Frosty Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 I knew I could count on you Messr Slag. Thank you for the details. There is ongoing debate about why they change to yellowish white come spring. One school of thought being things that stain the fur can't stick when it's frozen but as temps rise it liquefies and stains the fur. That's purely anecdotal, I haven't looked into polar bears more than casually. I'm generally happy we didn't encounter any working jobs where we might have. People tend to underestimate how smart bears are. There are examples of bears using tools, not on the level of the covids still. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gandalfgreen Posted July 16, 2021 Share Posted July 16, 2021 Polar bears fur actually has no color and is hollow which in turn allows their fur to pretty much mimic the color around them and any pigment is stained or dirty. There hairs have no pigment and hollow. Which in turn works with there black skin which draws more light to heat and work with the hollow hairs. Ever seen the polar bear the made friends with sleddogs and visited year after year. There video somewhere bad memory but polar bear and a dog playing is quite funny and bizarre to see. Sorry I full of useless knowledge family tends to say I know everything. Is what it is now I hope i wake up to sunshine so i can coat my forge and fire it before work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 16, 2021 Share Posted July 16, 2021 Frosty; was that supposed to be Corvids? Or were you thinking of the Delta Variant? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 16, 2021 Share Posted July 16, 2021 6 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said: Frosty; was that supposed to be Corvids? Or were you thinking of the Delta Variant? ARGHHH! Yes, Corvids as in the birds. I'd really prefer we never encounter a tool using virus. Good catch Thomas, thanks. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 16, 2021 Share Posted July 16, 2021 All Virii are tool using ones as they use other cells internal mechanisms to reproduce! I'll start worrying when they get their own logins on IFI! (It's Friday...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 16, 2021 Share Posted July 16, 2021 Only in the same sense grass use cows a tools to make hamburgers. Ravens and crows on the other hand use a surprising number of tools. They also have strong senses of humor, one of our local ravens used to delight in teasing Falki our Icelandic Sheepdog. It'd land a couple feet from where Falki could reach on his run. It and it's made used to perch in the birch above his run and talk to him. Cool birds, it's easy to see how Raven and Crow became totems for intelligence and wisdom. As far back as human memory reaches. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted July 16, 2021 Share Posted July 16, 2021 Odin's companions, Hugin and Mugin, "thought" and "memory." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 Thought and Memory, my eye. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 Getting back to alces alces, I just found out today that the plural of “moose” in the original Ojibwe is “moozoog”. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 Oh, John, so good but soooo bad. GNM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gandalfgreen Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 Moozoog that's a fun word. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 I tried to look up moose in Inuit and Athabaskin but holy moly did I run into a lot of sites that wanted me to sign up and pay an oh so reasonable yearly subscription fee! I did discover that Athabaskin is a language group that extends from Alaska to south America, Hawaii and Polynesia. It's roots are in the diaspora of the sea people. There are I don't know how many Athabaskin words there are for moose. Mooz is common in the lower48 and Dineega is a dialect more common to Alaska. I've heard Native Alaskans use words similar to Dineega for moose. In Inuit moose is "Tuttuvak". The Inuit word for Carribu is "Tuvak". Those are a couple mighty similar words I might have to ask a native speaker. The regional differences in Inuit is enormous, one site wouldn't tell me what a word was but spent a couple pages naming all the different dialects. They have to be "tribal" groups. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 I know that the Deg Xinag language my great-grandfather studied (a Northern Athabaskan dialect) was really only spoken in four villages: Grayling, Anvik, Shageluk, and Holy Cross. Last I heard, there were only 14 native speakers left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 Village dialect is a better term. A few years ago there was a push started to preserve the languages and Native lifestyle. The last of the native speakers were dieing. The main problem is the young people are leaving for a modern life. Once village population falls below a self sustaining level it either disappears or moves in with relatives in another village. I used to spend a lot of time in the villages for my job and even then you didn't see much of the "traditional" lifestyle or languages. The kids would speak the village dialect so the visitors wouldn't know what they said but you didn't hear it much in general conversation. Another thing I think the modern Alaskan Natives don't care for, is living under the "Sovereign village" ruler. Some can be pretty oppressive and tend to collect any wealth that comes into the village. Sometimes the rules change quite a bit when a new Elder takes over. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzkill Posted July 19, 2021 Share Posted July 19, 2021 On 7/16/2021 at 3:38 PM, Frosty said: Ravens and crows on the other hand use a surprising number of tools. They also have strong senses of humor, one of our local ravens used to delight in teasing Falki our Icelandic Sheepdog. They can be a little vindictive too. My sister saved a baby crow when I was a teenager. Consequently it had no fear of humans whatsoever. It would open mailboxes and "distribute" the contents. One time it followed my mom's car into town a couple miles away and when she stopped at the bank it landed on the edge of the drawer at the window. The lady inside the bank asked, "Do you know this bird?" We still get a chuckle out of that one. They do love shiny things though. My dad was teasing it with a keyring one time and it snatched the keys from his hand and then deposited them in a woodpile a couple hundred yards away. It could also be a bit annoying. One time when it was making a racket I chucked a rock at it. I didn't hit it, but apparently it was close enough. A few moments later it flew in from behind me and knocked the hat off my head. Sometimes fear of humans is a good thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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