Patrice Sherman
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The Auroch is Back!

1/24/2017

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PictureAurochs in the caves of Lascaux, France, ca. 17,000 BCE.
. The auroch is one of those animals that seems to straddle the gap between myth and reality. During their neolithic heyday when great herds of these mighty bovine wandered throughout western Europe, aurochs were among the first animals to have their portraits painted. Images of aurochs can be found in the caves of Lascaux dating back to around 17,000 BCE.  We know they are aurochs because of the long, curved, almost curly horns that distinguish themselves from their cousins the bulls and bisons.
       A few millennia later aurochs found a place of honor on the Gates of Ishtar, welcoming visitors to the great city of Babylon. The row of flowers underneath their hooves may remind one of Ferdinand, the gentle flower-loving bull of the eponymous childhood classic. However, it was the aurochs' very un-Ferndinand like qualities that may of brought them down. In fact, if you were going to write a picture book about aurochs, you might entitle it, "The Ornery Auroch," While most other Indo-European bovines were busy being domesticated, the auroch remained a wild hold out, fierce, territorial, and ready to gore anyone or anything that challenged it.
​     Some seemed to have been interbred with cattle to produce stronger, hardier breeds, but as humans took control of the landscape authentic aurochs begin to loose their habitat. Their numbers dwindled during the middle ages and by the Renaissance few remained. The last, lonely auroch gave up the ghost in a Polish forest in 1627. Since then the only place you were likely to encounter an 
auroch is in fantasy.  George Martin, for instance, has made good use of them in the Game of Thrones and aurochs (actually pot-bellied pigs in digital disguise) featured prominently in the 2012 indie film Beasts of the Southern Wild. Until now. Enter the aptly names Taur0s Project (yes, thats Tauros with an 'o' as the Greeks wrote it). Starting in 2008 a group of dedicated scientists began to bring the auroch back. 

PictureAuroch on the Ishtar Gate of ancient Babylon, ca. 575 BCE.
        How are they doing that? Mostly by identifying the auroch DNA in so-called antique or heritage breeds of European cattle and 'back-breeding' them to enhance their auroch-like qualities. This method of reviving a lost species was done somewhat successfully for the American bison back in the 20th century. Will it succeed for the auroch? So far, the project has produced some pretty feisty specimens as well as a lot of enthusiastic press. Will one of these "neo 'rochs" someday stop and smell the flowers? We'll just have to wait and see. 

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Cat with a Cool Address

7/13/2016

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Most Americans know two street addresses in London--221b Baker Street, home of the legendary but entirely fictitious Sherlock Holmes, and 10 Downing Street, residence of the very real Prime Minister, whomever he or she happens to be at the moment. One of the preceding is also home to Larry the Cat, and while it may be nice to think that Holmes had a feline friend (he's definitely more a cat than dog person), Larry is a proper civil servant. According to today's New York Times, the brown and white tabby is the official mouser at 10 Downing and remains in place even as power changes hands. Now that Larry's been outed in the press can a book be far behind? Personally, I don't believe the bit about mousing for a moment. The Times even says that many people doubt his mousing abilities. So what does he do? He's obviously undercover for M16. His purported laziness is just camouflage to throw the enemy off their game. Just Holmes had a network of homeless people working on his behalf throughout London, Larry no doubt as a cadre of street cats in the city feeding him information on all the comings and going of its human population. How many times have this fearless feline and his minions averted international disaster? We'll never know until some author puts the story in print. (Strictly off the record, of course.) Just think. A combination of Sherlock Holmes and 007 with cats. How could it miss the best seller list? And for the record, Larry was opposed to Brexit. He's particularly fond of Spanish sardines tinned in olive oil, which he got duty free by the crate. He likes them whole, not sliced. 
Official Photo of Larry, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office,  courtesy of Her Majesty's Government.  
Notice the thousand-mile stare. Does he look like he's thinking about mice to you?
Picture
 You can find out more about Larry and his predecessors at his own wikipedia page. And of course you can follow him on twitter: Larry the Cat @Number10cat. 

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The Mammoths are Coming! (Well, not yet...)

3/19/2012

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New Frog Discovered in NYC!

3/14/2012

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New York has a lot of things--museums, parks, restaurants, world famous sky-scrapers, world-series winning baseball teams. Now its got its own frog.  According to today's New York Times, a new species of leopard frog has been discovered on Staten Island.  Of course, the frog doesn't just live there.  New York shares "its" frog with Connecticut, New Jersey, and other states in the region.  Nevertheless, I predict the New York Leopard Frogs will certainly emerge as one of the top names for the city's Little League teams this spring.

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Book Review

3/9/2012

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The Nature Journal of Emily Shore

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Recent Projects

3/6/2012

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 Inca Khipu:  Anthropologists Take a Crack at an Ancient Code

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    About Me

    _I am a writer of both fiction and nonfiction for children and young adults. As a former archivist, I am especially interested in history and love visiting museums and libraries of all kinds.

    Photo Credit:
    Frog, Smithsonian Inst.

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