lifewithdeadbirds:

One of the specimens that the curators at the Grand Rapids Public Museum make sure to explain to students is this taxidermy Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius). Passenger Pigeons used to number in the billions here in North America, one of the most abundant birds on the planet. Today, they all look like this.

 For today’s schoolkids, extinction is going to quickly become a part of “business as usual” unless dramatic changes are made now. Passenger Pigeons went extinct after massive over-hunting by humans, and many other species have met the same fate. Currently in the U.S., we’re at risk of losing funding for programs that protect these species, work to rehabilitate populations, and educate people on the importance of a diverse community of animals. If you can, please keep an eye on local, state, and national policy changes, and speak up when you can. I want to see our wildlife alive and well, not simply as an object lesson on what a lack of responsible control looks like.

Photo credit: Kaitie Janecke Soltesz

gallusrostromegalus:

lazyevaluationranch:

11/2 Today Goofus the Peacock killed a mouse and instead of eating it right away, decided to wander around the pasture carrying it in his beak. The feral cats always appreciate dead-rodent-based performance art, so they followed behind Goofus single file to make a Very Exciting Dead Rodent Parade.

At one point Goofus stopped and put down his rodent and one of the feral cats dared to sniff at it, and Goofus unleashed The Most Terrifying Honk, something along the lines of I WILL END YOU AND EVERYONE YOU LOVE AND YOUR BONES WILL BE FORGOTTEN ON THE FROZEN EARTH WHEN I SNUFF OUT THE SUN AND SING THE STARS TO DARKNESS I AM THE DEVOURER AND DESTROYER OF ALL THINGS

The feral cats, previously unaware that the Death Of The Universe And End Of All Things is currently living as a peacock, ran off at about fifty miles an hour and hid under the barn for the rest of the day. They didn’t even come out at milking time to beg for goat milk, which is a first.

We probably should not have named the Death Of The Universe And The End Of All Things “Goofus,” actually.

Are you kidding that’s the Prefect name for The Death Of The Universe And End Of All Things.

using ‘chicken’ to describe a fearful or skittish person is inaccurate, as roosters fear nothing and in fact would challenge anyone or anything. in this essay i will