Tuesday 02 July 2002

Whilst googling for a new background image - I was obsessed with finding a good pic of a Snow Leopard and no, I don't know where that came from, as my "favourite" animals are otters and meerkats - I came across a load of links relating to the Big Cats but also sites about the smaller cats. I had no idea, none at all, that there were so many "Little Cats" out there, especially in Eurasia and South America. And me, the animal/nature lover. I'm ashamed of myself.

I had never, for instance, heard about the Sand Cat, which is found in the Sahara, Turkmenistan, Pakistan (and probably other places where there is sandy and stoney desert) and looks very much like the Sand Fox, which I had heard of, and inhabits many of the same areas, and is quite similar in shape - small, compact, huge huge ears.

I had never heard of the Black Footed Cat and the African Golden Cat from the Sub-Saharan region (though I do know of the African Wildcat, one of the Felix silvestri group); nor the Jungle Cat; let alone all the Tropical Asian species. We only tend to think of the tiger, and I certainly had no idea there were so many Little Cats in that region; the Bornean Bay Cat, Clouded Leopard, Asiatic Golden Cat, Flat-headed Cat, Rusty Spotted Cat, Fishing Cat, Marbled Cat, Leopard Cat and Iriomote Cat. Then there's about nine species I'd never heard of in the Americas - mostly South.

The one thing all the Little Cats have in common - and even more so than the Big Cats - is that either very little is known about them, and because (this is no. 2) they are being driven to endangered status by deforestation, deforestation and deforestation for more grazing land for hamburger production (three cheers for Mickey D's) or other destruction of their environment, that small amount of information is unlikely to be elaborated upon, as they'll be extinct before anyone knows.

And as for the Big Cats .... their plight is just as bad. But so little is known of the Little Cats. And I don't know whether it's just because of reading Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer with it's focus on keystone predator theory, but this worries me so much ... If the top of the food chain is disappearing, what does that mean for the underdogs of the food chain - the birds, insects, worms, beetles ... It makes me despair.

Grateful thanks to the IUCN Cat Specialist Group - http://lynx.uio.no/catfolk/ for bringing this to my attention.

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The last couple of days I've had this intense craving for chicken congee, or Hainanese Chicken Rice - something almost verging on bland, yet delicious and soothing to a rebellious stomach. Which I have after three days of eating "bad" food. Too many Pringles, Chinese takeaway, even my delicious home-made pizza are not sitting easily on my gut - which is a good thing because while I don't give a dead dingo's kidney about my weight, it's nice to know that my body will tell me what it wants ("detoxify! detoxify!"). And what it wants right now is steamed chicken, steamed rice, and steamed pak choy. And about five litres of cold rainwater.

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Sam just downloaded The Two Towers preview off the official site (www.lordoftherings.net - a very impressive site), and oh wowowow I can't wait. Helm's Deep! Eowyn! Faramir! (played by my celebrity crush, the simply heavenly David Wenham ... sorry Viggo, not interested any more) Lots of horses! And Gollum, of course - spookinessssss, my preciousssssss. Gandalf, glowing. It looks absolutely stunning ..,

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