#because it is predating off an animal

[the-faultofdaedalus]

follow up question. if it’s ok to eat figs bc the wasp was already digested by the plant exactly /how/ digested to things have to be for their consumer to be considered vegan

[camellcat]

thinking about making a pack au where they actually stick closer to hyenas than whatever the fuck they did in that episode

bc uh he-LLO? hyenas are like... one of the BIG popular matriarchal animals and we just acted like xander was all scary now? pshh. I mean he was hyenas are scary but buffy is absolutely highest rank top dog here no wayyy he'd be all scary to her since they're already y'know a "pack" of sorts. like I'm pretty sure he'd still defer to her. plus willow! her making friends with buffy first and just generally being a girl he'd rank below her as well (though I do wonder where his stance with giles would be)

and I get that xander already sorta had a new clan with the other possessed kids but even then why was HE at the top of that hierarchy?? in fact it was so barely structured at all I'm only assuming xander was a high rank bc he's just one of our mains. and the shot of them all walking ofc where he was front and center I can read basic filmmaking choices lol

but also hyenas have FRIENDS! they have cliques and groups within their own clan. isn't that so cool? why did they just disregard xander's friendship with the scoobies? I think the fact xander had friends and quite loyal ones is like important? I mean okay I suppose it's all he's in this clan now he's cut ties with the scoobies, but to me at least I think that's kinda boring haha. though actually even if xander had the support of the scoobies, with how that clan were already a group before xander and not with xander at all, he'd actually probably be like real goddamn low anyways instead of more equal like it was shown

look I really have no idea about any of this I've just been looking up hyena facts for the past hour bc I thought it was neat. I simply think they should've done more with this instead of oo look xander's all feral and evil when they literally chose hyena to be their animal. like ooookay then whateverrrr lame

[frogspawned]

pet peeve is when a story tells us something is aberrant, but it seems to matter more about who does the behavior than the behavior itself. rorschach in snyder's watchmen isn't going too far; we watch nite owl and silk spectre ii snap necks and arms with gleeful, loving abandon, in slow motion no less, while they lecture the audience about rorschach's violence. heroes frequently torture the plot contrivance out of a villain and then moralize to the camera when the villains do the same. indominus rex's killing spree doesn't shock or appall me; all the jurassic world dinosaurs act like mindless killing machines, and the camera lingers, rapturous, on their cruelty. it's not an outlier. there's nothing interesting about it beyond as a set piece.

in a better script, the indominus rex would have had pathos; a chimera made for entertainment, for profit, stitched together with no regard for itself and placed in a lonely box. a freak among freaks. of course it would be mad. but the film wasn't interested in it as an animal, or a character, only as a moving piece of scenery for people to scream at or breathe tensely while it can clearly smell and reach them but doesn't, because it isn't a character and doesn't have motivations.

it's just sort of boring, i suppose. it tries like all other empty drab things do to cover it with bombast and roaring and soaring brassy scores but it's just sort of dull. a sprawl of nothing.

conversely peele's nope is a transcendent monster movie, imo, because it thinks about the the whys and hows, how jean jacket perceives the world, how the world perceives her, and lets that shape the narrative as much as jupe or emerald or gordy. they consulted biologists and behaviorists, digging into the meat of it. the creature as a camera as an animal as a device. nope has layers. it takes its own insane premise seriously, and has something to say, and is a goddamn good movie. i forgot where i was going with this.

[tj-crochets]

Hey y’all! Slightly weird request, but can you please give me any “living around coyotes” advice you have?  My mom’s backyard has no fence and backs onto a huge open field which goes up to foothills, which are also unoccupied by humans. She’s been trying to grow vegetables this year, which means she has a lot of ground squirrels in her yard (eating the vegetables), which seems to be attracting coyotes? They’ve been getting closer and closer and today she sent me a picture of a coyote what appears to be less than 100 feet from her door. The problem is my mom likes to take long walks in that big field and the coyotes keep getting closer to her on those walks. I know they make coyote-safety vests for dogs but idk the human equivalent? It’s not like one or two coyotes, it’s a bunch of them. I think she said the most she’s seen at a time is seven. 

[whatudottu]

New OC time, and for every person to call him an animal Wrau adds another tally to his shit list-

Ough fuck my hand broke

[gamebunny-advance]

Idk if it's just me, but the first time I saw Kliff, I almost mistook him for a anthro cat. He just had that look to him, and maybe personally of a cat

Are you talking about just baseline Kliff?

Yeah, I guess I see that. He does have a vaguely cat-like mouth.

And there was a short trend where folks were drawing him as a catboy (self included), and I know there was at least one artist on twitter that frequently drew him as a straight-up cat before.

I feel like there are more rodent-y animals that suit his vibe more, but I guess I could see him as a cat-person.

[face-breaker]

fighting the urge to mix a lil' honey badger into sett —

[catgirlthecrazy]

Me: you know what sounds like a nice way to unwind before bed? Playing the cat-befriending-robots game, it's so sweet and relaxing. Yeah, there are sometimes swarms of scary bugs that try to eat me but so far there haven't been too many of them, I can deal with it

Stray: SEWER CHAPTER COMMENCE

Me, an hour later: how the fuck did this poor kitty wind up in a Dead Space level

[nutklcker]

When the triggering illness returns

[gynandromorph]

This one is always funny to me because there are Fat Insect apex predators (whales, snakes, poisonous frogs) and there are also herbivores who aren't Fat Insects (hippos, pandas, elephants) and have no natural predators

[great-and-small]

When I was in vet school I went to this one lecture that I will never forget. Various clubs would have different guest lecturers come in to talk about relevant topics and since I was in the Wildlife Disease Association club I naturally attended all the wildlife and conservation discussions. Well on this particular occasion, the speakers started off telling us they had been working on a project involving the conservation of lemurs in Madagascar. Lemurs exist only in Madagascar, and they are in real trouble; they’re considered the most endangered group of mammals on Earth. This team of veterinarians was initially assembled to address threats to lemur health and work on conservation solutions to try and save as many lemur species from extinction as possible. As they explored the most present dangers to lemurs they found that although habitat loss was the primary problem for these vulnerable animals, predation by humans was a significant cause of losses as well. The vets realized it was crucial for the hunting of lemurs by native people to stop, but of course this is not so simple a problem.

The local Malagasy people are dealing with extreme poverty and food insecurity, with nearly half of children under five years old suffering from chronic malnutrition. The local people have always subsisted on hunting wildlife for food, and as Madagascar’s wildlife population declines, the people who rely on so-called bushmeat to survive are struggling more and more. People are literally starving.

Our conservation team thought about this a lot. They had initially intended to focus efforts on education but came to understand that this is not an issue arising from a lack of knowledge. For these people it is a question of survival. It doesn’t matter how many times a foreigner tells you not to eat an animal you’ve hunted your entire life, if your child is starving you are going to do everything in your power to keep your family alive.

So the vets changed course. Rather than focus efforts on simply teaching people about lemurs, they decided to try and use veterinary medicine to reduce the underlying issue of food insecurity. They supposed that if a reliable protein source could be introduced for the people who needed it, the dependence on meat from wildlife would greatly decrease. So they got to work establishing new flocks of chickens in the most at-risk communities, and also initiated an aggressive vaccination program for Newcastle disease (an infectious illness of poultry that is of particular concern in this area). They worked with over 600 households to ensure appropriate husbandry and vaccination for every flock, and soon found these communities were being transformed by the introduction of a steady protein source. Families with a healthy flock of chickens were far less likely to hunt wild animals like lemurs, and fewer kids went hungry. Thats what we call a win-win situation.

This chicken vaccine program became just one small part of an amazing conservation outreach initiative in Madagascar that puts local people at the center of everything they do. Helping these vulnerable communities of people helps similarly vulnerable wildlife, always. If we go into a country guns-blazing with that fire for conservation in our hearts and a plan to save native animals, we simply cannot ignore the humans who live around them. Doing so is counterintuitive to creating an effective plan because whether we recognize it or not, humans and animals are inextricably linked in many ways. A true conservation success story is one that doesn’t leave needy humans in its wake, and that is why I think this particular story has stuck with me for so long.

(Source 1)

(Source 2- cool video exploring this initiative from some folks involved)

(Source 3)

[lime-peaches666]

.

[kaurwreck]

I do not understand how nendoroids get away with being as ugly as sin at their price point.

[fuckingrecipes]

Wait, which animals raise livestock?

Several species of ants will 'herd' aphids around (a type of plant lice)- even picking them up and putting them back with the group if they wander off. The ants will attack anything that approaches their aphid herds, defending them. The aphids produce a sugary excretion called honeydew, which the ants harvest and eat.

Some ants will even 'milk' the aphids, stroking the aphids with their antennae, to stimulate them to release honeydew. Some aphids have become 'domesticated' by the ants, and depend entirely on their caretaker ants to milk them.

When the host plant is depleted of resources and dies, the ants will pick up their herd of aphids and carry them to a new plant to feed on - a new 'pasture' if you will.

Some ants continue to care for aphids overwinter, when otherwise they'd die. The ants carry aphid eggs into their own nests, and will even go out of their way to destroy the eggs of aphid-predators, like ladybugs.

--

Microhylids – or narrow-mouthed frogs - have an interesting symbiosis with Tarantulas.

While the spiders could very easily kill and eat the much-tinier frogs, and DO normally prey on small frogs, young spiders instead will use their mouthparts to pick up the microhylid frogs, bring them back to their burrow, and release them unharmed.

The frog benefits from hanging out in/around the burrow of the tarantula, because the tarantula can scare away or eat predators that normally prey on tiny frogs, like snakes, geckos, and mantids. The tarantula gets a babysitter.

Microhylid frogs specialize in eating ants, and ants are one of the major predators of spider eggs. By eating ants, the frogs protect the spider's eggs. The frogs can also lay their eggs in the burrow, and won't be eaten by the spider.

So it's less 'livestock' and more like a housepet - a dog or a cat. You stop coyotes/eagles from hurting your little dog/cat, and in return the dog/cat keeps rats away from your baby.

--

Damselfish grow algae on rocks and corals. They defend these gardens ferociously, and will attack anything that comes too close - even humans. They spend much of their time weeding the gardens, removing unwanted algaes that might overtake their crop.

The species of algae that they cultivate is weak and and sensitive to growing conditions, and can easily be overgrazed by other herbivores. That particular algae tends to grow poorly in areas where damselfish aren't around to protect and farm it.

Damselfish will ALSO actively protect Mysidium integrum (little shrimp-like crustacians) in their reef farms, despite eating other similarly sized invertebrates. The mysids are filter feeders, who feed on zooplankton and free-floating algae, and their waste fertilizes the algae farms. Many types of zooplankton can feed on the algae crop, and the mysids prevent that.

While Mysids can be found around the world, the only place you'll find swarms of Musidium integrum is on the algae farms that Damselfish cultivate.

Damselfish treat the little mysids like some homesteaders treat ducks. Ducks eat snails and other insect pests on our crops, and their poop fertilizes the land. The ducks can be eaten, but aren't often, since they're more useful for their services than their meat.

--

There are SEVERAL species of insect and animal which actively farm. They perform fungiculture and horticulture: deliberately growing and harvesting fungus and plants at a large-scale to feed their population.

Leaf-cutter ants and Termites both chew up plant material and then seed it with a specific type of fungus. The fungus grows, and the termites/ants harvest the mushroom as a food source.

Ambrosia beetles burrow into decaying trees, hollow out little farming rooms, and introduce a specific fungii (the ambrosia fungi), which both adults and larval beetles feed on.

Marsh Periwinkles (a type of snail) cultivates fungus on cordgrass. They wound the plant with their scraping tongue, then defecate into the wound so their preferred fungus will infect it and grow there. They let the fungus grow in the wound a bit, and come back later to eat.

[ozzyfromthecafeteria]

BREAKING NEWS! Sharks, that are carnivorous and predators, have successful hunting tactics! Oh, the horror! Who would’ve thought that they had to, I don’t know, HUNT and KILL to survive. I can’t stand shark slander anymore.

THEYRE WILD ANIMALS YOU IDIOT

YES, THAT IS CALLED HUNTING, IT HAPPENS WITH WILD ANIMALS

[spookymovie]

has it happened to anyone else where you’re looking at a blog you think you might want to follow and then you find out they have a stupid ass stance on an issue you’re passionate about