Tag Archives: Animals

Books & Reading, Love & Relationships, Pleasures, Science & Health

What Do Dogs Know About Us? – The Atlantic

Man’s best friend is surprisingly skilled at getting inside your head.

By Alexandra Horowitz, September 16, 2022

Bruce Davidson / Magnum

Quid and I have struck a deal. Every morning she flies up the stairs, leaps onto our bed, and attacks my nose with her sharp little teeth. And I am awakened.

Oh wait, no; we don’t have a deal. She just does that. It is vexing and charming at once. Just at the moment of nose-attack I can smell the sleep collected on her breath and fur. It mingles with the odor of the other dogs in the room and is beginning to smell, to me, like home. It has been six months since she left her natal litter of 10 siblings and joined our family of three humans, two dogs, and one cat.

This article has been excerpted from Alexandra Horowitz’s forthcoming book, The Year of the Puppy: How Dogs Become Themselves (Viking)

And it has been a few months since she went from being a very young puppy to an adolescent, her brain trailing her body in development. Recently, she has become more interested in contact of any sort with us. She minds where we are, beating a hasty path after us if we rise from a chair to leave the room, sometimes licking our ankles as we go. She lies next to me on the couch, her body contorted to maximize body-to-body contact.

Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/09/what-dogs-know-about-people/671454/

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Libraries, Science & Health, Web & Technology

About BHL – Information about the Biodiversity Heritage Library

By BHL, Noted July 18, 2022

About the Biodiversity Heritage Library

Source: Flickr image, Edinburgh journal of natural history and of the physical sciences.
Edinburgh [etc.] :Published for the proprietor [etc.],1835-1840.
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33665625

The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL is revolutionizing global research by providing free, worldwide access to knowledge about life on Earth.

To document Earth’s species and understand the complexities of swiftly-changing ecosystems in the midst of a major extinction crisis and widespread climate change, researchers need something that no single library can provide — access to the world’s collective knowledge about biodiversity.

While natural history books and archives contain information that is critical to studying biodiversity, much of this material is available in only a handful of libraries globally. Scientists have long considered this lack of access to biodiversity literature as a major impediment to the efficiency of scientific research.

Headquartered at the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives in Washington, D.C., BHL operates as worldwide consortium of natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working together to address this challenge by digitizing the natural history literature held in their collections and making it freely available for open access as part of a global “biodiversity community.”

See also: Images on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/sets/

Source: About BHL – Information about the Biodiversity Heritage Library

Love & Relationships, Pleasures, Science & Health

The 20 cutest dog breeds, according to science | Salon.com

What do Jack Russell Terrier and “The Batman” star Robert Pattinson have in common?

By Michele Debczak, Published June 26, 2022 8:00PM (EDT)

Gorgeous Samoyed smiling for photo (Getty Images/zhao hui)

Sorry, dog owners: Insisting your pet is the cutest creature on Earth doesn’t necessarily make it true.

Some dog breeds are objectively more adorable than others—at least according to a mathematical ratio that appears frequently in art and nature.

To quantify cuteness in dog breeds, MoneyBeach judged their face shapes against the Golden Ratio. This number (1.618 when rounded) shows up when the ratio of two quantities is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities. Put more simply, it’s when the smaller is to the larger as the larger is to the whole.

Even if you can’t grasp the math behind it, you likely respond to the Golden Ratio when you see it. It appears in such aesthetic marvels as nautilus shells, Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man,” and Robert Pattinson’s face. The facial configurations of many dog breeds also approach this magic number.

Source: The 20 cutest dog breeds, according to science | Salon.com

Love & Relationships, Pleasures, Science & Health, Travel

New York’s Farm Sanctuary Is Magical And You Should Visit | Only in Your State

By Christy Articola, June 15, 2022

Jesika Keener/Google Local

Farm Sanctuary is an incredible place!

If you love animals, then you’re going to absolutely adore everything about it. This Watkins Glen animal sanctuary is home to more than 800 rescued farm animals on nearly 300 acres.

Each and every one of them will live on this property happily ever after, with no fear of further mistreatment nor of ever being eaten.

The people who work and volunteer here care for each animal as an individual and these happy critters are treated like kings and queens. You can take an hour-long, guided tour of the property at several different times of day most days of the week, and you should. You’ll be amazed by the good work happening here. Read on to learn more.

Editor’s Note: Read more, see link below for original item...

Source: New York’s Farm Sanctuary Is Magical And You Should Visit

Film & Movies, Love & Relationships, Science & Health

Be Kind to Animals – American Humane – American Humane

By American Humane

from article…

Take the Kindness Pledge

Take our Kindness Pledge and become part of the Compassion Movement.

Our pledge features four easy things everyone can do to better protect all the creatures of the Earth.

I pledge to… Visit certified zoos & aquariums, Adopt from an animal shelter or American Humane Certified Pet Provider, Watch movies that support animal welfare on set, Buy humanely raised products.

Source: Be Kind to Animals – American Humane – American Humane

Current Affairs, Love & Relationships, Science & Health

Your dog’s breed doesn’t determine its personality, study suggests | Science | AAAS

Work challenges popular idea that breeds have specific, reliable behaviors

28 Apr 20222:00 PM, By David Grimm

Tod the papillon, posing for a photo at the end of his lifeKen Morrill/Yenra Photography

When Kathleen Morrill was 12, she decided she needed a puppy. Not just any puppy—a pint-size papillon with a black button nose and bushy, perky ears. When her parents resisted, “I turned on the waterworks,” laughs Morrill, now a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts, Worcester.

And so, the family ended up with its first dog—a 2-month-old pup she named Tod.

Tod was registered with the American Kennel Club (AKC), whose website describes his breed as “curious” and “friendly” with a “hardy constitution.” But the puppy was shy and scared of strangers, and he developed separation anxiety as he aged.

When Morrill’s family got another papillon, Rosie, a year later, she was entirely different: bold, outgoing, and adoring of all people. “Breed can be important,” Morrill says, “but it’s not the full picture of a dog’s behavior.”

From article…

Now, she has the science to back that up.

In a new study, Morrill and her colleagues show that almost none of the behaviors we associate with dog breeds—from lovable Labradors to pugnacious pit bulls—are hard-wired.

Aside from a few ancient traits, environment seems to play a much larger role than pedigree.

Source: Your dog’s breed doesn’t determine its personality, study suggests | Science | AAAS