the rock ptarmigan is a medium-sized grouse species found in northern europe and canada. the ptarmigan has brown plumage in the summer to blend in with their rocky habitat, but in winter molts to all-white plumage to camouflage themselves in the snow. the rock ptarmigan’s preferred food is willow buds, but they readily eat other vegetation, seeds, and insects.
@why-animals-do-the-thing
So. I know absolutely nothing about bird care. And this seems really harmless and cute. But I was wondering why these chicks are flocking to a dangling key chain like this? Is this just an instinct or have they associated humans with food coming in, or all they all just adorable dumb babies like when you dangle keys in front of a human infant? Why are the chicks flocking like this?
According to @crisscrosscutout, this is super normal chicken behavior. It’s not a result of lack of stimulation or anything, they just really do go ‘ooh shiny’ and flock to check it out.
Definitely looks like a typical “ooh shiny” response from baby animals, there just happens to be a heck of a lot of them in one spot all piling up on each other.
Now please picture a flock of velociraptors doing this.
if you guys look it up there’s pictures of them like wrestling and hanging out and just generally being good ol boys who love each other and it’s really cute
That “lizard brain” thing is the actual theory; it’s possible that the natural behaviors which would ordinarily have caused Poncho to eat the guy were damaged or removed by the bullet.
This is mostly a theory because large pet reptiles are known to attack their owners, even after years, but Poncho didn’t do anything of the sort for the 23 years he was a pet.
My opinion is a ‘family pet’ is going to be cared for primarily by the adults, so the ‘best’ family pet is one that the adults will be able to care for well, and remain interested in.
Even if the ‘intention’ is to have the kids responsible for part of its care, ultimate responsibility must remain with the adults. Adults don’t get to put any blame on the kids for what happens to the pet if they forget to do something, or if the pet gets sick. They can’t expect kids to be completely responsible for the pet’s entire life.
It’s depressingly common how often I see families that expect an 8 year old to be making serious decisions about a pet, or who have just thrown kids in the deep end with pet care and expect them to ‘learn’ when things are going wrong. This is unfair for everyone involved.
So the ‘best’ family pet is something that the adults are prepared to take on.
You also shouldn’t be choosing an animal based on its ability to survive neglect. You should be taking measures to ensure the animal is not neglected in the first place. You MUST monitor whether or not the animal is being given proper care. The responsibility is on you, the adult, it is not on the child.
If you want to make your child completely responsible for a living thing, pick something that can’t mentally suffer if neglected. Maybe a plant. Maybe a video game animal.
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