Hey guys, it’s Munday and I have a new follower or two, so here’s some things about me! I’m RF, short for RodentFanatic because I’ve got two rats, two mice, two chinchillas, and a hamster. During the week I work at a day center for adults with intellectual disabilities, and on weekends I typically visit or volunteer at a wildlife sanctuary for animals that can’t be released back into the wild for whatever reason (for instance, the coyotes were raised as pets, the hawk has a busted wing, etc) Once a month, I LARP as a vampire. I draw a lot and I post it here.
Here’s some cool animal facts:
If I asked you to name an animal in the ocean that was a super efficient predator with a 90% hunting success rate, you'd probably say some species of shark---but actually, it's the seahorse! They outdo both multiple species of sharks as well as many land predators such as lions (17-25%), tigers (10%), and wolves (3-14%)! Many predators fail far more than they succeed in bringing down prey, but not the seahorse! Of course, it probably helps they eat tiny things like krill and fish larvae rather than large dangerous herbivores or swift agile seals XD
- I know this is going to cause some controversy and upset some people, and I get it because it upsets me too, but these are the facts---the megalodon is not living in the deep sea/Mariana Trench. It was, despite its size, a shallow water predator. Even if it evolved to survive in such depths over millions of years as some people have postulated, the adaptations required would make it an entirely new animal. Thus, it would no longer be a megalodon, but a creature with megalodon ancestry. I'm sorry. I really am. I wanted this too.
- In the Zaisan mole vole, both males AND females have XX chromosomes. And in its cousin, the Transcaucasian mole vole, both sexes just have a single X chromosome and nothing else. Exactly what makes one develop as a male versus a female if not their chromosomes is still unknown. Also, the platypus has TEN sex chromosomes; ten X ones in the female, five X and five Y in the male. Because of course the platypus couldn’t bear to be out-weirded on this. Also, while mammals primarily use the X and Y system, a lot of reptiles and birds have Z and W sex-determinant chromosomes instead, and the platypus is thought to be the possible evolutionary link between these systems, which. . .makes a lot of sense, honestly.
And this is a picture (under a cut if you don’t like rats) of D’artagnan (Dart) that came up in my Facebook memories for this date last year. Dart was a senior rat I adopted and he was one of the most wonderful rats I ever had, even though he only lived from May to September.
