#science and nature

[weaselle]

These are both mustelids, or in the weasel family. the group Mustelids/weasels are to these guys what the group Canines are to dogs and foxes and wolves and things.

But within that group, these guys aren't actually very closely related. Each of these "badgers" is roughly as equally related to each other as they are to these other mustelids

Wolverines

Honey Badgers

River Otters

and Martens

bonus pic because i'm not sure people understand wolverine size

Anyway, both types of badger are fascinating, but they are very different.

The American Badger is volatile and ferocious. They are largely solitary, and don't dig their own burrows so much as murder a burrowing creature, eat them, and then remodel that burrow for themselves.

European Badgers live in communal dens, and dig activity-specific rooms, including a separate toilet room. They will sometimes have a networked multi-family den/burrow system, with a large extended family all having their own underground homes that are attached to each other. European Badgers will sometimes share their borrow amicably with foxes, rabbits, or raccoon dogs (which exist in the wilds of europe after having been introduced).

The denning with rabbits is interesting since rabbits are often a prey item for European Badgers, whereas the foxes and raccoon dogs are weird roommates for them because they have heavily overlapping diets and are direct competition for one another.

While they do often eat birds and small mammals, European Badgers will happily exist on a diet of earthworms, insects, fungus, and various plants... and so will red foxes. They are both extreme generalists, eating basically anything available.

American Badgers on the other hand... while they will eat worms and fungus and fruit in small amounts or if very hungry, they primarily eat small mammals, about 10 species of rodent, with some birds and insects and reptiles thrown in along with whatever larger animals they can scavenge. American badgers have been known to bury an entire deer or even cow carcass to eat later. They are bloodthirsty and voracious.

So... OP's take is not wrong. European Badgers will build and share little den villages and they eat a lot more worms and fruits and grains... while American Badgers steal temporary homes by murdering and devouring the previous occupants, and would generally prefer to eat as large an animal as they can get.

But don't let that fool you. Look back through those pictures. The European Badger is still in the family, and their butler persona is a lot like Alfred's the way they will get out the big guns for an enemy with zero hesitation and no fucks given.

BONUS bonus pic, here is my dog, who is about the same size as a badger, who has a stripey nose like a badger, and who's name is, in fact, Badger

[stone-cold-groove]

Your summer reading list: Natural History of Vacant Lots - 1987.

[african-international-magazine]

SCIENCE’S DARING GAMBLE ON NATURE

The world of science and technology is currently ablaze with excitement and controversy over the resurrection of species once thought to be permanently lost to extinction. What was once confined to science fiction is now breaking into reality, with researchers using cutting-edge genetic engineering to “de-extinct” animals long vanished from Earth.

This week, global media erupted following the announcement that dire wolves, a species believed to have gone extinct centuries ago, have been brought back to life. Colossal Biosciences, a biotech company at the forefront of this field, confirmed that three dire wolf puppies were successfully bred using ancient DNA and deft genetic manipulation.

Just weeks earlier, another milestone was made public, the revival of the dodo, a famously extinct bird of the Raphus species. Scientists combined decades of evolutionary research with advanced genome editing techniques to reconstruct the DNA and recreate the species that disappeared more than 300 years ago.

These developments are being hailed as historic. Evolutionary biologists and environmental advocates argue that de-extinction can help restore lost biodiversity, repair damaged ecosystems, and even provide insights into combating modern-day extinctions.

However, these breakthroughs are also stirring profound ethical and ecological concerns. Can human beings truly recreate nature without consequences? What happens when synthetic life, however well-intentioned, collides with natural ecosystems that have long moved on?

Colossal’s researchers insist that de-extinction is not simply cloning. It’s about restoring lost genetic lineages; bringing back versions of extinct creatures based on surviving DNA blueprints. But critics worry that these efforts, however noble, disrupt natural processes of decomposition, microbial evolution, and organic ecosystem balance.

After extinction, species decompose and become part of the microbial web of life; sometimes even contributing to the DNA evolution of new species through natural means. Scientific intervention may shortcut this process, introducing organisms into ecosystems that are no longer prepared to host them.

There’s also a bigger unknown: behavior. These resurrected species, while genetically similar to their extinct ancestors, have never existed in today’s altered climate, food chain, or ecological frameworks. Will they thrive, adapt, or pose unforeseen risks? Could they become invasive, uncontrollable, or fail to survive in the very world that brought them back?

The reality is, no one fully knows. What’s clear is that science has crossed a boundary and the consequences, whether miraculous or disastrous, are yet to unfold.

De-extinction is undeniably a triumph of human ingenuity, but it’s also a reminder: we’re now playing a game of life with nature’s ancient blueprints, and the rules haven’t yet been written.

[maguro13-2]

Goku : Sailor Moon, now that you returned for your new show, which is a reboot and updated version of your old show back in the days.

Luffy : We gotta ask you something. How did you come back to Toei Animation after your story ends with a happily ever after in manga form?

Sailor Moon : Well, that's very easy. We died in a crash on the moon.

Goku : Oh sure that's perfect for us to--Wait did you just die in a crash?

Sailor Moon : Probably that shuttle we were on.

Luffy : Wait a sec, if you died in a shuttle's crash on the moon, then how did you and your nakamas brought yourself back to life?

Sailor Moon : Easy, we live in the ways of an unshod lifestyle, connecting with nature of course.

(Goku and Luffy realize that Sailor Moon (Usagi) is not wearing any of her boots)

*Dramatic Cue*

Luffy : Why did we even buy any of this stuff?

Sailor Mars : That's nothing....We all came back for our new show, we used to live in an unshod lifestyle.

Luffy : Say what!?

(the Inner and Outer scouts, except for Chibiusa, aren't wearing any shoes)

Luffy : Do you like need some context or anything?

Sailor Mercury : Nope. But we like living in the unshod forces of nature. Tell that to science.

Sailor Jupiter : Yeah! This makes my muscles tingle very often.

Sailor Venus : I prefer beauty over sunshine, it looks very excellent. And they gave us the free food for a while.

(Sanji is shock after hearing this sudden realization)

*Dramatic Cue*

Sanji : *angrily rumbles like an earthquake* FREE...FOOD!?

(Sanji runs up to the Scouts)

Sanji : You knuckleheads! How are you not noticed that the shuttle's crashed kill you!

Usopp : Listen shrimp for brains, if I was an astronaut in a space suit while exploring an abandon moon base on the moon, I would've scared myself and dumping bricks!

Zoro : And all of that everyone thought that you were dead, how are you still alive!?

Usagi : Well, to be honest with you. I made a wish that we can be reborn.

Zoro : Are you sure about that? We know that you were the victims to that crash on the moon!

Usagi : Oh that? That used be the old us, this is the new us in 2014 style, I am a Unshod Usagi and these are my Unshod sisters of Sisterhood.

Sanji : You what!?

Usopp : Anything you want something is proper context! But this studio is a place of work! Not a place for your no shoes policy!

Piccolo : Some of them found out that the site of the Shuttle's crash have disappeared when she made that wish to be reborn.

Zoro : And how are we supposed to know that going unshod is helping you get promoted?

Sailor Moon : Because mother nature gets her soil.

Sailor Moon : *wiggles her toes* See what you like for yourselves.

Zoro : Don't give me that crap, no one is buying that garbage!

Sailor Venus : Look guys. We just love being unshod, it's what helps healing our bodies with a little earthing and using the elements of nature itself.

Zoro : For the love of Kami, I told you that no-shoes lifestyle with nature is a bunch of...(gets ink on his face) Baloney!

Sailor Venus : Plus we created a world in the multiverse that...

Zoro : I'll take that! *swipes something*

Sailor Jupiter : No wait! What are you doing!?

Zoro : And this how I was pissed off for giving us tear jerking moments of that fateful crash on the moon from your employee of the month awards! *attempts to stomp on something*

Luffy : No, Zoro! That's...

*METALLIC CLANG+CRACK*

Zoro : OW! WHAT IS THIS MADE OF!?

Sailor Venus : A block of Metal. We learned in Unshod class during our studies with the Supreme Kai of Time. She told us that Mother Nature knows best when it comes to her elements blessed by the soles of our feet on that one.

Zoro : If that's good on you then let me hand this out for you, that unshod lifestyle is nothing but a joke and neither of you is gonna buy any of this garbage. (walks off as more Ink splays off screams)

Zoro : *growls furiously*

Luffy : He'll get over it. But it's great to have you back girls.

Sanji : At least we still have each other.

Nami : Luffy...

Luffy : Yes Nami-(realizes that she's angry)

Nami : Can you explain what this gunk is doing all over my perfectly good shoes?

Luffy : Uhh, I explain this for real.

(flips to later, show Luffy beaten up by Nami and is in a cage)

Luffy : What did I do wrong?! I didn't deserve any of this!

Nami : And oh so that you could feel sorry that I got walk the plank with no shoes with this no shoes policy in the studio?

Luffy : It was a harmless prank, I can explain this to you! There was misunderstanding!

*DBZ fighting sounds*

Nami : (beating Luffy into some sense) Well if you think that it's harmless prank, then let me do it for you and tell them to get them out my gosh darn way!!!

Chopper : Oh nami. Talk about a mouthful of harmless pranks.

Usopp : Nobody would understand this moment between the two of them.

Brook : We should tell this to everybody about this.

Chopper : No thanks, I think we should let them do this alone.

Sanji : Hey, guys. We got a news from the Supreme Kai of Time. She now allows everyone go unshod with science and nature class, and even learn the elemts of nature itself!

*DBZ Fighting sounds*

Nami : (angry anime vein) Don't even think about buying it!

Sanji : (moaning with a goofy voice) At least I finally understand what science meant for unshod people. Also, I'm gonna need an aspirin to fix to fix my broken back.

Chopper : I feel your pain, man.

Usopp : Agree.

Franky : If you feel like not buying any of that stuff, get some context next time.

And that's how Sailor Moon returned for the rebooted show Crystals.

Sailor Moon : Yeah, that's how we came back for our new show. So screw you Echo Night Beyond!

[NSMB BGM : Jingle - Course Clear]

"AND NOW YOU KNOW"

Mario : That's-a so nice! (gets launched by Nami's air)

*Mario yelling*

Nami : Man, I hate it when he does that every time.

[redpandamerchdaily]

Red panda merch of the day: Science And Nature Red Panda Replica

[the-cricket-chirps]

Maria Sibylla Merian

Thysania agrippina

1705

[weaselle]

no but the cool thing about that is your top ten favorite ants could include bees and wasps because ants and bees evolved from wasps they are basically just a type of wasp sort of like how a dolphin is a type of whale.

and also did you know that more than half the kinds of bees there are do not live in hives but are solitary bees that do cute things like find flowers that close at night and sleep inside them. Or like some types of orchid bees that collect little molecules of smells and keep them in a little pocket gland in their hind legs and make a personalized perfume for the big ballroom (tree stump) dance they gather at for their mating ritual and! These bees have been building up a resistance to insecticides because they collect them for their perfumes because evidently the lady bees like them to smell just a little bit dangerous -- oh and they're metallic and shiny and colorful like so

Cuckoo Wasps come in a similar range of iridescent colors, are incredibly tiny, and get their name by laying their eggs in the nests of other insect species, where their larva is protected by the host parents while it eats the original offspring. Also they are very very small

bringing it back to proper ants, some ants like Calomyrmex and Rhytidoponera pull off a similar if less brilliant look

and if you're having trouble seeing how this carpenter ant looks like a bee or wasp

then take a look at this carpenter ant Queen

But favorite ants that are ANT ants?

at the top of my list would be the many many species of ants that engage in aphid ranching. They ranch the aphids just like goats or cows - they "milk" them by stroking their abdomen until they produce a sugary liquid, every once in a while they straight up eat one, they protect them from predators, they move them from grazing ground to grazing ground to keep them well fed, and some species even collect their aphids' eggs and bring them inside to protect them from cold weather (which is crazy cool to me). AND! Recently there has been found some evidence that, because some environmental situations can cause aphids to grow wings (meaning they could fly and like, escape the ants) the ants feed them chemicals that prevent the growth of wings!

and right under that would be the roughly 247 species of ants that farm a completely domesticated species of fungus. They collect leaf debris and things and mulch it for the fungus to eat, and the fungus grows little fruit bodies for them to eat. It only grows these little fruit knobs specifically for the ants, not for normal fungus purposes. The fungus is so domesticated that, like our corn, it cannot grow by itself in the wild anymore. And the ants know it, like when a young queen is born, she leaves to start her own colony, but first she steals a chunk of fungus to plant in the new nest for her own workers to farm.

so. Not exactly just my top ten ants. But there you go

[weaselle]

Felis Concolor the Mountain Lion

mountain lions are the biggest of the small cats (Small Cats can purr but can't roar and are all more related to each other than to any of the Big Cats, who can roar but not purr and are all more related to each other than they are to any of the small cats. Basically.)

they can get to be 200+ lbs, hold on

okay do you know how hard it is to find a picture of a large mountain lion next to a human that is NOT a picture of someone bragging about how they've murdered it? Finally found this, from a team tranquilizing mountain lions to put tracking collars on them

if you can't make out the writing, it says: "Brian Kertson, right, and Bart George sit next to a 197-pound cougar they caught and collared on Monday, March 5, 2018. Kerston, who is 6-foot-2 and 270, said the tom cat’s forearms made his arms look puny. (Brian Kerston / Courtesy)"

when they aren't drugged they look a liiiiitle more impressive

they are incredible climbers and astounding jumpers.

They can leap 20 feet straight up in the air from a stand still. That's from the ground to the roof of a two story apartment building. With a running start they can jump across a 40 foot river.

Their favorite hunting method is Jump Upon Creature, often from a high point on a tall rock or from in a tree. And that means you get pictures like this

[stone-cold-groove]

Your summer reading list: The Nature of Violent Storms - 1961.

[the-cricket-chirps]

Maria Sibylla Merian

Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium

1705

[weaselle]

i just want to point a light at the fact that the reason this is important is because cheetahs are ... struggling to remain on the planet

there are only about 7 thousand of them alive on the planet

in the wild, only 5% of cheetahs born survive to adulthood

they are notoriously difficult to breed in captivity through breeding programs at conservatories, national parks, and zoos. Only 20% of cheetahs we try to get pregnant actually have babies. Some of this is because of genetic bottle-necking, and some of it is because cheetahs are a ball of nerves who seem to have too much anxiety to conceive and stay pregnant long enough to give birth.

and if all that wasn't enough to celebrate this event, most of the time cheetahs give birth to 3 or 4 cubs. Sometimes 2 or 6 cubs. This cheetah has given birth to twice as many cubs as could realistically be expected, at a time when every cheetah born is important.

For the first time in Saint Louis Zoo history, a cheetah has given birth to 8 cheetah cubs .

Awww look at their faces! I want to cuddle them!!

But I wont. 

[weaselle]

Stuff From My Weaselle Head

Did you know there are mink in California?

I've only seen one in the wild ONE TIME and i couldn't figure out what i was looking at

it was like 10 years ago and i was like whoa that was the smallest most dangerous nutria i've ever seen!

that's a joke about people thinking weasels are rodents -- nutria are invasive rodents that are just like if a beaver gave up its engineering degree and more than half its body weight, check it out

here's a nutria

the biggest nutria will weigh about 20lbs (9kg) and

here's a beaver

(which max out around 65lbs, or 30kg)

they are both water-adapted rodents (huge, webbed back feet, tho the nutria's tail isn't as specialized) that live in and at the edge of water and eat woody plants (beavers eat trees, nutria eat stuff like cattails)

Nutria don't build dams, but a few years ago, some native beavers in the Portland area and some invasive nutria were observed building a dam together! which is interesting, especially as beaver do sometimes engage in cooperative co-habitation with muskrats.

okay so muskrats are another aquatic rodent with the same design but tiny -- they weigh around 3 pounds (1.3kg)

Muskrat

and sometimes a mated pair of muskrats will spend the winter in a beaver lodge with a mated pair of beavers. The beavers store food for the winter under the cold water (keeps it good like a fridge) and go out and bring back food every day or two. The muskrats eat the more tender bits from the branches the beavers bring in and sleep in the safe warm den, but the muskrats sort of pay rent by going out every couple days and collecting reed stems etc and changing out the bedding that lines and insulates the inside of the beaver's lodge.

ANYWAY. No, for real tho, rodents aside, when i saw the mink, what i actually wondered for a second was "are there tiny river otters in california?"

River otters come in all kinds of sizes, from as small as a little kitty to as big as a person, so. It was a reasonable guess. And it turns out there is actually a river otter species that lives in California, but they are bigger, they get up to 30 lbs (13kg)

N. American River Otter

That's not what i saw tho. Nope, what i saw was an American Mink.

American Mink are semi-aquatic, they are sort of in-between a ferret and a river otter. They weigh about 2lbs (1kg) and look like this

American Mink

and the one i saw was swimming

and i mean like this on the surface but also diving and rolling and sort of scurrying around through the water, proper otter behavior. Like, i couldn't see as deep as this, but look

They totally do otter shit. So you can't blame me for wondering if i had seen an otter.

But it was a mink! I didn't even know there was a native mink here, and it made me learn we also have ermine too! This is an ermine

They are colored brown with a white belly like a common weasel for half the year, and i didn't know there were little river otters OR ermine in California until i was looking up stuff because of that mink i saw :)

Seeing it swim around in the wild was at least as exciting as that time i saw a fisher!

Sort of getting back to the nutria vs. beavers thing, fishers are like a giant marten, basically. A marten is a tree weasel that can weigh a max of maybe 3lbs (1.3kg) . A fisher (sometimes called a fisher cat) is, like, 96% identical to a marten but way bigger, maxing out around 16lbs (7.25kg).

here's what martens look like

and here's what fishers look like

despite their name, fishers aren't aquatic and don't eat many fish. They, like martens, are semi-arboreal (spend a lot of time in trees) and have a diet nearly identical to other martens (mice, rabbits, eggs, berries, basically anything else they can get their teeth on, and a lotta squirrels)

you could easily mistake one

for the other

if it weren't for the size difference

[stone-cold-groove]

Your summer reading list: Modern Biology - 1956.

[the-cricket-chirps]

Maria Sibylla Merian

Wasserskorpion, Frösche, Kaulquappen und Wasserhyazinthe

Amsterdam 1705