TIGER, TIGER, BURNING BRIGHT – IN THE FORESTS OF RUSSIA?

By, J.E. Rogers

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame they fearful symmetry?

William Blake

Is it too much to ask what kind of divine being could have ever conceived of or created such a magnificent creature? It’s enough to see one, to feel their power and experience their beauty and grace.

The tiger is one of the largest of all the ‘big cats,’ and the only one with strips. There are some subspecies of tiger, but the one I would like to focus on this week is the Amur Tiger, also known as the Siberian Tiger.

 

Photo credit: Monka Betley

The Amur Tiger can weigh anywhere between 360 to 660 pounds, and can grow up to ten feet in length. Hunting mainly at night, this stalk-ambush predator is a powerful carnivore capable of bringing down large prey. Although its principal prey is wild pigs and deer, it has been known to kill rhinos and small elephants.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, the tiger population has plummeted over the last century by 95%. The Amur Tiger is now considered critically endangered. Primary threats to their survival include poaching and habitat loss from logging and general human development. Hunters poach them for their body parts, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine.

The Amur Tiger inhabits the wild forests of far eastern Russia and China where they can survive temperatures as low as forty degrees below freezing. Their population in this area of the world represents the largest unfragmented group of tigers on the globe. At present, the population of tigers is less than 600 in the wild, but this is not their lowest point. In the 1940s, tigers were hunted to the brink of extinction with only forty adults remaining. Fortunately, the Amur Tiger was saved by the Russian government. Russia became the first country to grant the tiger full protection.

Map source: World Wildlife Federation

There’s more to it than just protecting the tiger by the Russian government. There is a population of people that depend on the forests of Russia to provide them with a meager living. The pine tree forests in which the tigers live produce a valuable commodity—the pine nut. People in these remote areas, gather the pine nuts to sell for shipment abroad. So fewer trees resulting from logging is not just a problem affecting the survival of the Amur Tiger, it’s a problem affecting human beings. Human effect on wildlife via abuse of the environment is not an unusual story, but one that we always hear about. We need to protect our environment for the good of all animals, including humans.

Photo credit: Kaitlyn R – (National Geographic-‘Your Shot’

As of this date, there is growing concern for the tiger populations, especially the Amur Tiger (Siberian Tiger). To read more about this issue and the ongoing efforts to protect this species, go to the following website:

http://www.speciesconservation.org/case-studies-projects/amur-tiger/412

Photo credit: www.tigers-world.com

 It’s always good to hear from David Attenborough so let’s watch and listen.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Amur Tiger, visit the following websites:

http://www.theanimalspot.com/amurtiger.htm

http://www.animalfactguide.com/animal-facts/siberian-tiger/

http://www.arkive.org/tiger/panthera-tigris/image-G19437.html

http://www.tigers-world.com/siberian-tiger/

Let’s hope that the Amur Tiger continues to survive in the wild.

Tiger, tiger, burning bright

In the forest of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame they fearful symmetry?

William Blake

Thank you for visiting. Since I will be away next week, I do hope to see you again in two weeks’ time when we’ll look at another unusual animal.

Enjoy!

Jeanne E. Rogers, Author

The Sword of Demelza, The Gift of Sunderland, and

One Hot Mess, a Child’s Environmental Fable

Award Winning Middle-Grade Fantasy, Where Endangered Animal Heroes Roam the Pages!

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON!

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON!

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON!

THE PLURAL OF OCTOPUS—NOW I’M CONFUSED!

By, J.E. Rogers

This week I decided to write about an interesting animal that fascinates me. They have a lot of arms, they live fairly short lives, they come in large and small sizes, and the pluralization of their name has been the cause of ongoing arguments. Let’s take a look at the octopus.

There are many species of Octopus, and they vary in size from twelve to thirty-six inches. However, there are species much smaller, and the Giant Pacific Octopus is much larger. The record Giant Pacific Octopus was thirty feet across and weighed six hundred pounds. According to this video, that’s extreme. I agree.

Let’s review a few facts. First, the octopus is a cephalopod. They’re in the same family with squids, cuttlefish, and the nautilus. Second, they have arms, not tentacles. Third, and strangest fact of all, octopuses have three hearts. Two of them are used to pump blood to their lungs, and the third pumps to the rest of the body. Fourth, they can live as briefly as six months or as long as five years. Finally, the octopus is very intelligent and is believed to be the smartest of all invertebrates, having an uncanny ability to solve problems. For example, in this video, you’ll see an octopus open a jar to get at its meal. What a clever guy!

Photo credit: sheddaqurium.org

There is a very poisonous octopus that lives in, wait for it—Australia! That’s probably not a surprise since there are a lot of animals that can kill you and a lot of those animals live on the continent of Australia. At birth, the Blue-ringed Octopus is the size of a pea and grows to about the size of a golf ball. Seems incongruous that something so small could be so poisonous. They are docile, but will strike if provoked. You don’t want to aggravate this little guy because the Blue-ringed Octopus’s neurotoxin (poison) is 10,000 times more potent than cyanide and it can kill twenty-six adults at once. Okay, I don’t know about you, but I’m not swimming off the coast of Australia. 

To read more about the Blue-Ringed Octopus, visit this site:

http://everythingoctopus.blogspot.com/2008/12/species-blue-ringed-octopus.html

A recently discovered member of the octopus family is the kissing octopus, which is called the Larger Pacific Striped Octopus. He’s very attractive, as you can see from the below picture, but in my opinion, he’s not pretty enough to kiss. They are called the Kissing Octopus because they mate with an embrace, their beaks and suckers pressed together. This is unusual behavior for any other octopus species. If you’d like to learn more about this octopus, to this site: http://www.livescience.com/27674-kissing-octopus-species-unveiled.html

Larger Pacific Striped Octopus

Photo credit: Richard Ross

So here’s why I’m confused about the plural form of the word octopus. You might ask, is it octopi, octopuses, or octopodes. Ummm… It bothered me too, so I offer the following video for you from Merriam-Webster. I think it will help to settle this particular conundrum.

http://www.wimp.com/octopusplural/

To learn more about octopuses, visit the following sites:

http://www.animalfactguide.com/animal-facts/common-octopus/

http://www.sheddaquarium.org/Octopuses/

http://www.arkive.org/common-octopus/octopus-vulgaris/

I’ll leave you with this one creepy crawler octopus. If you are among my readers who are a bit squeamish about the octopus, you might not want to watch this video. In it, you’ll see an octopus that comes out of the water to hunt. According to Julian Finn, (senior curator of marine invertebrates at the Museum Victoria in Australia) who spoke with Scientific American, “Crawling along out of water is not uncommon for species of octopus that live in the intertidal or near shore… many octopus species emerge to hunt in the pools of water left behind by the receding tide… Octopuses often carry prey items when foraging, returning to their lairs to consume them. It is possible that the octopus in the video was either finished consuming the contents of the crab or was too tired to continue carrying it on land.”

Thank you for stopping by and please come back next week.

Enjoy!

Jeanne E. Rogers, Author

The Sword of Demelza, The Gift of Sunderland, and

One Hot Mess, a Child’s Environmental Fable

Award Winning Middle-Grade Fantasy, Where Endangered Animal Heroes Roam the Pages!

 

Visit my bookshop to purchase a signed copy. 

Visit my bookshop to purchase a signed copy. 

Visit my bookshop to purchase a signed copy.