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thanks to dr. chuck tingle a true hero and buckaroo

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Very informative thread -source

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Hello! I was just wondering if you could answer this for me? My cat is 14, very old but very healthy, and I seem to be her favorite person. I spoil her with tons of treats and toys and let her into my room with me, which my family doesn't like to do. She gets excited and starts purring just from seeing me in the same room. My folks say she only acts that way b/c she always thinks I'm gonna give her something. But there are times she'll just climb in my lap and sleep. Is she really being loving?

I’d be inclined to think so. We know cats are social creatures, and we know that they bond with people. You’ve got a cat who seeks you out, displays behavioral indicators of excitement, and starts purring in a situation in which stress- or pain-purring isn’t relevant. It sounds to me like it’s pretty obvious there’s something she finds enjoyable or reinforcing about being near you. 

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I continue to be impressed by the level of transparency that the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has committed to regarding medical issues with their animals. I frequently call for radical accountability and communication from the zoo industry, and they’re killing it What I really want to share with you is the video and accompanying explanation the zoo put out yesterday about what happened when Malaika went down. Since I can’t embed FB videos in tumblr, you can click through here (I highly recommend it - it’s not often the public gets to see how emergency elephant responses work) and I’ll copy their text below:

“This morning, a team of Cheyenne Mountain Zoo staff used specialized equipment to successfully assist Malaika, a 33-year-old African elephant, who was found lying on her side during an overnight check. If an elephant can’t get up on its own and is down for too long, it can cause stress to its internal organs and can be fatal. The team responded in the early-morning hours to mobilize a specialized crane-and-hoist system in the barn to help the elephant to her feet, since she was unable to stand on her own.

The team was made up of more than 20 cross-discipline Zoo staff members, including Malaika’s animal keepers, veterinary staff, maintenance and grounds personnel, The Colorado Springs Fire Department Heavy Rescue team, Broadmoor Fire Department, and more.

The Zoo’s emergency response team was able to use the barn’s hoist system to help Malaika into a sternal position (on her belly, with legs in a better position to stand). Malaika was then able to stand on her own, with the hoist strap still in place for support, at 6:47 a.m. Since then, her care team, including her keepers and veterinary staff, have been monitoring her for any additional medical concerns. She is drinking electrolyte water, eating some of her favorite treats, and taking medication for inflammation and pain.

Malaika has a history of not being able to get back up from laying down, and had to be rescued once before, on Jan. 1, 2018. Some elephants are able to lie down and get back up with no problem, but some, like Malaika, don’t ever lie down and instead just lean on objects for rest. This is partially due to a life-long issue with bowing and lack of strength in her back right leg, which is worsening as she ages.

Because of Malaika’s history, Zoo staff monitor her throughout the day and with checks every two hours overnight. Our monitoring system shows that Malaika went down around 3:45 a.m., from what appears to be a leg wobble during a deep sleep. She was discovered down during the 5 a.m. check. A core Zoo team was assembled at the elephant barn between 5:30 and 5:45 a.m., with a full team on-site by 6 a.m. Protocols were immediately put into place to help her stand.

The Zoo cares for an aging female elephant herd, so the barn is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment that helps address the inevitable complications that come with multi-ton animals that need medical assistance. Equipment includes a remote video surveillance system for animal care staff to monitor the elephants, the crane-and-hoist system that can lift a disabled elephant and a care system that provides a safe area for weighing, veterinary care and husbandry training. Outdoor wellness features of the exhibit include an exercise path, built-in enrichment activities, a pool and a spacious vacation yard, where our elephants can take time to roam and explore by themselves.

Zoo staff performs drills to practice and test protocols for situations like these. The last “down elephant” drill occurred in January 2019, which is likely one reason the procedure to help Malaika today ran as successfully as it did.

We appreciate your support and well wishes for Malaika. We will bring you an update on how she is doing in the coming days.”

Okay, so there’s a couple things I want to talk about here:

I love the full transparency here. The amount of detail on her medical history, the little things like specific times being referenced… they give a very intimate view into the incident that avoids feeling like a nice slick PR statement. They’re earning the trust of their audience with each post like this.

Down elephant drills are really important, and every zoo with elephants does them. I’ve gotten to sit through a really cool conference session where a bunch of different facilities discussed their plans and drills and how they coordinate with local emergency response. For instance, if an elephant goes down outside, and you need a crane to help stand them back up - better have done a dry run getting that piece of machinery into the habitat before you have an emergency! And yes, some zoos do have “elephant stand-ins” they’ll practice rescuing.

The reason “being down” is a problem for elephants is because the sheer weight of their body crushes their own tissues, or cuts off circulation. They can and do lay down to sleep at night naturally, but not for long periods at one time. The issues start when an elephant can’t shift position or get back up on their own. This is also a consideration for veterinary procedures involving anesthetizing elephants - the longer they’re out and laying still, the more risk there is.

Overall, I know what a hard call that is for the keepers to get, and what an effort it is to get an animal the size of an African elephant back on her feet. I’m glad it was successful, and super proud of CMZ for being this open about it.

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I don’t know much about the world, but it seems like if you take #long post warning and add it to #i needed this, you end up with #tolkien.

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Do not blame me for who I am. The doctor prescribed me 20 mL of #appropriation twice a day.

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April Fools 2019: the super-accurate guide to SEA DINOSAURS

it can be hard to tell sea dinos apart so here’s a handy guide on all the different kinds:

Keep reading

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Evolution Series: A Drove of Dragons

Dragons are some of the most fantastical creatures to never have evolved. With their burning breath and aerial proficiency, they have inspired legends all over the world for thousands of years.

*The animals represented here are not to scale and don’t represent a direct line of descent, but rather plausible models for how this amazing transition could’ve happened. Also this is an April fool’s joke.*

Patreon • Ko-fi • Facebook  • Twitter • Prints & Merch

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Lily Moth (Polytela gloriosae) and Caterpillar (x x x x)

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All rights reserved by Bill Swindaman

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what better way to show the feather structures of a chickens wing than with Lineart Chicken

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Also that’s not what cultural relativism even means, at least not in the discipline where the concept originated. Speaking as someone with a degree in anthropology, this is one of those really annoying misconceptions people have.

(The only thing more annoying is when people try to explain things like poverty or violence in a particular nation or race by attributing it to culture. Cultural values and behaviors don’t magically pop into existence out of nowhere, they arise in response to the specific circumstances people find themselves in. They also aren’t eternal, and can in fact change pretty darn quickly when they no longer mesh with people’s lived experiences.) (Okay, now I’m reminded of a third annoying misconception: that there is a specific set of beliefs and values that every member of “a culture” holds to and if anyone thinks or acts differently they are “abandoning their culture.” Like, a Japanese person who wears blue jeans isn’t somehow less Japanese than one who wears a kimono.)

Was going to reblog a post about FGM being bad, that had a reblog arguing that “your cultural values aren’t better than anyone else’s”, but the OP blocked me. Basically what I had to say was, 

Some cultural values and moral beliefs do in fact have more value than others, specifically the ones that respect people’s human rights.  

“My culture say it’s cool if I chop up my baby’s genitals in a way that will be a net negative on her life” is not something you have to permit in order to be a tolerant person. Sometimes the path of tolerance means acting in a way that may be seen as intolerant in order to protect others from the real intolerance at play. Someone who paints their evil actions as “just a different culture that you’re being intolerant of” is nothing but a manipulator who wants to get away with it. 

Concepts like ‘cultural relativism’ are how you tolerate intolerance; you act like a tolerant person fighting for kindness, and yet consider the most large-scale, most generational evils, those that have been going on so long that they’ve become tradition, to be the ones that should be accepted. It defeats its own reason for existing.

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I cannot stress enough every politics of extermination is reactionary and clouds the structural processes by which reactionary social groups emerge. Our task isn’t to kill billionaires its too make them fundamentally impossible 

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This point is raised often, though it seems still not enough. ICE has only been around for 16 years; its anniversary is on Friday, March 1st, in fact, if you want to observe it (just don’t get caught). The agency, and the rest of the DHS, was formed in response to 9/11 in an atmosphere of frenzied despotic paranoia, and by design caters to and propagates that paranoia. Paramilitary and police state tactics and heavy-handed xenophobic criminalization are constitutional to ICE’s structure and operations to a degree worlds beyond any of its predecessor agencies. Eliminating ICE and its jackboots is 100 percent doable and needed, and would only be beneficial.

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I’ve found a new favourite artist!

Gerard Geer utilises a combination of naturalistic articulation of animal specimens and amalgamations of interspecific forms to create fantastical hybrid creatures and intricate landscapes.

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twentybiteen the gift that keeps on giving

mr rogers was bisexual

happy twentybiteen

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Less famous deep sea fish I think deserve more consideration:

Wolf-trap fish (Thaumaticthydiae) (image source) : this is actually a very divergent anglerfish with a long body and a lure that dangles down through the roof of its mouth. You can see how the huge upper jaw is folded almost inside-out, which is its normal resting position. The two lobes of the jaw fold downwards to close on prey.

Because of this arrangement and the location of the lure, it’s thought that this angler specializes in prey that live on the floor of the abyss.

Monognathidae (image source): this is a relative of the gulper eel, but instead of having huge pelican-like jaws, it has a unique switchblade-like lower jaw and only one tooth, situated in the roof of its mouth and supposedly venomous, though it’s hard to find sources going into any further detail on that.

Tube Eye Fish (Stylephorus) (image source) : this fish has an incredibly long, threadlike tail, huge binocular-like eyes, and fairly large jaws but only a TINY actual mouth opening. When the jaws are opened, that tiny opening results in a powerful but thin current of suction, and the eyes probably allow it to aim that vortex with extreme precision.

Grideye fish (Ipnopidae) (image source) : by the time it reaches adulthood, this fish completely loses its original eyes and instead develops a pair of concave, dish-like sensory pits that only seem to detect light and dark while emitting a faint yellow glow of their own. Why it goes to this extreme really isn’t known, so there might be something to these weird eye-pits that we don’t know yet. All grideyes are hermaphroditic and they spend a lot of time sitting on the ground, eating worms and crustaceans.

Tripod fish (also Ipnopidae!) (image source) : grideye cousins and probably the best known of the fish I put here, though you might not know everything that makes them so bizarre. They look like fairly ordinary fish without their “tripod” extensions, but they use those to stand in one place for hours, maybe even days, using their fins to catch minute bits of food. It’s the kind of feeding mechanism seen in barnacles, corals, sea lilies and other stationary filter-feeders!