Tag: animals

Ratbots

  Picture this: there’s been an earthquake and you’re trapped in the rubble. In the dark you hear a scrabbling sound…and feel the long, naked tail of a rat slither across your cheek… Sounds like a nightmare, doesn’t it? But if recent research bears fruit, it may be a dream come true–because that rat could …

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Sharks

It’s that time of the year again. The weather is turning cooler, the leaves are changing color, Canadians are leafing through travel brochures featuring sandy beaches, blue water, and warm sunshine. Except… …except, there’s been a lot of news about shark attacks coming from those very same sunny beaches. Some could be excused for wondering …

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Purring

I’m a cat person.  Don’t get me wrong; I like dogs.  But I like cats more.  (It’s an odd thing: although many dog people absolutely hate cats, I’ve seldom met a cat person who hates dogs.  But that’s probably a topic for another column.) One of the nicest features of a cat is its purr.  …

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Animal communication

The fact that animals can communicate with each other is pretty obvious to anyone who has ever watched a pack of dogs or a group of farm cats interact, or listened to crows calling to each other in the treetops. But just how complex is animal communication? Can anything animals do to communicate with each …

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Animal intelligence

People with pets find it hard to believe, but scientists continue to debate whether or not animals are conscious–that is, whether they’re aware of themselves as individuals. Some still claim that anything animals do is strictly the result of conditioning. Others are willing to grant animals a certain amount of intelligence, but argue that animals …

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Lake monsters

Now that summer is winding down and people are heading home from the lake, it’s time to ask, “Did you see anything weird out there?” It wouldn’t be surprising if you did, since Canada has more lake monsters than any other country in the world. “Lake monsters” are large unknown creatures said to inhabit many …

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Skunks

  There are lots of good things to smell in the summertime: flowers, steaks on the barbecue, fresh-cut grass. But there are also other, less fortunate smells: hot wet dog, five-day-old roadkill–and skunk. My personal experience of the smell of skunk has been limited to a whiff of that inimitable scent wafted on the breeze, …

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Rabbits

This is the time of year when the Easter bunny hops throughout the land, distributing eggs to children (he silliest bit of folklore-cum-advertising gimmick I’ve ever heard, but we seem to be stuck with it). What better topic for a column, then, than rabbits?–which, as anyone who has read Watership Down can tell you, are …

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Ants

I spent the Labour Day weekend at the home of some friends at Crooked Lake. The weather was beautiful and so was their yard, and so we ate lunch outdoors, observing and being observed by cats, humming birds, bees, butterflies, hawks–and ants. Of all of them, it was the ants who were most interested in …

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Cattle

My niece collects cows. Well, images of cows, anyway. And she’s not the only one. Apparently, cows are hot right now. Personally, I’ve never been all that enamored of them. My encounters with cows have generally been unrewarding, from the time I tried to milk one (an experience neither of us enjoyed) to the time …

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Horse racing

Horses have been domesticated for more than 6,000 years, Ill bet that when the first Central Asian nomad with a horse met the second Central Asian with a horse, the first one said, “Race you to that tree over there” and the second one said, “You’re on,” and their friends wagered a skin of fermented …

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Migration

You know what it’s like: the alarm goes off, it’s dark, the wind’s howling, your nose is cold, there’s a snow drift on the windowsill, the radio is talking about icy streets and flesh freezing in 30 seconds, and you just want to pack up and get out of town. Yes, I know I wrote …

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