Umwelten

Adler • she/her pfp: irawansubingar photography

[umwelten]

- Ed Yong, An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us

[venndaai]

have you guys heard about the greenland shark. some crazy shit happening there.

[venndaai]

they are sexually mature at ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OLD.

their (live!) young gestate for. wait for it. eight to eighteen (??) YEARS. can have up to 10 at a time. good grief.

longest lifespan of any vertebrate, up to five hundred years

toxic flesh

has giant eyes but is usually blind because of a weird little crustacean that's evolved to live on and eat their eyes. this doesn't seem to bother them much.

lives in deep cold water and has the lowest swim speed and tail-beat frequency for its size across all fish species. just generally lives life in extreme slow motion

largest genome of any shark

eats everything including moose and polar bears

ma'am you are delightfully strange and I'm privileged to share a planet with you

[fluorescentbrains]

this post prompted me to refresh my memory on Greenland Shark Facts and this detail about how they feed goes so hard

just vacuuming up their unsuspecting prey. whole !

[muffinlance]

Good news good news good news! Recent research suggests the eye parasites do NOT blind them!

Eye-opening research: Greenland sharks maintain vision for centuries through DNA repair mechanism

Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk sits in her office, eyes fixed on the computer monitor in front of her. "You see it move its eye," says the UC Ir

I <3 you a normal amount Greenland sharks

[clusterbungle]

Happy 100th birthday David Attenborough, you absolute bloody legend 💖💖💖💖💖

[hazard-symbols-that-fuck-hard]

do any other mammals have faces as flat as ours or is that an us thing

[femininefreyanyctophile]

think we are pretty unique with that and our build in general. like most mammals are somewhat rotund and usually longer than tall or wide. we are built like a blade of grass

[hazard-symbols-that-fuck-hard]

honestly we might be unique for vertebrates in general.

someone brought up owls, but…

[hazard-symbols-that-fuck-hard]

now THERE’S and interesting contender

still not as flat as a human face, but the amount that the jaws sink in is wild

[crabussy]

hi gang. reminder that we are some of the best sweaters in the animal kingdom (second only to equines) allowing us to stay cool and keep moving in hot weather. we have 10 times the density of sweat glands compared to other great apes.

we are ALSO insanely good at smelling rain (specifically geosmin, found in the soil and activated by rain) with the ability to smell 10 parts per trillion. this is speculated to have helped our ancestors survive!

we ALSO have absolutely batshit diets compared to most other animals. caffeine and chocolate are completely toxic to most animals but we can eat it without even feeling sick. even avocados are severely toxic to many animals to the point where it can be fatal to eat, but humans love it!!!

we are ALSO the best endurance runners ON EARTH out of ANY other species. we beat horses in endurance running. you know, the animals that gradually evolved away most of their toes in order to be the best runners?? yeahhh.

and to top it all off. our lifespan is unusually long for our species' weight/mass. typically, the bigger a species is, the longer its average lifespan (e.g. domestic mice live for 1-3 years, whales can live over 200) but we're very small for how long our average lifespan is. big cats like tigers live around 14-15 years, brown bears 25 years, yet here we are expected to live around 75-85 years. that is NUTS.

humans as a species are so extremely cool. it's not just our intellect that makes us amazing. we may not be the fastest or the strongest in the animal kingdom but we're super cool in many other ways. next time you sweat you can go wow!!! humans are so cool I'm able to keep moving because of my absolutely insane number of sweat glands! thank you evolution!

[bisquid]

And yet we still have Knees™

[zaprowsdower27]

I also wish to file a complaint about our spines.

[codename-adler]

devastated.

rest in peace doctor 🤍

i love you. thank you for everything.

[binturong-of-the-day]

The binturong of optimism

[echosblanketfort]

I am gently taking your hands and begging you, BEGGING YOU, to understand that humans are not inherently harmful to the planet. We are animals who are part of the ecosystem. We belong here. This is our home. We belong here. You belong here. Yes, you belong here.

[daysleftofsecondterm]

Please don’t become an eco-fascist the next 1,260 days. I know it’s tempting but please don’t.

[cutecipher]

Hyenas are notable for their cuteness

[habbadax]

Correct!

[muttsys-deactivated20260425]

I feel like people often forget that a human is a species of animals

[umwelten]

'They're a very elusive species': The 10-year effort to photograph the rare hyena stalking a diamond mining ghost town

Ten years in the making: The story behind the award-winning photo of an elusive brown hyena stalking Namibia's diamond ghost towns.

[genderkoolaid]

i need everyone to know that they recorded a tender shark threesome

[mitchievousness]

link to news article:

Leopard shark sex tape: a scientific first

A University of the Sunshine Coast researcher has caught on camera and documented for the first time a rare – and rather risqué – shark mati

Digital video images related to the article are also available <- this one is an 11 mins long video and shows the entire mating ritual and copulation with each male !!

[identitty-dickruption]

like I'm sorry but I will keep posting about this until people stop being cunts and shitheads so I think we'll be here a good while. every time I talk about the colonial framing of australia and how colonialism is at work in modern day understandings of this country I only need to count to ten before every european and usamerican in sight starts spouting complete bullshit. why don't you all take a deep breath and examine why the fuck you're so wedded to the idea of australia you have in your head

[identitty-dickruption]

"suggesting that Australia has uniquely hostile flora and fauna isn't wrong" FACT CHECK:

what do you mean by "uniquely hostile"? is it based on amount of harm to humans? because I can tell you now. horses killed more people in 2023 than spiders did. how would you feel if I said that europe introduced the uniquely hostile horse to the australian environment?

look at these stats: https://www.firstaidpro.com.au/blog/leading-causes-of-death-in-australia/#elementor-toc__heading-anchor-1

now look at this: https://www.vice.com/en/article/cows-and-horses-are-australias-number-one-killers/

can you please give me a list of examples of flora and fauna that you would place in this category?

"aboriginal tribes" FUCK OFF!

if you can capitalise Australia you know how to capitalise Aboriginal

"tribes" is not the right word here even remotely. try again next time. "Aboriginal people" would be a great start. being able to name even one country or language group would shock me to death. give it a go though

"marsupials reign supreme" don't make me laugh

CHECK: why are you using language that inherently ascribes a particular morality to animals? what motivates you to frame Australia as uniquely 'ruled by animals'? what else might this imply and where might this framing have come from?

"most venomous and hostile" why are you putting those adjectives together?

Australia's most venomous snake (the inland taipan) has not killed a single person in recorded history because of how rare it is for that snake to come anywhere near humans. again, refer to the stats above

"hostility" is another example of ascribing negative moral values to an animal where it is not at all appropriate

"one of the less hospitable places on earth" colonialism check!

hospitable to whom?

you mean that pre-colonial Australia didn't follow western ideals of housing and agriculture don't you? (<- there very much was agricultural practices in First Nations groups for the record)

you're implying that the land had to be tamed by colonisers, aren't you?

come on. be so for real right now

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

"very much one of the less hospitable places on earth"

> looks inside

> hospitable to some of the oldest continuous cultures on earth

[micewithknives]

@acearchaeologist Ace i cannot let you leave this fantastic essay in the tags

[stripper-mining]

this post has healed me in a way, it can be hard being a non-american on Tumblr lmao let alone be an Indigenous Australian so thank y'all 🥹

it's a big part of the discussion I don't think a lot of people are ready to have; how the myth of an inherently violent Australia places it's Indigenous people in a dangerous position.

also it's just not true lmao, this country has taken care of us for thousands of years and will continue to do so! it's just saddening to see our beautiful land get shat on time and time again.

it reminds me of this moment in my college, me and some friends we were yarning up about our country and just missing home and we got joined by a white person who wanted to listen and learn and we were more than welcome to let her join! as shes asking us questions she goes on to ask us about our totems. for very quick context please Google for more information lmao but totems are something from country that is connected either to your mob, family group and/or a personal totem. they signify our intricate relationship with country - we don't own it, we are connected to it. it is our responsibility to protect our totems, so no hunting/killing of your totem animal for example. it was specifically when one of my friends shared that her totem was a huntsman spider that this whitefulla started sharing how, if that was her totem she just wouldn't be able to do that! Aussie spiders? no no no they're so scary and big and dangerous and could KILL YOU.

and it's just so fucking insulting and aggravating because how dare you. we share with you the beauty of this practice, how we all are connected to our country through it's flora and fauna, and how conservation/protection of country is inherent to Indigenous culture and that's all you got out of it? that you would kill that scary spider.

also cunt I'm just as scared as spiders as anyone, but huntsmans are a fucking so lit, they're a natural pest controller cause they eat flies and mozzies, they also don't make webs (it's like it's in the name?) like fuckin hell cuntttt.

big rant lmao but this is just such a deep deep thing that persists and when I meet non-australians and they see that I'm a ratbag cunt from the country who is Aboriginal, I can see the excitement as they expect me to perform this facade of Australia, this idiot larrakin who has "tamed the wild scrub", not understanding that that "wild scrub" includes my people too.

lastly, thank you to the aussie tumblr users that help spread the good word! love ya fullas!

[bramblepatch]

As an American who grew up mostly in rural areas, I also think that positioning Australia as uniquely dangerous represents a dangerous disrespect for our own continent's fauna and wilderness. We have venomous animals - and if they aren't as intensely venomous as Australia's most venomous, they don't need to be to pose a threat. We have much larger carnivores, some of which will actively hunt humans and all of which will attack if threatened. In some areas we have herbivorous megafauna that will absolutely trample you if you look at them weird. We have inland seas notorious for unsalvageable shipwrecks and massive swamplands and rocky deserts and dense forests. In our national parks even experienced hikers get lost and die frequently enough that people have convinced themselves that Bigfoot is doing it. And there are indigenous peoples who lived in all of these environments for tens of thousands of years.

Australia isn't uniquely inhospitable, and if you as an American think it is, maybe you should touch some grass that hasn't been manicured and pesticided into oblivion.

[petiteclover]

JANE GOODALL

apr. 3. 1934 - oct. 1. 2025

[great-and-small]

When I was in vet school I went to this one lecture that I will never forget. Various clubs would have different guest lecturers come in to talk about relevant topics and since I was in the Wildlife Disease Association club I naturally attended all the wildlife and conservation discussions. Well on this particular occasion, the speakers started off telling us they had been working on a project involving the conservation of lemurs in Madagascar. Lemurs exist only in Madagascar, and they are in real trouble; they’re considered the most endangered group of mammals on Earth. This team of veterinarians was initially assembled to address threats to lemur health and work on conservation solutions to try and save as many lemur species from extinction as possible. As they explored the most present dangers to lemurs they found that although habitat loss was the primary problem for these vulnerable animals, predation by humans was a significant cause of losses as well. The vets realized it was crucial for the hunting of lemurs by native people to stop, but of course this is not so simple a problem.

The local Malagasy people are dealing with extreme poverty and food insecurity, with nearly half of children under five years old suffering from chronic malnutrition. The local people have always subsisted on hunting wildlife for food, and as Madagascar’s wildlife population declines, the people who rely on so-called bushmeat to survive are struggling more and more. People are literally starving.

Our conservation team thought about this a lot. They had initially intended to focus efforts on education but came to understand that this is not an issue arising from a lack of knowledge. For these people it is a question of survival. It doesn’t matter how many times a foreigner tells you not to eat an animal you’ve hunted your entire life, if your child is starving you are going to do everything in your power to keep your family alive.

So the vets changed course. Rather than focus efforts on simply teaching people about lemurs, they decided to try and use veterinary medicine to reduce the underlying issue of food insecurity. They supposed that if a reliable protein source could be introduced for the people who needed it, the dependence on meat from wildlife would greatly decrease. So they got to work establishing new flocks of chickens in the most at-risk communities, and also initiated an aggressive vaccination program for Newcastle disease (an infectious illness of poultry that is of particular concern in this area). They worked with over 600 households to ensure appropriate husbandry and vaccination for every flock, and soon found these communities were being transformed by the introduction of a steady protein source. Families with a healthy flock of chickens were far less likely to hunt wild animals like lemurs, and fewer kids went hungry. Thats what we call a win-win situation.

This chicken vaccine program became just one small part of an amazing conservation outreach initiative in Madagascar that puts local people at the center of everything they do. Helping these vulnerable communities of people helps similarly vulnerable wildlife, always. If we go into a country guns-blazing with that fire for conservation in our hearts and a plan to save native animals, we simply cannot ignore the humans who live around them. Doing so is counterintuitive to creating an effective plan because whether we recognize it or not, humans and animals are inextricably linked in many ways. A true conservation success story is one that doesn’t leave needy humans in its wake, and that is why I think this particular story has stuck with me for so long.

(Source 1)

(Source 2- cool video exploring this initiative from some folks involved)

(Source 3)

[handforthstudy]

Unfortunately, I don’t have citations, but I have heard about the same phenomenon through Nat Geo Live presentations in the Amazon and Serengeti. Most individuals who are poachers or use slash-and-burn farming are doing this out of survival, not ignorance or greed. They have families to feed and children who will starve if they don’t find food or money. As OP said, fixing the human suffering fixes the conservation issue and is a win-win, while preaching conservation to starving people does nothing.

But on top of that, you know who the most ardent conservationists are once security has been achieved? The people who had once been forced to poach or slash-and-burn to survive. You know who’s great at tracking down gorilla poachers? Ex-poachers. Who’s good at understanding and advocating for people forced to do these things to survive? Ex-poachers. Who can convince others to take a chance on finding a better way to survive? Same answer.

It is win-win-win. As ecologists, conservationists, and environmentalists we must get out of our ivory towers of knowledge, stop carrying them into the field, and remember humans are part of the ecosystem too. And that sustainable change will never happen if human needs aren’t addressed.

[buttons-beads-lace]

I also love this story about the arapaima in Brazil. They increased the population of this endangered giant fish literally a hundred times over- from 3,000 to 300,000- by ending the total ban on arapaima fishing and instead creating legal fishing organizations. The fishing organization members get trained on how do population counts and determine how many fish they can take while still leaving enough for the population to grow.

The former illegal fishers are now sought-after experts, because they know how to spot the arapaima and tell juveniles apart from adults. They get to keep practicing the fishing skills that were passed down to them. The actual process of fishing is easier because they can work together and don't have to sneak around. The profits are higher because they can sell the fish openly to restaurants and to the public. The fishing organization members make sure that other people in their communities don't fish illegally. And the numbers of arapaima keep going up and up, so there's plenty to go around even as more people join the fishing organizations.

If you click all the way through to the report from the conservation org that started the fishing organizations project, there are quotes from fishing organization members:

"We built a second house and I'm putting my oldest two kids through college on the money we get from fishing."

"Nowadays you have young people walking around with pockets full of cash saying "I got 6,000 from fishing this year!" It used to be you wouldn't even get 50 reais of pocket money."

"At the first harvest after we started the fishing organization, I saw full-grown arapaima for the first time, really big ones like they're supposed to be. Before, I had only heard about how big they could get. That's when I knew that our work was paying off and we could keep moving forward."

[busket]

sometimes I think about how rattlesnakes are starting to adapt to bite immediately instead of using their rattle as a warning, because this defense mechanism that says "im here! im frightened! don't come close or ill bite you" has instead ilicited a reaction of "oh fuck a rattlesnake, i should kill it"

so of course every snake that has the instinct to warn humans of its presence gets killed, and only the snakes that bite first and dont make themselves known get to survive. a human who's been bitten is too worried about his swelling ankle to decapitate a snake with a shovel.

it's a good example of how humans make the world more dangerous for ourselves by believing that we have mastery and ownership of it. we think we have the power and importance to control the life around us down to the snakes and insects, but every animal fights for life. and no animal thinks that any human is more important than it's own life.

[bonniebugsy]

Remember: an animal that is growling (or rattling in this case) likely does not want to hurt you. That's their "fuck off" warning, not their kill engine revving up.

[mattibee]

*sniffing you with my antennae* hm. i do not think you are a leafs