The Headlines

The Future of Breeding

When potential pet parents can't find dogs, what is our best solution?  In The Great American Mutt in the 21st century: A new paradigm Joyce Briggs discusses steps to move beyond just "Spay and Neuter your pets" to think about a problem facing more and more regions of North America.  As she points out, the US national average of dogs saved in shelters is 90%.  In many regions dogs are not available for adoption or there are long wait lists.  There are also families with specific wants or needs.  In turn there could be a role for more responsible breeding, especially of mixed breed dogs.  The place to start is for organizations to begin tracking the sources of dogs in their areas.  By understanding what the demand for pets is, as veterinary professionals we can start to consider the best paths forward.  Otherwise the space opens up for puppy mills or other unscrupulous actors to fill the demand. If you have worked in this sector or have thoughts on the article we would love to hear them.

A History of Hybridization

A new paper in Science Advances points to the earliest known human made hybrid animal in history.  The authors point to tablets and seals of Syotamiato-Mesop which point to the purposeful breeding of female donkeys and male hemippes (a wild ass) to create the Kunga in the third millenium BCE.  These were considered high value equids used for ceremony, diplomacy and warfare. Seems like we've come a long way from the Kunga to 61 types of doodles.

Quick hits:

Here are the stories that caught our eyes this week and are worth a read: Bioluminescence in the deep: how and why animals create their own light [Moneterey Bay Aquarium YouTube]The key decisions to save wildlife from the CITES summit [New Scientist]More than 100 seal pups born in the Thames, 100 years after river declared biologically dead [The Telegraph]

Trivia

 Which animal has the longest arms?  1. By size alone 2. By relative length

Your weekly dopamine 

Animals at the National Zoo have the best snow day ever!

Trivia Answer

The longest Animal Arms

1. The humpback whale - no animal compares to the sheer size of the flippers of 

Megaptera novaeangliae

which can measure up to 16 feet long.

2. Three Toed Sloths - two species of sloths - Pale-throated sloths (

Bradypus tridactylus

) and brown-throated sloths (

Bradypus variegatus

) - have the longest intermembral index (forelimb length divided by hindlimb length x 100) of 171 and 172.  By comparison a human's IM index is ~70.  Hey sloth, can you grab me that jar on the top shelf?

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