earth

I was going to make a jokey post with just a caption but I did a reverse image search at the last minute. I'm happy I did.

Teaser

About the size of a full-grown gray wolf...

That's news to me. I thought they were about mid-sized dog-sized.

The Surprising Way Capybaras Outwit Jaguars in the Brazilian Pantanal

The world's largest rodent is a jaguar's favorite snack.

By Krista Langlois

December 12, 2023

Nick Garbutt was leading a photography tour in the tropical wetlands and flooded savannas of Brazil's Pantanal region when he spotted a dark shadow in the brush. It was a jaguar, and the cat was stalking a family of capybaras munching plants at the edge of the Paraguay River. Although jaguars are agile swimmers and have been known to prey on turtles, crocodiles, and even dolphins, one of their favorite foods is capybara—the world's largest rodent, about the size of a full-grown gray wolf.

In places like the Pantanal where jaguar populations are particularly dense, capybaras tend to stick close to rivers and other bodies of water. Even though jaguars don't mind getting wet, capybaras have a greater chance of swimming to safety than scurrying away on land. The semi-aquatic rodents have webbed feet to propel them through water, and—as German explorer Hans Staden described in 1557—"when anything alarms them, they flee into the water toward the bottom." Capybaras can hold their breath for up to five minutes, and are so well adapted to their aqueous habitat that they've been filmed trotting along river bottoms.

As Garbutt watched from a boat, the jaguar crept closer to the capybaras. About 60 feet away, the predator paused. "Suddenly," Garbutt recalls, "the jaguar rushed, but the capybaras were fractionally quicker, leaping immediately into the water and diving beneath the surface."

The jaguar didn't follow, and the capybaras eventually resurfaced in a neat line, the mother loudly barking her alarm. Capybaras' eyes, ears, and nose are all perched high on their heads, allowing them to stay mostly submerged with just the crowns sticking out like periscopes. These capybaras stayed in the water, while the jaguar crouched on land, watching.

"It was an amazing little snippet of behavior to witness," Garbutt says. It was also an example of the ways in which predator-prey relationships shape the ecosystems of the Pantanal and beyond. In places where jaguars have been extirpated, for example, capybaras venture farther from waterways to forage, and have been known to reach such high population densities that they're sometimes considered a nuisance. The lack of jaguars is partially to blame—or thank—for the hundreds of capybaras that have "invaded" a gated community and torn up manicured lawns near Buenos Aires, Argentina. But out in the suburbs, when capybaras face off against resident pet dogs, there are few places where mamas and kids can dive to safety.

I was sitting at my computer by the window (email job) and a carpenter bee came up to the window and hovered there for several seconds. What was it looking at? There are no flowers around here. CIA?

UPDATE: it returned - I raised my phone to take a photo and it zoomed away. Evidence.

For those unaware of the totality of our goals this year:

What hick-up there have been were from self-serious people unaware of just how much opportunity actually laid before them, due to their lack of investigation. This is a drop in monthly donations via liberapay and patreon on an unfounded basis of "unprincipled behavior" Sungmanitu is accused of. This accusation comes from the IACI due to Sungmanitu following the proper procedures in handling disagreements (that they have yet to post the procedures we agreed to, and prefer to tell you orally so they can leave out convenient details), that they then project PlantsFanon's uncomradely and liberal attitudes to protect egos. "You have to admit that he played you like a fool" was what was said to me, as if they were unaware they are the ones vouching for him. At any rate, he went on to call me anti-science for having a critical position on nuclear (I am pro nuclear and we expect half the building if not all to be paid for by nuclear engineers lol Ideally we will use micro reactors but thats a lot of red tape, research, and democratic struggling).

Upon seeing the anti-science BS, I saw it for what it was, a colonial canard to distract from the actual criticism be leveed just as they did at TMT (Mauna Kea) and countless other places, Indigenous people had stolen and poisoned. The actual issue at hand however was about Plants willful and ignorant representation of Lenin wrt to the colonial question, and the policy of korenizatsiia (which was primarily written by Stalin, based on Stalins work, and implemented and not reinforced by everyone but Lenin who had suffered 2 strokes by the time it was instituted. I only write these first paragraphs to explain what we have not addressed officially (mainly waiting for the finished website which should be out by summer) rather than continue that drama groups drama, I should self crit for supporting them as long as I did, however part of my allying with them was to get to the root of their intentions in the larger movement which seems far more driven by clout than education but thats my opinion :)

Due to the position we have actually trying to determine energy policy in NDN country already, we felt we had to take a principled stand due to being called in by the communities we serve and are far better and more useful allies than podcasters and streamers with barely an audience. SO I will admit our decision was clout motivated, but it never had to be a public debacle as it was made by them (plants decided to vague post as he is known to do). Our clout is built on serious people, who actually take revolution serious, but want people to still be human beings as we discuss these things and understand people aren't perfect. Those complaints aside we are excited to announce that we have launched the food forest program, that will hit 4 primary objectives: 1)feed the people 2)return biodiversity 3)Stop desertfication 4)build community 2 and 3 are almost the same in so far as our plant to stop desertification is also one that returns biodiversity, but honestly we would say all 4 fit under the first and or better yet: landback. Our argument is simple, slogans are only slogans until you can materially back them. Therefore landback is a quicker way to say Peace Land and Bread if you want it to be, so why not make it so?

On their way from the South East to the Great Plains, a storm had been coming to meet them. Now many would see this as a set back, they saw it as a willing companion preparing the ground for the work ahead. Being forced to stop in Valentine Nebraska, they wondered around one of the nearest bordertowns to Rosebud reservation. They brought an entire food forest, tons of hand sanitizer, and has they stopped picked up a small library to help with the work that we showed above

These folks were really great about their opsec and remaining underground, but they see the same need we do, a need for the aboveground part of the movement to make moves to invent the future now. Because of this they are willing going to film the first hand accounts of the project, we will be doing a podcast interview with them, and ideally showcasing this stuff on streams. It is really an honor and a pleasure to have put this network together. We are trying to get to 2500-3000 a month to provide 500 stipends to field organizers to carry out their work in ways we dont have to oversee (a stipend is a good enough description for tax and disclosure purposes, helps keep specifics to entrusted circles) we have 8 candidates already we think could replicate everything we are doing and more where they are: the thing instead of supporting podcasts like ours people prefer bonus episodes. At any rate we are also in the middle of increasing the amount of content to make patreon more tantalizing to people who want more leftist content from us.

With all that said we look forward to sharing more of what we are doing, showing how much so little has accomplished already, and proving the major parties and thought leaders could be doing more: they are choosing not to

Starry puffer (Arothron stellatus) juvenile

I am a fan of Ed Yong. For example - his covid reportage was excellent. And he was one of the few journos who understood the hows and whys of things.

His post on Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/edyong209.bsky.social/post/3kow7wd27qq2v

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Edit

Bluesky follow up comment

One thing I forgot to mention in this piece about why birding has changed my life: It is truly wonderful and gently radical to spend large chunks of your day looking up. My neck lifts; so, too, my spirits.

The wolf (Canis lupus;[b] pl.: wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though gray wolves, as popularly understood, only comprise naturally-occurring wild subspecies. The wolf is the largest extant member of the family Canidae, and is further distinguished from other Canis species by its less pointed ears and muzzle, as well as a shorter torso and a longer tail. The wolf is nonetheless related closely enough to smaller Canis species, such as the coyote and the golden jackal, to produce fertile hybrids with them. The wolf's fur is usually mottled white, brown, gray, and black, although subspecies in the arctic region may be nearly all white.

Of all members of the genus Canis, the wolf is most specialized for cooperative game hunting as demonstrated by its physical adaptations to tackling large prey, its more social nature, and its highly advanced expressive behaviour, including individual or group howling. It travels in nuclear families consisting of a mated pair accompanied by their offspring. Offspring may leave to form their own packs on the onset of sexual maturity and in response to competition for food within the pack. Wolves are also territorial, and fights over territory are among the principal causes of mortality. The wolf is mainly a carnivore and feeds on large wild hooved mammals as well as smaller animals, livestock, carrion, and garbage. Single wolves or mated pairs typically have higher success rates in hunting than do large packs. Pathogens and parasites, notably the rabies virus, may infect wolves.

The global wild wolf population was estimated to be 300,000 in 2003 and is considered to be of Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Wolves have a long history of interactions with humans, having been despised and hunted in most pastoral communities because of their attacks on livestock, while conversely being respected in some agrarian and hunter-gatherer societies. Although the fear of wolves exists in many human societies, the majority of recorded attacks on people have been attributed to animals suffering from rabies. Wolf attacks on humans are rare because wolves are relatively few, live away from people, and have developed a fear of humans because of their experiences with hunters, farmers, ranchers, and shepherds.

Etymology

The English "wolf" stems from the Old English wulf, which is itself thought to be derived from the Proto-Germanic *wulfaz. The Proto-Indo-European root *wĺ̥kʷos may also be the source of the Latin word for the animal lupus (*lúkʷos).

Evolution

The earliest fossils of C. lupus were found in what was once eastern Beringia at Old Crow, Yukon, Canada, and at Cripple Creek Sump, Fairbanks, Alaska. The age is not agreed upon but could date to one million years ago. Considerable morphological diversity existed among wolves by the Late Pleistocene. They had more robust skulls and teeth than modern wolves, often with a shortened snout, a pronounced development of the temporalis muscle, and robust premolars. It is proposed that these features were specialized adaptations for the processing of carcass and bone associated with the hunting and scavenging of Pleistocene megafauna. Compared with modern wolves, some Pleistocene wolves showed an increase in tooth breakage similar to that seen in the extinct dire wolf. This suggests they either often processed carcasses, or that they competed with other carnivores and needed to consume their prey quickly. Compared with those found in the modern spotted hyena, the frequency and location of tooth fractures in these wolves indicates they were habitual bone crackers.

Description

The wolf is the largest extant member of the Canidae family, and is further distinguished from coyotes and jackals by a broader snout, shorter ears, a shorter torso and a longer tail. It is slender and powerfully built, with a large, deeply descending rib cage, a sloping back, and a heavily muscled neck. The wolf's legs are moderately longer than those of other canids, which enables the animal to move swiftly, and to overcome the deep snow that covers most of its geographical range in winter. The ears are relatively small and triangular. The wolf's head is large and heavy, with a wide forehead, strong jaws and a long, blunt muzzle.

The wolf has very dense and fluffy winter fur, with a short undercoat and long, coarse guard hairs. Most of the undercoat and some guard hairs are shed in spring and grow back in autumn. The longest hairs occur on the back, particularly on the front quarters and neck. Especially long hairs grow on the shoulders and almost form a crest on the upper part of the neck.

A wolf's coat colour is determined by its guard hairs. Wolves usually have some hairs that are white, brown, gray and black.

Distribution and habitat

Wolves occur across Eurasia and North America. However, deliberate human persecution because of livestock predation and fear of attacks on humans has reduced the wolf's range to about one-third of its historic range; the wolf is now extirpated (locally extinct) from much of its range in Western Europe, the United States and Mexico, and completely in the British Isles and Japan. In modern times, the wolf occurs mostly in wilderness and remote areas. The wolf can be found between sea level and 3,000 m (9,800 ft). Wolves live in forests, inland wetlands, shrublands, grasslands (including Arctic tundra), pastures, deserts, and rocky peaks on mountains. Habitat use by wolves depends on the abundance of prey, snow conditions, livestock densities, road densities, human presence and topography.

Diet

Like all land mammals that are pack hunters, the wolf feeds predominantly on ungulates that can be divided into large size 240–650 kg (530–1,430 lb) and medium size 23–130 kg (51–287 lb), and have a body mass similar to that of the combined mass of the pack members. The wolf specializes in preying on the vulnerable individuals of large prey, with a pack of 15 able to bring down an adult moose. The variation in diet between wolves living on different continents is based on the variety of hoofed mammals and of available smaller and domesticated prey

Nonetheless, wolves are not fussy eaters. Smaller-sized animals that may supplement their diet include rodents, hares, insectivores and smaller carnivores. They frequently eat waterfowl and their eggs. When such foods are insufficient, they prey on lizards, snakes, frogs, and large insects when available. Wolves in some areas may consume fish and even marine life. Wolves also consume some plant material.

Interactions with other predators

Wolves typically dominate other canid species in areas where they both occur. In North America, incidents of wolves killing coyotes are common, particularly in winter, when coyotes feed on wolf kills. Wolves may attack coyote den sites, digging out and killing their pups, though rarely eating them. There are no records of coyotes killing wolves, though coyotes may chase wolves if they outnumber them.

Brown bears typically dominate wolf packs in disputes over carcasses, while wolf packs mostly prevail against bears when defending their den sites. Both species kill each other's young.

Wolves encounter cougars along portions of the Rocky Mountains and adjacent mountain ranges. Wolves and cougars typically avoid encountering each other by hunting at different elevations for different prey (niche partitioning). This is more difficult during winter.

Wolf and Siberian tiger interactions are well-documented in the Russian Far East, where tigers significantly depress wolf numbers, sometimes to the point of localized extinction.

Status and conservation

The global wild wolf population in 2003 was estimated at 300,000. Wolf population declines have been arrested since the 1970s. This has fostered recolonization and reintroduction in parts of its former range as a result of legal protection, changes in land use, and rural human population shifts to cities. Competition with humans for livestock and game species, concerns over the danger posed by wolves to people, and habitat fragmentation pose a continued threat to the wolf. Despite these threats, the IUCN classifies the wolf as Least Concern on its Red List due to its relatively widespread range and stable population. The species is listed under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), meaning international trade in the species (including parts and derivatives) is regulated. However, populations of Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan are listed in Appendix I which prohibits commercial international trade in wild-sourced specimens.

Megathreads and spaces to hang out:

• 📀 Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube
• 💖 Come talk in the New Weekly Queer thread
• 🔥 Read and talk about a current topics in the News Megathread
• ⚔ Come talk in the New Weekly PoC thread
• ✨ Talk with fellow Trans comrades in the New Weekly Trans thread

reminders:

• 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
• 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears
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• 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can reserve a spot here nerd
• 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon instance toots.matapacos.dog

Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):

Aid:

• 🌈 LGBTQ+ Resource Post
• 🍉 Resources for Palestine
• 🐌☕ Zapatista Coffee

Theory:

• ❤️Foundations of Leninism
• ❤️Anarchism and Other Essays

This is the first story in a three-part miniseries on Nepal’s development plans around protected areas. Read Part Two and Part Three.

by Abhaya Raj Joshi on 29 March 2024

• Nepal’s Ministry of Forest and Environment is working new regulations to permit hotels to operate within national parks like Chitwan, a draft of the document seen by Mongabay suggests.
• The decision follows the closure of seven hotels in Chitwan National Park in 2009 due to ecological concerns and alleged involvement in poaching, with the last of them shutting down in 2012.
• Despite opposition from conservationists and local communities, the government has shown interest in allowing commercial activities, including large-scale hydropower plants, within national parks, raising concerns about environmental degradation.

KATHMANDU — Nepal’s Ministry of Forest and Environment is preparing fresh regulations to allow hotels to return to national parks such as Chitwan, a decade after they were shut down based on environmental concerns.

Although rumors were doing the rounds in the corridors of the ministry and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation in Kathmandu for a long time, with officials neither confirming nor denying the preparation, Ministry Secretary Deepak Kumar Kharal and department chief Sindhu Dhungana spilled the beans at a program organized by the World Bank in Kathmandu recently.

Kharal, addressing the program, said the government is working on a new regulation that will “open up an avenue” for private sector investment in Nepal conservation. Dhungana went a step further to say the new regulation will address policy barriers to allow the private sector, which has so far “shied away” from investing in projects inside protected areas, to do so.

full article

oh my god my partner found a bat napping in some blossoms oh my god

https://bsky.app/profile/katesheridanart.bsky.social/post/3koox6lauku2f

Apparently it's an eastern red bat.

The article is about twice as long as what I'm quoting.

Bronx Zoo veterinary pathologists determined that in addition to the traumatic injuries, Flaco had two significant underlying conditions. He had a severe pigeon herpesvirus from eating feral pigeons that had become part of his diet, and exposure to four different anticoagulant rodenticides that are commonly used for rat control in New York City. These factors would have been debilitating and ultimately fatal, even without a traumatic injury, and may have predisposed him to flying into or falling from the building.

The identified herpesvirus can be carried by healthy pigeons but may cause fatal disease in birds of prey including owls infected by eating pigeons. This virus has been previously found in New York City pigeons and owls. In Flaco’s case, the viral infection caused severe tissue damage and inflammation in many organs, including the spleen, liver, gastrointestinal tract, bone marrow, and brain.

No other contributing factors were identified through the extensive testing that was performed.

Megalania

Megalania (Varanus priscus) is an extinct species of giant monitor lizard, part of the megafaunal assemblage that inhabited Australia during the Pleistocene. [...] Megalania is the largest terrestrial lizard known to have existed.

[...]

The youngest fossil remains of giant monitor lizards in Australia date to around 50,000 years ago. The first indigenous settlers of Australia might have encountered megalania, and been a factor in megalania's extinction.

[...]

Size

The lack of complete or nearly complete fossil skeletons has made it difficult to determine the exact dimensions of megalania. Early estimates placed the length of the largest individuals at 7 m (23 ft), with a maximum weight of approximately 600–620 kg (1,320–1,370 lb). In 2002, Stephen Wroe considerably downsized megalania, suggesting a maximum length of 4.5 m (15 ft) and a weight of 331 kg (730 lb) with averages of 3.5 m (11 ft) and 97–158 kg (214–348 lb), decrying the earlier maximum length estimate of 7 m (23 ft) as exaggerations based on flawed methods. In 2009, however Wroe joined other researchers in raising the estimate to at least 5.5 m (18 ft) and 575 kg (1,268 lb).

In a book published in 2004, Ralph Molnar determined a range of potential sizes for megalania, made by scaling up from dorsal vertebrae, after he determined a relationship between dorsal vertebrae width and total body length. If it had a long, thin tail like the lace monitor, then it would have reached a length of 7.9 m (26 ft), while if its tail-to-body proportions were more similar to that of the Komodo dragon, then a length around 7 m (23 ft) is more likely. Taking the maximal 7 m (23 ft) length, he estimated a weight of 1,940 kg (4,280 lb), with a leaner 320 kg (710 lb) being average.

Modern day dino