mossbat3

31 🦇🦇🦇

[huariqueje]

Cat with Plants 3 - Wenjie Lin , 2025.

Chinese , b. 1986 -

Acrylic and collage on canvas , 80 x 60 cm.

[apoemaday]

Whelks

by Mary Oliver

Here are the perfect fans of the scallops, quahogs, and weedy mussels still holding their orange fruit -- and here are the whelks -- whirlwinds, each the size of a fist, but always cracked and broken -- clearly they have been traveling under the sky-blue waves for a long time. All my life I have been restless -- I have felt there is something more wonderful than gloss -- than wholeness -- than staying at home. I have not been sure what it is. But every morning on the wide shore I pass what is perfect and shining to look for the whelks, whose edges have rubbed so long against the world they have snapped and crumbled -- they have almost vanished, with the last relinquishing of their unrepeatable energy, back into everything else. When I find one I hold it in my hand, I look out over that shanking fire, I shut my eyes. Not often, but now and again there’s a moment when the heart cries aloud: yes, I am willing to be that wild darkness, that long, blue body of light.

[razehider]

every flower-loving arthropod has to coexist with said flower's ever-omnipresent thrips at some point, but in the case of this little halictid bee it really looks like the Aeolothrips on the left is her purse dog that she shares a home with

(March 15th, 2025)

[milfsisyphus]

only real springheads know about tipping their face up to the sun and enjoying a gentle breeze and birdsong

[my-dailydreams]

[blackbackedjackal]

Black coyote with a shrew [x]

[gacougnol]

Adrianna Mjw

[wikiholic]

[homoidiotic]

Michael Hernandez for “Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue” by Leslie Feinberg. Photographed by Catherine Opie (1992/1994) second picture with partner Sky Renfro

[arsvitaest-deactivated20260111]

Phyllis Shafer, Clark's Day Out, 2024. Oil on linen.

[log6]

the shallow sea that once covered the Earth would have been beautiful this time of year

[road0flife]

[rebeccathenaturalist]

The Guts of Predatory Cats Can Destroy CWD Prions

The prions that cause chronic wasting disease in deer are nearly indestructible. So it's good news to learn cat guts are their mortal enemy.

Okay. So. You know how some people want to finish exterminating all large predatory mammals so they have less competition for deer and so they don't occasionally lose livestock? And you know how native deer species in North America have been hit increasingly hard with Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in the past couple of decades due to overpopulation thanks to the eradication of large predatory mammals that normally keep them in check?

We already have evidence that reintroducing predatory mammals to their native ranges not only knocks deer populations back to a healthier level, and now we've discovered that apparently the digestive systems of cougars and bobcats are lethal to CWD prions. Prions are among the most difficult pathogens* to eliminate; you have to heat them up to about 1,800 degrees F in order to thoroughly destroy them. And prion diseases like CWD are almost universally fatal.

So to find that these wild cats can safely eat CWD-infected animals AND significantly reduce the chances that the prions will be spread to other deer is a pretty big deal, especially since some other animals like coyotes and crows do pass prions undamaged through their digestive systems. And it's just one more example of why an ecosystem needs all of the species that have evolved in it over thousands of years, not just those are convenient for humans to have around. The spread of CWD is directly related to the overpopulation of deer, and it's likely that continuing to reintroduce large predatory mammals to their native range will help quell this awful prion disease.

[woodmanroad]

[draculings]

What's a little heated competition between friends...? - Henry and Nicky are from A Long Shot Out of the Birdcage, my graphic novel in progress! Prints available here!

[circusbutch]

Butches on a fishing trip, what a catch 🎣

You can find prints here!

[kitschday]

Hallmark Valentine's Day card