‘Old business’ & new -- & things to do

“Is there any old business?”

Yes!  (I refer to saved but un-shared info about animals drawn from recent reading. Earth Day seems like a good time to put it out there so readers might be as surprised as I was by some of it.)  

Belated condolences to the owners of pets who died or were traumatized by gross mishandling three times last month by United Airlines employees: killed in the overhead bin, delivered to the wrong country and mistakenly loaded on board a flight.  By now, we can only hope United employees have been scared into carefulness.

“Fly the friendly skies”?  No thanks.  

http://abcnews.go.com/US/united-airlines-flight-diverted-dog-mistakenly-plane/story?id=53806484

“Many Animals Can Count, Some Better Than You,” according to a science story about “animal numerosity.”  Humans are definitely not the only animals smart enough to think quantitatively, the article says, citing examples from spiders, frogs and fish, as well as hyenas and chimps.

Spotted hyena

“Scientists have found that animals across the evolutionary spectrum have a keen sense of quantity, able to distinguish not just bigger from smaller or more from less, but two from four, four from ten, forty from sixty,” reports Natalie Angier, a favorite science writer.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/science/animals-count-numbers.html?em_pos=large&emc=edit_sc_20180205&nl=science-times&nlid=20760274&ref=headline&te=1

Here’s an amusing story about why there’s more research on dogs than cats. The writer collected various scientists’ theories for why that’s so – sometimes colored by their own feelings, choice of pets and/or stereotypes.

It’s worth noting the writer’s disclaimer: The research he’s interested in and writes about involves evolution, domestication, current genetics and behavior.  He was not asking about dogs and cats used as laboratory animals in invasive experiments. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/science/dog-science-cats.html?em_pos=medium&emc=edit_sc_20180226&nl=science-times&nl_art=0&nlid=20760274&ref=headline&te=1

If  it depended on my description in the last post, any law-breaking armadillo would escape the suspect line-up and go free.  My enthusiasm for the creatures overrode my accuracy in describing them; I completely omitted any reference to this armored mammal’s carapace, or protective shell!  

 Curled  armadillo                           belizar/Fotolia

Composed of “boney scale-like structures called scutes, topped with a layer of keratin (a component of hair, nails, and horns),” that set of plates, or the carapace, covers much of the armadillo’s body, including the head, legs and tail. One variety can curl itself up into an impenetrable ball when threatened by another armadillo or a predator. 

Remind Murphy: no more bear hunts
Also overlooked last time was this plea to help keep NJ Governor Phil Murphy honest.  During his election campaign, he pledged to end New Jersey’s fiendish bear hunts – aka trophy hunts.  Now it’s crucial to get that job done. 

That’s why the Animal Protection League of NJ urges everyone who cares about bears to phone the governor’s office – 609-292-6000 -- and remind Murphy of that pledge.

ACTION:  CALL 609-292-6000 and remind the Governor about his sacred promise to stop the bear hunt.

Fight anti-Earth Day acts
Today marks the 48^th annual celebration of Earth Day – an event that in 1970 opened the way for life-saving changes in our world.  The story below highlights some of the areas impacted then and since. While its graphic opening omits reference to endangered animals, the Endangered Species Act came out of Earth Day activism, along with the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The story also describes efforts by the current administration to undermine those laws – acts that are both incomprehensible and indefensible.  Resist!  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/21/climate/environmental-disasters-earth-day.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_180422

Word of the day 

Many of us are unfamiliar with this word or this feeling, but here it is: ailurophobia (ai-loor-uh-FOH-bee-uh, ay-) -- A fear of cats.  (Hard to imagine, isn’t it?)

                                             Imgur image in Wordsmith

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