Anxious Edgelord

Here’s something you’ve probably never seen before - an extinct Laughing Owl taxidermy mount! This bird was indigenous to the southern regions of New Zealand’s North Island and to the east of the Southern Alps on the South Island.

The combination of habitat loss for farming and the introduction of pests proved to be too much for this owl and the species was wiped out.

A lot of very massive mostly negative effects on whole ecosystems, animal and plant species as well as the relationship between them. There are well over 110, 000 species of wasps much of which are pollinators, predators and display parasitism. 

Many species of wasps have very closely tied relationships with plants they pollinate, especially when it comes to their life cycle, often their life cycles evolved together. All these plants would die off without the wasps which in turn would effect other plant and animal species that relied on it for food or as an other resource. Wasps often pollinate a number of important native plants, as well as crops such as figs (more below), medicinal herbs and so on.  

We would lose many species of figs as there’s a whole superfamily of wasps called Chalcidoidea that pollinate fig species. Each fig can often only be pollinated by one or two very specific species of fig wasp and while many commercial figs use artificial parthenocarpy, dried figs require pollination by wasps and so do wild fig species. Figs are also a very important keystone fruit resource for animals in tropical regions across the globe, supporting the diet of well over 1,300 species of birds and mammals. Without wasps these figs would die and therefore have a pretty catastrophic impact on the tropical ecosystems that are already unstable thanks to humans.

As well as pollination wasps are also predators. This ecological role is considered one of the most important so they regulate arthropod populations making sure lower species of insects and plants aren’t getting over eaten by the arthropods they eat. Without them we’d see a massive increase in pest insect species like spiders, flies, mites, ants, centipedes and so on, therefore reducing the need for pesticides for our horticulture.

This is probably one of THE most frequently asked questions regarding snakes so here is your guide on how snakes move!

1. Undulatory Motion

This is very similar to how lizards move, using lateral bending to keep their center of gravity.  Snakes will use this component to push off of irregularities in substrate, thus thrusting it forward.

2. Concertina Motion

This method of locomotion enables the snake to move by securing a point and then pushing forward.  Sort of an inching motion.  Example A shows a snake moving through a tube, and Example B shows the snake moving along a branch, both using concertina motion.

3. Sidewinding

This is the fastest method of locomotion, and it has a low energy cost making it very efficient.  This is done on a soft, loose substrate by lifting and pushing the body forward.  Only 2 point of the snake’s body makes contact with the substrate at all times.  This makes it a good heat coping behavior in the hot desert.

4. Rectilinear Locomotion

Me, loosing 2.5 pounds in a month of low carb: