… are what the the old falconers called the Gyr- Saker crosses of the high deserts and lost mountains of Central Asia. Another common name, probably Turkic, is “Shunkar”. From her (enormous) size and color this female in the breeding center outside of Almaty has Gyr genes, but her head shape and long tail, like …
Author: Steve Bodio
New Bird
Another male Gyr X Saker, but this one rather than a stout Gyr resembles a long, lean, long- tailed Saker. He weighs virtually the same. He is looking a bit nervous and indeed is wild for an imprint, but I suspect he’ll come around shortly. Update: Our friend Patrick “Terrierman” Burns asked some good questions …
Provocative Quote of the day
“The human race is the new Chicxulub meteor.” (Janeen of Smartdogs in comments at Atomic Nerds.)
Links
The mammoth genome has been sequenced from hair (I have some!) Real Pleistocene Park stuff. Actually you should scroll down Paleoblog for all manner of good things, from a Mongolian fiesta at Bozeman to new finds at the Deinocheirus site in Mongolia to the evolution–!– of minerals. At least some frogs are able to learn …
News and…
Been busy but not blogging. Some good news: the eagle book that occupied me (and drove me crazy) last year looks to have a new publisher. And another publisher in the same state is interested in doing a new edition of rage for falcons. I’ll keep you posted. And I have a new Gyr- Saker …
The Callings, a rambling review
In two weeks I’ll be in Amarillo, Texas—about as different a place from Baton Rouge as can be reached in a day’s drive. My destination is a log cabin on the north side of town. From the back porch you look out across the yucca dotted desert, rolling and smooth, toward the broken country of …
Taigans vs Wolves
Here and here are two rather ugly photos of Kyrgiz taigans attacking a tethered wolf. They have caused controversy in both European AR groups and, most recently, in one of our tazi lists. The general consensus appears to be that the Kyrgiz are reprehensible and that they should be stopped (also, everyone apparently thinks that …
Re- Wilding
Laura Niven sends a link to this Wired magazine piece on the controversial practice of “Re- Wilding” — reintroducing the megafauna to environments that have lost them. To me the most interesting part is that Sergey Zimov’s Pleistocene Park is succeeding as predicted in changing swampy taiga to biologically more productive steppe. This agrees with …
“Pet Camel Kills Australian Woman”
This story was sent by Darren, who said “Not funny, yet still funny. Or not..” I know what he means, but what a lead line! “A woman in Australia has been killed by her pet camel after the animal may have tried to have sex with her.” No joke though. Frequent commenter Annie D will …
Barking Mad : “Sea Kittens”
Well, most sane people know that PETA is, but now they have outdone themselves. HT Blunt Object (read his take) via the Nerds.