Category: Pets

Exploring the Golden Carpenter Ants of Costa Rica | December 31 2025, 14:28

Golden Carpenter ants from my last trip to Costa Rica. They are huge, about 1.5cm. They build nests in wood. Unlike termites, they don’t eat the wood, they just make a home for themselves there. They don’t have stingers, but if disturbed too much, they can bite with their jaws (as seen in the photo on the left) and inject formic acid. Their distinctive feature is a golden abdomen. I’ll write about other notable leaf-cutter ants next time, half of my phone is full of them.

Exploring the Monkey Species of Costa Rica’s Forests | December 29 2025, 22:47

In the forests of Costa Rica, several species of monkeys were encountered. The most interesting are the coatis. They live quite high up, but the trail also went up the mountain slope

Night Encounter with the Fer De Lance: Survival Against the Jungle’s Deadliest Snake | December 29 2025, 18:06

Last night, I encountered the most dangerous, most venomous snake in the jungle – Fer De Lance (Bothrops asper) on a path. Generally, local clinics have antivenom and with it, the mortality rate drops to zero, but it’s better not to test it – the venom causes rapid necrosis and disrupts blood clotting. It also has a built-in night vision camera in its head. The system is so sensitive that the snake can detect a temperature difference of just 0.003 °C. This helps it hunt warm-blooded rodents and birds at night, when visual sight is limited.

It’s also super fast. Four and a half meters per second. That’s faster than you can blink. Indeed, if you’re not sitting right in front of its nose, there’s enough time for it to switch to a combat position, allowing you to jump away – so I managed to get by from behind.

Wild Costa Rican Peccaries: My Unexpected Encounter | December 29 2025, 04:21

A wild Costa Rican boar, as part of a small herd, mistook me for one of its own and let me take its pictures. Strictly speaking, it’s not exactly a boar—it’s a peccary. Half of my phone is filled with these little grunters.

Decoding Dog Signals: What Does the Ironing Board Mean? | December 17 2025, 01:55

Help decode the signal being sent into the universe by a dog. The same gesture towards the refrigerator means wants treats, to the door – open it (outside or inside), to the knee – pet me, to the cat – a complex indecipherable set of emotions. Question – what could it mean towards an ironing board?

I have tried everything. Gave food. Poured water. Took for walks. Opened the backyard. Played with a ball with him. Definitely petted him. Only thing that worked was leaving the room. But then when you come back – he returns to playing at the foot of the ironing board. You turn around – he looks and waits for something.

Apparently, he concluded that to get everything at once, he needs to do it with an ironing board

Why Snow Clings Only to One End: A Light Moment on a Heavy Day | December 05 2025, 20:28

Imagine how hard it is for me to live. Walking with the dog and you can’t easily and quickly answer your own question, why is the snow only on one end of the twigs. And yes, they all look in different directions.