There might be more death out there, but I encountered two squirrels (one just dead and soggy; the other very dead and wasted), and a crow under a tree (no more noise out of you). I also saw a great bird of some kind circling above the Jose Rizal Bridge. It was looking and looking and looking for the right movement, the right size of life, the right moment to strike and kill.

Holy fucking shit. Iran is all worried about getting its hands on some nuclear weapons when its biggest city is dealing with the biggest rats ever seen.

Tehran, the capital of Iran, is battling an invasion of "genetically mutated" giant rats.

Iran has sent in sniper teams to clear Tehran's streets from the massive rodents weighting up to five kilos plaguing 26 district of the Iranian capital, the city's environmental agency said.

"They seem to have had a genetic mutation, probably as a result of radiations and the chemical used on them," Ismail Kahram, Teheran city council environment adviser and university professor Ismail Kahram told Qudsonline.ir.

"They are now bigger and look different. These are changes that normally take millions of years of evolution. They have jumped from 60 grams to five kilos, and cats are now smaller than them."

The "mutated rats" have been running rampant in the capital, as cats are scared off by their giant size and traditional poison appear to have no effect on them.

This was posted a few weeks ago in the Atlantic's blog Cities:

Last week, on a Seattle winter evening, my dog and I stood at a neighborhood street corner in a spontaneous meeting with an urban coyote who, for several moments, owned my neighborhood pavement with conviction. Upon rounding a corner and coming face-to-face, the coyote cast a long stare (with those "I am not a pet" eyes I once saw in Africa), turned around, and moved on. For this feral, walkable urbanist, the city sidewalk was clearly as customary a migration route as wooded paths or the open plain.

As for the "eyes I once saw in Africa" comment, today I will give it a rest.

It's the third craziness...

The first shock was very sudden. The mayor-domo at Quiriquina told me, that the first notice he received of it, was finding both the horse he rode and himself, rolling together on the ground. Rising up, he was again thrown down. He also told me that some cows which were standing on the steep side of the island were rolled into the sea.

The New York Times has some dogilicious photos of all the best of breed from this week's Westminster Dog Show. Chock-full of cuteness, weirdness, and gorgeousness for dog lovers.

I love you, Roger the Pekingese!

Check them out here.

After my post about why cats are so useful to us, a related post about why rats sometimes don't fear the smell of our cats. The idea is explained by, again, the great thinker and researcher of mammalian emotions Jaak Panksepp, but this time he is interviewed on Ginger Brown's other podcast, Brain Science Podcast. (I highly recommend it to those who are interested in the new developments in neuroscience.) The thing is this: Rats can become fearless if they are infected by a particular parasite.

Dr. Campbell: Is that toxoplasmosis?

Dr. Panksepp: Toxoplasma gondii... which is very prevalent in the world; many people are infected with it. France seems to have the highest level of infection. We get it from our cats. That's why mothers should not be cleaning cat poop out of a litter box.

It turns out that Toxoplasma gondii, in order to reproduce, the only place it reproduces is the stomach of a cat. So, how does Toxoplasma get into the stomach of a cat? Obviously by things cats eat. Cats like to prey on little rodents. Little rodents get exposed to Toxoplasma gondii. The cat eats it. And when the cat eats it, it eats rodents that aren't too scared of it. It turns out that Toxoplasma makes rats less fearful of cat smell.

Toxoplasma actually gets into the brain, as Sapolsky has shown, and blocks the cat smell from activating fear. Wow! That means these rats are more liable to end up in the stomach of a cat. So, that makes a wonderful evolutionary story: how a little bug outwitted the rat emotional system to get into the cat's stomach.

Seeing all the bad press cats are getting lately, it's important to remember why we keep them around in the first place. To help us in this remembering, let's turn to a recent interview of the brilliant scientist and thinker of the roots of mammalian emotions Jaak Pankseep on Ginger Brown's podcast Books and Ideas.

Dr. Campbell: So, what about your laboratory rats and mice? Hasn't your research shown that they are born afraid of the smell of cats?

Dr. Panksepp: Yes, that seems to be a very well replicated phenomenon; many, many people are using it now. It does seem like the smell of a cat has been evolutionarily built into a rat's brain; that there are receptors in the olfactory apparatus...

Dr. Campbell: Jaak, what happens if you put a rat in a box that has cat hair in one corner? I guess it starts out exploring, and it finds the cat hair, and it has a fear response.

Dr. Panksepp: Yes.

Dr. Campbell: The next day, if you put it in that same box, does it remember that the cat smell was in the box?

Dr. Panksepp: It remembers it very well. We did this with our favorite behavior, which is happy, rough-and-tumble play. And when we had animals playing in a box, and then one day we just put 20 mg of cat hair into the box, the play went to zero; no animal showed any play.

Now, some animals freeze and just stay as far away from it as possible; other animals seem more courageous, and they actually approach it. And they might actually manipulate, and say what is this? But it certainly shifts their desire to socially engage playfully. There's some kind of worry that prevents play...

Continue reading »

The bright side...

Poor little guy: A family lost their pet tortoise and then found him, alive, in a locked storeroom 30 years later. The Telegraph has the full story.

Check out these terrific/informative videos from Burt's Bees, where founder Burt Shavitz talks to a queen bee, a drone bee, and some worker bees (all played by Isabella Rossellini). Full of interesting bee facts and cool bee costumes!

Elle magazine has an article about Burt Shavitz and the beauty industry's new interest in bee products:

Shavitz was a trailblazer, not only in his pre-artisanal-Brooklyn-era decision to ditch his media job and live off the land, but also in his instinctual understanding of the value of bees, both for his own and the greater good. Shavitz has been a sort of custodian and de facto publicist for the species. The company has worked tirelessly to call attention to Colony Collapse Disorder, creating the Honeybee Health Improvement Project to fund research grants, taking a stand against pesticide use, and giving every employee a stipend to take beekeeping classes.

Things you can do to help bees:
Plant wildflowers
Buy local honey
Support organic farms.

Welcome to Slog's newest series "Now I've Seen Everything" in which I see something I've never seen before, proclaim "Now I've seen everything!" and then kill myself. Today in things I've never seen (but now that I have, I've seen everything), are two dogs arguing with each other over Skype. Not over the concept of Skype, but actually Skyping each other and arguing! And what's even more infuriating is that the argument that the two dogs are having isn't even all that interesting. Something about someone being promised a bone, and not receiving it? WHO CARES, DOGS?? You are the first two dogs to ever Skype!! Can't you fucking get along for two fucking seconds and make some fucking history by talking about something that fucking MATTERS? Like, I don't know... gun control... or the fiscal cliff... or how it's wrong to make fun of people with dreadlocks? GAHH! Well, on the upside I don't have to kill myself because until two dogs actually say something of merit to each other on Skype, I truly have not "seen everything." (I'll keep looking though!)

SF Chronicle:

If Charlie can be put in a sanctuary for troubled dogs, that would be fine. But he's a dangerous dog. That's not one opinion, it is several. He viciously attacked a Park Service horse on Crissy Field on Aug. 6. He slashed the horse on the flank and latched onto a leg. When the horse threw his rider and broke free, Charlie chased him for a mile and a half and was frightened off only when a motorcycle patrolman cut him off and blasted an air horn. Taking the injuries into account and the persistence of the attacks, a Police Department review determined that Charlie was vicious and dangerous and should be put down. Gizzarelli protested, and an evaluation was held with the eminent veterinarian a month later. That evaluation seconded the diagnosis of a dangerous dog with predatory instincts.

But there's no such thing as a bad pit bull. Only bad owners badly trained police horses:

The owner of a pit bull named Charlie who is facing a state-court euthanasia order after reportedly chasing a police horse a mile and a half in a San Francisco park last year has filed suit in federal court to get a restraining order.... An independent veterinary behaviorist reportedly has found the dog to have a severe predatory behavior issue. However, many observers have rallied to support Charlie, arguing that the police horse wasn't properly trained to deal with dogs.

I propose that SF train its police horses not to run from pit bulls that have slashed their flanks and are chewing on their legs—that could trigger a pit bull's predatory instincts—but to turn and stomp to the fucking dog to death.

Sometimes they foil an attempted mugging.

A 52-year-old woman told officers she was walking her boyfriend’s pit bull about 6 p.m. Tuesday on the beach near 76th Avenue North when a man armed with a knife approached her and demanded her cell phone and anything else she had with her, police said.

The woman said the man wore dark clothing and a ski mask covered his face as he pointed the knife at her throat, according to the report. The woman said the pit bull became aggressive and bit at the suspect.

Sometimes they eat your heroin stash.

A man who allegedly “completely disembowled” his pet pit bull because the dog swallowed a bag of heroin has been charged with animal cruelty, according to police.

Sometimes they bite your head.

An Oshkosh woman needed stitches after a dog bit her in the head Monday afternoon.

The 18-year-old woman had been in a verbal argument with another person at her residence in the 1500 block of Hazel Street, but had gone upstairs about 2:35 p.m. A 3-year-old pit bull then ran upstairs and attacked the woman. The dog bit the woman in the head, causing two lacerations that required stitches

Piers Morgan vs. Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America.

• warmer/shutterstock
• Cute poison!

Via discovery.com:

Researchers have discovered a new slow loris species in the jungles of Borneo, according to findings published this week in the American Journal of Primatology.

Known for its toxic bite, the slow loris — a nocturnal primate found across Southeast Asia — is closely related to a lemur and is characterized by unique fur coloration on its face and body.

An international team of scientists pinpointed the new species, found in Borneo's central-east highland area, by studying the distinctive colorings of the faces of the animals.

"Differences among these facemasks resulted in recognition of four species of Borneaon and Philippine lorises," the statement said. "Of these, Nycticebus kayan is a new group unrecognized before as distinct."

The team's analysis also recognized two other species, previously considered as possible sub-species, as unique.

So cute. So toxic. I love them.