I haven’t heard of this with jaguars before, that I remember, but it is a logical response of big cats to possible prey. Tigers and leopards are well known practioners.
My concern is it might be used to thwart jaguar conservation in the U.S.
Uncategorized
SIDNEY LONG: Spirit of the Plains (1897).
A very evocative image of cranes. I see it pop up, sometimes. My guess is that there are some crane lovers here. That, and the loaded comic subtext, is too good to pass up.
Thagomizer
Just passing by.
Doedicurus clavicaudatus was a giant armadillo from central South America, with fossils being found in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. They reached an average weight of 1,400 kg, had spiked tail clubs and may have remained around until as recently as 7,000 years ago, meaning it certainly coexisted with both humans and other South American animals like the Jaguar and seriema.
An armadillo with a thagomizer, awesome! Love it and a tie in to one of my favorite cartoons, below .
Running the Gantlet
An example of one of Valerius Geist’s predator pits that he theorized were common in the North American Pleistocene?
An update.
Many folks imagine Pleistocene-environments to resemble the modern day Serengeti, but this was not always the case. During cold dry climatic phases large areas may have hosted scarce wildlife populations restricted to shrinking water holes. Wildlife populations rebounded whenever climate phases shifted to more moist conditions. I’m sure wildlife populations fluctuated in parts of North America just like they did in Guatemala.
Bear Lidar
The idea came to Cusick, who works for the National Park Service in Alaska, in 2018, while he was working on mapping and surveying at Katmai. A terrestrial lidar scanner, which uses lasers to determine distance and other measurements, was on hand to measure buildings. That’s the device traditional civil engineers use, but when Cusick wandered down to Brooks Falls and stood on a viewing platform 300 feet away from the bears, inspiration hit. He thought: Why not use the scanner to measure a bear’s surface volume instead?
Very neat idea.
Another Sign of Fall
“Having breakfast onboard, 28 miles off Canso. Oct 2 ,2021”
I used to see them, this time of year, when I worked on the Scotian Shelf. The ships attract tired migrant birds and the falcons prey on them. One ate a piper, or something, on the bow. I wonder how many land birds die at sea. A lot of them that land on the ships do not look healthy and if they drink the sea water on deck that is bad. Steve might have more to say about that.
October Again
Well, that didn’t take long to get here it seems.
In 2 weeks, it will be peak color here and maybe snow by the end of the month. “Winter is coming,” as J.R.R. Martin says. I can’t say I am as keen on that as I used to be.
I see Steve has some nice woods down there. Not too close but they are there. It makes for a good mix. I was kind of surprised by the isolated blob bottom right in NM.
Cape Breton
A Note from Tiger Country plus quatch and big peckers
Steve and gang have been amused by this video*. I haven’t looked at it but, sadly, I can relate. Thirty years ago, I had a phase where I was hopeful for its existence. Something to be excited over in a world where the biosphere is shrinking in a mass extinction. Like the British, with their big cat fantasies on the moors, it was a longing for a lost world where mysteries were still possible. Now with billions added to the population in my lifetime and trail cameras everywhere l am resigned to smaller and smaller details from the labs of science as compensation.
Striper Hipsters
Striper hipsters ca 1955 , Wellfleet, Mass; Charley DeFeo, Joe Bodio
Open in a new tab to embiggen.