The Intelligent Dog

Border Collie is rated as the most intelligent dog. It is a medium-sized very energetic dog and a “workaholic. In fact, it is happy when working because it loves working whether it is herding, agility, dog sports, or even tasks such as search and rescue by the narcotics and bomb detection police. This breed can be easily trained in such activities too. In fact because of its craving for work, sufficient exercise must be provided to them.

Originated in Northumberland in England, this dog was earlier called the “Scotch Sheep Dog”.

Interestingly, its body is a bit longer that its height. While biting, its strong teeth meet in a scissor. Brownish eyes and erect/semi-erect ears, short hairs on the face, ears, and front legs are quite prominent.

Border Collie is bred mainly for its working ability and intelligence and not for its beauty. It very intelligent and is quite aware of its surroundings. This dog exhibits a high degree of skills and obedience; it has high stamina and is therefore energetic. It is an ideal pet in dog sports when provided with sufficient exercises. Interestingly, this breed will get along well with other dogs, children, and other family pets. It is very demanding in matters of attention and recognition from their masters. Its life span is 10 to 15 years.

These dogs are found to be unsuitable for apartment life; and unsuited for being chained.
Poodle, e German Shepherd, Golden Retriever, Doberman Pinscher, Shetland Sheepdog, Labrador Retriever, Papillon, Rottweiler, and Australian Cattle Dog are some of the remarkable varieties of dogs.

Source: Google

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The Visayan Spotted Deer of the Philippines

Classified as endangered, the Visayan Spotted Deer or the Philippine Spotted Deer is a small short-legged deer found in the forests of the west Visayan islands in the Central Philippines, and is one of the rarest mammals in the world. Easily distinguished by its distinctive pattern of buff-colored spots across its dark brown back, this deer is about 125 to 130 cm long, 70 - 80 cm tall and weighs about 25 - 80 kg. Its skull is narrow compared to its length and its face is pointed. A young/baby Visiyan deer is called a ‘fawn or ass”. While the females are called “doe, hind, or cow”, the males are called ‘buck, stag or bull.” A Visayan Spotted Deer group is a “herd”. Its normal habitat is open forest and dense thickets. It is mainly nocturnal usually wandering at dusk to feed on leaves, twigs, and grasses, and usually found in small groups of three to five.

The present estimated population of the Visayan Spotted Deer is less than 300. Hunting is a great threat to this rare and endangered species. Even though some legal protection is now afforded to it, the difficult terrain of its habitat renders this protection a difficult task. However, these are now held in captivity in the Philippines Conservation Center as well as a few zoos in Europe. The poor state of the Philippines economy is a risk factor for the survival of this species.

The Visayan Spotted Deer is also called the Prince Alfred's sambar.

Source: Google

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Amazing Dads

Giant water bug with eggs on its back

Darwin frog

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Animal and bird dads of many species in this world perform enterprising and caring roles.

First, the giant male bug also called the toe- biter commonly found in the standing freshwater or gently running waters with aquatic vegetation in the North and South America and East Asia. This is often mistaken for a cockroach or a beetle. Eggs are laid on the wings of the males and hatched there. The eggs are exposed to the sun by the male to prevent fungus and improve their viability. A series of skillful movements by the male improves oxygen diffusion. Hatching takes about three weeks, but this decreases as the temperature rises. The males cannot mate during this period. It is the male that invests much time and energy in reproduction.

Look at the tiny one-inch Darwin’s frogs, the amphibians of the temperate forests of southern Argentina and Chile named after Charles Darwin and is mentioned in his world voyage, "Voyage of the Beagle". The breeding season starts in Spring and continues into summer. The female lays about three to seven eggs and leaves the male for about 20 days. The male then takes the eggs into its vocal sac, which hatch there into tadpoles and remain there for a bout 70 days till they turn froglets. During this process, the male’s chest is puffed with the growing tadpoles. The tadpoles eat the leftover yolk from their eggs and the food of the male available through the skin of his vocal sac. The new froglets then of the father’s mouth and swim away. Scientists evince keen interest in this unusual method of reproduction.

Among birds, the female Emperor lays one egg, which the male penguin incubates while the female goes back to the sea. The male keeps the egg warm in its feet covered by its stomach in a “brood pouch” for 72 days during the Antarctic winters. He feeds the young one with a milk-like product from a gland in his esophagus. During this feeding, the male loses half his body weight.

Source: Google

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Cloned puppies of South Korea

Two puppies have been cloned through fat stem cells from a Beagle donor by a South Korean company, which claims this is the world’s first such cloning of puppies using stem cells from fat tissues. This was achieved by the South Korean firm RNL Bio, which claims that this is an easier and more efficient method of cloning.


Source: The Hindu, February 5, 2009
Image: Google

Snow leopard

The upper Himlayan regions as you know are most rugged and hostile for ordinary lives because of mountain ridges and inhospitable vast expanses with extreme cold climate. But the beautiful Snow Leopard is a happy inhabitant there.

Thick grey-colored fur and the broken spot markings merge well with the nature around. Its movement and hunting are facilitated by the short limbs and powerful paws, The long tail helps to keep its nose warm; it also balances during steep climbing. This tail is about one meter long, or almost equal to the length of its remaining body.

Destruction of its habitat, poaching for its beautiful fur coat and killing by shepherds go on unchecked, and as a result, their number is fast dwindling leading to potential extinction if unchecked. There are roughly between 5000 and 7000 snow leopards are alive in a vast area of their habitat of two million square miles spread over in Central Asia and the Himalayas.

In India, which is one of the important countries for this snow leopard, about 200 to 600 snow leopards are noted in the Himalayan range. Efforts are on to enhance their safety and welfare with good government support in the form of Project Snow Leopard similar to earlier projects like Project Tiger and Project Elephant.


their life pattenr and

Extinct Animal Resurrected

EXTINCT ANIMAL RESURRECTED BACK TO LIFE.

The Pyrenean ibex was declared extinct in 2000 after the death of its last member in 2000, but before its death, scientists obtained and preserved its skin samples in liquid nitrogen, and from this they have now resurrected this extinct animal for the first time. The animal preferred a rocky mountaneous habitat and was one of Europes' most striking wild animals.

The scientists from Spain used the DNA from these skin samples and successfully replaced the genetic materials in eggs from domestic goats to clone a female Pyrenean ibex or bucardo as they are called. Unfortunately the infant ibex died shortly after birth due to defective lungs, but hopes are now high that endangered species can well be cloned and saved from extinction. Jose Folch from the Center of Food Technology and Research of Aragon in northern Spain says that cloning is the only way to save the species from extinction.

The Pyrenean ibex was common in the 19th century, but ruthless hunting reduced its population to less than 100. They were subsequently declared protected in 1973, but by 1981, only 30 of them were alive in their last foothold in the Ordesa National Park in Spain. And lo, the last bucardo, a 13-year-old female was found in January 2000 by the park rangers with its skull crushed. A cruel murder indeed!

Folch and his team had earlier taken tissue samples from her ear for cryopreservation. By nuclear transfer technique, DNA from the tissue were transplanted into the eggs taken from domestic goats to create 439 embryos of which 57 were implanted into surrogate females, but only seven of the embryos resulted in pregnancies, and finally one female bucardo was born, which died within seven minutes due to lung problems due to flaws in DNA.

Interestingly a number of similar projects to store tissue and DNA from endangered species. The Zoological Society of London and the Natural History Museum are involved in these projects.

Source: Times of India February 2, 2009

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