One
evening a man from Saudi Arabia came to my Internet café, The
Idea Gallery, with a very serious expression on his face. Almost
as soon as he got in the door, he looked at the computers and said,
"I want to find some information about animal marriage."
Search
engines on the World Wide Web, being what they are, would respond to a
search request like "animal marriage" with hundreds of
thousands of sites on animals and as many on marriages, but never the
twain would have met. Besides, animals don't marry, they mate.
I
asked our visitor what he wanted the information for, and he told me
that he was going to start a zoo in the Eastern Province. That made my
task of helping him to find what he wanted much easier. We could
eliminate pets and concentrate on wild animals in captivity, including
their mating habits both in the wild and in captivity. We could also
explore "zoology" as a category for our future zookeeper.
A
significant part of finding useful information on the Internet is
learning to phrase your search terms and getting familiar with the
general categories that include the specifics you're looking for.
This
time, we'll take a cyber safari through the Internet's animal kingdom.
First, we'll look at sites with both pet and animal links. Then, we'll
explore the links to the wild animal kingdom. Finally, we'll check out
the sites of interest to pet lovers.
Hundreds
of pet and animal links have been arranged alphabetically on the Reference
Desk.
The
very first link takes you to "A Beastly Garden of Wordy
Delights," which has all the words you'll ever need to describe
animal groups (a charm of finches), animal sounds, animal adjectives
(if you're fox like, you're vulpine) and the various names given to
animal young (kids are not your children but young goats).
Among
the Reference Desk sites are hundreds devoted to individual species.
For instance, the Ant Colony
covers many topics such as fire ants, carpenter ants, ant farms, and
natural ant control and more. The site is devoted exclusively to ants.
The
Birmingham
Zoo writes, "While searching the web for animal information,
we realized that a child looking for an animal might have a hard time
finding it. The Animal Omnibus is a list of web sources indexed by the
name of the animal. For example, looking up African Elephant will
produce a list of hyperlinks to sources with elephant information..
They also have dozens of links to interesting animal Web sites
including links to 30 leading zoos.
Visit
the world famous San
Diego Zoo. The zoo is so large and spread out that you need to
board a train to go on its special mini safari tours. On the Web site,
however, you can see a number of the exhibits and view videos of some
of their animals from your home computer.
Like
to see some wildlife in action? The live Africam
Web cam has a number of different waterhole and specialty cams to
choose from. The images update every 15 to 30 seconds.
"When
a man wants to murder a tiger it is called a sport," wrote George
Bernard Shaw, "when the tiger wants to murder him it is called
ferocity." An unusual site located in Rosemond, California is the
Cat House. Talk of wild animals! Want to see a real sleek beauty with
big brown eyes. Check out "Fuzz".
If
you're interested in getting information on threatened species and
others of conservation concern, the UNEP
World Conservation Monitoring Centre has a well-organized
collection of data.
Moving
from the wild side of "all creatures great and small" to the
pet universe, Pets World
has 3052 links to pet-related sites. Having trouble naming your pet?
Pet World has 2,000 dog names and another 2,000 cat names!
Mark
Twain wrote, " The more I know about people, the better I like my
dog." Dog lovers will find information on everything from
boarding, breeders, clubs, groomers, pet care, rescue, trainers and
veterinarians at the k9Web.
A
comprehensive site on cats, including articles and links on breeds,
shows, cat care, feline welfare is the Cat
Fanciers Web Site.
I'm
reminded of Robert Heinlein's comment in Time Enough for Love:
"Women and Cats will do as they please. Men and dogs had better
get used to it."
"Everyone
wants to understand painting," said Pablo Picasso, " Why is
there no attempt to understand the song of the birds"? Bird
lovers can find an avian resource replete with a bird care guide, tips
on bird hygiene and nutrition, information on the dangers of heavy-
metal poisoning, plus articles on birdhouse placement and care at the Hotspot
for Birds.
If
you have equestrian interests, Cybersteed
has comprehensive information on all the equine breeds, including
Arabian horses. They also provide links to many sites related to
care, feeding and nutrition for horses.
Fishlink
Central has a complete guide
to aquarium resources on the Net. If you have an aquarium or are
thinking about getting one, a visit to this site is a must.
Advertised
as the "World's largest pet supplies store," boasting 34,000
items at wholesale prices, Pet
Warehouse offers some very interesting reading about the animals
they cater to.
They
have supplies for dogs, cats, birds, fish, reptiles and small animals,
like hedge hogs, ferrets, prairie dogs, hamsters, rabbits, and, yes,
rats and mice. Believe it or not, some people keep these rodents as
pets! Reason? "As urban sprawl continues to limit the necessary
space needed to keep dogs and cats, rats and mice as pets are
gradually emerging as an ideal substitute."
One
of the attractive features of this site lies in the comprehensive
information offered for each pet, including advice on housing, care,
training, feeding and health.
The
philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote, "We can judge the heart of a man
by his treatment of animals."
To
that, Robert Logan added, "The love of animals, like the
love of our neighbor, is not a gift to be condescendingly bestowed,
but a profound and humble acceptance of their kinship."
Enjoy the Web pages devoted to animals.
