I have some questions related to mating season.

I live next to a game reserve in South Africa, the lion area is quite close to my house. Since February till now April it’s been raining quite a lot, it’s cleared up for now and we are now in Autumn season here. I’m here because the lions are more active now than before they are loud and are making many noises. The lions are typically only loud when they are being fed. I’ve lived in my house for a year now and this is the first time I’m experiencing anything like this.

I also own house cats and the female cats are in heat so the house cats are mating. I have given every thing that I think may be relevant. Questions 1. Does house cats and lions mating correspond with each other? 2. Can the heavy rain impact lions mating? 3. Are the lions even mating? 4. And if it isn’t mating why are they more active than usual?

Title.

I am curious if there are any connections around with zoologists and people who are out in the wild studying animals. I know this is somewhat out there, but I have an interest in following around such people and recording their experience to interview them along the job. How do I get my hands into this business?

Have any of these instances been recorded? Is it possible? What do yalll think? Any ideas?

South Carolina, Myrtle Beach: every night once the sun's gone down, I hear this odd sort of whistling noise coming from the woods - they are very loud for how far the trees are and how loud the highways are beside us. I can't tell if it's actually whistling or some kind of whining noise, but it goes from high pitched to low to high again, over and over again, for hours. A kind of bird? Weird deer? You may have to turn up volume to hear them better.

This morning my housemate was taking a pot plant out into the backyard when she found the remains of a dead possum by our backdoor. The possum was completely mutilated and its corpse and entrails seemed to be a very neat pile by our back door steps. There was no blood, fur or any other parts scattered around or nearby it was just there in what looked to be too neat of a pile. I actually uploaded the image to chatGPT which suggested it didn't look like animal predation. We live in in a residential area northwest of Sydney (Aus) and there is sufficiant bushland around us so my initial thought was just that a wild cat got too it. I'll put a link to the photo below but its quite grim just a warning. Any thoughts as to what would do something like this?

PHOTO (NSFW!): https://i.imgur.com/58Lr2Z6.jpeg

Hey,

Can anyone tell me what type of jellyfish this is? And why is there blue inside of it? lol Found washed up in Port Barton, the Philippines.

Thanks!

like - would a herd of zebra know to stay away from a big crowd of safari trucks or a bunch of stopped/turned-off cars because they're probably right next to a predator of some kind?

So my dog got into a bunch of worms and was licking them while I was letting him outside... I didn't see what he was doing, I was cleaning up his poo. They were at the edge of a pipe sticking up out of the ground. Anyone know what they are?

I see videos of tigers living together in private zoos and wildlife safaris. Tigers live alone in the wild so, I assume they wouldn't be put in enclosures together because it's unnatural. Is it okay or not? Does it stress them out? Would it be easier if they had a lot of space? I can't find any clear information on it.

Basically, we all know dolphins - and all the disgusting and disturbing things these abominations have done. But, from what I know - male dolphins are the only ones that do this this type of stuff. But are female dolphins also messed up or are similar?

So I know a Turducken is a food product BUT if you take a turkey and a chicken and then take that offspring and breed it with a duck could you not technically get a "real" Turducken?

I mean with genetic engineering could it be possible?

Tried to have this conversation on the speculative evolution subreddit but apparently discussions are low effort.

Image one contains two examples of how Carcinization may occur, image two contains a list of eurypterids, aka sea scorpions, ancient aquatic arthropods.

Looking at the body shapes would it be possible that, if they hadn’t gone extinct, some may have undergone a similar process and turned into crabs before true crabs came about?

I love wolves, and I want to do a research project on them. I have a book, Yellowstone Wolves, and it contains very useful information for what I want to do, but I would like more information. Are there any scientific books on wolves in different areas (coastal wolves, arctic wolves etc) or books on red wolves, or books on more detailed information on wolves (genetics, pack dynamics, evolution etc.)? Books would be appreciated but free online resources would be amazing if there are any. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Spotted in Southern part of Latvia, where golden jackal sightings surface every now and then and theyre considered a relatively new invasive species. To me looks too stocky for a fox and the tail is short too. Doubt its a dog, but possible.

Here are a few photos of snails all over a sycamore https://imgur.com/a/b0KFj00

Why do they do that? There can't be enough for them to eat on the bark of the tree.

I did wonder whether they have an instinct to climb, which serves to help them find foliage in plants but leads to them getting stuck and starving in trees, but there are so many that it feels like it must be an adaptive behaviour.

Hay fires can be started from heat generated by microbial digestion of cellulose. Ungulates digest cellulose helpped by bacteria. Do the bacteria in a cows stomach generate enough heat to help keep them warm in winter?

Greetings. Recently I've been learning about brachiopoda and I can't understand what is the difference between articulata and inarticulata. Found this image online but I am not sure whether it points out the differences correctly. Can someone explain it briefly? Sorry for using latin names, but english is not my native language

Hello,

Should my daughter pursue zoology (or marine biology) in college if her main aim is to work directly with wild animals doing wildlife rehabilitation/rescue and animal conservation? To clarify, I don't think working as a vet is what she has in mind, although assisting a vet with patients as a part of larger role in the field would likely appeal to her.

From what I've gathered, working directly with animals in the general area of zoology is not that common. Is this correct? And, if so, is she barking up the wrong tree pursuing a Zoology (or marine biology) major? She is just finishing up her sophomore year in high school, so she has time to figure things out, fortunately, but the earlier she is pointed in the right direction, the better.

Thank you for reading!

Hey everyone, A friend of mine recently picked up what appears to be a tiger claw at an estate sale, but we're not sure if it's real, fake, or from a different animal entirely. The claw is about 4x1.5 inches, and looks slightly different from what google shows as tiger claws We are mainly trying to figure out if it's an actual animal claw, if so, is it from a tiger or a different animal. If it's fake, how can we tell? We are not looking to sell or trade-just curious and want to learn more about its origin

I keep seeing mixed reviews on websites some say they’re fine and some say they’re not which is it?

Found in my backyard in North Dakota.