Willie and the Squirrels

Willie is a young Jack Russell from Fayetteville, North Carolina, who recently spent a weekend at my grandpa’s house in very rural West Virginia. Willie lives with my aunt and uncle, and he’s very smart. He is dead serious about retrieving things, which is more than I can say about Miley. Like many of his [...]

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A dog using a tool

Source Tool use is not very common in non-human animals, snd in many cases, it is unclear whether the animals are using tools as the result of inherited motor patterns or are actually using learning too use through observation or reasoning. Chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans have been seen using tools as a result of their [...]

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Invasion of the Exotic Wildlife

It’s not a bad B-Movie: Source

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Invasion of the Exotic Wildlife

It’s not a bad B-Movie: Source  

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Chesapeake Bay retriever from the 1870′s

The answer to the question I asked last night is that it this dog was a Chesapeake Bay retriever. The illustration comes from John Henry Walsh’s The Dogs of Great Britain, and Other Countries (p. 121). The dog’s name was Trip.  He was owned by C. H. Tilghman of Easton Maryland.  This particular dog won [...]

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Squirrel Wars in the UK

Source. The RSPCA’s stance on this one is very, very wrong. See my earlier post on the topic. And yes, I’ve eaten squirrel meat.

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The relationship between the Beothuks and wolves

The Beothuks were the indigenous people of Newfoundland who were living there in the early colonial period. Contrary to what you may read, the Beothuk probably did not own dogs. There are no archeological records of dog remains near Beothuk settlement, and most of the earliest accounts of the Beothuk make no mention of canines. [...]

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The Congressman with Guts versus O’Reilly’s little worm producer

Source. This is why I don’t watch Fox “News.” Has O’Reilly ever heard of the term “corporate whore”? That’s what I used to call Bill Clinton. And I’m not so certain that Dick Cheney isn’t a vampire? (Photos don’t lie!) And Fox News is an enemy of peace. I’ve yet to see them oppose a [...]

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Coyotes kill Canadian Singer

Yes, it’s true. And while we know that such statements are poor comfort the victim’s loved ones, these attacks are very rare. I disagree with the biologist who declares that there are no wolf genes in these coyotes. Actually, there probably are some wolf genes in these coyotes, as this study suggests. I don’t think [...]

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Coyotes kill Canadian singer

Yes, it’s true. And while we know that such statements are poor comfort the victim’s loved ones, these attacks are very rare. I disagree with the biologist who declares that there are no wolf genes in these coyotes. Actually, there probably are some wolf genes in these coyotes, as this study suggests. I don’t think [...]

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