when i think of black bears i think of…the office. jim impersonating dwight: “what kind of bear is best? FALSE. black bear.” and “bears. beets. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.” i digress. the first interesting tidbit about black bears that i have is that they can actually be a few different colours. they can be white! cinnamon. bluish (which i think is awesome) gray or black. brown. they spend their summers pretty much alone, eating just about everything. everything. their dormancy in the winter was once not really considered hibernating but that might have changed now. regardless, they don’t eat, drink or go onesies or twosies during the winter. black bears were created by the great spirit, according to early inhabitors of the americas (grizzlies were created by the evil spirit). also, winnie the pooh was named after a london zoo female black bear named winnipeg. ursus americanus in moleskine.
this classification is a bit of a cheat i think as there are something like forty species of these birds. i do have to keep things as simple as possible though. hailing from australia, south africa, and new guinea, these birds usually have some very dramatic and showy feathers and colours (i say that as if they choose to dress this way or something). since there are so many species, it’s hard to report on anything less general than they eat fruit and bugs. i leave finding out more about these birds to you.
as the names suggest, this engandered subspecies of the tiger family can be found in india. they’re the largest of the cat family and unlike many a movie might suggest, they tend to avoid humans unless they’re a bit mad. i wasn’t aware that they hunt nocturnally. they’re individiual down to their stripes and very independent, typically living alone as adults. males do not raise their cubs, yet females will raise their young until they’re old enough to hunt. that usually takes about three years. i also didn’t know that white tigers are recessive mutants of bengal tigers. the chinese seemed to prize tigers for their medicines but they were also poached largely as trophies for their fur. panthera tigris tigris in moleskine.
contrary to their name, these whales do not produce the caviar that seems to be so sought after. these are white whales. not the type that captain ahab was after though (sperm whale, in that case). they inhabit arctic waters but inhabit warmer waters when arctic oceans freeze over, lest they become food for polars bears or people. they’re most notable because of their melons. seriously, the lump on their heads is referred to as a melon and is comprised of oily, fatty tissue. i’m not sure if this is some sort of survival related feature but belugas can change the shape of their heads by shifting air around in their sinuses. more survival related, they are among the only whales that can actually turn their heads. they lack dorsal fins in favour of dorsal ridges. delphinapterus leucas in moleskine.
say hello to canada’s national animal. i never really thought about it like this but national geographic puts it well when they say that these rodents are engineers of sorts, chewing through trees to use for their dams and lodges (homes). it’s interesting that they’re considered rodents and yet they are not so nimble on land where most other rodents seem to be the most adept. their webbed feet and tails allow them to easily manoeuvre through rivers, lakes, and the ponds their dams create. more evidence that they seem built for the water: the can hold their breath for nearly 15 minutes and even have a set of transparent eyelids. they have built in goggles! i love it. they’ll often build their lodges smack dab in the middle of a pond and make the entrance underwater. now that’s what i call not wanting to be disturbed. castor canadensis in moleskine.
while most probably known for being the namesake of a certain professional baseball team, the baltimore oriole is also maryland’s state bird. how did these omnivorous little guys get to be a state bird, you ask? well, i’ll tell you. their colours closely matched the coat of arms of lord baltimore, cecil calvert. these orioles are migratory, leaving the eastern US and canada in favour of warmer climates in mexico and central / south america in the winter. icterus galbula on moleskine.
it’s pretty common knowledge that white headed bald eagles are the national symbol of the united states but i had no idea that these birds of prey were nearly, er, extirpated (locally extinct) in the land of the free. hunting definitely had an effect on their numbers but the use of ddt (that showed up in the fish they ate) really sent their population in the u.s. in a nosedive. once ddt was banned though, the birds’ numbers rebounded successfully. i also thought that being birds of prey, bald eagles only hunted for live animals but they do feed on carrion as well – sometimes the carcasses are those of whales! this and the fact that they have been known to bully food from away from other animals led ben franklin to vote against them as the american national symbol. these eagles are another example of animals that usually have one mate for life. they lay only a few eggs per year in their nests that are among the largest of any bird today. haliaeetus leucocephalus in moleskine.
the main difference between these and arabian (dromedary) camels is the number of humps each has. bactrians have two instead of one. consequently, they can go even longer without plants and water in even harsher conditions (from about 40°C to -30°C) with the extra storage. i suppose it is fitting that when they can drink water, they can do so at ridiculously fast rates. like more than two gallons per minute fast. bactrians are the only true wild camels in the gobi dessert and yet they are very endangered. estimates say there are less than 1000 left. camelus bactrianus in moleskine.
baboons live in troops that number in the hundreds. they vocalise to communicate within the troop but good old physical force does the trick for the males as well. interestingly, they spend a fair amount of time grooming each other, ridding one another of insects and the like. i’m not sure why their groups are called troops though. a school of fish; a herd of cattle; a troop of baboons? perhaps they’re militant? they do eat meat but tend toward more vegetarian diets, often annoying farmers in the african and arab regions they inhabit. baboons are old world monkeys – a distinction i’m finding a little hard to comprehend. aside from tails that don’t grip trees, i believe old world monkeys have different nasal and dental structures from apes. papio hamadryas / papio / anubis / cynocephalus / ursinus in moleskine.
just about everything i read about these guys is new to me. aye-ayes are nocturnal, spend their life in rainforest trees (in eastern madagascar mainly), and are the largest of nocturnal primates. they kind…woodpeck…with their long, slender middle fingers to get at insects within branches and trees. until i read it, all signs indicated a very timid creature but they’re apparently quite fearless. they’ve been spotted just kind of strolling through villages or don’t mind cozying up to people in the wild, if they’re there. on the flip side, they’re known as omens and are killed on the spot by locals who believe this. daubentonia madagascariensis in moleskine.