Big Pats

angery!

Scientists Fertilize Eggs From the Last Two Northern White Rhinos

A mother and daughter are the only two northern white rhinoceroses left in the world. Their eggs were fertilized using sperm from males who have died.

There are currently two northern white rhinos alive on planet earth. They are a mother and daughter named Najin and Fatu and neither is capable of carrying a pregnancy. The last male of the species, Sudan, died of old age last year.

You’d think these bleak facts would guarantee certain extinction, but scientists at Avantea have now successfully fertilized 7 eggs taken from the two female rhinos with frozen sperm from deceased males of their species.

If the eggs develop successfully, the next step will be to implant one into a female southern white rhino to carry the pregnancy. This is the first time a procedure like this has been successful, and it opens up a huge number of possibilities not just for northern white rhinos, but for critically endangered species everywhere. 

Derpy little guy 

(via)

one of the best academic paper titles

Honestly something that bothers me more than most things is having my compassion mistaken for naivety.

I know that another fish might eat this bullfrog right after I spend months rehabilitating it.

I know that turning a beetle back onto its legs won’t save it from falling over again when I walk away.

I know that there is no cosmic reward waiting for my soul based on how many worms I pick off a hot sidewalk to put into the mud, or how many times I’ve helped a a raccoon climb out of a too-deep trashcan. 

I know things suffer, and things struggle, and things die uselessly all day long. I’m young and idealistic, but I’m not literally a child. I would never judge another person for walking by an injured bird, for ignoring a worm, or for not really caring about the fate of a frog in a pond full of, y’know, plenty of other frogs.

There is nothing wrong with that.

But I cannot cannot cannot look at something struggling and ignore it if I may have the power to help.

There is so much bad stuff in this world so far beyond my control, that I take comfort in the smallest, most thankless tasks. It’s a relief to say “I can help you in this moment,” even though they don’t understand.

I don’t need a devil’s advocate to tell me another fish probably ate that frog when I let it go, or that the raccoon probably ended up trapped in another dumpster the next night.

I know!!!! I know!!!!!!! But today I had the power to help! So I did! And it made me happy!

So just leave me alone alright thank u!!!!

Bunny Harvestman, Metagryne bicolumnata, Opiliones by Andreas Kay

crunch crunch munch munch

ok like kakapo are great and all, i love them dont get me wrong but takahē are by far the best endangered new zealand bird and quite possibly THE Best Bird?

you cant really get any better than this. criminally underrated 

A wildlife photographer was photographing elephant seals on a beach and a baby came over to check him out 

(Source)