Scientific American reports that the US Fish and Wildlife Service has issued an edict that scientist are prohibited from making any public comment about the plight that Polar Bears find themselves in.
It seems that if you want to get public funding from the Bush Administration to attend a conference you must agree that polar bears, the melting polar ice cap and global warming will not be discussed.
H. Dale Hall, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, defended the policy laid out in the memos, saying it was meant to keep scientists from straying from a set agenda at meetings in countries like Russia, Norway and Canada and you can understand why. Obviously none of those three countries will notice the collapse of the polar ice shelf if noone mentions it.
To take one example, on a discussion on "human and polar bear interface." it was forbidden to discuss the receding Arctic sea ice where polar bears live because it had no relevance to the topic. According to Hall, it was a bear management issue and as such discussion of climate change was inappropriate. Yeah right!
The time, it seems, has come for the Bush Administration to place its collective head even deeper in the sand. The Howard Administration don't need to do the same. They have their heads stuck clearly where the sun doesn't shine, vis-a-vis the Bush Administration.
Obesity is also a problem in New Zealand as attested to by these visitors to a popular NZ nudist beach.
The seasons roll around and it is that time again. It is drunken moose season but only if you are in southern Norway.
Aftenposten reports
A warm summer has led to an unusual bounty from the region's fruit trees. The sudden and early snowfall has left some fruit under snowy cover, while still more remains on the branch. This fruit is fermenting, and also a readily available and tempting source of food for the region's moose.
Like humans their behaviour varies from moose to moose, some are amicable drunks whilst others get quite aggressive. Laila von Scheele is unfortunate enough to have one of the latter category that has taken up residence in her apple orchard. The last five nights in a row the same moose has entered their property. It helps itself to the fallen fruit from the family's ten apple trees. The animal eats all it can and the result is a tipsy moose. It stumbles around the yard and finally falls asleep.
"I am terrified. It can be dangerous when it's drunk," says von Scheele. Her family has tried in vain to frighten the animal off, but so far has instead been forced to stay indoors.
A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the
Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old
tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa , officials
said.
The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650
pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean , then forced
back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26,
before wildlife rangers rescued him.
"It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male
tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with
being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge
Park , told AFP.
"After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had
to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on
the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep
together," the ecologist added. "The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the
way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo
becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added.
"The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by
nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for
four years," he explained.
Alan Colchester of the University of Kent and his daughter Nancy Colchester, of the University of Edinburgh have been researching the origins of mad cow disease. It is generally accepted that it arose from the practice that developed of feeding ground up bones and other animal material to cows but Alan and Nancy have taken their investigations to a whole new and unsettling level.
During the 1960s and 1970s Britain imported hundreds of thousands of tonnes of whole and crushed bones and animal carcasses that were processed with other material more natural to a cow's diet to produce fodder. Nearly 50% of these imports came from Bangladesh, where peasants gathering animal materials may have also picked up human remains. Yep you read that correctly, human body parts were being imported amongst other animal material that was ultimately fed to the cows.
The currently accepted theory is that mad cow disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, arose from the injestion of material from sheep with a disease called sheep scrapie. However cows have been exposed to this disease for over 70 years and BSE is only a relative recent disease. More likely argue the Colchesters is recent exposure to human remains carrying sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), thought to arise spontaneously in people.
This theory is supported by an examination of religious customs in Bangladesh and surrounding areas which result in many corpses being disposed of in rivers. Foraging for animal carcasses in rivers by peasants for this export trade is the likely source for these human remains.
Fancy a steak for dinner tonight?
Here is a picture of cows entering a bio-bubble. The Bio bubble is a sealed environment which allows researchers to accurately measure the emmissions of the cows.
Cows had long been blamed as a major contributor to the emmission problems that we are experiencing today but in a dramatic blow for the anti-cow campaigners Frank Mitloehner (who's name co-incidentally means "cow fancier" in German) of the University of California at Davis has found that they contribute far less than at first thought. His cow saving research has quantified the amount of smog-causing chemicals produced each year at 6.4 pounds, almost exactly half of the commonly accepted estimate of cow gas (so to speak).
This is good news for the dairy farmers of California's San Joaquin Valley who collectively provide a caring and sharing environment for over 1.7 million cows. Nasty accusations had been made that they were the prime contributor to the smog problems that plagued the valley. Naturally, the Air Resources Board who monitors these sorts of things dismissed the 26 million cars and trucks that sputter and belch their way along the valley's highways as the cause and pointed the finger of blame directly at the Holsteins that were grazing outside their office window.
So where do these cow gases come from? Not the end of the cow that you would at first suspect. It seems the bulk of emissions of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs eminate from the cows mouth during the rumination stage of cow digestion.
Spokeswoman for Air Resources Board, Gennet Paauwe, reeling, as if from a well placed kick from Holstein (never walk behind them when they are being milked Gennet), claimed that "More research was needed"
They are the words that any self respecting scientist is waiting to hear and Frank Mitloehner will be happy to oblige.
(via Wired)
A quick check of the stats reveals a small but significant percentage of the readership of The Green Man hail from Canada. This post is for you, particularly if you are from Ontario.
Your wolves need your support. Wolves are magnificent intelligent creatures and you are destroying their habitat and hunting, trapping and poisoning them.
The Green Man thinks of Canadians as generally nice people but you are being complete bastards when it comes to the treatment of your wolves. They need your protection.
Visit Wolves Ontario to learn more about your wolves and what you can do to help protect them from the abuse they are currently suffering.
Psychological Science, the journal of the American Psychological Society that focuses on empirical research in psychology and prides itself on being at the vanguard of research in matters of the thinking variety has once again stolen the march on its competitors. The May issue reports on ground breaking research by Nicholas Christenfeld and Michael Roy of University of California, San Diego.
It will take a great weight off your mind to know that, yes, dogs do look like their masters. Well its true for pedigree dogs anyway, where the prospective master can accurately predict what the puppy they are purchasing will look like when it groups up.
Those of you, like The Green Man himself, who have a dog of questionable parentage will be relieved to know that the study also ruled out the theory that dogs grow to look like their masters or perhaps that masters grow to look like their dogs. There was no correlation between how long a person has had a dog and how much they looked like it.
The Green Man's dog will be mighty relieved.
If you have come to this site looking for a big set of tits then look no further. This is one quality set and they are chock a block full of the spreadable butter potential.
You know about rape I presume. No not that sort of rape, I mean the seed crop. It is a valuable food source and it was suffering from some mighty bad negative vibes which is why, in our politically correct world, it was renamed canola. If you live in a developed country then you will have no doubt consumed it on bread from time to time.
In a "how come noone has thought of this before" moment Toni Steer from the UK Medical Research Council's Human Nutrition Laboratory in Cambridge decided to try feeding cows on an intensive rapeseed diet. The outcome was, you guessed it, healthy spreadable butter. Things can be just so simple sometimes can't they.
You can read all about his research in Nature.
Photo is courtesy of FightBac Teat disinfectant for the treatment of mastitis in cows. The Green Man does not necessarily recommend it for lactating mothers of the human kind.
It seems the days of monochrome polar bears have ended. Some time ago The Green Man reported on a purple Polar Bear
.
He got that way because of a skin condition and had to be treated with gentian violet. OK so that was a man made effect. The green polar bears at the Singapore zoo have got that way all by themselves, with the assistance of some warmth and humidity.
Polar bears have clear hair shafts which normally appear white because they reflect light however it seems that a harmless algae has taken up residence in their coats.
Naturally The Green Man thinks it looks quite becoming, green being his colour after all, but the zoo officials are not so inclined. They are embarking on a bleaching program in an attempt to rid their bears of their green hue.
Sunday Frebruary 22nd is Wet Nose Day. An event to support Seeing Eye Dogs. If you live anywhere other than Victoria Australia then I will be very surprised to see you at the event which is being held at Grant St intersection on St Kilda Rd, commencing at 10:00am.
To find out how to participate and support this worthwhile cause click here.
Janet Jackson's little display at the super bowl yesterday has caused a cuffufle in middle America Fancy all those Americans getting a glimpse of a breast. Who knows what long dormant urges it awoke in the couch potatos that had settled in for a predictable dose of football action. Many may not have been able to focus on the second half! (The Green Man will be watching the birth statistics in 9 months for the repercussions)
Naturally there was outrage in the American officialdom, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell has ordered an investigation of the incident. This will allow him to see a high-definition version of the action since he was out at the toilet at the time it aired live.
In an interesting comparison all Australian TV channels happily played the footage uncensored and without a warning on their prime time news without a whisper of complaint.
In Athens Mrs. Gianna Angelopoulos - Daskalaki, President Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games Athens 2004, is quoted as saying
America is a world leader in quality sporting entertainment and we are constantly looking for ideas for improving the opening ceremony for the Games. Of course any addition to the opening ceremony would need to be culturally sensitive and in keeping with the traditional nature of the games.
Given that participants in the Olympic Games were traditionally naked The Green Man thinks that it leaves the door pretty wide open.
Anyway, with all this worldwide attention on tits it seems an appropriate time to introduce one of the worlds foremost tit websites. www.nice-tits.org is the home of the Royal Tit-Watching Society of Britain, errr that is the bird type of tit. It was founded in 1824, by Lord Roylott of Stoke Moran, Surrey. Lord Roylott was himself a tit man and his writings on the subject caused Charles Darwin to remark that they were "of immense importance in the formation of my theory of natural selection"
By way of demonstration of the fact that members of the Royal Tit-Watching Society possess aesthetic abilities that extend beyond a fine appreciation of avian tits, below is a picture of Roosa Heikkinen of the Finnish Chapter of the Society modeling one of their signature "Nice Tits" t-shirts.
This is a photo of a grey wolf in Yellowstone National Park. They are currently being reintroduced to the park with some success. Read about it here.
As an ancient woodland spirit, The Green Man is familiar with the wolves that share his domain in the old forest. As he explores forgotten paths he frequently encounters wolves, they are a manifestation of the wilderness spirit.
Not everyone shares The Green Mans fondness for wolves however. A study by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the University of Wisconsin shows that your attitude to wolves depends very much on deeply rooted social identities and occupations. Hunters, who view wolves as competitors, are particularly intolerant to them with 74% indicating they wanted the wolves of Winconsin reduced in number or eliminated entirely. This compared with 44% of livestock producers and 28% of the population generally.
You might think that the intolerance of hunters and farmers is born out of their experiences with losses to wolves but this is not the case. There was no difference in attitude between those who lost stock/hunting dogs and those who didn't. It tended to be more cultural, with the attitudes arising from their peer group rather than personal experience.
Wolves were eliminated in Wisconsin in the 1950's but are slowly making a comeback, there is now a population of approximately 350. The Green Man wishes them luck. They are a natural part of the North American ecosystem and deserve a small space in the vast American wilderness.
Those of you who are regular visitors to The Green Man will have noticed a certain obsesiveness on the hot topic of "Cows". The Green Man does not own any cows although he has known some on a social basis.
Dave Haxton, on the hand, is fortunate in that he knows quite a few at a very pesonal level. Let's face it, to be involved in the whole birthing process is a very personal and bonding sort of thing as, in fact, he was with Wolfie a Scots Highland cow that gave birth mid last year. You can see a picture of Wolfie here and with her offspring here. Wolfie is 17 and Dave looks much older than that but The Green Man is not judgmental about such things, as long as they have a mature man/cow relationship which I am sure they do, given that Dave has shown the good taste and maturity to be a regular reader of The Green Man.
Ever heard of recombinant bovine somatotropin? The Green Man hasn't but it appears that he may well have consumed a great deal of it. It is an artificial hormone administered to cows to increase milk production.
In Maine it is OK to not administer it but it is apparently illegal to say that you haven't. Oakhurst Dairy is being sued by the chemical giant Monsanto who claims its label implies the dairy's milk is somehow better than milk from cows treated with recombinant bovine somatotropin.
"We make no claims at all as to other milk," a representative of Oakhurst said in September. "All we state in our advertising on our trucks and on our labels is that our farmers pledge that they will not use artificial growth hormones on their cows."
Hmmm so telling the truth in your advertising is illegal in the USA now. The world is getting curiouser and curioser!
It may be The Green Mans penchant for supporting the underdog but it would be good to see Oakhurst win this one.
Here in Australia we prefer our patriotism a bit on the under done side, a bit like our steaks, well rare actually. All that rushing round waving flags, singing the national anthem and stuff, we find that all a bit embarrassing really. It is a standing joke in Australia that noone knows the words to the national anthem, not past the first couple of sentences anyway.
It is not like that America, patriotism is big there, and it is even bigger than normal at the moment. Since America invaded Iraq, with us hanging on to their coat tails, any questioning of the justification for the invasion has been howled down as unpatriotic, even though it has changed along the way.
Anyway, enough ranting, here is a patriotic cow. It is part of an exhibition of cows that was held in Chigago in 1999, you can see more of the entrants here.
I chose the patriotic cow because American cows have good reason to feel patriotic, not that they will of course, that emotion is far too complicated for your average simple minded cow. America's Department of Homeland Security announced on Friday a $33 million plan for a pair of academic centers to combat possible terrorist attacks on cows.
John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, isn't impressed by this current flurry of panic about agro-attacks, saying
Why are we getting around to that one, but we're dragging our heels on protecting passenger planes from shoulder-fired missiles?" he asked. "We're spending a couple of hundred million dollars over the next couple of years thinking about it. And that's a proven threat.
The Green Man would have thought it was obvious. If you can't protect your cows what is the world coming. These cows are dying to feed the soldiers in Iraq, they must be protected from being killed at all costs.
I have thought for a while now that an elephant would make a great addition to The Green Mans household. One just like this one, so cute. Just image taking it for a walk down the street, it would put those crappy great danes and rottweillers to shame. It could also do lots of useful things around the house. Hmmmm can't think of any right now but I am sure there must be lots.
I know what your thinking. How impractical, it will grow up into a big animal, all that maintenance and leaving it shut up in the back yard all day while you go to work. That's not good.
Perhaps you could apply the same logic to that puppy you are thinking of surprising someone with this Christmas. I know they probably said they want one but it may be just as impractical for them as the elephant is for me.
If you must give a puppy/dog as a present don't make it a surprise.
Here are the rules.
1. Take the person who it is for along and let them help choose.
2. Choose a small dog, noone needs a big vicious dog.
3. Get one from the RSPCA or your local dogs home.
4. Be prepared for the time and cost of owning one.
Let's try and make it a good Christmas for the dog as well as the person.
(Via South Knox Bubba)
I know, you are sitting there, having read of the Nude Christmas Window Alternative, thinking if only I had been there I too could have been getting frost bite on my sensitive bits all in the name of a good cause.
Well feel depressed no longer. You too can have the opportunity to nude up in an effort to save some bulls from a brutal and painful death in a primative ritual masquerading as entertainment. And if that wasn't good enough, you get to do it in a climate where the risk of frost bite in a sensitive area is almost nill. Pamplona, Spain is noted for its bull fighting and its sunny climate. On July 5, 2004 you get the opportunity to protest against the former whilst getting an all over tan courtesy of the latter.
Visit The Running Of The Nudes website to sign up for this liberating and fun experience.
Looking for that perfect Christmas gift for the person in your life who has almost everything. I say "almost" because I am guessing they don't have a straw of frozen bull semen. Today is your lucky day. Pamela McCullough of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has 5,000 of them she is planning to auction and not just any bull semen either. They are from Beefmaster cattle, a prized breed that mixes Hereford, Shorthorn and Brahman cattle.
They were seized as part of a billion-dollar cocaine smuggling and money laundering network which sets The Green Man a thinking that customers of the network would need to be careful which straws they were sticking up their noses. (For the uneducated, semen is held frozen in straws until required)
So how much would you expect to pay for a straw? Anywhere from $3 to several hundred dollars, depending on the quality of the bull. What an excellent investment. Can't you just see the sparkle in her eyes?
This is a picture of a manatee off the coast of Florida. They are amazing creatures, known as sea cows and close relatives of the elephant. I saw them off the coast of Belize, they are shy and gentle creatures and you must approach quietly to watch them graze.
In earlier times they are believed to be the real life creature that gave rise to the mermaid myths (gratuitous image of mermaid included below). Sailors gaining a glimpse of these shy creatures as they briefly surfaced for air imagined they were having an intimate encounter with a creature that is half woman, half fish.
How ironic that people in Florida, ringing to report a sick or injured manatee, are also having an intimate encounter. They are being put through to a sex chat line entitled "Intimate Encounters". It seems that the number to report injured manatees was replaced with a new one some four years ago. In spite of this many signs and brochures still carry the old number which has now been purchased by Intimate Encounters for those seeking a different kind of errrr biological encounter.
If any of you live in the Florida area the correct place to report manatee injuries is to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on 1-888-404-FWCC. If you are after that other sort of intimate encounter you are just going to have to do it by the road side near one of the old manatee signs.
Read more in St Petersburg Times
or visit the Save The Manatee site.
Have a guess what this is.
Now those of you who have been reading The Green Man for some time will have gained a fair appreciation of his mindset. In view of this I'll give you a hint. It doesn't vibrate.
Still don't know? Here is another hint: It's use involves a domesticated animal.
Give up? Click on Continue Reading
It is a cow magnet.
While grazing, cows eat everything from grass and dirt to nails, staples and bits of bailing wire (referred to as tramp iron). Tramp iron tends to lodge in the honeycombed walls of the recticulum, threatening the surrounding vital organs and causing irritation and inflammation, known as Hardware Disease. The cow loses her appetite and decreases her milk output (dairy cows), or her ability to gain weight (feeder stock). Cow magnets help prevent this disease by attracting stray metal from the folds and crevices of the rumen and recticulum. One magnet works for the life of the cow!
You can obtain your own cow magnet from The Magnet Source
The Western Chimpanzee is on the Critical Endangered list and so it is extremely good news that Liberian Government announced the protection of more than 155,000 acres of mostly intact forest habitat. This area represents 40% of one of the 15 world biodiversity hotspots.
Scientists estimate that 600,000 western chimpanzees once lived throughout western Africa, but fewer than 25,000 remain. The numbers are expected to drop dramatically, with entire populations forecast to disappear within 10-20 years.
Not just the chimpanzees are beneficiaries of the protection order, the Pygmy hippopotamus, the Liberian mongoose and the white-breasted Guinea fowl are also threatened species that live within this area.
The seat of Indian government is in a section of New Dehli known as Raisina Hill and it was here visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld chose to hold his press conference whilst in India recently.
Imagine his consternation when screeching and abuse was hurled at him from the windows above. This breech of protocol was the work of Rhesus macaque monkeys who share this part of town with the government workers.
Some of you may be thinking that the monkeys were showing an astute appreciation of the situation however they are also a problem for the government workers in the area. Numbering about 1,500 they have been getting more audacious lately. Stealing workers lunch pales and ransacking government offices looking for food.
Attempts to move them have been hampered by Dehli Hindus who believe that monkeys are manifestations of the monkey god, Hanuman, and worshippers come to Raisina Hill every Tuesday handing out bananas .
Ever heard of Athina Roussel, she is the worlds richest teenager, being 18 and having $2.7billion. She is heiress to the fortune of Geek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. (yes I know he was Greek as well but it wasn't a typo).
Anyway, what do you buy your boyfriend when you can afford almost anything, a cow of course. You poor people clearly don't realise that the cow is the gift of choice amongst the rich and famous, that's why you are poor. If you started giving away cows you'd find a whole new class of friends with the contacts and influence to make you one of them.
Of course this was no ordinary cow, she is a billionaire after all. Athina paid $155,000 for a prize cow called Esperanca (Hope) at a cattle auction in Sao Paulo on Monday. Fortunately her boyfriend owns a cattle farm because they can make such a mess in your luxury apartment.
A group of New Zealand mothers is not happy about the lifting of the ban on genetically engineered milk in NZ and they have responded with a controversial set of billboards to go up around NZ adjoining their highways.
What they are really upset about is the insertion of human genes in cows to provide some human proteins in the milk.
The group, called MadGE (Mothers Against Genetic Engineering in Food and the Environment), produced the billboards but it remains unclear as to which one of the members of the group actually posed for the picture. They have received a number of complaints about the billboards but remain definiant.
"It is definitely degrading to women, but more degrading to women is putting human genes in milk," their spokeswoman, Alannah Currie said. "It's punk art."
It seems to The Green Man that there are a number of people that will find the image quite unsettling. Of course there is that subset of males that will find the image quite erotic, an effect that I am sure they were not aiming to achieve.
In 1995 the Grey Wolf was re-introduced into the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem with 14 pair being released. Since that time its numbers have been growing steadily. It is a predatory animal that provides carrion for other animals within the ecosystem. Human hunters also provide this service within this ecosystem.
Recent research by scientists from Berkeley and Yellowstone has been analysing the differing nature of carrion provided from these two sources. Human hunters provide carrion predominately for bald eagles and ravens. Wolves on the other hand provided carrion for a far more diverse group of scavengers.
The wolves are making a positive contribution to the biodiversity of this ecosystem but they are not out of the woods yet. (excuse pun) Elements of the relationship between the ungulate population of the park and the wolves are currently dysfunctional arising from the absence of wolves and bears from the park for over 75 years. The Wildlife Conservation Society reports that Moose are failing to acknowledge the presence of large predators in their environment.
It has taken 10-15 generations for moose to loose their wariness of large predators but it may only take one generation for them to regain it. The WCS reports that
Wyoming moose that have lost even one of their offspring to predators may become as savvy as their Alaskan cousins within a single generation, which indicates that mechanisms for predator avoidance are already in place
Female bums are the subject of much attention from the male members of the community and with good reason. They are a sign of her health and fertility. Females with a good quality bum have children younger, more of them and they are healthier but it comes at a price. A bum is an expensive part of the anatomy. It takes a lot of calories to develop a bum that is attractive to males contributing approximately 14% to body weight.
Whether they realise it or not, males find a big bum very attractive. Males compete fiercely with each other for large-bottomed females and a big bum is probably the most prominant way a female can advertise herself.
Scientists have been studying this for sometime but a significant problem has been the way you quantify the measurement of a female baboons backside. (Oh, didn't I mention I was talking about baboons? Well never mind.)
Leah Domb, of Harvard University, and Mark Pagel, of Britain's University of Reading are working on a system as you read. They are analysing female baboons in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, where the baboons have been studied since 1967. Part of their research is to match the size of a baboon's behind to her breeding history.
To read more about it click here.
I am thinking that an elephant would make an excellent addition to the household. It would compliment the two dogs I currently own perfectly. I am not sure it could be a house elephant though, the dog flap in the kitchen door is just a bit too small.
Imagine, taking your elephant down the street to do the grocery shopping. You would have to teach it to stay inside it's white lines in the shopping centre car park of course, and not to sit on the neighbouring car. It could help with important trimming of overhanging trees on the way down the road and supply local gardeners with manure that was conveniently located on their nature strip for them to collect.
It seems I'm not the only one who fancies the idea of having an elephant. Carol Buckley and Scott Blais have similar desires and not content with one they now have 7 living on 2,700 acres in Tennessee. They established the Elephant Santuary as a sort of retirement home for elderly and unwanted circus and zoo elephants. You can visit the web site that documents their project here.
