#lizards 🦎

[jttlpgroup]

Steve B. 💜 9647   http://www.steveb29.com/2025/01/steve-b-9647.html

[mysticalbeardofdeath]

It's currently 1am

I need to make more

[xtruss]

The sound of army planes can be traumatic for Colorado checkered whiptail lizards, which have a small range in southeastern Colorado. Photograph By Ken Holtgrewe Getty Images

How Wild Animals Cope With Stress—From Overeating To Sleepless Nights

​We’re not the only Animals that Suffer Anxiety. From Lizards to Song Sparrows, Challenging Situations can have Long-lasting Impacts on Species.

— By Liz Langley | April 25, 2023

Many of us react to stressful situations by drinking too much coffee, sleeping too much or not enough, or overeating.

As it turns out, several wild animals also experience physical reactions to stress. The main challenges faced by wild animals are whether they’ll find enough food or whether they become someone else’s food. But sometimes, it’s people that cause the trauma.

For instance, a new study shows the rare Colorado checkered whiptail lizard stress-eats in response to noise. Part of their habitat includes the Fort Carson Army Base, where low-flying aircraft regularly produce sounds louder than what they’d experience naturally.

After observing some of the wild reptiles and taking their blood, the scientists found that during flyovers, the lizards released more of the stress hormone cortisol, as well as moved less and ate more. Eating more likely compensated for the energy lost while experiencing stress, the authors say.

Here are some other ways animals react to challenging situations.

Sleep Troubles

Sleep, for all mammals, is key—and not having enough can be harmful.

“Sleep deprivation, a form of stress, can elicit increased eating in humans and some non-human animals alike,” says Barrett Klein, an entomologist at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse who also studies sleep biology.

In lab studies, fruit flies subjected to social isolation slept less and ate more, and sleep-deprived mice ate more during their recovery. Some butterflies that don't get enough rest forage poorly and lay their eggs on the wrong types of plants.

If some bee species don't get enough sleep, they'll perform their waggle dances, the bee equivalent of GPS, "with a less precise direction component," Klein says via email, giving their spectators less helpful information on where to find food.

Passing on Trauma

Scott Heppell, a fish ecologist at Oregon State University, stops short of saying other animals react to stress like we do.

“That’s a bit too anthropomorphic for me,” Heppell says via email. “But I might say that other animals have somewhat analogous responses,” for example, when stressful events experienced by parents “can affect performance of their offspring.” In humans, that concept is called generational trauma.

Small freshwater fish called sticklebacks appear to pass trauma down to their babies, though the impacts are different among males and females.

In research published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, scientists showed that sons of stickleback fathers who had been exposed to predators were risk takers, but the trauma had no effect on daughters. Mothers exposed to predators had anxious offspring of both sexes—but why remains unknown.

Predator Danger

The mere presence of predators can make animals anxious. Take the song sparrow, a study subject of Liana Zanette, a population ecologist at Western University in Ontario, Canada.

In a 2022 study, Zanette studied wild song sparrows on British Columbia’s Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, where they have few predators. During the study, she put up barriers to ensure that nothing would happen to the birds.

For 18 weeks Zanette’s team intermittently played recordings half of the study birds of friendly animals like Canada geese. No harm, just fowl.

The other half of the birds heard recordings of crows and ravens, which eat sparrow eggs and nestlings.

The results showed that a fear of phantom predators caused these birds to produce 53 percent fewer offspring than the birds that didn’t hear the scary soundtrack.

“The parents are really skittish when they think there are predators around,” Zanette says, so instead of spending their time incubating their eggs or feeding chicks, they flush from the nest.

That all might sound like a bad thing, but evolutionarily the birds’ response is just right. Surviving and producing fewer offspring beats dying and producing none, Zanette says.

Such predator-induced fear can also cause lasting changes similar to post-traumatic stress disorder, she says. In a 2019 study, Zanette found that black-capped chickadees exposed to predators had elevated brain activity and a heightened sensitivity to danger for at least seven days afterward.

Snowshoe hares are the primary prey of Canada lynx. Photograph By Robbie George, National Geographic Image Collection

An Ancient Dance

In Canada’s Yukon Territory, snowshoe hares don’t need simulations—they have very real predators to worry about. The animals are the main prey of Canada lynx, and the dance between them has been evolving for millions of years, says Rudy Boonstra, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, who has been studying both species for four decades.

Both species go through a 10-year cycle during which each species’ population fluctuates. When the hare population is high, lynx have a lot to eat and their population goes up as well.

But as the hare population declines the hares are not just being killed by lynx, they’re being stressed by being pursued, even if they escape. These hares produce fewer offspring and their offspring produce fewer offspring, until there are so few hares the lynx begin to starve and their population plummets as well.

Boonstra and colleagues showed that when lynx numbers were high and hares were in decline, levels of cortisol in snowshoe hare blood spiked. This stress takes a toll on female hares’ physical condition, which leads to weaker offspring.

This decade-long prey-predator cycle is a truly wild phenomenon, Boonstra notes, with no human creating the stress.

That’s partly why, like Heppell, Boonstra also doesn’t think human and wild animal stress responses can be compared.

“Their environment has been the same or similar for many, many generations, and ours changes all the time, every day.”

[grushenko]

[littleartistwithloveandheart]

HAPPY THRESHOLD DAY🥳🥳🥳🥳🦎🦎🦎🦎❤️❤️❤️

[greypistacchio]

May 15.- Once more I have seen the count go out in his lizard fashion

[3lizab3t]

the cover date for The Amazing Spider-Man #6 (first appearance of the Lizard/Curt Connors) is Nov.6th :)

[jone-slugger]

Are you even dating if you don't go to transwarp 10 and have lizard babies?🦎🦎🦎

[another-chaotic-bisexual-vampire]

Happy Lizard Fashion Day!

[helsensm]

Dot dot dot

Hi...sorry to bother you and again..but you'll never guess what I did..at all...as someone as you know who loves lizards..

I figured out what type of lizard your oc would be.

OKAY OKAY so I was a bit bored and if you remember my "what lizards mk1 characters would be" post, I got a bit silly/inspired and wondering what lizard saorise would be and I think she would be a blue tegu :3c

They're goofy little guys and very affectionate, kinda like bearded dragons jsbdiehf

Also a little fun fact is they can be very fast! They can run at 17 miles per hour over short distances :D

That's it bye bye!

I have a weird fear while typing this out. You might take this to offense for some reason. I swear I'm not I just love saorise a lot and find her cool :,)

[jttlpgroup]

Peter 🍹 8198   http://www.steveb29.com/2024/06/4537-peter.html

[oldwindowsicons]

IntelliPoint cursors - R_we.cur

[utopiastri]

okay so you Know i would eat up literally any single one of these with any pairing bcos you’re crazy stupid talented and literally create my favourite mini universes but if you are taking suggestions i would diee for your take on a galex timeloop so i respectfully beg for 2 for galex from the put that guy in a situoatiin list pls if u are inclined 🫡🫡🫡

-🦎

(ps i almost corrected my spelling but i thought it would help u figure out who it is lol)

i love you for thinking i wouldn't know who this was based off the request alone but PLEASE know the lizard emoji brought me such delight - i hope you enjoy some galex!!!

“I’ve lived this day before.”

Alex blinks at George. “What? What does that even mean?"

George huffs. “Have you ever seen the movie Groundhog Day?”

The first movie that comes to Alex’s mind when he thinks of groundhogs is the one with the singing troupe of chipmunks and he’s guessing George isn’t talking about that one.

“Uh…?”

George rolls his eyes. “Alex, are you kidding? Bill Murray? Andie MacDowell? It's a 90s classic.”

“Wait, wait, Bill Murray rings a bell…hang on. Is it that one where like, the guy gets trapped in a town and he keeps reliving the same day over and over again?”

“Yes,” George says emphatically.

“And that’s happening…”

“To me, yes.”

Alex frowns at him. “Hang on. Isn't this the thing where you're meant to know what I’m gonna say before I say it? Isn’t that how you prove you’re in a time loop?” George stays silent. “George?”

“So, possibly this is technically the first time I’ve told you that I’m in a time loop.”

“What? Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“Because I didn’t think you’d believe me!” George suddenly narrows his eyes at him, “You…you don’t believe me, right? Like, you’re being sensible and not just taking me at my word, right?”

“I’m being sensible and not just taking you at your word,” Alex lies. Well, half-lies. He’s a little suspicious George is pranking him but…

Well.

He’d rather run the risk of looking like an idiot than refuse to help George on the off-chance he’s not talking complete and utter bullshit.

“Do you know what you need to do to stop the time loop?” Alex falters when George gives him a glare. “The time loop that is hypothetically happening because I am definitely not just believing you straight away with no proof because I would never do that.”

“Alex.”

“Do you want me to believe you or not, George? This feels like you’re fighting against something you want!”

George groans. “Fine, ok, believe me!”

“Wonderful. So.”

“So?”

“What do you need to do to get out of the time loop?”

George flushes pink.

“Um. Well. Based on the evidence I’ve collected–”

“George, please tell me the evidence is not just you watching Groundhog Day.”

“Based on the evidence I’ve collected,” George repeats, cheeks somehow going an even darker pink, “I need to fall in love with someone and get them to fall in love with me.”

Alex's stomach drops. He tries his best to keep his voice level as he says, “And do you…have someone…in mind?”

“Ah, I, um, so the problem is…”

“Come on, Georgie, spit it out.”

“I’m already in love with someone.”

Alex swallows. “Have you…have you been in the time loop that long? That you've fallen in love with someone already?”

“No! I’ve been in it for three days, I was just, I was in love with this person before the time loop.”

“So now you just need to get them to fall in love with you, right.” Alex takes a deep breath and pastes a smile on his face, “So, who’s the lucky person you've gotta win over?”

George looks pained. “It’s…um…” He takes a deep breath. “Fuck it, it’s a time loop, what’s the worst that could happen?”

Alex barely has a second to ponder what that could mean before George has placed his hands on either side of Alex’s face and pulled him into a soft kiss. Alex freezes and George seems to take that as rejection. He starts pulling backwards and Alex panics, managing to move his hands to George's neck and desperately try to keep him in place, to bring him back into the kiss.

After a moment, Alex pulls away but stays close enough to lean his forehead against George’s.

“George?”

“Hm,” he answers, a little dreamily.

“If this wasn’t enough to break the time loop, and you wake up tomorrow and the day has reset, and I don’t remember this, you’d better fucking kiss me again, got it?”

George smiles softly. “Got it,” he whispers, before pressing his lips to Alex's once more.

[faeriesandfables]

"this is the american dream"

-maneskin, "gossip"

[click4rainy]

So FINE. Bro isn’t just a lizard…he a rizzard.

(Bad pun whatever sue me 🥸)