imagine my delight
when discovering this spring baby giraffe
in the woods near my home
i had no idea that they were native to michigan.
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“however much you know giraffes, to see one in the wild for the first time feels prehistoric.”
-jane goodall
when walking on a path in the park today
i noticed 5 different dogs, with 4 different owners
coming from all directions
lots of jumping and friendly barking
wondering how they would all get along
soon saw
it was a planned play date
a dog party
so thrilled to see each other
immediately falling into joyful play
just like in one of my very favorite books
go, dog, go!
with the surprise dog party at the end.
(sorry for the too late spoiler alert)
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“animals are such agreeable friends – they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms.”
-george eliot
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image credit: p.d. eastman, ‘go, dog, go!,” random house publishing
The Paris Aquarium Is Home to a Massive Rescued Goldfish Sanctuary
The future rarely looks bright for an unloved goldfish. Its owner may confine it to a small bowl and deprive it of the space or stimulation it needs, or worse, flush it down the toilet while it’s still alive. But the Paris Aquarium is offering regretful pet owners a better solution: Any unwanted fish that are brought there will be cared for and given a new home in a massive tank, The Nation reports.
The French aquarium launched its goldfish rescue program two years ago, and it houses roughly 600 rescued fish today. Many of the pets that are handed over arrive in poor health. Each specimen is given medical care, including antibiotics and anti-parasite treatments, and kept in quarantine for a month before transitioning to the tank with the rest of the fish. Some goldfish don’t survive the move, but those that do often thrive, growing up to a foot in length.
People have different reasons for taking advantage of the aquarium’s service. For some, it’s a convenient—and eco-friendly—way to get rid of a pet they no longer want. When fish are disposed of in sewage systems, they face almost certain death, and when they’re released directly into a pond or river, they can grow to monstrous proportions and wreak havoc on the local ecosystem.
In other cases, pet owners see that the aquarium can provide a better life for their fish than they ever could. Goldfish can suffer from depression when they’re kept in a small, empty environment, and goldfish bowls have even been banned in some parts of the world for being inhumane. The fish sanctuary is open to members of the public to view—including anyone wishing to check up on a former pet.
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“a goldfish is reason enough for living, if someone needs a reason.”
-martin cooley
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credits: michelle debczak, mental floss, the nation
one of the many beautiful and curious creatures at the belle isle aquarium
The Belle Isle Aquarium was designed by famed Detroit architect, Albert Kahn, and opened in August, 1904. It is the oldest aquarium in the country and has served the Detroit community as a beloved attraction for generations. In 2005, the city of Detroit announced that the Aquarium was to be closed due to lean economic times for the city. The building remained closed to the public until the Belle Isle Conservancy reopened it on September 15, 2012. Since its reopening, the aquarium has exploded in popularity, evident by the attendance numbers that have soared over the course of the last decade. “Momentum” is truly the best term for what is happening in this historic building. A work-in-progress, the aquarium continues to grow and flourish as new exhibits and fish are added, tanks are restored, and history is preserved for generations to come.
“the universe is full of the lives of perfect creatures.”
-konstantin tsiokovsky
Penguins Accidentally Took Selfie After They Found a Cam In Antarctica
(Everyone has the one friend who LOVES to take selfies)
Expeditions to Antarctica are constantly filled with surprises. Australian Eddie Gault went on an expedition there along with his cam to take photos of penguin colonies. Out of the fascinating photos he took, he also ended up having a photo of penguins taking a selfie.
While there, Gault visited Auster Rookery to record a group of Emperor penguins, leaving his camera near them to record their daily lives. After he left it, the penguins came close to the cam, one knocked it over and accidentally took a selfie along with other penguins.
Emperor penguins are the biggest penguin types on the planet, have an average height of 45 inches and can live to be 20 years old. Emperor penguins live in colonies and their breeding period is in Winter, when female penguins lay their eggs and leave them in the care of the male penguins.
“a penguin cannot become a giraffe, so just be the best penguin you can be.”
– gary vaynerchuk
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credits: Australian Antarctic Program, Auster Rookery, The Guardian
The Smithsonian Secretary in the 70s, S. Dillon Ripley, was an ornithologist and thought the owls could hunt the rats attracted to the new garbage cans on the National Mall. He named them Increase and Diffusion—a nod to the Smithsonian’s mission of “the increase and diffusion of knowledge”—and they lived in the building’s west tower.
The pair hatched three owlets in the spring of 1977. One of those new owlets fell out of the tower, but was recaptured and brought safely inside by a staff member. After raising their family, the owls departed and never returned.
This Smithsonian Institution Archives photo shows one of the pair refusing to take a message.
(Not to be confused with the previous Castle owl residents, who were known to crash into windows and swoop down on guards on the National Mall at night, and whose extensive droppings caused the collapse of the floor of a tower. They remain nameless.)
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In honor of International Owl Awareness Day
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sweet delivery
people helping in the community just because
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From the Humane Society:
The sweet and thoughtful Washtenaw Dairy drove up to HSHV today with pup cups for all the dogs!! They’d heard that we have a FULL shelter and brought enough for all the dogs to enjoy a cold treat on this hot day. Not to mention bringing donuts for the humans at HSHV! What a wonderful surprise, thank you Washtenaw Dairy
Response from the Dairy:
Every day is a fun day working at Washtenaw Dairy but today was extra cool! Thanks so much to HSHV for allowing us to pop in today and treat all the dogs at the shelter with pup cups. We are excited to see these sweet dogs find their Forever homes! Their shelters are full right now. A lot of Covid puppies coming back.We wanted to do some thing to showcase their Empty the Shelter event and spoil all the pups that were there.
Thank you for all you do for all the animals in our community!
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“no single act of generosity remains in isolation. the ripples are many.”
―sarah winman, author
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credits: huron valley humane society, washtenaw dairy
not my trout, but an artist who creates in my style
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a few or five decades back
in my elementary school years
i undertook a project that i loved
an end-of-the-year
comprehensive non-fiction report
covering a wide swath of the animal kingdom
involving research, factual write-ups, and illustrations.
i worked on this tirelessly
gleaning material
from the only source i used for everything
our set of encyclopedias
(no google to be found)
all was going well
until i came to the rainbow trout
with no illustration provided
i used my imagination
creating my own vision
of what a rainbow trout might look like
a beautiful striped fish
with every color of the rainbow
spanning across its shiny and scaly skin
at last
the final piece in my big report complete
rechecked everything
put it all in my new yellow folder
decorated the cover
proudly turning it in
waiting for my teacher’s response
she perused our reports
while we had silent reading time
then called me up to her desk
with the hugest of smiles on her face
my report open to the rainbow trout page
telling me that she was going to give me an a+
she said she could see
i was truly a creative
even more than a scientist
that both were good things to be
and she was right.
“the fish was a twelve inch rainbow trout with a huge hump on its back – a hunchback trout.”
-richard brautigan
Crows help rid city streets of cigarette butts
A startup in the Swedish city of Södertälje, has recruited local crows to pick up discarded cigarette butts from the city’s streets and public spaces. In fact, there’s a movement afoot in places as varied as California and the Netherlands to ban the sale of filtered cigarettes to help tamp down on their prevalence in our environment.
According to the Keep Sweden Tidy Foundation, more than one billion cigarette butts are left on Sweden’s streets each year, which represents 62 percent of all litter. To clear the streets, Södertälje spends around 20m Swedish kronor (over $2,200,000), so the hope is that the birds can help cut these costs.
“They are wild birds taking part on a voluntary basis,” the founder of the Corvid Cleaning startup Christian Günther-Hanssen reveals. Each time the wild birds deposit a cigarette butt into a bespoke machine specially designed by Corvid Cleaning, they receive a little snack.
Günther-Hanssen estimates that, with the crows’ help, the city could save at least 75 percent of the costs associated with picking up cigarette butts in the city. For now, Södertälje is trialing the project before setting the operation in motion across the city, paying close attention to the health of the birds, considering the kind of waste they’re being rewarded to pick up.
Research suggests that New Caledonian crows, a member of the corvid family of birds, have the reasoning ability of a human seven-year-old, making them the best bird for the job. “They are easier to teach and there is also a higher chance of them learning from each other,” says Günther-Hanssen. “At the same time, there’s a lower risk of them mistakenly eating any rubbish.” Unfortunately, they have not yet been able to train humans not to throw their butts on the ground.
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“if men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be crows.”
-henry ward beecher
today a ladybug stopped by our classroom veterinary clinic
the kinder docs looked at it closely with a magnifying glass
decided it might be having trouble flying
after much discussion, more close looks, a few notes on a paper, a phone call,
and a blood pressure check of one of the other docs
their good care and magic worked
and the ladybug flew away home.
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“true compassion means not only feeling another’s pain but also being moved to help relieve it.”
-daniel goleman
I didn't have my glasses on.... 