A look at the Giant Cheetah, Acinonyx pardinensis – it’s basically a cheetah but bigger (and possibly slower) but it allows us to learn about the role of adaptation as an evolutionary mechanism.
Category Archives: natural history
Caturday Special: The Sand Cat, Felis margarita
The sandcat, one of the cutest and most amazing cats on the planet. This small, adorable bundle of fluff has been known to eat desert monitor lizards its own size and venomous snakes – although mostly it eats small rodents, lizards, birds and insects. They rarely drink, using their efficient kidneys to obtain moisture from their prey. They’re just unbelievable, something this cute should not be so tough but they are hard as nails and can teach us a lot about how we should adapt to our environment rather than unsustainably developing techniques and technologies that force our environment to adapt to us.
Be more sandcat.
On the Origin of a Species – The Slow Worm, Anguis fragilis
A look at one of the world’s most interesting reptiles and one of Britains few native reptiles, the slow worm, anguis fragilis – looking at its evolutionary history, remarkable behaviours and why they’re so great.
Grown Up’s Guides: UK Fossil Hunting
A guide by an adult for adult so they can feel more comfortable going with friends, family or their children to enjoy a day out hunting for fossils. Why? Because it’s cool and there’s a lot to see and learn about like bones and teeth and dinosaurs and ammonites and ammonoids and bivalves and crinoids and trilobites and sharks teeth and all this wonderful stuff. Just get out and do it!
On the Origin of a Species: The Red Panda, Ailurus fulgens
A look at this taxonomically, physiologically, anatomically confusing but absolutely, undoubtedly cute little species, the red panda, Ailurus fulgens. Once thought related to raccoons, or the giant panda, it now stands in a family of its own proving, even to cynics like me, that taxonomy is not just useless bickering about arbitrary classifications.
Caturday Special: The Leopard, Panthera pardus
With this study of the leopard we have written about every extant pantherine. There are no more big cat species of that genus left to cover. The leopard is a beautiful, generalist, opportunist species adapted for a wide variety of habitats, explaining it’s wide distribution. It is a cat also associated with the Greek God Dionysus, the God of wine.
Folkestone Museum: Tiny Charm
a look at the small museum in Folkestone’s old town hall. Showing off Folkestone maritime history, importance during world wars I and II, the romano-british history of Folkestone including finds from the villa on East Cliff and the natural history of Folkestone including the famous Cretaceous dinosaur footprints.
Caturday Special: Homotherium
A look at the lesser-explored but no less impressive sabre toothed cat genus Homotherium – with a wealth of evidence for a brutal, chasing hunting style, potentially pack hunting, almost certainly a social cat, Homotherium perhaps deserves a lot more care, attention and understanding than its more widely known cousin the Smilodon.
Also they butchered stuff…Awesome!
Top Ten Hated (But Misunderstood) Animals – 1 – Wasps
It’s about wasps!
Top Ten Hated (But Misunderstood) Animals – 2 – The Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus)
The brown rat (rattus norvegicus) is a beautiful, cute and highly successful creature that has not only become a companion of humans across the world but helps us dispose of our rubbish by eating it, helps maintain our sewers by keeping them clean and clear for their own purposes and has sacrificed uncountable members of its species to further our scientific curiosity.
Yet they are universally hated as a disease-spreading pest, a destroyer of crops, a horrid and beastly home invader and – it’s bollocks. It’s mostly lies, unfounded myth.
This is my rat redemption. It’s time we change the way we think about rats and learn to live alongside them. If for nothing else than the noble sacrifices they have become in our medical services industry.
We Lack Discipline 