by Greg Mayer Today’s New York Times has an article about something I didn’t even know existed: cat agility competitions! The cats must run an obstacle course of tunnels, steps, hurdles, etc., and competitions are held at the major cat shows (which are better known for the judging of pedigreed cats; for the dog version, […]
by Greg Mayer Alert reader Dominic has sent me a link to EarthSky, which features camera trap photos of five species of cats from the island of Sumatra. The photos, taken by WWF-Indonesia, are further discussed at the WWF site. Here’s one of my favorites, a marbled cat, who seems to have noticed the camera, […]
by Greg Mayer Despite his blind spot when it comes to obscurantist theology, Andrew Sullivan is a good judge of other things, including cat videos. The cat, Oskar, was born without eyesight; a similarly afflicted cat is the subject of Gwen Cooper’s Homer’s Odyssey (Homer is the cat). Blind cats can apparently get along well […]
by Greg Mayer During this 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, it is edifying to recall that Abraham Lincoln was not only a great president, but a great cat-lover. “Disunion”, the NY Times series on the 150th anniversary (which is generally quite good), in a piece on regimental mascots and pets, notes […]
by Greg Mayer The ancient Egyptians would give anyone a run for their money when it comes to the care they lavished on their cats. Here’s a ca. 2000 year old cat mummy from the British Museum. Cats, miw or mau in Egyptian, were frequently mummified, along with other animals, and the cat Goddess was […]
According to ZooBorns, there’s a new cheetah cub at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, transferred from Jacksonville and and a mother who wouldn’t rear him. The cub, a male, is four weeks old: He now has to be hand reared until he’s old enough to join the other cheetahs on “Cheetah Run”. Hand rearing a wild […]
by Greg Mayer The Milwaukee County Zoo has a magnificent pair of African lions. The male has the sort of large, flaring mane that most of us associate with lions (but which is, in fact, subject to much individual and geographic variation; Asiatic lions, for example, have smaller manes). The female is lithe and muscular; […]
by Greg Mayer The best kitteh ever is, of course, Peyton, the philosophical cat, who has previously contributed to our discussions here at WEIT on morality, ethics, and epistemology. But, as a semi-regular contributor, she is ineligible for the Kitteh Contest, so readers should submit their nominees to Jerry by 5 PM December 1. Here […]
by Greg Mayer As an extra bonus felid for today, and continuing the theme of cat coat patterns as camouflage, here’s the snow leopard (Panthera uncia). You can’t see the snow leopard or it’s pattern very well, but, of course, that’s the point. Its head is to the right. (BTW, is anyone getting the Monty […]
by Greg Mayer Jerry recently posted about a new analysis of cat coat color patterns by William Allen and colleagues from the University of Bristol that is in press in The Proceedings of the Royal Society B, so I thought it might be interesting to take a look at one of the species in the […]
