redflicker - Tumblr blog

[redflicker]

lil doodle page :3

[redflicker]

drawing the same guy 3928948 times👏👏👏👏👏

[redflicker]

they are injured, but that’s ok. because they still have eachother and that’s what matters

[redflicker]

normal about them

[redflicker]

violent metamorphosis (or death of the old self)

extra stuff:

^ accidentally drew the piece a little too far to the left and by the time i noticed it was too late. so. meh. 🫠

[redflicker]

Come back from work, draw Emmet, all is good in the world

[redflicker]

this interaction was so cute that i had to draw it

[redflicker]

day 164

[redflicker]

re: this interaction, i need to remind everyone that Ingo has a very polite and formal way of speaking that is typically associated with customer service

Nita refers to Chili/Rika as “Chili-chan,” which is actually how she refers to herself, but Ingo calls her “Chili-sama”

when Ingo says “i insist that you visit the Battle Subway” it’s literally more like “please come visit OUR Battle Subway,” or maybe more like “please come visit us on the Battle Subway,” which is cute because it can be read as him including Emmet, but more importantly he also uses the VERY formal “watakushi-domo”

basically he’s talking like a “employee of the month” type service worker to a customer which makes this convo all the more funnier because he’s using this super super polite language to get into a squabble with Nita over who gets to have the cool fan-favorite come visit

[redflicker]

a verrry little passenger

[redflicker]

Some ‘gos 2

[redflicker]

that one meme, I forgot

[redflicker]

Ingo 2

[redflicker]

It’s so fascinating to me that we’ve only been breeding Komodo dragons in captivity for thirty years. In that time, our understanding of them has actually really revolutionized the way we understand the social lives and behaviors of lizards in general, and it’s mostly thanks to this lady right here, who was born 30 years ago on September 13, 1992.

Kraken was the first Komodo to be bred in captivity. She hatched out at GMU, but was raised at the National Zoo. Her parents were wild-caught dragons- there’s still WC dragons in the AZA today- and this one specific individual probably did more to revolutionize lizard care in professional settings than any other individual lizard throughout zoo history.

Until Kraken, social enrichment wasn’t a thing people thought about. It wasn’t something anybody felt was necessary for lizards, because they were just… lizards. Sure, some keepers would play with their favorites, but it wasn’t until the National Zoo started documenting what she was doing that anybody realized how much Komodo dragons like to play with us too.

undefined

Kraken’s not in that video, but she’s the one who inspired all of the social studies that have been done on captive Komodo dragons. When she was at the National Zoo, her keepers  started getting curious when, for no apparent reason, she kept gingerly stealing things from peoples’ pockets and tugging on their shoelaces. So they started giving her stuff- Frisbees, blankets, soda cans, anything she showed an interest in.

She played with them, just like a mammal might. The way play behavior is described in psychology is a given activity that’s voluntary, repeated, and conducted under “relatively benign” circumstances. Keeper staff found that her conduct during the study met all of these criteria. “Kraken,” they wrote, had clearly demonstrated “play-like behavior with objects and even with humans (tug-of-war).” Moreover, she “could discriminate between prey and nonprey” while showing “varying responses” with different items (rubber rings, shoes, etc.). (There’s an excellent book on Komodo dragons that has an entire chapter devoted to her.)

Kraken died several years ago, but her legacy continues today. There’s several of her descendants still in the AZA, and the intelligence and social needs she demonstrated led to the improvement of life for these guys- and other lizards. The Komodo dragon program has been an eye opener, not just for reptile conservation, but for understanding reptile intelligence and how this incredible clade of animals functions.

[redflicker]

Every impulsive Submas thought slapped onto a canvas

Featuring:

-Joltiks being used to zap Emmet's sides like they're defibrillators (shocking!)

-Ingo's sneaky tactics not working (he usually sneaks up behind people and is more playful than he looks)

-Emmet plush whispering into Ingo's ear about his hygiene (Idk what this was)

-White and Ingo displaying a huge height difference (funni)

[redflicker]

Dawns!

On Twitter it crops like this so it’s a bit of a shame it won’t be the same on tumblr but I think it still looks cool together

[redflicker]

People never seem to want to hang out at animal habitats. If they can’t see something immediately, they just leave. If you’re patient enough to stay, sometimes incredibly magical experiences happen. Like this one.

Those are California condors. Biggest wingspan in North America, incredibly endangered, and the only species with approval from USDA for emergency use of the poultry avian flu vaccine.

Towards the end of the day, once things got quiet, I sat down near where one was foraging and just hung out. Then… they noticed me.

I can only upload one video so I’m going with the one where I was showing them my glasses, since they kept trying to peck at my shoelaces and fingers and I wondered what else they'd be interested in.

They stayed there with me for at least five minutes, given the duration of video I took. Just chilling, watching me, interacting a little. It was just us - nobody else approached. Until eventually they chose to go do their own thing, and I sat there in awe for a while.

It’s worth it to wait, when you can.