Monday, November 18, 2013
Maine Coon is a breed of domestic cat. Its actual origin is unknown but they look quite wild and they’re usually pretty big. The biggest specimens weigh up to 11.3kg. But Rupert here is not just pretty big. He’s huge. He’s a “mega monster cat”, according to experts. Heck, this thing can probably kill you if he decided to.
Rupert is now 9kg, which is less than his biggest cronies. But he’s only two years old. By three he will be much bigger, say the vets, growing to the point in which he would be at least 14kg.
For comparison, male bobcats can get up to 14kg too. The Canada lynx goes up to 10.8kg, while the Iberian can reach 12.7. Only a male of the Eurasian lynx would be bigger than Rupert, at 18-27kg.
Still, Rupert will be 14kg of muscle, teeth, and claws. A domestic cat who looks pretty much like a real lynx. I’m not sure if I would feel safe around one.
A hippo and her round, innocent calf got a little too close to a bull elephant that was grazing nearby. The scuffle that took place between the two enormous animals was jaw-dropping.
This fully grown hippopotamus and her offspring got a little TOO close to elephants grazing nearby.
An elephant bull charged the momma hippo and her young.
The mother bravely defended her baby. The bull flipped her with his trunk.
Luckily, although the fight looks bad, the hippo walked away with merely a scratch.
Every mother in the animal kingdom knows what is most important: their young.
Fully grown hippos can weigh over 1.5 tons, but the elephant tossed her with ease.
The baby hippo and her mom were quickly reunited and finished grazing off in the distance by themselves.
It just goes to show that even animals that big would do backflips for their young (even if they didn’t mean to).
Saturday, November 16, 2013
WE'RE a nation of animal lovers but none of us has quite as many as retired secretary Marlene who shares her house with her 40 cats.The cat enthusiast is surrounded day and night by the 40 felines who follow her around her home.
They are groomed and bathed every day, a procedure which can see Marlene up until the early hours of the morning as she prepares them for shows.
The unusal pet owner spends around £200 a week on the felines' food and although she received funds following her mother's death to feed the cats, she admis the money is running out.
Marlene's mother died nine years ago leaving her 14 pedigree Persians to add to her own 26 cats.
She said: "The cats never upset me, I like people but sometimes they can be aggravating. I have closed myself down to the only pleasure which is being with the animals I'm surrounded by."
Her best friend Coleen admitted that she had named Marlene 'her eccentric friend.'
Coleen added: "Her life is her cats. I couldn't imagine Marlene without her cats. I couldn't cope with 40 but she does."
Marlene's story is one of many exposed by recent Channel 5 programme Pet Horders.
Another pet horder came in the form of Deb and her family who share their Yorkshire home with a brood of chickens.
Her passion for poultry started when she passed a farm snd was overwhelmed by the shrieking of chickens being kept in terrible conditions.
She crammed 60 birds into her car and headed home.
Since then, Deb has sold the business that she used to run and now nurses and cares for them all on a full-time basis. Deb plans to rescue and care for more abused animals, no matter what species.
They are known to produce up to 500 litres of methane every day. But this bovine seemed to go one further by appearing to light up an entire field in the French countryside.
However, the flames which seem to be bursting out of the animal’s behind are an optical illusion...the blaze is at a farm some distance behind it.
The extraordinary image was captured by amateur photographer Bertrand Kulik as he passed through a field in Issy l’Eveque, Burgundy.
User HideeDeekee on Reddit was looking through an old phone when she found a series of 31 images taken when she was 13 years old. These images showcased the day by day progression of her raising a Ring-Necked Dove.
From the time she found the abandoned egg all the way up to his day of freedom, the photos say it all.
Day 1 – Hatching right in her hand
If you think dogs don’t have emotions, you’re about to be proven dead wrong. Two three month-old puppies were spotted in the middle of the street in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, refusing to move. Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that the grey puppy was deceased, presumably hit by a car, and her brother wouldn’t leave her.
 |
The puppy’s sister was hit in the middle of the street. She was killed, but he refused to leave her side. |
 |
| For days, he stayed by her side and barked if anyone got too close to her body. |
 |
| Even when a hole was dug for her body, her brother jumped in and refused to leave. |
 |
| Eventually, the local animal shelter collected this heartbroken puppy, buried his sister and began caring for him. |
Monday, November 11, 2013
Some photography purists resent photo manipulation, but others enjoy how it has opened up photography to new people and new ideas. Caras Ionut is a Romanian photographer and digital artist who makes a great case for digital art and photography. He has created an extensive body of images that are beautiful, enchanting – and impossible.
Ionut says that his imagination and his work are captivated by dreams and by the autumn and winter seasons. Although positive dreams are a big theme in his work, he says he also likes “to visit the darker side of what people may see of dreams, not necessarily what one would see as negative, but possibly a dream that one could not quite understand or may feel alone.”
He does a pretty good job of creating a dream-like mood in his works. The combination of soft and hazy colors with often impossible subjects makes for beautiful compositions.
One interesting note is that, besides just offering prints of his beautiful works on his website, Ionut also offers numerous Photoshop tutorials and classes. If you like his work or if you’d like some help with trying to create images of your own dreams, we suggest checking him out!
We’ve all probably met or at least seen a person out there whose face or habits instantly reminded you of an animal – an old woman with fierce eyes and a long nose who looked like an eagle or a quick, darting, distracted, bird-like man. German artist Cristoph Meyer has taken this one step further by creating carefully-crafted manipulated portraits that combine people’s bodies with animals’ heads.
What’s fun about this series, beyond the fact that it has people with animals’ heads, is that such a silly subject is executed so well. Meyer’s manipulations seem fairly realistic, and the animals are well-matched with their human counterparts – they look like they belong. While Meyer’s work is unique and original, he isn’t the first to have come up with the idea of matching people with animals – Yago Partal and Miguel Vallinas have created similar sets of works. Theirs are centered around animals and fashion, while Meyer’s work is more about creating dynamic characters and portraits.
Each and every one of these 29 pictures will make you say WTF. It’s hard to see, but they are all amazing optical illusions that were created on accident. You’ll have to do a double-take just to notice. They are all awesome, although I do feel bad for the poor women who accidentally look naked. Oops!
 |
| That baby doesn’t have a big bottom. |
Sunday, November 10, 2013
With its special design, the Curvynest sets the standard for functionality and style alike. Tough enough for cats to enjoy a morning of climbing and polishing their nails, the microfiber fabric used on the nest’s unique curved shape is perfect for multiple kitties to relax and hang around together.
Catswall has come with this stylish and avant-garde solution for that constant war between your furniture or decorations and your cat. The Curvynest cat bed is perfect for giving your room a fresh and contemporary design to it. With a neutral color, it will blend in any environment, not to mention cats are drawn to it instantly, leaving you the rest of the room to your enjoyment.
Large Curvynest
Weight: 14.5Kg / 32lb
Dimensions: 66cm(D) X 48.6cm(W) X 100.5cm (H) / 26”(D) X 19.1”(W) X 39.6” (H)
Small Curvynest
Weight: about 7Kg / 15.4lb
Dimensions: 49.2cm(D) X 48.6cm(W) X 55.8cm(H) / 19.4”(D) X 19.1”(W) X 22” (H)
Saturday, November 9, 2013
 |
| The skull of Titanoboa was used to reconstruct the fearsome predator |
A terrifying 48-foot, 2,500lb predator that slithered through rainforests 60 million years ago has been brought back to life by the Smithsonian.
In the wake of the dinosaurs, other predators battled for supremacy. Titanoboa was the biggest - a huge snake that would dwarf any anaconda, and which is the undisputed largest in history.
The Smithsonian has recreated the terrifying beast in a new TV show which explores a question that puzzled scientists - why the snake grew so large.
Scroll down for video
 |
| Scientists at the Smithsonian have recreated Titanoboa in a video aimed at exploring why the snake grew to its huge 48-foot length and 2500lb bulk |
The Smithsonian Channel has created a film that chronicles the discovery of the 48 foot long and 2,500 pound snake that existed more than 60 million years ago - and recreates what the predator might have looked like.
The film has been promoted with a life-size statue which was on show in New York's Grand Central.
Dr. Jonathan Bloch, a paleontologist and curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History was part of the team that unearthed Titanoboa's fossils.
The snake vertebrae were discovered in an area that is believed to have been an ancient rainforest from the Paleocene epoch.
Snake skulls are almost never found as they are extremely fragile and they usually disintegrate.
‘One of the questions we had was why did it get so large and we think that the answer is because it was much warmer in the tropics during that time.
'Titanoboa was the largest predator on land after the extinction of the dinosaurs for at least 10 million years, maybe longer, so this was a major predator on the earth after the extinction of dinosaurs,’ Bloch explained.
The fossilised remains were found in an open cast mine in Cerrejon, Colombia with turtles and crocodiles.
 |
| Anaconda (1997): Titanoboa would have been bigger than any anaconda that has ever lived |
 |
| Titanoboa cerrejonensis measured 48 feet, weighed as much as a car, and had a body more than a yard thic. The monster relative of the boa constrictor lived in northern Colombia 60 million years ago |
Before the discovery, there had been no fossil vertebrates - or animals with back bones - between 65million and 55million years ago in tropical South America.
Dr Jason Head, of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, in Washington DC, said: 'Now we have a window into the time just after the dinosaurs went extinct and can actually see what the animals replacing them looked like.'
He added: 'This colossal, boa constrictor-like creature stretched longer than a city bus and weighed more than a car. It's the biggest snake the world has ever known.
Finnish photographer Kai Fagerström presents a unique photo series…
…where he captures wild animals making themselves comfortable in abandoned houses in the woods of Finland.
Titled The House in the Woods, the photo series is set in cottages near Kai’s summer house…
…which were abandoned by their tenants after the owner of the place died in a fire.
Award-winning photographer noticed how the place was slowly being reclaimed by the nature…
…and what started as a few snapshots, ended up being a book, published in Finnish, German, and English.
“Deserted buildings are so full of contradictions,” says Kai.
“I am fascinated by the way nature reclaims spaces that were, essentially, only ever on loan to humans.”
Kai usually works with a clear image of what he wants to achieve in his head, although it may take some time for all elements to fall into place.
The photographer has enough patience, however: “This is fine with me,” he says.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
