ANIMAL BLOGS

These are a quick selection of blogs about animals that I regularly check, not anything but a teaspoon-sized sample of what's out there, but maybe they give a suggestion of the range of animal blogs. To make their URL open, you'll have to replace what I call the "spinach" (necessary but pesky) at the front: http://

Each one of these blogs will have a "blogroll" or set of links down the side that represent plenty more excellent material.

cameratrapcodger.blogspot.com
(Chris Wemmer, a native Californian and professional biologist and wildlife conservationist, shares his nightly catches in his camera trap plus his reflections about the animals. They range from squirrels to pumas.)

dailymammal.blogspot.com
Jennifer Rae Atkins provides an original drawing of a mammal, a different one every day. She’ll make one for you: $50 for a matted mammal already drawn or you can request any mammal for $60. Five bucks from each sale goes to an animal charity. The mammals in question are often startling as she seeks out a different one of the five thousand named species every day.

tufts.edu/vet/cfa/hoarding/index.html
“ Home page of HARC, the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium. We have assembled the resources on this site to increase awareness about a complex disorder which has until recently not received serious attention by medical, mental health, and public health professionals. Known to animal protection groups or SPCA's for many years as "collectors", the depth of the pathology underlying this behavior is just beginning to be uncovered, and shows striking similarities to other forms of hoarding behavior which are better understood."

thebark.typepad.com
Common sense and lively observations over a wide range, mostly about dogs. Actually, it’s an online magazine.

www.nacanet.org
The official National Animal Control Association website -- all business. Indispensable for people in that line of work.

www.acoswapshop.com/
Also for Animal Control professionals, but not so formal. This website and nacanet have to be protected from saboteurs from the “humane” extremes, so you’ll have to do the e-equivalent of knocking on the door to get to some features.

byhenrychappell.blogspot.com/
“In the mid 1990s, he began work on a series of essays about the powerful bonds that connect hunter, land, and prey. Nineteen of those essays were published collectively in February of 2001 as At Home on the Range with a Texas Hunter, which received an Excellence in Craft Award from the Texas Outdoor Writers Association.” This blog is not just about animals and when it is, the animals are likely to be wild and possibly hunted.

prairieice.blogspot.com/
John Carlson says: “I live and work right where I grew up in Eastern Montana. I take occasional trips to the Antarctic with the non-profit group Oceanites.” And then writes wonderfully, all illustrated with National Geographic quality photos.

www.hawkdog.net/wordpress/
AKA “Diary of a Mad Natural Historian”
“A few labels that could be applied (w/ some degree of accuracy) to me: falconer, dog trainer, dog breeder, bird hunter, tech weenie, fly fisher, dart frogger, left libertarian, beatnik/hippie - there’s more, but that’s enough for now.”


terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/
“Information on working terriers, dogs, natural history, hunting, and the environment. This web log is associated with the Terrierman.com web site. “ Also politics! A cranky, intelligent, and irreverent collection of stuff. I love it, but then I love terriers.

dogpolitics.typepad.com/my_weblog/
Violent, opinionated, raving, and if you don’t follow this stuff, you’re out of the loop.

www.naiaonline.org/about/index.htm
“The National Animal Interest Alliance is an association of business, agricultural, scientific, and recreational interests dedicated to promoting animal welfare, supporting responsible animal use and strengthening the bond between humans and animals. Our members are pet owners, dog and cat clubs, obedience clubs and rescue groups as well as breeders, trainers, veterinarians, research scientists, farmers, fishermen, hunters and wildlife biologists. The membership roster of NAIA includes some of America's most respected animal professionals, advocates and enthusiasts.” Their self-description, but it IS more moderate.

www.petconnection.com/blog/
“Welcome to online home of the Pet Connection, the weekly pet-care feature syndicated to newspapers, magazines and Web sites throughout the United States and Canada by Universal Press Syndicate. But we're more than a pet column, as we hope you'll find out exploring our Web site. We're best-selling books on pet care, and we're a popular pet-related Web log. You can search our archives for answers to your pet questions, and check out some helpful links we've collected.”
Slick, pleasant and useful.

www.pet-law.com/
“Animal Rights” organizations have become so extreme and public now that they have triggered a lot of equal-but-opposite push-backs. This is a good one.

victoriacummings.blogspot.com/
AKA “The Wisdom of the Horse”
A sophisticated woman keeps a diary of her thoughts as she goes through the days with her own horses.

www.skills-bills.co.uk/2007.htm
Bill McKinney’s birding list plus comments and so on.

stephenbodio.blogspot.com/
AKA Stephen Bodio’s Querencia
Steve has two passions: one is the spectrum of gazehounds from the Central Asian countries we are only learning about now that we’ve declared war on them and falcons of many kinds, as used in hunting. Located in New Mexico, he regularly hunts with both hawks and dogs on the high plateau and then writes about their history. This material is worked into many other interests and three other writers post here.

fretmarks.blogspot.com
Helen McDonald, a young woman who is a professor at Oxford and a poet, writes the most beautiful prose I’ve read anywhere. She recently acquired a goshawk, “Mabel,” and is training both herself and the bird to hunt. One’s heart breaks at the intense emotion.