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Famous Animals – The Answers!

Whistlejacket, the Marquess of Rockingham’s race horse, as painted by George Stubbs (Public Domain)

Dear Readers, we have two perfect results for the quiz this week, from Fran and Bobby Freelove and from Rayna – 20/20 for both of you, so well done! Let’s see what I come up with for tomorrow 🙂

Photo One by By Stefan Schäfer, Lich - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19744828

1)

a) What’s the name of the horse (and for an extra point, what does the name mean?)

Bucephalus (ox-headed)

b) Who is the man who is trying to tame the horse?

Alexander the Great

2)

a) Who is this chimp?

Washoe

b) What was special about her?

She was the first non-human to use American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate

3)

a) What’s the name of this dog?

Laika

b) She was the first animal to do what?

Orbit the earth (and was one of the first animals to go into space at all)

4)

a) What’s the name of this magnificent beast, and what was he named after?

Marengo, named after the Battle of Marengo (1800)_ 

b) Who was his rider?

Napoleon I

5)

a) What’s the name of this pigeon?

Cher Ami

b) What did he do to deserve a Croix de Guerre medal for bravery?

He delivered a message from his encircled battalion (part of the US 77th Infantry Division) who were encircled and being heavily bombarded by their own side. He arrived back at his loft at headquarters in spite of being shot through the breast, blinded in one eye and having one leg hanging off by a tendon. 

6)

a) Who is this (and for an extra point, who was she named after?)

Dolly the sheep, named after Dolly Parton

b) Why did she make the headlines in February 1997?

She was the first mammal cloned from an adult cell (taken in this case from a mammary gland, hence the (rather sexist) Dolly Parton connection. 

7)

a) Who and what is this?

Goldie the Golden Eagle

b) Why did this bird make the headlines in 1965?

Goldie escaped from London Zoo and was on the loose for 12 days, during which time he was frequently seen in Regent’s Park. He attacked and ate several ducks, and there are photos of him attempting to carry off a terrier, which was only rescued when the dog’s owner threatened the bird with an umbrella.

8)

a) Who is this rather startled horse, and who is his owner?

Incitatus, owned by the Roman Emperor Caligula 

b) What is being proposed as the horse’s new career?

According to Suetonius, Caligula planned to make the horse a consul, though whether this was a sign of his insanity, a prank or an attempt to insult the other members of the senate by suggesting that a horse could do their job is unclear.

9)

a) What’s the name of this Irish Wolfhound?

Gelert

b) What was his reward for saving this child?

In legend, the dog’s owner, Llywelyn the Great, returns from hunting to find the nursery overturned, the child missing and Gelert with blood on his muzzle. Fearing that the dog has killed the child, his owner stabs him, only to hear the child crying. Llywelyn then finds the body of a wolf (in some variations a snake) that the dog has killed to saved the infant. The dog’s body is buried with great ceremony, but according to the legends Llywelyn never smiles again. 

And last but not least…..

10)

a) This is Magawa. What species is he?

He is an African Pouched Rat

b) Why was he given a medal?

Magawa is trained to sniff out unexploded mines and ordnance, and had cleared 141,000 square metres of land in Cambodia, finding 71 landmines and 38 items of unexploded ordnance. He was the most successful rat trained by APOPO, a Belgian non-profit that trains the rats. He got the medal on the occasion of his (well-earned) retirement. 

Sunday Quiz – Famous Animals

Whistlejacket, the Marquess of Rockingham’s race horse, as painted by George Stubbs (Public Domain)

Dear Readers, below we have some famous animals. Can you answer the questions below each photo? Let’s hope this is a little bit easier than the leaf shapes from last week 🙂

There are ten animals, and two questions to be answered on each one, giving a total mark out of twenty (though there are a couple of opportunities for extra marks as you’ll see :-))

Answers in the comments by 5 p.m. UK time on Friday 22nd October please. The answers will be posted on Saturday 23rd October. As usual, I will disappear all the answers that I see so that they don’t influence those who come afterwards, but if you are easily swayed by the brilliance of others, write your answers down old-school on a piece of paper first.

Onwards!

Photo One by By Stefan Schäfer, Lich - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19744828

1)

a) What’s the name of the horse (and for an extra point, what does the name mean?)

b) Who is the man who is trying to tame the horse?

2)

a) Who is this chimp?

b) What was special about her?

3)

a) What’s the name of this dog?

b) She was the first animal to do what?

4)

a) What’s the name of this magnificent beast, and what was he named after?

b) Who was his rider?

5)

a) What’s the name of this pigeon?

b) What did he do to deserve a Croix de Guerre medal for bravery?

6)

a) Who is this (and for an extra point, who was she named after?)

b) Why did she make the headlines in February 1997?

7)

a) Who and what is this?

b) Why did this bird make the headlines in 1965?

8)

a) Who is this rather startled horse, and who is his owner?

b) What is being proposed as the horse’s new career?

9)

 

a) What’s the name of this Irish Wolfhound?b) What was his reward for saving this child?

And last but not least…..

10)

a) This is Magawa. What species is he?

b) Why was he given a medal?

The Mysterious Life of the Pigeon

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Pigeons are everywhere in London and yet they go largely unnoticed as they scuttle around our feet and keep watch from the rooftops. If they were rarer we would appreciate their beauty more – their mottled grey plumage, the patch of iridescence on their necks, their fast, powerful flight – but because they are common they tend to be derided as vermin, and are not thought of as birds at all. However, in many ways they are mysterious, private creatures, and this is never more the case than in their reproductive habits.

Every so often, in the question section of a newspaper, someone will ask ‘why do you never see a baby pigeon?’ And yet, I doubt that there is any London dweller who has never heard one. As you pass under one of the bridges that darken the towpath along the Regent’s Canal, you may hear a demented wheezing sound coming from one of the overhead recesses. It sounds much like a character buried alive in an Edgar Allan Poe short story. You can hear the same sound coming from the windowsills of buildings, from the bare metal girders of deserted factories. Undetectable in the gloom is a baby pigeon, his only bed a few scraps of straw or shredded newspaper that his parents have found and used to create a makeshift nest. He is calling for his supper, and he is in luck, because pigeons are amongst the few birds that can feed their offspring on a kind of milk, produced by glands in the throat of the adult birds. This is one reason that baby pigeons can be born at any time of year – they are not dependent on the vagaries of caterpillar hatching or seed ripening.

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A baby pigeon is also something of a recluse. He will stay in the nest until he is able to fly, which is approximately a month after hatching. At this point he will look very similar to his parents, so probably the best way to identify a baby pigeon is by his behaviour – he will often whine and chase his parents for food, in the hope of a hand out. He won’t yet have that characteristic iridescent patch on his neck either. But within a few weeks, he will be indistinguishable from the rest of the flock. For an urban dweller of any kind, the best way to stay safe is not to be obviously vulnerable.

All along East Finchley High Street is the evidence of pigeon deterrence measures. Above every shop there are sharp, two-inch long needles, which aim to prevent the pigeons from getting comfortable or, heaven forbid, from nesting. However, the birds can often be spotted sitting behind or amongst the spikes, surveying their kingdom with equanimity. And imagine my delight when I noticed that some pigeons are building their nests in the awning above the newsagents, putting the multi-coloured plastic sealing tape that binds the newspapers together to good use. If they are allowed to remain (which I somewhat doubt) I will have a great view of some baby pigeons to share with you all in a few weeks. However, I suspect that they will be moved on by the shopkeeper, if only to lessen the cleaning that will be required if they are allowed to stay.

Studies have shown that the population of pigeons in any area is solely determined by the amount of food on offer. If there is less for the birds to eat, they breed less often, have smaller broods and may disperse. There is no need for poison and hawks. If people were a little more careful with the remains of their Kentucky Fried Chicken (and the pigeons are not above eating the remains of a Bargain Bucket) there would not be so many birds. However, this overlooks another mysterious urban phenomenon – the Pigeon Feeder.

For a time, I was heading into town very early, catching the tube train at 6 a.m. All the shops were shuttered, the sky turning a light green as I made my way downhill. When I got to the collection of stunted rosebushes and random spiky plants that passes for a flowerbed outside Budgens, I would often see a great pile of carefully crumbled bread, with pigeons throwing the larger pieces over their shoulders in an attempt to break them up. Further down the hill, outside the MacDonalds offices there was another pile, with another population of plump and happy birds having their breakfast.  I never saw the person who fed the birds, but I imagine that they were sharing the equivalent of several loaves, every single day.

I wonder who it was who was feeding the pigeons? Were they waiting somewhere, watching as their largesse was devoured, or was it a furtive act, one that they feared would get them into trouble? In my experience, the people who feed pigeons are often isolated souls, people who get little understanding from their human compatriots. Like the pigeons, they are everywhere but we choose not to notice them as we go about our busy lives. The people who feed the pigeons get to know the birds as individuals, understanding their habits and their characters, and getting more attention and recognition from these ‘feathered rats’ than they might get from anyone all day.

I use the word recognition advisedly. Once, from the top deck of a bus, I watched an elderly woman crossing the junction at Euston Road and Tottenham Court Road. She wore plimsolls and an oversized raincoat, and was carrying a plastic shopping bag. As she crossed the busy intersection, cars hooted at her and she stopped occasionally to curse at them and shake her fist. Wheeling about her, appearing from all four corners of the crossroads, was a flock of pigeons, circling over her as she made her unsteady progress through the lanes of traffic. More and more birds joined the throng, and as she slumped down onto a bench on the other side of the road, they started to settle around her, so thick that you could barely see the pavement. As my bus moved past I could see the beatific smile on her face as she opened her shopping bag to reveal that it was full of plastic-wrapped loaves of bread. She started to feed the birds, wagging her finger to gently admonish the greediest, making sure that everyone got their fill. She might have been on the most distant outskirts of human society, but she was a necessary, useful part of this community of birds. As the bus moved away I caught a last glimpse of her, her feet invisible under a carpet of feathered bodies. She looked like the Queen of the Pigeons, a latter-day St Francis of Assisi in all her unkempt, wild-eyed splendour.