King Garamantes, captured by his enemies, is rescued by his pack of dogs. From a bestiary drawn on vellum in England around 1230.

More dog stuff, in a poochy weekend.

The NYT celebrates the rise and rise of the small dog, though I wouldn’t call an Australian Terrier “Lilliputian”, particularly when the little shits are bouncing up and down like a toy made of rubber, springs, slobber and fangs.

A couple of months ago, the NYT produced a rambly but interesting discussion of the rise of designer dogs, and the 140 year mania for breeding that led to most of our modern varieties. The inability of writer Jon Mooallem to see beyond the US will be punished if he ever tries to eat an ice cream in front of an Australian Terrier.

Clioweb is carrying the latest History Carnival, which is a fine edition indeed.

“We should take some time to consider the history of our beloved pets, especially dogs. Natalie Bennett explains why buying a dog in nineteenth-century London did not come without problems in A fit companion for a duchess. Elizabeth Chadwick’s Caveat Canem” discusses the kinds of dogs around Britain in 1066.”

Both an excellent read, as is the link to Chapati Mystery, which provides a window into the work of Indian historians, who are busily shining a very different light on the British Empire – that dark zone we can’t bring ourselves to think about.

It is easy to lose an evening on this Carnival.

In another small leap for human wisdom, researchers have just worked out that elephants can recognise themselves in a mirror – a skill known so far only in great apes, bottle-nosed dolphins and humans. it is a an amazing indicator of physical self awareness.

“Elephants have been tested in front of mirrors before but previous studies used relatively small mirrors kept out of the elephants’ reach,” said Plotnik.

“This study is the first to test the animals in front of a huge mirror they could touch, rub against and try to look behind.”

Co-researcher Frans de Waal said: “As a result of this study, the elephant now joins a cognitive elite among animals commensurate with its well-known complex social life and high level of intelligence.

“Although elephants are far more distantly related to us than the great apes, they seem to have evolved similar social and cognitive capacities, making complex social systems and intelligence part of this picture.

“These parallels between humans and elephants suggest a convergent cognitive evolution possibly related to complex sociality and cooperation.”

The study, conducted with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), used elephants housed at the Bronx Zoo in New York.”

This comes from Culture Dish, a neat popular science blog. She links to the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.