OLINGUITO, THE UNKNOWN SPECIES FROM THE ANDES

Olinguito

Today, The Grandma is still relaxing at home. Summer is a season of hot and humidity and The Grandma prefers reading and watching some films instead of visiting new places, especially with the current situation of COVID19.

She has received the wonderful visit of one of her closest friends, Joseph de Ca'th Lon and they have been talking about nature and species. 

Joseph has explained her the amazing story of the olinguito, a mammal of the raccoon family Procyonidae that lives in montane forests in the Andes whose discovery was confirmed and announced on a day like today in 2013 by the Smithsonian.

The olinguito, Bassaricyon neblina, is a mammal of the raccoon family Procyonidae that lives in montane forests in the Andes of western Colombia and Ecuador.

The species was described as new in 2013. The specific name neblina is Spanish for fog or mist, referring to the cloud forest habitat of the olinguito.

On 22 May 2014, the International Institute for Species Exploration declared the olinguito as one of the Top 10 New Species of 2014 among species discovered in 2013.

It is the first new carnivoran mammal described in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years.

The olinguito is distinct from the other species within the genus, popularly known as olingos, and also from the kinkajou -kinkajous resemble olingos, but are not closely related. Its average weight is 900 grams, making it the smallest procyonid.

More information: Smithsonian Insider

The animal is an omnivorous frugivore that eats mainly fruits such as figs, but also insects and nectar; this diet results in feces the size of small blueberries. The olinguito is thought to be solitary, nocturnal and moderately reclusive.

Olinguitos appear to be strictly arboreal. They have a single pair of mammae, and probably produce a single offspring at a time.

Specimens of the species have been identified from the Andean cloud forest stretching from western Colombia to Ecuador, at elevations of 1,500 and 2,750 metres, which is the highest known range of any member of the genus Bassaricyon.

Its discovery was confirmed in the wild and announced on 15 August 2013. The species is not considered to be immediately at risk, but it is estimated that over 40 percent of the animal's potential range has been deforested.

Its discovery was announced on 15 August 2013 by Kristofer Helgen, the curator of mammals at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, olingo expert Roland Kays of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and collaborators. Helgen discovered specimens of the species in storage at The Field Museum in Chicago and used DNA testing to confirm a new species.

Olinguito

The researchers who identified the species were unable to discover any local names specific to it. The discovery was the first identification of a new mammal species of the order Carnivora in the Americas in 35 years.

Olinguitos were regularly seen and even publicly exhibited decades before they were recognized as members of a new species.

The animal had previously been confused with its taxonomic cousins, the olingos. One such example was Ringerl, an olinguito who lived in the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., for a year and also toured many other zoos. Researchers unsuccessfully tried to breed her with olingos, not realizing she was a different species. Ringerl died in 1976.

The olinguito is smaller than the other species in the genus Bassaricyon. Its body, head to rump, is approximately 355 mm long, and its tail 335-424 mm long. It is also much furrier and has a shorter tail and smaller ears than others that share its genus.

The olinguito is found in the northern Andes at altitudes between 1,500 and 2,750 metres above sea level, which is much higher than the habitats for other olingos.

Based on morphological distinctions, four olinguito subspecies have been described: the nominate Bassaricyon neblina neblina, and B. n. osborni, B. n. hershkovitzi, and B. n. ruber. Each of these subspecies, though, were found to have a dental formula characteristic of other members of the family Procyonidae.

More information: BBC

Comparison of DNA from two olinguito subspecies to other olingo and related species was carried out on the basis of genetic dissimilarity derived from Kimura modeling of differences in base-pair composition of mitochondrial cytochrome b. 

The genetic divergence between olinguitos and other olingos makes olinguitos a basal sister lineage to the rest of the genus, and is equivalent to differences between species which have been assigned to separate subgenera or genera.

This split apparently occurred about 3.5 million years ago, suggesting that the earliest diversification of the genus took place in northwestern South America shortly after the ancestors of olingos first invaded the continent from Central America as part of the Great American Interchange.

The olinguito may be at risk in the future due to deforestation and urbanization.

The researchers reporting its discovery estimated that 42% of suitable historic olinguito habitat had already been converted to agriculture or urban areas and an additional 21% remained in natural but largely unforested conditions.

Since the natural habitat of the olinguito is at higher elevations, this means that its cloud forest habitat definitely needs to be protected in order to optimize this species' probability of survival. As of now, no strict efforts are known to be in place in order to reduce habitat destruction.

More information: CNN

The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us;

and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic.

Charles Darwin

WIPHALA, THE NATIVE INDIAN ANDEAN NATIONAL FLAG

A woman with a Wiphala

After the events occurred in Catalonia last October, 14, The Grandma decided to take some days of relax to think about present and future. During these thirty days, she has been reading her favourite author, Salvador Espriu, one of the best writers in Catalan Literature.

Salvador Espriu was a writer who lived the Spanish Civil War and the Post War under the Francoist dictatorship. It was very difficult for him to survive in the middle of a big cultural repression and the continuous loss of civil rights that was that dictatorship. He couldn't exile and he started an internal exilium creating an own world called Sinera (Arenys, his real town, read from right to left) to try to survive and resist those dark years.

The Grandma thinks that those dark times have never disappeared in the Spanish society and nowadays they are clearer than ever. The struggle is hard but the prize is freedom and a society based in respect, tolerance and common effort. This struggle is very important and it is not a time to renounce but to fight, persevere and win.

During this month, The Grandma has been also a direct witness of terrible events occurred in Hong Kong, Ecuador, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Libya, Kurdistan and Bolivia. The reasons are the same -control of power by the upper social classes and slavery and resignation of poor ones-, but the targets are different -lithium in Bolivia, oil in Libya, Kurdistan and Venezuela, copper in Chile, control of population in Hong Kong or economic dependence and lawfare in Brazil and Catalonia.

The Grandma loves diversity and multiculturalism without forgetting the origin of ancient cultures. One of them, the Native American Andean population is a great example of suffering the effects of foreign colonisations and answering to them with a great resilience being proud of their culture and history.

Today, she wants to talk about the Wiphala, an important symbol of some native peoples of the Andes, in homage to all these countries that are suffering the avarice of the US with the hypocritical consent of the EU. At the end, it is only a question of resisting or serving.

Before talking about the Wiphala, The Grandma has read a new chapter of Katherine Mansfield's The Garden Party and Other Stories.

The Wiphala is a square emblem, commonly used as a flag, representing some native peoples of the Andes that include today's Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and parts of Argentina, Chile and Colombia.

The suyu wiphalas are composed of a 7 × 7 square patchwork in seven colours, arranged diagonally. The precise configuration depends on the particular suyu represented by the emblem. The colour of the longest diagonal line (seven squares) determines which of the four suyus (regions) the flag represents: white for Qullasuyu, yellow for Kuntisuyu, red for Chinchaysuyu, and green for Antisuyu. There is also an alternate pattern for the Wiphala for Antinsuyu. Additionally a Wiphala also exists for Tupac Katari and the Tupac Katari Guerrilla Army.

Wiphala

Article 6, section II of the 2009 Bolivian constitution establishes the Wiphala as the dual flag of Bolivia, along with the red-yellow-green tricolor.

In modern times the Wiphala has been confused with a rainbow flag which is wrongly associated with the Tawantinsuyu (Incan Empire). There is debate as to whether there was an Inca or Tawantisuyu flag. There are 16th and 17th-century chronicles and references that support the idea of a banner attributable to the Inca. However, it represented the Inca himself, not the empire. Also its origins are from symbols and mural designs found in several civilizations of the Andes with thousands of years of history.

The Museum of World Culture in Gothenburg, Sweden, holds a Wiphala that is dated through a C-14 test to the 11th century. It originates from the Tiwanaku region, and is part of a collection based on a kallawaya medicine man's grave.

More information: Backspace

The seven colors of the actual Wiphala reflect those of the rainbow. According to the Katarista movement, whose interpretation is promoted by the Bolivian authorities, the significance and meaning for each color are as follows:

Red: The Earth and the Andean man.

Orange: Society and culture.

Yellow: Energy and strength.

White: Time and change.

Green: Natural resources and wealth.

Blue: The Cosmos.

Violet: Andean government and self-determination.

The Aimara wiphala is a square flag divided into 7 × 7 (49) squares. The seven rainbow colors are placed in diagonal squares. The exact arrangement and colors varies with the different versions, corresponding to the suyus or Tupac Katari. It is very prominent in marches of indigenous and peasant movements in Bolivia.

This rainbow squares flag is used as the pan-indigenous flag of Andean peoples in Bolivia and has recently occasionally been adopted by Amazonian groups in political alliance.

Bolivian president Evo Morales established the Qullasuyu wiphala as the nation's dual flag, along with the previous red, yellow, and green banner in the newly ratified constitution. The Wiphala is also officially flown on governmental buildings.

More information: Chile Today

The most important thing is the indigenous people 

are not vindictive by nature.

We are not here to oppress anybody -but to join together

and build Bolivia, with justice and equality.

Evo Morales

WHY DO THE IRISH EAT SO MANY POTATOES?

Irish potato famine

Each Irish person eats 141 of potatoes every year -more than any other people. In the 18th and early 19th century they would have eaten a great deal more.

There was a time when every spare inch of land was planted with potatoes. When you're in the countryside, especially in areas where no-one now lives, and all you can see is grass, look closely. You may be able to make out the faint ridges on the land where once potatoes grew up the foothills of mountains, down river banks and out to the edge of the bogs.

More information: BBC

The potato is not native to Ireland. It was brought by Sir Walter Raleigh from the Andes around the end of the 16th century.

It was soon found that the potato grew remarkably well in the cold wet Irish climate, and could feed more people per acre than any other crop. More and more poor labourers could marry young and rear large families. They could live almost entirely on the potatoes they grew on their little patches of rented land.

More information: Discovering Ireland

The disease which destroyed the potato crops of the mid-1840's caused a famine in which over one million people died.

The total dependence of vast numbers of people on the potato was broken by the famine. The survivors and their descendants emigrated rather than face the threat of starvation again.

 More information: Mises Institute

However, to this day, most Irish people feel a little insecure unless some sort of potato turns up on their dinner plate every day.

More information: The Great Famine Part I & Part II

Source: Why do the Irish? by Fiana Griffin

There is no way in which we can retrospectively erase 
the Treaty of Vienna or the Great Irish Famine. 
It is a peculiar feature of human actions that, 
once performed, they can never be recuperated. 
What is true of the past will always be true of it.
 

Terry Eagleton