Category Archives: Animalia

All animals and general biology

Ghost of the Moa on Sanctuary Mountain (Maungatautari)

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Roger Gosden

We have been tramping up a gently sloping meadow and stopped to gaze through the gloaming at the fuzzy forest border fifty yards ahead. Looking back to the west, afternoon thunder-heads are dispersing into ribbon clouds braided with gold from … Continue reading →

Posted in Animalia, Environment, Nature | Tagged brown kiwi, Maungatautari, moa, New Zealand, Sanctuary Mountain, Waikato | 7 Comments

Are Bats So Scary?

Posted on January 23, 2016 by Roger Gosden

Some animals have few human friends, like bats. We had a little brown bat tucked inside folded wings, like dead leaves, hanging over a rocker in our porch. It was a welcome guest. But ask the public about the most … Continue reading →

Posted in Animalia, Health | Tagged bats, chiroptophobia, Ebola virus, HIV-AIDS, mad cow disease, rabies, revenant, zoonosis | Comments Off

Mastodon in Our Town

Posted on January 16, 2016 by Roger Gosden

Not Mastodon the heavy metal band from Atlanta, but a heavy, leathery mastodon from Virginia. It is the first found east of the Blue Ridge. A local bricklayer was hunting on private land one day in 1983 when he found … Continue reading →

Posted in Animalia, Nature | Tagged College of William & Mary, elephant, extinction, fossil, George Cuvier, mammoth, Mammut americanum, mastodon | 2 Comments

Chimps Head for Retirement

Posted on December 1, 2015 by Roger Gosden

In 1871, the now-extinct Hornet magazine published a cartoon of Charles Darwin looking like a human-ape chimera. It was not meant kindly. We might suppose that progressive Victorian thinkers would have embraced chimps, gorillas, orangs, etc. as newly-found cousins. Perhaps … Continue reading →

Posted in Animalia, Environment | Tagged animal rights, Charles Darwin, chimpanzee, St. Francis, Thomas Berry | 1 Comment

Flight of the Eagle

Posted on September 12, 2015 by Roger Gosden

Not the Swedish film, but the release of female bald eagle #15-1667. Almost two hundred people gathered at York River State Park for the arrival of the veterinary director from the Wildlife Center in Waynesboro. He was returning a V.I.B. … Continue reading →