Weird Animals

this animal's kinda weird - why is it jumping into leaf piles? for what reason? it is weird to do things for no apparent reason

https://youtu.be/Tu3HN-MmJc4

oh it's like that huh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu3HN-MmJc4

Does the animal think that there is potentially food or a mate inside of the leaf pile, with which it may fulfill its biological imperatives? I do not understand

I think that lystrosaurus is adorable, WKIW

Lystrosaurus gurgles a barely audible "THANK YOU, FRIEND" at you from its pus-encrusted mouth/anus combination orifice

Lystrosaurus is the ORNALDO BLOOMPS of Pokemon.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-46258616

"We opened those intestines up like it was Christmas"

lol that stood out to me as well

(totally fascinating, btw)

Very much so!

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1769/2959/products/Wombat_poo_500x500.jpeg?v=1560320854

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/02/the-beetle-that-pretends-to-be-an-army-ants-butt/516522/

Excellent.

Went down a rabbit hole from that which led me to witness the following sentence fragment

mites in the genus Adactylidium, which mate inside the body of their mother before they are born

This is life

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adactylidium

That is metal, gross, and amazing.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-54284952

weird heroes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwxV1wbBrfU

the high lonesome sound

I think my neighbour has one of these...

some beautiful pictures in here. a sub to Nat Geo is still worth it btw.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/10/wildlife-photographer-of-the-year/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/25/science/african-crested-rat-poison.html

Two interesting tidbits:

Rodents can't vomit.

This:

While doing field work in Kenya, Dr. Weinstein was horrified when a gang of monkeys broke into her lab and absconded with some of the team’s crested rat fecal samples. In the chase that ensued, some of the packets of poop ripped open, scattering scat all about.

“The monkeys, I think, were equally disappointed,” Dr. Weinstein said. “That’s not what they were hoping was in there.”

Excellent weird animal content

all time intro para imo

For a rodent that resembles the love child of a skunk and a steel wool brush, the African crested rat carries itself with a surprising amount of swagger. The rats “very much have the personality of something that knows it’s poisonous,” says Sara Weinstein, a biologist at the University of Utah and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute who studies them.

BEAUTIFUL: A ribbon eel swimming by. pic.twitter.com/QpJgjEpwIm

— Oceana (@oceana) December 8, 2020

seamless gif

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/07/science/pandas-horse-poop.html
with this key bit of info

“Maybe it’s like Vicks VapoRub, or maybe like Tiger Balm,” Dr. McShea said, describing the tingly feeling they cause.

“I don’t know, though,” he added. “I’ve never rolled in horse manure.”

lol and gross. BTW, that article spurred me to check the Wikipedia entry for pandas to see if any changes have been made to their classification, and I was honestly surprised to see that they are true bears after all!

that eel is my friend

NEW TURTLE DROPPED
NEW TURTLE DROPPED
NEW TURTLE DROPPEDhttps://t.co/yQ88pRxVvP

— Be Just & Fear Not | Let None Survive (@SuperNerdMike) December 22, 2020

of all the articles not to use photos for...
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/02/opinion/sunday/2020-animal-news.html

also I posted this in the streaming thread but it's more appropriate here:

Something new/old that i got into this week is NHK Japan's DEEP OCEAN from 2015, which is four episodes of super alien deep sea ichthyology narrated by David Attenborough that will leave you in constant amazement at the weirdness of the natural plan. Get to know the jellynose fish! The Mariana snailfish! The bioluminescent barbeled dragonfish!

The best part: Joe Hisaishi, the music director responsible for all the Ghibli/Miyazaki films did the score for the whole series and it is FUCKING MAGICAL. I can see rewatching this for sleepytimes in perpetuity.

It was recently ported over to HBO Max in the US, though the fourth episode (set in the Antarctic) is oddly AWOL. You should try it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHXpMN-wZuU

Wild! It looks like a kindergartener's craft project.

"The ONLY LGBT-friendly fish dating sim!"
https://joffeorama.itch.io/benthic-love

meet the genetically-identical potentially-invasive Marmorkrebs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marbled_crayfish

http://www.sci-news.com/biology/myotis-nimbaensis-09249.html
http://cdn.sci-news.com/images/2021/01/image_9249_2-Myotis-nimbaensis.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ZNWbrl4.png

This chonky boy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7foAsAfuAXo

the jug-band call is great and i love their temple-sweeped "ears"

okay folks: we got ancient genitals

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/science/assassin-bug-penis-fossil.html

Among them were the insect’s basal plate, a stirrup-like structure, and hints of the pouch-like phallotheca, which supports the penis. In living assassin bugs, the entire package looks not unlike a Darth Vader mask, or a translucent athletic cup.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/science/dinosaur-cloaca-fossil.html

Dr. Kelly said she strongly suspected that most dinosaurs would have been of the penis-toting variety: “For the most part, if you have internal fertilization, you have some method of sticking it in.”

hot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl_MbvSUvTk

33-Year-Old Bat: I am the night.

Caretakers: You are an adorable senior citizen. pic.twitter.com/pgxAa9JORG

— Sonya The Outsider (@sable_sonya) February 2, 2021

http://i.imgur.com/qkyeCoZ.png
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2021/01/tiny-chameleon-smallest-reptile-discovered-madagascar/

Scientists have discovered a tiny new species of chameleon in a patch of rainforest in northern Madagascar. This so-called nano-chameleon is about the size of a sunflower seed, fits on the tip of a finger, and may be the smallest reptile on Earth.

Officially known as Brookesia nana, or B. nana for short, the new species is so tiny it’s thought to survive on a diet of mites and springtails, which it hunts down in leaf litter.

Finding such a small reptile raises interesting questions about the lower limits of body size in vertebrates. It also highlights the astonishing—and highly threatened—biodiversity of Madagascar. Scientists suspect the chameleon will soon be listed as critically endangered.

B.nana!!!!

In other wholesome weird animal news, would you believe a vegetarian spider?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygn8V5mHUBk

The horrifying feeding habits of the world's largest single celled organisms in Antarctica

In Antarctica, there’s a single-celled foram that’s big enough for you to see and even pick up. And it is possibly the most terrifying predator on Earth. pic.twitter.com/WZUb1vBb13

— 𒇷 𒁯𒅗 (@Lee__Drake) February 6, 2021