Himalaya

  

 P A R O      T A K T S A N G      M O N A S T E R Y

 The Tigress's Lair in English.

This monastery is perched on the face of a

sheer cliff, overlooking the Paro Valley nearly a

thousand feet below.  Buddhist monks started

this audacious architectural project in 1692.

As you might expect, making a spiritual pilgrimage 

to this sacred site is a bit of a walk.  The total distance

is a short but rugged four miles.  Your botanical tour

includes climbing 700 steep stone steps cut into 

the walls of a sheer canyon gorge.  You use a 

forever wet bridge to cross the face of a 100 meter

waterfall along the way.  You arrive at a pleasant cafe

at the halfway mark.  Here's your chance to turn around

and go back.

Instead of proceeding to the monastery

you settle for buying a t-shirt that says:

I Bailed on My Spiritual Journey.

 G L A C I A L      P A T H      N E A R      E V E R E S T

 Our planet is molten.  The landscape we inhabit is one of a

number of continental sized tectonic plates that make up

the Earth's crust.  Over the hundreds of millions of years

these land masses move about and sometimes collide.

Roughly fifty million years ago the plate of India crashed

into the Asian plate at speeds of up to 15 centimeters

yearly.  That's around a 6 inch movement by the continent

over the space of a year.  You wouldn't notice were you

to be standing there.  

The collision continues to this day at about 2 inches a year.

The result is slow-motion violence over geological time.

Any galactic body shop mechanic would take one look

at the Himalayan Mountains and say you've got a badly

crumpled fender.  India had its flat plains elevated tens

of thousands of feet over the past 50 million years.

The rise of these mountains interfered with the globe's

jet-stream, shifting it south in order to go around this

obstruction.  This enabled the expansion of cool, polar

air and changes in weather patterns.  Some meteorologists

claim this shift was a major contribution to the formation

of the Ice Age.

 B  H  A  R  A  L

 Agility is more important than speed for survival.

These mountain goats feed in Alpine meadows

where steep, rocky terrain is nearby as defense

against sudden ambushes from the snow leopard,

its most lethal enemy.  

The Bharal has rubbery, split-hooves that act like

suction cups on near vertical surfaces, giving it

near flawless traction.  The male's horns are

impressive but not showy.  Larger horns 

increases the animal's instability while 

navigating a precarious situation.

  H I M A L A Y A N      T A H R 

 They segregate on the basis of sex into herds of

either all-male or all-female year round,

except when its mating season.  In the autumn

the mature bucks pay a visit to the female camp.

They have a good time, then leave.

Little do they know that all this rutting frolic

has been their contribution to a worthy cause.

There will be no male presence to guard

the Spring batch of newborns from hungry

predators.  At half the size of the adult male

these Tahr mothers could use some help.

But the biggest male, even with all its

220 pounds of resolve, remains little more

than a hero sandwich for the prowling

predator nearby.

Only when the Tahr herd reaches the sanctuary 

of nearby sheer stone cliffs, are they safely 

out of reach of the ever patrolling Snow Leopard.

 H I M A L A Y A N      M O N A L

 His Gaudy Highness.

This is the standard from which a female monal

decides who is most desirable.  Today's

female pheasant wraps her man in something

off-the-rack Broadway.  Something psychedelic.

He becomes everyone's dashing Rocket Man...

Elton John, in topknot and orange tails.

The female sits on her nest, camouflaged in

muted colors.  Not far away is her husband,

a shimmering knight in the sunlight,

standing guard.

 S N O W Y      L E O P A R D

 They've been known to cover twenty-five miles in

a single night to track the scent of their mate.

It's sex.  Nothing more.  The big cats are loners

and go their separate ways.  

Providing for genetic diversity is the primary biological

role of the male species, while the female creates new

individuals to renew the species.  On and on it goes

a couple hundred million generations and more.  

Cats.

Everywhere across the globe some version of this 

animal's basic engineering sits atop the region's 

food chain as the apex predator.  Each species

of cat, modified through eons of trial and error,

remains the most successful carnivore approach

to its environment, wherever it appears.

Genetic diversity gives this organism the mechanism

to adapt, as a species, to the changes that occur 

to its environment over time.

*   *   *   *   * 

©  Tom Taylor

 OVER   EASY

 

coldValentine

good morning Justin

  

 

   M   A   N   I   C

 

 

love

   dad

coldValentine

Amazon

  

 J   A   G   U   A   R

 Pound for pound the strongest cat bite anywhere;

strong enough to crush a skull, crack open a turtle's

shell and ripe through an alligator's hide.  The jaguar

is the true apex predator of the Amazon and all of 

South America.

The jaguar is solitary and fiercely possessive of its home

range.  Unlike most cats the jaguar is an exceptional

swimmer.  Much of its diet comes from the water - 

fish, turtle and the Black Caiman - a Florida-like alligator,

only larger and more powerful.

Jaguar vs. Black Caiman.

A cage match to see who's for dinner.

S   L   O   T   H

 Slow motion living is more than a lifestyle.

It's a science.  If you have a lower metabolic rate

than this animal, you're hibernating.  The sloth

lives on an exceptionally nutrient poor diet of leaves

that are tough, difficult to breakdown.  Their food

requires a complex, multichambered stomach.  

Even then, it takes up to a month to fully digest

a single meal.  The animal's energy is budgeted

only for necessities, like breathing.  Ruthless

economizing is the only way the sloth makes

a living where no other mammal can.

The silver lining in having such sluggish digestion

is that your bathroom break is only once a week.

This requires you to climb down from the safety

of the tree to the forest floor, where predators lurk.

The ground is the worst place for a sloth to be.

There is no scamper in its design.  Even a snake

would beat it in a race back to the tree.

If attacked, the sloth becomes as feisty as a

butterball, baked and ready to serve.

 A   N   A   C   O   N   D   A

 The python is slightly longer but the anaconda 

weighs twice as much.  Imagine trying to fight off

a 550 pound snake.  The good news is you are

crushed quickly, sparring you the ordeal of slow

suffocation.  The anaconda's coiled grip prevents

 any blood from reaching the heart or brain.

It's lights out in mere seconds.

Size is no obstacle.  The anaconda's mouth

somehow manages to encompass even the

carcass of a dead deer.  The trick is in how

long it takes for you to swallow it.  You are

indisposed, vulnerable, during this early digestive

process.  Woe be the anaconda discovered by a

jaguar in this manner.  How delectable.

Fresh deer in a snake meat wrap.

 The risk is worth taking.  A meal the size of deer

could last the snake seven months, which happens 

to be the anaconda's length of pregnancy.

The female's last meal in this instance, may well

have been the male, once insemination was complete.

He would have been a convenient meal packed with

good things.  His proteins would produce healthy,

vibrant young ones of his genetics, all born live

and squiggly.  Anacondas don't do eggs in a nest.

That birthing strategy requires reliably dry land

and guaranteed protection from thieving predators.

 B  L  U  E       P  O  I  S  O  N       D  A  R  T       F  R  O  G

 This amphibian is not much bigger than a canapé

lifted from a cocktail tray.  It's finger food served

up in one gulp.  And here this animal is, shouting

its presence in technicolor blue, red or yellow. 

Most animals this size are cloaked in camouflage.

The Blue Dart stands in your face, daring 

to be eaten.

This is no bluff.  These brilliant colors promise

quick paralysis and death to anyone eating

these amphibians.  It's caused by neurotoxins

contained in the frog's skin glands.  The Blue Dart

doesn't make its own poison.  Instead, it accumulates

toxic levels of alkaloid compounds that are contained 

in its diet of fire ants, termites and the like.

This dietary anecdote is like a vaccine giving 

the frog immunity to predation.  Now it

freely hops about doing its socializing 

in broad daylight with complete peace of mind.

Any predator ignoring the color warning is dead.

Somehow they didn't get the message 

or they were color blind.

 

 

 C   A   P   Y   B   A   R   A

 World's largest rodent.  A giant guinea pig.

Very pleasant disposition.  Birds and assorted

other animals have been known to roost on their

backs and head, undisturbed.

They live in groups of up to twenty individuals 

most of the year.  They practice communal parenting.

Lactating moms will nurse pups not their own.

Their eyes, ears and nostrils all sit on top of their head.

They spend a good deal of time submerged, 

out of the view of predators.

Kicking back.

 

H   A   R   P   Y       E   A   G  L   E

     World's most powerful bird of prey.

It maneuvers through the rainforest canopy

at speeds of up to fifty miles an hour, targeting

sloths, monkeys and parrots for prey.

A Harpy can easily carry off an animal equal

to its own weight.  That can be seventeen pounds

or more.  Its powerful claws come armed with

talons the size of a grizzly bear's - four to five

inches long.  Its viselike grip is powerful enough

to splinter any bone.

The Harpy mates for life.

They breed every two or three years.

The Eagle couple has two eggs.

Two are born.  One survives.

Parents largely determine which

of the two is more worthy.

*   *   *   *   *

©  Tom Taylor

 

OVER   EASY

 

coldValentine

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

  

F   I   L   L    *    E   R    *    U   P   !

😶    H  A  P  P  Y     B  I  R  T  H  D  A  Y  !

  J  E  R  E  M  Y  

love

   dad

coldValentine

good morning jacob

  

*   C   E   L   E   B   R   I   T   Y   *

 

 

love

   dad

coldValentine

Arctic

  

C   A   R   I   B   O   U

 Santa's reindeer.

Sleighs powered by caribou is the way to go, 

if you live above the Arctic Circle.  Caribou live through

-140 degree nights.  Horses die.  And where's the food?

You might get hay if you're Donner or Blitzen but 

everyone else scrapes about to get by.  You live 

in a vast, snow and ice covered tundra.  There

are no tree leaves to nibble on while browsing.

At times there is nothing more to eat than lichen,

growing like moss on the hard face of rock.

It's buried deep in ice and snow.  Use your 

hoof to break through.  Take what you can get

and keep moving.  Birthing the next generation

is the one event requiring the migration to stop.

Females are particular about where they raise

their calves.  The location chosen needs to have 

the right food available while also posing the

least danger from predators.  Herds will trek

hundreds of miles to find what they want, or

settle for close enough if time runs out.

 

 

 

A   R   C   T   I   C       F   O   X

 Salmon automatically makes this a special occasion.

Much of the time the food pickings are skimpy, at best.

You'll settle for seaweed, if you can find it.

Here's a tip.  It pays to follow a polar bear out onto

the ice flow.  Risky, yes, but the seal remains left after

a polar bear has had his fill, is a fitting carnivore

happy ending.

The Arctic Fox is nomadic.  It ranges over hundreds

of miles in search of food.  They hunt, even on dark

winter nights, when the sun takes months for it

to finally rise again, and daylight returns.

There is no hibernation in the Arctic zone.

No Time Out.  No Free Parking.    

There is no surplus fat here for the taking.

The Arctic just isn't that generous.

 

M   U   S   K       O   X

 This is an ancient mammal that lived among

the woolly mammoth and saber-toothed tiger.

They survived the Ice Age and are with us today.

Layers of hair protect them from extreme cold.

The exotic innermost layer provides eight times

the warmth of sheep's wool while also being softer

than cashmere.  What a magnificent beast...

and now he's providing us with Sweaters by Yeti.

 

 A   R   C   T   I   C       W   O   L   F

 The carcass of this musk ox has more than enough

meat to satisfy this canine.   A wolf can take in as much

as 22 pounds of flesh in one sitting, stocking up for the

possibility of sometimes going weeks before the 

next meal.

Wolves stick together, roaming their territory in packs

of up to seven.  When it comes time to breed, only

the alpha male and alpha female are allowed to mate.

Consummation is the exclusive privilege of the Prom's

king and queen.  It makes for dreadfully successful pups.

 

 

P   O   L   A   R       B   E   A   R

 Seal is the best! ...packed with nutrients and plenty

of high energy blubber.  There is enough bad cholesterol

here to drop a human in their tracks, seized with congestive 

heart failure.  The polar bear has biological work arounds

so this result doesn't apply to them.  Their survival

depends on a diet filled with fat-rich blubber.

Here's something else about the picture above.

Water is everywhere but nothing there to drink.

You die of thirst if you rely on fresh water here.

The polar bear doesn't drink.  It creates water

for itself when it metabolizes the seal's fat.

In a sense, the blubber is like a refreshing 

glass of water.

S   N   O   W   Y       O   W   L

 The thick insulation covering this bird makes it 

the heaviest owl on the continent.  Its body is no 

bigger than other owls but it flies about blanketed

from head to toe with double the down.

Lugging this extra weight about is the price paid

for survival in below zero cold.

Most owls work at night.  They are nocturnal.

Snowy owls are diurnal.  You work both day and night.

There is no avoiding it.  In summer the sun 

never sets while during winter the sun 

takes months before it rises again.   

In any event, the owl does what is needed

to stay alive.  Food is often scarce.

Except for the lemmings, small rodent like mice.

Amazing breeders.  A gift that keeps on giving.

A typical Snowy Owl could pack away 1,200 

lemmings a year, and still have room for dessert.

Many years ago a Disney documentary claimed

lemmings periodically committed mass suicide,

and showed a film clip of thousands of lemmings

running off a cliff, falling onto the wave-battered

rocks below.  The scene was apparently staged,

but the myth of the lemming urge for suicide

lives on as biological fake news.

 

 

*   *   *   *   *

©  Tom Taylor

 

 OVER   EASY

 

coldValentine

good morning jack

  

 

O   P   E   N   I   N   G       N   I   T   E   !

 

 

love

   dad

 

coldValentine