my beardie is now 3 and doing awesome
my corn is 2 and doing really well!
my chill. rose has malted 3 times now in 3 years (give or take)

im thinking of getting some carnivorousness plants next!

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I'm considering getting a venus fly trap, just to see some little fucks die. Too bad it takes them 10 days to digest, I would have to get quite a few to curb the population of flies in my house.

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I used to get those all the time when I was young. I sucked at caring for them though, they always died.

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I wonder if the carrion plant I sent to sixsicsix survived. Mine's still in the same put, but I haven't let it bloom the past couple years just so I don't have to put up with moving it into shade so it doesn't smell like hot vomit. It was pretty cool seeing the flies flock to it and the little larve wiggling in the center.

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Just something me and a few pals of mine started discussing the other day. We were watching a spider taking a prey a couple of days ago - a very small spider against a very large beetle, but it was a persistent spider - and somehow the question of lustful murder arose. Basically, you have for example cats that will hunt and kill as much for the fun as for the eating. Do spiders ever do anything of the sort? That is, attack and kill because the hunting impulse takes over even when they're not actually hungry? I guess the ones that weave nets don't, but what about the stalkers and jumpers and such?

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Animals almost never indulge in this sort of behavior for a variety of reasons. In addition to being a massive waste of time and energy, hunting frivolously puts unnecessarily puts their lives in danger at the hands of their prey and also to any potential predators. When you're hungry, you HAVE to take the risk that your prey might injure or even kill you before you can eat it. When you're hungry, you're forced to go out in the open where your predators can see and get you. When you're not hungry, none of these things are necessary.

The vast majority of animals that do indulge in overkill behavior (again, very few) are generally driven to caching behavior. Sometimes they do this even when caching food isn't particularly feasible (warm weather, wet weather, no good place to hide/bury food, etc.), but instincts are instincts.

I don't believe spiders cache their prey, so I would assume they don't indulge in overkilling behavior. Additionally, much that spiders prey on is potentially dangerous to the spider, so there is more biological incentive not to.

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I don't think that cats are playing with prey, but are practicing their skills or doing it to provide prey for whoever is part of their pack, human or otherwise.

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Regardless, when I watch a cat - as I've quite often had the opportunity to - jump on a mouse, throw it around for a bit, then lay down for a spell while holding it down with a paw on its tail and not doing anything until it manages to break loose, whereby the merry little dance goes on with the mouse flying around like a favorite rubber ball, I'm somewhat tempted to use aforementioned words for it. Even if the biological imperative for it is to hone hunting technique, I very much doubt that the cat has a much more sophisticated thoughts about it than "Prey - attack - wahey!"

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I remember reading somewhere that Killer Whales seemingly "play" (read: torture)with their food before they finally eat it, going so far as to keep it alive while it tosses it into the air and gnaws on it.

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Still, might that not be the same thing as some seals do with prey penguins? That is, they toss 'em about, basically to turn them inside out in order to make a more easily available snack.

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Yeah, probably. Kind of like the last girl I was with.

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This is actually true. Scientists have some ideas, but nothing concrete yet.

Also, see bottlenose dolphins and their playful torture/slaughter of harbor porpoises. In this case, the porpoises don't even represent a prey item. Scientists are completely baffled by this, especially because this behavior only occurs among two populations of the bottlenose dolphins; one of the coast of Scotland and the other near Virginia. Other areas where bottlenose dolphins and harbour porpoises overlap are typically peaceful.

My populations biology professor a couple years back brought up this topic in class, as he studies bottlenose dolphins. The best explanation I've heard is the one that I offered in class that day- elimination of a rival competing for the same food source. Unfortunately, there are two glaring problems with that explanation. First, while there is a significant degree of overlap between the diets of the two cetaceans, it's not a 100% overlap and there's no food shortage in the areas these attacks occur. Second, in almost all parallels one can find (African lions and spotted hyenas, for example), chasing your rival out of your territory is sufficient. These dolphins don't chase the porpoises out of their territory; they pursue them to the death.

Interesting stuff.

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Haha! It does sound like it'd make sense. Maybe, since dolphins are considered to be more intelligent, they're aware that chasing them away could only be a temporary solution. Or maybe they're just assholes. I've heard they can be quite mean, case in point.

Ever wondered what neurons sound like as they chatter away? http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/toda...000/7679354.stm

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Sounds like my brain cell, Larry, awaking up in the morning.

The news reported about how strangely some of the zoo animals were acting prior to the quake. Anyone got a clue how sea life like dolphins and porpoises act when there's a quake coming?

Cats are just silly creatures. They're classic blondes trying to hide their silliness with occasional aloofness.

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Were you guys reading this when you started the conversation about porpoises or is cracked reading metaltabs? http://www.cracked.com/article_1937...a_ibsrc=fanpage

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Yes. We went into the future and read that article then came back to talk about it. COME ON!

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You know what I really like about that list? It's how it's our own mammal cousins that slams down on biological mincing machines like great whites and caimans - and the only thing that finally puts a dent in this furry supremacy is a direct descendant of the friggin dinosaurs.

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Kind of late, but I've never seen spiders display any kind of "pleasure from the hunt/kill" kind of behavior. They make as short work of their prey as possible to get something to eat.

Hey, anyone know what kind of spider this is? The discussion has been on-going for some time here.

http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...888892991_n.jpg

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I'm not a spider guy, but it looks like some kind of wolf spider to me.

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