birdandmoon:

I made this to try and explain a really, really complicated part of climate change.

brsis:

lets talk about this fella here a moment

this baby is a ribbon eel, part of a group of fish called the moray eels. moray eels are basically hilarious because they are always fucking delighted (they can’t actually close their mouths so basically they’re grinning from ear to ear every moment of their lives).

wait i hear you say, if they can’t close their mouths how do they eat. pharyngeal jaws, my friend, pharyngeal jaws. don’t know what those are?

have you ever seen alien?

i shit you not, moray eels have a second set of teeth in the back of their throats that are spring loaded to jump out and grab things that swim into their mouths.

now if that wasn’t awesome enough, the ribbon eel is the only protandric moray. that means that although this little fella is clearly, by his colouring, a young adult male, give him a long enough lifespan and he’ll get bigger, turn yellow-brown, and become female.

that’s right, this is a species made entirely of young pretty men and powerful older women.

also if you put them into captivity they stop eating and die within about a month. the ribbon eel lives to be free~

(Source: whoagifs)

diloolie:

poveglia:

thoughtlessarse:

If it looks like a male lion and is perceived as a male lion—well, sometimes it isn’t. That’s the case of Africa’s unusual maned lionesses, which sport a male’s luxurious locks and may even fool competitors.

Though uncommon, maned lionesses have been regularly sighted in the Momba area of Botswana‘s Okavango Delta (including the individual pictured below), where the lion population may carry a genetic disposition toward the phenomenon, according to Luke Hunter, president of the big-cat conservation group Panthera, which collaborates with National Geographic’s Big Cats Initiative. (The Society owns National Geographic News.) (Click pic to continue.)

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fagology:

diablosita:

The Loneliest Whale in the World In 2004, The New York Times wrote an articleabout the loneliest whale in the world. Scientists have been tracking her since 1992 and they discovered the problem:

She isn’t like any other baleen whale. Unlike all other whales, she doesn’t have friends. She doesn’t have a family. She doesn’t belong to any tribe, pack or gang. She doesn’t have a lover. She never had one. Her songs come in groups of two to six calls, lasting for five to six seconds each. But her voice is unlike any other baleen whale. It is unique—while the rest of her kind communicate between 12 and 25hz, she sings at 52hz. You see, that’s precisely the problem. No other whales can hear her. Every one of her desperate calls to communicate remains unanswered. Each cry ignored. And, with every lonely song, she becomes sadder and more frustrated, her notes going deeper in despair as the years go by.

Just imagine that massive mammal, floating alone and singing—too big to connect with any of the beings it passes, feeling paradoxically small in the vast stretches of empty, open ocean.

“A cryptozoologist has suggested that the 52-Hertz whale could even be lonelier than we realize, a hybrid between two different species of whale, or the last survivor of an unidentified species, plying the oceans in a doomed search for another of its kind, singing its broken song.”

I CRIED

(Source: erickimberlinbowley)

samaralex:

Green Vine Snake by Suhaas Premkumar

“The Green vine snake (Ahaetulla nasuta), is a slender green tree snake found in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It is diurnal and mildly venomous, normally feeding on frogs and lizards. Green vine snakes are slow moving, relying on camouflaging as a vine in foliage to hunt.

The snake expands its body when disturbed to show a black and white scale marking. Also, they may open their mouth in threat display and point their head in the direction of the perceived threat. There is a widespread myth in parts of southern India that the species uses its pointed head to blind its human victims.

The species is viviparous, giving birth to young that grow within the body of the mother, enclosed within the egg membrane. Their venom is mild and causes swelling, with symptoms usually subsiding in three days. [Source: Wikipedia]”

particlesandpsychedelia:

This pitcher plant (Nepenthes rafflesiana elongata) has evolved a unique relationship with the small wooly bat. Instead of consuming insects like the chamber of most of its close relatives, this plant’s chamber provides the bat with a perfect place to roost during the day. The guano left behind by the bat provides the plant with all the nourishment it needs.