Atelopus chiriquiensis
The Chiriqui harlequin frog was found along mountain streams and rivers in Costa Rica and western Panama.
The species was once considered common and is suspected to have been driven to extinction by chytrid fungus like so many other South American frogs. Introduced fish and habitat loss may have also contributed to its decline.
The species was assessed as extinct in 2019.
A species of land snail native to the Seychelles.
Assessed as extinct in 2006.
Likely causes of extinction were agriculture, invasive species/diseases, and drought. Hybridization with other closely related species may also have been a contributing factor.
“I don’t know of another time in history where so many courts in so many different levels all over the globe [have been] tasked with dealing with a similar overarching issue,” said Karen Sokol, law professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. Research also continues to unearth more about the fossil fuel industry’s knowledge of climate change. A January study revealed that Exxon had made “breathtakingly” accurate climate predictions in the 1970s. The vast majority of climate-focused cases in the US have previously focused on the regulation of specific infrastructure projects, such as individual pipelines or highways, said Michael Gerrard, founder and faculty director of Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. But the new forms of climate litigation are different, as they grapple not with particular projects’ emissions, but on responsibility for the climate crisis itself. Sokol, who dubbed these new suits “climate accountability litigation”, says though they will not alone lower emissions, they could help reshape climate plans.
Today, please take a moment to remember that there is still so much beauty and complexity and amazing, inexplicable wonder in the world. We are not lost. The Earth is not lost. There is still so much worth fighting for.
So apparently i had to find out by accident today that stickbug eggs look like tiny pots and they hatch out by opening the lids and crawling out
I can’t believe you didn’t even include a picture of The Best stick insect eggs (courtesy of Tirachoidea cantori)
Hi friend! I have a male Reeves turtle that's ~29 years old- His name is Ollie - and I'm wondering what a good weight is for him. He's currently 285 grams and there's no fatty protrusions from his openings when he pulls his arms and legs in, but he seems to be seeking out food more than in the past. Thanks for the info and have a great day! -Rich
Hey Rich! Wow--I don't personally know of many turtles as old as Ollie. He has had a good long life (though, knowing turtles, it's very possible that he still has many good years ahead of him).
As I'm sure you know, it can be hard to gauge whether a turtle is at a healthy weight since so much of their body is in the shell. One way is to look at the arms, legs, and tail--do they look skinny/sunken or are they filled out with appropriate muscle and fat deposits? You can also look at the skin between the front legs and the head--it should go more or less straight across, not be deeply sunken in and hollow-looking (underweight) or bulging out between the neck and legs (overweight).
Often the first sign of declining health in a turtle is losing weight and a decreased appetite--so I wouldn't be terribly worried about him seeking out more food. It's possible that he is hungrier due to environmental changes (change in temperature, light cycle, seasons, etc.).
If you want a numeric way to measure his health, I highly recommend weighing him regularly. This will let you spot a concerning decline in weight faster than you may have noticed it from visual cues alone. Especially with an older turtle who might be more vulnerable to stress and illness.
I hope that helps! Happy to answer other questions too.
i realise this a long shot but i was wondering if you might be able to ID this little fella? Apologies about the photo quality but they're so small it was really hard to get decent shots. They're not in such hot shape due to being terrorised by my cat, they're about 5-8mm big and was found in Melbourne, Australia. Also, when I first spotted them, the abdomen was a lot darker, like the head.
[SUBMISSION]
It looks like a jumping spider (Salticidae) to me based on the eye arrangement, but I'm from North America and not very familiar with spiders from your corner of the world.
Just from some brief googling my best guess would be Hypoblemum griseum/Hypoblemum villosum (this was the picture with the best visual match), but, again, please don't take that an authoritative ID because this is very far outside my area of familiarity.
Anybody else able to help?
Can you wash the turtles with soap and if you can what kind becouse ive just been brushing mine with an old toothbrush
Turtles don't generally need to be washed unless they are having issues with retained scutes (or some other specific circumstances).
I would avoid using soap--it could contain chemicals that are harmful to your turltes' shell. Dechlorinated water and a soft-bristle or baby toothbrush is fine, just make sure you are not scrubbing too hard (I recommend rubbing in gentle circles).
(Sorry for the slow response, I am not super active on this blog anymore unfortunately just due to life getting too busy)
Although it doesn’t look like much from the outside, Climeworks’ “Orca” is a carbon-capture facility that will eventually be able to pull 4,000 metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere every year.
Climeworks has several smaller and less technologically advanced carbon-capture facilities, but Orca is the largest and most sophisticated facility of its kind. CO2 captured in this way is pumped underground to react with basalt rock where it will remain trapped forever.
Around the world, many other companies are working on the construction of other Direct Air Capture facilities that will be even larger than Orca. We are still far from achieving massive commercial-scale Direct Air Capture, but as this technology continues to successfully scale up there is hope that we may eventually get to the point where it could actually be feasible.
If you’re stumped on a holiday gift for an environmentally-minded friend or family member, Climeworks allows you to gift the removal of 25 kg, 45 kg, or 85 kg of CO2 from the atmosphere.
To address an earlier comment: The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has a report on how carbon capture could potentially be utilized to help mitigate climate change and has stated that some form of carbon capture/removal will be required if we want to stay below 1.5° C of warming (X) (X) (X).
Yes, our priority should be decarbonization of society--carbon capture is a complicated and controversial subject and it is likely only ever going to be a partial solution to help buy us time to fix industries that will be particularly difficult to decarbonize, but that does not mean this technology doesn’t have the potential to be part of the solution.
If your boat is sinking because it is filling with water, the priority should be stopping the incoming water, but a pump that is able to remove some of the water is definitely still useful in buying you time to do that.
Additionally, Orca is located adjacent to hydrothermal vents and underground basalt deposits that help mitigate the issues of energy consumption and transporting the CO2 to store it.
just got fucking stickbugged on my break
This brings up an interesting question. Is “stickbugged” more about the animal or more about the motion?
Like this is a mantis but it is definitely doing the “stickbugged” wobble.
people keep talking about how mantis shrimps can or cannot see multiple colors but can we talk about how fucking violent they are
Like dude
I did animal care at a zoo with a peacock mantis shrimp that had been donated because a hobbyist originally put the mantis shrimp in an aquarium with several very large and aggressive predatory fish and the mantis shrimp murdered them all within 24 hours.
A mantis shrimp is basically a shrimp with a gun.
Better yet, show up in person at a public forum where you can voice your opinion. Other forms of communication are definitely still good (I totally understand that cold calls are anxiety-inducing for many of us), but letters and especially emails are not nearly as impactful as phone calls.
Right now is an especially good time to do this. The IPCC report has freaked a lot of people out, which means more people contacting their representatives, and there is power in numbers. Get your friends and family in on the action too.
One of the major obstacles towards climate action is that many people feel uncomfortable bringing up upsetting topics. This creates a situation where everyone thinks they are totally alone and no one else cares.
Humans are social creatures. We are more likely to ignore dangerous issues (literally there have been studies where people will ignore a room filling with smoke if everyone else in the room ignores it) if it seems like those around us aren’t worried.
Don’t talk about how hopeless it is and that we are all going to die. Be honest about your rational fear for the future and emphasize concrete ways that people can help be part of the solution (voting, calling their representatives, divesting, working on making your community more sustainable, etc).
I understand that not everyone is in a place to take these actions and that’s ok. Please take care of your mental health in this scary time and avoid doomscrolling; focus on things you can actually impact and don’t dwell on issues outside of your control. Take care of yourself; we need you!
The tone difference in foraging guides between native plants and invasive plants is literally so funny to read
Terry imma need examples
Foraging guide entry on native plants: Make sure you only take a small amount from a well-established patch. Leave some for the wildlife, and yourself next year! Please get involved in land restoration programs to protect this plant for the future :)
Foraging guide entry for Japanese Knotweed: RIP RIP TEAR KILL REND DESTROY EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT E V I S C E R A T E EAT EAT EAT EAT
It’s similar for wildlife.
Brochure about native fish: Remember to only fish for approved species at the appropriate time of year and only with a license and correct fishing gear. These rules exist to make sure we don’t damage local fish populations and these amazing animals can be around for future generations!
Brochure about invasive lionfish: You can kill them with a SPEAR, you can kill them with a HOOK, you can kill them with your BARE HANDS (but watch out for the spines)…did we mention the flesh of this spicy devil fish is DELICIOUS?? Do your part for the environment and CONSUME THE PROBLEMSRIC LION OF THE SEA.
Hey while you're loving elephants: Denver Zoo has two teenage boy elephants and one Old Man Elephant named Groucho, and lately they've had the lads housed with him so he can teach them Proper Elephant Manners like how bulls raise teenage boy elephants in the wild. Bull elephants are apparently very into being parents but due to the matriarichal nature of most herds, they really only get to raise calves after they've hit puberty. My point is, one of the boys was being annoying and chasing rabbits so Groucho came up and jabbed him in the ass with a tusk, the lad ran around the enclosure crying then came back and did a lot of "I'm sorry I'll be good now dad" fawning and it was adorable.
OH MAN SEE SEE SEE i wish we knew so much more about how bull elephants interact with herds and families - we've documented bull elephants traveling to matriarchal herds and fake wrestling with male calves, and we've documented bulls protecting orphaned calves, but in god's name i want every in and out about it. everything we know about elephant social interaction is not enough. it's a Thing that introducing old bulls to a population lowers the amount of younger bulls in musth, also known as the state in which bull elephants desire nothing but murder and possibly sex, but - i want to know the precise mechanisms. old bull elephants teaching younger bulls manners renders me VERKLEMPT. i just wanna know every secret elephants have.
this is incredible though. peak teenage boy. groucho has his hands full and i fucking love him for that. get their asses, groucho.
So from what I understand, as remembered from nature programs and the zookeeper lecture, is that Old Bulls reduce the violence i young bulls by putting them through Elephant Finishing School.
This is better documented in African Elephants than asian ones because they're easier for elephant biologists to observe by the means of 'sitting on top of a jeep and taking notes' but the general scope goes like this:
Elephant herds are largely matriarichal as both a means of protection- elephants have a long childhood and it's easier to protect calves in a group, AND as a socio-political means of sexual choice.
An African elephant is pregnant for nearly two years, then she spends at least 3-5 years with that calf completely dependent on her, so she only gets a few opportunities to have babies before she hits menopause, and it's a lot of damn work so she is naturally EXTREMELY picky about who she mates with. And if she's younger, her mom, sisters and grandmothers will also be real picky about who she mates with and WHEN too- can't go around risking a teenage pregnancy, especially not with asubstandard male. Elephants also have a pretty clear idea of what they want out of a Male too: they have a marked preference for Large, Old, Socially Adept Males. Large males are HEALTHY males with all thier bones in place and functioning digestive tracts. OLD males are healthy, have good intelligence to stay alive, and have good teeth. Socally Adept Males can make friends, get along with her whole family, won't engage in dangerous behaviors like trying to kill her calves or grandmothers. It's a good system that produces robust, intelligent and helpful calves.
This means however, that most female elephants are into Dilfs, or even Gilfs. Which is extremely frustrating when you are a horny teenage boy elephant, so they go a bit nuts with hormones and social isolation and get involved in teenage elephant gangs and do things like murder rhinos out of sexual and social frustration.
BUT! If there are Large, Old, Socially Adept males about, they like being parents too, but are largely pushed out of the role by the matriarichal herds and their strict group politics that exist to prevent unsuitable mating. So They turn thier attention to these violent orphans and like your beloved Batman go "I'm gonna parent the shit outta that."
They mostly do this by herding the Lads around, pointedly demonstrating Behaviors like "How to dig for roots so you don't starve" or "How to knock over a tree" or "Greeting a Matriach Properly so she doesn't sic her descendants on you", and disciplinary behaviors like "Jabbing naughty Lads in the ass with a tusk" and "Hitting you in the face with a branch until you STOP THAT" . This is WILDLY beneficial for the young males under thier tutelage, who are less likely to die of accidents, and start mating earlier because they've had a Suitable Gentleman make introductions for them, like they are fancy men at a regency-era ball being intoduced to the debutantes.
Imagine some Fine and Respectable DILF wandering around adopting teenage delinquents and spraying them in the face with a windex bottle full of vinegar until they learn how to be proper upstanding gentlemen and you're getting close.
@gallusrostromegalus I actually attended a talk from the former director of animal welfare and research at Denver Zoo about the composition of their bull elephant herd (there are actually five bulls housed together now!) and the research they are doing on bull social behavior and its impacts on welfare in human care.
I just now went looking for my notes from that talk and it looks like they recently published a study on some of their research findings: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10888705.2021.1908141?scroll=top&needAccess=true
Another very small note, female elephants don’t actually go through menopause. There are very few mammals that do (other primates don’t even do it), humans and some species of whale are pretty much the only menopause-havers in the animal kingdom.
Which is a whole other interesting animal-behavior-and-sociality thing: https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/do-other-mammals-go-through-the-menopause/
Note, fertility may decrease in older animals, but that’s different from the complete loss of ability to produce offspring that happens with menopause.
Cool! Thanks for the links and update one elephant non-menopause. I think I had them mixed up with orca and/or my aunt sue.
Honestly I had to double check myself because elephants are a great candidate for menopause-havers since they follow the pattern of older females as an important reserve of knowledge for the family group much like with older female orcas.
So it’s strange that orcas go through menopause but elephants do not; it implies that an elephant matriarch has better success passing her genes on if she continues to have and raise her own offspring rather than investing all her energy into helping her daughters and granddaughters raise their offspring (which is thought to be the reason that whales and humans go through menopause).
Excuse me as I go down a rabbit hole to see if anyone has a concrete answer for this difference in evolutionary strategy.
Hey while you're loving elephants: Denver Zoo has two teenage boy elephants and one Old Man Elephant named Groucho, and lately they've had the lads housed with him so he can teach them Proper Elephant Manners like how bulls raise teenage boy elephants in the wild. Bull elephants are apparently very into being parents but due to the matriarichal nature of most herds, they really only get to raise calves after they've hit puberty. My point is, one of the boys was being annoying and chasing rabbits so Groucho came up and jabbed him in the ass with a tusk, the lad ran around the enclosure crying then came back and did a lot of "I'm sorry I'll be good now dad" fawning and it was adorable.
OH MAN SEE SEE SEE i wish we knew so much more about how bull elephants interact with herds and families - we've documented bull elephants traveling to matriarchal herds and fake wrestling with male calves, and we've documented bulls protecting orphaned calves, but in god's name i want every in and out about it. everything we know about elephant social interaction is not enough. it's a Thing that introducing old bulls to a population lowers the amount of younger bulls in musth, also known as the state in which bull elephants desire nothing but murder and possibly sex, but - i want to know the precise mechanisms. old bull elephants teaching younger bulls manners renders me VERKLEMPT. i just wanna know every secret elephants have.
this is incredible though. peak teenage boy. groucho has his hands full and i fucking love him for that. get their asses, groucho.
So from what I understand, as remembered from nature programs and the zookeeper lecture, is that Old Bulls reduce the violence i young bulls by putting them through Elephant Finishing School.
This is better documented in African Elephants than asian ones because they're easier for elephant biologists to observe by the means of 'sitting on top of a jeep and taking notes' but the general scope goes like this:
Elephant herds are largely matriarichal as both a means of protection- elephants have a long childhood and it's easier to protect calves in a group, AND as a socio-political means of sexual choice.
An African elephant is pregnant for nearly two years, then she spends at least 3-5 years with that calf completely dependent on her, so she only gets a few opportunities to have babies before she hits menopause, and it's a lot of damn work so she is naturally EXTREMELY picky about who she mates with. And if she's younger, her mom, sisters and grandmothers will also be real picky about who she mates with and WHEN too- can't go around risking a teenage pregnancy, especially not with asubstandard male. Elephants also have a pretty clear idea of what they want out of a Male too: they have a marked preference for Large, Old, Socially Adept Males. Large males are HEALTHY males with all thier bones in place and functioning digestive tracts. OLD males are healthy, have good intelligence to stay alive, and have good teeth. Socally Adept Males can make friends, get along with her whole family, won't engage in dangerous behaviors like trying to kill her calves or grandmothers. It's a good system that produces robust, intelligent and helpful calves.
This means however, that most female elephants are into Dilfs, or even Gilfs. Which is extremely frustrating when you are a horny teenage boy elephant, so they go a bit nuts with hormones and social isolation and get involved in teenage elephant gangs and do things like murder rhinos out of sexual and social frustration.
BUT! If there are Large, Old, Socially Adept males about, they like being parents too, but are largely pushed out of the role by the matriarichal herds and their strict group politics that exist to prevent unsuitable mating. So They turn thier attention to these violent orphans and like your beloved Batman go "I'm gonna parent the shit outta that."
They mostly do this by herding the Lads around, pointedly demonstrating Behaviors like "How to dig for roots so you don't starve" or "How to knock over a tree" or "Greeting a Matriach Properly so she doesn't sic her descendants on you", and disciplinary behaviors like "Jabbing naughty Lads in the ass with a tusk" and "Hitting you in the face with a branch until you STOP THAT" . This is WILDLY beneficial for the young males under thier tutelage, who are less likely to die of accidents, and start mating earlier because they've had a Suitable Gentleman make introductions for them, like they are fancy men at a regency-era ball being intoduced to the debutantes.
Imagine some Fine and Respectable DILF wandering around adopting teenage delinquents and spraying them in the face with a windex bottle full of vinegar until they learn how to be proper upstanding gentlemen and you're getting close.
@gallusrostromegalus I actually attended a talk from the former director of animal welfare and research at Denver Zoo about the composition of their bull elephant herd (there are actually five bulls housed together now!) and the research they are doing on bull social behavior and its impacts on welfare in human care.
I just now went looking for my notes from that talk and it looks like they recently published a study on some of their research findings: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10888705.2021.1908141?scroll=top&needAccess=true
Another very small note, female elephants don’t actually go through menopause. There are very few mammals that do (other primates don’t even do it), humans and some species of whale are pretty much the only menopause-havers in the animal kingdom.
Which is a whole other interesting animal-behavior-and-sociality thing: https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/do-other-mammals-go-through-the-menopause/
Note, fertility may decrease in older animals, but that’s different from the complete loss of ability to produce offspring that happens with menopause.
Hey while you're loving elephants: Denver Zoo has two teenage boy elephants and one Old Man Elephant named Groucho, and lately they've had the lads housed with him so he can teach them Proper Elephant Manners like how bulls raise teenage boy elephants in the wild. Bull elephants are apparently very into being parents but due to the matriarichal nature of most herds, they really only get to raise calves after they've hit puberty. My point is, one of the boys was being annoying and chasing rabbits so Groucho came up and jabbed him in the ass with a tusk, the lad ran around the enclosure crying then came back and did a lot of "I'm sorry I'll be good now dad" fawning and it was adorable.
OH MAN SEE SEE SEE i wish we knew so much more about how bull elephants interact with herds and families - we've documented bull elephants traveling to matriarchal herds and fake wrestling with male calves, and we've documented bulls protecting orphaned calves, but in god's name i want every in and out about it. everything we know about elephant social interaction is not enough. it's a Thing that introducing old bulls to a population lowers the amount of younger bulls in musth, also known as the state in which bull elephants desire nothing but murder and possibly sex, but - i want to know the precise mechanisms. old bull elephants teaching younger bulls manners renders me VERKLEMPT. i just wanna know every secret elephants have.
this is incredible though. peak teenage boy. groucho has his hands full and i fucking love him for that. get their asses, groucho.
So from what I understand, as remembered from nature programs and the zookeeper lecture, is that Old Bulls reduce the violence i young bulls by putting them through Elephant Finishing School.
This is better documented in African Elephants than asian ones because they're easier for elephant biologists to observe by the means of 'sitting on top of a jeep and taking notes' but the general scope goes like this:
Elephant herds are largely matriarichal as both a means of protection- elephants have a long childhood and it's easier to protect calves in a group, AND as a socio-political means of sexual choice.
An African elephant is pregnant for nearly two years, then she spends at least 3-5 years with that calf completely dependent on her, so she only gets a few opportunities to have babies before she hits menopause, and it's a lot of damn work so she is naturally EXTREMELY picky about who she mates with. And if she's younger, her mom, sisters and grandmothers will also be real picky about who she mates with and WHEN too- can't go around risking a teenage pregnancy, especially not with asubstandard male. Elephants also have a pretty clear idea of what they want out of a Male too: they have a marked preference for Large, Old, Socially Adept Males. Large males are HEALTHY males with all thier bones in place and functioning digestive tracts. OLD males are healthy, have good intelligence to stay alive, and have good teeth. Socally Adept Males can make friends, get along with her whole family, won't engage in dangerous behaviors like trying to kill her calves or grandmothers. It's a good system that produces robust, intelligent and helpful calves.
This means however, that most female elephants are into Dilfs, or even Gilfs. Which is extremely frustrating when you are a horny teenage boy elephant, so they go a bit nuts with hormones and social isolation and get involved in teenage elephant gangs and do things like murder rhinos out of sexual and social frustration.
BUT! If there are Large, Old, Socially Adept males about, they like being parents too, but are largely pushed out of the role by the matriarichal herds and their strict group politics that exist to prevent unsuitable mating. So They turn thier attention to these violent orphans and like your beloved Batman go "I'm gonna parent the shit outta that."
They mostly do this by herding the Lads around, pointedly demonstrating Behaviors like "How to dig for roots so you don't starve" or "How to knock over a tree" or "Greeting a Matriach Properly so she doesn't sic her descendants on you", and disciplinary behaviors like "Jabbing naughty Lads in the ass with a tusk" and "Hitting you in the face with a branch until you STOP THAT" . This is WILDLY beneficial for the young males under thier tutelage, who are less likely to die of accidents, and start mating earlier because they've had a Suitable Gentleman make introductions for them, like they are fancy men at a regency-era ball being intoduced to the debutantes.
Imagine some Fine and Respectable DILF wandering around adopting teenage delinquents and spraying them in the face with a windex bottle full of vinegar until they learn how to be proper upstanding gentlemen and you're getting close.
@gallusrostromegalus I actually attended a talk from the former director of animal welfare and research at Denver Zoo about the composition of their bull elephant herd (there are actually five bulls housed together now!) and the research they are doing on bull social behavior and its impacts on welfare in human care.
I just now went looking for my notes from that talk and it looks like they recently published a study on some of their research findings: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10888705.2021.1908141?scroll=top&needAccess=true
DEPLOY THE BOYS
Insect wings are incredible. Bird wings–while also amazing–seem so simple in comparison.
The way that earwigs can fold their wings up into such a tiny space is just…perfection.
