Archive for the 'Animals' Category

They’re lucky that sow didn’t claw their eyes out and then rip their hearts out and eat it in front of the cubs as an object lesson.

I await comment by “The Alaskan.”

Three guys springing towards a bear and two cubs; one with some papers and one carrying a child. What exactly was the plan here? pic.twitter.com/VgDmR68CrS

— . (@Lead_Flinger) September 14, 2023

Via WiscoDave.

I’ve immensely enjoyed watching the Osprey family in Boulder, Colorado, for the season.  I saw the chicks when they hatched, watched them fledge, and watched them learn to fish for themselves, all in a single season.  And now they’ve migrated, all individually.  You might have seen images or video of the mother protecting her eggs in a hail storm.

Here are some other images.

Chick #3 hatched last, and had to fight for every morsel of food.  Every now and again when I saw dad bring in a fish and hand it off to mom, I’d scream at #3 to go get some.  This made for an interesting lunch break for me.  But he did learn to fight for himself, and was a big as the rest when he fledged and then eventually left the nest to migrate.  He was also first to learn to fish for himself.

And finally, one of dad himself, the big boy, the feeder and protector of the family.  He did have to chase away interlopers.

All the chicks lived, fledged, and presumably they all learned to fish.  I’ll see mom and dad again next year.  They mate for life and nest in the same location every year (after running off the squatters).

I may have shared this before, but it’s always a good watch when I stumble upon it.  From the comments: “The honey badger popping up after getting free from its coils and then going after it was probably the most gangster thing I’ve ever seen in the animal kingdom.”

Antelopes scale the cliffs and rocks.

And those wolves must have been mighty hungry to go after calf with a full grown, healthy Bison defending. From about seven years ago.

Just like dogs were meant to be, and with human companions.

I’ve thought about rescue Greyhounds before.

Herschel, you’re gonna need a bigger litter box.

Big bear fight.

Alligator versus Python.  I don’t like either one of them.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dev Shrestha (@d_shrestha10)

An Alaskan island of feral cattle.

F&S.

On the other hand, every horse is an individual, strong or weak, stupid or smart, slow or fast, placid or panicky. Moreover, horses respond to how well or poorly you ride them. If you saw at the reins, yank on the bit, flop around in the saddle, or kick constantly, you will soon be riding a very unhappy horse who will be thrilled to scrape you off its back by way of a low tree limb.

Horses are flesh and blood, and wear out. The average elk-hunt cayuse will probably be close to exhaustion by the time you get him, leg-weary and suffering from weeks of a poor diet. Have a heart and don’t beat on him. On the other hand, many horses loaf when they can get away with it, and a tap with a Field Expedient Equine Motivational Device (a switch, which you cut) will remind him of where his duty lies.

Horses are subject to panic attacks. For much of their history, they were what was for dinner, and so if something spooks them, they react instantly, either by kicking, or bucking, or stampeding. If you’re in the saddle when this happens, you’re in trouble. I’ve never known anyone who spent a lot of time with horses and did not get bashed, but good, at some point. Getting bashed is part of the mule vs horse equation no matter which side you take, but in my experience, horses employ a wider variety of ways to bash you.

The mule is a hybrid, produced by mating a male donkey, or jack, with a lady horse. Mules were familiar 3,000 years ago in ancient Egypt, and were originally imported and bred in America by George Washington, who was first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen, and first to ask “Why don’t we have mules?”, and do something about it.

Most mules weigh between 800 and 1,000 pounds. They come in all colors and can range way above or below those weights depending on the size of their dams. The creatures benefit from a phenomenon known as hybrid vigor; they inherit the best qualities of both the horse and the donkey. The list of ways in which mules outshine horses is so long as to be embarrassing.

Mules are stronger than horses. They can carry more weight and carry it farther without breaking down. During World War II, pack mules served the U.S. Army in Sicily, Italy, and the China-Burma-India Theatre, wherever there were mountains that Jeeps could not navigate and heavy loads that had to be carried over them. In Korea, the U.S. Army ignored mules, but the Chinese Army did not, and our G.I.s used captured mules, feeding them the cereal packets from their own rations. Special Forces used mules in Afghanistan, and at one point SF troopers could take a course in mule management at Ft. Bragg, N.C.

There are reasons for all this.

• Mules are smarter than horses (which is not all that difficult) and have better memories.
• They can subsist on less feed than a horse, and poorer feed.
• Their hooves are smaller, and harder, than a horse’s, and mules are much surer-footed.
• They can work in heat that would founder a horse.
• Mules live longer than horses and are more resistant to disease.
• If you treat them with kindness, they’ll bond with you in a way that horses won’t.

Mules don’t react to the world in the way that horses do. In the face of perceived peril, a mule will not panic and go thundering over a cliff. He will stop and think about the situation, and if he decides that whatever is afoot might be dangerous he will go no further. Mules, I’ve been told, will never do anything that might hurt them, and their legendary stubbornness is actually a form of self-preservation. (Mules will also balk if they’re confused or have no idea what you want them to do.)

I love horses, but I’ve ridden a mule before at the Grand Canyon (horses were too skittish to use near the big drops), and let me tell you, they are much bigger and stronger than horses.  Yea, a bit slow to react to neck reigning, but still mine was responsive to me because of my time training quarter horses, and there isn’t any situation where I had heavy weight to carry out West or up North where I wouldn’t rather have a mule with me.

That is one huge black bear.

This is an utterly fascinating video, and may be the first of a kind.  I spend time finding fascinating things for you that enable learning about nature, and machines and their operation, especially firearms. I hope you appreciate it. This apparently is a recent encounter in Yellowstone.

Believe it or not, the black bear backed down the grizzly, with the grizzly even running from the black bear.  For a while.  The grizzly eventually came in for the food, with the black bear wandering off (probably when he figured out that there would be a fight and someone would get hurt – which incidentally is probably the reason the grizzly ran from the black bear to begin with).  They were both wise bears that day.

This is cool.  A dog with four prosthetic legs takes a walk with a girl with one prosthetic leg.

Who would do something like this to a dog?  I suggest that we do the same thing to the jerk who had this idea.  It has a nice ending.

@waldosrescue The story of Braveheart is a good one ❤️ #adoptdontshop #petsoftiktok #rescue #rescuedog ♬ Little Bit More – Suriel Hess

That reader The Alaskan is always talking about how dangerous bears are.  He just needs to get a grip and brush those gentle giants like this lady.

A gang of Baboons let a bit cat know what’s what.  Numbers were the great equalizer in this case as I suspect in many others.

Good guy with a leash takes a shelter dog on a day out.  Hey, I know that place very well.  The walk by the river is very beautiful.

@aguyandagolden

We broke this defeated dog out of the shelter for out weekly Shelter Dog Saturday series. You can find him st Anderson County Paws.

♬ Oceans – Instrumental – Marcelo Cacilias

Ape gets freaked out by a Hedge Hog.

Why haven’t you given him a pool party before now?

People can teach birds to do a lot of things.  Please, please don’t teach them to dance to rap.

Good boy.

Very well done video documentary.