Wildlife Conservationists Can't Do It Alone

It is perhaps obvious but little discussed. Wildlife conservationists can't preserve wildlife on their own. They can't work in isolation, which sometimes seems to be the case.

There are two "ends" to the wildlife conservation problem and it is a problem as wildlife is being hounded off the planet by increased human activity.

At one end is the conservationists, the people who wrestle with symptoms of ever increasing human activity that destroys habitat and destroys wildlife directly as it frankly gets in the way of human activity. Most human activity is commercial activity.

The conservationists are the equivalent of the veterinarians, they try and cure the illness. But despite huge efforts they are weak compared to the "illness" and, in fact, effectively powerless. They certainly are not curing the problem, just sticking a plaster over it.

This is because the illness is not being tackled at source by the other party to wildlife conservation; the businesses.

Some businesses are concerned with wildlife and help to conserve it but generally wildlife and wildlife habitat just gets in the way and it is an overhead to business that is best cleared out of the way.

So the other end of the problem is business, human activity. This is far bigger than conservationism. Nothing is being done about human population growth. Little if anything is being done about world pollution damaging the planet and wildlife habitats.

Forests are continually chopped down for pristine white paper - it is madness of course but nothing changes because the model of "economic growth" remains supreme and unchallenged.

We need to think again about the ideal model upon which we are to govern activity on this planet. Economic growth cannot go on increasing without massive investment in protecting the planet. Better still it must slow and cease. We must get used to zero economic growth and find a way to make that work.

Then we must shrink the world population and rejig everything. Then and only then will the tiger and all the animals below it be safe.



From to Home Page

Male Serval Morpheus

This is a picture of male serval Morpheus looking inquisitively at me. The picture is in fact a bit misleading as he was probably figuring out how he was going to spray urine all over me. This he did not long after this photograph was taken.



As mentioned, his name is Morpheus and despite looking rather sweet in this photograph, when I was with him in his enclosure I cannot say that he behaved in a particularly sweet way.

That is not to criticise him. He behaved exactly as I would expect a wildcat to behave towards a human who he is unfamiliar with. He was a bit hostile and wanted to make me smell more like him! And it was pretty well impossible to avoid his spraying particularly as I was fully occupied trying to tease him into position and photograph him at the same time.

Decent compositions and interesting expressions were extremely fleeting. On one occasion I placed by cat tease (a feather attached to the end of a flexible stick) to close to him and he caught me with his front claws. I felt that.

Morpheus lives in an enclosure with his girlfriend or spouse. They are breeding serval cats. There is a market for servals in the United States, which is where Morpheus lives.

Breeders want to buy servals for breeding and individuals want to keep them as domestic cats.

Servals, however, are not great domestic cats in my opinion. They are too large and too wild no matter how well domesticated they might be. They also spray as I have mentioned.

I don't see the point of keeping a serval as a pet. Many people in America will disagree with me, which is fine. Although I was relaxed and got on well with Morpheus in his enclosure, he was a bit intimidating. If that is the normal feeling one gets when close to a serval I don't see how a relationship with one can be ideal.

Hope you like the picture. Here is another:

From Male Serval Morpheus to Home Page

Siamese Cat Personality

Classic looking Siamese cat (left) and a grey cat (right) at Cat sanctuary

Foz do Iguaçu, Brasil - Cats: Bishop and Bella-Donna,  Photo by fofurasfelinas

In the cat fancy - the world of purebred cat shows and breeding - the Siamese cat personality is very well known as it is very distinctive.

What comes to my mind immediately is the relative intelligence of the Siamese cat and its desire to speak to us, or to put it more technically its vocalisation skills.

Before I go on though, let's remind ourselves that there are a number of cats that are in effect Siamese cats or at least Modern Siamese cats in terms of personality. The only difference between the following cats and the Siamese cat is their coats:

• Balinese - long haired Siamese (update: Marie Clements a Balinese and Siamese cat breeder says that the Balinese has a similar but different personality. She breeds traditional Balinese cats. Read her page here).
• Oriental Shorthair - wide range of coat types
• Oriental Longhair - long haired version of the shorthair

Let's also remember the Thai cats (classic Siamese cats in my opinion - between modern and traditional Siamese in terms of body shape). These too will have the same or similar personalities subject to selective breeding practices within those breeds. And lastly the Applehead Siamese (traditional). See all three shape varieties of the Siamese cat.

So, beyond ranking highly in cat intelligence testing (ranked second below the Sphynx), what else does the Siamese cat personality offer us?

They are vocal to the point of loudness on occasions. They produce a certain type of cat sound - very Siamese, demanding. They are quite active as well. Of course this is relative to the other breeds. They take pleasure in sitting on their human companion's lap and occasionally sharing their human's pillow!

In short, this group of Siamese cats like to get close to their humans. That I guess makes then demanding on occasions and it is a sign of confidence. But let's not forget that individual cats have their own characters and that their own personality may well supersede the breed personality.

Being intelligent they are bound to be more demanding and it also means that they will be inquisitive, investigating whatever takes their fancy. They may get under your feet and god forbid annoy you sometimes.

The bottom-line is that they demand our love. Is that so hard? In doing that we satisfy the demands it makes through increased contact and play.

The Siamese is a very popular breed presently third in this websites long standing popularity poll (see an overview of the Siamese cat). That tells us that its personality is liked, loved and preferred by many people. This is borne out by the fact that many well known personalities and actors favoured the Siamese cat including the Jean Cocteau and Anna Pavlova to name two here (see Siamese cats and films stars)

You know..the Siamese cat personality is really like the personality of all cats, except a little heightened.

Associated pages:

Siamese cat health

Siamese cat history



From Siamese Cat Personality to Home Page

Laser declawing is as bad as the knife

This is a photomontage created by Ruth who is a passionate anti-declaw campaigner. I admire her greatly for her consistency and perseverance.
The point that she is making is that although vets say laser declawing usually causes less pain, it still causes pain and in any event it is still unnecessary mutilation of the cat.



Vets in the USA should be spending their time educating cat keepers not chasing the almighty dollar with new methods and gimmicks to deceive the public into thinking that declawing is acceptable and reasonable.
See Ruth’s post here: LASER DECLAWING IS AS CRUEL AS ANY OTHER METHOD.

Traditional, Classic and Modern Siamese

I think this is quite a nice picture for showing the three types of Siamese cats. The original Siamese cat shape is the top one. The is the Traditional Siamese and it has the nickname, “Applehead Siamese” because of the apple shape head (i.e. rounded in comparison to the long Modern Siamese head shape).
The Modern Siamese is the bottom one and the backlash or change away from the slender (oriental body shape) is the middle Siamese cat that I would call a classic Siamese cat and which is now a new breed called the Thai cat and which is registered with TICA but not the other cat associations.