#animal husbandry

[great-and-small]

I can’t tell you how much I love this artwork from ancient Egypt (the Middle Kingdom). People have been raising cattle and practicing animal husbandry for so long, that there is something almost inherently human about this scene.

Everyone in the field of veterinary medicine or agriculture knows the feeling of staying up late with a laboring animal trying to make sure both mom and baby are okay. Delivering a calf is often physically and emotionally exhausting work that takes enormous patience and learned skill. It requires a unique balance of physical strength and gentleness to do correctly. There is no feeling quite like getting that baby out and everyone is okay. I’m certain ancient people must have felt the same way, and I wonder if the artist knew this feeling firsthand. I wonder if those humans depicted were people the artist knew, if the cow and calf maybe were as well.

[kaijutegu]

From the Rattlecam project- "The first baby garter snake has arrived at the den! It immediately found the perfect pillow."

More rattlesnake snuggles, from the same location.

I know a lot of the time in captive care settings, we warn keepers that their snakes aren't cuddling- that they're competing for resources. And I'm of the opinion that for the vast majority of captive snakes, they don't benefit from prolonged, enforced conspecific contact.

But it's fascinating to watch these rattlesnake cams because rattlesnakes do benefit from prolonged conspecific contact. Rattlesnakes den together, and several of them are highly social species. If I was designing an exhibit for rattlesnakes, I'd certainly put more than one animal in there, because when you observe them in the wild they spend so much time together- which we didn't know until we started setting up cameras to observe them. It just goes to show that you really need to pay attention to the particular needs of individual species. What's good for rattlers and garters isn't necessarily good for ball pythons and cornsnakes.

[nohiketoosmall]

science sources (x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x) other (x)

This snake morph guide is just meant to explain some basics of morphs. I would caution anyone in buying a pet that takes a high level of care just because it's pretty, and frankly any breeder that continues to breed morphs with physiological and neurological defects should be put out of business. I did my best as I find this interesting and believe there's a lot of misinformation out there due to people trying to literally sell things to their audience.

I included some links if you would like additional reading. They range from a study on captive care management, studies I could find relevant to the severe issue morphs, and some general on snake color and scales.

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

I love Fiona the Hippo, so I really liked your post highlighting her, but now I'm sad that Moo Deng is having a bad time. I did think it was funny she tried to bite that one handler's crotch, and I was worried that she's going to grow up to be an aggressive hippo that might hurt someone because they're just kinda . . . letting her bite people and how that'll end very badly for her, but it hadn't occurred to me that she was being mistreated. :(

It’s hard to say whether she’s being “mistreated” necessarily. I don’t like to throw around words like abuse when it comes to animal welfare because people use it way too lightly.

But there’s definitely a degree of stress she’s experiencing due to that handling. It’s so easy to find cute animal videos endearing and amusing when we don’t know what to look for.

I tend to try to assess things over multiple contexts and videos and form an opinion from there. The blatant smacking, grabbing, picking up and chasing were probably the best examples- but I only found most of those because TikTok kept shoving guest videos from the zoo onto my fyp.

The biting was another flag. Yes, hippos use their mouths to interact with their world but regardless of context it’s just a huge no no when it comes to handling any animal - especially a large herbivore that grows up with a bite force of approx 1800lbs!

Also I was looking for more videos of their adult Pygmy hippos and came across a video of one of the keepers using a water gun on one of them

Dude really? You’re going to post that on your official zoo TikTok and not have a think about the optics for your conservation message?

Yikes.

Also the adult Pygmy hippo very much avoids the keeper and either tolerates it or runs away from the water.

Interesting to see the open mouth while being followed/chased with the water gun while he tries to avoid it. A redirected threat display? A stress yawn? He just looks very much like he’s tolerating it.

It does make me wonder if this is another hippo raised with the same rough handling as Moo Deng and they’ve just learned nothing they do matters and to tolerate whatever comes their way. It’s pretty much learned helplessness and I don’t like that at all.

Compare this with Fritz the common hippo (Fiona’s brother) interacting with the hose - it stays in one place for him to interact with, is offered and then moved away so he can continue to seek it out if he wants more. He actively seeks the hose and can move himself around to where it feels best.

This is how you offer consent and autonomy to your zoo animals. Not chase them around their enclosure with a water gun jfc

[marinebioblr]

Today I got to visit the Georgia Aquarium and do a little behind-the-scenes tour! This aquarist has the awesome task of feeding one of the resident whale sharks - no easy task, but they've employed a pretty ingenious track system of lines strung across the surface by which aquarists can pull themselves across on inflatable boats to keep ahead of one of the ocean's largest filter feeders!

[prokopetz]

Though they much resemble the domesticated gadget, devices are wild creatures, and cannot ethically be kept in the home. Where careless gadget husbandry has allowed abandoned and escaped specimens to breed with the local device population, the resulting feral crossbreed is known as a contraption; while there have been some reports of contraptions successfully being kept as pets, high-device-content contraptions are often destructive and invariably have high maintenance needs, and should thus be considered for experts only.

[longreads]

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

In this week's Top 5 we're showcasing stories about:

- Interracial persecution in 1960s Michigan - The cruelty bred into the chickens we eat - How Photo Shuffle helped one man through loss - Navigating life not knowing you’re neurodivergent - The deep craft in forging a handmade knife

All this and the story our audience loved the most. 

Check out the list and learn why our editors recommend these pieces at Longreads.

[jaynehat]

The face. It just slays me.

Crozier, William, and Peter Henderson. How the Farm Pays the Experiences of Forty Years of Successful Farming and Gardening William Crozier, Peter Henderson. 1st ed., Peter Henderson and Co., 1884.

Source: Internet Archive

[swan2swan]

Okay Science and Animal Husbandry Tumblr (you know who you are, I’m asking you specifically).

What is the criteria for slaughtering lambs and game hens and calves for veal and such?

Is it “well, you didn’t hit 50 lbs within 30 days, so you’re clearly not gonna be a mommy milker”? Is it “well, you hit 50 lbs within 30 days, nice growth and muscle, you will make good meat”? Is it “sorry, the coin was tails, so it’s your head!”?

What is the selection process?

[great-and-small]

Keep seeing ads for this movie with Julia Louis-Dreyfus where death is personified as a talking macaw and all I can think is someone needs to trim his beak

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

your steed will not eat you or throw you off, but they WILL demand respect, and you don't want to know what happens when you don't give it. If you do, they'll be your best friend. So... which one?

yes, you are responsible for housing, feeding, cleaning, and enrichment, but you already have the resources, otherwise you wouldn't be getting the animal.

[mindblowingscience]

Researchers report that replacing 50% of animal products with alternative proteins by 2050 could free up enough agricultural land to generate renewable energy equivalent in volume to today's coal-generated power while simultaneously removing substantial CO2 from the atmosphere. The study, published in the journal One Earth, is based on a CO2-removal method known as "bioenergy with carbon capture and storage" (BECCS), which involves cultivating quickly growing crops whose biomass can then be stored permanently in geological formations or used as a feedstock to produce renewable energy.

Continue Reading.

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

Hey, idk if you'd know this or not, but I've watch multiple zoo shows where they have a wild equine of some sort and to trim their hooves they always use a tranquilizer gun to put them out completely.

My question is why they don't train them to get hoof trims, with maybe some more minor sedition if needed like domestic horses do? I get that they are wild, but they have trained the giraffes to stand for foot care (at least this one zoo did), so idk why a zebra can't be taught that too. Especially when full sedation is so hard on the body and they're always concerned about them being down to long.

Is it because they don't want to habituate them to humans to much, or is it for safety of the person doing the hoof care? Are full hoof trims just to invasive of a procedure to train these wild equines to tolerate? Mix of all of these?

Really good question! So some zoos do train voluntary hoof trims but it depends on how many zebras are in your herd and how many staff you have.

This is a nice example of hoof trim training being used with a younger zebra, so they have the added benefit of early socialisation and habituation to people.

Also if you have your zebras out in a massive plains habitat, you'll need to be able to train them to come into a smaller area or recall to a station if you need to do husbandry. And

Ungulate keepers can be spread out across multiple species (though it depends on the zoo - that was the case at the zoo I did my zoo keeping course at) and their time is very limited to what they can acheive in that day. And it can also depend on the skill and experience - if no one on the team has experience in cooperative care it can be hard to get a cooperative care training plan going.

My experience has been that a lot of training and enrichment programs will take a backseat over general husbandry/cleaning and paperwork. And it sucks because training and enrichment are so vital to enhancing the welfare of your animals and sometimes upper management just doesn't get that.

So if a facility doesn't have the time, staff and resources to put towards training each individual zebra for a voluntary hoof trim (which could take months), sedation is the next best thing to ensure safety for the keepers and the animals. The stress for a wild flight animal is just going to be way too much for them and they will still need their hooves trimmed regardless.

The risk of complications around overgrown hooves or issues related to hooves are massive, so that has to be weighed against the effects of anesthesia.

As zoo keeping and cooperative care training advances, I've seen some really promising ideas about habitat design encouraging more movement on different substrates resulting in more natural hoof wear. Diet would be another consideration if we wanted to limit excessive hoof growth.

Would love if any ungulate keepers wanted to chime in with any thoughts!

This is a neat little video about why zebras need their hooves trimmed in human care:

Thanks for the question!

[orcinus-veterinarius]

Well everyone, I performed my first ever cetacean ultrasound today!

My “patient” is in excellent health, and this session was meant merely as practice both for me and for her—ensuring she remains comfortable holding still for scans. Because whales and dolphins are too big for manual palpation or x-rays, ultrasound is how veterinarians visualize their internal organs and ensure they remain healthy. Cetaceans in human care routinely receive ultrasound scans to monitor their health, even if they are not ill or pregnant.

And it’s a great example of cooperative care! Unlike dogs and cats, which have to be sedated or manually restrained by humans in order to get diagnostic ultrasound images, cetaceans in human care are trained to float in place while the veterinarian places the ultrasound probe on them. They are free to leave the session at any time. And there’s no need for ultrasound gel, because the water acts in its place!

(Photo not of me… published by Georgia Aquarium when their beluga Whisper was pregnant with her calf Shila)

All in all, a great end to my externship!

[heyyitsjayy]

Interrupted a freshly shed Yang from a night bask to hook up everyone’s day lights + UV. She immediately started to explore her enclosure as if it was brand new. And in some ways, it is! Ball pythons still have UV-sensitive cones despite being active at dusk/night.

Imagine if you were put into a new space where red wavelengths were cut off. All of the colors would appear drastically different. This is why providing UV is so important to ALL reptiles!

[magnetothemagnificent]

Habituated ≠ Tame ≠ Domesticated ≠ Trained!!!