I don’t know how or why so many people think that insects aren’t animals. It’s not debated or controversial; there is not a scientist in the whole world that thinks insects shouldn’t be classified as animals. The only other options are plants or fungi and they definitely aren’t either of those.
Please stop saying insects aren’t animals because it hurts my insect-loving biologist heart.
I don’t know how or why so many people think that insects aren’t animals. It’s not debated or controversial; there is not a scientist in the whole world that thinks insects shouldn’t be classified as animals. The only other options are plants or fungi and they definitely aren’t either of those.
Please stop saying insects aren’t animals because it hurts my insect-loving biologist heart.
Can you all please just be critical of any videos of exotic animals you see, even if they are cute? Some red flags to look out for are:
- exotic animals in a home environment
-exotic animals being kept in an inappropriate environment (indoors, a small enclosure, etc.)
-multiple species interacting that should have no business together, especially prey species being exposed to predator species
-the animal being exposed to unnecessary stress
If you do not know if a video is actually cute or not, have a look through the notes. Maybe another person has pointed out something or has found a source for the video.
Sometimes it’s hard to know if an animal is exhibiting stress signs. What may look cute to you may be an animal expressing fear or distress. If you are unsure, it’s just better to not share it.
this is exactly the type of news i need in my life
I’m gonna go ahead and say absolutely not and those animals are either dead, have been put in a freezer, or have been stunned and then placed like this. These photos are staged and those animals are definitely distressed, or again, dead. @kaijutegu @why-animals-do-the-thing
People can express discomfort, but animals sometimes have a tougher time. This led Weird Animal Question of the Week to wonder: “Do animals feel pain the same way we do, and how can we tell?“
Mammals share the same nervous system, neurochemicals, perceptions, and emotions, all of which are integrated into the experience of pain, says Marc Bekoff, evolutionary biologist and author.
Whether mammals feel pain like we do is unknown, Bekoff says—but that doesn’t mean they don’t experience it…
because stupid humans.
Human: tsk… of all the stupid things this idiot could do… look, they picked up a blue ringed octopus!
Human 2: is it dangerous?
Human: it’s australian, golden with bright blue circles. of course it’s deadly.
Human 2: oh dear, how can one be so stupid to pick up random animals in australia???
Alien: what’s with australia?
Human: well, everyone knows that australian animals are ten times more deadly than everywhere else. you don’t go picking up animals in australia, unless it’s a quokka. pretty much everything else is venomous, highly aggressive, or brings diseases. a combination of the three is possible.
Human 2: I remember that they had to censor an episode of a children tv show because it taught not to be afraid of spiders… in australia you MUST be afraid of spiders.
Alien: so… let me get this straight. you come from what we define as a Death World, and yet on your death world there is a place even more dangerous??
Human: well… yes.
Anonymous asked:
drferox answered:
Being in Australia I have very limited experience with wolfdogs but I am not a fan of the concept. I have written more about wolfdogs here.
As a kid I would have totally been on board with the idea. I adored wolves and the concept of owning one, even only part of one, was intensely appealing. But as much as we might fantasize about it, wolves are not dogs and I see zero benefit for either species in their hybridization.
Every time I read about the deliberate hybridisation of something wild with something domestic, I ask “Why?”
As far as I can tell the only reason we hybridize wild and domestic species is to boost the human ego. Even if doing so didn’t have downsides (and it does) I would see no justification for doing so.
Crossing wild and domestic species certainly isn’t done to conserve either species. It’s actually deleterious to the wild species as it takes away breeding opportunities, wasting them on the production of hybrids.
The proliferation of hybrids also changes public perception of both species and there is a significant misrepresentation problem in the USA.
So I am really not a fan and am very glad that Australia basically outright bans these wild hybrids. I don’t have enough first hand experience to be happy calling the creation of wolfdog hybrids outright unethical, but I certainly lean that way.
Hero cat saves his friend from the vet. [full video]
“Come with me if you want to live!”
@followthebluebell @why-animals-do-the-thing I watched the video and it seems kinda iffy? Like it didn’t really look like “a cat trying to save his friend?” Idk much about cat behavior but from the little bit I do know it seemed p off
I’ve been puzzling over this for days, and after watching the full video the best I can say is that that cat really wants the other cat to go somewhere else. It’s very unusual for an adult cat to try to move another cat by the scruff, but that’s what he’s doing in this video. Originally it just seems to be movement away - after the tech tries to separate them the first time, the owner appears to open the carrier and move it to the edge, at which point the cat doing the dragging reorients to it.
Honestly? This looks to me like an extremely stressed cat trying to move the other cat away from what is the probable stressor (either the vet tech or the vet’s office in it’s entirety). Since they’re separated multiple times, it’s easy to see that as they come back together his goal really is to get the other cat to move. The only reason I can think of for the scruffing and dragging behavior is that the first cat does not think his companion will move appropriately and is trying to force it.
So… as silly and anthropomorphic as it seems, I think the original caption is probably fairly correct. I don’t know why, exactly, the first cat is trying to remove the second from the situation - obviously we can extrapolate about the horrors of the vet, but we don’t know for sure - but he wants his companion to move.
Grim used to do this to Pangur (drag her by the scruff of the neck)
it’s a misplaced mothering behaviour! a momma cat would of course take her kitten out of a stressful place, into a safer venue (the carrier). it looks super goofy when it’s two grown cats, but I’ve seen this behaviour with my girls
EDIT: it’s been pointed out that this could be a breed trait (since both Grim & the cat above are Bengals)
