Quarantine entry #86 - June 15

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, which is why I wanted to revisit our friends the moles today – but then I came across a mention of a Madagascar cat, and it stuck.

What is a Madagascar cat? Technically, it is an incorrect name for the fossa, (also known as fosa), which does belong, technically speaking to the same suborder of the carnivorous mammals’ family as the true cats do, but otherwise? It belongs to the mammal family Eupleridae, which is more closely related to the mongooses instead.

Why the fossa is called a Madagascar cat? It is superficially similar to a cat, but only that. You may see it, for example, on Sir David Attenborough’s ‘Life of Mammals’, where the fossas are shown mating and hunting lemurs on Madagascar – until humans had arrived on that island and introduced their animal companions as well, the fossa was the biggest carnivorous mammal in that ecosystem. Being the size of a small mountain lion, (about 70-80 cm long), and weighing about from 5.5 to 8.5 kg, it is a formidable-looking mammal, but only that; the real puma itself isn’t very dangerous to humans, and the fossa actually avoids humans (and their dogs) for as long as possible; yes, it hunts lemurs, which are fellow primates to the human beings, but the modern lemurs are very different primates from the modern humans, so there’s that.

Anything else? First, unlike the true cats, a fossa’s claws are only semi-retractable – i.e., they can extend, but cannot fully retract back into the paws. Secondly, while the fossa itself belongs to the genus Cryptoprocta, (it is a monotypic genus that consists only of the fossa itself), the term ‘fossa’ is also used in the scientific world as the title of another monotypic genus, a genus that consists of only the relative of the ‘true’ fossa – Fossa fossana, known in the English language as the Malagasy civet, also known as the fanaloca.

At 47-50 cm in length, (plus another 20 cm to the tail), and at 1.5-2.0 kg in weight, it is a much smaller animal than the ‘true’ fossa is, and physically it resembles the ‘true’ civets & genets of Africa and Eurasia. For a while, it was even classified with the banded (palm) civet of South-East Asia, until it was discovered that it was more closely related to the carnivorous mammals of the Eupleridae family, see above. At about the size of a small fox, (and with a similar behavior), it is the second largest native carnivorous mammal of Madagascar.

Both the fossa and the Malagasy civet are considered to be Vulnerable, (according to IUCN), both because of human (and dog) harassment, and habitat deterioration on Madagascar. Of course, that affects all of Madagascar’s wildlife, including its’ native carnivores of the Eupleridae family, which consists of two subfamilies: one that contains the fossa, the Malagasy civet, and two species of the so-called falanoucs, and the second that contains their cousins – the various species of mongooses and vontsiras of Madagascar. Despite the fact that their common name of some of them contains the word ‘mongoose’, these Madagascan mammals are proportionally more closely related to the fossa and the Malagasy civet, than to the ‘true’ mongooses of Africa and Eurasia. Anything else?

Sadly, no. The second subfamily of the native Madagascan carnivores may be more numerous out of the two, but its’ members are much less ‘charismatic’ than the fossa, the Malagasy civet, and the falanoucs are. Consequently, less is known about them, than, say, about the fossa itself – sadly, the small carnivores are not very popular unlike the large ones… That is real life. It sucks.

…Well, this is it for now, though. Discussing the fossa and its’ relatives was fun; maybe we should do something similar soon. See you later!

Quarantine entry #72 - June 1

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. People continue to use the death of G.F. as an excuse to vent their own frustrations over everything that has gone wrong in their lives and in the life of the planet for the last 3-4 months or so, and the Donald decided to make his input by designating the antifa as a terrorist movement. Couldn’t he made the same choice for the skinheads as well?..

Listen: yes, shit has hit the fan here, and there is almost no way out of it that would make you smell rosy. Yes, while staying out of this mess has become impossible by now for a public figure, it does not mean that you have to almost deliberately make it worse by choosing sides and almost not bothering to hide it. Pause.

Yes, we’re talking about the same Donald, about the same man that got schooled by Taylor Swift recently; Taylor Swift, people, who isn’t exactly a poster child for interracial good relationships, as her confrontations with the Kardashian-West clan in the past showed – but this time practically everyone is choosing her over the POTUS; remind me, why hasn’t he become impeached yet?

Well, the Republicans do not want to impeach him, because they remain on top of the U.S. political society, (and beyond), by adding their camels to his caravan, metaphorically speaking; and the Democrats?..

With them, it is trickier, but as we have talked before, and repeatedly, since the elections-2016, really, the DNC has a lot of internal issues, which, now, (June 2020, happy summer-2020, everyone, BTW!), show no signs of being resolved. Mr. Biden might be the Democrats’ designated candidate for presidency, but now? His campaign is decisively lackluster, as is the man himself.

…Yes, many strata of the U.S society, (including the state governors and what else have you), are fed up with the Donald, but did the Democrats had to put up someone so lackluster at Mr. Biden? …

Apparently yes, so when the elections-2020 will begin in earnest, may they reap what they have sowed, the end. What next?

…I actually wanted to talk about sparrows today. No, I am not talking about Captain Jack from Disney's PotC franchise, though Mr. Depp? Sorry about everything that you went though. You did not deserve that; you deserved better. Rather, I want to talk about the actual birds that are called sparrows, but it is trickier than how it sounds.

To begin, the word ‘sparrow’ is used to name quite a few of different birds. In the Old World, this was the name of songbirds, (biologically speaking), which belong to the Passeridae family; of them, the house sparrow is the best-known in the New World, though the so-called tree or field sparrow is a close second back in the old country.

The native New World sparrows belong to the Passerellidae family instead; both they and the Old World sparrows belong to the same avian superfamily, the Passeroidea, and in many ways, they are similar to each other, but they do not hybridize readily, so most scientists agree that the two families are not very closely related to each other after all. Anything else?

…Some other passerine birds are also called ‘sparrows’, even though they belong to yet other Passerine families, such as the Estrlididae, (the so called Java and Timor sparrows), or the Prumellidae, (the hedge sparrow or the dunnock, which, I believe, was featured on Sir David Attenborough’s ‘Life of Birds’ series). Isn’t taxonomy fun? It is certainly funnier than the real life, which sucks!..

…For now, however, this is it. See you all soon!

Quarantine entry #56 - May 16

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. It is also tricky, both on a lesser level – i.e., co-existing with your family during the lockdown that cannot end because of various reasons, both of COVID-19-(directly)-related, and of Trudeau vs. Trump related. There are simple solutions, but no one likes them, and so the lockdown goes on, satisfying fewer and fewer people, no matter how good (and/or righteous) are its’ initial reasons were… What next?

Today, I want to talk about the otters, actually. To wit, they are 13 existing species of aquatic or semi-aquatic mammals, which belong to the Mustelid family, (aka the weasels and co.), but also – to their own subfamily, the Lutrinae. And-?

…Starting with the good old reliable taxonomy, there are about eight existing genera of otters, (that hold the aforementioned 13 existing species), and about twice as many extinct ones. As Mustelids, otters are more closely related to wild dogs, bears, and raccoons, rather than cats, hyenas, and mongooses. Their relationship with the pinnipeds – namely, seals, sea lions and walruses – is more obscure, taxonomically speaking, but ecologically? Otters and pinnipeds are two sides of the same coin… sort of.

Let us elaborate. The pinnipeds live in seas and oceans – as a rule. They come in several shapes, and in different sizes, but most of them are social, gregarious, noisy mammals that often are easy to spot on the shoreline; in the water, they may not be as formidable as the more ancient and derived cetaceans are, but they are still a force to be reckoned with; in one of his TV shows, Sir David Attenborough showed a bearded seal actually outmaneuver a killer whale, meaning that you don’t discount the seals just yet!

On the other hand, we have the otters. Aside from the well-known sea otter, and the much more obscure – and smaller – marine otter of South America, all otters live in freshwater bodies instead. They are social animals, and playful ones, but their basic unit is a single-family group, whereas pinnipeds – especially such big ones as the elephant seals, fur seals, and walruses – have harems instead. Proportionally, otters tend to be shier and less noisy and noticeable than the pinnipeds are; very often they are much less active during the day than at night, dawn, or dusk; in part, this is because of human pressure, but the biggest freshwater otters of them all – the giant otters of South America, (aka Pteronura brasiliensis), are freely active during the day instead, human pressure or not. What else is there?

The other animals. The aforementioned giant otter of South America is the most formidable of otters; family groups of these species were shown killing caiman, (cousins of the crocodile, remember?), and driving away jaguars, (though in the case of the latter, a safe, respectable distance was maintained, and the jaguars were young and not fully-grown or experienced). Put otherwise, as in most of them mammal societies, size and strength, multiplied by numbers of family group matter. The giant otters are the biggest and most social of the river otters, hence their also the bravest and the boldest. The other freshwater otter species – not so much, they are much more demure and tend to stay out of the way of such carnivores, as wolves, bears, and lynx, for example, (in the Northern Hemisphere, both in North America and Eurasia).

…The sea otter stands apart, not unlike the giant otter of South America; its’ closest relative – proportionally – is the spotted-necked otter of sub-Saharan Africa, (Hydrictis maculicollis), but the two animals don’t have much in common: the spotted-necked otter is a ‘typical’ freshwater otter, while the sea otter behaves more as the seals and pinnipeds do.

…There are freshwater seals – true, or earless, seals – in fast. They are subspecies of ‘marine seals’, the only truly freshwater seal is the Baikal seal, Pusa sibirica, and it is one of the smallest seals, under 1.5 m in length. It exists in the Baikal Lake, which is more of a freshwater sea, really, and is an exception that underlines the rule. The case of the sea otter, which is really the only otter known to most humans, that went into the sea, is the same. …The marine otter Lontra felina, a close relative of the North American river otter, looks much more like the other otters rather than like the sea otter. It behaves rather like the otters, instead of the sea otter does too… but we became carried away.

To summarize: otters have appeared later in Earth’s history than the pinnipeds did, and as such, they were unable to fully transition to the sea, as the seals and their relatives did, except for two species, of which only the sea otter can compete with the pinnipeds in the sea, ecologically speaking, and even it has some caveats in regards to its’ ecology, it is a very different mammal from the seals and etc.. On the other hand, they were able to keep the pinnipeds out of fresh water – the subspecies/species of earless seals that were able to make it there are found in places where river otters are uncomfortable to exist; all of them are more terrestrial than the pinnipeds are…

Well, this is it for now. See you all soon!

Quarantine entry #49 - May 9

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, but sometimes you can get a handle on it all the same, especially if your family is a root of one your problems, I reckon. If it is not… just look at the Ahmed Arbery case – I tend to stay away from such discussions, but I have to admit that his life took the worst turn ever, and he died.

…I do not know if A.A. was as great, good, and everything that the mass media claims that he is, etc., etc. However, I have to admit that secondly, giving this case a racial angle is the last thing that the States need right now, what with the COVID-19 lockdown-charged atmosphere and all, (cough elections-2020 cough), and firstly? Not only A.A. probably didn’t deserve to die, but also the way that cops and the legal system have handled this case? It was bad and now it will get worse… and it will make the COVID-19 lockdown-charged atmosphere even worse. (Cough elections-2020 cough). Anything else?

Aside from the fact that I am beginning to have a strong dislike for Doug Ford, the premier of the province of Ontario for Canada-related reasons? I wanted to talk about the ibex today. Contrary to how its’ name sounds, this is no bird relative of the ibis that we’ve discussed last month, but rather a common name for several Old World mountain goats. Pause.

Now, in North America, the name mountain goat is reserved for the Rocky Mountain goat, aka Oreamnos americanus. This is a mammal with noticeably white fur, and sharp, but short and thin black horns. While it does belong in the general subfamily of the wild sheep and goats, it has its’ own genus and as such it stands apart from the rest of the Caprinae subfamily’s members. The ibexes look very different from it.

To wit: their fur is shorter, and it is usually isn’t white, because while the ibex species do live in the mountains, they are usually aren’t found as high as the Rocky Mountain goat dwells, not to mention that while some of those species are Eurasian, the others are found in North and East Africa instead – a continent not very much known for its’ snows, not even in winter. Yes, some African mountain ranges do have snow, but the ibexes actually usually are not found there – they like heat better than cold, it seems. The markhor of Asia is a cold-adapted mountain mammal, but it is one Eurasian mountain goat that is not usually called an ibex. Why? Possibly because of its’ horns – the markhor’s horns are shaped like corkscrews, (not unlike the horns of some of the antelope species, but the markhor is only distantly related to them), while the ibexes’ horns are recurved as the scimitar blades are, with transverse ridges at the front end. The wild goat proper – one of the ancestors of the domestic goat – usually is not called an ibex, even though it has the appropriate horns – but it has subspecies, which are called… the bezoar ibex and the Sindh ibex, and that is the reason why we need scientific names – to make sense of the non-scientific ones.

…Yes, the bezoar brings us to the first book and movie of the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise – in the very first ‘Harry meets Snape’ meeting, Snape asked Harry as to where he can find the bezoar and what it is. The bezoar is a magical (fictional) stone that is supposed to heal its owner from any snake’s venom, and the wild goat that is usually associated with it is the aforementioned markhor, which is supposed to be a designated snake-slayer and –eater, which is certainly a fairy tale hocus…which makes it an appropriate member of the HP-universe, I suppose. If we ever get another Harry Potter- okay, a Newt Scamander movie, maybe we’ll get to see a markhor there – it is certainly bizarre- and magical-looking with its’ horns. Anything else?

Just that the markhor may have been one of the ancestors of the domestic Angora goat, (which gives us as the mohair wool) on one hand, and on the other? People may have already seen the markhor – as the snow leopard hunted it on David Attenborough’s ‘Planet Earth’ way back in the early 2000s – but we digress. A markhor is not an ibex, apparently, and that is that.

…Moreover, for now, this is it. See you all soon!

Quarantine entry #42 - May 2

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Sometimes it sucks so bad, that it burns. The good news that things change, they transform, and so life becomes something new. Only death is eternal, and no, I’m not talking about G.W. and his shooting rampage – yesterday or so, (May 1, 2020), Mr. Trudeau the PM banned 1500 types of assault rifles, or 1500 assault rifles period, or whatever. That is understandable – he had a rough time lately, first his wife got sick, then his mother, and now G.W.’s rampage… and on top of it, during NATO’s practice in the Mediterranean, a Canadian helicopter crashed, everyone on board of it is dead, and some of the people are from Nova Scotia again… yeah. April was not a good month for this Canadian province. What else?

I have watched the ‘Gorilla vs. Leopard’ episode of AFO, and I have watched the chimpanzee episode of David Attenborough’s ‘Dynasties’. I am struck how Africa’s great apes are very much like us, if we were polygamous, that is. Pause.

Here is the thing. When it comes to sex and families, the animal kingdom is varied and various and deserves a separate discussion of its own, but among the mammals? You usually have the females raising the young alone, or you got a main mated couple and their offspring, (and sometimes younger siblings), instead. There are various versions of those scenarios, but the basic designs are those two – the lemurs have a female in charge, (usually the main mother), while the monkeys like the marmosets and the night monkeys are monogamous – and then we come to primates such as the howler monkeys, that actually have harems led by males. Pause.

Let us get down to terms: ‘matriarchy’ – females are in charge. ‘Patriarchy’ – the males are. ‘Matrilineage’ – families are designed following the maternal bloodlines. ‘Patrilineage’ – same as before, but following the paternal. Among many mammals, males tend to come and go, (whether we’re talking about deer, lions, or even baboons), while the females stay, raise the young, and shape the family’s culture, (in a manner of speaking).

…And then we got the gorillas and the chimpanzees, where the males are very much in charge, especially among the more peaceful gorillas, and act not unlike the more polygamous human cultures. Yes, female chimpanzees can stand up for themselves, and among the ‘other’ chimpanzee species, the bonobo, the society is largely matriarchal…and much more peaceful than the society of the common chimpanzee, more like the gorillas’… pause.

A semi-popular theory states that the chimpanzee and bonobo lineages split when the gorillas, (there are several species of them, actually), appeared on the scene. They are more herbivorous than the common chimpanzees were, and scientists believe that when the ancestral gorillas encountered the ancestral chimpanzees, they forced the latter to become the more omnivorous common chimpanzees, and in places where they were absent, the ancestral apes become bonobos instead. The latter are more closely related to the common chimpanzees than to the gorillas, but they behave more as the gorillas do instead. Evolution sometimes acts in strange ways.

…The orangutans, it can be noted, have evolved in apparent isolation from the other types of great apes; the gibbons, or the lesser apes, also live in the jungles of Southeast Asia, but the two groups of primates tend to avoid each other period. Orangutans live where the gibbons typically do not, and vice versa. In Africa, the gorillas and chimpanzees avoid each other, but because they live on the ground rather than on trees, they aren’t as shy as the orangutans and the gibbons are, (proportionally speaking); the common chimpanzee, in particular, may be the most violent of the all great apes, as well as the second smallest, after its’ bonobo cousin. The bonobo, it should be noted, is a very peaceful mammal, and nowhere as violent as the common chimpanzee is…

…Well, this is all that I wanted to say for now. See you all soon!

Quarantine entry #28 - April 18

Obligatory disclaimer: I hate my life. It sucks. It is getting out of my control and I cannot do anything about it – all because somewhere in China a wrong person ate a wrong bat, or scaly anteater, or something. Real life sucks and no mistake. No escape either, especially from the legal side of things. What next?

What can’t be cured, must be endured, I suppose, though it a thin enough consolation once you are on a pointy end of things. Real life sucks, again, and COVID-19 is only making it worse – but we were trying to move on. Where to?

To the pelicans, I suppose. They were mentioned a while back, when we were discussing ibises, so let us recap. The ibises are a subfamily in the ibis-spoonbill family, making them close relatives. The herons belong to a different family, but to the same order, and the storks belong to a different order altogether. Pause. So where the pelicans come in?

In the past times – including the late 20^th century – pelicans were grouped into the same order as the cormorants, gannets, anhingas, frigatebirds and tropicbirds belong to, (among others). Now, though, the tropicbirds have their own order, while the pelicans were proven to be more closely related to herons, ibises and spoonbills on one hand, and to the hammerkop and the shoebill stork on the other. Pause.

Out of all this motley crew, the pelican is the odd one out, with its’ short legs and neck, and a massive beak, complete with a pouch that enables pelican to catch big fish and other prey – I believe that it was on David Attenborough’s ‘Life’ series, (the bird-based episode, most likely), when we saw pelicans prey on chicks of gannets rather than fish. They may look goofy, but, apparently, they owe their body shape to air sacks beneath the skin, and otherwise, they are leaner than how they look. Pause. ‘Planet Dinosaur’ used to talk how carnivorous dinosaurs, (including bird ancestors), developed air sacks to be lighter and faster than their prey. Hah.

…The shoebill stork looks vaguely like a pelican, but it has no pouch in its bill, it is just big and wide and heavy; physical similarities are superficial, though it does look like a modern dinosaur. The hammerkop, on the other hand, looks like some sort of a heron or a stork instead. It builds big nests in its’ African homeland, but, again, it does not look like a pelican at all. It and the shoebill stork are more closely related to each other than to the pelicans, after all. What next?

Speaking of appearances, there is also the pelican’s appearance in the Christian mythos; to wit, that a pelican nourishes its hungry chicks with its’ own blood. I believe that even Shakespeare mentioned it, in ‘King Lear’ or something. Leaving aside the entire issue of realism, there’s also the fact that it is depicted nothing like a pelican – more like a generic bird with a long neck and a short sharp beak with which it tears its breast so that its’ young would feed on its blood. Christian religion is weird sometimes, and this heraldic pelican looks nothing like the real pelican, again. I am surprised that it did not surface in Westeros or some similar place, eh?

…Getting back to real life, the pelican- or gulper eels deserve an honorary mention. See, these deep-water fish have extendable mouths that form a pouch similar to the one formed in the pelican’s bill for pretty much the same goal – to swallow bigger prey. Whereas the pelican birds are known well enough, the gulper eels – not so much, so let us put them aside, for now. Anything else?

…Sadly, no. Rather, this is it for the pelicans and co. Their relationship with the wading birds that are not storks has not been defined yet, and they are more formidable than how they look. Ah well, appearances are deceptive and all that. For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!

Quarantine entry #27 - April 17

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. I have no idea when it will end and we are stuck in the lockdown, and it is snowing again. What next?

Let us switch from amphibians, such as newts, to ostriches. Why? Because I have watched one of David Attenborough’s specials – ‘big birds can’t fly’ and it is about ostriches and the other ratites, so let us begin!

First, there are actually two species of ostrich – the common ostrich with its’ subspecies, and the Somali ostrich, which differs from the common ostrich in terms of coloration. (A blue neck and head, primarily). It coexists with the common ostrich, (with one of the subspecies, anyhow), but does not hybridize with them – apparently, they are that different genetically.

…This situation is not too unique to the ostriches – other birds, physically very similar to each other, do not interbreed either, for example the white and the black storks of Europe/Eurasia. Externally, they differ only in plumage color, but nevertheless, no hybrids.

Back to the ostriches. They are ratites, aka the paleognaths, aka a group of very specialized flightless birds that are only distantly related to the rest of the birds, aka the neognaths. They are other flightless birds in the modern world, but they live on islands where no land predators are present, and they have keeled sternum bones as well. Penguins, in particular, have fairly powerful wings and they can fly, only underwater, not in air. And the ratites?

Out of this superorder of birds, ostriches are the most basal slash ancient ones, followed by the rheas, (aka the South American ostriches). These birds are the biggest existing ratites, and they got big wings. They still cannot fly – too heavy, the anatomy is all wrong – but the big wings serve to impress females, to shade chicks from the sun and so on.

Speaking of South American rheas, this continent also has the tinamous. They are important, because while they belong to the ratites, they actually can fly, just not very well, and are the local ecological counterparts of pheasants and grouse from the rest of the world. (The galloanseri birds are some of the more ancient birds, alongside the ratites, but we will talk about them some other time). As such, they got added to the ratites only recently, and even that with some caveats, I think – but more on tinamous later.

Next, we got the cassowaries and the emu of Australia and Papua New Guinea. They are more advanced than their African and South American counterparts are, and have no wings. The emu is represented by a single species; the cassowaries – by three, (the fourth had died out). The emu lives in the savannah, just as the ostriches and the rheas do, while the cassowaries prefer the jungle. Pause.

Here I take a breather from taxonomy, and point out that the cassowaries are not like the extinct dinosaurs, raptor-like claws on their feet or not. Raptors were carnivores; cassowaries are not – they feed of fruit and other plant matter, and if possible, they avoid humans, who encroach on their territory, cutting it down to clear land for their own needs; most human-cassowary conflicts are human-initiated, sadly.

Finally, the living ratites also feature the kiwi birds, which are the smallest ratites of them all. Also, unlike all the other ratites, existing and extinct, rather than have long necks & legs and short bills, they got short necks, shortish legs, and long bills, with which they prove earth for their sustenance – various invertebrates. They are nocturnal, got an attitude, (just like the rest of the ratites, actually), and number five species – the most numerous modern ratite groups.

The rest of the ratites are extinct by now; of a particular interest are the moas of New Zealand, (cousins to the South American tinamous), and the elephant birds of Madagascar, (cousins to New Zealand’s kiwi birds). The moas were the tallest of the ratites, the elephant birds – the heaviest. Both of these ratite groups died out during the historical age – the moas from the New Zealand Maoris, the elephant birds – from the natives of Madagascar and the Europeans, possibly. Unlike their mainland cousins and the kiwis, they were just too specialized and tasty to survive, it seemed. The moas, in particular, had only their drumsticks slash legs eaten and the rest was given to the dogs – literally. No wonder that the moas died out, as did the elephant birds, though in the latter’s case it was more of a habitat destruction situation instead. Anything else?

Sadly, no. The modern ratites are flourishing, more or less, but many of them are in trouble, (remember the cassowaries’ issues with humans?). ‘Big birds can’t fly’ has addressed that issue, though this film was kind of a tangled mess, featuring bits and pieces of previous BBC/Attenborough productions, but I’ve still enjoyed it. Beggars cannot be choosers – cough, Comic-Con 2020 is cancelled because of COVID-19, cough.

Well, then, this is it for now. See you all soon!

Quarantine entry #15 - April 5

…With DC discussion being put on hold, let us get back to real life. Thanks to COVID-19, it still sucks, but we are not talk medicine here, but rather zoology, or even biology. Ergo, let us talk about camels instead!

So far, there are not any camel-themed heroes or villains, at least none in the mainline comics, though for a while the Marlboro™ cigarettes used camel imagery in their ads, but nicotine is not a good thing, it is anything but, so moving onto the animals themselves…they got super-powers up the wazoo.

Firstly, their hump does not store water, but rather fat, which enables the camel to survive in leaner times. Secondly, their feet and knees have calluses that allow them to walk on hot – or cold – desert sand without any discomfort. Moreover, their fur is thick enough to handle the same heat and cold extremes of their desert homes. Pause.

Right now, science recognizes three species of existing camels. One is the dromedary or the one-humped camel. In the wild, it is found in Middle East and in East Africa (aka the Horn of Africa) – in the North Africa, it is more of a domestic animal instead. It got a single hump, (duh), and it is usually the camel featured in movies, TV series, cartoons, and etc. – it is much better known than its’ cousins.

The other two species are the wild Bactrian camel and its’ domesticated cousin – apparently, as in case of some other animals, (such as the yaks), the two animals are genetically different enough to be classified as different species. Anyhow, the wild Bactrian camel lives only in the remote areas of Mongolia and northwestern China; its’ domestic sibling is found all over Central Asia, including the historic region of Bactria, for which the two-humped camel is named. (Also, the two-humped camels have longer and shaggier fur than the dromedary camel does).

…Bactria, if anyone is interested, was located on the territories of modern Afghanistan, (cough, Taliban, cough), Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, (both are former Soviet republics; neither is particularly flourishing or interesting to the West, at least officially. Ouch). As such, it has both deserts and mountains, but the Old World camels are not found in mountains; their American cousins are.

Technically, however, they are not camels, but camelids, and they have no humps. There are four species of them, but at least one of them, the alpaca, is found only in captivity – it is one of the smaller Tylopods, (aka camels and their cousins), and is bred mostly for its’ wool, which may be better than a sheep’s.

The camels themselves – especially the domesticated Bactrian species – also have their wool harvested, at least sometimes, and it too is as good as a sheep’s is. Consequently, there were attempts to release them into the wild. It was a mixed bag – the Bactrians, released in North America in the 19^th century didn’t make it, whereas in Australia feral camels became a problem with no clear solution in sight.

Getting back to the New World, alongside the alpaca, there’s also the llama, which is domesticated about as fully as the alpaca is, but it was bred for strength and endurance, and its’ fur isn’t as fancy as the alpaca’s is – but it’s still good, strong, and thick. (The alpaca nor the llama are really neither eaten nor milked, while the Old World camels sometimes are – especially milked. A camel is a very useful domestic animal in the desert, it looks like! Cough).

Their truly wild cousins, the vicuna and the guanaco have shorter fur; the guanaco in particular has appeared on various nature specials, often narrated by Sir David Attenborough, and if you ever watched one, (especially now, with the lockdown and everything), then you would’ve noticed the familial resemblance to the Old World camels, no doubt, especially in the head and neck. Anything else?

Camels and their American relatives are artiodactyl animals, aka with even-numbered, (or cloven), hooves... but they don’t have hooves as the deer, cattle, and antelopes do; rather, they kept their toes with hoof-like nails, especially the camels proper, and as such, they are kept separately from the aforementioned animals, in their own biological family – the Camelidae – and their own suborder, the aforementioned Tylopoda, which contains both the existing species, discussed above, and their extinct relatives as well. They are a rather mixed bag, contain purely wild species, purely domestic ones, and also the dromedary, which is found both in the wild and in captivity, and as such, their statuses according to CITES and similar organizations is also mixed. That said, all camelids are large, powerful animals with strong teeth and powerful legs and should be treated respectfully, even in zoos.

…Yes, camels proper are not really found in zoos anymore, but the llama and the alpaca still are, especially in the petting zoos, roadside zoos, and similar attractions. They are smaller and weaker than the Old World camels are, but nevertheless try to remember that they are still camelids, and as such, they have a ranged weapon as well – they can spit out their cud with a great force, powerfully enough to stun or to blind their attackers, or whom they perceive to be attackers, and that can hurt!

Well, this is it about camels and their relatives for now. See you all later, and, hopefully, the lockdown will end sooner, rather than later!