#higher order learning

[mbti-notes]

I see you learned many subjects of interest at school, & that was impressive. Was It hard to incorporate interdisciplinary learning in life, like learning is great in itself but It takes a lot to piece together so many different pieces of theories in life. Do you mind sharing how you can make peace with all those information? thank you.

If I'm a good interdisciplinary learner today, there is lots of credit to go around. The school I went to encouraged interdisciplinary study and I was lucky to have met several interdisciplinary professors who had a deep influence on me. Also, when you majored in a so-called "impractical" subject, you were generally encouraged to pair it with something more practical. For instance, psychology students were often encouraged to double major with education or business, which fostered an interdisciplinary mindset. Unfortunately, I doubled down on the impractical by pairing with philosophy lol.

Many people don't know the history of the university. The first universities in early Western civilization only had one subject: philosophy. This meant philosophy had to cover everything, so it is interdisciplinary at heart. It wasn't until much later during the scientific revolution that natural sciences separated out from philosophy. And it wasn't until about a century ago that the social sciences separated out from the natural sciences.

Most philosophy courses in university are labeled "philosophy of _____". The blank includes a wide range of possible subjects, such as: aesthetics; bioethics; business ethics; culture; death; economics; education; environmental ethics; existentialism; gender; history; knowledge; language; law; literature; logic; love; mathematics; medicine; meta-ethics; metaphysics; mind; money; morality; politics; psychology; religion; rhetoric; science; sex; technology; values; etc.

A person who is drawn to major in philosophy is likely to already have an interdisciplinary attitude. As you can see, a well-educated philosophy major is basically able to understand the theoretical underpinnings of any subject, which gives them a big leg up in studying anything. People like to joke about philosophy majors having few practical skills (it is true in my case), but they consistently get the highest scores on tests of intellectual ability compared to every other major.

Fortunately, I am blessed with natural talent for learning theory as well as a personal passion for it, so I don't find it particularly difficult. As for how to "make peace" with all the information, it's hard to explain. Suffice it to say that the ability to learn progresses in predictable stages, from lower order to higher order thinking skills. A philosophy textbook that I can now absorb in a week might've taken me a month to process in the first year of university. You have to take a lot of time to build up a solid foundation of knowledge through lower order learning before you can reach the higher order stage of being able to synthesize information, see: Bloom's Taxonomy.

[dugaodna]

this post pissed me off in ways i cant even begin to articulate

[spock-adoodledoo]

i think one of the things i'll always appreciate abt maomao is that even though she's the protag, it's not really that the world revolves around her or that things always happen to her, it's more that she gets involved in things (usually at the request of other ppl but whatever) that usually don't affect her immediately. idk but it's nice that she's kind of our dispassionate window into palace life instead of the person everything happens to

[antirepurp]

it's weird that while digimon world next order is like mechanically a better dw game and lets you have more control over how you raise your digimon, digimon world redigitize decode has a better gameplay loop to me anyway. like in next order after a few generations and lifespan upgrades the digimon just Don't Fucking Die which is a real ordeal when it comes to actually completing the beastiary, and it makes it really difficult to estimate when to do important story fights and when to fuck around bc your fellas are about to die anyway. redigitize seems to have a set lifespan for your digimon that doesn't increase with generations, it's just base stats that do, and it gives you this neat about 15 in-game day cycle of raising your dude up (which can be done entirely in the gym) and exploring in-between if you need to adjust your stats carefully for specific evolutions. if redigitize had the evolution control of next order i think i'd say it's the ultimately better experience just for that tbh

[drawnbythestream]

Me thinking about my Jedi temple adventure game: What if you talk to this one Master and he mentions his missing Padawan and then you find the Padawan looking for a rock or something that he lost that was given to him by that Master?? 😃 wouldn’t that be neat? Wouldn’t that be fun? And while you’re walking around talking to people and looking for random things you learn basic moves like how to jump, and occasionally you solve some sort of puzzle game! Ooh!

[shigarosie]

I gotta get smth out real quick feel free to ignore

I'm really stuck between staying with the non-conventional job that I love and am comfortable with and looking for a more conventional job with benefits that I probably won't like as much. This is the only type of job I've ever had (I've worked for several different people/groups doing the same kind of work) but at the rate things are currently going I'm struggling to see how I'll be able to continue working this job and also be able to support myself financially as things in the next couple years change and shift.

[fingertipsmp3]

My 2025 resolutions:

Don’t die unless it’s unavoidable

No fucking impulse buying! No! Fucking! Impulse buying!!!

Travel more (which means travel at all)

Read more and be on my phone less

[usagimen]

I always think about how Sayuri sees another female sorcerer && her mind instantly is just: you deserve more. The Kobayashi women understand the horrors of the patriarchal system they are force to endure under while defying it && reveling in being loathed for their defiance. It shows so much by her respect towards Uro, two kunoichi’s in a death battle but Sayuri is having the time of her life while genuinely wishing, in another life, they could have been more.

[lanliingwang]

grailed squad

[mbti-notes]

with regards to learning it may be important to know about IEOD(illusion of explanation depth) which may sometimes lead us to believe we understand more about the world than we think this can be especially true for those with an intuitive preference i write this because I've fallen for it too I hope this helps

I have discussed such learning problems in previous posts. After spending many years teaching, tutoring, and coaching students from a variety of backgrounds, in a variety of subjects, it never ceases to amaze me just how little people understand about learning. I believe that basic knowledge of learning theory is necessary for optimizing the learning process, if one hopes to be a good student of anything.

With so much information at the fingertips, it's more important than ever that people are mindful about how they learn. Being in the role of "student" is hard because you're a newbie and you're ignorant and you don't know the best way to tackle a big subject. Without a good teacher or an expert to guide you, you might come to rely on dubious sources of information, misinterpret what you read, misapply the ideas, or hit a seemingly insurmountable block/plateau.

Unfortunately, there are not enough good teachers to go around. Unfortunately, many teachers in public education are tasked with "babysitting" rather than teaching, to the detriment of learning. As a result, too many students get to high school, i.e., into adulthood, without a solid foundation of study skills.

Just recently, I was helping a twelfth grade student with essay writing. Being a good student, they couldn't understand why they kept getting low marks in writing despite putting a lot of effort into the assignments. Turns out, they kept submitting summaries of the literature when the teacher was explicitly asking for analysis of the literature. When I brought this problem to their attention, they were even more confused, because they thought they had been doing analysis all along. They had no clue that there was a difference between summary and analysis, so they were incapable of getting to the level of depth that the teacher was demanding.

One of the first things I often have to do with students is explain the difference between lower order vs higher order learning. Lower order learning is usually enough to pass the class throughout K-12 or achieve basic competency. Higher order learning moves people into expert territory. Without a clear vision of what they should be aspiring to, students tend to get stuck in lower order learning.

The difference between lower and higher order learning is neatly summarized by Bloom's Taxonomy, a conceptual framework for evaluating cognitive/intellectual ability. It breaks down the learning process into six categories/levels: 1) remember, 2) understand, 3) apply, 4) analyze, 5) evaluate, 6) create. Since it's hard to quantify exactly what's happening in a student's mind during learning, this framework helps by asking concrete questions about what the student can or cannot do.

My student got stuck at level 2 when the average requirement for the class was 4. They gave me a sample essay that their teacher considered to be "excellent" and it was easily at 5. While they could "feel" that there was a difference between their own essay and the excellent essay, they weren't able to articulate the difference at all.

One learning problem that people, Ns especially, often suffer is that they tend to get ahead of themselves, which is related to illusion of explanation depth. It's basically trying to run before walking. For example:

they believe "gist" is enough and dismiss details

they conflate knowing (theory) and doing (real world)

they judge/conclude without proper analysis

they try to create without mastering the basics

The above problems arise when a person doesn't realize how much they don't know (and in the case of an unhealthy personality, they refuse to acknowledge it). My student (N) is a good example. They believed that being able to do level 2 stuff (paraphrase, summarize, interpret, give examples) qualified as level 4 "analysis" and that this meant they had "mastered" the material. They simply didn't know any better or that more was possible. It wasn't until I explained to them the differences between lower and higher order learning that they began to realize how low-level their writing actually was.

I've talked before about the differences between a good student vs a good learner. A simple way to think about it: A good student is preoccupied with proving how much they know, so they are mainly motivated by extrinsic rewards or egotistical gain. By contrast, a good learner is preoccupied with how much they don't know, so they are mainly motivated by intrinsic rewards or intellectual humility that naturally breeds intellectual curiosity.

[balkanlila]

i really love histology

[escriturayfilosofia]

Understanding Conscience: The Relationship with Critical Thinking - Research and Essay

Knowing what limits our ability to develop critical and creative thinking, or our complexity of thought, is precisely what opens the doors to mastering it; because the human mind cannot become conscience of what it is not conscious of.

Read the article...

[thelawfulchaotic]

What is very funny about being a specialist in juvenile law is that I never... actually liked children?

(Ok there is some possibility I am fooling myself about this, given that there has never been a single child client I got to know that I didn't love and root for and 100% support, but.)

I'm not a "kid person." I don't have the gift of running around and imagining with them. I babysat much less than equivalent older-millennial girls.

I just got into court, and I --

Okay, let me back up and talk about my first public defender's office. It was a rural office that covered several geographical jurisdictions, including multiple cities and counties, five total. Each of these had three courts that regularly needed to be covered: a juvenile/domestic court, a general court, and a slightly higher and fancier level of court. They all operated to varied schedules (general court A was on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but general court B was on Wednesdays and Fridays; juvenile court A was on Wednesdays and Fridays but juvenile court B was on Mondays and Wednesdays).

So, fifteen total "courts," and there were... hmm. 8-10 attorneys. And a boss who wanted us to be able to substitute for each other, and thus rotated us through the courts every month. On week 1, I might be doing general court A on Tuesday and general court B on Friday. On week 2, I might be doing general court A on Thursday and juvenile/domestic court A on Wednesday. I might have one day a month where I do general court C.

So on.

The court schedules cases not according to our schedules, but according to police officers. Do you see the problem yet?

Public defenders were fungible. For those who don't know that very academic-specific word, it means that we were exchangeable units. One case could go through four different attorney's hands because it would get continued, show up on someone else's date, get continued again, show up on someone else's date, and so on. Juvenile cases were particularly bad about this because they tended to linger in court for a long time, while the court monitored the juvenile's progress.

Here's another fun problem: the department in charge of things like child protection, custody, etc., would only come to court on Tuesdays. We did not have a spare attorney to cover an extra day on Tuesdays in which criminal cases would happen with children who happened to also have custody issues or a foster care prevention plan in place. They would put the criminal case on the next day, Wednesday. Effectively, this meant that we were not present for the decisions about where our clients went and what programs they would have to do.

So I'm dropped into this, a baby attorney, having watched a DVD about How To Juvenile Law. I feel my training is wildly inadequate, and I'm doing reviews on cases that have never had the same attorney twice. Zero trust between me and the kids, and why would there be?

I complained loudly until my boss gave in and ordered me the several-hundred-dollar Juvenile Practice In This State book, and then I read it cover to cover. I learned a bunch of really interesting things! Like all the stuff we'd been doing wrong!

My boss was shocked. "You actually read that?"

"What did you THINK I was gonna do?"

"Well, you're the juvenile expert now, I guess."

oh shit, I thought. oops. fuck.

But I leaned in, and not in the ambition way. I proposed a way to rearrange my schedule so that I would always be free on Tuesdays for DSS cases. Instantaneously, there was a change in the environment of the court -- before, it was the guardians ad litem, juvenile probation, and the attorney for DSS deciding what to do with kids. Now I was there. Making suggestions. And arguments.

We changed how we did the schedule, and how we put individual cases on that schedule. Keeping them on our days became a priority.

I instituted a weekly detention center visit, for myself. (I made it about half the time.)

I went to trainings. This area of law is wildly unpopular among a lot of public defenders, because it's complicated and sad and you don't get to do jury trials about it. Every new thing I learned just pissed me off. It wasn't that I liked kids. It was that kids deserved better. So I got to take over pretty much everything with regards to juvenile law in the office.

But like, I stumbled on this, I didn't know shit. I didn't have a passion for protecting children. It's just that every bit of law I learned made me go, "What? REALLY? Fuck off!"

[nanamisdollie]

his favorite concubine ⋆ 𐙚 ̊.

smut, mdni. cw: dubcon, true form sukuna(monster fucking?), use of stomach mouth for freaky purposes <3

just thinking about being one of ryomen sukunas servants who ends up promoted to concubine<3

maybe it was your body that caught his attention, perhaps the way you listened when given orders? was it that you worked quick unlike others who served, or could it have been that you held eye contact when the four eyed beast of a man passed you. it couldve been any of those things that led you to this point;

˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

“stop- fuckin’ squirming-“

two of four oversized arms had you bent with your knees beside your ears, hands interlocked behind your neck. you had never been manhandled in such a way, nevermind wondered how a man with four arms would have his way with you.

“if you don’t learn how to stay still-“ another hand comes up to hold your face, forcing you to look at him. theres four eyes all on you “-ill slay you myself. find another woman to breed. you understand?”

its a struggle to nod, so a muffled “mhm~” does the trick..not that he would’ve taken anything other than yes as a proper answer. a concubine did her job of providing pleasure or died, it was that simple to a powerful man like sukuna. an heir would be nice as well, though it wasn’t a must.

a hand falls from your face to wrap around your waist, pulling you up his abdomen. your legs are beginning to cramp, your pelvis hurts, but you don’t dare mention it. he wouldn’t care even if you did.

“mm- ah! wha-” the gasp thats ripped from your chest is abrupt in reaction to something wet between your thighs. its an odd sensation, one that you squirm away from until - SMACK! - on the underside of one of your thighs.

sukuna tightens the full nelsons he bent you into. when he adjusts you higher up, you’re able to get a proper look at just whats probing between your lower lips; his second mouth, trying its best to tongue fuck you open for him.

“stop clenching” a grunt hums against your neck, the lower tongue flattening as it licks a stripe from your leaking hole to your clit “s’ gonna hurt worse if you fight it- just let it happen, woman”

so you do. this was your job as a concubine, you had to remember that.

relaxing your lower half you let him violate you with the mouth. its a sensation unlike anything you've ever felt, though not awful. it makes your cunt drool, softening naturally in preparation for whatever your lord planned to do next.

˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

"hah! h-holy fuck-!"

"don't speak of holiness while in my quarters" strong firm hips buck up into your own, still held in a mean full nelson that left you spread wide open.

now though, two cocks were coaxing your slit open. you had relaxed all you could like he demanded, his second tongue had gotten you to drip a lewd amount over his lower stomach, and yet even the tips of both were enough to have you shaking.

"mm-lord sukuna! p-please..." tears pricked the corners of your eyes. you couldn't help the overflowing whines and sobs you let out, it was all too much and yet he kept going.

"last time- shit- i checked-" both lengths push further into your weeping cunt, fat tears begin to slip down your flushed cheeks "-concubines werent supposed to- fuckin' take it- talk back to their master"

your heads spinning, you can feel your hole pulsating as it tries to take in every inch of both cocks. they’re not just long, they’re thick, fat even at the tip. every inch burns but theres an underlying pleasure to it that makes you want more.

a lapping at your cheek brings you back to him, heavy eyes glancing towards the monsters face; he’s grinning while licking up your tears, a chuckle reverberates into your back “pretty crier at least…”

sukuna finally, with one powerful thrust, is able to slot both cocks fully inside. it knocks the wind out of you.

the sensation is nothing like anything you’ve ever felt. full, stretched beyond what should be humanly possible, your cunts memorizing every vein as if you were being molded to fit him. your were so fucking dizzy you could hardly keep your eyes open.

smack, smack, smack!

“look at me, look at your lord while you take my cocks”

a firm hand held your face again after a few merciful slaps. once more you were forced to hold eye contact with him

“picked you to be one of my toys…cause’ of the way you looked at me” a deep thrust has his balls smacking your clit and his tips rutting into your cervix “you don’t fuckin’ look away. felt like- ug- you were beggin’ for this”

when he gets no reply he smacks your cheek once again with more force. “tell me. tell your lord that you wanted this”

his hips begin to piston up into you, ripping a yelp from somewhere deep in your chest. its like he’s fucking into your cervix now. your cries, skin slapping, grunts from him bounce of the walls.

“i-i- mmph! wan-wanted this!”

sukuna grunts and picks up the pace of his thrusts, practically snarling into your ear. his breath was blistering against your flushed skin

“wanted- ah! shi- wanted lord kuna!”

another deep chuckle from him makes the burning in your lower stomach begin to grow. your cunt was tightening, choking his lengths. you can hear his grunts become huffs, his pace is slowing.

“wanted kuna so bad? huh?” a whine is all you can muster out“then cum. milk my seed, woman”

the words are so vulgar, and yet they break that tension that had been growing. tears pool down your cheeks once more as you cum, legs shaking in his grasp. you’re sobbing, struggling to catch your breath as your orgasm rips throughout your used body.

just the spasming on your already snug cunt has sukuna busting from both cocks not long after. he growls while pushing his hips flush to your own, balls pressed right up to your clit. you swear you can feel your cervix open up for him, like it needed his seed.

“atta girl…” he huffs out a tired sigh, finally letting your legs fall, his arms falling by his head. you nearly pass out from the pressure release. so dizzy, your legs feel like jelly, your arms are numb, and he’s still pushed all the way inside you.

when you try to move, one of his four arms stops you. your eyes meet and he pulls your back to his chest, two of his other hands coming up to caress your breasts.

“you’re gonna stay here. gotta make sure it takes.” one of the hands on your breasts slips to your lower stomach, brushing it gently “can tell your cunt wants to make me an heir. isnt that right?”

oh to give sukuna an heir. i love u true form sukuna<333

[oneofthosecrazycatladies]

Hitler and the Nazi party took over Germany in 53 days. March 1st marks 41 days of the Trump administration. My hope for March is that the list you’re about to read won’t be the in-real-time evidence of America sliding further into autocracy.

Here we go again…

January-February 2025

March 2025:

Trump has made English the official language of the country [x]

Trump pauses military aid to Ukraine [x]

Trump has imposed new tariffs on China and Canada and they have retaliated [x]

Linda McMahon has been confirmed as Secretary of Education [x]

The Department of Education has set up a witch-hunt for DEI in schools [x]

Trump has delayed his tariffs on the auto industry [x]

Trump suspends tariffs on Mexico [x]

ICE is now targeting migrant families who entered the US with their children [x]

Trump is threatening new tariffs on Canada, including 250% tariffs on dairy products [x]

The Department of Homeland Security is performing polygraph tests on employees [x]

Because of cuts to USAID, Afghan women who fled the Taliban might be forced to return [x]

The Department of Health and Human Services is offering all of their employees a $25,000 buyout [x]

Trump says he will double Canadian tariffs on steel and aluminum [x]

Trump administration has rebranded the CBP One app as the CBP Home app for migrants to self-deport [x]

Trump created a strategic crypto reserve [x]

The Department of Education is cutting nearly half its workforce [x]

The Department of Agriculture has cut $1 billion in funding to bring fresh food to schools [x]

The Trump administration is rolling back dozens of environmental protections and regulations [x]

The Senate passed the spending bill that had been passed by the Housw earlier this month [x]

Trump administration has shut down the media organization Voice of America [x]

The US is bombing Houthi targets in Yemen [x]

The EPA has dismissed a case against a chemical plant in Louisiana [x][x]

Trump has signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education [x]

Homeland Security is going after foreign-born academics and scholars [x]

Trump says the Small Business Administration will take over the oversight of federal student loans [x]

Trump administration has deported Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador without due process [x]

NOAA is making cuts to weather data collection due to layoffs [x]

Trump stacks military academy boards with MAGA loyalists, including Michael Flynn and Charlie Kirk [x]

Trump tells the Attorney General to sanction lawyers who file lawsuits against his administration [x][x]

The IRS is going to share tax data with ICE to help them track down undocumented immigrants [x]

Trump signs executive order that requires proof of citizenship to vote [x][x]

Supreme Court upholds regulations on ghost guns [x]

An endangered sea turtle is stranded in Wales because of Trump’s funding freeze [x]

Federal appeals court maintains temporary block on Trump’s use of Alien Enemies Act for deportations [x]

Trump is imposing 25% tariffs on all automobiles brought into the US [x]

HHS has cut 10,000 employees [x]

A Tufts University graduate student from Turkey has been arrested by ICE agents who wore masks as they grabbed her off the street [x]

This happened in February but I didn’t learn about it until just now — Trump created a White House Faith Office [x][x]

Trump signed an executive order to control the Smithsonian [x][x][x]

Ohio has passed a bill coined the Higher Education Destruction Act by opponents. It bans all DEI from Ohio public universities, bans faculty from going on strike, and eliminates services to veterans and people with disabilities [x]

Trump has pardoned Trevor Milton [x]

Trump won’t rule out a third term [x] (that’s not allowed)

Miscellaneous News:

A federal judge has ruled against another one of Trump’s attempted firings. [x]

Federal workers are fighting back against DOGE cuts [x]

Musk had a closed-door meeting with Republican senators to cement DOGE cuts in law [x]

There was a heated exchange in the House over the misgendering of Sarah McBride [x]

House Republicans block a vote to end Trump’s tariffs [x]

A federal judge has ordered that thousands of federal employees be reinstated [x]

Trump says he wants to use the Justice Department to go after his political enemies [x]

A judge has blocked Trump’s transgender military ban [x]

Elon Musk is spending millions of dollars on a Wisconsin Supreme Court election [x]

Arlington National Cemetery has taken down information about female veterans and veterans of color from their website [x]

The person in charge of defending DOGE cuts is a social media fashion influencer [x]

A chorus of ladies wrote a song for Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) [x]

The UK, Germany, and Nordic countries have all issued travel warnings about traveling to the US [x]

Columbia University has given in to Trump’s demands in order to restore federal funding [x]

Usha Vance and Mike Waltz, along with other US officials are planning to visit Greenland this week [x]

Trump administration accidentally sent secret war plans to the editor of a magazine [x]

Trump defends Mike Waltz who accidentally added a journalist to text chain about secret war plans [x]

The White House is seeking corporate sponsorships for its annual Easter Egg roll [x]

Florida is trying to loosen their child labor laws [x]

Ohio is trying to pass a bill to completely ban all DEI in public universities [x]

Alabama board defunds local library in first action under new book ban law [x]

Utah has banned fluoride in its drinking water [x] (I hope you like tooth decay)

JD Vance says Greenlanders want to join the US [x]

April-July 2025

This post is constantly being updated so if this comes across your dash, check OP’s blog to see the most up-to-date version.

Remember that you have a voice. Remember that Donald Trump and his spineless cronies want you to just give up and accept their control. REMEMBER: NO ONE CAN MAKE YOU FEEL INFERIOR WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT.

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

I promised you some lions! Let's talk about manes, males, and management.

This is Tandie, the current male lion at the Woodland Park Zoo.

Notice anything odd about him? He's got one of those hilarious awkward teenager manes. Except... this cat is nine years old.

I was, of course, immediately curious.

Manes serve a lot of purposes for male lions, including being an indicator of health and fitness - it's actually a sexually selected trait and a social signal. Mane texture / hair quality / length is dependent on nutrition and the body having energy to grow (and carry around!) that much hair! The color is also a signal: males with darker manes have been found to have higher testosterone levels.

In one research report, wild males were much more likely to avoid a lion decoy when it had a longer or darker mane - but the girls really loved a dark mane. It's thought this is because a long, dark mane is an indicator of mate quality. Males with longer, darker manes have higher testosterone and were pretty healthy: meaning they had more energy for fighting, had a better chance of recovering if they got injured, and generally had a higher rate of offspring survival. Manes matter!

So, back to Tandie. He was actually born at the Woodland Park Zoo in 2014 alongside two brothers, to dad Xerxes and mother Adia.

This was Xerxes (rip).

Obviously, a very large, dark, lush mane on Xerxes here. So where did these blond muttonchops come from on his son?

I asked the zoo docents and got an answer that didn't make a lot of sense. They told me that after the three cubs grew into adolescents, they were moved to the Oakland Zoo together. But living together suppressed his testosterone, and he never grew a mane.

Hmmmm.

Here's a photo from 2016, when the brothers debuted at Oakland. They're a year and a half old in this photo.

(Photo Credit: Oakland Zoo)

And here's from an announcement for their third birthday.

(Photo credit: Oakland Zoo)

Okay, so these dudes obviously all were growing manes as of 2017. I think Tandie is the one on the left in the first photo, and laying down in the middle on the second. What happened?

I was just in the Bay Area for a zoo road trip, of course I went to Oakland and tracked down a docent to ask some questions.

It turns out that shortly after the brothers turned three, they started acting like adult male lions: they started scuffling regularly. It's a normal social thing for male lions to live in groups, called coalitions, but according to my lion experts there's generally a baseline level of some social jostling within them. It wasn't quite clear from what the docent said if they couldn't manage the boys together, or if they just wanted to avoid the scratches and small wounds that result from normal lion behavior. Regardless, they put all three of the boys on testosterone blockers in order to be able to keep them together as a social group.

Now, I don't know a lot about the use of hormone alteration as a form of captive animal management, except in the case of birth control. I don't think it's something that's unethical - there was just a webinar on it that I saw go by - but I don't think it's commonly done with big cats. Lions have kind of complicated reproductive cycles, and for instance, we've been learning that female lions can take much longer to come into estrus again than expected after coming off hormonal birth control.

In males, testosterone blockers (or being neutered) means they lose their manes. This is why a lot of rescues will do a vasectomy on their males instead of a neuter - it allows them to keep their mane and the social signals that accompany it.

Tandie returned home to Woodland Park Zoo after Xerxes passed in early 2022, and the docent told me all of the lions had been off their blockers "for while." I'd guess those things happened around the same time, since bringing the trio down to a duo at Oakland would reduce some of the social tensions.

Hormones are such interesting things, though. One of Tandie's brothers has a full mane again, and the other is still totally mane-less.

As for Tandie, his mane is growing back in, and it looks like he might rival his dad for length and coloration.

He started here, in February:

Yesterday:

What a difference four months (and maybe proximity to a girl) makes!