Strange Ways to Go Dashing Through the Snow

What do you know about sledding?

Everyone knows about dog-sledding...the Iditarod, etc. So I had to post this gorgeous photo of a dog sledding team. Dogs have been known to sled 90 miles in one day, each one pulling 85 pounds apiece!


And then there's the more traditional sleigh pulled by one or two horses.

Turkeys You WON'T Eat for Thanksgiving

I just had to sneak in a little post about turkeys, because there are turkeys, but then there are turkeys!

The turkey you'll eat for the holiday comes from the original American Wild Turkey, seen below:

Big Cats and Their Halloween Pumpkins!

A Mysterious (and Wrongly-Named) Dog

Elusive, shy of people, a real mystery dog.

This wild dog (like the Bush dog) has webbed toes.

And, strangely enough, the female dog is way bigger than the male.  Not too common in the world of dogs!

Alligators in the Sewers of New York?

Alligators!  

Dumped as babies into the plumbing of the Big Apple, they've grown to monstrous size. And they might come back up the pipes and into your bathtub... right?  

Well, just in case the picture above has you concerned, there's no hard evidence that there are gators in the sewers of New York. 

Why not?  

New York is too cold for an alligator to survive there in the wild.   :)

Of course, who knows about sewers in warm cities. Ha ha

Crocodilians are cool and toothy looking, but the three main types look a lot alike.  So let's take a closer look and see how to tell them apart:

  

Top view is cool too...

Got it?  For more croc craziness, check out my posts on gharials and false gharials.  

And after that, you might be ready to take a fun little test to see how well you know your crocs!

The King....Manely

Photograph by Natalie Manuel

The King of Beasts...the lion.  

Surveys tell us that most people, though they have trouble naming many other animals shown to them, can identify a male lion.

That's a relief!

There are eight subspecies of lion, most of which live in Africa. 

A small number of Asiatic lions, like the one pictured below,  live in the Gir Forest in India:

Most lions are varying shades of color, but there are some white lions living wild in Tambavati. 

White lions are not albino, but leucistic South Africa lions; That means their normal tan coat color is suppressed with the chinchilla gene, but their eyes are gold-brown, not red like a true albino's.

Lions are the only big cats that lives in groups, called prides. The pride can have up to forty members, most of which are females and cubs.

That big lion mane? Lions are the only big cats where it is easy to tell the males from the females.  Except in Tsavo, where the Maneless lions live.  

Did you know that maneless lions tend to be man-eaters?  Check those out here.

And speaking of manes, let's take a look at the different colors their manes can be: 

Amazing variety, isn't there?

 Got something to say about this?  Leave me a comment!

The King....Manely

Photograph by Natalie Manuel

The King of Beasts...the lion.  

Surveys tell us that most people, though they have trouble naming many other animals shown to them, can identify a male lion.

That's a relief!

There are eight subspecies of lion, most of which live in Africa. 

A small number of Asiatic lions, like the one pictured below,  live in the Gir Forest in India:

Most lions are varying shades of color, but there are some white lions living wild in Tambavati. 

White lions are not albino, but leucistic South Africa lions; That means their normal tan coat color is suppressed with the chinchilla gene, but their eyes are gold-brown, not red like a true albino's.

Lions are the only big cats that lives in groups, called prides. The pride can have up to forty members, most of which are females and cubs.

That big lion mane? Lions are the only big cats where it is easy to tell the males from the females.  Except in Tsavo, where the Maneless lions live.  

Did you know that maneless lions tend to be man-eaters?  Check those out here.

And speaking of manes, let's take a look at the different colors their manes can be: 

Amazing variety, isn't there?

 Got something to say about this?  Leave me a comment!