akdogdriver

[akdogdriver]

why do you and others like vaccines so much?

not dying of preventable diseases is actually one of my favorite hobbies

[akdogdriver]

L'anse Aux Meadows. The only completely authenticated European site in North America, a Norse settlement dating back to around 1000 AD. Discovered on Newfoundland in 1961. Studies of ancient Icelandic sagas indicate that this was the land known as Vinland to the Vikings. Leif Erikson, the son of Erik the Red, is credited with first landing in Vinland.

officialabouthistory

[akdogdriver]

Lambs playing. Swedish Gute Sheep/gutefår. Värmland, Sweden (April 8, 2018). 

[akdogdriver]

Is there beef with the Holstein cows and you or what was that joke lol

It's kind of wild It's just never come up on this blog before, but I HATE holsteins. Bottom 10 cow breeds for me. I hate how they're so common they account for the majority of milk produced. I hate that they're the "default" cow to the point where some don't even know cattle HAVE other colors. I hate their tiny horns (IF THEY EVEN HAVE THAT. LOSER ASS HORNLESS COW) and their painfully massive udders.

Legit I'm trying so hard to not launch into a No Mouth Must Scream style AM speech-- shoot my hand slipped.

(AM speech about why i dont like holsteins below the cut)

For starters, I have to give a brief lesson on what these terms mean; the "Holstein" is the American strain of the "Frisian" breed. Frisians are an ancient breed from Frisia, in the north of what we now consider the Netherlands. Crosses between the breeds are "Holstein-Frisians."

(There’s even more to this but im keeping it as simple as possible. Also one of my friends is Frisian and she is probably going to kill me for describing it like that.)

Historically, livestock was adapted to the environment they lived in. Frisians were bred by the Frisii people for hundreds of years in extremely grass-rich, lush, flat environments. The "polders" of the northern parts of the Netherlands. They're huge and eat a LOT of food.

Traditional Frisians were developed to produce as much meat and milk from a single individual as possible, without compromising the health of the cattle with constant inbreeding to get quick gains. We are talking about a breed that is over 2000 years old. They had the perfect environment to make The Ultimate Food Cow and by god they did it. I can respect that.

So, take that, drag it across an ocean to a place that does NOT have polders, and add the rapid enshittification of capitalism to it. BAM you've got a fucking holstein.

There is ONE goal for "improving" the holstein. Make More Milk. As long as the black and white milkbag leaks enough, nothing else matters. Health? Fertility? Feed ratio? Ability to not die of infection? WHO CARES. MILK LINE GO UP.

Over 90% of holsteins are inbred to start with, because Milk Line Go Up. To the tune of having an average COI of 8%-- where extreme negative effects (think Hapsburgs) start to crop up around 10%

Holstein bulls are aggressive bastards (many dairy bulls are), so no one wants to keep intact males in their herds, meaning most cows are artificially inseminated

Not being limited by the natural lifespan of a living bull means that the same stud can keep having direct offspring for decades after his death

Toystory the bull had 500,000 calves before he died, and hit over 1 million offspring in 2015. That's ONE animal and to put this in perspective, there are 9 million holsteins in the US.

DON'T WORRY IT GETS WORSE

Not only can 99% of holsteins be traced back to just two bulls-- 99% of male holsteins share one of two exact Y chromosomes with those two bulls.

The gene pool is so small that it's equivalent to about 60 individuals. Warrior Cat allegiances are larger than that. That's barely bigger than modern ThunderClan.

"Massive lack of genetic diversity" does not begin to capture the existential dread of this situation. Mark my words, WATCH, when the Bird Flu finally mutates a strain that rips through a mammalian population, it's gonna be in the USA and it's going to be through our dairy cattle.

This is not prophecy or me laying a curse on the land, this is the natural consequence of basing the stability of US milk production on the equivalent of 9 million clones of two classrooms worth of individuals, and then packing them in close quarters

And we don't have to wait for doomsday for the impacts to be apparent on the cattle themelves

Holstein fertility has also dropped by half since the 1960s when the intensive inbreeding really kicked into high gear

Because their whole body is dedicating all of their resources to milk production, they have a notoriously "bony" frame.

Show judges, however, like this because they think that's a very "feminine" look for a 1600 pound ruminant. Very normal thing to think.

Like. I don't know if i can communicate this to people who don't look at cows a lot (it's not quite as obviously dramatic as a pug skull) but here is a comparison of an "ideal" show holstein and an "unselected" holstein from a herd that's been established as a sort of "control group" for what they looked like back in the 1960s;

The way that the artery on the "modern" cow's belly runs to the udder like a big pink worm freaks me out the most ngl

The udder also bulges out from between the back legs

The show cow is so thin

And then compare these both to a Holstein-Frisian cross who leans more on the Frisian side;

Proper weight, developed legs. Its biggest "problem" is actually just the udder shape-- deep udders, which "hang" low like that, aren't optimal for milk-focused breeds because the higher away from the ground the less chance there is of infection. In that department, the "unselected" holstein clearly outclasses the holstein-frisian.

But it probably won't be surprising to hear that the "show holstein," with its massive, swollen udder, is SUPER prone to infections such as mastitis.

But it is also just more prone to getting sick generally

And, to keep up with these insane demands, holsteins need a TON of food. You aren't going to just turn these things out into a pasture and be done with it. Even its ancestor the Frisian needed premium Dutch polder grass to be such a good cow-- crank that up to 11 with these Monuments to Humanity's Hubrice

The Texas Longhorn developed in semi-feral conditions and can eat a bush to become the best thing in a 10 mile radius. The Scottish Highland was iron-forged in upland moors with a steady diet of turf and rain.

Meanwhile if a Holstein has less than 5 homemade meals a day without poland spring bottled water it will die to death.

And the WORST part? You have to use these if you want to make money in dairy farming. It's WAAY too expensive to just run a suboptimal farm. Their milk isn't great, but they sure do make a lot of it.

...so Holsteins and Holstein-Frisians (and other "super efficient" breeds) have absolutely decimated heritage cattle. The American Milking Devon is a deep reddish brown with gorgeous horns and low maintenance; rare. Randall Linebacks are painted with lines of white speckles down the back and can be used for any purpose; critically endangered. The Niata was a pug-faced cow who could fight jaguars; extinct.

And THAT'S what makes me hate them most of all. I LOVE cows, but whenever I see a reference to one, it's a holstein. It's always boring black and white splotches with big pink udders. They're practically synonymous with "cow" when their homogeniety is actually hiding much cooler breeds from you.

Did you know cows can be tiger-striped?

And that England has its own type of longhorn?

Or that cow horns can twist upwards like an antelope?

And that they can have REALLY LONG ears?

And that they can be blue?

And that's not even getting into some of the cows that have gotten a small crumb of attention lately, such as Highlands, Ankole-Watusi, and Texas Longhorns. There's so many cool cows out there! And they're all really different from holsteins! MOST of them are also a lot healthier and produce tastier milk and meat!

TL;DR yeah i don't like holsteins and I like sniping at them. For reasons both legit and petty.

[akdogdriver]

Details. Värmland, Sweden (April 4, 2021).

[akdogdriver]

How do I get invited to this wedding?

I was asked to officiate the wedding of my very dear friends and while that was like the highest honor imaginable a close second was being asked to host an informative nature walk for all of the out of town guests the morning before the ceremony to give them a taste of the local ecology.

Not to brag but I picked the best spot and we got to hear an absolute orchestra of alligator bellowing in addition to witnessing this big guy

Highlight of the morning was probably our Sandhill crane courtship dance impersonation contest, which was fiercely competitive and even drew a small crowd of unrelated spectators. Our winner absolutely became a Sandhill crane for 30 seconds and his vigorous leaping and flapping won him a brand new pair of binoculars as a trophy.

I also made these custom stickers to hand out as prizes for trivia questions and spotting challenges during the walk, and everyone wore them around the reception with great pride.

I love sharing the ecology of my home with others and this was such a fun way to do it! I had a very joyful weekend and I may have even converted a few new birders 😏

[akdogdriver]

ahhhh finally the weekend is beautiful and wide open ahead of me. surely this will be the weekend I finally get my whole life in order and do the twenty-seven things I've been putting off and fix my sleep schedule and make memories with friends and discover my purpose in this world. surely

[akdogdriver]

Resting among the driftwood on the shores of Turquoise Lake. Montana

1973

[akdogdriver]

Welcome to the raft, Opal! ✨

We asked, and you answered. 

🗳️Thanks to nearly 30,000 of you who voted in our online poll, we’re otter-ly excited to introduce our newest southern sea otter, Opal. 

🦦Our team is already hard at work training Opal to join Ivy, Selka, and Ruby on exhibit. 

💙They describe Opal as smart, sassy, confident, and protective–an otter that watches out for her raft. 💎 We can hardly wait for you to meet this gem; stay tuned for updates on the timeline for her official debut!

In addition to enchanting visitors and showing off for the exhibit live cam, Opal has a big part to play in the conservation of her species. Opal may act as a surrogate mother to orphaned sea otter pups as part of our sea otter surrogacy program. Though Opal was deemed unreleasable by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after she was rescued as a stranded pup, she may give young pups a second chance by teaching them the skills they need to survive in the wild, like grooming and foraging. 

Our work with sea otters has a real impact on their survival—and the vital coastal habitats they call home—as the two are inextricably linked. The sea otter is a keystone species, which means that the health of sea otters is a good indication of the health of other species and ecosystems nearby. 

By releasing their adoptive pups back into the wild, our sea otter surrogate moms help restore California’s treasured kelp forests, keeping them healthy and thriving!  Learn about the history of our Sea Otter Program and how protecting this beloved species has enormous environmental benefits for California’s coastal ecosystems.

[akdogdriver]

[akdogdriver]

Winter in the High Country

(c) gifs by riverwindphotography

[akdogdriver]

...why were none of the border collies credited on this?

They were robbed

I was recently reminded of this and it's just as funny now as it was then.

[akdogdriver]

It's Friday. We're thriving. Thanks for being here.

Make your weekend special. "a happy grizzly bear" by marneejill is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

[akdogdriver]

[akdogdriver]

🦦 Name our newest resident sea otter!

We’re otterly excited to announce that, in the coming weeks, we’ll welcome a brand new resident sea otter to the Aquarium’s raft! 

Our newest otter was found stranded as a pup near San Luis Obispo, 100 miles south of Monterey. After being deemed unreleasable by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, she’s spent the past year behind the scenes getting used to her new home at Monterey Bay Aquarium. 

Our team is busy preparing for her to join Ruby, Ivy, and Selka on exhibit. But there’s just one thing missing—she still needs a name! 

Teaching a resident otter to recognize her own name is an important part of her training, so we narrowed it down to three unique choices:

💙Hazel 💙Opal 💙Quinn

Starting this Wednesday, March 26 at 12 p.m. PST, check out our socials for a link to the poll. You’ll have 24 hours to vote and help name our new exhibit otter.

We can’t wait for you to meet her!

[akdogdriver]

Got driftwood?

Where the forest meets the sea - Ruby Beach, Olympic National Park

[akdogdriver]

i have made like 57 reddit throwaway accounts in my life because my only use for reddit is to login once a year to pose niche questions to a sub i assume is compromised of mostly autistic dads desperate to impart their knowledge upon anyone who will listen. when i got my first fisheries job the equipment list my boss sent me just said “knife.” i emailed back asking what kind of knife and he replied “any knife.” i got on reddit and went to some sub about fish and i said “i got a hatchery job in alaska. what knife do i need for multipurpose use. a knife that does it all.” one guy responded in ten minutes breaking down everything about knives & salmon work. gave me a better idea of my job than the interview did. then he recommended a single knife and like twenty other people replied after him “this is the correct knife. no notes.”

bought it. pretty good knife, no notes.