Good news, he was not next! In fact, she accepted him as her mate, he learned the crane mating dance and now every year, he artificially inseminates her with crane semen to expand the very endangered crane population. True story.
Sorry, he WHAT? Imagine being this man's boss and having to sit him down like. Listen. Brian. We need you to fuck the bird. You have to act like you're excited about it.
(WalWaPo makes you jump through like three separate hoops before you can read the article, so I will share some of the highlights:
Walnut was born in a species-recovery breeding program in the 1980ā²s.Ā The program had crane chicks hand-raised by human volunteers, and at that time they did not fully understand the measures necessary make sure that the chicks do not imprint on humans and retain their identity as cranes.Ā Ā
As a result, her keepers believe, Walnut does not recognize other cranes as members of her own species.Ā Ā
It has not been proven that Walnut killed her previous suitors; however, there is a persistent rumor in the white-naped-crane-conservation community that she did.Ā Ā
Because this species is highly endangered, and the gene pool of the captive population is small, itās pretty important for the survival of her species that Walnut A) mate, and B) not kill a bunch of other cranes.Ā Ā
The actual name of the keeper is Chris Crowe.
They both arrived at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in 2004.Ā Ā
Walnut immediately began paying special attention to Chris--and ignoring the eligible male crane in a nearby enclosure.Ā Ā
Walnut initiated their courtship, performing the opening moves of a mating dance.Ā Ā
Chris realized that if he reciprocated the mating dance, it might be possible to artificially inseminate Walnut with her participation and consent.Ā (The process normally involves restraining the bird.)Ā Ā
It worked!Ā Ā
Chris and Walnut have had five children, who were raised by other crane couples at the facility--sometimes the biological dad and his mate--both because itās unclear whether Walnut would accept the chicks as her own, and because Chris is not equipped to be a Crane Dad.Ā Ā
However, the Institute provides her with artificial eggs to sit on, and Chris takes his turn looking after them.Ā (This would not work with real eggs because he canāt sit on them properly, but Walnut seems to feel that he is on the job if he just stands over them.)
Chris accepts that he is pretty much married to this bird.Ā White-naped cranes live to be about 60, and they mate for life, so he knows he canāt retire while Walnut is alive.Ā (At the time of the article, Walnut was 36, and Chris 42.)Ā Ā
she has not been PROVEN to have killed her exes, but there is a PERSISTENT RUMOR (really officers she's simply DEVASTATED, she sobs, wearing a new feather boa unfortunately resembling her most recent deceased husband)
His name is Chris CROWE. (Mrs. Walnut Crane-Crowe?)
the mental images of a whole human man learning and performing the crane mating dance, and "sitting" on artificial eggs so she thinks he's performing his duties as a husband and father (and apparently OBJECTS if he does not?)
"chris, buddy, you gotta marry the possibly-murderous crane lady for the GOOD OF THE SPECIES." (alternately: "chris, my man! good news! we found you a very interested lady! She's 36, she's very spirited and independent, she holds a very important and rare status in her society! ...Is there a downside? WELL...")
chris sits any potential human partners down, like "my love, you must understand before we wed,,, i am already... Attached" (camera drifts wistfully to the above photo) "Lady Walnut and I have an,, Understanding... the relationship is open, but very committed"
Not only is he 'married' to walnut, this has apparently happened SEVERAL times, so he has MULTIPLE crane wives, none of which know about any of his other crane wives. This man is, for some unknown reason, irresistible to cranes
the āthis content has been removed for violating Tumblrās Community Guidelinesā notice really adds a lot of flavor to this post and somehow makes it MORE obscene than whatever that actually was
I regret being the bearer of bad news, but I thought it should be shared that Walnut passed away in January of this year (2024). There's a lot of mixed info about the lifespan of cranes (due to people misunderstanding what a median is...) but the average for most species I know of is 20-30 years (in the wild if nothing eats them/they don't die young), and 30-45 in captivity, with the oldest known white-naped crane having loved to be 46. Given that she was 42, this old gal did good, and I'm certain she will be missed by folks here.
ā¦..not even six hours later i got an offer of a well paying full time long-term job with free room and board in queens in nyc, allowing me independence and a way to escape an abusive situation and an unhealthy environment
likes charge reblogs cast, folks, this is the good luck post
the last time I reblogged this post right before I got a great job, in a permanent work-from-home position, with benefits, retirement, and a salary literally 3x what I was making before, doing something I really like.Ā
Transphobia is about to be signed into law in the UK. We can fight this.
I am begging the UK trans community and its allies to attend the Mass Lobby at Parliament on June 25th, 11am-4pm, organised by Trans Solidarity Alliance.
Last year we broke the record for an LGBT+ mass lobby of Parliament. Will you help us break it again? Join us on 25th June 2026 to demand be
The new EHRC Code of Practice pushes trans people out of toilets, hospital wards, and community spaces. It normalises gender policing based on appearance and stereotypes. It becomes statutory guidance in the UK by the end of June.
Trans people are now legally their assigned gender at birth and must join gendered spaces accordingly, but if they are perceived as their lived gender, they can also be ejected from those spaces. The guidance says: either break the law, or donāt pass too well.
A mass lobby is where you invite your MP to discuss your concerns with you in-person. Ask your MP to:
Demand full parliamentary scrutiny, debate, and use their free vote on the EHRC Code of Practice.
Support any motions rejecting the EHRC guidance. As of June 4th, Labour MP Nadia Whittome has submitted a prayer motion - Early Day Motion 240.
Write to Bridget Phillipson, the Minister for Women and Equalities about our concerns
Your MP does not have to be an ally, they do not have to respond to your email for you to show up and greencard them (details below the cut.) What matters is that as many people as possible show up.
I cannot stress this enough: Showing up in person matters. It is much more effective than petitions, emails, and letters.
It is a horrible, stressful time, and I am so sorry if you're trans and live in the UK. But I was at last year's mass lobby and the line for greencarding alone stretched around the back gates. It was a record breaking mass lobby and made us impossible to ignore. Let's do even better this time. Details under the cut:
Worried about what to say?
Bring your personal worries about transphobia being signed into law, and trans friends being excluded from public spaces. You are a living person who deserves dignity. Remind your MP of that. You will also get guidance and brochures from Trans Solidarity Alliance that outlines our demands. This is mine from last year.
Money issues?
Trans Solidarity Alliance provides a travel bursary that you can sign up for via the link.
Got a refusal or no response from your MP?Ā
Come anyway! You can request a same-day appointment with your MP through a process called greencarding. They will come and see you if theyāre already in Parliament. Even if they donāt, theyāre made acutely aware of your cause because you showed up in person. This is my greencard from last year.
Here is the EHRC Code of Practice in full. It's a tough read, but some highlights are:
Organisations canāt provide trans-inclusive, single-sex services, or they risk being sued for discrimination.
e.g. domestic violence support for women including trans women, menās rugby group including trans men (12.68).
Trans people will have nowhere safe to pee.
If youāre a trans man, businesses can't allow you to pee in the men's, and you can also be ejected from womenās bathrooms if youāre perceived as a man. Vice versa for trans women. EHRC suggests a āthird spaceā bathroom, which is discriminatory and unworkable for most businesses. (13.130-133)
Sports organisations must exclude trans people from single-sex competitions (13.73).Ā
A womenās only sports competition must exclude trans women because of their biological advantage or face potential lawsuits (13.74), but a trans man who has undergone testosterone treatment can also be excluded based on fairness rules (13.81).
Trans women are stripped of the legal definition of ālesbianā, and therefore no longer have legal protections if theyāre discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation. (2.50, 2.92).
Here is the Good Law Project's better explanation of the EHRC Code.
I have also made a PDF printout of QR codes for the government petition, email your MP tool, and mass lobby link to pass around your communities. DM me and I'll send it to you.
What I want to add is that the Good Law Project are also trying to challenge the Supreme Court Judgement that started all of this, and have already been successful in getting the EHRC to change some of the worst parts of their guidance: notably, organisations for women are NOT obligated to kick trans women out, and there's an emphasis that offering single-sex spaces purely based on AGAB is discriminatory. Previous rulings by the EHRC also claim that the default position of any organisation should be to include trans people, and that there is (in theory) a high bard to clear if you want to be discriminatory. This new guidance still isn't great though, which is why the Good Law Project (and others) are still working to challenge these things! See this article for more details:
Ā The updated code of practice for services, public functions and associations has been laid before Parliament. Hereās what that means.
Additionally, even with this guidance and the Supreme Court ruling, the legal precedence set by the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (which states that someone who obtains a GRC is, in the eyes of the law, their acquired gender, with an added part that someone trying to figure out if you have a GRC or not is a violation of privacy that can carry legal consequences) and Goodwin Vs The United Kingdom (which found that not recognising a trans person's gender was in violation of a person's rights to privacy and right to family life) have not been overturned. The argument of the Supreme Court was that trans people should be considered their AGAB only in the context of the Equality Act 2010 - and the Equality Act 2010 still contains a provision to protect people on the basis of gender reassignment (especially as the act is meant to protect from harassment or victimisation, and to protect people as users of private and public services; it also applies if people merely "believe you to be" a member of a group, eve, if you aren't, e.g. cis women who are harassed under a belief that they're a trans woman are also protected).
Part of why people are trying so hard to overturn these rulings isn't just because they're obviously discriminatory - it's because they're obviously discriminatory based on the laws that we already have, that are already in-place and functioning. They have not replaced or overturned any previous legal rulings. In theory, these codes of practice just contradict other laws so strongly that it makes things more confused, not less - and I know trans people who've taken advantage of this confusion to just carry on living as they were.
In practice, all of these rulings and new guidelines and whatnot essentially gives transphobes carte blanche to be transphobic and get away with it, since not many trans people have the finances and/or emotional and mental fortitude to challenge discrimination based on these rulings - and these codes of practice are meant to be about fear and intimidation anyway, even if they're not legally sound. I want to emphasise that I'm not adding all of this to undermine the OP's point, or to say that there's nothing to worry about, because socially, emotionally, mentally, all this transphobic shit causes intense and real-world harm, and organisations are going to take rules like this as license to discriminate, regardless of how much politicians and terf-funded lawyers want to insist "oh, we're not actually taking any rights away!"
In theory, though, it means that people can legally challenge any discrimination aimed at them as a result of the EHRC rulings, on the basis of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and the Equality Act 2010. In multiple ways, this will be challenged, and this will be defeated. Part of that relies on protests like this, so please attend if you can; but this is a war with multiple battles, and we will win.
Goodwin V The United Kingdom was decided in part because they could not see any way in which accepting and acknowledging trans people would ever be an issue, nor should it be a "controversy" where attitudes can/should change with time. To quote the ruling:
No concrete or substantial hardship or detriment to the public interest has indeed been demonstrated as likely to flow from any change to the status of transsexuals and, as regards other possible consequences, the Court considers that society may reasonably be expected to tolerate a certain inconvenience to enable individuals to live in dignity and worth in accordance with the sexual identity chosen by them at great personal cost.
Our courts and government need to be reminded of what was ruled, as the law of this country, 24 years ago; but we also need to remember this, as part of our history, and as shields that we can still use to defend ourselves with.
thank you for this nuanced elaboration! direct action is important but there's no need to lose all hope in the system just yet.
if you're not in the UK and have the financial means to help the fight against transphobic legislation, please consider donating to the Good Law Project :))
I love that four different people on my feed scheduled this joyous person to reblog by 8am on June 1. I look forward to seeing this a dozen more times today.
this is a terrible question and if this person isn't just blatantly making shit up here, that woman is an idiot for having to think about it.
the whole concept is pure projection. being perceived as political opposition is enough for the left to justify wanting you dead and they assume everyone thinks the same.
but sure, i'll bite:
being gay in and of itself isn't sinful and gender dysphoria is a mental illness. neither of these things justify murdering a person, let alone your own child, and in the west you can pretty much count the number of lunatics that think they do on one hand.
unless you're talking about muslims, of course. muslims believe gays should be killed, but that's a whole different conversation.
Alex Rodda, Ronnie Paris, Anthony Alvez, Giovanni Meltion, Gabriel Fernandez, Zachary Dutro, Itaberli Lozano.
The names of children (in around half, children under the age of 13) killed by their parents for being gay, or the perception they were gay.
And yes this is 'count on your hands' numbers but this is from 20 minutes on Google of headline murders, not a complete meta-analysis.
Not to mention that most queer people will know someone whose family has threatened to kill or harm them for being gay.
Guy in the library left his laptop for a bit and obviously his headphones disconnected from Bluetooth or something because it's suddenly playing his podcast.
It's going on about loving woman and wanting to support their passions but also needing to keep them in the home. In the silent section of the library.
No one knows how to turn it off, there was about three of us all trying to turn it down, shutting the lid didn't work. Guy comes back, we tell him and he shuts the sound off. No one addresses that he's listening to a misogynistic podcast in the section that houses the feminist literature.
You know those videos that talk about things in Japan that are "mindblowing" (often they're not that common or just small little touches). Well fuck it, here's a load of things that I think will blow people's minds about the UK that are just common knowledge here.
If you find a road that's oddly straight out in the countryside, chances are it was originally a Roman road. Several Major roads and sections of motorway follow the route of Roman Roads. There's a Roman Road that goes under the end of my street, part of it is still in use.
Every hour, on the hour, BBC radio 4 plays a series of beeps that tell you when it's exactly on the hour so you can set your clocks and watches.
We have a TV show made for Amateur Astronomers that has been going on since 1957. They cover major events and discoveries in Astronomy.
We have a Gameshow called Countdown wherein people take semi random letters and try create the longest word they can from it, and then take semi random numbers and try to use them to get to a random number. It is one of the Longest running and popular daytime gameshows and is a national treasure.
In Scotland, a lot of our chip shops were/are opened by Italians or people of Italian descent, so you can also get pizza there. Haggis pizza is a common menu item and it slaps.
The controllers in charge of the power grid have to watch every major soap opera and sports event because when the event ends or goes to commercial break, so many people get up to go make a cup of tea it risks a blackout, so they have to use Pumped storage stations to generate more power. There's one of these power stations near Wales's Highest Mountain and one at Loch Ness.
Every major channel rehearses for the death of the current monarch so they don't fuck it up. Under the news desk at the BBC, there's a black tie for the men and a black cardigan for the women that they put on if a major royal dies. You can see this happen if you watch the footage.
The government announces tests of the EAS system in advance so people know that A) it's a test, don't panic and B) so people with hidden phones (like abused spouses) can turn them off.
Our lifeboat and lifeguard service, The Royal National Lifeboat Institution, is completely volunteer run and funded through donations. Volunteers have to have pagers on them that ring if they're called up so they can run to the boats and rescue people. They're often in remote areas, and they're a common charity to raise money for because everyone agrees that they're not just heroic, but based as all fuck.
Most major supermarkets deliver, and by that I don't mean "you can send a gig-worker to do your shopping", I mean Tesco, Sainsbury's, Iceland and ASDA all have fleets of official trucks where you can do your shopping online, a supermarket worker picks your stuff for you, and at a designated time someone comes and delivers your shopping. They're even a common site in rural areas.
It's a Christmas tradition to go to your local theater to see a Pantomime, which is basically a retelling of a fairy tale done by drag queens aimed at children, but with jokes for the adults and modern cultural references. Famous actors will often take part in these shows. It's a beloved Christmas tradition that's illegal in Tennessee.
BBC radio 4 Broadcasts a Special Weather Forecast for people who work at sea or even on the water. It's very technical and concise and people who do not work at sea or even live near any major body of water listen to it because it is very, very relaxing.
I feel it's important to discuss that American purity culture is starting to ruin Pantomimes. If a pantomime is explicitly aimed at children (Ie. companies that make pantos for schools) there is not a dame, which is bullshit. The Paladium's panto also came under fire this year for being 'innappropriate' when it was no different from any other years.
āThe Secret Garden is bad disability rep because it ends with Collin walking!ā Cool, you didnāt actually read the book, did you? Because Collin doesnāt start walking because disabled people āneed to get betterā but because heās breaking free from the extreme infantilization that he was subjected to his entire life. He starts walking because everyone in his life told him he couldnāt and to not bother even trying. He starts doing things for himself because he grew up being told all he was going to do was get sick and die, to the point where they hid him away and his father didnāt want to see him to reduce the hurt of his sons eventual death. This book isnāt about disabled people getting better, its about letting disabled people live a full life despite their illness
He also gained confidence, sense of self and friendship while in a wheelchair, all things that for the time were a novel idea for people. He was pushed to try walking by all these things and it was made clear by his friends that it didn't matter to them either way. He still would have had his character development in a wheelchair or walking.
āThe Secret Garden is bad disability rep because it ends with Collin walking!ā Cool, you didnāt actually read the book, did you? Because Collin doesnāt start walking because disabled people āneed to get betterā but because heās breaking free from the extreme infantilization that he was subjected to his entire life. He starts walking because everyone in his life told him he couldnāt and to not bother even trying. He starts doing things for himself because he grew up being told all he was going to do was get sick and die, to the point where they hid him away and his father didnāt want to see him to reduce the hurt of his sons eventual death. This book isnāt about disabled people getting better, its about letting disabled people live a full life despite their illness
He also gained confidence, sense of self and friendship while in a wheelchair, all things that for the time were a novel idea for people. He was pushed to try walking by all these things and it was made clear by his friends that it didn't matter to them either way. He still would have had his character development in a wheelchair or walking.
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