#speamyraven

[crazywolf828]

So. Got any facts about ravens? (◔◡◔)

Oh you know I do. And I'm sure you already know some of these, but for the people who don't I'll add them in.

First off, there's at least eight sub species of ravens, which show little variation across the board but genetically they have significant differences

The common raven is the second biggest species beside the thick-billed Raven which like. Look at this thing. It's ridiculous.

Of course I can't not mention the bond between wolves and ravens.

When wolves kill something up to 30 ravens will be at the kill site. They keep a lookout for other predators and in return they get to eat the leftovers, which the wolves have cracked open giving them easy access to.

But! It's not just that, ravens have been known to lead wolves to prey and wolves have even been known to respond to raven calls.

They even play together! The ravens will tug on the wolf pups tails and play with them and that's cute af.

Thanks to all of that ravens have been nicknamed "wolf birds"

Enough about wolves this is about ravens so let's get a few more rapid fire facts

They're the largest perch bird

They can memorize over 1,000 vocalizations

They're intelligence is on par with a chimpanzee, a dolphin, and even small children.

And lastly, my personal favorite, ravens have extremely good memory and facial recognition. Not only that they can teach their young these things too, which can go on for generations.

Basically never be mean to a raven or a whole group of birds called a murder are going to hate you, and they can be very petty

[kdinjenzen]

Filling your inbox with concrete. hope you dont mind

Nah go for it. Pave over the whole darn thing.

[critter-catcher]

Time for some critter facts! The Cachalot whale, normally referred to as the Sperm whale, is the largest, toothed whale in the ocean. It gets its name of 'Sperm' whale because of a wax like stuff in their head called spermaceti.

Speaking of their heads, they make up a third of their 60 foot body length. They're able to cool or heat up the spermaceti organ in their head, allowing them to surface or dive deeper more easily.

They also can dive much deeper than any other mammal, regularly descending 3000 feet to find squid to eat. Diving several times throughout the day, they consume as much as 2000 pounds (907kgs). After consuming so much, they would release a substance called ambergris, which has historically been used in perfumes and food. Although its not something they need to be hunted for like the oil in their heads, possession of ambergris has been made illegal in Australia, the United States, and India under wildlife protection laws.

Of course, I cant mention Sperm whales without talking about the most famous, or rather infamous whales of all time.

Moby Dick, written by Herman Melville, was inspired by the real sinking of the whaling ship Essex, which was sunk in 1820 by an abnormally large sperm whale. Given that whales are remarkably intelligent, some speculate this bull sperm whale was attacking the Essex out of revenge, but others think that the sounds of work being done on the ship sounded similar to the way Sperm whales use echolocation to communicate.

A more fun fact is that Pearl Krabs from Spongebob is also a Sperm whale!

[whyarewewlwlikethat]

SURPRISE BEAM ATTACK

LMAO what is it going to do? turn me into a non-binary person? I already am!

[shortkingvi]

if i could bring back 5 people, could i bring back ronald regan and kill him 5 times, or would that be against the rules?

why do that when you could use one of those on richard nixon and kill his bitch ass too?

[crazywolf828]

Im here to tempt you to give us more animal facts

I'm here to give you a single one.

Remember Coelacanth? That funky fish known as a living fossil because it was thought to be extinct but was rediscovered in 1938, but for some reason people thought it was more recent? Anyway, these guys hold the title for the longest pregnancy in the ocean. They live for over a century, the females don't become sexually mature until they're fifty, and their pregnancies last up to five years. I could never.

[crazywolf828]

any animal facts for us today?

Yeah sure I've been wanting to talk about these guys. Meet the Ratite family, well, most of it.

We've got our classic dinosaur birds the Rhea, the ostrich, the emu, and of course the cassowary. The tallest being the ostrich which can get up to 9 feet tall. But there's one bird missing from this family cookout, what is it?

Yes, the kiwi is in the family with the largest living birds. The kiwi which the largest species, the great spotted kiwi, only stands 18 inches tall, while the smallest, the north island brown kiwi, is only about 16 inches.

But mother nature really screwed these guys over, while they're this small and yet their eggs look like this,

So why is do they have an egg that takes up 15% of their body weight, that's damn near the size of what a nine foot tall bird would lay? Well, the biggest advantage is that kiwi chicks are precocious. Which means, unlike most birds, they hatch fully feathered, and within a week open their eyes and are able to find food for themselves. Of course being precocious also helps them avoid predators as well, however once invasive species were introduced (such as rats and stoats) smaller kiwi species are in danger for the first four months of life until they outgrow them. The egg being so large also helps with the fact that the rats and stoats can't drag it away or break through the thick shell.

So yeah, the kiwi definitely got the short end of the stick, but still, there are some advantages to having eggs that big!

[crazywolf828]

its been a while since we've gotten any animal facts, got anything for us? 👀

Yeah okay, here's a fun guy, one on my favorite snakes, the Tiger Keelback

This guy is neat because it's not only venomous, it's also poisonous. Quick lesson for people who don't know, venom is injected, poison is absorbed through the skin or eaten. This guy is both.

The poison glands are right behind its head, which is unfortunate since that's where you're taught to grab snakes. So if it feels threatened it'll puff up those glands, the poison secreting through. Like so many animals it gets it's poison from what it eats, in this case toads.

It's also venomous, it's venom is a hemotoxic venom, which gets into your system and starts to hemorrhage you, so basically you start bleeding internally. But, it's fangs are back set, that means they're very far back in it's mouth so if it were to inject you it would have to really chew on you.

They're found mostly in Japan and, thankfully, are rather docile snakes that would prefer fleeing over conflict.