critters

Friday Sprog Blogging: climate change and ecosystems.

jstemwedel — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:25:27 +0000

Friday Sprog Blogging: climate change and ecosystems.

Driving home with the Free-Ride offspring yesterday, we heard a story on the radio that caught out attention. (The radio story discusses newly published research that's featured on the cover of Nature this week.) When we got home, we had a chat about it.

Dr. Free-Ride: What did you guys learn from that story on the radio about the yellow-bellied marmot?

Elder offspring: That, in the short term, climate change is good for some species.

Dr. Free-Ride: Tell me more about that.

Elder offspring: Well, it made the marmots increase in size and numbers.

Elder offspring: I was going to say that!
.
Dr. Free-Ride: Well, tell me some other stuff. What else happened when the marmots got bigger and there were more females that survived?

Elder offspring: Well, the population of their foes got bigger.

Dr. Free-Ride: Foes such as?

Younger offspring: Such as wolves, foxes, coyote --

Elder offspring: Not wolves.

Dr. Free-Ride: I don't remember them mentioning wolves in the story.

Younger offspring: I don't care!

Dr. Free-Ride: I would imagine that if a wolf had a nice big, fat, yellow-bellied marmot, that might look like a tasty meal. But let's back up a bit. Why are the marmots getting bigger?

Younger offspring: Because of the climate change, their hibernation gets shorter, and the snow melts quicker, so they have less time to thinnen up* when they're hibernating, and they are like one pound heavier than they were before.

Dr. Free-Ride: It doesn't sound like a lot, but I guess when you're the size of a marmot, on pound is a significant percentage of your total weight. What are some other consequences of climate change that they mentioned in the story?

Elder offspring: Hotter summers equals summer droughts equals bad for yellow-bellied marmots.

Dr. Free-Ride: Why are summer droughts bad for yellow-bellied marmots?

Elder offspring: Because then they won't find stuff to drink!

Dr. Free-Ride: Maybe it also affects stuff to eat -- what kinds of plants can grow? Or, if they eat critters, what kind of critters can survive on the plants that can grow during the drought?

Elder offspring: Yeah, OK.

Dr. Free-Ride: Do you remember where this story was set?

Elder offspring: Colorado.

Younger offspring: In the Rocky Mountains.

Dr. Free-Ride: What I thought was interesting was that at first it sounded like it was just a story about the yellow-bellied marmot, but it ended up being about more than the marmots.

Elder offspring: It's a story about climate change.

Younger offspring: It's about the ecosystem and what happens to it when there's climate change.

Dr. Free-Ride: And it occurs to me that we have a back yard ecosystem that changed significantly in May.

Elder offspring: Oh yes, Snowflake.

Dr. Free-Ride: What kinds of impacts has Snowflake has on our back yard ecosystem?

Elder offspring: Om nom nom nom-ing weeds.

Younger offspring: And nasturtiums.

Elder offspring: Dandelions, carrot sticks.

Younger offspring: Nasturtiums.

Elder offspring: More dandelions, dropped apples, alfalfa pellets, timothy hay.

Younger offspring: Lemon balm, lemon thyme.

Elder offspring: Mint, nasturtium.

Younger offspring: And chewing on sticks from the apple tree.

Dr. Free-Ride: And besides eating?

Elder offspring: She generates fertilizer for the garden.

Dr. Free-Ride: Here's the thing: there's at least one big, noticeable change in our ecosystem since Snowflake came, although I think it's most noticeable in the side yard.

Elder offspring: Oh yeah, less nasturtium.

Dr. Free-Ride: We started out using the nasturtium as a tool of persuasion when it was time to get Snowflake to hop into the hutch at night.

Younger offspring: And when we were away, "offspring's friend"** [who was bunny-sitting for us] used, like all of them.

Dr. Free-Ride: I suspect that we might have run into that problem ourselves, although maybe not as quickly, since we weren't offering big bouquets of nasturtiums every night. Nasturtiums are self seeding, but if you pick all the flowers before they make new seeds, you end up running out of nasturtiums. So the nasturtiums suddenly had a predator that they didn't have to deal with before.

Younger offspring: Yikes.

Dr. Free-Ride: On the subject of ecosystems, why do we put Snowflake in her hutch at night rather than leaving her in the run?

Elder offspring: So she won't get eaten by predators.

Dr. Free-Ride: In other words, we've been working hard not to introduce a richer ecosystem into our back yard than is already there. We're trying to keep away--

Younger offspring: Raccoons, cats --

Elder offspring: Owls, hawks, eagles --

Dr. Free-Ride: Opossums.

Elder offspring: Killer snails.

Dr. Free-Ride: You know, the killer snails are more interested in killing my eggplant plants than in killing our rabbit.

Younger offspring: (laughing hysterically)

Dr. Free-Ride: You laugh, but you would be very sad if you came out in the morning to find a bunny skeleton covered with snails.

Elder offspring: They would eat the bones too.

Dr. Free-Ride: I don't want to meet your killer snails. I would have to face them with a killer soapy bucket of merciful deliverance.

Elder offspring: You mean bucket of death?

Dr. Free-Ride: To-MAY-to, to-MAH-to.
______
*Obviously, thinnening up is the opposite of fattening up.

**Name redacted in the actual conversation by the younger Free-Ride offspring.

jstemwedel Fri, 07/23/2010 - 06:25

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critters

environment

kids and science

climate change

What a cute rabbit!! I'd personally be afraid of having my rabbit live full-time outdoors. My roommate used to take his rabbit outside a lot, and it got flystrike. It was absolutely horrible. As it wasn't my rabbit and flystrike seemed to be something I definitely did not wish to research, I have no idea if there are any precautions one can take regarding that.

Sounds like you guys had a fun drive back home! I don't own a rabbit, but I do see them running around in my backyard a lot. Those little rascals use to frolic in my vegetable gardens and ruin it. But my garden is gone now, so no free food this time. Good story...

I found the report about marmots interesting, but I'm still worried about my favorite high-mountain critter, the pika.

http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2296

I'm used have a pet rabbit that i let loose in my garde

You know, there just might be another reason for the increase in marmot population numbers it the Western US since the mid-70s: Federal and private irrigation project development.

Much of Federal Hydropower system was built between the 1930s and the 1970s, and following on it's heels, came the large irrigation infrastructure projects developed in the decades between the 1950s and 1980s. All of it paid for, improved and maintained by a combination of tax dollars and user fees.

The marmots have done very, very well by this boom in irrigated field development. They love the rock retaining walls of the canals, rivers and wasteway returns.

The problem is this: the land grab boom of the 90s and 2000s meant that as much as 65% of the land served by this incredibly expensive irrigation infrastructure and it's water supply switched from irrigated agriculture to 'ranchettes', ill-considered suburban development in formerly rural areas.

Suddenly, there were massed fields of timothy hay and alfalfa, or large irrigated fields of pasturage for horses - crops that had nothing to do with feeding of America, and everything to do with Babyboomers with a yen for a second home in scenic country areas and the credit to buy it.

Rapid human population growth in the US, most of it immigrant-driven in the past 3 decades (we're talking 1/3 population surge here, no small potato numbers) is part of the story. The credit boom and over-inflated housing demand / home value pricing - meant that, under antiquated tax breaks and zero-interest loans for rural developers that were instituted in the 50s and continued unabated until last year is the other half of the catalyst for rural suburbanization. Folks bought up and developed land for residential living that was originally meant for business purpose- growing food to assure a ready supply for America's future. But that land had value of a different color, because it also came with a guaranteed water supply that otherwise would have been absent, due to rapidly falling groundwater supply in many parts of the West.

So you have many more marmots from (1) an abundant supply of water and food for most of the marmot grazing year, and (2) perfect living quarters in rocky banks of irrigation project infrastructure and (3) less severe weather in the past 3 decades.

Plus, a dwindling number of natural predators, as land use changed.

Fat marmots have more kits, but they also are apt to be more susceptible to disease, just like overweight humans and their pets.

You do your homework and come back with another post. We'll talk again on why this global warming isn't such a good thing, at second looksee, for either marmots or humans.

Friday Sprog Blogging: Antarctica: Land of Endless Water.

jstemwedel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 05:49:45 +0000

Friday Sprog Blogging: Antarctica: Land of Endless Water.

Last week, I noted that the Free-Ride offspring are off kicking it with The Grandparents Who Lurk But Seldom Comment, and that, to ensure that you would not have to endure a Friday without a Sprog Blog, I gave each of the sprogs a book to read during their visit with their grandparents and asked them to report back on their books via email. At the conclusion of the elder Free-Ride offspring's book report, emailed to me last Thursday night, I wrote:

Major props to the elder offspring for doing blog-homework without any prodding. This sets the bar pretty high for the younger offspring next week.

Want to guess how the sibling rivalry played out here?

With no prodding whatsoever, I received an email report from the younger Free-Ride offspring this past Sunday night on this book:

Antarctica: Land of Endless Water
by Michael George

What I Learned:

1) icebergs can be 2 miles thick
2) winds can blow up to 200 miles per hour
3) ice and snow have been accumulating in this area for 20 million years
4) Ade'lie penguins weigh up to 100 lbs.
5) they also breed in Antarctica
6) blue whales are 2 times the size of the biggest dino
7) other birds have the longest annual migration for any creature
8) Antarctica's harsh climate is a result of Earth's orbit around the Sun
9) it is far below freezing for most of the year in Antarctica
10) this is the coldest place on Earth

What I want to know:

I DON'T HAVE QUESTIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All those exclamation points notwithstanding, I wasn't so thrilled with that all-caps claim, so I emailed back:

No questions, huh? Well then I have some questions for you.

My questions and the younger Free-Ride offspring's answers (which appeared in my inbox Monday night) follow. All emoticons in original.

Dr. Free-Ride: From the book, what animal that lives in Antarctica do you think is the cutest?

Younger offspring: I'd have to say baby harp seals.

Dr. Free-Ride: Which would be the scariest to be right next to?

Younger offspring: If I were a penguin, Orcas would be the scariest.

Dr. Free-Ride: Which would be the best animal parent (if you were that kind of animal)?

Younger offspring: I'm pretty sure seals will be the best parents.

Dr. Free-Ride: What do those Antarctica animals eat? Are there any vegetarian animals there?

Younger offspring: Most animals in Antarctica eat fish.....(I know some are egg eaters. )

Dr. Free-Ride: What is it about Antarctica that makes it hard to be a vegetarian?

Younger offspring: Well, there isn't many plants or veggies......

Dr. Free-Ride: If you were going to travel to Antarctica, what are some things you would want to pack?

Younger offspring: I'd totally pack warm clothes, and also food.

Dr. Free-Ride: If you were going to travel to Antarctica, what time of year would you want to go, and why?

Younger offspring: Winter: 'Cause it will be warmer there. [I assume the younger Free-Ride offspring means Northern hemisphere winter, because otherwise ...]

Dr. Free-Ride: How is global warming affecting things at Antarctica?

Younger offspring: It causes meltings of animal's snow "houses".

* * * * *

The sprogs return to Casa Free-Ride this weekend, but I'm seriously thinking of having them give me material for next week's Sprog Blog by email anyway.

jstemwedel Fri, 07/02/2010 - 01:49

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Friday Sprog Blogging: the axolotl.

jstemwedel — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 10:25:52 +0000

Friday Sprog Blogging: the axolotl.

Dr. Free-Ride: What was it we were going to talk about today?

Elder offspring: The axolotl.

Dr. Free-Ride: Can you please spell that?

Elder offspring: A-X-O-L-O- ... wait. A-X-O-T-O-L. Wait! A-X-O-L-O-T-O-L. I think.

Dr. Free-Ride: Hmm. I shall do some checking on the spelling. And what is it?

Elder offspring: It's a salamander that has achieved eternal youth!

Dr. Free-Ride: Eternal youth?

Elder offspring: At least, youth for the rest of its life.

Dr. Free-Ride: Um, I guess that's eternal enough for that individual. So what does it mean for a salamander to achieve eternal youth? Does it mean it never matures?

Elder offspring: It can be made to keep its gills for its entire life.

Dr. Free-Ride: You're saying that your standard salamander doesn't keep its gills past a certain stage when it's young?

Elder offspring: Nope. But it still has to live by water.

Dr. Free-Ride: I see. Does an axolotl have to live near water more than a standard salamander?

Elder offspring: Well, it has to live in water, but it can surface for a few seconds at a time, which is good.

Dr. Free-Ride: So it's actually less amphibious than other salamanders, is what you're telling me.

Elder offspring: I don't know.

Dr. Free-Ride: Well, it seems like if it has to stay in water more than your regular salamander --

Elder offspring: It can stay in water for its entire life.

Dr. Free-Ride: Yeah, but what happens in case of drought?

Elder offspring: It dies.

Dr. Free-Ride: Is it more vulnerable to drought than other kinds of salamander?

Elder offspring: Mmmm -- yeah, sort of.

Dr. Free-Ride: What do you think is cool about them besides that they keep their gills for their whole lives?

Elder offspring: Well, they were named by the Aztecs after their god of lightning, Xolotl.

Dr. Free-Ride: Wait a minute, what do these salamanders have to do with lightning?

Elder offspring: I don't know! They're awesome. I guess that's what they have to do with it, because lightning is awesome.

Dr. Free-Ride: I see.

Elder offspring: And people use albino ones for lab work, because they thrive in labs, and when they're albino people can, like, dye their bones with a pigment so they can see their bones through their skin.

Dr. Free-Ride: So it's a relatively non-invansive way to get information about the bones in a living axolotl?

Elder offspring: Yeah. And they can do experiments with them. There was this guy who put an axolotl in a tank with half light and half dark, and the axolotl took a quick look around and then scurried into the dark side, even when it was offered a worm on the light side.

Dr. Free-Ride: I see.

Elder offspring: And so the guy wondered, is it the axolotl's eyes or the axolotl's skin that makes it sensitive to light? So the guy removed the axolotl's eyes and then put it half in and half out [of the light], and the axolotl stayed there. And then the guy reconnected the eyes -- in salamanders how this works is, after a few weeks, the salamander can see again because the optical nerve, I think it's called, reconnects to the brain.

Dr. Free-Ride: That's pretty cool. I didn't know that was even possible.

Elder offspring: It is, in salamanders.

Dr. Free-Ride: Cool.

Elder offspring: And, when the axolotl's eyes were back in, it still preferred the dark side. (In an ominous voice) Come to the Dark Side! We have cookies.

Dr. Free-Ride: But do you have worms? If you don't have worms, I don't want any part of it.

Elder offspring: Yeah, we have worms, too.

Dr. Free-Ride: Where did you learn all this stuff about axolotls?

Elder offspring: In a book on albino animals. There was a bit about axolotls.

Dr. Free-Ride: I see. Do you think albino animals in general are cool, or only certain albino animals?

Elder offspring: In general they're cool, but sometimes they can turn out plain ugly. But axolotls look cute when they're albino, with their pink gills and pale skin.

Dr. Free-Ride: You know that Snowflake's pink eyes still freak me out.

Elder offspring: Yeah.

Dr. Free-Ride: But it's not her fault.

Elder offspring: It's like she's saying, "There is darkness in Heaven!" Or something.

Dr. Free-Ride: Ummm.

Elder offspring: Because evil things often have red eyes --

Dr. Free-Ride: Oh, so this is one of your litmus tests for evil, is you check a creatures eyes, and if they're red, then bingo? Wow. That's good to know. Is there a biological basis for that judgment, or what?

Elder offspring: I don't know.

Dr. Free-Ride: Has anyone done the research to see what the correlation is between eye color and evil?

Elder offspring: No, but we can just check all red-eyed animals' intentions and it is clinically proven, after they take a certain drug, that 75% of their intentions are evil. The other 25% of them are just to get cookies.

Dr. Free-Ride: So you think evil is primarily a matter of intention and not effect?

Elder offspring: Mmm-hmm.

Dr. Free-Ride: Wow. So you think someone who had evil intentions but was sort of a bumbler and ended up accidentally doing good would still be evil?

Elder offspring: Yesssss.

Dr. Free-Ride: Interesting. So you're a Kantian?

Elder offspring: What?

Dr. Free-Ride: Yeah, exactly. You'll learn, when you're older. Anything else you want to say about axolotls?

Elder offspring: They're endangered in the wild. Drought and water pollution make it hard for them to survive, so don't pollute the water! And don't step on axolotls that become adults, OK people?

Dr. Free-Ride: I guess only step in the sunny parts of the creek, maybe?

Elder offspring: Axolotls might go to the sunny parts if they have to.

Dr. Free-Ride: If there's no shade. And I guess the risk of introducing plants to give them more shade is that those plants might end up being invasive species.

Elder offspring: So just watch where you walk.

jstemwedel Fri, 06/11/2010 - 06:25

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Rabbit update: the great outdoors.

jstemwedel — Fri, 21 May 2010 10:27:38 +0000

Rabbit update: the great outdoors.

When last we checked in with Snowflake Free-Ride, our intrepid white rabbit had not yet found the courage to venture all the way to the end of the drawbridge from her hutch.

Well, on Tuesday, Snowflake got the bunny equivalent of a screened porch. This seems to have been enough to convince her to come on out.

Indeed, Snowflake was so enthusiastic about having free access to grass and dandelions (along with sun and breezes), that the very same day she also decided she was brave enough to hop out the open door of the bunny run into the wide expanses of the yard.

At first she would just hop out, get a pat from me, and hop back into the run. But then, apparently, she was ready to explore the whole yard -- the lemon balm patch under the apple tree, the bark path toward the apricot tree, the nasturtium patch by the side of the house, the well-shaded patch of lawn under the hutch. (She has not yet found the vegetable garden. I aim to keep it that way.)

This hopping around was a lot of fun. But then I had to get sprogs to soccer practice, and Notorious B.U.N. was not amenable to being put back into the run, safety issues be damned.

Her view, apparently, is that as an almost-grown-up rabbit, she is responsible enough to be out in the yard wherever and whenever she wants to be. I am allowed to keep filling the water bottles and the food dispenser, and to giver her pats when she wants them, but I shouldn't be imposing a curfew or anything.

My view, of course, is that no amount of instinct and intelligence is going to help a snow-white bunny to camouflage into our yard. And, I have no intention of providing an easy meal for the neighborhood predators (of which there are many).

So I ended up scooping her up and plopping her back in the run. She did manage to convey her displeasure at this by scratching my forearms pretty well.

I am, as always, the mean mommy.

jstemwedel Fri, 05/21/2010 - 06:27

Tags

What disappointed me, however, is that Dr. Bernardine Healy, former Director of the NIH, was a guest and that she didn't slap Maher down hard for his idiotic statements about vaccines and Pasteur.

You can always try the bun-sized vest harnesses with a leash for the free runs. One of my buns is amenable, the other not at all.

I was going to suggest a harness as well. Believe me, if she wants to get going, you're going to have a hard time catching her. I once spent an entire day running after a loose English Spot, only catching it when one of the outside cats thought it would make a tasty meal. When they came nose to nose, both of them scared the dickens out of each other, and bun did a 180 right into my arms. (The cat, incidentally, did a 180 in the other direction.)

Sounds like she's training you to be the mother of teenagers.

If you can't find a rabbit harness, small cat harnesses work too. That's what we used to use when we had a rabbit.

If you do try a harness, make sure the first yard of the lead is fine chain or wire - otherwise, she *will* bite through the lead at the most inconvenient moment possible. At least the harness gives you something to grab when you're chasing an escaped bunny in public.

I'm no rabbiteur, but couldn't rabbits be trained to return to home base on command for a treat reward? A harness seems like overkill when the point is to let the rabbits explore their own yard, rather than walk them to strange places.

Random bullets of rabbit update.

jstemwedel — Thu, 13 May 2010 20:20:53 +0000

Random bullets of rabbit update.

We continue to get to know Snowflake Free-Ride, and she us.

*Given her fondness for tossing her blue bowl around and spilling her alfalfa pellets, we got her what was advertised as an unspillable food dispenser. Snowflake seems pretty unconvinced that it's actually unspillable, although she hasn't managed to spill it yet. Indeed, she has me wondering whether it's really unspillable.

*Speaking of food, her current favorites from the yard are dandelions and nasturtiums. (She looks very pretty eating the bright yellow and orange nasturtium flowers.)

*Carrot or stick? She actually likes both equally well. How lucky she is that there are lots of sticks left from when the apple tree was pruned earlier this spring.

*Her salt wheel has still not caught her fancy. However, the rain earlier this week seemed to pique her interest.

*We have discovered at least one way in which Snowflake is like a baby: the "blank canvas" response. Right after I washed down the solid-bottomed side of her hutch (where she likes to pee) this evening, she hopped over, seemed to think to herself, "This doesn't smell right," and peed. Seriously, not two whole minutes elapsed between the completion of the washing and the fresh pee being laid down.

*Snowflake has not as yet hopped her way down her gangplank, but she ventures out a little bit further each day. Soon her curiosity is going to beat out her caution.

*Like everyone else in the Free-Ride family, Snowflake refuses to help me grade papers.

jstemwedel Thu, 05/13/2010 - 16:20

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You probably don't want the notorious BUN helping you grade papers. My rabbits love to eat all of my paperwork. Of course, that could greatly cut down on the grading you have to do.

I'm pretty sure there's a good way for bullet points 5 and 7 to combine.

I had a lap-rabbit as a teenager who'd cheerfully curl up and cuddle on a towel on my knee while I did my homework. He did occasionally try to climb up onto the work (when he was awake), but he didn't eat paper, thank goodness. Having something soft and cuddly certainly helped with my mood, although it didn't speed the work at all.

Friday Sprog Blogging: the bunny has landed.

jstemwedel — Fri, 07 May 2010 06:26:23 +0000

Friday Sprog Blogging: the bunny has landed.

This week, the Free-Ride family welcomed a new member.

Snowflake Free-Ride (who also goes by Notorious B.U.N.) is a 9-month old New Zealand White rabbit who we adopted on Tuesday. She is cute, fluffy, and big (nearly 5 kg). And, she seems to be adjusting to life at Casa Free-Ride.

Indeed, Snowflake has her own casita in the back yard. (I was pleased that I managed to assemble it without smashing my finger more than once.) It's hard to know how Snowflake feels about the scent of jasmine wafting into her hutch, but she has shown a fondness for both lemon balm and lemon thyme.

As well, Snowflake took the comics we laid down in the solid-bottomed side of the hutch and tore 'em up to make a little nest.

Then, she started eating them. We're guessing that they tasted funny.

We are trying to contain our enthusiasm to let Snowflake find her own way out of the hutch to romp in the yard (heavily supervised, of course -- we don't want any incidents with the random assortment of cats, raccoons, and possums that occasionally wander through).

Today, she poked her head out, but decided not to hop down the gangplank.

The sprogs, of course, have lots they want to learn about Snowflake. And, they are guessing that there may be a few things Snowflake would like to learn about us.

What the younger offspring wants to know about Snowflake:

When she will poo out the "first run" again (which gets eaten and redigested before the "second run").
If she spills the food in her bowl because she's trying to give it to us.
If she will knock out her drawbridge by chewing on it.
If she has ever lived in snow before.
If she is albino.

What the elder offspring wants to know about Snowflake:

How do we read bunny body language?
How good is bunny #2 as fertilizer?
Which food do rabbits like best?
Why do they eat newspaper?
Why are her eyes pink?

What the younger offspring thinks Snowflake wants to know about us:

If we are nice.
If we can eat.
Why our ears aren't big.
Why we live outside Casita Snowflake.
What is a "ploopy"?

What the elder offspring thinks Snowflake wants to know about us:

Where did their ears go?
Why do they change pelts?
Where are their tails?
Aren't they cold being bald like that?
Why are their noses so slow?

Stay tuned as these and other questions are answered.

jstemwedel Fri, 05/07/2010 - 02:26

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I would really recommend dust-extracted hay (less likely to contain mites than the non-dust-extracted stuff) for bedding rather than newspaper. I've known bunnies to get very bad constipation out of eating newspaper. And I really don't think the ink is good for them.

Awesome. We rabbits of Casaubons Book are very grateful that some other science bloggers also have rabbits. We imagine we need only one other science blogger to bring hom a rabbit before we can begin to develop an all-bunny blogging team, engaged in serious scientific research to answer the tough questions like "how awesome are dandelions, anyway?" and "why neurochemistry suggests dogs would be happier far away from us."

Sincerely,

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, Thyme and Thunder Rabbits

She's gorgeous!

It's been a while, but I think the House Rabbit Society has a lot of good references that answer some of the general questions the sprogs were asking. American Rabbit Breeders Society (ARBA) has excellent info on breed-specific information, or there may even be a New Zealand society. At least, that's where I seem to remember learning about it. (ARBA is a good organization, but I do take issue with the fact that some members breed rabbits like crazy without consideration for finding good homes for non-breeding, pet-type stock.)

Dunno Sharon, my first dog (a Brittany) LOVED bunnies. Not loved like "I wanna see what you taste like," but loved like "I am going to lick you, cuddle you, and basically pester you like a needy boyfriend." Till Mr. Bun decided to turn around mid-tongue-bath and wallop Farley across the snout, he was a little more reserved after that ;)

I would recommend keeping him away from any rabbits who are into the East/West coast rap rivalry, with a name like Notorious B.U.N. he might cause some fights.

Questions this reader has about Snowflake/Notorious B.U.N:
Is this an inbred bunny or an outbred bunny?
Why didn't you get a control bunny!? (same gender obviously, otherwise...)
Does bunnydiet affect longevity? Are bunnies *supposed* to be 5kg? Is a lot of that bulk fluff? Can bunnies get metabolic syndrome?
Are you going to feed Snowflake to a pig and eat the pig?
Are you going to give Snowflake cocaine and dissect Snowlfake's brain and stain for D2 receptors?
Why build a casita? Do not rabbits live in holes? Is going down a rabbit hole really like studying innate immunity signal transduction? And where does Johnny Depp come in?

Trying to not be a crazy bunny-owner here, I'm sure you did some research before bringing home the notorious B.U.N. But: 1) those grates can be really bad for bunny feet. I'm glad half the hutch as a wood floor at least. You may want to add a wood or plastic 'resting board' for her to sit/lay on.
2) most bunnies prefer blankets to newspaper for nests. Just don't use towels as they can eat the fibers. Fleece is popular among bunny owners. I also use old pillowcases.
3) Adult bunnies should be eating mostly hay with just a little bit of pellets (1/4c to 1/2 c) if you are giving fresh veggies. Breeders tend to just feed pellets and hay because it is cheaper.

becca,

She looks like a purebred rabbit (yeah, inbred), being an albino with a pretty nice body. (You know, as much as you can tell from pictures.) New Zealands were traditionally bred as small livestock (i.e. meat rabbits), so they're supposed to be that big. She's actually a medium size rabbit, as there are other breeds (like checkered giants) that are even bigger. Bunnies can get metabolic syndrome, mostly if they're not allowed to run around outside of their cages each day, but Snowflake looks like she's pretty healthy. She's definitely not what I would call a 'lap rabbit', though. :-)

Snowflake is beautiful. I look forward to posts with the answers to above questions. Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane to recall my bunnies!

What a sweetie! Yay for bunnies!

I've got 3 bunnies. All three love to eat paper and routinely kill lab catalogs that come in the mail until the paper ends up in the litter box and get peed on. And sticks (willow, apple) are awesome to throw. Also, everything ends up in a rabbit's mouth at some point. I swear they're like toddlers sometimes.

Congrats on the bun, and I do suggest www.rabbit.org as a great place for all manner of bunny info. Have her spayed ASAP, is suggestion #1. I do concur that she'd be better off indoors, and at least not on wire flooring. Bunnies are easily litter trained, and can successfully live free range indoors not unlike a cat or dog. It requires some bunnyproofing, much like childproofing (cover & hide wires, block off-limit areas with baby gates or NIC panels, provide appropriate outlets for chewing & digging behaviours),and makes for very happy bunnies. I have two that live free-range 24-7, with one off-limit room. After 13 years of bunny-having, I'm convinced it's a great way for them to live. They get more exercise this way, have some control over their environment, and pick when and with whom they socialize.
Mine love to jump on the bed in the morning, sit beside you while reading, and adore the head scritch. There's also nothing like watching your bun run & wiggle in the air & flop over in contentment.

PetBunny is a fun listserv to look up, and Etherbun is a less light, crankier listserv. All the members are indoor bunny owners, and while some are flaky, some are very knowledgeable & there's a treasure trove of firsthand info about health, behaviour, bonding, diets, grooming, medical info. There's a great rabbit supply place online that makes bunny "condo's", Leith petworks.

Enjoy Miss B.U.N. Snowflake & give her some parsley & dandelions from me!

Looks fucking tasty!

You might also enjoy learning about the myriad things that bunnies dislike.

http://www.disapprovingrabbits.com/

I happened to wander into a rabbit show being held on the Illinois State Fairgrounds. I was impressed by the diversity of bunnies being shown.

Question: Will you eventually eat Snowflake? He/she looks quite plump! A delicious morsel!

We had New Zealand whites growing up - for meat, though, not for pets per se. I'm no expert, but I'll put forth some guesses as to the answers.

Younger

2. Rabbits actually have a good sense of space - she probably doesn't like where you've placed her food. Try moving it, if possible.

3. Probably. Lagomorphs (rabbits aren't rodents!), have continuously growing teeth. They gnaw down anything they'll get their teeth on. You may want to try giving her short lengths of silver-dollar-diameter sized tree branches instead.

4. If she's a Californian rabbit, she's probably not seen snow. Although I'd be careful in the summer. When temperatures get high, they can overheat easily if kept outside. (Rabbit fur coat and all.) Ours appreciated frozen, water filled, two liter soda bottles. (At times there were more rabbit frozen water bottles in the freezer than food.)

5. Wikipedia says yes. The give-away is the pink eyes.

Elder

2. Pretty good, from what I could tell.

3. Kale. Seriously. Our rabbits went crazy over kale.

4. Because she can't find any kale?

5. Albinism.

@Luna_the_cat - I agree on using hay vs. newspaper. We used what's called "marsh hay" in the Midwest. I'm not sure what's the California equivalent. Be aware there's a difference between hay and straw. You want hay.

@Rob Monkey - When our cat had kittens, it was adorable to see her on the lawn caring for the baby rabbits like they were her own.

@becca - While they live in warrens (burrows) in the wild, most domesticated rabbits live in hutches. Most hutches incorporate a closed off section to function as a "den", though.

Finally a successor to Jeannie the light brown hare!

EO#1 Try Rabbit Language or âAre you going to eat that?â by Carolyn Crampton http://www.cramptonarts.com/rabbits/index.html I got my copy directly from the author at her open studio a couple of years ago, but this season's open studio just passed, so I won't see her again 'til fall. The spouse and I do not agree on her art, he likes certain paintings while I prefer others.

EO#2 Excellent. My first two rabbits were outdoor rabbits. In the winter we moved the hutch to a more sheltered location which would be the tomato section of the garden come spring when the hutch was moved back to it's shady location close to the creek.

I beg to differ with anna on keeping rabbits indoors. I had a rabbit indoors (I was living in apartments), and he was the most destructive pet I've ever seen! I called my time with him "The War of the Wires" for all the computer, phone, and power cords he chewed through. Not to mention carpet, furniture, clothes, books... 10+ years (and an interstate move) after his death from old age (6yo), I *still* have possessions with toothmarks on them. And then there was the business of pissing on my bed (and carpet)! If I hadn't loved the little guy so much, he'd have been rabbit stew several times over....

PS: The big "don't" for handling rabbits is, don't touch them under the chin -- that triggers a reflex bite.

Friday Sprog Blogging: first contact with extraterrestrial life.

jstemwedel — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 09:29:36 +0000

Friday Sprog Blogging: first contact with extraterrestrial life.

Despite the crush of the closing weeks of the semester, I found a little time to follow the conversation about whether Earthicans ought to welcome a meeting with whatever extraterrestrial life might be out there to meet us, or whether we'd be better off hiding under the bed.

Although the Free-Ride offspring have not followed the point and counterpoint on the best alien life action plan, they're generally more enthusiastic futurists than I am. So, I asked them to dig deep into their imaginations and give us their visions of first contact.

It should surprise no one that the elder and younger Free-Ride offspring have very different visions of this event.

Before they started drawing, they brainstormed a bit about what forms extraterrestrial life might take. Maybe you'd find your classic Star Trek humanoids, or comic book little green men. But why couldn't alien life be mostly plants, or fungi?

Maybe we'll be negotiating intergalactic treaties with microbes? (I'm thinking people might be less cavalier about skipping vaccinations if that's how things play out.)

In any case, here are the pictures of first contact they came up with.

I don't know when the younger Free-Ride offspring has been reading Pharyngula (unless PZ also has space now on the Nickelodeon website), but this seemingly benevolent alien is pretty clearly squiddy. (If you count carefully, you will notice ten digits on each hand.) The alien also seems to be wearing a diaper.

Anyway, the younger offspring thinks contact with alien life will be groovy.

As shown above, the elder Free-Ride offspring envisions our first extraterrestrial as a caterpillar-like creature. A wee little caterpillar in the gloved hand of a space suit-clad Earthling.

But I guess where there are wee little caterpillar-like creatures, there are sometimes big, scary, hungry caterpillar-like creatures.

Which I guess means that it's the second contact that may get us.

jstemwedel Fri, 04/30/2010 - 05:29

Tags

critters

kids and science

Aliens

extraterrestrial life

critters

kids and science

With all due respect to Hawking and the fear of aliens that he has generated lately, I wish we could somehow conquer our fear of other, close by, aliens that some politicians are trying so hard to instill in us.

Elder Offspring's vision reminds of the classic Wyllis Cooper radio play "Northern Lights," from the 1949 season of Quiet, Please.

"A sound, a humming, a crackling somewhere inside your head. And there are times when you'd swear it's a voice talking to you -- talking in some kind of strange language you can almost understand, filling your whole being with a kind of desperate, inescapable terror."

The alien invasion of earth begins in the form of a little, black-and-brown caterpillar that sings like an angel. You can download a free, legal .mp3 here, but I gotta warn you, for a 1940s Sci-Fi story about singing caterpillars, it may be too scary for the sprogs.

I doubt the forces of natural selection are limited to our planet.
I'd rather find them than the other way around -- curiosity killed the cat?

I read an essay on this years ago that was more or less in line with Hawkings' views that succinctly expressed the writer's views in the title, "Kill Them and Eat Them."

He recommended that when aliens show up, kill them and hide the bodies very well. If another ship shows up looking for them, act stupid.

I also vaguely remember a sci-fi story where human & alien ships meet up for the first time out in deep space. They wind up sitting there stalemated because neither wants to have the other one follow them home. Can't remember how that one turned out...

There was a science fiction story where the aliens arrive. They are cordial and friendly, but they are really here to meet with the dolphins.

"I also vaguely remember a sci-fi story where human & alien ships meet up for the first time out in deep space. They wind up sitting there stalemated because neither wants to have the other one follow them home. Can't remember how that one turned out..."

The story is by Murray Leinster, and is titled 'First Contact'. An audio copy is available here. It is thought that this story is the first use of the phrase 'first contact' to refer to the first contact between humans and intelligent aliens. The two crews ultimately ended up giving each other the same ultimatum and finding out how the other species laughs.

I wonder what The Monster Engine would do to those drawings.

Thanks Prof P. I knew somebody on this blog would be old and nerdy enough to remember that one. Besides me. ;)

In reference to the rabbit post above, what was the name of the SF movie about the giant rampaging rabbits? I can almost remember the title, one word I think.

Friday Sprog Blogging: dreaming of snakes.

jstemwedel — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 11:04:21 +0000

Friday Sprog Blogging: dreaming of snakes.

Dr. Free-Ride: So, you know how sometimes you have nightmares?

Younger Offspring: Yeah.

Dr. Free-Ride: I had a nightmare the other night.*

Younger Offspring: What was it?

Dr. Free-Ride: Well, I was supposed to be picking up snakes with two sticks and moving them from one place to another.

Younger Offspring: Why?

Dr. Free-Ride: I don't know why. It was one of those dreams where, in the middle of it, you really don't know why it is like it is, but you just go with it. But anyway, it was fine until I realized that one of the snakes that I had to pick up was a cobra.

Younger Offspring: Yikes!

Dr. Free-Ride: And how I realized that was that its hood was all spread and it was making that move it makes before it strikes. So I decided I wasn't going to pick it up, and I turned around and went the other way, and I woke up when, in the dream, I thought I felt its teeth on my calf.

Younger Offspring: Eeek!

Dr. Free-Ride: But here's the thing, after I woke up --

Younger Offspring: Was it in the morning, or in the middle of the night?

Dr. Free-Ride: Early, early morning. Too early to just wake up. But I thought of something before I fell back asleep.

Younger Offspring: What?

Dr. Free-Ride: Well, you know about cobras.

Younger Offspring: Yeah, they're poisonous. Did you think a cobra actually came in the house?

Dr. Free-Ride: No, I knew it was actually a dream by the time I woke up. What I thought to myself, as I was falling back asleep, was, how come poisonous snakes don't get poisoned themselves when they eat the things they've bitten?

Younger Offspring: Why don't they?

Dr. Free-Ride: Well, after I woke up for real, I did a little poking around to try to find out. One thing I found out is that the venom that most poisonous snakes have, that they use on their prey, isn't venom that would poison you if you swallowed it. It harms your body if it goes into your bloodstream directly, but not so much by way of your stomach.

Younger Offspring: So if a snake bit itself, the venom could hurt the snake it came from?

Dr. Free-Ride: That's what it sounds like from some of the stuff I read.

Younger Offspring: Well, then I wish that cobra in your dream would bite its own tail.

Dr. Free-Ride: You know, I have no problem with dream cobras. As long as they don't come back.

Younger Offspring: Yeah.

Dr. Free-Ride: So, I had pretty much found the answer to my question about why snakes don't get poisoned by the prey that they eat after biting it. But then I kept reading around and discovered that some of the people who study snakes think there's an interesting question about why snakes might have evolved venom in the first place.

Younger Offspring: Don't they use it to kill their prey?

Dr. Free-Ride: Or immobilize it or whatever? Yeah, that seemed pretty reasonable to me. But I guess that it turns out that some snakes with venom are also constrictors -- so they also squeeze their prey. And some scientists have wondered why a snake that already has a pretty good way to kill or immobilize its prey would also need venom.

Younger Offspring: Yeah, why?

Dr. Free-Ride: Well, some scientists have guessed that maybe something about the venom helps the snakes to digest the prey that they've bitten.

Younger Offspring: So, if a snake drooled on its prey, would it be drooling venom?

Dr. Free-Ride: I do not know. If it were, I suppose it would need to drool on an open cut to be effective. To be honest, I don't know whether snakes drool at all, let alone whether they drool venom.

Younger Offspring: Maybe the scientists who study snakes know that.

Dr. Free-Ride: That's who I'd ask. Anyway, as I was reading that it was a question of how exactly being venomous helps snakes, I found a cool paper about research scientists tried to do to figure out whether venom helps snakes digest their prey.

Younger Offspring: Maybe for the next science fair I could do a project on it.

Dr. Free-Ride: How would you do a project on it? That would be an interesting question.

Younger Offspring: I'd have to be really careful with it. And you'd have to help me.

Dr. Free-Ride: Kiddo, I am not committing to bringing poisonous snakes into our home.** Right now we're just talking about how we might be able to answer the question.

Younger Offspring: OK.

Dr. Free-Ride: So, if we're talking about a snake that eats mice, what could we do to find out whether it's digesting the mice faster or slower if they have venom in their bloodstream?

Younger Offspring: Hmmm.

Dr. Free-Ride: Well, how do you tell whether you're digesting something fast or slow? What are the things you could observe that might tell you?

Younger Offspring: That if I'm eating something fast, my stomach will hurt after that.

Dr. Free-Ride: Hmm, how your stomach feels.

Younger Offspring: I can also taste more flavor if I slow down when I'm eating.

Dr. Free-Ride: That's more about consuming fast or slow. But digesting is after the consuming, isn't it? Where does digestion happen? It doesn't all happen in your mouth.

Younger Offspring: In your stomach. And intestines.

Dr. Free-Ride: So how do you tell if you've taken a short time or a long time to digest something?

Younger Offspring: If I've taken a long time, I won't need to go to the bathroom for a long time.

Dr. Free-Ride: Mmm-hmm. And this is one of the things that the people studying the snakes to answer this question did to track how quickly the snakes were digesting their prey.

Younger Offspring: They timed how long it was before the snakes pooped?

Dr. Free-Ride: Pretty much.

Younger Offspring: And you found out the scientists were studying this because you had a bad dream.

_______
*We are, apparently, no longer at the point where it's surprising that grown-ups dream

**Actually, we've discussed why we just might not be snake people.

jstemwedel Fri, 04/23/2010 - 07:04

Tags

Younger Offspring is going to grow up with a wonderful understanding of how to think scientifically. Will not be easily fooled. A science-ninja, as it were.

Snakes do drool.

Well, at least they salivate. So do lizards. Snake venom is modified saliva, and venom glands are modified salivary glands, and if they aroused/hungry you can see the strands of venom/saliva in their gape.

Got a snake for you if you want a harmless slightly venomous snake that uses it's venom to digest. A hognose. You can now get these snakes through breeders and though they prefer to eat frogs/toads (and some species will only eat this), some of them will accept pinky mice. They are a very easy going snake, small, and you can't get envenomed because it's a rear fanged snake. You would have to shove your hand down its throat and even then, it won't kill you. Though I understand your hand will swell up.

Oh, heard something else about snake digestion. Apparently, you can feed a snake cooked food and it will stay full for longer. I can't find the paper on this, but it was showing how cooking aids in digestion.

Take that back, got the paper. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17827047

Apparently, Komodo dragons actually *do* drool venom.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8056040.stm

(Perhaps the kid shouldn't be told until he's old enough to wrestle them, though.)

It is my understanding that saliva has lytic enzymes to remove food debris from the teeth, this is why humans have amylase in their saliva (which is inactivated at the pH of the stomach) and carnivores have proteases (off hand I can think of cats (the major cat antigen people are allergic to is a protease in their saliva) and walrus). One of the reasons that carnivore bites are so difficult to heal is because of the immunogenic effects of the proteases in the saliva.

What would be interesting is if the lytic enzymes in saliva change over the course of an organism's life, for example some lizards (iguana I think) are carnivores when young and become herbivores as adults. Do the lytic enzymes in their saliva change?

Friday Sprog Blogging: watershed field trip.

jstemwedel — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 10:44:05 +0000

Friday Sprog Blogging: watershed field trip.

Dr. Free-Ride: So, you went on a field trip today to a lagoon.

Younger offspring: Yeah, I went to [Name redacted] Creek and [Name redacted] Lagoon.

Dr. Free-Ride: You know, I'm going to redact the names to protect your privacy. Tell me what you saw on your field trip that was interesting.

Younger offspring: I saw a lot of things on the field trip. Some I didn't know what they were called. I saw caterpillars, dandelions, cattails, and I have in my pocket some cattail leaves and some tules.

Dr. Free-Ride: So you do.

Younger offspring: (consulting notes made during the field trip in a photocopied "Creek Guide") Also, I saw poison oak, blackberries, cattails, tules --

Dr. Free-Ride: I think you mentioned those already.

Younger offspring: -- other --

Dr. Free-Ride: Other? What "other" did you see?

Younger offspring: Well, I forgot exactly what I saw, but it wasn't on this list.

Dr. Free-Ride: That's a good reason to check "other".

Younger offspring: I also saw a willow tree with a lot of poison oak in it, a cottonwood tree, and eucalyptus, and Himalayan blackberry.

Dr. Free-Ride: I notice on that page that they have different categories of plants.

Younger offspring: The different categories are native creek trees, non-native trees, native creek plants, and non-native plants.

Dr. Free-Ride: Did you talk about those categories?

Younger offspring: Well, we talked about what native and non-native mean. Non-native is not from this state, country, or continent.

Dr. Free-Ride: At least not originally.

Younger offspring: Yes.

Dr. Free-Ride: But once it gets here, sometimes it does very well, huh?

Younger offspring: Uh huh.

Dr. Free-Ride: Sometimes it has very little competition in the new niche.

Younger offspring: Uh huh.

Dr. Free-Ride: Do you know what a niche is?

Younger offspring: No.

Dr. Free-Ride: It's sort of like a set of conditions in the environment, a set of conditions that let an organism get what it needs to grow and reproduce.

Younger offspring: I also saw mushrooms, and doves. I heard woodpecker calls and also a turkey call. We also learned how to make the ... nut-something woodpecker call.

Dr. Free-Ride: Hmm. Not nuthatch?

Younger offspring: I don't think so. But it sounded like this. (Does "horse-lips" three times.) Only with more of a whistle.

Dr. Free-Ride: Interesting.

Younger offspring: We also saw a ladybug, an alligator lizard, and a crawdad.

Dr. Free-Ride: Cool!

Younger offspring: And tadpoles.

Dr. Free-Ride: What stage of tadpole-y-ness were they? Were they starting to sprout legs?

Younger offspring: No, they were still fully tadpole.

Dr. Free-Ride: I see.

Younger offspring: And, once we got into their classroom, we got drops of water and put them under a microscope. What I saw in mine was a dead ostracod, some sediment, duckweed, and an Alderfly nymph.

Dr. Free-Ride: Oh, was the nymph alive?

Younger offspring: Yes.

Dr. Free-Ride: Awesome! But that was the only thing alive in your drop of water, as far as you could tell?

Younger offspring: As far as I could tell.

Dr. Free-Ride: Did other people see different things in their drops of water?

Younger offspring: Yes.

Dr. Free-Ride: What were some of the other things they saw?

Younger offspring: I don't know what they're called, but they're other types of critters. Also, the dead ostracod wasn't really small, it was big.

Dr. Free-Ride: What is an ostracod?

Younger offspring: Ostracod, I think, means "big". [Wikipedia disagrees].

Dr. Free-Ride: So, is it like a bug?

Younger offspring: Here's a picture.

Dr. Free-Ride: I see.

Younger offspring: You can only see it big under a microscope.

Dr. Free-Ride: So it's relatively big. It's bigger than the Alderfly nymph.

Younger offspring: Uh huh.

Dr. Free-Ride: And duckweed -- is that a plant?

Younger offspring: Yes.

Dr. Free-Ride: What was the main thing you learned from this visit to the lagoon and the creek?

Younger offspring: We learned about the watershed, and I made a promise. (Reading from the booklet:) "I promise to keep our creeks and watersheds clean and healthy. I promise not to litter. I promise to protect wildlife and the environment. I promise to teach and encourage others to do the same. I will remember our motto, only rain down the storm drain!

Dr. Free-Ride: Wow.

Younger offspring: And now it's official, I have my badge.

Dr. Free-Ride: So you do. Any other interesting things you saw or learned?

Younger offspring: I saw poo, I saw mosquitos, and I learned that mosquitos lay eggs in the water. And they grow into mosquito larvae, and then they grow into mosquitos and fly away from the water.

Dr. Free-Ride: Did you learn about any critters that eat the mosquito eggs or larvae?

Younger offspring: I think maybe fish do.

Dr. Free-Ride: So, if we got rid of all the mosquito eggs, some fish might end up very hungry.

jstemwedel Fri, 04/16/2010 - 06:44

Tags

Love that ostracod and ostracize have the same root! Sounds like a pretty cool critter. Is YO old enough for Kids Day this year (if they have it, there were rumblings last year that it was in danger)? EOâs first Kids Day included looking at pond water though she probably remembers the kiwi and strawberry DNA extraction or the 3D molecule visualization part of that workshop better.

I remember hiking to a lake as a kid on a camping trip with my dad and the mosquitoes were a bit on the thick side. You could see them hovering over the lake and I was thinking "We should go on a campaign to eradicate mosquitoes entirely! They're good for nothing." Then I saw fish jumping out of the water and it suddenly dawned on me that fish were probably feeding on them and the eggs and that eradicating them would do more harm than good. While it was exciting to make that connection, I have to admit I was rather sad to see that mosquitoes did serve a purpose. Stupid web of life!

I'm with Shaun on the mosquito thing. I have long wished they could be eradicated, as being more pest than anything else.

I know this almost never works out, but can't we replace mosquitoes in the food chain with something else water-born that isn't a blood sucking, itch causing, disease spreading pest? Surely there has to be some less annoying insect that can serve as a global stand-in for the mosquito.

Ideas?

Friday Sprog Blogging: recent drawings of animals.

jstemwedel — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:10:26 +0000

Friday Sprog Blogging: recent drawings of animals.

It's been awhile since the Free-Ride offspring have shared their artwork. Today, we offer some of their drawings of animals.

From the younger Free-Ride offspring:

Tigers. They may look cute, but you don't want to get near them when they're hungry.

Cheetahs. Same deal: cute, but deadly.

A horse. She didn't dress herself in that blanket and headband.

From the elder Free-Ride offspring:

Jungle Landscape. There's a lot going on here, and I'm feeling like there might be some traces of Bruegel and Escher.

A cat in a sushi bar. You will notice, however, that the selection includes non-fishy sushi.

Animals used to convey letters of the alphabet. The encoding is not guaranteed to make sense for languages other than English.

jstemwedel Fri, 03/05/2010 - 05:10

Tags

The first one made me squee a little bit, I am happy to admit!

Wow, Rosetta is living up to her name there. Excellent animal alphabet!

That horse might want to think about a haircut.

Better than anything I could draw, in any case.