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Breed club

Breed clubs are associations or clubs with activities centered on a single, specific breed of a particular species of domesticated animal. The purpose of the association will vary with the species of animal and the goals and needs of the members of the association. Breed associations or clubs may vary in their goals, activities and nomenclature from country to country, even for the same breed. Most domesticated animals, whether they are agricultural animals such as cattle, llamas, poultry, sheep and pigs, or companion animals such as pigeons, horses, cats and dogs, have breed clubs associated with the breed.

Purpose
In general, breed clubs and associations create a written definition of the breed (called a breed standard) for the breed with which the organization is associated. Breed clubs also maintain important records, and provide members with information. Many breed associations also have a social component, organising various activities such as shows. In addition, they may regulate breeding or raise funds for research related to the breed.

Examples

 * In horses, the Appaloosa Horse Club, established in 1938, maintains a registry for Appaloosa horses, and has the goal of "preserving the horses’ heritage and history" and defining the horse breed through bloodline requirements.
 * The Canadian Lowline Cattle Association defines its objectives as including "maintain the purity and improve the breed" of cattle as well as collecting maintaining breed information and publishing a Herd Book.
 * The Essex Pig Society is building up the numbers of the Essex Pig, formerly thought to be an extinct breed of the domestic pig.
 * The American Buttercup Club defines its goal as connecting fanciers of the chicken breed so that they are "able to share stock and valuable information about the breed."
 * The Fantail Club UK, established in 1889, promotes the knowledge and enjoyment of the exhibition Fantail Pigeon in the United Kingdom.
 * In cats, the Selkirk Rex Breed Club maintains a history of the breed and provides care and grooming tips to owners of the breed.
 * Members of the dog breed club for the English Toy Terrier (Black and Tan) are expected to "conduct themselves in a responsible and sportsman-like manner at all times."
 * The OEGB Int'l Society proudly connects hobbyists of Old English Game Bantams from all around the world to discuss poultry related topics. In addition, it hosts the only US based OEGB futurity as an annual event called the MegaSpur.

Forming a breed club
With the advent of the internet, anyone can create a "breed club" by putting up a web page to advertise their animals. Buyers must research any claims of unaffiliated breed clubs.

Organizations covering groups of breeds
Breeds of animals of a particular species may have an organization that covers a large number of breeds of the species, even though each individual breed may have its own breed club. Often the multiple-breed over-association will maintain the breed records in a central location. An example of this would be the Canadian Sheep Breeder's Association, incorporated under the Canadian Livestock Pedigree Act in 1915, which includes fifty different breeds of sheep.

Other types of animal associations
Associations that include all breeds (as well as crossbred and mixed breed animals) of a particular species also exist. Usually such associations are organized for particular sports, such as hunting with raptors.

title: Breed club


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Buick V6 engine

The Buick V6 is an OHV V6 engine developed by the Buick division of General Motors and first introduced in 1962. The engine was originally 198 cuin and was marketed as the Fireball engine. GM continued to develop and refine the 3.8 L V6, eventually and commonly referred to simply as the 3800, through numerous iterations.

The 3800 made the Ward's 10 Best Engines of the 20th Century list and made Ward's yearly 10 Best list numerous times. It is one of the most-manufactured engines in automotive history, with over 25 million produced.

The engine originally derived from Buick's 215 cuin aluminium V8 family, which also went on to become the Rover V8, manufactured from 1960–2006.

Overview
The 3800's block is cast iron and all variants use iron, two-valve-per-cylinder OHV heads. The engine, originally designed and manufactured in the United States, was also produced in later versions in Australia. It was the first six-cylinder engine designed exclusively for Buick products since the Buick straight-six was discontinued in 1930.

In 1967, GM sold the design to Kaiser-Jeep since they no longer felt the need to produce a V6, considered an unusual engine configuration in North America at the time. The 1973 oil crisis prompted the company to re-acquire the design from American Motors (AMC), who had purchased Kaiser-Jeep in 1970, in early 1974. The descendants of the early 231 continue as the most-common GM V6, as it developed into a very durable and reliable design.

Though the pre-3800 rear-wheel drive (RWD) V6 uses the Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac (BOP) bellhousing pattern, an oddity of both the front-wheel drive (FWD) and RWD 3800 V6 is that although it is a 90° V6, it uses the GM 60° V6 bell housing (Metric Pattern). For use in the FWD applications, the bellhousings on the FWD transmissions are altered slightly.

This engine has the cylinders numbered 1-3-5 on the left-hand bank (front bank for FWD applications) and 2-4-6 on the right-hand bank, the number 1 cylinder being the furthest from the flywheel end. The firing order is 1-6-5-4-3-2.

The engine was produced at the Flint North plant in Flint, Michigan, with engine blocks and cylinder heads cast at the Grey Iron plant (now the GM Saginaw Metal Casting Operations plant) at 1629 N. Washington Avenue in Saginaw, Michigan.

Fireball V6
The first engine in this family, RPO code 6I, was introduced in 1961 for the 1962 model year Buick Special with Buick's 198 cuin engine, the first V6 in an American car (the GMC V6 was used earlier in trucks). Because it was derived from Buick's 215 cuin aluminum V8, it has a 90° bank between cylinders and an uneven firing pattern due to the crankshaft having only three crank pins set at 120° apart, with opposing cylinders (1-2, 3-4, and 5-6) sharing a crank pin in, as do many V8 engines. The uneven firing pattern was often perceived as roughness, leading a former American Motors executive to describe it as "rougher than a cob."

The off-center design continued up until the 1988 LN3 version of the engine, when the left-hand bank of cylinders was moved forward relative to the right-hand bank. Although the actual bore spacing between cylinders on the same bank remained unchanged at 4.24 in, the LN3 and later engines became known to have "on-center bore spacing".

198
The Buick Division, concerned about high manufacturing costs of their innovative aluminum 215 V8, sought to develop a cheaper, cast-iron engine based on the same tooling. It was given the RPO code JL. They settled on an unusual 90° V6 layout that was essentially the architecture of the '215' less two cylinders. In initial form, it had a bore and stroke of 3.625x3.1875 in, for an overall displacement of 198 cuin. It weighed about 35 lb more than the aluminum engine, but was far cheaper to produce. Dubbed the Fireball V6, it became the standard engine in the 1962 Buick Special. In their test that year, Road & Track was impressed with Buick's "practical" new V6, saying it "sounds and performs exactly like the aluminum V8 in most respects."

225
The bore was increased to 3.75 in, and stroke increased to 3.4 in, increasing displacement to 225 cuin. Since the engine was similar to the popular small-block Buick V8—now with a cast-iron block and displacement of 300 cuin, the engine was made cheaply at the same factory with much of the same tooling. This engine carried the RPO code KH for the 1964 model year and LH for 1965. In 1966, the code was MH and was renamed the Wildcat V-6. For 1967, the code was NH. This engine was used in Buick's intermediate-sized Special and Skylark models from 1964 to 1967 and Oldsmobile's mid-sized F-85/Cutlass models for 1964 and 1965, including the Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser and Buick Sport Wagon.

1964–1965 models featured a single barrel Rochester MonoJet, producing 155 hp. In 1966–1967, the 1-barrel was replaced with a 2-barrel Rochester 2GV, giving the engine a 5-horsepower boost to 160 hp.

The V6 was dropped after the 1967 model year in favor of a conventional 250 cuin inline-six engine built by the Chevrolet division, and the tooling was sold to Kaiser-Jeep.

Dauntless
In 1965, Kaiser-Jeep began using the Buick 225 in Jeep CJs. It was known as the Dauntless V6 and used a much heavier flywheel than the Buick version to damp vibrations resulting from the engine's firing pattern. Buick sold the tooling for this engine to Kaiser in 1967, as the demand for the engine was waning steadily in an era of V8s and muscle cars. When American Motors (AMC) bought Jeep, the V6 was replaced with AMC straight-6 engines, but the ownership of the V6 tooling remained with AMC.

 * 1966–1971 Jeep Jeepster & Jeepster Commando
 * 1966–1971 CJ-5
 * 1966–1971 CJ-6
 * 1966–1971 CJ-6

231
The 1973 oil crisis prompted GM to look for more economical engines than the V8s of 350, 400, and 454/455 cubic inches that powered most General Motors cars and trucks during that time. At that time, the only "small" engines generally offered by GM were built by the Chevrolet division including the 140 cuin OHC aluminum inline-four engine used in the subcompact Chevrolet Vega and a 250 cuin straight-6 used in smaller Chevy, Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac models, whose design roots dated back to the 1962 Chevy II (Nova). LD5 was the RPO for engines with chassis code "A", LD7 was used for the 1977-only VIN code "C" engines.

One quick idea was tried by Buick engineers—taking an old Fireball V6 picked up at a junkyard and installing it into a 1974 Buick Apollo. The solution worked so well that GM wanted AMC to put the engine back into production. However, AMC's cost per unit was deemed as too high. Instead of buying completed engines, GM made an offer to buy back the tooling and manufacturing line from AMC in April 1974, and began building the engines on August 12. With production back within GM, Buick re-introduced the V6 that fall in certain 1975 models—a move made possible by the fact that foundations for the old V6 machinery were still intact at Buick's engine assembly plant in Flint, Michigan, so it was easy to put the old tooling back in place and begin production at least two years ahead of the normal schedule that would have been required to create new tooling. The bore was enlarged to 3.8 in, identical to the Buick 350 and Olds 307 V8s, yielding 231 cuin displacement. 78,349 units were installed in Buicks for 1975.

Due to difficulties with the new fuel economy and emissions standards, the engine produced just 105 or, depending on fitment and year.

In 1977, Buick redesigned the crankshaft to a "split-pin" configuration to create an "even-firing" version. The crank pins associated with the opposing cylinders were offset from each other by 30°. The relatively small offset did not require flying arms to be incorporated, however a 3 mm thick flange was built in between the offset crank pins to prevent the connecting rod big-ends from "walking" off the crank pin bearing journal and interfering with the adjacent big end. The 3 mm thick flange effectively caused the connecting rods on the left-hand bank of cylinders (forward bank for FWD applications) to move 1.5 mm forward and the right-hand bank to move 1.5 mm rearward, but the engine block remained unchanged compared to the odd-fire engine. Since the cylinders center-lines were no longer centralized over the crank pin bearing journals, the connecting rods were re-designed with the big-ends offset from the piston pin ends by 1.5 mm. The engine in this configuration became known to have "off-center bore spacing".

 * 1975     Buick Apollo
 * 1975–1980 Buick Skyhawk
 * 1975–1977 Buick Century
 * 1975–1977 Buick Regal
 * 1975–1976 Buick LeSabre
 * 1975–1979 Buick Skylark
 * 1975–1982 Oldsmobile Cutlass
 * 1978–1981 Chevrolet Camaro
 * 1978–1987 Chevrolet El Camino
 * 1978–1983 Chevrolet Malibu Both the 229 CID engine used in the Malibu starting in 1980 and the 200 CID version first used in 1978 were NOT versions of the Buick 3800 Engine, but a different Chevy-built engine. Both the Buick V6 and the 229 cid Chevrolet V6 are 90-degree V6 engines, and both are often referred to as being a 3.8 L V6. These engines should not be confused as being the same, and are unique engine designs. The 229 CID Chevrolet V6 was essentially a small block Chevy V8 missing two cylinders.
 * 1978–1987 Chevrolet Monte Carlo This is very confusing, as Monte Carlo at various times used both the V6 from the Buick engine as well as the V6 engine derived from the Chevrolet V8.
 * 1978–1980 Chevrolet Monza
 * 1978–1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme
 * 1975–1980 Oldsmobile Starfire
 * 1977–1979 Oldsmobile Omega
 * 1978–1987 Pontiac Grand Prix
 * 1976–1980 Pontiac Sunbird
 * 1976–1981 Pontiac Firebird
 * 1978–1981 Pontiac LeMans
 * 1977–1979 Pontiac Ventura

LD5
In 1978, GM began to market the 231 as the 3.8 liter as metric engine sizes became common in the United States. The RPO Code was LD5, though California-emissions versions were called LC6. Starting in 1979, the engine was used in the front-wheel drive Buick Riviera, though still with a longitudinal mounting. Larger valves and better intake and exhaust boosted the power output for 1979.

A turbocharged version was introduced as the pace car at the 1976 Indianapolis 500, and a production turbo arrived in 1978. The turbo 3.8 received sequential fuel injection and a wasted spark Distributorless Ignition System in 1984. In 1986, an air-to-air Garrett intercooler was added and the RPO Code became LC2. The LC2 engine has a bore and stroke of 3.8x3.4 in. The horsepower ratings for 1986 & 1987 were 235 and 245 hp, respectively. The limited production GNX benefitted from additional factory modifications such as a ceramic turbocharger, more efficient Garrett intercooler, low restriction exhaust system and revised programming which resulted in a 300 hp factory rating.

The turbocharged 1987 Buick Regal Grand National GNX was called America's quickest automobile, and the model continues to be collected and appreciated today.

 * 1978–1987 Buick Regal Sport Coupe, T-Type, Grand National, and GNX
 * 1978–1980 Buick LeSabre Sport Coupe
 * 1979–1980 Buick Century Turbo Coupe & Sedan
 * 1979–1985 Buick Riviera S-Type, T-Type and less than 100 Convertibles
 * 1980–1981 Chevrolet Monte Carlo Turbo
 * 1989 Pontiac Trans Am Turbo 20th Anniversary Edition

LC9
A smaller version of this engine was produced in 1978 and 1979 for the Century, Regal, and Chevrolet Monza. The bore was reduced to 3.5 in, resulting in an engine of 196 cuin piston displacement. The RPO code was LC9. Initially this engine produced 90 hp, but in 1979 it received the same improvements in the cylinder heads as did the LD5, and therefore power increased to 105 hp.

LC4
In response to rising gas prices, a larger 252 cuin version of the 3.8 liter LD5 V6 was produced from 1980 through 1984 and marketed as an alternative to a V8. The bore was enlarged to 3.965 in, yielding an output of 125 hp and 205 lbft. This engine was used in many large rear-wheel drive Buicks, and in some models from each of GM's other divisions, including Cadillac which offered the "big" Buick V6 in several models from 1980 to 1982 as a credit option to the troublesome V8-6-4 engine used in 1981 and early versions of the aluminum-block Cadillac HT-4100 V8 introduced in 1982. It was also the standard powerplant in the front-drive Riviera and Oldsmobile Toronado from 1981 to 1984. Additionally, the 4.1 block was used unsuccessfully at Indianapolis for racing. Its only weakness was the intake valve seals. This was the first naturally aspirated GM V-6 to feature a 4-barrel carburetor.

 * 1980–84 Buick Electra
 * 1980–84 Buick LeSabre
 * 1982–84 Buick Regal
 * 1981–84 Buick Riviera
 * 1980–82 Cadillac DeVille
 * 1981–82 Cadillac Eldorado
 * 1980–82 Cadillac Fleetwood
 * 1981–82 Cadillac Seville
 * 1981–83 Oldsmobile 98
 * 1981–84 Oldsmobile Toronado
 * 1982 Pontiac Grand Prix
 * 1982 Pontiac Bonneville

LK9
A small 181 cuin version of the Buick V6 was produced for GM's 1980s front-wheel drive cars. Introduced in 1982, it was a lower deck version of the 3.8 designed for transverse application in the new GM A platform cars such as the Buick Century and Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera. It shared the same bore size as its larger sibling, but featured a smaller stroke of 2.66 in. It used a Rochester E2ME 2-bbl carburetor and the VIN code for the engine is E.

 * 1982–1985 Buick Century
 * 1982–1985 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera
 * 1985 Oldsmobile 98
 * 1985 Buick Electra

LN7
The LN7 is a multiport fuel injected version of the LK9. It was introduced for 1985 and used the VIN code: L. It was replaced in 1989 with the 3.3.

 * 1986 Oldsmobile Delta 88
 * 1986 Buick LeSabre
 * 1986–1988 Buick Skylark
 * 1985–1987 Buick Somerset
 * 1985–1987 Pontiac Grand Am
 * 1985–1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais

3.8 FWD LG2/LG3
In mid-1984, the 3.8 liter LD5 engine was modified for transverse-mounting in smaller, FWD vehicles, and equipped with multi point fuel injection (MPFI). 1984-1985 models used a distributor and a distributorless wasted spark ignition system was added for all engines produced in 1986 and later. In 1986, it received sequential fuel injection (SFI) and it was initially produced in two forms, the LG2 with flat lifters (tappets), and the LG3 with a roller camshaft and lifters. The latter was offered in various models through 1988. From 1986, the 3.8 had a revised, crankshaft-driven oil pump which eliminated a longstanding problem with pump housing wear and loss of prime. Power produced by this engine was:
 * VIN code B (LG2): flat lifters (tappets)
 * 140 hp at 4,400 rpm, 200 lbft at 2,000 rpm
 * VIN code 3 (LG3): roller lifters (tappets)
 * 125 hp at 4,400 rpm, 195 lbft at 2,000 rpm (1984–1985 MPFI)
 * 150 hp at 4,400 rpm, 200 lbft at 2,200 rpm (1986–1988 SFI)

 * 1984–1988 Buick Century
 * 1986 Buick Riviera (LG2)
 * 1987 Buick Riviera (LG3)
 * 1986–1987 Buick LeSabre
 * 1985–1987 Buick Electra
 * 1984–1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera
 * 1986–1987 Oldsmobile Delta 88
 * 1985–1987 Oldsmobile Ninety Eight
 * 1986–1987 Oldsmobile Toronado
 * 1987–Early 1988 Pontiac Bonneville

LN3 Naturally Aspirated
Introduced in 1988, the 3800 LN3 would later be loosely considered the Pre-Series I, although the older 3.8 SFI (LG3) was still available that year in some models. Designated initially by VIN code C, the multiport fuel injected 3800 LN3 was a major redesign, featuring changes such as a balance shaft, on-center bore spacing, use of a 3×/18× crank-trigger system, and other improvements. This generation continued in use in several GM products into the early 1990s. It produced 165 hp of power and 210 lbft of torque.

The LN3 is very closely related to the Series I L27 and Series I L67 Supercharged. In fact, supercharger-related hardware can be fitted to an LN3 without changing the cylinder heads. However, the ECM would have to be reprogrammed. The L27 has a two piece, upper plenum intake and lower intake, the LN3 is all one piece.

 * 1988–1990 Buick Electra
 * 1988–1991 Buick LeSabre
 * 1988–1990 Buick Reatta
 * 1988–1990 Buick Riviera
 * Formula Holden (motor racing category)
 * 1988–1991 Holden Commodore (VN Series I)
 * 1988.5–1991 Oldsmobile Delta 88
 * 1988–1990 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight
 * 1988–1990 Oldsmobile Touring Sedan
 * 1988–1990 Oldsmobile Toronado
 * 1988–1990 Oldsmobile Toronado Trofeo
 * 1988–1991 Pontiac Bonneville

3300 (LG7)

A smaller 3.3 liter 3300 was introduced in 1989 and produced through 1993. It was effectively a lower-deck version of the 3800, with a smaller bore and stroke of 3.7x3.16 in for 3340 cc. Like the 3800, it used a cast iron block and heads, push rods, and hydraulic lifters. Unlike the 3800, however, it used a batch-fire injection system rather than sequential injection, as evidenced by the lack of a cam position sensor. It also did not have a balance shaft. Power output was 160 hp at 5,200 rpm and 185 lbft at 2,000 rpm with a 5,500 rpm redline.

 * 1989–1993 Buick Century
 * 1989–1993 Buick Skylark
 * 1992–1993 Pontiac Grand Am
 * 1992–1993 Oldsmobile Achieva
 * 1989–1991 Oldsmobile Calais
 * 1989–1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera

L27 SI Naturally Aspirated

The LN3 was replaced by the 3791 cc L27 in mid-1990 and produces 170 hp. The slight power increase was accompanied by more torque in the mid-range, all thanks to a new, two-piece intake manifold with longer runners. Other improvements over the LN3 included wider connecting rod bearings, a new timing chain tensioner, dual-wall exhaust pipes, new heat shields for the exhaust manifolds, and sound absorbing, composite molded valve covers. This engine is referred to as the Series I 3800, or 3800 TPI (Tuned Port Injection).

In Australia, the LN3 was also replaced by the L27 by Holden who used the engine in their series 2 (1991) VN Commodore range. However, the Australian L27 retained the LN3's one piece upper intake and lower plenum. Power was still boosted to 127 kW for the Holden L27, before being boosted to 130 kW in the revised VR Commodore in 1993. The L36 made its debut in 1995.

 * 1992–1995 Buick LeSabre
 * 1991–1994 Buick Park Avenue
 * 1991 Buick Reatta
 * 1990–1995 Buick Regal
 * 1991–1993 Buick Riviera
 * 1992–1995 Chevrolet Lumina APV
 * 1991–1995 Holden Commodore (VNII, VP, VR)
 * Holden Caprice (VQ, VR)
 * 1992–1994 Pontiac Bonneville
 * 1992–1995 Pontiac Trans Sport
 * 1992–1994 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight
 * 1992–1994 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight
 * 1991–1992 Oldsmobile Toronado
 * 1991–1992 Oldsmobile Toronado Trofeo
 * 1992–1995 Oldsmobile Silhouette

L67 SI Supercharged
The Series I Supercharged engine went through two supercharger revisions (Gen2 and Gen3) and the horsepower improved between initial launch and the time that the Series II L36 was introduced. The M62 supercharger was manufactured by Eaton, for the GM 3800 SI engine. HP was rated at 205 for 1991–1993 engines (Gen2 supercharger) with a 2.55 in pulley, and 225 for 1994–1995 engines (Gen3 supercharger). All of the additional horsepower for 1994–95 Gen3 supercharged engines was gained by using epoxy (not Teflon as commonly believed) coated supercharger rotors to improve efficiency, a larger supercharger inlet and throttle body. Thus, the Gen3 utilized a 2.85 in pulley versus the 2.55 in pulley on the Gen2. The easiest way to spot the difference between the Gen2 and Gen3 is the smaller pulley and the ribs on the side of the Gen2 extend all the way down the sides, while the Gen3 ribs are on only the top. They perform slightly differently, and interchanging one without tuning may cause engine problems. Redline on Gen3 engines is at 6000 rpm, but the ECM will shift at 5400 rpm without performance shift enabled.

 * 1991–1995 Buick Park Avenue Ultra
 * 1992–1995 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency Elite (optional), Touring Sedan
 * 1992-1995 Pontiac Bonneville SE with H4U RPO, not badged - SLE (optional SC package), SSE (optional), and SSEi
 * 1995 Buick Riviera (optional)
 * 1995 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight LS (optional), LSS (optional)

Series II
Introduced in 1995, the Series II is quite a different engine. It is also by far the most popular of the 3800 family for its power, smoothness, fuel efficiency, and reliability, although the stroke for the 3.8 liter engine remained at 3.4 in, and the bore remained at 3.8 in. That said, the engine architecture was vastly changed. The deck height is shorter than the Series I, reducing weight and total engine package size. This required that the piston connecting rods be shortened 1 in, and the crankshaft was also redesigned. A new intake manifold improved breathing while a redesigned cylinder head featured larger valves and a higher compression ratio. The result was 205 hp and 230 lbft, better fuel economy, and 26 lb lighter overall weight (to 392 lb). This 3800 weighs only 22 lb more than the all-aluminum High Feature V6 that currently dominates GM's six-cylinder applications, despite being an all cast-iron design.

The new intake manifold greatly improved airflow. To meet emissions standards, an EGR tube was placed in the intake manifold to reduce combustion temperatures.

The 3800 Series II was on the Ward's 10 Best Engines list for 1995 through 1997.

GM recalled 1.5 million vehicles with this engine on April 14, 2009 due to risk of fire from engine oil leaking under the valve cover gaskets onto hot exhaust manifolds. The fire could spread to the nearby plastic spark plug wire retainers on the valve cover and then to the rest of the engine compartment. GM fitted the affected vehicles with redesigned spark plug wire retainers. These engines were noted for having problems with the plastic upper intake manifold cracking around the EGR passage. The engine would then hydrolock. The lower intake gaskets and upper intake manifolds were revised, correcting all these issues.

L36 SII Naturally Aspirated

 * 1996–2005 Buick LeSabre
 * 1995–2005 Buick Park Avenue
 * 1996–2004 Buick Regal LS
 * 1995–1997 Buick Riviera
 * 1995 California only, 1996–2002 Chevrolet Camaro
 * 2000–2005 Chevrolet Impala
 * 1998–1999 Chevrolet Lumina LTZ
 * 1999–2004 Chevrolet Omega CD
 * 1998–2005 Chevrolet Monte Carlo (Z34, LT, SS)
 * 1995–2004 Holden Commodore (VS, VT, VX, VY)
 * Holden Caprice (VS, WH, WK)
 * Holden Ute (VU, VY)
 * 1995–1996 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight
 * 1995–1999 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight
 * 1998–1999 Oldsmobile Intrigue
 * 1996–1998 Oldsmobile LSS
 * 1997–1998 Oldsmobile Regency
 * 1995–2005 Pontiac Bonneville
 * 1995 California only, 1996–2002 Pontiac Firebird
 * 1997–2003 Pontiac Grand Prix

L67 SII Supercharged
The L67 is the supercharged version of the 3800 Series II L36 and appeared in 1996, one year after the naturally aspirated version. It uses the Eaton Generation III M90 supercharger with a 3.8 in pulley, a larger throttle body, and different fuel injectors, different cylinder heads, as well as different lower intake manifold. The L67 and L36 do not share pistons. L67 pistons are heavier and have a different height to lower compression. Both engines share the same engine blocks, but compression is reduced from 9.4:1 in the L36 to 8.5:1 for the L67. GM listed the engine output as 240 hp and 280 lbft of torque. Final drive ratios are reduced in most applications, for better fuel economy and for improved use of the engine's torque in the low RPM range. Like most 3800 V6s, the engine is well known for its reliability and low maintenance costs. The engine is a popular choice for aftermarket modification thanks to its very strong internals and impressive power gains from basic upgrades. The engine was built in Flint, Michigan, and was certified LEV in 2001.

 * 1996 Buick Park Avenue Ultra (C-body)
 * 1997–2005 Buick Park Avenue Ultra (G-body)
 * 1997.5–2004 Buick Regal GS / GSE / GSX (SLP)
 * 1996–1999 Buick Riviera (optional 1996-97, std. 1998-99)
 * 2004–2005 Chevrolet Impala SS
 * 2004–2005 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS Supercharged
 * 1996–1999 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight LSS (limited)
 * 1996–1999 Pontiac Bonneville SSEi (H-body)
 * 2000–2003 Pontiac Bonneville SSEi (G-body)
 * 1997–2003 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP / GTX (SLP)
 * 1996–2004 Holden Commodore VS (series II), VT, VX, VY
 * 1996–2004 Holden Caprice and Statesman VS (Series I, II, and III), WH, WK
 * 2001–2004 Holden Monaro (V2) CV6

Series III
The Series III engines include many changes. The upper and lower intake manifold is now aluminum on the naturally aspirated models. Intake ports are mildy enlarged; 1.83 in intake valves (instead of 1.8 in as on Series II) and 1.52 in exhaust valves were introduced in 2003 engines, just before switching to Series III. Electronic throttle control is added to all versions, as is returnless fuel injection. Stronger powdered metal sinter forged connecting rods are used in 2004+ supercharged, and 2005+ naturally aspirated engines, instead of the cast iron style from Series II engines. Emissions are also reduced. In 2005, it was the first gasoline engine in the industry to attain SULEV (Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle) emissions certification.

Also note that Series III engines are the base for any 3800 produced for the 2004 year and up. This means the same block, heads, and connecting rods apply to any remaining Series II engines made after 2004 also. The difference is that Series III engines received the new superchargers (Generation 5 – Eaton M90 – if equipped), intake manifolds, fuel systems, powdered connecting rods, as well as larger intake valves, drive by wire throttle body and electronics.

L26 SIII Naturally Aspirated
The L26 is the Series III version of the 3800. It is still a 231 cuin design. Compression remains at 9.4:1 as with the L36, but the aluminum upper and lower intake (2004+) and stronger connecting rods (2005+) are the primary physical changes. The powdered metal connecting rods were meant to be introduced in 2004 along with the L32, but the GM plant in Bay City, Michigan that supplies the Flint, Michigan plant could not achieve the desired production dates in time for that engine year.

 * 2004–2008 Pontiac Grand Prix
 * 2005–2009 Buick LaCrosse/Allure
 * 2006–2008 Buick Lucerne

L32 SIII Supercharged
The L32 is a supercharged Series III. Introduced in 2004, the main differences between the L67 and the L32 are the L32's electronic throttle control, slightly improved cylinder head design, and updated Eaton supercharger, the Generation 5 M90. Power output is up to 260 hp in the Grand Prix GTP.

As with the L67, premium fuel (91 octane or higher) is required, but the PCM can compensate for lower octane fuel at the cost of lower power output. The use of below 87 octane fuel can cause detonation that eventually leads to engine damage and failure.

 * 2004–2005 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
 * 2006–2007 Pontiac Grand Prix GT

title: Buick V6 engine


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United States Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame

The United States Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame is an honor roll of the top American Olympic and Paralympic athletes headquartered at the United States Olympic & Paralympic Museum, opened in April 2020 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The Hall of Fame was established by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee in 1979; the first members were inducted in 1983. Between 1992 and 2003, the Hall of Fame went dormant, with no induction of new members. In 2004, the honor was revived, and continued in 2005 when the Class of 2006 was selected.

The current process for selecting inductees is two-staged. Fifteen finalists are selected by a nominating committee consisting of athletes, members of the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, historians and USOC representatives. The inductees were then selected based on online voting at www.usolympicteam.com, with a requirement to select five individual athletes, one team, one Paralympian and one coach. When the inductees are announced, a veteran and a "special contributor" are also included.

As of 2022, total membership has been brought to 119 Olympians and Paralympians, 11 teams, five coaches, 10 veterans, 19 contributors and two Olive Branch award inductees.

Inducted as individuals

 * Tenley Albright (figure skating)
 * Cassius Clay (boxing)
 * Evelyn Ashford (track & field)
 * Shirley Babashoff (swimming)
 * Bruce Baumgartner (wrestling)
 * Bob Beamon (track & field)
 * Joan Benoit (track & field)
 * Matt Biondi (swimming)
 * Bonnie Blair (speed skating)
 * Brian Boitano (figure skating)
 * Ralph Boston (track & field)
 * Dick Button (figure skating)
 * Candace Cable (Para alpine skiing, Para Nordic skiing, Para track and field)
 * Lee Calhoun (track & field)
 * Milt Campbell (track & field)
 * John Carlos (track & field)
 * Connie Carpenter-Phinney (cycling, speed skating)
 * Tracy Caulkins (swimming)
 * Alice Coachman (Track & Field)
 * James Brendan Connolly (track & field)
 * Bart Conner (gymnastics)
 * Natalie Coughlin (swimming)
 * Charles Daniels (swimming)
 * Willie Davenport (track & field)
 * Glenn Davis (track & field)
 * John Davis (weight lifting)
 * Muffy Davis (Para alpine skiing and Para-cycling)
 * Oscar de La Hoya (boxing)
 * Donna de Varona (swimming)
 * Gail Devers (track & field)
 * Babe Didrikson (track & field)
 * Harrison Dillard (track & field)
 * Jean Driscoll (Para track & field)
 * Eddie Eagan (bobsledding, boxing)
 * Teresa Edwards (basketball)
 * Janet Evans (swimming)
 * Lee Evans (track & field)
 * Ray Ewry (track & field)
 * Lisa Fernandez (softball)
 * Peggy Fleming (figure skating)
 * George Foreman (boxing)
 * Dick Fosbury (track & field)
 * Gretchen Fraser (alpine skiing)
 * Joe Frazier (boxing)
 * Dan Gable (wrestling)
 * Rowdy Gaines (swimming)
 * Diana Golden Brosnihan (Paralympic skiing)
 * Florence Griffith-Joyner (track & field)
 * Gary Hall, Jr. (swimming)
 * Dorothy Hamill (figure skating)
 * Scott Hamilton (figure skating)
 * Mia Hamm (soccer)
 * Bob Hayes (track & field)
 * Eric Heiden (speed skating)
 * Dan Jansen (speed skating)
 * Carol Heiss Jenkins (figure skating)
 * Bruce Jenner (track & field)
 * Michael Johnson (track & field)
 * Rafer Johnson (track & field)
 * Jackie Joyner-Kersee (track & field)
 * Duke Kahanamoku (swimming)
 * John B. Kelly Sr. (rowing)
 * David Kiley (Para alpine skiing, Para track and field, and wheelchair basketball)
 * Micki King (diving)
 * Roger Kingdom (track and field)
 * Karch Kiraly (volleyball)
 * Tommy Kono (weight lifting)
 * Alvin Kraenzlein (track & field)
 * Michelle Kwan (figure skating)
 * Sammy Lee (diving)
 * Sugar Ray Leonard (boxing)
 * Lisa Leslie (basketball)
 * Carl Lewis (track & field)
 * Kristine Lilly (soccer)
 * Nastia Liukin (gymnastics)
 * Greg Louganis (diving)
 * Helene Madison (swimming)
 * Phil Mahre (alpine skiing)
 * Bob Mathias (track & field)
 * Misty May-Treanor (beach volleyball)
 * Pat McCormick (diving)
 * Andrea Mead Lawrence (alpine skiing)
 * Mary T. Meagher (swimming)
 * Debbie Meyer (swimming)
 * Shannon Miller (gymnastics)
 * Billy Mills (track & field)
 * John Morgan (Paralympic swimming)
 * Bobby Morrow (track & field)
 * Edwin Moses (track & field)
 * John Naber (swimming)
 * Dan O'Brien (track & field)
 * Parry O'Brien (track & field)
 * Al Oerter (track & field)
 * Apolo Anton Ohno (short track speed skating)
 * Jesse Owens (track & field)
 * Charley Paddock (track & field)
 * Floyd Patterson (boxing)
 * Michael Phelps (swimming)
 * J. Michael Plumb (equestrian)
 * Erin Popovich (Para swimming)
 * Mary Lou Retton (gymnastics)
 * Bob Richards (track & field)
 * David Robinson (basketball)
 * Wilma Rudolph (track & field)
 * Don Schollander (swimming)
 * Jack Shea (speed skating)
 * Mel Sheppard (track & field)
 * Frank Shorter (track & field)
 * Tommie Smith (track & field)
 * Randy Snow (Paralympic basketball, tennis, track & field)
 * Mark Spitz (swimming)
 * Picabo Street (alpine skiing)
 * Jenny Thompson (swimming)
 * Jim Thorpe (track & Field)
 * Bill Toomey (track & Field)
 * Dara Torres (swimming)
 * Wyomia Tyus (track & field)
 * Amy Van Dyken (swimming)
 * Peter Vidmar (gymnastics)
 * Lindsey Vonn (alpine skiing)
 * Chris Waddell (Para alpine skiing, Para track & field)
 * Johnny Weissmuller (swimming)
 * Willye White (track & field)
 * Mal Whitfield (track & field)
 * Lones Wigger (shooting)
 * Sarah Will (Paralympic alpine skiing)
 * Frank Wykoff (track & field)
 * Kristi Yamaguchi (figure skating)
 * Trischa Zorn-Hudson (Para swimming)

Inducted as teams

 * 1956 Men's Basketball team
 * 1960 Ice Hockey team
 * 1960 Men's Basketball team
 * 1964 Men's Basketball team
 * 1976 Women's 4×100 Freestyle Relay Swimming team
 * 1980 Ice Hockey team
 * 1984 Men's Gymnastics team
 * 1992 Men's Basketball team
 * 1996 Women's Gymnastics team (Magnificent Seven)
 * 1996 Women's Soccer team
 * 1998 Women's Ice Hockey team
 * 2002 Paralympic Sled Hockey team
 * 2004 Women's Softball team

Inducted as coaches

 * Herb Brooks (ice hockey)
 * Carlo Fassi (figure skating)
 * Abie Grossfeld (gymnastics)
 * Ron O'Brien (diving)
 * Pat Summitt (basketball)
 * Ed Temple (track & field)

Inducted as contributors

 * Roone Arledge
 * Avery Brundage
 * Asa Smith Bushnell III
 * Dick Ebersol
 * Bud Greenspan
 * Col. Don Hull
 * Hank Iba
 * Robert Kane
 * John B. Kelly Jr.
 * Frank Marshall
 * Jim McKay
 * Billie Jean King
 * F. Don Miller
 * Tim Nugent (special contributor)
 * William Simon
 * Ted Stevens
 * Peter Ueberroth
 * LeRoy Walker

Olive Branch Award

 * James L. Easton
 * Kevan Gosper


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Merychippus

Merychippus is an extinct proto-horse of the family Equidae that was endemic to North America during the Miocene, 15.97–5.33 million years ago. It had three toes on each foot and is the first horse known to have grazed.

Discovery and naming
Merychippus was named by Joseph Leidy (1856). Numerous authors assigned the type species – Merychippus insignis –  to Protohippus, but this is ignored. It was assigned to the Equidae by Leidy (1856) and Carroll (1988), and to the Equinae by MacFadden (1998) and Bravo-Cuevas and Ferrusquía-Villafranca (2006). Its name means "ruminant horse", but current evidence does not support Merychippus ruminating.

Description
Merychippus lived in groups. It was about 100 cm tall and at the time it was the tallest equine to have existed. Its muzzle was longer, deeper jaw, and eyes wider apart than any other horse-like animal to date. The brain was also much larger, making it smarter and more agile. Merychippus was the first equine to have the distinctive head shape of today's horses.

The Miocene was a time of drastic change in environment, with woodlands transforming into grass plains. This led to evolutionary changes in the hooves and teeth of equids. A change in surface from soft, uneven mud to hard grasslands meant there was less need for increased surface area. The foot was fully supported by ligaments, and the middle toe developed into a hoof that did not have a pad on the bottom. In some Merychippus species, the side toes were larger, whereas in others, they had become smaller and only touched the ground when running. The transformation into plains also meant Merychippus began consuming more phytolith rich plants. This led to the presence of hypsodont teeth. Such teeth range from medium to intense crown height, are curved, covered in large amounts of cement, and are characteristic of grazing animals

Equid size also increased, with Merychippus ranging, on average, between 71 and 100.6 kg.

Classification
By the end of the Miocene era, Merychippus was one of the first quick grazers. It gave rise to at least 19 different species of grazers, which can be categorized into three major groups. This burst of diversification, termed an adaptive radiation, is often known as the "Merychippine radiation".

The first was a series of three-toed grazers known as hipparions. These were very successful and split into four genera and at least 16 species, including small and large grazers and browsers with large and elaborate facial fossae. The second was a group of smaller horses, known as protohippines, which included Protohippus and Calippus. The last was a line of "true equines" in which the side toes were smaller than those of other proto-horses. In later genera, these were lost altogether as a result of the development of side ligaments that helped stabilize the middle toe during running.

title: Merychippus


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title: User talk:81.83.33.201


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Sony BMG

Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout of the remaining 50% held by Bertelsmann. BMG was instead rebuilt as BMG Rights Management on the basis of 200 remaining artists.

History
Sony BMG Music Entertainment began as the result of a merger between Sony Music (part of Sony) and Bertelsmann Music Group (part of Bertelsmann) completed on August 6, 2004. It was one of the Big Four music companies and includes ownership and distribution of recording labels such as Arista Records, Columbia Records, Epic Records, J Records, Mchenry Records, Jive Records, RCA Victor Records, RCA Records, Legacy Recordings, Sonic Wave America and others. The merger affected all Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group companies worldwide except for Japan, where it was felt that it would reduce competition in that country's music industry significantly.

Financial analysts covering the merger anticipated that up to 2,000 jobs would be cut as a result, saving Sony BMG approximately $350 million annually.

The company's chief executive officer (CEO) was Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, who succeeded Andrew Lack on February 10, 2006. In the first half of 2005, the company's share of new releases in the United States (US) declined from 33% to 26% according to Nielsen SoundScan. This, and Lack's negotiation of what some called an "ill-conceived" deal with Bruce Springsteen led to Bertelsmann informing Sony that it would not renew Lack's contract.

The company signed a content deal with the popular video sharing community YouTube.

On August 5, 2008, Sony Corporation agreed to buy Bertelsmann AG's 50 percent stake in the music company for $1.2 billion to get full control. The music company was renamed Sony Music Entertainment and became a unit of Sony Corporation of America. This allowed Sony the rights to artists on the current and historic BMG roster and allowed Sony Corporation to better integrate its functions with its PlayStation 3 and upcoming new media initiatives. As part of the buyout, Bertelsmann kept the rights to master recordings by 200 artists, which formed the basis for a second version of BMG.

Sony and Bertelsmann last teamed up in 2013, in a failed bid to acquire Parlophone from Universal Music Group. BMG would administer the label's back catalogue, while its current artists would sign with Sony. While Sony BMG failed to win Parlophone (which ultimately went to Warner Music Group), BMG acquired Mute Records' back catalogue and licensed Depeche Mode and the catalogue of The Echo Label to Sony.

Controversies
Epic Records, one of their labels, was specifically cited for using fake contests in order to hide the fact that the gifts were going to disc jockeys rather than listeners.

Rootkit scandal
On 31 October 2005, a scandal erupted over digital rights management (DRM) software produced and shipped by Sony BMG that automatically installed itself on people's computers and made them more vulnerable to computer viruses. The scandal and attendant controversy about the practice of software auto-installation spawned several lawsuits. Sony BMG eventually recalled all of the affected CDs.

On November 16, 2005, US-CERT, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, part of the United States Department of Homeland Security, issued an advisory on Extended Copy Protection DRM, citing the XCP use of rootkit technology to hide certain files from the computer user as a security threat to computer users, saying that a Sony-provided uninstallation option also introduced computer system vulnerabilities.

US-CERT advised, "Do not install software from sources that you do not expect to contain software, such as an audio CD." In its "Top Flops of '05" issue, the enterprise newsweekly eWeek had to create a new category for the "Sony BMG root-kit fiasco." Peter Coffee of eWeek Labs reported, "The Sony brand name was already in trouble—it lost 16 percent of its value between 2004 and 2005....

Now it has taken a blow among tech-product opinion leaders. "We've never done it before, and we hope we'll never have [an] occasion to do it again but, for 2005, eWeek Labs awards a Stupid Tech Trick grand prize to Sony." eWeek Vol. 22, No.50

Kazaa file-sharing lawsuit
In October 2007, Sony BMG, alongside other large music firms, successfully sued Jammie Thomas for making 24 songs available for download on the Kazaa file-sharing network. Thomas, who made US$36,000 a year, was ordered to pay US$222,000 in damages. Thomas had allegedly shared 1702 files in total; the court upholding the award called it an "aggravated case of willful infringement".

Children's online privacy violations
In 2008, the Federal Trade Commission sued Sony BMG for collecting and displaying personal data of 30,000 minors without parental consent via its websites since 2004, violating the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Sony did not restrict minor children's participation in its websites. Sony paid a $1 million fine.

title: Sony BMG


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Feral cat

A feral cat or a stray cat is an unowned domestic cat (Felis catus) that lives outdoors and avoids human contact; it does not allow itself to be handled or touched, and usually remains hidden from humans. Feral cats may breed over dozens of generations and become an aggressive local apex predator in urban, savannah and bushland environments. Some feral cats may become more comfortable with people who regularly feed them, but even with long-term attempts at socialization, they usually remain aloof and are most active after dusk. Of the 700 million cats in the world, an estimated 480 million are feral.

Feral cats are devastating to wildlife, and conservation biologists consider them to be one of the worst invasive species on Earth. Attempts to control feral cat populations are widespread but generally of greatest impact within purpose-fenced reserves.

Some animal rights groups advocate trap-neuter-return programs to prevent the feral cats from continuing to breed. Scientific evidence has demonstrated that TNR is not effective at controlling feral cat populations.

Definitions

The meaning of the term feral cat varies between professions and countries, and is sometimes used interchangeably with other terms such as free-roaming, street, alley, or community cat. Some of these terms are also used to refer to stray cats, although stray and feral cats are generally considered to be different by rescuers, veterinarians, and researchers. The lines between stray and feral cat are diffuse. The general idea is that owned cats that wander away from their homes may become stray cats, and stray cats that have lived in the wild for some time may become feral.

Activists who seek to normalize feral cats in the environment are attempting to rebrand feral cats as community cats. Biologists say that this new term is euphemistic and distracts from feral cats being an environmental problem, and that it has connotations that falsely imply that feral cats exist with the consent of the communities where they live, and that the public has a moral obligation to support them in the outdoors. Studies have shown that the public does not support there being large numbers of free ranging cats in the outdoors, but that the use of language in surveys appears to influence the levels of support for different management options.

United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, a feral cat is defined as a cat that chooses not to interact with humans, survives with or without human assistance, and hides or defends itself when trapped rather than allowing itself to be handled. Animal rescuers and veterinarians consider cats to be feral when they had not had much human contact particularly before eight weeks of age, avoid humans, and prefer to escape rather than attack a human. Feral cats are distinguished from domesticated cats based on their levels of socialization, ownership, and confinement, and on the amount of fear of, interaction with, and dependence upon humans. However, veterinarians and rescuers disagreed on whether a feral cat would tend to hiss and spit at or attack a human during an encounter, and disagreed on whether adult feral cats could potentially be tamed.

Italy
In Italy, feral cats have been protected since 1991, and it is illegal to kill them. In Rome, they are surgically neutered by veterinarians of the Veterinary Public Services. Programs for sterilization of stray cats are also implemented in the Padua and Venice Provinces.

United States
A survey of rescue and veterinary facilities in the United States revealed that no widely accepted definition of a feral cat exists. Many facilities used waiting periods to evaluate whether a cat was feral by observing whether the cat became less afraid and evasive over time. Other indicators included the cat's response to touch with an inanimate object, and observation of the cats' social behavior in varying environments such as response to human contact, with a human nearby, or when moved to a quieter environment.

Australia
The Australian government categorizes cats who have no interaction with or assistance from humans as feral, and unowned cats who rely on humans as semi-feral or stray. However, even these so-called 'managed colonies' often have a devastating impact on wildlife as demonstrated in the decimation of native mammals in adjacent reserves, such as occurred with numbats and woylies in Western Australia.

Farm cat
A farm cat is a free-ranging domestic cat that lives in a cat colony on agricultural farms in a feral or semi-feral condition. Farm cats primarily live outdoors and usually shelter in barns. They are partially supplied with food and milk, but mainly subsist on hunting rodents such as black rat, brown rat, common vole and Apodemus species. In England, farm cat colonies are present on the majority of farms and consist of up to 30 cats. Female farm cats show allomothering behaviour; they use communal nests and take care of kittens of other colony members.

Some animal rescue organizations maintain Barn Cat Programs and rehome neutered feral cats to people who are looking for barn cats.

Ship's cat
Domestic cats have been members of ship crews since the beginning of commercial navigation. Phoenician and Etruscan traders probably carried cats on board their trading vessels to Italy and the Mediterranean islands.

History
Cats in ancient Egypt were venerated for killing rodents and venomous snakes. The need to keep rodents from consuming or contaminating grain crops stored for later human consumption may be the original reason that cats were domesticated. The spread of cats throughout much of the world is thought to have originated in Egypt. Scientists do not agree on whether cats were domesticated in Ancient Egypt or introduced there after domestication. Phoenician traders brought them to Europe for control of rat populations, and monks brought them further into Asia. Roman armies also contributed spreading cats and eventually brought them to Britain. Since then, cats continued to be introduced to new countries, often by sailors or settlers. Cats are thought to have been introduced to Australia in either the 1600s by Dutch shipwrecks, or the late 1700s by English settlers. These domesticated cats began to form feral populations after their offspring began living away from human contact.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, several cat specimens were described as wildcat subspecies that are considered feral cat populations today:
 * Felis silvestris sarda, proposed by Fernand Lataste in 1885, was a skin and a skull of a male cat from Sarrabus in Sardinia that looked like an African wildcat (Felis lybica), but was more reddish, gray and brown and had longer hair on the back. In the 1980s, Colin Groves assessed values of Schauenberg's index of cat skulls of zoological specimens that originated in the Mediterranean islands. Based on these values, he concluded that Sardinian wildcats are descendants of African wildcats that were introduced from North Africa's Maghreb region. Results of zooarchaeological research indicate that Sardinian wildcats descended from domestic cats that were introduced during the Roman Empire, and probably originated in the Near East.
 * Felis reyi, proposed by Louis Lavauden in 1929, was a skin and a skull of a specimen from Biguglia in Corsica that was smaller and darker than the European wildcat (Felis silvestris), had a much shorter tail than the African wildcat, and differed in fur colour and markings from both. When Reginald Innes Pocock reviewed Felis skins in the collection of the Natural History Museum, London, he considered Felis reyi a synonym of Felis lybica sarda, the Sardinian wild cat. The Corsican wildcat is considered to have been introduced in the early first millennium. The earliest known fossil records of cats date to the early 14th century, but older chronostratigraphic layers revealed fossils of livestock introduced since the Iron Age.
 * Felis lybica jordansi, proposed by Ernst Schwarz in 1930, was a skull and skin of a male specimen from Santa Margarita in Mallorca that had more pronounced stripes than the African wildcat. This is also considered to have descended from domestic cats introduced to the island.
 * Felis silvestris cretensis, proposed by Theodor Haltenorth in 1953, was a cat skin purchased in a bazaar in Chania that resembled an African wildcat, but had a bushy tail like a European wildcat. Groves considered the Cretan wildcat an introduced feral cat.

Distribution and habitat
The feral cat is the most widely distributed terrestrial carnivore. It occurs between 55° North and 54.3° South latitudes in a wide range of climatic zones and islands in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, and the Mediterranean Sea, including Canary Islands, Port-Cros, Dassen Island, Marion Island, Juan de Nova Island, Réunion, Hahajima, Okinawa Island, Raoul Island, Herekopare Island, Stewart Island, Macquarie Island, Galápagos Islands, San Clemente Island, Isla Natividad, San José Island, and New Island. Feral cat colonies also occur on the Japanese islands of Ainoshima, Hahajima and Aoshima, Ehime. The feral cat population on the Hawaiian Islands is mainly of European origin and probably arrived in the 19th century on ships.

Feral cat colonies in Rome have been monitored since 1991. Urban feral cats were studied in Madrid, Jerusalem and Ottawa.

Behavior and ecology
Some behaviors of feral cats are commonly observed, although there is disagreement among veterinarians, rescuers and researchers on the prevalence of some. In a free-roaming environment, feral cats avoid humans. They do not allow themselves to be handled or touched by humans, and back away or run when they are able to do so. If trapped, they hiss, growl, bare their teeth, or strike out. They remain fairly hidden from humans and will not approach, although some feral cats gradually become more comfortable around humans who feed them regularly.

Most feral cats have small home ranges, although some are more transient and travel long distances. The home ranges of male feral cats, which are generally two or three times larger than those of female cats, are on average under 10 ha, but can vary from almost 300 ha to under 1 ha. This variance is often due to breeding season, access to females, whether the cat is neutered, age, time of day, and availability of prey.

Feral cats depend on the presence of human settlement to subsist. Colonies and stray feral cats will settle in urban, suburban, and rural developments like cities and farms, wherever they can find easy access to food or prey animals. Few to no feral cats are found significantly distant from human settlements. While feral cats prey on other small mammals and reptiles, their home ranges don't change to reflect the seasonal availability of prey animals. This indicates that feral cats have a fairly consistent home range, and migration is more representative of mate availability, consistency in human-related food sources, or other less transient stimuli.

Colonies
Feral cats often live in groups called colonies, which are located close to food sources and shelter. Researchers disagree on the existence, extent, and structure of dominance hierarchies among feral cats in colonies. Different types of hierarchies have been observed in colonies, including despotic and linear hierarchies. Some colonies are organized in more complex structures, such as relative hierarchies, where social status of individual cats varies with location, time of day, or the activity the cats are engaged in, particularly feeding and mating.

A 'managed colony' is taken care of by humans who supply food and water to the cats, provide shelters and veterinary care, implement trap-neuter-return programs, find foster homes for cats that can be socialized for eventual adoption, and educate people in the neighborhood.

Feral cats are known to move from colony to colony when home ranges overlap. Additionally, colony populations fluctuate as cats leave family homes and some feral and semi-feral cats get socialized to home life and become family pets.

Socialization
Feral kittens can be trapped and socialized, then adopted into a home. The age at which a kitten becomes difficult to socialize is not agreed upon, but suggestions generally range from seven weeks to four months of age. Although older cats can sometimes be socialized, it is a very long and difficult process, and the cat rarely becomes friendly and may remain fearful.

In a 2013 study with British participants, rescuers tended to be more willing than veterinarians to attempt to tame adult feral cats. Veterinarians tended to be more opposed to this practice, with some expressing concerns for the welfare of such a cat in a home environment. In a 2010 interview survey with veterinarians and rescuers in the United States, 66% of respondents had socialization programs for kittens, and 8% for adult cats.

In Parañaque, Philippines, netizens lauded the building of wooden cattery, "Cat Homes" for "Puspin" (Pusang Pinoy) or stray cats.

Diet

Feral cats are either mesopredators (mid-ranking predators) or apex predators (top predators) in local ecosystems. They prey on a wide variety of both vertebrates and invertebrates, and typically prefer smaller animals with body weights under 100 g, particularly mammals, birds, and lizards. Their global prey spectrum encompasses over 1,000 species; the most commonly observed were the house mouse, European rabbit, black rat, house sparrow, and common blackbird. In Australia, they prey on introduced species like the European rabbit and house mouse, and on native rodents and marsupials, particularly the common ringtail possum.

In the United States some people advocate for feral cats as a means to control pigeons and invasive rodents like the house mouse and brown rat, although these cosmopolitan species co-evolved with cats in human-disturbed environments and so have an advantage over native rodents in evading cat predation. Studies in California showed that 67% of the mice killed by cats were native species, and that areas near feral cat colonies actually have larger house mouse populations, but fewer birds and native rodents.

Though cats usually prey on animals less than half their size, a feral cat in Australia was photographed killing an adult pademelon of around the cat's weight at 4 kg.

African feral cats have been observed directly pilfering milk from the elephant seal's teat.

Predators
Feral cats are prey of feral dogs, dingoes, coyotes, caracals and birds of prey.

Without human assistance
Adult feral cats without human assistance have been found in surprisingly good condition. In Florida, a study of feral cats admitted to a trap-neuter-return (TNR) program concluded that "euthanasia for debilitated cats for humane reasons is rarely necessary". A further study of over 100,000 feral and stray cats admitted to TNR programs in diverse locations of the U.S. resulted in the same 0.4% rate of euthanasia for debilitating conditions. The body condition of feral cats entering a TNR program in Florida was described as "generally lean but not emaciated". However, many feral cats had suffered from parasites such as fleas and ear mites before entering TNR programs.

With human assistance
Feral cats in managed colonies can live long lives. A number of cats in managed colonies in the United Kingdom died of old age.

A long-term study of a trap-neuter-return (TNR) program on a university campus in Central Florida found that, despite widespread concern about the welfare of free-roaming cats, 83% of the cats studied had been present for more than six years, with almost half first observed as adults of unknown age. The authors compared this result to a 1984 study that found the mean life span for domesticated cats was 7.1 years.

Types
Feral cats, like all cats, are susceptible to diseases and infections including rabies, bartonellosis, toxoplasmosis, feline panleukopenia virus, external and internal parasites, feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), feline leukemia virus (FeLV), rickettsial diseases, ringworm, and feline respiratory disease complex (a group of respiratory illnesses including feline herpesvirus type 1, feline calicivirus, Chlamydophila felis, and Mycoplasma haemofelis).

Feline leukemia virus and feline immunodeficiency virus belong to the Retroviridae family, and both cause immunosuppression in cats, which can increase their susceptibility to other infections. Research has shown that the prevalence of these viruses among feral cat populations is low and is similar to prevalence rates for owned cats in the United States.

Researchers studying 553 feral cats in North Florida in the United States tested them for a number of infections that could be detrimental to feline or human health. The study found the most prevalent infection to be Bartonella henselae, the cause of cat-scratch disease in humans, with 33.6% of the cats testing positive. Feline coronavirus was the next most common infection, found in 18.3% of the cats, although they noted that the antibody levels were low in most of the cats who tested positive, and concluded that the cats they tested did not appear to be a greater risk for shedding the virus than pet cats. Researchers studying 96 feral cats on Prince Edward Island in Canada found that feline roundworm was the most common infection in cats in that colony, afflicting 34% of cats. This was followed by Toxoplasma gondii, which was detected in 29.8% of cats, although only one cat of the 78 for whom fecal samples were available was shedding T. gondii oocysts. They did note that most fecal samples collected indicated the presence of one intestinal parasite, with some samples indicating the presence of multiple parasites.

Transmission to humans
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has warned about the rabies risk associated with feral cats. With 16% of people infected with rabies from exposure to rabid cats, cats have been the primary animals responsible for transmission of the virus to humans in the United States since the efforts to control rabies in dogs in the 1970s. In 2010, there were 303 rabid cats reported within the United States. Although some colony management programs involve administering rabies vaccines, the need to revaccinate every few years makes this challenging to maintain. Furthermore, lack of documentation can mean that contact with vaccinated feral cats may still require post-exposure treatment.

The study of feral cats on Prince Edward Island warned of "considerable zoonotic risk" for transmission of intestinal parasites. Although the authors noted that their study did not provide evidence for great risk associated with T. gondii in cats, they advised that the risk should still be considered, as the infection in humans can cause significant health problems, and cats who are not otherwise transmitting the infection can begin shedding the parasite in times of stress.

Control and management
Feral cats are controlled or managed by various agencies to manage disease, for the protection of native wildlife and to protect their welfare. Control of feral cats can be managed through trapping and euthanasia or other forms of lethal control, or, some claim, through trap-neuter-return (TNR). Scientific research has not found TNR to be an effective means of controlling the feral cat population. Literature reviews have found that, in the instances where studies documented TNR colonies that declined in population, those declines were being driven primarily by substantial percentages of colony cats being permanently removed from colonies by some combination of re-homing and euthanasia on an ongoing basis. TNR colonies often increase in population because cats breed quickly and the trapping and sterilization rates are frequently too low to stop this population growth, because food is usually being provided to the cats, and because public awareness of a TNR colony tends to encourage people in the surrounding community to dump their own unwanted pet cats there. The growing popularity of TNR, even near areas of particular ecological sensitivity, has been attributed in part to the failure of scientists to communicate the environmental harm caused by feral cats to the public, and their unwillingness to engage with TNR advocates.

Trap-neuter-return involves trapping feral cats, vaccinating, spaying or neutering them, and then returning them to the place where there were originally trapped. TNR programs are prevalent in several countries, including England, Italy, Canada, and the United States, and are supported by many local and state governments. Proponents of TNR argue that it is effective in stopping reproduction and reducing the population over time. TNR results in fewer complaints, as nuisance behaviors diminish following neutering, and the quality of life of the cats is improved. The practice is reported to save money and garner more public support and better morale than efforts that involve killing cats. TNR is popular, but there's little evidence that TNR by itself can control the growing population of free roaming cats.

The International Companion Animal Management Coalition advocates for TNR as a humane method of controlling feral cat populations. In the U.S., the practice is endorsed by the Humane Society of the United States. and the National Animal Control Association, TNR is opposed by the Australian Veterinary Association, the National Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians, the Wildlife Society, the American Bird Conservancy, and PETA. Some U.S. military bases have TNR programs, but the United States Navy prohibits such programs on Navy land.

In the US, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), in 2016, adopted a resolution that "encourages collaborative efforts to identify humane and effective alternatives to the destruction of healthy cats for animal control purposes, while minimizing their negative impact on native wildlife and public health." The AVMA voiced support for "properly managed [feral cat] colonies" outside "wildlife-sensitive ecosystems" but stated that "[t]he goal of colony management should be continual reduction and eventual elimination of the colony through attrition." The AVMA stated that "free-roaming abandoned and feral cats that are not in properly managed colonies should be removed from their environment and treated in the same manner as other abandoned and stray animals in accordance with local and state ordinances" and that "[f]or colonies not achieving attrition and posing active threats to the area in which they are residing, the AVMA does not oppose the consideration of euthanasia when conducted by qualified personnel, using appropriate humane methods as described in the AVMA Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals.". According to estimates from the Humane Society of the United States, the population of feral cats in the US ranges from 50 to 70 million. In contrast, the number of pet cats in the US stands at approximately 76 million.

The effectiveness of both trap-and-euthanise and TNR programmes is largely dependent upon controlling immigration of cats into cleared or controlled areas; where immigration of new cats is controlled, both techniques can be effective. However where immigration is not controlled, culling is more effective. Comparisons of different techniques have also found that trap-and-euthanise programmes are half the cost of TNR ones. An analysis of both techniques in Hawaii suggested they are less effective when new cats were introduced by the abandonment of pets. The usefulness of TNR is disputed by some scientists and conservation specialists, who argue that TNR is only concerned with cat welfare and ignores the ongoing damage caused by feeding outdoor populations of neutered cats, including the depredation of wildlife, transmission of diseases, and the accumulation of cat faeces in the environment. Conservation scientists also question the effectiveness of TNR at controlling numbers of feral cats. Some studies that have supported TNR have also been criticised for using anecdotal data to evaluate their effectiveness.

In order for TNR to reduce the cat population, sterilisation rates of at least 75% must be maintained at all times, particularly because TNR practitioners providing cats with food makes the problem worse by increasing the survival rate of feral kittens. Also, this food source causes other cats to be drawn into the colony from outside. Members of the public often begin dumping unwanted pet cats at TNR sites, increasing the rate of recruitment. And neutered cats are less territorial, allowing for higher populations. TNR programs are sometimes able to attain local reductions in the numbers of cats at specific colony locations, but it has never been demonstrated to meaningfully impact cat populations over large areas or regions, because the effort necessary to maintain sufficient sterilisation rates means that systemic TNR will never be a credible option. For example, to reduce a typical Australian city's population of 700,000 feral cats through TNR would require sterilising at least 500,000 of them initially, and then continuing to sterilise more than 75% of the kittens that the other 200,000 would continue to produce each year indefinitely, along with all the new recruits from other cat populations drawn by the food supply.

TNR is backed by well-funded advocacy organizations: in 2010, Alley Cat Allies spent US$3 million advocating to legalise TNR throughout the United States, while the Best Friends Animal Society spent $11 million on a "Focus on Felines" initiative that included TNR advocacy. Promoters of TNR are often funded by big businesses with a commercial interest in selling cat food, such as pet food mills and the pet products retailer PetSmart. While TNR is a popular approach to resolving the over population problem, it is not a ubiquitously accepted method. Another perspective emphasizes the poor outdoor living conditions of feral cats, and advocates for rehoming, adoption, or euthanasia as a more ethical response. This perspective centers the pressure feral cats place on the ecosystem, which is alternative to the popular position that centers the value of each cat's life.

TNR and wildlife
De-sexing cats, as in TNR programs, does nothing to prevent them from continuing to destroy wildlife. In Mandurah, Western Australia, a single, neutered, semi-feral cat raided a protected fairy tern colony on at least six nights in November 2018. It killed at least six breeding adult fairy terns; directly or indirectly killed at least 40 nestlings, and caused enough stress on the fairy tern colony that all 111 nests were abandoned; resulting in a complete breeding failure for the entire colony of threatened seabirds. The predation was documented by wildlife cameras, as well as by the presence of cat tracks, cat scat, decapitated fairy terns, and injured and missing fairy tern nestlings. Though the colony was surrounded by ultrasound generators intended to deter cats, the fairy tern colony might have been an irresistible target, and this particular cat was white and had a blue eye, traits commonly associated with deafness.

Management in sensitive environments
In sensitive environments, such as delicate ecosystems that have been degraded by feral cats, population management can be quite difficult. On isolated Pacific islands, trapping and removing the feral population too quickly can have adverse effects including booms in rodent and small reptile populations previously checked by the feral cat population. This new dynamic may prove to be more harmful, with further upstream effects on the ecosystem that were not predicted before removal of the feral cat population. With such a sensitive system to account for, solutions for population control will likely differ from case to case, and especially in different ecosystems where feral cats are to be controlled.

Effects on wildlife
In the United States, free-ranging cats kill one to four billion birds and six to 22 billion mammals annually.

In Australia, domestic cats were introduced in the 1800s to settlements that had developed near gold mining sites and farms as a pest control strategy to decimate rabbits, mice, and rats. Feral cats kill on average one million reptiles each day. It has been estimated that they kill more than 800 million mammals annually, of which 56 percent are native species.

Impact on prey species

To date, little scientific data is available to assess the impact of cat predation on prey populations outside of agricultural situations. Even well-fed domestic cats may hunt and kill, mainly catching small mammals, but also birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates. Hunting by domestic cats may be contributing to the decline in the numbers of birds in urban areas, although the importance of this effect remains controversial. Feral cats can threaten native species with extinction. Controlling or eliminating the populations of the non-native cats can produce a rapid recovery in native animals.

Native species such as the New Zealand kākāpō and the Australian bettong tend to be more ecologically vulnerable and behaviorally "naive", when faced with predation by cats. Feral cats have had a major impact on these native species and have played a leading role in the endangerment and extinction of many species. In Hawaii's remote, mountainous areas, they destroy the nests of seabirds including Newell's shearwater (Puffinus newelli) and the Hawaiian petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis).

In agricultural settings, cats can be effective at keeping mouse and rat populations low, but only if rodent harborage locations (such as tall grass) are kept under control. While cats are effective at preventing rodent population explosions, they are not effective for eliminating pre-existing severe infestations. In systems where wildlife is threatened by both predation by rats and cats, there are concerns that controlling cats could increase predation by rats, due to rat populations increasing. For example, in Christmas Island, it was shown that decreasing cat populations would improve the growth rate of a threatened bird, as long as rats did not increase by more than 77 rats per cat removed.

Hybridisation with wildcats
Feral cats have interbred with wildcats to various extents throughout the world, the first reported case occurring more than 200 years ago. The significance of hybridisation is disputed. Modern genetic analysis revealed that the African wildcat is the ancestor of the domestic cat.

Pure Scottish wildcats are unlikely to exist, but the current wildcat population is distinct enough from domestic cats to be worth protecting. High levels of hybridisation have led to difficulties in distinguishing pure wildcats from feral and domestic cats, which can complicate conservation efforts. Trap-neuter-return programs have been established to prevent hybridisation.

Notable gene introgression into European wildcat populations exists also in Italy, Hungary, Spain and Portugal.

title: Feral cat


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Tom Wham

Tom Wham (born 1944) is a designer of board games who has also produced artwork, including that for his own games.

Early life and Guidon Games
Born in Chester, Illinois, Wham worked a variety of odd jobs during his early adult life. After serving four years in the U.S. Navy, he worked for the Guidon Games hobby shop in Maine where he got his first game, a variant on a Civil War naval miniatures campaign, published. One of Wham's books was published in the same series of "Wargaming with Miniatures" books from Guidon Games that began in 1971 with Chainmail. In 1972, Wham got a job with Don Lowry at Guidon Games, in the shipping/layout department of Campaign magazine; there, he co-authored a set of Civil War naval miniature rules, Ironclad. Afterwards he became a prison guard in his hometown, then held an office job in Denver.

TSR
In May 1977 he began working for TSR, Inc. at their Lake Geneva, Wisconsin headquarters as a general office worker, the company's 13th employee. After running the Dungeon Hobby Shop for a summer, he was moved upstairs to the company's art department. Wham worked with Dave Sutherland and Dave Trampier on the original Monster Manual. Wham began doing some creative work for the company, contributing a handful of illustrations for the original AD&D Monster Manual, including the creature called the beholder. Other work included co-editing (with Timothy Jones, Mike Carr, and Brian Blume) the first edition of Gamma World. He also made a deal with Tim Kask, editor of The Dragon, to do a game in the centerfold, called Snit Smashing; this led to other games in Dragon, including The Awful Green Things from Outer Space. These games, printed on cardstock and included in the centerfold of the magazine, usually featured artwork supplied by Wham.

Notable games published this way include:

 * Snit Smashing: Originally published in Dragon #10 (October 1977). In Wham's first game for Dragon, tiny creatures known as Snits run out from the sea and try to procreate while avoiding the giant blob-like Bolotomi, who smash the Snits out of boredom. Players alternate control between the Snits and the Bolotomus, attempting to make their own Snits reproduce faster than those of their opponent.
 * Snit's Revenge: Originally published in Dragon #11 (December 1977). In the more famous follow-up to Snit Smashing, the Snits set out to finally kill the elephantine Bolotomi who are smashing them, by invading their bodies and shutting down all their internal organs. This was published as a separate boardgame by TSR in 1978, and is now published by Steve Jackson Games.
 * The Awful Green Things from Outer Space: Originally published in Dragon #28 (August 1979). A game of green aliens invading a spaceship.  This too was eventually published as a separate game by TSR and later published by Steve Jackson Games as well.
 * Search for the Emperor's Treasure: Originally published in Dragon #51 (July 1981). Players take the roles of adventurers searching a fantasy empire for the emperor's scattered magical treasures.  A revised edition was included in a box set called "The Best of Dragon Games", 1990.
 * File 13: Originally published in Dragon #72 (April 1983). A game about designing board games. A second edition was reissued in "The Best of Dragon Games".
 * King of the Tabletop: Originally published in Dragon #77 (September 1983), this is a game in which people create their own kingdom from little cardboard chits representing land, characters, and events. Also expanded and published commercially as Kings and Things by West End Games, Games Workshop, and later, in a German edition, Pegasus Spiele.
 * Elefant Hunt: Originally published in Dragon #88 (August 1984). Great White Hunters travel through deepest, darkest "Aferca" with the help of natives to capture as many live animals and much ivory as they can to sell for profit.

After TSR
After TSR, Wham collaborated on books with Rose Estes, and did his own novelette in Christopher Stasheff's The Exotic Enchanter. More games followed, including Kings & Things (with Rob Kuntz), the SimCity card game, and Iron Dragon. Later efforts include a reprint of Snits and Awful Green Things from Outer Space from Steve Jackson Games, and Planet Busters by Troll Lord Games.

Wham designed the board game "King of the Tabletop" with Robert J. Kuntz, which was published in Dragon #77 (September 1983); the game was expanded and published separately as the Origins award-winner Kings & Things (1986) by West End Games.

Since leaving TSR, Wham has designed many more games, including collaborating with James M. Ward on the board game Dragon Lairds, published in April 2008, and Feudality published by Z-man Games Inc. in 2011.

title: Tom Wham


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