Portrait of a Dog
Showing posts with label animal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animal. Show all posts
11/23/2016
5/06/2016
Why Chocolate is Bad For Dogs ?
Chocolate contains an alkaloid called “theobromine”. Theobromine is in the same family as caffeine and is a type of stimulant (they both are mythylxanines). Theobromine stimulates the central nervous system, cardiovascular system, and causes a slightly increases blood pressure.
Dogs and certain other animals, such as horses and cats, cannot metabolize theobromine as quickly as humans can; this causes the above effects to be much more severe than is the case with humans. The specific notable side effects of toxic levels of theobromine in dogs includes: diarrhea; vomiting; increased urination; muscle twitching; excessive panting; hyperactive behavior; whining; dehydration; digestive problems; seizures; and rapid heart rate. Some of these symptoms, like the rapid heart rate, can ultimately be fatal to the dog.
So how much chocolate is too much for a dog? That depends on the size and age of the dog, as well as what type of chocolate was consumed. The larger the dog, the more theobromine they can handle without dying and older dogs tend to have more problems with the side effects, as noted above.
As far as the chocolate itself, cocoa powder contains about sixteen times as much theobromine per ounce over milk chocolate, with most popular forms of chocolate falling somewhere between those two, excepting white chocolate, which contains insignificant amounts of theobromine per ounce, making it extremely unlikely to be able to be consumed in sufficient quantities to harm a dog.
3/31/2016
You Won't Believe How Old The World's Oldest Cat Is
Meet Poppy, The world's oldest cat according to Guinness World Records. Poppy may look like an ordinary feline but don't underestimate her age. Poppy was born in February 1990 that makes her 24 Years old now and a ripe old 114 if we convert it in human years.
Poppy is living with her owner, Jacqui West who adopted her since she was 5 years old. Poppy lives with four cats and she's still considered as the top cat despite her age. Poppy is now blind and deaf but she can still manage to be the top cat.
The secret to Poppy's amazing longevity can be attributed to her good diet and regular exercise. Though she's now old and frail, Poppy being able to reach 114 years old in human years is an amazing and purr-fect achievement. We all hope that Poppy can live longer and bring joy to her owners for a very long time.
Poppy is living with her owner, Jacqui West who adopted her since she was 5 years old. Poppy lives with four cats and she's still considered as the top cat despite her age. Poppy is now blind and deaf but she can still manage to be the top cat.
The secret to Poppy's amazing longevity can be attributed to her good diet and regular exercise. Though she's now old and frail, Poppy being able to reach 114 years old in human years is an amazing and purr-fect achievement. We all hope that Poppy can live longer and bring joy to her owners for a very long time.
3/28/2016
3/22/2016
Bizarre Pets
Everybody likes a pet, whether it is the “normal” kind, such as a dog, cat, rabbit or bird, to the strange, bizarre or exotic type. We can’t control what animals touches our hearts and subsequently becomes a member of the family, but most of these animals are illegal to own in some states. Always check with the local officials before attempting to domesticate any animal that belongs in the wild.
Hippos
The standard hippo will be five feet tall at the shoulder and weigh anywhere from three to five tons. There are pygmy hippos that stand almost three feet high at the shoulder and weigh from 400 to 600 pounds, but these are nocturnal animals. The most famous case of a hippo as a pet is Jessica. She lives with her owners and even has dinner at the dinner table, thinking that she is a human.
Capybara
This is the largest living rodent in the world. It can stand up to just over four feet in length and weigh up to 140 pounds. They have webbed feet, no tail and twenty teeth. They can live up to twelve years in captivity. You can tech them to do tricks, but they can be aggressive. They will dig holes in your yard. Caplin Rous is a domesticated Capybara and is described as caring by his owner.
Billy Goat
Billy goats can be aggressive, so if you have children a Billy goat is not for you. They will butt the children causing them harm. It is best that you get more than one Billy goat, so that it has company. They must have a big enough area to roam. They eat mainly plants and they can smell. Lance Corporal William Wind was the mascot for the Royal Welsh Regiment for a long time before retiring to a zoo.
Flying Squirrels
These animals only weigh 2 to 4 ounces. They will form a strong bond with their owners, if provided the opportunity to do so. If you want to bond with your squirrel, wearing a pouch or an article of clothing with a pocket in it will help with this experience. They are mainly nocturnal animals. They will eat a variety of nuts, bird feed, fresh vegetables, fruit, meal worms, wax worms, hard boiled eggs, chicken, and moths. They can live in cages and will get a calcium deficiency.
Llama
These animals can stand anywhere from five feet to six foot five inches tall and weigh anywhere from 250 pounds to 450 pounds. They will spit and can live up to thirty years. They are social animals. You can keep them in a barn or your house depending on you. You need to have a fenced in yard because they will roam. You have to groom them regularly and get them their vaccines. They will eat hay and need fresh water. In Russia, there is a llama named Fantik living in an apartment with its owner.
Skunks
These are active and curios animals, which can often times, get them in trouble. They are known to steal your household items to make their beds softer and they get into everything. They are also stubborn animals. They are known to be friendly and need healthy foods in their diets. They need to be vaccinated like a dog or cat would and the sack that releases their odor needs to be removed.
Chinchillas
These animals are ten to fourteen inches in length, with the tail adding another six inches or more. They can live up to 22 years. They are active, but will cuddle when they want to. They are more active at night. Your routine with these animals must be consistent or they will get stressed out. They need a cool environment. They like to eat roughage. They need large cages and like to take dust baths.
Bears
This animal can have the body length of five to six feet, but on its hind legs it can stand up to seven feet high. These animals can weigh anywhere from 90 pounds to 660 pounds. They will hibernate during the winter months. They will eat plants, meats, insects, nuts, berries, herbs, salmon, trout, crayfish, and alligator eggs. Sybil the bear was domesticated and lived with her family and a variety of other animals.
Giraffes
These animals will weigh anywhere from 1,830 pounds to 2,630 pounds. They can stand from fourteen feet to twenty feet high. They like to eat trees, grass and fruit. There is a family near Mount Kilimanjaro that has eight of these giant animals as pets. The animals will poke their heads through windows in order to get treats throughout the day.
Penguins
Depending on the species of penguin, they can be from sixteen inches to three feet seven inches tall and weigh anywhere from 2.2 pounds to 75 pounds. They can live in arctic or tropical conditions. They are social animals and will approach you. They are known to eat mainly fish. Nils Olav was a knighted penguin for over 35 years in Norway for the Norwegian Kings Guards.
The Ugliest Animals I Have Ever Seen
The Almiqui
This black, reddish brown or dark brown night dwelling animal has short legs, an elongated head, tiny eyes, a flexible snout, and skin glands that release a goat like smell. These animals will eat snakes, frogs, and crabs.
The Ancient Japanese Shark
The ancient Japanese Shark makes its home 2000 feet below sea level. It’s eel like with a mouth full of needles. This creature has not followed the laws of evolution very well, considering it remains almost exactly the same as it did in the prehistoric times.
The Armadillo
The armadillo has up to twenty different species in their mammal genre. They have short legs with sharp claws, so they can forge for food, which consists of ants, beetles, grubs, flesh of already dead animals and plants.
The Echidna
This animal is a hedgehog like creature that, like the duckbill platypus, will lay eggs and produce milk for its young. They have two layers of fur, one for warmth and one for protection.
The Elephant Seal
The Elephant Seal can weigh up to 8,800 pounds. Their diet consists of fish, squid and various other marine animals. The reason that they are called an elephant seal is because during the breeding season they are able to inflate their noses and it looks like a trunk.
The Hairless Mouse
The hairless mouse will have thin skin. It might even be almost see through and have a few wrinkles throughout the body with bright eyes and large unwrinkled ears.
The Hatchet Fish
The hatchet Fish got its name because the body of this fish is in the shape of a hatchet. Their eyes are on the top of their heads and they are no more than six inches in length.
The Human Bot Fly Larvae
The Human Bot Fly Larvae, also known as the maggot, will imbed itself in a mammal and like there until it becomes a fly. It will cause pain for its victim until the time it is removed.
The Naked Mole Rat
The naked mole rat looks like a tiny walrus. It has a tubular body that is wrinkled and hairless. They tend to eat roots, bulbs, seed and small plants.
The Penis Fish
This fish can grow up to six inches in length and it will insert itself into your urethra, if you happen to be urinating in the waters of the Amazon. They look like a catfish, but can be deadly to the recipient of them.
The Proboscis Monkey
The Proboscis Monkey has large noses and pot bellies. They will eat seeds, leaves, and green fruit, but don’t use their tales for grip like most primates. It is used more for balance.
The Soft Shell Turtle
The soft shell turtle’s nose is like a built in snorkel mechanism. It will help them breath under water and on land when they burrow. Their shells are leathery and soft and they have webbed feet.
The Star Nosed Mole
The star nosed mole will eat water based insects, worms and mollusks. This mole is a good swimmer and keeps house under water, mainly. Its fur is water repellant; it has scaly feet and a thick, long tail. The nose as 22 pink tentacle like appendages that are used to identify food by touch.
The Tarsier
The Tarsier have eyes that are large and do not rotate. They can, however, turn their head almost all the way around. Their arms and legs are longer than most primates. They will eat insects, birds, lizards and bats.
The Vampire Sea Spider from Antarctica
The vampire sea spider from Antarctica lives at the bottom of the ocean and use a straw like appendage to suck on their prey. They feed on the slow moving, soft bodied sponges and sea slugs that live at the very bottom of the ocean.
The Viperfish
The viperfish has a large mouth with fang like sharp teeth that are too large to fit in its mouth. It is only a foot in length, but it is fearsome and will use its teeth to impale its prey, while moving at a high rate of speed.
Weird Worms
There are many different species of worms, but there are only a number of them that can be classified as weird, odd, or even bizarre. These worms range in color and size. Throughout this article you will find thirteen of the weirdest looking worms found in the world.
Giant Blue Earthworm
This giant blue earthworm is a native to Borneo. It is grey-blue in color and will grow up to 70cm in length. Like most earthworms you are only able to spot them after a downpour of rain.
The Pig Butt Worm
This worm was discovered in 2007. It lives below the ocean’s surface. It is a segmented worm, it just so happens that the middle segment is flat and it causes the other segment to inflate and give it the distinct shape of a pig’s butt.
Palouse Earthworm
This worm is native to Washington State and can even be found in certain parts of Idaho. It was discovered in 1897 and will burrow into the Earth’s surface as far down as fifteen feet. This worm will grow up to three feet in length. It is an albino worm and has been known to leave the scent of a lily. If it feels threatened it will protect itself by spitting.
Red Mangrove Flatworm
These worms are only two to three centimeters in length. They come in a dark red, maroon, or brown color with pale speckles. They can be found living on the bottom of the ocean.
Spoon Worms
This worm is often seen near the sea grass areas of the northern shore of Singapore. These worms are not segmented, but can grow up to ten centimeters in length. The spoon part of its body is in front of the mouth and it will help in the gathering of its food.
Medusa Worm
These worms can be found in the Atlantic Ocean near Spain. They survive on the methane provided by the mud volcanoes they live in. They are often called the Spaghetti worm. Being that it is a newer species, little is known about them.
Zombie Ants Lured by Beer
Beer could be used to bait an exotic ant to sterilise its
queen and turn the colony into zombies.
The browsing ant was discovered feasting on the yeast and
sugar of broken beer bottles at the Port of Darwin at East Arm by vigilant
wharfies in July.
The wharfies reported the unusual find, prompting the
introduction of a multiple government detector sniffer dog program.
The browsing ant poses a substantial threat to the food
chain of native animals and may have originated from East Timor.
Primary Industry Minister Willem Westra van Holthe
introduced three-year-old labrador detector dog Willow as a potential weapon
against the pest and was not surprised at how the exotic ants were discovered.
“Most ants are attracted to liquids or moisture so it is
possible ants will be found around beer bottles,” he said. “Who doesn’t like a
beer on a hot day?”
Mr van Holthe said people needed to be vigilant in
identifying these pests. “If these browsing ant colonies were to expand across
the Northern Territory they would pose a significant risk to our native fauna,
particularly in the insect world,” he said. “They form super colonies with
multiple queens. We’ve had to move quickly to deal with this.”
So far the browsing ant has been found in four locations,
all at the port.
Willow is trained in the detection of fire ants in
Queensland but will also be trained in the odour detection of the browsing
ants. Australia is the first country to use sniffer dogs in this way.
The national director of the Fire and Electric Ant
eradication program, Sarah Corcoran, said Willow would be trained to detect
browsing ants in Queensland before returning to the Territory.
“The bait being used is an insect growth regulator,’’ Ms
Corcoran said.
“The ants, when they are foraging, pick up the bait and
feed it to the queen.
“Eventually she becomes sterile and stops producing the
eggs. But the colonies don’t realise the effect and the ants end up like the
walking dead.’’
Seals Caught Having Sex With Penguins (video)
Seals have been caught having sex with penguins,
leaving scientists puzzled.
The odd behaviour, seen on a remote island, was captured
on camera and published in the Polar Biology journal, according to the BBC and
other media.
It’s not the first time amorous seals have been spotted
forcing themselves on the little birds — a similar incident was reported in
2006.
But this time it has happened more often — and has been
caught on film. Warning: The video below may upset some people.
“Honestly I did not expect that follow up sightings of a
similar nature to that 2006 one would ever be made again, and certainly not on
multiple occasions,’’ Nico de Bruyn, of the Mammal Research Institute at the
University of Pretoria, South Africa, said. .
Fur seals often catch and eat penguins on the island, but
in three out of the four sexual incidents the penguin was allowed to go after
its ‘encounter’.
The fourth penguin was eaten.
Scientists are now trying to work out why the seals are
behaving as they are, and have peculated that the mammals may have learned the
habit from one another.
You can see the bizarre behaviour here:
2/29/2016
A Shrimp is One of The Loudest Animals On The Planet
A Shrimp is One of The Loudest Animals On The Planet
Today I found out that a tiny shrimp known as the Snapping Shrimp or Pistol Shrimp, is on one of the loudest creatures in the World.
This tiny shrimp species (Alpheus heterochaelis) belonging to the Alpheidae family grows to only 1-2 inches (3-5 cms) long, but don’t let its size fool you. The tiny finger sized critter is capable of producing a sound louder than a jet engine!
These crustaceans are often a dirty-green color. They prowl the shallow waters of tropical seas like the Mediterranean. They can be easily identified as it sports one normal claw and one noticeably larger snapper claw. Its disproportionately large claw can be up to half its body size which makes it look like it’s wearing an overgrown boxing glove.
The shrimp can be left-handed or right-handed and may feature the special claw on either arm of the body, but unlike regular shrimp claws and other crustaceans, it does not have pincers at the end of it. Instead the claw is designed rather like a pistol with two parts: a “hammer” part, that moves backward into a right-angled position, and the other half of the claw is in a fixed closed position. When it releases the hammer part of the claw it snaps perfectly into position and makes its tooth-shaped plunger move into a niche in the other half of the claw.
It was once believed that the sound was generated when the two claw surfaces hit each other. But research has since shown that this isn’t the case. The snapping action of the claw actually shoots out a jet of water at up to 62 miles an hour (100km/hr) which generates a low pressure cavitation bubble that bursts with a loud snap. This phenomenon can be explained by Bernoulli’s principle, which states that for an inviscid flow, an increase in the speed of the fluid occurs simultaneously with a decrease in pressure or a decrease in the fluid’s potential energy. In simpler terms, when a liquid moves above a certain speed, the pressure within the liquid decreases. When this pressure drops, it allows tiny air bubbles in these fast-moving fluids to expand and if the pressure builds back up, the bubbles implode.
The snap of the bubbles also produces something known as sonoluminescence, which is caused when the collapsing cavitation bubble reaches temperatures of over 4700 degrees Celsius or 5000 Kelvin. That is almost as hot as the surface of the sun, estimated at around 5,800 Kelvin (5,500 °C)! The sonoluminescence also produces a short, intense flash of light, lasting no longer than 10 nanoseconds and as short as 300 picoseconds (A picosecond is one trillionth of a second, a time scale beyond the measurement capability of researchers’ tools) and which can’t be seen by the naked eye.
The whole process from the snapping of the claw to the burst of the bubble and the loud sound is almost instantaneous and takes place within 300 microseconds. Researchers were only able to study this fascinating creature’s abilities through ultra high-speed cameras that take 40,000 frames per second.
The shrimp uses this inherent talent for hunting prey, hence it’s called the pistol shrimp. While hunting, the little shrimp hides behind an obscured spot like a burrow and shoots its flashy bubbles at passing prey. The pressure of the snapping bubble is sufficient to stun a passing crab or even kill small fish. It then pulls the stunned catch into it’s burrow and feeds on it.
The snapping shimp has proven to be stiff competition for larger animals like the Sperm Whale (230+ decibels) and Beluga Whale for the title of ‘loudest animal in the sea’. The snap of its claw releases a sound that can reach 218 decibels- louder than a gunshot. This species sometimes also live in colonies that can number over 300 members. Divers have witnessed the ceaseless cacophony that colonies of these shrimps produce; their loud crackling sound has been described as if a hundred people are cracking their knuckles at once, or like sizzling of fat in a pan or like 100 people bursting bubble wrap at once!
Bonus Facts:
- Colonies of snapping shrimp consist of a single large female, the queen, and possibly a single male. The offspring are divided into workers who care for the young and soldiers who protect the colony with their huge claws. Most of the soldiers are males.
- Aquarium hobbyists have given up on trying to keep pistol shrimps in aquariums as the sonic blast of these tiny creatures easily cracks the aquarium glass
- Another fascinating thing about these amazing creatures is that Naval Submarines have been known to hide amongst beds of Pistol shrimp to hide from sonar detection. Apparently the noise they create is so much that other submarines find it impossible to pickup other noises using sonar.
- Pistol shrimp have have the ability to reverse claws. When the snapping claw is lost, the missing limb will regenerate into a smaller claw and the original smaller appendage will grow into a new snapping claw.
- The Pistol Shrimp often shares a symbiotic association with the goby (fish). The goby has a good eye-sight and thus, warns the shrimp of any approaching predator in the exchange of food that the shrimp provides to the goby and the burrow that the Shrimp digs for both, itself and the goby, to live in.
12/08/2015
6/01/2015
The Zombie Wasp Is So, So Much Worse Than You Think
You hear the term “zombie wasp” and think “That’s awful! Why is it worse?” Because it’s a misnomer! The zombie wasp, Ampulex dementor, does not, in fact, turn cockroaches into zombies. It’s worse. So much worse.
Here’s the deal: The dementor wasp, discovered by the World Wildlife Fund and named after the Harry Potter wraiths, targets its prey the cockroach, swoops in for the sting, and hits it with venom. The venom in question blocks octopamine receptors. In humans, this is no big deal; basically, if you take MAOIs, they’ll stop working. Yes, nature has created a wasp that can defeat your depression meds.
Cockroaches, though, need octopamine to move. So, essentially, the venom doesn’t actually paralyze the roach; it’s capable of independent movement, its tiny roach brain just can’t control its legs. Once the wasp sees the venom is working, it drags the roach off to be eaten alive. Yep, it’s just going to lie there and be ripped apart, feeling it all and unable to do anything about it. It’s a wasp straight out of Harlan Ellison’s worst nightmares.
The good news is that the dementor wasp, and we’ll note that name was chosen by zoo visitors, isonly found in Thailand and has little interest in attacking humans unless they tick it off. With that name and how it eats, somehow we suspect it won’t have to worry about humans staying clear.
