#clownfish opinion
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You guys get ONE mermay post from me. Lucifer is obviously a betta fish cuz he’s fancy as hell and ready 2 fight 24/7 BUT this also means he should be tiny. The size of my hand. His kingdom is a 20 gallon tank in someone’s living room
#lucifer#ramsey barks#i don’t have opinions on the other archangels but personally id find it very funny if they were all tiny#Gabriel is a clownfish etc
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clownfish swimming through bleached anemones | jonoallenphotography on ig
if you have a moment and are mentally able, please read the text accompanying the original instagram post, located at the source link above, and this short article by The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. if not, please just share it around.
it's true this video is strikingly beautiful, but the truth behind it is, in my opinion, necessary for everyone to know.
#stim#clownfish#coral reefs#climate change#sfw#orange#black#white#blue#animals#global warming#marine life#sea creatures#fish#underwater#cnidarians#sea anemones#oceans#coral bleaching#climate change awareness#global warming awareness#ishy gifs#postish
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i'm thinking abt how stede and izzy are different versions of themselves when they're together vs when they're alone with ed.
stede with ed is soft-hearted, fails to communicate authoritatively. he doesn't taunt him or sass him. he rarely swears. he tells ed that ed wears fine things well. he doesn't listen to ed's advice when a strong impulse decision occurs (killing in cold blood).
stede with izzy is more comfortable in an authoritarian position. sassing izzy is a hobby for him. he swears at/with izzy and makes fun of izzy's horse peg leg. he listens to izzy when faced with a strong impulse decision (the cursed coat).
izzy with ed is hard-hearted. stuck in his own stressed-out ways. he doesn't provide ed with any positive affirmations/reinforcement. he isolates himself from the crew while serving under the role of First Mate. he pushes edward's buttons to illicit a reaction, like a kid who feels neglected.
izzy with stede is more relaxed, a lot calmer. he gives stede affirmations/positive reinforcement. he isn't First Mate, so he slowly integrates with the crew. he's changing and growing. he teases stede, but it's not malicious in intent like it is with ed because he doesn't need a reaction from stede.
they both idealize an image of ed in their head. they both don't fully understand who ed is and what ed wants because they're putting him on a pedestal, for better or worse. on some level to them, ed is still Blackbeard. they both hunger for ed's opinion in order to make themselves feel "worthy" or "good" enough. we see this pop up again and again. it's in everything izzy does until he's shot, and it's in everything stede does up until ed leaves him at the fisherman wharf.
and yet, somehow, stede doesn't idolize his perception of izzy, and vice versa. they see each other as regular people who have sharp teeth and gentle hands. they're dynamic is symbiotic like an anemone and a clownfish are symbiotic. stede provides something izzy needs (positive attention) while izzy provides something stede needs (feeling capable/training to become capable)
#it's driving me insane tbh#bc they're shown to confide in each other in ep7!!!!!! izzy looks out for stede!!! and stede listens to what izzy has to say!!!!!!#ofmd#our flag means death#stede bonnet#izzy hands#stizzy#gentlehands
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Dark Blue Moon and the Suffering Sun Chapter 19
MASTAPOST
Danny woke from his little cat nap soon after, stretching his tail out like a lounging snake. Damian sat next to him, characteristically unimpressed as the teenager cracked his knuckles and shook off the remaining grogginess.
“Are you done?” Damian asked.
Danny yawned again. “Yeah what time is it?”
“It has been about two hours. We are wasting time.”
Damian swam to Danny’s left side and nudged him with his head. Danny bonelessly flopped to the side without moving. “Dude, what’s the rush? I thought you liked animals.”
“The whales have been amenable company, but my father needs me back as soon as possible. In addition, we have entered a coral reef.”
Danny blinked, and got up. The boy leaned his head over the edge of the mother whale. Seemed Damian was right. The waterscape in front of them was filled with tall kelp forests in the distance. Below the, the sea floor housed miles of vibrant coral in all sorts of colours. Red, purple, yellow and green coral spiraled and twisted and grew from the rocks and sand, living alongside schools of big and small fish. Clownfish peeked in an out of anemones. Little critters like shrimps and lobsters crawled in and out of crevices, sheltered from predators.
Damian apparently thought he was taking too long. Danny belatedly realised his harness was untied, just as Damian rammed into his back and pushed him off the edge.
“We need to replenish our supplies.” Damian said. “Teach me how to gather forage and hunt.”
Well that was a slight issue. Being a modern American teenager with access to such things as fridges and a global supply chain meant that he was perhaps less suited to roughing it than the younger boy might have assumed. It was not like he never had to live off the land, but the less said about long swim home after Vlad happened, the better.
“Well?” Damian repeated, arms crossed, looking down Danny expectantly.
“Alright then. I’ll teach you silly human what it’s like to live off the land, like your ancestors long before you.” He said sagely.
The whale pod crooned a deep farewell as the continued on their journey. He and Damian waved them off, before returning to their own needs.
He led his young charge to perch atop a cliff overlooking the reef. The boys laid their fins flat so as to avoid drawing attention. Danny scanned the landscape, settling his eyes on a lobster hiding underneath a rock. Despite their reputation these days, lobsters did not look nearly as appetising raw and alive. From the bottom, they looked more like cockroaches than delicacies. Plus, they were literally the worst possible travelling food ever. No.
Instead, Danny caught sight of his real prize. Mussels!
“You good with shellfish?” He asked the younger boy. Damian turned up his nose, looking haughty like Sam’s parents were it not for the adorable pout he’d put on too.
“If the only other option is starvation.”
“We’ll keep an eye for more plants on the way.” Danny said, preparing to descend.
The thing about mussels was that you didn’t need to kill them to bring them along. They came with their own natural packaging, even if it was a bit heavy. Danny stuffed his pockets with a couple handfuls of the shellfish, leaving space for a more varied diet, and leaving the rest to stay and reproduce. He wasn’t greedy! Sam had taught him about these things. Mussels were very important to the environment. Evidently Damian was aware too. The boy nodded in approval as Danny continued his search.
Damian’s sword came in useful as well (he would’ve taken it away if he wasn’t sure that the kid would slash him for it) for harvesting kelp and seaweed. The pair snacked on kelp strips as Danny took them to their next prey.
However, Damian protested. “I do not wish to kill this one.”
The huge trout, easily as big as Damian, floated blissfully ignorant of the two predators eyeing it like hawks. Danny ‘s head spun as he tried to keep track of Damian’s seemingly endlessly shifting opinion towards eating fish or not. “That thing could feed us for like 300 miles.”
“The largest fish also reproduce the most. This one is a female.” Damian continued. Now that he thought of it, didn’t Sam make a whole protest about this in the beginning of summer? “Many oceans are in danger due to overfishing from humans. As a human myself, it is my responsibility to fish sustainably.”
The boy’s fins puffed with pride and conservationist fervor, a quiet determination that reminded him of Sam. Danny had some doubts. “If we eat the small fry, there won’t be many left to grow big and ‘reproduce’ as you say.”
This point seemed to put pause on Damian’s previous showboating. The boy gritted his teeth, looking for a comeback. “What about invasive species? Those that threaten the natural balance.”
Danny shrugged. That was a good point, except Danny didn’t know how to identify any of those.
“But you live in the ocean!” Damian protested when this point was brought up.
“Yeah. You live on land. Does that mean you know about every species that lives on Gotham?”
“Yes.” Well he kinda walked into that one, didn’t he?
“Well if you know so much about invasive species, why don’t you look for them?” Danny challenged. Animal hyperfixation or not, surely this kid couldn’t identify the hundreds of species that lived in this reef.
Damian’s ear fins tensed, something he’d noticed in himself whenever he was concentrating on something. The boy turned away from Danny and to the reef in front of them. Suddenly, the boy’s body slumped.
A smug grin split open Danny’s face.
Damian groaned, as if his next words were like Soviet torture. “There are no saltwater invasive fish near California, to my knowledge.”
“Hah! Suck on that, fishboy!”
Damian mewled angrily. His hand drifted down to the hilt of his sword. On dear.
“Alright, alright, alright. What about a compromise?” Danny waved his arms defensively.
“Speak.”
“We grab the fish that we were gonna grab before you interrupted.” Damian hissed at that. “BUUttt only one. And we fill our pockets with small fry. A balanced fishing diet. What do you say?”
The grumpy child pouted one more time for good measure, before sinking back to the floor. “Fine. You still need to teach me how to make a kill.”
“You sure you won’t get attached?”
“I can suppress my emotions to complete the mission.” It spoke something about Damian that Danny wasn’t even that phased this time. That being said please let that just be a boast with nothing to back that up.
Danny lay prone, fins flat, head down, like a tiger about to pounce. In the entire conversation they’d had, the trout had drifted about five inches from its previous position. Survival instincts this poor girl had not.
“All you need to do is shut your gills, like holding a breath. Just get closer… and closer… and POUNCE!”
Danny leapt at the trout, using his powers to accelerate into a blur. His hands pinned it down in an instant, the trout thrashing and slapping him, trying to escape. With a swift motion, Danny bit clean through its gills. The trout rapidly lost strength, slowly fading until it went still.
He held the trout up like a trophy. “Tada!”
Damian frowned deeply. “That was an unclean kill. It suffered immensely.”
“Ughh!” Danny groaned. “What do you want from me. I’m a siren not an assassin.”
Damian unsheathed his sword, looking about 50% more menacing as any other six-year-old Danny had ever met. “It seems I will have to show you, instead.”
Five minutes later, his idea of showing Danny how to kill resulted in a fresh bruise and a bent fin. The carp he had tried to pounce managed to escape with a shallow cut on its side.
“I’m very educated now, Damian. Thank you.” He snickered as Damian roared in anger.
“Shut your mouth! You have an unfair advantage, seeing as you can use your powers, while I am hampered by my body.”
“You’ll grow into them. I think. I dunno I haven’t met a lot of siren kids.”
“I am not a child!” Damian said, pouting very maturely.
The rest of the morning was spent like that, roaming the reef in search of food and bickering over this and that. At one point they debated over dolphins were whales or not (Danny personally thought whales were too nice to encompass dolphins under their umbrella).
Their food supplies replenished and energy still raring to go, the boys sealed their satchels shut, and continued south.
Meanwihle…
Hundreds of miles away in the ocean, Bruce stands at the helm of the Fenton Family SAV, its modified engines going at full throttle.
In a hidden compartment in his room, Tucker Foley slams into the firewall of the Fenton’s new database with everything he has. Schematics, blueprints, notes. He needs that data and he needs it now.
Sam Manson meditates on her bed, surrounded by candles. She recites warding spells, a staple for any young magician.
Skulker sits in his private yacht, bandaging his wounded leg, sliding the pieces for his next upgrade. Behind him, an ornate fish tank sits empty, awaiting its guest.
Agent K and Agent O monitor the news. The sonars around Amity. A report sits on the desk. The Fentons have just left town? That will be interesting…
#dpxdc#danny fenton#damian wayne#dcxdp#merman#merboy#angst#mermaid au#fluff#hunting#hunting of animals#mer!danny#mer!damian wayne
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3 new faces! 3 new little guys running around!
(design notes under the cut)
These little guys are pretty new on the server, so it’s a 45% chance my designs for them are going to change once we get to know their personalities better and stuff, but here are the thoughts I had while designing them!
SunnySideUp:
- Her signs are orange, and she has Sunny in her name, so my first thought was to make her a bright orange colour, it also fits well with her personality too in my opinion
- Her whole design is based off of traditional medieval drawings of dragons, with the big cat-like ears and little curved horns. I couldn’t show it in this image, but her wings have those signature “spines” across the webbing that you see on medieval dragons. I chose this type of design because medieval dragons typically guarded caves of gold and hoarded treasure, which is pretty fitting for Sunny as well (cough cough golden roof cough)
- Another thing you can’t see in this image is her peregrine-falcon-inspired patterns. Not much reason behind this one, just thought it would look cool :D
Empanada:
- A creature! Fluffy and feathery, scaly and spiky because all of her parents are a bunch of different things and hybrids
- Almost all of the colours I used for her design are slightly altered colours I picked from a picture of a loaf of bread. I kept the breakfast/sweets/food theme in mind as I drew her: chocolate coloured horns and scales, toasty fur, honey-coloured eyes. Delicious. Her horns are also vaguely fork-shaped :D
Pepito:
- Fish, for obvious reasons. Just a little swimmy guy(non-gendered)
- I got inspired by clownfish and lionfish for the design, while keeping the stripes from Pepito’s little swimsuit.
- Was originally trying to come up with a design that fit a sort of 80’s fish monster type look, but that was just too hard to figure out how to make a little dragon baby out of it, so I just stuck to normal fish.
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So what is your opinion on fanfictions where Blake parnets are swingers. To be clear there no cheating or sercets they tell each other everything. I like the idea because I imagine that the Faunas and the LGBTQ+ have to work together at some point to get rights in Rement instead the creators just saying Homophobia doesn't exist. I thing it has both sexy and interesting potential. Sorry this isn't a writing promt. Unless you can get something out of this then please do what you want.
Don't apologize for not sending in a Writing prompt! I love conversation!
I love The Idea of open relationships in Faunus Culture! Genuinely, I understand why CRWBY did what they did with the faunus plotline, which doesn't justify it's many failings, just to say I get it.
I would appreciate if we got more information on Faunus Culture(S)
Which is part of the reasons why I'm writing the Sharc AU.
I want to know what Culture was destroyed, forgotten, twisted because of Humans fighting with Faunus.
Show me Tidal Faunus that lean heavily into the idea that the whole village is a family, where 'Marriage' is a concept only recently introduced by Humans.
I want to hear about the Panther Faunus that once ruled large chunks of Anima, with their legion of Arthropods, primates, and other Jungle Dweller Faunus, and their connections to their wild, dense homes.
Scavenger-Faunus that preform ritualistic cannibalism as death rites to further the Cycles of Life, and forever carry a piece of them.
I feel like someone with more extensive Knowledge on Indigenous peoples could write a compelling character around the idea of being Two-Spirit and how that may affect Aura - Because there is literally someone with two souls inside him, so whose to say Oscar's the only one?
Faunus with high rates of intersexism, and ones that naturally transition in Females (Like clownfish) or get more masculine as they age (Like Peahens losing their brown coloration) Faunus that go through Parthenogenesis!
Humans, as a species, have relatively low sexual Dimorphism. The bone structure of Males to Females is next to none, especially when compared to practically any other animal.
Most others have baculum, some males are fucking tiny compared to females like anglerfish.
There is, notably, a difference in ability - Blake has better hearing than her teammates, Ilia can camoflage better than any one else, prehensile tails are useful.
It was never going to be a perfect allegory for real world things when there was notable differences in functional biological endeavours - to the point where Splatoon did racism better the RWBY.
So embrace that Difference.
Show me how the differences between cultures based on how their physical traits and their environs.
Courting rituals that involve finding and retrieving certain foods to prove that you love someone enough to endanger yourself for their happiness, sports that can only be done with Claws or Fangs, dances that need the dancer to have a prehensile tail.
The limits are near boundless. It all depends on your knowledge, Imagination, and Confidence.
So yeah. I like the Idea of Faunus working with LGBTQ+.
And also the Idea that Ghira and Kali are Swingers, whether or not that comes from their 'original' culture,or if they're just like that.
#asks and answers#cheeseeater2#rwby#faunus#rwby faunus#ghira belladonna#kali belladonna#I have feelings about faunus okay.#I fucking LOVE speculative Anthropology as much as I love Specualtive Biology as much as I love Robots.#Which is to say a whole helluva lot.
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Giving (cute) Twst NPC's a name and full personality
Part 1
(Aka turning them into an OC)
Name: Ash Lucien
Age: 17 (sophmore)
Dorm: Pomefiore
Unique magic: Doesnt have one yet
Personality/backround:
A very energetic, polite and fun person!
The nice kind of class clown
Doesnt care what you look like or your backround, can and will hang around you.
Really smart and is part of the honors.
Hardworking and confident
Born from a rich family
The teachers/staff likes him.
Has a huge passion for cooking
Fall inlove very easily...
Thats one of the reasons he joined an all boys school
The type to sing ridiculous and funny song in the bathroom
Almost cried on his 1st day because of Vil
Terrified of Jamil and Lilia
One of the people that makes people wonder "How the hell is this sunshine here in a villian school..?"
Often parties with Kalim and Cater
One of the people Floyd actually doesnt try to kill
Floyd gave him the nickname "Clownfish"
Has a HUGE crush on the prefect/Mc
But will never admit it
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(Tbh I just finished book 3 and saw this cute guys the backround of the twistune. Saw him in the final chapter of the book. So if he ever shows up in book 4 5 or 6 and i got him completely wrong...welp, he'll become my OC now i guess)
Please leave your opinion or thoughts about this! I love hearing feedbacks
Should i do a part 2?
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#twisted wonderland#twisted wonderland x reader#twst headcanons#pomefiore#Twst Ash Lucien#twstnpc#vil schoenheit#floyd leech#jamil viper#kalim al asim#lillia vanrouge#cater diamond#twst yuu
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I wanted to ask your opinion on this because im far less knowledgeable on trans and gender issues (seeing as how I've added plenty of gender labels to my hord thanks to you /pos)
Anyway. Im writing a fantasy story with human and nonhuman societies. One of the societies involves a species of people who can change their sex at will in order to continue the life of the colony, think clownfish. But i don't want to accidentally write anything transphobic, and I've read plenty of articles about how species and beings who can physically change sex/presentation while being inhuman is transphobic
Would you consider writing something like this transphobic? These aren't the only species or society in the story either, but they are the only ones who can physically change sex. The other species are basically human with extra characteristics like wings or magic, and there are humans in the story, too
I wouldn't consider this transphobic at all! I've played with a very similar concept myself. I'm sure this idea could be done transphobically but I don't see how what you've described here would be, especially if you have human ("human") trans people as well.. I think this kind of story can be a very fun way of examining how gender would be constructed differently if our bodies had a different way of reproducing.
I would reccomend getting the opinions of intersex folks as well, since even if changing sex wouldn't be "intersex" for that species, there may be intersexist tropes you could fall into without realizing it here. But if executed well this sounds like a really cool story!
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opinions on clownfish?
he is looking for his son
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what is, in your opinion, the most mediocre sea creature?
don't say squid
clownfishes
i dont really like them that much
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Still toying with the idea of JD and Braverman hosting a podcast and bringing in other Heathers and Stranger Things characters as guests to express their opinions. The original idea was this was something they do as older Gen X adults, but after getting exhausted by Gen X and older YouTubers complaining about modern pop culture (and there are definitely major problems, but geez it gets repetitive….), that I thought it would be funnier if they were still (from the 80’s) teens comedically commenting on it all in an out of continuity manner.
Braverman and JD host in person, both wearing modern clothing suited to themselves (JD wearing a Not Today shirt while Braverman wears a Krusty Krab Pizza shirt as an example). Their studio is basically their shared room, being a mix of Dan’s nerdier interests and JD’s literary and band interests. Their desk has their signature Bumblebee and Fangry toys standing together, usually in Robot Mode, but occasionally they’ll be in Alt Mode.
Martha, Veronica and Specs handle writing and technical work behind the scenes, with all three popping on to discuss something of interest (Veronica talking about a movie adaption of a book she likes, Specs pretty specifically anything Star Wars, and Martha taking about things like Barbenheimer, Nu She-Ra, the new animated Garfield movie or Jim Henson stuff the new Fraggle Rock or Dark Crystal series).
The other cast of the AU pop in to talk about stuff, with Dustin, Will, Lucas, Mike, El, Eddie, Kurt and Ram being common guests. The Heathers will often hack the stream to throw in their opinions like Gold Heather gushing about the new Chucky series. The Heathers mostly use avatars, and seem to have embraced being Decepticons, using Backdraft, Shellrazor and Starscream’s cartoon designs.
The streams are largely easy going and silly, generally preferring to discuss what they like and playfully making fun of other things (Kurt and Ram of all people wonder if the Mattel Magic 8 Ball movie is going to be a new version of Rubrix cartoon. JD never heard of Rubrix having a show, and Dan remembers after seeing a picture of the cartoon version, admitting he blocked it from memory. Both boys have a comically over the top repulsed reaction on seeing Rubrix.) The guests who are more aggressively “passionate” Ala Geeky Sparkles of Clownfish tend to be Martha, Dustin, Green Heather, and Eddie.
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If it’s ok, can you please do Courtney the clownfish fairy ? She was my favorite as a kid.
Sorry it took a while to answer! When I first received it I was kinda lost interest in Rainbow Magic BUT NOW I’M BACK BABY!!!!!
I didn’t really like her outfit ( the colours clashed a lot in my opinion ) so I just decided to make the entirety of her coloured like an actual clownfish. I had some difficulty drawing her hair too, and it was a pain re-making the backgrounds again after almost a year. But she’s here! Hope you like her!
Feel free to request more fairies I should draw/redesign in my askbox!
#tomatoteddy art#-sighs- I really am just converting back to nine year old me right now am I?#rainbow magic#rainbow magic fairies#daisy meadows#courtney the clownfish fairy#art#artists on tumblr#dt's askbox
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From ferret electricians to landmine-sniffing rats – meet the extraordinary animals that work for a living
Sometimes the right person for the job isn’t a person at all …
Magawa, a recently retired mine-detecting rat, plays with his former handler in Cambodia. Photograph: Cindy Liu/Reuters
by Emma Beddington
Thu 19 Oct 2023 11.00 CEST
Our relationship with animals is deeply peculiar, spanning the spectrum from besotted to breezily exploitative. Whether they are friends, pests, assets, dinner or catnip content creators, the relationship tends to be heavily skewed in our favour. We might look after our pets devotedly, but most animals aren’t so lucky in their encounters with us.
There are a few instances, however, where human interests and animals’ natural behaviours and inclinations more or less align. Most aren’t technically “mutualistic” interactions between two species that benefit both, like a clownfish hiding in and cleaning up its sea anemone. Even so, there is a cheering amount of win-win in a handful of our relationships with the natural world. Let’s take a look at some of that mutual back-scratching.
Bat librarians
Careful curators … bats have lived in the Joanina library at the University of Coimbra in Portugal for centuries. Photograph: Marcin Jamkowski/Adventure Pictures/Alamy
The baroque Joanina Library at the University of Coimbra in Portugal is well known for its exquisitely detailed gilding and woodwork, but also for what its deputy director, António Maia do Amaral, calls its “honorary librarians”: bats. Amaral explains that there are two small colonies – free-tailed bats and pipistrelles – living in Joanina. They have been there for centuries: 18th-century library paperwork documents an order of large leather sheets from Russia; these sheets, known as “moscovias”, are still unrolled at night to protect the huge embossed tropical wood tables from bat droppings.
Literary wingman … a pipistrelle bat, one of two species found at Joanina. Photograph: Rudmer Zwerver/Alamy
Whether the bat librarians are actually helping is a moot point. The assumption is that they feed on book-eating insects that could damage the library’s precious collection, but their droppings have never been analysed to check. “As far as I know, it has always been a peaceful coexistence, even if their role in pest control is maybe marginal,” says Amaral. “We cannot trust bats alone to preserve the books from flying insects. For that purpose, we have a six-cubic-metre anoxic chamber for cleaning the books.”
The bats are part of the library anyway, even if they are only occasionally spotted (usually at evening events, when they flutter out from the shelves to entertain guests). Visitors are intrigued – you can even get a baseball cap with a Joanina bat on it – but opinions within the library vary. “My first director was always very annoyed when asked about the bats’ existence,” says Amaral. “He felt that bats were the least important thing in the library, because he was such a cultured man. Nowadays, people are more often benevolent and amused with the bat story. Personally, I’m very happy with the bats and pray for their good health.”
The bats weren’t the only honorary librarians in previous centuries, Amaral adds. Historical library records included an annual sum in the budget for feeding Joanina’s mouse-hunting cats; you can still spot “cat doors” cut into the woodwork.
Ferret electricians
youtube
The cutest cable guys … ferrets strut their stuff on Channel 4.
“Ferrets are, if you want to be polite, inquisitive; if you want to be blunt, they’re nosy little devils,” says James McKay of the National Ferret School. “When you put them in any opening, they want to go through and see what’s at the other end.” Their curiosity, shape and sinuous flexibility mean they can get to places and do jobs no human could manage. Felicia the ferret became a furry pipe cleaner for the Fermilab particle accelerator in Illinois in 1971; ferrets wriggled under the floor of St Paul’s Cathedral to enable TV transmission of the royal wedding in 1981 and cabled the Millennium Dome (the work of three called Beckham, Posh and Baby).
Naturally inquisitive … ferrets can squeeze into spaces that humans can’t. Photograph: Farlap/Alamy
How does the cabling work? The ferret wears a harness attached to a long, light nylon line. Once it has threaded the line through a duct, the line is attached to a heavier pull rope to thread the cable. Although there is some training involved – the school has a training area with a range of vertical and split pipes and cul-de-sacs – it is really a case of capitalising on the ferrets’ natural inclination to investigate holes. A bit of salmon oil at the far end of a long pipe as a reward can help them find their way. The furthest one of McKay’s ferrets has travelled is about 250 metres: “We’ve never had one get halfway and decide to come back.”
The school’s business (the delightful collective noun for ferrets) numbers about 50 and McKay usually takes half a dozen along on a job in case someone isn’t in the mood. The hobs (males, which are larger) can pull lines longer distances, while the smaller jills (females) are better at wriggling through the narrowest spaces. Does he have a favourite ferret? “They’re all as good as each other.”
Winemaking ducks and spiders
How winemaking ducks help Vergenoegd Löw vineyard – video
At the Vergenoegd Löw winery in South Africa, pest control on the vines is the responsibility of a flock of more than 1,000 Indian runner duck “soldiers”. They emerge in a cacophony of honks every morning and spend the day eating aphids, snails and worms, keeping the vines pest-free and healthy. They circulate in a 14-day loop around different areas of the vineyard, with their droppings providing a bonus fertiliser. The ducks take a break only during harvest – grapes are just too tempting – when they get a holiday to swim in a nearby lake, forage on farmland and, er, work on producing the next generation of vineyard soldiers.
A corking idea … gigantic cobwebs drape the cellar walls at R López de Heredia winery in La Rioja, Spain. Photograph: Agefotostock/Alamy
Meanwhile, at the R López de Heredia winery in La Rioja, gigantic cobwebs drape the cellar walls and yet more cover the bottles. They aren’t Halloween props or atmospheric decor: they are home to the spiders who help the López de Heredia family keep their barrels and corks free from cork-eating moths – “the mortal enemy of long‑ageing wine”.
Diagnostic technician and demining rats
Another fruitful endeavour … one of Apopo’s rats gets a tasty treat for identifying an inactive mine in Cambodia. Photograph: Taylor Weidman/Getty Images
The 300 African giant pouched rats employed by the NGO Apopo are multitalented. Not only have they worked on mine clearance in south-east Asia and Africa, but they also sniff out positive tuberculosis sputum samples.
Why are they so good at the job? “They’ve very smart; they’re sociable; they have an excellent sense of smell,” says Lily Shallom of Apopo. “In the past, we’ve found that they can smell a picogram of TNT – a trillionth of a gram.” The rats are “very motivated by food. They like to stuff their cheeks; they have a sweet tooth and they love anything that’s got a really high fat and protein content.” Peanuts and bananas are particular favourites.
The rats signal when they have found a mine by scratching at the surface of the ground. (Weighing a maximum of 1.5kg, the rats are much too light to set off a mine; none have been hurt in the field.) A TB sample, meanwhile, is flagged as potentially positive if a rat hovers over it for three seconds.
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Reporting for duty … Apopo’s life-saving rats.
It’s a nice life for these highly sociable creatures. Training (which takes nine months on average) or work make up a tiny portion of the rats’ day: mine detection sessions last about 20 minutes, building up to half an hour. Assessing 100 TB samples – the standard batch size – takes a maximum of 20 minutes, but could take a human technician up to four days. The rest of the rats’ day is devoted to free play, hanging out with other rats, snacking and napping.
Apopo is always exploring potential uses for the rats’ special skillset at its training and research centre in Tanzania. Projects include searching for survivors of natural disasters, detecting illegally trafficked pangolin scales and decontaminating land, with the rats deployed to detect specific concentrations of hydrocarbons in soil.
Honey-hunting birds
Birds of a feather … a honey hunter studies a greater honeyguide at the Niassa national reserve in Mozambique. Photograph: Claire Spottiswoode/AP
Humans and greater honeyguides have a genuinely mutualistic relationship: the small, brown‑ish African relative of the woodpecker flutters in front of people, tweeting to guide them to bees’ nests in hollow tree trunks. The humans then smoke out the potentially dangerous bees and take the honey. The honeyguide watches and waits until they have finished, then enjoys its preferred food: beeswax.
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On song … how honeyguides talk to people.
In 2016, a research team at the University of Cambridge discovered that communication between honeyguides and humans goes both ways. They learned that honey hunters from the Yao community in Mozambique have a better chance of attracting honeyguides, and finding honey, if they use a specific sound: “A loud trill followed by a short grunt: brrr-hmm.” The call increased the overall chance of finding honey from 16% to 54% compared with control sounds. “The ‘brrr-hmm’ call more than tripled the chances of a successful interaction, yielding honey for the humans and wax for the bird,” reported Dr Claire Spottiswoode, who led the project.
Hawk bouncers
Top flight … a working hawk at the Hayward Gallery, London. Photograph: Stephen Chung/Alamy
Why do pigeons need to be deterred? According to Citihawk’s Leigh Holmes, they represent a twofold health hazard: “Pigeon fouling contains horrendous amounts of bacteria and parasites – and when wet it becomes very slippery,” she says. The hawks aren’t there to attack or eat the pigeons – that never happens, according to Holmes. They would rather fly back for chicken pieces held by their handlers. The aim is to scare them off and discourage them from returning. The theory, says Holmes, is that “pigeons see a natural predator that they are in-built to be fearful of … They disappear to find somewhere safer to roost, nest and feed.”
The hawks fly free, exploring wherever they like on the day’s site. “They love the exercise; they love getting out and flying,” says Holmes. She thinks they particularly relish working in urban areas. “They really enjoy some of the hustle and bustle, because they fly exceptionally well.” That freedom does mean they sometimes go awol. “They can be quite childlike at times and see a pigeon a street away or on another roof. They will literally just go to scare off other birds.” The hawks are fitted with trackers, so the handlers can follow their movements in real time.
Harris’s hawks are good at this work because they are naturally gregarious and used to hunting collaboratively in the wild, says Holmes. When trained by humans, they view their falconer as part of their hunting team. “They learn to read each other,” she says. “It’s incredible. It’s an amazing feeling for the staff members.”
Another big part of the falconer’s job is interacting with amazed and delighted members of the public: “The amount of photographs taken, the amount of interest and the amount of love for birds of prey … People just love it.”
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mime bomb for the character ask game? ^_^
FUCKKKK I JUST ASKED YOU THIS AS WELL. OKAY SO
How I feel about him: my first blorbo! Always good times when I interact with this blorbo. I no longer like him romantically but if he wanted to fist fight I would let him. I used to have his whole wiki page memorized.
Romantic ships: Slimebomb/Clownfish (Neal and MB), Silent Electric (do people still call MB and crackle that), Tigress x MB (I perosnally call this one Strip Shipping), and MB x Zack
None romantic OTP: him and murder. In all seriousness tho him and dash. They would gossip so hard together.
Unpopular opinion: He can 100% speak he just commits to the bit because he really wants too
What I wished happened in cannon: Honestly wish he had a solo caper.
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Oh look is Bicho again.
You know what that's means:
But all seriousness, Bicho ( really can tell is you making another alt account), you not going to do anything like at all. All I hear you is all bark and no bite and and I can read you like book easily. Using threatened strategy to get what you want to silence people to be big bad wolf to stop people criticism on IDW sonic or IDW publisher in general because they not doing well. This is fact, their tons of videos talking about it (go watch Clownfish TV) that you have to grow up and enjoy it while it lasts and stop policing people of their critique. If you want to do it then go ahead by all means. All I and others going to do is just not feed trolls like you guys or giving you attention that you craving on. I learn this lesson from someone close to me and I going to take their a advice on that and enjoy what I like and do this important thing outside of online. And honestly, it feels great of not feed the troll. And to all people you felt that someone is policing you on your own opinion or criticizing on things. There is nothing wrong to criticize on movie, video, show, game, comic or whatever, this let company or writer or artist know that the need to improve on their work. But critique need to be reasonable not just " Waaa this suck" if you have good reason of why and what needs to be improved on them you have solid critique. That I learn on my graphic design class. I take my critique on my work hard and yes, I got angry none of less but it let me learn that real world work like that there no people who going pampering you. I learn to take criticism like professional do of you can't handle that, Bicho then you free to do is to block people. No one is stopping you do that all you do is acting like child because the pamper child don't like. Even professional like Harvey Cavill take criticism of the fan like a pro and I highly recommend you to watch it.
https://youtu.be/4dK1vo5bTdI
If these people are so thin-skinned that they feel the need to make a myriad of alt accounts for the sake of stroking their own egos to some randos on the internet, let them stew in their delusions.
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School Uniform Vignette: I think it looks nice
Howl Pendragon
Howl shuffled into Octavinelle, a bundle tucked into their jacket in a way that they hoped wasn’t suspicious, but certainly was.
They approached the stairs leading upstairs to where their shared dorm room is, only to be abruptly stopped by a 6 foot tall eel.
“Nee~ Clownfishie, whatcha got there?”
Howl jumped back in surprise, eyes wide and frantic as they looked up at Floyd. “Huh? What? Nothing, why do you ask?”
Floyd gave them a smile, but his eyes clearly showed how unimpressed he was.
“If it’s nothing, you wouldn’t mind if I borrowed it, would you?”
Howl clutched the bundle closer before they sighed and handed it over.
Floyd’s eyebrow shot up as he took it and unraveled it, to reveal…
Purple and white fabric, thread, sewing needles, and pins.
“Eh?” He asked, looking over it, “What are you doin’ with this? Gonna sew yourself out of dish duty?”
“I’m making a rope to climb out the window.” They replied sarcastically.
“Wouldn’t recommend that.” Floyd replied easily, slowly bundling up the fabric again, “We’re pretty far underwater. You’d probably just drown~” he shot them a sharp grin, handing back the fabric.
Howl laughed a little, double checking everything was still in the bundle, “Thanks for the tip. I guess I’ll have to use my rope in hallway F instead.”
Floyd hummed and leaned in, “Whatever you’re usin’ this for, just make sure you’re not late for work later, yeah? You wouldn’t wanna get squeezed again, wouldja?”
They sighed a little, nodding at Floyd, “I’ll be there. See you, Floyd.”
A week passed before Howl donned their school uniform blazer again, and it was a sight that certainly turned heads.
As they entered the cafeteria, near everyone turned to look. Some gawked, others cooed at the sight, and others (Riddle) looked furious. Howl paid no mind, instead simply going through the line to get some lunch and plopping themselves down at the empty table in the corner of the cafeteria. Throughout their meal, several people came over to gush and ask for their own versions, which Howl simply smiled and nodded to. No point in committing at the moment. Others came over to tell them that their uniform is a violation of the dress code and they need to fix this (Riddle and Sebek both made sure to let them know this loudly.)
Azul and Jade sat nearby, occasionally glancing over at them and talking quietly to themselves, but didn’t bother with bringing it up to them directly.
But who should enter the cafeteria a little later than usual, covered in dried leaves and dirt, but Floyd Leech.
“Clownfishie has stripes!” Floyd chirped, walking up to drape himself on Howl, “Look at you. You really live up to your nickname now.”
Howl turned to look up at him, smiling slightly, “Do you like it?”
Floyd hummed, “Eh~ it’s a little flashy for my taste.”
“I think it looks nice,” Howl said confidently, “But anything’s better than the armbands, in my opinion.”
Floyd tilted his head, “How come?”
“They…mean something really gross where I’m from.”
Floyd said nothing, instead flopping down to sit beside them, snagging a few of their fries from their plate.
“Alright, I guess. Anyway, is this what that fabric was for? Cause if so, it’s pretty cool you made this in a week.”
Howl hummed around the straw of their drink, nodding slightly. They rubbed at their eyes, then checked the clock. “Oh shit, I have classes in 5. I gotta go Floyd, I’ll catch you later.”
The eel-mer shrugged, “Well, enjoy the drip Clownfish. The digs are pretty cool on you. Have fun learnin’ stuff!”
#twst howl#floyd leech#twisted wonderland oc#twisted wonderland headcanons#twisted wonderland#twst#twst floyd#howls moving house
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