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| british badgers | | Badger is the common name for any animal of three subfamilies, which belong to the family Mustelidae: more...the same mammal family as the ferrets, the weasels, the otters, and several other types of more...carnivore. There are eight species of badger, in three subfamilies: Melinae , Mellivorinae (the Ratel or honey badger), and Taxideinae (the American badger). The Asiatic stink badgers of the genus Mydaus were formerly included in the Melinae, but recent genetic evidence indicates that these are actually Old World relatives of the skunks (family Mephitidae). Typical badgers (Meles, Arctonyx, Taxidea and Mellivora species) are short-legged and heavy-set. The lower jaw is articulated to the upper by means of a transverse condyle firmly locked into a long cavity of the cranium, so that dislocation of the jaw is all but impossible. This enables the badger to maintain its hold with the utmost tenacity, but limits the jaw movement to hinging open and shut or sliding from side to side. less
02:10
Category: Pets & Animals
Views: 1,084
Comments: 5
Added: Aug 13, 08
By: spineyextra 
Tags: badgers | |
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| to kill a whale | | a critical look at whaling - not for the squeemish
The grenade harpoons in use today haven't been around for such a long time. In the old days, whalers used harpoons with black-powder grenades, but these more...unreliable devices weren't well-suited to catching the relatively small minke whale. Starting in the 1920s, Norwegian whalers abandoned the black powder in favor of a harpoon with an empty grenade casing—called a "cold grenade harpoon." Later, they replaced the empty grenade with a simple iron head—the "cold harpoon." The use of non-explosive (cold) weapons tended to prolong the whale's agony, and hunters would have to resort to other, more cumbersome methods to complete the kill.
In the 1980s, the Norwegians developed a new kind of grenade harpoon using a more dependable explosive called penthrite. The cold harpoons were banned, and penthrite grenades became the standard method for killing whales. Minke whalers in Greenland switched over from cold harpoons to penthrite grenades around 1990. The nations that have "scientific whaling" programs—Iceland and Japan—also support the use of explosive grenade harpoons. (Some Japanese whalers still use hand-held harpoons rather than the mounted cannon.)
Whale hunts in other parts of the world make use of more traditional methods. Faroe Islanders continue to hunt pilot whales by surrounding them with boats and driving them toward land. Some of the whales beach themselves, while others get stranded in shallow water. The whalers then use a metal hook to drag the animal onto the shore, where they slice through its spinal cord and main artery, one hand's width behind the blowhole. (In recent years they've switched over from pointed hooks to dull ones, which can be inserted into the vestibular air sacs without causing much tissue damage.) Traditional whalers in the United States use hand-held harpoons to ensnare whales, and then kill them with high-powered rifles. They have also used penthrite bombs and black powder. less
12:38
Category: Pets & Animals
Views: 333
Comments: 1
Added: Aug 13, 08
By: spineyextra
Tags: whales | |
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