Bengal

On Friday I spent a few hours volunteering at the Harrisonburg/Rockingham SPCA. I was in the cat room going from cage to cage petting the cats and giving them some much needed love. They were all fluffy, soft, fat and cute; the average house cat. From the other side of the cages I heard a weird sound. It wasn't the soft meow that was coming from all the other cats, it was harsh. It was a small version of what I imagine a big wild cat would make. I walked closer and noticed this cat was definitely different. What I saw was a mini leopard. In reality it was a Bengal and it was just as sweet as all the rest of normal everyday house cats. There is no actual relation to tiger with the same name.

Bengals are a cross between short haired domesticated cats and the Asian Leopard Cat. It got the looks of the Asian cat and the temperament of the house cat. It truly is a beautiful animal. They have a black eyeliner around the eyes and a slightly bigger snout like its wild ancestors.
It will breed with both house cats and the Asian Leopard Cat, which is strange since most crossed animals are sterile. They also have wonderful immune systems and will stay healthy even when all the cats around it are diseased and sick.

It's not really wise to grab your kitty,break into the nearest zoo, and put on some romantic music. Unfortunately, you won't get the gentle kitty you are hoping for. It takes at least three generations for the wildness to completely leave the cats temperament.

Bengals are very popular with the general public and many people love the way this beautiful animal looks, but it isn't widely recognized in cat shows. Most of these shows won't accept hybrid animals. People are trying but it doesn't look like you will see a Bengal in a cat show anytime soon, but they aren't going anywhere in the area of being a wonderful house pet.

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FUN FACT:

Bengals love water!

http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmx3l2NpZ_4

http://www.bengal-cats.org/

My Bad

I was looking at my blog today and realized that my last two blogs weren't on the page. I forgot to publish them and only saved them instead, so I will post them now. Guess I will be paying more attention from now on!

Aardvark

I can remember being in the third grade and running home to watch my favorite TV show. I grabbed the remote and sat down and flipped straight to PBS. Arthur and his friends were doing crazy things and encouraged me to read. I never really knew the answer to one question though. Until one day when Arthur entered a spelling bee. "I know how to spell this word, it's what I am." He then sang and danced in order to remember how to spell the word: A-A-R-D-V-A-R-K!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOcyzddfvvM

Other than what I learned on Arthur, I realized I didn't know a whole lot about aardvarks and decided it would be my new blog topic.

Although Arthur lived in Elwood City, a real aardvark (Orycteropus afer) would be found in Africa. If were walking around in the daytime in Africa, you probably still wouldn't see one since they are nocturnal. They look a lot like an anteater, but have no relation. The aardvark is named the way it is because the Dutch though it looked like a pig and the dutch work varken means pig and aarde means ground/earth: "ground pig".

Aardvarks eat ants and termites and use their powerful claws to ruin colonies in order to get to the insects.It then uses its long straw like tongue to suck the insects into its mouth. It also uses its claws to dig complicated and intricate burrows. Aardvarks live alone so only a mother and her young will live in the same burrow. Its main defense is its claws. If attacked in its burrow it will turn around in its burrow and attack the attacker or if it can escape it will close off the burrow; burying the attacker. If an aardvark is attacked outside of its burrow it will roll over onto its back and use all four claws and slash open the attackers face.

A baby aardvark is able to find food and fend for itself by 16 weeks but doesn't leave the mother until the next mating season. They will live anywhere where they can dig and there are insects available.









FUN FACT:

When Marvel comics were coming up for the idea for Spiderman they started out with Aardvarkman but decided having a superhero with such a long tongue would seem to be more of a villain. They then opted for Spiderman.











http://www.awf.org/

Yeti Crab

Imagine walking along the beach, enjoying the sea air. All the sudden a crab crawls out of the ocean. Its arms are completely covered in what seems like hair. It looks almost like the abominable snow monster from Rudolph. That is the exact reason it is named the Yeti Crab (Kiwa hirsuta). Only one has ever been studied and described at any length. The "hair" on its long arms is actually flexible setae. The yeti Crab was discovered in 2005 slightly south of Easter Island(near Chile) and it made it's first comedic appearance in a webcomic named Sheldon. It lives in the Pacific Ocean in hot sulfur water. The Yeti crab has a diet of mostly algae, but have been known to have a feast when they come across a oyster with a weak or cracked shell.

The Yeti Crab truly looks like a big lobster that glued yellow yarn on it's arms. The first person to name this crab actually referred to it as the yeti lobster. It does look quite a lot like a lobster , but is scientifically more similar to the crab. This crab doesn't have very strong eyes because of a lack of pigment and is considered blind. It's hair actually filters the water surrounding the underwater hot vents where it lives. It is a natural filter.

The Yeti Crab really is bizarre looking. It's scientific name actually describes it quite well. Kiwa: Polynesian goddess of the shellfish; and hirsuta: meaning hairy in Latin.

http://www.accessscience.com/


news.nationalgeographic.com

Blob Fish

One of the funniest animals to look at in my opinion is the blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus). It looks like a big two foot long lump of old grease that someone drew a face on. As fake as it looks, it really does exist. It lives off the coast of Australia on the very bottom of the ocean. They are very rare, and not many people have ever seen them. Just imagine if you were the first person to ever see one of these; freaky. The first recorded description is in 1978. The first recorded large reproducing group was only found in 2000.

The blobfish is made of a gelatin like substance that allows it to live in depths that have 80 times the pressure that is found at sea level. This is why it has no bones. Any animal with bones would explode. They don’t need muscles either because they don’t have control over their bodies. Most of their live is just by chance. They float in the water right above the sea floor waiting for something to come into their mouths. They can do this because their bodies are slightly less dense than the water. This allows them to hover in the water. The blobfish doesn’t do a whole lot so there isn’t a whole lot to say about them.

One female blobfish can produce up to 108,000 eggs at a time, but most scientists believe that the blobfish is becoming extinct. This is hard to determine because they are so rare and live in such a hard to get to place. The real number of fish left is hard to determine. The people who most often see blobfish are crab fisherman. They catch them while trying to pull up crabs and don’t throw them back quick enough. Blobfish dry out very quickly and most end up dying on the floor of the boat.

The blobfish doesn’t lead a very interesting life, but they can certainly make a person laugh at their seemingly disgruntled features.

http://www.itsnature.org/sea/fish/blob-fish/

http://kottke.org/09/09/blobfish

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/7077472/Blobfish-worlds-most-miserable-looking-marine-animal-facing-exinction.html

http://ezinearticles.com/?All-About-Blob-Fish&id=2812680