derinthescarletpescatarian:

todaysbird:

ritavonbees:

good news!

Ibis use 'stress and wash' technique to eat poisonous cane toads ABC Gold Coast / By Tom Forbes Posted 12h ago12 hours ago, updated 10h ago photo of an ibis carrying a black toad in its beak Ibis are employing the "stress and wash" method to reduce toxin levels in cane toads.(Supplied: Liam Gill)ALT

why is this so fucking comical

Close up on the Ibis beak and toad with dangling legsALT
"It's quite amusing to watch and it's quite different from other native species and their methods of eating them," she said. "The ibis will pick up cane toads and they will flick them about and stress out the toads. "What this does is it makes the cane toads release toxins from the parotoid gland at the back of their neck, which is their defence mechanism when they're faced with predators. "Then they'll take them down to the creek and wash them." photo of another Ibis carrying a toadALT
zooming in on this Ibis. it has iridescence around its shouldersALT

yeah you must fucken …. you stress out the toad and then give it a rinse, voilah

Ibis add toxic cane toads to the menu with clever technique to eliminate poison first
Citizen scientists report the much-maligned ibis has an ingenious method of making sure poisonous cane toads don't cause them a problem.
abc.net.au

this is HUGELY good news because the cane toad is insanely invasive and will wipe out native species since almost nothing can kill it. ibis are considered pests and called ‘bin chickens’ etc, but they are native birds that are just sometimes annoying in urban spaces!

YES YES HUNT EAT KILL

grimeclown:

FAKE country music: I love drinking Budweiser™ while driving my Ford F150 sure am glad my cop buddies just laugh when they pull me over and we go to the bar after god bless America I hate my wife

REAL country music: god the mountains are so beautiful. I think I’m going to kill myself

potter-on-my-wayward-doctor:

dkpsyhog:

You know how canaries were historically brought into coal mines, because if the mine was full of carbon monoxide the canary would die first and the miners would be able to escape before they died too?

I just found the greatest thing.

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This is a canary resuscitator.

When the miners notice the canary getting sick with carbon monoxide poisoning, they can close that circular hatch so no more gas gets into the canary cage, and open the valve on that oxygen tank to keep the canary breathing. In other words, they made a spacesuit for birds.

By immediately giving the canary access to clean air, the miners can save it from the poison. The bird lives. To be clear, this is not for economic purposes, this was specifically created because the miners felt bad and wanted to save the bird.

Isn’t that just the perfect demonstration of what humans are like? We started sacrificing small creatures to save ourselves, and then felt bad and spent our valuable resources on saving the critters too. Because yeah the canary was the only way to test for CO, but it’s a living creature too, dammit!

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