I GOT SO MUCH DONE THIs MORNING ROARS TRIUMPHANTLY
gotta run to the bank and then worrkkkkkk bye h8rs
hot a what
Hi I'm Lina. I like drawing and animals, and this is where I put pretty things mostly. Sometimes I also say stupid stuff and show off my adorable crested gecko baby and my adorable boyfriend and my adorable face.
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Hey guys, OT animals time because this one hits real close to home.
Bracken cave is home to the world’s largest gathering of bats. I’ve been there a few times, and seeing them flow out like a whispering black tornado is really something.
…and now they want to put a residential community directly below the flight path, and above the sensitive Edwards Aquifer recharge zone (aka, my water I drink). To top it off, they would be knocking down and building right on top of federally endangered golden cheeked warbler habitat.
In short, imagine the badguy of FernGully or something. Only with less sexy voice acting.Please sign and pass on!!
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ok so I think she is going to be alright she is on her little ledge just staring out at the world and contemplating the unfairness of it all but not having little gecko panic attacks anymore so that is encouraging
oh and ceiling-crawling apparently that is a fun thing for geckos to do I wouldn’t know I am not a gecko?? she seems to be having a grand time right now just exploring the top of her tank
in other news, tomorrow:
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beyond that I think that even though she is not very intelligent (read: dumb as rocks), I’m hoping that she’ll learn that thunder = nothing bad actually happens and me interfering with that too much could just further some sort of expected negative response to thunder.
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hhhhhgghghgh she’s so scared I’m such a worried gecko momma I just don’t want her to drop her tail or have a heart-attack or anything
:c
tried putting her in her little cave hide and she stayed for a short while but is now back to her scared wide-eyed tank-scrambling. I’m not going to try to handle her anymore as I can’t think of anything else that might do her any good and don’t want her to freak out beyond the boundaries of her tank. With her current panic-speed she could leap to the ground and be lost in a second.
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Hey reptile/animal keepers out there, do your animals get freaked out during thunderstorms? I know I’ve had cats and dogs that do, but my young crested gecko is having little panic attacks whenever the thunder hits. She was flailing and thrashing, scrabbling at walls and moving faster than I’ve ever seen. I’ve tried taking her out and slowing my breathing/heartbeat as much as possible and talking to her in low, quiet tones which seemed to help, she’s not nearly as frantic as before, but she’s still in obvious distress and I’m still worried for her.
Anything I can do to help her feel less stressed out? She’s already dealing with a recent tank transition and the temps were a little bit higher than usual today (not dangerous, we just had a bit of a spike), and I can’t imagine the combination of these things are really helping the situation at all.
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Most people’s wild beasts live in the TV. What I mean is that, in my experience, most people are highly unlikely to come eyeball-to-eyeball with a large wild animal in their everyday lives, and much of their knowledge of wildlife comes from a screen. If you’re North American or get US-produced satellite TV, you’ve probably learned a lot about wildlife from outlets like the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and History. You might trust these channels because you’ve seen educational, factually accurate shows on them, unlike the ‘trashy’ material that dominates free-to-air network TV. But not everything on on these ‘factual’ channels might be as ethical or even as accurate as you might think, and the implications for conservation could be profound.
—Bloodthirsty ‘factual’ TV shows demonise wildlife | Adam Welz | Environment | guardian.co.uk
Read the full article for examples of programs on each network that present wild predators as far more of a threat to humans than they really are. The details are gruesome, so I won’t repeat them here.
It is reasonable, even advisable, to maintain a healthy fear of wildlife and use caution when interacting with them. Don’t corner wild animals; don’t try to cuddle them; don’t pick up snakes (especially ones you can’t identify); don’t approach a mother bear with cubs; always keep a safe distance. But the truth is that most wildlife, including apex predators, would prefer to be left alone, and most will leave humans alone if left to their own devices. When wild animals do bother humans, they tend to do so as a manageable nuisance (like property damage or raiding trash cans) rather than as an existential threat like the television programs in question depict. Even the threat to livestock is far less serious and far more manageable than is often portrayed.
During the 20th century, the United States exterminated much of its wild predator populations. Some were killed off deliberately, with bounties for killing wolves, coyotes, eagles, mountain lions, and other beasts. Others were a side-effect of modern industry, such as DDT and other hazards. In the east the loss of wild predators, combined with the decline of hunting, brought an explosion in the white-tailed deer population, with detrimental results for native plant and bird communities. Similar effects have been felt elsewhere in the country.
Even in our more enlightened times, restoring and protecting wild predators remains a constant fight. Fanning irrational fears and reinforcing old myths about wildlife makes that job much harder. It is even worse, as in the examples given, when the fearsome behavior is deliberately provoked by humans, torturing and killing wild animals for ratings and profit. The cable networks in question (Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, and History) ought to adopt more stringent ethical standards for the treatment of animals in their documentaries and support conservation by presenting accurate programming about wildlife.
(via dendroica)
(via shrikestrike)
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(Source: mechafaux, via mostlymatthew)
