The Daily News reports an encounter of the felid kind:
On Halloween, two-year-old Marshall Shaffer wore his orange and black costume to the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, Wash. There, he quickly befriended Kali, a 7-month-old Sumatran tiger.
There’s a video (below) and several photos (I give one, and there are more at the paper’s site).
I’m not sure whether that tiger wants amusement or noms!
And a bonus tweet from George Takei, who notes, “A veterinary clinic after my own heart”:
I’m not sure whether that tiger wants amusement or noms!
Amusement, then noms. At least that’s my experience when some animals encounter other, less powerful animals.
With our cats those are not not mutually exclusive activities.
I’ve known some New Yorkers who pronounce “kitten” as “kiddin”.
Reminds me of this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT7_CtjEVFU
There, the search for noms was quite apparent. 😉
I remember the snow leopard having a bead on my toddler at the Torono Zoo. We walked around the enclosure – fence and moat, but no glass- and the leopard followed us the whole way.
That must have given you a few goosebumps, eh?
Most definitely. My child was in a stroller and all the other visitors were aware, too, that my son was the object of the leopard’s
drool. Before that i had been saying “look at the nice kitty…”
There is a zoo in western Montana that has several mountain lions. One of the cats was nonchalant about the visitors until it saw a child walking in front of his mother. The mountain lion stopped grooming itself, and slowly tracked its head with the child’s movements.
I’m not sure if the lady knew that her offspring was being perceived as prey.
I remember working in the Rubh al’Khalid (“Empty Quarter”) Desert one night (you don’t work by day if you can possibly avoid it!) when my colleague pointed out to me a large spider – a “camel spider”, I think – which was stalking me, and obviously thinking of me as “dinner”.
Very uncomfortable feeling. It makes you appreciate what it’s like to be a mouse when all those owls are about.
Useless information item 437 : spiders and scorpions fluoresce under UV light. When the toilet facilities consist of a roll of tissue and a trowel, adding a battery-powered UV counterfeit bank note detector becomes … an item of happiness.
“spiders and scorpions fluoresce under UV light.”
Really? I’m gonna have to get me a portable black light. Do all species do this? If so, it seems like an evolutionary disadvantage. I know bees can see UV so I imagine other insects can too. Wouldn’t that make it harder for spiders to catch them?
“Fluoresce under UV” means they emit visible light when illuminated by UV. Whether their prey can see UV is irrelevant to that.
The fluorescence is pretty much invisible under natural sunlight, and since their prey don’t carry UV flashlights to ward off nighttime predators, it’s hard to see how fluorescence under artificial light would confer a selective disadvantage in the wild.
By night, there are no significant natural sources of UV light. By day, the sun’s visible and IR output is vastly greater than it’s UV output. So I suspect that fluorescence would be pretty selectively neutral.
Do all chelicates (I really should check the spelling on that) fluoresce? I honestly don’t know, If you know a bed with a good infestation of bed “bugs” (I think mites, and therefore chelicates), and have a UV lamp, then you can test that ; when I’ve looked myself, I’ve never seen fluorescing bed bugs. Then again, I’m not sure if I’ve ever slept in a bed with bed bugs.
I find outhouses in Canada terrifying. I would seriously find another way to go the bathroom under those conditions!
You had an out house? Luxury! We used to dream of an outhouse …
#insert Four-Yorkshiremen.txt
There was a bear in the Russian woods – on the next rig along from mine, 30-odd km away – which fell into the “facilities”. Which consisted of a pit and a plank. Some safety-conscious soul had added a length of rope, as the ground was very muddy around about.
They shot the bear after a day or so. People were getting strained.
Welcome to the oilfield.
I’d take the pit & plank over the outhouse any day because of scary critters in the outhouse with you!
it’s scray to imagine how she would rip that sweet child apart if there was no glass.
I recall that around 1960 a big cat (lion, I think) in the Washington DC zoo reached out and decapitated a kid.
It was in 1958.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19580517&id=6A1XAAAAIBAJ&sjid=HkMNAAAAIBAJ&pg=4340,848493
Not too far off – I was 8 at the time. I guess I particularly remember that because I had been to that zoo a number of times as a pre-schooler.
I wonder if an adult tiger would kill you if you step into a cage with a costume.
No, you can fool tigers into thinking you are a tiger by wearing anything tiger like. I’m sure this is what Shania Twain (but with leopards) had in mind when she dressed up in a leopard costume.
Please don’t try this!
Professor Ceiling Cat needs Instagram. Sooooo many pretty cats to be found on there, including mine! 🙂
I was at a zoo once admiring the big cats when I saw one get REALLY excited about a little girl walking by. I imagine her small size must have triggered some kind of noms button in the brain.
Well this post certainly gives me paws! I think a Sophisticated Theologion™ would say it doesn’t matter whether the boy is a real cat; it’s all in whether you felid. Sorry! I should keep the puns down to one purr posted comment, and here I’ve posted fur – at least!
Stop! Any more of this and we won’t take it lion down!
Ewwwww
A friend of mine was mauled (not ‘badly’ though that is relative of course) by two lions at a zoo where he worked (there was miscommunication over which connecting gates were closed and where the lions were). After a few weeks off he went back to work and went to see the lions which were reclining in the sun ignoring the groups of chattering people watching them. He claims both lions stood up immediately, eyes fixed on him, and walked parallel to the observation path, following his progress with intense interest. Drooling slightly I would imagine.
Apparently it is the body which convinces the tiger that the kid is a tiger, not the head. Or else this is the tiger at school who is willing to play with the weird looking new kid.
It does look a bit more playful as opposed to full “rend” mode in the video. It looks like it’s bouncing while running as opposed to a more purposeful walk*.
I have no doubt, though, that playing may convert to rending if child was physically present! And play is non-lethal hunting.
* Completely unscientific opinion based on many years of ownership by smaller felines.