https://travellightpt.wordpress.com/2022/07/15/magoito-sintra-portugal-2/
Valentines in Lisbon
At 190, Jonathan the Tortoise Is the World’s Oldest🐢
He will likely celebrate with some of his favorite activities: sunbathing, sleeping, eating, and mating
Jonathan, a Seychelles giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea hololissa), will celebrate his 190th birthday this year at his home on the South Atlantic Island of St. Helena, a volcanic British Overseas Territory.
According to the Guinness World Records, the event will make the reptile the oldest-ever living chelonian, the reptile order that includes turtles, terrapins and tortoises. Previously, the record was held by Tu’i Malila, a Madagascar radiated tortoise gifted to Tonga’s royal family in 1777 and died in 1965 at 188 years old.
Jonathan arrived in St. Helena as a gift to Sir William Grey-Wilson in 1882, who later became governor of the island. Since then, Jonathan has wandered and grazed the gardens of Plantation House, the governor’s residence, where he has seen 31 governors hold office, CNN’s Lianne Kolirin reports. Jonathan still resides there with three other giant tortoises: Emma, David, and Fred.
According to a letter from 1882 when Jonathon first moved to St. Helena from the Seychelles Archipelago, he arrived “fully grown,” which would mean he was at least 50 years old. Jonathan may have hatched in 1832, but the almost bicentenarian is likely older.
“To be honest, I suspect he’s older, but we can never know,” says Joe Hollins, a veterinarian who cares for Jonathan, to the Washington Post’s Cathy Free.
To put Jonathan’s age into perspective, when Queen Elizabeth II’s great-grandmother Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837, the tortoise was already five years old.
A photo taken between 1882 and 1886 shows a fully-grown Jonathan munching grass at Plantation House with a group of people, providing further evidence of his suspected age, reports Sanj Atwal for Guinness World Records.
Seychelles tortoises were found on various Indian Ocean archipelagos but went extinct because sailors used them for food on ships. Hollins, who has tended to Jonathan for 13 years, tells the Washington Post that ship crews harvested tortoises because they didn’t need food or water for days and were easily stacked.
“It was quite traditional for [tortoises] to be used as diplomatic gifts around the world if they weren’t eaten first. Apparently, they were utterly delicious.” Hollins tells the Post.
If he was in fact born in 1832, Jonathan has lived through many historical events. To name only a few:
President Andrew Jackson’s second inauguration in 1833 and the inaugurations of 39 more United States presidents
The first photograph of a person was snapped in 1838
The incandescent lightbulb was invented in 1878
The beginning and end of two World Wars
The first steps of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon in 1969
“While wars, famines, plagues, kings and queens and even nations have come and gone, he has pottered on, totally oblivious to the passage of time,” Hollins tells the Post. “Jonathan is symbolic of persistence, endurance, and survival and has achieved iconic status on the island.”
Although Jonathan is now blind and has lost his sense of smell, he continues to engage in his favorite pastimes: sunbathing, sleeping, eating, and mating.
“In spite of his age, Jonathan still has good libido and is seen frequently to mate with Emma and sometimes Fred – animals are often not particularly gender-sensitive,” Hollins explains to Guinness World Records.
The tortoise’s favorite foods include bananas, cabbage, carrots, and apples—hand fed to him by Hollins.
To celebrate his birthday, island officials plan to make a series of commemorative stamps, CNN reports. Visitors who make a trip to see Jonathan will receive a certificate featuring a photo of his first known footprint.
Travel Light
Ericeira, Mafra,Portugal
This Is as Close to a Shark’s Intestines as You’ll Ever Hope to Get🦈🦈🦈
Scientists produced 3-D looks at shark’s guts.
The inside of a shark is full of curiosities, starting with rows of hardworking teeth that can be replaced by fresh ones throughout its life. But quite a bit farther down the digestive tract — in fact, right before the shark ends — lies another odd structure: the spiral intestine, an intricate staircase made of shark flesh.
Scientists have speculated that sharks have such intricately shaped intestines to slow down digestion, eking every last calorie out of their prey. It may even be one reason sharks can go a long time between meals.
But on Wednesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers published one of the most detailed looks at those spiral intestines so far by turning a CT scanner on them, revealing the complex inner geographies of more than 20 species of sharks. After filling the intestines with fluid, they also made a discovery: Some of them function like natural versions of a valve that Nikola Tesla patented in 1920, drawing fluid ever onward in one direction without moving parts.
Samantha Leigh, an assistant professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills who led the new study, said that researchers who study sharks’ spiral intestines often refer to a set of 1885 anatomical drawings. Or they may dissect the intestines themselves, marring the organ’s structural integrity in the service of getting a closer look. To see the structures whole, she and her colleagues carefully removed the intestines of numerous shark species and imaged them in a CT scanner.
Sharks’ spiral intestines come in four flavors — a basic spiral, a nested series of funnels pointing one way, a nested series of funnels pointing the other way, and what’s called a scroll intestine, where layered sheaths nestle within each other. In the CT scans, the whorls and folds of the structures come through clearly.
It did not seem to matter what a shark ate when it came to the shape of their intestine — bonnethead sharks, which eat both plants and other animals, had a scroll intestine, as did carnivorous hammerheads.
Then the researchers hooked up some spiral intestines to tubes and watched as a mixture of water and glycerol flowed through them. They found that indeed, the fluid moved more slowly through the spiral than through a straight section of the shark’s intestine, supporting the idea that spiral intestines help sharks stretch their digestion time out.
However, they also found that the funnel intestines had a preferred direction for flow. Fluid entering one end flowed much more slowly than fluid entering the other, implying that within the animal, the intestine functions like a one-way street. In mammals, muscular contractions produce this effect. But in sharks, the structure of the intestine itself may be helping.
In fact, the shape of the funnel intestine recalls the loops of the Tesla valve, a kind of pipe patented by the Serbian-American inventor.
“The purpose of the valve was to produce flow in one direction without the use of extra mechanical parts or extra added energy,” Dr. Leigh said. “That seems very similar to how these shark intestines are shaped.”
Structures honed by eons of evolution can provide inspiration to engineers — the spectacularly uncloggable filters of the manta ray, for example, may provide a way to sift out plastic pollution before it reaches waterways. In the case of shark intestines, said Dr. Leigh, who also studies the effects of microplastic pollution on fish, it may be that further information about how the intestines work can inform filters as well.
“My hope is to figure out what these particular morphologies are good at moving along, what they’re good at filtering out,” Dr. Leigh said. Perhaps somewhere along the line, shark intestines could inspire tools to help remove plastics from water passively, just by virtue of the way they are built.
In New York Times
Shark Attack? No.
Shark scientists have been exhorting the public to call human-shark interactions something other than shark attacks, preferring less pejorative terms like “shark encounters.” The scientists emphasize that humans tend to be to blame for shark injuries — stepping accidentally on small sharks, which snap back; swimming in murky water, venturing too close.
“A ‘shark attack’ is a story of intent,” Christopher Pepin-Neff of the University of Sydney, told the Times reporter Alan Yuhas. “But sharks don’t know what people are. They don’t know when you’re in the boat. They don’t know what a propeller is. It’s not an attack.”
But the terms being offered as replacements, while more accurate and less inflammatory, have a ring of gentility to them, evoking the top hats and evening gloves of centuries past.
To wit, a shark incident:
A shark reaction:
A shark bite:
Meanwhile, scientists elsewhere this week published one of the most detailed views yet of shark guts, using a CT scanner to reveal “the complex inner geographies of more than 20 species of sharks,” Veronique Greenwood writes. The results, in stunning 3-D video, indicate that a shark’s spiraling intestine behaves like a Tesla valve, drawing fluid forward without moving parts.
The study also appears to confirm the long-held notion that such intricacy helps to slow down digestion and extract the most calories from its prey. Chew on that while you do your part to avoid shark, uh, euphemisms.
In New York Times
Especial Dia dos Namorados🐒🦌🐧
Especial Dia dos Namorados🐒🦌🐧 no Zoo de Lisboa
Os “Amores Raros” do Jardim Zoológico
No Dia dos Namorados, conheça virtualmente os “amores mais raros” do Jardim Zoológico que com um preocupante estatuto de conservação dependem de si. Assuma um compromisso de cuidado para com eles através do Apadrinhamento Individual e ajude o Zoo a levar mais longe esta grande missão de conservação.
Para conhecer melhor o papel do Zoo de Lisboa e ajudar, aceda a Zoo de Lisboa
Pinguins a 360
A cauda dos crocodilos pode renascer… várias vezes
PORTUGAL TRAVEL GUIDE💖💚
Parabéns ao Jardim Zoológico de Lisboa
Jardim Zoológico de Lisboa faz 136 anos!
Factos e curiosidades sobre o Jardim Zoológico:
- Sabia que a primeira inseminação artificial em Tigres-da-sibéria com sucesso na Europa, foi feita pelo Jardim Zoológico em parceria com a Estação Zootécnica Nacional?
- Sabia que o Jardim Zoológico já esteve na ilha de Sumatra, na Indonésia, a trabalhar no estudo demográfico do Rinoceronte-de-sumatra, classificado como Criticamente em Perigo pela UICN?
- Sabia que o Jardim Zoológico colabora com a Australian Koala Foundation desde 1991, para a conservação in situ dos Koalas na Austrália? 80% do seu habitat natural já foi destruído pelo Homem, e o programa centra-se na sensibilização da população para o tema. Sabia também que o Jardim Zoológico foi o primeiro Zoo europeu a ter Koalas ao seu cuidado?
- Sabia que o Jardim Zoológico participa desde 2006 no Projeto de Conservação in situ CWAF, nos Camarões, contribuindo financeiramente para a conservação dos grandes primatas em África como Gorilas e Chimpanzés?
- Sabia que o Ádax, já esteve extinto na natureza? O Jardim Zoológico participa na conservação desta espécie, contribuindo com o envio de animais para reintrodução, tal como aconteceu em 1994, num projeto em que foram reintroduzidos 70 animais de 16 Zoos diferentes, no Parque Nacional de Souss-Massa em Marrocos.
- Sabia que o Jardim Zoológico apoia financeiramente o Programa de Conservação in situ do Okapi, na República Democrática do Congo? Desde 1987, numa parceria com o Instituto para a Conservação da Natureza do Congo (ICCN), o Okapi Conservation Project participa diretamente na gestão da Okapi Wildlife Reserve.
- Sabia que o Pinguim-do-cabo é uma das mais de 60 espécies que pode ver no Jardim Zoológico que pertence a um Programa Europeu de Reprodução de Espécies Ameaçadas – EEP, fundamental para a gestão das populações sob cuidados humanos e posterior reintrodução na natureza?
História
Inaugurado em 1884, o Jardim Zoológico de Lisboa foi o primeiro parque com fauna e flora da Península Ibérica. Foram vários os seus fundadores – Dr. Pedro Van Der Laan, José Thomaz Sousa Martins e o Barão de Kessler – que contaram com o apoio de várias personalidades, o Rei D. Fernando II e o zoólogo José Vicente Barboza do Bocage.
As primeiras instalações situaram-se no Parque de São Sebastião da Pedreira, que foi cedido gratuitamente pelos seus proprietários.
Mais tarde, o parque mudou-se para a Palhavã e a 28 de maio de 1905, foram inauguradas as novas e definitivas instalações na Quinta das Laranjeiras. No dia 12 de março de 1913, o Jardim Zoológico foi declarado Instituição de Utilidade Pública.
As inúmeras remessas de animais vindos de África e do Brasil contribuíram para que, ao longo dos anos, o Jardim Zoológico tivesse uma das coleções de animais mais vastas e diversificadas do mundo.
Destacaram-se, na realidade, alguns governadores das ex-províncias ultramarinas no contributo para o enriquecimento da coleção zoológica com exemplares de espécies exóticas, pouco conhecidas e muito atrativas.
Em 1952, a Câmara Municipal de Lisboa galardoou o Jardim Zoológico com a Medalha de Ouro da Cidade.
A queda do Estado Novo em 1974 e a consequente independência das antigas colónias em África, significou a quebra do forte apoio prestado ao Jardim Zoológico pelas autoridades na diversificação e renovação da coleção animal. Por esta altura, o número de visitantes também diminuiu de forma substancial e ocorreram cortes radicais dos subsídios estatais.
Assim, foi necessário desenvolver e implementar uma nova estratégia de gestão para o Jardim Zoológico, adequando-o aos valores e necessidades da época.
Em 1990, a nova política de gestão adoptada por Félix Naharro Pires, que entretanto tomou posse como Presidente do Jardim Zoológico, teve por objetivos a modernização das instalações existentes, assim como dos serviços.
Deste modo, foram criadas áreas de trabalho específicas com objetivos próprios, para melhorar a coleção e o bem-estar animal, a sua alimentação e os cuidados médico-veterinários.
Em paralelo, foram criados os serviços comerciais, marketing, relações públicas e imprensa, de modo a dinamizar o Parque como parceiro privilegiado das empresas.
Promover a educação para a conservação junto do público visitante foi, também, uma das principais preocupações, que rapidamente mereceu a criação de um serviço próprio, o Centro Pedagógico.
Atualmente o Jardim Zoológico representa o papel de educador, com a vantagem de possuir uma das melhores salas de aula do país, cuja coleção animal, espaço e atividades proporcionam uma aprendizagem atraente e eficaz.
O Jardim Zoológico deixou de ser uma montra de animais para assumir um papel ativo na proteção e conservação da Natureza. A melhoria das instalações para os animais permitiram o aumento da taxa de natalidade.
O Hospital Veterinário inaugurado em 2008, foi considerado o melhor da Europa, pela EAZA – Associação Europeia de Zoos e Aquários.
Hoje em dia, o Jardim Zoológico está diferente, tem uma nova missão e uma nova mensagem. Apresenta novas atrações e instalações. O Jardim é um espaço onde aliada à conservação e à educação está uma forte componente de entretenimento e diversão.
Neste novo Zoo habitam cerca de 2000 animais num conjunto de aproximadamente 300 espécies, entre mamíferos, aves, répteis e anfíbios.
Caldas da Rainha
Com uma longa história como cidade termal, as Caldas da Rainha são muito mais que isso.
Descubra…
Costa de Caparica Parte 1
Praia das Maçãs 😀 Every beach should have a story like this
The only place in the world where the sun only wakes up around 11 am, pushing the fog to infinity and stretching across golden sands bathed by an almost untamed Atlantic ocean.
Ladies and gentlemen: Praia das Maçãs.
The people say that the small stream that reaches there, and at whose mouth the children play splashing in the calm waters fed by a discreet waterfall, carried apples fallen from the apple trees that grew along its banks. The beach thus gained its curious name.
The Atlantic Ocean is wild here, causing strong waves and muscular currents, which give lifeguards no rest. But this irascible nature of the ocean does not scare bathers, so this beach is one of the most popular in the Sintra area. In summer, the beach fills up with families and groups of friends, who at the end of the bathing season are replaced by local hikers…
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From the mountains to the sea 🌊
De Sintra à Praia das Maçãs
From Sintra to Praia das Maçãs
The journey between the cool slopes of the Sintra mountains and the wild Atlantic Ocean at Praia das Maçãs is something you should do at least once in your life. There are few opportunities to cross a green and fragrant mountain range on the way to a beach where the sun only rises there at 11 am and not doing so on an early 20th century tram is practically a sin.
Along the way, we can see small towns punctuated here and there by houses that, despite looking like summer houses, are first homes, and wave to the locals with their open smile when they see the old electric car cross their path at the full speed his old age allows.
Or stopping for one of the crew to divert one of the many branches of the leafy local trees that have…
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Os Tubarões não gostam de carne humana
Não é propriamente uma novidade mas, agora, está impressa em Checo! É só clicarem aqui para lerem a entrevista que o nosso fundador deu à revista Tydenik Forum. O link inclui tradução para inglês e avisamos desde já que se perderam alguns detalhes na mesma, mas que se lixe… É mais uma pequena peça no […]
Os Tubarões não gostam de carne humana
Castelodasandrix's Blog 