3 Comments

Alligators on their way

Larry should be on his way to Florida right now with the ‘gators. They should reach home (they were on loan to us) around 3:00 this afternoon. That’s them stacked on top of each other in four under-bed storage containers. We label each container, secure them with additional duct tape and wedge them in the van so they won’t move too much, When Kent and I were packing them up this morning, around 5:00, one of them actually “chirped”. WeRead more

Big Word of the Month: Euthanasia

The big word of the month is a hard one to talk about. Euthanasia comes from Greek and means “good death”. I doubt any two people can agree on what exactly a good death is, yet it is a discussion we have to have in the Animal Department from time to time. When an animal is ill and our veterinarians have run out of treatment strategies we have to consider quality of life issues. Deciding when an animal is sufferingRead more
3 Comments

Big Word of the Month: Paradigm

Philosophers of science use the word paradigm (pair – uh – dime) to describe the set of ideas and practices that define a field of scientific inquiry. If you studied human anthropology and evolution in the last few decades you were exposed to the paradigm that humans evolved from an ape-like creature that resembles modern day chimpanzees. You might recall learning about Lucy, the 3 million year old hominid found in Ethiopia that belongs to the genus Australopithecus. A fossilRead more
4 Comments

Big Word of the Month: suprachiasmatic nucleus

I saw my first “V” formation of Canada geese of this fall and it got me thinking about migratory triggers. Here in North America the days are starting to get notably shorter, sunset is now about an hour earlier than it was in June. Most animals have circadian rhythms that are tuned to environmental cues like day length. In many species, the shorter day length along with cooler temperatures is the sign of coming winter and triggers migratory behavior. InsideRead more