They are notoriously shy around
humans, beating their tails and chattering their teeth to try to warn us
off before emitting loud whistles to tell other members of their colony
to flee.
But when these alpine marmots see Matteo Walch, they scuttle to his side and show him nothing but affection.
The
eight-year-old built up a remarkable relationship with the creatures
since first being taken to see them by his nature-loving family four
years ago.
Friday, 14 November 2014
Thursday, 13 November 2014
How Cats Drink
High-speed video footage of household pets feeding has revealed the
exquisite balance of forces at work when a cat laps a bowl of milk.
While dogs use their tongues to scoop up liquid, the cat's tongue makes only the briefest contact with the liquid's surface, before quickly retracting to pull a thin column of milk into the mouth.
The act of lapping is judged so perfectly the cat catches the milk in its mouth before gravity overcomes the liquid's inertia inducing it to fall back into the bowl.
The unusual study began when Roman Stocker, an expert in fluid mechanics at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, became fascinated by watching his eight-year-old cat, Cutta Cutta, drinking at breakfast time.
Without funding or turning to his own graduate students for help, Stocker assembled a diverse team of experts to investigate the commonplace mystery of how cat lapping works.
Writing in the US journal Science, the researchers describe how they analysed video footage of domestic and big cats and found they all lapped in the same way. As the cat's tongue is extended it curls under so that the top surface of the tip makes contact, but does not break the surface of the fluid. Some liquid sticks to the tongue and rises in a column as the cat retracts it. The liquid is drawn upwards by the drop in pressure created by the fast moving tongue.
High-speed video revealed that domestic cats average about four laps per second, with each lap bringing 0.1 millilitres of liquid into the mouth. Larger cats draw up thicker columns of liquid and so can afford to lap more slowly.
"The amount of liquid available for the cat to capture each time it closes its mouth depends on the size and speed of the tongue. Our research suggests that the cat chooses the speed in order to maximise the amount of liquid ingested per lap," said Jeffrey Aristoff, a co-author on the study. "Cats are smarter than people think, at least when it comes to hydrodynamics."
The team went built a mechanical model of a cat's tongue that could move up and down over a bowl of water, allowing them to explore the mechanism underpinning lapping.
The cat is not the first animal known to exploit a fine balance between inertia and gravity. The Basilisk lizard can run on water by slapping the surface with its feet to create air pockets that prevent it sinking, providing it moves fast enough.
While dogs use their tongues to scoop up liquid, the cat's tongue makes only the briefest contact with the liquid's surface, before quickly retracting to pull a thin column of milk into the mouth.
The act of lapping is judged so perfectly the cat catches the milk in its mouth before gravity overcomes the liquid's inertia inducing it to fall back into the bowl.
The unusual study began when Roman Stocker, an expert in fluid mechanics at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, became fascinated by watching his eight-year-old cat, Cutta Cutta, drinking at breakfast time.
Without funding or turning to his own graduate students for help, Stocker assembled a diverse team of experts to investigate the commonplace mystery of how cat lapping works.
Writing in the US journal Science, the researchers describe how they analysed video footage of domestic and big cats and found they all lapped in the same way. As the cat's tongue is extended it curls under so that the top surface of the tip makes contact, but does not break the surface of the fluid. Some liquid sticks to the tongue and rises in a column as the cat retracts it. The liquid is drawn upwards by the drop in pressure created by the fast moving tongue.
High-speed video revealed that domestic cats average about four laps per second, with each lap bringing 0.1 millilitres of liquid into the mouth. Larger cats draw up thicker columns of liquid and so can afford to lap more slowly.
"The amount of liquid available for the cat to capture each time it closes its mouth depends on the size and speed of the tongue. Our research suggests that the cat chooses the speed in order to maximise the amount of liquid ingested per lap," said Jeffrey Aristoff, a co-author on the study. "Cats are smarter than people think, at least when it comes to hydrodynamics."
The team went built a mechanical model of a cat's tongue that could move up and down over a bowl of water, allowing them to explore the mechanism underpinning lapping.
The cat is not the first animal known to exploit a fine balance between inertia and gravity. The Basilisk lizard can run on water by slapping the surface with its feet to create air pockets that prevent it sinking, providing it moves fast enough.
Monday, 27 October 2014
Wednesday, 15 October 2014
In a US slaughterhouse a secret video was made by workers (not animal
activists) and given to the Washington Post. The tape revealed conscious
animals going down the processing line, and an incident where an
electric prod was jammed into a steer’s mouth. According to the
Post..”More than 20 signed affidavits alleging that the violations shown
on the tape were commonplace and that supervisors are aware of them”.
In one affidavit, a worker explained,..”I’ve seen thousands and
thousands of cows go through the slaughter process alive…The cows can
get seven minutes down the line and still be alive. I’ve been in the the
side puller where they are still alive. All the hide is stripped out
down the neck there.” And when workers who complain are listened to at
all, they get fired. Another worker said..”I’ve never seen a (USDA) vet
near the knocking pen. Nobody wants to come back there. See, I’m an
ex-Marine. The blood and guts don’t bother me, it’s the inhumane
treatment. There’s just so much of it.”
https://www.uta.edu/philosophy/faculty/burgess-jackson/Warrick,%20They%20Die%20Piece%20by%20Piece%20(2001).pdf
Via fightingforanimals
https://www.uta.edu/philosophy/faculty/burgess-jackson/Warrick,%20They%20Die%20Piece%20by%20Piece%20(2001).pdf
Wednesday, 24 September 2014
Tuesday, 16 September 2014
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