20’s, asexual, non-binary. Sanguine. I’m just your friendly local plague doctor. You can call me Alex. I’m cool with any pronouns. If you like plague doctor cosplay, pictures of my pets, and the occasional shitpost, this is the blog for you
if you hate some type of animal because it “serves no purpose” or “doesn’t have the same emotional/mental capacity as humans/dogs/cats” i need you to set yourself on fire for me ok
Not a great picture but you can see he has his sensory tentacles and one (1) eyeball out
I found a slug earlier today. He was on the road and very sunburned across his back and mostly dried out, but when I picked him up I saw a little bit of Foot Movement so I brought him home and put him in a container with a wet paper towel and some moss. For a while I was unsure if he was alive but he finally poked an eyeball out at me and looked around. So I guess I have a slug now.
I found a slug earlier today. He was on the road and very sunburned across his back and mostly dried out, but when I picked him up I saw a little bit of Foot Movement so I brought him home and put him in a container with a wet paper towel and some moss. For a while I was unsure if he was alive but he finally poked an eyeball out at me and looked around. So I guess I have a slug now.
When we’re new to adulthood, it doesn’t immediately occur to all of us that you’re almost always allowed to leave a situation, because growing up we’re forced to stay in situations until someone dismisses us and/or takes us home, or if we do leave on our own accord there’s someone waiting at home to say “we don’t quit in this family!” Boring party? You can leave. You don’t like the lecture? You can walk out. New doctor not working out? You can end the appointment, you don’t need to wait for them to dismiss you. Bad date? You can just go home. Leaving a situation prematurely might have consequences, but unless you’re under arrest or serving prison time, it’s pretty much always allowed.
Apologies if this is an odd ask, but for you as an aquarist is your field more animal husbandry/SSP related (departments like "Madagascar routine" or "Pinniped team" for conservation breeding/daily care/research/etc) or animal education/handling (a smaller number of animals in your dept but more direct free contact/training/public interaction)? I've done both traditional zookeeping and ambassador work for terrestrial animals, and I'm absolutely fascinated by the aquatic counterparts!! Thanks for sharing your aquarium journey 🤠
Aquarists typically do a bit of both. Some bigger aquariums might hire separate people for behind the scenes work vs public outreach but at the places I’ve worked it’s kind of a blend of the two.
When I did my internship at the Pittsburgh Aquarium (which wasn’t a Huge aquarium but definitely bigger than the Maine Aquarium) I was more of a behind-the-scenes type of person that maintained the tanks and fed the animals and occasionally assisted with some educational activities.
The Maine Aquarium it was a weird situation, we weren’t quite fully open and only had about four full-time staff members so I just had to do everything. Which was cool, because now I have experience with all kinds of stuff, but it was also A Lot Of Work.
I’m hoping to get a job similar to my previous one where I get to do a little bit of everything, because I find all aspects of aquarium work fascinating and really fun (except cleaning up after you feed the animals. Cleaning a cutting board covered in raw fish and squid juice is uh. Pretty gross. But such is the life of an aquarist I suppose).
There's too much respect for authority in America. Many people look favorably on cops and soldiers and some of them even admire politicians and businessmen. It's not a mindset conducive to virtue.
It’s a different one but it’s like the sister organization to the Maine State Aquarium, they exchange a lot of ideas and animals and educational materials
I have an interview at the Maine Oceanarium today and the guy emailed me JUST NOW and was like Hey can you put together a short presentation on an animal of your choice. My interview is in like 3 hours