#fact post

[vibeandguide]

“10 space facts that prove the universe is way more unhinged than we are.”

[projectnomoho]

The Spectacle(d Cormorant) - an informative post about an underrated extinct bird

(Artwork by me. Halfly based on the artwork by Joseph Wolf.)

Just something out of the ordinary from before. I am getting tired from posting all those comics and stuff on here, so here's a repost of my depiction of one of my all-time favorite extinct birds - the life, the moment, the spectacle itself - the spectacled (or Pallas's) cormorant, as well as a bunch of facts about it below this because I care about this bird so much and will protect it with all my life if it still existed.

You may ask, why am I so into this nerdy-looking bird? It's not like it's THAT special or anything - we still have at least 40 other cormorant species alive on earth - 3 of them in the same genus as the spectacled cormorant.

The reason is simple - no one ever talks about it or even has an idea on what it is, even though humans were the sole cause of its extinction. (And believe it or not, cormorant culling IS still a thing, but that's a different story for now.)

(Specimen kept at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the Netherlands.)

Large, stupid, clumsy, ludicrous in looks. That was how others, including Georg Steller, the discoverer of the bird, described the spectacled cormorant. It was, perhaps, the largest of all cormorants known to exist, rivalling the Galápagos flightless cormorant in length, but was way heavier than the latter. Due to its large size, it was probably flightless, but studies of its wings have shown that it was more likely reluctant to do so due to its lack of natural predators (besides Arctic foxes) while residing in its former habitat - the Commander/Komandorski Islands in Kamchatka Krai of Russia. Occasionally, some of these birds would get lost and end up on the Kamchatka Peninsula, which led to its consumption by the locals.

However, it wasn't until the 1820s when their extinction was hastened. The Russian-American Company started to transfer Unangan (Aleut) people to the islands, and, to no surprise, they found this cormorant easy to hunt. As Steller said on his journey in 1741, the spectacled cormorant was also rather delicious, unlike most other cormorants. Along with how it was abundant on the Commander Islands, this was most likely the exact reason why the Unangan people consumed it whenever they could not catch enough fish to sell or feed their families.

That marked the end of the legacy of the spectacled cormorant. It vanished from the islands and the world in the 1850s, and was never heard from anyone ever again.

(Artwork by J. G. Keulemans.)

The reason why it might have been forgotten by man was probably due to there only being six known specimens of this bird collected (all apparently by the same person, Governor Kuprianof), and only one or two of those specimens are currently up for display in the whole world.

The spectacled cormorant died like the dodo, but unlike the dodo, it was quickly forgotten by the people who caused its rapid extinction. By the time we wanted to care about it, it was already gone.

170+ years have passed. People like me still remember this bird, wanting to do anything to bring it back to life, or just imagining it while it was still in its glory - plummeting into the cold seas to catch a mouthful of fish, as it clumsily swims back to the shore to dry its wings. A beautiful bird that met a rather depressing fate.

[critter-catcher]

Given today's events, I think we need some crab facts

There are more than 4,500 known species of crabs

A crabs pregnancy only lasts 1-2 weeks and they lay 1,000 to 2,000 eggs!

The smallest crab is the Pea Crab(Left) which at max is 0.47 inches. On the other hand you have the Japanese Spider Crab(right) which can get up to twelve feet.

Now Yeti Crabs are one of my favorite types because they live on hydrothermal vents at the very bottom of the ocean. And they stick together by the thousands, each white dot is in fact a crab.

There's another fun thing about these guys, and it's actually where they get their names from. They have little hairs covering their claws which they slowly wave back and forth encouraging bacteria growth, then they eat that bacteria!

Of course this list would be incomplete if I didn't tell you the most important fact,

Crabs dance.

All for different reasons, spreading eggs, gloating over a victory, to woo potential mates, even to attract food.

So post crab rave, technically, it's accurate

[dutch-dyke-on-a-bike]

Some facts about unsafe abortions

25 million unsafe abortions occur every year.

45% of abortions worldwide are considered unsafe

97% of unsafe abortions occur in countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Figure: Unsafe abortion: global and regional estimates of incidence of unsafe abortion and associated mortality in 2003.

It is hard to get a precise number on the amount of deaths as a result of unsafe abortion. Some sources say 22,000 women and girls, other say 30,000 and some put the number even higher at 68,000 deaths annually.

The main causes of death from unsafe abortions are hemorrhage, infection, sepsis, genital trauma, and necrotic bowel.

An estimated seven million women and girls are hospitalized every year with post-abortion complications.

These complications include: poor wounds healing, infertility, consequences of internal organ injury and bowel resections. (x) (x)

[closeenoughtbs]

Creator fact #2:

In the episode “See You There” on Regular Show S1, Muscleman is choking with a piece of meat and collapsed into his knees. JG Quintel said he experienced that when he was a kid, but instead, he was choking with a piece of pizza. That’s probably why JG Quintel prefers tacos than pizza.

[critter-catcher]

*slams 100 gold pieces on the table* Fact seller, give me your strongest fact

Yeah okay, this one's for my bug lovers. We know of over one million insects, that represents half of all living organisms. We discover roughly 15,000-18,000 new species of insects each year. Because of this scientists estimate there's 6-10 million insects in total, making bugs 90% of all animal life forms.

Oh, also there's an estimated 10 quintillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000) insects alive at any given time. That averages out to about 200 million bugs per human.

[critter-catcher]

I know bobcats & lynxes get big enough to *theoretically* Fuck Humans Up, but have they? Come to think of it, does your area get (feline) cougars?

First off let's get it out of the way that just about any animal can attack/injure a human given the right circumstances. But... I don't think people understand just how small bobcats actually are

Lynx I will say are bigger than bobcats and the answer is yes, both have attacked humans but neither has ever killed a human. Realistically, unless the animal was sick or had babies near by, the only time either a bobcat, lynx, or even cougar tbh, has attacked a human is if it was provoked. They'd rather not waste the energy on attacking if they can intimidate you or simply run away.

In fact in comparison, thousands of people die per year by their cats or dogs so, the likelyhood of a big cat attack may not be zero but your pet may be higher. (Though it tends to be through bacteria from bites/scratches so always clean wounds and make sure you/your pet is up to date on their shots.

As for cougars/pumas/mountain lions (whatever you call them where you're from) my state doesn't technically have any. The last official sighting was in the 1800's but there have been unconfirmed reports since then. But unfortunately those are just people off the street that may not actually be able to identify the animal, and you'd imagine a park ranger would have seen one since the 1800's y'know? So the answer is probably not.