Kerala Elephants

       Elephants fun:The Elephant Festival Kerala or the Kerala Elephant festival is celebrated
every year in the month of Medam (Mid April -Mid-May) as per the Malayalam Calendar at
Thrissur in the Indian coastal state of Kerala . This annual festival is referred to as
Thrissur Pooram in Thrissur and is regarded as the festival of all festivals in Kerala.

 But He fires the enthusiasm among the elephant lovers by the elegant beauty and
the majestic look. The most popular elephant of Kerala owned by Guruvayoor Devaswom.
He has the privilege to carry the 'golden thidambu' of Lord Guruvayoorappa during
'Ekadasi Vilakku'and 'Arattu Ezhunnallippu' since 1962.
People had a strong belief that he had the blessings of Lord Guruvayoorappa.
He has been considered as the rebirth of 'Eiravatha' the elephant of King Indra.
So his presence attracts the elephant lovers and devotees. He has all the auspicious signs of the elephant explained in 'Mathangaleela' -a book about the elephants.
He is also known for the calm and obedient behavior and has never run amok during a festival.

Almost all temples in Kerala own one or more elephant which are donated by devotees.
These Temple elephants are very well looked after and carry the resident temple deity during
the annual festivities & processions.
These temple elephants are decorated with gold plated Forehead ornament called Nettipattom,
and are further adorned with bells and necklaces. The Mahouts and Priests mounted on the elephants hold silk
parasols called Muthukuda and sway large white Yak tail whisks called Venchamaram and Large peacock feather fans
called Aalavattom to the rhythm of the Panchavadyam.(http://youtu.be/04I1TTV1Nx4).

COCK FIGHT IN INDIA (TAMIL NADU)

Hi it's your friend......!
today hot news for "cock fight" in india,

http://animalzoon.blogspot.in/

Cock fighting,. is a favourite sport of people living in the coastal region of Andhra Pradesh,
Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts of Tulu Nadu region of Karnataka,
and the state of Tamil nadu India. In Tamil Nadu, the winner is decided after three or four rounds.
People watch with intense interest surrounding the cocks. The sport has gradually become a gambling sport.

In Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Tanjore, Trichy and Salem Districts,
only naked heel sport is performed. In Erode, Thiruppur, Karur
and Coimbatore districts only bloody blade fights are conducted.
During festival seasons, this is the major game for men.
Women normally don't participate.

It is referred to as the favourite pastime for Maravars or the warriors of Tamil Country.
It is acknowledged as one of the 64 "arts" widely spoken
by the scholars and mastered by the ancestors/scholars of this part of the world.
In earlier days they were fighting with the jungle fowl and its variants later,
due to the naval expeditions to Java and Malay by the Pandian Rulers
the local poultry of that land might have found its way to Tamil Nadu and a new strain/breed
started its development in here which later spread to many places such as India.
The newer breeds which are known now are The "Reja"
(There are many rare breeds preserved by these cock fighters)
The sport has gradually become a gambling sport.

Gait Analysis of Horses

http://animalzoon.blogspot.in/

Gait and movement pattern are essential to the horse, whether it's a question of the horse's well-being, competition riding or breeding. For the first time, new research made in collaboration between University of Copenhagen and The Royal Veterinary College in the United Kingdom makes it possible to use sensors to accurately measure a horse's movements and to quantify limb movement outside the traditional gait laboratory. This provides veterinarians as well as breeders and trainers with a number of new possibilities. The new results have just been published in the Journal of Biomechanics.


Horses who develop a limp are one of the major sources of frustration for horse owners as well as vets. The same applies for Wobblers disease (ataxia) where growth abnormalities or articular process joint osteoarthritis put pressure on the spinal cord causing ataxic gait. At least one in a hundred horses develop Wobblers disease, which often leads to the horse having to be euthanased. Both lameness and Wobblers disease have an effect on a horses gait, and so far veterinarians have only been able to study horse movement in a gait-laboratory, which commonly only allows study of a few steps at a time on a straight line.

Using inertial sensors; small sensors containing technology like what you find in a cellphone, i.e. gyroscopes, accelerometers and magnetometers, veterinarian and PhD from the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at University of Copenhagen, Dr. Emil Olsen and his collaborators from Dr. Thilo Pfau's research group at Royal Veterinary College in the United Kingdom have managed to measure horse movement (displacement) as well as the timing of the hoof's contact with the ground very accurately.

"Our previous research shows that inertial sensors placed right above the horse's fetlock joint can be used to reliably determine the timing of the hoof's contact with the ground. Furthermore, we're a big step closer to being able to measure movement during training of a horse under real-life conditions, because we have also managed to validate the method against the reference standard motion capture, and this provides us with tools to evaluate the development and change in coordination and symmetry simultaneously," Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and PhD Emil Olsen explains.

Isolated Tigers

http://animalzoon.blogspot.in/

The tiger Shere Khan was lord in Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book, but his modern-day descendants are king no more: The big cats have seen their central Indian forests dwindle and fracture.

The remaining tigers are only surviving by moving through critical—but unprotected—corridors of land that link distant populations, a new study says.

Using hair and fecal samples, Sandeep Sharma, of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, and team studied genes from 273 individual tigers that live in four distinct locations within India's 17,375-square-mile (45,000-square-kilometer) Satpura-Maikal region.

Tigers once roamed across Asia from Turkey to the Russian Far East, but have vanished from over 93 percent of that range. (See tiger pictures.)

The 20th century was especially tough on the now-endangered beasts, when three subspecies became extinct, leaving six—all of which are at risk. (See a National Geographic magazine interactive of big cats in danger.)

At a glance the region's tigers seem to live in four populations, each occupying its own territory in what's called a designated tiger conservation landscape, or TCL. Those are Kanha-Phen, Pachmari-Satpura-Bori, Melghat, and Pench.

But the genetic study suggests otherwise: Corridors of woods and undeveloped land up to 125 miles (200 kilometers) long actually link Kanha and Pench into a single genetic unit, and Satpura-Melghat into a second.

That means the four populations of tigers are breeding as two much larger populations—and keeping their genetic diversity alive in the process.

Corridors also aid tiger survival on the ground, Sharma said, making the cats more likely to withstand many types of threats. (Related:"Tigers Making a Comeback in Parts of Asia.")