BIRDS BUGS & BONES

mantis-cat: A Fancy Keleken WIP Its been a long time since I’ve...

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 15:40:35 +1000

A Fancy Keleken WIP

Its been a long time since I’ve drawn a terror bird and I think I should remedy that. this was all done with the hard brush and it gives of an interesting look. I think I’ll be offering this in my commissions.

this is just the flat colors I’ll shade it some time soon, I just wanted to post something this week because I’m not going to be able to post for a few days.

Main blog @mantis-cat

art blog @mantiscatdrawsstuff

travel-buddy: ofcarnivora: cynological: oregonforestdog: fakebicolor: Okie dokie, you guys...

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 12:20:35 +1000

travel-buddy:

ofcarnivora:

cynological:

oregonforestdog:

fakebicolor:

Okie dokie, you guys know how much I love muzzle training and how important it is to me.

Recently my mother was talking with someone, and the wire basket muzzle I own came up in the conversation. The person was apparently disgusted, repulsed, I would put such a thing on my dog. Making statements of “why would you use that,” and “why not use one of those thin ones” (thin one being a Gentle Leader).

To the general public, muzzles and dogs in muzzles have such a bad stigma. They are seen as things only aggressive dogs wear; and if your dog is aggressive, you must be a bad pet owner in some way.

This is so not true. And more often than not, the exact opposite.

Muzzle training is SO beneficial, every dog should be trained to wear one. “But my dog isn’t aggressive, she doesn’t need one,” that may be true! But think of it this way: how many folks were put in swim lessons as kids by their parents? A heck of a lot, me included. Some kids that lived by a lake, some that had their own pool at home, some that lived nowhere near a body of water. Why? For if a dangerous situation arose where they found themselves in water, they’d know what to do and how to calmly swim to safety.

Now, for dogs, like recall and crate training, muzzle training is their swim lesson. Dogs who don’t have a drop of aggression in them will benefit just as much as a dog who wants to bite everything in sight.

But muzzling is not limited to aggression, there are numerous reasons a dog may need to be muzzled:

Pain - dog’s are more inclined to bite when in pain

Fear - when flight and freeze are no longer options, fight is

Trash eaters - some dogs eat things on walks, and during their training the owner can have the added security of the muzzle

New introductions - to people or animals, should things go sideways

Post-op protection - many folks turn to basket muzzles over the traditional cone of shame

Travel - in some communities a dog must be muzzled on public transport or even if riding freely in your own vehicle

Sports - several canine sports require a muzzle for part or all of the sport

I’m sure there are many more, so feel free to add on.

And let me put this out there, not all muzzles are created equal. It’s took four open-basket-type muzzles to find one that fits Canon properly. They come in various styles and materials. Leather, metal, cotton, nylon, plastic, and biothane to name a few. It may take one try or four, but there’s a good chance with all the options that there’s a muzzle style and material that will work with every dog.

Now, the muzzle the individual was upset over? Take a look:

^{(Flower crown to make it less “scary”)}

This is the wire basket I finally found that works for Canon’s nose length, allows him to pant, drink, and take treats, and is comfortable. This is for vet visits. Canon is not aggressive towards our vet or the staff, he adores them and thoroughly enjoys going. BUT, her waiting room is small. Very small. The exam room door is smack against the waiting room chairs, and it’s nice to have Canon muzzled should we walk out and BAM! A dog. In this case, his muzzle is worn for, oh, five minutes tops.

And the “thin one”? Look below:

This is not a muzzle and it will not protect your dog or others. Gentle Leaders and head collars are training tools that the leash clips to, to guide the dog by their head. I (personally) do not know of any muzzles that function in such a manner. And if a head collar is closed so tight the dog cannot open it’s mouth, it’s being used incorrectly.

So, I hope that opened up someone’s mind to muzzles! They are wonderful tools and come in so many styles, materials, and colors. I hope more people open up to them and make them a regular part of their dog’s gear.

Happy training from my dogs and I, to you and yours!

Muzzles are wonderful. Without a muzzle, I would not take the chance of having Ivan near other dogs, as he can be so unpredictable about who he likes and who he loathes. With the muzzle, everyone is safe and he has been able to make a few chosen dog friends. Other uses: crowded trails and Vet visits where something painful is being examined. There are times when the muzzle stigma actually does good things: we need a little space to work around other strange dogs without going over threshold, and most people will grant that space without question when they see the muzzle.

Sharing the muzzle love.

Friend of mine got caught in a tornado warning with visible funnel clouds. Her trailer park had a storm shelter… she was allowed to bring her dogs in because she muzzled them.

You never know when an occasion with arise where you may need one. It won’t always be predictable.

Pod wears a muzzle to prevent any potential quarrel over the lure and to prevent him from running off with the lure, as the thin line may cut the other competitors. Many of the whippets we run with have associated the muzzle with running, so they love it! 😂

I firmly believe that as long as you train your dog to be comfortable with a muzzle there is absolutely no problem with them.

A dog who bites is a dog who’s life is in danger. Wearing a muzzle prevents bites, which prevents the behaviour from being praticed, which allows CC&D C.A.T B.A.T etc type training to be done. A muzzle is the opposite of a scary thing. It is a sefty tool. As long as you take the time to get dogs accustomed to them they’re not even an advertise.

Photo

Mon, 25 Jun 2018 15:40:31 +1000

masterpost of fish names i really like

Mon, 25 Jun 2018 12:20:32 +1000

reinhardt-ass:

iguanamouth:

hugh–jassmann:

elasticitymudflap:

wtf-scientific-papers: [Good vibrations by the beach boys:...

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 20:25:17 +1000

wtf-scientific-papers:

[Good vibrations by the beach boys: magnitude of substrate vibrations is a reliable indicator of male grey seal size]

Bishop et al. (2015)

qbn-scholar: Banksia speciosa. San Francisco Botanical Garden,...

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 16:26:15 +1000

qbn-scholar:

Banksia speciosa. San Francisco Botanical Garden, 09-01-12.

I've been meaning to message you since the moth appreciation post because like I need to talk/know more about that moth that lays eggs in water? What the f-ing what? That is mental. I didn't know we had aquatic moths! (I currently have lots of Garden Tiger babies at home for a uni experiment. I love my fuzzy babies.)

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 16:01:16 +1000

Hello, Friend! Isn’t that ridiculous?? I only recently learned about Petrophila moths [link], too, and when I read that about their caterpillars, my mind practically exploded. Nature is so weird. But these moths with aquatic caterpillars caught my notice for a totally different reason initially: they are jumping spider mimics.

You can see from these photos that they’re not very large. If you weren’t really paying attention, you may not even notice anything unusual about them. The first time I saw them, I definitely didn’t notice that they were spider mimics. But one night, I went to a talk about moths, and the presenter talked about these and I thought it was awesome! She had a mercury vapor lamp set up outside after the talk for us to see some moths, and a Petrophila showed up. I was super excited! When I went to add the photo to iNaturalist, thinking I’d seen something new, it turned out I had already seen them at least four times.

You may not even be able to see how these are spider mimics. They don’t really *look* like spiders, do they? But remember, our eyes are much different than insect eyes, and we have the benefit of seeing things from far away. We can see this isn’t a spider. But imagine you are a small predatory insect or a spider, and you are in front of this moth looking at it. What will you see?

Jumping spiders above are Dimorphic Jumper (left) and Bold Jumper <3 (right)

Anyway, back to the aquatic caterpillars. I’m sure you know that most moths and butterflies have perfectly normal caterpillars who eat leaves, make poops, and turn into perfectly normal moths and butterflies. So finding out that one type refuse to play by those rules just seems super weird. But is it, really? Or is it just weird because… well, we have an idea of what caterpillars are supposed to be, whether or not that idea is accurate?

For example, look at some other insect orders with complete metamorphosis (they have larvae, pupate, and then become adults). Flies are a huge group. Where do fly larvae live? You know about maggots and food, but what about mosquitos? Those are flies too, and their larvae are aquatic. What about parasitic botflies that grow in animal tissue? What about gall midges who parasitize plants? Caterpillars will grow up in equally diverse habitats (although, I don’t know of an animal parasite… yet). Same with beetles–larvae will live on plants, underground, in water, in wood…

But let’s look a little closer to moths and butterflies, since most caterpillars are fairly predictable in terms of habitat, and the exceptions aren’t very well known. Here’s a phylogenetic tree showing the evolutionary history of insects. In this tree, branches that are closer together are more closely related.

Note: I found this tree in an image search, but I was unable to locate the original source. I would love to credit it if I can! Let me know if you have seen this in a book before.

In this tree, I have circled the branch including Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). Look at who else is in that circle: Trichoptera (caddisflies). Below are a couple examples of caddisflies. Chances are you have seen them before (they are pretty ubiquitous near ponds, lakes, streams, and rivers!), but had no idea what they were.

Caddisflies are also very difficult to identify. The one on the left is in the Macrostemum genus (zebra caddisflies), but the one on the right… uh… I’ll get back to you on that one.

There are a lot of moths that look pretty similar to caddisflies, so it’s easy to see that they are closely related.

Left to right: Yellow-headed Lichen Moth, Belted Grass-veneer Moth, Bluegrass Webworm Moth

These look so similar, in fact, you may ask how they even grouped them into different orders. This is easy to answer if you know your scientific names AND Greek!
Moths & Butterflies = Lepidoptera (Lepido = scale; ptera = wing)
Caddisflies = Trichoptera (Tricho = hair; ptera = wing)

Since I have an electron microscope at work (the “nano” in my username refers to my background in nanotechnology), I felt obligated to illustrate this. The white bar on each image shows the magnification. “um” refers to “micrometer,” or 1/1,000 of a millimeter. A human hair is typically about 100 um wide. (If you have questions about electron microscopes, let me know! These things are fun!)

Typical Lepidoptera (Moth & Butterfly) Wing

Above: Images of the scales on an American Snout Butterfly wing obtained with Scanning Electron Microscopy. Compare the scales in the middle of the wing to those on the edge of the wing.

Typical Trichoptera (Caddisfly) Wing

Above: Images of the hairs on a caddisfly wing obtained with Scanning Electron Microscopy. Note the similarities in the how the caddisfly hairs and butterfly scales attach to the wings.

Looking at these images, it’s pretty clear that they are different. But you have to look *very closely* to notice this difference, and when you look even closer than that, you start to see similarities again.

Guess where caddisfly larvae grow up! If you don’t already know about caddisfly larvae, oh boy, they’re fun!

It may be hard to tell, but I took this photo with an underwater camera. Caddisfly larvae build little cases by cementing together stones, pine needles, sand, or a variety of other things. You can sometimes identify the larvae based on what materials they use and what shape the cases are in. An interesting aside: if you raise these, you can get them to build their cases out of whatever you want. At least one person got creative, and I’m happy to see that she is still selling caddisfly jewelry over 20 years later!

I don’t mean to turn this post into an advertisement, but her stuff is beautiful and super interesting. She describes her process and some info about the species of caddisfly she raises on this page of her website [link]. Photo credits go to her–I totally stole these images.

Caddisfly larvae are exclusively aquatic. Moths and butterflies are slightly younger than caddisflies, so they have had more time to evolve their own method of development (mostly on land). I believe the Petrophila moths are one of the older moth genera (but definitely not the oldest!), so they could be like Cetaceans (you know, whales and such who had gone *back into the water* after they realized they were cooler than land mammals).

I have not yet had the honor of witnessing a little baby Petrophila scooting along the bottoms of ponds, eating algae and whatnot, so I don’t have my own photos to share, but there are a couple on their bugguide page [link] (just click the link for “caterpillars” to filter out all the adults). They more or less look like a normal caterpillar, except … a little wetter than usual. The females will go completely underwater to lay their eggs (they will carry a little air bubble with them, apparently). And typically moths don’t live too much longer after laying eggs, so who knows if they ever fly again. I’m sure the fish don’t mind finding them!

I hope I satisfied your desperate yearning for aquatic moth secrets! The closer you look, the weirder nature gets. Jeez.

Posted June 22, 2018 (finally!)
All photos are mine except the caddisfly jewelry, phylogenetic tree source TBD. Everything was seen in Texas except the caddisfly larva was in a stream near Crater Lake in Oregon.

insectish: Moths in the genus Semioptila Photographs by Nigel...

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 15:40:24 +1000

insectish:

Moths in the genus Semioptila

Photographs by Nigel Voaden

naamahdarling: snowysauropteryx: wnycradiolab: You know those...

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 14:58:55 +1000

naamahdarling:

snowysauropteryx:

wnycradiolab:

You know those little things that keep bread bags closed? Well, the internet would like to tell you about them. If you’re not doing anything too important right now, I think you should visit HORG (that’s the Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group) and explore a beautiful, obsessive, hilarious taxonomy of occlupanids.

(ht Metafilter)

Some of these must have a tiny , isolated reproducing population, because they’re looking rather in-bread.

Oh my GOD

*chases the bread puns out with a broom*

kittendrumstick:he big

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 12:20:24 +1000

kittendrumstick:

he big

coolbugs: Bug of the Day Bear with me as I post one more...

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 15:40:25 +1000

coolbugs:

Bug of the Day

Bear with me as I post one more Cecropia photo…last night I found this male Cecropia attached to the screen door of my porch like a kid drooling on the glass window of a candy shop. My container of females was on the porch, I guess their pheromones called him in! There was also a second male fluttering around and around overhead that later disappeared.

I am feeling 90% sure this is a wild male, not the small male I raised and set free three or four days ago. Hope that is true, because I grabbed this fellow and put him in with the females to mate (hopefully not with his sisters, because these offspring were already 2nd generation inbred…).

coolbugs: Bug of the Day This green mantisfly (Zeugomantispa...

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 12:20:25 +1000

coolbugs:

Bug of the Day

This green mantisfly (Zeugomantispa minuta) has got yesterday’s BotD scorpionfly beat on the Otherworldly-looking creature scale by a factor of at least 5 :-).

Whirlpools are hot spots for great white sharks - Futurity

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 02:08:39 +1000

Whirlpools are hot spots for great white sharks - Futurity:

eartharchives:

Marine biologists studying the movements of adult female white sharks in the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Ocean have discovered, to their surprise, that they prefer warm-water eddies—the clockwise-spinning whirlpools in the ocean.

typhlonectes: Termites are just cockroaches with a fancy social...

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 15:40:22 +1000

typhlonectes:

Termites are just cockroaches with a fancy social life

Reordering demotes one infamous insect group to being a mere branch of an equally infamous one

BY SUSAN MILIUS

Termites are the new cockroach… Literally.

The Entomological Society of America is updating its master list of insect names to reflect decades of genetic and other evidence that termites belong in the cockroach order, called Blattodea.

As of February 15, “it’s official that termites no longer have their own order,” says Mike Merchant of Texas A&M University in College Station, chair of the organization’s common names committee. Now all termites on the list are being recategorized.

The demotion brings to mind Pluto getting kicked off the roster of planets, says termite biologist Paul Eggleton of the Natural History Museum in London. He does not, however, expect a galactic outpouring of heartbreak and protest over the termite downgrade. Among specialists, discussions of termites as a form of roaches go back at least to 1934, when researchers reported that several groups of microbes that digest wood in termite guts live in some wood-eating cockroaches too.

Once biologists figured out how to use DNA to work out genealogical relationships, evidence began to grow that termites had evolved as a branch on the many-limbed family tree of cockroaches…

Read more: Science News

Koko the gorilla who learned sign language dies aged 46

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 12:52:41 +1000

Koko the gorilla who learned sign language dies aged 46:

zooophagous:

myfrogcroaked:

Koko touched the lives of millions as an icon for interspecies communication and empathy.

Source: Evening Standard

This year sucks

different-landscapes: Fierty-throated hummingbird, Costa Rica...

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 12:20:23 +1000

different-landscapes:

Fierty-throated hummingbird, Costa Rica Photo by Jess Findlay

drferox: Hi Dr Ferox! I saw this guy today and thought you might...

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 18:07:29 +1000

drferox:

Hi Dr Ferox! I saw this guy today and thought you might be interested - he’s got 3 legs! I didn’t see it til he flew away, but you can see it in the zoomed in photo!

It’s still hard for me to see, but it doesn’t seem to have slowed the fellow down at all.

Wow, what an awesome maggie! Some kind of polymelia.

tyrantisterror: squatch88-3: Crocodile, caiman, alligator Good...

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 15:40:46 +1000

tyrantisterror:

squatch88-3:

Crocodile, caiman, alligator

Good children who never do no wrong

zoologicallyobsessed: dairyisntscary: cured-spadefish: findogs: en-seta: findogs: voidwerks: f...

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 14:56:06 +1000

zoologicallyobsessed:

dairyisntscary:

cured-spadefish:

findogs:

en-seta:

findogs:

voidwerks:

findogs:

argonian-alchemist:

argonian-alchemist:

en-seta:

Animals do not create excess for your taking

Bees STORE honey for flower-less winters

They do not create “excess” for your taking

Deer and all animals naturally overpopulate and depopulate as the population threshold is reached

They are NOT permanently overpopulated and in need of super-predators. There is no “excess” of any wild animal

Cows create breast milk for their calfs and only their calf. There is no extra milk left when a calf is breast feeding.

Dairy cows are ripped from their newborns so their milk can be harvested. There is only “excess” when a cow has no baby to feed.

Fish communicate through sound waves that travel farther and we can not hear. They are very social, creating bonds and relationships. Even sharks have been observed expressing playfulness, fear, and joy. They are sentient and feel pain.

All types of fishing reap anything and everything it’s it’s way, this includes dolphins and turtles who often drown in fishing nets. Unwanted fish are thrown back into the ocean, who often die soon after due to the rapid change in pressure. If hunted fish to not suffocate in cramped containers, they’re throats are slit and bleed to death. Fishing is cruel and unsustainable. There is no “excess” of fish

Chickens eat their own eggs when they know it is not fertilized. This helps them get valuable nutrients and calcium back. A hen left to herself only creates 12 eggs a year

Egg laying hens are selectively bred to make eggs as fast as possible. Their eggs are taken away from them before they get a chance to get the nutrients back. To ensure hens do not eat their eggs before they are stolen, their beaks are sawed with heat off at the tip. This creates untold pain to their sensitive body part. Because hens make so many eggs and they are not allowed to get their nutrients back, they often have broken bones due to osteoporosis. When egg production declines, hens are shocked into rapid egg laying through starvation.

There is no “excess” of eggs without hens going through suffering and abuse.

Animals are not ours to harvest. They are sentient and deserving of rich, fulfilling lives. If you want to help end this suffering, go vegan. There are many resources online to help you through your journey and transition.

Literally everything is this post is wrong. Like all of it. Every part.

Why are vegans like this? Why do they know the least about animals of out of everyone on the planet? Actually I can answer it. It’s because if you’re a rancher and you raise animals you have to actually learn about animal husbandry. It’s because you need permits to hunt or fish and have to report your harvest to local Fish and Wildlife, who use this information to track and measure populations, as well as to check the health of herd. It’s because if your life depends on the health and well-being of an animal, you’re more invested in it than a cabbage-headed idiot who’s never been within 50ft of an actual deer.

Did you know there’s a horrible disease that is spread among deer populations in the US that causes them to starve to death even after they eat everything around them? Did you know that this there to be less food for all the other herbivores, as well as the healthy deer, causing all of them to starve to death to? Did you know that deer may go extinct in your lifetime due to it? Did you know that hunters, working with conservationist have controlled the spread this horrible disease in several states using the information that’s provided by hunters and tactical culling? I’ll bet you didn’t, because ‘deer are cute don’t eat them uwu’

The only thing that even approaches becoming semi-correct is that there are no ‘excess’ fish. Overfishing is a serious problem, but you know who does that? It’s not fisherman who fish in streams and lakes that are stocked with fish bred at a hatchery for that reason, and who’s permits fund the reintroduction of diminished or endangered species back into their native waters. It’s caused by commercial trawling, which is unethical and unsustainable. Congratulations on indirectly getting something right.

Vegans like this have to be the second most useless people on the planet because they’re a bunch of absolute fucking morons that don’t know anything about animals and yet they protest the loudest about animal welfare. They shout over people who’s entire lives depends on the delicate balance of these animals, because eating animals hurts their feelings, not because they have quantifiable scientific evidence that local wildlife populations are hurting.

Because I’m not a complete fucking idiot, here’s some ways you can actually help your local animal populations (instead of posting dumb shit on the internet);

Protest laws that negatively target native carnivores (ex; wolves) such as efforts to prevent them being reintroduced locally or the introduction of permits to hunt them. We have eradicated the most effective herd control method in the United States, and that’s what makes hunting deer a necessity. Educate yourself on your local regional wildlife and see which animals are in most need of support.

Support efforts to reintroduce native carnivores. There are both private and federal programs to help reintroduce species that have been regionally wiped out back into the native ranges. They’ll vary by your state/region, so you have to do the legwork. While this article is about Yellowstone National Park, it does detail the importance reintroduction of wolves have on the ecosystem.

Educate yourself about Chronic Wasting Disease. Spread the information and make people aware of the epidemic facing our deer herds. Deer could literally go extinct in our lifetime if a solution is not found.

Support state and federal wild life parks and reserves. These are the people that care most about your local wildlife and know the most about them. Ask them questions about what you can do, what programs you can donate to, or about laws affecting conservation efforts. Volunteer, if they have programs for it.

Buy hunting and fishing permits. Even if you don’t make use of them, the money from these permits directly funds conservation efforts in state (may vary by state).

Support efforts to ban bottom trawling on a global scale. This is an extremely destructive and unsustainable form of commercial fishing. Here’s a website with some more details about how you can help the overfishing crisis, including smart consumer choices.

Stop spreading un-sourced arguments from vegan blogs and consuming PETA-made propaganda. It’s literally all lies.

Don’t say you never learned anything from my blog. Animals have literally always been essential to my livelyhood, and I am a fierce conservationist, and I will take no fucking shit from ‘animal lovers’ who don’t know one damn fact about animals.

I also didn’t even touch on cattle and chickens, which there are other comments on this fucking abysmal trainwreck of a post explaining it, but if anyone has questions about why this human cauliflower is wrong, I’d be happy to answer them or point you in the direction of resources to help support ethical farming practices. It would be 5xs as long as this post that’s mostly about deer though.

This post is weirdly misinformed and ridiculous so I thank you @argonian-alchemist for disrupting it.

Please please please be critical of blanket statements and sensationalized articles. If it seems off, please fact check it.

Let me get into disputing the thing about deer real quick tho. Apex predators such as wolves and cougars have been hunted to extinction in some areas of the world due to farmers protecting their livestock. How many of you guys have had to defend your house from a pack of wolves recently? That’s right, you haven’t. This is a widely known concept.

However, with no natural predators to keep their population under control, they can grow as large as they want. You say deer populations will “naturally” regulate? Yeah, that’s because there’s supposed to be predators around to eat the deer and keep the population under control. (Source) When you take out the predators, it’ll keep growing so long as there’s enough forage to graze. Which brings me to my next point - deer will decimate forests.(source) Literally, if there’s enough of them in one small area they can strip a forest to its bare bones, killing trees and small shrubbery. They will also outcompete with other wildlife and throw ecosystems into shit. That’s why hunting is not only GOOD for deer populations but it’s essential to keep ecosystems healthy and balanced. There’s no more natural predators in many of the places where humans live now, so we have to become the predators. If people didn’t hunt, our natural world would not look the same. There wouldn’t be lush forests or green fields. There would be very little biodiversity. (Source) And you also probably wouldn’t see deer anymore bc they probably would had eaten themselves to extinction.

Trust me, I don’t like hunting. I hate guns and the whole sub-culture of hunting just rubs me wrong. But I also understand that hunting is absolutely essential and necessary. If I didn’t support hunting, then I couldn’t call myself an environmentalist.

My sources are spread throughout this little blurb, but my biggest source? I have a degree in environmental studies and I’ve taken multiple classes on this topics.

I could get more into disputing some of the wildly false information you’ve just listed but, again, I’d be writing a damn book.

Seriously. Like, if you choose to be vegetarian or vegan because you don’t like the idea that you’re harming animals, by all means, go for it. But don’t go spreading falsehoods either. Learn about actual conservation efforts. Understand that killing animals (through population-control hunting, reintroducing predators, and even targeting infected populations) can be a necessity. Direct your energy towards making a positive impact on the environment.

By demonizing farmers, hunters, fishers, and other groups, you actively harm what few systems exist that do promote conservation and animal care. For example, hunting is a huge thing in Texas, and not just because people here love their guns. Because on top of native deer populations, Texas also has a big problem with wild boars. Boars are incredibly voracious, will eat not only plants but also animals if they have the opportunity, and breed incredibly quickly. Compared to deer, boars are also far more dangerous, as their tusks can easily cause severe wounds, combined with the fact that they will literally fight to the death (tenacity, a trait attributed to boars since ancient times). On top of that, any natural predators they once had are either extinct or driven to the absolute fringes. So it falls on hunters to keep them in check now. And even then, despite hunting efforts, they always rebound in great numbers.

So if you wanna keep eating your kale burgers, fine by me. But if you really wanna help the environment, go after the real threats to it. Big industry, non-sustainable practices, threats to endangered plant and animal populations, and individuals+groups that value profit at the expense of nature.

Absolutely. All of this. Thank you.

Demonizing people who need animals to survive accomplishes NOTHING. You’re not making a difference for those animals, you’re just creating headaches with your blatant misinformation. Don’t kid yourself. I’m sorry if the people giving negative feedback are being harsh. You clearly have an intense passion for animals and that’s admirable.

I could go into further detail as to what’s wrong with your arguments, but there’s something else that’s a huge, glaring problem with this entire thread. You say “fact check me” but you do not have credible sources. They literally mean nothing. “meat-kills.org” and “vegan-or-starvation.com” is not a source - it’s propaganda. Nobody will take you seriously if you use such websites as “sources.” And let me tell you, they would not count as an actual source if you used them in a higher education research paper either. Learn to tell the difference between sensationalism and actual facts. Only take your information from credible sources. What is a credible source, you ask? Peer reviewed papers, articles taken from newspaper journals, magazines, books; statements from actual researches who have personally conducted actual research over a certain period of time. You must also take information that is CONSISTENT, information that you see multiple times between multiple credible sources.

I’m not saying veganism is dumb or pointless. It’s good in many aspects. Frankly, you do you with your own lifestyle. Honestly, my hat is off to you that you’re able to maintain it so diligently. It definitely not easy. But it becomes a problem when you expect everyone else to follow your lifestyle otherwise you consider them to be sick, horrible people. Like I said before, this rhetoric hurts the very animals you’re trying to save. You’re not being an animal activist - you’re being brainwashed. I implore you to reconsider your knowledge and think more critically about your arguments.

Lastly - dairy cows are not “raped.” Artificial insemination does not equal rape. It is actually a fairly normal process in animal science and MANY animals would not be able to reproduce without it. It is painless for the animal to experience and the process is overseen by vets and qualified professionals.(source) It also helps with securing a safe reproduction in endangered animals. (source)

If you continue to imply that safely inseminating animals is the same as rape, then you owe a 10 page hand written apology to every single human being who has ever been sexually assaulted. You also should explain to them why you think that the brutal, humiliating way their body was forcibly violated was exactly the same experience felt by a cow.

Here’s a homestead dairy cow with a arm up her ass

https://youtu.be/A-oGqFB40iY

And here’s a bull being jacked of by an electrified dildo

https://youtu.be/KohAzBImXvU

Please tell me these animals are not being violated in any way

Lol. Okay dokey.

So the cow isn’t being fisted for shits and giggles, you soggy almond. The actual process of artificially inseminating is less violent and invasive than a 2000lb bull mating with her. It’s also easier on the owner because there’s less risk of the cow being injured when you do it yourself. When you’re invested in your animals, you want to make sure they are as comfortable and safe as possible. This process is easier for the cow than naturally mating. So really, they’re doing the cow a favor. Also, even if they weren’t inseminating her, a vet would still have to stick his hand up there occasionally to examine her lady bits and make sure she’s healthy. But you’d rather her suffer and potentially die from a disease than be “raped” for a minute.

As for a bull - again, this process is less stressful for the bull than to let him naturally mate and is safer for him. It’s also MUCH safer for the handlers, since bulls can easily become dangerous. I won’t go into more detail since clearly you’re not going to listen to me anyway and had already made your decision when you opened this reblog and decided that you refused to be educated.

Please keep your ridiculous, idiotic, and ignorant vegan propaganda out of the fishblr and animalblr tags. And also, go outside. Have a good day.

Jesus Christ, I knew more about animals than OP does when I was six. This is honestly scary.

Also dairy cows make more milk than a calf could possibly drink. Even if they kept their calves they would still need to be milked. Some women suffer from oversupply when they lactate and their babies can’t drink all that so they pump, all dairy cows were bred to have oversupply so they too have to be pumped.

Since I’m a bee scientists and no one’s really touched of the bee part; bees have been selectively bred to create an excess in honey. The fact that you think beekeepers take the food stores that bees need over winter is laughable because beekeepers don’t want to kill off their hives. That makes zero sense.

If the excess honey is not harvested it also runs the risk of the hive swarming and leaving the hive box, so not only have you lost your bees, but they’ve probably gone and taken up estate in a place that’s going to harm humans or wild animals.

Beekeeping is a complex process that requires I love for bees, and I’m sick to death of people who’ve never seen a hive box let alone understand the first thing about keeping bees or the industry, spreading nonsense.

If you aren’t educated or experienced in a subject then no one needs or requires you to open your mouth and spew misinformation.

cynomanic: my trail-cam inspired thylacine piece for...

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 12:20:45 +1000

cynomanic:

my trail-cam inspired thylacine piece for @cryptozineology, along with the (slightly sappy) informational blurb I wrote to accompany it!