Tuesday 31 January 2012

I've got gnus for you!



This gnu is running.
Gnu is another name for wildebeest.
Wildebeest an Afrikaans word meaning 'wild beast'.
Baby gnus can run within 3-7 minutes of being born.
One of the world's most incredible animal spectacles is the annual Great Gnu Migration.
80% of gnu babies are born in a 2-3 week period at the start of the monsoon season.
The gnu population is 15 times larger than it was in 1950.


(info and pics come from here)

Monday 30 January 2012

gnu new


This is my new gnu blog. I like this suit-gnu.
I don't think this blog will be solely about gnus. Or news. But there might be a little bit of one or the other from time to time.
So today I learnt that a group of gnus is called an implausibility of gnus. I think that is quite fantastic. So fantastic it inspired me to start a blog! Well, not really, I was going to anyway, but now I have a title that makes me happy.
Something else I learnt about 2 minutes ago is the difference between learned and learnt:...... They are one and the same!
(I'm not sure if that's worthy of an exclaimation mark, but I'll put it there anyway, because I like exclaimation marks!)
Anyway, learned is more commonly used in American English, and learnt in British English. The same applies to spilled/spilt, burned/burnt, kneeled/knelt, leaped/leapt etc etc etc.

I need to practice writing because right now my ideas are jumping all over the place. While learning about implausibilities of gnus I found some other interesting animal group names:

- a congregation of alligators
- a coalition of cheetahs
- a cloud of bats
- a sleuth of bears
- an obstinancy of buffalos
- a nuisance of cats
- a murder of crows
- a business of ferrets
- a smack of jellyfish

... and many more that can be found here!

Oh, and while I'm thinking about animals, I was talking to my Australian housemate the other day and she had no idea what a stoat was.

Ok, I think that's it for today.