hi

We don’t have any of the large predators we used to (black bears, mountain lions, or gray wolves) but still retain large deer populations. If nothing is removing animals, they’ll quickly overload the carrying capacity of the environment and have massive losses to starvation and disease that can also pass on to livestock. Human hunters replace the large predators that our landscape can no longer support.

It’s kinder to euthanize an un-releasable hawk rather than try to find it a permanent home with humans. Wildlife rehabs have extremely limited space and resources and are usually run entirely on donated money and volunteer time. Only a few are large and stable enough to care for permanent residents long-term, and those spots are few and far between.

An invasive species poses a danger to threatened native wildlife. I will admit- Australian possums are adorable. But not in New Zealand, where they’re an invasive species that eats the eggs of ground-dwelling birds that previously had no such predators. The landowners I worked with replanting native bush, all native Maori, had no qualms about setting the dogs on them.

We don’t have any of the large predators we used to (black bears, mountain lions, or gray wolves) but still retain large deer populations. If nothing is removing animals, they’ll quickly overload the carrying capacity of the environment and have massive losses to starvation and disease that can also pass on to livestock. Human hunters replace the large predators that our landscape can no longer support.

It’s kinder to euthanize an un-releasable hawk rather than try to find it a permanent home with humans. Wildlife rehabs have extremely limited space and resources and are usually run entirely on donated money and volunteer time. Only a few are large and stable enough to care for permanent residents long-term, and those spots are few and far between.

An invasive species poses a danger to threatened native wildlife. I will admit- Australian possums are adorable. But not in New Zealand, where they’re an invasive species that eats the eggs of ground-dwelling birds that previously had no such predators. The landowners I worked with replanting native bush, all native Maori, had no qualms about setting the dogs on them.

i am so very sorry but i just shared this frundraiser and under further inspection i realized that it most likely is a scam

pics on their pinned post stolen from a vetted fundraiser

this isn't the text they sent me, but i looked their user up and this is what they've been sending to other people. this is the exact same words as an ask from an actual palestinian with a vetted frundraiser. first two pics on the top are the probable scam, two pics on the bottom are where they stole it from

Doaa’s post

falestine-yousefs gofundme page:

This is for the support of Gaza's Municipality Services - which help ensure clean drinking water, waste collection, debri removal and sanitation services - life saving services to run a state - reader I imagine wherever you are or how lacking the municipality services in your city is, it's not worse than Ghazza.

Currently it's only at 11% - please donate -

Sources:

Were this a "golf courses have killed ______ species" or a "you're going to die 10 years sooner because of golf courses" piece, getting 1,000 notes would be a two-day affair.

I genuinely believe that at this time in our existence there is a moral obligation to share news about positive actions, and all the things people are doing to combat extinction at every level. There are so many things. Despair breeds inaction, and that's simply not an option.

Also, agave nectar as a sweetner is absolutely trashing the ecosystem where the plants grow, throwing other plant species, mammals and insects out of whack in order to meet rising demands.

If you are trying to cut sugar or go vegan to help the environment, stay away from agave, it's a disaster.

Honey, actual farmed honey, from honey bees, is more eco-friendly than agave, sugar beet, or sugar cane. And, contrary to popular belief, properly managed hives don't actually change the bees' lives from what they would be doing in the wild anyway.

the idea that consumption of agave as a sweetener harms pollinating bat populations originated from a single tumblr post from a weird antivegan who wanted to act like vegans are single-handedly killing bats. 1 single dude online pulled this claim out of nowhere and ever since then it's been seeping into weird corners of the internet, particularly tumblr, with 0 researched backing. this dude literally invented the entire discourse all on her own and unleashed a chain of misinformation that somehow still exists

The connection between agave farming and bats is that:

Agave farmers do not allow their plants to be pollinated and instead reproduce them by cloning, reducing genetic diversity (the loss of genetic diversity is something I almost never see mentioned in online discussions, but is a huge point in the scientific side)

Harmful pesticides can harm bats that come to feed on the agave; this is not a major driver of their population loss, but it certainly isn't helping

Some people illegally harvest wild agave plants to fuel the agave industry, damaging wild agave populations

These threats are not something to erase, but if we're going to talk about threats to bat populations then we should probably be including the whole picture. Other, and arguably the most major drivers of bat population loss are:

Climate change producing droughts in the desert environment

Recreational use of caves where bats nest

Overgrazing, something which no one ever wants to mention when they can instead mention agave sweetener while for some reason connecting this to veganism, who have nothing to do with it

Culling of bat populations to protect cattle from rabies, something which is also never mentioned on social media

Here's an article from the Yale School of the Environment about how overgrazing, recreational cave use, and climate change damage pollinating bats

The US Fish and Wildlife service's draft plan on saving the Mexican Long Nosed Bat, which describes bat culling to protect cattle, land usage (by urbanization, agriculture and grazing), climate change, and agave harvesting as bat threats; the recovery plan is to protect their roosting/foraging sites, encourage farmers to allow agave to bloom, and reduce cattle ranching

This article about how culling of vampire bats to prevent cattle rabies harms general bat populations, which I wouldn't argue as being massive compared to agave farming but which is certainly more significant than consumption of agave as a sweetener

Other general articles:

This article was one of the earliest to summarize the bat-tequila connection, which focuses on evolving farming standards to help both farmers and bats

This detailed article from Texas which mentions recreational cave use and superstitious culling of bats by farmers are major known threats, while wild agave farming and wildfires due to drought are possible threats but are not well researched

This study on how using bats to improve agave genetic diversity can help both farmers and bats

This national geographic article about how protecting roosting sites and tracking their migration patterns have been the greatest contributors to protecting the Mexican Long-Nosed Bat

This article (among random other ones on this topic that I can find) about how agave is a native plant which uses little water, giving it great potential for sustainable farming that resists drought and doesn't waste groundwater

anyway the main thing i want to get across is that the idea that consumption of agave sweetener as an alternative to honey or sugar threatens bats does not exist. like at all. that idea was entirely invented by a random social media user who knows nothing about the topic and likewise is propagated entirely by random social media users. I'm aware that the person I'm responding to isn't using this to attack anything in particular but it still propagates this years-long chain of misinformation invented by random person on tumblr with an agenda

there is, however, plenty of evidence that cattle ranching is a significant threat, if not more significant, than the farming of agave--a native, low-water usage plant that has huge potential for being sustainable agriculture and has been a vital part of recovering bat populations by encouraging farmers to allow their farms to be food sources. Agave overharvesting is a present factor that I would not try to erase, but is only one of many others that are often overlooked when people online can instead, for some reason, point to agave usage as a sweetener--an industry which is overshadowed by the tequila/mescal industry to the same extent that the sun is bigger than the earth (not to mention all the other uses of agave, which is a major anti-inflammatory agent used in medicines, lotions and cosmetics)

If we're going to somehow try to make any claim that consumption of agave as a sweetener in a diet harms bats, then by all fairness we should also be telling people to stop cave diving and to avoid consumption of beef in the south and southwest of north america. but the idea of dressing agave as being some innately evil, disastrous plant that messes up the environment in of itself overshadows the fact that it is actually a drought-resistant, water-efficient source of native agriculture that has numerous medicinal and practical uses that can be altered to help bat populations and has been domesticated and farmed by Native Americans for thousands of years. for the love of god, please stop spreading this misinformation that points fingers at something that isn’t even a problem while ignoring the actual ways people can help

Yemen Food Crisis

Yemen's Houthis warn ships in red Sea to avoid Israel or face attack

Other places to give:

Save the Children Donation

Muslim Aid USA

Islamic Relief USA

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