Monday, February 15, 2010

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

According to the Chinese calendar its the Year of the Tiger. Celebrations took place here on Sunday, February 14th and more are planned for next Saturday. Here are a few images from Wikipedia.com and if you entertained the notion that cats don't like water, purge the thought from your mind. It would appear that its not true and the photos above of a tiger cooling itself off in water would indicate.
Above is a photo of a pair of tigers from Indochina and below an image of a tiger in a piece of artwork by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861).
And finally, the map below shows the tiger's range as it used to be in 1900 (orange). The darker colour indicates its current range as of 1990. This is quite a decline and we can thank the ever increase and expension of the human population plus the disappearance of the cat's habitat. We can be thankful for what is left for other generations to see. To find out more, do a Google search. Beginning with Wikipedia would be a good start. Meantime, Gung Hay Fat Choy!!! - V.

2 comments:

Patric said...

Happy Hearts Day Volker (belated) Went to the carnival last Feb.14, it was fun! Love the Chinese New Year Post!

Volker said...

I hope it was a happy day for you as well, Patric! And the tiger is such a beautiful animal in all its variations (there are several subspecies) but its the Bengal Tiger that is best known! - V.