Scuttling and Slithering @unidentifiablelifeform - Tumblr Blog

PDFs and Presentations I have made:

Toads are amazing amphibians, the fowler's toad is one of my favorites, and they bring me joy every time I see them. Watch this presentation to learn more about them!

Would you like some tips and resources on gardening and caring for plants? Want to learn how ecology ties into plant care? Read this document!

Looking for a hobby that will bring interest to even the most 'ordinary' places? Read this document to begin your journey into the world of bugs, and its countless wonders!

Enjoy thinking about animals, plants, and other living things? Why not consider some Queature Questions?

#animals #plants #nature #gardening #bugs #insects #frogs #amphibians

everydaylouie

royal albatross checkup

unthrifty--loveliness-deactivat

Just so we’re clear, if I point out that you did something racist, that’s not the same as me thinking you’re irremediably terrible. You did a racist thing.

unthrifty--loveliness-deactivat

You think you don’t do racist things, homophobic things, etc? You do. I caught myself in fat phobic and homophobic lines of thinking/speech just this morning. I’m fucking gay married. Nothing disqualifies you from acting in a way that reflects the society you exist in. We are obliged to fight it. Why not fight it in honesty and with camaraderie?

claybefree

shroomfucker

and dont u mothrfuckerrs forget it!!!

butt-rice

i wish there was a way to say "you're right, but this is really ineffective and even counterproductive messaging to anyone who doesn't already agree with you" without sounding like an asshole

raptorcivilization

Visit Original Link

birdandmoon

What critters are common in your neighborhood, but really exciting to visitors?

YourWildCity.com | Patreon

bunjywunjy

SANDHILL CRANES

these fuckers are everywhere, they’re as tall as you are, and they will walk down the street like they own it (they do. are you going to argue with a 5″+ tall bird with a beak that big?)

bogleech

This is the most awesome shot of a wasp nest I’ve ever seen, photographed by itchydogimages on flickr - it’s AMAZING how you can see every development stage from egg to pupa in order of the oldest to newest nest cells, and their mom’s not only staring down the camera but has her wings in the upraised “STAY AWAY FROM MY BABIES” posture! “V” wings mean they might sting you if you don’t back off! There isn’t enough respect for the fact that wasps sting primarily to protect their young, and they only had to evolve that way because we did in fact keep eating them for thousands of years. There are many places where wasp larvae are still in human cuisine.

#trypophobia #insects #Bugs

david-arruda

Some works for science textbook. The kind that I love.

botanyshitposts

#prev tags:#made to put on my dorm room door #or next to my desk i havent decided yet #isoetes

The democratically elected council of Easter Island has signed new agreements to secure funding, research, and maritime patrols

#good news #fix the news #conservation #marine biology #rapa nui

mossworm

samandriel

my rooster doesn’t crow when the sun rises, he crows when he hears humans wake up, like you can literally just roll over in bed and he’s like “hoLY SHIT THAT’S A PEOPLE THE HUMAN ISAWAKE AHHH AHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

samandriel

the same rooster - god guys he’s so cute - he always lets hens eat treats first and won’t have any treats until they’ve had as much as they want, unless it’s a blueberry. shit, blueberries are like serious fucking business for Pharaoh. he’s a gentleman until the damn blueberries come out and then he don’t play no fuckin games

samandriel

in case you were wondering this is him

dragon-in-a-fez

under US law, it's illegal for anyone who's not a member of a recognised native tribe to own an eagle feather. the penalty is a $100,000 fine.

14 years ago when I had recently moved to Alaska, I went hiking with an Aleut friend, and she pointed to a feather lying on the ground and said "hey that's a bald eagle tail feather, you should grab it!" and I was like "uhh I'm very white and that's very illegal" and she went "they're fuckin everywhere up here man. I have 20." so she grabs it off the ground and hands it to me and says "there, now it's a ceremonial gift from an indigenous person."

and I'm like, okay, cool, I guess this is how we do things in Alaska. nice.

so I keep this bald eagle tail feather around for years. display it in my home among other cherished memorabilia from places I've lived and visited, etc.

on a whim, I have just now looked it up. there is no exemption to that law for a ceremonial gift from an indigenous person. the last 7 years I lived in the US, I was technically a bald eagle poacher.

probably a good thing I don't intend to move back there anytime soon. I wonder what the statute of limitations is on bird crimes.

dragon-in-a-fez

@freedomisscaryshit I'm fucking dying I think you forgot the word "feathers" in your tags?? or do you just wish you could grab whole ass eagles that land in your yard??

emotional-support-husband

As an Indigenous person, it continues to astound me that there are such strict laws (written by White people) in our name, laws against...picking up things just found on the ground. Like, stop pretending this is "for" us. We don't want this.

dragon-in-a-fez

so, for clarity, that's not what this is. the law against possessing feathers is an anti-poaching measure, derived from a North American treaty protecting certain migratory bird species from hunting. that treaty has an exemption for indigenous people to allow tribes that use eagle feathers in ceremonial or religious practices to continue doing so.

chekhovs-raygun

i used to collect feathers (illegally) as a teenager and the thing is that it's incredibly important for feathers from wild birds to be illegal to possess because it ensures that they never become fashionable to wear. the reason we passed the migratory bird act was because the american and european fashion industry was driving species to extinction in a timespan of years. not just decades. the ecological devastation of exporting birds for hats was absolutely insane and people were watching wetlands and forests and meadows just empty out in realtime. look at the wikipedia article for the plume trade.

the law against 'picking feathers up off the ground' means that you can't go shoot an eagle then sell the feathers on etsy by saying you 'just found them'. you can't own them no matter where they came from, which makes sure that they're not going to come from any birds killed and then secretly disposed of.

these laws, as harsh and ridiculous as they seem, saved flamingos, spoonbills, egrets, and all kinds of hawks and eagles from extinction. the minute these laws weaken and people can make money off killing them again, they're fucked.

lizardlicks

this is one of those "no actually this regulation exists for a reason" laws much like work place safety and building fire codes (that Republicans keep trying to roll back) and is written in blood just like them as well. it's just not human blood this time, and the fact that people actually cared enough about long term future over short term profit to get it put in place is nothing short of astonishing. That it didn't get put in place in time to save several species is heart breaking.

bogleech

How do animals like insects and crabs, with a hard outer coating, experience touch? Are their carapaces innervated to such a degree that they can feel using it, or can they only feel things with the more exposed, fleshy parts of their body?

That’s actually why they’re hairy!

In some arthropods the hairs can be so tiny they’re invisible to us, but they’re there, sensitive to touch and vibration!

northerlygale-deactivated202307

throwitonthepile

sporifluorous

Dave Brandt was so much more than a meme. He partnered with universities to experiment with and expand soil conservation and cover crop techniques, worked to educate other farmers through worldwide conventions and direct mentorship, founded the Soil Health Academy, and was called the "Obi-Wan Kenobi of soil health" by the chief of the USDA's conservation department.

There is no healthy planet without healthy ag practices, and this guy was a legend.

asteroidtroglodyte

The A-horizon on his farm was 4 feet deep

You do not understand

Most modern Ag operations don’t even have a proper A-Horizon. They’re too busy turning the earth every time they replant. The A-horizon is the Black Gold that makes Soil Soil. It’s a structurally complex soil horizon that must be built in place by the interactions of Plants and Fungi and Insects. It is The Thing that soaks up rain and holds onto it for plants. The A-Horizon is The Thing that builds up when you let a field sit fallow. The act of tilling creates fecundity by breaking up the A-horizon. On a really good Organic no-till farm you might find an A-horizon between 3-6 inches.

His A-horizon was 4 feet deep. 50 inches.

I-

I have no context. His farm was covered in a living skin thick enough for a child to stand in.

Gives me hope for what we could accomplish if we got our collective heads on straight, you know? Like. This was one guy. A brilliant man, who knew what he was up to, but. The thing about brilliant ideas is they can be shared.

50 inches. The mind reels.

improvrich

This is so much more impressive than I can understand and comprehend and I would love to know more about A horizon

asteroidtroglodyte

Do you love the color of the Soil?

Humus, or Humic Compounds, are a cryptic and poorly understood set of organic substances. As the final metabolic result of once-living things being digested first by macroscopic organisms, and then by microorganisms, they resist most forms of analysis, and have cryptic structures. A few that we have managed to isolate and study are the Humic & Fulvic Acids.

Humus has a number of remarkable tendencies. It is capable of retaining water far better than any raw mineral clay; it also retains electrically charged clay granules, which themselves retain mineral ions, all of which is essential to make a soil a high-quality resource for Plants to grow in.

A composter is a box that contains an environment that is conducive to the production of Humus, but the best way to produce it is in-place, by laying layers of organic material down over an unbroken earth and growing things out of that. The interaction of the plants rooting, the fungus weaving itself through everything, the bacteria and archaea metabolizing as they do, and inorganic weathering forces all combine to gradually build up the microscopic equivalent of a complex megastructure capable of retaining far more water, and containing far more nutrients, than any inorganic substrate.

This stuff is black gold. This is the stuff that determines whether or not a plot of land is going to be “productive.” The knowledge of how to make it, how to care for it, is an essential piece of wisdom that our civilization needs to remember.

Fortunately, folks seem to have the right response: