... the boy was jumping on trampolines.

Credit: Amanda George/BRC

Margaret Brugler, Director of CROP, distributes milk India.

"Miss Margaret Brugler, Director of CROP, distributing milk received as a gift from the people of the Churches of America to needy children in Delhi during a recent visit."

ELCA Archives photo.

@荒川河川敷（Arakawa riverbed, Tokyo）

SproutLoud’s marketing resource management platform (mrm) includes marketing processes that that streamline workflows, automate manual tasks, decrease marketing design and production cycles, and provide effective business intelligence for almost any industry. Our solutions are also designed to solve the full range of distributed marketing challenges that many different types of marketing channels face.

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Jewelry manufacturers face intense logistical challenges with coordinating local marketing efforts involving thousands of individually owned stores located across the country. See how using our mrm platform created local store interest in promoting a client’s brand and reduced production costs faced by both the jewelry store owner and the manufacturer.

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IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR THE LEGO GROUP - 'Kaleidowaves', designed by London-based artist Lakwena Maciver, is unveiled on Wednesday, June 21, 2023, in London. The giant Disney castle window mural, standing 4.5 metres-high and made from 220,000 LEGO bricks, was created to celebrate Disney’s 100th anniversary and the launch of the new LEGO | Disney Castle set. (Vianney Le Caer/AP Images for the LEGO Group)

Distributing supplies under arms at the foot of the Dewey Monument in front of the St. Francis Hotel.

THE DESTRUCTION OF SAN FRANCISCO

By Miriam Michelson

Author of " In the Bishop's Carriage," etc.

At 5:15 the city was still asleep. An early student, a rattling milk-wagon, the carrier delivering the papers, had the morning to themselves. It was the sort of morning San Francisco does not often have—clear, light, sunny, with the bay soft and sparkling the sky undimmed by fog and in the air a hint of spring that the tender green f the hills and the islands graciously confirmed. At 5:17 as at a signal, the chimneys came rattling down. That was the first we knew of danger. We are used to earthquakes, and so we had merely turned over in our beds at the first gentle shake. But a moment later we realized that this was the real thing in earthquakes. It came with a grinding crushing, menacing, deep toned rumbling, a twist, a clutch at the earth’s vitals, and then a wrench that lifted us out of our beds up into the air and down with a thud upon the rocking trembling floor, over which the shaking walls seemed to hover, leaning toward each other as if for comfort. At twenty minutes after five the streets were crowded with nightgown and barefooted women, shivering with the cold nausea of horror, with ashen-faced men and children screaming with terror, while the racked and trembling earth, convulsed beneath our feet, sent us staggering like sailors about a slippery deck. And what a fearful distrust of solid earth was born in our hearts then. It will never leave us. We know now that stone pavements can crackle and crunch like finely split kindling wood; that brick chimneys can fall apart and dissolve like a lump of sugar in tea; that steel and iron skyscrapers can fall like hollow sinking houses of cards. We have seen mighty bridges broken at almost a right angle, bridges upon which we walk today until we reach the river point, and then, leaving the level, climb painfully up the steep part that is shot up into the air from which we jump back 10 feet to earth again. We have a seen a locomotive and its train of cars thrown flat upon its side. We have seen churches totally stripped of the stone that overlaid their iron and steel bones, and the gilded crosses stand out now in the smoky evening sky, their supports lost in the dusk like some strange, new, four pointed stars. And the earth itself, the poor, cracked, shattered earth, cannot forget it’s agony. Like a beaten child it seems to sob convulsively in it sleep; each lighter shock of the hundred that have followed the great one is a reminiscence of the terror we and it have lived through.

The Earthquake Shocks

All day and all night, for the first 48 hours they came, these shivering sighs of the struggling earth. We had as many as four earthquakes in an hour, and innumerable slight shocks that might have passed without notice before the awful terror of this one fell upon us. Even as I write, a week after that terrible and unforgettable April 18, the earth shakes and rises, still remembering, and in the midst of a sentence I hurry out of the house into the open, to find neighbors smiling nervously and apologetically at each other with brave facetiousness, striving to make the best of it, yet wringing with each other‘s hands with that significant clasp that we have learned since we looked into death’s eyes and saw there a long preliminary agony with the possible swift terrible finish that even the seismograph may not record. We fly out of our houses, (those of us who still have them), but we go back into them again. Such queer homes they are these San Francisco residences that survived! They have no lights, no fire, no routine, no comforts, and but scanty stores of provisions,. We cook on improvised brick ovens out in the street. We sleep in our beds but we still have near us a light bag of indispensable belongings , And we wake with an appalling readiness to flee.

It was the calvary coming in from the Presidio that Wednesday morning a week ago, that gave us our first comprehension of the gravity of the disaster. The city was burning, of course, here, there, and everywhere, but ours is the city of hills spread straggling over wide distances. We who lived out on the heights could feel the fierce heat that came up from the burning district a mile and a half away. We even had wafted to us stray, half burned bits of other people’s wallpaper, scraps of smoldering shingles, and soot and cinders that covered us and our belongings thickly. But it was that long black line of soldiers streaming in along the broad boulevard that runs near the shore that told us what we might anticipate. After that, about noon, came the Marines from the cruiser Chicago. We watched them land, yet how we did it when all our eyes were fixed on the flames, I do not know. They were approaching the fire. They came like a splendidly disorganized army that knew it’s own power, that needs no discipline, no leader, no plan of attack. When the wall of flame that had been shooting westward, south of market Street, united with that bound northwest, we were sure the end had come.

The Exodus From The Doomed City

“Get out get out of the house and get out now!” the policeman of our street urged. “You may escape tonight but tomorrow night or the next day or the day after you will have to get out. And then where’ll you go? The waterfront and the ferry building will be gone. You’ll be cut off from everything but the Presidio. Take my advice and get there now.”

It begin then, that fearful hegira. All through that long night of unnatural stillness we heard the fleeing footsteps. It was a horrible sound, that continuous hurried struggling exodus. The stricken people did not run – they were too exhausted by the time they had reached our quarter, but they toiled doggedly on, on out towards the west, toward the cool eucalyptus forests in the Presidio, out toward the edge of the bay. One man I saw carried with care a brand new pair of tan shoes. He had absolutely nothing else, but these he bore on a stick over his shoulder. Women carried their babies, their canary birds in cages, their parrots. Next to a man who trundled all his household possessions on a lawn mower rode group of negresses in a ghastly hearse, pulled by stalwart negroes. A chattering crowd of Chinaman carried pathetic little bundles of rice, their brightly clad little wives and babies dragging miserably on behind. A man and his wife harnessed them selves with ropes to a trunk and with bowed backs and blistered feet went on. It was a fearful progression. And what did they go to? A sleepless earth wracked night in the open, with mothers seeking their children, with aged parents separated from their families. A man I know wandered through the Presidio for five hours at night, calling his wife’s name. There was no light, there was nothing to distinguish one bundle of massive rush refugees from another. My friend called and called till he was hoarse. When he dragged himself back to town on Thursday he had the search to begin over again.

When the sun rose that Thursday morning it was blood red in a heaven of smoke. Black clouds were belching fourth; the business part of the town was a hot graveyard, whose rickety irregularly shaped tombstones marked the spot where millions of property lay in mountainous heaps of smoking brick and twisted steel. And in rich men’s backyards, under rosebushes, silver and laces and jewels had been secreted that night. The dynamiting began, and we became familiar with the sight of automobiles caring a red flag and bearing a soldier with rifle in hand, while a businesslike person informed the proprietor of a hotel worth half a million that in three minutes his property would be blown up. And it was. It took just that length of time to transform the hotel in which my sister lived into a smoking ruin. She came out, covering her eyes, for she had seen a twisted dead body across the street where the tower had toppled and fallen, half burying it.

From the hill where we lived we could look out over the superb and terrible spectacle. The heat was fearful, and the light a ghastly dull glow that sickened the eye as terror and pain sicken the stomach. We were nauseated with misery and apprehension. Some of us had been in the country. Can you realize what a conflagration it was when the people of the town 40 miles from San Francisco could see the white clouds billowing up and down, and who stood at night on the little beach watching the fearful pink glow that told of disaster? In that same little town the earthquake had shattered every one of the pretty quaint little cottages. It had thrown a grand piano diagonally across the room and deposited it in the opposite corner upside down.

Under Martial Law

In San Francisco the heartbreaking hegira continued. There was not a car running, nor a wagon on the street, not a sound of a single whistle; only dead houses looming up around us and in piles of brick and stone on the sidewalks. Have you ever tried to find your way for a dozen blocks in absolute darkness?Do you know how hard it is to tell one street from another, to be sure of the order of the streets, to know where the curb begins and the street ends? We struck matches now and then to look at the numbers of the houses or to try to make out the names on the lamp posts. We were relieved when the vigilance committee halted us and we presented our credentials, for they could pass us on in the right direction and tell us where the next guard would stop us. We got to our destination at last, weary, shocked, apprehensive of even one night spent in that grotesquely bewitched town. We lit a candle to find our rooms and to look for a sandwich. In a minute the guard’s knock was at the door. “Out with the light,” he commanded. We begged for five minutes and got it. We had not become accustomed to martial law then, but later the most flippant of civilians recognized the fact in the voice that came out of the dark, whence a loaded gun was pointed. Within five minutes each of us was in his own room, and we munched our sandwiches as we undressed in darkness and lay down to wait for morning. Such a beautiful heart breaking morning! Down on the flat below us, in tents, in horseless carriages, the people were sleeping. Sleeping, too, in the open air, lying flat on the bare ground, sleeping in spite of misery, of destitution, of ever present fear. After they had waked they streamed down to the supply department. We saw an old woman carrying in her hands her plate of beans and boiled pork, as she walked back to a dirty little bundle of salvage. It was the one meal that she was sure of, the one she held in her trembling fingers. And the children, the scared, big eyed babies clutching at their mothers gowns or at any woman’s gown when they were taken from their mothers as many of them were. And yet, in spite of it all, I passed a group of darkies sitting singing over their meal.

The Aftermath

We are through telling hard luck stories in San Francisco today. You don’t hear anymore about the man who wanted $5000 a month rent for his store on grand Avenue, and is now looking for work. We are not even resentful of the millionaire’s son who utilized his father’s launch, and our awful need, to charge $100 for a trip across the bay. We have met with such kindness, such overwhelming overpowering evidence of charity and humanity, that all the sermons that have been preached since the world began could not make us feel more poignantly then we do the brotherhood of man.

Thirty miles from San Francisco, a beautifully poor woman that I know has erected a tent beside her shanty, and there she is caring for for refugees. Nearer the town, in the suburbs across the bay, there is not a house, nor hand, that is not open to us. Here in town, we form in breadlines stretching for blocks. We camp in empty street cars. Rich and poor in the unburned districts come out of their houses to cook the simplest sort of meal in the street. Our ovens are made of the bricks that toppled down from our chimneys. They are laid roughly upon each other, and we unhandy folk burn our fingers and scald ourselves in our efforts to cook without the conveniences that have made us the helpless beings that we are. We have not much water to drink; what we have we get from the corner hydrants in pails. We live upon canned goods, and are lucky to have them, we tell each other. We remember the day of the earthquake, when the grocery stores were raided and when money could not buy crackers. And we are burying our dead, or rather reburying them. From empty lots where they were hastily laid under scant cover of earth, from beneath ruined buildings, from stricken houses, we are gathering up the blood sacrifice nature demanded and laying it away. Out on North Beach there are trenches one hundred feet long and a man’s length wide and we lay them down there side-by-side in their burial sheets. As we take them from the morgue wagons we make a note that may serve as identification and then we fill in the trench. These trenches are the scars on the earth was him which will linger longest.

AKEMI!!!

La primera muñeca diseñada por Sheryl Designs que es distribuida por Groove INC!

Ya disponible en todo el mundo!

Estas son las primeras fotos del producto final que por fin puedo subir oficialmente.

Dentro de un tiempo os subiré las fotos de proceso de creación más las fotos artisticas que hice de la que fue el prototipo inicial.

Espero que os guste!

AKEMI!!!

The first doll designed by Sheryl Designs that is being distributed by Groove INC!

Available now worldwide!

This are the first photos of the final product I can finally upload officially.

In the future I will upload some making of photos and some othe artistic shots I took from what once was the inicial prototype.

I hope you like it!

Distributing the fog machine

A product shot of a distributed brake control valve for Knorr Bremse Rail Systems (UK).

WHITEvoid distributes the second generation of its "kinetic lights" modular winch system

The new "kinetic lights" product lifts up to 5 kg and features full color RGB and RGBW (plus white) LED output. Each winch is individually addressable via DMX for dynamically contolled cable acceleration and velocity control. The current winch generation is also equipped with an auto setup function with cable end position self-detection.

The new winch design has won the iF Product Design Award 2011

The kinetic lights technology is registered for a patent. The patent is pending.

The system is now available for rental or purchase. Please find detailed information on the "kinetic lights" project website:

www.kinetic-lights.com

© All rights reserved. May not be reproduced or distributed without express written permission from the author.

La vida no es fácil y cada vez son más visibles las huellas de las batallas, lo que nos puede hacer sobrevivir son nuestros sentimientos.

Mustang Fuel employees distributed holiday Care and Share boxes Dec. 12 in Enid.

Brent Harris says Sustainable Energy Technologies got a contract to supply 21,000 power inverters to a company in Germany that is making battery storage systems for solar systems to allow owners to delay selling power until its needed.

Photos David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

www.greenenergyfutures.ca/blog/distributed-generation-how...

She has two eggs, but seems only one chicken, last year she had two.

Red-throated Diver nesting in Porkeri Mountains

Adult in breeding plumage

Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Order: Gaviiformes

Family: Gaviidae

Genus: Gavia

Species: G. stellata

Binomial name

Gavia stellata

(Pontoppidan, 1763)

Synonyms

Colymbus stellatus Pontoppidan, 1763 Colymbus lumme Brünnich, 1764

Colymbus septentrionalis Linnaeus, 1766

Gavia lumme Forster, 1788

Colymbus mulleri Brehm, 1826

Urinator lumme Stejneger, 1882

The Red-throated Diver (Gavia stellata), known in North America as the Red-throated Loon, is a migratory aquatic bird that is found in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. It is the smallest and most widely distributed member of the loon or diver family.

Around 55–67 centimetres (22–26 in) in length, the Red-throated Diver is a nondescript bird in winter, greyish above fading to white below. During the breeding season, it acquires the distinctive reddish throat which gives rise to its common name. Fish form the bulk of the diet, with invertebrates and plants sometimes eaten as well. A monogamous species, the Red-throated Diver forms long-term pair bonds.

Contents [hide]

1 Taxonomy and etymology

2 Description

2.1 Voice

3 Habitat and distribution

4 Behaviour

4.1 Food and feeding

4.2 Breeding

5 Conservation status and threats

6 In human culture

7 References

7.1 Sources

8 External links

[edit] Taxonomy and etymology

First described by Danish naturalist Erik Pontoppidan in 1763, the Red-throated Diver is a monotypic species, with no distinctive subspecies despite its large Holarctic range.[2] Pontoppidan initially placed the species in the now-defunct genus Colymbus, which contained grebes as well as divers. By 1788, however, German naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster realized that grebes and divers were different enough to warrant separate genera, and moved the Red-throated Diver (along with all other diver species) to its present genus.[3] Its relationship to the four other divers is complex; though all belong to the same genus, it differs more than any of the others in terms of morphology, behaviour, ecology and breeding biology. It is thought to have evolved in the Palearctic, and then to have expanded into the Nearctic.[2]

The genus name Gavia comes from the Latin for "sea mew", as used by ancient Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder.[4] The specific epithet stellata is Latin for "set with stars" or "starry",[5] and refers to the bird's speckled back in its non-breeding plumage.[4] "Diver" refers to the family's underwater method of hunting for prey, while "red-throated" is a straightforward reference to the bird's most distinctive breeding plumage feature. The word "loon" is thought to have derived from the Swedish lom, the Old Norse or Icelandic lómr, or the Old Dutch loen, all of which mean "lame" or "clumsy", and is a probable reference to the difficulty that all divers have in moving about on land.[6]

[edit] Description

The Red-throated Diver is the smallest and lightest of the world's diver species, ranging from 55–67 centimetres (22–26 in) in length with a 91–110 centimetres (36–43 in) wingspan,[7] and averaging 1.4 kilograms (3.1 lb) in weight.[8] Like all divers, it is long-bodied and short-necked, with its legs set far back on its body.[9] The sexes are similar, although males tend to be slightly larger and heavier than females.[2] In breeding plumage, the adult has a grey head and neck (with narrow black and white stripes on the back of the neck), a triangular red throat patch, white underparts and a dark mantle. It is the only diver with an all-dark back in breeding plumage. The non-breeding plumage is drabber with the chin, foreneck and much of the face white, and considerable white speckling on the dark mantle. Its bill is thin, straight and sharp, and the bird often holds it at an uptilted angle. Though the colour of the bill changes from black in summer to pale grey in winter, the timing of the colour change does not necessarily correspond to that of the bird's overall plumage change. The nostrils are narrow slits located near the base of the bill, and the iris is reddish.

An adult in non-breeding plumage shows the speckled back which gives the bird its specific name.When it first emerges from its egg, the young Red-throated Diver is covered with fine soft down feathers. Primarily dark brown to dark grey above, it is slightly paler on the sides of its head and neck, as well as on its throat, chest, and flanks, with a pale grey lower breast and belly. Within weeks, this first down is replaced by a second, paler set of down feathers, which are in turn replaced by developing juvenile feathers.[10]

In flight, the Red-throated Diver has a distinctive profile; its small feet do not project far past the end of its body, its head and neck droop below the horizontal (giving the flying bird a distinctly hunchbacked shape) and its thin wings are angled back. It has a quicker, deeper wingbeat than do other divers.[8]

[edit] Voice

The adult Red-throated Diver has a number of vocalisations, which are used in different circumstances. In flight, when passing conspecifics or circling its own pond, it gives a series of rapid yet rhythmic goose-like cackles, at roughly five calls per second. Its warning call, if disturbed by humans or onshore predators, is a short croaking bark. A low-pitched moaning call, used primarily as a contact call between mates and between parents and young, but also during copulation, is made with the bill closed. The species also has a short wailing call, which descends slightly in pitch and lasts about a second; due to strong harmonics surrounding the primary pitch, this meowing call is more musical than its other calls. Another call—a harsh, pulsed cooing that rises and falls in pitch, and is typically repeated up to 10 times in a row—is used in territorial encounters and pair-bonding, and by parent birds encouraging their young to move on land between bodies of water.[11] Known as the "long call", it is often given in duet, which is unusual among the divers;[12] the female's contribution is longer and softer than her mate's.[11]

Young have a shrill closed-bill call, which they use in begging and to contact their parents. They also have a long call used in response to (and similar to that of) the long call of adults.[11]

[edit] Habitat and distribution

The Red-throated Diver breeds primarily in the Arctic regions of northern Eurasia and North America (generally north of 50°N latitude), and winters in northern coastal waters.[13] Unlike other divers, the Red-throated Diver regularly uses very small freshwater lakes as breeding sites.

In North America, it winters regularly along both coasts, ranging as far south as the Baja California Peninsula and the Gulf of California in northwestern Mexico; it has been recorded as a vagrant in the interior Mexican state of Hidalgo.[14] In Europe, it breeds in Iceland, northern Scotland, Scandinavia and northern Russia, and winters along the coast as far south as parts of Spain; it also regularly occurs along major inland waterways, including the Mediterranean, Aegean and Black Seas, as well as large river, lakes and reservoirs.[15] It has occurred as a vagrant as far south as Morocco, Tunisia and The Gambia.[1]

Some of its folknames in northeastern North America—including cape race, cape brace, cape drake and cape racer, as well as corruptions such as scapegrace—originated from its abundance around Cape Race, Newfoundland.[16]

[edit] Behaviour

Because its feet are located so far back on its body, the Red-throated Diver is not capable of walking on land; however, it can use its feet to shove itself forward on its breast.[8] Young use this method of covering ground when moving from their breeding pools to larger bodies of water, including rivers and the sea.[17] It is the only species of diver able to take off directly from land.[18]

The Red-throated Diver is a diurnal migrant, which travels singly or in loose groups, often high above the water.[8] In eastern North America (and possibly elsewhere), it tends to migrate near the coast rather than farther offshore.[19] It is a strong flier, and has been clocked at speeds between 75 and 78 kilometres per hour (47–49 mph).[20] Like all members of its family, the Red-throated Diver goes through a simultaneous wing moult, losing all its flight feathers at once and becoming flightless for a period of 3–4 weeks. However, unlike other divers—which undergo this moult in late winter—the Red-throated Diver loses its ability to fly sometime between early August and November.[21]

[edit] Food and feeding

Like all members of its family, the Red-throated Diver is primarily a fish-eater, though it sometimes feeds on molluscs, crustaceans, frogs, aquatic invertebrates, insects, fish spawn or even plant material.[22] It seizes rather than spears its prey, which is generally captured underwater.[23] Though it normally dives and swims using only its feet for propulsion, it may use its wings as well if it needs to turn or accelerate quickly.[24] Pursuit dives range from 2–9 metres (6.6–30 ft) in depth, with an average underwater time of about a minute.[22] The fish diet of the Red-throated Diver has led to several of its folknames, including "sprat borer" and "spratoon".[25]

Chicks are competent swimmers, able to accompany their parents soon after hatching.For the first few days after hatching, young Red-throated Divers are fed aquatic insects and small crustaceans by both parents. After 3–4 days, the parents switch to fish small enough for the young birds to swallow whole. By four weeks of age, the young can eat the same food—of the same size—as their parents do.[26] Young birds may be fed for some time after fledging; adults have been seen feeding fish to juveniles at sea and on inland lakes in the United Kingdom, hundreds of kilometers from any breeding areas.[27][28]

[edit] Breeding

The Red-throated Diver is a monogamous species which forms long-term pair bonds. Both sexes build the nest, which is a shallow scrape (or occasionally a platform of mud and vegetation) lined with vegetation and sometimes a few feathers, and placed within a half-metre (18 in) of the edge of a small pond. The female lays two eggs (though clutches of 1–3 have been recorded); they are incubated for 24–29 days, primarily by the female. The eggs, which are greenish or olive-brownish spotted with black, measure 75 x 46 millimetres (3.0 x 1.8 in) and have a mass of 83 grams (2.9 oz), of which 8 percent is shell.[23][29] Incubation is begun as soon as the first egg is laid, so they hatch asynchronously. The young birds are precocial upon hatching: downy and mobile with open eyes; both parents feed them (small aquatic invertebrates initially, then small fish) for 38–48 days. Parents will perform distraction displays to lure predators away from the nest and young.[23] Ornithologists disagree as to whether adults carry young on their backs while swimming with some maintaining that they do[23] and others the opposite.[30]

[edit] Conservation status and threats

JuvenileThough the Red-throated Diver is not a globally threatened species, as it has a large population and a significant range, there are populations which appear to be declining. Numbers counted in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service surveys in Alaska show a 53 percent population decline between 1971 and 1993, for example,[31] and counts have dropped in continental Europe as well.[32] In Scotland, on the other hand, the population increased by some 16 percent between 1994 and 2006, according to surveys done by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Scottish Natural Heritage.[32] In 2002, Wetlands International estimated a global population of 490,000 to 1,500,000 individuals; global population trends haven't been quantified.[1]

The Red-throated Diver is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies;[33] in the Americas, it is protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.[34] Oil spills, habitat degradation, and fishing nets are among the main threats this species faces.[30] In addition, high levels of mercury in the environment have led to reproductive failures in some areas, including parts of Sweden.[35] On the breeding grounds, Arctic and Red Foxes are major predators of eggs,[36] while Great Skuas, Arctic Skuas and various species of Larus gulls (including Great Black-backed Gulls and Glaucous Gulls)[37][38] are predators of both eggs and young.[39]

[edit] In human culture

Used as a food source since prehistoric times,[40][41] the Red-throated Diver is still hunted by indigenous peoples in some parts of the world today.[42] Eggs as well as birds are taken, sometimes in significant numbers; during one study on northern Canada's Igloolik Island, 73% of all Red-throated Diver eggs laid within the 10 km2 (3.9 mi2) study site over two breeding seasons were collected by indigenous inhabitants of the island.[43] In some parts of Russia, Red-throated Diver skins were traditionally used to make caps, collars and other clothing trim.[44] The species was also central to the creation mythologies of indigenous groups throughout the Holarctic.[45] According to the myth—which varies only slightly between versions, despite the sometimes-vast distances that separated the groups who believed it—the diver was asked by a great shaman to bring up earth from the bottom of the sea. That earth was then used to build the world's dry land.[45][46]

As recently as the 1800s, the Red-throated Diver was thought to be a foreteller of storms; according to the conventional wisdom of the time, birds flying inland or giving short cries predicted good weather, while those flying out to sea or giving long, wailing cries predicted rain.[29][32] In the Orkney and Shetland islands of Scotland, the species is still known as the "rain goose" in deference to its supposed weather-predicting capabilities.[32]

Bhutan, Japan and the Union of the Comoros have issued stamps featuring the Red-throated Diver.[47]

[edit] References

1.^ a b c BirdLife International (2008). Gavia stellata. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2008. Retrieved on 2008-10-14.

2.^ a b c Carboneras, p. 162

3.^ Allen, J. A (July 1897). "The Proper Generic Name of the Loons". The Auk 14 (3): 31... . elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v014n03/p0312-p0313.pdf.

4.^ a b Johnsgard, Paul A. (1987). Diving Birds of North America. University of Nevada–Lincoln. ISBN 0803225660. digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&a....

5.^ Simpson, Donald Penistan (1979). Cassell's Latin Dictionary (5 ed.). London: Cassell Ltd. p. 883. ISBN 0-304-52257-0.

6.^ Carboneras 1992, p. 169

7.^ Svensson, Lars; Peter Grant (1999). Collins Bird Guide. London: HarperCollins. pp. 12–13. ISBN 0-00-219728-6.

8.^ a b c d Sibley, David (2000). The Sibley Guide to Birds. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 23. ISBN 0-679-45122-6.

9.^ Cramp 1977, p. 42

10.^ Cramp 1977, p. 49

11.^ a b c Cramp 1977, p. 48

12.^ Carboneras 1992, p. 164

13.^ Carboneras, p.171

14.^ Howell, Steve N. G.; Sophie Webb (1995). A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. Oxford University Press. p. 92. ISBN 0-19-854012-4.

15.^ Cramp, p. 45

16.^ Cassidy, Frederic Gomes; Hall, Joan Houston (1985). Dictionary of American Regional English. Harvard University Press. p. 539. ISBN 0674205111. books.google.com/books?id=tuLKtLkFshoC&pg=RA1-PA539&a....

17.^ Haviland, Maud D. "On the Method of Progression on Land of a Young Red-throated Diver". British Birds 8 (10): 24... .

18.^ Mead-Waldo, E. G. B. "Habits of the Red-throated Diver". British Birds 16 (6): 172–3.

19.^ Powers, Kevin D.; Jeffrey Cherry. "Loon migrations off the coast of the northeastern United States". Wilson Bulletin 95 (1): 12... . elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Wilson/v095n01/p0125-p0132.pdf.

20.^ Davis, Rolph A. (January 1971). "Flight speed of Arctic and Red-throated Loons". The Auk 88 (1): 169. elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v088n01/p0169-p0169.pdf.

21.^ Wolfenden, Glen E.. "Selection for a Delayed Simultaneous Wing Molt in Loons (Gaviidae)". The Wilson Bulletin 79 (4): 41... . elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Wilson/v079n04/p0416-p0420.pdf.

22.^ a b Carboneras 1992, p. 171

23.^ a b c d Ehrlich, Paul R.; Dobkin, David S., Wheye, Darryl & Pimm, Stuart L. (1994). The Birdwatcher's Handbook. Oxford University Press. p. 2. ISBN 0-19-858407-5.

24.^ Townsend, Charles W. (July 1909). "The Use of the Wings and Feet by Diving Birds". The Auk 26 (3): 23... . elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v026n03/p0234-p0248.pdf.

25.^ Cocker, Mark; Mabey, Richard (2005). Birds Britannica. London: Chatto & Windus. p. 3. ISBN 0-701-16907-9.

26.^ Cramp 1977, p. 46

27.^ Hart, Alan S.; Jardine, David C. and Colin Hewitt (June 1998). "Red-throated Diver feeding young in October". British Birds 91 (6): 231.

28.^ Barber, S. C. (June 2002). "Red-throated Diver feeding young in November". British Birds 95 (6): 313.

29.^ a b "Red-throated Diver". British Trust for Ornithology. blx1.bto.org/birdfacts/results/bob20.htm. Retrieved on 2008-06-27.

30.^ a b "All About Birds: Red-throated Loon". Cornell Lab of Ornithology. www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Red-throate.... Retrieved on 2008-06-30.

31.^ Groves, Deborah J.; Conant, Bruce; King, Rodney J.; Hodges, John I.; King, James G. (1996). "Status and trends of loon populations summering in Alaska, 1971–1993". The Condor 98 (2): 189–195 . doi:10.2307/1369136. elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/files/issues/v098n02/p0189-p....

32.^ a b c d "Rise in divers mystifies experts". BBC News. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/highlands_and_island.... Retrieved on 2007-09-07.

33.^ "Waterbird species to which the Agreement applies". Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds. www.unep-aewa.org/documents/agreement_text/eng/pdf/aewa_a.... Retrieved on 2008-06-29.

34.^ "Birds Protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act". US Fish and Wildlife Service. www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/intrnltr/mbta/mbtandx.html#l. Retrieved on 2008-06-29.

35.^ Eriksson, M.O.G.; Johansson, I. & Ahlgren, C.G. (1992). "Levels of mercury in eggs of red-throated diver Gavia stellata and black-throated diver G. arctica in southwest Sweden" (Abstract). Ornis Svecica 2 (1): 29–36. md1.csa.com/partners/viewrecord.php?requester=gs&coll....

36.^ Schamel, Douglas; Tracy, Diane (Summer 1985). "Replacement Clutches in the Red-throated Loon". Journal of Field Ornithology 56 (3): 28... . elibrary.unm.edu/sora/JFO/v056n03/p0282-p0283.pdf.

37.^ Serle Jnr., W. (January 1936). "Mortality amongst Red-throated Divers". British Birds 29 (1): 81-82.

38.^ Eberl, Christine; Picman, Jaroslav (July–September 1993). "Effect of Nest-site Location on Reproductive Success of Red-throated Loons (Gavia stellata)". The Auk 110 (3): 43... . elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v110n03/p0436-p0444.pdf.

39.^ Booth, C. J. (January 1978). "Breeding success of Red-throated Divers". British Birds 71 (1): 44.

40.^ Gordon, Bryan C.; Savage, Howard. "Whirl Lake: A Stratified Indian Site Near the Mackenzie Delta". Arctic 27 (3): 17... . pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic27-3-175.pdf.

41.^ Tagliacozzo, Antonio; Gala, Monica (November 2002). "Exploitation of Anseriformes at two Upper Palaeolithic sites in Southern Italy: Grotta Romanelli (Lecce, Apulia) and Grotta del Santuario della Madonna a Praia a Mare (Cosenza, Calabria)". Acta zoologica cracoviensia 45 (special issue): 117-131 . www.isez.pan.krakow.pl/journals/azc_v/pdf/45/09.pdf.

42.^ Bird, Louis; Brown, Jennifer S.H. (2005). Telling Our Stories: Omushkego Legends and Histories from Hudson Bay. Broadview Press. ISBN 1551115808. books.google.com/books?id=Cc9dgTkkfcoC&printsec=front....

43.^ Forbes, Graham; Robertson, Kelly; Ogilvie, Carey; Seddon, Laura (September 1992). "Breeding Densities, Biogeography, and Nest Predation of Birds on Igloolik Island, NWT". Arctic (Peterborough, Ontario) 45 (3): 295-303 . pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic45-3-295.pdf.

44.^ "Red-throated Loon". Birds of North America Online. Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the American Ornithologists' Union. bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/513/articles/conservation. Retrieved on 2008-03-27. (Registration required)

45.^ a b Köngäs, Elli Kaija (Spring 1960). "The Earth-Diver (Th. A 812)". Ethnohistory 7 (2): 15... . www.jstor.org/pss/480754.

46.^ Lutwack, Leonard (1994). Birds in Literature. University Press of Florida. p. 82. ISBN 0813012546.

47.^ Scharning, Kjell. "Stamps showing Red-throated Loon Gavia stellata". Theme Birds on Stamps. www.birdtheme.org/mainlyimages/index.php?spec=1458. Retrieved on 2009-02-13.

[edit] Sources

Carboneras, Carles (1992). "Family Gaviidae (Divers)". in Josep del Hoyo, Andrew Elliott & Jordi Sargatal. Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 1: Ostrich to Ducks. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. pp. 162–172 .

Cramp, Stanley, ed (1977). "Gavia stellata Red-throated Diver". Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa: Birds of the Western Palearctic, Volume 1, Ostrich to Ducks. Oxford University Press. pp. 42–49. ISBN 0-19-857358-8.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gavia stellata

Red-throated Diver photos on Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences's Visual Resources for Ornithology website

Red-throated Diver videos on Handbook of Birds of the World's Internet Bird Collection website

Red-throated Diver sound recordings on xeno-canto.org's website

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-throated_Diver"

Categories: IUCN Red List least concern species | Gaviiformes | Arctic birds | Birds of Europe | Birds of Asia | British Isles coastal fauna | Birds of Italy

IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR SUMOFUS - Human rights protestors from SumOfUs and Latin American Solidarity Centre support Pedro Josse Velasco Tumina, leader of the Misak people, Colombia, during their protest and attempt to enter the AGM of Smurfit Kappa on Friday, April 29, 2022, in Dublin. (Stephen S T Bradley/AP Images for SumOfUs)

Oxfam has been distributing hygiene kits and cash grants to vulnerable families sheltering in evacuation centres in Angono. The kits include items such as sleeping mats, soap, underwear and sanitary towels, as well as jerry cans to collect and store water in. These are also accompanied by small cash grants of 1,000 pesos (US$20) to help families purchase supplies and replace the items they lost in the floods.

At the distribution I visit on 21 October, Oxfam is providing support to around 450 households, or approximately 2,250 people. The distribution is carried out with our local partner Sikhay who visited the site the day before to distribute special coupons to those previously identified with the help of community leaders as being most in need of support.

Recipients line up in groups to hand in their coupons and sign for the goods before collecting their hygiene kits and then moving on to collect the cash grants after a second verification check. Pregnant and elderly women are given priority and selected to go first.

Photo credit: Laura Eldon/Oxfam

ANERA distributed more than 8000 of these bright orange "indestructible" soccer balls to children and sports clubs around Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camps.

Nahr El Bared

Fisherfolk receive a new boat engine in Hafun, Somalia on 20 February 2021. FAO in Somalia continues its anti-piracy initiatives to provide alternatives for youth living in the coastal communities of Puntland, Galmudug and Mogadishu.

Photo credits must be given to: ©FAO/Arete/Isak Amin

Distributed at Direct Action events at Walmart.

Learn more at occupy-detroit.us

Contact me if you would like a poster.

Samoa Red Cross volunteers worked from more than 12 hours a day from two distribution centres, distributing food, water, clothes, mosquito nets and household items. Here, Red Cross volunteer Tuasivi Fuiava lugs donated items.

Photo: Abril Esquivel/Australian Red Cross

A landscape photo shows boats destroyed by Cyclone Gati in Hafun, Somalia on 19 February 2021. FAO in Somalia continues its anti-piracy initiatives to provide alternatives for youth living in the coastal communities of Puntland, Galmudug and Mogadishu.

Photo credits must be given to: ©FAO/Arete/Isak Amin

USTDA sponsored a reverse trade mission Sept 8-17, 2014 to familiarize Brazilian representatives from utility companies and public entities with the latest U.S. technologies, suppliers, and best practices in distributed generation.

New Jersey State Troopers distributed approximately 560 coats to students of the Elizabeth Public Schools, during their 7th Annual Coat Drive on January 18th and 19th.

The donations, collections and distribution of coats to our student's were made possible through the tremendous assistance and collaboration with: Elizabeth Public Schools team members, Wakefern, Elizabeth Police and Fire Department, Hispanic Law Enforcement Association of Union County (HLEAUC), New Jersey Latin-American Trooper's Society (NJLATS), At Heart's Length, Pepsi, Cummins, Target of Linden and Mario's Pizzeria of Perth Amboy, along with community friends and families. Retail companies that assisted with the coat drive included: Target located at Aviation Plaza in Linden, Macy's and Sears of Woodbridge Center Mall located in Woodbridge and BJ's located in Edison.

The annual community outreach event is reflective of the efforts Troopers make throughout the year, to have a significant and memorable impact on the communities they serve.

Once again, the heartfelt generosity of the New Jersey State Troopers and their partners, will help ensure Elizabeth Public Schools students stay warm during this especially cold winter season.

New Jersey State Troopers distributed 580 coats to students of Elizabeth Public Schools during their 6th Annual Coat Drive on January 10.

The donation, collection, and distribution of coats to Elizabeth Public Schools students was made possible through the tremendous assistance and collaboration with Elizabeth Public Schools team members, Wakefern, Elizabeth Police Department, Elizabeth Fire Department, Union County Sheriff's Department, Union County Department of Corrections, Hispanic Law Enforcement Association of Union County, and At Heart's Length, along with community friends and families. Retail companies that assisted with the coat drive included Old Navy stores at the Mills at Jersey Gardens in Elizabeth, Hamilton Marketplace in Hamilton, and Aviation Plaza in Linden as well as Sears and Boscov’s of Woodbridge Center Mall in Woodbridge.

The annual community outreach event has been a small gesture of the memorable impact troopers strive to make towards those they proudly serve and is reflective of their mindset to bridge the gap between those in uniform and communities that have minimal interaction with the New Jersey State Police.

While the winter weather is often unpredictable, one thing that remains certain is people needing winter coats to make it through the cold. Through their generosity and desire to help the greater community, the New Jersey State Troopers and their partners continue to help Elizabeth Public Schools students stay warm each year.

OUVERTURE DE L'ALBUM : Spectacles Historiques Renaissance Nancy 2013

Date : Samedi 18 mai 2013

Proposées par la Fédération française des fêtes et spectacles historiques et le Théâtre de la Passion de Nancy, de nombreuses reconstitutions historiques costumées dans différents site patrimoniaux de Nancy vont permettre de découvrir la vie à l’époque de la Renaissance.

Photos : ȚΞПPΞȚΞ2PiҲΞĿ

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All these pictures are under copyright protection. The content of this website CANNOT BE COPIED, DISTRIBUTED or PUBLISHED for any media, electronic or any other way of producing without my prior consent.

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June 20, 2011 - Just South of Overton Nebraska US

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It was an incredible day of storm chasing in South Central Nebraska. SPC had moderate risk for us that day., and we wouldn't be disappointed.

Tornado Watch was just issued for all of South Central Nebraska... Storms were already strong but had not developed into their severe stages until they entered into Phelps County. I was packed up and ready to catch some photographic gems for that day.

Camera in hand when the Tornado Warnings went into effect. I was already on the road trying to catch the first few severe cells. Timed it out perfectly, and got into position south of Overton Nebraska to get under and behind this first cell that produced the first 2 Tornadoes of that day.

Copyright 2011

Dale Kaminski @ NebraskaSC Photography

All Rights Reserved

This image may not be copied, reproduced, published or distributed in any medium without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder.

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DSCF7165

Distributed to stockists of Marshall amplification and free to their customers.. This issue featuring John Williams and Sky.

Distributing Note Books

The long-tailed shrike or rufous-backed shrike (Lanius schach) is a member of the bird family Laniidae, the shrikes. They are found widely distributed across Asia and there are variations in plumage across the range. The species ranges across much of Asia, both on the mainland and the eastern archipelagos. The eastern or Himalayan subspecies, L. s. tricolor, is sometimes called the black-headed shrike. Although there are considerable differences in plumage among the subspecies, they all have a long and narrow black tail, have a black mask and forehead, rufous rump and flanks and a small white patch on the shoulder. It is considered to form a superspecies with the grey-backed shrike (Lanius tephronotus) which breeds on the Tibetan Plateau.

Description:

The long-tailed shrike is a typical shrike, favouring dry open habitats and found perched prominently atop a bush or on a wire. The dark mask through the eye is broad and covers the forehead in most subspecies and the whole head is black in subspecies tricolor and nasutus. The tail is narrow and graduated with pale rufous on the outer feathers. Subspecies erythronotus has the grey of the mantle and upper back suffused with rufous while the southern Indian caniceps has pure grey. A small amount of white is present at the base of the primaries. The bay-backed shrike is smaller and more contrastingly patterned and has a more prominent white patch on the wing. The sexes are alike in plumage.

Taxonomy:

The genus name, Lanius, is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also known as "butcher birds" because of their feeding habits. The specific schach is an onomatopoeic name based on the call. The common English name "shrike" is from Old English scríc, "shriek", referring to the shrill call.

A number of subspecies are noted within the widely distributed range of this species. Stuart Baker in the second edition of The Fauna of British India considered Lanius schach, Lanius tephronotus and Lanius tricolor as three species. He considered nigriceps as synonymous with tricolor and included erythronotus as a race of schach. Other treatments were proposed by Hugh Whistler and N B Kinnear where tephronotus was considered a subspecies of schach and nigriceps and nasutus grouped together. Another treatment considered tricolor as a subspecies of L. tephronotus. It was subsequently however noted that tephronotus and schach co-occurred in the Kumaon region and so the two were confirmed as distinct species. Molecular distances also indicate that they are distant enough. The erythronotus group have a grey head which continues into the back with a gradual suffusion of rufous. The westernmost population from Transcaspia named by Sergei Buturlin as jaxartensis and said to be larger, is not considered valid. A very light grey form from western dry region of India named by Walter Koelz as kathiawarensis is also considered merely as a variant. In southern India and Sri Lanka, subspecies caniceps, is marked by the rufous restricted to the rump, light crown and the pure grey on the back. Biswamoy Biswas supported the view that nigriceps (having upper mantle grey and lower mantle rufous) was a hybrid of tricolor and erythronotus.

Subspecies longicaudatus has a greyer crown and is found in Thailand and Burma. The nominate subspecies is found in China from the Yangtze valley south to Hainan and Taiwan. Some individuals of the nominate form show melanism and were once described as a species fuscatus. Island forms include nasutus (Philippine Islands from Mindanao to Luzon and north Borneo), suluensis (Sulu Island), bentet (Sunda Islands and Sumatra other than Borneo) and stresemanni of New Guinea.

Distribution and habitat:

The species is found across Asia from Kazakhstan to New Guinea. It is found mainly in scrub and open habitats. Many of the temperate zone populations are migratory, moving south in winter while those in the tropics tend to be sedentary although they may make short distance movements. Subspecies caniceps of southern India is found in winter in the dry coastal zone of southern India. Subspecies tricolor migrates south to Bengal in India. They are found in scrub, grassland and open land under cultivation. A survey in southern India found them to be among the commonest wintering shrikes and found at a linear density along roadsides at about 0.58 per kilometer, often choosing wires to perch.

This species is a rare vagrant to western Europe on the strength of two accepted records in Great Britain on South Uist in November 2000 and the Netherlands near Den Helder in October 2011. A bird matching the features of caniceps was seen on the island of Maldives. It has also occurred as a vagrant to Jordan, Israel, Turkey, Hungary, Japan and Sweden.

Behaviour and ecology:

This bird has a characteristic upright "shrike" attitude when perched on a bush, from which it glides down at an angle to take lizards, large insects, small birds and rodents. They maintain feeding territories and are usually found single or in pairs that are well spaced out. Several members have been observed indulging in play behaviour fighting over perches. The usual calls are harsh grating and scolding calls, likened to the squealing of a frog caught by a snake. They are capable of vocal mimicry and include the calls of many species including lapwings, cuckoos, puppies and squirrels in their song. This singing ability makes it a popular pet in parts of southeast Asia.

Long-tailed shrikes take a wide variety of animal prey. On occasion, they have been noted capturing fish from a stream. They also take small snakes. It sometimes indulges in kleptoparasitism and takes prey from other birds. It also captures flying insects in the air. They sometimes impale prey on a thorny bush after feeding just on the head or brain. They have been reported to feed on the fruits of the neem in Kerala, even attempting to impale them on a twig.

The breeding season is in summer in the temperate ranges. The nest is a deep and loose cup made up of thorny twigs, rags and hair. This is placed in a thorny bush, trees such as Flacourtia and wild date palms (Phoenix). The usual clutch is about 3 to 6 eggs which are incubated by both sexes. The eggs hatch after about 13 to 16 days. Young chicks are often fed with pieces of small birds captured by the parents. A second brood may be raised in the same nest. They are sometimes parasitized by cuckoos such as the common cuckoo (Dehra Dun), common hawk-cuckoo, Jacobin cuckoo and the Asian koel in Bangladesh.

A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. The two surviving species of camel are the dromedary, or one-humped camel (C. dromedarius), which inhabits the Middle East and the Horn of Africa; and the bactrian, or two-humped camel (C. bactrianus), which inhabits Central Asia. Both species have been domesticated; they provide milk, meat, hair for textiles or goods such as felted pouches, and are working animals with tasks ranging from human transport to bearing loads.

The term "camel" is derived via Latin and Greek (camelus and κάμηλος kamēlos respectively) from Hebrew or Phoenician gāmāl.

"Camel" is also used more broadly to describe any of the six camel-like mammals in the family Camelidae: the two true camels and the four New World camelids: the llama, alpaca, guanaco, and vicuña of South America.

BIOLOGY

The average life expectancy of a camel is 40 to 50 years. A full-grown adult camel stands 1.85 m at the shoulder and 2.15 m at the hump. Camels can run at up to 65 km/h in short bursts and sustain speeds of up to 40 km/h. Bactrian camels weigh 300 to 1,000 kg and dromedaries 300 to 600 kg.

The male dromedary camel has in its throat an organ called a dulla, a large, inflatable sac he extrudes from his mouth when in rut to assert dominance and attract females. It resembles a long, swollen, pink tongue hanging out of the side of its mouth. Camels mate by having both male and female sitting on the ground, with the male mounting from behind. The male usually ejaculates three or four times within a single mating session. Camelids are the only ungulates to mate in a sitting position.

ECOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORAL ADAPTIONS

Camels do not directly store water in their humps as was once commonly believed. The humps are actually reservoirs of fatty tissue: concentrating body fat in their humps minimizes the insulating effect fat would have if distributed over the rest of their bodies, helping camels survive in hot climates. When this tissue is metabolized, it yields more than one gram of water for every gram of fat processed. This fat metabolization, while releasing energy, causes water to evaporate from the lungs during respiration (as oxygen is required for the metabolic process): overall, there is a net decrease in water.

Camels have a series of physiological adaptations that allow them to withstand long periods of time without any external source of water. Unlike other mammals, their red blood cells are oval rather than circular in shape. This facilitates the flow of red blood cells during dehydration and makes them better at withstanding high osmotic variation without rupturing when drinking large amounts of water: a 600 kg camel can drink 200 L of water in three minutes.

Camels are able to withstand changes in body temperature and water consumption that would kill most other animals. Their temperature ranges from 34 °C at dawn and steadily increases to 40 °C by sunset, before they cool off at night again. Maintaining the brain temperature within certain limits is critical for animals; to assist this, camels have a rete mirabile, a complex of arteries and veins lying very close to each other which utilizes countercurrent blood flow to cool blood flowing to the brain. Camels rarely sweat, even when ambient temperatures reach 49 °C Any sweat that does occur evaporates at the skin level rather than at the surface of their coat; the heat of vaporization therefore comes from body heat rather than ambient heat. Camels can withstand losing 25% of their body weight to sweating, whereas most other mammals can withstand only about 12–14% dehydration before cardiac failure results from circulatory disturbance.

When the camel exhales, water vapor becomes trapped in their nostrils and is reabsorbed into the body as a means to conserve water. Camels eating green herbage can ingest sufficient moisture in milder conditions to maintain their bodies' hydrated state without the need for drinking.

The camels' thick coats insulate them from the intense heat radiated from desert sand; a shorn camel must sweat 50% more to avoid overheating. During the summer the coat becomes lighter in color, reflecting light as well as helping avoid sunburn. The camel's long legs help by keeping its body farther from the ground, which can heat up to 70 °C. Dromedaries have a pad of thick tissue over the sternum called the pedestal. When the animal lies down in a sternal recumbent position, the pedestal raises the body from the hot surface and allows cooling air to pass under the body.

Camels' mouths have a thick leathery lining, allowing them to chew thorny desert plants. Long eyelashes and ear hairs, together with nostrils that can close, form a barrier against sand. If sand gets lodged in their eyes, they can dislodge it using their transparent third eyelid. The camels' gait and widened feet help them move without sinking into the sand.

The kidneys and intestines of a camel are very efficient at reabsorbing water. Camel urine comes out as a thick syrup, and camel feces are so dry that they do not require drying when the Bedouins use them to fuel fires.

Camels' immune system differs from those of other mammals. Normally, the Y-shaped antibody molecules consist of two heavy (or long) chains along the length of the Y, and two light (or short) chains at each tip of the Y. Camels, in addition to these, also have antibodies made of only two heavy chains, a trait that makes them smaller and more durable. These "heavy-chain-only" antibodies, discovered in 1993, are thought to have developed 50 million years ago, after camelids split from ruminants and pigs.

GENETICS

The karyotypes of different camelid species have been studied earlier by many groups, but no agreement on chromosome nomenclature of camelids has been reached. A 2007 study flow sorted camel chromosomes, building on the fact that camels have 37 pairs of chromosomes (2n=74), and found that the karyotime consisted of one metacentric, three submetacentric, and 32 acrocentric autosomes. The Y is a small metacentric chromosome, while the X is a large metacentric chromosome.The hybrid camel, a hybrid between Bactrian and dromedary camels, has one hump, though it has an indentation 4–12 cm deep that divides the front from the back. The hybrid is 2.15 m at the shoulder and 2.32 m tall at the hump. It weighs an average of 650 kg and can carry around 400 to 450 kg, which is more than either the dromedary or Bactrian can. According to molecular data, the New World and Old World camelids diverged 11 million years ago. In spite of this, these species can still hybridize and produce fertile offspring. The cama is a camel–llama hybrid bred by scientists who wanted to see how closely related the parent species were. Scientists collected semen from a camel via an artificial vagina and inseminated a llama after stimulating ovulation with gonadotrophin injections. The cama has ears halfway between the length of camel and llama ears, no hump, longer legs than the llama, and partially cloven hooves. According to cama breeder Lulu Skidmore, cama have "the fleece of the llamas" and "the strength and patience of the camel". Like the mule, camas are sterile, despite both parents having the same number of chromosomes.

EVOLUTION

The earliest known camel, called Protylopus, lived in North America 40 to 50 million years ago (during the Eocene). It was about the size of a rabbit and lived in the open woodlands of what is now South Dakota. By 35 million years ago, the Poebrotherium was the size of a goat and had many more traits similar to camels and llamas. The hoofed Stenomylus, which walked on the tips of its toes, also existed around this time, and the long-necked Aepycamelus evolved in the Miocene.

The direct ancestor of all modern camels, Procamelus, existed in the upper Miocone and lower Pliocene. Around 3–5 million years ago, the North American Camelidae spread to South America via the Isthmus of Panama, where they gave rise to guanacos and related animals, and to Asia via the Bering land bridge. Surprising finds of fossil Paracamelus on Ellesmere Island beginning in 2006 in the high Canadian Arctic indicate the dromedary is descended from a larger, boreal browser whose hump may have evolved as an adaptation in a cold climate. This creature is estimated to have stood around nine feet tall.

The last camel native to North America was Camelops hesternus, which vanished along with horses, short-faced bears, mammoths and mastodons, ground sloths, sabertooth cats, and many other megafauna, coinciding with the migration of humans from Asia.

DOMESTICATION

Most camels surviving today are domesticated. Along with many other megafauna in North America, the original wild camels were wiped out during the spread of Native Americans from Asia into North America, 12,000 to 10,000 years ago. The only wild camels left are the Bactrian camels of the Gobi Desert.

Like the horse, before their extinction in their native land, camels spread across the Bering land bridge, moving the opposite direction from the Asian immigration to America, to survive in the Old World and eventually be domesticated and spread globally by humans.

Dromedaries may have first been domesticated by humans in Somalia and southern Arabia, around 3,000 BC, the Bactrian in central Asia around 2,500 BC, as at Shar-i Sokhta (also known as the Burnt City), Iran.

Discussions concerning camel domestication in Mesopotamia are often related to mentions of camels in the Hebrew Bible. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: E-J for instance mentions that "In accord with patriarchal traditions, cylinder seals from Middle Bronze Age Mesopotamia showed riders seated upon camels."

Martin Heide's 2010 work on the domestication of the camel tentatively concludes that the bactrian camel was domesticated by at least the middle of the third millennium somewhere east of the Zagros Mountains, then moving into Mesopotamia, and suggests that mentions of camels "in the patriarchal narratives may refer, at least in some places, to the Bactrian camel." while noting that the camel is not mentioned in relationship to Canaan.

Recent excavations in the Timna Valley by Lidar Sapir-Hen and Erez Ben-Yosef discovered what may be the earliest domestic camel bones found in Israel or even outside the Arabian peninsula, dating to around 930 BCE. This garnered considerable media coverage as it was described as evidence that the stories of Abraham, Joseph, Jacob and Esau were written after this time.

The existence of camels in Mesopotamia but not in Israel is not a new idea. According to an article in Time Magazine, the historian Richard Bulliet wrote in his 1975 book "The Camel and the Wheel" that "the occasional mention of camels in patriarchal narratives does not mean that the domestic camels were common in the Holy Land at that period." The archaeologist William F. Albright writing even earlier saw camels in the Bible as an anachronism. The official report by Sapir-Hen and Ben-Joseph notes that "The introduction of the dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius) as a pack animal to the southern Levant signifies a crucial juncture in the history of the region; it substantially facilitated trade across the vast deserts of Arabia, promoting both economic and social change (e.g., Kohler 1984; Borowski 1998: 112-116; Jasmin 2005). This, together with the depiction of camels in the Patriarchal narrative, has generated extensive discussion regarding the date of the earliest domestic camel in the southern Levant (and beyond) (e.g., Albright 1949: 207; Epstein 1971: 558-584; Bulliet 1975; Zarins 1989; Köhler-Rollefson 1993; Uerpmann and Uerpmann 2002; Jasmin 2005; 2006; Heide 2010; Rosen and Saidel 2010; Grigson 2012). Most scholars today agree that the dromedary was exploited as a pack animal sometime in the early Iron Age (not before the 12th century BCE)" and concludes that "Current data from copper smelting sites of the Aravah Valley enable us to pinpoint the introduction of domestic camels to the southern Levant more precisely based on stratigraphic contexts associated with an extensive suite of radiocarbon dates. The data indicate that this event occurred not earlier than the last third of the 10th century BCE and most probably during this time. The coincidence of this event with a major reorganization of the copper industry of the region - attributed to the results of the campaign of Pharaoh Shoshenq I - raises the possibility that the two were connected, and that camels were introduced as part of the efforts to improve efficiency by facilitating trade."

MILITARY USES

By at least 1200 BC, the first camel saddles had appeared, and Bactrian camels could be ridden. The first saddle was positioned to the back of the camel, and control of the Bactrian camel was exercised by means of a stick. However, between 500–100 BC, Bactrian camels attained military use. New saddles, which were inflexible and bent, were put over the humps and divided the rider's weight over the animal. In the seventh century BC, the military Arabian saddle appeared, which improved the saddle design again slightly.

Camel cavalries have been used in wars throughout Africa, the Middle East, and into modern-day Border Security Force of India (though as of July 2012, the BSF has planned the replacement of camels with ATVs). The first use of camel cavalries was in the Battle of Qarqar in 853 BC. Armies have also used camels as freight animals instead of horses and mules.

In the East Roman Empire, the Romans used auxiliary forces known as dromedarii, whom they recruited in desert provinces. The camels were used mostly in combat because of their ability to scare off horses at close ranges (horses are afraid of the camels' scent), a quality famously employed by the Achaemenid Persians when fighting Lydia in the Battle of Thymbra.

19th and 20th CENTURIES

The United States Army established the U.S. Camel Corps, which was stationed in California in the late 19th century. One may still see stables at the Benicia Arsenal in Benicia, California, where they nowadays serve as the Benicia Historical Museum. Though the experimental use of camels was seen as a success (John B. Floyd, Secretary of War in 1858, recommended that funds be allocated towards obtaining a thousand more camels), the outbreak of the American Civil War saw the end of the Camel Corps: Texas became part of the Confederacy, and most of the camels were left to wander away into the desert.

France created a méhariste camel corps in 1912 as part of the Armée d'Afrique in the Sahara in order to exercise greater control over the camel-riding Tuareg and Arab insurgents, as previous efforts to defeat them on foot had failed. The camel-mounted units remained in service until the end of French rule over Algeria in 1962.

In 1916, the British created the Imperial Camel Corps. It was originally used to fight the Senussi, but was later used in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in World War I. The Imperial Camel Corps comprised infantrymen mounted on camels for movement across desert, though they dismounted at battle sites and fought on foot. After July 1918, the Corps began to become run down, receiving no new reinforcements, and was formally disbanded in 1919.

In World War I, the British Army also created the Egyptian Camel Transport Corps, which consisted of a group of Egyptian camel drivers and their camels. The Corps supported British war operations in Sinai, Palestine, and Syria by transporting supplies to the troops.

The Somaliland Camel Corps was created by colonial authorities in British Somaliland in 1912; it was disbanded in 1944.

Bactrian camels were used by Romanian forces during World War II in the Caucasian region.

The Bikaner Camel Corps of British India fought alongside the British Indian Army in World Wars I and II.

The Tropas Nómadas (Nomad Troops) were an auxiliary regiment of Sahrawi tribesmen serving in the colonial army in Spanish Sahara (today Western Sahara). Operational from the 1930s until the end of the Spanish presence in the territory in 1975, the Tropas Nómadas were equipped with small arms and led by Spanish officers. The unit guarded outposts and sometimes conducted patrols on camelback.

FOOD USES

DAIRY

Camel milk is a staple food of desert nomad tribes and is sometimes considered a meal in and of itself; a nomad can live on only camel milk for almost a month. Camel milk is rich in vitamins, minerals, proteins, and immunoglobulins; compared to cow's milk, it is lower in fat and lactose, and higher in potassium, iron, and vitamin C. Bedouins believe the curative powers of camel milk are enhanced if the camel's diet consists of certain desert plants. Camel milk can readily be made into a drinkable yogurt, as well as butter or cheese, though the yields for cheese tend to be low.

Camel milk cannot be made into butter by the traditional churning method. It can be made if it is soured first, churned, and a clarifying agent is then added. Until recently, camel milk could not be made into camel cheese because rennet was unable to coagulate the milk proteins to allow the collection of curds. Developing less wasteful uses of the milk, the FAO commissioned Professor J.P. Ramet of the École Nationale Supérieure d'Agronomie et des Industries Alimentaires, who was able to produce curdling by the addition of calcium phosphate and vegetable rennet. The cheese produced from this process has low levels of cholesterol and is easy to digest, even for the lactose intolerant. The sale of camel cheese is limited owing to the small output of the few dairies producing camel cheese and the absence of camel cheese in local (West African) markets. Cheese imports from countries that traditionally breed camels are difficult to obtain due to restrictions on dairy imports from these regions.

Additionally, camel milk has been made into ice cream in a Netherlands camel farm.

MEAT

A camel carcass can provide a substantial amount of meat. The male dromedary carcass can weigh 300–400 kg, while the carcass of a male Bactrian can weigh up to 650 kg. The carcass of a female dromedary weighs less than the male, ranging between 250 and 350 kg. The brisket, ribs and loin are among the preferred parts, and the hump is considered a delicacy. The hump contains "white and sickly fat", which can be used to make the khli (preserved meat) of mutton, beef, or camel. Camel meat is reported to taste like coarse beef, but older camels can prove to be very tough, although camel meat becomes more tender the more it is cooked. The Abu Dhabi Officers' Club serves a camel burger mixed with beef or lamb fat in order to improve the texture and taste. In Karachi, Pakistan, some restaurants prepare nihari from camel meat. In Syria and Egypt, there are specialist camel butchers.

Camel meat has been eaten for centuries. It has been recorded by ancient Greek writers as an available dish at banquets in ancient Persia, usually roasted whole. The ancient Roman emperor Heliogabalus enjoyed camel's heel.[31] Camel meat is still eaten in certain regions, including Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, and other arid regions where alternative forms of protein may be limited or where camel meat has had a long cultural history. Camel blood is also consumable, as is the case among pastoralists in northern Kenya, where camel blood is drunk with milk and acts as a key source of iron, vitamin D, salts and minerals. Camel meat is also occasionally found in Australian cuisine: for example, a camel lasagna is available in Alice Springs.

A 2005 report issued jointly by the Saudi Ministry of Health and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention details cases of human bubonic plague resulting from the ingestion of raw camel liver.

RELIGION

ISLAM

Camel meat is halal for Muslims. However, according to some Islamic schools of thought, a state of impurity is brought on by the consumption of it. Consequently, these schools hold that Muslims must perform wudhu (ablution) before the next time they pray after eating camel meat.

Also, some Islamic schools of thought consider it haraam for a Muslim to perform salat in places where camels lie, as it is said to be a dwelling place of shaytan.

According to Suni ahadith collected by Bukhari and Muslim, Muhammad ordered a certain group of people to drink camel milk and urine as a medicine. However, according to Abū Ḥanīfa, the drinking of camel urine, while not forbidden (ḥaram), is disliked (makrūh) in Islam.

Camel urine is sold as traditional medicine in shops in Saudi Arabia. The Sunni scholar Muhammad Al-Munajjid's IslamQA.info recommends camel urine as beneficial to curing certain diseases and to human health and cited Ahadith and scientific studies as justification. King Abdulaziz University researcher Dr. Faten Abdel-Rajman Khorshid has claimed that cancer and other diseases could be treated with camel urine as recommended by the Prophet. The United Arab Emirates "Arab Science and Technology Foundation" reported that cancer could be treated with camel urine. Camel urine was also prescribed as a treatment by Zaghloul El-Naggar, a religious scholar. Camel urine is the only urine which is permitted to be drunk according to the Hanbali madhhab of Sunni Islam. The World Health Organization said that camel urine consumption may be a factor in the spread of the MERS virus in Saudi Arabia. The Gulf Times writer Ahmad al-Sayyed wrote that various afflictions are dealt with camel urine by people. Dandruff, scalp ailments, hair, sores, and wounds were recommended to be treated with camel urine by Ibn Sina. Arab American University Professor of Cell Biology and Immunology Bashar Saad (PhD) along with Omar Said (PhD) wrote that medicinal use of camel urine is approved of and promoted by Islam since it was recommended by the prophet. A test on mice found that cytotoxic effects similar to cyclophosphamide were induced on bone marrow by camel urine. Besides for consumption as a medicinal drink, camel urine is believed to help treat hair. Bites from insects were warded off with camel urine, which also served as a shampoo. Camel urine is also used to help treat asthma, infections, treat hair, sores, hair growth and boost libido.

Several Sunni Ahadith mention drinking camel urine. Some Shia criticized Wahhabis for camel urine treatment. Shia scholars also recommend the medicinal use of camel urine. Shia Hadith on Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq reported that shortness of breath (asthma) was treated with camel urine. Shia Marja Ayatollah Sistani said that for medicinal purposes only, sheep, cow, and camel urine can be drunk.

JUDAISM

According to Jewish tradition, camel meat and milk are not kosher. Camels possess only one of the two kosher criteria; although they chew their cud, they do not possess cloven hooves:

Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that only chew the cud, or of them that only part the hoof: the camel, because he cheweth the cud but parteth not the hoof, he is unclean unto you.

— Leviticus 11:4

DISTRIBUTION ANDNUMBERS

There are around 14 million camels alive as of 2010, with 90% being dromedaries. Dromedaries alive today are domesticated animals (mostly living in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, Maghreb, Middle East and South Asia). The Horn region alone has the largest concentration of camels in the world, where the dromedaries constitute an important part of local nomadic life. They provide nomadic people in Somalia (which has the largest camel herd in the world) and Ethiopia with milk, food, and transportation.

The Bactrian camel is, as of 2010, reduced to an estimated 1.4 million animals, most of which are domesticated. The only truly wild Bactrian camels, of which there are less than one thousand, are thought to inhabit the Gobi Desert in China and Mongolia.

The largest population of feral camels is in Australia. There are around 700,000 feral dromedary camels in central parts of Australia, descended from those introduced as a method of transport in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This population is growing about 8% per year. Representatives of the Australian government have culled more than 100,000 of the animals in part because the camels use too much of the limited resources needed by sheep farmers.

A small population of introduced camels, dromedaries and Bactrians, wandered through Southwest United States after having been imported in the 1800s as part of the U.S. Camel Corps experiment. When the project ended, they were used as draft animals in mines and escaped or were released. Twenty-five U.S. camels were bought and imported to Canada during the Cariboo Gold Rush.

WIKIPEDIA

Information was also available... as well as a cheery "Merry Christmas" to those who didn't really want any information or supplies.

© This photograph is copyrighted. Under no circumstances can it be reproduced, distributed, modified, copied, posted to websites or printed or published in media or other medium or used for commercial or other uses without the prior written consent and permission of the photographer.

IOM distributes 1-liter brick containers of water as part of its cholera prevention campaign. Each container is printed with recommendations on how to prevent the spread of the disease. © IOM

Sweetest Ornella distributes donated glasses and sunglasses to the locals who have a ball choosing them.

Distributed Power units sometimes are mid train power, but in Greenville SC they are most often seen at the tail of train 154 the Birmingham, AL to Linwood, NC Mixed freight. Putting a locomotive on the tail of the train helps in a couple of ways, by having an air compressor on the tail of the train rather than just at the head end, air pressure is less likely to drop off and cause problems with the air brakes systems on the train, also the forces to the drawbar at the head of the train are reduced with a pusher at the tail of the train, so you are less likely to have a drawbar yanked out of an older car nearing the end of it’s useful life, or for a coupler to break, and lastly the train is simply less likely to stall out, and that always make me think of the traditional use of “pusher” units in railroad districts where there are mountainous grades to be climbed, like in Pennsylvania near the Horseshoe Curve, SW Virgina near the Clinch River, or In West Virginia between Williamson and Bluefield Southbound.

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New Jersey State Troopers distributed approximately 560 coats to students of the Elizabeth Public Schools, during their 7th Annual Coat Drive on January 18th and 19th.

The donations, collections and distribution of coats to our student's were made possible through the tremendous assistance and collaboration with: Elizabeth Public Schools team members, Wakefern, Elizabeth Police and Fire Department, Hispanic Law Enforcement Association of Union County (HLEAUC), New Jersey Latin-American Trooper's Society (NJLATS), At Heart's Length, Pepsi, Cummins, Target of Linden and Mario's Pizzeria of Perth Amboy, along with community friends and families. Retail companies that assisted with the coat drive included: Target located at Aviation Plaza in Linden, Macy's and Sears of Woodbridge Center Mall located in Woodbridge and BJ's located in Edison.

The annual community outreach event is reflective of the efforts Troopers make throughout the year, to have a significant and memorable impact on the communities they serve.

Once again, the heartfelt generosity of the New Jersey State Troopers and their partners, will help ensure Elizabeth Public Schools students stay warm during this especially cold winter season.

ShelterBoxes being distributed to survivors who have lost their homes after a 9.0 Mw earthquake triggered a Tsunami in the town of Nagahama, Ofunato, Iwati Prefecture, Japan on Wednesday, 23nd March, 2011. (Picture By Mark Pearson)

Visitez www.shelterboxfrance.org

ShelterBoxes being distributed to survivors who have lost their homes after a 9.0 Mw earthquake triggered a Tsunami in the town of Nagahama, Ofunato, Iwati Prefecture, Japan on Wednesday, 23nd March, 2011. (Picture By Mark Pearson)

Visitez www.shelterboxfrance.org

Distribution PacksWe try to distribute packs of small toiletries every month in different areas of the greater Washington DC area, COVID-19 permitting. Not every item goes into every pack, but we provide good cross-sections of those things that people need, people who are on their feet every day, all day. Compressed cotton “coins” that expand and…We try to distribute packs of small toiletries every month in different areas of the greater Washington DC area, COVID-19 permitting. Not every item goes into every pack, but we provide good cross-sections of those things that people need, people who are on their feet every day, all day.

Compressed cotton "coins" that expand and serve as toilet paper

Conversation

Deodorant

Face masks

Face towels

Flashlight with batteries (mini)

Gloves (in winter)

Granola bar

Hand cream/body lotion

Individually wrapped toothpicks with floss end

Lip balm

Paper shower/full body wipe

Pull-down hats (in winter)

Safety razors with shaving cream

Shampoo

Soap

Socks

Telephone accessories affordable

Toothbrush and toothpaste

Towelettes/wipes

Underwear (men, women)Joe

bit.ly/3plpDOT

Fisherfolk receive a new boat engine in Hafun, Somalia on 20 February 2021. FAO in Somalia continues its anti-piracy initiatives to provide alternatives for youth living in the coastal communities of Puntland, Galmudug and Mogadishu.

Photo credits must be given to: ©FAO/Arete/Isak Amin

A landscape photo shows boats destroyed by Cyclone Gati in Hafun, Somalia on 19 February 2021. FAO in Somalia continues its anti-piracy initiatives to provide alternatives for youth living in the coastal communities of Puntland, Galmudug and Mogadishu.

Photo credits must be given to: ©FAO/Arete/Isak Amin

The brown bear (Ursus arctos) is a large bear distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America. It can weigh from 300 to 780 kilograms (660 to 1,700 lb) and its largest subspecies, the Kodiak Bear, rivals the polar bear as the largest member of the bear family and as the largest land-based predator.

There are several recognized subspecies within the brown bear species. In North America, two types are generally recognized, the coastal brown bear and the inland grizzly, and the two types could broadly define all brown bear subspecies. Grizzlies weigh as little as 350 lb (159 kg) in Yukon, while a brown bear, living on a steady, nutritious diet of spawning salmon, from coastal Alaska and Russia can weigh 1,500 lb (682 kg). The exact number of overall brown subspecies remains in debate.

While the brown bear's range has shrunk, and it has faced local extinctions, it remains listed as a least concern species by the IUCN, with a total population of approximately 200,000. Its principal range countries are Russia, the United States (mostly in Alaska), Canada, the Carpathian region (especially Romania, but also Ukraine, Slovakia, and so on), the Balkans, Sweden and Finland, where it is the national animal. The brown bear is the most widely distributed of all bears.

Brown bears have very large and curved claws, those present on the forelimbs being longer than those on the hind limbs. They may reach 5 to 6 centimetres (2.0 to 2.4 in) and sometimes 7 to 10 centimetres (2.8 to 3.9 in) along the curve. They are generally dark with a light tip, with some forms having completely light claws. Brown bear claws are longer and straighter than those of American black bears. The claws are blunt, while those of a black bear are sharp.

Adults have massive, heavily built concave skulls, which are large in proportion to the body. The forehead is high and rises steeply. The projections of the skull are well developed when compared to those of Asian black bears: the latter have sagittal crests not exceeding more than 19–20% of the total length of the skull, while the former have sagittal crests comprising up to 40–41% of the skull's length. Skull projections are more weakly developed in females than in males. The braincase is relatively small and elongated. There is a great deal of geographical variation in the skull, and presents itself chiefly in dimensions. Grizzlies, for example, tend to have flatter profiles than European and coastal American brown bears. Skull lengths of Russian bears tend to be 31.5 to 45.5 centimetres (12.4 to 17.9 in) for males, and 27.5 to 39.7 centimetres (10.8 to 15.6 in) for females. The width of the zygomatic arches in males is 17.5 to 27.7 centimetres (6.9 to 11 in), and 14.7 to 24.7 centimetres (5.8 to 9.7 in) in females. Brown bears have very strong teeth: the incisors are relatively big and the canine teeth are large, the lower ones being strongly curved. The first three molars of the upper jaw are underdeveloped and single crowned with one root. The second upper molar is smaller than the others, and is usually absent in adults. It is usually lost at an early age, leaving no trace of the alveolus in the jaw. The first three molars of the lower jaw are very weak, and are often lost at an early age. Although they have powerful jaws, brown bear jaws are incapable of breaking large bones with the ease of spotted hyenas.

The dimensions of brown bears fluctuate very greatly according to sex, age, individual, geographic location, and season. The normal range of physical dimensions for a brown bear is a head-and-body length of 1.7 to 2.8 meters (5.6 to 9.2 ft) and a shoulder height of 90 to 150 centimeters (35–60 in). The smallest subspecies is the Eurasian brown bear, whose mature females weigh as little as 90 kg (200 lb). Barely larger, grizzly bears from the Yukon region (which are a third smaller than most grizzlies) can weigh as little as 100 kg (220 lb) in the spring and the Syrian brown bear, with mature females weighing as little as 150 kg (330 lb). The largest subspecies are the Kodiak bear, Siberian brown bear, and the bears from coastal Russia, Alaska, and British Columbia. It is not unusual for large males in coastal regions to stand over 3 m (9.8 ft) while on their hind legs, and to weigh up to 680 kg (1,500 lb). The heaviest recorded brown bear weighed over 1,150 kilograms (2,500 lb).

Brown bears have long, thick fur, with a moderately long mane at the back of the neck. In India, brown bears can be reddish with silver tips, while in China, brown bears are bicolored with a yellow-brown or whitish cape across the shoulders. North American grizzlies can be dark brown (almost black) to cream (almost white) or yellowish brown. Black hairs usually have white tips. The winter fur is very thick and long, especially in northern subspecies, and can reach 11 to 12 centimetres (4 to 5 in) at the withers. The winter hairs are thin, yet rough to the touch. The summer fur is much shorter and sparser, and its length and density varies geographically.

The brown bear is primarily nocturnal. In the summer, it gains up to 180 kilograms (400 lb) of fat, on which it relies to make it through winter, when it becomes very lethargic. Although they are not full hibernators, and can be woken easily; both sexes like to den in a protected spot, such as a cave, crevice, or hollow log, during the winter months. Brown bears are mostly solitary, although they may gather in large numbers at major food sources and form social hierarchies based on age and size. Adult male bears are particularly aggressive and are avoided by adolescent and subadult males. Female bears with cubs rival adult males in aggression, and are more intolerant of other bears than single females. Young adolescent males tend to be least aggressive, and have been observed in nonagonistic interactions with each other. In his Great Bear Almanac, Gary Brown lists 11 different sounds bears produce in 9 different contexts. Sounds expressing anger or aggravation include growls, roars, woofs, champs and smacks, while sounds expressing nervousness or pain include woofs, grunts and bawls. Sows will bleat or hum when communicating with their cubs.

They are omnivores and feed on a variety of plant products, including berries, roots, and sprouts, and fungi, as well as meat products such as fish, insects, and small mammals. Despite their reputation, most brown bears are not highly carnivorous, as they derive up to 90% of their dietary food energy from vegetable matter. Their jaw structure has evolved to fit their dietary habits. Their diet varies enormously throughout their differing areas based on opportunity. For example, bears in Yellowstone eat an enormous number of moths during the summer, sometimes as many as 40,000 in a day, and may derive up to half of their annual food energy from these insects. In some areas of Russia and Alaska, brown bears feed mostly on spawning salmon, whose nutrition and abundance explain the enormous size of the bears in these areas. Brown bears also occasionally prey on large mammals, such as deer (including elk, moose and caribou), bighorn sheep, mountain goats, bison and muskoxen. When brown bears attack these animals, they tend to choose the young ones, as they are easier to catch. When hunting, the bear pins its prey to the ground and then tears and eats it alive. On rare occasions, bears kill by hitting their prey with their powerful forearms, which can break the necks and backs of large prey, such as moose. They also feed on carrion, and use their size to intimidate other predators, such as wolves, cougars, tigers, and black bears from their kills.

Bronx Zoo New York

There are 2 sides to the system: the Home Theater and the Distributed Audio System. The home theater video components are connected to a Harman Kardon and controlled by a Harmony remote. The distributed audio system is the lastest and hottest equipment by Speaker Craft controlled by an iPhone, iTouch LCD Keypad and computer. Hooked into the Speaker Craft is an XM radio, iPod, Marantz receiver, Logitech "whatever" for the MP3 computer files and the Comcast box.