Visit Jordanna's alter ego Leslie Dicken.

Gorillas and Romance Novels?

Posted by Leslie on February 15th, 2008 | 1 Comment

Read the below and tell me where you think it originated:

Leah was staring at George. A series of rapid, pulsating whimpers escaped her lips. She then drew near to George, who locked gazes with her, his face unreadable. His shoulders were relaxed, and when Leah was within his grasp he opened his right arm and embraced her. Leah lay on the ground and George looked into her eyes. He bent over to lie on her, while Leah wrapped her legs around George’s waist…

The TIME article askes if it is perhaps a letter from Penthouse Forum or from “the pages of a well-thumbed romance novel.” Is that what you guessed?

Actually, it was from a primatology journal. It was the first known witnessing of a gorilla couple mating face-to-face (rather than face-to-back), which is an extremely rare behavior. Something these scientists hadn’t seen in 13 years of observation.

The act took all of two minutes, the typical time period for gorilla males (and some humans, but I digress). George also held Leah’s hand afterward. Could it be that they like to cuddle, too? Leah was also observed testing the depth of a pond with a stick rather just diving straight in.

As with Orangutans, these Gorillas exhibit an amazing connection between other primates and humans. Although this couple would be much more human-like if George was seen rolling over and immediately dozing and Leah picked up her romance novel and continued reading… ;-)

Photo of George and Leah hugging.

Category: Jordanna Kay

Cat Origins

Posted by Leslie on February 1st, 2008 | No Comments

In case you’re wondering (and I know you’ve been losing sleep over this), the modern housecat’s genes have been traced to the Middle East.


The roots of the domesticated cat’s family tree all converge in the Middle East, with many surprising ancestral twists and turns along the way…

And just because now is as good a time as any, here’s my housecat, Trixie. We adopted her from the local SPCA when she was about two-years-old. She’s a real sweetheart!

trixie1

trixie2

trixie3

Category: Jordanna Kay

Glass Houses…

Posted by Leslie on January 30th, 2008 | 1 Comment

Not so sure I want to see the back part of a hermit crab as shown in this photo. My daughter has two hermit crabs and while I’m not at all bothered by their claws (except when pinched), I know that the rear portion is kinda icky.

Oh, and that blog is holding a competition to caption the photo. So go forth and be creative. I’ll stick to the regular painted shell ones we have at home.

Category: Jordanna Kay

Break out the bug spray!!

Posted by Leslie on January 26th, 2008 | No Comments

Whatever you do, don’t go over to Cracked.com and read about the five most horrifying bugs in the world. Seriously, you’ll regret it.

Category: Jordanna Kay

Red Apes

Posted by Leslie on January 16th, 2008 | 1 Comment

Richard Zimmerman, Director of Organtan Outreach, commented on my post below and referred me to his site http://redapes.org/. Here there is more information about saving the primates in general, rather than the Animal Planet TV program, which I highlighted in my last post.

I hope you will take the time to look over the website, read about the efforts going on, and maybe even donate to the cause!

Thanks again, Mr. Zimmerman, for stopping by and commenting on my blog!

Category: Jordanna Kay

My new fave show

Posted by Leslie on January 14th, 2008 | 2 Comments

I’m not a big TV watcher. Partly because I don’t really have the time to spend and partly because I don’t want to be bothered by what’s on. But lately, I’ve been fascinated by Animal Planet’s new show: Orangutan Island. This is a protected island of young orangutans who have been orphaned and abandoned and are learning to live as a community.

ChaChaI was an Anthropology major in college and was always fascinated with Primates. Although I never did any specialized study of Orangutans, I find them as equally compelling as Gorillas and Chimps. In fact, the other night while watching, one of the young males was trying to impress a female. He hung from a tree and made silly faces then would stand upright on the ground and fall straight back. I was literally laughing out loud! He reminded me so much of my own son. Each show demonstrates the “humanness” of these creatures and the uniqueness of their personalities and even their faces.

This series is definitely worth my time to learn, laugh, and to remind myself that humanity can often use some humility.

Category: Jordanna Kay

Eeeeek!

Posted by Leslie on January 13th, 2008 | No Comments

Since I have a set of twins (boy/girl), I’m always interested in reading various articles about the various aspect of twins. And, then, I stumbled upon this one:

A couple discovered after they had married that they were twins who had been split up at birth and adopted by separate families…

OMG. Can you imagine?!

Category: Jordanna Kay

My Blog Day!

Posted by Leslie on January 10th, 2008 | No Comments

Over at Writers At Play. I blogged about – what else? Rejection!

WAPlogo

Category: Jordanna Kay

Layers

Posted by Leslie on January 7th, 2008 | 2 Comments

Ever been curious about the layers of the Earth’s atmosphere? Check out this graphic I nabbed…

Atmosphere Layers

Category: Jordanna Kay

Sigh…

Posted by Leslie on January 4th, 2008 | 1 Comment

Slept through the meteor shower last night…guess I was just too exhausted. Anyone see it? Have any pictures of it? Too bad it didn’t happen on a weekend when I could sleep in the next morning!!

Category: Jordanna Kay

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