love

Little Kitty – Kodkod

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If you have never loved and been loved in return by a cat or other pet, I would argue that you have never really lived. The love you feel for a cat and the love that a cat gives to you is among the truest and purest form that love can take. When you experience that love, you become a better person with a greater capacity to share that love with others in your life.
I have very recently lost the light of my life, Elly, the cat that has been with me for 18 years. She went on her own time out in the garden where she loved to be and had loving support all the way. I have never missed anyone so much and the pain of her death is still raw. But that pain comes from my love for her. I am so thankful for the time I was given with her and will always love her infinitely. She was the most special friend that anyone could ever have and I am glad that she went peacefully and didn’t have to suffer.
This is for Elly. I will love you forever, little girl!

The kodkod (Leopardus guigna) is the smallest wild cat in the Americas, and rivals several other species for the title of smallest cat in the world. This tiny cat barely reaches 6 pounds (smaller than the average house cat) and lives in the montane areas of Chile and a small portion of Argentina. It prefers dense undergrowth in its moist, temperate evergreen forest habitat, and can be found up to the tree line at around 6,300 feet. Although this cat is usually brownish yellow with black spots, melanism is common. The paws are large with black pads and its ears are rounded with a white spot on the back of each one. The kodkod’s short, bushy tail, small frame, and petite facial features give it the appearance of a kitten, even when it is a full grow adult.

There is still not much known about this small cat, and its populations are dwindling. An estimated 10,000 cats are left in the wild, no single population exceeding 2,000 individuals. Kodkods are sometimes killed for raiding chicken coops or accidentally caught in fox traps. The cats are also illegally trapped for their fur. Perhaps the biggest threat to the kodkod, though, is habitat loss and fragmentation. Kodkods don’t do well in deforested areas. They need at least a thick ground cover such as scrub to survive, and stick exclusively to the forested corridors around developed or farmed areas.

In contrast to other cats, kodkods are equally active at night and during the day. Around humans, however, they are strictly nocturnal. They appear in areas where there are high numbers of small, mouse sized prey and not many larger predators. This relative lack of competition gives them the opportunity to flourish on the abundance of food and raise their one to three kittens.

There are many conservation laws and programs in place to protect this special little cat and its close relatives like the oncilla and Geoffroy’s cat. We treat our pets as family and give them all the love we have, doing whatever we can to support them. Why can’t we show wild cats this same love? They’re really not that different.

References:
1. “Kodkod.” Felidae Conservation Fund. Felidae Conservation Fund, 2013. Web. 22 July 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.felidaefund.org%2F%3Fq%3Dspecies-kodkod>.

2. “Guigna Facts.” Big Cat Rescue. Bigcatrescue.org, 15 Mar. 2015. Web. 22 July 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fbigcatrescue.org%2Fkodkod-guigna-facts%2F>.

3. “Kodkod.” International Society for Endangered Cats (ISEC) Canada. ISEC Canada, 2014. Web. 22 July 2015. <http://www.wildcatconservation.org/wild-cats/south-america/kodkod/&gt;.

4. Napolitano, C., Gálvez, N., Bennett, M., Acosta-Jamett, G., and Sanderson, J. “Leopardus Guigna (Chilean Cat, Guiña, Kodkod).” Red List. International Union for the Conservation of Nature, 2015. Web. 22 July 2015. <http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/15311/0&gt;.

Photo and Video Links:
1.https://flic.kr/p/2iVdFMV

2.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFA6hxfnVjM

3.http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1360845/chile-cat.jpg

Gifts of Love – The Dance Fly

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When a person says dance fly, most people would likely think of a dancing housefly. However, there is actually such an insect that goes by this name, though it is very different from the common housefly. Dance flies, also called balloon flies or dagger flies, are predatory Dipterans that are members of the family Empididae. Empids are characterized by their long, pointy mouth parts and their extravagant mating rituals. If a fly can be charming, the dance fly is certainly the one that is most likely to be. During the breeding season, swarms of male dance flies will gather together and perform for nearby females while carrying delicate, specially crafted silk balloons. These balloons are called nuptial gifts and a successful male will pass his balloon to his partner during mating and they will often tumble to the ground together.

Credit: Mark Shields

Nuptial gifts in the form of silk balloons are unique to this family. Often, these balloons will contain a protein rich meal for the female to consume whilst mating. Typically, the larger the prey item, the more time the male gets to mate and the more sperm he can deliver. Other insects such as scorpionflies show this behavior as well, but they do not construct balloons to carry the prey items as dance flies do.

Jennifer Sadowski and her team (1998) have shown that an interesting phenomenon has evolved in certain species of dance flies, more specifically, Empis snoddyi. What they’ve learned is that males of this species no longer offer prey to their female mates, but just the silken balloon, which has no nutritional value and serves no purpose for the female other than to hold during copulation. This is called an “empty” nuptial gift. Although females will accept gifts of no direct or indirect benefit to themselves, they can still be choosy about who they take as their partners. This study found that there is an inverse correlation between balloon size and body size within successful males. It appears that female choice over generations has selected for a smaller balloon size and bigger male body size. Sadowski et al. noticed that the most successful males weren’t necessarily the ones with the smallest balloons, though. They observed that males with large body sizes and intermediate sized balloons took the most mates. There are a number of reasons why this may be. When sexual selection favors female choice, there are often signs that females look for in a mate that are indicative of their health and good genetics. In dance flies, females will chase their chosen male out of the swarm before deciding to mate with him. This could possibly be an assessment of his flying ability and fitness. It makes sense, then, that males with larger balloons would have a more difficult time performing at the top of their game. The bigger a balloon is, the more cumbersome it might be and could hinder a male’s flight displays. On the other end of the spectrum, a female requires a gift to mate and if a balloon is so small that it is not readily visible to her, she may ignore the male carrying it. As we can see from these animals, the courtship and mating process of insects can be complex, elaborate, and elegant. It isn’t just the more charismatic animals like mammals and birds that can show fascinating sexual behavior. Next time you go outside and notice the insects around you, consider the intricacies of their intimate behaviors and marvel at the great variation of life on this planet.

This photo was taken in my very own garden and is what inspired the article. I suspected they were scorpionflies just based on the behavior, but they didn’t look right. I did some research and found out how awesome dance flies are.

References:
1. Sadowski, Jennifer A., Allen J. Moore, and Edmund D. Brodie III. “The evolution of empty nuptial gifts in a dance fly, Empis snoddyi (Diptera: Empididae): bigger isn’t always better.” Behavioral ecology and sociobiology 45.3-4 (1999): 161-166.

2. Cumming, Jeffery M. “Sexual selection and the evolution of dance fly mating systems (Diptera: Empididae; Empidinae).” The Canadian Entomologist 126.03 (1994): 907-920.

Photo Links:
1.http://bugguide.net/images/cache/PZK/LGZ/PZKLGZSL9ZGHJHPHYH9HYH2HBHZLNZILWZ7L3HMLAZMLFHWHJH9HYH5LAZ2HNZMLRREHFHIL3H6HJHNHBZ8L9Z4LFH.jpg

2.https://i1.wp.com/bugguide.net/images/cache/IZT/L0Z/IZTL0ZDL3L0HQRDZKRLH4RQHERKHERYZZZ3ZYLULLZTLKZBL5RZHSZLH6R0HGRLH2RZHKZQHIRELYL3Z7R9LMRQHPRZH.jpg