Ask Lori an Animal Question

[madlori]

So I've been posting a lot more regularly lately, which is fun. I've not much to contribute today so I thought of doing an Ask Lori a Science Question, then it occurred to me to do a bit of a variation on it in honor of my new semi-career as zoo docent.

So today we're doing...Ask Lori an Animal Question! Wondering if bears in zoos hibernate?

Comments

[madlori]

If you're just going in to volunteer then you won't be docenting (or that's the usual procedure at zoos that use docents). Docents get TONS of training (I just completed mine and I started in February). They'll probably have you doing something to assist the staff. Our non-docent volunteers man the doors at aviaries, give directions, help out with groundskeeping, etc. They wouldn't have you answering animal questions without training! The most important thing, I think, is that it's okay not to know something. It's better to say you don't than to say something wrong.

[jiggery_pokery]

Putting a spin on an old favourite:

1) Pick a lion at random from the population of lions - you could get an old one, a young one, a healthy one, a sick one, a big one, a little one, etc. - and a tiger at random from the population of tigers in the same way. Who would be more likely to win in a fight between them?

2) Pick the strongest, biggest, most violent lion in the world and the strongest, biggest, most violent tiger in the world. Who would be more likely to win in a fight between them?

I am led to believe (and I can't remember why - "citation needed", as they say on Wikipedia) that the lion is favoured in exactly one of these scenarios but that the tiger is favoured in the other; trouble is, I can't remember which way round it is. Can you shed any light on this, please?

[madlori]

Wow. I have no idea what you're talking about. :-) Sounds like a brain teaser. And it would depend on the species of tiger. The Amur tiger is (on average) the largest big cat in the world and an adult male would outweigh an adult male lion, but the other tiger subspecies are smaller. And there's individual variation. The lions we have at our zoo are unusually large and our Amur tigers are about average, so our male lion is actually about 100 lbs heavier than our male tiger, which is the reverse of normal. They also hunt very differently.

[jiggery_pokery]

Doing a very, very quick bit of research into my own question, this Straight Dope board thread suggests it's more likely to be tiger for 1 and lion for 2 than the other way around.

[likebunnies]

If a giant squid and an octopus had a race, who would win? I'm just kidding. I was chaperoning a field trip once when one of the kids asked that of this little old lady who was a volunteer at a shell museum. The answer depended on the type and size but I thought the look on the lady's face was funny at the time.

I have no real animal questions. I mean, besides why do pandas not want to seem to reproduce when bunnies love to reproduce?

Oh, and a regular science question... I will never understand how they can use gravity to slingshot a probe and/or satellite around Venus and into deep space. Why doesn't the gravity pull it in instead of sending it around? My son is so frustrated with me that I can't fathom this but dark matter and dark energy are perfectly reasonable ideas.

[madlori]

Confession: I'm not super knowledgeable on free return trajectories (which is what you should Google if you want to find some more detailed information about this subject). But think of this: something in orbit doesn't fall in to the planet, right? I do know that it has to do with the angle you come in at. It's like skipping a stone. If you throw it at too high an angle it just goes plop in the water, but if you throw it at a shallow enough angle, it skips off. So the craft has to come in close enough that the object's gravity give it additional speed, high enough that it doesn't just crash in but shallow enough that it can escape orbit again on the other side. Sorry I know that's not super helpful.

[likebunnies]

Thanks! The only other thing I read that made sense talked about how if you bounce a ball of the front of a moving train, it will go off in the opposite direction and pick up speed, which I suppose is what they want to do with something trying to reach Jupiter. Not bounce it off a train. That'll make a mess.

It's just been a science joke around here for a while now (yes, we are geeky enough to have science jokes) whenever we discuss gravity.

[madlori]

I'm not sure about Boreatic but black squirrels are indigenous to the United States and southern Canada. Where black or dark coloration is very common.

[shadowfireflame]

OMG, I've always wanted to know about the bears thing. Could you just, like, explain bears? I don't really understand hibernation. Do they not use the bathroom when they hibernate? Do they hibernate in the zoo? If not, does it hurt them not to?

(Also, yes, do lions and tigers purr?)

[madlori]

Technically bears don't hibernate at all. Their state of winter lethargy is not true hibernation; they can be roused if their dens are discovered and the temperature depression is not severe enough to be real hibernation (which is almost exclusively found in smaller animals). But no, while they're doing it they don't come out to urinate or defecate.

Hibernation is a state meant to conserve resources during times of low food; since bears in zoos get fed reliably they don't hibernate at all.

Lions and tigers do not purr. :-) The largest cat that purrs is the cougar. And it sounds amazing.

[shadowfireflame]

Oh, awesome info! Thank you! I saw this adorable video of lions playing with big balls of string, and they looked just like my tiny kitty. :)