Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. It goes on, but it
still sucks. I am tired of reiterating it, but there is only so much fresh
material that I can use, and what is left, anyhow?
…Well, not DW – I am putting it on hold again, maybe AFO? Therefore,
I watched its’ penultimate episode – ‘American Alligator vs. Black Bear’, and again,
I was hit that the Black Bear won where the lion had failed – in luck: the Nile
Crocodile was able to get a good grip, and the American Alligator was not. That
all it took.
…Now, when we have discussed this episode for the first
time, I made something of a comment that it was important that both of those
animals were American, because otherwise? There’s a Chinese alligator that
lives in China, (i.e. only in the Yangtze River) and there’s an Asian black
bear, also known as the moon bear, which is roughly the same size as the
American black bear, save that it has a white spot on its’ chest. Now, the
American black bear is usually monochrome in color – the basic color is black,
but there is also cinnamon, brown, even white – the spirit bear of the West
Coast. However, it is all solid color, no spots or anything else. As a matter
of fact, only the American black bear, the brown bear, and the polar bear are
all-monochrome: the giant panda, (which is lately been identified as a true
bear once more), is decisively chiaroscuro, while the other bears, while
usually black, also usually have a splash of white on their chests or muzzles.
The main coloring exception is the Malaysian bear, probably
the smallest (physically) bear of them all: its’ spot on the chest is not
white, as in case of the Himalayan bear, but yellow. Hence, the whole sun/moon
bear dichotomy, I suppose…
Back to the alligators? Of the alligators and caimans, the
American alligator is the biggest, while the Chinese alligator is slightly over
two m in length and weighs about 45-50 kg – that is compatible with a grown-up
human man. Considering that without firearms bears kill humans easily enough –
well, the brown and the American black bears do – I doubt that the moon bear is
any different, as it is the Old World counterpart to the American black bear.
Plus, the Chinese alligator is less confrontational than its’ American relative,
so, again, I doubt that it would’ve went after any bear the same way that the
American alligator went after the American black bear on AFO. Anything else?
Well, the Chinese alligator is the only member of the
alligator and caiman branch that lives in the Old World, while the New World
has several species of true crocodiles living alongside alligators and caimans
in the American tropics. However, aside from the American crocodile per se,
they are fairly shy and retiring creatures, and they are much harder to see
than the crocodiles of Africa and Australasia, especially the Nile and the saltwater
crocodiles.
…The Old World also has the gharials, the final members of
the crocodilian family. Previously, they were thought to consist only of the ‘true’
gharial, as opposed to the ‘false’ gharial, which was supposed to be one of the
‘true’ crocodiles’, but now it is also part of the gharial group. Sometimes
animal classification can have some real twists and turns – just look at the pandas,
(getting back to the bears). I.e., these days the aforementioned giant panda is
a true bear once more, while the red or lesser panda belongs to its own family,
and apparently consists of two species, rather than just one. And yes, the two
species of red panda are very similar to each other, only a specialist can
distinguish between them, but, nevertheless, there is two of them. Hah.
…Well, this is it for now. The lockdown still sucks. Life
still sucks. Anything else is up for discussion. See you all soon!
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