Animal Babies – WARNING: EXTREME CUTE NAMES

Hello world,

sophofbread here, today I have decided to do a post on the names of different infant animals. None of the photos in this post are mine and they have been used in accordance with the Creative Commons License. I have included a link to the photos on flickr – please check out these peoples photo streams – there are some amazing photos. Also a lot of infant animals can be called a few different things and for some of them there is no official name, if you think any of the information below is incorrect please comment…

Did you know that a baby dog is called a pup or a puppy? I’m sure most of you did BUT did you know that shark, seal, dolphin and fox babies are all called pups as well!

by Carmen Rodriguez

What about kittens? Baby cats, rabbits, mice and squirrels are kittens and a baby beaver is a kit.

by Pen Waggener

A baby cow is a calf right? Yes, but so are baby *takes deep breath* bison, camel, giraffe, hippo, manatee, ox, rhino, walrus, dolphin, antelope, deer, elephant and moose.

by Steve Wilson

What animal springs to mind when I say cub? Lion? How about Aardvark, Giant Pandas or Raccoon? As well as these 4, some other animals whose babies are called cubs are; cheetahs, leopards, badgers, raccoons, minks, polar bears, foxes, bears and tigers.

by Sharon Sipple

So far I have covered pups/puppies, kittens, calves, and cubs. Cute but not cute enough! Check this out…

Codfish – codling <— ahhhhhhhhhhh

Eagle – eaglet   by Tim Kaufman

Owl – owlet   by Kevin Cole

Duck – duckling   by Berit Watkin

That was just a few of the many species out there.  If you know any more cute or interesting animal baby names please leave a comment! I hope you enjoyed reading this post, I really enjoyed researching and writing it. I am going to do another post soon about animal groups (Did you know a group of swallows is called a gulp?)

Mantis Shrimp – How Awesome Are They?!

Hello everyone. Today’s post is going to be about the Mantis Shrimp – which is possibly one of the extraordinary animals on the planet. Yep, I know what you’re thinking – never heard of it. The Mantis Shrimp doesn’t get nearly as much credit as it deserves. I found out about these creatures for a project on Sea Life I’m doing. It has lots of amazing features, but the one that I’m going to be focusing on most is the Mantis Shrimp’s incredible eyesight.

So first all, a dog has two cells in it’s eyes that recognize and allow the dog to see colours. This means that dogs can see blue and green, and mixtures of these two colours…

Humans can see these colours, plus one more, which is red, and the colours that can be derived from red…

Then there’s butterflies, which can see five different colours. That’s blue, red and green and two other colours, which are impossible for humans to imagine.

The butterfly’s colour range is almost the largest on the planet. Almost. Unfortunately, this is insect comes second best to the one, the only…

Mantis Shrimp!!!

Mantis shrimp can see much more than five colours, even more than ten if fact! The Mantis Shrimp’s eyes can see an incredible sixteen colours!

Other cool facts about Mantis shrimp:

• Mantis Shrimp are rarely kept in aquariums, due to their ability to break the glass of the tank, and their habit of killing any animal that they have to share with!
• They can deliver a blow with their front pincers the force of a bullet in one three-thousandth of a second. If humans could do one tenth of this strength and power with our arms, we could throw a football into outer space.
• These shrimps can move so fast that the water around them boils: this is called supercavitation and means that even if they miss the target when they are trying to kill prey, it will be boiled anyway. When this takes place, the water also emits tiny bursts of light, which, as you can probably imagine, is beautiful in the deep dark waters of the ocean. This effect is known as sonoluminescence.

Mantis Shrimps are beautiful and exceptionally amazing animals. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this post and now know a little more about these small wonders. Thanks to The Oatmeal – Why the mantis shrimp is my new favourite animal for inspiration and information! Go and click on the link to their site, it’s really cool!

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next week for a baking post 🙂

Spiced Biscuits

Hi, it’s me artybaker, once again! And once again, it’s time for a baking post. So, this recipe is one of my favourite recipes, and definitely one of my favourite biscuit recipes.  I adapted my iced biscuits recipe from a shortbread recipe, then this recipe from my iced biscuits recipe, although it’s nothing like the iced biscuits really. These spiced biscuits are not iced, filled or decorated; just totally simple and quick! And, sometimes, that’s just what you need. They are insanely more-ish, and if you need proof, this is the reactions I got from the rest of the family:

Pteroturtle came in and took a bite from one and immediately asked me which was the biggest one, so he could have it!

Sophofbread walked in a took a giant handful and came back for more within minutes! Even plumble pie seemed to like them, so if you think these look nice you must make them; you won’t regret it! And make sure you eat them warm, with a mug of tea or milk because it’s simply heavenly.

When first came up with the idea, I was skeptical, because I’ve never really had anything with mixed spice in and had certainly not baked with it before. But now there’s no doubt in my mind that I love mixed spice and LOVE baking with it! 🙂 This is the recipe:

Start by creaming margarine and light brown sugar (or you could use dark brown; I find in these biscuits, it doesn’t really make a noticeable difference).

Then measure out 125g (4 1/2 oz) of plain flour and 50g (1 3/4 oz) of wholemeal flour.

Sift half into the mix and stir in slowly. (The brown granules are remnants of the wholemeal flour that were left in the sieve; just pour them in after all of the lumps of flour have fallen through)

Now add 1 1/2 teaspoons of honey or golden syrup and mix briefly. Sift in the rest of the flour and fold in to form a dough.

Then tip onto a floured surface and sprinkle over the mixed spice. Knead in until combined, but as soon as it is, stop kneading; you don’t want to overdo it.

Use a floured rolling pin to roll out the dough to a thickness of about 1cm.

Cut out as many biscuits as you can with your chosen cutter and place them on a large baking sheet lined with non-stick baking roll or greaseproof paper.

When you have done as many as possible, gather up the remains and knead back into a ball, roll out and cut out more biscuits. Repeat until all of the dough is used up.

Bake for 20 minutes until darkened and spread a little.

This is the recipe:

Spiced Biscuits

Ingredients: 140g (5oz) margarine, 100g (3 1/2oz) light or dark brown sugar, 125g (4 1/2oz) plain flour, 50g (1 3/4oz) wholemeal flour, 1 1/2 tsp honey or golden syrup, 1 tsp mixed spice.

Method: 1 – Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (160 degrees Celsius fan oven, 350 degrees Fahrenheit, gas 4) and line a large flat baking sheet with some non-stick baking roll, grease-proof paper or baking parchment. 2 – Cream the margarine and sugar in a large bowl with wooden spoon, or in an electric mixer. 3 – Sift in about half of the flour and mix in slowly. Add the honey or syrup and stir that in too. 4 – Sift in the rest of the flour and stir in to form a dough, then tip onto a floured surface. 5 – Knead in the mixed spice and roll out the dough to a thickness of about 1cm. Cut out as many biscuits as you can with your chosen cutter and place them on the prepared baking sheet. Gather up the remains of the dough and knead into a ball again. Roll out as before and cut out the biscuits, as before. Repeat this until all of the dough is used up. 6 – Bake the biscuits for 20 minutes and serve warm (they are also nice cool).

Thanks for reading!!! 😉