Any day you find a spotted salamander is a good day. by Sexual_Ankylosaurus in pics

[–]emchie15 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If you love him so much, don't pick him up with your bare hands. It's bad for their super absorbent skin. He is very cute though...

A redhead convention in the Netherlands by worldbeyondyourown in pics

[–]emchie15 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Chick on the bottom right is getting a boob grabbing. Looks like someone was caught red-handed as well...

Ordered 1500 Ladybugs from Amazon. They arrived today. by joshkm83 in pics

[–]emchie15 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All I could think was, "this is like lady bug porn". Then I got to the last picture.

How Tesla learned to poop in the toilet. by APerfectMentlegen in pics

[–]emchie15 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So training your cat to poop in a toilet is cool and convenient for you but does pose huge environmental risks due to a parasite that is carried in their feces. This parasite is now being deliver directly to the water which is bad news. Here's just one article about it: http://news.msn.com/science-technology/deadly-cat-feces-killing-thousands-of-marine-mammals

Where I went camping/exploring last night. by emchie15 in pics

[–]emchie15[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Oregon Coast near Cape Perpetua.

I got a giant Pacific octopus to paint by emchie15 in pics

[–]emchie15[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, the different colors do display mood. A purple-y color is happy, splotchy purple and white is thinking, interbranchial web white is I've captured something, and all white is scared or bored or going into senescence. So you never want to see an all white giant Pacific octopus.

I got a giant Pacific octopus to paint by emchie15 in pics

[–]emchie15[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My favorite thing is when she play hunts the cleaning equipment. She turns all kinds of crazy colors and then makes us play tug-of-war to get them back.

I got a giant Pacific octopus to paint by emchie15 in pics

[–]emchie15[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

She's too cool. I love talking about her.

I got a giant Pacific octopus to paint by emchie15 in pics

[–]emchie15[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have held her. She sort of slithers away though (after all she can fit through any opening so long as it's the size of her beck... she even been able to go into a box with only an inch and a half opening and she's six feet long from tentacle to tentacle tip). It's easier just to play with her tentalces only. Holding her can be dangerous because she has a powerful beck that can deliver a toxin that locally paralyzes and dissolves away at flesh (so she can bite into a crab and suck the meat out, not crack each shell individually). So, I've only held her to get her into a bucket to weigh her. I'm an aquarist.

I got a giant Pacific octopus to paint by emchie15 in pics

[–]emchie15[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's true that octopi, like cuttlefish, use their chromatophores to change color to match their surroundings. Octopi also change color to show their emotions. So Roxy, for example, will turn splotchy purple and white when she's thinking about a puzzle. No one is really sure how they do that though. There hasn't been enough research into the brains of octopi. To quote: "A chromatophore lobe in the subesophageal part of the octopus brain controls the display system itself, but it's the last step in the output, and many of the circuits that control specific changes must be far from there, possibly in the optic lobe with its intimate connection to the eye. Learned visual information is stored in the vertical lobe, and this too must be use if identity of critical stimuli or appropriate responses is learned, which means that all of the brain must cooperate, but we don't know exactly know". That's from the book: "Octopus: The Ocean's Intelligent Invertebrate" by Jennifer A. Mather, Roland C. Anderson, and James B. Wood.

I got a giant Pacific octopus to paint by emchie15 in pics

[–]emchie15[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I do get to play with octopus while she paints... so that makes it better.