Meeting the African Penguins!

I also was just able to upload another one of the many videos that I took when me, my dad, my grandma and grandpa, and my friend Masaki Kleinkopf went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo a month or so ago and got to meet the African penguins there!  This video takes place before we actually enter the enclosure, while we are still looking in on the penguins at the entrance to the exhibit!  Enjoy, and be sure to check out some of the other videos on there while you are at it!

 Meeting the African Penguins!

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At Last: Success With Primos!

Today's birthday post goes out to Megan Pullen!  Happy birthday Megan!  If you have a birthday coming up, just email me the date at cuyvaldar123946@gmail.com with the date and your favorite animal, and I will do my best to get a post in!

So the lock that I had ordered for my Primos Truth Cam finally arrived over the weekend, and on Sunday night I was finally able to set up the camera!  I made sure to use some of the fox urine in and around the area in the hopes of attracting red foxes.....and we got ourselves a hit!

For those of you wondering how in the heck I got fox urine, not to mention why, here is the skinny.  I started this thing called Foxbook.  Here is the description about what exactly it is, lifted from my "Foxbook" tab.  "Recently, my friend Masaki Kleinkopf and I started an experiment of sorts, to see whether foxes were in the area.  My mother had purchased fox urine to spray in her garden to keep garden pests such as squirrels from eating her vegetables.  I borrowed some and sprayed a bit on a wall near by to my use.  Underneath the spray site, I buried a plastic bin, and poured water into the dirt in the bin.  This turned the dirt into mud, and the plastic bin prevented the water from draining.  So now the bin remains muddy for days at a time, making it more likely for the fox visitors to leave footprints.  On the very first day, we got a hit, and three of the four days now we have gotten hits!  In perhaps my best pun yet, I created the term "Foxbook."  You see, it is like a social messaging site, where visitors can leave "Posts" on other peoples "Walls."  Haha."

So there is that.  We also got a skunky visitor, as well, along with a little child who tried to steal the camera from the tree.  Thank goodness for the lock!  Anyways, here are the pictures!  Enjoy them!

We have actually talked about foxes a great many times on this blog in the past.  Here are the posts in which we have done so:

• Channel Island Fox:  Shrinky Dink: The Channel Island Fox and the Island Effect
• Red Fox:  Guards of the Fairy Penguin
• Fennec Fox:  What Is It?  The Weekly Challenge #5 Answer
• Gray Fox:  The Fauna of South Carolina: Cetaceans, Foxes and Otters
• Red Fox:  The Fox's Animal Magnetism

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Downtown on Dwellable

Proterosuchus....or Should I Say "Broterosuchus?"

Before we learn about Proterosuchus, it will be helpful to discuss where this creature comes from.  Proterosuchus is an archosaur, and to understand what an archosaur is, we must first travel back 320 million years into Earth's history: back....to the middle of the Carboniferous Period.  To travel back to that period of Earth's history, click HERE TO SEE A POST I JUST MADE ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF THE ANIMALS THAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW.  Unless, of course, you are fine with just accepting the idea that the archosaurs are relatives of the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and crocodilians, in which case you can just skip that post.  I think it's interesting, though, so it might be worth checking out!

Well, that was confusing.  So how does all of this evolutionary rig-a-ma-roll pertain to Proterosuchus?  Well, in his excellent book entitled "Gorgon," paleontologist Peter D. Ward actually talks about that.  Here is that passage from his book:

"During the Triassic a whole new suite of vertebrates populated the land.  The oldest true "ruling reptiles," the stock that would ultimately give rise to the dinosaurs, are found in the oldest rocks of the Triassic.  The most ancient of these is Proterosuchus.  Yet within several million years, there was a variety of these predinosaurs, belonging to a group known as the archosaurs.  From these ancestral stocks the successful lines of crocodiles and crocodile-like animals known as phytosaurs evolved.  From other members of this group came lizards, snakes, and, by the middle of the Triassic, the first true dinosaurs."  

Well, that certainly sums it up quite nicely, don't you think!  Anyways, Proterosuchus was around the size of the extant Komodo dragon, and was one of the largest reptiles alive during its time, in the Early Triassic Period.  Similar in appearance to the modern day crocodiles, it has been theorized that this animal would lie in wait much like the crocodilians, ambushing its prey when it came down to bodies of water to drink.  One bit of evidence that causes some scientists to believe that Proterosuchus hunted like the crocodilians was that the eyes of Proterosuchus were were located on top of its head, again like the crocodilians.

Remains of Proterosuchus are known from both China and South Africa, where it was first discovered by Robert Broom, a famous South African paleontologist, in 1903.  This specimen was discovered in the Karoo Basin, an enormous desert in South Africa where large numbers of fossils have been discovered. 

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The Archosaurs: A Brief Summary of Reptilian Evolution

320 million years ago, during the Carboniferous Period, the flora and fauna looked quite different than it does today.  Oxygen levels in the atmosphere were much higher, allowing insects to grow to enormous sizes.  Centipedes were the size of snowboards; dragonflies were the size of hawks; and spiders were the size of dinner plates.  There were also no mammals.  Not only that, but there were no reptiles, no dinosaurs, and no birds (which, of course, are dinosaurs).  There were, however, amphibians.  Amphibians, like frogs and salamanders, cannot lay their eggs on dry land, and instead must lay them in pools of water.  This is because the eggs that they lay, unlike those laid by dinosaurs, birds, reptiles, and monotremes (the two egg-laying mammals), have soft-shelled eggs, which allows water to move in and out of them.  They would simply dry up on land!

Around 320 MYA, however, something changed.  Some of these amphibians developed what is known as an "amniotic egg," the type of egg typified by the dinosaurs, birds, reptiles and monotremes.

Around 5 million years after that, around 315 MYA, another major split occurred, this time between the amniotes.  This split resulted in two lineages, the first of which, the synapsids, would one day become the mammals.  The second of these two lineages was the sauropsids.   Within the sauropsids was the group known as the archosaurs.  The archosaurs, in turn, suffered two major splits.  The first split was the crocodiles, alligators and their kin.  They joined with the rest of the reptiles contained within the sauropsids.  The second large split within the archosaurs was another large group, off of which the pterosaurs broke off, before the rest of the group became dinosaurs (and, in turn, birds).  If you look at the family tree below, you can see that the group known collectively as the "reptiles" is what is referred to as a "paraphyletic group."  Put simply, that means that a paraphyletic group consists of "all the descendants of the last common ancestor of the group's members minus a small number of monophyletic groups of descendants, typically just one or two such groups." So for reptiles, that means that the group consists of the last common ancestor of all reptiles (which includes both extant reptiles and the extinct mammal-like reptiles, the precursors of the mammals), including all of the descendants of that ancestor....EXCEPT for the mammals and the birds, which are defined separately.  I feel like I have confused you enough, so I am not even going to get into the whole dinosaur debate.

Viagra, Pornography, and the Giant Panda

Today's birthday post goes out to Maggie Zhang!  Happy birthday Maggie!  If you have a birthday coming up, just email me the date at cuyvaldar123946@gmail.com with the date and your favorite animal, and I will do my best to get a post in!

One of the many pictures of the giant panda that we took at the San Diego Zoo in California.  In fact, all of the giant panda pictures in this post were taken by my family and I.

Today we will be looking at a very interesting animal known colloquially as the "giant panda" (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), which translates to "black and white cat-foot."  Classified as "Endangered" by the IUCN, the giant panda is not only a symbol of its homeland of China (as well as its only land), but also for conservation efforts worldwide, being the symbol for the World Wildlife Fund.  It's closest living relative is the South American spectacled bear, and is frequently referred to as a "living fossil" due to its early branching from the rest of the family Ursidae.  Due to its basal position in the bear family, controversy surrounded the panda for many years as scientists struggled to determine where it belonged, often suggesting a close relation to both the raccoon and the red panda, who gets its name from the giant panda.  These two are only distantly related, however, despite the fact that they live in the same area, have largely the same diet, and both have what is essentially a thumb on their front paws.

Notice how the panda is grasping the bamboo, employing the use of its thumb appendages

It is estimated that the giant panda has been evolving away from the other bears for more than three million years due to the discovery of Ailuropoda microta, or the "dwarf giant panda."  The first skull discovered of the dwarf giant panda was in rocks in southern China that are around two million years old.  The skull indicates that this relative of the giant panda would have grown to around three feet in length, while the modern panda grows to a length of around five feet.  Despite the size difference, the skulls of the dwarf and giant pandas are actually quite similar anatomically, and dentition studies (studies of the animals teeth) indicate that the diet of Ailuropoda microta consisted largely of bamboo, much like the extant panda, for whom bamboo composes about 99% of its diet.  The giant panda will also consume tubers, grasses, and even meat when it can get it, like carrion, but also rodents and birds.

The giant panda at the zoo searching for the food that the zookeepers left for it around the exhibit

And now the reason why most of you are here: panda pornography and Viagra.  When I was researching the giant panda for this post, I ducked on to Wikipedia to employ the use of their range map of the giant panda.  At the bottom of the page, under the "See Also" tab, I couldn't help but notice the page entitled "Panda Pornography."  More than a little intrigued, I investigated, and its really quite funny, and not as weird as many of you were probably expecting.

No panda pornography here, but more of "The giant panda at the zoo searching for the food that the zookeepers left for it around the exhibit"

Many attempts to breed the giant panda in captivity have been made, given its "Endangered" status.  They are doing better now, and many pandas have been bred in zoos in China as well as at the San Diego Zoo in California, where apparently six have now been born.  (To see the "Panda Cam" at the zoo, click HEREEEEE).  Zoologists at a Chiang Mai Zoo in Thailand showed their pandas "panda pornogrpahy," literally just a bunch of videos of other giant pandas mating.  They hoped that the pandas would use this as a guide, and that it would arouse them.  Huh.  Despite the fact that this particular group of zoologists seemed to think the whole thing a success, efforts to duplicate the experiment have failed, causing the whole concept of panda pornography to come under intense scrutiny. 

The giant panda at the zoo searching for the food that the zookeepers left for it around the exhibit

The giant panda at the zoo searching for the food that the zookeepers left for it around the exhibit

The giant panda at the zoo searching for the food that the zookeepers left for it around the exhibit

Furthermore, some Chinese scientists at the Wolong Nature Reserve attempted to excite the pandas by giving them Viagra.  Again, huh.  I mean, wouldn't you think that Viagra would be geared towards humans, and not necessarily bears?  I would, but I guess I don't know.  Despite their efforts, the Viagra trials were unsuccessful. 

The giant panda, again grasping its food with its "pseudo-thumb" thingy

Now for those of you who want a funny panda video, click on the link before to see one of my most favorite videos of all time: the Sneezing Baby Panda.  And for those of you who want more, just click on one of my new favorite videos, the "Escaping Baby Pandas" video, below the link below!  Enjoy!

The Sneezing Baby Panda!

Escaping Baby Pandas

Acrobatic Felines: The Serval

This birthday post goes out to Maiji Castro, happy birthday Maiji!  If you have a birthday coming up, just email me the date at cuyvaldar123946@gmail.com with the date and your favorite animal, and I will do my best to get a post in!

Today, the serval is going to be added to our pantheon of acrobatic felines!  The serval (Leptailurus serval) is another one of those mid-sized cats, like the caracal, bobcat, and lynx, and is actually closely related to the caracal!  DNA studies place the serval in what is frequently referred to as the "Caracal Lineage," with the serval being the basal-most, or the earliest to split off, of these three cats.  The other two are, of course, the caracal, and its closest relative, the African golden cat.

So that tells us about the serval's phylogenetic position in the feline family tree, but what else do we know about this interesting creature?  And how is it so acrobatic?  Well, the serval, much like the caracal, is a jumper, perhaps not quite as high of a leaper, but nevertheless an amazingly nimble cat.  It's incredible jumps are assisted by its long legs: in fact, the serval has, in relation to its body size, the longest legs of any feline.  To see the incredible leaps of the serval, click on the link below!

A Pretty Awesome Serval Jump!

The serval is labeled "Least Concern" by the IUCN, and has a very wide distribution across the continent of Africa, excluding deserts (like the Sahara) and the equatorial jungles of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the neighboring countries.  The serval once inhabited the countries of Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco, as well, but seems to have been extirpated (caused to go extinct in one country as opposed to extinct overall; a local extinction).  It is also now found in Tunisia again, but was reintroduced there by humans.

Four albino servals have been documented throughout the years, all of which were born in captivity.  One was born in Canada in the early '90s, but died just a week or two after birth.  The other three were all born at Florida's excellent cat sanctuary, Big Cat Rescue.  (If you want to see a ton of really, really cute pictures, click on this link HEREEEEEEEEEEEEEE to their Facebook page.  Trust me, you will NOT be disappointed!)  One of these three died a few years back, but they still have two!  First is Pharaoh, who is featured in the picture below, and Tonga, who is featured in all of the rest of the pictures, and who recently overcame nose cancer.  Enjoy!

23-Fact Tuesdays: The Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch!

Remember 23-Fact Tuesdays?  Not very surprising if you don't, since there was only one and it took place a few weeks ago.  But we are going to do one again (despite the fact that today is Sunday) and this time, all of the facts are going to be drawn from the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch (NBWR for short!)Adventure Guide Book!  If you recall, the Wildlife Ranch was the place that I talked about in our Animal Spotlight featuring the Aurochs a few weeks ago, where you drive through this large area and the animals will come up to your car!  Pretty neat, huh!?  And most of the pictures that I upload for this blog post will actually be ones that we took down there!  So, as Mrs. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus says, "Seat belts, everyone!"  Let's do this thing.

1.  The African bongo, a type of antelope, has a prehensile tongue that it uses to grab vegetation, much like a giraffe.

2. The "Critically Endangered" addax from the Sahara Desert has flat and broad hooves, which help to keep the animal from sinking into the sand.

A picture of an addax that I took while in Palm Desert, California, at the excellent zoo called "The Living Desert"

3.  The addax also is very lightly colored, which helps to reflect heat away from the animal, keeping it cool.

4.  The South American rhea can run up to 40 m.p.h.

A picture of the rhea that my mother took at the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch on our visit in 2008.  The rhea is one of the ratites, like the ostrich and the emu, amongst others.

5.  The Patagonian cavy is the second-largest rodent in the world, second only to the capybara.

6.  The Watusi is the largest horned animal in the world, and its horns can be six feet across when fully grown.

A picture of a Watusi, with a calf, that my mother took when we visited the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch in 2008

7.  The African springbok pronks, meaning that it jumps with all four feet off the ground.  Typically, when an animal pronks, it is either during pursuit by a predator, or simply during play.  During pronking, the springbok can jump ten feet in the air.

A small group of springbok at the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch in 2011

8.  The scimitar-horned oryx is labeled "Extinct in the Wild" by the IUCN, hunted to extinction in the wild for their horns, which the animal would sometimes use to spear predators to death.

 

 

9.  The gemsbok was kept in large, semi-domesticated numbers in ancient Egypt, where they were killed for sacrificial purposes.

10.  The Indian barasingha "has the unique ability to submerge their heads in water while closing their nasal passages," which "allows them to take advantage of vegetation in the swampy areas of their homeland."

11.  The name "wildebeest" came from the Dutch settlers who settles in South Africa.  It means (can you guess?) "wild beast."

12.  The nilgai, or the bluebull, is the largest of the Asian antelope.

13.  The "Near Threatened" white rhinoceros is the largest of all of the rhinoceros species, and the second largest land mammal, second only to the African elephant.

14.  The white rhino will wallow in mud to cool off, as well as to help protect their skin.

15.   The name "rhinoceros" comes from the Greek words "rhino" (which means nose) and "ceros" (which means horn).  Think about the name Triceratops real fast: tri=three, tops=face, so then cera (like "ceros") = horn!

16.  The "Critically Endangered" bactrian camel, the larger of the two camel species, can go several days without no water, spit when agitated, and can survive extreme temperature swings, from -20 degrees F, all of the way to 100 degrees F!

A picture of the bactrian camel that I took at the Denver Zoo when I went there with my friends Masaki Kleinkopf and Brynn Conroy in April of 2012

17.  The ostrich is not only the largest of all of the birds, but it is also the only bird to have two toes.

This picture of ostriches stalking our car looks like something out of Jurassic Park

An ostrich accosting my sister for food at the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch in 2011

18.  The blackbuck, native to India and Pakistan, is a "Near Threatened" species.  According to the guidebook, there are more blackbuck in Texas than there are in India and Pakistan.

19.  The gait of the giraffe is unique amongst quadrupeds.  As they walk, they swing both of their feet on one side of their body at the same time.

A picture of one of the giraffes from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo from my visit a few weeks ago

20.  Giraffes eat around 75 lbs. of food a day, and can drink around 10 gallons of water in one standing!

21.  The heart of the giraffe can pump up to 20 gallons of blood per minute.

22.  There are two sub-species of sika (type of deer).  The Formosan sika, which inhabits Siberia, and the Japanese sika, native to Japan and Korea.

A picture of a Japanese sika that I took in 2011 at the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch

 23.  The North American elk is frequently referred to as the "Wapiti."  Wapiti is actually the Native American term that refers to the white patch of hair on the rear of the animal.

A picture of a small herd of elk that my mother took in 2006 at Yellowstone National Park

North Palm Desert on Dwellable

Teaching African Penguins to Bite!

Today I uploaded another video from our Cheyenne Mountain Zoo adventures!  This one also features the African penguins, but in this video, my father is essentially teaching the penguins to bite him if they want the toys!  He said it didn't hurt it, it was just a playful nip, but still!  So if the keepers at the zoo are wondering why some of the penguins have become super aggressive when it comes to getting what they want, then I think I know why.....Enjoy!

One African penguin contemplates another!

My Dad Teaches African Penguins To Bite For Toys!

And remember the Primos Truth Cam?  Don't worry about a thing, he is coming back, and hopefully soon!  I just need to order her a lock so that no one steal her when I set her up!  We will soon see some fox pictures, though, I guarantee!

Florissant on Dwellable

Antlers Vs. Horns, Part 2: Horns

A horn, unlike an antler, is attached to an animal.  It consists of a bony core, a projection of the bone of an animal, and is covered by a layer of keratin (your fingernails are composed of keratin).  Also unlike an antler, that falls off easily and annually, a horn, if it is broken off, will never grow back the same way.  That is why poachers have to kill rhinos (who have horns) to actually take their horns, as opposed to just letting them fall off.

Many different types of animals have horns.  Let's take a look at a few of these creatures.

The members of the family "Giraffidae," which includes the giraffe and the okapi, both have horn-like things on their heads, called "ossicones."

The members of the family "Rhinocerotidae," or the rhinos, have horns that are composed solely of keratin, and do not have the bone core typical of many horns.  The horns of the rhinos also grow continuously.

Some of the members of the family "Chamaeleonidae," or the chameleons, often have horns projecting out of their skulls, which are covered in a layer of keratin.

And, of course, the members of the family "Ceratopsidae," a group of marginocephalian dinosaurs, have horns projecting out of their skulls. 
Below is a short list of some of the more famous Ceratopsian dinosaurs.

Famous examples of Ceratopsian Dinosaurs (or "Ceratopsians That I Have Heard Of):

1. Triceratops - (Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming, U.S.; Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada)
2. Arrhincoceratops - (Alberta, Canada)
3. Torosaurus - (Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming, U.S.; Saskatchewan, Canada)
   
4. Monoclonius - (Montana, U.S.; Alberta, Canada)
5. Chasmosaurus - (Alberta, Canada)
   
6. Centrosaurus - (Alberta, Canada)
7. Styracosaurus - (Montana, U.S.; Alberta, Canada)
   
8. Achelousaurus - (Montana, U.S.)
9. Pentaceratops - (New Mexico, U.S.)
10. Vagaceratops - (Alberta, Canada)
    
11. Diabloceratops - (Utah, U.S.)
12. Albertaceratops - (Montana, U.S.; Alberta, Canada)
13. Einiosaurus - (Montana, U.S.)
14. Anchiceratops - (Alberta, Canada)
15. Mojoceratops - (Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada)
16. Pachyrhinosaurus - (Alaska, U.S.; Alberta, Canada)
17. Kosmoceratops - (Utah, U.S.)
18. Medusaceratops (Montana, U.S.)
19. Utahceratops - (Utah, U.S.)

Keep in mind that the tusks seen in elephants, mammoths, walruses, and hippos, despite being superficially similar to horns, are actually greatly enlarged teeth!

Antlers Vs. Horns, Part 1: Antlers

Antlers and horns often look the same, but underneath, they are actually quite different!  Today we are going to look at not only what defines both antlers and horns, but also take a look at some of the animals that have each of them!  All aboard!

Let's start off with antlers.  As defined by the Google dictionary thing, an antler is "One of the branched horns on the head of an adult (usually male) deer, which are made of bone and are grown and cast off annually."  Something that I would like to add is that antlers are unique to the family Cervidae, which includes:

• Deer
• Elk
• Moose
• Caribou (Reindeer)

The only member of the family Cervidae that has horns on both the males and the females is the caribou, frequently referred to as the "reindeer."  However, it has been documented, on numerous occasions, for fertile females from other species of the cervids to occasionally grow antlers, but this is typically due to unusually high testosterone levels. 

The family Cervidae is one of the many families in the order Artiodactyla, frequently referred to as the "Even-Toed Ungulates" (so called because they either stand on two or four toes).  There are around 220 extant (still living, as opposed to extinct) species of artiodactyl, and included within this order are many familiar groups.  These groups, broken down by family, include:

• Camelidae (Camels and llamas)
• Suidae (Pigs)
• Tayassuidae (Peccaries, a close relative of pigs)
• Hippopotamidae (Hippopotamus)
• Tragulidae (Chevrotains, a type of small deer)
• Antilocapridae (Pronghorn)
• Giraffidae (Giraffe and okapi)
• Moschidae (Musk deer)
• Cervidae (Deer)
• Bovidae (Cattle, sheep, goats, antelope)

(Interestingly, the whales, dolphins, and porpoises should be included within the order Artiodactyla, but instead they have been placed within their own, separate order, Cetacea.  This area of the family tree is still messy, and a possible merging of the two orders, Artiodactyla and Cetacea, is being considered, which would create the order Cetartiodactyla.)

Also included within the order Artiodactyla is the extinct family Entelodontidae.  Later today, we will finally be getting around to what was supposed to be the monthly "What Is It?" challenge, but has turned into more of a quarterly or tri-monthly event!  Anyways, we will be announcing the winners of THE LAST CHALLENGE later this evening, after we look at horns!

Animal Spotlight: Aurochs

This post is the birthday post of Govind Kamath!  Happy birthday, Mr. Kamath!  If you have a birthday coming up, just email me the date at cuyvaldar123946@gmail.com with the date and your favorite animal, and I will do my best to get a post in!

Over the years, you may have pondered, "Where does my burger come from?"  You probably just meant where was the cow that it came from.  But now here is something else for you to ponder.  Where the heck did the cow even come from?  Do you ever just see wild, black and white cows?  Well, I am here to tell you all about the evolution of the cow.

A Watusi/Longhorn pileup!  They actually crashed into each other, though!  Trust me, I was there, you can even see my sweatshirted elbow in the mirror thingy!

During the Pliocene Epoch, from around 5 to 2 MYA, the planet went through a cooler spell.  The frequent ice ages were a part of this cool spell, as was the most frequent Ice Age.  This colder weather caused many of the worlds forests to decrease in area, which in turn caused the world's grasslands to expand.  This led to the evolution of many large grazing animals, and helped contribute to the Pleistocene Megafauna, often called the Ice Age Megafauna.  One of these large animals that evolved was the Aurochs.

The Aurochs (Bos primigenius), first became domesticated during the Neolithic Age, or the "New Stone Age," probably around 12,000 years ago.  As a matter of fact, two waves of domestication occurred.  As you can see in the map below, there were three different subspecies of the Aurochs; one in northern Africa; one for Europe and Asia; and a third for the mysterious subcontinent of India, as Rajesh Ramayan Koothrappali says in "The Big Bang Theory."  The two different domestications happened with the Eurasian subspecies, Bos primigenius primigenius, and the Indian subspecies, B. p. namadicus. 

These two different domestications of these two different species of cattle led to two different domesticated cattle!  In India, we have the Zebu cattle, which has been given its own scientific subspecies name, Bos primigenius indicus.  The other, Eurasian kind has become the cow that we know today from driving down the street and the Chik-fil-A ads.  While other types of bovines (members of the family Bovidae, a group of ungulates that includes water and African buffalo, yaks, bison, and, of course, cattle) have been domesticated throughout the years, specifically the water buffalo, the south-east Asian Banteng, and the Indian Gaur, it is cattle that have remained the most widely used, for a wide variety of purposes, too.

The Aurochs is now extinct.  The very last recorded female passed away in 1627 in the Jaktorów Forest in Poland.

There are two particularly interesting breeds of domesticated cattle that I would like to now draw to your attention.  Back in December of 2011 on our trip down to Texas to visit my gramma, on the same trip where we visited the Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country and saw the Acrocanthosaurus footprints, we also visited the San Antonio Zoo, as well as the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch near San Antonio.  This is an awesome place for EVERYONE to visit!  You get to roll down your windows as you drive through a park chock-full of deer, antelope, zebra, and bovines, and you get to drop food for them!  There are also three members of the order Struthioniformes (aka the ratites), like the South American rhea, the Australian emu, and, most terrifying of all, the African ostrich.  The ostriches was absolutely terrifying, and I will talk about them in a later blog post!  But also at the ranch they had two pretty crazy types of cattle!

The first was the Ankole-Watusi, often called simply the Ankole cattle or the Watusi.  Originally bred in Africa, the Watusi was named after the Watusi tribesmen (now the Tutsi of Rwanda and Burundi).  This type of cattle has enormous horns that can span over six feet!  Both genders have these horns, and they can grow from between 1,500 - 1,800 pounds!  Below are some pictures that my family and I took of the cattle walking by our car!

A Watusi.  CHECK OUT THOSE HORNS!

Another Watusi.  CHECK OUT THOSE HORNS!

A baby Watusi!  HOW CUTE!

The second crazy type of cattle is the Texas Longhorn.  The Texas longhorn is, of course, native to the Lone Star State, and reports of the longhorn enduring thirst while still being able to fight off packs of wolves, as well as bears (presumably grizzly bears), from the pioneer times is not uncommon.  The longhorn, like the Watusi, also has six foot horns possessed by both sexes.  According to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch Adventure Guide Book, the longhorn "helped form the basis of the ranching industry of the American West during the 19th century."

A Texas longhorn.  CHECK OUT THOSE HORNS.

Another Texas longhorn.  CHECK OUT THOSE HORNS.

The aftermath of the Watusi/Longhorn pileup seen above!

Whoever said cows weren't interesting!