Let us stare into the sun!!!

I'm going to spend the morning staring directly into the sun

Just because I can

Anyone care to join me?

a little pile of mossy seals

Dance dance you funky little dude.

American Woodcock demonstrates "distal rhynchokinesis," the ability to flex the end of its bill. This allows it to grab earthworms it encounters when probing in soil. Other shorebirds, including Dunlins & Sanderlings, can bend their bills in this way. 😃

Dance dance you funky little dude.

American Woodcock demonstrates "distal rhynchokinesis," the ability to flex the end of its bill. This allows it to grab earthworms it encounters when probing in soil. Other shorebirds, including Dunlins & Sanderlings, can bend their bills in this way. 😃

Please be nice to creatures. They may look different from us. They may look scary. But they did not choose to look this way- and with an open mind you can see the beauty in life forms different than we are. They are not movie monsters out to get you, they are just little guys trying to survive this big scary world. When given the chance, spiders can be quite cute! You can choose kindness. Choose kindness.

why is this about to make me sob

Happy tomfoolery day to all who celebrate

Boop~

Happy April Fools!

Hi everyone!

what's the best april fools day joke/prank you've experienced?

Check me out on Webtoon!

I can't believe that i'm almost at 450 Subscribers!! WOW!

Thank you to everyone!

The boopening.

🚨WARNING!🚨 AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums across the U.S. are being targeted with scams advertising fake tickets at discounted prices.

Scammers are targeting Monterey Bay Aquarium visitors with these fake ticket offers online. 

The only place to purchase official Aquarium tickets is through our website. As a nonprofit organization, proceeds from legitimate ticket sales allow us to continue our mission of inspiring conservation of the ocean. Find out more here: https://mbayaq.co/3vlcRpi

Hognoses are just little angels, they even have feathers! See?

This is the lovely Mina Valentine who is cared for by kittyblanket.

hey. what do a selkie and a ziploc bag have in common

A Dose of Cute!

A late summer boat ride, after the puffins and terns had left, was the inspiration for my second wintery seamless illustration, featuring Maine animals. Far fewer species in the off season, but we've got some good ones. Harbor seals and herring gulls are pretty reliable, and always adorable .

-Slaps hood of the seal-

You can fit so many fish in this bad boy!

Today's Seal Is: Eclair

This video is making the rounds again. It's not cute. It's awful and the seal was needlessly put in danger in many ways just so the creators could sell a lie. Even worse, it's misinformation, encouraging people to approach baby seals with their dogs like this is a good thing- putting even more animals needlessly in danger. Report the video whenever you see it. Feel free to link back to this post if others want details on how this video is actually showing something bad.

This “feel-good story” video is spreading misinformation for clicks and is DANGEROUS for seals. Most people aren’t familiar enough with safe seal interaction and their care to realize the captions are not only blatant lies but encourage behavior that will get seals hurt and killed! It’s more dangerous than the other problematic videos of people inappropriately interacting with seals because it falsely claims to be a credible source on proper seal care & interaction. This was likely done to keep people from questioning if the behavior was safe because “If an authority did it, I’ll trust their judgement.” In reality it shows just about everything you shouldn’t do to a baby seal and there’s a fair chance this seal may have died because of it. 

When you see this video posted on media sharing sites please report it for misinformation, and animal endangerment.

Feel free to link back to or quote this post to combat the misinformation.  First I’m going to go over the video and explain what parts are obvious lies so you know what I’m telling you is credible. Then I’m going to tell you why this video is creating misinformation that’s very dangerous to seals.

Field scientists and seals rescue centers are two different things.(1*) The video does not show any actual rehabilitation.(2*) The seal in the video isn’t emaciated and doesn’t require rescue.(3*) Seal rehabilitation takes months, not 3 days.(4*) Contact between the seal and humans isn’t being minimized.(5*) The behavior shown is dangerous for multiple health & safety reasons. (6*)  Seal rescuers don’t use dogs as therapy animals for seals(7*).  Each section has been explained in greater detail if you expand this post.

If people see this video and believe it is a credible source they will think this is acceptable and safe interaction with a seal, when it is not. Just approaching and petting a friendly baby seal can mark it for death. You won’t see the slow painful suffering of starvation you caused when you approached the seal pup still too young to eat anything but the milk of its mother. The mother who you didn’t see, but she saw you and fled, abandoning her pup which will now starve to death needlessly because you wanted to pet it and take a selfie. Hundreds of pups die needlessly every year already because people keep doing this!  Playing with a seal isn’t safe for you, your pet, or the seal. Even a baby seal can slice your hand open and cause severe bleeding that requires stitches. I’ve seen it happen to rescue workers.   While some dogs are friendly, all dogs carry bacteria in their mouths that is normal for dogs but cause serious illness and even death if other animals are exposed to it. Dogs are also capable of having their own thoughts and behaving unexpectedly; your dog is not an extension of you under your complete control. They can and do bite and attack, especially other animals.  Seals don’t understand “sometimes”. So if they are taught humans and dogs are friendly, they think all are friendly. When they go up to the wrong person or dog they’ll be attacked with a chance of being severely injured or killed- many people find abusing seals fun, and plenty of video evidence of it happening regularly. The most easy to find evidence I have on hand are the sea lions who are abused, and injured (sometimes to the point of death) on a daily basis at La Jolla. Trampling, injury, and stillbirths are the norm due to humans being careless- either for a selfie, their own amusement because they “paid for this vacation so they are going to hold that sea lion!” or other intentional maliciousness. (See either my prior post here https://bit.ly/SlushyLaJolla or this blog that posts videos of the abuse almost daily https://bit.ly/DailyLaJollaSealVideos ) And that’s just what we see due to the diligent efforts of one person’s reporting. People will act like people everywhere especially when no other people are there to witness it, the only way to keep seals safe from them is to let seals believe all humans are dangerous and to avoid them, not socialize with them. Seals that learn they can get food from humans are sometimes classified as pests by authorities and often get put down. Seals that go to fishermen for food get shot- you won’t usually see videos of that side of it posted to social media for obvious reasons, but it happens regularly. 

If the person who made this for attention actually cares about seals? Do the right thing and make a video telling the truth. You misrepresented animal rescues. You are endangering what you claim to save. If there is an ounce of decency in you, set the record straight; you don’t actually represent any scientists or rescue, admit you made a mistake and did something wrong, and that your original video is a lie.

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Y'all so worried about walrus and fairies showing up at the door you didn't even CONSIDER a fish using the ring cam to ring the doorbell. ...and that's the one that actually happens!

VERY IMPORTANT a dam in the Netherlands, the weerdsluis lock, is directly on a migratory path for spawning fish. They have a worker stationed there to open the door for the fish, but they can take a while to open it. So to keep the fish from getting preyed on by birds they installed a doorbell. Only, the fish don't have hands to ring the doorbell. If you go to their website, they have a LIVE CAMERA AND A DOORBELL that YOU RING FOR THE FISH when they're waiting, and then the dam worker opens the door for them! I can't express how obsessed I am with this. look at this shit. oh my god.

Please check on the fish doorbell once in a while :)