Feral Cats, Roman Ruins, Animal City

A personal account of one reporter's interest piqued on the huge populations of cats among the Roman ruins:

"When Egypt became part of the Roman Empire, the cult of cat-headed goddess Bastet crossed the Mediterranean. Its worship became so popular, overshadowing the reverence of the emperor, that eventually an imperial decree banned all cats. But some survived. The idea that a few of the descendants still live within the imperial ruins aroused my curiosity. Thus I ended up at the largest cat colony in Rome, the Torre Argentina cat sanctuary..."

Pictured above is a cat known as "Nelson the One-Eyed King" - an alpha cat among the ruins. Feral cats are well-known in many cities worldwide and feral dogs are now being considered a problem of crisis proportion in the US. Thinking on the intimately interwined live of dogs and people in the city brings to mind the movie Amores Perros and the realization that perhaps any urban narrative that is true to the city should include the dogs, birds, cats or,rats that populate and insinuate metropolitan life(?)

AY

NV

From the Manufacturer
A really unique hands-on, hands-in live butterfly experience! Butterfly Bungalow™ makes all the caterpillar-to-butterfly magic of metamorphosis personal! After raising your Painted lady butterflies from larvae, climb into the airy habitat for some up-close observation time. The sturdy enclosure can be reused again and again. Makes a super addition to the classroom or playroom. Includes high-quality tent, mail in coupon for 6 - 10 Painted Lady butterfly larvae with special food and complete instructions. Six butterflies are guaranteed to be perfect specimens. Please allow approximately 3 weeks for your larvae to develop. During extremely hot or cold weather, delivery of live larvae may be delayed. Available only in the Continental U.S. and Alaska. Note! If ordering this item with a coupon, please be advised that there is an additional $5.00 required when redeeming your coupon for shipping and handling. Ages 4 & up

Product Description
Butterfly Bungalow makes all the caterpillar-to-butterfly magic of metamorphosis personal! After raising your Painted Lady butterflies from larvae, climb into the airy habitat for some up-close observation time. The sturdy enclosure can be reused again and again. Makes a super addition to the classroom or playroom. Includes high-quality tent, mail-in coupon for 6 to 10 Painted Lady butterfly larvae with special food and complete instructions. Six butterflies are guaranteed to be perfect specimens.

black foxes

This is a link to the first black fox of the UK. I found it when reading and article of a some fox kits hanging out at the top of some trees:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1707364.ece

wildlife getting "caught up" in the human world

Pictured here is an elk in Colorado comprised by a piece of furniture it picked up - likely while foraging on an urban edge.

According to the story, so far it hasn't been too much of a problem, as Colorado Division of Wildlife officer Craig Wescoatt says:

“She’s very active. The bar stool doesn’t seem to be impairing her to any great degree,” he observed, “She just looks kind of goofy.”

For a "lighter take" on this incident, you can check out his blogger's view:

Top five explanations for why an elk ended up with a barstool around its neck

Also, the ABC news clip

------------------------------->

This reminds me of the issue of sea birds and other creatures getting caught up in six-pack plastic rings. In one dramatic case a turtle whose development was completely altered by growing up corseted by one of these things was found and dubbed the "Figure Eight Turtle." Video here.

Ah, Homo faber.



AY

Bedbugs Chicago

This article and accompanying video in the Chicago Tribune this morning couldn't be more timely given our visit from Sara from Smithereen yesterday and her discussion about the city's growing bedbug problem.

Describing them as "dastardly pests" the article mentions of furniture picking from alleys and used furniture sales through Craigslist is one mode of spread through the city.

And the causes?

"Entomologists say the resurgence in bedbugs is the result of tougher restrictions against the use of toxic pesticides such as DDT, which was banned in 1972, increased travel to Third World countries and the bugs' growing resistance to modern insecticides."

wow = yikes


AY

my, what big calves you have....

Yes, this photos is exactly what you think it is: the paper cylinders in which a 23 year-old man attempted to smuggle in two live pigeons to Australia. Oh, when will people think of something new?

Stopped at the Melbourne airport for what I would assume might be an awkward gait, this fellow was busted for being a vehicle for a potentially invasive species.

He also was carrying an undeclared eggplant.



AY

Cat Camera

Seattle -- filmmakers / cat owners, Michael and Deirdre Cross
give their cat, Cooper, a camera to wear around Seattle.
Cooper's photographs are then exhibited in art gallery.

"We tried to get as big of a range of photos as possible," Michael Cross said. "He takes beautiful nature and wildlife scenes and amazing abstracts. He also takes a couple portraits -- one of a friend of ours and one of another cat, finally. We're now calling it Cooper's girlfriend."

"It really is a different view. I think of our neighborhood as very urban but through his eyes, it's green, lush, going through backyards and shortcuts," Deirdre Cross said. "I feel like I have a different relationship with it through his perspective."



more unbelievable quotes from the Cross family here:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/ae/399900_cooper13.html


JS

goth pets

The RedEye had a blurb this last week among its almost predictable animal coverage, showm here.

Fox News recently had a feature on this case, though I can't say I like the commentators anymore than I might the pet-piercers they are criticizing...

Of course, there is a whole other way to look at the "goth pet" notion in Goth culture, as illustrated by this charming young British couple. Whatever else you might think of it, they rock it pretty well, really.

AY

Obama as Ape

Well, leave it to The New York Post to mix it all up with the cartoon below a la Travis and President Obama.

The Post's half-hearted apology claims "Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon - even as the opportunists seek to make it something else." Which "sometime" is that time, and which isn't? If editorial cartoonism prides itself (perhaps self-indulgently) on anything, it is the layers of meaning employed. Clearly it is not just me who has a hard time reading this layer as anything but employing the wel-worn racist metaphor of "black as ape"...?


AY

Coyote Highway

This video claims a coyote goes "wild" on the interstate this week in Indiana. Seems just a tad ironic - How might this animals be regarded as anything but "wild" in Cementland? Perhaps if it was driving a SUV...



AY

My little pony

Guide horses are the new wave of service animals. They outlive seeing-eye dogs and aren't constantly distracted by a super-powered sense of smell the way their canine counterparts are. As with any domesticated or wild animal living in a predominantly human world, there are issues. More than I could have imagined.

Check out this article. It makes me think we need animals much more than they need us. Click on the image from the Guide Horse Foundation to learn more about them.

the sad case of Travis the Chimpanzee

A truly sad and strange story from this week's news:

We read about the dangers of exotic pets in terms of affecting the ecosystem they sometimes escape into in their new countries as invasive species. Here perhaps is a twist on this? A chimp - brought as a performer from it home in Africa and then given up to be a domesticated pet - suffers a major break with its adopted human companions.

This chimpanzee threw a fatal tantrum when it wasn't allowed to go for a car ride after its dinner of fish & chips and caramel ice cream. On medication for Lyme disease and reportedly put put Xanex by its keeper when unruly. We want them to be animals and humans at the same time, all the time.

Watch the TV news coverage

AY

Vulture getting "up" in a pilot's business

In considering the recent bird strike in NYC that downed a US Airways plane, consider this news blurb abut another feathered bird taking down a metal version.

Speaking of vultures in Florida, I noticed this December in Tampa that turkey vultures completely dominate downtown, gliding about and perching atop on the ledges of various tall buildings by the hundreds. It is downright eerie - and course the locals notice too. It could be they love the beaches down there.

AY

Zoorotica

The Binder Zoo in Mi-chi-gan has decided to pimp out their animals Valentine's stylely with there program "Zoorotica". A behind the scenes look at the mating habits of animals. Of course I am in support of thinking about these things and spreading the word in general. Perhaps I could get behind this "Zorotica" didn't immediately bring to mind the image of a rotting zoo... Watching animals is one thing, the Gaze upon them maybe is another. PETA of course loves to get the smutty-on for the sake of the animals too, they could cosponsor their recent Amarillo event together with the zoo? (photo naturally a la Nat'l Geo)

AY

Dog For Sale

I got this forwarded to me in an e-mail right after the first day of class, this woman was trying to sell her dog and this was her sales pitch:
Dog For Sale
Free to good home. Excellent guard dog. Owner cannot afford to feed him anymore, as there are no more drug pushers, thieves, murderers, or molesters left in the neighborhood for him to eat. Most of them knew him as "Holy Shit!"
-arf

Urban Nature Landscapes of W Chicago Ave. and Kolmar

mm

baby animal picture parade

ABC News is particularly fond of animal photos. For example, this slideshow I call the Baby Animal Photo Parade. The captions are interesting to consider in terms of how the animals are talked about in relation to their parents, humans, and the zoos they are usually born in. The compositional qualities of these photos are also interesting to think about, as well as the slideshow format.

How does this slideshow itself operate in the broader sphere of thinking about Animals As Nature in the context of the urban, or for that matter the Internet? Is the internet a natural extension of bring urban and the internet part of the new zoo: Every critter you could ever want to see globally and yet right there?
AY

let's call them "rock doves" shall we?

Regarding the idea of "flying rats" in the other recent post, I just thought I'd add my own contribution to that pigeony discussion and mention a new zine the Small Science Collective (of which I am a member) just put out the other day. You can read about it and a number of other timely pigeon topics there, as well as download the zine itself!

AY

Protect the horses

Protesters last Saturday gathered in front of the Water Tower to demonstrate against the drivers of the horse-drawn carriages.  There protestations included microphones and loud declarations that these horses were not happy and shouldn't be working to schlep tourists around.  I have often wondered where the horses are boarded, and what their working conditions are truly like. My observation was the horses that draw these carriages don't look abused, are seem to be well fed. I ask what does a horse in the city do to earn it's oats? 

MPM

Flying Rats

An interesting sculpture by Kader Attia.  "Flying Rats" consists of a giant cage in which pigeons feast on children sculpted in birdseed.  For a full article in the New Yorker, click here.

-CC

The Mongoose (Helogale Parvula)

Taken from a footnote in "The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz, pg.15

"The Mongoose, one of the great unstable particles of the universe and also one of it's many travelers. Acompaied humanity out of Africa and after a long furlough in India jumped ship to the other India, a.k.a the Caribbean. Since it's earliest apperance in the written record- 675 B.C.E, in a nameless scribe's letter to Ashurbanipal's father, Esarhaddon- the mongoose has proven itself to be an enemy of kingly chariots, chains, and hierarchies. Belived to be an ally of man, many Watchers suspect that the Mongoose arrived to our world from another, but to date no evidence of such migration has been unearthed".

mm

Lots of the animals in the city are often symbolic in nature, living their live as mascots, brand logos, and the like. As we see with our various Chicago sports teams, Bulls, the Bears, to Cubs - we are up to our ears in animal icons.

Thankfully though mythical animals also make appearances as well - if we are going to get so behind the idea of animals perhaps even more than animals themselves, they might as be fantastic, animate, and thousands of years old. So enter the dragons at Chinese New Year. I captured this one lat weekend walking down at Cermak and Wentworth - dancing its fancy dance and being all big and crazy. What's not wonderful about them? I'd be curious what the pigeons make of these beasts, the only ones (besides police horses?) that get serious right-of-way in the streets.

Of course it is Year of the Ox, and I think particularly how Sydney decided to trick out their bovine imagery to have that city sensibility, all 70's neon like.

AY

Working camel healthcare in the city of Jaipur!

An interesting video posted this week on ABC news about a free health program for the camels of Jaipur who work in the city hauling things to and fro.....

Puppy Bowl V

Yesterday I watched some of the Superbowl in the companionship of my friend's Miniature Fox Terrier, Rocket. He jumped on my lap and started greedily drinking the beer in my glass, which I have to say surprised me. To think that this little guy derived from a wolf, sitting on my lap, sipping suds, and his kin taking part in the alternate superbowl - yes, I am talking about Puppy Bowl V.

The Animal Planet channel has taken domestication to its next post-industrial step: commerical sports. I think it is really more like rugby than football given the dogs don't in fact where helmets, right? What's interesting about dog play and soprts play though is that the former has no points, which is kind of a relief.

If you want to get a glimpse of last year's puppy bowl it is also out on the interwebs (but naturally, isn't this exactly what youTube caters to?) Last year's bout doesn't look as good as this year's game - I suspect the players from last year already retired anyway....

AY