If you have ever been on tumblr, you have likely stumbled upon seemingly adorable animal photos such as these.
While these photos of frogs riding on a crocodile look innocent enough, the reality of what these animals went through for the sake of a cute photo is anything but humane.
This photoset will be a great example of cruel photography. You may notice that the frog’s mouth is open in these photos. In the wild, frogs usually only open their mouths to release a distress call, or to eat. This frog has his mouth open in every one of the photos. It’s clearly not eating, and if it was making a distress call it would be in a defensive position.
So, why is it’s mouth open?
Easy. This entire photoshoot is fake.
This frog was likely put in a fridge to cause it to become lethargic. The barely moving, and likely extremely stressed frog was placed on the beetle and was posed. In the first photo, the fingers on the frog’s extended hand are curled. While engaging in a hand movement tree frogs keep their fingers straight so the hand can land properly in the chosen spot. Frogs don’t make fists, so the most likely answer for the frog’s hand “movement” is a wire. Another thing to note about putting herps in cold temps is that it causes their muscles to weaken. The frog’s mouth was very likely pulled open, and the frog didn’t have enough energy to close it due to being exposed to cold temperatures.
So, how can you identify which pictures are real or not? The easiest way to tell is to simply look at the behavior of the animals pictured. For the frogs and the crocodile, the easiest way to tell is to look at the species pictured. An arboreal frog such as a white’s tree frog has no reason to be on the back of a crocodile low to the ground, and it’s even more unlikely that multiple happened to be posed in that exact position.
Many of these photos seem endearing, but think about what you’re looking at before sharing it.
I will now leave you with this cruelty free frog photo to show you that frogs can be cute without being forced into a fridge.
Today we learned that conches, the sea-dwelling mollusks who live inside those big, beautiful conch seashells in warm tropical waters, peer out at the world with cartoonish eyes on tiny eyestalks. They see you. They see everything. And what’s more, they can regenerate their peepers should they happen to lose one or both of them.
“One 1976 paper dug into the specific behind these animals’ alien eyestalks. Sitting at the tips of long stalks, they contain retinas with both sensory cells and colored pigment cells. But the story gets weirder because obviously, it gets weirder. After amputating the conchs’ eyes, a fully-formed replacement took its place 14 days later. Humans, we really are losing this evolutionary game.”
But wait, that’s hardly the only surprising set of eyes under the sea. Scallops have eyes too, LOTS of them:
Why is it called a Barreleye? Because it has barrels for eyes, of course! Actually, that’s just half the story…
Each eye is divided into two distinct parts. The larger, barrel section faces upward and is great for discerning the silhouettes of tiny, tasty copepods in the gloom above.
Next to those is the diverticular eye. These face downward and capture light using mirrors instead of lenses. This is particularly useful for gathering light, allowing the Spookfish to spot bioluminescent predators lurking below.
It doesn’t matter how flabby their muscles or gelatinous their flesh, no-ones sneaking up on the Brownsnout Spookfish!
BettSplendens Tumblr Evac 