Monday, February 22, 2010

Aussie cat that thinks he's a chicken!

An Australian moggy that seems to think himself a chicken, took over the job of incubating eggs after they were abandoned by hens.

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Saturday, February 20, 2010

Can Chickens See Better Than People

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have peered deep into the eye of the chicken and found a masterpiece of biological design.

Scientists mapped five types of light receptors in the chicken's eye. They discovered the receptors were laid out in interwoven mosaics that maximized the chicken's ability to see many colors in any given part of the retina, the light-sensing structure at the back of the eye.

"Based on this analysis, birds have clearly one-upped us in several ways in terms of color vision," says Joseph C. Corbo, M.D., Ph.D., senior author and assistant professor of pathology and immunology and of genetics. "Color receptor organization in the chicken retina greatly exceeds that seen in most other retinas and certainly that in most mammalian retinas."

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Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Squirrel Sets Fire To Kentucky Fried Chicken Restaurant

Fire crews think a squirrel started a fire that gutted a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in England. A family of squirrels had been living in the roof space of the building and one of the rodents may have sparked the blaze by snacking on an electric cable.

Sunday, February 07, 2010

China to Tax U.S. Chicken

China is getting increasingly bold in its response to an ongoing trade dispute with the U.S., Chinese authorities Friday slapped preliminary import duties of as much as 105.4% on U.S. chicken products.

The Ministry of Commerce which announced the decision said U.S dumping is hurting China's domestic poultry industry. Once the new directive takes effect Feb. 13, U.S. exporters, including Pilgrim's Pride Corp. and Tyson Foods Inc., will be required to deposit the duty with Chinese customs, pending a final decision on the matter.

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Friday, February 05, 2010

Colourful dinosaur was like a chicken

Scientists have mapped out the full colour pattern for a feathered dinosaur for the first time. They found that the species in question looked something like a Spangled Hamburg chicken.

By analysing fossilised pigments, called melanosomes, the team were able to assign colours to individual feathers of Anchiornis huxleyi, a four-winged carnivore dinosaur that lived during the late Jurassic period in China.


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Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Lucky Caught At Last

Lucky the chicken has been caught at last. Lucky, a black chicken who spent two months dodging cars, coyotes and captors at a busy Glendale CA intersection is all cooped up.


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