Archive for July, 2011
A Spying Bird
Birds in general and parrots in particular are usually considered symbols of spying and transmitting information. There are some English idioms referring to birds, such as “A little birdy told me so”, or “I’m watching you like a hawk.” We’ve all heard these in movies for sure. But this symbol of surveillance associated to birds has been used by numerous cultures, since Biblical times if we consider the Book of Ecclesiastes 10:20: “Do not revile the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich in your bedroom, because a bird of the air may carry your words, and a bird on the wing may report what you say.”
In popular culture, parrots have been largely used as storytellers. In most stories, parrots were used to reveal secrets about certain characters. Parrots’ use as revealers of secrets was widely spread in the Far East. There was such a story in China, referring to a talking parrot that warned a man who was deceived by his wife. In fact, the parrot was used there as a warning symbol for women to make them be faithful towards their husbands. There is a legend of a pearl merchant living in the Kiangsi province, who was almost ruined by his unfaithful wife and her malicious intrigues. A parrot warned this man about his wife’s unfaithfulness, and thus his misfortune was avoided.
There is a book entitled “Understanding Surveillance Technologies” which has a chapter dedicated to spying animals. Apparently, animals have been used as surveillance methods because they are very cooperative, some of them can fly, they have more acute senses than humans, and so on. Birds like cockatoos have actually been used as alarms that can be heard from a long distance. They were also quite useful in case of intruders. Another example in this respect is the carrier pigeon. This kind of bird was used for sending messages. Despite the fact that carrier pigeons were usually known for delivering messages, they had a more somehow interesting role: that of spying on people. Carrier pigeons are generally associated with the image of carrying Romantic messages between two lovers. But the reality is, they had a more sinister usage as well.
Read the rest of this entry »
What Do Dogs Dream About ?
What do dogs dream about? Well, before answering this question one must ask himself, “Do dogs dream?”. Hugo ‘barks’, “Yes”!, they do. Hugo holds expertise in dog behavior issues and ardently believes that dogs have the ability to dream just like human beings.
A starry night, four dogs sitting under the sky….
It was getting dark and four of us were sitting on the lawn, watching the pedestrians on the sidewalk dodging each other and the vehicles, squealing and groaning at one another while they fainted at each other to find a way through traffic.
Tommy was fidgeting all evening and the rest of us were waiting for him to spit out whatever was bothering him. Finally, after grappling with the problem to his heart’s content, he stopped facing it all alone and put forth a question to all of us. “Do dogs dream?” Well, we knew Tommy was not a smart dog, so the question took us all by surprise; to which Bruno retorted with, “Can pigs fly?”
For the next five minutes we, including Tommy, with the burden of the problem shared and renewed zest, tried to struggle with the question. However, Hugo’s appearance saved us from ruining the rest of the evening. He faced the problem like a man does, i.e. in his stride, ‘What do dogs dream about’, and his eyes took a dreamy look.
He stood still like a statue and exclaimed from the bottom of his heart, “Yes!”. He went on to claim, “It is not only me, even my man believes that dogs dream in their sleep, and in my shoes, each one of you will swear by this fact”. This completely floored us, and we waited expectantly for him to elaborate.
Our experience has taught us not to strike down Hugo especially, if his explanation is related to dog behavior. We were not going to argue with him, when he was about to spin some yarn about this strange thing which all of us were eager to listen. We also thought he would say something profound that would change our views about our fellow canines. We waited, and Hugo continued with, “My firm opinion is that dogs can dream, read and sing”. To prevent him from getting off-track, I interrupted with, “Hugo, all four of us are waiting for you to say something about, what do dogs dream about?”. Read the rest of this entry »
Evolution of the Dog
Dogs are regarded to be one of the oldest friends of men and they have been revered in many civilizations. Right from Egyptians to Greeks, everywhere dogs have been held with high regards for their faithfulness and intelligence. The Greek philosopher Socrates described his dog as a “true philosopher”. The evolution of dogs is a subject of great research amongst zoologists. Over the course of thousands of years, dogs have evolved in many forms and they have spread all across the world. Being present in almost all major civilizations, they have been transferred to all parts of the world, leading to tremendous number of breeds. Numerous kinds of dogs have been crossed to produce different dogs, with varied characteristics.
History and Evolution of Dogs
A large number of studies by different scientists have proved it that modern day dogs are descendants of wolves. It is said that tens of thousands of years ago, the domestication of wolves was an integral part of many civilizations in East Asia. In fact, nowadays, keeping wolves as pets is a hobby for many animal lovers. Wolves were useful for human establishments because they provided food, fur and security for crops from birds and other animals. Even some breeds of wolves were easy to interact with humans over the course of years. Some other prominent reasons in support of the evolution of dogs from wolves is that wolves share same habitats and hunting habits like dogs. It is said the cross breeding of different types of wolves led to more domesticated species of wolves, who were tolerant and social enough to stay in close proximity with humans.
Some possibly reasons for domestication of wolves have been given by archaeologists and animal scientists. As per their views, thousands of years ago, fierce wolves who posed threats for human communities were killed for security reasons. However, their cubs or small ones were not killed and they were allowed to grow up within the community. The cubs naturally grew up to be more domesticated and less violent. By living in communities of people as well as with other wolves, many species of wolves were domesticated. This is given as a major reason for evolution of dogs from different breeds of wolves.
Read the rest of this entry »