zaebalovsenahooy:

weasowl:

i-am-already-panicking:

mangokitkats:

solanastera:

plummyplums:

shock:

shock:

Do you all want to see a puppy that was so fucking hugelarge his mom had to get a C-section only specifically because of this puppy

big baby!!!

My child.

My friend’s dog had the same happen. They were supposed to have 4 puppies, they got one single puppy the size of 4 newborns bc he absorbed his siblings before they were fully developed. They named him Pangea.

They Named Him Pangea

and he was roommates

OH MY GOD HE WAS ROOMMATES

loki-laufysbum:

balloonpony:

tyleroakley:

peterfromtexas:

Next time you go walking around barefoot in the water…

NOPE

No worries, that’s a Bobbit Worm. They live on the ocean floor, and unless you’re able to withstand a ton of pressure, you likely wouldn’t have your toesies nipped off by one since they live deeper than people walk on the ocean floor.

Bobbit Worms are kinda cool. And they were named after Laurena Bobbit, who cut off her abusive husband’s penis and threw it out of her car window as she drove off.

Wait.

socialjusticeichigo:

golbatgender:

socialjusticeichigo:

cyborgbutterflies:

socialjusticeichigo:

I feel like it’s become less socially acceptable to hit your pet than it is to hit your child. And that’s… kind of absurd.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s absolutely abhorrent to be hitting your pets too, but I feel like when someone hits an animal everyone’s like, “Holy shit. Someone call animal control? How can you hit something that can’t even fight back? This is disgusting.” and then when someone whacks their kid everyone’s like, “Well, you know. That’s just their parenting style.”

Messed up history facts time.

The first recognized victim of child abuse was a girl named Mary Ellen Wilson. In 1874.

There was very little protection for minors before then. Children were considered the property of their parents and barely anyone intervened when they were mistreated.

Mary Ellen was rescued from unfit parents only after the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) stepped in on her behalf. ASPCA advocates pointed out that if Mary Ellen were a horse or a dog, her mistreatment would be prohibited by statute. 

A judge agreed that the young girl deserved at least the same protection as an animal.

It is morbid enough that animals were legally more protected than children and that this very comparison was used to extend legal rights to children.

But the worst part is that a lot of parents have apparently not updated their beliefs since then and still treat children as property that they can do anything they want to. That is what a lot of people consider an ideal “traditional family”.

Whoa, I had no idea. That’s wild.

Dogs have more enumerated rights than minors in the state of Pennsylvania.

For serious? That’s all kinds of fucked up.

lesbianvenom:

my friend’s sister is an animal behavioralist and said that the reason aren’t many lesbian penguins because girl penguins don’t traditionally do mating rituals and just wait for their mates to come to them so really there’s no difference between lesbian penguins and lesbian humans

cryoverkiltmilk:

epicwalrus:

followmetoyourdoom:

xenosaurus:

i-hate-vegans:

nbcnightlynews:

WATCH: The Oregon Zoo in Portland was closed to the public today due to heavy snow – but the zoo’s residents had a blast.

Oh my GODD THE POLAR BEAR GOT SOME SNOW HE MUST FEEL SO REFRESHED

relatable seals at the end there

“Hey Joe! Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe look!!! It’s snow!”

I need more of this shit!

Those happy elephant sounds cleared my skin and watered my crops.

i don’t really understand why you would be pro-zoo. like i understand nature reserves and sanctuaries where people can observe from afar, but it doesn’t seem right to me when they’re locked up in generally small confined areas for people to watch them do nothing all day. idk maybe i’m getting this wrong, and i still really respect you, i just don’t understand this. like i interned at a zoo and felt uncomfortable with how small their living areas were and how they had no stimulation

elenilote:

oscarwetnwilde:

zoogeek327:

nyxetoile:

merp-a-derp69:

useless-zoofacts:

bigcatawareness:

Zoos don’t look like this anymore.

image

They look like this:

image
image
image
image
image

Good zoos do not keep their animals in “tiny spaces” with no enrichment.  I’m not pro-roadside zoo.  I’m pro-accredited zoo.  Zoos are incredibly important for conservation and education.

There should be way more pictures of modern zoos so i just add some more

Seriously zoos do so much important conservation work as well I hate when people shit all over zoos as if the animals are locked up and not looked after

The SF Zoo has two sea lions. Now, if you know SF, you know that sea lions are a Thing. They’re all over Pier 39 and various other beaches in N California. In fact, the zoo is near the ocean, so there are sea lions not 200 yards from the zoo entrance. So having sea lions in the zoo seems sort of superfluous.

Except the sea lions are blind. One was found as an adult after suffering a gun shot wound to the face that destroyed his eyes. The other was found as an adolescent, weak and starving because it had been blinded and unable to hunt. So they were rescued and introduced and the zoo built them a nice pool where they can swim and sunbathe and people toss them fish. It’s not the biggest exhibit, or the fanciest. But it’s a home for them, where they’re safe and well fed. Sea lions aren’t the most romantic of animals, but they’re a part of SF culture and a lot of us have a soft spot for the loud, bulbous things. And because of zoos, these two get to live long, happy lives.

Whenever anyone complains about zoos, I think about Silent Knight and Henry. 

I think it’s St. Louis zoo that is saving big cats in Africa. Scientists couldn’t figure out what was killing off the local lion population. They were dying off from Canine Distemper. The local unvaccinated dogs of the towns would spread the disease to other animals or have it themselves. When the lions ate the infected animals they would catch it as well. You know what that Zoo is doing to stop this disease? They are going over to those towns and vaccinating the dogs for free. The community loves it and people from other villages comes for miles to get their dogs vaccinated as well.

They also do work with camel populations because the local human population use the camels for food sources the zoos help monitor the camels health.

Another zoo, I want to say it’s the Oregon zoo but don’t quote me on that, is helping female inmates. The zoo works with the female prisons by encouraging the inmates to assist in the breeding and raising of endangered species of butterflies. They plant the specific plants that the butterflies and catapillars need, raise them, and release them. These inmates get noted in any scientific journals that get published. They are giving these inmates a sense of accomplishment and validation.

Zoos not only save species but bring together and assist communities in an effort to save the environment. Zoos, good zoos, are essential to the future and I will fight anyone who tries to say otherwise.

PS you don’t see PETA doing any of this.

One of the local zoos in my area at one point rescued a bald eagle that had been shot and kept it in the zoo to let it recuperate until they freed it again. Some of the zoos in my state will keep injured animals there until they heal again.

Helsinki Zoo is the world leader in snow leopard and Amur leopard conservation, in their care these endangered species have managed to breed more than anywhere else in captivity and this in turn has enabled the re-introduction of these animals back to their native habitats. https://www.korkeasaari.fi/helsinki-zoo/

wheremyscalesslither:

end0skeletal:

vinegardoppio:

hellohowdareyou:

end0skeletal:

briancrafterussell:

magicturtle:

angstriddentrashhuman:

captain-raptor:

oodblood:

ladyoftheteaandblood:

end0skeletal:

unidentifiablelifeform:

end0skeletal:

Polycephaly is the condition of having more than one head.

Two-headed animals (called bicephalic or dicephalic) and three-headed (tricephalic) animals are the only type of multi-headed creatures seen in the real world, and form by the same process as conjoined twins from monozygotic twin embryos.

While two headed snakes are rare, they do occur in both the wild and in captivity at a rate of about 1 in 10,000 births.

Most wild polycephalic snakes do not live long, but some captive individuals do. A two-headed black rat snake with separate throats and stomachs survived for 20 years.

(Sources: x x x x x x x x)

Why does this seem to happen to snakes so often compared to other animals? I mean, you don’t see this happen to dogs or cats very often but snake embryos seem almost eager to mix it up every once in a while and pull a two-for-one deal in the head department.

The consensus seems to be that polycephaly occurs more often in reptiles than other animals, but the why of it, as far as I could find out, is relatively unknown. Polycephalic animals appear so infrequently and they survive for such a short time that scientists just have not been able to study them sufficiently. If anyone can find more information about why it happens more often in reptiles, feel free to chime in. In the meantime, enjoy these two-headed lizards and turtles:

Can you imagine the arguments!

One thought real quick: two-headed dinosaurs

oh my god i will lose my fuckin mind the day that fossil is found

@magicturtle two headed dinosaurs seems like something you’d be down for.

Rawr YEAH!

I think I misunderstood the assignment.

Um not to put a dampener on the idea of two headed dinos but aren’t dinosaurs closer to birds and birds most likely don’t have two heads.

Birds are reptiles! That sounds insane, but let me explain.

Biologists use a system to classify animals called the phylogenetic system, which means animals are grouped together based on their ancestry. In this way, birds are reptiles because they’re more closely related to reptiles than anything else, crocodiles in particular. In fact, crocodiles are more closely related to birds than they are to lizards.

The first groups of reptiles evolved about 300 million years ago. About 40 million years later,  a group of reptiles called therapsids branched off, which eventually became modern mammals. Other groups of reptiles split off over the next 120 million years, one branch being the dinosaurs. These dinosaurs were only distantly related to modern snakes, lizards, and turtles, groups that had split off at different times. But 65 million years ago there was a massive extinction event, and all dinosaurs were killed except for a single group of feathered dinosaurs. These evolved over the next 65 million years into modern birds.

So birds are dinosaurs, and dinosaurs were reptiles, and thus birds are reptiles.

Additionally, there were two-headed dinosaurs! Well, at least one. That we know of.
I can’t add the picture bc mobile but here’s a link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061226-two-heads_2.html

#somebody not on mobile add the picture please?

here you go

however, the above mentioned and pictured fossil was not a dinosaur – just an aquatic reptile from the Cretaceous period – which is still badass! also this is one of the coolest threads ever.

Excellent additions!

A point I forgot to mention in my birds-are-reptiles ramblings…two-headed birds are definitely a (rare) thing. This bird with two heads and three beaks was found in Massachusetts. (x)

This is the true reason I got involved in Tumblr. Bring back these posts!!

runcibility:

end0skeletal:

Tremoctopus is a genus of cephalopods, containing four species that occupy surface to mid-waters in subtropical and tropical oceans. They are commonly known as blanket octopuses, in reference to the long, transparent webs that connect the dorsal and dorsolateral arms of the adult females. The other arms are much shorter and lack webbing.

Tremoctopus violaceus exhibits the most extreme degree of sexual size-dimorphism known in any non-microscopic animal. Females may reach 6.6 feet in length, whereas the males are around one inch. The last photo shows a close up of the male octopus.

(Sources: x x x)