Peacocks/Peafowl 101 Quick

Range: Common/blue/Indian peafowl: Forests of India (where they are the national bird) & Sri Lanka. 

Green/Java peafowl: Forests of Southeast Asia. Congo peafowl: Rain forests of Africa.
Roosting in low branches.

Diet: Omnivorous ground-feeders: berries, seeds, small insects, reptiles and mammals

Size: Male body length: 3-4 feet. Female body length: 2.5-3.5 feet.

Facts:

• The correct overall species name is "peafowl," which refers  to both males ("peacocks") and females ("peahens.") Baby peafowl are called "peachicks." 
• A group of peafowl is referred to as a "party" or "pride."
• A peacocks long tail, the train, often reaches to be 5 feet in length. With body length and train length combined, peacocks are known as one of the largest flying birds.
• There are 3 species of peafowl. The common species is known as the Blue or Indian peafowl, and the Green or Java species. The lesser known of the three is the Congo.
• Blue peafowl are not unusual to see in captivity as peafowl as humans have kept them for thousands of years, as both ornamental pieces and for meat. Fortunately for peafowl, once birds such as turkeys came in, they were no longer thought of as food. Having been bred by humans for so long, you can now see a menagerie of white and pied peafowl.

Pied peacock

White peacock

Eurasian Eagle Owls

Nicademous "Nicky", male Eurasian Eagle Owl

The Eurasian Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo) is one of the largest species of owl in the world. If you live in Eurasia and your small child suddenly goes missing during the quiet dusk to dawn, check the skies for something with a 5-6 foot wingspan. Its kidnapper might just be this bird. (I’m kidding, I’m kidding.) Now, with an opening caption like that, you’re probably really eager to learn about these exciting Strigiformes.

Scientific Classification

Class: Aves

Order: Strigiformes 

Family: Strigidae 

Genus: Bubo

Species: B. bubo

Description
  Occasionally referred to as the world’s largest owl, however it is usually lighter than the Blakiston’s Fish Owl and shorter than the Great Grey Owl. The Eurasian Eagle Owl has a length of about 24 to 30 inches, and a weight of 3 to 9 pounds, females being on the larger side. Males have ear tufts that are more upright than females, who appear to have giant eyebrows that don’t fit on their head. As said before, they have a 5-6 foot wingspan.

Habitat/Range
  Eagle Owls are distributed through Europe and Asia, the Middle East, and a small bit of North Africa. They occupy a variety of habitats, from forests to desert-like areas. Conversation status varies, there is little concern.

Behavior
  Like most owls, the Eurasian Eagle Owl is mostly nocturnal. Their calls often sound like ooh-hu, males putting more emphasis on the first syllable and females doing a more girly, high pitched uh-Hu! I’m almost certain you quietly made those noises to yourself. Don’t deny it.

  Eagle Owls are birds that will try to get the grubby talons of their stocky body on many things to eat, from shrews to fox and small deer. They will take prey from ground or in flight, mainly eating mammals but will also eat birds, reptiles and amphibians.

Extremely Exciting Facts that will make you squeal with Excitement:

• Can live up to 20 years in the wild, and up to 60 years in captivity.
• Nest in ledges and rock crevices on cliffs, laying 1-4 eggs.
• They probably have the easiest and most pathetic scientific name, Bubo bubo.

Cat Communication

Learning to read animal body language is perhaps the most beneficial, greatest key to understanding animals and their feelings.

Ears
Upward: relaxed, happy, alert
Downward: irritable, defensive (Watch out!)
Twitching: nervous, agitated (constant twitching may be a sign of a medical problem)
Swiveling: attentive listening

Eyes
Pupils slit: content, confident
Pupils dilated: frightened (somewhat dilated), angry (fully dilated)
Slow blink: affectionate, trusting (doing this back shows you are no threat to the cat)


Tail
Fluffy: aggressive, feeling threatened (often done with back arched, the “Halloween cat” is done to make themselves appear more intimidating)
Erect: friendly (fully erect: friendly & confident, erect with tip down: friendly but unsure)
Between legs: nervous
Low: aggression (tip down: potentially aggressive, tip up: defensive aggression)
Out: unsure or friendly
Wagging: very aggressive—the more rapid the wagging, the more aggressive the cat.

Body
Lying on back, purring: very content, relaxed
Back arched, fur upright: aggressive, frightened or angry
Back arched, fur flat: welcoming touch
Slinking down or away from pets: not wanting touch


Vocalizations
Meow: “attention getting device”, greeting, sign of desire
Purr: contentment
Growls, hisses: aggressive, frightened, angry
Yowl, loud, lengthened meow: distressed

Cat Claws & Declawing

  Cats have claws as they are essential for defense, balance & grasp. Some people are for declawing and consider having it done to prevent undesired scratching, some people see declawing as a cruelly "painful surgery" with a "painful recovery period."

What is declawing?
  Commonly going by declawing, a more correct term would be phalangectomy, (excision of the toe bone), as the procedure more than a permanent nail trim. To prevent the nail from growing back,  the last bone of the toe is amputated. Though there are different techniques, every one involves this excision. According to the Humane Society of the United States, "If preformed on a human being, declawing would be like cutting off each finger at the last knuckle."

Regulations
  As said before, different opinions fly upon declawing. Though legal in North America, there are locations where the act is strongly restricted or prohibited. Under Local Animal Abuse Laws in many European countries, the practice is forbidden unless deemed medically beneficial for the animal, while in some like Germany & Switzerland, it is entirely outlawed.

Complications 
After the declawing procedure, physical/medical complications have been reported and a number of behavioral problems are said to have been experienced. It is not unusual for surgeries to bring anxiety to an animal.
  Claws are a cat's natural line of defense. With little ways of defense, animals are more timid and anxious, which can lead to aggression. Aggressive cats that are declawed may not have the ability to scratch, but they can still bite-- and a bite is often more severe than a scratch.

There are other ways!
 Scratching is natural cat behavior: it's done for conditioning the claws, marking territory and stretching. To lessen undesired scratching, you can partake in ways such as providing & encouraging the use of scratching posts and other appropriate materials, keeping nails trimmed or using claw caps such as Soft Paws.

If you wish to learn more on the subject and help prevent declawing, please visit The Paw Project at www.pawproject.org.
  

Aves (Birds) & Aviculture

Birds
  Most people have seen a bird, know that they’re called “birds”, and think that they pretty much just fly, make weird as hell noises, lay eggs & and poop a lot. Do they truly know what birds are? No. No they don’t. As a certified aviculturist, allow me to take your hand and educate you. By the time I’m done, you’ll practically be soaring… unless you’re more of a ratite or Spheniscidae person.
  “By definition, a bird is a "warm blooded, egg laying vertebrate, characterized by having feathers and forelimbs modified as wings."” Then, add this to the fact that they have adaptations to flight such as hollow bones & specialized organs, and basically you’ve eliminated most other animals from bird characteristics. While birds have these adaptations to flight, not all birds can fly. Let’s look at the ratite and spheniscidae (penguin) family. Though ratites cannot fly, they have very strong, powerful legs for fast running on land. While penguins cannot fly, they can swim very well and have adaptations to this: webbed feet, and supposedly having vision that’s better underwater than on land.
  Look at a bird’s feet and it will most likely be scaled, as birds share many characteristics with reptiles. Ask a paleontologist and they’ll probably say birds are dinosaurs. Are you on the edge of your chair, bursting with excitement at what I’ll say next . . . ? Technically, birds are REPTILES. But there’s so much information behind that that’s all so mind-boggling that I’ll leave the bird-to-dinosaur/reptile relationship at that.

Aviculture
  Being a broad term, the common definition of aviculture is “the keeping of, caring for, or propagation of birds in captivity.” Aviculturists can be people from someone with a pet bird at home or chicken farmers, to raptor trainers and zookeepers. When it all comes down to it, they’re involved with birds.
  The term aviculture is fairly new, so expect only bird nerds to be familiar with it. However, the practices of it are not at all new. Birds have been kept in captivity for thousands of years. Archaeologists have determined there were Native American tribes that kept parrots dating back to 300 AD and supposedly in 2000 BC the domestication of chickens began from wild jungle fowl for cockfighting entertainment. Peafowl have been described as “the pets of royalty”, having belonged to pharaohs of Egypt and it once being considered a crime to kill one.
  Falconry/training with birds or prey has been practiced for centuries in many countries around the world, and it still remains a common hobby within bird enthusiasts. Today there’s a number of species considered as “domestic fowl”, tons of chicken and turkey dinners being placed upon household tables day after day (leaving passionate vegetarians cringing… mehhh), pigeon racing, and birds are said to be the world's third most popular "pet".
Though the word "aviculture" is not commonly heard, it's practices are not uncommon.

Captive Animal Boredom

"It's well-established that living in unchanging, inescapable environments induces boredom in humans, including prisoners who report that they are highly motivated to seek stimulation."

  A study done by University of Guelph researchers showed that a mink living in a small, barren cage was more likely to snack on treats throughout meals, and often laid awake idle. They also more “desperately” seek and quickly approach stimulation, even objects described as “normally frightening” as opposed to other animals that lived in large enclosures with places to climb and explore.

Enclosures
  To put it simply, in the wild, animals are constantly concentrating on activities that must be done for survival & many must travel miles a day in order to search for food or a mate, & raise young. In captivity, food and sometimes mates are unnaturally provided right there. They usually are in the same place day after day, pretty much “goalless.”

Detecting Stress & Boredom
  Pacing is often seen in confined wide ranging animals that would naturally roam constantly, but cannot go far. 
  Other signs of stress or boredom commonly seen in zoo animals are repetitive head bobbing, rocking, biting themselves and constantly grooming. With bored & stressed parrots, they often over-preen themselves to the point they’ll end up plucking their feathers out and become naked.
Over a period of time I’ve visited different zoos & similar places, one of these being a small roadside zoo. Many of the enclosures were quite small and bare with little to no toys or other enrichment and surely enough, I saw a number of the animals pacing & repeating their steps, back and forth… back and forth. The other place I went to had a number of big cats. They provided them with large enclosures full of places to climb on and new enrichment every day. Here, I observed little to no signs of boredom.

Prevent Boredom: Enrichment & Stimulation
  With boredom being such a problem that it is, providing stimulation is to prevent this is a necessity. Captive life doesn’t have to be so bad. Taking animals for walks and providing new toys often will surely help. Being the ones who got them here, we owe it to them.

Why Cats are "Independent" (The Social Lives of Cats)

  Ask a dog person who doesn’t like cats why this is. As someone who used to really be a dog person, my reason, like most peoples’ was, “they’re independent” or, “they’re not social”. Why is it that, overall, cats are independent?


Cats Pre-Domestication

“Dogs have owners, Cats have staff.” -Unknown

   Due to their roots, it’s natural that domestic cats are independent. Domesticated dogs are descendants from wolves (Canis lupus), who live and hunt in packs. They must learn social ways for survival. Domesticated cats are believed to be descendants from small species of wildcats (Felis silvestris), which, like many felines, are solitary hunters. Thus, domestic cats have evolved as solitary hunters as well. So to say that cats “hate” people is not so. Rather, it is just not in a cat’s nature to need to be as social as dogs.
  Is this to say cats are animals that will ignore you, not appreciating your attention to them? No.


Behavior

  Cats rely strongly on body language for communication and will commonly show behavior linked to juvenile memories being with their mother and/or siblings. In fact, it is believed mammals enjoy being pet as it feels like being licked, something their mother did to them when they were young.

Chances are you've once seen (or felt) a cat pushing out and pulling in their front paws alternately, appearing to be massaging. This is known as kneading, an act that nursing kittens to do the mammary glands of their mother to produce more milk. Though once they are weaned they no longer need to do this, the moments nursing with their mother were very content- thus cats associate this behavior with that emotion. So if a cat begins kneading on your lap, know that they are not intentionally trying to cause you the excruciating pain that it does. Instead, they are showing that they are enjoying your company.
  Cats often communicate with their tail and vocalizations. If lying down while spoken to, their tail will usually begin fluttering, displaying they're aware of this interaction. This may even be followed by the cat coming up to you and vocally greeting with a meow or chirp, probably followed by purring which is usually associated with happiness. If you develop an eye for noting their behavior, you will come to realize Mrs. Fluffyboots and her fellow feline friends are not as "independent" as commonly thought.

To learn more about cat body language, check out article: Cat Communication.

"I don't trust people who don't like cats. You disrespect independence, lack subtlety, and are devoid of poetic sensibility." -Steve Best