Me, waking you up at two am: hey, do you ever think about how we live in a culture of rejecting our local “wild places” in favor of fetishizing and romanticizing the distant and different?
There’s this overwhelming rhetoric we’re fed that the only nature worth protecting is Grand and Huge and most of all Somewhere Else.
Nobody thinks about the wetland behind their local Walmart that is in Desperate need of protection, or the little remnant prairie in a cemetery, because they’re too focused on the abstract and often flawed concept of “wilderness” somewhere else.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to travel to see something new and unique, but the way I hear people talk about our own backyard, the way the last remnants of what we have here are ignored or outright rejected, breaks my heart.
My professor has spent his entire career in the Midwest trying to protect wetlands from housing developments and new superstores, but he almsot always loses, not just because the developers have money, but the community doesn’t care enough to do anything about it.
Afterall, what’s a few old oak and birch trees in a little puddle of a swamp compared to miles of marsh in Scandinavia? What’s a grassy hill to a distant mountain range?
Well, to the duck, to the heron, to the bluebird, and to precious few people, I’d say it’s Everything.
I love to travel myself, and I know people probably don’t know that when they say “why is our wildlife/plant life etc. so lame” that they’re contributing to an attitude of rejecting what unique beauty we do have,
But
I hope one day people can see the wonder nearby and fight to protect it. I hope there’s something left to protect.
Anyway…..where do u keep your cups I want some water.
This year, as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Migratory
Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), our most important bird protection law is under
attack. Legislation in Congress (HR 4239), and a new interpretation of
the law by the administration, would end the ability to hold industries
accountable for bird deaths.
These proposals would prevent enforcement of “incidental” bird
deaths, removing incentives for companies to adopt practices that
protect birds from threats such as oil waste pits, and eliminating
penalties for companies that kill substantial numbers of birds,
including from large oil spills.
Lake Chapala, the largest fresh water lake in Mexico, is being taken over by invasive water-weeds. Aipromades, an organization that cares for the lake, partnered with the Peace Corps and IBM Corporate Service Corps to clean it up in economical and environmentally-friendly ways. The weeds, called water hyacinth, spread very fast and cover the lake, which throws off its ecological balance by reducing water flow, oxygen levels and the fish population. The team developed sustainable alternative uses for the water hyacinth and other practical implementation methods to help clean up the lake, so future generations have a clear way to enjoy it and avoid pollution.
Dad kept hiding pine nuts in the pages of this magazine and letting Edgar root around for them.
(Edgar cannot be released to the wild due to an injury. He now works as an ambassador bird and general household nuisance.)
Edgar has added to his vocalizations since I last saw him! He used to only say “oh wow” in a really sarcastic voice and to mimic the trill of a screech owl. Now he also screams “WHAT?!” and mumbles “what a WHOPPER!”
It was hysterically funny discussing politics with him in the room. We’d mention some new scandal and he’d randomly interject with cries of astonishment.
Please let Edgar know that I love him
Edgar has graced my dash twice today and I learned something new each time. I too love him.
I love everything about this, most of all the fact that you named him Edgar because it makes me think of Poe’s “The Raven” immediately
His full name is Edgar Allen Crow.
I want to meet this Edgar Allen Crow. Als were can I get my own beautiful birb like Mr. Edgar here?
Crows make terrible pets. In the USA, it’s illegal to keep them and other native birds as pets without special licenses. Edgar lives at a bird rehab center as an educational animal due to a foot injury that would make it impossible for him to survive in the wild, and while he is relatively tame, he is really not a pet. Crows are not domesticated in any way. Highly intelligent and social birds like Edgar have mental and emotional needs that even the best, most devoted caretakers can barely provide adequately. Furthermore, they do not have the temperament of thoughtful roommates. They are chaos entities who seek to destroy, pester, and agitate.
If you want to interact with crows, find and volunteer with a local bird sanctuary or rehab center. Although most birds in those places are intentionally kept as wild as possible, they often have ambassador animals like Edgar that are relatively well-socialized for display and education.
I’ll be grabbing some articles in a separate set of posts for better weight but till then I’m gonna start with this post here;
When people hear about plants that are poached by plant collectors to the point of being endangered/extinct we hear plants like orchid species, carnivorous plants like venus fly traps, sundews, and pitcher plants. One that gets thrown under the bus and forgotten in that word of warning though it always tends to be the succulents and especially the cacti.
Cacti are thought of as these plants that are utterly indestructible, taking on environments that many other plants cannot. This is true but it often comes at a price; most grow/reproduce super slowly in the wild and can take years just to reach sexual maturity, making them particularly vulnerable when mature plants are taken from their habitat and brought into horticulture. Also like other wild collected plants, there comes a huge risk of either bringing pests/diseases into domestic plant collections (via the poached plants) or making the collected plants all the rarer by killing them off from the pests/diseases that already exist in plant collections.
Except in extremely specific circumstances (a habitat being destroyed for urbanization/agriculture being one of those cases) cacti should not be taken from the wild, nor should they be purchased from sources which encourage the collecting of wild cacti. Leave wild cacti alone and enjoy/admire them from afar, and instead support responsible horticulturalists that sell cacti propagated from nursery stock (which do so from seed and/or cuttings). They may be smaller than their wild counterparts due to the difference in age, but they will reach that magnificent size with time, and will at least make sure that such old plants still exist in the wild in the first place.
Also in many places here it is straight up illegal to take plants out of their natural habitat. As in I’ve seen tourists being arrested for trying to take cacti and flowering plants from reservations.
^ exactly. This is not some morally grey area “police will overlook it” kind of illegality, you can be arrested for taking plants from protected areas, as well as just collecting rare/endangered plants period. It has been tourists and overzealous collectors that have made many exotic/rare plants species extinct in botanical history and as such they are gonna be pretty strict to keep any more from going extinct from the exact same cause. Only time there’d ever be an exception in collecting in such places would be through certified collectors with the license to collect these plants in an attempt to propagate/preserve that specific species (case in point the one propagating program that’s been going on in the Hawaiian islands), which is a very uncommon/rare occurrence and even then that can be walking on ecologically thin ice.
In reiteration, DO NOT WILD COLLECT. ESPECIALLY IN PROTECTED AREAS AND RESERVATIONS.
THE PLONTS ARE HAPPIEST IN THEIR HOMES WHERE SOME OF THEM HAVE LIVED FOR LITERAL DECADES!!!
also if you choose to propagate the sharp babies from (legally sold) seed, I think u will find that much like many conventionally cute animals the baby cacti are like. the sweetest and most perfect babies ever. like they’re the size of a pin top at about 6 weeks old and it’s just…..the most pure thing I’m on mobile so I can’t add pics but raising cacti man. do not take them from the wild when u can cheer them on from seed in ur home????
I’ve grown Ferocactus and Schlumbergera before (and I’m on browser rn) so I can provide some pic examples of cacti bbies for you @botanyshitposts;
Don’t let that closeup fool you on the size, here’s a pic of some schlumbergera seedlings next to some pennies;
Most species in the Cactaceae aren’t too difficult either and are about as easy to start from seed as starting annuals from seed (albeit at a slower pace).
Reminder that plant poaching is a thing and it can have horrid consequences the same way animal poaching can.
A new chapter in the wild began today for 26 eastern indigo snakes reared at the Zoo in the latest milestone in a conservation partnership to restore a native species to its original range. In a collaboration between Zoo Atlanta, the Central Florida Zoo’s Orianne Center for Indigo Conservation and Auburn University, the snakes were released into the Conecuh National Forest near Andalusia, Alabama, on July 14, 2017.
Previously to the beginning of a reintroduction effort, the eastern indigo snake had not been sighted in the wild in Alabama in around 50 years. The snakes are a keystone species of the longleaf pine-wiregrass and sandhills ecosystem, and their reintroduction carries significant positive ecological benefits for the national forest.
Zoos are known for their conservation work on other continents around the world, but conservation begins in our own backyards. This is a notable example of a project that continues to have a direct impact on re-establishing an iconic species in its native range.
Our Zoo has reared more than 80 eastern indigo snakes for the reintroduction program, which is a cooperation among stakeholders throughout the Southeast. Additional project partners include the Alabama Department of Natural Resources, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and The Nature Conservancy.
The newest group of reintroduced snakes had been reared here since 2015. As they had been designated for release into the wild, the young snakes received care and feeding in behind-the-scenes facilities where they had limited interactions with humans. In this environment, the snakes were able to grow to a size capable of avoiding many of the predators that feed on juvenile snakes.
Prior to their release, the snakes received passive integrated responder tags (PIT) for identification. Preliminary results from tracking efforts have shown that previous groups of reintroduced snakes are surviving, thriving, and reproducing.
To date, more than 100 eastern indigo snakes have been released into Conecuh National Forest, a majority of which have been reared at the Zoo. The goal of the project is to release 300 snakes over a 10-year period at an average of 30 snakes a year.
The largest nonvenomous snake species in North America and a native of southern Georgia, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina and Mississippi, the eastern indigo snake has declined across its historic range with the destruction of its ecosystem. This decline is also observed in Georgia’s state reptile, the gopher tortoise, which creates burrows that are often used by eastern indigo snakes and other species.
Eastern indigo snakes play an additional valuable role in their environment by keeping other snake populations in check, as they are known to eat venomous species, including copperheads. These snakes are not constrictors; instead, they overpower their prey using the crushing force of their jaws.
To learn more things people dont realize about zoos here ~>
One of my very favorite reptile species! It warms my heart to see captive breeding programs finally come to fruition and the animals in the programs get the chance to return to their homelands. Go with God, little reptiles. Your planet needs you!
People who ‘love nature’ but violently hate their native coyotes, spiders, snakes, and scavengers are fake.
Here’s the thing about the post. You don’t have to love or even like every animal. You can dislike things! Humane, intelligent pest control is fine and necessary. This isn’t the issue and never has been.
It’s violent, blind hatred and hypocrisy that’s the problem. People who gush over foxes and owls and hawks but want coyotes and snakes dead in the next breath. People who will rescue prey from predators because predation is mean. People who find it appropriate to leave sadistic comments on pictures of spiders or snakes someone is appreciating or owns. People who insist on labeling species as ‘good’ or ‘evil’. This is the sort of behavior that bothers me.
People who only appreciate nature when it’s aesthetically pleasing to them and want to destroy the parts they find ugly and unpleasant don’t truly understand or love it. They love an ideal that isn’t actually representative of reality.
Ok, but what good are wasps? I’m really curious.
Wasps are one of the single most important insect predators. They control not only other insects but also spiders, as well as acting as pollinators for certain plants (such as fig trees, which famously cannot fruit without a wasp inside them) there are hundreds of different types of wasp, the vast majority of them harmless to or fearful of humans.
texas rat snakes are neither invasive nor overpopulated in texas… which is their native range… something cant be invasive in their native range. there are many because there are many resources for the snake- namely, rats. it was extremely unethical of your professor to remove the animal from the wild especially for the shitty reasons he gave. im appalled that someone involved in higher education would say such selfish and false things and be so uneducated and yet still claim to be concerned about other animals.
i always immediately jump to: “would they have killed a cat?” cats are much more dangerous to endangered species than native snakes.
what the hell man.
People say the same thing about crows and ravens here, that they’re bad because they kill songbirds.
Everything is bad, foxes and ravens and snakes are all bad because they kill birds. The windows on your patio though? Your cat? Your copious amounts of pesticide and weedkiller? Suddenly “oh they’re just birds.”
This is your periodic reminder to stop feeding, petting, grabbing, and otherwise harassing the wildlife. In addition to the danger you put yourself and other people in, when you habituate a wild animal to human food or contact you set them up for disaster. A fed animal is a dead animal.
Pretty much this. This situation happened because the sea lion was habituated to people and brave enough to start looking for food to steal (my best guess is the edge of the kid’s dress looked like the paper wrapping on a sandwich). Don’t fuck with the wildlife, because it fucks up the life of the wildlife.
Photos that I have been proud of, spaced about a hundred and fifty days apart.
It’s always good to see that I’ve learned something in the last four years.
It hasn’t quiiiiite been another four years, but here’s how I’ve progressed since (Photos spaced ~150 days apart since the last in the previous series)
PiraticOctopus 