My name is PLINKO PLONKO and this is my BLOG. I enjoy BLOGGING ABOUT MY VARIOUS INTERESTS. This INCLUDES but is not limited TO:
diabolical Minecraft Youtuber Scott ‘dangthatsalongname’ Smajor of ‘world of warcraft with a view’ fame. though i am mostly retired as i discovered the beauty of the natural world
rain world (VANILLA PURIST. If this user sees even one depiction of lttm with that fuckass white cloak it kills her)
interstitial infinity
inanimate insanity/hfjone
pokemon but only on tuesdays
wings of fire but only the darkstalkers legends book and only on thursdays
warrior cats occasionally when i have a warrior cats phase and those are the dark ages
hit fan hosted life series called beastlife which I play with my friendss #myfriends . This is what 99% of my posts are actually about. i play a character named breature and i love her a lot and i have a sideblog just for posts that remind me of her (@bbreature)
any pronouns
I am insufferably themes pilled and am critical of most things. DNI anybody with a DNI list. remember to never plink too hard and always plonk when needed
Buckle up, buccaneers, because it's turtle time. We travel to the swamps and streams of the Amazon in search of this raggedy reptile. The mata mata is truly the world's skrunkliest turt and it has carved out an interesting niche in the world.
(Image: a mata mata out of water. It is a turtle with a light brown shell that has spiked ridges running down it. The feet have webbed toes and claws. The neck and head are disproportionately large and have a ragged appearance. The head is flat and triangular, with small eyes and nostrils on a tubular nose. End ID)
Mata mata refers to two closely related species of freshwater turtle: the Amazonian mata mata (Chelus fimbriata) and Orinoco mata mata (Chelus orinocensis).Prior to 2020,these were classified as the same species and both have a very similar anatomy and lifestyle. Mata matas are large turtles, with a carapace length up to 45 cm (18 in) and weight of 17.2 kg (38 lbs). Their shells have many spines and ridges while the body, especially the large neck and head, has many skin flaps, tubercles, and ridges. The body and shell are primarily brown to black. This has the effect of making the turtle look like decaying bark and leaves, an effective form of camouflage. The nose is very long, with nostrils at the tip, which, when combined with the long neck, allows the turtle to reach the water's surface to breathe while staying on the bottom. The chin has some short sensory barbels growing from it.
(Image: a mata mata in an aquarium. It is sitting on some rocks with its neck outstretched to reach the surface. End ID)
Mata matas are native to the Amazonian and Orinoco river basins, where they prefer slow-moving waters with low visibility, such as streams, backwaters, and swamps. They are primarily carnivorous, but have been known to eat plants, possibly to supplement their diets or by accident. They are sit and wait predators whose hunting strategy is to sit very still among vegetation. Their camouflage allows them to remain unnoticed by prey. When prey draws close, the turtle opens its mouth. This creates a vacuum, drawing water and prey into the mouth. The turtle then closes its mouth, forcing the water out, and swallows the prey whole. Unlike snapping turtles, who have a similar sit and wait hunting style, the mata mata has weak jaws with fleshy lips rather than beaks and thus cannot bite prey into chunks. It therefore has to feed on animals small enough to swallow whole. Their diet consists of small fish, frogs, and invertebrates. Because they inhabit waters with very low visibility, mata matas have very poor eyesight and rely on other senses to tell when prey is near. Mata matas have also been known to herd groups of fish into shallow water before eating. Unlike many other aquatic turtles, mata matas rarely come ashore to bask in the sunlight. They are also very poor swimmers and mostly crawl along the bottom of their habitats.
(Image: a mata mata facing the camera with its mouth open. The mouth is very wide and takes up most of the head. End ID)
Mata matas display sexual dimorphism. Females are generally larger, though not by that much. Males have longer, thicker tails than females as well as a concave plastron (lover shell) as opposed to the female's flat plastron. Mating occurs late in the year, around October. Males will seek out females and engage in a courtship dance that involves playing out the limbs, wiggling the skin flaps, and extending the heat toward the female while opening and closing his mouth. During mating, the male mounts the female. His concave plastron helps him stay on her shell without falling off. The female will emerge from the water to lay her eggs. She will bury them either in sand or decaying vegetation to keep them warm. She then leaves and neither parent provides parental care. The gestation period varies depending on temperature, up to 200 days at low enough temperatures. In other turtle species, the temperature of the eggs determines the sex of the hatchling. I could not find any references describing how or if this is the same in mata matas. Hatchlings have to scramble their way into the water. Juvenile mata matas have pink plastrons that darken to brown as they age. The maximum age of mata matas in the wild is unknown. In captivity, they usually live for 15 years, but sometimes up to 30.
(Image: a juvenile mata mata held in hand. It is held so the underside is facing the camera, displaying the pink color of the plastron. It is smaller than a cell phone. End ID)
Both species of mata mata are classified at least concern by the IUCN, meaning they are not in danger of extinction. Their primarly threat comes from habitat loss as more and more parts of their rivers are taken over fro land development. Mata matas are also edible and sometimes caught for food. Their unusual appearances have made them somewhat popular in the pet trade and wild mata mata are often caught for this purpose.
(Image: an extreme close-up of a mata mata's face. The shape of its mouth makes it look like it has a smug smile. End ID)
i cnt help but notice the ask i sent a complete stranger with two paragraphs and a diagram about the gopher tortoise has gone unanswered. i truly can’t imagine why this would be. i cant think of any possible reason
i am reaching a point where beastlife and southeastern US wildlife are my only personality traits. gopher tortoise is basically like my new scott smajor
i cnt help but notice the ask i sent a complete stranger with two paragraphs and a diagram about the gopher tortoise has gone unanswered. i truly can’t imagine why this would be. i cant think of any possible reason
Hurricane Helene gave the animals a one-way ticket to a different paradise along the Florida coastline.
04.16.2025 -- Story by Richard Luscombe
Dozens of gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) survived a perilous sea crossing after being swept from their homes during Hurricane Helene last summer and are enjoying a new lease on life on a remote stretch of Florida coastline.
Rangers at Fort De Soto county park near St. Petersburg say that before the September storm only eight members of the vulnerable species were known to be living there.
Now, after the astonishing journey, a count last month confirmed 84 active burrows, suggesting the tortoises quickly adapted to their new habitat after their forced eviction from Florida’s Egmont Key National Wildlife Refuge, a tiny island more than three kilometers (two miles) southwest that was pummeled by the Category 4 hurricane.
As well as sparking a surge of interest in the park in the form of visitors keen to catch a glimpse of the unexpected new arrivals, the tortoises are providing benefits for some of the animals that already lived in the 445-hectare (1,100-acre) environment.
“They’re a keystone species, which means they share their burrows with other species, and there’s been something like 250 different species recorded as living in gopher tortoise burrows,” says Anna Yu, a Fort De Soto ranger who has assumed responsibility for the roving reptiles’ well-being.
“Everybody in the ecosystem benefits from gopher tortoises being there, and we’ll hopefully see an increase in biodiversity in the park. Because we have all these new burrows, other animals are able to use them, like eastern diamondback snakes, black racers, all kinds of different reptiles,” she says.
“The last time a gopher frog was listed as being one of the species in the park was in 2016, so it’s really cool to think that maybe some of these really imperiled species that rely on gopher tortoise burrows to survive might make their way back.
“I don’t expect to see frogs popping up everywhere, but there’s certainly more of a chance than before this happened.”
Yu and her colleagues knew the tortoises had come across the water from Egmont Key because biologists from St. Petersburg’s Eckerd College, who were studying them, had drilled small holes in their shells as identification markings.
Tortoises are poor swimmers, and many likely drowned during the hurricane. At least 40 were discovered washed up dead. But the survivors, Yu says, would have floated and been carried on the surface as Helene’s winds whipped the water surging toward the beaches of the mainland. “It’s like they knew exactly where to go; they went a little bit higher in hopes of not being drowned out by another storm. There’s a little bit of intelligence there,” she says.
Even more exciting are the mating behaviors some of the tortoises have exhibited, suggesting a new generation of gopher tortoises will soon be plodding around.
“It’s a sign they’re thriving. Being able to mate is a sign of success,” Yu says.
“The main point in all this is that we want to make sure Fort De Soto is, above all, a wild place and home to an abundance of wildlife that depends on the people that come through, depends on their respect and all of our collective stewardship of their habitat to survive.
“I think this is a really ecologically important event. It’s a feel good story too, of course, but it’s also very critically important environmentally.”
“The whole event was just sheer luck that they ended up at Fort De Soto and not out at sea, or at some of the other beaches north of St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island, really popular beaches that don’t have the habitat to support these creatures,” she says. “It could have turned out a lot differently for them.”
Their behaviors since washing ashore have also fascinated observers. Some of the tortoises, presumably traumatized by their hazardous odyssey, burrowed deep into higher elevations. The majority of the burrows, Yu says, were dug beyond Helene’s storm surge line.
‘Everybody in the ecosystem benefits from gopher tortoises being there,’ says ranger at park where the animals settled
A rodent from the state of Bahia, Brazil. The painted tree-rat is found in the Atlantic forest. It also occurs in cocoa plantations where some native trees remain. As far as known, it is nocturnal.
