Fun Times
It's been ages since I've been to a zoo, but yesterday was my last field trip of the academic year, which took me to Edinburgh Zoo.
And it was great fun. Okay, there was work involved, since the trip was part of the main practical assignment for Animal Physiology and the range of species we got to spend any time observing was quite limited as a result, but it was still an enjoyable day overall. The data-gathering part consisted of 20-minute observations of 5 different species, during which time their behaviours were recorded at each 1-minute interval. In most cases the results consisted of Sleeping (the maned wolf) or Laying Down (the asiatic lions). The golden lion tamarin was probably the most active of the bunch, since it spent a great deal of time running around, climbing, eating and socialising with the far more diminuitive pigmy tamarins with which it shared its enclosure (and which were a good deal smaller than the average domestic rat).
The one which was the greatest joy to watch, however, was the Jaguar. That creature was quite probably the sexiest thing I have ever seen; powerful, graceful, pure feline death on four legs. Jaguars are among nature's most effective killers, and have developed methods of killing unlike any other big cat. While most large felids go for the jugular vein when attacking their prey, the jaguar's bite has become so strong that instead it just sinks its fangs into the back of the prey's cranium and crushes the braincase. Couple that with overall muscular strength so great that it can pulverise a man's skull with one swipe of its claws, and you have a pretty impressive cat.
I'd love to see one of those in the wild, but I'm not holding my breath. Unfortunately, they're not especially suited to life in captivity. Jaguars are very territorial beasts, and part way through the observation period a large group of people turned up to look at it. The animal obviously became quite stressed during this period, as it started pacing around quite aggressively, making a display of what it considered to be its territory. At one point it even took a swipe at the barrier. While I would normally feel quite sorry for an animal under those circumstances, the fact remains that it will enjoy a much longer and healthier life at the zoo than it would in the wild. The Jaguar may be an apex predator, but in the wild this simply means coming into constant competition with others of its own kind and other large predators such as Caimans and Anacondas. Captive animals still generally have a far greater life expectancy then their wild cousins, and to my knowledge this particular specimen was bred in captivity.
There are more phots on the Field Trips album of my Ringo page.
This coming wednesday is my Ecology exam. I've seen the questions (yes, it's a seen-paper exam) and need to get some answers written and memorised before wednesday morning. I don't think it will be too hard. While I got a fairly miserable result in Environmental Biology last year, that was only because I didn't have time to finish my third question and couldn't be awarded any marks for an answer which was less than one page. I know the kind of criteria that Mike Jeffries (my Ecology lecturer) uses to mark papers, so I think I'm in a good position to get quite a high mark this time around.
Oh, and the first game session of Newcastle Mortals on tuesday night was an absolute blast. Temporal loops, paradoxes and characters dying several times in the space of three hours, all great fun.
And it was great fun. Okay, there was work involved, since the trip was part of the main practical assignment for Animal Physiology and the range of species we got to spend any time observing was quite limited as a result, but it was still an enjoyable day overall. The data-gathering part consisted of 20-minute observations of 5 different species, during which time their behaviours were recorded at each 1-minute interval. In most cases the results consisted of Sleeping (the maned wolf) or Laying Down (the asiatic lions). The golden lion tamarin was probably the most active of the bunch, since it spent a great deal of time running around, climbing, eating and socialising with the far more diminuitive pigmy tamarins with which it shared its enclosure (and which were a good deal smaller than the average domestic rat).
The one which was the greatest joy to watch, however, was the Jaguar. That creature was quite probably the sexiest thing I have ever seen; powerful, graceful, pure feline death on four legs. Jaguars are among nature's most effective killers, and have developed methods of killing unlike any other big cat. While most large felids go for the jugular vein when attacking their prey, the jaguar's bite has become so strong that instead it just sinks its fangs into the back of the prey's cranium and crushes the braincase. Couple that with overall muscular strength so great that it can pulverise a man's skull with one swipe of its claws, and you have a pretty impressive cat.
I'd love to see one of those in the wild, but I'm not holding my breath. Unfortunately, they're not especially suited to life in captivity. Jaguars are very territorial beasts, and part way through the observation period a large group of people turned up to look at it. The animal obviously became quite stressed during this period, as it started pacing around quite aggressively, making a display of what it considered to be its territory. At one point it even took a swipe at the barrier. While I would normally feel quite sorry for an animal under those circumstances, the fact remains that it will enjoy a much longer and healthier life at the zoo than it would in the wild. The Jaguar may be an apex predator, but in the wild this simply means coming into constant competition with others of its own kind and other large predators such as Caimans and Anacondas. Captive animals still generally have a far greater life expectancy then their wild cousins, and to my knowledge this particular specimen was bred in captivity.
There are more phots on the Field Trips album of my Ringo page.
This coming wednesday is my Ecology exam. I've seen the questions (yes, it's a seen-paper exam) and need to get some answers written and memorised before wednesday morning. I don't think it will be too hard. While I got a fairly miserable result in Environmental Biology last year, that was only because I didn't have time to finish my third question and couldn't be awarded any marks for an answer which was less than one page. I know the kind of criteria that Mike Jeffries (my Ecology lecturer) uses to mark papers, so I think I'm in a good position to get quite a high mark this time around.
Oh, and the first game session of Newcastle Mortals on tuesday night was an absolute blast. Temporal loops, paradoxes and characters dying several times in the space of three hours, all great fun.
Click to view