Link reblogged from Dear Future Cat with 9 notes
what if all the cats in the world suddenly died? →
an article
Hands down one of the most BS articles I have ever… EVER read. Though… really what I can I expect from a yahoo article written by someone who has no idea what they’re talking about.
Say all the cats die- well it’d smell up a storm and you’d have people mourning their cats everywhere (and yeah, it’d be pretty sad) but once that initial period passed… you would have a situation that all biologists have secretly dreamed about at least once in their lives. A day when you don’t have to wonder what extremely imperiled animal was just mutilated by a cat, a day when you can rest assured that another species won’t go extinct at the paws of a feral feline.
I can’t decide what I dislike more-
1) the insane commentary happening below the article
2) the article itself
3) the fact that there are people who think they’re journalists but don’t even bother to try to do any real research (AND THEN EGREGIOUSLY MISINTERPRETED THE RESEARCH ON CATS IMPACT ON WILDLIFE)
or
4) the way the person horribly twisted the words of the vet (somehow I highly doubt they’d agree with what was said in the article).
Perhaps even more so there’s no way that articles going anywhere, and now that people have read it online its now been stored in their head as “fact” and I’m sure I’ll eventually end up hearing that as an argument why free roaming outdoor cats are critically important to keep the hoards of plague bearing rodents at bay.
Source: idontsleepbecauseof
Video with 13 notes
Things birders say…
This is amazingly accurate (all you birders and people who put up with us would agree).
Link reblogged from Meccha Awesome with 20 notes
Majors That Will Get You Into the 1% →
Undergraduate Degree Total (% Who Are 1 %) (Share of All 1 %)
Zoology 159,935 6.9% 0.6%
Clearly those must be vets… or… top level animal planet people (or maybe really rich professors?) because:
the average salary of a wildlife biologist: $63000.
the average salary of a game warden: $54,950
These two are the two of the main career paths for a zoology degree (just about all zoology degrees end up working for the federal government or at a consulting group (which does pay a little better))
Or maybe we’re just really good at saving up our money and not spending it on fancy cars and stuff?
Post with 6 notes
Naturalist Big Year Challenge
As you may/may not know this year I did a mini-big year challenge with multiple species quests, I fell short on all three but did get to see some cool things. So I’ve put together a Naturalist big year challenge… anyone is welcome to participate with me on any level (say you just know birds, you can do just a bird version) as it’ll be a great reason to get outdoors and notice what’s around you.
The challenge:
- 50 Mammal Species
- 100 Reptile/Amphibian Species
- 500 Bird Species (but a sane person would strive for 200-300)
- 25 Fish Species
- 200 Plant Species
- 100 Insect Families
- 5000 species observations entered into a standard online database- ala INaturalist, HERP, EBird, etc.
- Maintain all outings in a field journal, I’ll be following the Grinnelian Method (I’ll try to find a good description of how to do it)
I’ll be tagging all of my posts related to this adventure with “naturalist big year” and would love to know if any of you are going to be partaking in any aspect of the “big year” quest. :)
Photo with 6 notes
“Museum specialist Charley Potter sorting fluid preserved specimens of bats from research collections at the Smithonian’s Museum of Natural History from shattered glass jars toppled during the Aug. 23, 2011 Virginia earthquake.”
Hopefully there was minimal damage to the specimens.
Photo with 5 notes
My lifer Crotalus atrox (Western Diamondback Rattlesnake) I have a few better pictures, but this’ll do for now. :) He was a feisty one… buzzing the whole time and coiled up as soon as he saw me- Tucson Arizona.
Photo with 13 notes
Biology of the Rattlesnakes Symposium: Part 1
So I was a bit starstruck by seeing quite a few famous rattler herpetologists waiting in line to register… but I think I’ll get over it soon (so I can talk with some of them).
We got a ton of awesome free stuff (and some purchased stuff- bought the hat and the shirt) and there was an amazing display of live rattlesnakes. It was really funny when they rolled them in, they were in their display tanks on the cart being pushed by the front desk staff. I wonder if they had to pay extra to the hotel to bring in live venomous reptiles…
I can’t wait for tomorrow!!
Link reblogged from Meet the Bird Diva... with 44 notes
Tracking Timber Rattlesnakes →
WATCH THIS VIDEO - Here’s my Conservation Correspondent story from last week on NewsChannel 5. Spent an amazing morning with biologists tracking and talking about Timber Rattlesnakes.
Photo reblogged from (±0.2 Billion Years.) with 27 notes
Dyeing fish and making them transparent seems to be all the rage these days. So here’s a cool picture of a frog that’s undergone the same treatment. The treatment itself consists of staining bones and cartilage and then using enzymes to render the actual flesh transparent but not actually removing it.
While curating the fish collection today we found two jars of fish done up in this style… its amazing and I want to know more about it!
Photo reblogged from The Pnakotic Manuscripts with 22 notes
Doris Mable Cochran (1898-1968), measuring a turtle shell by Smithsonian Institution on Flickr.
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