This Would Be Assassins Creed In A Universe Where Knives Are Rats.

Cutie… patootie... agouti? You might know the capybara, but what about its distant cousin the red-rumped agouti (Dasyprocta leporina)? This wide-ranging mammal can be found in forests throughout northern South America including Colombia, Brazil, and Venezuela. Though smaller than its more famous relative, this hefty rodent can weigh up to 13 lbs (5.9 kg). It dines on a diet of fruit, nuts, and seeds. Like a squirrel, the agouti will bury surplus food to save for a later date. But sometimes this critter forgets to come back for its stash, spreading seeds throughout its habitat as a result. 

Photo: Robin Gwen Agarwal, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist 

i love prairie dog. he is like a brother to me. i hope they get well soon

hi! love what you do! can we hear more about the massive black tailed prairie dog colony?

Sure!

So, for a bit of context, black-tailed prairie dogs organize themselves first into coteries, or small family groups usually consisting of one adult male, three to four adult females, and pups. Up to a dozen of these coteries make up a 'ward' centered around a natural landmark like a hill; these wards are like neighborhoods, in which coteries are aware of each other but don't interact much. Sometimes a colony consists of a single ward, but more often there will be multiple wards that make up a colony (also called a town). Towns can house miles of interconnected burrows and tunnels which its inhabitants use to move underground.

The largest of these colonies was first described by naturalist Vernon Bailey in the early 1900s. At the time, the colony extended from the city of San Angelo to Clarendon-- a distance of about 430 km (250 mi). Bailey described the inhabitants of the town as "...comparatively tame, standing at the entrance to their hole, flipping their tails, and steadily barking." He also noted that, "When properly prepared and cooked, they are a delicacy."

Unfortunately, disease and extermination regimes have decimated black-tailed prairie dog populations, and it's now estimated that less than 10 million live in the state of Texas.

I always am about to go to sleep at a beautiful 11pm and then something happens to me

Why do men have nipples?

it's not just human men, it's all placental mammals!

pour one out for all of the "I found this weird lump on my male cat's chest, what is it" posts on r/cats

the short answer is: because it's easier.

so, natural selection is lazy. it tends to take the quickest and easiest path to any given solution and can only work with what it already has, so it's really reluctant to drop traits that aren't actually hurting anything by being around! like male nipples.

and since male and female mammals in general start as the same weird little flesh tadpole thing and only start to diverge a couple months into development, it's waaaay easier to just leave male mammals with mostly non-functional nipples than it is to patch them out and maybe bork up something with the female nipples by mistake.

tldr: it's because evolution is naturally lazy.

u know the function is satisfactory and these guys are there

A Party of Mice has arrived!

Rashida Tlaib has set up a petition to send to the White House to recognize and stop the ethnic cleansing and forced displacement happening in Gaza. If you’re a US citizen please sign. I have no illusions that this will change policy, but the public outcry against their actions must continue. We will not be distracted or discouraged from continuing to object to these humans rights violations.

Shout out to the little girl at my store today who had a shirt that said "skeleton mouse" and she was carrying around a plushie of a rat, had hair clips in her hair that had rats on them, and a necklace with a rodent skull on it.

As I was checking her mother out at the register she pulled out a handful of rubber rats from her pocket and put them on my counter, to which her mother sighed and said "no sweetie, he doesn't need rats" to which I just looked at her like this

girl you have to stop mythologizing that one really good few months