“There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.” - Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist)

What a relevant post title. Kind of. Maybe if it read:

"There are journal articles of which the abstract and conclusion are by far the best parts."

Kitcat has spent the last two weeks reading journal articles. And for some articles, the abstract and conclusion are indeed the best parts. Getting through the remainder of the article is like walking through knee-deep mud. With cement shoes. And a screaming child wrapped around one ankle. While giving an elephant a piggy-back.

However, a great deal more of the articles are actually relevant to her Honours topic, and therefore she's finding them extremely interesting. *Neeeeeeerrrrd* Furthermore, as she finally has her literature review topic figured out, the reading has become more focused, which = more relevant, which = even more interesting. Winning. 

As for the actual topic:

"Are there long-term consequences for stress induced by management practices in mammals?"

Still lots of reading to go, but it's looking like there totes are long-term consequences. Which is good, as it gives Kit something to write about! And it's not just expected stuff like stress-induced weight loss either. One study on water voles found that if animals are deprived of food for as little as 16 hours during pregnancy, it completely skews the sex ratio of the next generation towards males (by higher abortion/re-absorption of the female embryos)! And not only that, when the food deprived mothers did produce female offspring, the daughters tended to have increased fecundity. Which is a good thing for the population if it's recovering from a food shortage, and therefore, reduced numbers!

Is that not totally cool and amazing and ohmigosh-nature-has-so-got-it-sorted-and-we-never-even-knew-ish?! 

Ahh, science. It's awesome. 

But in other (non-sciencey) news, Kitcat and Face have been doing stuff. Last weekend was filled with visits to the Salamanca markets (by Kit, Face opted to not spend hours wandering around stalls) and Bunnings. But the weekend before last saw Face and Kit take a trip to Richmond. And in Richmond there is a marvelous zoo. 

Where they have (white!) lions.

And tigers.

And piglets, oh my!

Face was delighted by the piglets (as you can see from the above photo, where he had just been bitten by one). And the fluffy bunnies. He loved the fluffy bunnies. Oh, and ask him about the marmosets. Face is a huge fan of monkeys.

There was a really interesting collection of animals out there! 

 (Yay!!)

Most unfortunately, Kit's camera died before she managed to take photos of every single animal. Therefore, another trip is in order. Darn. =D 

Kit does love her zooing time.

That's all for tonight! Silly ol' Kit decided to start sanding and whitewashing the bedside table this afternoon. Which probably wasn't the best thing to do the day before a house inspection. Consequently, Face and Kit have to be up super early to clean up all the mess she made. Lol-oops. 

Much love. xx