Let's learn cetacean aggression precursors!

Here's a fun experience I managed to captured when I was doing a sea pen check on scuba while the dominant male and female (J and Layla) pair were getting agitated. Lots of signature whistling, rapid and sharp turning and circling, syncing movements, very minor pec flaring.

Here that honking noise? That's a dolphin cuss word. They started circling very close to me after this so I slowly ascended and left their lagoon. It was hard to determine if it was towards each other or towards me but I didn't want to hang around to find out. I was very new at this point and was still building my relationship

This was a facility that had very lax protocols around scuba (no buddy, crappy gear, dive with the dolphins it's totally fine!!!) - it was very dangerous!

This is really interesting! And a good lesson in just how subtle signs of aggression/displeasure can be in species we're not familiar with (or familiar seeing as eternally happy, friendly creatures).

Dolphins are strong, wild animals, which are potentially dangerous. For me it really hit home when I got to do a free swim with some dolphins and the experienced trainer with me advised me to swim with my arms in a hoop around my head because "I'd rather have them break your arm than your neck." Not that they were mean or dangerous dolphins! But they are 200+ kg animals of mostly muscle, and what seems a small "kick" with their flukes to them could be disaster for us.

My personal aggression (precursor) experience was swimming with a mom dolphin, Tela. Her daughter was getting trained for open ocean work and she was not happy (her previous calf had had a small accident during his open ocean training and she hadn't forgotten). I got to swim with her like a guest would, just to take her mind off things. She wasn't too pleased. I mean, she was fine with me hanging by her dorsal fin, petting her, but she had one eye directly on me, and the other directly on her daughter. Sometimes she'd open her mouth ever so slightly. She didn't do anything, but it was clear this interaction was on her terms only.

There were also two males that were quite aggressive. Not out of bad character or anything, they just thought there was no better fun in the world than beating each other up. Structured work with them was awesome and they'd rock the stars for you. But as soon as you tried to have some free, fun time with them, it would very quickly devolve into "Hey can we have a fight just for fun???". They were from Cuba and word was that all dolphins from there have a spice that others don't.

Anyway, long ramble, but I find it interesting to see this other side to them. Not to paint them as the new evil creature to hate, but to see them as the full, rounded animal they always have been, and deserve to be seen as.

41 241

This is our current pride and joy, 41 241, also known as Polarstern (North star) because she made a trip to Narvik, the northernmost train station in Europe, which lies north of the Arctic circle. We bought her in 2015, and it's taken several years to return her to service. We rebuilt her to be coal-fired (she used to be oil-fired), and she's a great machine to work on. Very sensitive, does a lot with very little so takes some getting used to at first. But a beautiful, powerful loco. I got to fire her on the second day of our steam train gala Terug naar Toen ("Back to Then"), which was a lovely time.

52 3879

It is so cool to see the locomotives you work with, back on a tumblr blog you've been following for years. This is them! These are my old ladies!!

This photo was taken during Terug naar Toen ("Back to Then"), our yearly festival where basically every engine that's capable of running gets to run. It's the biggest thing for us and we always work towards it. This girl is one of my favourites, even though I've never gotten to do fire a full day on her.

Known to us as "The Grey", she is one of few WWII locomotives that has remained as built (most underwent a serious rebuilt some time after WWII when it turned out their time of service would be considerably longer than originally thought). Her boiler cladding and cab roof still bear scars from aerial machine gun fire, and her chimney still has bullet holes in it. She's a very impressive piece of living history.

It's been dark and rainy down here, so I thought I'd draw a piece to fit the mood. Here's one of my favorite whales, A72 Bend. I saw her on the Orcalab live cams for the first time a few years ago and have been obsessed with her ever since. Tragically, there's not many good full body reference pics of her, but hey, that won't stop me from trying to draw her. 💖

I gotta practice drawing Northern residents more often. Their lanky proportions and tiny eyepatches can be a bit tricky sometimes.

As you know I rarely reblog other people's art, but this is such a good exception. If anyone wants to see more drop dead gorgeous cetacean art that looks good enough to be a photo like 96% of the time, give artofsoul1999 a look!

Last day to send in your trick or treats! I'll sketch or draw something for you of my own choosing :D Thank you to the two others who have sent in their trick or treats, I'll get to them soon!

Thanks everyone for all their responses! Due to the kitties (and general business) the responses won't be instantaneous but rest assured I'll get to each and everyone of you! :D

Hi, thank you so much for your wonderful and kind response. That really helps a lot ♥ I mean, two nights of good sleep also does wonders lol. But knowing others have gone through the same thing is a big reassurance.

Yeah, totally. Before I got them all I could think was "How wonderful to always have some living creature with you." And now they're here it's like "Oh no, there's always a living creature with me." And that (irrational) feeling that your whole life is forever changed and you can never do the things you used to do again with them here.

Your tips are golden! On the days I'm home free I still try to go out, or work on my cars outside. It helped a lot to get a sense of normalcy back. And the rescue also works with a month long trial period, so I try to take things as they come and see how I feel in a week, then two, etc.

They are very sweet and lovely little things though and they behave so well most of the time. That helps a lot too. Have a picture tax for your kind words!

Please reblog if YES so your followers will know!

Please reblog if YES so your followers will know!

Hi, thanks for the answer and very cool to know you were there! It is thanks to visitors like you that we get to do this every year :) We owe you our beautiful hobby. It is lovely to experience the event from a locomotive - though I must say it's a lot of fun as visitor too! Here's a little picture of my own from aboard 50 3654, right before 23 076 passed us at the station.

I am very glad you had a good time and enjoyed the atmosphere. Maybe you can come say hi next year(s)!

A lovely weekend to you too 🚂🚂

South African giraffe Giraffa giraffa giraffa

Observed by elisabraz, CC BY-NC

Between her dreams and oxygen / the end is all she ever asked

Black walls closing in again  Losing sleep and lost in time She’ll close her eyes and unlock mine She turns water into wine 

I saw this painting make a few rounds recently and wanted to share it with some extra information! It's a rather dim piece so I do advice viewing it in a dark environment, because I fear otherwise all details are lost.

Seen is a female Strap-toothed whale which has fallen prey to killer whales. She has escaped to the depths, but her injuries will probably prove fatal. Blood escapes from her mouth, rakes litter her body and in some places her blubber has been peeled off.

This was based on a (then recent) research paper which came out, documenting killer whale vs. beaked whale hunts. It contains photos and they are awful. The skin is literally stripped off the living beaked whales. I kept my Strapper's injuries rather PG, but on the edges you can see some stripped blubber. With such a grim setting, I wanted a dark and eerie mood for the painting as well, and "cetacean in darkness with eye glinting" is a firm favourite of mine in that regard.

Also the text are lyrics from a song which I could swear I'd linked in the original post, but apparently not. It's "Black Walls" by the Chromatics. Give it a listen if you wish!

All in all this is a painting I still love very much. I hope you can appreciate it too, despite the grim subject.

a little story about seeing the past through the present - featuring razorbill, who is the closest living relative of the great auk, a bird that became extinct not so long ago.

- Native to the Arctic and sub-Arctic region and once numbering millions of individuals, Great auks became extinct mid-19th century. The last breeding pair, found incubating an egg, was killed on 3 June 1844, on request from a merchant who wanted specimens, with Jón Brandsson and Sigurður Ísleifsson strangling the adults and Ketill Ketilsson smashing the egg with his boot. The last individual was seen in 1852, leaving no hope that the species might be extant.