A Critter Blog

no I don't actually want rabies, Oh My God. This is a blog about critters, you can call me RD. Feel free to hmu

[everythingfox]

Paraglider and black vulture chilling

(via)

[theriu]

I NEVER get tired of this video. It would be fantastic if the bird was just flying near him, but the fact it feels safe and comfortable enough to land ON his paraglider, isn't startled when he pets it, and is NIBBLING HIS SHOES... blessed moment, absolutely fabulous, 10/10 gold stars.

[prismatic-bell]

Okay but the bird isn't just nibbling

Note that it doesn't start nibbling until he starts smoothing its feathers.

They're grooming each other.

[pro-rabies]

[video description: a man is paragliding over a forrested mountain range. only his legs are visible. A large, black vulture comes into view and sails very close to him for a bit. eventually, the bird lands on his left foot, pulls in its wings and settles in. The man gently pets the birds tail feathers, and the bird begins nibbling (grooming) his shoe. End description.]

This bird is a trained rescue! These two had flown together before, but the paraglider said this was the first time Urú (the vulture) landed on him!

here

[draconym]

[pro-rabies]

the natural order of almost every living thing is to come together and collaborate in some fashion

[bitchuser]

[roach-works]

[only-tiktoks]

[antivanelf]

[ X ]

[inamindfarfaraway]

Shoutout to the maned wolf, which is technically neither wolf nor fox but has its own genus called Chrysocyon! Why -

why are your legs so long?

I mean, intellectually, I understand that it’s because you live in grasslands and have evolved to be able to see over the grass, but emotionally… why? Are they?? Like that??? Surely there was a way to make your body more cohesive and proportional-looking?

[horseonketamine]

i will never shut up about maned wolves

just look at it

look at this

one of the animals for sure

wretched beast

[whatacartouchebag]

If it’s neither wolf nor fox, then it’s cat software running on giraffe hardware.

[what-a-bastard]

I think y'all should know that the closest relative to the maned wolf is the bush dog which looks like this.

[elodieunderglass]

Listen evolution is a game and some of us are having fun playing it

[humblegrub]

if you've ever wondered, "How do you wash a tick?"....here you go!

[bogleech]

when an inconceivably vast mountain of your favorite food runs you several times through a special tiny washing machine it built just for that purpose and you don’t even have enough brain cells to know it :(

[bogleech]

The number of people asking “seriously why though” gives away how many of you play tumblr videos with sound off since the science lady explains every step in detail, and how they need to be kept free of fungi or other contaminants for her research. Her whole tiktok is about her career as a professional tick expert :)

[ovur]

[byjove]

just wanted a visual demonstration since I was talking about how much I love them

[bubobubosibericus]

Mules are like horses with the self destruct button removed

[wolfeyedwitch]

...do you mean the 'self preservation instinct' removed????

[byjove]

No, absolutely not. It’s the opposite. Mules will straight up refuse to do things if they don’t have the confidence that they can complete it. This is where the term “stubborn as a mule” comes from. A horse would attempt these feats and break its weak little ankles and roll over and kill its rider. Mules do this because they know they can. That’s also why mules and donkeys are used as mounts around the Grand Canyon, they’re both sure-footed and stubborn and will refuse to do things that put them and the rider in danger when a horse would listen to the call of the void and just do it. Donkeys are less domesticated than mules, less dependent on humans and more self-assured, this is why they can be harder to train but also why they have such great self-preservation skills. A mule inherits those traits from its father.

[weaselle]

i heard it described by someone who used a horse team to pull things as “horses will literally kill themselves pulling too much weight because you asked them to; if a mule decides the weight is too much god himself can’t make it pull”

[guooey]

please please please help me find more cats smelling a smelly smell 

[glourp]

A compilation from the notes: stimky

[ampervadasz]

[airandangels]

[airandangels]

[krystal-prisms]

This is like if someone said Draw me a mammal and that was the only instruction, cause like, yep this sure is a Mammal

[catsbeaversandducks]

“UNHAND ME, SANTA.”

Via @thegallowboob

[jackhawksmoor]

Giant eagles are such fuckheads I love them, they get hit on the highway a lot because they love eating deer that have been hit by cars but they will literally eat so much THEY CAN’T GET OFF THE GROUND they sit down and eat until they’re too heavy to fly so a car comes by and they try to take off and they’re like ‘fuck FUCK this was fine an hour ago what happened’ bruh you ate half a deer wtf

[theanishimori]

[pictures-of-dogs]

[bearotonin-international]

That you even have to ask is blasphemy.

Moon bears

have the roundest

most perfect

earsies

[how2skinatiger]

Long-tailed weasel by loren chipman || CC BY-NC 2.0

[learnyouabiology]

Fun Fact: Remora have suction cups on their backs/ heads

Remora are those fish that like to hang out with sharks, presumably because they like Living on the Edge. 

However, (most) sharks are faster swimmers than remora, so instead of spending all their time and energy getting faster & improving their stamina to keep up, these fish instead took the path of least effort: they just grab onto the shark and hold on tight for the ride. 

Like a teenage Marty McFly, holding onto a car while riding a skateboard, one of the most important aspects of this strategy is to hold on tight, so as to not fall off!

Sadly, unlike in this masterfully edited photo, real remora don’t have hands. So instead, they took their dorsal fin and, over time, evolved it into a suction cup. 

I don’t know why, but this fact is deeply funny to me. 

i mean. look at his lil head!!! amazing

there’s a bunch of videos of people sticking them to things, because it’s objectively crazy to see and, yes, kind of funny, but it’s also mean to the fish. I don’t really recommend trying it, just because the fish is probably already having a bad day, on account of being out of the ocean, and doesn’t need the additional stress & risk of injury >.>

Also, these suction cups are really really good at holding on to things, and also, importantly, work underwater! For this reason, scientists have been trying to mimic these funky little structures to design better and stronger suction cups! Yay for biomimicry! 

This has been Fun Fact Friday!

[chunkecheeks]

when u think about his soulful brown eyes…

[chunkecheeks]

him

[mocweepe]

[ID: a photo of a glaborous fan lobster; a type of slipper lobster that is off white with many red dots, giving its body a pink hue. it has circular brown eyes. end ID]

[chunkecheeks]

i’m so glad this post is reaching the marine animals enthusiasts and i’m getting tags adoring this little guy bc i had to sit through a LOT of “ewwww i hate this!!!” for so many years…. thank you for loving him