In Issaquah, WA, this week, a herd of weed-eating goats made a great escape from their enclosure. Accompanied by their frantic livestock guardian dog – we’re picturing him as the fish in ‘Cat in the Hat’ – they had a grand run in the city streets and manicured lawns.
Far-East Siberia is the land where the woolly mammoth once roamed. The winter landscape is starkly beautiful — and fatal. Temperatures can plummet to -94 degrees Fahrenheit (-70 Celsius).
The Yakutian horse is a native to this Siberian Sakha Republic (or Yakutia) region. This rare and special horse has developed to survive in this extreme climate and has the ability to locate and graze on vegetation that is under deep snow cover. However, its special adaptations go beyond locating food and include unique hormonal responses involved in the regulation of thermogenic requirement and the production of anti-freezing compounds.
A study, conducted by an international team of researchers led by Dr. Ludovic Orlando from the Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, found that these traits took only 800 years to develop. From an evolutionary standpoint, that’s overnight, and it is one of the fastest examples of adaptation within mammals. The adaptive process involved changes in the expression of a variety of genes, including some also selected in human Siberian groups and even the extinct woolly mammoth.
See more about these amazing horses:
It was a good week for black cats in tough situations.
In Oklahoma, a beloved family pet, a beautiful black cat named Bean, was thought to be lost in an apartment fire. The entire building burned to the ground, with Bean trapped inside. But, 24 hours later, she was found in the rubble of the destroyed building, alive and well!
Meanwhile, in California, another lovely black cat was spotted trapped in the center divider of the very busy and dangerous 91 freeway. Motorists had been calling animal control for days to let them know of the cat’s plight, but officers had no luck finding her. Finally, three days after the cat was first spotted, animal control officers finally found and safely caught the cat, now named Vanity. We hope Vanity finds a safe, loving, indoor, forever home soon!!
