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Infographic of ethical and unethical pigeon beak sizes created by Companion Pigeon Chat jana#5550
Image is of line drawings of pigeon breeds broken up into quadrants based on beak size: short, medium, normal and large. Unethical breeds are displayed over a red background color and ethical breeds are over a green background. In the unethically short quadrant, there is a oriental/modern frill and a safi egyptian swift. The ethical medium quadrant shows a classic old frill and an old german owl. The ethical normal shows a homer and a lucerne. In the ethical large quadrant, it shows a scandaroon and below it is the unethical quadrant that shows an egyptian moraslat.
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The ones labeled unethical are due to the beak size and/or shape effecting quality of life. The short ones are unable to feed their own young and have issues preening and eating properly. Less is known about the moraslat, but the exaggerated underbite is presumed to cause difficulty with eating and preening.
You also may be wondering why a lucerne is in the normal section instead of medium. Pay attention to the forehead compared to the owl pigeons. It is smooth and long, with a large space between the corner of the mouth and eye. Their short-looking beak is an optical illusion that becomes apparent when they yawn. Most of their beak length is hidden by feathers and their wattles.
i love telling people that actually movies lied to them and sled dogs don't usually look like purebred siberian huskies and instead look like wonderfully nondescript little mutty mutts
Intelligent spiders, octupi, plants, bacteria, and even entire oceans, intelligence without sentience, extra terrestrials and strange intelligences evolved right here on Earth - alien minds can take many forms. Allow me to share with you some books featuring the most alien and fascinating ones.
Previous book rec posts:
Really cool fantasy worldbuilding, really cool sci-fi worldbuilding, dark sapphic romances, mermaid books, vampire books, many worlds: portal fantasies, many worlds: alternate timelines, robots and artificial intelligences, post- and transhumanism
For more details on the books, continue under the readmore. Titles marked with * are my personal favorites. And as always, feel free to share your own recs in the notes!
The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky*
The Doors of Eden is something of an experiment in speculative biology, featuring versions of Earth in which various different species were the one to rise to sentience, from dinosaurs to neanderthals. Now, something is threatening the existence of all timelines, dragging multiple different people and species into the struggle, among those a pair of cryptid hunting girlfriends and a transgender scientist.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky*
Millenia and generation spanning scifi. After the collapse of an empire, a planet once part of a project to uplift other species to sentience is left to develop on its own, resulting not in the intelligent monkeys once intended but in sentient giant spiders. Millenia later, what remains of humanity arrives looking for a new home, only to be met by the artificial remains of the ancient woman who once led the uplift project - and she is not willing to let them on her planet.
Semiosis (Semiosis duology) by Sue Burke
A generational story following a group of humans trying to survive on a new planet, where a strange and unkowable intelligence is finding ways to use them to its whims. As the humans come across an abandoned city wrapped in the roots of a strange plant, they slowly come to the realization that mutual communication is the only path to peace and survival.
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
While I felt the characters couldâve been better developed, this is undeniably a well-written novel featuring an alien race and culture developed on a planet vastly different from ours. Firmly in the realm of hard scifi, this is a realistic, fascinating and slightly terrifying look at how first contact may look.
Brain Plague (The Elysium Cycle) by Joan Sloncewski*
Chrys, a struggling artist, agrees to become a carrier for a sentient strain of microbes. With their help, Chrys breathes new life into her career. But every microbe society is different - some function as friends and brain enhancers to their carrier, while others become a literal brain plague, a living addiction taking over the life of their carrier. And like every society, the microbe community is in constant flux - inluding the one inside Chrys's head.
Rosewater (The Wormwood trilogy) by Tade Thompson
In Nigeria lies Rosewater, a city bordering on a strange, alien biodome. Its motives are unknown, but itâs having an undeniable effect on the surrounding life. Kaaro, former criminal and current psychic agent for the government, is one of the people changed by it. When other psychics like him begin getting killed, Kaaro must take it upon himself to find out the truth about the biodome and its intentions.
Dawn (Xenogenesis trilogy) by Octavia E. Butler*
After a devestating war leaves humanity on the brink of extinction, survivor Lilith finds herself waking up naked and alone in a strange room. Sheâs been rescued by the Oankali, who have arrived just in time to save the human race. But thereâs a price to survival, and it might be humanity itself. Absolutely fucked up I love it I once had to drop the book mid read to stare at the ceiling and exclaim in horror at what was going on.
Blindsight by Peter Watts*
Vampires and aliens and questions of the nature of consciousnesses, oh my. A ship is sent to investigate the sudden appearance of an alien vessel at the edge of the solar system, but the crew, a group of various level of transhumanism, isnât prepared for the horrors awaiting them. No, seriously, this book will fuck you up, highly recommend if youâre okay with a lot of techno babble and existential horror.
Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson*
Utterly unique in world-building, story, and prose, Midnight Robber follows young Tan-Tan and her father, inhabitants of the Carribean-colonized planet of Toussaint. When her father commits a terrible crime, heâs exiled to a parallel version of the same planet, home to strange aliens and other human exiles. Tan-Tan, not wanting to lose her father, follows with him. Trapped on this new planet, he becomes her worst nightmare. Enter this book with caution, as it contains graphic child sexual abuse.
Fragment (Fragment duology) by Warren Fahy*
The reality TV show Sealife is having a rough time - as it turns out, a ship full of scientist doesnât make for the kind of drama they hoped for. Hoping for some excitement, they reach Hender's Island, a fragment of a lost continent that may contain an interesting new ecosystem. But as they step foot on the island, they quickly come to realize the ecosystem isnât just new, itâs highly dangerous and very hungry. Among all this life is one single species that may be more dangerous than any other, but which may also be the salvation of the scientists on the island. A bit wonky, but genuinely one of the most fun books I have read, I love it so much.
Axiom's End (Noumena trilogy) by Lindsay Ellis
Itâs 2007, and a leak has just confirmed that the US has reached alien contact. Cora wants nothing to do with it, but as her absent father is the whistleblower who dropped the news the media wonât leave her alone. Even worse, she soon finds herself meeting and being pursued by the alien presence itself as it tries to remain in hiding - and discovering that there is a much larger threat on the horizon.
The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis*
Francie has just traveled to Roswell to attend her college friend's wedding to a UFO conspirasist. Not a believer herself, Francie is shocked when she finds herself abducted by an alien. Her abductor is not much what popular media would have you believe, looking more like a tumbleweed than a grey alien, and is clearly on some kind of mission it isnât willing to put on hold for the sake of Francie attending to her duties as a bridesmaid. As more people get roped along - among those a conman, an old lady, a ufo conspirasist, and a retiree with an RV - Francie finds herself getting closer to the alien and wanting to help it succeed.
Bonus rec: if you like this book, you may also enjoy the movie Paul, which has a similarly humorous tone and similar plot.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir*
Ryland Grace just woke up up from a coma, unable to remember anything. He finds himself alone on a space ship, and as his memories slowly trickle back, he realizes he's been sent on a mission: to find a solution to the impending doom of the earth. Still struggling with holes in his memories, Ryland tries to fulfill his mission, but as he gets closer to his goal, he discovers someone else got there first. And they aren't anything close to human. Funny, heartfelt, and heavy on the science.
Survival by Julie E. Czerneda
Mac, a biologist studying salmon on Earth, has little interest in life beyond her own planet. Despite this, sheâs sought out by Brymn, an alien archaeologist hoping her expertise as a biologist can help him solve the secret behind the Chasm, a region of space completely devoid of life. Trying as she might not to get incolved, Mac has little choice as she and her colleagues come under attack by the mysterious Ro, the species Brymn's people suspect to be the cause of the Chasm.
Translation State by Ann Leckie*
An exploration of the alien as filtered through the human. At what point does the human become something else? When does something else become human? Is it a question of biology or culture, nature or nurture? Can we choose it? Can it be forced upon us? Set in the Imperial Radch universe, Translation State follows three different characters embroiled in the question of what makes a human. The alien Presger can only communicate with humans using their translators - people theyâve created that are not quite human and not quite alien. But as news of a translator fugitive arises, conflict brews regarding what right they have to choose their own identity and home.
Exo (Exo duology) by Fonda Lee*
Young adult. Earth has long since been under the control of an alien presence. Donovan Reyes is an exo, a human enhanced with alien technology, working to keep the colony and its people safe. The biggest enemy is Sapience, a terrorist organisation opposing alien rule by any means necessary. When a mission goes awry, Donovan finds himself abducted by Sapiance, something that risks a war. While it took until the second book for me to be fully sold on this series, it features a genuinely nuanced take on oppression and resistance rarely seen in YA genre.
Needle by Hal Clement
1950s classic. A small island in the pacific ocean and a fourteen-year-old boy have just become the center of an interstellar chase between an alien Hunter and the criminal he's pursuing. Robert is a regular boy, but he has a very special passenger: an alien symbiont hiding inside his body. The alien became stranded on Earth as he pursued a criminal of his own species, and now they are both trapped on the same island, playing a game of cat and mouse as Robert and the Hunter struggle to find their prey before it finds them.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers series) by Becky Chambers
Rosemary Harper just got a job on the motley crew of the Wayfarer, a spaceship that works with tunneling new wormholes through space. With a past she wants to leave behind, Rosemary is happy to travel the far reaches of the universe with the chaotic crew, but when they land the job of a life time, things suddenly get a lot more dangerous. A bit of a tumblr classic in its day, this is a cozy space opera with an episodic feel and vividly realized characters and cultures.
Under the Skin by Michel Faber
A dark allegory of alienation and dehumanization, Under the Skin follows Isserley, a woman traveling along the roads of England and picking up hitchhikers. Little does her passengers know, sheâs an alien hiding her true self, and they are her prey and a delicacy for her species.
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
1960s Polish classic. Arriving on a station orbiting the planet Solaris, Kris Kelvin is meant to study the strange, possibly sentient ocean that covers its entire surface. But the effects of the ocean are far reaching - Kelvin finds the crew of the station secretive and unstable, and is shocked to wake one day to the embodiement of a long dead lover. Was it created by the brain-like ocean, and if so, why?
West of Eden (West of Eden trilogy) by Harry Harrison
65 million years ago, the meteor that killed the dinosaurs never arrived. Without it, the dinosaurs lived and thrived, allowing a the complex society of the matriarchal Yilanè to arise. Meanwhile, in the new world, humans still evolve, and when an impending ice age forces the Yilanè across the ocean in search for a new home, the two are destined to clash. A bleak story of the cycle of violence and hate leading to war, West of Eden is a marvel of world-building.
Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool
Triptych by J.M. Frey
Kalp is a widower and alien refugee newly arrived on Earth; Gwen is a language expert secretly recruited by the United Nations to help integrate a ship of alien refugees; Basil is an engineer who loves them both. Together they must defend their relationship against a violently intolerant world.
The Sparrow (The Sparrow duology) by Mary Doria Russell
When proof of alien life is found, the United Nations are too slow in their plans for a first contact mission. Instead, the Society of Jesus overtake them and send their own ship, but the crew could never have been prepared for what they will find.
Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
Something massive and alien crashes into the ocean off the coast of Nigeria. Three people, a marine biologist, a rapper, and a soldier, find themselves encountering this presence, and have to race to save humanity before it's too late.
Honorary mentions AKA these didn't really work for me but maybe you guys will like them: Salvaged by Madeleine Roux, Exodus by Nicky Drayden, The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull, Embassytown by China MiĂŠville
agatha agate has a little spot on the top of her head where her fur is white and itâs very thin and the pink of her skin is a little bit visible all the time. turns out she can get sunburnt there
More art of my albatross griffins. Iâm happier with their design. I CANâT believe I gave them plain olâ canine/seal looking teeth before, when spine covered penguin mouths are RIGHT THERE. It makes more sense to me design wise and looks better.
I decided to call them â¨Kymagryphsâ¨, giant scrounges of the skies over a new endless sea. Careful not to leave your catch out on deck when sailing.
One of the most common question types this blog gets is some flavor of asking if Weird Games are okay. The people writing in are always very concerned for their petâs safety and welfare (which I applaud) and often looking for an explanation of the behavior (which I have zero ability to give). This speaks to how common it is for cats - and other pets - to enjoy Weird Games.
This video is a great example of the best way to tell if a Weird Game is a thing your animal actually likes: let them initiate! The cat is being carried in a weird way when the video starts, but then immediately runs back to the designated âgame spotâ and asks for it to happen again. If youâre not sure if an animal likes an interaction - be it petting or a Weird Game - just stop, and see if they actively re-engage. If yes, youâre good to go!
Obviously, physical safety is an aspect of Weird Games too. The cat in this video apparently likes being carried upside down, which could injure it if it happened too much. But what we see is that their person supports the cat very securely, moves slowly, doesnât go very far, puts the cat down on a soft and easy to reach surface, and doesnât let the Game go on for too long. The cat also isnât being held tightly and could clearly get free / ask to be put down if it became uncomfortable or wanted to be done. That seems like a good way to make that Weird Game safe to me (vets, please feel free to correct me here). If youâre worried about if a Weird Game is safe, ask your vet! Youâll make their day and get some useful information.
Easter bunnies (aka chabbits, skvaders, or boultry) are GMO designer pets turned practical livestock from Runaway to the Stars. Each breed has a distinct egg color! They are popular choice for small spacer colonies, since theyâre quiet and produce eggs and meat on a completely vegetarian diet.
