garden variety dyke

mostly herps, ecology & black sails

[butchblooms]

Obsessed with this man and also his Bisexual Bob (TM)!

Working my way through S4 rn and expecting to be devastated...

[creatingblackcharacters]

Oh- because I know whenever people feel sorry for the racism that I have to experience on this app, I get pictures of pets- those are very cute! However, as much as I appreciate the intent and the kindness, it is not a way to help me materially benefit the community I fight for!

If you'd really like to make me smile, send a picture of your pet... AND a screenshot of a $5 donation to a Black community need of your choice 🙏🏾 there are plenty of causes that could use the help! Active antiracism!

[hannibal-hamlin]

I decided to specifically do a local one, this is Chester and Tico, together they have about 2.5 brain cells

[hannibal-hamlin]

Also I went through and added up all the donation receipts I saw in the reblogs and it's currently totalling to $495.61!!! Almost five hundred dollars donated and a far from insignificant chunk of that is as a direct result of this post!

[creatingblackcharacters]

LOOK AT ALL THAT CHANGE (LITERALLY)

[ampervadasz]

[bigwordsandsharpedges]

When I was a kid, I thought those pillars went down to the sea floor.

In reality, they usually go down to some large submerged floats.

[kasaron]

I dislike this. 

[isensmith]

[apas-95]

Pillars and floats like that are pretty stable, compared to regular boats, so there’s even a research vessel, called FLIP, that purposefully capsizes itself to be more steady when conducting research.

[mossdealer]

YEA IT FUCKIN IS (id embedded in image)

[commodoresays]

🥳🥳🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️Happy 311th Beat the Shit Out of Silver Day to all who celebrate!! 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🥳🥳

[flirtingwithselfdestruction]

[butchblooms]

can't wait to start T and grow my own cunty little mustache

[baba-fett]

Reblog to bonk your mutuals on the head every time they start thinking negatively about themselves

[paranormal-taters]

specifically this kind of bonk.

[humanityinahandbag]

Reblonk

[labelleizzy]

Rebonk

[john-silvers]

BLACK SAILS, XV

[kabaks]

"Clever." "Thank you."

BLACK SAILS | I, III, V, X, XI, XXII, XXV, XXXII

[kabaks]

obviously

[fairweathermyth]

Black Sails Season Four + enough

[malinaa]

Elizabeth Wilson, “Haunted Houses”

[tardis-shenanigans]

Now with the knowledge that tumblr is full of American Doctor Who fans I come to give you a present,

ALL Doctor Who episodes, both new who and old who are on Internet Archive!

Along with copies of various Doctor Who books and magazines as well as ALL the Torchwood magazines and both yearbooks!!

Here’s the link to all the episodes:

Doctor Who : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

The Doctor, a mysterious traveller in space and time, travels in his ship, the TARDIS. The TARDIS can take him and his companions anywhere i

[barghest-land]

what a quiet and strange little summer

[vet-and-wild]

you know the obsession with keeping cats indoors is a purely American view of the world? Most Europeans let their cats outdoors without any problems. Many Europeans even think it's cruel to keep them indoors all the time

No, it’s not. European cats aren’t magically smarter and less environmentally impactful than American cats, it’s just more socially acceptable to let them roam. Do you not have cars in Europe? Foxes? Raptors? Stray dogs? Rat poison? Parasites? Diseases? What about the Croydon Cat Killer in England, where the dismemberment of over 400 cats was being investigated, and it turned out that foxes were mutilating the bodies of cats that were killed by cars? Suddenly it’s all ok because it was only horrific death via automobile, instead of decapitation like they suspected? Totally acceptable to outdoor cat owners, who cares if your cat gets hit by a car and dies on the side of the road? There is real concern for the hybridization of wildcats in Europe, Asia, and Africa, but sure, it’s just a US problem. How about how outdoor cats are effectively reducing the protective area of a national park in Poland? How about the increased incidence of lungworms and GI parasites in European free roaming cats? How about this small study from Denmark where 90% of free roaming cats tested positive for GI parasites on necropsy (and the risk was higher in rural areas). Not Europe, but for the sake of completeness, free roaming cats kill ~377 MILLION birds per year in Australia, and 61 million of those kills are thought to be from owned cats. You can also talk to @drferox about how problematic outdoor cats are in Australia. Free roaming cats are bad for the environment, and are put in unnecessary danger. Why don’t you provide enrichment for your cat instead of letting them run around unsupervised where they will kill native wildlife and get sick or injured or die (or all of the above). Other resources from @catsindoors about the impact of domestic cats around the world. Snagged a lot of these links from their blog.

[prettyprettypretty-good-deactiv]

Humans would also be safer and the environment protected if we all just stayed indoors. No passing of parasites, bacteria, or viruses. No harm to other species. No cross breeding either (if that bothers you). Do you want to stay indoors?

[vet-and-wild]

I generally try to ignore responses like this, but I want to address this because I see this ridiculous argument a lot.

The reason that this comparison is inaccurate is because humans have the ability to use reason and make logical choices, but cats don’t. Humans see a car coming and wait until the street is clear to cross. Cats don’t. Humans know not to eat strange food on the ground. Cats don’t. Humans can look up which plants are toxic and avoid them. Cats can’t. Humans don’t eat raw rabbits and rodents that may carry disease. Cats do. Humans who hunt follow laws that prevent them from killing endangered species (besides shitty poachers). Cats don’t.

A far more accurate comparison would be a cat and a toddler. They lack the ability to recognize danger and don’t have the ability to reason that an adult does. I’m sure a toddler would have a great time roaming around the neighborhood, but no one is going to argue in favor of that. People can understand that doing that is irresponsible and dangerous. But no sane person is going to lock their toddler inside and provide them with nothing to do; no one is saying we should do that for cats either. Play with them. Provide cat trees. Rotate their toys. Give them puzzle feeders. And if you want them to go outside you can leash train them. Or build a catio. The options aren’t let them roam vs. never provide them with entertainment. If it is unbearable to entertain and care for a cat that is kept indoors, you probably shouldn’t own a cat.

Would you let your dog roam? Or your bird? How about your rabbit? I’m sure all of these animals would have a great time running (or flying) around the neighborhood, but we generally recognize that this is a bad idea. It’s no different for cats. We are caretakers for our animals, so it is up to us to use our big brains to make logical choices about what they should or shouldn’t do. We have the ability to understand the risks associated with free roaming. Cats don’t. We can weigh risks and benefits before making a decision. Cats can’t.

tldr: Humans have the ability to make logical decisions to keep themselves safe but cats do not.

[scienceshenanigans]

Outdoor cats are also more or less an invasive species. They are such good hunters, they are capable of permanently changing an ecosystem by killing native prey animals. 

Protect your kitty and local biodiversity–keep them inside!

[r33naytealeaves]

I just wanted to tack on that, there is no “more or less”, cats are an invasive species. Domesticated animals are invasive species and allowing them to interact with the local environment without monitoring will harm the local biodiversity. Cats especially. Domestic cats have a very high success rate for hunting. Historically, they have lead to multiple extinctions of animals because people brought cats along as pest control and pets.

[roseate-felidae]

I’m very pro indoor only cat. But sadly, this is not common in the UK, most people free roam their cats despite the dangers.

I’ve seen two cats who were roadkill, multiple poisoned rats that make easy prey, gardens full of poisonous (to cats) plants, and a cat at the vet who survived his arm being mauled by a fox through a catio. Yet people still do it. I’m in a small village, no idea how much worse in a bigger place it would be.

It is entirely cultural. Sadly, it also means people don’t tend to play with their pets and let them free roam as their only enrichment. So they baulk at how “bored” a cat would be indoors. Forgetting it’s not just kittens who need playtime. You are seen as a “weirdo” for harness/lead training a cat here, which I don’t agree with obviously.

Most rescues will not let you adopt a cat if you do not let it be indoor-outdoor. They will even check up on your garden to see it’s safety (like a cat can’t jump a fence lol). Charities do this, too.

I still keep my cat indoors only. My step mum thought I was being cruel until I explained to her the dangers of a cat outside.

I wish attitudes would change here. Please keep your cat indoors!

[robotslenderman]

It’s not even a fucking Yank thing. Here in Australia we do have people with outdoor cats, but most people see them as irresponsible wankers. People actively letting their cats outside are shrinking to the point that I saw an anti-missing poster outside of my doctor’s surgery one day telling people to stop calling them when their cat is outside, meaning that there’s now a lot of people who see an outdoor cat and assume it’s lost by default instead of the other way around.

Across the pond in New Zealand ONE SINGLE CAT drove an entire species to extinction. There are still arseholes over there but they’re generally even stricter than we are here in Oz.

Also it’s fucking weird that people say it’s understandable that we do it because of our ecosystem. Do Europeans not have ecosystems? Or are you just subscribing to the colonialist idea that your ecosystem is a boring default and only “exotic” ecosystems should be preserved?

[c3rat0]

Leopard appaloosa from @camelidae's prompt list :>

[sistertaxon]

i promise the map of salamander diversity is not what you expect

[beastsposting]

...hey so this is a really popular post already but where the hell did you get this map OP?

I live in california and have observed far more than 2-3 species of salamander, and just a quick check of various locations disproves this, and by a huge margin. even if you're talking about species with salamander in the common name, there are tons upon tons more than the map implies.

these are just quick inaturalist searches, and even the source site itself seems inaccurate to me. take another one of their maps, for frogs (Anura)

same result.

even take their bird map- specifically the hummingbirds.

an incredibly similar result.

this site doesnt say anywhere that it's meant to be mapping endangered species, but maybe it's supposed to be? if anyone wants to find more info feel free to let me know- source is biodiversitymapping.

im not blaming op, as the source site presents itself as being well researched, but please know that salamander diversity is far far more than this map presents itself to be! here are some interesting salamanders for your time-

hellbender, fire salamander

olm, ensatina

cave salamander, western slimy salamander

and these are just some of the ones i know of! there are around 700 salamander species in the world.

[nerdygaymormon]

[dunkthebiscuit]

This is why Pride is not just a party. It's a joyful celebration, but it's also a pointed and colourful two-finger salute to a world that stood back whilst so many of us died. And we'll never go quietly, never again.

[vexwerewolf]

Reminder that the AIDS crisis was an intentional genocide