#bushmeat

The idea of poaching is largely tied to property rights, in origin and to this day. Historically poachers were people who hunted on the property of nobility without permission, largely out of the necessity. Its not too much different today. I had legal access to the property I used to hunt because my dad and I kept poachers off. We did chase a lot of people away, because there are realistic limits to how many people can hunt the same area, but we turned a blind eye a lot. There was a very thin line between us and them. We were just as dependent on putting meat in the freezer, the only difference was we knew a land owner well enough to get conditional permission. I have also been a poacher, even when I had legal access to a place to hunt. More than once at the tail end of a season, when it was now or never, I have shot through a hedgerow onto a piece of property I didn't have access to. That is enough to make me a poacher. A lot of people have been a poacher while fishing and not even realized it. (not defending that, its just irresponsible to not know when/where you can take game) Most poachers aren't what most people mean when they say poacher.

Fictional characters like Clayton (Tarzan, 1999) and Van Pelt (Jumanji, 1995) often get thrown at me as examples of the evils of poaching. Neither of them were poachers though. They were famed big game hunters in a colonial environment (for Van Pelt, before he got reverse isekaid). While morally reprehensible their hunting was probably mostly legal. A lot of the trophy hunting people hold up as examples of poaching or for why we need to eradicate hunting all together (a dumb ass take) is totally legal. That's not to say no trophy hunters are also poachers. There was more than one group we aggressively kept off the property for doing shit like taking heads/racks/beards/tails/etc and leaving the rest. At the same time though there were people we would have loved to say fuck off too but couldn't because they knew the owners as well as we did, or were related.

There's a whole nother depth to bushmeat in other colonized areas outside the US that I'm not even close to qualified to get into. That compromises a ton of the poaching in those regions. In addition a lot of unnecessary wild animal death, all over the globe, is tied to agriculture and also often doesn't count as poaching even when you think it would.

It's January 31st, 🦓 International Zebra Day. Zebras live in 🌍 Africa in many different habitats, including savannas, mountains, woodlands, and hills. As you undoubtedly suspected, Zebras are members of the 🐴 Horse family, the genus Equus. There are three species of Zebra - Plain’s Zebra, Mountain Zebra, and Grevy’s Zebra. Each has a distinct pattern of alternating black and white stripes.

Why do Zebras have stripes? Believe it or not, scientists still aren't sure. Many theories exist, though. Stripes might provide camouflage in tall grass, especially at night. The stripes on a herd of Zebras might also confuse 🦁 predators because it can be difficult to tell where one Zebra ends and another begins. Or Zebras may use their stripes to identify each other as, like with human fingerprints, each Zebra's stripe pattern is unique. In addition, it's been proven that the alternating black and white pattern of Zebra stripes helps control 🌡️ body temperature, plus deters 🦟 biting flies from landing. It could very well be that all of these factors play a part in the natural selection of stripes for Zebras.

Are Zebras black with white stripes, or white with black stripes? In its mother's womb, each Zebra starts out black, and the white coloration develops there, while still in the womb.

There've been many attempts to tame Zebras, but their unpredictable nature makes this difficult. However, in 1907, Kenyan Doctor Rosendo Ribeiro regularly rode his tame Zebra to his patients' homes.

HAMMERHEAD BAT (male) of BIG-LIPPED BAT Hypsignathus monstrosus ©Sarah H. Olson

This is the largest bat in continental Africa, with wingspans approaching 1 m, or about 3 ft, and males almost twice as heavy as females.

Males and females also greatly differ in appearance, making it the most sexually dimorphic bat species in the world. This differences include several adaptations that help males produce and amplify vocalizations: the males' larynges (vocal cords) are about three times as large as those of females, and they have large resonating chambers on their faces. Females appear more like a typical megabat, with foxlike faces.

Males have massive resonating chambers on their faces to amplify vocalizations (indicated by dashed line)

This is pretty neat. Original caption: