The Texas Horned Lizard That Was Entombed for 31 Years
Kaushik Patowary
Sep 6, 2022
The Texas horned lizard is a hardy creature, but its hardiness might have been overestimated. The Native American legend holds that the rugg...
Showing posts with the label Animals
Elephant Execution in The 19th And 20th Centuries
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 7, 2022
Performing elephants were very common in circuses during the 19th and 20th centuries. Circus owners would often treat these animals with cru...
Fidel Castro And His Miraculous Bovine
Anonymous
May 20, 2022
For all their love of dairy, Cubans have always remained starved for milk. In the tumultuous history of necessity, invention and recurring d...
Vicuña: The World's Most Expensive Wool Comes From a Llama
Anonymous
May 11, 2022
Deep within the Andes of Peru gallops an animal that’s treasured across the world. It belongs to the family of Llamas but is called a Vicuña...
Bera, The Indian Village Where Man and Leopards Live Together
Anonymous
May 10, 2022
Along the sun-soaked Aravallis of Rajasthan thrives the leopard country of India. In and around Bera, a small village in Pali district, maje...
1875: When Locusts Ruled Over America
Anonymous
May 9, 2022
A species disappears from our planet about every 30 minutes. From climate crises to man’s carelessness, there are endless factors that drive...
The Fish That Swims Upside Down
Kaushik Patowary
May 2, 2022
Fishes are great swimmers, and this ability comes not from practice but from anatomy. Fishes have a slender body which they flex back and fo...
Mike The Headless Chicken
Anonymous
Apr 25, 2022
Once upon a time in 1945 there was a couple who owned a farm in Colorado. Lloyd Olsen would spend afternoons chopping off chicken heads, whi...
A Cannulated Cow Lives With a Hole in Its Stomach
Anonymous
Apr 19, 2022
Imagine being able to look inside a cow. Call it curiosity, or the craving to reveal all of the world’s truths, but the cannulated cow is ma...
The Bat Libraries of Portugal
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 6, 2022
Bibliophiles aren’t the only ones that love hanging out in the library. Given the chance bats too would love to roost there and eat the bugs...
Jenny: The Orangutan That Helped Darwin Evolve His Theory
Anonymous
Mar 14, 2022
If you visit the Darwin Archive at Cambridge University Library (DAR 191) today, you will find notes on orangutans recorded by Charles Darwi...
Ambergris: The Highly Sought-After ‘Whale Vomit’
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 9, 2022
The sea washes up all kinds of strange stuff , from carcasses of whales and squids to fossils and ancient shipwrecks. But nothing is as prec...
The Salish Wool Dog
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 17, 2022
When Spanish explorer Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra (1744-1794) was exploring the Salish Sea and its coasts in 1791, he was astonishe...
Bobbie, The Wonder Dog Who Walked 2,500 Miles to Home
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 4, 2021
In August 1923, Bobbie—an average-looking collie puppy—accompanied his owners, the Braizer family, on a cross-country summer road trip from ...
The Great Sheep Panic of 1888
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 2, 2021
Sheep are notoriously timid and nervous animal, and can get startled easily. But what mysterious provocation could have caused thousands of ...
The Mercy Dogs of World War 1
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 26, 2021
Dogs have accompanied men to war since ancient times, as scouts, sentries, trackers and messengers. But the most unique role they ever playe...
Heroic War Pigeons
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 16, 2021
World War One, and to some extent, the Second World War, was a strange blend of archaic and modern technology. The First World War, in parti...
Pisonia: The Tree That Kills Birds
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 4, 2021
An overwhelming majority of plants depend upon birds and insects for seed dispersal. Plants attract pollinators by releasing aromatic compou...
The Granaries of Acorn Woodpecker
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 5, 2021
Woodpeckers are fascinating creatures. They hammer their bills into wood with force so ferocious that it would lead to concussion in any ani...
Saint Guinefort: The Holy Greyhound
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 8, 2020
Around the second half of the 13th century, a Dominican friar known as Stephen of Bourbon, began travelling the width and breadth of souther...
