lover of critters, beafts, and other forms of life (bees, sharks, garter snakes most of all <3)
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icon is art of an orchid bee by myself
this blog is for appreciating all kinds of life, for autism & spiritual reasons. & also probably will include posts about sustainability, indigenous environmental ethics, plant sentience, animism & stuff like that :)
To Have As Much Compassion For the Coyote As the Rabbit
Spring is here, and all throughout my social media are posts by people panicking about coyotes. It’s not uncommon for these native canines to be more visible this time of year since they have dens full of hungry pups to feed and protect. You might see them on the hunt for mice and other rodents, or you could be quietly but firmly escorted away from a den site. There’s a chance you’ll even see a coyote toting a nice, fat rabbit home to her pups.
That last one tends to upset some folks. I’ve seen people say they’ve deliberately scared away predatory animals to cause them to drop their prey, or in some cases even physically wrestled the prey away. Sure, that may make you feel like some sort of hero for saving the rabbit. But why does the rabbit deserve to live while the coyote’s pups slowly starve to death? Why should a Cooper’s hawk not be allowed to eat the house finch it just plucked from a convenient bird feeder? Who says we are right to get in the way of a garter snake capturing a tree frog? And what if the rabbit you liberated has internal injuries that slowly kill it anyway once it runs away from you in fright?
Read under the cut to find out how many self-described "nature lovers" only really love part of nature.
Many of us have a Disneyfied approach to nature. We have a great deal of sympathy for herbivores* like Bambi and Thumper, and we give Flower the striped skunk a free pass since most of what he eats is insects. We might get annoyed when Bambi starts to browse on the vegetables and rose bushes, but we don’t react with the sort of wailing dismay that we do when a mountain lion takes out one of Bambi’s herd members.
And yet an American robin tugging earthworms out of the ground and swallowing them alive is no different from a bobcat pouncing on the robin. Both are examples of one animal preying upon another, a perfectly normal part of the cycles of nature for 800 million years. Without carnivores (and insectivores and omnivores), herbivores would quickly overpopulate, depleting plant communities to ecologically disastrous states, and crash life as we know it. Life is all about inhabiting niches, and carnivores fill their evolutionary roles quite effectively.
Many people who claim they “love nature” only love the herbivorous, gentle, fuzzy parts of it, and refuse to examine or change their revulsion of or violence toward the rest. That’s a big problem. The elements of nature they consider to be “ugly” or gross” are no less important than the “pretty” or “adorable” ones. And systematically removing the “bad” animals can have a detrimental effect on the entire ecosystem. The benighted person who kills every snake they see is only going to cause an increase in rodent populations, which of course raises the likelihood of diseases, crop damage, and gnawed electrical wires in the attic.
Moreover, when we try to apply the limitations of human ideals of morality to the rest of nature, we ignore the concept of existence value: that all beings are important simply because they are here with us in this amazing, vibrant world we share. What are we implying when we say that the coyote pup is less deserving of life than the rabbit?
We have interfered with nature way too much as it is, in much larger ways than this. Yet it is a simple act to allow these individual interactions between species play out as they naturally would without feeling that we have to step in and play moral referee. Our arrogance at thinking that nature exists for us and our priorities is how we found ourselves in our current ecological predicament. The least we can do is be hands-off in our local food web. Consider it good practice for having healthier boundaries toward nature, rather than constantly centering ourselves in every decisions we make regarding other living beings.
Finally, practice having some compassion for the coyote busily trying to feed her young–and herself. She can’t run to the grocery store and get a package of industrially farmed beef to make burgers for the kids. Her entire life is a constant race against death, whether from starvation, disease, extreme heat or cold, and of course the interference of humans. Imagine the relief she must feel when she successfully manages to catch something bigger than a mouse–do you think we’re the only ones whose reward centers in our brains light up at a job well done? Think of how excited your dog gets when he manages to catch the ball–that’s not only a trait of domesticated animals.
Have some compassion for the coyote pups eagerly awaiting their next meal and their parents' warmth. Photo by John Harrison, CCA-SA-3.0-Unported
Give and take, life and death, nutrients and energy endlessly cycling through body after body after body of animal, plant, fungus, bacteria–that is the grand dance in which the coyote and the rabbit play their parts. Appreciate this eons-old round without feeling the need to alter the tempo, and be glad that tonight the coyote pups will sleep contentedly with full stomachs.
*For the record, many “herbivores” will opportunistically eat meat, live or dead, for the nutrients. Bambi and his buddies are quite happy to pluck a perfectly healthy baby bird or two out of a nest as a snack, and will chew on carrion now and then, too.
Did you enjoy this post? Consider preordering my book The Everyday Naturalist, taking one of my online foraging and natural history classes or hiring me for a guided nature tour, or checking out my other articles! You can even buy me a coffee here!
Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis), family Viperidae, VENOMOUS, and Wandering Garter Snakes (Thamophis elegans vagrans), family Colubridae, basking outside a communal hibernaculum, Colorado, USA
It is not uncommon for both rattlesnakes and garter snakes to use communal overwintering dens/hibernacululae, often sharing the site with other species. Other snakes do this as well.
The Wandering Garter is a subspecies of the Western Terrestrial Garter Snake.
was looking up videos of giant malaysian katydid stridulation (because they make me happy) and i was worried the comments would be full of "cursed kill it with fire" type comments due to Big Insect. but nope :)
A baby roe deer in Montsec mountains (Ponent-High Pyrenees, Catalonia).
Roe deer are born in June, so it's not unusual to see them in this time of the year. Even when it looks like they're alone, they're always being watched by their mothers from a close distance. It's very important not to touch them, not to go near them, and most importantly not to take them anywhere, because they would die without their mother. They are well taken of as they are.
bunny is still there and apparently hasn't been adopted because she's very skittish and shy but so AM I
i assume they don't put cats on layaway but i might go this weekend to see if i can say hi, at least. and then bring her home on, like, june 5th when i'm all moved and settled if she's still there.
i would have been more specific if i knew this would blow up but i went to see bunny that weekend and she immediately reached her head out for me to pet her even though she never let strangers touch her and i ended up rushing to petsmart to buy a carrier and immediately take her back to my parents' house until i moved
she now waits in the shadows to run and jump into my lap every single time i sit down and says thank you for all your kind words in the tags
here are some more pictures just from the last month of her being the most cute
ok spider megacity is actually driving me a bit crazy. 2 dominant species live in thr spider city and one wpuld usually predate the otherbut bc its so dark in there they cant tell... so they livein peace and eat midges. thousands of spiders living in peace on one bigbigbig web eating midges in the dark together forever. one bigbig web spans across boarder of two countries spiders live on there peaceful in the colddark. eating midges
Fantastic article!! The guys looking for it were fish researchers who saw it one time, knew instantly it was an undescribed species, and then tried for nearly 20 years to find and document it!
It's a type of ghost pipefish, related to seahorses, and it floats around coral reefs looking like a piece of algae and hunting unsuspecting prey
They are, of course, named after Snuffleufagus from Sesame Street!
Later on it the project, they got citizen science involved, and people across the Pacific started reporting sightings of snuffy fish from all over!
Hooray for science and hooray for S. snuffleufagus !
Paleontologists have discovered an enormous new species of Tylosaurus, a sea lizard belonging to the mosasaur family. Measuring up to 43 feet long—the size of a humpback whale—this 80-million-year-old apex predator is among the biggest known mosasaurs.
They named it Tylosaurus rex, or“king of the Tylosaurs,” a name that comes with an iconic abbreviation.
“If any animal deserves it, it’s this animal,”says Amelia Zietlow, a paleontologist previously at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and now at the History Museum at the Castle in Wisconsin. “Half of its characteristics are around it having a bigger jaw and bite.”
still fucks me up what a bad rap coyotes get in peoples eyes. like ive talked to people who see em as like. gross pests who should be culled. theyre literally just as cool as wolves just a lil smaller and less confident. i love them with all my heart to balance out all the coyote haters out there, coyotes rule theyre doing great
this post was so fucking funny I literally was just like “I like coyotes I think they’re cool” and so many people fucking hated it. Shut up I’m trying. To enjoy animal
Imagine you're coming home after a long day of hunting, and the first thing you hear is your seven shitty kids screeching at you for no reason, how pissed off would you be, I'd immediately fly away too
Imagine you're the oldest of seven and a fucking HOA member broke into your HOUSE and SHIT AN EGG and is BITING at your siblings, but your dad shows so you try to tell him the problem but you're very little and you don't speak English and he doesn't speak English either so you can't communicate that a fucking GOBLIN is in your HOUSE and the only reason he doesn't know is cause his ASS was on that bitch's HEAD and he must've assumed it was one of your brothers and sisters but it was actually that FREAK WOMAN who got in, and now your dad is flying away 'cause he has no idea what's going on
Imagine you're a parent and you've calmed down and gone to get McDonald's for your seven kids, and you come home expecting to get cheers because you know the D's are always a winner, but when you fly back in through the door the kids are all still screaming, and it's not even excited screams but you don't know what's wrong so you just look into the camera like you're Jim from the Office
Imagine you're one of the small middle children and probably the one that this HOA WITCH was BITING after she broke into YOUR HOUSE and SHIT an EGG and you tried to be a good host by cuddling with her to congratulate her on her egg but then she started BITING and taking over your ROOM and threw out all your GOOSEBUMPS books and your eldest sibling couldn't call dad so you all just had to wait, and then dad comes home but your STUPID FAMILY won't stop SCREECHING to explain what's going on so your dad leaves but then comes back and he's brought McDonald's which is like yay but there is an INTRUDER, and finally your dad looks around the house and notices BITCH BIRD KAREN IN YOUR BEAN BAG CHAIR, and you're like ok dad can handle this but then you learn he's more scared than you?????
Imagine you're a dad and you just got home with McDonald's and WHO THE FUCK IS THAT IN MY HOUSE but luckily you have seven children and the mean one is willing to fight this bitch and you're just gonna chill in this corner until this problem is resolved even if your other kids are straight-up judging you
Imagine you're Kevin McCallister and you're doing Home Alone except you're not home alone 'cause your dad is home too but he's not helping, he's just holding a bag of McDonald's, so you have to be the head of this house at eight years old 'cause you're home alone emotionally but this FREAK ON AN EGG isn't leaving so you decide to screech at your dad and he's more scared of you than she is
Imagine you're a dad and your child has publicly shamed you in front of your other kids and this ASSHOLE KAREN and you decide you're not gonna take this shit anymore so you tell your kids that you paid for this McDonald's with your hard-earned bird money and they're gonna damn well eat this, so everybody stop looking at that side of the house and just eat your fucking french fries but then that fucking MONSTER starts BITING your only child willing to go into battle so you recognize this is a lost cause and throw the burgers on the counter and you remember you're an ADULT so you grab your car keys and fly the fuck away
Imagine you're all seven children and dad left you with the pigeon again
Effigy Vessel from Oaxaca, Mexico dated between 200 - 600 CE on display National Archaeological Museum in Madrid, Spain
This vessel is is thought to depict a warrior ruler of the Zapotec people. She wears a elaborate attire with an ornate helmet adorned with the head of jaguar. This animal is often associated with warriors and warfare in Mexican history as well as the right to rule. While female rulers were not common there are accounts prior to colonisation as well as Spanish records of women being granted rights to ancestral lands.
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