Merry Christmas from Santa Fe

mas Paco

Here is Paco in action. We are still on track to get him on Saturday. 

People along the Austin-Dallas corridor and in Central Oklahoma:

Paco's brown and white sibling could be yours on Saturday as well. Let me know if you are interested.

(Day) Trippin' with Tyler

Mrs. Angus and I carted Tyler out to the heartland yesterday. To Meers, OK and the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.

We ate lunch here:

Burgers were very good.

We then hit the wildlife refuge:

(clic the pics for even more aromatic images of the American Bison)

A good time was had by all.

Then we headed back to (relative) civilization in order to make our dinner reservation here:

Dry-aged rib-eyes and brussel sprouts with bacon.


Amen

ain't nobody here but us chickens

This is amazing.

I have lived in ignorance for 50+ years.

 Here's a teaser:

(clic the pic for an even more tasty image)

Hat tip to Mrs. Angus

He's not just a RINO anymore

Bravo to the unnamed South African rhino who brutally gored a tourist last week.

A "game park owner", taking the picture of his clients, a city couple, urged them to get "within feet" of a pair of rhinos in order to get a better shot. What the wife got was a collapsed lung and broken ribs.

With apologies to Chris Rock, that rhino didn't go crazy, that rhino went RHINO, and now he's not a RINO anymore.

Words of wisdom from the Honest Toddler

"Owls are evil and haunted. If you have one, kill it with fire."

"I know the two of you are convinced that the Fischer Price Ocean Wonders Turtle Nightlight thing is some kind of proverbial night watchman, but I assure you if an owl tried to collect my eyes at 10PM, that $50 construction would prevent nothing."


"Owls are like the Twizzlers of woodland creatures. People pretend to like them but at the end of the day everyone's upset and asking why."

It's all connected, people

We've been getting woken up once or twice a week by a series of unearthly sounds from the park next door. I initially attributed it to a screech owl, but it turns out that they don't actually screech! Research led us to suspect the barred owl.

Made me wonder what they were all about.

Then in this morning's tabloid I read a story about a barred owl repeatedly attacking a jogger.

Did a little more research and discovered this.

Couldn't agree more.

Markets in everything: walk like the animals edition

This shoe:

Produces these prints:

More here.

Alligator Seen Eating Croc

Click for an even more savage image.

Nod to the Blonde

Tumblr o the day: grading season edition.

Students of America! Even the animals cry out against your wily ways.

Tiger Attack!

The OKC zoo has four month old tiger cub quadruplets! Here are two of them having fun:

(clic the pic for a more ferocious image)

Don't call me Shirley!

Unbelievable story out of Malaysia that "authorities" had to rescue an Orang from a provincial zoo at least partly because she'd become a heavy smoker.

Really.

Here's part of the AP story:

Government authorities seized the adult ape named Shirley from a state-run zoo in Malaysia's southern Johor state last week after she and several other animals there were deemed to be living in poor conditions.

Shirley is now being quarantined at another zoo in a neighboring state and is expected to be sent to a Malaysian wildlife center on Borneo island within weeks.

Melaka Zoo Director Ahmad Azhar Mohammed said Shirley is not being provided with any more cigarettes because "smoking is not normal behavior for orangutans."

Ya think?

I know there are serious arguments in favor of having zoos, but stuff like this really makes me question their existence.

I hope that the wildlife center on Borneo is Sepilok. Mrs. Angus and I have visited, and it's an amazing place.

Honey Badger don't care

Hat tip to Aaron S.

Actors!

Actors need to learn how to stay grounded, apparently.

Poor guy. Does this happen a lot, to giraffes? I never thought of that.

(Nod to Anonyman)

Laguna San Ignacio

This video was taken and edited by Mrs. Angus during our trip to Baja to see the gray whales last March. I had to lobby her heavily to agree to let me post it, because the footage is often shaky, due to (a) the movement of the boat and (b) the excitement level of the videographer. It is almost 4 minutes long and the most spectacular footage is at the end.

Enjoy!

Squirrel Kerfuffle

The LMM and I disagree about something.

She loves hummingbirds. We have several little hummingbird drinking stations set up, hanging from metal hooks.

There is this one squirrel who has mastered the technology of hanging onto the feeder, tipping it, and then furiously drinking the contents, emptying the container onto himself, his mouth, and the ground, in about two minutes.

The LMM keeps letting the dogs out, and going out herself, to "scare off" the squirrel. But the squirrel comes right back, of course.

My solution: Squirrel dies of a gunshot wound.

Look: (1) There is only one (now fat) squirrel who is doing this. The others try, but the thing tips if they try to drink from the top. No other squirrel has mastered the "hang, tip, and quaff" technique.
(2) we have a .22 with a scope. I can fire those little tiny 20 grain "Colibri"** shells, which have a range of about 100 meters. (The standard .22 LR shell is 40 grains, and these Colibri actually have NO powder, other than the primer)
(3) I can fire downward, with grass as the background, so there is no danger of ricochet, not that these little bullets would go anywhere.

Yes, one should be very careful firing Colibris from a long gun. Not enough power to eject the casing, and in fact the bullet may not leave the barrel, so you really, really have to check after every shot. But they are quite accurate. And at a range of 10 meters, they will kill a squirrel.

All right readers: Who is right?

**Plus, "Colibri" means "Hummingbird" in French (also Spanish, and, oddly, Rumanian). How perfect is that? The fat squirrel gets taken out by a little lead hummingbird!

Whale-y boy

I wasn't going to touch the whales. I told myself, look, these are wild animals and deserve respect. If they come close to the boat, observe and enjoy, but don't touch.

As a point of reference, there were people on the trip announcing their goal of hugging and kissing a whale!

So the first couple times a baby came close to the boat, I didn't try to touch. On the last afternoon though, a particularly playful baby was romping back and forth between our boat and another while his mom rested nearby. He came up to the front of the boat where I was and tilted his body so he was looking right at me! At that point the thought hit me that the little dude WANTED me to touch him.

So, the next time he came by, I did. Here are some photos taken by someone in the other boat:

In the picture above, that's Mrs. Angus's arm in the red reaching out to touch the calf.

I wouldn't call it a spiritual experience, but it amazed me how these creatures seem to want to interact with humans. Even some adults approached our little boats to be seen and touched. It's even more amazing when you consider that within the lifespan of some living gray whales, there still was whaling going on in this exact spot!

The NY Times Magazine recently had a great story on whales including a description of a trip to Laguna San Ignacio, where Mrs. Angus and I were.

Jessica, the Happy Hippo

I got nothing to add. This just made me happy. When the hippo stepped on the poor dog's foot... it just seemed like something that would happen to a family... of dogs and hippos.

A Little Goose is Always Nice

Okay, not always.

(Nod to the NCM)

Headline Magic! News on Great Tits....

So, here's the headline:
"Flashier Great Tits Produce Stronger Sperm!" Now, I expect that's right, on the merits.

But it turns out that the article is about how bright and colorful chests, on birds called "Great Tits," are a sign of fitness.

Excerpt:
The birds' vibrant plumage appears to act like a flashing billboard, broadcasting the males' reproductive superiority to females eager to produce offspring.

The advertisement likely finds an appreciative audience in female great tits, since snagging a male with high-quality sperm isn't exactly a lark.

That's in part because free radicals threaten sperm cells in many animals, including humans. Created by cells when stressed by pollution and other factors, free radicals are groups of oxygen-activated atoms that can damage sperm cells, weakening their swimming ability. (Learn how DNA works.)

Many animals' bodies produce antioxidants that fight free radicals—including male great tits. The birds have an antioxidant called carotenoid that not only defends against free radicals but also gives their breast feathers a yellow hue.

ATSRTWT

Now, it will not be news to avid birders that there are many types of tits. I have to admit that I have never seen, and frankly would not WANT to see, the "bearded tit." I'm pretty open minded, but... One has to draw the line somewhere.

(Nod to Taren S-K, who has a highly refined sense of the absurd)