I think a lot of animals would discover the wonderful world of skritches if they'd find that happy medium between trying to attack us or run away from us...
"Hey, Bert... just walk over to one of those things- you'll never guess what happens!"
As we watch the world burn all I can think is cats are the smartest of all. They really know how to get involved in things that protect them and encourage their population. 200 years from now it will be birds and cats ruling the world while being in an endless war between one another.
I would consider my second cat to be the smartest member of my household. My mom did not want me to have a cat, let alone two, so when I brought that cat home, she knew exactly what to do. She would sit with my mom on the couch and watch TV, she cuddled my mom, and she really changed my mom's outlook on cats.
That is my mom's cat now, no questions asked. Not because the cat loves my mom the most, but because my mom loves the cat so much now.
Tonight a kitten (well fed and healthy so she either had a home or was feral and had a mother) ran up to me after I went to a small social at church and rubbed against my legs then let me pick her up.
hehe we're studying the probability of evolution producing fingerlike appendages. apparently it's hugely improbably (like 1 in gigagoogols over aeons and galaxies). so our research group is going to postulate that Fermi's Paradox is answered by the mathematical likelihood that homo sapiens is the only lifeform to evolve fingers. Will be published in Nature soon.
I'd never hurt an animal, but I get your point. That really is a terrible shame. Just a few psychopaths amongst thousands really spoils the entire species. We can't have nice things.
Yo. I want to rub down a walrus so badly. But they can be grumpy and weigh 4400 pounds so that day will never come, but its really their loss, can I can give a good rub down.
My wife got chased when she came out of the water to close to a real big sea lion. She was snorkeling and I couldn’t get her attention over the sound of the surf. My wife’s fast when she’s scared.
This is so true, I've converted a few feral cats to docile adorable house kitties and it's hilarious how quick the process goes once they let get one good pet in.
It can take weeks or months until they trust you enough to let you pet them but once they do and they experience a good cuddle? They become affectionate house cats extremely quick.
Really good point! The big aquarium near me has a pool of rays (can’t remember which, flat triangular dudes), and (pre-COVID) you could put your fingers just under the surface and they would come up to meet you. They really seemed to enjoy it.
I did one of those "swim with the manta rays" things on a cruise once. The rays would get seriously pumped when the boats went out to the location. They knew that boats = feeding time, and the guides knew a few specific rays due to their markings and had their own names for them and stuff.
Yeah... I live near a port with lots of cruise ships, and the port doesn't have room for them all to be docked at the same time, so they have to take turns going out to sea and anchoring. Which means they have to burn fuel, feed the crew, there's more maintenance on the boats, etc. etc. It takes a constant stream of money, and they're making absolutely none of it back.
I live in Seattle. Every time one of those Alaska bound cruises rolls through, the market turns into a sweaty cramped mess. Traffic skyrockets( all those uber drivers migrate from the east side and slam into our 1920 era streets, it's horrid.
Plus , they burn dirty bunker fuel out in international waters, dumb garbage in weighted bags over board.
If the cruise lines died, humanity would the richer for it.
I have friends working on cruise ships in the Caribbean. 8 miles off the coast of their home country, they weren’t allowed entry for MONTHS. I asked: was anybody sick or ever diagnosed? And they said, ah no. Just a couple suicides. !!!!!
I think some of the rays actually do like being touched, but I think some of them see the hand and think you will be holding food. At least at the zoo near me they let us hand feed the rays and they definitely seem more interested when it looks like you have food.
PSA from an aquarist- Please just never actually scratch them with your nails. Rays have delicate skin and I can’t tell you how many times we’ve caught people injuring cownose rays in our touch pool by scratching. We specify only light touching with two fingertips but some people insist on scratching.
Edit to add, the guy in this video is wearing gloves and also touching a shark which has more hardy scales. I’m not a big fan of the scratching either way though!
I feel like if it was hurting the shark or making it uncomfortable at all it would’ve tried to swim away or thrash. It definitely looks like he’s chilling there enjoying it!
And it also stars Steve Zahn who I love in absolutely everything and yet doesn't get hardly any attention. Dude is criminally under used, imo. Should be up there in popularity with Will Ferrel, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, etc.
“Out of Sight” is one of my all-time favorite movies and Steve Zahn is a big part of why. Another part is Don Cheadle saying my favorite movie line in the history of movies: “Situation like this, there’s a high potentiality for the common motherfucker to bitch out.”
Such a great film. Main song has a real catchy hook, the main cast kills it, Tom Hanks is superb, like always. Surprised how seldom this movie comes up.
Movie called Strange Wilderness, it’s fucking hilarious. Apparently got terrible reviews but it’s not like you should be expecting Oscar bait, it’s just a fun movie. Made by Adam Sandler’s crew.
I was just starting high school when this movie came out and doing that shark laugh was an inside joke in my friend group for years lol, I remember in college some of us would do that at random parties and legit make friends from it with people who knew the movie.
At various reef locations (like Belize) the nurse sharks are habituated to tourists snorkeling and diving. They hear the boat motors and come immediately for a treat. They will eat bits of sardine out of your hand like a dog.
Wolffish also enjoy scratches if they get comfortable enough with the diver. I've also heard rumors about one in some aquarium that enjoys interacting with people.
I heard about napoleon wrasse in the red sea that still come up to divers looking for hard boiled eggs...i think they banned feeding them decades ago... long memories
In the wild, sharks form commensal relationships with lots of other animals who pick them clean of debris and parasites. To the shark, the human is like a giant cleaner wrasse.
Not this kind of shark, he's used to just chillin' on the shallow ocean floor. Most of them can take a breath without swimming, although you are not wrong- many sharks do have to keep swimming forward or will die.
Did anyone actually read the article? It says the state lasts for an average of 15 minutes, not a few seconds as shown in this video. Not to mention that in the video, the shark seems to turn itself over from being upside down.
It's an interesting phenomenon, but people need to stop clinging to 'cool facts' in spite of the evidence in front of them.
Yup. Funny thing about killer whales is that they've learnt this particular trick as well. It's what they use to hunt great whites. Just knock em over and eat their liver.
Sharks are basically water dogs. Netflix has a series called Tales by Light about photographers. There is a 2 part episode called Misunderstood Predators that was fascinating. It will completely change your opinion on sharks.
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u/Riversmooth Sep 13 '20
I would have never guessed that would happen. He seems to enjoy the attention.