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Last Chance

Little Blue Macaw

Moving over to the Psittaciformes, our next bird is the little blue macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii). These small parrots were endemic to eastern Brazil.

You're likely very familiar with the little blue macaw: they were the inspiration for the animated film Rio, and have seen widespread fame on the internet due to news about them. These macaws are, as their name suggests, small and blue. They inhabited the Caatinga ecoregion of Brazil, an area defined by xeric scrub and thorny forests, and were particularly dependent on the Caraibeira tree. Seeds and nuts made up most of their diet, as is often the case with macaws. Breeding displays involve courtship feeding and paired flights, and nests are made in tree hollows.

Little blue macaws were infrequently sighted by colonial naturalists from their "discovery" in the 1830s up to 1987, when the last wild individual was seen. A mix of habitat destruction & degradation and the illegal pet trade are likely driving factors in their population decline. Famously, the little blue macaw made headlines in 2019 when it was officially declared "extinct in the wild" by the IUCN. Fortunately, captive breeding efforts kept the macaws alive, with a global population of 200. Two years ago, in June of 2022, the birds made headlines again when a flock was re-released into their native Caatinga habitat. With a wild population of around 50, hopefully the little blue macaw will establish a viable population such that they are extinct in the wild no longer.

#last chance #ornithologia fantastica

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1960’s era Fordite - Ford Motor Co., Detroit, Michigan

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MASSIVE NEWS FOR LINGUISTS: the sphinx of black quartz has just befriended the quick brown fox and the lazy dog.

#:D #pareidolia tag

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🪶🐣turkey vulture chicks🐣🪶

#birds #gif #gif set #vultures

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#he's wearing pants!! #spotted hyena

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#my post #pareidolia tag

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Trolling the Neighbors

"Stone dropping by Conomyrma bicolor (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): A new technique of interference" DOI:10.1007/s00040-022-00876-2

Ants are not often thrilled to have other ants as neighbors. They sometimes express distaste by locating their garbage pile on the nest entrance of unwanted ants next door. They may even collect debris for the singular purpose of plugging up the offending hole.

(Jordan Dean has recorded Camponotus consobrinus in Australia doing this, and it seems Dorymyrmex aka Conomyrma do it too. Here is a link to the time-stamp in his video about this interaction. This has also been documented in the lit by Hodobler in 1984 only he observed Camponotus consobrinus nests being blocked by Iridomyrmex pruinosus, or rainbow meat ants... implying multiple nest blocking interactions in multi-species communities of ants)

This behavior is called "stone dropping" or "soil dropping" in the lit. (Rather than "trolling") sometimes "nest-plugging"

See Also:

Nest-plugging: interference competition in desert ants (Novomessor cockerelh" and Pogonomyrmex barbatus) Deborah M. Gordon, Museum of Comparative Zoology and Society of Fellows, Harvard University

Tool use in pavement battles between ants: first report of Tetramorium immigrans (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) using soil-dropping as an interference strategy

Konkurrenzverhalten und Territorilat in Ameisenpopulationen. In: Eisner, Holldobler, Lindauer (1984) Information Processing in Animals vol 3. Fischer, New York, pp 25 70

#ants #hymenoptera

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Finally got a clear shot of noonoo carrying her spring, it's her favourite toy

#cats

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Wahoo

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Last Chace

Sihek

On another Pacific island, we have the sihek (Todiramphus cinnamominus), or Guam kingfisher . These vibrant birds were endemic to the island of Guåhan (Guam).

Sihek were average sized kingfishers with mostly cinnamon-yellow plumage, blue backs and wings, a black eye stripe, and a characteristic dagger-like beak. They inhabited the forests of their island home, where they preyed upon small vertebrates and large invertebrates from the ground. Like other kingfishers, sihek nest in tree cavities, often within arboreal termite nests. The indigenous Chamorro people incorporated these birds into their culture: their stories told of a woman who wore a blue dress, white apron, and orange handkerchief, who was a loudmouth troublemaker in her village, until an angry spirit turned her into the first sihek.

In the wake of WWII, the brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis) was introduced to Guåhan, stowing away in the cargo of imperialist military vehicles. Sihek were last seen in the wild in 1986, and were declared extinct in the wild in 1988. Fortunately, in 1983, a rescue project was created which brought 29 individuals into captivity, which have grown to a population of over 150 across 25 institutions. While efforts to eradicate brown tree snake on Guåhan are still underway, an experimental population of sihek was released on Palmyra Atoll on 4 April 2023, as a trial run for their eventual reintroduction in their homeland.

(Art by Jon Janosik)

#last chance #ornithologia fantastica

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Forest buffalo Syncerus nanus nanus

Observed by flint_jack, CC BY-NC

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“Noodle” 2006

#cats

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Wet Beast Wednesday

#happy wet beast wednesday :)

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I love baseball

#beekeeping #bees

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Velvet ant from Nicaragua. I feel like these photos don’t emphasize just how ridiculous her giant noggin is.

#velvet ants #wasps #hymenoptera #insects #bugs

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@renstrapp vs @gipki in the ultimate gf vs gf butch4butch showdown

📸wondra

#butch #lesbian