Retired veterinarian still caring for all creatures great and small. “I’ve never met an animal I didn’t like and I can’t say the same thing about people.”
You've seen the meme: one opossum eats 5,000 ticks a season. Unfortunately, it's wrong.
When researchers dissected the stomachs of 32 wild opossums, they found zero ticks. The number came from a single lab study that got stretched into folklore, and it still gets repeated everywhere.
But the opossum doesn't need the lie. It's the only marsupial in North America. It cleans up carrion, rotting fruit, slugs, snails, and the rodents you'd rather not have around. It eats copperheads and rattlesnakes, because it's immune to their venom. And it almost never carries rabies, since its body runs too cool for the virus to take hold.
So when one waddles through the yard at night, you're not looking at a pest, you're looking at the cleanup crew that works for free.
Squirrels learn early how to share food with their bestie...and then how to avoid that pointless practice. Remember, friends: you can definitely eat your roommate’s whole asparagus all by yourself.
Our spring babies are growing up. Soon most will be heading off to soft release, just in time for round two, which usually starts in August. 🫣
Fresh veggies are a big part of our growing kids’ diet, along with squirrel blocks, and smaller portions of fruit and nuts. Young squirrels enjoy everything once, but the food they love today will be sooo boring tomorrow omg. That’s just one thing that makes squirrel rehab a surprising adventure right up until the moment we say buy-bye.
🎥: Tristan Higginbotham
Could I perhaps interest you in this handsome roseate spoonbill I photographed earlier? This was the closest I've gotten to a spoonbill they're usually incredibly skittish wading birds.
Big congrats to Kentucky Derby champ Golden Tempo on his win at Belmont 🏆🌹
and 🍻 to his trainer who made his health a bigger priority than a triple crown 👑 👑👑 😘
When you think of an animal helping out law enforcement, you often think of a K9. However, a very different kind of animal is assisting local law enforcement when it comes to cold cases involving waterways.
https://t.co/anIOExbkLo
👏🐎After 36 years of combined service, NOPD Mounted Unit horses Dakota and Lurch are hanging up their saddles.
These faithful partners have proudly served the people of New Orleans, and now they're headed to loving farms on the Northshore to enjoy a well-earned retirement!
Bye bye Boadie!
Our banded herring gull returned to the wild yesterday after two weeks in care. We think he suffered a collision, based on bruising on his keel, and then was down a while, not eating, while recovering. All our tests (x-rays, lead) came up clean, and he quickly regained his strength in care and was able to pass his flight test.
Based on the info from his band, Boadie just celebrated his 15th birthday. We hope he’ll enjoy 15 more healthy years out on the waters of NYC.
Happy #FreebirdFriday!
🎥: Terra Tirapelli
Smells a dead mouse from a mile away. Eats anthrax for breakfast. Prevents epidemics just by existing.
The turkey vulture — the most important bird nobody respects.
THE NOSE:
→ Best sense of smell of any bird on Earth
→ Can detect ethyl mercaptan (decomposition gas) from 1+ mile
→ Gas companies add the same chemical to natural gas lines
→ Turkey vultures have circled gas leaks — engineers follow them
THE STOMACH:
→ Stomach acid: pH ~1 (nearly pure hydrochloric acid)
→ Destroys anthrax, botulism, cholera, hog cholera
→ Eats diseased carcasses that would otherwise spread epidemics
→ Essentially a flying biohazard disposal unit
THE BALD HEAD:
→ No feathers = bacteria can't get trapped when eating carrion
→ UV sunlight sterilizes the bare skin
→ Same reason vultures sunbathe with wings spread (UV sterilization)
THE FLIGHT:
→ Soars for hours without flapping (uses thermals)
→ Distinctive "wobbly" flight with wings in shallow V
→ Can cover 200 miles per day searching for carrion
WITHOUT VULTURES:
→ In India, vulture populations crashed 99% due to a cattle drug
→ Result: rotting carcasses, feral dog explosion, rabies epidemic
→ Tens of thousands of human deaths attributed to vulture decline
Respect the cleanup crew.
You need them more than they need you.
Cada mañana, un señor recibe a un cliente muy especial que viene a por su desayuno. Ese día hacía mucho frío y pensó que no vendría, pero apareció como siempre.