#queercowpoke

[its-amber]

Tagged by @queercowpoke

Nickname: Don't really have one!

Sign: Virgo

Height: 5'7 last I checked

Last Google search: "14 Oz in Cups" (I was making lentil soup! It turned out great!)

Number of Followers: 24

Amount of sleep: ~6 hrs

Favorite Color: I like them all for different reasons!

Dream Job: What I'm doing now (game development), but my game comes out and people really like it :)

Movie or book that summarizes me: hmmmm, I can't think of an entire book or movie that does this but I related hard to Shallan from Stormlight Archive

Favorite Song: Don't really have one! I've been listening to Sailor Moon OST

Favorite Instrument: Probably keyboard just for how versatile it is in music production.

Aesthetic: Light academia/Fall cozy vibes

Favorite Author: By sheer reading time, probably Brandon Sanderson. I don't read as much as I'd like. But I of course love Tolkien, and I must give an honorable mention to Bill McGrath, who makes @janspar , which has a very unique approach to storytelling and worldbuilding.

Favorite Animal Noise: Kitty Purrs

Wearing: comfy pajama pants and a constellation top

Song Stuck in my Head: "end" by Sewerslvt. I like the haunting, creepy vibe it gives off

I tag @adamxthextreme @crunchetime @gambsmoore

[the-wonder-in-his-eyes]

tagged by @theidiothours

nickname: ducky, duck, deck

sign: virgo (and it shows, sorry not sorry to anyone who knows me irl)

height: 5'10.5 (or 5'11 after a good chiropractor adjustment lol)

last google search: alocasia polly

number of followers: 151

amount of sleep: last night? maybe 11? normally anywhere between 4 and 13. what? i have insomnia and chronic illnesses, any amount of sleep feels like it's never enough.

lucky number: 13

favorite color: sage green and payne's grey

dream job: travel writer with a focus on history and art

movie/ book that summarizes me: can't we talk about more pleasant? by Roz Chast

favorite song: inkpot gods by the amazing devil

favorite instrument: i play just about everything, but i'm partial to the clarinet and violin

aesthetic: dark academia antique store plant dad

favorite author: oh man, don't make me choose. i guess right now I'm a huge fan of Aiden Thomas @aidenschmaiden

favorite animal noise: my guinea pigs when they hear a bag rustle and are demanding attention/food

wearing: green sweater from goodwill and Halloween pants my niece bought me

song stuck in my head: addio by night skinny

i tag @queercowpoke @dat-carovieh @heyatleastitsnotcancer @heatherwitch @carlospy @comfyswitcherblanketfort @jaskierswolf @wolfgeralt @aro-tarot @hallow-witxh

[orcinus-veterinarius]

Also I had a thought (I am an art teacher so take my thoughts with a whole helluva lot of salt) but wouldn't the best thing for whales in captivity just to be given way bigger enclosures? From what I know about whales, which granted isn't all that much, they mostly spend their time in the open ocean. Plus they are big animals so lots of room makes sense to me. I think just having the room to swim seems like the best option. Again, art teacher not animal behavioralist, but hey...

Hello! This poor ask has been sitting in my inbox since September, but I'm finally trying to clean it out, so thank you for your incredible patience!

I'll start by saying that I absolutely support larger habitats for whales and dolphins in human care. It's safe to say almost all cetacean veterinarians, trainers, and keepers would love to expand their animals' enclosures. I recently was lucky enough to spend a day shadowing a marine mammal vet (at a certain very large, very well-known zoological park housing cetaceans) who shared that they are always advocating for bigger, better habitats for the animals. However, size is not the most important aspect of a well-designed zoo environment. Animals in the wild move mainly in search of food and mates, and when you're a whale in the ocean, those things are constantly on the move, necessitating "swimming hundreds of miles a day" as the adage goes. Cetaceans in human care don't have that problem, so they don't need to travel those vast distances, and those animals given the choice to leave (for example, the US Navy's dolphins) almost always voluntarily return to their enclosures. What is more important than space is enrichment. I'll be using SeaWorld's (in?)famous orca tanks as an example, but the same principles can be applied to all manmade cetacean habitats.

The current SeaWorld orca tanks (seen above) are largely the product of a bygone era. Built in the 1980s, they provide ample space for the animals to move around with ease, but they're mainly static environments. The Underwater Viewing area used to have extensive rockwork, but this was torn out to add an emergency rising floor (some of the rocks have been added back over the years, which can be seen in the picture). Other than those rocks and some water jets, the pools are mostly flat and empty. The trainers spend a lot of time desgining enrichment devices and interacting with the whales in training, exercise, and husbandry sessions since the tanks themselves don't give that much to go on. What was most exciting about SeaWorld's canceled Blue World project was not the expanded size (although that would have been absolutely fantastic) but the enrichment opportunities. Improvements have been slowly made to the existing tanks (like adding live fish), but nothing like what Blue World would've offered.

Now, a lot of the built-in environmental enrichment isn't something guests would automatically recognize, particularly in cetacean habitats. The ocean is mainly a vast, empty desert, so a good enclosure wouldn't be full of colorful coral reefs for onlookers to enjoy, but rather water currents, changing depths, and other adjustments that might not be noticed by laymen but would make a world of difference to the animals in mimicking a natural ocean environment. Keiko's tank at the Oregon State Aquarium (pictured below) had similar features, and it was built in the 1990s on a much smaller budget. Imagine what a company with SeaWorld's resources could do.

However, I understand that these improvements carry risks of their own. All zoos face these challenges, and cetaceans in particular are notoriously destructive. Like ocean labradors, they delight in destroying anything they can get their mouths on, and killer whale-proof enrichment devices are already difficult to come by. There's also the concern that adding a bunch of extra features may stress the animals, such as the sounds and vibrations created by the motors needed to power artifical currents. Then there's the issue of working on tanks still housing animals, which would require squeezing a bunch of huge whales into an even smaller space while the other pools are worked on. Though it wouldn't be an easy process, I believe it's worth it.

But there's good news! Although I don't at all agree with how they acquired their whales, China's Chimelong Ocean Kingdom's under-construction killer whale habitat (concept art below) will be much larger than existing facilites and is planned to feature wave machines, rockwork, and depth variation.

There are long-standing rumors that improvements are coming to SeaWorld's orca tanks, even though the full Blue World project is unlikely to ever be revived with the company phasing out of keeping killer whales. My hope is Chimelong's new habitat will inspire American parks to commit to similar updates. Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park in Florida, one of the oldest dolphinariums in existence, is currently building a brand-new "dolphin oasis" (concept art below) from the ground up, hopefully heralding a new era of modern whale and dolphin habitats.

I hope that was helpful, and thank you for waiting 6 whole months for an answer!

[orcinus-veterinarius]

Hey, I just wanted to say thanks. I'm from Pittsburgh and have been following Kodiaks escape and hopefully his safe return. You're pretty much the only person on tumblr I've seen post about Kodiak so I scrolled down your blog and you seem really cool. I want to show my younger brother (who's in a zookeepers assistant program) your blog.

Thank you so much! You're so sweet! <3 And good luck to your brother!

Still following the Kodiak story. Here's hoping he stays safe, and that they're able to bring him home soon. It really is a terrible situation. Accidents can happen even at the bests facilities.

(I promise I will get to your other ask! I want to be able to sit down and write a proper response, and right now I'm busy with my upcoming pathology exam).

[orcinus-veterinarius]

A followup addition to this post for @queercowpoke… here’s either Nalani or Malia (someone who’s better at IDing the whales please help me out) interacting with the rockwork in Orlando’s habitat recently. They clearly get a kick out of rubbing against the rocks and messing around with them 🐳

[secondbeatsongs]

@queercowpoke replied to your post “Which one of these things do you think I'm lying...”:

It is very unlikely but not impossible for a bee (not wasp or yellowjacket) to sting 4 times without losing its stinger and dying. So…

@dynaverge replied to your post “Which one of these things do you think I'm lying...”:

I have my doubts that you'd be able to verify that the bee was in fact the same as before.

it was the same bee for sure!

I'm a beekeeper, but I don't have one of those fancy suits - when I go into the hives, I just wear cargo pants with a thick button-up shirt tucked into them (plus a hat, veil, gloves, etc).

now, I very rarely get stung. but one time just as I was heading inside, a bee got caught under my arm and stung me in the tricep, and because it got me through the bunched-up fabric of my shirt, it couldn't sting deep enough for its stinger to get stuck in my skin. so it just...kept stinging me.

the stings weren't as bad as a normal one usually is (stinger didn't stay in, so there was less venom), but there were definitely at least four stings, and all of them from that one very pissed-off bee!

so yes, it was actually a honeybee! and while it's very rare for them to sting more than once, this one found a way to make it happen.

[uglythug22]

Meant to tag, sorry @queercowpoke

“As a teacher”

You know anyone can be a teacher right? I got more offers for teaching positions than I did for cashiering. Pays the same as well. Teachers probably molest kids more than cashiers though.

Anyways the way this is typed is condescending in a way only a teacher can be and completely ignores any point I made.