#it was called the Carolinas Parakeet

[dead-pidove-do-not-eat]

Does anyone else have that issue where they get inconsolable about extinct species and animals?

[ceruleanvulpine]

huge respect to @myxinidaes for reblogging that post with 100 birds

[urdtarah]

I just found out that the united states had a native parrot but bc humans suck it's extinct 😭

[extinctionstories]

Tie a string around your finger, so you won't forget...

The Carolina Parakeet was declared extinct in 1939.

Up until just the year before, people were still claiming to have sighted the yellow-headed parakeets in the wild—in the impenetrable depths of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp; along the Santee River basin of South Carolina, where people still search for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker to this day—but evidence suggested only escaped, feral species of pet birds, tinged by wishful thinking.

The last definitively identified specimen of Conuropsis carolinensis, a male named Incas, had died at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1918. As it happens, his last home was the very same cage in which Martha, the endling Passenger Pigeon, had spent her final years. 2014, the hundredth anniversary of Martha's loss, brought the publication of a number of new books on the topic of the Passenger Pigeon and even a documentary; the centenary of Incas' death, by contrast, warranted only a handful of mentions of our lost native parrot.

Hardly a hundred years later, our parakeet has faded from common memory—like the fading text on the tags that twine around the feet of the study skins that fill museum specimen drawers, where they should have filled the sky, should have filled roosts in hollow trees, should have filled our backyards; should have filled their lungs with air, and our hearts and imaginations and eyes with the sight of their iridescent green feathers.

The title of this painting is Memory Knot. It is gouache on 18 x 13 inch paper, and is the 9th piece in my series on the extinct Carolina Parakeet. It is also the final piece in the series as originally conceived (though inspiration continues to strike, and this is not the last appearance the species will make in my art).

Please, remember that there was a bird called the Carolina Parakeet. Remember what happened to it. Remember that we are the only ones who can keep it from happening again.

[herpsandfriends]

thinking about extinct birds so much

thinking about the passenger pigeon, martha, and carolina parakeet, inca, the last presumed members of their species dying only a few years apart in the same enclosure at cincinnati zoo

thinking about the last kauaʻi ʻōʻō, calling out their part of a duet with no one left to return it

thinking of the last breeding pair of great auks, who were killed by fisherman. clumsy on land, they ran to the sea to escape. their carcasses were sold on the mainland, and their single egg accidentally crushed underfoot in the chase

thinking of the last heath hen, booming ben, last seen on his lekking grounds, standing alone with no one to display to or compete with

thinking of the last dusky seaside sparrow, orange band, dying alone of old age on a nature preserve

thinking of all the birds that went quietly, without us noticing.

[hero-of-the-wolf]

Emmie, are you in the mood for random animal facts?

We have a thunderstorm here, my dog and I aren’t fans of lightning, a distraction would be nice…. If you aren’t up to it, that’s totally okay, I just really like to hear people talk about their special interests.

And your animal facts are just so awesome and interesting. 👏👏

I'm always in the mood for random animal facts :)

I'm also always in the mood to provide a distraction!! I gotchu!!!

giraffes tongues are 10-18 inch long (depending on how tall the giraffe is) and are purple to protect them from the sun!! they stick them out and wrap them around tree branches to strip the leaves off!

acacia trees have developed both long thorns and a symbiotic relationship with a species of ant to fend off would-be snackers, the giraffes do not care about this lol

they're ruminants like cows and have four stomachs too!! they swallow all their food and save chewing for later, when they feel more safe

they sleep about 30 minutes a day!!!

(can you tell I was just working with the giraffes lol)

the harpy eagle’s talons are the same size as a grizzly bear’s claws!!

crows recognize human faces and will tell other crows about people that could pose a threat!! they basically gossip about us!!

there used to be a species of parrot native to north america called the carolina parakeet that specialized in eating cockleburs, sandspurs, and thistles (yummy!) but they are sadly no longer with us :(

[koiantlers]

If you'd like, the animal list! Hope you're having a great night!

Ohhhh its a long list cuz I love animals but here-

Also thank you I am having a good night :]

I have them in two categories of marine and land creatures, marine first-

*Atlantic Sea nettle Jellyfish that I plan to make to a subtle trans tattoo with pink blue and white colors

* Giant Octopus I am thinking of being on my hand

* Of course a koi fish with lilypads and water hyacinths

* Ribbon eel

* Hammerhead shark, my personal favorite shark.

* Whale shark

* betta fish

* moorish idol

* arowana

* nudibranch

* Alligator gar

* freshwater salmon

* peacock mantis shrimp

* leafy seadragon

* lungfish

* Cyerce Elegans (a pretty sea slug)

* butterfly tang

* common sea sponge and a pisaster brevispinus starfish as a reference to SpongeBob and Patrick lol

* seahorse

* Hermit crab

* Starry sturgeon

* neon tetra

* sea turtle

And for land ones-

* Frilled lizard, one if my favorite reptiles

* flamingo

* red kangaroo

* orange tailed marsh dart

* king cobra

* Orchid mantis

* jaguar

* Luna moth

* seven spined crab spider

* Japanese macaque

* poison dart frog

* golden Lion tamarin

* Bearded vulture, one of my favorite birds

* okapi

* snow leopard

* peacock

* African wild dog

* hare

* melanistic leopard

* pangolin

* zebra

* giraffe

Also some extinct fellas-

* quagga

* golden toad

* passenger pigeon

* Javan tiger

* bluebuck, also called blue antelope

* Carolina parakeet

* xerxes blue butterfly

[eyeslikewatercoolers]

🦖 and 🙃

Omg hi Ria!

🦖 Favorite extinct animal?

I’d have to say the Carolina Parakeet, it’s colors are so pretty

🙃 What’s a weird fact that you know?

The fear of puppets is called pupaphobia, and the fear of dolls is called pediophobia. (I know this because I have both)

[daily-rayless]

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

I tried, but I couldn't think of anything that fulfilled all of the criteria -- hyper-specific, about a character, and completely irrelevant. But I can make stabs at a few two-out-of-three examples when it comes to Price and Prey of Magic.

1: Hyper-specific and irrelevant, but not about a character: The parakeets mentioned as living around Eider's house are based on the Carolina parakeet, which is extinct. I found out that there used to be an east coast American parakeet as recently as 1918 and I was miffed I couldn't see them, so I put them in the book.

2: Hyper-specific and about a character: Yew's, Eider's, and Diarca's surnames are all significant. Yew Bosse is a reference to Carabosse, the evil fairy in Taichovsky's Sleeping Beauty ballet. My grandfather loved ballet and had a big coffee table book about the Bolshoi Ballet. I would page through it when I was little, so even though the name Carabosse isn't used in every telling, I associate it with the character. With Eider Isarna, Isarna is a root word for the English word "iron"; the book's original title was The Iron Claws. As for Diarca Talia, while most versions of the Sleeping Beauty story name the princess Aurora, one variant calls her Talia.

3: Hyper-specific, about a character, irrelevant to the story, but honestly not "weird": Eider's middle name is Clare, after her mother Claris.

Thanks for the asks!

[landscaping-your-mind]

[ID:

"During the last 100-200 years, biodiversity loss and species extinction have accelerated, to the point that most conservation biologists now believe that humankind has either entered a period of mass extinction, or is on the cusp of doing so. As such, the event has also been referred to as the sixth mass extinction or sixth extincton.

Estimates on the number of Earth's current species range from 2 million to 1 trillion, of which over 1.7 million have been documented. More than 99% of all species, amounting to over 5 billion species, that have ever lived are estimated to be extinct.

The intense pain of a broken heart is believed to be part of the survival instinct.

Every Day Hurts

Everybody Hurts

Everything

Everything Burns

For example, scientists witnessing the decline of Australia's Great Barrier Reef report experiences of anxiety, hopelessness, and despair.

"home is where the heart is",

and your home environment is changing in ways you find distressing.

The temporal dimension of liminality can relate to moments (sudden events), periods (weeks, months, or possibly years), and epochs (decades, generations, maybe even centuries).

Sources of information about climate change tell various categories of stories, including personal experiences, community experiences, scientific models, economic forecasts, and prophecies of apocalypse.

after the creation of Adam, God saw that the earth was corrupt and filled with violence, and he decided to destroy what he had created. But God found one righteous man, Noah, and to him he confided his intention: "I am about to bring on the Flood ... to eliminate everywhere all flesh in which there is the breath of life ... ."

Facts can be understood as smaller versions of a larger story,

Chicxulub impact

the Great Dying

A weapon of mass destruction

a biodiversity crisis being driven by human activities which push beyond the planetary boundaries and so far has proven irreversible.

In E. M. Forster's novelette "The Machine Stops" (1909), humanity has been forced underground due to inhospitable conditions on the Earth's surface, and is entirely dependent on "the machine," a god-like mechanical entity which has supplanted almost all free will by providing for humankind's every whim. The machine deteriorates and eventually stops, ending the lives of all those dependent on it, though one of the dying

secretly warns the hero Utnapishtim of the impending flood

A pioneer organism

also called a disaster taxon

occurs when a person perceives themselves to have done wrong by surviving a traumatic event when others did not.

opens with Gilgamesh roaming the wild

grieving for Enkidu

The Carolina parakeet

old-growth forests that have never been logged

A female thylacine and her juvenile offspring in the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., ca 1903

a disaster taxon,

perceives little or no chance of escape, and particularly when the exposure is prolonged or repetitive.

a disaster taxon,

saves his baby son by sending him to Earth in a small spaceship. The ship is too small to carry anyone else, so superman's parents stay behind and die.

a disaster taxon,

travels a great distance and overcomes many obstacles to find the home of Utnapishtim, the soul survivor of the Great Flood, who was rewarded with immortality by the gods.

a disaster taxon,

came of age under the threat of nuclear annihilation."

Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh

Ecological succession is

a lifelong process: one does not get 'over' the death, but instead must assimilate and live with it.

Can't see nothin' in front of me, Can't see nothin' coming up behind I make my way through the darkness, I can't feel nothing but this chain that binds me.

Birds are usually the first to inhabit newly-created islands, and seeds, such as the coconut, may also be the first arrivals on barren soil.

The sea calmed and the whirlwind and flood stopped. All-day long there was quiet. All the humans had turned to clay.

The terrain was as flat as a rooftop. Utnapishtim opened a window and felt fresh air on his face.

He fell to his knees and sat weeping, tears streaming down his face. He looked for coastlines on the horizon and saw a region of land.

Eucalypt from the site of Hiroshima Castle, 740m from the hypocenter. The tree survived the atomic bombing, while the castle was destroyed.

Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh

the beginning step

after an extreme disturbance

is Chaos, as it is in the Beginning."

it thrives on roadsides, fallows, pastures, gardens, lawns, footpaths, parks, riparian vegetation, forest and wetland perimeters, waste dumps and disturbed grounds.

In response to the idea that humans may face extinction due to environmental degradation, paleontologist David Jablonsky counters by arguing that humans are a weed species.

The Genesis flood narrative closely parallels the story of the creation: a cycle of creation, un-creation, and re-creation, in which

the uniformity of human nature

must constantly adapt, evolve, and proliferate in order to survive

We Are Chaos

Weeds with strong, widespread roots

Pioneer organisms modify their environment and establish conditions that accommodate other organisms

Dandelions benefit neighbouring plant health by bringing up nutrients and moisture with their deep tap roots.

and the bird returns with an olive branch.

the dandelion counsels Gilgamesh

“We’ve got to be one of the most bomb proof species on the planet.”

existing in a state of “constant transformation” known as the Tao, in contrast with the more static view of nature typical of Western thought.

Fast growth

Rapid reproduction

High dispersal ability

Phenotype plasticity (the ability to alter growth form to suit current conditions)

Tolerance of a wide range of environmental conditions (Ecological competence)

Ability to live off a wide variety of food types (generalist)

“Ability to thrive where there is partial or total destruction

live in a variety of habitats, establish a population in strange places, succeed in disturbed ecosystems and resist eradication once established

a disaster taxon,

establishes more readily than other species on nutrient poor soils, and following establishment

the tree provides shade (due to its dense growth) enabling the regrowth of other plant species in the community,

Courage (also called bravery or valor) is the choice and willingness to confront

the Chiculub asteroid

Ea commanded Utnapishtim to demolish his house and build a boat, regardless of the cost, to keep living beings alive.

A pioneer organism, also called a disaster taxon, is an organism that populates a region after a (short-term) natural disaster, mass extinction, or any other event that kills off most life in that area.

Utnapishtim weeps when he sees the destruction. /End ID]

"Disaster Taxon," poem assembled using text from Wikipedia articles

[ethnic-qarsherskiyan-people]

In the depths of the woods in Newport News, Virginia, the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan people had lived for generations, their lives deeply connected to the land and its rhythms. They were a resilient community, living in harmony with nature, and relying on the forest for their survival. However, their way of life was under threat as the city of Newport News expanded, and their ancestral lands were extensively logged and developed.

The community had to flee their homes, seeking refuge in the remaining pockets of the forest. They had to be constantly on the move, hiding from park rangers who were chasing them off their lands. The rangers saw them as trespassers, but the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan people knew that they were the true custodians of the forest.Despite the dangers, the community continued to thrive, relying on their traditional knowledge to forage for food. They would venture out at dawn to collect pawpaw fruit, blueberries, mushrooms, and trifolate oranges, which they used to make a sweet and tangy orange ade. The children would play in the forest, learning the ways of their ancestors, while the elders would share stories of their history and culture.

As the city encroached further into their lands, the community had to adapt, finding new ways to survive. They built shelters from the trees that had been felled, and created hidden gardens, where they grew their own food. They also developed a system of communication, using whispers and signals to warn each other of impending danger.

Despite all odds, the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan people held firm, their resilience and determination inspiring others to join their cause. They formed alliances with environmental groups and activists, who helped amplify their voices and bring attention to their plight.As the years passed, the community continued to face challenges, but they never lost sight of their connection to the land. They knew that their way of life was not just a relic of the past but a beacon for a sustainable future. And so, they persisted, their spirits unbroken, their culture intact, and their bond with the forest unshakeable.

One day, a young girl named Aiyanna, who had grown up in the forest walked along the banks of a stream that is a large tributary to the Harwood's Mill Reservoir which is known to local Ethnic Qarsherskiyan people as the Carolina Parakeet River. She observed the Spanish Moss, hanging from a Bald Cypress tree, as it blew in the wind. Poachers made the sacred epiphytic plant less and less common on the Virginia Peninsula and it only remained thanks to Ethnic Qarsherskiyans defending the plant, sometimes with booby traps and extreme brutality, to keep illegal poachers away. Aiyanna had always been fascinated by the stories of her ancestors, who had lived in harmony with the forest for generations. She had learned the ways of the land from her elders, and had become skilled in foraging, hunting, and gathering. But as the city encroached further into their lands, Aiyanna knew that their way of life was under threat.One day, while out gathering herbs, Aiyanna stumbled upon a group of activists who were protesting the logging and development of the forest. They were a diverse group, made up of environmentalists, Indigenous rights activists from the Powhatan tribe, and community organizers. Aiyanna was drawn to their passion and determination, and she knew that she had to join their cause.Together, they organized rallies and protests, and Aiyanna used her knowledge of the forest to guide the activists through the trees. She showed them the hidden streams and secret glades, and introduced them to the plants and animals that called the forest home.

As the movement grew, Aiyanna became a leader among the activists. She used her voice to speak out against the destruction of the forest, and her knowledge to educate others about the importance of preserving the land. And though she felt as though the city officials and developers ignored her movement and tried to silence her, Aiyanna refused to back down.

Years passed, and the fight to save the forest continued. Aiyanna grew into a powerful and respected leader, known throughout the land for her wisdom and courage. And though the forest was never completely safe from the threat of development, Aiyanna's activism had helped to protect it, and to preserve the way of life of her people.

One day, as Aiyanna walked through the forest, she came across a young girl, no more than ten years old. The girl was sitting by a stream, watching the water flow, and Aiyanna recognized the look of wonder in her eyes. She knew that the girl was connected to the land, just as she had been at that age."Hello," Aiyanna said, approaching the girl. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm just watching the water," the girl replied, looking up at Aiyanna with curiosity. "I love the forest. I feel like it's a part of me."

Aiyanna smiled, seeing herself in the young girl. "I know exactly what you mean," she said, sitting down beside the girl. "The forest has a way of getting under your skin, doesn't it?"

The girl nodded, her eyes wide with excitement. "I feel like the trees are talking to me, and the animals are my friends."Aiyanna laughed. "That's the magic of the forest," she said. "It's a special place, full of wonder and surprise. But it's also a place that needs our protection."The girl looked at her curiously. "What do you mean?"

Aiyanna took a deep breath, launching into a passionate explanation of the importance of preserving the forest and its inhabitants. She told the girl about the logging and development that threatened the land, and the activism that she and others had undertaken to protect it.As she spoke, the girl's eyes grew wider and wider, and Aiyanna could see the fire of activism being lit within her. "Will you teach me more?" the girl asked, when Aiyanna finished speaking.

Aiyanna smiled, knowing that the next generation of forest protectors was already emerging. "I'll teach you everything I know," she said, taking the girl's hand. "Together, we'll defend this land and all its creatures."And with that, Aiyanna and the young girl set off on a journey to explore the forest and fight for its future. They walked for hours, talking and laughing, and Aiyanna knew that the forest was in good hands.

As the sun began to set, they came to a clearing, and in the center of it stood an enormous tree, its branches reaching up towards the sky. Aiyanna led the girl to the tree, and they sat down at its base."This is the heart of the forest," Aiyanna said, her voice full of reverence. "Here, we connect with the land and all its creatures."

The girl looked up at the tree in awe, and Aiyanna could see the magic of the forest working its way into her soul. She knew that this was just the beginning of their journey together, and that the forest would forever be changed by the activism and love of this young girl.

[foryourownbosom]

Favorite Laukids headcannons?

hi anon ! so sorry im answering this just now, life has been chaos with uni and i havent had the time to properly respond 😔 BUT THIS IS MY FAV ASK EVER SKFJKSFGDSG ITS MY TIME TO SHINE .

ALRIGHT. i have LOTS of fav headcanons,,,, probably too many. based on the number i am ashamed to admit how much time i waste thinking about this family. so, im gonna *try* to pick some of my favourites and write them below! (beware, this is gonna be long. because of that, the headcanons are gonna be under a cut for anyone who might actually be interested in reading them 😭) to the ones who do, enjoy <3

SO OKAY my favourite headcanon of them all (and the one that i believe i kind of,,, developed the most?) is that each sibling had a specific flower name as a nickname, all chosen by eleanor. i like to think that based on the traits and personality she saw in her children, eleanor would pick a flower whose symbolism matched with the child in question. when calling them, she would adress the children by those flowers (eg. calling jack "my sunflower", nelly "my little magnolia", etc!)

in the case of polly for example (the last one born shortly before eleanor's death), polly had "sweet pea" as a name. eleanor knew she wasnt going to live much longer but still wanted to continue the tradition of nicknaming her babies, so she chose a flower whose symbolism typically means strength, departures and goodbyes. according to the symbolism, sweet peas mean "thank you for a lovely time”. eleanor wanted to, at least, thank polly for the time she could spend together with her last baby, as short as it was. (i wont get into details about every nickname bc i would ramble for too long 😭- i really wanna make a separate post or smth explaining that one day kdjgksdgd,,, but thats mainly the reason why the laukids have a specific flower for each of them when i drew the charts :"))

alright so thats the *main* headcanon i have. here are some other fav hcs that are not that,, extense KDJSKAF. they are pretty much random thoughts i collected throughout time:

one night, way past their bedtimes, nelly and patsy swore they saw ghosts on the graveyard while going outside to play. they swore to never sneak out and go out to play at night ever again

henri, john and nelly (ages 5, 4 and 3) would often make "mud stew" on poodles after it rained with literally anything they could find.

their favourite games were playing pirates, climbing, and playing hide & seek behind the oak trees

john slipped from a pretty high branch that bruised his knee. that left a big scar on his left leg that even as an adult was still visible

nelly was the first one of the girls who started playing the harpsicord, and patsy followed after her sister. nelly would teach her simple little melodies and play together sometimes. after nelly passed away, john usually sat by patsy's side when she played so she wouldn't be alone. he couldn't play of course, but he tried singing to accompany patsy on the little melodies she learned by her late sister

john had really good hearing and could replicate bird sounds with high accuracy. that caused the birds to usually come very near him and to not fly away. patsy called john a "bird whisperer" because of that

kids patsy and john once found an egg below a tree, and brought it home to take care of it. it turned out to be a carolina parakeet, and patsy named her iris. they taught her,,, french curse words. and thought it was the funniest thing ever. after a few months, they set her free

polly has the record for the sibling that broke jars and china cups the most (followed by jemmy, but he would argue that those were harry's fault)

also, now that we are on the topic of harry and jemmy: although most of the time they were inseparable partners in crime, sometimes they would fight over really small things (but to them of course, those things were. pretty big deals™) one some occasions, they were so crossed with each other that they would sit the furthest from one another at the table, and used john as their messenger for days bc they refused to speak directly to the other. they would exchange Very Serious Angry Letters across the room as if they were two opposed kingdoms, and john was in the middle delivering those letters. john always succeeded on the mission to cease the fights though, and as soon as he would fall for a prank, he annoyingly (but happily) knew jemmy and harry befriended again

jemmy once beat harry on a game of marbles (harry was considered the best player among the siblings) and harry was so frustrated he swore to never play again. (that promise lasted, of course, less than a week. and that jemmy victory was probably the reason why they didn't speak to each other for days)

when john was a toddler he once doodled over an entire set of letters of henry sr and he had to start all over again from scratch. that child had 0 awareness of space and he thought literally everything was a potential canvas to draw on-

he also probably drank paint water while using watercolors too many times ,, (artists' culture for ya)

the Main Kids (john, patsy, harry and jemmy) would often organize little plays where they created stories and whole worlds/kingdoms with their characters in it. at night, they couldn't be as loud so with the help of candles they played by creating shadows on the walls

harry stopped two of his siblings from eating,,, questionable AND dangerous things by pure luck . one, when toddler jemmy wanted to eat a worm. and two, when he stopped john from eating a poisoned berry. (the latter was originally a bit dark though so i wont elaborate much)

jemmy was almost 6 years old when he sailed with john and henry sr to europe for schooling (harry joined a bit later), so i headcanon that his first tooth fell around that time while on port, and he rushed to john and showed it to him :")

jemmy doodled the three of them (he and his two older brothers) on a piece of paper, and john almost cried. he kept the drawing safe on one of his books so it wouldn't get lost or damaged

eleanor would always sing lullabies to the kids before bed because it help them wind down. after eleanor's gone, the siblings usually asked john to sing to them because he was the one who knew and remembered the melodies the most. while abroad in europe, john promised harry and jemmy that he would keep singing them for as long as he could.

john finds comfort in the fact that, at least, the last thing jemmy heard was a lullaby from his mother, sang by john. he hoped that it brought him peace for one last time.

when john, harry and jemmy were finally joining patsy and polly in europe, little polly was euphoric and was literally asking every 5 minutes when were their brothers arriving. polly had no memory of them as they all sailed when she was a baby, so of course the excitement was over the roof. when she finally met her brothers, she was glued to them, specially john. polly asked for piggyback rides and races all the time, as well as asking his brother how to do "fencing with sticks" which he delightfully obligued to provide lessons.

polly also made everyone attend and wear dresses to her Very Fancy Tea Party™ once

polly is the #1 candy theft. harry, the #1 victim of her robbery.

during the war, john liked to stay up really late and sleep by the fireplace of headquarters, as he sometimes did that with his siblings. he would also keep things that reminded him of home

later on her life, patsy would tell stories and memoirs of her childhood with john to both frances and polly. her own children would listen as well and would wonder what it would've been like to have met him

this is all for now! if you made it this far, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. i love you dearly, truly 😭😭😭💖💖 thanks for coming to my TED talk my fingers are sore from typing a

[crifket]

didn’t realize how close in time it was so I looked it up

“The last known wild specimen was killed in Okeechobee County, Florida, in 1904, and the last captive bird died at the Cincinnati Zoo on February 21, 1918. This was the male specimen, called "Incas", who died within a year of his mate, "Lady Jane". Coincidentally, Incas died in the same aviary cage in which the last Passenger Pigeon, "Martha", had died nearly four years earlier.”

https://johnjames.audubon.org/last-carolina-parakeet#:~:text=The%20last%20known%20wild%20specimen,Zoo%20on%20February%2021%2C%201918.

"Soon my love we will join the others under the museum lights, but for now, under the starlight, you are glowing"

The last Passenger Pigeon and last Carolina Parakeet on earth both died at the Cincinnati zoo in the early 1900s.

[elbiotipo]

reading through the comment about the Argentine Monk Parakeet (we just call them Cotorritas here! they are everywhere all the time all day! this is cotorrita country) some people have commented that in North America, they might be filling the niche of the extinct Carolina Parakeet. I didn't realize that there used to be native parakeets in North America though it makes sense as the US South is basically subtropical in climate, very similar to here.

Dunno what they're doing in Spain, but whatever, we gave you cotorritas, be happy about them.

[arcticdementor]

When the idea that a woman could have a penis was no longer a privileged insight of the academic elite but had gone mainstream, I remarked to my friend, “How long before we have to affirm the furries?” At the time I was joking, but after reading Kathy Rudy’s article “LGBTQ…Z?” in Hypatia in which she claims to “draw the discourses around bestiality/zoophilia into the realm of queer theory” I’m starting to wonder if my joke isn’t that far off. After all, there was a time when the idea of a man becoming a woman was a joke—as in this clip from Monty Python’s comedy The Life of Brian.

What Duke University professor Kathy Rudy seems to realize by arguing we should add “Z” (zoophilia) to the queer alphabet soup is that a great way to have a successful career in academia is to bring postmodern gobbledygook into absurd combinations with anything and everything.

…

I will hand it to Rudy, her article is at least comprehensible, even if it’s just as insane. Rudy begins by noting that humans who “kill animals, force them to breed with each other, eat them, surround them, train them, hunt them, nail them down and cut them open for science” are considered “normal, functioning members of society. Yet having sex with animals remains an almost unspeakable anathema.”

…

While some might conclude that, since we wouldn’t shag a pig, we also shouldn’t confine one to a gestation crate, Rudy’s reasoning seems to be that if we already force terrible things on animals, then why not also screw them? If you’re a cow, having a human copulate with you can’t be as bad as going to the slaughterhouse, right? Besides, Fido already humps my leg so why don’t I hump him?

Technically, Rudy claims “my argument is not for or against humans having sex with animals, but is a meditation on both the elusive nature of sex itself and the subjectivities of human versus nonhuman animals.” She never explicitly promotes sex with animals, but considering that the entire point of the article is to call into question the taboo against having sex with animals, well…

It’s as if I said I’m not advocating for pedophilia but then proceed to undermine all the reasons for being against pedophilia. “Why not?” might not be as strong as “you must” but it leads to the same outcome, namely, radical permission.

As is often the case with academic postmodernism, the claims being made become less clear the more the author writes:

“Put differently, queer theory teaches us that it's not really a question of whether we have ‘sex’ with animals; rather it's about recognizing and honoring the affective bonds many of us share with other creatures. Those intense connections between humans and animals could be seen as revolutionary, in a queer frame. But instead, pet love is sanitized and rendered harmless by the presence of the interdict against bestiality. The discourses of bestiality and zoophilia form the identity boundary that we cannot pass through if we want our love of animals to be seen as acceptable.”

Rudy’s elusive, wishy-washy prose is a common rhetorical tactic. The goal is to avoid clearly committing to an argument so that one can simultaneously promote radical nuttiness while removing oneself from the burden of defending it. After all, if the claim really were as basic as “we love our pets but not in a sexual way” then the article wouldn’t be, as Rudy puts it, “revolutionary.”

The only way the article can be truly “transgressive” is for her to argue that our love for animals is already sexual or should become sexual. After all, Rudy seems uncertain as to whether she is sexually attracted to her own dogs:

“I know I love my dogs with all my heart, but I can’t figure out if that love is sexually motivated.”

For some reason, I’ve never grappled with this problem, but then again, I’m not versed in Queer theory.

…

Indeed, what is the difference between inserting a piece of bread into a toaster and penetrative sex? According to postmodernism, nothing at all! As Rudy explains:

“The widespread social ban on bestiality rests on a solid notion of what sex is, and queer theory persuasively argues we simply don't have such a thing. The interdict against bestiality can only be maintained if we think we always/already know what sex is. And, according to queer theory, we don’t.”

Despite earlier claiming that she is not advocating for sex with animals, Rudy has just provided us with an indirect argument for it. She states that we can only maintain a ban on sex with animals if we know what sex is. She next states that queer theory has proven that we don’t know what sex is. Therefore, we cannot ban sex with animals. She suggests her indirect argument again at the end of the article by masking it in the form of a question:

“But without a coherent and agreed upon definition of sex (which queer theory persuasively argues is impossible), the line between ‘animal lover’ and zoophile is not only thin, it is nonexistent. How do we know beforehand whether loving them constitutes ‘sex,’ and how can such sex be so dangerous if it so nebulous and undefined?”

Not only is it false that we have no idea what sex is, but it is also false to say that we require a taxonomy of every kind of sexual feeling before we can forbid certain acts (such as coitus) with animals (or children and the cognitively disabled, such as Chris Chan’s mother with dementia).

I may not be able to verbally capture the feeling of sexual desire or pleasure any more than I can define pain or joy or sadness. It’s something I know from experience. What I can say for sure is that what I felt kissing my grandma’s cheek is definitely not in the same category as what I felt kissing my boyfriend. Rudy may be unclear as to whether she is turned on by a slurp from her dog, but I personally have never felt confusion on the matter.

…

Yet, the true perversion, according to Rudy, is not to lust after camels, dogs, parakeets or naked mole rats but to set up the sexual boundary between humans and animals in the first place:

“Put differently, both animal rights (3) and psychosocial perspectives [which view desire for animals as mental illness] (4) do not believe that borders can be crossed. Queer theory, on the other hand, tells us that few of us have stable identities anymore, that borders are always crossed. We're all changing, shifting, splitting ourselves up this way and that. It labels these processes ‘hailing,’ ‘suturing,’ and ‘interpolation’; where once we saw ourselves affiliated in one way, a new interpretive community emerges to capture our passions and move us differently. I am asking the reader to entertain the possibility that the same kinds of shifts and disruptions happen with categories like ‘human,’ ‘rabbit,’ ‘ape,’ or ‘dog.’”

And no woke paper would be complete without the accusation of violence:

“Both positions [animal rights activists and bestialists] oppose sex with animals, and in doing so they perform a kind of violence on animals by lumping them all together into one seamless identity.”

That’s right. Physically violating an animal does not constitute violence. Words do. Especially when those words reject postmodern queer theory.

…

Unlike the many women who have been cancelled for claiming that males aren’t women, Rudy’s August 2012 article (republished March 2020) for Hypatia did not result in her being fired, censored, or otherwise deplatformed.

It’s not as if no one came across her article either. According to Altmetric, Rudy’s article is in the “top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric” and is “One of the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#1 of 704)” and has an Altmetrics attention score in the 99th percentile.

When Rebecca Tuvel wrote a paper for Hypatia suggesting that the same assumptions that ground transgenderism could be used to support transracialism, scholars demanded Hypatia retract the article and the journal's Facebook page posted an apology on behalf of the associate editors. Rudy, on the other hand, was invited to deliver the commencement speech for North Carolina Service Dogs in December 2012.

We must remember that the word “transgressive” has relative, not absolute, meaning. What is considered “normal” defines what is considered “transgressive.” If queer theory articles on bestiality result in publication and validation, then is Rudy truly, in her words, “transgressive”? Or is Hypatia, rather, representative of a new establishment norm that is just as desirous of punishing transgressors—now in the form of TERFs and other enemies of the postmodern left—as the old establishment was eager to fire and ostracize homosexuals? As The Who sang, “Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss.”

[jack-marston1895]

Journal entry-

Much of the day had been spent trying to put something together in the Armadillo saloon for a book I was trying to write. I had been taking it steady, keeping the drinks few and far between so that my writing didn't become incoherent, or at worst, smudged. It was a slow process, I was finding inspiration harder to find than a Carolina Parakeet.

Although I struggled to find inspiration, I was able to easy come accross distraction. A man stumbled through the door as I was staring out of the window hoping that a thought would pass by to visit. His face was stained crimson with, almost like war paint, but his movement and torn clothing suggested that whatever battle he had faced was not one that went in his favour.

Every one just stared as the main tried hard to summon the strength to try and explain what happened. He took a sip of some half finished drink that had been left on the table for at least an hour.

Apparently, the man needed help. A bear attacked two of his men near Twin Rocks, and for all he knew they could be bear shit by this time tomorrow. I quizzed the man, I knew these lands and a story of a bear in that part of the country is almost as tall as the trees in the area they call home.

He told me about a man who had them in cages near Twin Rocks. You would think by now I would know better than to go out looking for bears.

There were no signs of any bears, whether it be Grizzly or Polar. Hell, even the sky was covered by clouds so there was no sign of the Ursine Constellations. There was however, some torn up, bloody clothing and partial human remains. There was no way the guys survived that mauling.

I scanned the horizon, make sure no one was watching me, then I heard a deep growl, I turned and a bear was moving fast towards me .

Quickly, I ran on foot to try and put cover between me and the beast. As I, tried to get around a tree, I fell the bears claws rip through my clothing and skin. It stung like a b*stard.

My gun was out and I fired shots round the tree at the bear. It made a awful noise before limping off. It was wondered...

I am not going to lie, I was tempted to see if I could finish the job and sell the bear parts. They fetch a good price. I realised that that this would be very unwise as I was woundered and so was the animal. I decided to go get some medical attention.

When I arrived at the doctors, the guy from earlier was there being patched up. I told the man about his friends, and he didn't say anything, he just fell silent, gripped in grief and trapped in his own head.

After I had my stiches, I went for a drink... or two. Leaving the Saloon I went to put my hat on, I realised I hadn't see it I was being chased by the bear..