Sunday, September 3, 2017

Behold the Majesty of the Cow

From Atlas Obscura:

The Unexpected Result When a Cow Faces Down a Pride of Rare Asiatic Lions
Exit, pursued by a heifer.
A creature so fearless it sends lions running for their lives: the cow. On a quiet Tuesday evening, a pride of rare Asiatic lions strolled through the village of Rampar, in the Indian state of Gujarat. They were likely looking for cattle to munch on, NDTV reported, but seem to have bitten off more than they could chew.

In CCTV footage, the lions prowl carefully around the lane, until a lone cow wanders meditatively into the frame. The lions take a single look at the approaching bovine, it seems, and scram! Rampar is 10 miles from the Gir Forest National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, home to the world’s last remaining population of Asiatic lions. The big cats are an occasional sight in Rampar and other local villages, where they’ve been known to attack humans and cows.

In Gir’s 545 square miles, there are 650 Asiatic lions...MORE
When I was a kid and learned there were lions in India as well as in Africa I had the natural question: Do they have, you know, kittens, with tigers?

The answer is:
They can but as their ranges currently don't overlap it is very rare in the wild.

When they are bred in captivity the result is ligers (male lion/female tiger) and tigons (female lion/male tiger) with the former being the largest cats in the world, (550 kg/1,213 lb). This one, Hercules, is 900+ pounds, 12-feet long:

Liger

The tigons are pretty big as well but nothing like the ligers:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSUrrsZ-DiQZkrghxrL4T2LlcNkBnxOmqVHzQ5TbhwMPq9U2DgsZEM4JrjTPF35KYT-dAnA3Dn-h1pUstpSxik80TivNL04GnCAjRtQuizgoI6sQYrZAbQWBpGdU_YWdVyds-WVUSkHdw/s1600/jozs.jpg

I later found out the babies aren't kittens, they're cubs and later still found out how they came to be.

Later still I read that Hercules can sprint at 50 mph and was once timed at 60 mph in a short burst.
For something that ridiculously big to be that ridiculously fast is...ridiculous.