r/zoology

I don’t mean just bigger but tens to hundreds of times bigger.

Because it makes more sense that if a male survived to mate then that it had suitable traits as a male

Similarly for females.

Hence it’s like if the female gene parts of a male species is taken, that gene might not have been suitable for the environment

Does anyone have credible sightings?

I've heard lots of people talking about black sheep (i.e "the black sheep of the flock"), but in all my life, I've never seen anything made out of black wool. It's always either white or dyed a different colour. Do black sheep just produce white wool, or does their black wool get bleached white because white wool's worth more?

idk how to word this but we differentiate animals into mammals, reptiles, birds, and more specific types like lions, elephants, giraffes, ostriches etc. so let's say if a cat saw a bird, does it know that it's a bird or do they just percieve it as prey/food, or like if a snake saw a lion would it know it was a lion or a furry snake with limbs? i also read somewhere that cats think of humans as cats who can't cat properly, so for example would a panther be just a big cat to your average house cat? i still can't word this properly

When I was growing up (ages ago), there were thought to be four living species of great ape (not counting humans):

- Common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
- Pygmy chimpanzees or bonobos (Pan paniscus)
- Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla)
- Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus)

Since then there have been some developments:
- Eastern gorillas (Gorilla beringei) were recognized as a separate species from western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla), instead of a subspecies.
- Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) were recognized as a separate species from Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), instead of a subspecies.
- Tapanuli orangutans (Pongo tapanuliensis) were discovered to be a separate species.

Notably, nothing changed about the taxonomic status of chimpanzees (Pan). And yet I feel there has been a change in the vernacular terms for them. "Pygmy chimpanzee" has dropped entirely from usage in favor of "bonobo", which make sense, since they're barely any smaller. But also I notice more people using "chimpanzee" to just refer to Pan troglodytes.

This feels like a bad move to me, because it leaves Pan without a vernacular term. It also seems inconsistent -- why wouldn't we also restrict "gorilla" to Gorilla gorilla and "orangutan" to Pongo pygmaeus, with new names for the other species (say, "ingagi" for Gorilla beringei, "mawas" for Pongo abelii, etc.)?

What do people think?

When I was in class, my teacher told me that tigers have white spots and stripes on their faces and ears, which mimic eyes. This helps them avoid being attacked by predators while drinking or eating. I was really shocked by this piece of knowledge. What surprised me wasn’t the function of these markings, but the fact that there used to be creatures that hunted tigers in the wild in ancient times.

Additionally, regardless of whether or not this trend is true, are there any other forms/species that many animals have been found to evolve into over time?

I live on a forest property. We have pet ducks, living in a duck pen, with a kiddie pool in it, filled with water at all times, that often gets splashed out, obviously. Around the pool is a ring of big natural stones. Underneath the pool, between it and the stones, lives a huge toad, bigger than my palm. Most likely a common toad (Bufo bufo).

When I say it "lives" there, I mean it is sometimes there when I lift the pool up to empty and clean it. Also, late one evening, I saw the toad walking near the pool.

(Funnily enough, the exact same thing happened many years ago, when we had a duck pen on the opposite side of the property. It might be the same individual toad. Maybe this dude just love duck pools.)

I want to remove the toad, because the ducks might hurt him, and I think he can't get out of the duck pen, the wire fence has pretty small holes in it (I have no idea how the toad got in).

Now for my question: The toad obviously wants to live in a cozy, wet place, so I don't want to chuck him into any old bush. Can I build a wooden box for him that will make him super comfortable?

What do I need to think about, it that case? Should it be small and have a low ceiling, so he can jam himself snuggly in there, like in a crevice? Should I put wet moss around the floor, walls and ceiling, so it stays moist?

Etc.