great-and-small
All Creatures Great and Small
5K posts
This is the place where I post pictures of all the remarkable animals I encounter in my life. I am a practicing veterinarian, rookie biologist, enthusiastic birder, and I have some experience working with wild animals in a veterinary setting. I’m currently researching infectious disease in reptiles and every turtle on this planet fills my heart with joy! I like to post photos and videos of wildlife that I see and interesting animal behavior. I make lots of very silly biology memes
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great-and-small · 31 minutes ago
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I hope every baby out there has a warm bed tonight. Happy Squirrel Appreciation day!
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great-and-small · 51 minutes ago
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ANYWAY I FINALLY GOT A GOOD PICTURE OF A NORTHERN FLICKER TAKING OFF IN FLIGHT
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I've been trying to since around late February or early March of last year, so almost as long as I've been doing this. I'm really fucking stoked about it.
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great-and-small · 2 hours ago
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great-and-small · 2 hours ago
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Blueberry: I can’t believe how hard they’re working us these days
Apple: oh my god yeah we’re so understaffed it’s ridiculous
Pear: At least we have Banana and Orange working today
Strawberry: ooh guys I have some really bad news
Pear: oh no what is it…
Strawberry:
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great-and-small · 7 hours ago
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Blueberry: I can’t believe how hard they’re working us these days
Apple: oh my god yeah we’re so understaffed it’s ridiculous
Pear: At least we have Banana and Orange working today
Strawberry: ooh guys I have some really bad news
Pear: oh no what is it…
Strawberry:
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great-and-small · 22 hours ago
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muskrat did wHAT
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great-and-small · 1 day ago
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Don Balke (b. 1933), Turtle, 1986, gouache on board.
Invaluable
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great-and-small · 1 day ago
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Here is a video of some wild sea lions playing a game with a rock for anyone who needs it today
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great-and-small · 2 days ago
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those coconut crabs shot amelia earhart’s plane down because they were misogynists.
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great-and-small · 2 days ago
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I made a little weekend trip to Fort Drum Florida to hunt for fossilized clams and in addition to finding a few great clam specimens I finally spotted a bird I’ve been wanting to photograph for years! Looked up from my fossil hole just in time to snap two quick photos as this beautiful crested caracara soared overhead
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What an absolute gift to capture this bird!
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great-and-small · 3 days ago
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can people please tell all the elderly people in their lives that they DO NOT NEED to adopt or purchase a large breed dog. especially a large breed dog that they make no effort to train, then openly admit they have no control over the dog, then said dog attacks another dog, another person, or injures the owner in an incredibly damaging way.
can someone please relay this mesaage to the elderly??? if you are 75+ and frail, you DO NOT NEED to get a dog that can effortlessly pull you over onto the ground just by walking too fast. small breeds exist and are lovely. get one of those, or get a cat.
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great-and-small · 4 days ago
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WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PARASITE?
hmm. that’s really hard & I could probably provide more interesting answers for each type of parasitism
aside from silly parasitoid life cycles like trigonalid wasps, I really like greater honeyguides as brood parasites.
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they are a funky passerine-looking woodpecker relative, and adults have developed a mutualism with humans in which the bird leads humans to beehives, and when the humans take the honey and leave the nest broken the honeyguide eats the larvae, pupae, and bizarrely the wax. they’d be a great bird for the wax-digesting alone, but…
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they start out as really hardcore brood parasites. they’re plump little goblins with hooked bills that go around stabbing and biting to death any of its adoptive siblings (all while completely blind), leaving the host family with just the honeyguide to raise. their Biting The World behavior is so strong they’ll clamp onto human hands, as shown.
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great-and-small · 4 days ago
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what if instead of horses we domesticated porcines... i think that could be cool
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great-and-small · 4 days ago
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great-and-small · 4 days ago
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Gzhel Porcelain Borzoi
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great-and-small · 4 days ago
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i just learned that a bunch of insane robber fly enthusiasts went and gave common names over a thousand species of north american robber flies.
some favorites: River Ruffian, Mexican Fancyfoot, Painted Pixie, Pretty Bandit, Metallic Micropanther, Texas Goggle Eye, Hairy Twigsitter, Siberian Sandpirate, Arizona Red Eye, Blackstabber, Dwarf Rusty Robber, Giant Marauder, Northern Tyrant, Little Lion Fly, Boreal Assassin, Texas Micropirate, Fiery Raider, California Rainbow Robber, Hell-hound Sandpirate
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great-and-small · 5 days ago
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I saw an otter briefly hop on top of a babirusa at the zoo and when the stranger standing next to me heard my camera shutter click he turned to me with this look of immense relief, put his hand to his chest, and said in a dead serious tone “oh thank christ someone caught that on film”
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