extremely cool that the removal of wolf protections in europe are being driven by an eu official having one of her horses killed by a wolf. literal cartoon villain shit
if you own horses you should be disqualified from participation in government
and after this happened, they put that specific wolf on a kill list and then proceeded to shoot the wrong wolf. geniuses
For anyone who thought this is too stupid to be real, I'll remind you the year is 2025. The EU official in question is Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission. She is the latest in a long line of idiot Germans to think the CDU disguises her evil.
If you are in Europe, for the love of god, please reblog and sign - these are a keystone species
331,604 out of 500,000 signatures as of October 7, 2025.
I’ve seen so many surprising things while slogging in the swamp. It’s what keeps me coming back. But, this quiet wildlife encounter was truly exceptional and one of my favorites. Explorer @peter_houlihan and I were rigging old growth cypress trees to study the canopy life on the Black River, NC when I saw slight movement at the base of a decaying trunk. It was a massive catfish! With all the surrounding water gone, it looked stuck. But then I looked closer and realized it was exactly where it wanted to be because it was guarding a large clutch of eggs at the base of its tail. If you zoom in, you can see the pink mass. It turns out that once females lay eggs, the male flathead catfish will often take over guarding them from predators, including from their own mother. This dedicated dad stayed with his progeny, delicately moving his tail so sediment wouldn’t smother them, even while all the water dried up around him making him vulnerable to predators. Once dusk approached, Peter and I went back to make this portrait. And just like that, my love and appreciation for the complex ecology of these ecosystems deepened even further.
hey! donate to uk trans charities today because it’s gonna be a rough one
Folks in the UK, could we have some trusted links to charities?
There's Mermaids which is always a great option, and then Scotland-specific there's LGBT Youth Scotland, to give you just a couple. There will absolutely be more that other people can suggest though!
A couple I donate to: TransAid Cymru, to support Welsh trans people, and The Outside Project, which helps queer people in London struggling with homelessness (and as trans people make up a disproportionately large number of unhoused people, it feels very relevant.)
Goes without saying, but don't donate to Pride Cymru, because they're complete shit.
Plugging the Belfast Trans Resource Centre who are a social space for all trans/non-binary/intersex and folks otherwise identifying with the trans umbrella in Northern Ireland who offer support and resources as well as running fun events. Like a lot of queer charities, covering costs and doing what we need to do is much trickier now than ever before. 🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️
