this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 195 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

To save everyone some time

His age is estimated to be 192 as of 2025

[–] [email protected] 110 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

And "The first known public appearance of the term homosexual in print is found in an 1869 German pamphlet."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminology_of_homosexuality

[–] [email protected] 61 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Which is 36 years after this guy hatched

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Alan Davies: "And you could fit his accomplishments on the back of a stamp."

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[–] [email protected] 89 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

He must've copied it from gay tourists who did it in front of him! Surely it's just a show of completely non-sexual dominance. They're just really good friends. /s

[–] [email protected] 42 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Paul Goldstein, the photographer who captured the images in Kenya's Maasai Mara reserve in August, said many other species are known to engage in such behavior and that, for example, he had seen giraffes doing it.

"It was just a dramatic thing to see," Goldstein said of the male lions. He was astonished by Mutua's remarks, declaring it "not normal" and attributing the behavior to demonic possession, or copying what he clearly believes is amoral human behavior.

"These animals need counselling, because probably they have been influenced by gays who have gone to the national parks and behaved badly," said Mutua. "I don't know, they must have copied it somewhere or it is demonic. Because these animals do not watch movies."

"The demonic spirits inflicting in humans seems to have now caught up with the animals," the film classification board director said. "That is why I will say isolate the crazy gay animals."

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 weeks ago

What an idiot.

Animals in the wild obviously watch movies.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago

film classification board director

Oh well then say no more. That’s certainly a higher scientific certification than anyone else who could have anything to say on the matter

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

"That is why I will say isolate the crazy gay animals."

Good luck, that guy. There are claims some 90% of giraffe sex is male on male.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

First photographs of humpback sex was gay sex.

By Darwinism, homosexual behavior makes sense. Competition for resources (both reproductive access and food) leads to aggression, but a species where all the males kill each other will lack biodiversity. Physically weak male cuttlefish will camouflage as female to allow stronger get males to release on them, and then go take a female after. Things like this don’t happen unless they are beneficial. Bisexuality just makes sense, animals don’t give a shit about religions or morals and sex feeling good is going to be heavily selected for in most sexual species (notable exceptions being feline and ducks - the penis like thing that comes out of a cloaca is fucked up.)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

Oh I had forgot about the whale thing. Thanks for the refresher.

Yes you make very good points. Unfortunately this is a sort of "if this kids could read, they'd be very upset" moment, as you're preaching to the quire here, and the people who can understand that usually also accept it.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago

They're enclosure-mates!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

He's blind so he recognized gay sex just from hearing it and decided to try it out.

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[–] [email protected] 75 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Here he is (on the left) ca. 1886 at around 50 years old:

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Do you have a source for that date? Those cars in the background don't look like anything that would've existed in 1886. In fact the first car put into production was patented in 1886 and it looked like this:

Black and white image of the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, an early three-wheeled automobile

[–] [email protected] 46 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Oops, you're absolutely right, I grabbed the wrong photo. Fixed. Pretty funny that that you can have a photo decades later than you thought and you can't tell by the animal in it, but by the technology in the background!

[–] [email protected] 72 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Heh. I just spent half a minute squinting the dark trees in the background, looking for the outline of a car. I didn't realise the picture was swapped.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

me too. I thought i was more blind than the tortoise in question lol.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, same lol

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

That is definitely funny. I was just thinking, “How many fads and fashions has this one tortoise seen in his life?”

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

He's been around humans long enough to see to see, what, 6 or 7 generations?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Is that a joke I'm too dumb to get?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

No, I just think it's cool to see an animal in such an old photo that's still alive today. He wasn't young even then.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I don't think that photo is from 1886, not with those vehicles in the background. So I assumed it was a joke comment or AI, but all the subjects had normal finger counts, so I assumed joke.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

The photo is from 1947, not 1886, according to my hasty googling.

The tortoise is from ~1832 and still alive and would've been around 50 in 1886.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_(tortoise)

Edit Here's a photo of him from 1886 the earlier poster prolly confused this photo with the 1947 photo for some reason.

Edit 2 and looking at these tortoises there was one alive until 2006 who was estimated (but not confirmed) to be from ~1750. That's crazy. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adwaita

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I got a link for the wrong picture, that is indeed the one I meant to post.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

You're right, I made a mistake. I put the correct one in.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Okay, I am an ally and all. But when you are endangered ya just got to take one for the team

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago

Close your eyes and think of the species

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Meh... As someone with no interest in having children and could not care less about what that might mean for my "bloodline," I get it lol

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You're bloodline doesn't matter if you aren't an endangered species. Lmao

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

Great now Jonathan will be on the deportation list.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

He’s already on an island in the middle of the ocean that’s so remote it wasn’t even occupied when the Europeans took it. St. Helena is where they sent Napoleon to try to keep him away.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

So the tariffs list, then?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

Territory of the UK… so presumably same rate?

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago

they are just roommates

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

Jonathan: "That dick better be hard and ready when I get there"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

Dumb question: can Johnathan’s cataracts be fixed (a routine surgery on humans) so he can see Frederick is a guy? As a bonus, he could see food morsels without the need of olfaction.

I also wonder if the loss of olfaction and sight mean Johnathan can’t recognize the sex of a partner even if it was right in front of him.

I understand he might really be a gay tortoise, but he could also be gay by necessity.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 weeks ago

He shares his space with a number of female tortoises.

He gay.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Tortoises use sight and have a good sense of sight to be fair but they also use scent from the cloaca to gather information about things like sex of a partner

he knows what he’s doing

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

He can't smell, either, but he's been with that tortoise for over thirty years and snubs all the females around.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Which is impressive cause tortoises are famously horny and will fuck anything

nsfw?

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Not covered by my previous comment:

Apparently doctors investigated cataract surgery several years ago, but deemed it too risky.

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