scinerds:

Friendly dolphins help Brazilian fishermen to catch fish.
~ Top image: Tolomea/Flickr. Article content from io9.com

“We think of dolphins as playful — but they may also be more cunning than we ever realized. A subset of the dolphin population in Laguna, Brazil has started cooperating with human fishing expeditions. The dolphins will help people get better catches, in return for whatever the fisherman discard. They’ll drive schools of mullet towards the fisherman, and they even signal when and where to cast the nets.”

“Newly published research has looked at the dolphins who are helping out in this unique way. What the scientists discovered is that the sea mammals that cooperated with the humans were more social than the ones that didn’t, both within their own species, and with ours. The researchers believe this is to do with social learning practices, where these skills can be passed between the more connected dolphins.”

“What’s intriguing to me is how close this skirts to the origins of domestication. By cooperating with these select dolphins, we’re feeding them more, and giving them potentially a better chance at survival, and passing on the cooperative skills. Tell me that doesn’t sound like the first stages of what happened with dogs? Now we just need a few thousand years to breed them into the dolphin equivalent of a lapdog.”

Incredibly interesting. Dolphins are too smart to ever become pets, though.

NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE

(via 4gifs)

(via loveyourchaos)

Baby Wallaby Makes its First Appearance at Woodland Park Zoo

It was born five months ago, but zoo visitors haven’t been able to spot the newborn even when it was right in front of them.

At birth, the joey (as it’s known in the marsupial world) was tiny, helpless, and undeveloped, weighed less than a gram and was roughly the size of a bean. The blind, hairless wallaby made the long trek after birth into mom’s pouch where it suckled and developed over several months.

Woodland Park staff hasn’t determined the joey’s gender yet, and now, while still developing inside mom’s pouch, it weighs just about a pound.

The yet-to-be-named baby is the first wallaby born at Woodland Park Zoo to mom Kiley, 3, and dad Maka, 2.

Kiley lives in the zoo’s Australasia exhibit, but is shy. Zoo-goers who want to catch a glimpse of the joey may have to be patient and wait for her to come out from behind her hiding spot in the bushes and visit the front of the exhibit.

OMG

THE SIZE OF A BEAN AT BIRTH

IT’S SO CUTE

WHY DON’T WALLABIES AND KANGAROOS LIVE ANYWHERE OTHER THAN AUSTRALIA

animalstalkinginallcaps:

I CAN HEAR YOU GUYS HAVING SEX!

AGAIN!

LIKE YOU DO CONSTANTLY, ALL DAY AND NIGHT, WHILE I’M TRYING TO UPDATE MY BLOGS!

…

YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TO STOP AND TALK TO THE CORONER ANYWAY SINCE I’M GOING TO SHOOT MYSELF FOR SAYING THAT OUT LOUD!

Pretty much.

(via aloneontheshelf)