Life reconstruction by Edward Newman of Pterodactylus crassirostris (top) and P. brevirostris (below) as flying marsupials

Newman, E (1843). "Note on the Pterodactyle Tribe considered as Marsupial Bats". Zoologist. 1: 129–31.

https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/123076#page/149/mode/1up

i was thinking about this today so how long has YOUR JOB existed- not how long your industry has existed, but how long someone has been doing the work you do as a trade notwithstanding changes in terminology and technology. no unemployed option cuz i cant add more answers sorry... tell me about it in the tags

Btw if you want an example of actually cute and appropriate handling of a baby hippo in an accredited zoo with trained keepers, there’s always Fiona the Hippo at Cincinnati Zoo!

She was born premature and had to be hand raised initially

Fiona felt very safe with her keepers and she would regularly snuggle with them and snooze on their laps. They had to monitor her 24/7 and take feedings in shifts - and it was very uncertain whether she would even survive!

While you might say that it’s hypocritical to support free contact in one situation and not another, this is a situation where free contact was very much okay. They had to support Fiona like this as she was regularly needing medical intervention and needed to be constantly monitored around the clock.

What’s the difference between Fiona and Moo Deng’s situation? Agency and respect. Fiona was never harassed for views or forced into situations she didn’t want to be in.

The content they made with her was showing the process of hand raising a premature baby hippo. Even when they picked her up to put her in her pool she was never madly thrashing to get away.

The goal was always to transition her to be completely hands off and be with her mother Bibi. And her habitat is species appropriate with deep water for swimming in.

She was able to be reintroduced to her mother and grow up engaging in appropriate social behaviours in an enriching and species appropriate habitat.

And she’s now 7 years old and still thriving!

Not to be a killjoy (though it is what I do best) but the unsafe and rough handling of a baby Pygmy hippo in a pretty substandard Thai zoo being meme-ed into something funny and cute really shows just how much groupthink plays into public perception of animal welfare.

Moo Deng shows avoidance, threat displays and stress around her keepers that are constantly man-handling her, blasting her with a hose and harassing her. The enclosure is mostly concrete, which is horrible for her soft feet. There looks to be some substrate but there doesn’t seem to be any areas for wallowing or deep water wading.

There’s also very easy access of this hippo to the public with no places to hide. I’d love if someone could shed more light on the enclosures but from what I’ve seen it’s not great.

Also the free contact and forcing into tubs that the keepers do is only going to create an avoidant and potentially aggressive and dangerous Pygmy hippo.

But the public happily overlook that because she’s cute. It’s a similar attitude with seals too.

Stop rewarding bad husbandry with clout. Baby animals deserve agency and respect and to grow up without getting harassed and feeling the need to defend themselves constantly.

Somewhat unrelated but that recent viral video of the pelican being manhandled in a shitty indoor facility is also driving me insane, but I guess it's funny because pelicans are evil or some shit.

This is the shittiest pelican enclosure I've ever seen, compare it to the second image at an actual zoo.

As a zookeeper, I have worked with pygmy hippos and can with expertise confirm her enclosure and treatment are trash and one of these days her keepers’ unsafe practices are going to get someone hurt. Also for the record with the pelican vid, they literally can’t breathe if you hold their mouths shut like that

Animal video killjoy for life, please use your brain for a damn second before you share ANY animal content online, I can guarantee you a conservative 80% of it is straight horrible

The Khao Kheow Open Zoo is a WAZA member, so if you see any reportable issues with the zoo's treatment of animals and/or maintenance of enclosures you should go through that organization to make complaints. Not yell at people on tumblr for grasping that the few straws that are keeping us barely afloat in these here dumpster fire times.

It took literally a minute to determine the zoo where Moo Deng lives and find out if it's a WAZA member (it's taken significantly longer to just type out this response). I cannot speak to the treatment of the animals as I have only seen a few gifs and images (and I am in no way trained in the field), but if you are actually trained as an animal handler and you see things that are making you worried for the animals and their welfare, please file a complaint so it can be actually actioned by someone with the authority to do so.

I’m going to assume you’re acting in good faith here, so please know I’m also being sincere in this moment. Nobody is attempting to yell at anyone, nor is anyone shaming people for not being aware of the ins and outs of exotic animal husbandry. She’s a cute baby, we can all agree on that, and we all want her to have a healthy, happy life.

We are also all aware what zoo she is from, and with her level of virality, I can promise you WAZA has seen every video of her that all the rest of us have. There is no formalized complaint process for WAZA available to be filled out, by animal keepers or otherwise, and filling out the contact form on their website, by a keeper or curator or concerned citizen, will not provide them with additional information and will not improve the care that she is receiving.

What can be done on a microblogging website like this, however, is to spread the information to people who are uncritically sharing the content of her and normalizing it among people who, as we have admitted, are not well versed in how it is or is not appropriate to care for pygmy hippos. I cannot definitively speak for OP, but I think it’s reasonable to assume that their choice of language comes from the same place as my own: frustration at seeing the memetic and uninformed content of animals in distress. No one wants you to feel bad about not knowing, but my goal is to have people admit that they don’t know and attempt to learn more and avoid helping perpetuate harm by spreading it as cute content. I promise it was not my intent to shame anyone, my word choice came as a reflection of my own colloquial language and frustration with the situation, not any individual person. It was a casually worded plea for people to investigate animal content they interact with online because it is so pervasive and underexamined. No shame intended, but I still hold firm to the points expressed earlier.

Moo Deng is receiving substandard care, and you don’t need to feel bad about thinking she’s a cute baby, I would just ask that people be very skeptical of any animal content online, exotic animal content in particular, to make sure they’re better prepared for the next thing they run across and don’t accidentally fuel trends that prove harmful for animals by making their mistreatment profitable.

Not to be a killjoy (though it is what I do best) but the unsafe and rough handling of a baby Pygmy hippo in a pretty substandard Thai zoo being meme-ed into something funny and cute really shows just how much groupthink plays into public perception of animal welfare.

Moo Deng shows avoidance, threat displays and stress around her keepers that are constantly man-handling her, blasting her with a hose and harassing her. The enclosure is mostly concrete, which is horrible for her soft feet. There looks to be some substrate but there doesn’t seem to be any areas for wallowing or deep water wading.

There’s also very easy access of this hippo to the public with no places to hide. I’d love if someone could shed more light on the enclosures but from what I’ve seen it’s not great.

Also the free contact and forcing into tubs that the keepers do is only going to create an avoidant and potentially aggressive and dangerous Pygmy hippo.

But the public happily overlook that because she’s cute. It’s a similar attitude with seals too.

Stop rewarding bad husbandry with clout. Baby animals deserve agency and respect and to grow up without getting harassed and feeling the need to defend themselves constantly.

Somewhat unrelated but that recent viral video of the pelican being manhandled in a shitty indoor facility is also driving me insane, but I guess it's funny because pelicans are evil or some shit.

This is the shittiest pelican enclosure I've ever seen, compare it to the second image at an actual zoo.

As a zookeeper, I have worked with pygmy hippos and can with expertise confirm her enclosure and treatment are trash and one of these days her keepers’ unsafe practices are going to get someone hurt. Also for the record with the pelican vid, they literally can’t breathe if you hold their mouths shut like that

Animal video killjoy for life, please use your brain for a damn second before you share ANY animal content online, I can guarantee you a conservative 80% of it is straight horrible

Older than history itself

What if the oldest vampire was a Neanderthal girl 🤔

they're just normal men

me at the job i begged god for

today is the only day you can reblog this

SAM REID as Lestat de Lioncourt