Cat Man Do
November 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Cliff shared this great animated cat video with me. The way animator Simon Tofield is able to capture such realistically entertaining cat behavior with such simple animation is spectacular. Tofield is an animator for Tandem Films, much of their other work is also entertaining. I really enjoyed Tofield’s tiger advertisement for Singapore Zoo and the extract from Flatworld makes me want to see the rest of that film.
Tags: advertisement, cat, cat annoying, film, kitten, kitty, man, man sleeping, simon tofield, singapore zoo, sleep, tandem, tandem films, tiger, tofield, video, zoo
Penguin Gets Promotion
August 20, 2005 | 8 Comments
Nils Olav received a promotion on Wednesday to Colonel in Chief of the Royal Norwegian Guard. Yes, this high rank in the Norwegian military has in fact been bestowed on a penguin.
In 1962 young lieutenant in the Royal Norwegian Guard Niels Egelien visited Edinburgh Zoo and was quite taken with the penguins. On a return visit in 1972, he arranged for his regiment to sponsor a king penguin which they adopted and awarded the rank of Lance Corporal. The name was chosen on behalf of the lieutenant who first got excited about the penguins and the then king of Norway, King Olav. Since then, every time the soldiers have come to visit, Nils Olav has received a promotion.
According to Scotland Today:
Major Nils Egelien from the Norwegian Royal Guard Association said: “Colonel in chief because all the reports speak about his very, very good behaviour, and the service in this garden.” … Nils Olav is now back in with the rest of the troops. It is not known when this elite fighting force will be deployed again, but when they are, it is fair to say that the best possible penguin is in charge.
More Info:
Norway.org.uk: Promotion of Nils Olav - The Penguin
BBC newsround: Penguin is Nowegian army Colonel
Edinburgh Zoo: Nils ahead of the Rest!
Tags: edinburgh zoo, nils olav, norway, norwegian guard, penguin, zoo
Last Chance to See, Revisited
July 7, 2005 | 2 Comments
Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine wrote a book together called Last Chance to See which was an account of their traveling around the world in the mid-80s searching for greatly endangered species.
I’m a big Douglas Adams fan, I loved the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. Soon after finishing that I fell into the Dirk Gently books (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and Long Dark Teatime of the Soul). When Adams died in 2001 I was more saddened by his death more than one would expect in reference to someone I didn’t know personally… I then tore through The Salmon of Doubt when it was released post-humously, finding myself in tears as the book ends suddenly about halfway through his final story. Anyway, Salmon turned me on to other works by Adams, Last Chance and the Liff books.
Adams’ humorous and engaging account drew me into thoughts of extinction and conservation leaving me more concerned about the state of our world’s wildlife than I ever intended. So, with this in mind I decided to research each of the near instinct animals they touch on in their adventures. Clearly a combined update was needed on the status of the animals they visited.
Aye-aye Lemur (Daubentonia Madagascariensis)
Status: Endangered - est 1000 to 10,000 (up from 12 in 1962)
Natural Habitat: Madagascar, island of Nosy Mangabe
Additional Resources:
ARKive
Wikipedia - Aye-aye
Animalinfo.org
Komodo Dragon (Varanus komodensis)
Status: Vulnerable - est. 6,000
Natural Habitat: Lesser Sunda Islands in Indonesia, including the islands of Komodo, Rinca, Gili Motang and Flores
Additional Resources:
American Museum of Natural History
Wikipedia - Komodo Dragon
San Diego Zoo
Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei)
Status: Critically Endangered - 380
Natural Habitat: Virunga volcanic mountains of Central Africa
Additional Resources:
Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International
Informatics International - Dian Fossey Fund info
Classroom of the Future
Wikipedia - Mountain Gorilla
Northern White Rhino (Ceratotherium simum cottoni)
Status: Critically Endangered - 15 (down from 32 in 2003)
Natural Habitat: Garamba National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo
Additional Resources:
International Rhino Foundation
UNESCO Word Heritage Centre
San Diego Zoo
Wikipedia - White Rhinoceros
BBC News - White rhino numbers are ‘halved’
Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus)
Status: Critically Endangered - 86 (up from 51 in 1995)
Natural Habitat: New Zealand
Additional Resources:
Kakapo Recovery Programme
The Fabulous Kakapo
New Zealand Department of Conservation
Wikipedia - Kakapo
Chinese River Dolphin or Baiji Dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer)
Status: 7 in 1998 (down from 300 in 1986)
Natural Habitat: Yangtze River, China
Additional Resources:
China Internet Information Center - Recovery Effort
Whale Web
CETACEA
Wikipedia - Chinese River Dolphin
Rodrigues fruit-bats (Pteropus rodricensis)
Status: Endangered - est 1500-2000
Natural Habitat: island of Rodrigues (part of Mauritius) off the coast of Madagascar
Additional Resources:
Mauritian Wildlife Foundation
Philadelphia Zoo
Wild Ones Animal Index
Mauritius Island Online
There is more to talk about in reference to Mauritius(dodos, kestrels, pink pigeons, echo parakeets, etc) but I’ll these details until I can devote more space.
For a final note on Last Chance to See, there is a site devoted to the BBC Radio 4 broadcast of the account which is also worth checking out.
Tags: adams, adventures, africa, animal, animals, aye-aye, baiji dolphin, bats, book, books, china, conservation, dian fossey, dirk gently, dolphin, douglas adams, endangered, endangered species, exotic, extinction, fruit-bats, garamba national park, gorilla, habitat, indonesia, kakapo, komodo dragon, last chance to see, lemur, madagascar, mark carwardine, mauritius, mountain gorilla, nature, new zealand, republic of congo, rhino, rhinoceros, rodrigues, species, travel book, wildlife, zoo
San Diego Zoo
November 16, 2004 | 1 Comment
The San Diego Zoo has definitely earned it’s reputation as one of the best zoos in the entire world. Zach and I spent last Friday wandering around the zoo and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Some of the animals were a little disappointing, like the giant pandas, who receive all kinds of hype, but aren’t really all that interesting to watch. Some of the other animals pleasantly surprised us though. The polar bear exhibit was quite good. The observation room was half under water and half above water. One polar bear in particular was extremely playful. We must have stood and watched that bear play with a large plastic toy (it looked like a 3 foot gray Tylenol pill) for 20 minutes. He swam and dove and tossed that toy all over the place. The entire crowd thought he was great. The tiger was another great exhibit because one of the tigers decided to pace directly in front of the observation window. We watched him for quite a while as well.
The zoo is enormous, and it was quite a challenge to find the best path through the zoo with a minimum of back-tracking. Unlike most zoos, the San Diego zoo is not set up so that you can just walk in a circle around and see everything.
So, if you ever find yourself in the San Diego area, reserve a day to treat yourself to the San Diego Zoo (and if you have time, take another day to check out the park that the zoo is in, Balboa Park - it’s got tons of museums and a botanical garden.) Oh, and don’t forget to check out the pictures from the zoo in our image gallery!
Tags: animals, california, photo, photographs, photos, san diego, zoo