They look utterly ridiculous and they are my favourite thing you’re welcome and goodbye
That’s a fucking Sandshrew.
Take a closer look at that snout!
Okay no but can I tell you more about these amazing creatures? Whereas adorable and interesting to look at, the Pangolin is also unfortunately the most hunted and trafficked animalin the world. In the last decade, millions have been killed at traded, most commonly to China and Vietnam. An estimated 100,000 are killed every single year. These poor cutie patooties are also heavily threatened by rapid habitat loss. There are 8 subspecies of Pangolin living in Asia and Africa, but because of this degree of poaching, all eight subspecies are on the IUCN Red List of animals that are threatened with extinction, and are regarded as one of the most endangered groups of mammals in the world.
And this makes me so frustrated and sad because how interesting are these animals? They are the only mammal in the world to be completely covered in scales. However, it is precisely because of this unique property that they are so hunted. These scales, made out of Keratin just like Rhino horn or Human fingernails, are believed to have medicinal properties (they don’t) by practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine; they are believed to be able to cure everything from acne to cancer. Their scales can be sold on the black market for up to $3000 per Kilogram, and this is a primary driving force behind their rapidly dwindling numbers. Worse, a lack of public and governmental awareness about the threats faced by these beautiful creatures, as well as a lack of funding and political will, have made this illegal trade very difficult to combat and manage, leaving the Pangolins vulnerable to constant hunting.
It certainly doesn’t help that a Pangolin’s natural response to a threat is to curl up into a little protective scaly ball. Whereas effective against their traditional predators (big cats have no idea what to do with them when in that state), this also makes them even easier for poachers to catch and kill them.
While adorable looking, you can kinda see how this makes a poacher’s job a helluva lot easier.
Pangolins are brilliant and special and amazing and don’t deserve this terrible fate. The question now is what you can do to help!
Don’t buy Pangolin Products, and spread the word as well. A relatively simple step. As mentioned, Pangolin scales do not have any special medical properties. So don’t buy them, don’t buy their meat, don’t buy them as decorations, and encourage your friends and family not to as well.
Support The Movement Conservation requires funding. When trying to conserve an animal as threatened as this, funding becomes all the more integral. Help by purchasing a thing or two from the Save Pangolins Online Store. 100% of the profits from this goes to the conservation effort.
Also, help sign this petition to get Google to participate in World Pangolin Day to help raise awareness about their plight! There are a few petitions that come up from time to time, but due to this animal’s relative obscurity and because people don’t know about them, they are small and few in number. Which brings us back to number 1 – spread the word.
Report Wildlife Crimes If you see Pangolins being sold in any shape or form, contact your local authority, or contact one of these organizations below (especially if you’re in the area, be it as a tourist or a local.): Cambodia: Wildlife crime hotline 012 500 094 / 023 224 758 Vietnam: Education For Nature (EFN) Hotline 1 800-1522 or email hotline@fpt.vn ASEAN WEN Wildlife Crime Hotlines: www.asean-wen.org/index.php/crime-report-hotline
Pangolins are adorable and need our help! Every little bit counts!
To end on a happier note, here’s a picture showing how Pangolin mums carry their children around. They ride on the back of their mum’s tail, how adorable is that I can’t.
This little fish lives deeeeeeeeeep down in the ocean and spits that little glob of bio luminescent liquid to momentarily distract predators and escape being eaten
It’s a wizard
ITS LIKE TOOTHLESS IN HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON
This has been corrected before on different comment chains, but the replies with wrong information are far more popular, so here’s a correction again…
Based on information from the narration in the original clip from BBC, the cardinal fish seen here is NOT responsible for making the bioluminescent “liquid”, and the fish is NOT intentionally using bioluminescent puke to distract predators. What happened is that the fish ate a type of ostracod (which is a tiny seed-shaped shrimpy animal) that is capable of bioluminescence. These ostracods are not particularly happy with the situation and begin glowing after being swallowed, which causes the cardinal fish to have a glowy belly. Swimming around with a glowing patch makes it easy to be spotted by predators, and the fish would rather avoid this. As such, the fish pukes the still-glowing ostracod back out, resulting in the “glob of bioluminescent liquid”. The fish itself is not producing the bioluminescent substances, and it does not use the glowing puke as a distraction (at least, not intentionally).
The true wizards are the ostracods; please give them due credit c:
Is this what you guys think it means when GMO comes up in conversation?
Do you know what else is a GMO?
Dogs. Literally ALL dogs have had their genetics modified to make them more docile, loyal, trusting, energetic, obedient ect.
Ears of corn used to be the size of your thumb. Through selective ‘breeding’ we chose the strains of corn that were the biggest, fastest growing, most resilient ect. Ect.
THAT is a GMO. I don’t know where the idea that genetic modification meant they’re injecting your food stuffs with chemicals to change its DNA. That’s not how it works.
However, they ARE spraying your veggies with pesticides and that is something you should be worried about.
Companies like Monsanto are evil. But not because they are breeding crops to feed more people. But because they’re monopolizing the farming market, sueing farmers who share a geographic area and have some of the same strains of crops in their fields because of unavoidable cross pollination and lying about their business practices.
This is Normal Borlaug. In 1942 he received his Ph. D in plant pathology and genetics. In Mexico, he developed semi-dwarf, high-yield, disease resistant varieties of wheat. A genetically modified food. He introduced these to Mexico, Pakistan and India, resulting in double the wheat yields in a 5 year span. In 1970, Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for saving one billion lives from starvation, and contributing to world peace through increasing the world food supply.
Genetically modified food is great.
This, a thousand fucking times this. Privilege is spouting and spreading pseudo-science bullshit you saw on your Facebook feed or on Twitter because unlike people in drought and famine prone areas of the world, you have the option to do just that. Those other parts of the world that don’t have the benefit of a food surplus and can’t pick and choose what they eat depend on GMOs to not die of starvation or watch their children waste away.
I despise Monsanto as much as the next person and if they ever go out of business, I’ll be the first to dance a jig, but condemning GMOs just because one megacorp is a pile of shitbags is beyond idiotic. If scientists can create new strains of seeds that can withstand disease, pests, all while yielding more foodstuff, then we should be throwing our support behind them.
Also, “They are feeding us chemicals!” is a fundamentally ridiculous statement.
Why?
As a chemist, I’m gonna let you in on a little secret:
Everything is chemicals.
Scientists have added extra nutrients to calorie-rich, but nutrient-poor foods that can be grown in countries with limited agriculture. And yet oftentimes they are blocked from getting these GMOs to the countries that desperately need them because of ignorant arguments like this. So yes, pat yourself on the back for stopping a technology that can help prevent starvation because you don’t know how chemicals work.
It’s International Vulture Awareness Day! The only vulture that really frequents my neck of the wood is the Turkey Vulture, so, let me explain you a thing.
Turkey vultures like to eat carcasses that have rotted to the point where they’re no longer attractive to other large scavengers, like foxes, coyotes, or raccoons. This is the point when the carcass is absolutely filled with pathogens. The longer that carcass sits there and rots, the more time it has to spread diseases out into the environment, including Clostridium botulinum. For those not familiar, C. botulinum is the reason you never, ever, ever want to eat food from a can that’s bulging or otherwise compromised. The bacterium itself wouldn’t be that bad, except it produces botulinum toxin, the most potent toxin known to man that’s not ionizing radiation. The LD50 is 1 nanongram.
ONE.
NANOGRAM.
That’s one of the many reasons that animals like coyotes, raccoons, opossums, and other vertebrate scavengers want nothing to do with an overly-rotted corpse. You know who doesn’t give a shit about botulism, though?
The Turkey Vulture.
Not only does C. botulinum not make Turkey Vultures sick, it somehow lives in harmony with their immune systems. Other pathogens like anthrax, E. coli, and swine flu are promptly nuked by the bird’s incredibly powerful stomach acid.
Basically, Turkey Vultures and their kin are out there taking disease-ridden corpses that could spread deadly illnesses to humans and other animals, and converting them into sterile fertilizer.
So, the next time you see one of these guys circling a thermal, or sun-worshiping in a tree, you don’t necessarily have to make yourself say he’s handsome, but, at least show a little respect, because they deserve it.
SCIENCE HAS CONFIRMED THAT DOGS LOVE US BACK BECAUSE THEY GET THE SAME RUSH OF OXYTOCIN WHEN THEY LOOK AT US THAT WE GET WHEN WE LOOK AT THEM
Are you telling me that dogs are looking up to us and think “omg what an adorable fucking cutiepie”?
a while ago I read an article about how dogs love us back, but recognize that we’re different from them, while cats see us as bigger and clumsier than them, but do not consider us different
Dogs: I am fuzzy creature and you are a different adorable creature and I love you!!!!! Cats: I am lanky and graceful and you are a giant fucktard
(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ✧ 