Red Panda: An Arboreal Mammal
Red panda is slightly larger than the domestic cat is an arboreal mammal and is the only species of the genus Ailurus. They are characterized by the presence of reddish-brown fur, long and shaggy tail and waddling gait as the front legs are short. The chief food of the animal is bamboo but is omnivore as it also feeds on eggs, fish, birds, insects and small mammals depending upon the circumstances. They are solitary and are active from dawn to the dusk and largely sedentary during the day. They are widely distributed in the temperate forests of Himalayas, Nepal and China. Also found in northern India, Bhutan and northern Myanmar. According to an estimate the population of these animals may be from 2,500-20,000 at present. They are well protected under the laws of different countries as they are at risk because of poaching and habitat destruction. It has been classified as vulnerable according to the IUCN re list in 2009. Two subspecies are known today. It is quite adaptable to live in captivity and is very commonly noticed in the zoos. More than 800 individuals have been observed to dwell in the zoos all over the world.
The taxonomic classification of red panda is controversial from the time when it was discovered first. Evidences based on serology, reproduction, karyology, anatomy and behaviour shows resemblance more towards Procyonidae than Ursidae. However, the feeding habits and geographical distribution points towards the need of a separate family. Recent molecular-systematic DNA technique has confirmed that they must be classified in a separate family. Now they are a part of family Ailuridae. There are two subspecies of red panda at present. The first one is the Western Red Panda living in the west of its range like Nepal and Bhutan and the second is the Styan’s Red Panda living in the east of its range like China and Myanmar. Styan’s Red Panda is larger and darker in colour than the western fellow. The colour variation is very frequent in both the subspecies and shades of yellow and brown are very common apart from red.
Red panda is considered as a living fossil and is distantly related to Giant Panda. It is believed that they first originated during the Tertiary period about 10 million years ago in Eurasia. Fossils have been found in China and Britain. It lives at an altitude of 2,200-4,800 meters inhabiting areas of moderate temperature change. It prefers mixed deciduous and coniferous forests especially with dense old trees and understories of bamboo. The head and body of the animal is 56-63 cm long and the tail measures about 35-47 cm. males weigh about 3.7-6.2 kg and females 4.2-6 kg. it has long, soft and reddish brown fur on the undersides, blackish fur on the lower parts and light face with tear markings and robust dental-cranial features. The face also bears white markings which resemble with that of the raccoons. The rounded head has soft and upright ears, black nose and very dark eyes. The tail is long and bushy with six alternate reddish transverse ochre rings which provided balance to the body and is also a source of camouflage. The legs are black with short thick fur on the paws. The fur provides insulation when the animal has to face snow covered conditions and also conceals the scent glands present on the anus.
Red panda is specialized for feeding bamboo shoots and is blessed with strong, curved, sharp and semi-retractile claws for holding the bamboo twigs. Like the Giant Panda it also bears a false thumb which is an extension of the wrist bone. It has been reported that they are nocturnal to crepuscular, sleeping on tree branches and hollows of logs and become active in the late afternoon or the evening hours. It sleeps on the branches with legs dangling down when it is hot and tail curled over the face when it is cold. It is heat sensitive and can survive within the temperature range of 17-25°C in summers but cannot tolerate temperature above 25°C. After walking for a short distance the animal is known to clean its fur in the same manner as done by the cat, licks it paws, cleans its tail, stomach and the sides of the body. It marks its territory by the musk like secretion of the scent glands as well as by spraying urine. It searches the food in the dark by running and climbing on the trees. Front paw is used for passing food towards the mouth. Red panda is territorial and the adults are solitary except for the mating season. It is generally a quite animal but uses twittering and whistling sounds for communicating with other fellows. The predators of this animal are snow leopard, martens and humans. If the animal is frightened it climbs over the trees or uses its front paws for defence.
It is mainly a bamboo feeder but like the Giant Panda it is not able to digest cellulose so it has to consume large amounts of bamboo in order to survive. The diet consists of 2/3rd of bamboo but can also feed on lichens, fruits, berries, mushrooms, acorns and roots. It can also feed on small birds, fish and eggs occasionally. When kept in captivity it feeds readily on meat. It is an excellent climber and works less, eats more as it feeds on a low calorie diet. Bamboo shoots are easily digested than leaves. They show highest digestive ability in summer and autumn, intermediate in the spring and lowest in winters. This may be correlated with the nutrient variations in the bamboo according to different seasons. It processes bamboo poorly especially the cell wall and cellulose components. This may point towards the minor role of microbes in digestion. In order to survive red panda feed on high quality sections of the bamboo plant like the tender leaves and shoots. The food passes rapidly through the digestive tract in order to maximize nutrient intake.
The adults rarely interact with each other except for the breeding purpose. Both the partners may mate with more than one partner in the breeding season. A few days before the birth of the youngs the mother collects food material like the brushwood, leaves and grass for the nest. The nest is usually located in the hollow of the tree of the crevices of the rocks. Gestation period lasts for about 112-158 days after which about 1-4 blind and deaf cubs are born weighing 110-130 grams each. After the cubs are born the mother cleans them and recognizes her cubs by their smell. In the beginning she spends 60-90% of her time with the cubs. After one week she spends most of the time outside the nests and returns after few hours for nursing and grooming the cubs. The cubs open their eyes when they are 18 days old. At the age of 90 days they achieve colouration and fur that resembles with that of the adults. And venture out of the nest. They also start feeding on solid food materials at this age. They stay with the mother until the next generation is born in the coming summer. The males rarely participate in raising the cubs. Red panada is able to reproduce at the age of 18 months and becomes fully mature at the age of 2-3 years. The average life span is 8-10 years but some may also live up to 15 years.
Colors For Winter Home Decor
Decorating for winter can be a challenge, even for seasoned interior designers. How do you completely change the mood of a home without going over your budget? One thing you can do is change your colors to suit the season. Color has always been a powerful design tool, and the right choice of colors can transform any home into a warm winter haven. Here are some colors worth trying out this season.
Red: Easily the warmest color in the spectrum, red is great for large spaces that tend to appear cold and unwelcoming. Use it as an accent rather than your main color, as an all-red room can be too much for the eyes. Go for patterned red rugs, red drapes and throw pillows, and red curtains that filter the light and cast a warm glow around the room.
Yellow: The color of sunlight, yellow is often associated with summer and the outdoors. Yellow d
House Painting: A Brief History
We take house painting for granted as a way to decorate our homes and protect surfaces against drying, rot, and the elements. Yet this seemingly simple product has a long, fascinating history – much too long and fascinating to summarize in just one essay. A brief history, however, is better than no history at all. In that spirit, we present a few snapshots of house paint’s evolution in order to heighten your appreciation of it, and to provide some perspective on humans’ need to secure and beautify their dwelling places.
Forty millennium ago, cave inhabitants combined various substances with animal fat to make paint, which they used to add pictures and colors to the walls of their crude homes. This of course is The Cave of Lascaux. Red and yellow ochre, hematite, manganese oxide, and charcoal were all employed as color elements. Starting around 3150 B.C., ancient Egyptian painters mixed a base of oil or fat with color elements like ground glass or semiprecious stones, lead, earth, or animal blood. White, black, blue, red, yellow, and green were their hues of choice. At the turn of the 14th century, house painters in England created guilds, which established standards for the profession and kept trade secrets under lock and key. By the 17th century, new practices and technologies were shaking up the world of house paint even more. In this era of reality TV and manufactured celebrities, it can be hard to remember the definition of modesty. For the Pilgrims, who populated the American colonies in the 17th century, modesty meant avoiding all displays of joy, wealth, or vanity. Painting one’s house was considered highly immodest, and even sacrilegious. In 1630, a Charlestown preacher ran afoul of the growing society’s mores by decorating his home’s interior with paint; he was brought up on criminal charges of sacrilege. Even colonial Puritanism, however, failed to silence the demand for house paint. Anonymous authors wrote “cookbooks” that offered recipes for various kinds and colors of paint. One popular process, known as the Dutch method, combined lime and ground oyster shells to make a white wash, to which iron or copper oxide – for red or green color, respectively – could be added. Colonial paint “cooks” also used items from the pantry, including milk, egg whites, coffee, and rice, to turn out their illegal product.
From the 17th century until the 19th, oil and water were the primary bases for paint production. Each held certain colors better than others, and there were differences in cost and durability between them, too. Ceilings and plaster walls generally called for water paints, while joinery demanded oils. Some homeowners wanted walls that looked like wood, marble, or bronze and ceilings that resembled a blue sky with puffy white clouds. Painters of the time routinely fulfilled such requests, which seem fairly eccentric by today’s standards. In 1638, a historic home known as Ham House, located in Surrey, England, was renovated. The multi-step process involved the application of primer, an undercoat or two, and a finishing coat of paint to elaborate paneling and cornices throughout the house. At this point in paint’s evolution, pigment and oil were mixed by hand to make a stiff paste – a practice still employed today. Well-ground pigment tends to disperse almost completely in oil. Before the 18th century, hand-grinding often exposed painters to an excess of white-lead powder, which could bring about lead poisoning. Despite its toxicity, lead paint was popular at the time due to its durability, which remains difficult to equal. Fortunately, painters eventually added air extraction systems to their workshops, thus reducing the health risks of grinding lead-based pigment. Not until 1978 did the U.S. finally ban the sale of lead house paint. Paint production transformed dramatically during the 1700s.
The first American paint mill opened in 1700 in Boston, Mass. In 1718, the Englishman Marshall Smith devised a “Machine or Engine for the Grinding of Colours,” which prompted a sort of arms race with regard to grinding pigment efficiently. In 1741, the English company Emerton and Manby publicized the “Horse-Mills” it used to grind pigment, which allowed it to sell paint at prices its rivals couldn’t match. Owner Elizabeth Emerton bragged: “One Pound of Colour ground in a Horse-Mill will paint twelve Yards of Work, whereas Colour ground any other Way, will not do half that Quantity.” As any steampunk aficionado will tell you, the turn of the 19th century meant the rise of steam power. Paint mills were no exception; at this point in time, most of them ran on steam. Another, more significant improvement also occurred around this time: Nontoxic zinc oxide became a viable base for white pigment, thanks to European ingenuity. (It came to the U.S. in 1855.) By the end of the 1800s, roller mills had started to grind pigment as well as grain, and the guild system that had organized English house painters for centuries became a network of trade unions. Mass production of paint was no longer a pipe dream, and linseed oil, a cheap binding agent that also helped protect wood, made it even easier. It was in the 19th century that decorating a home with paint became the norm rather than an outlier.
After all, paint made surfaces washable and, by sealing in wood’s natural oils, kept walls from becoming either too moist or too dry. In 1866, a future titan of the paint business, Sherwin-Williams Paint, was born. The company was the first maker of ready-to-use paint; its original product, raw umber in oil, debuted in 1873. Soon after that, cofounder Henry Sherwin developed a resealable tin can. Another current industry heavyweight, Benjamin Moore, began operations in 1883. Twenty-four years later, it added a research department powered by a single, lonely chemist. Since then, Benjamin Moore Paint has contributed a great deal to paint technology, but the company’s color-matching system, unveiled in 1982 and entirely computer-based, is still considered by many to be its most noteworthy achievement. (In the 21st century, paint remains a formidable moneymaker; roughly $20.9 billion of the stuff was sold in 2006 alone.) Though house paint is most frequently applied to the surfaces of a home, many artists have used it to bring their canvases to life. American painter John Frost, who began his career as an artist in 1919, used house paint to chronicle the history of his hometown, the tiny village of Marblehead, Mass. Picasso and many of his contemporaries used it as well. Even some modern artists, like Pollack admirer Nik Ehm, experiment with house paint as a medium. In the middle of the 20th century, necessity became the mother of invention for the increasingly innovative paint industry. World War II led to a dearth of linseed oil, so chemists combined alcohols and acids to make alkyds, artificial resins that could substitute for natural oil.
Today, most house painting paints is acrylic, or water-based, although milk paint, popular in the 19th century for its subtle hues, has become the darling of the sustainability movement thanks to its minimal environmental impact. To be specific, milk paint doesn’t contain volatile organic compounds, commonly known as VOCs. Conventional latex paint, on the other hand, does contain them, which makes it potentially hazardous to humans and pets. Extended exposure to VOCs can lead to organ or nerve damage, and some may be carcinogenic. Luckily, many paint companies produce low- or even zero-VOC paints. The term “zero-VOC,” by EPA standards, means that each liter of paint contains fewer than 5 grams of volatile compounds. Other non-VOC options include clay- and water-based paints. If you have allergies and/or chemical sensitivity, Low VOC Paint are a must. In fact, they offer practical advantages no matter what your circumstances, since their lack of strong odor lets you occupy freshly painted rooms relatively soon. Despite its outward simplicity, paint has adjusted over the millennium to conform to our aesthetic, financial, and health needs. That something so basic can allow us to express ourselves so strikingly, and elevate our mood so effectively, is almost a miracle. The next time you open a can of paint, consider how far through time it’s traveled to add a little beauty to your life.