Zookeeper Gabe's Animal Thread V6.0

[Krallang]

He probably doesn't care about the birds, he's after the food. Get a live trap and release him in the country. Call your local animal control, they may even borrow you a live trap.

I live out in the country and this being west virginia animal control isn't going to bother with a raccoon especially in the area I live.

I've had raccoons kill my chickens before, that said I did trap him with some peanut butter and released him at the edge of my property down an access road to a natural gas well. He's just reaching adulthood it looks like but if he does wander back I'll nail him with a pellet gun a few times before its 3rd strike time and the real gun.

On a good note the swallow nest I purposely haven't torn down or painted in 8 years is filled once again. I've noticed the pair around for a few weeks but just yesterday the babes were poking their heads out. Its on another porch on the side of my house i dont frequent as much but the pair aren't bothered by my presence at all.

 

[jefferz]

California pipevine swallowtail butterfly

 

[Zookeeper Gabe]

That's the one the guy started a backyard conservation project with right?

 

[5crew]

So I was reading my early yahoo finance news and saw this random article popping out and thought it was interesting to share.

99-Million-Year-Old Spider Mummy Sported Horned Fang

As quoted:
two bizarre spiders — each sporting hard, armored plates on their bodies and horns on their fangs — became mummified in sticky tree resin that turned into amber.

www.livescience.com/55319-amber-fossil-preserved-armored-spider.html

I'm curious how they figured out it's over 99m old. Probably carbon dating or something but the 99m number seems like it's plucked out of random.

 

[JBSchroeds]

I'm curious how they figured out it's over 99m old. Probably carbon dating or something but the 99m number seems like it's plucked out of random.

Carbon dating doesn't work that far back, but it's the same principle using longer lived isotopes (such as uranium). The uranium-lead method can date stuff to an accuracy of less than two million years. If it came out to 99mil, I'd take them at their word.

 

[5crew]

@JBSchroeds
I was skeptic about the 99m year age also because of the size of these spiders. I always presume creatures were much larger back in those days due to higher oxygen level. Sort of like Titanoboa and some giantic scorpion which names i forgot.

Edit:
oh yeah and those 6ft in length Dragonflies.

 

[fightingrabbit]

I'm curious how they figured out it's over 99m old. Probably carbon dating or something but the 99m number seems like it's plucked out of random.

Cmon bro, I can name like 10 things that are 99 million years old.

Spoiler

your mom

Spoiler

 

[MadSquabbles500]

@JBSchroeds
I was skeptic about the 99m year age also because of the size of these spiders. I always presume creatures were much larger back in those days due to higher oxygen level. Sort of like Titanoboa and some giantic scorpion which names i forgot.

Edit:
oh yeah and those 6ft in length Dragonflies.

That is some scary, King Kong Skull island level scary.

I hear if climate change continues at this rate, oxygen levels will reach those mesozoic levels again, and the roaches and ants be like four feet long.

 

[Zookeeper Gabe]

@5crew could be the soil that the amber was in and just because some things were huge doesn't mean everything was.

 

[jefferz]

@Zookeeper Gabe I believe so

Angelfish hybrid

 

[MusterX]

This is crazy. Watch this video.

 

[ProBoxingInsidr]

so what do you think happened in the next 2 or so minutes?

 

[Higus]

@Zookeeper Gabe
What do they do with zoo animals during the 4th of July when there are fireworks and stuff? My dog is an anxious wreck, I can't imagine how bigger animals react.

 

[Zookeeper Gabe]

There's more then one account of predators hanging out with prey items and protecting them for a while. That leopard is fucking fat too. One time a leopard was being insanely difficult to bring in off exhibit so we put in a live chick. She came in and we locked up and shut the lights off. Found her curled up sleeping with the chick the next am

@Higus just monitor them and keep the super spooky ones like zebra inside.

 

[Kardashians]

lol gabe body shaming that leopard xD

 

[fightingrabbit]

so what do you think happened in the next 2 or so minutes?

There's more then one account of predators hanging out with prey items and protecting them for a while. That leopard is fucking fat too. One time a leopard was being insanely difficult to bring in off exhibit so we put in a live chick. She came in and we locked up and shut the lights off. Found her curled up sleeping with the chick the next am

@Higus just monitor them and keep the super spooky ones like zebra inside.

Wait, why did you guys put a live chick in there again? To feed her?

Also on topic, I remember seeing a video of a Lionness or something rearing an impala calf. People speculated that it was cause the lion was booted out of the pride or something, so it was acting abnormally. Or that it lost its cub and was still in it's maternal instinct mode. Others say it was just saving it to eat later.

It makes me believe that all animals get along until their instinctual drives take over. Like hunger or whatever.

 

[BoomStronk]

It makes me believe that all animals get along until their instinctual drives take over. Like hunger or whatever.

Have you never seen a well fed house cat torture a poor mouse or bird?

 

[fightingrabbit]

Have you never seen a well fed house cat torture a poor mouse or bird?

Yeah but I'm talking about inherently. Like if they were raised together from birth. You see it all the time with those odd couple animal pairings. I'm sure a cat and bird would coexist also if they were reared together from birth.

 

[Zookeeper Gabe]

Wait, why did you guys put a live chick in there again? To feed her?

Also on topic, I remember seeing a video of a Lionness or something rearing an impala calf. People speculated that it was cause the lion was booted out of the pride or something, so it was acting abnormally. Or that it lost its cub and was still in it's maternal instinct mode. Others say it was just saving it to eat later.

It makes me believe that all animals get along until their instinctual drives take over. Like hunger or whatever.

We had put the chick in to lure her in and then for her to have for dinner. We decided after we were able to separate them (took two hours) to bring the chick into our education collection. It lived to 9 years old

 

[bad seed]

@JBSchroeds
I was skeptic about the 99m year age also because of the size of these spiders. I always presume creatures were much larger back in those days due to higher oxygen level. Sort of like Titanoboa and some giantic scorpion which names i forgot.

Edit:
oh yeah and those 6ft in length Dragonflies.

Those giant bugs are from the carboniferous period which was 300 million years ago.