Institute of Technology Drop a clump of 100,000 fire ants in a pond of water – or flood a huge area of Texas that’s infested with fire ants and[…]
How do they do while sleeping what we can barely do at all? Carlos Bustamante Restrepo By Dr. Lena Ting and Dr. Young-Hui Chang / 05.23.2017 Ting: Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Rehabilitation Medicine, Emory University Chang: Professor of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology If you’ve watched flamingos at the zoo – or if you’re[…]
Next best thing to a hidey-hole box? / Maggie Villiger, Creative Commons By Dr. Nicholas Dodman / 04.17.2017 Professor Emeritus of Behavioral Pharmacology and Animal Behavior Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine Tufts University Twitter’s been on fire with people amazed by cats that seem compelled to park themselves in squares of tape marked out on[…]
By Jill Suttie / 03.26.2017 Canines and Cooperation My dog, Casey, is one of my favorite beings on the planet. Not only is he extremely cute, his presence calms me, makes me happy, and helps me to meet new people…especially when I take a walk with him. My husband and I often joke that if[…]
01.27.2017 Photos by Britt Haugsevje Vangen Every winter for the past three years, 80-year-old Mette Kvam, from the Norwegian town of Aurland, has been getting two daily visits from a very special friend – a majestic stag who seems to love her tasty snacks. It all started three years ago, when Mette first saw her[…]
01.16.2017 In what can only be described as a heroic act, a golden retriever managed to save his owner’s life by lying on top of him for almost 24 hours to keep him from freezing to death after slipping on ice and breaking his neck. On New Year’s Eve, 64-year-old Bob (who chose not to reveal[…]
Cult copper statue of a crocodile. From Faiyum, modern-day Egypt. Middle Kingdom, 12th Dynasty, circa 1800 BCE. (State Museum of Egyptian Art, Munich, Germany). By Dr. Joshua J. Mark / 03.18.2016 Professor of Philosophy Marist College The ancient Egyptians kept animals as pets ranging from domesticated dogs and cats to baboons, monkeys, fish, gazelles, birds[…]
Cat cafe, Tokyo 2010. Hiroshi Otabe/AP/Press Association Images. By Lorraine Plourde / 01.05.2017 Cats are the stars of our social media lives. Cat videos and cat memes are now common, if not clichéd, tools through which boredom and stress are managed and alleviated. They are celebrated by us in anthropomorphic terms as being alternately unruly,[…]
Minou. (Photo: Lisa Wade) Animals bring people together—and more sociologists should study them. By Lisa Wade / 12.29.2016 Last month my neighbor and I mustered our emotional strength, gathered up our neighborhood cat, and drove to the SPCA to help her leave this Earth in peace. He had named her Minou — French for kitty, a common term[…]
12.21.2016 45-year-old Rakesh Shukla is a talented software engineer and CEO of a successful tech company, but among India’s animal lovers he is known as “The Dog Father”, an exceptional man who founded the country’s most advanced dog rescue center and who personally takes care of 735 abandoned pooches that nobody else wants. 10 years[…]
By Ben Marks / 12.22.2016 The Genius of Birds / Jennifer Ackerman On Tuesday November 8, 2016, tens of millions of Americans enthusiastically cast their presidential ballots for a tax-cheating, racist demagogue who literally said anything to get the votes of common working stiffs, even though it should have been abundantly obvious to them that[…]
By Edwina Shaw / 12.21.2016 Can We Start Speaking To Dolphins? Scientists are now able to begin deciphering how dolphins convey information to each other and to then use this information to start a conversation. Recently scientists have made a significant breakthrough in inter-species communication. Researchers in the UK and USA have proved that the[…]
12.14.2016 If you’re a dog lover visiting Bangkok, you simply must stop by the True Love Café, a wonderful place where you can get a taste of Thai cuisine, or enjoy some refreshments in the company of dozens of adorable huskies. The True Love Café opened in 2013, when Chotiros Ratanabirabongse, Paw for short, a long-time husky breeder, decided to[…]
As any cat lover knows, they are extremely resourceful, not to mention creative. So while getting from point A to point B, for most of us, requires we put one foot in front of the other, check out these cats who have discovered alternative modes of transportation.
Public park in Manhattan, home to a rat population with over 100 visible burrows. Dr. Michael H. Parsons, Author provided By Dr. Michael H. Parsons / 10.11.2016 Scholar-in-Residence Hofstra University In an era when we can decode language among animals and design coatings that make military weapons virtually invisible, it may seem that there are[…]
Bonobo Jasongo at Leipzig Zoo has a hunch about what you’re thinking. MPI-EVA By Dr. Christopher Krupenye / 10.06.2016 Postdoctoral Researcher in Developmental and Comparative Psychology Max Planck Institute One of the things that defines humans most is our ability to read others’ minds – that is, to make inferences about what others are thinking.[…]
Tourists flock to Lower Yosemite Falls in Yosemite National Park on a spring afternoon. Photo by Eddie Hernandez Photography / iStock. By Heather J. Hansen / 06.03.2016 This year marks the centennial of the National Park Service, and record numbers of visitors are expected to celebrate by exploring the system’s incomparable natural, historical, and cultural resources. All[…]
How good are people at interpreting a cat’s meow? ‘Cats’ via www.shutterstock.com By Mikel Delgado PhD Candidate in Psychology University of California, Berkeley Imagine you’re a cat, and, every time you meowed, the loud voice of a snooty-sounding British gentleman kindly informed your human guardian of your every thought and feeling (well, the thoughts and[…]