#herping while birding

[hocad-adventures]

American Bullfrog, Lithobates catesbeianus

This was taken a couple of summers ago at our favorite lake.  Many of the frogs at the water’s edge zoomed away as I approached, but this guy just stared at me, unimpressed.

#frogs #bullfrog #herping while birding

[is-the-snake-video-cute]

Well, um, it finally happened. I genuinely cannot believe that the first death threats I've gotten while running this blog have been over cladistics of all things! I just wanted to pop in, clarify my position, and say, uh, don't do that.

So, the nasty asks I got were concerned with how I defend the breaking of Squamata into three groups (lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenians). I cannot stress enough that I fall into the majority of herpetologists when I defend this. This is something that is taken for granted among herpetologists at large - we're not a monolith but that's just the state of herp academia right now. This isn't me "denying modern science," it's me using the terminology that my profession uses.

I personally find that this breakup is more useful than the "everything is lizards" model for a few key reasons. It's good for highlighting differences and commonalities between groups and it's good for teaching herpetology to newcomers. Most importantly, on a practical level, it's the easiest way to for us to discuss Squamata in our daily lives and it eastablishes a very clear terminology for academic writing in our field.

Are all squamates technically lizards? Sure, we can define the entire order as lizards if we wanted to. But I feel that's similar to defining birds as reptiles - it's technically accurate, but on a practical level for those of us working with living animals right now, it may be accurate but at the end of the day you're not going to ask me to know about birds and I'm not going to ask an ornithologist to know about snakes. There are just some differences that we need to account for.

When it comes to those of us who discuss evolution on a broad picture compared those of us who work with living animals as a profession, there's just going to be a difference in terminology sometimes. If we discuss evolution broadly, then yeah, I can see the usefulness in not dividing Squamata. But on a practical, small-scale level, dividing makes it easier for us to discuss these groups in the detail we need to. I cannot stress enough, again, that this is just the accepted terminology that professional herpetoligists use right now. Cladistics isn't something to get super worked up about, phylogeny is a tool that different academics can use in different ways to suit our professions, and not like an indicator of education quality or intelligence level or whatever.

Right, that out of the way...I know most of my readers are amazing and wonderful and I love you all, and I'm sure it was just one person I've already blocked sending nasty asks, but, like...don't do that. I don't know what kind of reactions asks like that are hoping for, but I'm just going to block senders and delete all of them, no exceptions.

Sorry for the buzzkill. Back to our regularly scheduled content.

#not a rating #blog update #not sure what to tag this if anyone needs a tw let me know

[thedisablednaturalist]

If you're worried that you don't know as much about nature as your peers and it's keeping you from interacting with other nature-lovers, please don't worry! I only got super into learning about natural science in 2019, about 4 years ago!

If you aren't enrolled in college/already finished it I recommend doing volunteer work at a botanical gardens, zoo, aquarium, or animal rehab if you have the time. Learn from people there. Join a birding group (or even volunteer to help with bird tagging). Even just using inaturalist to learn about the world around you can really help you learn more.

Bugs are super easy to get into bc they are everywhere and you can usually get real close to them. Also us bug people love sharing our knowledge with the world (check out the bugblr tag!). Bird people are notorious for this as well. Fish people are insane (jk...sorta) but will go absolutely wild to see a fish you caught. Same with herp (reptiles and amphibians) lovers. We have so much love in our hearts for these creatures and are usually overjoyed when others want to hear us blab on about them.

And for my peeps that can't really go outside (or don't have time to) there's a ton of YouTube channels full of passionate nature lovers. I started with Brave Wilderness and True Facts (feel free to rb with recommendations!) There are also podcasts too if you prefer those. I'm working on getting my act together and doing nature streams/videos myself.

While I was lucky enough to be trained by the Smithsonian, I got my start just interacting with the community, watching nature shows/videos, and using inaturalist. My college courses were mostly for people already knowledgeable about all that stuff so I was super intimidated especially going to the Smithsonian. But I know plenty of people in the natural sci field who didn't get to go to places like SCBI or even get a degree in environmental sci.

Now get out there! (If you can, if not it's metaphorical) 😄

#environmental science #biology #nature #bugblr #fishblr #birdblr #I know coyote has been criticized for his hands on approach #but i still think his videos really help capture the love and excitment for critters #that are really engaging and help get the public involved #wrenfea.txt

[bogsuckerecologist]

Remembering fondly the time we were out by a local pond for our wildlife field lab. Another student strolling by with a camera (journalism/art major maybe???) saw us IDing a watersnake our TA caught and immediately made a beeline to check it out. After we told him what we were doing, he just started following along with the group while we did some birding/herping, asking questions and taking photos and generally seeming very excited about the whole experience. Our professor and TA seemed to take this completely in stride at the time and answered all his questions happily. When he finally moved on our professor turned to us completely bemused and asked "who was that guy???" We did not have a single clue.

#hope he had a good time though and gained an interest in local wildlife :) #i speak

[proton-wobbler]

Semifinals, Poll 3

Purple Honeycreeper vs Bluethroat

sources under the cut

Purple Honeycreeper (Cyanerpes caeruleus)

Cyanerpes, from the Ancient Greek 'kuanos' meaning "dark-blue" and 'herpes' meaning "creeper"; caeruleus meaning "dark blue" in Latin

eBird sightings: 29,552; IUCN Redlist Rating: Least Concern

Feeding on nectar is how this honeycreeper developed its bill shape- the bromeliad flowers it prefers are also shaped in this way. These small birds forage together in groups and are described as bold and inquisitive. They will often respond to the sight and sound of predators by mobbing, a behavior where multiple 'prey' animals surround a predator and try to annoy it away from the location.

Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica)

Luscinia could be translated as "little-seen songster"; svecica meaning "Swedish", in reference to the more orange-hued Swedish flag of the 17th and 18th century.

eBird sightings: 109,758; IUCN Redlist Rating: Least Concern

Frequently discussed is this species sexual behaviors. While not unique in any way, they do show a high tendency for extra-pair copulations- when one or both members of a 'monogamous' mated pair breed with a different bird on the side. They've also been documented to be influenced by the effects of color bands on mate choice, especially blue and orange bands, likely because of their blue and orange breeding plumage.

Images: Honeycreeper (male & female - Mike Hudson); Bluethroat (male - Seth Beaudreault; female - Volker Hesse)

#aka: pretty boys throw down #hipster bird main bracket #polls #purple honeycreeper #bluethroat #passeriformes #I've been wanting to do pics of the males and females for all the birds #but some aren't dimporphic #and also that would have been sooo many birds lol

[fr-thrice]

every once in a while i look at the animals (familiars + food items) of Sornieth and wanna make an evolution tree. but idk how to best arrange it + i would go crazy deciding how different groups could hypothetically evolve. many species there possess qualities of several animals- are they a result of magical combination, or of a huge amount of convergent evolution?

for example irl, all mammals, herps, and birds are tetrapods possessing 2 pairs of limbs because they share an extremely ancient 4-legged ancestor. but many species of Sornieth (including dragons!) have 3 pairs of limbs- one pair of which is often wings, which are very complex! did 6-limbed and 4-limbed groups separate long ago, and nowadays we have many species that look like others while being as far apart as possible, or are a 3rd set of limbs somehow being introduced to separate animal groups (by the magic nuke or something)?

but anyway :3

#g postin #do i have to make a diagram to explain this

[thorniest-rose]

eddie being a guy who loves herping is one of my fav lil headcanons about him!! like he would stop what he’s doing to just fully dive into a pond cuz he saw a snapping turtle and he’s just gotta get a closer look at it. he would tell steve all about them, covered in mud and smelling like gross pond water while holding a turtle that is trying to bite his fingers off. steve would secretly find it very endearing <3

i could also see eddie being a reptile hobbyist, and steve being resigned to a life of having rats in his freezer

oh this is so cute!!!! I HC Eddie as being half-wild anyway from a childhood where he was outside all the time and left unattended by his parents, so he was always in the woods exploring and looking at animals and birds and developing his own language for things, so by the time he goes to live with Wayne he's half-feral and has to be socialised and domesticated, and even years later he still has a vein of wild running through him. 

So yes to him being fascinated by reptiles and amphibians! He'd probably find their physiology really interesting and would get books out the library and never return them because he rips his favourite pages out and then gets banned. And when Eddie and Steve start dating, Steve sees the reptiles that Eddie keeps and he's like "... can we not have a cat or maybe a cute fluffy dog?" but he humours Eddie because he loves him and doesn't want to change him. Also he sees the way he so delicately will cradle a tiny frog or mouse in his hands, not wanting to hurt it, and the gentleness of it makes him so tender, and he just wants Eddie to put it down already so he can cuddle him.

#asks #steddie #i had to google herping because im a dummy

[pkmnherpetology]

Can you give me a well written thesis on sviper?

And it's diet? I'm bored and this says it's a herp page for pokemon so why not?

i don't have time for a whole thesis- that would take a great deal of energy that i simply can't expend right now- but i certainly can give you an overview of seviper's life history and diet.

seviper is a venomous snake pokémon that shares a distant relationship with the ekans line. amongst snake pokémon, seviper is notable for its ability to swing its fangs out of its mouth sideways to bite, making handling an aggressive seviper quite a task. seviper is also noticeable for the production of a toxin along its tail- this toxin is a hot topic in the herpetological world, and its source and components are fervently debated. it is further famous for its apparent "feud" with zangoose, a species that it has been locked in an evolutionary arms race with for quite some time. seviper's primary predator is the zangoose, which while largely insectivorous is also an opportunist that preys on both young and adult seviper.

seviper are found in a variety of habitats and are largely a generalist species when it comes to temperature ranges, substrate, and diet. the predominant indicator of whether or not seviper can survive in a habitat is the presence of rocks, which seviper use both as shelter and to sharpen their caudal weapon on. here is a post elaborating slightly on the anatomy of seviper's tail and caudal weaponry.

female seviper are somewhat larger than the males, and courtship amongst seviper is brief to nonexistent. receptive females are approached by males, mate, and then part ways, and at most males might get into a fight over who gets to breed with the female. these fights appear brutal and may leave males with severe-looking wounds, but rarely have long-lasting impacts on the individuals' health. females then lay a clutch of around twenty eggs. seviper are not immensely social, but do display a slightly less solitary existence than other snakes. several seviper may share a communal cavern or burrow, though they do not appear to share responsibilities or prey.

seviper are dietary generalists, as i mentioned, and are capable of killing and consuming significantly-sized prey. seviper diets include, depending on region and habitat, bird and rodent pokémon, and occasionally the passing deerling or juvenile stantler if the seviper is a large enough adult. very rarely, seviper may attempt to take aquatic prey.

although seviper are a relatively thoroughly-studied species, it would be arrogant to say that we know all there is to know about them. future studies may reveal new variants, stages of life, or ecological or anatomical facts that we haven't yet discovered.

#answers #pokémon #pkmn irl #seviper #zangoose #pokémon death

[hapalopus]

Ever wondered where most pet shop rats come from? - Take a look inside a Rodent Farm

Written by Estelle Sandford & published in Pro-Rat-a 163

The following images were originally posted on the Fancy Rats forum by Carla who lives in the Netherlands, but it gives you an idea of what the inside of a rodent farm actually looks like and where the vast majority of rats you will find in pet shops and pet sections of garden centres start out their lives. Carla is studying animal science and as part of her studies was invited to visit a rodent farm and the owner was happy to allow pictures to be taken by Carla and was happy to answer any questions that were asked.

Although this particular rodent farm is in the Netherlands, similar set ups are used by rodent farms in many countries, including the UK. For pet shops/garden centres, sadly it makes sense for them to be able to source all their live and frozen ‘stock’ from the same place and many will not have knowledge or even care about what is really going on behind the closed doors as these animals are just profit to them. Quite often, staff in these shops will have no idea where their livestock comes from or are told to say ‘local breeder’ while management hides the source from them. Many of these rodent farms were originally set up to supply the growing herp market needing frozen rodents, but the pet market off the back of that was an easy one for them to step into, particularly as more and more chain stores and garden centres now sell small animals. (Great way to attract the impulse buyer and kids into your shop!)

When you look at the kind of numbers involved and the set up, it is clear that the animals cannot be handled much as babies and understandable why perhaps so many mistakes are made on sexing them before they send them to pet shops at 5 weeks old, but these places won’t care as their business is making more, so they often offer pet shops to do ‘sale or return’ and send them back to be frozen after the pet shop has continued feeding them up for an extra few weeks.

If you ever needed a reason not to buy your pets from pet shops, the below should give you some food for thought!

Carla wrote the below text and has given permission for her images and text to be reproduced for NFRS Pro-Rat-a and also my Ratz website.

“This man breeds mice, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, lemmings, degus and gerbils. He also had a few ornamental birds and a couple of owls. The rats are housed in pairs or in groups of three; lactating does are housed separately with their young. The does are constantly pregnant or lactating. When they are done breeding, they become snake food; the same goes for ill and old rats or those that cannot be sold (deformities, etc). The rats are fed rodent blocks and a few extras like bread, cat kibble and some vegetables. They are kept on hemp type bedding.

He breeds all kinds of rats: double rex, naked, rex, dumbo, but also top-eared, normal fur, etc. The rats are of various colours but he is most proud of his blues, who are prize winning. He showed a blue male that sat very quietly and contently in his arms; this rat was only handled once a week, during clean out, and even so it was sweet as pie. He particularly appreciated the character of blues, who he said were tamer (although I suspect this can be attributed to his 'lines' rather than the colour as a whole). For new varieties, blood and upkeep, he obtains some animals from Czech Republic, where prices are low but quality is poor; but he prefers rats from the UK, as that's where he could get the special colours and rats of good quality. The animals are sold mainly to pet shops.”

The Pictures

The hall. In front, in the white things are the guinea pigs; behind it are feeder mice and rabbits; in front on our right are mice, hamsters and gerbils; rats are in the back.

The Rat Housing

What can we do to reduce this trade?

If the above pictures have opened your eyes and made you really think that you would like to stop the rodent farm trade, the best possible thing we can do individually is to educate, educate, educate! Individuals can make a difference; they just have to spread the word.

Stop buying live animals from pet shops/garden centres yourself and also stop buying any products from any shop selling animals. Support the ones that sell no livestock instead.

Educate others in a calm, rational and non-judgemental way to follow your lead so as to hit the shops hardest in their profit margins!

Write to these pet shops and tell them why you are taking your trade elsewhere. There is no point in walking away and not letting these shops know why you will no longer shop there.

Write to your local MP and D.E.F.R.A - these places will exist as long as they are legal and people continue to support buying small animals from pet shops.

Promote and support genuine breeders and rescue centres by using them yourself and pointing others in the right direction and away from pet shops.

#animal welfare #vox poppy

[danwhobrowses]

My Highlights of Full Gear 2023

And we're back with the wrestling.

Full Gear has a lot of moving pieces looking to build; a variety of title matches, grudge matches and friends fighting one another.

Let's see how what I enjoyed

Spoilers for the PPV of course

Buy In

Stoke staring daggers at Eddie while the crowd still pops for him

'He listens to anime soundtracks' - okay Stokely's a heel in my mind now anime soundtracks slap

In wrestling lore, Anne Hathaway is Stokely's adopted sister XD

That overhead belly to belly into the turnbuckle was so fucking clean

GOODNESS that guitar crack into Sonjay (for a retired backroom staff member Sonjay always takes a lot of bumps)

Ortiz and Eddie together makes me wonder, Santana for next ROH champ?

Eddie's commemorative popping the crowd with Renee - but he was too busy cussing out Stoke to cuss out RJ

I think we don't appreciate enough that the Blackpool Combat Club as a faction exist outside of alignment; all four dabble in heels and yet Claudio is the face against Buddy, Bryan is a face for the Continental Classic, but Mox and Yuta are heels against OC and HOOK (surprised we didn't have a FTW title match here)

This match slaps as well, Claudio and Mr Rhea Ripley are just not human

Cheeky Nandos Kick foreshadowing

Gunns' entrance still slaps, it's perfect and it also elevates BCG when they use it together

In this house we chant 'JOE!' repeatedly

MJF with 365 days on his robe

LA Lakers attire too

'I'm a poor' sign - who isn't these days bud?

Gunns have been flying around everywhere in this match

ADAM COLE BAYBAY!

Leg injury angle adds to the drama too

Main Card

Starting with a big trios match

A fucking children's choir doing Christian Cage's entrance (with a new tron)

I mean 'he comes more often than herpes' is apt for Ric Flair

Adam Copeland with Darby's paint, and those coats

Crowd continuing Metalingus

You can tell when two wrestlers have trained together, the synergy is there

Darby, just. Why?

Darby Allin loves his spine as much as Kota Ibushi loves his neck

He's climbing Everest AFTER THIS???

Nick Wayne's heel development is almost as good as Dominik Mysterio's I must admit

Clever from Christian climbing under the ring to sweep Adam and then lure Sting out to give Darby no options

It was of course a tease, but it was probably wise to keep Copeland and Christian apart all match, save it for Revolution or Winter is Coming

Sting getting an ovation

It felt quite rushed, but OC going over was the right call

I like that Shida has been using a lot of colour to counter Toni's black and white

Kingston putting his titles on the line definitely raises the stakes for the Continental Classic

Brody and Bill staring each other down at the start of the match

MEAT Chants are still alive

Malakai just flung that ladder into Cash

Suicide Dive into a Ladder!?

Red Hart, Sky Blue and Purple Cobras

Hart still has an amazing moonsault

That was a great snap for Code Blue

I thought Sky would take it but good for Julia

Billy Boy Bird is All Elite and he still has Elevated Bruv

Swerve gets the Nana Dance with a trope Entrance

Hangman didn't even wait for the Entrance

I've been guilty of stapling myself in my youth (I didn't realise the 'metal face' is what makes the ends bend and wanted to see for myself) so I know that hurts like a motherfucker

He's fucking drinking his blood!

Swerve's Killshot instincts have awakened

DVD on a Cinder Block!

PILEDRIVER ON THE TOP OF THE BARRICADE!?

TOMBSTONE ON A BARBED WIRE CHAIR!

I do love that spot when someone beats 10 by rolling out the ring (this time dragged)

And the Chain comes back

I don't think you can't call that a match, that was a WAR

GIVE THAT MAN A BELT, GIVE THAT MAN THE WORLD TITLE BELT

Omega selling a story with sentiment

Kenny you need to rename it something other than 'You Can't Escape' because buddy they can escape

Bucks did the low blow

Jericho kicked out of the BTE Trigger

Choices of V Trigger

Matt Jackson OWA

BCG with the mocking limp

MJF with the ambulance return spot

Jay White's heel work has been great throughout

Nigel literally hiding in the corner

The table collapsed and Max hit the elbow drop anyway on pure ground

TOPE CUTTER!?

Conclusion There was a lot of great wrestling on this card.

However, between the opener and the TBS title match it did feel like some matches were very rushed; OC/Moxley was a complete sprint, same with Storm/Shida, and the Ladder Match felt rather messy to try and contain all the spots they wanted. Also TK seriously, I get Toni has done a massively over reinvention but I am begging you to let Shida successfully defend a title in front of a PPV crowd, for god's sake man.

I didn't quite like the Jets beating the Bucks either, with Ibushi signed there's not much reason for their team to exist and now they have an anytime tag title shot. I guess it does end Kenny's PPV losing streak but still.

And I must say I was on the fence about the Main Event, I get using drama to narrate the match but the leg injury did end up weakening Jay White's very strong build that he couldn't beat a one-legged MJF, and too much shenanigans leave that for every Roman Reigns defense in the last year (all 5 of them).

But on the plus side, some amazing storytelling, some electrifying spots, the TBS championship being given to a young and deserving talent, and just an all timer brutal war of a match. It's not the strongest of AEW's current strong PPV runs but it's still pretty damn strong.

Match of the Night: Texas Death Match Best Entrance: The Patriarchy's children's choir just beats the Nana Dance trope Best Attire: Sting, Darby and Adam Copeland just ekes out Statlander's Globogym Purple Cobras outfit Best Performance: Hangman/Swerve tied Spot of the Night: So much of the Texas Death Match could've gone on here but I'm giving it to MJF's over the top rope and out the ring cutter because I did not see that coming

#aew #all elite wrestling #aew full gear #mjf #adam cole #jay white #bullet club gold #hangman adam page #swerve strickland #prince nana #the gunns #sting #darby allin #adam copeland #christian cage #nick wayne #toni storm #hikaru shida #kris statlander #sky blue #julia hart #eddie kingston #samoa joe #claudio castagnoli #buddy matthews #house of black #la faccion ingobernable #ftr #ricky starks #big bill

[poisonarium]

Emergency considerations with herps

Well, now that my neighborhood street is on fire and under mandatory evacuation, it seems like a good time to remind people that you should always have at least one carrier per pet- including your exotics- and these carriers should always be easy to grab quickly in an emergency, not stashed away hidden under a thousand pounds of junk in the attic or something. Fortunately, I was ready and I have everything my animals need close at hand.

Many herps can go for a while without food, especially amphibians and larger reptiles. No, it's not ideal and should be avoided under normal circumstances, but many species evolved to deal with going long periods without a meal. So food is not necessarily as urgent to for them as it would be for a mammal or bird (though you should find out what's necessary for your specific species).

So, in an emergency, the most important things would be making sure you have secure transportation for them that they can't escape from, which can hold adequate humidity and heat for their species, and which they can breathe in. Since it's mid-spring here right now, I don't presently need to worry about maintaining enough heat for them, but that should also be at the top of one's mind when considering evacuating with exotic pets. It's worth keeping extra vivarium-building and/or shipping supplies around so that you can quickly put together a humidity-stable, easy-to-transport container.

For the dart frogs and small geckos, I got empty/still-unused cups that I would usually use for fruit fly cultures and stuffed the bottom of those with coconut coir and dried moss, then soaked that in distilled water before putting the lid on. The lid for these cups have tiny holes that allow breathing, but which prevents the interior from drying out too quickly. For Sunny, it's a similar setup, but in a medium-sized 'kritter keeper' instead of a fruit fly cup. Since I live in a very arid climate, I was concerned that wet paper towels wouldn't be enough to maintain humidity.

If I didn't also have to worry about lugging around my mammal pets (one of which is an extremely irritable cat that weighs roughly 20 pounds) and my own essentials, I would be more concerned with bringing their food with me, too. Instead, I fed my darts and geckos a particularly hearty meal while waiting for news updates- just in case they won't get another meal for a few days. Since this is just a local fire and not the collapse of civilization or something, I can be reasonably confident that I can buy food for them later if I end up unable to return to my home. Otherwise, I'd be starting a new fruit fly culture right now and bringing that with me, too. Packages of Pangea/other powdered gecko food is easy to stick in one's pocket if you can.

Since I have a stupid-anxious personality, I'm always prepared for disaster anyway- but I know a lot of people think it'll never happen to them. Since climate change is only going to get worse at this point, you should realize it CAN happen to you (and to be honest, if you live in the southwest, either coast, or south in the US... there's actually a pretty decent chance of it happening to you at some point). If you haven't thought yet about what you'd do with your pets in an emergency, take some time to prepare right now. Evacuating with dogs and/or cats is one thing, but there's a lot more to consider with herps and other uncommon pets. If you're prepared ahead of time, you can save yourself and them, too!

#and to be clear: no you should Not release them into the wild in such a situation #theyre unlikely to survive but if they did then it could be an ecological disaster. also it's illegal to do that. so don't #info tag #gecko tag #azureus tag

[demi-shoggoth]

2022 Reading Log pt 17

81. Sea Turtles to Sidewinders by Charles Hood, Erin Westeen, and José Gabriel Martínez-Fonseca. This is a not-quite-a-field-guide to the reptiles and amphibians of the Western USA. It doesn’t pretend to be comprehensive (and leaves out one of my favorite local herps, the arboreal salamander Aneides lugubris), but instead is a beginner-friendly, photo heavy look at the appearance and natural history of a number of local species. The latter two authors are both graduate students, which helps give the book a youthful vitality in its writing style, and a willingness to accept new science (like ever shifting taxonomy) and talk about areas of contention (again, usually taxonomy related). A fun, light read, that feels like it would be good for enthusiastic middle or high school students despite not being intentionally pitched as “young adult”.

82. How to Take Over the World by Ryan North. This is a book of popular science, focusing on ideas that are more speculative in order to shape a diabolical supervillanous plan. Most of these are framed in the “no, but…” style. No, you can’t drill a hole to the Earth’s core to take it hostage. Here’s why. But you can drill a hole through two points in the crust, feed a fiber optic cable through it, and get rich on the stock market by being able to make trades infinitesimally faster. No, you can’t literally clone a dinosaur, but you could alter the gene expression of a bird to make it grow teeth and a tail, do that to an ostrich and have a mighty steed. The book ends with an exploration of deep time, and suggests that the reader shoot their corpse into deep space, ala the Voyager probes, in order to have a shot of being the last evidence of humanity in the cosmos. This book is great fun; North’s writing style is conversational and breezy, and there are original illustrations by Carly Monardo depicting a (ponytail and eye patch wearing, pretty cute) supervillain attempting the schemes within.

83. An Atlas of Extinct Countries by Gideon Defoe. Similar to An Atlas of Countries that Don’t Exist, read previously for this project, but with a slightly narrower focus and more information. Many of these countries were nations declared as some manner of colonial project, often times by a single huckster or opportunist, so many of them lasted about as long as the life of a single individual, or shorter if local authorities put their foot down. A few were established nations (like the Republic of Venice or Sikkim) that lost out and were absorbed by their neighbors through war or unfair treaties. And still others were political footballs, carved up or mashed together in order to achieve a goal of larger, stronger nations (a lot of this, but not all, occurred in the aftermath of the World Wars). The author is shooting for humor, and has a clearly sardonic style. I had a good time with this book, literally reading it in an airport and lasting about as long as that particular wait.  

84. Teratic Tome by Rafael Chandler. A couple of years ago, I bought a bunch of PDFs of RPG monster books. One of which was Lusus Naturae, which holds the distinction of being the worst monster book I’ve read cover to cover. This book is by the same author, and I didn’t realize that when I bought it. So obviously, I kept it aside for a while, waiting until I was in a good mood (and not sober) to read it. That lack of sobriety is probably why I didn’t hate Teratic Tome as much, although it’s definitely more of the same as Lusus Naturae. That is to say, monsters that are over the top grotesque, both in terms of physical design and behavior, written to such bizarre specificity that it seems unlikely that they would ever be used in game play. Many of the creatures here target a specific category of people, either those that have committed some sort of sin (adultery, blasphemy, murder) or are suffering in some way (lots of these monsters exist to prolong the torments of the grieving). The book is hugely misogynistic—lots of these monsters are horrible body horror nightmares that nonetheless have perfect tits, and “disproportionate retribution towards women” appears over and over again. To give a sense of the combination of sheer bad taste and wild variance of tone, let me tell you about this book’s take on Ahriman. He is said to have a palace with special wings devoted to medically-and-sexually-themed torture like forced impregnation and enemas… that is made out of clear crystal because he wants his leadership to be transparent. WTF.  There’s a number of monsters that are supposedly neutral, or of animal intelligence, where that is bonkers (how does a worm with animal intelligence create religious delusions and force its victim to punish the wicked by feeding it to them?), and a few monsters where their abilities and the mechanics are wildly disproportionate to each other (like “wracked with horrible seizures and vomiting up their internal organs” dealing… 1d20 damage). This book is terrible, although not as terrible as Lusus Naturae. Faint praise, I know.

85. Secrets of the Whales by Brian Skerry. This is a photo book, sponsored by National Geographic. Each chapter is basically an oversized version of a short National Geographic article—a few pages of text, and then a lot of photos with captions. Each chapter covers a different species (or group of species—all dolphins except killer whales are lumped into the last chapter), and the photographs are truly amazing. Curious right whales that have never seen humans, belugas playing and grooming in warm-water runoff, a funeral procession of orcas. The book has a strong anthropomorphic bent, portraying the various whales as species with cultural traditions and human-like behavior. If you are sensitive to anthropomorphism, you might want to steer clear of this book, but I quite liked it.  

#reading log #whales #marine biology #national geographic #bad books #monster books #herpetology #ryan north #geography #world history #rape tw #misogyny #supervillain #reptiles #amphibians

[temeraire]

vaguely in the vein of that pet post you reblogged; like i totally get if someone is afraid of spiders/snakes/horses/rats/ect, why do you have to be actively hostile to even a picture of them online. wack. anyways am i the only person who finds it weird when someone has a pet pig and they name it some shit like "bacon". like to my knowledge pigs have the largest overlap of 'livestock' and 'pet' and even as someone who does eat meat i find it so weird that people with a pet pig would wanna name it after a foodstuff directly made from it. like yeah whatever 'ironic name' or something but whenever i hear about someone with a pet pig named 'sausage' or some stupid thing like that all i can think is "they barely have a distinction between pet and livestock". doing the same thing with pretty much any other pet would get you villified, although a lot of common (north american) pets are foodstuffs in other countries.

people who act like that are completely out of line like you can for sure be afraid but you dont have to make someone else feel like shit or threaten Living Beings They Love And Care For even as a joke

i will be honest, while i think calling a pig bacon or sausage is a bit cliche/a bit of an overdone name (like, really? you couldnt come up with anything more imaginative?) i dont see anything INHERENTLY wrong with it. i'll jokingly threaten to eat my birds and tell them that the only reason theyre safe is because they're too small to be worth cooking. but like. theyre my pets and im the one who cares for them and looks after them yknow? same as if someone was to call their pet chicken "nugget". i dont think id let anyone else make those jokes. i certainly didnt put up with it when i had rats and people wld try to crack jokes about feeding them to snakes or whatever

i also dont really make such a separation between pet and livestock? or at least i dont see how it matters in this situation. like obviously livestock/producing animals tend to be treated more distantly, and pets tend to be more personally loved, but even people with pet herps or inverts or even big aquariums (which are obviously not livestock) arent always super emotionally attached to their pets. its a sliding scale yknow? and theres plenty of people who keep animals as livestock but still cherish them just as much as people do their pets. either way i doubt the animal with a funny name knows or cares

#animal death ment // #just to be safe #anonymous #anyway i totally get feeling weirded out abt it but to me its sorta like. yeah i guess bacon is definitely a component of that creature #youre not wrong there! theres bacon inside him #regardless of if its kept as a pet or as livestock i think it should be treated w respect and care #im super tired after uni this morning sorry if this makes no sense

[jcmarchi]

Vertebrate 3D scan project opens collections to all - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/vertebrate-3d-scan-project-opens-collections-to-all-technology-org/

Vertebrate 3D scan project opens collections to all - Technology Org

A venture to digitize vertebrate collections in museums and make them freely available online for anyone to access has reached a milestone. The project has created 3D CT scans of some 13,000 specimens, representing more than half the genera of birds, amphibians, reptiles, fishes and mammals.

Lateral view of piranha (Serrasalmus iridopsis); collected in South America, by C. F. Hartt who died in 1878. The exact year of collection is not known, but was likely in the latter half of the 19th century.

The project, the oVert (openVertebrate) Thematic Collection Network, has just wrapped up a four-year, $2.5 million National Science Foundation grant, with the efforts to date described in a paper published in BioScience.

The Cornell Museum of Vertebrates, one of 18 institutions taking part in oVert, has uploaded roughly 500 CT scans of specimens from its collections. The museum holds approximately 1.3 million fish specimens, 27,000 reptiles and amphibians (collectively called herps), 57,000 birds and 23,000 mammal specimens.

“Not everyone is interested in making a trip to a museum, so by digitizing specimens, placing everything up on a website and making it free, anyone who wants to access it can without having to leave the house, which allows for much more equitable access,” said Casey Dillman, curator of fishes and herps at the Cornell Museum of Vertebrates in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and a co-author of the Bioscience paper.

So far, users have included artists, high school and college students, educators and scientists.

oVert allows the natural history collections that are represented to be used in collaborative ways, such as in classrooms. The format has made it simpler to compare anatomies of different species.

“You can do so many things,” Dillman said. “You can compare specimens and look at the evolution of limbs, or wings in birds and bats, or gills in fishes.”

Views of a juvenile pied-billed grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) that perished swallowing a fish.

One limitation of the platform is that each specimen dataset can be 2 to 3 gigabytes in size, requiring users to have access to a computer with an expensive graphics processor to visualize the data. “Not everyone’s laptop can do that,” Dillman said.

Dorsal view of a shovelnose sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus platorynchus); one of the three species of shovelnose sturgeon in the U.S. The other two species are federally endangered. This specimen was collected in 1909 in Emanuel Creek at Springfield, South Dakota. Image credit: Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates

The idea behind the grant was to CT scan one species of every genus of vertebrate, thereby building an online digital library of each organism’s appearance – its phenotype, or observable characteristics – with respect to the skeletal anatomy. While most of the images are skeletons, some were stained with a special solution to provide better contrast and visualize soft tissues, such as skin and muscles. The scanners use X-rays, which can be set as weak as a medical X-ray for soft tissue, or strong enough to view through rocks and fossils.

Museum catalog numbers included with each image link to the institutional database where the specimen originated. Database entries include when, where and by whom a specimen was collected.

Lateral view of a sargassum fish (Histrio histrio); collected from the south shore of Boca Chica Bay in Monroe County, Florida, in 1979. Image credit: Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates

In many ways, the oVert project is just getting started, Dillman said. “Thirteen thousand species isn’t even scratching the surface of vertebrate diversity,” he said.

For example, there are more than 36,000 species of fishes alone; one species per genus is a good start, he said, but it will take time and additional funds to represent the great depth of diversity.

“If you think about some of the fish lineages in North America, there might be 200 species within a genus,” he said.

Each round of funding will allow the teams to continue representing more genera and adding more species from each genus.

The grant’s principal investigator was David Blackburn, curator of herpetology at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, Florida.

Source: Cornell University

You can offer your link to a page which is relevant to the topic of this post.

#000 #3d #3D scanning #agriculture #America #amphibians #Anatomy #artists #bats #birds #Building #collaborative #Collections #college #computer #data #Database #digital library #diversity #Evolution #fish #Fossils #Foundation #Funding #graphics #History #images #it #laptop #life

[thorntonkrell-blog-blog]

Alligators as as a species have been around a lot longer than we have.

We can learn and have learned many great lessons from them. I had cause to reflect upon them while watching the opening day of the baseball season which was occurring on another continent.

What is this world coming to?

Let's review and move forward.

MMMMMKKKKAAAYY

One day many years ago, I got a job transporting an anaconda from the Rochester zoo to the Buffalo zoo. I have had cause to reflect upon that day often during the past few weeks.

So let's review and move forward.

When we got to the zoo, the herpetolgy guy came out and removed the snake from the bag. He pronounced it both female and fit. This pronunciation guaranteed that I hadn't arrived at the same time as some other guy who was supposed to arrive in a Dodge Crew Cab and that I wasn't trying to pass off a sick, male anaconda while the other guy purloined the healthy snake bitch.

Or something.

For my reward, the herpetology guy decided to give me a tour of the innards of the snake house, apparently a rare extravagance.

As we walked through the snake house, the herpetology guy explained in exquisitely excruciating detail what would happen if he or I got bit by any of the venomous snakes that we were passing. All of the poisons were different and needed a different serum and usually by the time help got to the unconscious poisoned person it was already too late. Matter of fact that's how he got the job. They found the herp dude before him passed out on the floor and by the time they figured out the problem, it was too late for him.

The dude was dead.

Then we proceeded over to the alligator pond where he invited me to watch the alligators have lunch.

At that moment, a bunch of starlings were thrown into the alligator pond. One of the "pain in the ass birds" landed directly on the head of a partially submerged gator.

As I looked at the bird doing a morbidly comic homage to a raven on the bust of Pallas, I asked the obvious question."why doesn't the bird just fly away?"

"we already clipped his wings. He ain't goin' nowhere."

The alligator with the bird on his head wasn't goin' anyplace either.

He just sat there motionless wearing a delicious starling hat.

"How come the gator isn't moving."

"Oh, they don't move much. They move only when they need to. The rest of the time, they do what he's doing."

"oh yeah, I asked, "what is he doin? Is he asleep or is he awake?."

"Well, he ain't awake and he ain't asleep. It's something in between."

Of course as a human being I was only aware of two states of consciousness…either awake of asleep. This was before my various surgeries and adventures in anesthesiology.

"He's what they call dormant."

Dormant is a deeper variation of chilling. I understood that the anaconda in the bag had been doing the same thing.

Alligators spend most of their lifetimes dormant waiting around for something to happen and not particularly concerned when nothing happens

Just gatoring.

Alligators are known for their ability to remain still for long periods, often lying partially submerged in water or on land. This behavior helps them conserve energy and remain camouflaged while waiting for prey to come within striking distance.

Alligators are opportunistic predators, meaning they will eat whatever prey is readily available. In the story, the alligator remains motionless with a bird on its head, likely waiting for an opportunity to strike and feed on the bird without expending unnecessary energy.

Alligators are adaptable creatures capable of surviving in a variety of environments, from freshwater swamps to brackish marshes. The behavior of the alligator in the story, calmly waiting with a bird on its head, demonstrates its adaptability and ability to thrive in its habitat.

The herpetology guy describes the alligator as being in a state of dormancy, which is a period of reduced activity and metabolic rate. This behavior allows alligators to conserve energy during times of low food availability or unfavorable environmental conditions.

Hmmmmmm......

I have an ability to remain still for long periods of time lying partially covered by a blanket or quilt. I will eat whatever is acvailable according to my cravings but will wait for the opportunity to eat with the least amount of effort made towards gathering and preparing food. I am adaptable to a wide variety of couches, beds, pillows, cushions in living rooms, bedrooms and man caves. I regularly reduce my metabolic rate through inactivity as I prepare for those moments when food becomes available.

Furthermore, as a modern day human, I have developed an even more bamboozling state of dormancy between wakefulness and sleep. That stage is called napthru. In its own way napthru s better than or at least as good as sleeping or waking. Napthru dexribes the condition when I'm "watching" a baseballgame on teevee and find myself dozing off. I'm still sorta paying attention to the game but I'm also moving my eyes beneath my lids that produces an effect similar between REM, reading and day dreaming in which I lose track of time unless I get a signal to eat or somebody yells help when I immediately leap to my feet as if I have been awake all the time or if I sense my wife coming up the stairs and I don't want her to catch me sleeping as I'm supposed to be watching an important game rather than honey doing.

So as we stumble through the Everglades of our existences, we find ourselves entwined with the most unlikely of companions: the alligator, the bird, and the blissful state of napthru. As we navigate the murky waters of life, let us take a cue from the gator, mastering the art of chilling with finesse, and embracing our own peculiar versions of dormancy, whether it's napping through a baseball game or simply wearing a metaphorical starling hat of serenity amidst life's chaotic pond. So, here's to gatoring, napthruing, and finding the humor in our shared journey through the wondrous, wilderness of wakefulness.

[oh-yes-i-did-not]

I get that animal species not native need to be dealt with, but Finland is really such a miserable place sometimes because this year has been year when puffins find their way in here and people call the emergency number and who shows up? The police. And they they shoot the bird.

And while the headline says people called the police, they did not. They called 112, just like everyone, the emergency number. The police specific 10022 has not been a thing in years. The called likely didn't ask for police to come and the decision to send police was made by someone else. And you don't dispatch police to rescue an animal, you dispatch them to kill it.

And yes, puffins have been re-homed back to Norway before, it's is not that hard. But someone chose to send police instead of vet.

I grew up watching Rolf on TV and how the vets fought to save any animal's life. They made a fucking cast from a q-tip! And then in reality I've dealt with vets who suggested I put my own cat down because she had stuffy nose and crusty eyes so "she likely has herpes, no need to do tests and you don't wanna be burdened with a cat with herpes so I suggest we put her down immediately."

Like, I know TV doesn't show realistically what animal caring and sanctuary efforts are like, but I did know that even if things weren't as rosy as they looked, they were still much better than where I grew up. And I still know, in year 2023, that if I find an injured seagull, pigeon, or jackdaw, I would do infinitely better to just try to do the caring myself because even if there is a sanctuary somewhere in this country for that, it's not gonna happen unless I got to private vet clinic or if we're not immediately local to that sanctuary. Better to put it down. It is more merciful to shoot or inject them right away than to even try dealing with things we would bend over backwards to heal in dogs.

#shit #animals