Sorry for the blurry video — this was taken around dusk on my property in northern Vermont. The animal didn’t seem startled by me at all and just kept slowly waddling away at the same pace you see in the video. I was surprised by how large it was and how slowly it was moving. I’ve lived in VT a long time and have never seen a critter that looked quite like this. Any ideas?
I was looking up about the whole 'Australian Cane Toad' problem, when I noticed something; the beetles that were the catalyst of having cane toads brought over are described as being "native" to Australia.
So the obvious question I have; how can Australia have a native insect species that targets sugarcane, when sugarcane itself isn't native to Australia?
I know sugarcane is native to some of the nearby Oceanic islands, but from what I could find online, it never got to the Australian mainland until it was introduced by British Colonies around the late 1800's, yet it only took till 1900 for them to be considered a pest large enough to have a government funded body tasked to clear them out.
What were these beetles doing to live before 1850, and how did it only take them less then half a century to have their entire life-cycles based around a plant that didn't exist before?
I love and will try to pet every animal I come across but seeing this video just makes me so uneasy , I do not understand how you can come close to an animal like an alligator? It is giving 0 body language from what I could feel , which helps me the most when I try petting an animal and it's eyes are not showing anything either. Any insights?
video is from @ petcollective on youtube
She’s been here at least 8 hours. I know mom is supposed to come back for her, but this storm is hitting very imminently. If mom doesn’t come back and the hail starts coming down, can I like…put some tree branches over her or something?
If this post is older than 30 minutes or so, it’s probably a moot point. Thanks for any help!
• Species: deer
• Age: unknown
• Sex/Neuter status: unknown
• Breed: na
• Body weight: na
• History: na
• Clinical signs: na
• Duration: na
• Your general location: northeast
• Links to any test results, X-rays, vet reports etc. that you have: na
Edit: the hail is forecast to be “up to quarter size.” The rain has now started, but for anybody curious I did hastily construct a crude lean-to out of spare lumber and a tarp. I’ll take it down once the storm has passed.
Edit 2: At the suggestion of somebody in a cross post, the lean-to has been removed. The hail is beginning to start, no sign of mom, fawn is still here.
I initially thought it could have something to do with flying, and beaks being easier to use than teeth for eating while in flight for some reasons. But then I realized that flightless birds (from ostriches to emus to penguins) also definitely have beaks as well, so that couldn’t (at least entirely) be it.
Despite being one of the most visually recognizable animals on the planet today, the vast difference between public perception and actual biological reality is wider for the capybara than almost any other extant mammal. To the average person, they are a hyper-passive virtual characters. To a field biologist, they are a complex, territorial, obligate social rodents with rigid dominance hierarchies.
Why are there so few people who actually understand the reality of this species compared to other widely known megafauna?
The systemic flattening of capybara ethology comes down to a lack of accessible field data, and the social media's algorithmic population.
The primary reason the average person misinterprets capybara behavior is that the animal's natural stress responses mimic human definitions of "tranquility."
As a primary prey species for (jaguars, anacondas, caimans, pumas, ect.) the capybara's basic survival strategy relies mostly on their eyes, ears, nostrils, and tonic immobility. When they subjected to acute environmental stress, noise pollution, or forced human interaction, a capybara's cortisol response frequently manifests as a total behavioral freeze, rather than aggression. To a casual social media user, an animal sitting perfectly still while surrounded by humans or exotic predators looks like "unmatched zen." In reality, it is a high-stress, physiological state of defensive vigilance. Humans have mistakenly categorized a specialized prey survival mechanism as a personality trait.
Most famous animals enter the public popularity through wildlife documentaries, conservation campaigns, or evolutionary mysteries. The capybara entered the global mainstream almost entirely through short-form video algorithms and meme culture.
Their unusual look makes them a perfect visual punchline, internet culture has completely divorced the animal from its ecological context. This algorithmic hype occurred so rapidly that it outpaced public education. Instead of seeing a wild Caviomorph rodent native to the complex wetlands of South America, tens of millions of people on the internet repurposed them into an abstract symbol of passivity. This resulted devastating real-world consequences, fueling a rapid rise in the destructive exotic pet trade and substandard captive animal cafes where their complex social and semi-aquatic infrastructure needs are entirely ignored.
While many public sites are flooded with decades of accessible field research on wolves, elephants, primates, and cetaceans, deep behavioral studies on capybaras get a severely small amount in regional South American academic journals, primarily in Spanish and Portuguese.
Western nature documentaries historically focused on Africa or the Arctic, the complex social dynamics of capybaras were left out of the popular education. For example:
Strict Linear Hierarchies: Dominant males constantly defend exclusive grazing rights and harems using a complex system of vocalizations and intensive scent-marking via the morrillo gland (Macdonald et al., 1984).
The High Cost of Territoriality: Herd complexities and natural instincts are strong, rapid and explosive territorial fights occur in a short amount of time, making to capture these moments really hard for the casual field photographer (Herrera & Macdonald, 1993).
Communal Trajectories: As complex herd animals, their deep communication means that sudden social disruption, individual isolation, or relocation results severe, chronic psychological trauma and immunosuppression (Moreira et al., 2013).
When we reduce a complex, sentient wild animal to an internet trope, we ignore the complex behaviors and survival strategies they've evolved to stay away in a habitat with nearly a dozen types of predators that hunt for them. We ignore their complex welfare requirements that many times, even zoos can't understand. Capybaras do not need to be celebrated for being "chill"; they need to be respected as wild, complex beings that requires vast wetland ecosystems to survive.
For those in the zoological community, how do we best challenge this overly popular digital anthropomorphism? Have you encountered other species that have been similarly "flattened" by modern media to the detriment of their actual conservation?
Literature Cited & Further Reading
Herrera, E. A., & Macdonald, D. W. (1993). Aggression, dominance, and mating success among male capybaras. Behavioral Ecology, 4(2), 114–119.
Macdonald, D. W., Krantz, K., & Aplin, R. T. (1984). Behavioral anatomy of the morrillo of the capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris). Journal of Mammalogy, 65(2), 226–233.
Moreira, J. R., Ferraz, K. M., Herrera, E. A., & Macdonald, D. W. (Eds.). (2013). Capybara: Biology, Use and Conservation of an Exceptional Micro-Livestock. Springer Science & Business Media. (Section IV: Behavior and Social Organization).
Herrera, E. A., & Macdonald, D. W. (1989). Resource availability and group size in capybaras. Animal Behaviour, 37, 719–728.
Image Credits: beloch used under Creative Commons/Educational Non-Commercial Use
Mammals get more attention because as mammals humans can relate and understand a chipmunk or dhole, or black footed cat more then a Geeko or sectary bird and thus only mammals social structure and ability to feel emotions. Crocodiles are good partners and blow bubbles at their mates
i know like most animals and pets being fat is a sign of abuse but is there any ethically obese animals out there like akin seals or walruses
The cage in the background is the size of a pick up truck
Back at my aunts house a peacock escaped and apparently hanged out with a flock of turkies.
How common is this when a herd essentially adopts another species and lets them hang out
i’m curious about animals that are super rare, but not because their population was destroyed by habitat loss or hunting or anything, they just naturally have a very small population size and are pretty rare
This has been in my family for years but no one seems to know what kind of cat it came from. The story is someone got it from China in the 1980’s or 90’s. My guess is snow leopard but can someone please help me identify it? It would mean a lot to me thanks.
Edit: Thanks for all the helpful comments. I’m going to go through the proper channels now and make sure it goes somewhere legally where it can be preserved or teach others. Sorry to upset anybody we aren’t like red dead redemption out here poaching I was just genuinely curious. I rarely post on Reddit should I just take it down or is that a mod thing?
Found this little guy, I thought his white markings to be quite unique. Maybe a piebald? Had a short tail I got to see before he took off.
They're growing very fast, what can you recommend to give them and keep them warm ?
In late winter, all the way up to late summer, reindeer can be seen tapping and rubbing on their antlers. We Sami reindeer herders say that the reindeer are crafting their antlers. Obviously we don't know if "crafting" is really the right word here, as we aren't scientists, so we don't know excactly why they do this.
However, the reason the crafting word is used is because of the reindeer behavior and the antler growth in general. When the antlers are growing, reindeer will tap and rub their antlers with their hind legs. First, the reindeer usualy rubs the antlers with their hind legs. They have a tube like organ on their hind feet, sitting between the hooves, which could secrete a liquid that helps in the antler growth. Then when they are done rubbing, they will then start tapping on their antlers with their hooves.
The reason i think the "crafting" word is used is because of their behavior in summer. Reindeer antlers grow in the summer, and reindeer can be seen tapping on them. However, you can actualy tell how the summer has been by looking at the antlers. If the majority of the herd has good antlers, then the summer has been good. However if a large part of the herd has smaller antlers, then the summer has been dry and bad. This also corresponds to their tapping. In good summers, when food is plenty, reindeer will spend more time crafting their antlers. In bad summers, reindeer spend more of their time walking around and searching for food, and thus they spend less time crafting their antlers.
Again, we Sami aren't scientists, so we have no way of actualy knowing why reindeer exhibit this behavior. The tapping could aid in antler growth, or there could be another reason they do this. I personaly think the word crafting is used because of their behavior. When they aren't grazing, they are then spending their time crafting their antlers, making them as large as possible.
Hi everyone,
Anyone here interested in AI interspecies communication (e.g. projects like the Earth Species Project) and its potential impact on wildlife conservation - and ecosystems in general?
Obviously it's in the realms of science fiction at the moment. I had a go at imagining what this kind of future could look like, written in first person from the AIs pov, in a piece of very short speculative fiction.
Hope you find it interesting!
