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ENOUGH PENGUIN DUNG FOR A LIFETIME

4/25/2020

WORLD PENGUIN DAY
April 25 is World Penguin Day.

Isn’t that nice? Penguins are adorable and loved by all. They deserve their own day of observance when the world recognizes and acknowledges their uniqueness.

Unfortunately, this species is also in need of protection, as are many of the animals of the world, from their not-so-considerate and greedy neighbors, the human beings.

Taken on Cruise to Antarctica, Photo Credit & Source: Robert Loh

MISS PERSONALITY PENGUIN
The seventeen species of penguins are members of the Spheniscidae Family. You know, those aquatic flightless neighbors at the very south end of town. Maybe they can’t fly, but wow, can they swim!

Olympic Swimmers
Penguins jump into the air before diving to swim faster. They can swim over 10 miles per hour and can dive down over 800 feet. They can even drink sea water, and their eyes are adapted to seeing underwater.
They do pretty much everything a bird cannot do.

Photo Credits: Getty Images
Photo Source: goodhousekeeping.com/penguins

Mobility
Penguins, which have feathers like other birds but can’t fly, are still classified as “birds” even though they live on land about half their lives and in the ocean the other half. Their motion in the water more closely resembles flying than the swimming motion used by other animals, and they live on sea life. Their wings have become flippers in the water.

On land, these birds either waddle on their feet without much grace, or toboggan (slide) on their bellies across the snow, a movement which saves their energy and still moves them quickly. They also jump with both feet together if they want to move more quickly or cross steep or rocky terrain.

Size
They range in size from the Little Blue Penguin which grows to an average of 14” in height, to the largest, the Emperor Penguin, which reaches from 3’6” to 4’3”.

Photo Source: Pinterest; http://www.cadavies.com/penguins/html

Thirty-seven- million-year-old fossils recently discovered in Antarctica indicate that an ancient breed of penguins once stood taller than the average adult man today at 5-foot-10 (some sources say 6’8’’).

Native Habitat
Penguins and polar bear cartoon are popular and cute, but it “ain’t ‘gonna happen!”.
The two species would never meet.

Although every species of penguins are native to the Southern Hemisphere, and some live in very cold climates like Antarctica, others thrive in temperate zones and the Galápagos penguin lives near the equator. A cold current from Antarctica keeps the water near the Galapagos cool enough for the penguins to survive. There are no native penguins in the Northern Hemisphere, and they don’t live at the North Pole, but are seen along coastlines throughout the Southern Hemisphere. 1998 Coca-Cola Ad-Photo credit: Gremlin Fine Art and Animation.
Photo source: amazon.com/Your-Coke-Sir
Other Senses
Penguins have average hearing compared to other birds, but it is keen enough to be used to locate parents and babies in huge colonies. Their eyes are the primary sense for finding food and avoiding predators. They have no teeth. Nonetheless, some species can be quite aggressive.

Feathers
Penguin feathers are short, dense, and packed so tightly together that they often look like smooth skin… and they are waterproof. Penguins spread an oil produced by the preen gland that insulates their bodies and improves their hydrodynamics. Chicks are covered in fuzzy down, which keeps them warm and may resemble fur.

Often depicted as having only black and white feathers, some penguins have shades of black, white, grays, blues, yellows, and oranges. Species may have red eyes, brightly colored feathers, bright orange beaks, or pink feet. Macaroni penguins are named after the flamboyantly dressed group of 18th century aristocrats, the ‘Macaronis’.

Marconi Penguin with styled feathers Yellow-Eyed Penguin-photo source: Northern Rockhopper Penguin Chick with fur-like feathers
Photo source: abcbirds.org/macaroni worldatlas.com/types-of-penguins worldatlas.com/types-of-penguins spacecoastdaily.com/SeaWorld

Some types of penguins do mate for life, including gentoos, rockhoppers, adelies, and chinstraps. They can find their old mater within minutes of arriving at the colony each season.

Personality Plus
Overall, penguins have mischievous, curious, and fun-loving personalities, as well as being photogenic. They seem to enjoy posing for photographs. Photo credit: National Geographic; photo source: pinterest.com/pin/4696

A lot has been written about penguins and most writers attest to the bird’s playful and reckless nature. Specifics of their behavior were documented extensively by Apsley Cherry-Garrard (a survivor of Robert F. Scott’s final journey to the South Pole) in his book The Worst Journey in the World.
   “They [the penguins] are extraordinarily like children, these little people of the Antarctic world, either like children or like old men, full of their own importance."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad%C3%A9lie_penguin

George Murray Levick, who also accompanied Scott on the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910, observed how the birds often put the explorers in dangerous situations.
   “The great trouble with [the dog teams] has been due to the fatuous conduct of the penguins. Groups of these have been constantly leaping onto our [ice] floe. From the moment of landing on their feet their whole attitude expressed devouring curiosity and a pig-headed disregard for their own safety. They waddle forward, poking their heads to and fro in their usually absurd way, in spite of a string of howling dogs straining to get at them. "Hulloa!" they seem to say, "here’s a game – what do all you ridiculous things want?" And they come a few steps nearer. The dogs make a rush as far as their harness or leashes allow. The penguins are not daunted in the least, but their ruffs go up and they squawk with semblance of anger.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad%C3%A9lie_penguin

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

"It's just a little kiss." "It was soo sad!"    "Thanks for coming over." "I'm so ashamed."
Photo Credit/source: Kathy Dancie Photo source:Pinterest    Photo source: natgeokids.com/penguins/ Photo source: dailymail.co.uk/

"Look! I have 4 wings." "Have you heard this one?"    "I don't care what Freddie's "Just wait till your
Photo Credit: Diane Schimpf    Photo Credit: Andrea Ohagan    mother said. It's naptime."    father gets home!"
natgeokids.com/uk/penguins/    worldatlas.com/types-of-penguins

"We're getting pretty at "And I'm telling you, "When do I get off "Hey! He's standing
this Zumba thing." you're wrong!" this Time out?" on my shoulders."
Photo Credit: Diane Schimpf Photo Credit: William Smith Photo source: penguinsblog.com/ Photo Credit: Stephen Bedford

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL: Enough poop to last a lifetime
Penguins are social animals and live in large colonies with hundreds and thousands of others. You rarely seen loner penguins (except, perhaps, one on time-out for bad behavior.)

On my trip to Antarctica and the Falkland Islands, we visited a colony of King penguins way out in the boomies. It took hours and many bumps to get there. There are many more penguins on the islands than people. It was overwhelming… in more way than one.

Photo Credit: Liam Quinn 01-17-2011 – Salisberry Plain Colony, Falkland Islands Adelie penguins covered in pink poop
Photo Source: https://penguinsblog.com/are-penguins-dangerous/ Photo Credit: Flicker
Photo source: allthatsinteresting.com/penguin
There have been recent articles about Adelie penguins pooping so much, there feces can be seen in satellite images. The krill diet of the penguin on the coast of Antarctica turns their guano a “striking pink color” contrasting with the snow. Their colonies show up well on LandSat images which are being used by researchers to find remote colonies and reconstruct the diet and history of the colonies.
Who knew?
□
Sources:
https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/animals/birds/emperor-penguins/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin
http://penguins.cl/macaroni-penguins.htm
http://penguins.cl/patagonia.htm
http://penguins.cl/macaroni-penguins.htm
http://www.seabirds.org/penguins.htm
http://www.penguins-world.com/king-penguin/
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/gentoo-penguin/
http://www.patagonia-argentina.com/en/habits-penguins
http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/wildlife/antarctic_penguins.htm
http://www.erraticrock.com/information/information-articles-1/penguins-of-patagonia/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad%C3%A9lie_penguin
http://www.penguins-world.com
king-penguin/
https://www.discover-the-world.com/blog/29-things-you-might-not-have-known-about-penguins/
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/how-many-types-of-penguins-live-in-the-world-today.html
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2016/04/18/photos-4-most-dangerous-threats-to-penguins
https://www.cbc.ca/kidscbc2/the-feed/5-fun-facts-about-penguins
https://penguinsblog.com/are-penguins-dangerous/
https://beyondpenguins.ehe.osu.edu/issue/arctic-and-anarctic-birds/common-misconceptions-about-birds
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/g19844807/penguin-facts/?slide=16
https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/giant-6-foot-8-penguin-discovered-in-antarctica
https://www.foxnews.com/science/penguin-poop-biodiversity-antarctica
https://www.wired.com/story/penguin-poop-antarctica-climate-change/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-watching-poo-space-revealing-history-antarcticas-penguins-180971031/
https://allthatsinteresting.com/pink-penguin-poop
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7661489/Emperor-penguins-wiped-climate-change-80-years-scientists-claim.html

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GEOMETRY PUT INTO HUMAN SERVICE: Ancient Great Walls

4/17/2020

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THE GREAT WALL OF … WHERE?
You thought I was going to say China, didn’t you?

As far as archeologists know, human beings have been building walls since Neolithic times when we transitioned from a hunting nomadic lifestyle to permanent agrarian settlements, somewhere around 10,000 BC.

Even as nomads, human beings gathered in small groups for protection, and we have evolved as social animals fundamentally wired with fear of the unknown. Behind a barrier with a place to look out and not be seen, is a safe place for humans. The development of permanent settlements resulted in the building of walls as defenses against any perceived danger that might threaten the community.

THE GREAT CITY WALLS
The development of permanent settlements resulted cities and, as they grew in size, rulers built walls as defenses against any perceived danger that might threaten the community.

The oldest walls in existence are those of Gobekli Tepe, a temple in Urfa, southeast Turkey, constructed 11,500 years ago. Around 10,000 BC the first city walls, erected for defense, were built around Jericho and the Sumerian city of Uruk. All that can be seen today are the excavation sites.

THE GREAT BORDER WALLS
Border Walls extend along part of the jurisdictional borders of the state. country, kingdom, or whatever terminology applies to an area under one ruler. These barriers appear to be a later innovation in safety and defense strategy, although the world “later” is relative. As city states or domains expanded to include other cities and territories, often the fortifications around one city were extended to another, expanding until a much larger area comprised the state or kingdom. Contemporary border walls are referred to as barriers and are constructed for other purposes.

● Great Wall of Ur
The Wall of Ur is one of the first known border walls, constructed around 2000 BC to keep out invading Amorites. It was built between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to allow the people “to dwell peacefully in green meadows.”

It marks the beginning of the period between the third century BC to the 11th century AD referred to as the Age of the Long Wall.
Photo source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ur-Nassiriyah.jpg

● Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is the longest fortification in the world, but not the earliest built. In fact, it is not one continuous wall, but a series of multiple walls, trenches, towers, and forts that string along the northern portion of China for 13,170 miles. These walls were built by different emperors over many centuries, primarily to protect territory from invasion but not necessarily invasion from the foreign invaders from the north but the enemies of the particularly dynasty at the time.

The sections built by different states were unconnected until the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.

Great Wall of Qi was the first segment, started in 685 BC, to be built during the Zhou Dynasty. This barrier stretched for about 372 miles between the present-day cities of Jinan and Quingdao. The purpose was to fend off invasion from other Chinese states to the south.
Wikimedia Commons, free media repository►

Photo Credit: Rolfmueller - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4388026

The first segment was extended through the centuries by different dynasties. Most of what is visible today was constructed during the Ming dynasty, the peak of Great Wall's history.

To address harassment from the northern tribes (Tartars and Jurchens) the rulers of the Ming dynasty [1368-1644 AD] continued extension and enlargement of the wall for over two centuries. The main line of the Ming Dynasty started from Hushan in the east to the Jiayuguan Pass in the west. It has a total length of about 5,500 miles, is twenty feet wide at the bottom and sixteen feet wide at the top, and has an estimated 10,000 watch towers.

▼Photo Source: ancient-origins.net/archaeology/ancient-wall
Photo credit: aerial photography by the APAAME,
research project - settlement history in the Near East.

●Khatt shebib Wall, Jordan [115 BC - 570 AD]
Remains of the Khatt shebib Wall, Jordan, was largely unknown, at least to outsiders, until 1948 when Sir Alec Kirkbride, a British diplomat in Jordan, spotted the ruins from an airplane. The structure extends nearly one hundred miles through the large southern desert of Jordan with nothing on either side except sand dunes.

The wall remained a mystery until recently, when the APAAME, a long-term research project, mapped it using aerial photography.

Unlike most ancient border walls, archaeologists believe this 93 mile long wall was not used for military or defense purposes. It was built by the Bedouin nomads and, based on pottery found in the ruins, certain studies have dated it to 312BC to 106 AD and reconstructions in 661-750 AD.

It was constructed with boulders piled on tops of each other with no solid foundation and nothing to hold the rocks in place. Scientists estimate its height from 31/2 feet to almost five feet, which supports the rationale that it was not a defensive wall, although they have identified over one hundred towers 61/2 by 13 feet which might serve as stations for watching for invaders.

Some experts studying the area speculate that the border wall served to restrict nomads from wandering in farming regions.

●Hadrians Wall [128 AD]
A later and much better known border wall is Hadrian's Wall in Britain, built by the Romans at the direction of Emperor Hadrian (r. 117-138 AD), to fend off incursions into the Roman provinces from across the northern border. The Romans were expert wall-builders, but it took six years to construct eighty miles across the terrain. Height and width varied, but in places it was over twenty feet high and nine feet wide, with fortified towers. The wall is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Source of Photos 1, 2: https://www.hillwalktours.com/hiking-england/hadrians-wall-path/ Photo source: www.historyextra.com/ancient-history/border-walls ▲

● Antonine Wall [142 AD]
Also built by the Romans, the Antonine Wall, begun in 142 AD, stretched 39 miles between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde, in what is now Scotland. Emperor Antoninus had this barrier built to protect the region from barbarians from the north, primarily the Picts of the Scottish highlands.

The type of barrier is less like the stone walls because it is built of turf on top of a stone foundation and fronted by a deep ditch like a mote. The height was about ten feet and the width about sixteen feet, and it is believed that was a wooden palisade on top of the wall. Along its length there were 16 forts connected by roads. The turf has weathered away, making the wall almost invisible in the rolling countryside.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonine_Wall\

To the far left, you can see a unique feature: a type of man-trap known as lilia. These large oval pits north of the ditch and the outer mound are the first line of defense for threats from the north. Photo sources: blog.historicenvironment.scot/antonine

The construction took twelve years. Eight years after completion, Roman troops were pulled back to Hadrian’s Wall, and this wall was abandoned. It was refortified in 208 AD and then abandoned a second time. The parts that remain are under the care of Historic Scotland and the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.

Kerameikos (Outer) from west - the two main gates
The Dipylon and the Sacred Gate. Photo Source:
http://www.ancientathens3d.com/keramikos-tichi/

● The Long Walls of Athens
The term Long Walls is used to describe the defensive wall that connected the city of Athens with its ports at Piraeus and Phalerum. The ports were crucial to Athens, and the Long Wall was a key element of the military strategy.

The first walls, each nearly four miles in length, were constructed in phases before 431 BC, as a double wall to protect the ground access to the ports from both north and south, making Athens all but impregnable during the Peloponnesian War with Sparta and its allies.

The Spartans ultimately prevailed by defeating the Athenian navy at sea. Afterward, the Spartans tore down the Long Walls as a victory celebration. The walls were later rebuilt and stood until 86 BC when they were destroyed by the Romans.

Photo source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Walls (Credit: Public Domain)

●The Great Wall of Gorgan, Iran [224 – 651 AD]
The Great Wall of Gorgan (also called the Red Snake Wall because of the color of its bricks) is a Sasanian-era (224 to 651 AD) defense system located in northeastern Iran, at the southeastern corner of the Caspian Sea. It was erected a century or two after the Roman Walls in Britain for the similar purpose of protecting the Sassanian Empire to the south from the northern peoples, probably the White Huns (the Hephthalites).

Photo Source: ▲
◄www.iranreview.org/The_Red_Snake_Great_Wall ◄

Photo source: www.iranreview.org/The_Red_Snake_Great_Wall

● The Great Wall of Zimbabwe
Begun in the 11th century AD, the Great Wall of Zimbabwe was erected by a Bantu-speaking ancestors of the Shona. Over the next 300 years the 36 foot high wall was expanded, enclosing approximately 1,800 acres, and is the largest ancient structure south of the Sahara Desert.

The Great Zimbabwe wall is constructed of local granite blocks split into slabs which are fitted without any mortar, one on top of the other. Each layer is a bit more recessed than those below, creating a slight inward slope for stability for the undulating walls.

De Agostini/Getty Images / Getty Images ▲
Photo Source: https://www.tripsavvy.com/great-zimbabwe-ruins-1454657

▲Photo credit: evenfh—iStock/Thinkstock
Photo source: https://www.britannica.com/place/Great-Zimbabwe

Narrow pathway between walls at the Great Zimbabwe ruins, southeastern Zimbabwe▲.
Photo credit: Colin Hoskins/Imagestate -- Photo source:https://sacredsites.com/africa/zimbabwe/great_zimbabwe_ruins.html

CONCLUSION
Building walls around cities and territories is a natural thing for people to do. It’s in our DNA, so to speak. A wall is physical, something we can touch, something to rely on for protection. But do they always protect the people inside the walls?

In reading the histories of these famous walls, it became clear to me that those mighty mounds of stone, sod, and other materials did protect the residents of cities and territories from invasion time and again, but sooner or later an enemy found a way to breech them. In some cases, the invaders merely walked to the end of the wall and came around.

Costica Bradatan nails it writes. “The walls erected at borders protect people not from barbarians, but from anxieties and fears. Walls, then, are built not for security, but for a sense of security. The distinction is important, as those who commission them know very well. What a wall satisfies is not so much a material need as a mental one … In this way, they are built not for those who live outside them, threatening as they may be, but for those who dwell within. In a certain sense, then, what is built is not a wall, but a state of mind.”
https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/scaling-the-wall-in-the-head/

Another aspect of human nature that became clear was human curiosity. As soon as we are behind our walls, safe and secure, we want to go outside, cross the river, and get to the other side to find out what’s happening out there.
Is it possible we build walls, almost as a dare, so others will tear them down?
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Sources:
https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/scaling-the-wall-in-the-head/
https://bigthink.com/philip-perry/3-border-walls-from-history-and-what-they-tell-us-about-trumps-proposal
https://ips-dc.org/the-psychology-of-the-wall/
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Great_Zimbabwe
http://www.greatzimbabweruins.com/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/188025353164802587/?lp=true
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/zimb/hd_zimb.htm
https://sacredsites.com/africa/zimbabwe/great_zimbabwe_ruins.html
https://www.ancient-code.com/the-great-ziggurat-of-ur-an-ancient-temple-honoring-the-anunnaki/
http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/The_Red_Snake_The_Great_Wall_of_Gorgan.htm
https://www.ancient.eu/Sacsayhuaman/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Constantinople
https://www.ancient.eu/image/9254/the-inner-walls-of-babylon/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walls_of_Ston
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/history-and-overivew-of-the-western-wall
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Western-Wall
https://www.ancient.eu
https://www.inrap.fr/en/periods
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon
http://www.theottomans.org/english/campaigns_army/1453-the-conquest.asp
https://www.dailysabah.com/feature/2015/07/31/the-historical-city-gates-of-istanbul
http://www.tourmakerturkey.com/old-city-walls.html
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/babylon-walls.htm
https://www.historyextra.com/period/ancient-history/border-walls-history-mexico-trump-china-great-wall/
https://www.travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/history/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasanian_Empire
https://brewminate.com/the-long-walls-of-ancient-athens/
https://www.ancient-code.com/the-great-ziggurat-of-ur-an-ancient-temple-honoring-the-anunnaki/
https://www.historyextra.com/period/ancient-history/border-walls-history-mexico-trump-china-great-wall/
https://www.history.com/news/7-famous-border-walls
https://themysteriousworld.com/top-10-amazing-ancient-walls-around-world/
http://www.emersonkent.com/map_archive/athens_piraeus_431_bc.htm

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WILL THE REAL“OSTERHASE” PLEASE STAND UP? Origins of the Easter Bunny

4/10/2020

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We Americans have done it again.

“Done what again?” you ask.

Many of our traditions were brought to what is now the United States by the immigrants who braved the unknown and came here hoping for a better life… our ancestors. Easter traditions are no different. And in absorbing those traditions into American culture, often we didn’t get it quite right… or else we were consciously attempting to be different, but I don’t believe that applies to religious traditions brought from Europe to North America.

So what happened?

RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATION
Easter is the Christian celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but nowhere in scripture, in any version of the Bible, do we find a reference to a long-eared, short-tailed creature who delivers decorated eggs to well-behaved children.

However, the association between Christianity and the Leporidae family [which includes the species of rabbit and hare] is not totally off the wall. First, because these animals are prolific procreators, hare and rabbits are ancient symbols of fertility and new life, and often associated with springtime.
In ancient times, the Greeks believed the hare was a hermaphrodite and able to reproduce without a male. The idea that hares could reproduce without loss of virginity led to an association with the Virgin Mary. The result was the hare appearing in paintings of the Virgin and Christ child.
The Madonna of the Rabbit by Tizian
▼Photo Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_of_the_Rabbit

“The rabbit is a symbol of fertility and, due to its whiteness, of Mary’s purity and the mystery of the Incarnation, and is also a symbol of her Virginity.”

We now know female rabbits and hares can conceive a second litter of offspring while still pregnant with the first, resulting in them being able to give birth seemingly without having been impregnated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Madonna_of_the_Rabbit

Some believe it may have been related to the Holy Trinity because of the three hare motif found in works of art throughout the world as early
as the 6th century. Photo source: feelguide.com/meaning-of-the-three-hares ▼

PAGAN ASSOCIATION
While Easter is a Christian holiday with its roots firmly embedded in religion, the symbols of this Holy Day, as with many holidays and celebrations, evolved from ancient pagan legends and rituals. Even the English word for Easter is derived from the Anglo Saxon name for Eostre or Eastre, the German goddess of Spring and the Dawn. Logically, her celebration was the spring solstice and her symbol – surprise, surprise – the hare.
▼Photo source: mysticalshores.com/goddess-Eostre

Legend has it that Eastre found an injured bird. In order to save its life, the goddess transformed it into a rabbit. The transformation was successful in that the rabbit survived, but it was not quite complete, as this rabbit could only lay eggs as if it were still a bird. In gratitude, the rabbit would decorate the eggs and leave them for the goddess.” https://mysticalshores.com/2015/04/01/the-goddess-ostara-eostre/

However, according to www.catholic.org/lent/ there is no evidence of any pagan correlation.

Eventually, this legend morphed into a German tradition for the celebration of Christian Easter. Thus, the egg-laying hare called “Osterhass” [also “Oschter Haws”] traveled to North America in the 1700s with the German Lutheran immigrants who settled in Pennsylvannia, where Osterhass continued to play the role of evaluating whether children had been good or bad before the start of the season of Eastertide. The tradition spread to other parts of the country and is now international. Chinese Easter Card ▼

HOW DID WE GET IT WRONG?
The way in which the tradition evolved into The Easter Bunny has nothing to do with religion or paganism. It has to do with Zoology and accuracy.

All of the ancient references and German customs refer to a hare, not a rabbit. The mistake is, apparently, a general assumption that rabbits and hares are the same animal. We seem to use the words interchangeably.

Rabbits and hares are not at all the same. They are both part of the same order of mammals, the same family – Leporidae – but they are a different species, just like sheep and goats are species of the family Bovidae [mammals with hoofs]. Chances are, if you referred to a sheep as being a goat, someone would correct you.

The differences are not just in the way they look. Baby rabbits, called kittens or bunnies, are blind and have no hair at birth. Baby hares, called leverets, are born with fur and sight and can move within an hour of birth.

They live in different types of habitat, eat different kinds of food, have different mating habits and gestation periods. They are also different in how fast they can run and in many other ways which I won’t bother you with. Both are native to North and South America, Europe and Asia.

HOW DID THE MEDIEVAL EASTER “OSTERHASS” [HARE] BECOME A RABBIT?
It doesn’t matter. In reality, neither one can lay eggs, and the Easter Hare still delivers eggs in the Czech Republic.
▼ Photo source: http://philatelier.over-blog.com/2019/03/lapin-ou-lievre-de-paques.html

HAPPY EASTER!

Sources:
https://mysticalshores.com/2015/04/01/the-goddess-ostara-eostre/
http://herald-zeitung.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/article_a92ef55e-67bc-11e0-99ac-001cc4c03286.html
https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/easter-symbols
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Bunny
https://time.com/3767518/easter-bunny-origins-history/
https://www.catholic.org/lent/story.php?id=67999
https://www.catholic.org/news/hf/faith/story.php?id=67961
https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/what-is-the-difference-between-a-rabbit-and-a-hare
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/12/141219-rabbits-hares-animals-science-mating-courtship/
https://www.feelguide.com/2020/01/06/new-book-explores-the-meaning-of-the-three-hares-one-of-human-historys-most-mysterious-symbols/
https://science.jrank.org/pages/3785/Lagomorphs-Rabbits-hares-North-America.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Madonna_of_the_Rabbit

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A COVEN OF CREATURES: Collective Nouns For Animal Groups

4/3/2020

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A NUISANCE OF NOUNS
Collective Nouns – families or teams that refer to a group of people or things -- are an important part of our language. A crowd of people. A mob of gangsters. A herd of cows. A batch of cookies. We use them all the time without thinking about it.

Every now and then in my writing career, I’ve run into situations where I’ve wanted to use a collective noun for a group of animals. Not that I was required to use a word other than flock, herd, swarm, school, or pack -- all of which suffice quite nicely -- but driven by a desire to employ something more dramatic to avoid using the same word multiple times on a page. And some of these words are not as common as one might think.

Plus, I’m a fan of The Big Bang Theory, and Sheldon is always reminding us that a group of cats should be called a clowder. As perfect as Sheldon may be, he’s not quite accurate by omission. There are a variety of collective nouns are attributed to both domestic and feral cats. [Big and wild cats have their own individual group names.]

Cats [domesticated] = Clowder, Clutter, Pounce, Dout, Nuisance, Glorying, and Glare
Kittens = Kindle, Litter, Intrigue
Cats [feral] = Destruction

In the process of looking up collective animal nouns when I wanted one, I ran onto several lengthy lists. After reading through a couple of them, I wondered who the heck makes up these amusing and often ridiculous terms. Some make sense; others, not so much.
Photo source: foxnews.com/science/cats

Tigers = Ambush
An Ambush of Tigers might be appropriate if you stumbled unsuspectingly on several of them in the jungle, waiting for their dinner to some along. In the zoo, maybe not.

AN ORIGIN OF ORIGINALS: Etymology
Many of these collective nouns for animals were introduced in 1486 with the publication of the Book of St. Albans [or Boke of Seynt Albans] which addresses matters of interest to a gentleman of the times [hawking, hunting, and heraldry]. It also including lists of collective nouns for animals, called terms of venery [hunting].

This treatise, also known by the title The Book of Hawking, Hunting, and Blasing of Arms, is the source of many collective nouns for groups of animals and people that are part of our everyday lexicon.

Others are among our fanciful favorites, well known but rarely used, and others are complete surprises.
A Gaggle of Geese A Murder of Crows
An Unkindness Of Ravens A Clattering Of Choughs
A Murmuration Of Starlings A Charm Of Goldfinches

The publication is attributed to Dame Juliana Berners (or Barnes), the prioress of an abbey near St. Albans, Hertfordshire. Writing an advice book about hunting seems an unlikely pastime for a prioress, but she was probably part of the medieval aristocracy before she took her orders.
Drawing of Dame Juliana Berneers
Photo source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliana_Berners

A WHITTLING OF WORDSMITHS: Who Gets To Decide?
What I don’t believe is that a Brit in the 1400s bestowed collective nouns on North American animals they’d never heard of, like An Obstinacy of Buffalo. If Berners didn’t come up with that collective, who did? Who gets to decides on the right collective noun for something?

According to medium.com/@Naturalish, “The short answer is no one.” That may be the reason groups have more than one collective noun. Photo source: hammakerzqmeriel.blogspot.com

Fox = Leash, Skulk, Earth, Lead, or Troop.
The English language is constantly changing and evolving. Dictionaries add new words and new definitions of old words or drop obsolete words usually twice a year.

ccording to the Merriam Webster, “A Drudge of Lexicographers” continuously review the written and spoken words in thousands of collected texts and transcriptions. When a word reaches a prescribed level of common usage, then it is considered for addition to the dictionary. Some words, particularly those related to a specific field of endeavor, may be used and generally known for a long time before there are enough references to merit inclusion in the dictionary.

That said, many of the collective nouns for animal groups are in the dictionary but are rarely used in writing or in speech. How does that happen? I can’t tell you how often I’ve read about A Stubbornness of Rhinoceroses.
Well, actually, I can. Never!
Photo source: smithsonianmag.com/rhinos

As Naturalish puts it, “In most cases, they’re far from an already-utilized standard in the English language. Linguists seem to operate in a bubble claiming that these random, encyclopedic words reflect real human speech, when in reality, they’re the creation of an elitist, in-group of wordsmiths conning the public into accepting ‘poetry’ as everyday vernacular.” ~ June 5, 2018, The Absurd Truth Behind Collective Animal Nouns, https://medium.com/@Naturalish/the-absurd-truth-behind-collective-animal-nouns-f4a4cde48b4f

Merriamwebster.com agrees. “In the end, there is no cut and dried rule for how to refer to a particular group of creatures. And this may be why we love the more fanciful collective nouns so much.” ~ https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/a-drudge-of-lexicographers-presents-collective-nouns

A DELUGE OF DESCRIPTIONS and AN AMPLITUDE OF ALLITERATION
Below l have listed examples of some of the more creative collective nouns for critters, but left out most of the common terms everyone knows and the ones already cited.

Many of these describe fairly well the movements, looks, or habits of the creatures in question, and the imaginations of those who gave birth to these terms have good relationships with alliteration and rhymes.
P.S. I have made absolutely NO attempt to alphabetize either the terms or the animals. Not sorry.

A Cackle of Hyenas
Photo Credit:Jrlphotographer/Istock
PhotoSource:mentalfloss.com/collective

A Shrewdness Of Apes
Photo Credit:Jrlphotographer/Istock
Source: businessinsider.com/odd-names

A Parliament of Owls
Photo Credit: Tariq Sulemani/Istock
Source: businessinsider.com/groups-of-anim

A Caldron of Bats
Photo Credit: Flickr / U.S. Fish and Wildlife
businessinsider.com/groups-of-animals

Flamboyance of Flamingos
Photo Credit: REUTERS/Stringer
businessinsider.com/groups-of-animals

Tower of giraffes
Photo Credit: Flickr/kimvanderwaal
Source: businessinsider.com/groups-of-anim

I have no clue which of these collective nouns are in the dictionaries with the definition intended by this list. I believe “A Pride of Lions” is there, but you can be sure that I did not look any of them up.

Here’s the deal. If you know of a species out there in the world which doesn’t have a collective noun to its name, the door is open for you … let your fantasy soar. Just be aware that you can have a bunch of just about anything.
Not long ago I came across a species in Madagascar that I had never heard of. The animal was thought to be a type of lemur, but recently has been given its distinct family … the Aye-aye. After giving the problem a great deal of thought, here is my collective noun for these creatures.

An Eyre of Aye-aye

I get the impression the Aye-aye doesn’t like it too much.
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Sources:
https://medium.com/@Naturalish/the-absurd-truth-behind-collective-animal-nouns-f4a4cde48b4f
http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Pointless/AnimalGroups.html
https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/word-lists/list-of-names-for-groups-of-animals.html
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/551081/collective-nouns-groups-animals
https://www.businessinsider.com/odd-names-for-groups-of-animals-2016-3
https://grammar.collinsdictionary.com/us/grammar-pattern/collective-nouns_2
https://www.cjr.org/language_corner/animal_collectives.php
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary_of_collective_nouns_by_subject
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/a-drudge-of-lexicographers-presents-collective-nouns
https://www.etymonline.com/

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