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grottan.bsky.social
Grottan
@grottan.bsky.social
210 followers 55 following 1.2K posts
Let your anger be as a monkey in a piñata... hiding amongst the candy... hoping the kids don't break through with the stick!
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averagefrog.bsky.social
Today's frog is the plains spadefoot toad.
January 31, 2026 at 1:12 PM
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randomfacts.bsky.social
#poem #poetry #writing

Spitting red cobras are red
Malaysian coral snakes are blue
They're both highly venomous
Now, here's some matching cakes for you!

#snakes #cakes #reptiles
🤪🐍🍰😂
January 29, 2026 at 2:55 AM
Reposted by Grottan
reptiledude.bsky.social
It’s also apparently Rattlesnake Appreciation Day again so here is a photo sequence over two months of a gravid Timber Rattlesnake, Crotalus horridus, from earlier in gestation to postpartum. Rattlesnakes, like most vipers, are ovoviviparous with eggs hatching in the mother who then births the young
A gravid female rattlesnake camouflaged in foliage. Her chevrons make her standout. She is missing a small part of her snout possibly from infection or failed predation. A closer look at the same gravid female rattlesnake camouflaged in a different part of her mound. She is noticeably larger as the young develop within her. Another angle of the same female Timber Rattlesnake. She is a bit easier to see. She had the classic yellow-green “Pinebrake” phenotype exhibited by New Jersey rattlesnakes. A photo of the now mother Timber Rattlesnake shortly after birthing her large litter. She and the babies stayed together for about a week and a half to two weeks, which is fairly typical. Then all of them except two or three of the neonates dispersed into the Pine Barrens
January 28, 2026 at 8:58 PM
grottan.bsky.social
A little taxonomy trivia for you... Penguins have been extinct for over 150 years. What we call Penguins are based on an animal that no longer exists
reptiledude.bsky.social Bill Rulon-Miller @reptiledude.bsky.social · 10d
Not quite #FossilFriday
Here is a specimen of a very recently extinct creature that is currently relevant for…reasons. The Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis, as the name implies is the “original” penguin. It survived until likely the 1850s when it became extinct due to overhunting. Photo from ANSP
A large black and white flightless seabird, Pinguinus impennis. While not a true penguin it was a large and flightless member of the Auk family with an appearance and lifestyle similar to Penguins to an extent. They ranged throughout the North Atlantic into the Arctic. While they lived alongside human beings for millennia they eventually were driven to extinction through over exploitation and it is now believed environmental factors played a role as well. Specimen at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.
January 24, 2026 at 9:59 AM
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thebandcake.bsky.social
January 24, 2026 at 4:54 AM
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solomonrdavid.bsky.social
Please enjoy a break with like, 100 gar; if you need one👍

Although they are predatory fish, they’re also quite social, one might even say...greGARious 🥁
January 13, 2026 at 5:25 PM
grottan.bsky.social
I'm not much of a bird person but the New Zealand parrots, like the Kakapo, fascinate me. They are up there with the Ratites as my favorite birds.
January 13, 2026 at 9:10 PM
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mcpli.bsky.social
The final Calvin and Hobbes, which appeared in papers 30 years ago today.
December 31, 2025 at 5:00 PM
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skeletorinspires.bsky.social
May your next 6 months be happier than your last 6 months. May they be softer on your heart kinder to your mind. And full of little moments that remind you you're becoming everything you're meant to be.
December 28, 2025 at 5:18 PM
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averagefrog.bsky.social
Today's frog is the sunset frog.
December 14, 2025 at 12:35 PM
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drkatfish.bsky.social
#25DaysofFishmas Day 13 brings us a fish that shines like B-E-A-UTIFUL holiday lights! 🌟

Our road trip takes us to the deserts of southern Arizona + New Mexico to find the Beautiful Shiner (Cyprinella formosa), a small, threatened species that was briefly lost from the US but has been reintroduced
The #25DaysofFishmas calendar with the beautiful shiner on December 13
December 13, 2025 at 2:01 PM
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maufie.bsky.social
Eastern water skink - all creatures great and small.
#nature #wildlife
December 11, 2025 at 4:45 AM
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nuiipointer.bsky.social
Cute little Mycena.
#fungifriends #fungi #moss
A delicate, thin-stemmed mushroom with a light pinkish cap stands in wet green moss.
December 2, 2025 at 9:00 PM
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meadowdays.bsky.social
Good morning ☕️
A pie chart of galaxies with three slices. The smallest says "stuff you know," a slightly larger one says, "stuff you know you don't know," and the large majority is full of stars and says, "stuff you don't know you don't know."
November 7, 2025 at 1:37 PM
grottan.bsky.social
One of my favorite places... I can't recommend it enough if someone likes a little nature time or has kids. It's right by Texas State in San Marcos, and it's free. I am sharing because it's garweek and this is my spot I'd pick to see gar in the wild. #garweek #sanmarcos

youtu.be/1eP7qSRgRqo?...
Wetlands Boardwalk || Exploring San Marcos, Texas
YouTube video by I Love the ATX
youtu.be
November 5, 2025 at 10:21 PM
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labwaggoner.bsky.social
Single antivenom nanobody protects against 17 different snakebites @nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
@andreaslaustsen.bsky.social
Single antivenom protects against 17 different snakebites
Researchers immunized an alpaca and a llama with snake venoms, and combined some of the antibodies produced into a potent cocktail.
www.nature.com
October 29, 2025 at 6:53 PM
grottan.bsky.social
I'm watching 1997's HBO Spawn because it feels right.... punishment for evil and stuff
October 17, 2025 at 5:04 AM
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jmritchey.bsky.social
If I had explain American history in one sentence, I could do worse than "John Brown was hung for treason, but Robert E. Lee was not."
jacobinmag.bsky.social Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · Oct 16
John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry began on this day in 1859.
October 16, 2025 at 11:29 PM
grottan.bsky.social
During the first term, NPR tweeted the Declaration on the 4th of July. Maga got really upset thinking it was about Trump

apnews.com/general-news...
October 15, 2025 at 4:31 AM
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toadfacts.bsky.social
Our friend Melanophryniscus spectabilis lives in the Santa Catarina and Paraná states of southern Brazil! They are known for their brightly colored patterns and the large lump on the end of their nose! (photo by Alan Hentz)
A black toad with bright orange face and shoulders, small occasional orange patches on their back, and bright red toes and belly! They are covered in lots of large warty bumps and have a very large lump on top of their nose!
October 6, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by Grottan
instbirdpop.bsky.social
🪶
Photo by Julio Mulero of a White-throated Swift in flight with a large bulge below its beak. Text on the image says: Hope your weekend is as full of fun as this White-throated Swift's mouth is full of insects! Bonus Unsolicited Bird Fact: When White-throated swifts are collecting insects to bring back to their nestlings, they glue them together with their saliva to form a "bolus" (that's science speak for blob.) They hold the bolus in their mouth, not their crop, so there's often a visible bulge.
September 26, 2025 at 9:05 PM
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iwantyoustudio.bsky.social
Upside-down and back-to-front.
ONE MAN WAS FIRED FOR SPEAKING THE TRUTH ABOUT CHARLIE KIRK. ANOTHER MAN WHO SAID WE SHOULD “JUST KILL” HOMELESS PEOPLE WITH AN “INVOLUNTARY LETHAL INJECTION, OR SOMETHING”, STILL HAS HIS JOB. NOTHING SAYS MORE ABOUT THE CURRENT STATE OF AMERICA.
September 14, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Reposted by Grottan
just-jack-1.bsky.social
In summary:

The hateful Charlie Kirk was shot by the acolyte of a more hateful version of Charlie Kirk.

It wasn’t any of the imaginary bogeymen they were hoping for.

Just a case of them slowly drowning in their own hate.
September 12, 2025 at 9:14 PM
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instbirdpop.bsky.social
🪶🌎🦜Can you imagine seeing flocks of native parakeets in Illinois? 😩 More info about the Carolina Parakeet in Burgio et al, 2017 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Graphic showing a photo of a taxidermied Carolina Parakeet by Ryan Mandelbaum. Text on the graphic says "Unsolicited Bird Fact: Huge flocks of Carolina Parakeets once called the US home before some combo of over-hunting, deforestation, disease and invasive species led to their extinction. Flocks were shot en masse by European settlers in part because they tended not to"flee under fire, but to remain near wounded conspecifics that were calling in distress." (crying face emoji) Carolina parakeets were found in the Midwest, Florida,& along the SE coast. They were associated with Bald Cypress trees, & were one of the few species that could eat their unopened cones. They also ate toxic cockleburs & were immune to their toxin, which in turn may have made the birds toxic to predators.
September 4, 2025 at 11:02 PM
grottan.bsky.social
In 1979, Attenborough had a nature documentary mini-series called Life on Earth. With 13 episodes it was a crash course on the natural history of this planet. Yesterday I looked on YouTube for a clip of it & the first suggestion was an AI video hyping up the series... why that and not actual clips?
Cover of Life on Earth by David Attenborough video featuring a Redeye Tree Frog David Attenborough in his early 50's standing in a forest David Attenborough lying down in a forest with two Gorillas
September 1, 2025 at 7:03 AM