literally-just-moss

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Spotted skunks do handstands when trapped or startled! Here’s a skunk I drew 🦨

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Porcelain crabs aren’t actually crabs! They’re another one of those freaks who has achieved the ideal body shape and gone through carcinization (becoming crab-like)!! All hail the crab!

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Caught some strange guys over the weekend! This is a deer mouse. PSA!!! Be very careful handling some little guys because there may be possibilities of them carrying hantavirus!

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Moss’s guide to catching a little guy (safely and without traps):

1. Spot a guy, probably running around in a little field or perhaps in an underbrush.

2. Slowly and quietly get as close to the guy as possible.

3. Lunge for the guy like a volleyball player going for an out of bounds ball.

4. Lightly and gently (very important!) flatten the guy with the palm of your hand against the ground.

5. Grab the scruff, or the loose skin on their back of their neck, gently and firmly with two or three fingers.

6. Take a picture with the guy, then place him back on the ground.

To all wondering, scruffing is the safest way to hold a rodent for both you and them! It’s the technique often used by researchers!

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I love flat-tailed geckos and their freaky little faces and weird shaped bodies. Also, if a flat-tailed gecko feels threatened while its resting, it will lift its head and scream.

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My all-time favorite snail move is when a baby ends up on an adult’s shell. They’re literally piggybacking.

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what is your all time favorite predator? and prey animal?

Idk if I have any absolute favorites, but I have some I think are funny. For predators, I think archer fish are pretty funny because, like, wdym a fish learned how to nerf its prey? For prey, I have an unwavering obsession with beavers.

Also, I’m scared of seagulls because I had to fist fight one for my food once and I lost.

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I love shrews because they’re such strange little guys. They have the largest brain-to-body ratio of any vertebrate and some species can even be toxic. Anyway, give it up for these weird little guys!

Also, shoutout to anyone else that loves rodents and other strange little guys. Let’s be friends.

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Garlic snails are snails that smell like garlic, if you even care.

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I once almost got hit by a car at night because I was trying to follow a juvenile opossum.

Naturalists have got to be one of the groups of people most susceptible to being tricked by the fae. Travellers these days are much less likely to follow a mysterious light or the smell of roast beef into the forest. Meanwhile, find me a naturalist who would not completely lose themself in pursuit of:

An unidentifiable bird call

A butterfly that's slightly off-color

An opossum with its head stuck in a yogurt tub

A really big woodpecker

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Back to posting funny animals. Here’s a patrick star I drew during my paleo class!!!

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When you're sad, just remember that somewhere in the world is a cat that's sleeping in the sun that you might get to pet one day, or that maybe you'll see a really fluffy dog next time you go to the park, or maybe you'll get to see a fat squirrel doing something funny on your next walk. If you feel like giving up, just think about all the animals you'll miss if you're gone.

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A list of some beaver facts:

1. There are currently only two species of beaver: the North American beaver and Eurasion beaver. However, there's an extinct genus of beaver that existed during the ice age called the giant beaver and they could get as big as a black bear.

2. Some Eurasian beavers have been found to hold sticks and jump up and down (stick display) to communicate to and warn others about territory boundaries.

3. The basic social unit for beavers is a family consisting of the parents and several children and they live in and maintain lodges made out of logs. One family can maintain one or more lodges in their dam.

4. The entrance to a beaver lodge is underwater and is made by the beavers chewing tunnels into the bottom of their lodges. The inside of the lodge is elevated above the water. Oftentimes,the lodges will have to platforms—one for eating and grooming and one for sleeping.

5. Not only do beavers chew down trees for their dams and lodges, but they can also eat the inner tree bark and twigs.

6. Beavers will build and repair dams when they hear running water. Researchers proved this by playing recordings of running water to beavers.

Love that one of the America's most important keystone species is a fucked up rat with anxiety

(Beavers are the world's second largest rodent and I could probably talk abt then all day)

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Love that one of the America's most important keystone species is a fucked up rat with anxiety

(Beavers are the world's second largest rodent and I could probably talk abt then all day)

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I know a polar bear wouldn't hesitate to hunt me down and eat me, but all I want is to be friends with one. They look too much like cute big dogs who would be really cozy to hibernate with.

I bet cuddling with a polar bear would be so, so cozy and warm.

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When I'm depressed, I draw a funny little animal. Please enjoy this opossum.

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Don't be sad babe, look at this funny photo of a kakapo.