SaritaZoo

Welcome! This is my educational/zoology art blog! My name is Sarita and I have a Bachelor of Science in Conservation and Wildlife Management and over 14 years of experience in animal husbandry. I mainly have experience with hoofstock, birds, small mammals, and arthropods. I hope to use this blog to make fun educational art and infographics to help share some animal knowledge! All opinions are my own and this account is not affiliated with any zoological institution. Main/General Art Account - @SaritaWolff Photography Account - @SaritaWolf Paleoart Account - @SaritaPaleo Tumblr’s Best Animal Tournament - @BestAnimal

[nattousan]

ok so, I approached my local library with a proposal to donate a mural as a way to A: build portfolio/gain practical experience and B: give back to a beloved public institution. The director was very enthusiastic about it and i've been working on it since the beginning of March. Come with me as I endeavor to paint what is in all honesty an excessive amount of birds

I wanted the birds to look like they were actually in the space so first thing after doing the draft was to do a lighting study

after that I covered the walls in letters in lieu of a projector/vr headset bc i have neither of those :) Then i take a picture of the section of wall and superimpose the lineart over top of it so I can pencil in the lines

et voila

and that was a whole week on it's own so next comes the paintin' >:)

[nattousan]

and now, the birds

Birds 1 and 2/14: Red Winged Blackbird, Male and female, Agelaius phoeniceus

[nattousan]

Bird 3/14, American Robin, Turdus migratorius

[nattousan]

hoo boy, ok *out of breath*

GIVE IT UP FOR BIRD NUMBUH 5, THE CANADIAN GOOSE, Branta canadensis!!!!

this guy took me about 4 days to completely finish, all of those freakingk coverts were a bear to render

[nattousan]

speaking of obnoxious coverts:

bird 5/14, Bluejay, Cyanocitta cristata

the friggin stripes almost got me chat, i may not make it

[nattousan]

Madam....

[nattousan]

birds 6 and 7: American Goldfinch, Spinus tristis, male and female

pleasantly simple to paint! next is the flickerrrrr

[nattousan]

*melts into goo*

BIRD NUMBER 8, (yellow shafted) NORTHERN FLICKERRRRR, Colaptes auratus

genuinely made me start questioning my sanity around day 3, it's half the size the of the goose, WHY did it take me 4 days to finish??

nothing but pain and suffering, i'm sure hope the next bird will be much easier and with FAR less barring :)

[nattousan]

in other news, I am losing my mind hairline

[nattousan]

SHE'S DONE!!

Bird number 9: Red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis

my chains are broken i am FREE. although i did have a great deal of fun with this, the barring on the wings itself took me like four days and i am READY to move on

this was a week and a half of continuous work so please excuse me for getting a little emotional in the bg 🙏

[nattousan]

*does a little jig*

BIRD NUMBER 10!!! The Male Mallard Duck, Anas platyrhynchos

the male and female ones are gonna be posted separately bc they're taking a lot longer lol but yea! super happy i was able to capture the iridescent green of the head, i found metallic green and blue paint at a craft store that really made his head POP. it looks better in person i promise

ALSO!! As this is the 10th one, BIG announcement. The end is in sight!!!!! I plan to finish within the next 3 weeks and there will be a small dedication ceremony/ unveiling happening at the library to commemorate its completion on the 16th of May. If you live in the Western New York region and want to check it out for yourself shoot me a dm!

Also thank you everyone for your kind words and support throughout this whole process, it's been a genuine treat thinking there are potentially thousands of you out there cheering me on while I paint this 🥹

[nattousan]

aaaand another one bites the duck,

we're movin right along with bird numero 11!! The lady Mallard!! Anas platyrhyncos

the 16th is looming in the distance so i'm trying to get thru these as quickly as i can so i can have as much time for the GBH as possible. i still need to do the names next to all of them so i've got about a week and a half to finish everything which is GREAT because i have adhd and nothing gets my ass in gear like a fuckin deadline, let me tell you

[nattousan]

power couple that they are, here's bird number 12 and 13,

the Northern Cardinals, Cardinalis cardinalis

and NOW that they are complete, ITS GO TIME, in the next five days (library's closed for mother's day 😭😭) i need to have the GBH fully rendered, the names of the birds vectored, weeded, masked, applied to the wall, and then painted, plus additional cattails throughout. I may be able to get away with just getting the GBH done in time for the unveiling and then just have the names and cattails added later, but i'm gonna really try to get it all done in time. BUT, i have a plan. Part of why i take so long on these is because i really am just figuring it out as I do it lmao. there have been many a time where i am sitting on top of the ladder googling "how to paint birds" but I think if i take the time tomorro to do all that figuring out how to approach it beforehand, this will go a lot faster. I may also recruit some of my artist friends to help with the placing of the names... hrmm we'll see.

Anyways, shout out to the librarian who tracked down exactly the thing i needed so i could figure out where to place the highlights in my birds eyes, ur the real mvp

[nattousan]

thanks for the reminder, kid

[nattousan]

at long last, we've reached the end...

Bird number 14 out of 14,

The Great blue heron, Ardea herodius

thank you to everyone who reached out or got excited about this project, it genuinely gave me the fuel i needed to keep going. In total, the 480+ total hrs it took me to cover this wall pales in comparison to how long its expected to spend on there, hopefully imparting a sense of beauty and love for the natural world to the next generation and here's hoping i'm only getting started with these.

i'll see y'all soon :')

[orcinus-veterinarius]

I don’t know whether or laugh or cry watching this. Contrary to what people have been lead to believe over the last 15 or so years, killer whales—yes, even in captivity—are incredibly gentle. They are not savage monsters.

For over 45 years, trainers performed in the water with orcas every single day, across numerous parks throughout the globe (and in Japan, trainers still do). Four people died during that time, one of whom wasn’t even as trainer but rather a trespasser who illegally entered the habitat after hours.

But for simplicity’s sake, let’s say there was only one park in the world, with one show a day, starring only one person and one whale per show. That’s 16,425 performances over 45 years (not taking into account leap years). That means literally 99.999% of the time, no human was killed.

And the real statistic—dozens of whales, dozens of trainers, multiple performances a day, and multiple parks across the world—is even more staggering. Orcas are so large, so powerful, that they could kill a human with a flick of the flukes. Not only did they not kill, they actively avoided it.

For comparison, between 1990-2013 (23-year period), 16 people were killed by captive elephants, in the USA alone. But no one ever made a sensationalized documentary about elephants, I suppose.

But wait, there’s more!

Not one, but two movies about psychotic trainer-killing torture captive orcas in the same calendar year! And this one has the added bonus of taking us straight back to the 1970s by portraying sharks as vicious man-eaters that need to be driven off! Yay!

[talesfromtreatment]

So I happened across this little tidbit

...

There's one person working at the CDC right now with clinical experience with rabies. One.

I'm sure with the rise in anti-vaccine sentiment, especially regarding the rabies vaccine, this won't have any potentially dangerous repercussions...

[thenookienostradamus]

Pausing testing is bad news, yes. Because then we don't get federal-level rabies prevalence data.

This isn't solely down to anti-vaxxer sentiment, though. This is the same type of intentional gutting of public health that this administration is famous for and that does end up endangering human health. Individual states and municipalities still require rabies vaccination for domestic animals and will issue fines if you don't get your pets vaccinated. But a pre-exposure rabies vaccine isn't typically given to human beings unless they are intentionally placing themselves in an environment where the risk of contracting rabies is higher (e.g., a scientist studying bats or a wildlife rehabilitation specialist).

Human rabies vaccination is typically post-exposure prophylaxis (a series of shots after suspected exposure to the virus). What pausing rabies surveillance does is blind us to current and future rabies outbreaks in animal populations, which then raises the likelihood of increased rabies exposure in humans.

This fucking sucks but the advice remains the same: if you are bitten by ANY feral or wild animal, go get rabies prophylaxis. I had a friend who was bitten by a feral kitten. I still told her to get rabies shots, which she did. Because once you start showing symptoms, you are already dead. Don't fuck around with rabies.

[talesfromtreatment]

As a registered veterinary technician, my anti-vaccine comment was about domestic cats and dogs. Which is why I was sarcastically saying that that growing sentiment and now this lack of testing surely won't have any repercussions.

It's the rabies vaccine legally required for dogs and cats? Yes.

Are there communities online that make fake rabies certificates that I've seen people admit to using? Yes.

Are some counties/cities so backed up and understaffed that there are people who have never received something telling them to license their dog and people use that as an excuse to not get the rabies vaccine? Yes.

Do people have outdoor cats that they simply never take to the vet? Yes.

Do many breeders tell people to delay or even avoid the rabies vaccine entirely? Yes.

Are there people who refuse to vaccinate that vet clinics will still see their pets? Yes. And since I'm the only rabies vaccinated tech at my work I get to handle these animals yaaaaay

[depsidase]

[creativitycache]

Lead poisoning FROM BULLETS. The Romans would have started breaking out into hives and sacrifices by three pm

[transmechanicus]

Important tags from @spontaneousmusicalnumber about how they’re eating lead

[saritazoo]

To be more clear, this has been happening for a long time, and the reason it happens is that most birds of prey, and especially Bald Eagles, scavenge carcasses.

Lead is the cheapest, most readily available form of ammunition. It’s also brittle, and shatters into multiple little particles once it makes contact with its target.

Sometimes hunters will field dress their prey (ie butchering the animal on the spot, taking the meat home, and leaving the rest for scavengers). This is great and natural, but if the hunter used lead ammunition, there will likely still be pieces of lead in the carcass. Also, sometimes the animal gets away with lead shot still in its body. I interned at the facility in the post above, and we would often get donations of roadkill for the sanctuary’s residents. Every piece of roadkill had to be x-rayed before we could cut it up to feed the birds. Sometimes there’d be a deer leg that still had lead in it, and that had to be thrown away. Even roadkill isn’t safe.

Lead is also used in fishing tackle, where it is sometimes swallowed by fish, or cut from lines and left to sink to the bottom where it can be mistaken as food by loons or diving ducks. Lead sinkers that have been swallowed by fish can also poison eagles.

Seed-eating birds such as turkeys, pheasants, quail, and mourning doves may also peck at and ingest spent shot, mistaking it for seed.

And it only takes a piece of lead smaller than a pea to kill a bird.

Lead stays in the system, so scavenging a few pieces here and there can build up to that “pea-size” fast. It travels up the food chain too; if an eagle eats a lead-poisoned duck, that eagle is now also poisoned.

Lead poisoning is not a pleasant death. The bird becomes lethargic and weak, and begin to lose weight as their appetite decreases. Sometimes they exhibit neurological issues. The eagle above went blind and was involuntarily vocalizing. They may develop a head tilt or become paralyzed in certain parts of their body. Eventually they will be unable to fly, then walk, then slip into a coma before they eventually die. It is a long and expensive treatment to save a lead-poisoned bird, and many of the lucky birds that make it to rehab, even if they’ve come in for some other reason, have at least some exposure to lead. If it’s just a small amount, or they’re only in the early stages of lead poisoning, they can usually be saved. If they’re too far gone, like the eagle in the post above unfortunately was, they often have to be euthanized before they suffer a worse death.

Sometimes these birds that rehabbers spent so much time (usually unpaid), effort, heartbreak, and money (usually donations) into saving are just going out there to eat more lead. The birds don’t know any better. They don’t know that their food has poison in it. The best thing we can do is to Stop. Putting. Lead. In. The. Environment.

If you hunt or fish, or you have friends or family that hunt or fish, switch to non-lead alternatives. Campaign for the full ban of lead ammunition and tackle. Spread the word on why this is so important, as many people see their right to lead as a right to choose, and don’t fully understand the impact of that choice.

[thegenderal]

even before i lived in a place with a massive population of feral cats decimating the wildlife i had read the studies and knew the data said that TNR did not work and we need to be trapping and euthanizing feral cats but now that i’ve lived in a place where there are an enormous number of feral cats it’s like, inconceivable to me that anyone supports TNR, not just for the health of the world but for the sake of the fucking cats

[thegenderal]

nobody will even acknowledge it not even in most conservation circles. We have a solution to a massive, massive problem that is more humane, cheaper, easier, takes less time, prevents animal suffering, and saves valuable members of our disappearing ecosystem. And nobody is even willing to theoretically acknowledge that it exists outside of a few very small circles.

[thegenderal]

it works. It works. It is better for the cats. It’s better for the cats. Living in a place where you cannot drive 10 minutes without seeing a new roadkill cat almost every single day really makes you think about how much suffering could have been prevented if we just dealt with the problem we have created. It’s not a pleasant way to go, being hit by a car. Or being ripped apart by a predator, or eating a poison, or starving to death, of dying of an infection, or an illness, or any of the hundred thousand ways an animal in the wild passes without human intervention. Euthanasia is simply falling asleep. It is fucking wild to me that saying you think we should take responsibility for our mistakes and ensure that cats fall asleep peacefully instead of capturing them and then hurling them back out into the world SPECIFICALLY in order to allow them to die in agony makes people treat you like a fucking serial killer.

[thegenderal]

And if you don’t care about cats dying in agony do you care about the world around you? There’s a species of bird we only know ever existed because someone’s cat brought home our only example. That’s horrific. We’ve lost so much biodiversity because we simply won’t listen to the research, which again, has proven that TNR is not effective.

[thegenderal]

a peaceful death is not the worst thing that could happen to an animal.

[thegenderal]

@cathartidae sources for ya!

Sources:

https://ask.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/UW468 “How Effective and Humane Is Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) for Feral Cats?” 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6523511/ “A Case of Letting the Cat out of The Bag—Why Trap-Neuter-Return Is Not an Ethical Solution for Stray Cat (Felis catus) Management” (also has a thousand references attached that are handy)

Not a reference so much as the human society actively admitting that TNR does nothing to decrease population, actively contributes to harming wildlife, and doesn’t actually help the cats in any way, just reduces some of the nuisance behavior that people complain about: https://www.animalhumanesociety.org/resource/real-impacts-trap-neuter-return

Unscientific from here on out as i don’t feel like trying to find the studies i read in like January of last year:

https://hahf.org/awake/the-trouble-with-trap-vaccinate-neuter-return/ “The Trouble With Trap-Neuter-Re (Abandon!) from the hillsborough animal health foundation, articles also link to studies

https://abcbirds.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/The-Evidence-Against-TNR.pdf from the american bird conservancy, has scientific articles quoted. 

[thegenderal]

Even More Sources on TNR being non-viable and ways that cats are impacting the world from birds to *hawai’i’s monk seals*

Animal Emergency and Referral Center of Minnesota. (2022, October 26). Indoor cats vs. outdoor cats. Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota. https://aercmn.com/indoor-cats-vs-outdoor-cats/

Campbell, V. (2017, January 25). The Obituary of the Stephens Island Wren. All About Birds. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/the-obituary-of-the-stephens-island-wren/

Castillo, D., & Clarke, A. L. (2003). Trap/neuter/release methods ineffective in controlling domestic cat “colonies” on public lands. Natural Areas Journal, 23(3).

Coe, S. T., Elmore, J. A., Elizondo, E. C., & Loss, S. R. (2021). Free-ranging domestic cat abundance and sterilization percentage following five years of a trap–neuter–return program. Wildlife Biology, 2021(1). https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00799

del Hoyo, J., Collar, N., Kirwan, G. M., & Sharpe, C. J. (2022, October 25). Guadalupe storm-petrel (Hydrobates Macrodactylus), version 1.2. Birds of the World. https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/guspet/cur/introduction

Dickman, C. R., & Newsome, T. M. (2015). Individual hunting behaviour and prey specialisation in the house cat Felis catus: Implications for conservation and management. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 173, 76–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2014.09.021

Edge. (2019, June 19). Guadalupe storm-petrel. EDGE of Existence. https://www.edgeofexistence.org/species/guadalupe-storm-petrel/

Galbreath, R., & Brown, D. (2004). The tale of the lighthouse-keeper’s cat: Discovery and extinction of the Stephens Island wren (Traversia lyalli). Notornis, 51(4).

Hawai’i Department of Land and Natural Resources. (2025). Feral cats. Feral Cats. https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/hisc/info/invasive-species-profiles/feral-cats/#:~:text=Feral%20cats%20on%20islands%20have,kill%20approximately%202.4%20billion%20birds.

Loss, S. R., Will, T., & Marra, P. P. (2013). The impact of free-ranging domestic cats on wildlife of the United States. Nature Communications, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2380

McGregor, H., Legge, S., Jones, M. E., & Johnson, C. N. (2015). Feral cats are better killers in open habitats, revealed by animal-borne video. PLOS ONE, 10(8). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133915

Medina, F. M., Bonnaud, E., Vidal, E., Tershy, B. R., Zavaleta, E. S., Josh Donlan, C., Keitt, B. S., Corre, M., Horwath, S. V., & Nogales, M. (2011). A global review of the impacts of invasive cats on Island Endangered Vertebrates. Global Change Biology, 17(11), 3503–3510. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02464.x

National Research Council. (1992, January 1). Scientific Bases for the Preservation of the Hawaiian Crow. U.S. National Library of Medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK235935/

NOAA. (2024, August 29). Toxoplasmosis and its effects on Hawaiʻi Marine Wildlife. NOAA Fisheries. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/pacific-islands/endangered-species-conservation/toxoplasmosis-and-its-effects-hawaii-marine

Read, J. L., Dickman, C. R., Boardman, W. S., & Lepczyk, C. A. (2020). Reply to Wolf et al.: Why trap-neuter-return (TNR) is not an ethical solution for Stray Cat Management. Animals, 10(9), 1525. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10091525

Reed, L. (2022). The effects of free-roaming cats on native wildlife populations. Wildlife Rehabilitation Bulletin, 40(1), 17–21. https://doi.org/10.53607/wrb.v40.250

Salano, E. (2024, October 5). Eliciting the effect free roaming cats have on Native Hawaiian wildlife using stable isotope analysis. UKnowledge. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/biology_etds/103/ 

Steele, J. H., Thorpe, S. A., & Turekian, K. K. (2009). Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences. Academic Press. 

science says it’s long past time to stop prolonging the suffering of feral cats, for the sake of the people, the native wildlife, and the goddamn cats themselves.

[boundless-ennui]

I was at a friend's house to check on carcasses I had macerating in his yard. A little grey cat ran up to me, yelling her head off in friendliness and wanting nothing more than to be pet. I had nothing to give her but let my friend know he should catch her since she was so friendly. I am ashamed to admit I didn't give her much thought beyond that, finishing my work and giving her a last pet before going home.

My friend told me how he'd seen her before but she always vanished before he could catch her. He works far too many hours and is always tired so he couldn't prioritize catching this cat.

Three months pass with no sign of her. I go back with my partner to check on carcasses and this same little grey cat appears. This time, however, a tooth has been snapped off and her tongue is so badly cut that she can't keep it in her mouth. She was thin and dirty and screaming to please be given some food.

This time I couldn't look away. I asked my friend's girlfriend if I could borrow a cat carrier. She loaned me one and a tin of wet food that the grey cat willingly followed into the carrier. She didn't care at all about being put into the carrier - all she wanted was a hand on her. She'd arch up against the top just so my hand would rest on her back for a moment.

We drove through rush hour traffic to the only shelter still open. We knew we couldn't keep her and I couldn't stand the thought of putting her back out on the streets to die slowly.

The shelter couldn't take her. Her ear was clipped so she was a "community cat" and outside their ability to help. They tried desperately to offer alternatives to me as I cried over her carrier, knowing I couldn't take her home but also that if I didn't I couldn't live with the thought of her back on the streets.

I made a Hail Mary call to a local friend who is very connected in our city. They didn't have my number saved but answered all the same to hear me sobbing about a cat I'd found and to please help me find a place for her. Please. If I don't find something then she'll be alone on the streets again to die.

My friend came through. I could keep the cat in their garage overnight and in the morning my friend would be back in the city and could find someone to help the cat.

The shelter folk gave me a crate and some food - their hands were tied but they didn't want to leave me with nothing. They were good people doing the best they could in their own system. Community cats were ones they weren't allowed to "waste" resources on. Ostensibly they'd been dealt with and their fate decided. There was nothing the shelter folks were allowed to do for them.

I took the cat to my friend's garage. She was settled into a crate on towels, happy as a clam to be warm and safe. This was a cat made to be loved and to love, as she immediately began trying to groom one of my friend's roommates. He stayed in the garage with her, giving her food and water and in exchange having no say on whether she was in his lap or not. She was always in his lap.

Nobby Nobbs (so named for the only other character known to man that is as scrungly as she is) was then formally adopted by my friend. Her tongue has healed, her fur remains scrungly, and she's every bit the rabid love bug I suspected her to be when she came to me yelling to be pet.

She's a TNR cat. Someone thought they were doing her a kindness in that and if nothing else she didn't add kittens to the world but that doesn't negate the pain she suffered before I found her - the broken teeth, the lacerated tongue, the ulcerated cheeks, the flea-bald patchiness of her coat.

I say this as someone who adores this cat and has the privilege to see her loved and cherished: I wish she'd never had to suffer what she did. I wish people were alright making the harder call that leads to less misery on the side of the cats.

TNR is a polite fiction, nothing more. Just so the humans can pretend they've done right by the same cats they're letting loose to die miserably somewhere else. As long as the humans don't see it it's fine.

The shelter folks told me she's a community cat and that I could take her home and release her by my house. Then I could feed her myself and keep up with her and know where she was! I could still keep her, after a fashion.

I am not proud of how I snarled back that I would never exchange a quick death for a slow one. I would be giving her a different funeral plot, not giving her a life. Even near me she'd be just as vulnerable to the innumerable predators that find cats quite delicious, let alone cars and poisons and the other cruelties humans practice on stray cats.

She's the second stray cat I've met that when I held them the cat melted in my arms, purring and so desperately wanting to be loved. The first cat I was able to trap and take to a local shelter only to find when I called to check on him a day later that his health had been so terrible, so beyond help, that he'd been put down. All the love in that tiny body lost because the people I lived beside didn't care enough to trap the cats they had.

My partner was asleep. I woke her up to crawl into her arms and sob, my heart breaking for the stupidity of the humans who hadn't cared enough to grant this poor little cat the chance to be either an indoor cat, loved and cared for, or to grant him a quick death long before I met him. I've other stories of the cats they kept around, essentially feeding the poor souls to the predatory birds and wandering dogs that frequented our area.

TNR doesn't work. It is a lie humans tell ourselves so we can pretend we haven't failed these animals on a massive scale. Cats are invasive and cause massive harm in their turn. It is humanity who needs to deal with this crisis, this horror we've made, and I pray one day we look it square in the face and vow to make it right.

[thegenderal]

sorry

[rjzimmerman]

Most animals on this island nation are found nowhere else on Earth. And now they’re vanishing.

The only way to save them is to put people first.

Excerpt from this story from Vox:

Throughout the Western world, Madagascar is perhaps best known as a hot spot for wildlife, home to lemurs, chameleons, and other animals — a reputation popularized by movies like Madagascar and shows like Planet Earth. And it’s true that the country has an impressive array of creatures and plants that you can’t find anywhere else. Lemurs literally only exist on this island, as do almost half of the world’s chameleon species and most of its iconic baobab trees, stout species that are mostly trunk.

But although Madagascar is one of a kind, it’s not exactly the wildlife haven you might imagine. At least not anymore.

The island has lost around half — or possibly far more — of its original forests and as much as half of the live coral off its coasts. Today, nearly all lemur species are threatened with extinction. So are half of the country’s chameleons and several species of tenrec, adorable hedgehog-like creatures that live only in Madagascar. Reef-dependent fisheries in some regions, meanwhile, are on the verge of collapsing.

These declines are rooted in scarcity. Madagascar is one of the poorest and most malnourished countries on the planet. Last year, 80 percent of the island nation lived in extreme poverty, earning less daily than what $2.15 could buy you in the US in 2017. Nearly 40 percent of young children, meanwhile, have stunted growth due to a lack of nutrition.

This matters because, throughout much of the country, one of the only ways to earn money and buy food is by taking resources from the environment. People cut down forests, for example, to make and sell charcoal, a wood-based fuel, or to clear small parcels of land to grow crops. These sorts of activities aren’t inherently harmful; humans have always relied on nature for survival. But when people have no other way to earn a living, the pressure of extraction can become too much.

There are several complex reasons why poverty still grips Madagascar, including political instability and corruption. Just this month, the Madagascar government was dissolved, the president was impeached, and the military assumed power, following weeks of protests in the capital of Antananarivo from people frustrated by power and water outages and a lack of economic opportunity. Together with climate change, the lingering effects of colonialism, and foreign aid structures, poor governance has stymied the growth of non-extractive industries.

As a result, a large number of people across Madagascar are highly dependent on the island’s ecosystems for their livelihoods — for their survival — and those ecosystems are starting to fail, partly because of the sheer scale of dependency. That makes conservation here both incredibly challenging and incredibly important.

[bestanimal]

Excuse me, kill?

Wikipedia? Excuse me?

Citation needed?

[luckyopossum14]

This thing

[saritazoo]

That’s a goosefish, a bottom-dwelling anglerfish.

These are Tasseled Wobbegongs:

Notice the mouth oriented on the front of the face rather than the top, and the lack of an anglerfish lure!

[zeiat]

I saw this post on my dash and learned about the tasseled wobbegong and nodded thoughtfully and then tucked this knowledge away in my mind and moved on. and then my kitten came over, hijacked my laptop, scrolled back up to the post, and started staring at the tasseled wobbegong. I tried to reach around him to maneuver the touchpad and keep scrolling my dash and his reaction was to somehow highlight the post and then move so that I was unable to access the touchpad at all.

okay. sorry dude. listening and learning

[abundantchewtoys]

Is… is either of those the inspiration for Stunfisk Pokemon?!?

Bulbapedia says yes!!

[saritazoo]

Interesting that Bulbapedia says that? I was pretty sure Stunfisk was based on electric rays, and specifically the Bullseye Electric Ray (Diplobatis ommata) for the markings.

[herpsandbirds]

Panama’s golden frogs beat extinction

The amphibians are returning to the wild 17 years after a deadly fungus nearly wiped them out.

It’s been 17 years since the bright yellow Panamanian golden frog (Atelopus zeteki) hopped through its native habitat. But after nearly two decades of hard work, conservationists are finally reintroducing a new generation of the tiny fluorescent amphibians back into the tropical island’s ecosystem. It wasn’t that long ago that golden frogs were staring down almost certain extinction. The saga began in the late 1980s, when an invasive fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) arrived in lower Central America. Soon, Bd spores spread throughout Panama. The fungal spores had no difficulty traveling through water—and because golden frogs only live close to streams, they soon encountered the fungus themselves...

Read more: https://www.popsci.com/environment/golden-frogs-beat-extinction-panama/

[saritawolff]

A quick illustration of the interspecies same-sex bird pair I had the pleasure of doing an observational research project on this Spring. Hunter (female red-tailed hawk) and Stanley (female turkey vulture) are both rescues who were deemed non-releasable. Stan is unable to fly due to a broken wing that healed improperly. Hunter is missing an eye and, while able to fly, she does not have good depth perception and tends to crash-land when flying any more than a few feet. Despite the major differences in their species they managed to form a pair bond while in human care. Hawks are generally solitary, only tolerating the presence of their mate in their territory, while new world vultures are pretty amicable, and do not make nests or establish territories in the same way hawks do.

Yet, this Spring I have witnessed Stan preening Hunter, attempting to help Hunter build a nest (again, something turkey vultures do not do normally), Hunter offering her food to Stan, the two of them perching very close together, and other… very obvious pair behavior.

Hunter and Stan live at the Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown, Pennsylvania.

[saritazoo]

My girls are finally getting some attention:

Meet Hunter and Stan, an odd animal couple at a Norristown zoo

Zoo staff say the female hawk and female turkey vulture share food, preen each other and have even attempted to raise eggs.

[todaysbird]

H5 bird flu is still prevalent in 2026. what do you need to know?

bird flu is found worldwide, however, recent outbreaks have been primarily in the United States. after H5N1 bird flu became a concern in 2022, little progress has been made in preventing unnecessary transmission & future deaths.

bird flu is primarily transmitted from wild birds to each other, or from wild birds to other animals. prevent transmission by taking down birdfeeders/baths/etc altogether in areas of high transmission (if you are in the USA, you can typically get this information from your state’s fish and game service). otherwise, clean feeders and artificial surfaces that wild birds use often. keep your cats indoors, and monitor dogs to make sure they do not interact with any deceased birds.

do not handle birds suspected to have bird flu. you can report deceased birds or other animals to your local wildlife services. they can provide further guidance on how to safely move deceased animals, but in most cases they will come collect them.

use caution when purchasing new poultry, visiting poultry shows, etc. quarantine any new birds. transmission among poultry happens incredibly quickly, causing entire flocks to be culled to prevent further spread - don’t let this happen to your birds </3

bird flu is transmissible to humans and other animals - despite its name, it is highly infectious and can spread among many other species. 71 people have reported bird flu infections, with one death. while there is little risk from enjoying everyday outdoor activities where wild birds are present, you can encourage good general hygiene and safety by washing your hands after handling outdoor materials, and/or by making your own footbath for when you head indoors.

bird flu is not being handled as a priority by government officials in the USA. if you live here (where transmission is highest!) do your best to monitor what’s going on in your state & what actions state officials are taking. use caution and protect yourself, your pets, and wildlife.

[thesituation]

i’m so glad i’m alive in this era because we’re starting to actually linguistically study sperm whale language and may soon be able to translate it

[thesituation]

Exclusive: Sperm whale speech has human-like 'vowels'

The mammals' mysterious clicks contain a stunning level of complexity, a new study shows.

i saw this headline and wanted to take my shirt off and dance on a table

[talesfromtreatment]

hey, out of curiosity as someone who has never had pets and likely won’t for a long while, is raw feeding in general really that bad? like. i see videos alllll the time of folks feeding their pets like. raw liver and chicken hearts and ground fish and chicken feet, especially in like slow feeder videos. is that bad for pets?

Bluntly, yes.

There's the pathogen and parasite risk, to both humans and animals.

There's the foreign body or intestinal perforation risk from consuming bones.

There's the strong potential for malnutrition if not working with a veterinary nutritionist.

And the vitamin/mineral supplement used by many/most raw diets has now been shown to be able to cause a unique type of bladder stone.

There is zero overt benefit that outweighs the risks.

[followthebluebell]

For those curious about the new type of bladder stone, here's the study.

It appears that the fresh raw diet (ala Farmers Dog and JustFoodForDogs) include a lot of choline bitartrate, which is causing calcium tartrate tetrahydrate (ctt) uroliths. In addition, choline bitartrate is a popular supplement for most raw feeders.

Here's another slightly easier to digest (no pun intended) article on the subject.

[talesfromtreatment]

No it isn't. This is false.

Also, my memory error on the bladder stone thing being from some fresh-cooked things instead of raw. The rest still stands and I'm not the biggest fan of those fresh cooked diets either, especially on the price they're basically guilting people into paying.

[isawken]

love when you go to an aquarium and you really hit it off with one of the fish

[mcromwell]

One time I went to the Seattle aquarium and I brought my sketchbook and mechanical pencil. As I was sketching, this long fish camouflaged to resemble grass approached and became fixated on my pencil. I realized what it was looking at and brought the pencil closer to the glass, twisting it back and forth, and the fish started mirroring the movements, tilting itself vertically. I wonder if it thought it was another longfish, or they respond to "thing that look like grass" with "now look like grass", either way it was really cool.

[saritazoo]

Love hitting it off with one particular fish. I was trying out my new phone camera at the Jenkinson’s Aquarium and this Bignose Unicorn Tang noticed me, swam up, and dimmed his colors, which I assume is a sign of friendliness (as brighter colors could be interpreted aggressively).

He then just chilled in front of me and looked me up and down, posing and being very still for the camera so I could get pictures. When other fish got close he would chase them away, then return to me and dim his colors again.

And then, at the Georgia Aquarium, I spent probably about half an hour or more sitting in one of the small round windows leading up to the big tank. I was of course watching in awe of the whale sharks, manta rays, and guitar fish, but this little lone Cottonwick Grunt apparently lived in the rocks in front of that window and was my best friend for that time. He kept coming back and checking me out, slowly swimming up and down and investigating me, and then sometimes just floating right next to me very still and looking into my eye.

Like the tang, he chased away several other fish that approached, and then would always return. Since he was a bit small though, and certainly not the boss of this ecosystem, there were a few times other larger fish chased him away. But a few minutes later, I’d see him come sneaking back to my side.

Anyway, highly recommend hitting it off with random fish at the aquarium. Take your time in front of each tank, make slow movements, and don’t just focus on the big centerpiece “showstopper” fish. There are a lot of personalities in there.

[spacefroggoo]

[orcinus-veterinarius]

Do you or anyone else have links to support me when I tell people sanctuaries don't have to have accreditation like zoos and more often get away with neglect/abuse I'm stuck arguing with people who say all zoos are abusive and all sanctuaries are good

Hi! I talked a bit about the differences between zoos and sanctuaries here. Unfortunately, this isn’t really a topic there’s a lot of formal research on this topic. But let’s use some quick stats. For the purpose of this post, I’ll focus on the United States.

There are roughly ~2,000 facilities in the US holding a USDA Class C (exhibitor) license. This is the license required to legally hold exotic warm-blooded animals for public display, including zoos, circuses, educational organizations, and sanctuaries. Note that this expressly does not include facilities that house only cold-blooded animals. These animals are largely unregulated.

If a sanctuary does not display the animals to the public under any circumstances, (including private tours), they may be exempt from this requirement. However, most sanctuaries do rely on private donors, which count as “the public” according to USDA guidelines. For example, the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee (which is a great place by the way!) explicitly does not allow tours. However, they still hold a USDA Class C license.

It is technically possible for a facility to exist that calls itself a “sanctuary” but is free of all regulatory oversight, even the USDA. However, this likely isn’t a common situation, since as I mentioned above, most sanctuaries do count as “exhibitors” and would require a USDA Class C license, subjecting them to inspection.

USDA guidelines, however, are the “bare minimum.” The “gold standard” of care is found in voluntary accreditation. In the US, that usually means the AZA. AZA inspections are incredibly rigorous. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Their guidelines are publicly available on their website. Of the thousands of USDA-licensed exhibitors in the United States, only 229 are AZA-accredited or certified (the remaining 25 accredited facilities are outside the US). Very few of these are sanctuaries.

To rehash what I said in my linked post, the sanctuary “counterpart” to the AZA is the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS). They accredit sanctuaries for both domestic and exotic animals. There are no exact statistics on their website, but it does state there are “over 200” worldwide (not just in the US). The website does provide a map of where their members are found, but there’s no list breaking down exactly how many are found in the US, or how many house captive wildlife rather than domestic species like cattle and pigs. I do not know how GFAS standards compare to AZA, as I’m not overly familiar with them.

Tl;dr it is easier for sanctuaries than zoos to operate without regulatory oversight, particularly if they do not display to the public. In the United States, there are fewer sanctuaries than zoos that are voluntarily accredited by organizations ensuring high standards of animal care.

[edbtle]

Appreciation post to my favorite bird

The Carolina parakeet, also known as the Carolina conure, was a small, brightly colored parrot native to the eastern US. The last wild Carolina parakeet was killed in Florida in 1904, and the last captive bird died in 1918 at the Cincinnati Zoo. The species was declared extinct in the 1930s.

They went extinct due to the feather collecting and the pet trade, along with being taken out due to eating crops from agricultural areas in the southeast.

[saritazoo]

A bit of falseness in the signage in the image. The Carolina Parakeet (and the Louisiana Parakeet which was a subspecies of Carolina Parakeet) was not the only parrot native to the US.

The endangered Thick-billed Parrot (Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha) used to live in the southwest United States but have since been extirpated.

(source)

They are still alive, but today can only be found in the mountains of Mexico.

The Green Parakeet (Psittacara holochlorus) is native to Mexico and southern Texas in the Rio Grande Valley.

(source)

This makes the Green Parakeet the last extant parrot native to the US, that’s still in the US. (Of course, to a bird, borders and countries are meaningless, and it’s the habitat that matters.)

There are also populations of parrots that are escaped pets, but these three: the extinct Carolina Parakeet, the extirpated Thick-billed Parrot, and the still-clinging-to-one-little-corner-of-Texas Green Parakeet were/are the USA’s native parrot species.

[queenofnots]

Green sea turtle no longer Endangered

These gentle, 400-pound giants are splashing back from the brink of extinction.

Guys...🥹

[fish-to-male]

I don’t know about anyone else but these sorts of headlines frequently make me highly suspicious so I did some follow up research after reading the article. I am happy to say that Green Sea Turtles no longer being counted as endangered is not due to the IUCN or any government shifting the goalpost for what can be considered an endangered species. The only update is, as the article states, an update in surveyed population numbers. Notably the article itself states that the current Green Sea Turtle numbers are not currently at what they historically were when the species was thriving, but this change in status over a relatively short period should absolutely be considered a significant win for conservation efforts and indicates a larger more grounded hope in our ocean ecosystems ability to heal.

Fighting for a better world is worth it and it is not too late.