anon6789

It's my pleasure. Every week I get new great stories to tell. Last week was my first time with a vulture, so I got to learn how they behave when a new human comes poking around them. I get to see animals up close that I didn't even know we have in my state like minks, flying squirrels, and the other week we had a brown thrasher, which is kind of like a roadrunner.

I work with really amazing and caring people, meet all kinds of nice people and kids that find hurt animals and want to see them get better, some real weirdos as well.

We had a little boy find a bumble bee that was missing a wing and he took it to his parents, and then they brought it in and he dropped it off to us. We treated it the same as any other wild animal. We gave it fresh fruit, soft bedding, and while bee wings are too delicate to work on (we do repair butterflies though!) we gave that bee the best end of life care possible and we were sad when he passed. It may sound silly, but in a world with a lot of anger lately, to be in a group of people that can see love and compassion in a bee can feel like a really great place to be.

If you want more animal stories and cool anatomy stuff, it's a bit more niche, but I post on !superbowl@lemmy.world every day. I post cute and humourous stuff of course, but much of the content is sourced from rescues like the one I work at or wildlife photographers, so there's a serious and respectful undertone to it all, and I can answer lots of questions. I'll sneak in non-owl related stuff from my personal animal care experiences too when I can tie it in.

It's all good. Last week there were a lot in a bad mood since they were being weened. Their free ride is coming to an end. 😁

I'm a volunteer at a wild animal rescue. Squirrels have babies twice a year, and whichever ones end up displaced for one reason or another end up with us.

We're starting to wrap up for the year, but at the peak of both breeding seasons we have over 200 baby squirrels in our care, and depending how big they are, we need to take care of them 3 or 4 times a day.

They get fed, weighed, a good general inspection to look for any health problems, and their enclosures cleaned out. We give them hammocks and toys and things to build up their squirrel behaviors.

They'll eventually graduate to an outdoor enclosure with a lot more room to move around and/or we release them back to the environment where they resume their lives as nature intends.

As a larger and stronger than average person, squirrels are quite impressive little critters. They are extremely fast and agile, and you just can't appreciate it until you start to handle ones that aren't cooperative! They barely seem bound by the laws of physics. They can move any direction, in any orientation, stick tone everything with those tiny claws, have insane bursts of energy, and even ones with their eyes barely open have insane upper body strength to climb anywhere. When they are angry, they will hiss, spit, lunge and bite like the scariest of feral cats. They have sharp, reinforced teeth that can bite through our leather gloves if they really want to. They are no joke!

But they are also soft, loveable, and adorable critters that need a helping hand sometimes.

Here's a recent photo I grabbed while feeding one. You can make out those biceps and cannonball shoulders under the fur, and this one is on the small side, so it's a wimp compared to the big guys.

All us volunteers start our education on squirrels, as there are so many and they are pretty safe as far as wild animals go since they're small and typically not too aggressive.

I'm looking to get vaccinated for rabies next month so that next year I can work with the foxes and raccoons and the rest of the rabies prone species. My main ambition is raptors, but we don't get near as many of those as other animals, and they're all amazing in their own ways, so I just want to be able to work with all of them.

I think that's a good basic summary of everything. I'm far from an expert on any specific topic, but if you have any more questions, feel free to ask. It's a great job, and nearly anyone can do it if you have a few hours a week to do a shift (ours are 4 hours) and it's an indescribably positive experience for the most part. I recommend it to anyone who loves wild animals.

A lot of them are cool. But when they are dicks, they go all out. They intimidate me more than a lot of the larger animals.

Squirrels are not typically considered a vector for rabies. They can have surprisingly bad attitudes and can do some damage to you though.

Source: I handled over 200 squirrels this month. 🐿️

Article says there's a pepper ball launcher and a glass hammer, so this thing is mainly for surveillance and mild distractions, which is much better than I was prepared to read.

"Currently, an officer's job is to run toward gunfire, alone, with no support or intel—basically a standoff. With our drones, they're not alone; they know what the suspect looks like, what they're doing, and we take point around every corner.

"We usually find the shooter before they do and keep them occupied. Every officer who's seen this live has said they want it."

If this actually encourages them to do their jobs, great. If this is just a kickback to private industry and further militarizing schools while police still sit cowering, than I know where they can dock those drones...

To be fair to the zoo, everything they are asking for aside from the horses is available from RodentPro. I don't like the idea of taking public donations like this because I'd worry about some weirdo poisoning something.

Animals with known medical histories will sometimes get "reused" after they expire. Time, money, and effort was put into these animals that didn't make it, and in the wild, they would have served this purpose anyway. But those animals aren't pets either.

Really the only news here is the public solicitation. I don't think it's the best look for the zoo, I don't know their financial situation, but I can't imagine they will be flooded with animals to make it worth the people this will turn off. The only thing we ask the public for is donations to buy food, canned or bagged commercial pet foods, or donations of fish that people catch.

*Kristi Noem has entered the chat...

They unfortunately do.

Canada

Brazil

Australia

Mark Rober's Experiment

You've never seen animals flattened way onto the shoulder, well outside the lines or in the middle of the lane where the car should have gone right over it?

My biggest gripe with the rise in violent talk is that it comes off like those commenters trying to get other people riled up into do that violence for them.

If you feel the justice system has failed and there is no other recourse, than that is one thing. But I keep seeing all these comments saying "why aren't you out there doing anything about it?" and my first thought is always "well I haven't seen your face on the news..." As far as I've seen it's still all right wing nutters doing all the violence. If you aren't out there doing something dangerous, why are you here telling others to go do that thing while you sit at home?

You'd call someone a hypocrite if they were on here every day telling other commenters they should feed the homeless, but you found out they don't volunteer or donate or whatever. But I got to scroll past a bunch of keyboard warriors on every political or news thread throwing tantrums about why "nobody is doing what must be done." Justified or not, if people start going after others, it's going to go badly for both sides. If you won't put your money where your mouth is, why are we all forced to read it?

If you're serious, spouting off about it on a public forum is pretty stupid. If you're not serious, you're making the rest of us look stupid to anyone checking out this platform. I feel that's a pretty fair assessment without judging your opinions or anyone else's. We're all wrestling internally with where our limits of tolerance are these days, but we can talk with each other productively about it, or we can rant and rave like a bunch of violent cavemen, but I know which one of those environments I'd rather be in.

Hah, I figure I do bother some people with my block of posts, but 1) I put all my posts up and breakfast so people have all day to ask me questions and I have all my down time at work to answer them so you get quick replies before you forget you even asked something, and 2) if seeing 3-5 owl photos is a row is that big a deal, congrats on having no real problems! 😜

I really do feel that way I do it is an advantage for anyone who develops a real interest in the content. It works for me in a way that it isn't a burden to do it every day, and you get my mostly undivided attention to reply to you.

I don't know if I need this, as I felt everything was done pretty well as it was in 0 and Kiwami 2, but since all the characters and actors are so good with these roles, I definitely want to see it.

I'd be a bit annoyed if this isn't eventually a free patch to the PlayStation, and I don't know if I'd pay for it, but having this a Nintendo exclusive permanently seems an odd decision.