tanisbp.bsky.social
Ecology & Evolution at big scales
All-around nature enthusiast
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BUT Coelacanth has caught a new ocean drift and continues hunting for the smaller prey she is adapted to eat...
BEYOND THE FIELD OF BATTLE! #2025MMM
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We are all winners! 🤣
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Here, Tasmanian Devil lumbers briskly in the nighttime.
He has become the apex terrestrial predator.
On mainland Australia, dingoes outcompeted Thylacines thousands of years ago. More recently European settlers hunted Thylacines to extinction by the early 1900s. #2025MMM
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Ribbon Seal defeats Southern Tamandua!!!!! #2025MMM
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Under continued duress the Taumandu backs up. In the forest it will back into a tree or rock to protect itself while facing an attacker. Unfortunately here there is only the edge of the ice, & with a small splash the Tamandua tumbles into the freezing ocean. #2025MMM
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Threatened by the approaching seal, the Tamandua rears up on its hind legs to better defend itself with long curved claws that can easily tear away at termite nests when foraging (Hayssen 2011). #2025MMM
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Males seals typically are absent for birth & weaning, not showing up until May for mating season. Females often leave pups unattended on the ice (Burns 1981). Maybe there's an early mating chance if the seal waits by the fuzzy thing? The seal gets closer to investigate! #BadDads #2025MMM
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Ribbon Seals are typically less wary on ice than most seals, possibly due to poor vision in air (Boveng 2013). Craning his neck the seal tries to see if Tamandua is a seal pup. Pups are born white with a woolly coat of fur & only show markings when they molt at 3-5 weeks old. #2025MMM
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The cold air rapidly pulls the warmth from the Tamandua. The underside of its long prehensile tail lacks fur, to aid in holding tree branches. Now Tamandua curls that tail around her body to retain some warmth. #2025MMM
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Tamandua spend very little time on the ground & this one clumsily walks around searching for trees, a stranger in a strange land....or lack of land. #2025MMM
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Far away in a dense, Bolivian rain forest, a female Tamandua is using her long sticky tounge to slurp up ants from a nest in a tree. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=11pU...) Suddenly, #MMMagic translocates the Taumandu to the sea ice! #2025MMM
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Our battle takes place in the home habitat of the Ribbon Seal, on a thick ice floe in the Bearing Sea. Here a large male has hauled out of the water to allow for its annual molting of fur & skin. #2024MMM
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Southern Tamandua are small arboreal anteaters with a long, thin nose. They are covered in pale cream fur with variable amounts of black patches around the shoulders, typically looking like they are wearing a vest or collar. #2025MMM
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Ribbon seals have dark fur with four very distinct wide bands of white encircling their neck, hips, and each front flipper. Differences in "ribbons" can be used to identify individuals & are thought to help hide the shape of the seal from a distance. #2025MMM
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ZEBRA IS DUST-BATHING!!! Without a loofa in sight, the Zebra elaborately lowers himself down to the dusty ground and lies flat on his side in a favored dust "rolling pit"
(Joubert 1972; Wagner, Uiseb, & Fischer 2021) #2025MMM
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NARWHAL SLOSHES EASTERN SPOTTED SKUNK!! #2025MMM
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Spotted Skunk drops down to all four feet & seeing the massive Narwhal, scampers quickly away from the edge of the ice shelf... and off the field of battle! #2025MMM
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SWIRLING Narwhal sloshes water onto the ice shelf, unbalancing Spotted Skunk's handstand... #2025MMM
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NARWHAL'S FACE AND BODY SURFACE RIGHT NEXT TO SPOTTED SKUNK ON THE ICE SHELF, NARWHAL SWIRLS TO GET AN EYE-LEVEL VIEW ON SKUNK... #2025MMM
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SPOTTED SKUNK WAVES HIS TWITCHING TAIL! Countdown: TWO AND A HALF! #GetBig #2025MMM
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THE NARWHAL TUSK RISES HIGHER!!!!! Spotted skunk does his next move in aggressive escalation... A HANDSTAND! Countdown: TWO (Johnson, 1921) #GetLow #2025MMM
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Spotted Skunk stamps his feet to warn this possible enemy! Skunk begins the escalation countdown: ONE! #GetAngry #2025MMM
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Spotted Skunk seeing the Narwhal tusk wonders IS THIS A SNAKE!? or some other predator?! #2025MMM
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Next to the ice shelf, the Narwhal begins surfacing. His single tusk, a spiraling canine tooth almost exclusively developed in males, protrudes out of its face, extending nearly 9 feet. #2025MMM
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Suddenly #MMMagic translocates Spotted Skunk far north to the edge of an ice sheet! Immediately halting his hunt, Spotted Skunk assesses this icy environment. #2025MMM
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In the midwest, a lone Spotted Skunk is out hunting. Spotted skunks are rare in this area, Actual Living Scientist @amandacheeseman.bsky.social & colleagues showed historical skunk populations crashed following diet changes from shifting agricultural practices. (Cheeseman, 2020) #2025MMM
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Narwhal has the home habitat advantage. We find an older male swimming with its pod along the edge of sea ice in the Davis Strait. Narwhal spend winters here, until late May when the ice breaks up enough to start migrating further North. (Koski, 1994) #2025MMM
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Eastern spotted skunks have short legs supported an elongated bodies & large fluffy tail. Their fur is black with interrupted bands of white striped and spots. Like many skunks these colors serve as a warning to predators of their chemical defenses (Hunter 2009). #2025MMM
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The distant yips worry Jackal; these yips belong to a pack of African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) who are known to prey on Jackal (Kamler et al. 2007). Jackal trots off the battlefield, stinky Moonrat treat in its jaws. #2025MMM
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Jackal stops, teeth clenched around Moonrat. Jackal aims its large ears towards the yips in the distance, which seem to be coming closer. #2025MMM
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...But that's not all Moonrat emits. Moonrat emits a defensive spray characterized by the sweet aromatic notes of "rotten onions, ammonia, and stale sweat" (GBIF, n.d.)...#2025MMM
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Jackal catches a unique whiff of an unfamiliar critter and approaches frozen Moonrat.... Moonrat emits a HISS-PUFF followed by a low roar (Fox 1999)... #2025MMM
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...And a solitary Black-Backed Jackal (Canis mesomelas) appears on the scene!! Without a pack, Jackal cannot hunt the large game in the grasslands and instead hunts for small mammals (Fishman 2000). #2025MMM