A Gift of Personality

[Naga_Fireball]

As human beings, most of us realize that attitude is the actuator of potential. Meaning, our abilities are often wasted on us. Animals on the other hand, along with members of our own species cheerful enough to overcome their handicaps, provide the best example of doing a lot with very little.

Right now there are so many starlings flocked in Walla Walla. It's a juvenile sort of "micro flock" but multiple hundreds of chicks.

Starlings get very fat when they expect a tough winter. These were the largest juveniles I've seen of the species.



But then on twitter, someone posted a photo of seahorses. Because these animals are so funny and beautiful , i googled "seahorse intelligence" and found a pretty amazing writeup by a seahorse owner who happens to also be a doctor.

The article reads like a piece about Spiritwind's farm. All the seahorses have names and personalities. I am not sure why humans often grow up so desensitized to the incredible individuality of animals. We live and die according to our individual natures, in this way brought ultimately together by our differences; this is diversity.

http://www.dfs-pet-blog.com/2009/11/sea ... rsonality/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Seahorse Personality
by DRS. FOSTER AND SMITH on NOVEMBER 2, 2009


Impolite-Seahorse **Guest post from Felicia M.**

It’s hard to think of fish as having personalities or being interactive. Before I had seahorses I thought they were neat looking, but I just assumed they sat around and didn’t actually DO anything all day. After caring for my seahorses for over a year now, I feel they are “pets” more so than any other fish I’ve ever kept. I’m certainly not going to claim that seahorses are intelligent, because, well, they’re not. However, they definitely have what I call personality.

Unlike other fish, seahorses have a prehensile tail they use to hitch themselves to rocks and plants. This strange appendage is what enables their unique, laid-back fish lifestyle. They are able to use their tails to hold perfectly still while hunting. Their tails also make it easy for them to keep in close contact with their friends, as you can see in the photo above. They aren’t in stealth mode all the time, though. They aren’t the best swimmers, but they love to swim, dance, and play.


seahorse on thumb

My favorite seahorse is a little erectus named Kuiter (named after the biologist, of course). I’m convinced that Kuiter recognizes me and knows who I am (the mysis dispenser!). She follows me around as I work on the tank, swimming against the glass as close as she can get to me. Kuiter even likes to hitch on my fingers. I attribute this behavior partly to the fact that she is captive bred. Captive bred seahorses are used to humans and can become very friendly. This has been helpful on a few occasions when I had to handle Kuiter to medicate her. If she wasn’t used to my hands, the stress from the situation could have been fatal.

Inter-seahorse relationships are pretty complex and fascinating. I have two boys, Juniper and Debelius; and three girls, Ellis, Hoover, and you already know Kuiter.

Hoover and Kuiter, the two youngest and smallest females, are best friends and always together. They are the two most playful seahorses, always holding onto each other’s tails. My seahorses seem to enjoy holding tails with each other, like people hold hands. But apparently, it is extremely impolite for a seahorse to hitch on another seahorses’s face, body, or neck. Kuiter has a bad habit of doing this, especially to Hoover. Hoover will shake and buck wildly until Kuiter gets the hint to let go.

Juniper and Ellis, the largest and oldest, are a mated pair. He makes time every dawn to dance with Ellis and strengthen their pair bond. They have a flowing, elegant dance. Juniper turns silver and does pouch crunches while Ellis turns a lovely reddish shade. The two of them circle each other while lifting their heads like trumpets and ascending to the water’s surface. The actual courtship dance is even more elaborate, ending with Ellis depositing eggs into Juniper’s pouch.


Debelius
Debelius is a young adult male, having recently developed his pouch. Debelius dances with all the girls! He used to dance with Ellis a lot, but realizing he’s no match for Juniper, has turned his attentions lately to Hoover and Kuiter. In my opinion, Debelius is a terrible dancer. His movements aren’t graceful at all. Instead, he turns a yellowish-white color, grabs a girl’s tail (or head, whatever’s available) with his tail, and starts shaking violently. I’ve never seen anyone mate with him, or spend much time around him, so apparently they’re not all that impressed with his dancing skills, either. Maybe he’ll learn some better dance moves from watching Juniper.

This may all sound pretty far-fetched to someone who’s never had seahorses, so if you are a seahorse keeper, back me up! Please leave a comment and tell us about your seahorse’s personality.

[Naga_Fireball]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... ience.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Do fish have feelings too? It's a slippery question for science

By Michael Hanlon
18:17 EST 07 Mar 2010, updated 05:35 EST 08 Mar 2010

[Naga_Fireball]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/12/world/esc ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Inky the escapologist octopus breaks out of New Zealand aquarium

By Euan McKirdy, CNN

Updated 1:38 PM ET, Wed April 13, 2016

pologist octopus breaks out of New Zealand aquarium
By Euan McKirdy, CNN

Updated 1:38 PM ET, Wed April 13, 2016

Octopuses are known for their intelligence and ability to get out of tight spots

The escapologist took advantage of his body's malleability to slither down a pipe

(CNN)An enterprising octopus spotted his chance to escape from a New Zealand aquarium -- and took it.

Squeezing out from a gap at the top of his tank, the "inquisitive" octopus, Inky, slithered across the floor of the aquarium and down a seawater runoff pipe to Hawke's Bay, and freedom.

"Octopus are very intelligent, very inquisitive and like to push the boundaries," said Rob Yarrell, the manager of the National Aquarium of New Zealand.

"This particular one was very friendly and intelligent and obviously found a weak spot in the top of his tank."

Inky, a common New Zealand octopus who had been caught by a local crayfisherman off the coast of Napier and donated to the aquarium, appears to be a credit to his species.

[Naga_Fireball]

A 12 year resident of a popular El Salvador exhibit, Gustavo the hippo, was brutally tortured and beaten to death by vandals:


http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/27/americas/ ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Naga_Fireball]

An article on the amazing sensitivity and intelligence of a rare eagle owl who landed on a photographer's head without injuring him:


http://focusingonwildlife.com/news/#article/662334" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Personally, I believe owls are also very psychic and capable of sending impressions to others at times, similarly to the way a dolphin is able to communicate an image via sound.

I'm not certain at this point an animal qualifies as wild, lol



They seem to love birdwatchers and fully understand a wide range of human behavior.

I've seen owls hooting in apparent laughter over people with cars stuck in ice on our street, and I've had a few different ones offer varying degrees of familiarity at one of our local parks.

Among the most overlooked and intelligent of animals.

[Spiritwind]

This is a perfect time and place to share a number of owl stories I have. They are indeed fascinating, and have come in to my life and my attention in a variety of ways over the years.



Back in the 90's I had an experience with a short eared owl, which has little tufts that resemble ears, but much smaller than the Great Horned owl. And their size is much smaller too. Anyway, I was driving home in a rural area when I felt pulled to stop in at a friend's property where I had just moved from for no apparent reason. I didn't know why I felt the need to stop, because he wasn't even home. I went in the house, and for some unknown reason felt the need to take a bowl of uneaten oatmeal out to throw over the fence. I could have just thrown it in the garbage.

I'm out there throwing it over the fence right by a group of grape vines that were wound over a type of trellis and something caught my eye. I squatted down to see what it was, and there was this little owl under the grape vines, standing on the ground. As I moved, it moved, as if choreographed, and I wondered what the heck it was doing there in broad daylight, and why wasn't it trying to fly away. It kept mimicking my movements for a bit, as I wondered what to do. It didn't seem frightened of me as I mentally kept talking to it, as well as talking in soothing tones to it out loud. After a bit I figured there must be something wrong for it to just be there.

I went in the house and called a friend of mine who happened to know of a couple of wild life rescuers that lived not too far away. With luck they were even home that day. I explained about the little owl and they said they could come right out! In the meantime my friend who lived there came home and my sister dropped by as well. They both came out and started talking to the owl, which seemed to upset it as it moved farther into the vines away from them. Within a fairly short amount of time the two wildlife rescuers showed up with a large pole that had a looped net on the end, like one you use for fishing. They slowly approached the owl that had come out to the edge of the grape vines at the other end from where it was.

One of the women also had a towel. They talked to the bird in similar soothing tones as they slowly approached. It was as if the owl knew they were there to help, as it came all the way out and actually jumped up on a fence post, as if waiting for them. The one woman walked right up to it, wrapped the towel around it with no problem at all, and that was that.

I found out later it had a broken wing. Even though it healed up the break was too close to the body for it to be able to fly again. But, this little bird got to go around as a kind of teaching aid in the local schools about wildlife. I thought that was pretty cool.

[Naga_Fireball]

I cannot thank you enough for sharing that story. I wish the forum had a Multiply your Thanks button.

That is incredible how the owl apparently summoned you without sound.

You know what, SW, up at the lake (the part of the dirt trail that goes around the neck of lake and the creek) here, there was an owl sitting in a tree and I got this mental impression, like I'd thought to myself "owl", but it was spontaneous and I am not a very spontaneous thinker -- I looked up and there was a pretty large juvenile great horned owl watching. It could have been the mom.


Your story is way more interesting because you were able to sense this from inside a car. That's pretty spectacular sensitivity.

The wrapping up in a towel bit is so cute and sad. I hope the owl recovered, I bet it did! How cute that it mirrored your motions. It didn't want you to get bored and go away before calling those people, yikes.

Super glad you were there to help one of these remarkable beings @@!

[Naga_Fireball]

Foxnews reports a man was separated from his tour group after failing to participate in a ritual to honor "mother earth", lol yikes... anyway,

A troop of friendly monkeys apparently kept him alive for 9 days, until he was found covered on bug bites 1 mile from the damn camp!!

...

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/03/24 ... orest.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

THE AMERICAS
Hero monkeys helped lost man survive for days in Amazon rainforest

Published March 24, 2017
New York Post

A Chilean tourist survived for nine days while lost in a dense expanse of Bolivian rainforest — thanks to a troop of hero monkeys who “dropped him fruit and led him to shelter and water every day,” the man claimed.

Maykool Coroseo Acuña, 25, went missing from his Max Adventures tour group at Madidi National Park, a protected rainforest in the northwest part of the South American country, National Geographic reported.

The night before Acuña disappeared, he refused to take part with other tourists in a traditional ceremony that gives thanks to Pachamama, Mother Earth, for allowing them to visit the forest.

“It’s because he offended the Pachamama,” said Feizar Nava, the owner of Max Adventures. “He didn’t want to participate in the ceremony.”

Shamans told the search party that Acuña was “far away, in a place we can’t reach.”

Acuña was found on day nine, less than a mile away from the Max Adventure’s campground.

He was dehydrated, weak and nearly eaten alive by bugs – and told the rescuers he only survived thanks to the kindly monkeys, who gave him food and led him to shelter, Nat Geo reported.

It’s unclear which species of monkeys kept him alive, but that rainforest includes Rosillo, Lucachi and Titi monkeys are some of the types that are indigenous to the jungle.