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Follow Denise Chow on Twitter@denisechow. Follow Livescience@livescience Facebookâ & Google+.+Original article onâ Livescience v
Follow Denise Chow on Twitter@denisechow. Follow Livescience@livescience Facebookâ & Google+.+Original article on Livescience. com
#Why Do Dogs Eat Grass? Most dog owners have seen probably their canine friend graze on grass at one point or another.
A few theories exist to explain this seemingly odd behavior though no answer is definitive. The most common explanation for grass-eating is that it helps dogs purge their systems.
Like humans dogs can suffer from gastrointestinal issues including upset stomach nausea bloating and illness from pathogenic microbes.
If a dog is experiencing one of these problems you may see it frantically wanting to get out of the house.
Once out it will chow down on any grass available taking large bites and often swallowing the plants whole.
The grass causes gastric irritation that leads to vomiting which helps the dog feel better afterward the theory holds.
In a 2008 study in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science researchers found that while grass consumption didn't often lead to vomiting dogs that seemed ill before eating grass were more likely to vomit than dogs that appeared to act normally beforehand.
Another theory posits that dogs eat grass simply because they want to. In such cases a dog may appear to hunt for a specific type of plant rather than ingesting any grass it can find.
After identifying the correct grass it will calmly nibble on the plant. In this scenario the dog may even be seeking out grass to get additional nutrients it may not have in its normal diet such as fiber minerals or digestive enzymes.
A 2007 case study in the Journal of Veterinary Medical science reported that a switch to a high-fiber diet stopped a miniature poodle from regularly eating grass.
Wolves and other wild canids are known to regularly eat plant matter suggesting dogs'grass-eating behavior is innate and perfectly normal.
Indeed a 2009 dog study in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior found that puppies were more likely to eat grass
if their mothers did while nursing. Follow Joseph Castro on Twitter. Follow us@livescience Facebook & Google
#Why Do People Drink Milk? Milk is recognized widely as a nutritious drink for people of all ages it's a good source of protein calcium Vitamin d potassium and other vitamins and minerals.
10 Beastly Tales Front-line testers At the beginning of the space race countries sent chimpanzees dogs and rabbits into space as testers.
and dogs elephants and sheep even tigers and black bears have found kinship. The National Trust hopes the deer will rejoin his own herd
loud noises and dogs are effective at keeping the birds away he added. Furthermore the birds are blamed often for damage that they have not caused.
Many dry and wet dog pet foods also contain rice wheat and other plants not to mention added vitamins and minerals.
#Wolves in Yellowstone Help Grizzly bears Fatten up The reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone national park has unexpected an upside:
The wolves have kept the park's population of elks (prey for wolves) in check which in turn limits how many berry-producing shrubs the elks consume.
The study points to the need for an ecologically effective number of wolves said co-author Robert Beschta a researcher at Oregon State university in a statement.
As we learn more about the cascading effects they have on ecosystems the issue may be more than having just enough individual wolves
Wolves were removed first from Yellowstone national park in the 1920s after which the elk population soared. The huge herds of elk heavily browsed aspen
Past studies showed the reintroduction of wolves in 1995 has led to willow and aspen populations rebounding.
Bears deer foxes bald eagles raccoons and more may be seen amidst the wildflowers and lush grasses. The most popular meadows which have boardwalks
while canvas-and hard-sided cabins at Curry Village White wolf Lodge and others provide a back-to-nature feel without the tents.
#Facts About Wolverines Wolverines look something like a mixture of a dog a skunk and a bear with short legs long hair and elongated snouts.
I returned to the field the next year to start the study only to discover that PVC pipe is an excellent hyena chew toy
A group of researchers at Swansea University in the United kingdom fitted sheep with backpacks containing GPS devices to develop a model for how a single sheepdog can shepherd a flock of more than 100 sheep BBC News reported.
In Dewitt County Texas most people are convinced this is the elusive chupacabra said a reporter with KAVU News an ABC affiliate based in Victoria Texas though a wildlife biologist suggested it might be a dog or coyote.
The mouth and jaw structures of raccoons dogs and coyotes prevent them from creating a seal around their victims
and therefore physically prevents them from sucking the blood out of goats or anything else.
And though most chupacabras found in Texas have been identified as canids (the zoological family that includes dogs coyotes
and foxes) this is not the first raccoon misidentified as a chupacabra. In an article in the March/April 2014 issue of Skeptical Inquirer another chupacabra found
This is a typical place to find a raccoon but unlikely for a dog or coyote.
#Coyote Facts Coyotes are members of the Canidae family and share a lot of the same traits of their relatives:
wolves dogs foxes and jackals. There are 19 subspecies of coyote according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information system.
They have narrow elongated snouts lean bodies covered in thick fur yellow or amber eyes and long bushy tails.
Coyotes have gray white tan and brown fur. Their fur color depends on where they live.
Coyotes that live in the mountains have darker coats and ones that live in the desert have lighter coats.
Coyotes are about as big as medium-size dogs though they are smaller than wolves.
They are 32 to 37 inches (81 to 94 centimeters) from head to rump. Their tail adds another 16 inches (41 cm) to their length.
Coyotes typically weigh about 20 to 50 lbs. 9 to 23 kilograms. Coyotes live in North america
and roam the plains forests mountains and deserts of Canada the United states Mexico and Central america.
As humans take over more and more countryside coyotes are adapting to living in cities to find food.
In fact it is becoming more and more common to see coyotes in big cities like New york and Los angeles. Coyotes are solitary creatures and mark their territory with urine.
During the winter coyotes tend to become more social though. During the cold months they join forces creating hunting packs to find food more easily.
These hunters are nocturnal meaning they sleep during the day and hunt at night. This is why you usually only hear coyotes howling at night.
Coyotes howl to communicate their location. They also use other noises to communicate. They make huffing noises to call their pups
and they bark at others to tell them to stay away. Coyotes are not picky eaters.
They are thought typically to be only meat eaters but they are actually omnivores they eat meat and vegetation.
Coyotes are known for being pests because they will kill livestock and pets. In cities coyotes will eat pet food or garbage.
Breading season is February to March. In the spring females build dens in preparation for their young.
and each coyote baby is called a pup. How big the litter size is depends on where the coyotes Live in areas where there are a lot of coyotes there will be a smaller litter size.
In areas with fewer coyotes the litter size will be larger. Both the male and female participate in taking care of the pups.
The male will bring food to the female and the pups and help protect them from predators.
According to the National Trappers Association a female coyote will stay in her den with her pups until their eyes open.
Coyotes are usually ready to mate at 20 to 22 months old. In the wild coyotes live around 14 years.
Coyotes can also mate with dogs. The offspring are called coydogs. Coydogs don't have a very big population
because they tend to mate and have babies during the winter making it harder for the pups to survive.
Also males do not help the females take care of the pups which also lead to poor survival rates.
The taxonomy of coyotes according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information system (ITIS) is: Kingdom: Animaliaphylum: Chordataclass: Mammalia Order:
Carnivora Family: Canidae Genus and species: Canis latranssubspecies: There are 19: Coyotes are endangered not. In fact some believe that the coyote population has never been higher.
Farmers and ranchers have tried controlling the population with poisons guns and traps but the populations are still growing according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
In fact since 1861 500000 coyotes have been killed by the U s. government to hamper population growth. This is a task that cost taxpayers around $30 million according to The Educational Broadcasting Corp. Coyotes are very quick creatures.
They can run around 40 miles (64 kilometers) an hour. To distinguish the difference between coyotes
and wolves scientists looked at both species'DNA according to the Journal of Mammalogy. Males will travel up to 100 miles to find food
when their current home is overpopulated r
#Whoosh! Air Race Showcases Extreme Engineering At the Texas Motor Speedway in Forth Worth Texas 12 planes are gearing up for a high-flying aerial showdown Saturday (Sept. 6) on the sixth
leg of this year's Red Bull Air Race World Championship. Reaching speeds of up to 250 mph (400 km h) the planes'pilots are accomplished aerobatics experts from around the world.
But these pros will need more than just flying chops to navigate the challenging slalom course set up inside the speedway.
Whoever wins the race will be aided by advanced light aviation engineering according to Mike Mangold an American aerobatics pilot who won the Red Bull Air Race World Championship twice
on Fox Sports 2 (check local listings. Follow Elizabeth Palermo@techepalermo. Follow Live Science@livescience Facebook & Google+.
because the dry material makes them dry out too much he said. 5. Check the dog Though American dog ticks don't usually harbor diseases that sicken people the lone star tick can often hitchhike on a pet into the home so pet owners should check pets for the bugs as soon as they come indoors.
Remarkably prescient for a dog. I just wanted to say that all Dukes are traitors all Knights are liars
He had watched his men beaten by outlaws he considered less than dogs and without weapons. And apparently he had no more use for honor
which started out evolutionarily the size of a mini schnauzer shrunk to housecat size during the warmest part of the early Eocene.)
the golden jackal the ibex the Barbary goat the Egyptian fox the Dorcas gazelle the wild ass the striped hyena and the slender-horned gazelle
and hyenas the animals represented in Sulawesi include fruit-eating pig-deer called babirusas Celebes warty pigs and midget buffalos also known as anoas.
#Wolf Facts: Gray Wolves, Timber Wolves & Red Wolves Wolves are large carnivores the largest member of the dog or Canid family.
Wolves are common to all parts of the Northern hemisphere. They are usually shy and cautious around humans
but unlike the dog have not been domesticated at all. The most common type of wolf is the gray wolf or timber wolf.
Adult grey wolves are 4 to 6. 56 feet (120 to 200centimeters) long and weigh about 40 to 175 pounds (18 to 79 kilograms).
Just like its name the gray wolf typically has thick gray fur although pure white or all black variations exist.
Another common species the red wolf is a bit smaller. They grow to around 4. 5 to 5. 5 feet long (137.16 to 167.64 cm) and weight 50 to 80 pounds (23 to 36 kg) according to the Defenders of Wildlife organization.
The Eastern wolf also known as Great lakes wolf Eastern timber wolf Algonquin wolf or deer wolf has been deemed a distinct species from their western cousins according to a review by U s. Fish and Wildlife Service scientists.
Eastern wolves used to live in the northeastern United states but now remain only in southeastern Canada.
Wolves are found in North America Europe Asia and North africa. They tend to live in the remote wilderness though red wolves prefer to live in swamps coastal prairies and forests.
Many people think wolves only live in colder climates but wolves can live in temperatures that range from minus 70 to 120 degrees F (minus 50 to 48.8 degrees C) according to the San diego Zoo.
Wolves hunt and travel in packs. Packs don't consist of many members though. Usually a pack will have only one male and female and their young.
This usually means about 10 wolves per pack though packs as large as 30 have been recorded.
Packs have a leader known as the alpha male. Each pack guards its territory against intruders
and may even kill other wolves that are not part of their pack. Wolves are nocturnal
and will hunt for food at night and sleep during the day. Young wolves are called pups.
The leader of the pack and his female mate are usually the only ones in a pack that will have offspring.
They mate in late winter. The female has a gestation period of nine weeks and gives birth to a litter consisting of one to 11 pups.
When the pups are born they are cared for by all of the adult wolves in the pack.
Young pups start off drinking milk from their mother but around five to 10 weeks they will start eating food regurgitated from adult pack members.
At six months wolf pups become hunters and at 2 years old they are considered adults.
On average a wolf will live four to eight years in the wild. Wolves are voracious eaters.
They can eat up to 20 pounds (9 kg) of food during one meal. Since they are carnivores their meals consist of meat that they hunted.
Gray wolves usually eat large prey such as moose goats sheep and deer. Normally the pack of wolves will find the weakest
or sickest animal in a herd circle it and kill it together. Wolves are known to attack
and kill domestic animals as well as animals they find in the wild. Red wolves eat smaller prey such as rodents insects and rabbits.
They aren't afraid of going outside their carnivorous diet and will eat berries on occasion too.
Class: Mammalia (Mammals) Order: Carnivora Family: Canidae Genus: Canis Species: C. lupus (gray wolf) C. rufus (red wolf) C. lycaon (Eastern wolf) Though wolves once roamed far and wide they are very scarce today.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural resources lists red wolves as critically endangered.
According to the National parks Conservation Association there are 20 to 80 red wolves currently living in the wild.
The Eastern wolf is listed as a Species of Special Concern under Canada s Species At Risk Act (SARA)
and is protected. Gray wolves are considered not endangered. Packs of wolves don't like to stay in one place.
They are known to travel as far as 12 miles (20 kilometers) per day. Wolves have friends.
Wolves howl to communicate with other members of the pack Researchers have found that they howl more to pack members that they spend the more time with.
There are many names for gray wolves. Besides timber wolf they are called also common wolf tundra wolf Mexican wolf and plains wolf.
To help with the red wolf population wild wolves are given pups that are born in captivity. This is called fostering.
Wolves also communicate by leaving scent marking such as urine or feces on a trail. Wolves are very similar to dogs in behavior.
They love to play chew on bones but will growl or snarl when threatened d
#'Tomato Pill'May Improve Blood vessel Function in Some Patients Taking a daily supplement of lycopene a compound found in tomatoes
and other foods may improve the function of blood vessels in people with cardiovascular disease according to a new study
but experts suggest that it is best to stick with eating real fruits and vegetables for now.
Researchers found that blood-vessel function improved by 53 percent in cardiovascular disease patients who had been taking a 7-milligram lycopene supplement daily for two months compared with their blood-vessel function before they began taking lycopene.
We've shown quite clearly that lycopene improves the function of blood vessels in cardiovascular disease patients Dr. Joseph Cheriyan a consultant clinical pharmacologist
#Big cats Eat Dogs in India, Leopard Poop Reveals Leopards that roam rural India have a surprising favorite food:
dogs. The big cats even seem to prefer eating domestic dogs in areas where cows goats and other farm animals are plentiful according to a new study.
even though they were seven times more abundant than dogs in the study area. All told 87 percent of the leopards'diet was made up of domestic animals including both livestock and pets;
And free-roaming dogs might be particularly easy targets because they likely are not as heavily guarded as economically valuable livestock.
During the past two to three decades legal regulation of leopard hunting increased conservation awareness and the rising numbers of feral dogs as prey have led all to an increase in leopard numbers outside
and the sentimental value of pets like dogs Karanth and colleagues said. Their findings were published today (Sept. 11) in the journal Oryx.
while we're walking the dog in the park and sits down to get dirty idle in leaf piles
Researchers studying dogs housed in a kennel found the canines spent more time sleeping when they were played Beethoven and Bach compositions.
Warning growls are for more than the likes of dogs and bears. The tiny seahorse growls in response to stress as well.
Scavengers possibly Arctic foxes and ravens devoured Khroma's heart and lungs as well as parts of the trunk and skull between the time she was discovered in 2008
Follow Denise Chow on Twitter@denisechow. Follow Livescience@livescience Facebook & Google+.+Original article on Livescience c
A couple of the stars of the constellation Cassiopeia would serve as rough pointer stars to the great messier object and the comet and scanning with my binoculars
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In 1931 American chemist Arthur Fox accidentally released a cloud of phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) powder into his laboratory.
Some of this cloud went into Fox s mouth and that of one of his colleagues.
while Fox tasted nothing. They tasted it again with the same result. Fox went on to get others to taste PTC.
and smell scientists such as Fox approaching you and asking you to taste this#.#In 1991 American psychologist Linda Bartoshuk conducted experiments using PROP.
About one in four of us is a supertaster one in four is a non-taster (such as Fox)
Just like Fox and co s different experiences of PTC our experiences of smell (and therefore our perceptions of flavour) vary.
Trap More Wolves (Op-Ed) Zack Strong is an NRDC wildlife advocate in Bozeman Mont.
and Wildlife Service's (FWS) proposed plan to remove Endangered Species Act protections from gray wolves in most of the lower-48 United states. This was the largest number of comments ever submitted on a federal
because removing federal protections from wolves means handing their management over to state governments and their wildlife agencies.
Unfortunately many states have demonstrated hostility toward wolf conservation such as with overly aggressive hunting and trapping seasons the designation of predator zones where wolves may be killed year-round without a permit and large appropriations of taxpayer dollars doled out to anti-wolf lobbyists.
If states are allowed to take the reins now before wolves have had a chance to recover in places like the Pacific West southern Rockies
and northern New england wolves may never get the chance. Continuing the disturbing pattern of state aggression toward wolves Montana's Fish Wildlife
and Parks (FWP) Commission recently proposed several amendments to the state's wolf-management rules that would greatly expand the circumstances under
which landowners could legally kill wolves on their property. NRDC testified against and submitted a letter opposing many of the proposed changes
because they are unnecessary impossibly vague and would result in the trapping and killing of many non-threatening non-offending wolves and other animals For example one of the proposed amendments would allow landowners to kill any wolf anytime anywhere on their property without a permit
whenever the wolf constitutes a potential threat to humans or domestic animals. Yet the amendment does not define potential threat
or provide any clear examples of when a wolf is or is not acting potentially threatening.
This is a big problem because some landowners (as one sitting next to me loudly announced during a recent public hearing) consider all wolves on their property potential threats
despite for example the fact that wolves commonly travel near and among livestock while completely ignoring them.
And even if potential threat was defined clearly such a rule would be unnecessary. Montana law already allows a person to kill a wolf
if it is attacking killing or threatening to kill a person dog or livestock or to receive a 45-day kill permit for a wolf that has done already so.
Further the state pays ranchers the full market value of livestock losses when government investigators confirm
or even think it was probable that such animals were killed by a wolf. These measures already safeguard ranchers and their property;
allowing potentially threatening wolves to also be killed seems more a guise for further reducing the state's wolf population than providing needed assistance to landowners.
Another amendment would allow landowners with a kill permit to use foothold traps to kill wolves that have attacked livestock.
Such an amendment is unnecessary because kill permits already allow landowners to shoot these wolves.
Further foothold traps are non-selective and would be more likely to capture a non-threatening non-offending animal than a specific wolf.
In fact foothold traps are so indiscriminate and cause such prolonged pain and suffering that they have been banned in more than 80 countries
and banned or severely restricted in several U s. states. Allowing the use of foothold traps could also result in the capture
and killing of threatened and endangered species such as wolverines lynx and grizzly bears as well as black bears deer elk moose mountain lions eagles and yes landowners'own dogs and livestock the very animals
A third amendment would remove the requirement that FWP set quotas during the wolf hunting
and trappers killing unsustainable numbers of wolves entire packs wolves that primarily inhabit protected areas
and wolves that pose little or no threat to domestic animals (such as wolves that reside in wilderness areas
Given that this year FWP extended the season by two months increased the number of wolves one could kill from one to five and authorized the use of electronic calls (some
and sustaining healthy wolf populations have manufactured the species'newest threats. Both proposals should be dropped and conversations begun anew about new ways to conserve
As wolves. This Op-Ed was adapted from New Rules Would Allow Montana Landowners to Shoot Trap More Wolves on the NRDC blog Switchboard.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.
they also eased her worries about the hyenas she heard calling in the night. Sleep Soundly:
Dogs are known to practice some odd behaviors like sniffing each other's butts but a discovery out this year takes the prize for bizarre-yet-amazing doggie behaviors:
When pooping dogs prefer to align their bodies along the north-south axis of Earth's magnetic field.
The finding detailed in the journal Frontiers in Zoology earned a team of international scientists the Ig Nobel in Biology.
Their warning hiss sounds similar to a growling dog. Like other cobras they rear up the front third of their body
Bekoff's latest book is Why Dogs Hump and Bees Get Depressed (New world Library 2013).
For example can a dog running here and there with reckless abandon injure herself? Can a happy wolf enjoying fits of happiness overstep bounds of play
and put himself at risk by violating the rules of the game say by biting too hard with an individual who can harm him?
They are about the size of a medium-sized dog at around 23 to 27 inches (58 to 68 cm) and 17.5 to 18.75 pounds (about 8 kilograms.
and small mammals and provided abundant food resources for grizzly bears wolves and humans. More than any other species the buffalo American bison or iiniiwa in Blackfoot linked native people to the land provided food
In a somber scene-setter for the climate summit in New york this week the World meteorological organization the United Nation's meteorological office released a report showing that world carbon emissions in 2013 reached a record high and atmospheric
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