Animals are Magical

[mountain_jim]

not magical but kinda funny

https://x.com/catturd2/status/1772942916886962261?s=20

[wondering]

Orange Cat bad!!!!😂😂😂

[Tintin]

How very wonderful

[Arcturian108]

Nora, a cat pianist, plays with orchestral accompaniment:

https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1774048849004200411

[Jaak]

I have a strange hobby or meditation - i like to feed wild parrots and sparrows.It started a year ago when i was homeless .i was always warming my ass in sunshine at certain spot after a cold night and always bought some extra bread to feed the birds.I always liked the parrots but sparrows won my heart. They got so used to me that they could spot me from very far distances and instantly come to me as soon as they spot me. It still amazes me and i try to pass by there once or twice a week just to see if birds still recognize me.Some still do
Sadly all my sparrow photos are on the other phone.No lack of pictures of parrots though
https://ibb.co/F3dWR6V
https://ibb.co/gSKhs8D
https://ibb.co/K9QW6xr
https://ibb.co/W2yGTP8

[Alekahn2]

Posted by Arcturian108 (here)
Nora, a cat pianist, plays with orchestral accompaniment:

https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/

[thepainterdoug]

i love this. without knowing anything about it, my take is that he records the cat on the piano at home . lets the cat do what it will, alters and edits it, and then constructs a composition afterwards to compliment the cats actions.
if its more than that and truly collaborative ?? , Im jumping out the window.

Van Clatburn

[Frankie Pancakes]

https://twitter.com/i/status/1774110773997924695

Dog gets a wheelchair.

[Alekahn2]

^^^
I've watched the above videos several times now...
smiling while weeping at the joy of the wheelchair canine(). Beautiful.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Bu5BmwIAnj8

One of the comments to this documentary (37:03):

"One of the truly greatest parts of being human is partaking in this ancient bond.
My life is beyond enriched for having dogs in it."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=8qLyS-GN-I8

Some dogs of TikTok...(@2:45...hilarious!)

[onawah]

Weird new kind of sloth!

[Johnnycomelately]

Any critter that makes it’s home by carving a hole in rock, is magical in my books.

https://baynature.org/article/the-li...n-beach-rocks/

The three pics are worth clicking the link, IMO. Header is some holed and weathered examples, pic #2 is the particular clam in someone’s hand, pic #3 shows one in its stone hole after the rock has been split.

* header pic *

Science and Nature

The Living Drill Bits That Grind Holes in Beach Rocks
This clam makes its mark on the world at the rate of one millimeter per month.

by Guananí Gómez-Van Cortright
October 10, 2022

Perhaps you’ve seen them strewn along the seashore: a smooth, round pebble with a perfect hole right through it, or a chunk of shale with several holes neatly arranged in suspiciously consistent rows.

“It strikes people’s curiosity,” says Rebecca Johnson, codirector of the Center for Biodiversity and Community Science at the California Academy of Sciences. “It’s really common along our beaches to see these hole-filled rocks and be really confused about what possibly could have made this hole.”

People from the British Isles have long called these uncanny rocks hagstones, holey stones, or witch stones. Some people believe the stones grant magical powers: sailors tie hagstones to the sides of their ships to ward off bad weather and witchcraft. Other traditions included hanging hagstones above beds to repel nightmares or in stables to protect horses, or wearing hagstone necklaces as protective talismans.

But what made these captivating stones in the first place?

“It’s absolutely the most common question I get as a clam guy,” says mollusk researcher Paul Valentich-Scott, formerly a curator at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. “It’s an enigma in nature, to have that kind of perfection.”


These perfect holes aren’t created by human hands or witchcraft, but are the life’s work of piddock clams, also known as angel wing clams. These enterprising mollusks excavate their custom shelters by slowly boring through soft rock such as sandstone or Monterey shale. “I call them living drill bits,” says Jonathan Geller, a marine invertebrate zoologist at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, part of San José State University.

Piddocks are members of the Pholadidae family of mollusks, which live in oceans around the world. After a clam dies, the hole it created remains in the rock. Waves tumble the rock, breaking it down into pebbles with cross sections of perfect holes, captivating beachgoers.

* pic *

Piddocks begin their lives as larvae drifting at the mercy of the open ocean. At this stage, they measure only 300 to 500 microns wide—about the width of three human hairs. But even in their minuscule larval state, piddocks can “taste” the water and mosey toward signs of adult clam life, which entice them to settle near each other on appealing slabs of shale. (This is why rows of piddock holes may be crowded together.) If the rock surface feels and tastes right, the clams complete their metamorphosis from larva to juvenile. Then, the drilling begins. Gripping the stone with its suction-cup-like foot, the clam rotates its body, causing the ridges that stud the wider end of its shell to rasp against the rock like a file.

Fleshy tubes called siphons peek out of the clam’s shell toward the opening of the burrowed hole. The siphons suck oxygen- rich water into the clam’s body, where it sloshes over its gills and into the stomach. There, the tastiest morsels of plankton filter in and the siphons spit out the extra water.

Burrowing through even the softest rocks takes time. The clams toil away, deepening and expanding the hole by roughly a millimeter each month. Because the clams grow as they go, they can never leave their homes—not that they have any reason to. “For them, it’s not a price to pay,” says Geller. “They’re safe and secure.”

* pic *

When a piddock dies, other creatures can take up residence in the burrow. Sea anemones, crabs, snails, and sea urchins find safe havens in these nooks.

Grinding on beneath the waves may sound tedious (or familiar), but the piddock is happy as a clam to carve its safe abode—in that sense, a hagstone as a talisman for protection may have some logic to it.

[Johnnycomelately]

Four year old YouTube vid, apologies if it has been posted upthread. Found it in this recent article on a car website, about transporting Giraffes by road:

https://www.thedrive.com/news/transp...ky-as-it-looks

True Facts: The Wacky Giraffe

Ze Frank
4.1M subscribers

5,297,765 views Mar 31, 2020

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=EfHxUaJDEn8

[Jaak]

[Alekahn2]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=rITjvTwU_Tw

The scenes of both grizzly and black bears scent marking a tree and then scratching
their backs on it are priceless and rare. A pair of lynx (), several wolf visits,
a bull moose, and a wolverine make this five and half minutes of amazingly, magical
wild creatures of the Yukon wilderness an absolute joy to watch.

[Alekahn2]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=oTSthO4xFwQ

"Halil Akyuz (49) is engaged in animal husbandry with his six dogs,
without a shepherd, in Cayirlar village of Macka (?). Akyuz, who has a crowded
herd, has difficulty taking care of the animals because he does not have a helper.
While the very young lambs of the sheep are trying to keep up with the rhythm
of life, Akyuz undertakes this difficult task alone..."
(29:52)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=52gD_Y8bJms

When a three-legged lamb realizes he is different from the other sheep in his flock,
he ventures out into the unknown and becomes lost and alone. Determined to bring
the lamb home, the kind-hearted shepherd sets out on a rescue mission. The lamb
discovers that he may not be able to achieve great things on his own, but he is loved
and valued by the shepherd simply for who he is...
(7:19)

Written, directed, and Animated by Lukas Rooney
https://www.lamplight-studio.com/
("Definitely a labor of love and beauty")

[mountain_jim]

human good deed


https://x.com/catturd2/status/1776574509014806973

Nature is Amazing ☘️

@AMAZlNGNATURE
·
23h
Boaters save a swimming bear with a plastic tub stuck on his head.

[Inversion]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=6ZosJCCgb64

[Bill Ryan]

I don't think this is animal cruelty! Dean's dog seemed to love every minute of it.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=AGWiZLy0YuI

[mountain_jim]

https://x.com/TheWakeninq/status/1778816217291067786

Dan Scavino - Facebook

Don't give up 🐧

[Bill Ryan]

More Penguins. Here's a most wonderful 4 minute video from National Geographic. Do watch!

Emperor Penguin Chicks jump off a 50-foot cliff in Antarctica

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=4PwDFddpo4c