While we're in Africa I'm sure all of us will have our eyes out for dogs, whether owned or feral. Out of the cities, most of the dogs I've seen in Kenya and Tanzania have been "village dogs," although many of them are 'owned' by someone in the area. "Owned" just means something different there: When you ask "Is that your dog?" it's common for someone to say yes, but the dog will have no name, no identification and clearly is relatively independent of people. Usually what they mean is that the dog is allowed to sleep in their yard, but that there is not much of a relationship otherwise. Even in the cities, the people I've talked to have said that dog ownership is relatively common, but that, at least for most Africans, dogs are often not allowed in the house and are primarily kept as guard Read More
What Do Barks “Mean”
One of our alert readers sent a link to a study done by Kathryn Lord of U. Massachusetts on the "meaning" of barks in a variety of species. The link is to a newspaper article written about the study, complete with comments (mostly irate) about the findings of the work. But the study (which I of course don't think is a waste of money, contrary to some of the negative comments) brings up some very interesting questions that researchers in animal behavior have been thinking about for decades. The over riding question is this: what, exactly, is the message of vocal communication? Take any species, and ask yourself: is the bark, the growl or the song of a particular animal an expression of the animal's internal state (expressing fear, or affiliation, or emotions that could lead to aggression) Read More
Lions chase off vultures
Watched adult female and two subadult cubs (3-4 yrs? still some spots on legs) chase vultures off a recent zebra kill. Elephants coming in out of the hills to feed in the amboseli swamps, we'll see more of them later today. Am meeting with camp naturalist to learn more... saw an animal that looked exactly like an African Wild Cat.... which is pretty much exactly like a tabby house cat. How tell difference? At night the zebra and antelope come right up to the veranda. Have to watch out for vervets, who try to steal the sugar off your table and dash in your room. Yesterday we caught one on our luggage, just starting to unzip it. And yes, we've seen lots and lots of robin egg blue testicles (on the vervets, honest. they even have a penile display that zoologists patriotically call the "Red Read More
Pride of 9 Lions!
Here we are in Amboseli. 9 pm, long day, ending with dinner watching gazelles, zebra and wildebeest walking past the dining room. went on game drive in evening, found pride of 9 lions:2 black maned males, 2 cubs and 5 females. some of us saw them very closely, my van not right next to the van, but still amazing. cubs playing on top of mom, males looking bored and regal. all getting ready for nightly hunt. Is just as wonderful as you would hope. People so kind, country astounding--vast and huge and full of contrasts. Dry sand dirt and electric red robes of Maasai. Is sadness too--terrible drought causing suffering to people and animals alike. Maize crop has failed for people. Grass gone for grazers, so hippos and zebra suffering terribly. Browsers like giraffe and Kudu antelop doing much Read More
Dog Play DVD Available!
Wheeeee, the new 1/2 day seminar on play that I did in California a few weeks ago is out now on DVD, thanks to lots of hard work by Alta at Tawzer Videos. You can learn more about Dog Play on my website, but here's the summary: The seminar focused on three aspects of canine play: 1) The Natural History of Play: What IS play after all? Who plays and Why? (Those questions turn out to be much more complicated than you might think and have all kinds of interesting implications for us and our dogs!) 2) Play Between Dogs: What do we know about the development of play in dogs? The seminar includes new research out of Barbara Smut's lab in Michigan about the development of play in dogs and what is "natural" and what is not. It also includes an in-depth discussion, with lots of videos, about Read More