UFOTacoMan posted:

really did not expect bird buttholes to open and close like a mouht

Red Baron posted:

what happened to Rome? Italians.

what’s happening to America? also Italians.

spot the pattern sheeple

Schmoe Cwead posted:

theyre called cloacas u ignoramus

Schnorkles posted:

somehow in a forum filled with white noise posting, you happen to be the worst!!!

Sherbert Hoover posted:

Bearjew posted:

Blaisedell posted:

posting my favourite trump:

VideoKid posted:

some species of turtle can breathe through their cloacas

Bearjew posted:

bebop esq posted:

also it's not october yet

Schmoe Cwead posted:

https://twitter.com/TheOnion/status/1443640550389915657

Schmoe Cwead posted:

https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1443618588280115200

VideoKid posted:

why do you hate Japan? and Australia?

VideoKid posted:

some species of turtle can breathe through their cloacas

bebop esq posted:

they're not trump country

VideoKid posted:

lol this just reminded me of the time Trump asked the prime minister of Australia why they didn’t have any mass shootings down there

Apraxin posted:

https://twitter.com/CraigCaplan/status/1443638504706220033
can we get three cheers for bipartisanship

ShallNoiseUpon posted:

some humans can breathe through their balls

Alec Eiffel posted:

if you're posting in a thread about a top five worst president whose relevance wanes daily and you live in a timezone that shows today's date as 10/1 or 1/10, then you’re absolutely awful and deserve a permaban

bebop esq posted:

hi alec


are you still mad at me?

bebop esq posted:

hi alec


are you still mad at me?

UFOTacoMan posted:

Like all newborns, baby birds poop. A lot. But if you peer into most species’ nests, there’s little to no evidence of it. So, where does the doo-doo go?

It seems diaper duty is one of the most unique, understudied, and, frankly, underappreciated behaviors among birds. Oh, and, it’s one of the most disgusting, too—at least from a human's point of view. Perhaps you’ve glimpsed the process before: A nestling turns its rear end to mom or dad and ejects a floppy white bag of poop encased in mucous: a fecal sac. The parent then flies away to dispose of it. Or scarfs it down as a snack.

Fecal sacs, which only nestlings produce, are common among passerines like robins, bluebirds, and other “altricial” birds (species that require around-the-clock parental care at birth). But even though nasty videos of fecal sacs abound, scientists still know relatively little about them. According to Michael Murphy, a biologist at Portland State University and a fecal-sac expert, only a handful of studies have been done on the subject. "It just seems obvious that the parents are going to have to remove feces, so no one has paid attention,” Murphy says.

Despite this dearth of research, evidence suggests that fecal sacs have a number of uses. Here, Murphy and Juan Diego Ibáñez-Álamo, an ecologist at the University of Groningen who has been studying fecal sacs for a decade, walk us through the potential benefits these poop bombs have to offer.

Keeping the Nest Clean
A fecal sac is essentially a diaper, says Murphy. “It provides the parents with a very self-contained structure that allows them to easily pick up feces and remove them from the nest. It’s a way of getting rid of all this material that might otherwise smell and decompose.”

According to research by Ibáñez-Álamo, the membrane might also help keep the birds healthy. “There’s a physical isolation from potentially dangerous bacteria or microorganisms in the feces that might otherwise affect the parents or the nestlings,” he says.

Recycling a Nutritional Snack
Some birds have evolved a more efficient method of dealing with fecal sacs: They swallow them.

Schnorkles posted:

potentially the most unjust probation ever handed down itt.

i can't believe skull.gif is still allowed to show his face

tenderjerk posted:

tenderjerk posted:

https://twitter.com/EricMGarcia/status/1443592060418859008?t=lLq48N_q2jG4e4rhhPjMOg&s=19

[REDACTED] Italians

Sherbert Hoover posted:

she always goes back, folks smh

Sherbert Hoover posted:

what is this horror you've shown us

Morter posted:

Slimy yet satisfying

(but really though wtf is that)