Happy Groundhog Day

At 7:25, this Saturday morning, amidst overcast an overcast sky, and frigid degree temperatures, Phil the Groundhog failed to see his shadow in the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

According to folklore, no shadow for Phil means that there will be an early Spring this year. Woohoo!

Since the Groundhog’s first prediction in 1887, Phil has seen his shadow one hundred times and has not seen it on just sixteen occasions, with nine missing years in the record.

His unimpeachable reliability notwithstanding, Phil’s accuracy is the subject of debate.NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center reports that Phil’s forecasts have shown no predictive skill, but AccuWeather reports that Phil has an eighty percent accuracy rate.

I’m putting my faith into Phil’s prediction that we’ll get an early Spring this year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/groundhog-day-2013-no-shadow-for-punxsutawney-phil-so-springsaround-the-corner/2013/02/02/34e6e620-6c9c-11e2-bd36-c0fe61a205f6_blog.html

An Otter and a Beaver

At Finster Lake in Albion, Indiana, on January 24th, two river otters and a beaver dig up plant roots from the bottom of the lake through a hole in the ice. The real excitement starts at 2:26. Enjoy.

Happy Ottersday ^_^

Merry Christmas!

This gallery contains 17 photos.

Namaste Viscacha

Viscachas are rodents in the chinchilla family, but they look more like rabbits, with long tails. They live all over South America, from the pampas of Argentina to the Peruvian and Ecuadorean Andes. They are also hilarious. :-D

Happy Bunday ^-^

One Rat in Heaven

Ermahgerd. Gerps.

Dutch Beaver Population Growing Well… a Little Too Well

The beaver population in The Netherlands’ is thriving, but a little too well, as the beaver population is expected to grow from 700 to 7,000 by 2032. A group of experts is warning that this could actually threaten the stability of the Netherlands’ sea defenses.

The Mammal Society has brought together other wildlife groups to work out how to protect the Netherlands’ important water-blocking dykes from the potentially destructive semi-aquatic rodents without infringing on the beavers’ natural development in the ecosystem.

Beavers play an very important ecological role in the Netherlands and they increase biodiversity. In forests, they gnaw through trees, creating space for other species to survive; in water they build dams, which allow insects and plants to thrive.

The Netherlands’ famous dykes protect the land from being flooded. Without these sea defenses huge swathes of the country would be underwater, and in areas where the dykes are directly connected to the water, the beavers are starting to burrow through the ground.

Vilmar Dijkstra has been hosting a symposium on related topics and said this about some of the protective methods available.

“People can put down mesh grids underwater to stop the beavers from being able to get to the dyke, or use stones to protect them. It is only really a problem when the slope from the dyke is going steeply down into the water. That is when the beavers will like to burrow, because it is in their nature.”

Mr Dijkstra says he is asking all the regional representatives one crucial question:

“Are you beaver ready?”