I believe it is a pygmy jerboa, right Dune?

It could be a Kangaroo Rat too(North America).



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerboa(Asia and Northern Africa).

---

The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Good morning girls and guys.

Why does everybody believe being a biologist makes you an expert on zoology and behavioural biology? :) For the record my area of expertise is microbiology and molecular biology. What I know about other subjects is what remains of the lectures I heard some 17 years past and survived the post-exam memory formatting. :)

So Angela having observed the critters for the past years is much more an expert on raccoons than your average scientist - unless you find a zoologist who just did his thesis on raccoons ;)

Evolutionary biology is also debatable - we tend to think higher adaptability enhances species survival success, but nobody has been around long enough to prove it.

I had a quick scout for raccoon papers but only found parasite related ones - and an article on 'Feral Wallabys in the Peak District' Anybody run into a kangaroo in the Buxton region recently? :)

---

Carola
-------
I'm multilingual - I can misunderstand people in several languages!

Scientists can argue about almost anything! ;)

---

Carola
-------
I'm multilingual - I can misunderstand people in several languages!

Evolutionary biology is also debatable - we tend to think higher adaptability enhances species survival success, but nobody has been around long enough to prove it.

I spent a year with the OU studying the Galapagos finches (ala Darwin) seemed pretty conclusive to me !

Evolution has another driving force. Natural Disaster can and has eliminated species, or individual specimens that were well adapted to their envionment. Sometimes for instance a top buck with some small adaptation might be killed before the genes could be passed on. What survives disasters may not have been the most adapted, but the process continues. Adaptation is really a mutation that works.

Steve

---

Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
GPUUG Website

Evolutionary biology is also debatable - we tend to think higher adaptability enhances species survival success, but nobody has been around long enough to prove it.

I spent a year with the OU studying the Galapagos finches (ala Darwin) seemed pretty conclusive to me !

Evolution has another driving force. Natural Disaster can and has eliminated species, or individual specimens that were well adapted to their envionment. Sometimes for instance a top buck with some small adaptation might be killed before the genes could be passed on. What survives disasters may not have been the most adapted, but the process continues. Adaptation is really a mutation that works.

Steve

And except for the fork that includes Birds, Dinosaurs are all extinct, As to why? That may a be real complicated answer, As in some want simple answers and sometimes there isn't any simple answer to be had.

I mean for a long time It was assumed that there is no Soft Dinosaur Tissue, Turns out the Bones of the larger ones shielded some as this was only discovered recently, Such as was in a T-Rex bone.

Paleontologists who have analyzed the tissues, visible through their microscopes and squeezable with their tweezers, insist that something is fundamentally wrong with laboratory data on biochemical decay rates.2 In turn, biochemists are confident that their repeatable experiments show that the soft tissues should not be there after all this time. To try to get around the hard facts of soft tissues, some scientists have even proposed that the blood vessels and red blood cells in question were bacterial slime. This was thoroughly refuted, however, by research showing that the dinosaur tissue contains a collagen protein that bacteria do not produce.3

@ Miep: I said possibly, Since I didn't know which specialty You were involved in.

---

The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

@ Miep: I said possibly, Since I didn't know which specialty You were involved in.

:) No, that's perfectly ok, I've got a very broad and good foundation in almost anything connected to biology (and basic Physics, Chemistry, Medcine and Maths on top...). So chances are I know at least something, even if I'm no expert. :)

---

Carola
-------
I'm multilingual - I can misunderstand people in several languages!

@ Miep: I said possibly, Since I didn't know which specialty You were involved in.

:) No, that's perfectly ok, I've got a very broad and good foundation in almost anything connected to biology (and basic Physics, Chemistry, Medcine and Maths on top...). So chances are I know at least something, even if I'm no expert. :)

Understood, Me I have what I think is a fairly good grounding in computers, About 30 years worth, For what It's worth at least. And yeah I'm no expert either.

The area I mentioned would maybe include Paleo Biology.

---

The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I believe it is a pygmy jerboa, right Dune?

To go back in time.... I don't know what it is! I just thought he was cute and posted him for Angela's Critter Cafe. He is a critter after all.

EDIT to post that I found this video HERE. He's a cute little guy!

---

Sorry, didn't know it would be that big. :-)

OK, try again here... Hey ES99

That looks like little Gandalf's brothers and sisters!

We've been out planning what to get for the kitty when she moves in. Our budget is very small though, so i think her toys will just be a bit of cork on a piece of elastic!

---

Reality Internet Personality

@ Miep: I said possibly, Since I didn't know which specialty You were involved in.

:) No, that's perfectly ok, I've got a very broad and good foundation in almost anything connected to biology (and basic Physics, Chemistry, Medcine and Maths on top...). So chances are I know at least something, even if I'm no expert. :)

I know where to come with my biology questions then. I dropped biology as soon as I could (age 13) but then discovered as a science teacher I have to teach it!

I am usually a page ahead of the kids in the text book and keep having to stick my head into the classroom next door and check things with the other teachers.

---

Reality Internet Personality

We've been out planning what to get for the kitty when she moves in. Our budget is very small though, so i think her toys will just be a bit of cork on a piece of elastic!

We've spread some newspaper out under their litterboxes and right now I'm hearing at least one of them tearing it to shreds! Cats are easily amused and we have found they love playing in the boxes their food came in. (we get the 24 can packs.) They also love playing laser pointer tag, they chase that little red dot all over the house. We have also gotten them some springs. They are about an inch in diameter and very weak, about two inches long. Other than that they have their little toy mice they love too. Of course they also like shoestrings or plain string or yarn. Small soft balls are fun for them too.

---

PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

We've been out planning what to get for the kitty when she moves in. Our budget is very small though, so i think her toys will just be a bit of cork on a piece of elastic!

We've spread some newspaper out under their litterboxes and right now I'm hearing at least one of them tearing it to shreds! Cats are easily amused and we have found they love playing in the boxes their food came in. (we get the 24 can packs.) They also love playing laser pointer tag, they chase that little red dot all over the house. We have also gotten them some springs. They are about an inch in diameter and very weak, about two inches long. Other than that they have their little toy mice they love too. Of course they also like shoestrings or plain string or yarn. Small soft balls are fun for them too.

I've got the small White or Grey mice, plus one slightly squashed White Prototype Mouse with a bead inside It, Grace loves them, To Death, But their small enough to get under the furniture and the sofa being It has a steel frame is very hard to get stuff out from under It, So bigger toy balls work better here, Mostly.

---

The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

We've been out planning what to get for the kitty when she moves in. Our budget is very small though, so i think her toys will just be a bit of cork on a piece of elastic!

Just buy her a bag of catnip. She'll love you forever!

But I've heard that kittens don't really like catnip. Perhaps they aren't old enough to really enjoy a little nip every now and then.

---

I know where to come with my biology questions then. I dropped biology as soon as I could (age 13) but then discovered as a science teacher I have to teach it!

I am usually a page ahead of the kids in the text book and keep having to stick my head into the classroom next door and check things with the other teachers.

lol - oh dear :)
Sure, any time.

---

Carola
-------
I'm multilingual - I can misunderstand people in several languages!

The springs we got them tend to disappear a lot. We look all over the house, under furniture, everywhere but they are not to be found. Then a day or so later they are back. No idea where the cats hide them. We do find them stuck to the lining under the couch a lot though. It's been torn up and the springs get caught in the threads and pieces of the lining. The cats can't get them loose.

We had a deep shag carpet at one time but took it up and laid tile flooring. The doors are cut for the carpet so now have about an inch gap at the bottom. When I go to bed the cats and I play a game of mouse, batting it back and forth under the door. If I don't have one in my room they go find one and knock it under to me. Most mornings when I wake up there are two or three toy mice laying around near the door on my side where the cats didn't want to quit playing.

---

PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

The springs we got them tend to disappear a lot. We look all over the house, under furniture, everywhere but they are not to be found. Then a day or so later they are back. No idea where the cats hide them. We do find them stuck to the lining under the couch a lot though. It's been torn up and the springs get caught in the threads and pieces of the lining. The cats can't get them loose.

We had a deep shag carpet at one time but took it up and laid tile flooring. The doors are cut for the carpet so now have about an inch gap at the bottom. When I go to bed the cats and I play a game of mouse, batting it back and forth under the door. If I don't have one in my room they go find one and knock it under to me. Most mornings when I wake up there are two or three toy mice laying around near the door on my side where the cats didn't want to quit playing.

Oh yeah...

---

The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

They make a scratch pad out of cardboard and we usually dump a bit of catnip down in the grooves. Our cats love it.

Oh, in case anyone is wondering, when my sister moved here thirty plus years ago, there was a colony of stray cats living in a small patch of woods behind the house. She started feeding them and now they are everywhere. We try to get as many as we can in the house and once tamed get them spayed or neutered and find them good homes. Those we can't find homes for we keep. We have ~20 running around here in the house now. We also have about that many still living outside in the same patch of woods.

---

PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

They make a scratch pad out of cardboard and we usually dump a bit of catnip down in the grooves. Our cats love it.

That sounds like a good idea. I might try that.

---

Reality Internet Personality

Everybody's talking about their cats, and I realized I've never introduced my feline friend to the 'Critter Cafe'.
Her name is Baby, and she's about 6 years old. I inherited her from my son and his family.
When they moved to their present apartment 5 years ago, it was 'no pets allowed'. When in doubt, ask mom, 'eh?

Here's a mug shot I snapped today.

---

...
BETTER THE WORLD ~ PAY IT FORWARD
...