#amur region

[blackpilledkremlintsarina5294]

Vladimir Putin visited an endangered species rehabilitation centre in Primorye Territory on September 1, 2013.

[postcard-from-the-past]

Locals from the Amur region of Russia

Russian vintage postcard

[headspace-hotel]

My opinions on invasive species are so complicated that no matter what opinion you have about them I will want to argue.

If you say "invasive species are a constructed category and not inherently evil" you unlock the part of me that rages about the impact of Bradford pears and honeysuckle bushes on my ecosystem.

If you say "Invasive species are bad and we have to get rid of them" you unlock the part of me that has a glowing admiration for Nature's ability to adapt and survive.

I don't really agree with "a species transported outside of its native environment is changing the ecosystem and that's bad" as a principle, because nature is constantly changing and there is no original unspoiled state of the ecosystem. However I don't trust this argument coming from somebody that hasn't spent hours and hours pulling wintercreeper or seen a forest understory sterilized by bush honeysuckle.

Oftentimes I believe that invasive species take over because a keystone species has been removed from the ecosystem. For example my hypothesis is that the destruction of the Canebrakes in the Southeastern USA made the region vulnerable to invasion.

I also think that the way the ecosystem is interacted with and managed by humans causes invasive species to invade

However ultimately I think each species and each individual region of Earth is its own unique case.

Kudzu for example is a food and fiber plant used and cultivated since ancient times in China. It is a mutualistic symbiont with humans, with both of our species strongly contributing to the survival and thriving of the other. Kudzu must be controlled by harvest and use by humans; since using it for food, medicine, and clothes has declined, it has begun to show invasive behavior IN CHINA, WHERE IT IS NATIVE

Dandelion is a weed that is mostly confined to ecosystems very heavily disturbed by humans, and it has strongly positive effects on those ecosystems. It is also a mutualistic symbiont with humans.

Amur honeysuckle, Lonicera maackii is an incredibly virulent invasive species in Southeastern USA forests, virtually destroying all other plant biodiversity in the understory where it grows. The cause of this is pretty simple, Arundinaria gigantea a keystone species was removed, and regular controlled burns were stopped when Native Americans were forced off their land. Thus there was a niche left gaping wide open in the ecosystem.

A. gigantea (river cane), our native bamboo, has the property of forming ridiculously dense clonal colonies in damp lowland areas. The Southeastern USA invasives that are majorly problematic seem to have similar habits. A. gigantea is also disturbance dependent, particularly loving fire, but these days you mostly find it in vacant lots and along fence rows. Similarly most of our invasives need a moderate disturbance level to take over. The trouble is that A. gigantea is nearly wiped out through much of its range, and rarely reproduces sexually, so it can't spread like the invasives can.

Each plant has to be understood as its own unique living creature with its own way.

I desperately want to learn about Pyrus calleryana in its native habitat and learn the ways of this plant, as I don't understand it yet...

[the-koiking-pond]

Most regions have or had one variant of wild magikarp or another, and in those cases the real issue is that magikarp variants will interbreed with each other so the genetics of each particular subspecies is pretty much a nightmare to have to untangle now, ESPECIALLY in the kanto-johto-hoenn-sinnoh area.

In regions where there weren't originally magikarp in the wild, but magikarp have been released, the ecological consequences are absolutely devastating.

Do you guys ever think if Magikarp is an invasive species? It's pretty much anywhere there's water, and it's in abundance.

[mutant-distraction]

Amur Leopards are a subspecies of leopards that live in the Amur River region of Russia, North Korea, and China. Less than 500 amur leopards remain in the wild.

[libraryofmoths]

Moth of the Week

Chimney Sweeper

Odezia atrata

The chimney sweeper is a part of the family Geometridae. It belongs to a monotypic genus, meaning it’s the only moth species in the genus Odezia, which was created in 1840 by Jean Baptiste Boisduval. It was first described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus.

Description This moth is mostly black with white on the tips of the forewing (called the “apex”) and on the fringe of the forewing.

There have been a few variations in color:

- Odezia atrata pyrenaica, which is found in Pyrenees and central Italy, the wings are “dusted” in a brownish yellow with a stronger color on the forewing.

- Ab. Odezia atrata nigerrima, described by Paul Thierry-Mieg, was a female with no white apex or fringe.

- This moth’s wings may become brown from wear over time.

Wingspan Range: 23–27 mm (≈0.91 - 1.06 in)

Forewing Range: 12–15 mm (≈0.47 - 0.59 in)

Diet and Habitat The caterpillars of this species mainly eats the flowers and seeds of pignut (Conopodium majus).

This moth is distributed in the Palearctic region. In the west, it’s range reaches the Iberian Peninsula through western and central Europe and the British Isles. In the east, they can be found in Sakhalin and the Amur-Ussuri region. I’m the north, this moth reaches central Fennoscandia. Finally, in the south they are found in Italy to the Balkans.

These moths were once very common in Austria, but now the species is a rare occurrence.

They inhabit ditch edges, meadows, bogs, moors, lake sides, chalk downland, limestone grassland, woodland edges and hedgerows in southern Britain

Mating In Belgium and the Netherlands this moth can be seen flying from June to August. It presumably Nate’s during this timeframe.

Predators This moth flies during the day, especially in sunshine. They are presumably preyed on by birds and other daytime predators.

Fun Fact The chimney sweeper can be confused for the Small Blue butterfly (Cupido minimus), which also lives in the Palearctic region, as its wings may become brown from wear.

(Source: Wikipedia, Butterfly Conservation)

[cognitivejustice]

Kazakhstan is actively working to revive and preserve populations of rare animals. It has recently become known that kulans have been released into a natural park to increase their numbers. Earlier, it was reported that Amur tigers were brought from the Netherlands for reintroduction.

In addition to restoring the numbers of kulans, tigers and horses, work is underway to restore the population of houbara bustards. Activities to protect, record and monitor the birds are carried out by the State Enterprise "PO Okhotzooprom" in specially protected natural areas assigned to the enterprise. Every year, birds raised in the nursery are released into the nature of Kazakhstan. From 2009 to 2023, 57,406 Houbara bustards were released. The only breeding center for these birds is located in the Baidibek district of the Turkistan region.

[melchiordahrk]

Apologies. I meant the Erabenimsun of Molag Amur. What of their funerary practices?

For the Erabensimsun, I'll go back to my original concept which inspried the Red Wisdom mod where I associated each of the tribes with a traditional element:

Urshilaku - Earth | Ash / Cairn or Foundation

Ahemmusa - Water | Oblivion / Memory

Zainab - Wind | Storm / Voice

Erabenimsun - Fire | Lava / Destruction

Here's what I wrote about the Erabenimsun:

"Erabenimsun can relatively easily be associated with fire since they live in the Molag Amur region and some of their older members are known to have personalities of a fiery nature. Their burial cavern would have lava pits and magma flows. They place their recently deceased into “heat tubes” to quickly dry out the cadavers. This process imbues the Erabenimsun mummies with a dark, cracked surface. White ash which blasts them from the earth's heat covers the front of the mummies giving them a ghostly appearance. Sometimes their warriors will dawn white ash death masks of their own when going into battle. Particularly with the expectation that they will die."

Obviously the Erabenimsun burial caverns were not shown in Red Wisdom due to time constraints, but this is how I envision them.

[flagwars]

Russian Federal Subject Flag Wars: Round 1

This tournament will focus on the flags of Russia’s 83 federal subjects, which includes 21 republics, 9 krais, 46 oblasts, 2 federal cities, 1 autonomous oblast, and 4 autonomous okrugs. It will not include the flags of the land stolen from Ukraine.

The tournament will be followed by the Regional Flag Wars, a huge competition featuring the flags of regions/administrative divisions, with only one flag per country. Over the past year, I’ve released numerous polls to decide which regional flag will be included for each country. Russia is the final country on the list, and it is receiving its own tournament due to having so many administrative divisions. I hope everyone enjoys this tournament and is looking forward to the Regional Flag Wars! The Russian Federal Subject Flag Wars will begin this week.

Round 1:

1. Tver Oblast vs. Amur Oblast vs. Jewish Autonomous Oblast vs. Kamchatka Krai vs. Karelia

2. Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug vs. Bashkortostan vs. Tambov Oblast vs. Udmurtia vs. Kursk Oblast

3. Samara Oblast vs. Pskov Oblast vs. Adygea vs. Chukotka Autonomous Okrug vs. Khakassia

4. Khabarovsk Krai vs. Kalmykia vs. Altai Krai vs. Zabaykalsky Krai vs. Mordovia

5. Moscow Oblast vs. Dagestan vs. North Ossetia–Alania vs. St. Petersburg vs. Saratov Oblast

6. Primorsky Krai vs. Yaroslavl Oblast vs. Leningrad Oblast vs. Astrakhan Oblast vs. Komi Republic

7. Krasnoyarsk Krai vs. Irkutsk Oblast vs. Omsk Oblast vs. Lipetsk Oblast vs. Kabardino-Balkaria

8. Moscow vs. Ingushetia vs. Kostroma Oblast vs. Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug vs. Tomsk Oblast

9. Perm Krai vs. Orenburg Oblast vs. Stavropol Krai vs. Volgograd Oblast vs. Belgorod Oblast

10. Mari El vs. Kaliningrad Oblast vs. Sverdlovsk Oblast vs. Sakha vs. Arkhangelsk Oblast

11. Krasnodar Krai vs. Penza Oblast vs. Buryatia vs. Nizhny Novgorod Oblast vs. Kurgan Oblast

12. Chelyabinsk Oblast vs. Nenets Autonomous Okrug vs. Karachay-Cherkessia vs. Murmansk Oblast vs. Altai Republic

13. Novosibirsk Oblast vs. Tuva vs. Vologda Oblast vs. Smolensk Oblast vs. Novgorod Oblast

14. Tatarstan vs. Sakhalin Oblast vs. Ulyanovsk Oblast vs. Ryazan Oblast vs. Chechnya vs. Tyumen Oblast

15. Ivanovo Oblast vs. Chuvashia vs. Vladimir Oblast vs. Rostov Oblast vs. Magadan Oblast vs. Bryansk Oblast

16. Kaluga Oblast vs. Kemerovo Oblast vs. Oryol Oblast vs. Kirov Oblast vs. Voronezh Oblast vs. Tula Oblast

[willtheweaver]

A writer’s guide to forests: From the poles to the tropics, part 1

Writers, aspiring writers, and all others who happen upon this, I give you all a big thank you. For those of you that have been following this guide, or have done independent research, I’m sure that you now have a grasp of what makes up a forest, and how one can weave into your story. Now I’d like to get into specific forest types. We’ll be going into detail, learning about each specific region, from the extreme limits, to the equator. So, let’s get into it, shall we?

Boreal forest (the Taiga)

The northernmost forest, it forms a circle around the pole.

Location- at or just below the Arctic Circle in North America and Eurasia, extending as far south as the Amur river basin and the Great Lakes region.

Climate- Polar and Subpolar, with conditions tending towards being wet year round. A day can be as long as 16-20 hours in summer and a short as 3 hours in winter. Winter temperatures fall well below freezing, and fallen snow can linger well into the summer months.

Plant life- Mostly conifers, with spruce, pine, and fir dominating. Aspen and birch mixed in, with oaks, larch, and maples in the southernmost regions. Lichens and moss cling to trees. Shrubs and dwarf willow can be found even beyond the tree line. Trees tend to be small as the growing season can be as short as 3 months.

Animal life- Sparse. Conifer needles are unpalatable to many species of herbivores. Deer such as moose and woodland caribou are among the few that live here year round. Bears and wolves can also found,but generally the animals that live here are small. Voles, lemmings, and hare are preyed upon by foxes, lynx, and various weasels, the largest of which is the wolverine. Many birds live here for part or all of the year, with owls being the main predators. Winter can be especially quiet as many animals either migrate or hibernate.

How the forest affects the story- Any society will have to endure winters that are 7-9 months long. Do people stay in one place, or are they nomadic? Is there some form of limited agricultural or are they hunter-gatherers? Are there any domestic species that aid them, or do your characters do all the labor? How do the seasons affect movement? Areas frozen in the winter can turn to marshland or even rivers in the summer. What kind of structures do your characters live in? They may be temporary or permanent, able to keep one warm in the winter, and can be built out of turf, wood, fur, or snow. Are the beliefs of your characters in any way ,shape, or form influenced by the world around them? How would you best describe all this to anyone not familiar with the environment and its people(s)?

[blackpilledkremlintsarina5294]

April 28, 2016

Vladimir Putin observed the launch of the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket from the Vostochny Space Launch Centre. The booster will deliver into orbit three spacecraft – Mikhail Lomonosov, Aist-2D, and SamSat-218.

[blueiscoool]

Amur leopards

The Amur leopard is a leopard subspecies native to the Primorye region of southeastern Russia and northern China. It is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, as in 2007, only 19–26 wild leopards were estimated to survive in southeastern Russia and northeastern China. It is considered one of the rarest cats on Earth.

As of 2015, fewer than 60 individuals were estimated to survive in Russia and China. Camera-trapping surveys conducted between 2014 and 2015 revealed 92 individuals in an 8,398 km2 (3,242 sq mi) large transboundary area along the Russian-Chinese border. In 2019, it was reported that the population was about 90 leopards. In 2021, it was reported the population was about 110 individuals.

@itseriksen

[kove1]

—>It is widespread in East Asia, in Russia it is found in most of the territory of the Primorsky Territory, in the southern regions of the Khabarovsk Territory and the Amur Region.

It turns out, it turns out.. lime is Russian by nation ..

I didn't even know about it until I decided to see where the Amur cats live.. wow.. by the way, this drawing was made for entertainment purposes!

[mudwerks]

(via The True Story Of A Man-Eating Tiger's 'Vengeance' : NPR)

The tigers that populate this region are commonly referred to as Siberian tigers, but they are more accurately known as the Amur tiger. "Imagine a creature that has the agility and appetite of the cat and the mass of an industrial refrigerator," Vaillant tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer. "The Amur tiger can weigh over 500 pounds and can be more than 10 feet long nose to tail."

These majestic tigers can jump as far as 25 feet -- vertically, they can jump over a basketball hoop. Vaillant cites a famous tiger biologist who, when asked how high a tiger can jump, responded: "As high as it needs to."

At the center of the story is Vladimir Markov, a poacher who met a grisly end in the winter of 1997 after he shot and wounded a tiger, and then stole part of the tiger's kill.

The injured tiger hunted Markov down in a way that appears to be chillingly premeditated. The tiger staked out Markov's cabin, systematically destroyed anything that had Markov's scent on it, and then waited by the front door for Markov to come home.

"This wasn't an impulsive response," Vaillant says. "The tiger was able to hold this idea over a period of time." The animal waited for 12 to 48 hours before attacking.

When Markov finally appeared, the tiger killed him, dragged him into the bush and ate him. "The eating may have been secondary," Vaillant explains. "I think he killed him because he had a bone to pick."

holy fuck this is amazing

[forestenjoyer]

(WIP) Rivers of Ehrð

So this has been in the works for several months, and will be likely for several more, but i have been working on a global map showing the river networks of my fictional version of Earth. They are broadly the same as the real world but due to differences in rainfall and climate there are differences. (open for zoomed in images)

There are no endorheic basins, meaning all water eventually reaches the ocean, and global mean sea level is about 20 metres lower.

Anyway, I have just finished mapping and tracing out the basins for every river which is over 1000km long in the real world, as well as some others in areas that are too arid in real life to be true rivers.

Regional Maps

For convenience of reading and because I haven't got names for everything yet, I will use the real life region names. If a river has it's own name in my world I will also use that.

I will list the rivers in a clockwise direction along coastlines, usually starting from the edge of the map. rivers on islands will go after the rest. Green names mean that i have my own name for the river in the fictional world.

Northern North America

Fraser

Kuskokwim

Yukon

Mackenzie

Rest of North America

Misinipi (Churchill)

Nelson

St Lawrence

Mississippi

Brazos

Colorado (Texas)

Grande

Santiago

Colorado (The one with the Grand Canyon)

Columbia

South America

Magdalena

Orinoco

Essequibo

Amaru (Amazon)

São Francisco

Plait/Plate (la Plata)

Europe

Kızıl

Dona (Don)

Dnieper

Dniester

Danube

Tagus

Loire

Rhine

Elbe

Blac/Black (river draining what would be the Baltic Sea)

Northern Dvina

Pexohra (Pechora)

I'm not listing the ones on the island next to Britain, which is named Fairixant

North Africa

Niger

Volta

Gambia

Senegal

Tamanrasset

Hamra (Saguia el-Hamra)

Draa

Chott el Djerid

Sahabi

Nile

Southern and Central Africa

Jubba

Zambezi

Limpopo

Orange

Congo

Ogooué

India and Middle East

Patma (Ganges-Brahmaputra)

Godavari

Krishna

Narmada

Indus

Helmand

Minab

Shatt al-Arab (Arab)

Matti

East and Southeast Asia

Songhua

Huwan (Huang He/Yellow)

Yangtze

Pehrl (Pearl)

Red/Hong

Mekong

Lapaina (Irriwaddy/Salween)

Western Siberia

Corta (Ob)

Onesi (Yenisei)

Eastern Siberia

Khatanga

Lena

Suluma (Kolyma)

Anian (Anadyr)

Amur

Oceania and Borneo

Mamberamo

Sepik

Fly

Murray

Kati Thanda

Flinders

Kapuas

Barito

[verdaneart]

Amur Leopard

Panthera Pardus Orientalis, Critically Endangered

(Note: this version is Glazed for protection, it might look a bit funky up close :3)

More info on Amur Leopards under cut

With less than 100 individuals left in the wild, the Amur Leopard is the rarest cat in the world. Native to the Amur region of Eastern Russia and Northern China, they are threatened by poaching and a lack of prey across their range.

(image taken by Vladimir Medvedev)

"The Amur leopard is solitary. Nimble-footed and strong, it carries and hides unfinished kills so that they are not taken by other predators. It has been reported that some males stay with females after mating, and may even help with rearing the young. Several males sometimes follow and fight over a female. They live for 10-15 years, and in captivity up to 20 years. The Amur leopard is also known as the Far East leopard, the Manchurian leopard or the Korean leopard." - World Wildlife Fund