Venturing Vulture

A blog of my own vulture culture adventures and other vc things that I like too. If you want, check out my witchy blog @catonicly There will be dead animals and the like on here. I will post warnings for the gorier stuff.

[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

Click here to support Help Mallaidh Anne Graduate organized by Mallaidh Anne

***VIDEO BEGINS WITH A ROUGHLY 1 MINUTE SUMMARY. You do not have to watch the full, in-depth video unless you want to!*** Summary: I have been working diligently over the last four years to earn my bachelors degree in wildlife biology. I am reaching the finish line this December, but I have just...

Well everyone, here it is. The video begins with a roughly 1 minute summary, so you don’t have to watch the whole thing if you don’t want to, but there IS some bird-call identification in it :^) !!

[video includes an explanation of my situation and the need for a fundraiser, which is also explained below]

TL;DR: I AM OUT OF FEDERAL FUNDING FOR MY DEGREE, AND I AM SUPPOSED TO GRADUATE FALL 2019 SEMESTER! I am desperate and doing everything I can to raise the funds, but my options are EXTREMELY limited. This is a fundraiser to finish my schooling after years of hard work! Thank you! I will be doing livestreams and videos in return all about nature and what I’ve learned in my studies!

MORE UNDER THE CUT

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[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

Hello, everyone! We’re about a third of the way there, which is just genuinely incredible!!! Thank you so much for all of your help, donating, spreading the word, or simply wishing me well in the comments and my ask box!!! It means the whole world! Let’s keep it going!

[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

HI ALL!! We’re nearly halfway there!!!!! Thank you thank thank you!!! I hope we can keep it going so that I can reach my goal and finish my studies! Thank you!!!

[vultureculturecoyote-deactivate]

Found TONS of craft grade sheep bones on the walk today. Didnt really know what to do with them so I made a circle. 

[catonicly-bones]

Working on a project

[nebraska-doesnt-exist]

ya'know, maybe the reason rural, small-town people don’t trust national media is because national news outlets pretty much ignore 85% of the country.

nebraska is literally flooded, at least one person has died and three are missing, 60 thousand have evacuated… and the first cnn article about this went up like ten minutes ago and only mentioned flooding around omaha.

like. i’m from omaha and i’m frustrated by the lack of attention the rest of our state is getting. someone died, and you’re not going to mention that? how was this not a story worth reporting this morning? are nebraskan farmers and small-town citizens not just as important as the californians displaced by wildfires, or southern/east coast people affected by hurricanes?

when we complain about nebraska being ignored, we’re not really talking about not having shows set in nebraska, as much as we might want that. we’re talking about this — thousands of people losing their homes, their livelihood, and yet no one seems to think it’s worth mentioning.

when hurricanes devastated the south last year, nebraskans donated what we could to help those affected. we sent trucks filled with donated items and coordinated with shelters and organizations to make sure we actually sent things that were needed. i’m just saying, it would be nice to see some of that support in turn. even if it’s just bringing attention to this.

[cashmere-cat-attacks]

At the very least you would think that the farmlands that feed most of the US being flooded would be important to someone other then us Nebraskans. But we are ignored. At best Omaha is briefly mentioned. At worst we’re ridiculed and looked down upon because we’re just some dumb hicks with a boring state and a laughing stalk of a football team.

I’m terrified for my fellow Nebraskans because even us in the city don’t have enough money to be the only ones who donate. This needs more recognition because more people will die because of exposure after the fact.

[moon-bell5]

USA Today article

Omaha World Herald Article

Article with links to various places to donate

[iamthepandaprince]

I live in Fremont Nebraska. We are literally a fucking island right now. There is no way in or out of town. Half our town is flooded and the water is still expecting to rise. Two of my friends have lost their homes and one lost pets. 

The thing about the flooding is that the other half of Nebraska is experiencing blizzards. Our whole state is in anarchy right now. There’s no water left in fremont. Two of our leveys have broke and our dam is being held together through sheer fucking will. This is fucking terrifying okay? Even if me and my family wanted to leave we CAN’T. If fremont get’s flooded anymore where are we going to evac to? We can’t. We can’t get out of town. Why has this not been a fucking emergency yet?

Currently my family is okay, but were close to losing our home too. 

If you can spare anything please. PLEASE Donate. Nebraska is in need of a lot of help right now…

[pukicho]

Remember to drink water babes

[green-algae]

The skeleton of a female Steller sea lion [Eumetopias jubatus; not to be confused with the extinct Steller’s sea cow]. These enormous pinnipeds are second in size only to walruses and elephant seals. Image by cyborgsuzystock.

[blackbackedjackal]

🐱🌻

[zanabism-deactivated20200529]

when you support outlawing Indigenous people’s hunting practices you are LITERALLY promoting their starvation. Indigenous communities in the Arctic have to suffer from food deserts and 174963846% increase in food costs that no white vegan will ever have to face. So please. let them eat lmao.

[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

Yes!!! This is so important to me as a topic in my field!!! Maintaining, supporting, and especially restoring indigenous peoples’ right to hunting is a topic of the utmost importance.

People want to cry “even the populations of concern??” but the fact is they were almost never of concern until colonizers started overhunting. The decline of the polar bear in North America (and in most of its range) is a perfect example of how in very little time, white colonizers decimated a healthy population of animals that indigenous people had been responsibly surviving on for hundreds and often thousands of years.

It doesn’t just stop at us white people letting indigenous people hunt for subsistence though. It’s extremely important that we ask for and use indigenous knowledge and ideas when we create hunting laws and treaties. We need to hand over the power.

Again, the international agreement on polar bears is a good example of indigenous hunting traditions and knowledge being used to actually make informed decisions on hunting regulations.

I’m not trying to lecture or inform OP, but to make sure white people reading this understand how important it is that moving forward, indigenous communities are included in hunting regulations and treaties, because it is not their fault their survival has been threatened by colonial overhunting, and often they have vital knowledge about species range, migration, populations, and behaviors that non-native biologists haven’t figured out yet.

Here is a read on why the largely held white idea on “saving the animals” (especially seals that advocacy groups love to claim indigenous people club constantly, all the time) is a racist, misinformed, tunnel-vision view of a much larger picture made of way bigger problems:

http://www.ppehlab.org/blogposts/2017/3/18/1y0q4mmk9vzjfe135r5cbdv0pljwox

I say it a lot, but it deserves repeating:

Always always always: wildlife conservation efforts without the consideration and voices of indigenous people is a conservation effort without a soul.

[star-anise]

Honestly the people I know who care the MOST about the wellbeing of animals and the environment are the people who are serious, experienced, non-recreational hunters. 

And not just when it’s hunting for food. The Indigenous fur trappers up here care way the fuck more about the wild species they trap than any of the white vegans who try to ban them from earning a living. Just because it’s a White tradition to disrespect the animals you kill and hunt them to extinction, doesn’t mean that’s how everybody does it.

[systlin]

My sister works with some tribes in the Pacific Northwest because they know MORE about the habits and health of the local wildlife than anyone else, including the researchers (like my sister). 

She’s a big proponent of just staying the hell out of indigenous people’s hunting practices, because “It was just fine until we came along and fucked it all up.” 

[bitter-badfem-harpy]

I don’t know if this is the right place to make this point but I’ve noticed that vegans who protest indigenous hunting practices never mention how a lot of indigenous canadians are being starved by absurd price hikes on necessities in their local grocers, when there’s even a grocery store for them to go to. They want to outlaw subsistence hunting but I never see them vocally advocate for better access to food for these same indigenous populations 🤔

[bueshang]

Hand sculpted and painted resin Vampire Bat Skull Mask.

This masks sits comfortable on the face with a wide field of vision and a hinged jaw that moves when you talk.

Is available in my Etsy store or by messaging me on Facebook. Blanks are also available on request. :)

https://www.facebook.com/BueshangsCreations https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/BueshangsCreations

[allstrangenature]

Things I’ve learned while working in a museum collection

-The best way to learn is on the job

-Snakes kept in ethanol for 50 years have a very specific smell

-it’s like greasy vodka

-I’ve found where all the queers go in science and it’s museums, I’ve found my people

-A right of passage includes getting a tattoo of your preferred genus 

-The 60 year old entomologist who is apparently a celebrity in the beetle circles has a huge back-spanning tattoo of a scarab, and my co-worker only discovered this when she saw said entomologist at a rock concert

-You have to keep those stained skeleton specimens in jars of glycerin because it’s only in glycerin that light goes through the specimens tissue to reveal the blue/red/green skeleton otherwise they’re an opaque white

-Glycerin leeches through glass

-You will be skinning an animal for a few hours and be staring at the bare flesh and viscera and be suddenly intensely hungry. That’s normal.

-You’ll find a “problem specimen” in a jar with no number tag and you’ll ask the collection manager what to do about it, she’ll turn around pick a book from a huge shelf of identical books and ask for the place and date on the jar and then she’ll flip to a page, check that, and then check the online database before saying “it’s this one, make a new tag”. And you’ll spend the rest of the day mystified at the incredible record-keeping that’s been happening for 130 years.

-Vegans haven’t discovered museum collections yet and everyone hopes it stays that way lest we have to constantly defend another vital aspect of scientific progress

- “Our collection isn’t haunted because animals don’t hold that kind of grudge, everything in the herpetology section murdered for their dinner everyday, but the anthropology collection on the other hand…”

-Everyone in the vertebrate collection has a furious and never-ending hatred of fly fishing (never forgive, never forget)

[candycoatedcatastrophe]

Two of my skulls. Top is Buttercup, she was a dairy cow. I got her from my local Pagan festival. Bottom is a ram my girlfriend got for me for Valentine’s Day. He doesn’t have a name yet and his horns could use another cleaning.

[boneidentification]

My parents found this bird skull while landscaping to build their house. They live in northwest Oregon. My best guess is red-tailed hawk, but I’m not any sort of expert. Do you have any better ideas?

This is the skull of an owl! Most bird species, especially birds of prey, are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in the United States and Canada so it is illegal to keep this skull. In most cases you can donate these remains to a museum or educational center.

[iescapedintothetrees]

I made some lil info pieces let me know what you think!

[vultureculturecoyote-deactivate]

Then USA be like

[snakeybones]

Is there anything I should look out for when I'm buying bones off the internet? I'm looking to get into buying some skulls but I don't know what's good and what's not

Definitely! Some sellers are amazing people, but unfortunately, that can’t be said for everyone. When buying bones online, you should start with what you know. Know your laws! Is this specimen legal to own where I live? Some sellers will not check for you, so it’s up to you to know! Another thing is to be able to ID a specimen. It sounds crappy, but sometimes sellers will mislabel a specimen to be able to legally ship it. That’s how you get raccoon dog skulls sold as domestic dogs. Pretty shady. So knowing if what you’re buying is what tbe seller says it is can save your butt! Also, look at the pictures the seller is posting and see how well the specimen is cleaned. You can usually tell if a specimen has been boiled/bleached if the pictures posted are the actual specimen you’d be getting. Greasy bones look have slimy or shiny or transparent looking patches on them. Bleached bones will look chalky or flaky. Cleaning bones with these methods often end up with weakened or smelly bones. Also, if personal ethics come into play, ask a seller about the source of the bones. If the seller refuses to tell you where they got the bones from, there might be something up. Ethics are really dependent of the individual though, some people are okay with certain sources of bones while others are not. It’s all up to the buyer’s personal morals. Feel free to price match too! I hope this helps! Y'all can feel free to add on, I feel like I’m forgetting something!

[takingbackourculture]

Wondering how the word gypsy is a racial slur? Why are you referring to it as the G word when it literally means a free spirited traveller. What is so offensive about that?

Let me tell you a story, ignorant one. 

Once upon a time, there were a group of people migrating from northern India and Pakistan after the invasion “of the Persian Muslims who have since settled in Trukey, all of Europe, and the Americas These people are called the Rromani.” (x)

Once the pale bird feces people of Europe came into contact with the Rromani, they believed them to hail from Egypt, thus calling them Gypsies. 

Now about what disgusting white people like you have been trying to turn this racial slur into. There is nothing about being a free spirited traveller if you’re called such a word. What is up with white people romanticizing everything to make it seem all nice and rainbows for them?

“They were not nomadic by choice. They moved around because they had to… they were persecuted everywhere they went, and still are, to this day. They were persecuted alongside the Jews in the Holocaust – the Roma & Sinti”. They were forced to have this sort of nomadic lifestyle because “no country wanted them there”. (x)

Let’s not forget these lovely things Rromani people did and still go through because of who they are:

“Forced sterilization (yes, it is still happening)

Eviction

Harassment (by law enforcement as well as civilians)

Fingerprinting (this is happening in Italy right now – all Romani people are being fingerprinted, simply because our race is considered ‘criminal’)

Concentration camps

Starvation

Exclusion from public schools and welfare programs

Bombings (it is not uncommon in places like the Czech Republic for people to throw molotov cocktails into the windows of Romani homes)” (x)

“First and foremost: THE WORD “GYPSY” IS AN ETHNIC SLUR. It is a pejorative. It is an exonym that is hurtful and offensive. You need to accept this, period.

We are NOT your halloween costume. We are NOT your flowy skirt. We are NOT your fashion sense. We are NOT your wanderlust. We are NOT ‘boho.’

Gypsy is not fashion. Gypsy is not traveling. Gypsy is not a headband or a costume, or boho, or a long skirt.

Gypsy is a hurtful ethnic slur used to refer to the Romani people.

We cannot seem to emphasize this enough to people. This word is a slur. It was created to be a slur. Its meaning does not change. It will always be a slur. It will always be offensive.

‘The word is not yours. It’s ours. We can use it as we see fit. You cannot.’ - biggadjeworld 

We are a real people, with traditions, culture, and colorful heritage that spans centuries.” (x)

The “x”s in the post refer to sources you can click on and educate yourself with. On those pages, there are more links to become familiar to this slur and the Rromani people.

Also, don’t forget to stop by thisisnotromani!

- Jess

[dianasson]

This is some shit that the witchcraft and neopagan communities really need to get straight. You are not a “gypsy” witch, that does not make you mystical, you are not special, you are just racist. V sorry.

[queerwitchcraft]

I REALLLYYY need everyone to read this at least three times so there is no chance for confusion.

[theosophicalart]

[note-a-bear]

I…. want all of them?

[neolithicsheep]

Trufax: I once did an entire twitter thread on how to tell sheep and goats apart by horn structure because it irritates me so much when people call sheep goats and vice versa. If I’d had this, I would have used it for a quiz.

[vagueenthusiast]

hozier asks!

🌲 woods somewhere - have you ever saved a life?

💐 deathless death - what is one thing you can’t tell your parents?

🌿 willow bough - are you a free dancer, skilled, or self-conscious?

🏺 still and discreet - what is the closest you’ve come to death?

🌳 blackthorn tree - if you were a tree, what sort would you be?

💫 sweet lips - slow kisses or rough?

🍂 cold dark earth  - is there anyone you would die for?

🌱 almost you - what is the song that describes you best?

🥂 drunken sin - what is the strangest thing you’ve done whilst drunk?

⭐ risin’ - what is the most powerful you’ve ever felt?

🍀 tender charm - who are you most vulnerable with?

💊 codeine - what is your favourite feeling in the world?

🍷 cherry wine - have you ever loved someone who causes you pain?

🐍 common tongue - should there be a universal language?

🔥 gasoline - if you had to burn one item in your life, what would it be?

🥀 glorious thorn - something specific that’s made you love someone?