Nature

Nature is good (/groovy). And more! So here are items of interest from science to spirituality, plants, rocks, animals and us.

Seeing white animals

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301531h.html

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301531h.html

I keep on seeing stories about white animals, and thought I should look up the recent sightings. Like many people I assumed these white or albino animals are pretty rare, and that they have different meanings in various belief systems. Little did I know. There are people positing new significance to these animals. And it turns out that I shared some misconceptions about the rarity of white animals. So down a path- from online videos, science of albinos, white buffaloes, white squirrel colonies, to pagan beliefs- I went.

I was surprised with the white animal videos I found on YouTube, including some connecting Native American prophecy and the Book of Reveleations in the Bible to 'white’ animals. These videos imply that these are new, never before seen white (not albino) species which will herald in the second coming of Christ. (Look at the comments for clarity on this.) When people start putting together videos stating that these are ‘white’ animals and not albinos, I had to wonder if they there was any related science.

One of the videos I found notes the case of Miracle the white buffalo (1994-2004). She was born white with dark eyes (so she was at least not an albino), but she went through several colors and was dark brown when she died at only 10 years of age in August 2004 (~1 month before her death- people stated she was turning white again- I’m guessing after that upcoming winter’s coat- but this is not apparent in the last photo).

Blonde_bison_2

Buffalo/ Charolais Cattle hybrid

[Science break: some scientists say the rash of white calf births in recent years could be fallout from the practice of breeding brown buffalo with white-colored French Charolais cattle that caught on in the 1960s and continues today. Many of the cream-colored offspring are processed into food called beefalo. The Lee G. Simmons Conservation Park and Safari in Ashland, Nebraska has a white ‘buffalo calf’, but it is 1/16th Charolais cattle and as a hybrid is also expected that its coat will darken as it matures.]

So to me it’s unclear what Miracle© was, but she was clearly not white when she died. (And I couldn’t find any indication there was DNA testing to prove she was all buffalo.) But this ‘end times’ video ignores the fact that this buffalo did not remain white, as their premise is that these types of animals are new ‘white’ strains from God. (They also ignore the non-Christian Native American prophecies that have the sacred white buffalo changing colors, with some believing that these sacred buffaloes must change back to white afterwards. Miracle was revered by Native American tribes as a symbol of rebirth and world harmony, and though she didn't complete the last color change there have been other white buffaloes since her death.)

[Ok – time for another science break. The people using ‘white’ animals for end times prophecies are often quick to point out that they are not talking about albinos. It appears the term they are looking for is leucistic.

Feature Albinism Leucism
Hair, skin, scales White, pink, or pale White or pink all over, or
Patches of white (piebald)
Eyes Red or pink, sometimes blue Normal
Cause Partial or total lack of melanin pigment Partial or total lack of all pigments- but not eyes
Genetics hereditary via recessive genes- rare
(1 in 17,000 in humans)
not as rare as albinism
http://www.answers.com/topic/leucismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucism, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albinism]
Big Medicine (1933-1959)
Big Medicine (1933-1959)

But tying the birth of Miracle to the start of Revelations prophecies? What about the birth of Big Medicine (1933-1959), a male true white (not albino) bison? Or the many other true white bisons (ones who remained white their entire lives)? I took this video to imply that the creation by god of large numbers of new ‘white’ animals is recent, and started about the same time that Miracle came along. (Which is coincidentally near the turn of the Millenium.) This would be an interesting premise along biological lines, worth looking into. So off to the web I went.

White squirrel colonies & sightings (Eastern US)

White squirrel colonies & sightings (Eastern US)

I decided to research just one animal on the video- white squirrels. It was easy to find that there have been colonies of white (albino, and non-albino) squirrels dating from the 19th & 20th centuries in the US and Canada, and a (newer?) colony discovered in the Philippines:

  • Marionville, Missouri- has had white squirrels (with pink eyes, so they're albinos) since before 1854. Members of the Lions Club have gone so far as to capture less-desirable grey squirrels and release them in the woods, and trap feral cats that prey on squirrels and take them to the animal shelter. It’s against the law to destroy a white squirrel (with a $1,000 fine). (Ah ha- so now there’s selective breeding. Nice.)
  • Olney, Il- 100+ years of white squirrels (with pink eyes- so these are pure albinos)

    White_Squirrel_5

    White Squirrel (Exeter, Ontario, Canada)

  • Brevard, NC, (dark eyes, so not albinos- white color variant of the Eastern Gray Squirrel)
  • Kenton, Tenn;  Wabasha MN;  Montcello WI;  Westby WI; Louisville KY; Versailles, IL;  and Greenwood, SC
  • Exeter, Ontario, Canada colony (white squirrels with dark eyes- non- albinos, believed to be the result of a genetic mutation in the early 20th century)
  • Palawan Island, Philippines- this actual species of squirrel is white with light brown and orange colors on the bottom of its tail (the eyes appear to be dark)

Of course white animals (albino, or non-albino) have always been around.  (Like the white (non-albino) moose in Foyalet, and other areas of Canada for the last 40 years.) There are early photos (some from 1930s encyclopedias) of albino animals & descriptions of the many differing types of albinism.  Of course there are lots of modern photos of white animals- one of the best sites I found for this is 35 Ghosts of Nature—Albino Animals of the Wild.

Of course there are the ancient pagan references to white animals:

  • The British White Park Cattle & British White Cattle have been present in the British Isles since 'time immemorial' and are well documented. Great white bulls and cows figure prominently in Celtic folklore, including the Cattle Raid of Cooley first put to paper in 8th century Ireland.
  • Jupiter/Zeus (as the prince of light) had white animals sacrificed to him, so we know there were white animals in ancient Greece and Rome.
  • White animals were sacrificed to some gods, and white horses sacred in early Heathen worship.  White animals (white reindeer, cows, sheep, etc.) were also important to the shamanistic religion of the Sami people of northern Scandinavia prior to Christianity.
  • In the Celtic, Welsh, Sumerian, southeast Asian, and native American myths or beliefs various white animals are sacred; these ancient mythical and historical white animal associations go on and on.

That was the end of my research into white animals for now.

I couldn't find data to support white animals being more prevalent in the last few years. I learned that albino and non-albino animals have been around as long as humans have had written records. In a quick review I found several ancient Pagan societies that held white animals in high regard- I'm sure there are many more.

Going through all of this I remembered seeing more white animals in my youth- but only because many populations of animals have declined drastically since then. If a fascination with white animals leads people to look out of their windows and to know the local animals that would be worthy, but please apply some reasoned thinking. Knowing the history behind beliefs- not just from Native American or Christian but from Pagan or other sources as well- informs us about who we are now.

Cricket sounds

God's Cricket Chorus

(Cricket chirps slowed down results in an angelic chorus very worth listening to. Normal cricket chirps are included over the slowed down chorus.)

Sounds of rain & crickets

Weavings- of spider silk and more

spidercloth

After 4 years a gold colored tapestry has been made out of spider silk. I've put together articles on the tapestry, information on the golden silk orb spider, and on efforts to develop man-made spider silk. One of the latest attempts to make 'spider silk' fibers is with hagfish slime!

For four years weavers in Madagascar harnessed golden orb spiders to produce silk, and and then made a beautiful 11’ by 4’ weaving out of it. The golden orb spider's silk has tensile strength six times stronger than steel by weight. (Which you’d know if you try to break the webbing of golden orb spiders.) The silk and tapestry is a rich golden color and is the first recorded example of a hand-woven brocaded textile made entirely from the silk of these spiders.

1 Million Spiders Make Golden Silk for Rare Cloth, Wiredscience, Sept. 23, 2009

Spider men weave silken tapestry, ScienceNews, September 22, 2009

Gossamer Silk, From Spiders Spun, New York Times, Set. 22, 2009

1430442072_eadcc9d49b

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bansheedingo/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Gold silk orb weavers are found in warmer regions, including Australia, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. (In the US its range is from North Carolina to Texas. We’ve heard them called Banana Spiders in Florida.) The spun silk is a pattern of spirals… Read more here: Golden silk orb-weaver

And then you have researchers trying to develop man-made spider silk. While there has been some success in producing spider silk proteins, spinning a fiber comparable to a spider’s has been difficult. One company, Nexia, now has a man-made product: Man Made Spiders Silk, Jan. 2002.

Then there’s the prospect of similar spun fibers from hagfish slime!: Shoals Marine Lab researchers look to hagfish for 'biosteel', Aug. 14, 2009



The Earth's hum

Visible Earth- NASA

The Blue Marble, Visible Earth- NASA

The planet emanates a constant rumble far below the limits of human hearing. Discovered in 1998 this low level "hum" was thought to perhaps be caused by disturbances in the ocean or atmosphere. Scientists now suggest that the Earth’s hum is caused not by earthquakes or atmospheric turbulence, but by ocean waves colliding with the seafloor. It will be interesting to see if there are other factors that are also involved with the hum. (The idea of the Earth humming or singing is not so new to many spiritual traditions.) Here are some articles about the 'hum', earth 'singing', moon hums, and earth "hiss"!


Earth Hums, and It's "Loudest" in Europe, Americas- National Geographic News, Aug. 10, 2009
Earth hums, and it's  along the Pacific coasts of North and Central America and the west coasts of Europe that are the main sources of the sound, a new study says.


Mark Morford's excellent April 2008 essay in SFGate on the Earth's hum:
How to sing like a planet
Scientists say the Earth is humming. Not just noise, but a deep, astonishing music. Can you hear it?

"This is the kind of thing we forget.

This is the kind of thing that, given all our distractions, our celeb obsessions and happy drugs and bothersome trifles like family and bills and war and health care and sex and love and porn and breathing and death, tends to fly under the radar of your overspanked consciousness, only to be later rediscovered and brought forth and placed directly in front of your eyeballs, at least for a moment, so you can look, really look, and go, oh my God, I had no idea.

The Earth is humming. Singing..."  (Read more)

Now scientists predict that the Moon and other bodies can have a hum:

Rain of meteorites makes the moon hum, New Scientist, Aug. 2009


Then there's the Earth's magnetic field interacting with charged particles from the sun, producing a different low frequency "hiss". (Of course there will be increased solar storm activity after 2012, of all years.):
Earth's Magnetic Field Hisses Due to Distant "Chorus", National Geographic News, May 2009


Bee memories

Honey Bees

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonvscanon/ / CC BY 2.0

***
My grandfather kept bees for nearly 70 years, and I wish he was alive to ask about the current colony collapses.  He started by keeping wild bees in the Oklahoma Territory/Texas area in the early 1900's, and said the European bees were much 'nicer'.  (To translate from frontier 'speak'- they didn't sting as much as the wild bees.  While it's possible, I 've no doubt he would have recommended against keeping wild bees in hives based on his experiences!)

Grandfather Frank did say honey bee colonies collapsed sometimes for no apparent reason, and on a somewhat regular basis; he would get new queens and start over when this happened. (Or just wait for a new swarm to be removed, when people called him up for this service.)  His hives usually were very remote, and still had these collapse problems. We  had a reduction in domestic bees here in my area of the northern Sierra Nevada foothills in 2006 & 2007, but the bees were back big time in 2008  (along with many varieties of wild bees).  The numbers of domestic honey bees leveled off again this year.

Growing up I fondly remember my grandfather's fresh desert sage/orange blossom honey comb, which my family chewed like candy. We don't seem to have many commercial hives here where I live now  (most of the orchards are gone since the pear blight), but I hope some beekeepers still provide fresh honey comb. (Note: never give any honey to infants younger than 12 months to protect them against infant botulism.)

I also remember my grandfather's beeswax candles, and to this day I prefer them over other candles. I like to support beekeepers by buying their products-when I can find them. Contrary to conventional wisdom the honey bees in my garden like basil more than  sunflowers ;  I wonder what that honey would taste like?

Just some bee memories and observations.

May the bees buzz around and bless your neighborhoods,

D.

(Auburn, CA)