Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2016 i Faces People, Places, and World Culture for Kids and Children

Are dogs really man’s best friend? Depends on who you ask, but they are certainly popular pets throughout the world. But these loyal companions are more than pets. Here are five facts to get you started. 1. All dogs share about 99 percent of the same DNA with gray wolves, according to UCLA researcher Dr. Robert Wayne. Researchers believe the domestication of dogs began about 12,000 years ago. 2. Have you ever heard a dog sing? The New Guinea singing dog “sings” by howling a specific note or two. This breed can also climb trees! 3. Sirius, one of the brightest stars in the sky, is also called the Dog Star. In late summer, it appears in the sky just before sunrise, meaning that it’s close to our sun. For…

It’s about time there’s a holiday for dogs. In Nepal, dogs have a special day where they are honored, celebrated, and worshipped. Dogs are pampered and spoiled on the second day of the Hindu five-day festival, called Diwali “festival of lights” or Tihar in Nepal. This festival will be celebrated from October 28 – November 1 in 2016. Dogs’ special day is called Kukar Tihar, “worship of the dogs” recognizing the many joys they bring to people. Hindus believe in the sacred relationship between dogs and people, as dogs were one of the first domesticated animals. Dogs play an important role in Hindu beliefs. Sarama, the mother of dogs, helps the ruler of heaven by guarding the gates to the afterlife. All dogs are draped with malla, garlands of marigolds,…

Did you know that dogs are official partners to fire departments, police departments, Homeland Security, the military, and other teams? Each of these groups has specially trained dogs to sniff out specific target scents. Dogs are the special forces that use their unique skills and work closely with their handlers to identify investigative information. The canines known as K9s, are crucial team members. Why are dogs so critical? They have keen senses that are far superior to those of a human. A dog can smell 40 to 50 times better and hear four times better than a person. For instance, a human has five million smell cells in their nose, but a German Shepherd or Bloodhound has up to 300 million. They are intelligent and learn quickly. Dogs can be…

Galgos are sometimes called “Spanish greyhounds” as they look so much alike. But unlike greyhounds, galgos don’t race, they hunt. Hunting with galgos is a tradition that has been popular for centuries in rural areas such as Murcia, where Galgos del Sol (GDS) is located. Unfortunately, many of the hunters do not consider their dogs to be pets and want to get rid of the older or slower ones after the hunting season is over. Unwanted galgos are frequently abandoned on the streets. Some are even deliberately injured, so they can’t find their way back home. GDS rescues these dogs and finds them new homes all around the world where they will be loved and cared for.…

What does the Chihuahua in your chair have in common with the gray wolf that roams the wilds? They share about 99 percent of the same doggie DNA, according to UCLA researcher, Dr. Robert Wayne! So for all intents and purposes, your Chihuahua IS a wolf, as are all dogs, no matter how small, dopey, or ferocious. So, what does a gray wolf look like? Think “large German Shepherd.” Gray wolves have long bushy tails, and can be anywhere from a mix of gray and brown to solid white, brown, or black. They are carnivorous, and can hunt smaller mammals such as beaver and hare, or large elk, bison, and moose. An adult gray wolf can eat 20 pounds of meat in a single meal. Wolves live in packs of…

Flying airplanes in Alaska was risky in 1925, especially in winter. A raging snowstorm seemed as if it would blow the frozen Alaska Territory into the Bering Sea. All trails were as deep as a mug of miner’s coffee and just as slow to go down. Yet news traveled with runaway speed. Untold numbers of Eskimo children in Nome, Alaska, had been exposed to the deadly disease diphtheria. How could the serum be transported from Alaska Railroad Hospital in Anchorage to Nome? If the airplane did not make it, neither would the lifesaving medicine. Another plan unfolded: The serum would travel by train from Anchorage to Nenana. Then, in relay style, 20 mushers and their teams of hard-driving dogs would carry the serum 647 miles to Nome. Five and a…

Snoopy (Peanuts): This cartoon beagle has been the cunning and inventive sidekick to the ever-sullen Charlie Brown since 1950. Originally a comic strip by Charles Schulz, this dog, along with Charlie Brown and friends, became stars of many movies and TV specials. Snoopy often performs as one of his alter egos, including Joe Cool and the Red Baron, in movies and specials. Scooby Doo: This Great Dane from the cartoon of the same name has been solving mysteries involving the supernatural since 1969. Scooby is famous for his love of Scooby Snacks, which are used to coax him into doing just about anything. “Rut Row…” Toto (The Wizard of Oz): I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore! This tiny, fierce terrier made his debut in books in 1900…

As an evolutionary biologist and member of Cornell University’s biology department, Dr. Abby Drake studies how organisms change over time. She also happens to be an expert on skulls. Skulls are excellent indicators of evolutionary changes that have occurred over long periods of time. Drake began studying the skulls of dogs and wolves while in graduate school. In order to determine how dogs evolved from wolves, she used a 3D digitizer to measure hundreds of dog and wolf skulls. Digitizers create three dimensional digital images and can measure very subtle shape changes in objects. Drake amassed a database that contained the skull measurements of more than 800 dogs and 400 wolves. In order to obtain many of them, she traveled with her portable digitizer to Alaska and Switzerland. A museum…

When I first learned about Spanish hunting dogs being mistreated and abandoned, I knew I wanted to help. It took a long time to save up enough money, but this past summer I finally headed off to Spain to volunteer for a week at a dog rescue called Galgos del Sol (Galgos of the Sun). Day 1 What a long trip! The flight from Boston, Massachusetts, to Madrid, Spain, was 3,400 miles and almost seven hours long. Because of the time change, we didn’t have a night — it was 2:30 pm when we left and 6:30 am when we arrived. But who needs sleep when you’re on your dream trip? We drove another six hours to Murcia, where Galgos del Sol (GDS) is located, and watched the scenery change…