Live in the Moment: animals

Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Rodeo/ABC Wednesday

R is for Rodeo

For most people, a cowboy is a distinctly all-American symbol. The wild, wild west comes to mind with Doc Holliday and the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp; John Wayne riding into the sunset, and yes, my teenage crush, the Marlboro Man looking out into the distance.

The rodeo was not originally a sporting event but an integral part of cattle-ranching in areas of Spanish influence. Rodeo stresses its western folk hero image and its being a genuinely American creation. But in fact, it grew out of the practices of Spanish ranchers and their Mexican ranch hands (vaqueros), a mixture of cattle wrangling and bull fighting that dates back to the 16th century conquistadors. source

Today, rodeo is a sporting event that involves horses and livestock, designed to test the skill and speed of a cowboy or cowgirl athletes.

Like cowboys, a rodeo seems out of place in the Philippine setting. An image of a farmer on a carabao (water buffalo) is probably a more identifiable Filipino icon than a cowboy on a bucking horse. But with our strong Spanish influences, it's not far-fetched that the rodeo has been practiced here since the Spanish regime.

And as far as I can remember, our homegrown cowboys have been competing in local rodeos since I was a kid. Back in the day, watching a rodeo was one of the highlights of our summer vacation in my hometown. The rodeos of my childhood were held in an open field in one of the haciendas and were participated by farm workers from nearby haciendas.

Although not a popular sport here, the rodeo reached the mainstream Filipino consciousness since the Masbate Rodeo Festival started in the early 90's. It was conceived by ranchers and businessmen of Masbate to uplift the local cattle industry. With about 30 ranches and a cattle population of approximately 54,000, Masbate is the Cattle Country of the Philippines. In April, teams consisting of four hundred cowboys from universities across the country competed in the rodeo.

Masbate, an island province, is about 426 kilometers from Manila, approximately 230 nautical miles; or about 50 minutes by plane. The province has been declared the Rodeo Capital of the Philippines, and became known as the Rodeo Capital of Asia and is now affiliated with the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association of America.

Friends from FUNtastic Philippines were at the Masbate Rodeo Festival last April and Chelli Castellano was kind enough to let me borrow her photos. I promised myself not to miss this festival next year.

Linking to ABC Wednesday

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

X/ABC Wednesday

X is for Xiphosuran

Xiphosuran is an anthropod of the order Xiphosura which includes horseshoe crab and other extinct forms. I found this strange-looking creature at the shores of Snake Island in Palawan---it was the first time that I have seen a horseshoe crab (Carcinoscorpius rotundicaudia), I didn't think it was a living creature. I noticed the metallic look of its shell, thought it was a helmet of some kind. When it moved, I thought it was sea turtle but when I looked closely, the shell resembles that of a crab. Nobody can tell me at the time what this was called. When I came home, I showed this image to my brother and he said it's a mangrove horseshoe crab.

Despite its name, horseshoe crabs are more closely related to spiders and scorpions than to crabs. They live primarily in and around shallow ocean waters and occasionally come on shore for mating. Horseshoe crabs have no hemoglobin in their blood, they have hemocyanin to carry oxygen. Because of the copper present in hemocyanin, their blood is blue. Their blue blood is widely used in biomedical sciences for the development of drugs for diseases like mental exhaustion and gastroenteritis.

Considered by biologists as living fossils because they have remained practically unchanged in terms of shape and size for millions of years. Fossils of horseshoe crab have been dated to roughly 450 million years ago.

Linking to ABC Wednesday

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

W/ABC Wednesday

W is for Water Buffalo

Popularly known as carabao or kalabaw (Tagalog), Bubalus bubalis carabanesis is a subspecies of the domesticated water buffalo. It is one of the most important animals in the Philippines, especially in agriculture, being the farm animal of choice for pulling both a plow and the cart used to haul produce to the market. For a Filipino farmer, a kalabaw is a faithful partner in life.

The water buffalo is indigenous to Southeast Asia. Silent and docile, it is strong and a hard-worker. Without sweat glands, it cools itself by lying in a waterhole or mud during the heat of the day. Both male and female have massive horns, adults weigh 700 to 800 kilograms.

siesta

Until a few years ago, I didn't know there was a white [albino] water buffalo. The gray/black species is commonly used in farming. A friend told me that the albino is easily sunburned that they're not used in the fields but as a source of milk.

It looks like the albino, indeed, has a much easier life.:p

beast of burden

A parade of hundreds of water buffalo in the streets of Pulilan town in Bulacan is held every 14th and 15th of May in honor of the town's patron saint, San Isidro Labrador. You can see photos here.

In the early 90's, the government established the Philippine Carabao Center. It was created to conserve, propagate and promote the Philippine carabao as a source of draft animal power, meat, milk and hide. Also to enable small farmers to avail themselves of a good quality carabao; encourage backyard dairy development in rural areas to reduce dependence on imported milk by-products; and increase the annual population growth of Philippine carabaos.

mother and child cooling off

Posted for Mrs. Nesbitt's ABC Wednesday

Monday, January 23, 2012

Mellow Yellow Monday: Alarm Clock

A rooster strutting with confidence at my aunt's backyard. It was his duty to wake me up every morning while I stayed in the farm, and he was a reliable alarm clock.