Birds of Prey

I was walking by the beach one day when of the Brahminy kites swifty scooped a fish with its sharp claws. It was too fast and amazing and the fish may not even have noticed the last few minutes before it got itself caught.

Mother nature has a way of distributing attributes to flora and fauna to make them survive in the wild. For instance, birds of preys have extremely sharp eyesights. Owls and hawks have very good eyesight such that even if they miles high up in the air, they could still see their potential food the size of a rabbit or a rat. Their eyes can keep track of every movement of the prey.

Birds of prey also have a great power of flight compared to other kinds of birds like the dove. They are usually the bigger kinds of birds with larger wingspan.

These birds of preys are the most endangered among the different kinds of birds due to habitat loss. Because much of the forested lands are degraded or simple scraped to give way to housing, small mammals and other animals that are the source of food for these birds are slowly getting lost too.

Everything in this world is interconnected. Whether the birds up in the sky or the fish deep in the ocean; or a mouse in Asia and a forest fire in California, there is a connection that cannot be broken. Some people don't know this even though it is not hard to find out.

More information here.

Study: Exotic pets may be risky for children

While perusing the paper this morning, I came across the lifestyle section of the paper that shows a study concluding that exotic pets, which are increasingly becoming popular as household pets, may pose risk to children at home.

Some psychologists have concluded that children who have pets develop positive characters but there are some kinds of animals that parents should be wary of. For instance, tortoises are known to be carriers of salmonella that can easy be transferred to kids.

Some exotic pets such as iguanas and monkeys can cause scratches or may bite children can can cause allergies or transfer bacteria.

The study pointed out that almost all of American households have more than one pets. The study recommends that families having kids aged less than five should not keep exotic animals as pets.

It was also pointed out in the study that salmonella in kids that came from contacts with lizards and other reptilian pets constitute 11 percent of all cases recorded.
The study says that "Exotic animals imported to the United States have been associated with the introduction of infectious agents otherwise not present in the United States."

Now, I am thinking of just sticking to having traditional dogs and cats as pets. They are very kid friendly and its not a problem looking for veterinarians specializing in caring for them.