Happy Thursday, April 27, 2017: National Prime Rib Day (make mine rare!). In South Africa it’s Freedom Day, commemorating the first elections after apartheid ended, held on April 27, 1994. And reader Dom just informed me that it’s World Tapir Day, which it indeed is. There are four species! Here’s a question: why the odd coloration of both adult and baby Malayan tapirs (Tapirus indicus), and why the developmental change? Baby looks like a watermelon, adults have a black-and-white pandalike pattern:
On this day in 1667, the blind and penurious John Milton sold the rights of Paradise Lost for just £10. And on April 27, 1945, Benito Mussolini was captured trying to escape in disguise, soon to be shot and his corpse suspended upside down tied to a lamppost. Finally, three years ago Popes John XXIII and John Paul II were canonized on the same day.
Notables born on this day include Edward Gibbon (1737), Mary Wollstonecraft (1759), Ulysses S. Grant (1822), Walter Lantz (1899), Coretta Scott King (1927), and Arielle Dombasle (1953). Those who died on this day include Ferdinand Magellan (1521) and Edward R. Murrow (1965). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Andrzej and Hili appear to share a tender moment, but it’s deceptive:
A: What are you looking for?Hili: Your wallet was here somewhere.
Ja: I czego tam szukasz?
Hili: Tu gdzieś był twój portfel.
Gus took the tape test to see if he’d sit in a square on the floor made of tape, but failed. As his staff tells us:
Here’s a Gus pic. I tried the tape thing, but Gus was too suspicious and chose to sit on my books and look warily at the tape instead. Oh well.
And up in Wroclawek, Leon is cracking jokes:
Leon: Is watering place an equivalent of a cafe?
Finally, lagnaippe from reader Pyers:
Also World Tapir Day – such beautiful & endangered animals I had no idea there are four species – I always thought there were only two…
http://www.arkive.org/mountain-tapir/tapirus-pinchaque/image-G75471.html
Lots of good cat photos. In yesterday’s post we were reminded of the Chernobyl nuclear event of 1986. I forgot to mention that on NOVA last night they covered the Megatomb project that took place over the past several years to cover the site. It will likely be on again and most likely available on line. It was a fantastic project and probably little known in this country. In Europe it is probably well known.
The baby tapir pattern is like a fawn’s pattern, hiding it.
I do wonder why that Malayan tapir has the unusual black and white pattern. It does break up the body visually. May make it hard for an organism that hunts visually to understand what it’s seeing. Or maybe tapirs recognize the species visually and that pattern is the signal.
Agreed.
Jerry had recently posted an article about possible reasons for the similar color pattern of the giant panda ( https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2017/03/02/why-are-giant-pandas-colored-that-way-answer-its-complicated/ ). Perhaps it is for one of those reasons.
“three years ago Popes John XXIII and John Paul II were canonized on the same day.”
The canon still includes the chief prosecutor of Galileo, Robert Bellarmine.
Forgive the pun, but this is a ‘loose canon’.