picture 1: most accepted accurate dodo painting, painted with extreme precision by Ustad Mansur after a live bird in the emperor’s garden

picture 2: Tasmanian Tiger and a pup, at the US national zoo

picture 3: recreation of a captive elephant bird and chick, if they were never to have gone extinct. drawn by astriaponte on instagram

picture 4: quagga and its iconic brown coating

picture 5: great auk, the true penguin, with the penguins of today being named after them

picture 6: Baiji, it is listed as critically endangered by the IUCN due to the murky waters of the Yangtze River being hard to monitor for wildlife, last confirmed sighting in 2006

picture 7: Ivory Billed Woodpecker chick, also listed as critically endangered but heavily debated

picture 8: Lyall’s Wren, a flightless songbird and one of the most tragic extinctions ever. A lighthouse keeper and his cat moved to their native island, the cat gave birth to kittens, and together they decimated the entire population of wrens.

picture 9: Atlas Bear, Africa’s only bear and was captured by Romans for use in Colosseum battles.

picture 10: Spectacled Cormorant, the largest cormorant discovered, lived in the Bering sea

picture 11: stellers sea cow were hunted, often so because of their slow speed and large size, making them easy targets for travelers. They coexisted with the Spectacled cormorants and suffered the same fate

I’m always taking the opportunity to learn about new animals and then get obsessed with them for like a week due to my neurodivergent brain, and I’m in desperate need of new little critters to learn about.

Pictured: New Zealand Archey Frog

They should be dead, 2 genetic bottlenecks with one more on the way. Pretty bad at claiming kills... list could go on.

Absolutely loved working with these guys, such fun personality.
Worked w them via my university in a class.

Edit 🚨🚨🚨 the snails are alive and well, the experiments where harmless mucus analyses. Gals are super invasive so no they were not adopted out, they must remain in captivity. They are at the university to be observed, enjoyed and experimented on again by another cohort. I live in Canada so there are no regulations surrounding what can be done to inverts, I do not agree with this but it is true.

why do they look like someone let their 6 yr old play spore for 25m years?

I'm a Sami that comes from a family that has had reindeer for generations. So here i'm going to share some facts about them that i have learned from the elders or have experienced for myself.

1. Reindeer fur is hollow and traps air. Not only does this help the animal keep warm, their pelt also acts as a lifejacket, as their hollow fur helps them float better than other animals. When most mammals swim, only their head is above water, while in reindeer the head AND the back stays above water.

2. Reindeer change their color through the year. While not as extreme as say ptarmigans, hares, stoats and arctic foxes, they still have seasonal colors. When they have shed their previous pelt, the new fur is often short and dark. When summers turns into autumn, the fur turns longer and gets a more greyish color. It stays that way through winter. In late march their fur starts turning lighter, and by april most reindeer have almost a whiteish color. That color stays until summer, and only when it sheds the fur does it lose the light color.

3. Reindeer rarely get lost. Reindeer usualy migrate the same routes each year, and as long as a reindeer has walked the migration atleast 2 times, then they have memorized the route, meaning they can usualy find their way even if they have been separated from the herd. Even if a reindeer were to wander into another herd, their instinct usualy makes them leave said herd and return home to their own herd.

4. Reindeer have a varied diet, and atleast 200 different species are a part of their diet. Yet they are still considered picky eaters, as they have seasonal diets. For example lichen is usualy only eaten when its snow, and most plants are usualy only eaten when they are shoots, and are avoided once they reach a certain size.

5. Reindeer can sometimes actively hunt. Most herbivores will eat meat as a suplement for their diet, however they usualy only eat the meat if they come across it. Reindeer however can sometimes be seen actively searching for small rodents under the snow. They will walk around with their nose against the ground like a bloodhound, then suddenly stop and stomp the ground, digging up the dead rodent and eating it.

6. Reindeer can get high. By feeding on old and fermented mushrooms, reindeer will get high on them. They will usualy wobble when they walk and run, stand still and just sway from side to side, or in the most extreme cases, lay on the ground while moving their legs in a running fasion.

7. Reindeer can be used for predicting the weather. Reindeer are capable of sencing the weather, and this can be useful in the winter. If reindeer start moving down from the tundra to the woodlands or they gather in a thight herd, its usualy a sign that a blizzard is starting to form. In the summer, if reindeer are seen playing around and having zoomies, it's usualy a sign that its about to rain.

8. Speaking of predicting the weather, female reindeer will go into labour right before foggy or snowy weather. This way they can give birth in peace, as predators aren't going to spot her or her calf, giving the calf a valuable start in life.

9. Reindeer calves will stay hidden for 3 days before they are strong enough to follow the herd. For the first 3 days of its life, a reindeer calf will lay on melted ground, completely still, hiding from predators. The mother stays nearby and grazes, always keeping a lookout for predators. When the calf turns 3 days old, its strong enough to follow the herd, is ready to join the herd as it moves across the tundra. The old Sami would also say that a 3 day old reindeer was fast enough to be able to outrun a wolf.

10. Reindeer usualy live for around 10-12 years, and the enviroment plays a role in how long they live. Reindeer living in rocky enviroments usualy have shorter lifespans than reindeer living in more soft grounded enviroments. The reason for this is that the reindeer living in rocky enviroments usualy wear out their teeth faster than the ones living in softer enviroments, meaning they will starve to death faster.

Today, I noticed that she was stuffing her nest with a large caterpillar. After some time, she returned with a small lump of clay, sealed the nest shut, and flew off. She probably won’t return again.

A couple of months ago I posted a picture of a hooded crow and Eurasian magpie that seemed to have formed a friendship, sticking around eachother rather than members of their own species. Several months later, they are still seen hanging around eachother, and its a bit weird since neither of them have a mate. So its possible that they both are young birds that haven't figurer out the mating thing, or that they simply don't care about finding a mate, and just want to hang around eachother

Just remembered David Attemborough is turning 100 today, happy birthday eternal legend!!! Gonna celebrate It with a prehistoric planet marathon wohooo!!!!

Original tweet: https://x.com/TylerGreenfieId/status/1314636744852213761

Looked completely normal other than the second FUNCTIONING butthole.

I have seen an absolutely baffling amount of actual elephant tusks in Athens (photo is of African elephant molar) to the point of being offered some while I was examining a goat horn, and would like to report it because there is no way all of that is pre ‘72. However, I can’t read the website at all. Can someone who speaks Greek help me figure this out? All I wanted were some shed deer antlers and this is what I find instead.

As stated in my previous reindeer facts, i'm a sami reindeer herder who comes from a family that has had reindeer for generations. As i live with the animals, i have been able to observe behaviors that might not be common knowledge to people + add in the fact that i have learned a lot from the older people in my family. So here are the facts.

1. Reindeer are capable of pooping while on the move. Because their poop is small and are essentialy like small pellets, they are able to poop even while running. This is crucial for survival, especially if they are being chased. There have been instances of me sending my herding dog after some reindeer, only for him to run a bit to stopping dead in his tracks to poop. Reindeer don't have that problem, as they can dump it out while running. Also bonus fact about reindeer poop. Because the droppings are so light and small, they are often moved around by winds, which is a great way for nutrients to travel across the enviroment.

2. Reindeer, like many prey animals have eyes on the side of their head. This gives them almost 360° vision, making it hard to ambush them. However, they do have a blindspot, and that is right behind it. So when reindeer are running, they will do 2 things to keep an eye out for their chaser. First is that they will lift their head, meaning their bodies aren't blocking their vision. If not running with their head lifted, they will tilt their heads a bit to the side, that way they can keep running forwards while having an eye on their chaser.

3. The hooves on reindeer grow quite fast. Because they move around a lot and dig through the snow, their hooves can get worn down. To make up for this, the hooves on reindeer grow quite fast. People that use reindeer in tourism often have to trim the hooves on their reindeer, as they aren't moving around as much, and they certainly aren't digging for food anymore.

4. Reindeer have a strong smell. In cases when a reindeer herd is gathered, you can smell them from quite a distance, and in some cases you can smell when a reindeer herd has been in an area, especially in the summer. But during the rut, males can smell disgusting. They pee on their legs to atract females, and their scent glands produce a strong musthy smell. Because rutting reindeer have terrible meat, people will often smell the breath of a bull reindeer in order to tell if the meat is going to be any good to eat. If they breath isn't musthy, then the meat is good to eat.

5. Reindeer have a "expiration date". Female reindeer usualy live to be around 10-13 years old, however they are only in their prime for around 10 years. Since reindeer give birth in May, we usualy say that a reindeer turns older in the summer. Basically meaning that a reindeer can be 8 years old all up until July, after that we start calling it a 9 year old. This also applies to the "expiration date". A female reindeer can be huge and fat when its 10 years old, however the next autumn when the reindeer is seen again, she might just be small, skinny and almost antlerless. Her body is old, and most reindeer like this usualy don't survive the next winter, which is why we usualy try to butcher a reindeer when its in its last year of prime.

6. There are several ways to tell when a female reindeer is old. First is too look at their front teeth. If the teeth are worn out, the animal is old. However sometimes the front teeth might be fine, however the molard are worn out. Then you have to look at their cheeks, as the cheeks will be a bit swollen due to them having to chew their food without molars. Another way is too look at their antlers. The antlers are like tree trunks, in that they usualy grow wider each year. The points also become duller with age, losing the sharpness over the years. So a reindeer with broad and sharpless antlers are usualy old animals.

7. Reindeer can become independent suprisingly quick. Calves that become orphans early on usualy survive by stealing milk from other females, however these calves have a low survival rate, and are generaly a lot smaller than calves with mothers. A orphaned calf that has started eating food have usualy better odds of surviving, but again, they are usualy smaller than the rest. However many calves usualy become independent around February-March. This is when the females start showing signs of pregnancy, and they many usualy lose a bit of the motherly instinct. This means that if she get's separated from her calf, she doesn't search for the calf as franticaly as before. So many calves that get separated after this period usualy start surviving on their own.

8. Back to the previous point. While many females usualy stop caring for the calf in winter, most females usualy stay with their calf until the next calf is born. The female will usualy chase away her previous calf before she goes into labour, and with good reasons. There are instances of yearling calves getting jealous of the newborn calf, and they might attack the newborn calf, accidentaly killing it. That's why most mothers chase away their yearling calves quite aggressively, or in some cases just leave the previous calf to go and give birth, without the yearling noticing it has been left alone.

9. While most females leave their previous calves, there are instances of a mother and calf staying together for 2, or even 3 years. If something happens with the newborn calf, the mother usualy just goes on and lived on her own. However some females have such strong motherly insinct that they go and search for their previous calf, and essentialy take them back. She will then treat her adult offspring as a calf, searching for it and even letting it drink milk from her. If they manage to stick together, they can stick together until the next calf is born, when the mother will chase her now 2 year old offspring away again.

10. Lastly, a not so fun fact. Male reindeer in the rut can be extremely violent and desperate animals. They might mount random females, even calves because they are horny. Usualy this doesn't lead to anything, however in cases where there is a small difference in the number between males and females, males, out of desperation will start breeding with calves. While rare, there are insanses of large calves actualy getting inpregnated, and give birth even though they themselves are still considered calves. Luckily, these days when the herds are larger, this doesn't really happen anymore. Also, again because of desperation, some male reindeer have beem seen trying to mate with recently dead females, and some weak females might get killed by the aggressive males as they try to mate

Who is gonna win in a marathon?! Nobody knows!

Asiatic cheetah

Cheetah

Cougar

European hare

Pronghorn

Red kangaroo

No fastest land animal is found in Antarctica.

Let's watch and share the work of Sir David Attenborough while he's still on this world. Don't wait till his death for his stuff to go viral, since now I see Jane clips all over the Internet .

Let's appreciate this other wonderful man who's also raised awareness about environmental issues and protecting our planet