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if you read about any biology you can quickly lose touch with what is astonishing and miraculous vs what is mundane, from animals that steal chloroplasts to become photosynthetic, to cloning technology being old hat, to trees that didn’t biodegrade for tens of millions of years, to naturally occurring lateral gene transfer between vastly different species, to the creation of gametes from adult cells, to the ability of some cancers to induce blood vessel growth, to desert shrimp that lie dormant for years, to the sensitivity of human touch receptors, to the fact that human hardware has a latent ability to see UV but their corneas block those wavelengths, to birds that echolocate and live in caves, to human skin being covered in enzymes that destroy RNA, to individual trees becoming genetic tapestries branch by branch, to life forms that gain energy from the electron potential of metals in their environments, to plants that recognize their siblings and adjust their behavior accordingly when growing next to them, to metamorphosis

REALLY FUN FACT for big cats cheetahs are fucking docile as shit

This is the greatest thing I’ve seen all day.

this works because cheetahs are actually fairly social animals, and they look to members of their group for context on how worried they should be about any given Situation. but since cheetahs are also nervous social animals, they can work each other into an anxiety spiral pretty easily over things like “being in an enclosed habitat” and “there’s a guy over there”.

Cheetah: oh god what’s going on how are we feeling weird spotless cheetah

Logically I know there must be a reason that the dogs chosen for this all seem to be golden retrievers

if I’m understanding correctly, dalmatians were bred (among other things) for a temperament intended to make all potential threats more nervous, which is a useful trait in a guard dog but seems like a problem waiting to happen when any other cheetah approaches the one this dalmatian is guarding

this thang has one of my favorite ebird descriptions of all time

1$ flea market score. Tiny glass 1960s perfume bottles. I love them.

omg you can

Their meeting was foretold in the ancient texts