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| 5/23 |
| 2005/5/27-31 [Recreation/Pets] UID:37868 Activity:kinda low |
5/27 Ten foot tall "LIGER" - part lion;
part tiger; weighs half a ton and is still growing!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1411998/posts?page=1,50
\_ Freepers are strange.
\_ hey free republic guy, do you get all your pop culture
info from free republic? I just blew 5 minutes reading
all of that, I hate you. I notice none of the responses
mention the real genetic reason ligers happen. - danh
\_ Extreme fishing: dogged noodlers who wrestle
catfish from the depths
http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1412946/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1412946/posts
[fuck you and your ip addresses] |
| 5/23 |
|
| www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1411998/posts?page=1,50 He looks like something from a prehistoric age or a fantastic creation fr om Hollywood. But Hercules is very much living flesh and blood - as he p roves every time he opens his gigantic mouth to roar. Part lion, part ti ger, he is not just a big cat but a huge one,standing 10ft tall on his b ack legs. Called a liger, in reference to his crossbreed parentage, he i s the largest of all the cat species. On a typical day he will devour 200 lb of meat, usually beef or chicken, and is capable of eating 100lb at a single setting. At just three years old, Hercules already weighs half a ton. He is the accidental result of two enormous big cats living close togethe r at the Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, in Miami, Flo rida, and already dwarfs both his parents. "Ligers are not something we planned on having," said institute owner Dr Bhagavan Antle. "We have lio ns and tigers living together in large enclosures and at first we had no idea how well one of the lion boys was getting along with a tiger girl, then lo and behold we had a liger." Not only that, but he likes to swim, a feat unheard of am ong water-fearing lions. In the wild it is virtually impossible for lion s and tigers to mate. Not only are they enemies likely to kill one anoth er, but most lions are in Africa and most tigers in Asia. Ligers have been bred in captivit y, deliberately and accidentally, since shortly before World War II. Today there are believed to be a handful of ligers around the world and a similar number of tigons, the product of a tiger father and lion mother . Tigons are smaller than ligers and take on more physical characteristi cs of the tiger. View Replies To: bannie In tigers, the gene for growth regulation is supplied by the male. Since this animal has a tiger for a mother and a lion for a father, it didn't get the gene from either parent. View Replies To: CHARLITE Looks good, but the size is probably due to the combination of regular fe edings instead of having to hunt things to eat and the "hybrid vigor" me ntioned earlier. View Replies To: Miss Marple And when you think about how much this VERY IMPRESSIVE cat has to eat to stay alive, you realize why all those gigantic ancient carnivores got sm aller with time. Interesting that these folks in the pictures are obviously treating this one like a PET. Watch lion or tiger trainers, and even when they're kidd ing around with their animals, there's an incredible professionalism the re. These folks in the picture have a different relationship with this beast. And the liger doesn't have that feral look at trained tigers and lions do. This one has the eyes that a pet gets, th at strange docility in it. And I still remember how my kitty would sometimes get a little testy and throw a claw at me from behind a chair. Trouble with a 1000 pound MONSTER with three inch claws is that a quick p layful bat-in-passing from this pet will put you in the hospital. View Replies To: CHARLITE "The reason that they are called a liger is because the father was a lion and the mother was a tiger. If the situation was reversed and the mothe r was a lion and the father was a tiger, he would be called a tigon, and would be a dwarf instead of a giant. shtml Ligers and tigons and bears, 'Oh my' Now-famous hybrid not truly bred for skills in magic By Tom Ebnet Published: Monday, May 2, 2005 My hope is that the majority of you reading this can determine the topic at hand from the obscure title - yep, ligers. My original intent for thi s article was to inform the general population at UW-Eau Claire that lig ers, a cross between a male lion and female tiger, actually exist and th e petty office and classroom arguments can cease. The intent came shortly after the recent explosion of the movie "Napoleon Dynamite," which includes a scene concerning ligers. The concept of ligers does seem foreign to most, and I must admit that wh en I first heard the term I was rather skeptical. Chris Floyd, assistant professor and vertebrate zoologist in our biology department, also confessed, "I had just recently heard of their existenc e" Floyd said he also plans to include ligers in his future mammalogy classe s With the notion that ligers are real, and after speaking with zookeepers in Nevada and a few others, I now have much more information to divulge and the scoop on a male liger that resides at the Sierra Safari Zoo in R eno, Nev. A male lion and a female tiger (tigress) produce a liger, if it's male, and a ligress if female. A male tiger and a female lion (lioness) produce a tigon. If the se hybrids successfully mate with lions or tigers, which is extremely ra re due to the seemingly inherent sterility that occurs with hybridizatio n, li-ligers, ti-ligers, li-tigons and ti-tigons are the result. It is estimated that only 20 to 30 ligers exist worldwide; this is becaus e their arrival usually happens by chance in captivity. Most zookeepers and caretakers choose not to crossbreed out of respect, and the zoologic al demand has also stopped, however, limited cases of for-profit-crossbr eeding are suspected. The low number of such cats is also due to the dis tance between lions and tigers' natural habitats and instinctual inhibit ions that prevent them from mating in the wild. However, when lions and tigers do successfully mate, the result is truly splendiferous. Such is the case with Hobbs, a 13-year-old liger known fo r his stature and tame temperament. "If you were to see him, you would see a beautiful, magnificent animal," said Lori Acordagoitia, staff member at the Sierra Safari Zoo. Hobbs measures more than 10 feet tall when on his hindquarters and weighs in at more than 900 pounds, but this, of course is after his diet, in w hich he lost 400 pounds. Even after acknowledging the weight-loss, one f eels inclined to say, "Damn, that is one large kitty." And you would be correct in saying so because Hobbs weighs twice as much as the largest c at, the male Siberian tiger, whereas tigons are much more similar in siz e to that of tigers. If that's not impressive, just consider the idea that Hobbs was thought o f as the runt when he and his brother were born, and that he's working w ith reduced amounts of testosterone due to the hybridization. The low te stosterone levels are also why all ligers are assumed sterile. But Hobbs does retain a hairdo that loosely resembles a mane, or a mullet, if you fancy. Hopefully his tigress counterpart that shares his enclosure at the zoo ap preciates his business-in-front, party-in-back demeanor. And if she does n't, maybe she likes him for his tameness and his rapport with the local cubs, from what I'm told by his handlers at the zoo. So maybe ligers really do encompass an intangible magic of their own and, depending upon your definition of magic, perhaps they are bred for thei r skills in magic. Either way, Hobbs remains the most popular attraction at the Sierra Safari Zoo, and ligers and tigons truly are wondrous crea tures. And for the record, my friends and I enjoy quoting "Napoleon Dynamite," b ut like all good things, only in moderation. Ebnet is a senior kinesiology major and a columnist for The Spectator. I own two cats, and although they are fiercely loyal to me, I st ill would not pose with them like these photos if my cats were tripled i n size. I hope these folks g et their heads screwed on straight and avoid such poses. last Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works. |
| 209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1412946/posts Pokey78 Legal trial for controversial legal pastime First you strip to the waist and clamber into the river. Next, you bend u nder water and rootle blindly along the muddy riverbank with your bare h ands. When you find a promising hole, you waggle your fingers - or toes - so alluringly that a large catfish locks its jaws around your arm or l eg. Then you simply wrestle the 100lbs (45kg) giant out of the water and serve it fried with cayenne pepper. For the first time for nearly 100 years in Missouri the sport of noodling , fishing by hand for these brutally ugly creatures, will be legalised t his week. Also known as hogging, grabbling, dogging and stumping, the pr actice will be allowed for a trial period of six weeks from Wednesday on the Mississippi and two other waterways in the famous river state. The ruling has been greeted with joy by its secretive proponents, Noodler s Anonymous, a campaign group set up by several hundred noodlers, who cl aimed their illicit "ancient art" made them an oppressed minority in the state. For conservationists, however, the legalisation of noodling threatens to accelerate the declining numbers of flathead and blue catfish. "Cats" are a popular delicacy in the rural corners of the southern and mi dwest states of America; historians record that southern American Indian s used to dive down and catch the fish by hand, a tradition of fishing w ithout hook or line taken up by rural settlers across the region. It is thought that the name noodler is derived from southern slang for cr azy fool. Some noodlers have drowned trying to grab big catfish while ma ny bear the scars of their sport, including missing fingers bitten off b y the fish - or snapping turtles and beavers that take umbrage at being disturbed. The sport is now legal in 13 states, including Arkansas and Oklahoma, but has been banned since 1919 in Missouri, where those caught noodling hav e faced up to $1,000 (about 550) fines. After a series of annual legisl ative battles in Missouri's state parliament, the state's department of conservation finally granted an experimental six-week season from sunris e to sunset on limited stretches of the Mississippi, the St Francis and the Fabius rivers. The impact of noodling on catfish stocks will be monitored closely, but i t has not allayed the fears of conservationists. They argue that the pra ctice affects numbers particularly badly because noodlers target mature, breeding-age fish just at the time when they are retreating to natural cavities in the riverbank to nest. By catching the female catfish or the male that guards its brood, they may effectively kill off a whole famil y of young fish. Noodlers talk of "meeting the fish on its terms", pitting their intimate knowledge of the local waters against the wit of individual catfish that command certain river territories and have eluded capture for years. Ac cording to Mark Morgan, an assistant professor at the University of Miss ouri, there are 2,000 noodlers in the state. Most are men from the count ryside, where noodling knowledge has been passed down through the genera tions. Mouths Noodlers claim there are so few fishermen and women - a former Miss Teen USA is a keen practitioner - prepared to stick their hands into the mout hs of catfish that the impact of noodling on stocks will be negligible. Last week, just 21 noodlers in Missouri had purchased $7 licences to beg in legal noodling. Nearly half these permits were issued to Howard Ramse y, the president of Noodlers Anonymous. Welcoming the legal season as a "very positive step", Mr Ramsey, 59, said he bought eight permits for his wife, son, granddaughters and himself. "If you don't come up bloody, you ain't been hand-fishing," Mr Ramsey tol d AP. First taught aged 12 by his father and grandfather, he described h ow he caught the creatures by swimming headfirst into a catfish hole whi le a friend held him by the ankles, ready to pull him and the catfish ou t of the murky depths. It is a technique that has brought him plenty of pain over the years. "I've had them clamp down so tight on my arm that I didn't know if they'd ever let go," he told the Kansas City Star. "They have rows of tiny tee th, and when you try to pull your arm out of their mouth, they'll just s kin you. I even had one fish that tore my tennis shoe right off my foot. When you pull a 50 to 60lb flathead out of a hole by hand and your heart starts t humping, you know it's worth it." Steve Eder of the Missouri Department of Conservation said catfish number s had fallen in northern parts of the state in particular, where streams have been turned into channels, removing the riverbank habitat where th e fish can breed. "There aren't that many flatheads per square mile to start with. If we le galise hand fishing, that could further reduce the densities of big fish ," he told the US press. "Hand fishermen do seem to be more efficient at taking big fish than other types of fishermen. No disrespect intended, but I grew up o n a river and I cannot imagine this as being any sort of fun at all (but I did like the part about that guy "baiting" them with his head). Today's noodlers are driven more by the desire for excitement than pangs of hunger. And despite the stereotypical image of the noodler as a rough -cut "river rat" of a man, participants come from all walks of life. One of the sport's best spokespersons was Kristi Addis, Miss Teen USA 1987. View Replies To: aMorePerfectUnion The first photo looks like someone went Noodling for the Lochness Monster and was successful. The second photo looks like a possible case of piscine amputation. The old timers that "noodled" where I was raised said snapping turtles bu rrow head first, so there is little danger of their snapping you. Of course they also told me that it paid to know the difference between t he bumps on the front and rear of a turtle shell. View Replies To: Ghengis I used to catch smaller snappers in farm ponds in Kansas by feel with my bare feet . When I think of doing that now I just have to shake my head..... View Replies Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works. |
| www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1412946/posts Pokey78 Legal trial for controversial legal pastime First you strip to the waist and clamber into the river. Next, you bend u nder water and rootle blindly along the muddy riverbank with your bare h ands. When you find a promising hole, you waggle your fingers - or toes - so alluringly that a large catfish locks its jaws around your arm or l eg. Then you simply wrestle the 100lbs (45kg) giant out of the water and serve it fried with cayenne pepper. For the first time for nearly 100 years in Missouri the sport of noodling , fishing by hand for these brutally ugly creatures, will be legalised t his week. Also known as hogging, grabbling, dogging and stumping, the pr actice will be allowed for a trial period of six weeks from Wednesday on the Mississippi and two other waterways in the famous river state. The ruling has been greeted with joy by its secretive proponents, Noodler s Anonymous, a campaign group set up by several hundred noodlers, who cl aimed their illicit "ancient art" made them an oppressed minority in the state. For conservationists, however, the legalisation of noodling threatens to accelerate the declining numbers of flathead and blue catfish. "Cats" are a popular delicacy in the rural corners of the southern and mi dwest states of America; historians record that southern American Indian s used to dive down and catch the fish by hand, a tradition of fishing w ithout hook or line taken up by rural settlers across the region. It is thought that the name noodler is derived from southern slang for cr azy fool. Some noodlers have drowned trying to grab big catfish while ma ny bear the scars of their sport, including missing fingers bitten off b y the fish - or snapping turtles and beavers that take umbrage at being disturbed. The sport is now legal in 13 states, including Arkansas and Oklahoma, but has been banned since 1919 in Missouri, where those caught noodling hav e faced up to $1,000 (about 550) fines. After a series of annual legisl ative battles in Missouri's state parliament, the state's department of conservation finally granted an experimental six-week season from sunris e to sunset on limited stretches of the Mississippi, the St Francis and the Fabius rivers. The impact of noodling on catfish stocks will be monitored closely, but i t has not allayed the fears of conservationists. They argue that the pra ctice affects numbers particularly badly because noodlers target mature, breeding-age fish just at the time when they are retreating to natural cavities in the riverbank to nest. By catching the female catfish or the male that guards its brood, they may effectively kill off a whole famil y of young fish. Noodlers talk of "meeting the fish on its terms", pitting their intimate knowledge of the local waters against the wit of individual catfish that command certain river territories and have eluded capture for years. Ac cording to Mark Morgan, an assistant professor at the University of Miss ouri, there are 2,000 noodlers in the state. Most are men from the count ryside, where noodling knowledge has been passed down through the genera tions. Mouths Noodlers claim there are so few fishermen and women - a former Miss Teen USA is a keen practitioner - prepared to stick their hands into the mout hs of catfish that the impact of noodling on stocks will be negligible. Last week, just 21 noodlers in Missouri had purchased $7 licences to beg in legal noodling. Nearly half these permits were issued to Howard Ramse y, the president of Noodlers Anonymous. Welcoming the legal season as a "very positive step", Mr Ramsey, 59, said he bought eight permits for his wife, son, granddaughters and himself. "If you don't come up bloody, you ain't been hand-fishing," Mr Ramsey tol d AP. First taught aged 12 by his father and grandfather, he described h ow he caught the creatures by swimming headfirst into a catfish hole whi le a friend held him by the ankles, ready to pull him and the catfish ou t of the murky depths. It is a technique that has brought him plenty of pain over the years. "I've had them clamp down so tight on my arm that I didn't know if they'd ever let go," he told the Kansas City Star. "They have rows of tiny tee th, and when you try to pull your arm out of their mouth, they'll just s kin you. I even had one fish that tore my tennis shoe right off my foot. When you pull a 50 to 60lb flathead out of a hole by hand and your heart starts t humping, you know it's worth it." Steve Eder of the Missouri Department of Conservation said catfish number s had fallen in northern parts of the state in particular, where streams have been turned into channels, removing the riverbank habitat where th e fish can breed. "There aren't that many flatheads per square mile to start with. If we le galise hand fishing, that could further reduce the densities of big fish ," he told the US press. "Hand fishermen do seem to be more efficient at taking big fish than other types of fishermen. No disrespect intended, but I grew up o n a river and I cannot imagine this as being any sort of fun at all (but I did like the part about that guy "baiting" them with his head). Today's noodlers are driven more by the desire for excitement than pangs of hunger. And despite the stereotypical image of the noodler as a rough -cut "river rat" of a man, participants come from all walks of life. One of the sport's best spokespersons was Kristi Addis, Miss Teen USA 1987. View Replies To: aMorePerfectUnion The first photo looks like someone went Noodling for the Lochness Monster and was successful. The second photo looks like a possible case of piscine amputation. The old timers that "noodled" where I was raised said snapping turtles bu rrow head first, so there is little danger of their snapping you. Of course they also told me that it paid to know the difference between t he bumps on the front and rear of a turtle shell. View Replies To: Ghengis I used to catch smaller snappers in farm ponds in Kansas by feel with my bare feet . When I think of doing that now I just have to shake my head..... View Replies Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works. |