Hello friends! It's Luka (aka. ShallowBones) writing to you yet again.
I have written about many animals now, all which I love.
But what about something that is often disliked in the public's eye? yet just as important as any other animal.
Fish.
They are often unloved in the grand scheme of things, mistreated, taken for granted. Yet they are so important to our ecosystems, just as much as these freshwater fish, The Gar!
Yep, you heard me right, we have a week blog for Gar! Our (not so) little, unappreciated "trash fish", deserve all the attention to themselves, and today I'll tell you why!
Lets start from the very beginning...
You might wonder, whats up with this blog's title? what do you mean living relics?
Well believe it or not, Gar as a species, date back over 240 million years! They're older than the tyrant king himself, The Tyrannosaurus Rex! can you believe that? The amount of change this species have seen, so much trauma behind its thousand yard stare..and yet through all that evolution, the gar never changed. You could go back to its old fossils and see for yourself, NOTHING changed! (Is this a sign that this is the ultimate life form?)
https://www.sothebys.com
Honestly, as a prehistoric fauna, dinosaur, paleontology enthusiast, there is zero surprise that this is one of my favorite fish. Even just visually this fish is more crocodile like than anything else!
Speaking of visuals.. I wont lie, I am a #shortking, and there are times where I'm quite insecure of my height, but never ever in my life did i expect a FISH to outgrow me!? These scalies can grow up to and more than 182 centimeters (6 feet for my American buddies)!! God dammit I'm 156 and I'm 20 years old! and a damn fish is taller than me!?
@FieldMuseum (on Twitter)
Alright..my height ego might have been damaged.. but what about its weight? Usually its tall and lanky right? NOPE! they can grow up to 90 kilograms (200 lbs)!! Imagine feeling all that weight on your fishing rod? My skinny ass would very quickly be the one being fished and pulled into the water LOL Oh by the way, these fish will probably outlive you too, their average age is about 90+ years, truly, what can a fish do for that long?
My vision of what an Alligator Gar with a cane would look like
and to answer that question - Lets look at why they're important for the ecosystem!!
During my research, this was quite a shocker for me. So turns out there are tons of people who despise these fish! Even see them as a "bad omen", many fishermen, if caught a gar, would choose to murder it instead of letting it back into the water, because it would bring bad luck?
though I believe this bad omen nonsense was made up just because gar's are a predatory fish, they keep populations in check, by hunting and eating sport-fish, like bass, crappie and other alike.
Live footage caught in the wild by me
people in the 1900s disliked these fish SO much, that they even organized "gar wars", they would poison whole rivers or used dynamite to kill off the gar population!
Its yet another lesson in human greed - people try to change nature, hell, the whole world around them!
just to suit their desires. yet what people fail to realize, our ecosystem is a fragile thing, by erasing one, you're erasing what you prized for too. Eradicating gars, and other predatory fish, means there will be nothing to control the populations of "trophy fish"! And what happens if there's too many of them? lack of food, too much waste, poor water quality and that's how you kill the whole body of water, no more plants, no more trophy fish, and no more predatory fish. I know this is taught in children's films, "the circle of life" but it seems even adults don't get this concept, everything has its place and balance, and you've simply got to accept the "nuisances", because its everyone's world, not just yours.
Sorry for that rant over there ha-ha, truly i just love these fish, and i could never understand how people can find them "disgusting", i guess all nature is beautiful to me in its own special way..
me and gar.. @SolomonRDavid (on Twitter)
But as a finishing thought, something to keep in mind for other species too:
Appreciating gars means respecting the health of rivers and lakes that benefit all wildlife—including the fish people prize most.
So if you're American, and want to help with gar conservation, i recommend checking these places out! - Tennessee aquarium doing freshwater fish conservation - Minnesota's native fish for tomorrow - John Allen national fish hatchery (Tupelo, MS) - St. Catherine creek national wildlife refuge (Natchez, MS)
But most importantly, just spread the word! show your love to the unloved. You may think your words wont do much, but they truly hold a lot of weight. One person, can inspire hundreds.
Any-who folks, this will be the end of my blog now, i truly hope you enjoyed it and learned something through it! As always, share your thoughts, opinions, critiques, I'm always open for discussion!
I caught this wild baby gar and he had something to say to you..
Credits for beautiful background art - @poodlewool (on twitter)
I forgot to add this - this blog was inspired by one of my favorite wildlife educators Maya Higa from Alveus Sanctuary. She recently has started a new series called "Alveus Adventures" and their first episode was about the gar. So some of the information has been taken from this video! Please go check it out and give them all your support because these people are making the real change in our planet <3
I've just sat down to read this blog, I had never heard much about gars before. Not knowledgeable on fish but have seen fish enthusiasts online and I can understand the hype. This fact about the gar not changing at all throughout evolution reminded me of horseshoe crabs which I am slightly more familiar with and am fond of...
This gar wars thing shocked me, I had no clue they were so hated and this reminds me of my beautiful darlings (spiders) who are also killed unjustly all because humans do not like them. But for people to have poisoned entire rivers to kill them off is just saddening and cruel.
Either way I'm glad to have learned more about them, I really like these sorts of blogs, I made one a while ago and had planned on making more but never got around to doing so, this has motivated me... I will keep the gars in my thoughts...
thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my ramblings and poorly made jokes!
Fish are an interesting subject for me, and truth be told I don't even know why myself! I guess its the uniqueness? There's so so many species, so many different possibilities and just understanding how they adapt to their enviroment is so fun. I'll definitely be writing about more fish - more strange ones perhaps. But truly I'm an enthusiast of all life, everything just peaks my curiosity so much! And yes!! I LOVE horseshoe crabs!! (if i may, I always find it such a green flag when someone likes horseshoe crabs haha)
regarding the literal garcide (genocide) its insanity! gosh! it gets me fuming!!! I will NEVER understand people, I've had one too many conversations where I had to explain to 40 year old grown men why life is valuable and you shouldn't just kill something cuz you don't like it. Lack of empathy within people is baffling for me. But I don't wanna get carried away. As a kid I was conditioned to fear spiders, but I am slowly getting more and more comfortable with them! now whenever I'm trying to save one from the wrath of my family, I bring it either to my garage or attic, gotta keep your lovelies safe!
Also this is so darn amazing, to have motivated you, that's like the best outcome I could get out of writing a blog! It makes me truly happy. I will go check out your previous blog now as I'm curious, and ill be expecting more..#stay gar stay happy
It is no problem! And yes I can see how the different species are interesting, I don't know much about fish but find many of them cute or cool and interesting. The Pelican Eel comes to mind as I remember really liking it when I first learned of it at 12 years old lol. I also really like betta fish and those types of fish that crawl on the floor and they are spotted, no idea what they're called but I saw them at an Aquarium... Either way I like the strange variety of fish so I look forward to any blogs you write in the future about them!
And yes, agree on your second point, that is how I feel about people killing spiders for no reason, though I will admit I am hypocritical and kill flies & mosquitos without reason which I should probably stop ASAP and learn about them some more. It just makes me sad that people don't care then act as if you're the sensitive one for caring... These animals are here for a reason... And do not worry, I was definitely conditioned to fear spiders too. I even used to kill them which I feel super bad for nowadays. Honestly even to this day I get a little itchy when I see pictures of them sometimes, it's just an instinctual reaction I guess, but it doesn't stop me from having them as my favorite animals. I started by doing gentle research on them and I ended up losing a lot of my fears once I identified exactly which species are actually dangerous, which ones aren't, and how rare deaths by spiders are nowadays (because my fear was more-so safety based, I genuinely used to think any spider could kill you LOL) I'm happy to hear you are overcoming you fear and saving them.
- i wont add a paragraph this time, to not clutter and annoy you with my long ass responses XD
BUT! regarding mosquitos, I love bugs, i wish to protect bugs. But I do kill them myself, at some point, i consider it self defense, because im being bitten! of course im going to hit back! I genuienly dont have a clue whats the best line of action for such things, as much as id love to be a saint that harms no one, i do not want my blood sucked and walk around all with red dots lol. I'm sure that mosquito populations are fine, everybody is hitting them, yet theyre nowhere near exctinction..i guess nature prepared them to be the most hated bug of all. as far as i know, they dont have a purpose beyond being food. who knows! Oh by the way, every mosquito that drinks blood - is a female, males dont do that. SO whenever you kill a mosquito, you just killed a girly doing #badgirl tingz and i consider that very rude.
ALSO pelican eel! holy shit! i've never seen that creatura! i love it!!! thank you so much for introducing me to it..ill have to do more research regarding it
& I'm glad it's not just me. There are just so many mosquitos here during summertime that we've got to spray every room with bugspray before sleeping or we will wake up covered in bites, and I'm also mildly allergic to mosquito bites for some reason so they end up even itchier for me. (And also over here we have to worry about the dengue fever) So they are sort of my enemies... But they're kind of cool at the same time... But you're right, they've been around for very long. I guess humankind and mosquitos will always be in conflict...
Also I'm glad you like the pelican eel... I think they're awesome... I also like bobbit worms, japanese spider crabs & giant isopods a lot though these are not fish
Wow I think I am a gar fan now. For a long time I had mistakenly assumed they were quite small so I was genuinely surprised to learn that they can grow up to ~6ft/182cm! I really thought that arowanas were the only big gar-like fish in the world lol.
I was also completely unaware that they can grow up to 90 years old, wow! I wonder what regions of the world would have the most senior gars, but now that I am thinking about it I can't imagine how we would reliably guess their age (unless their age is directly correlated to their size and vice versa)
I am very, very unknowledgeable about fish in general so I apologize in advance if I am to say that I was unaware of very basic things about them!
I do very strongly agree that our great, slippery, and scaley coresidents are very poorly treated! Whether it's marketplaces to sell them for meat or pet shops, their health is nearly always disregarded. I am genuinely convinced that many people are willing to care about something's suffering if it can blink, be furry, and/or bleed blood, but even then many humans completely disregard suffering of animals like rodents, dogs, cats, and other humans. Such a great shame; I wish the reasons behind this could be as simple as "we've separated ourselves from the idea of also being an animal to the point we have lost touch with reality," but really such cruelties are very likely innate to the need to survive... I was going to go on about how even our brains will still panic in situations that generally won't follow our death (e.g., being in a crowded area or giving speeches) as an example of how we're still quite "simple" in "animal ways" but it detracts greatly from the "humans and other animals" topic.
Given the rant above, you can very likely and correctly assume that I disagree with poor treatment of animals from superstitions. Again: L human irrationality. I too find it absurd and frustrating that even adults will not respect life! I shan't divulge further least I whine about social posturing for four paragraphs, LOL
Either way, there are many endearing images of the gar here! It truly must be the ultimate lifeform... I am going to look up if it survived the great dying, which I presume it did but it's best to check myself.... This will likely force me to cross reference information LOL tfw no niche Gar-paleontology research publications.
Tangential rant spawned from me checking to see what died in the great dying: There used to be the meganeura griffinflies, but that one sadly died off. Perhaps it is for the best for us and other organisms since we can never be subject to the casual decapitation and brutality of the arthropod world. It appears that the meganeura predates the Gar and I would hope that not many beasts were subject to what actually sounds quite terrifying in real life. I do not want people to bring back species that are and have been long dead! It's very unwise! We do not need more people buying and releasing exotic animals and potentially destroying more ecosystems because of their poor foresight
first things first, thank you SO SO SO MUCH for this response! this means the world to me! I'm so happy I taught you something and got you interested in this topic! Reading your comment is a blast - now if i may, I'll respond in the same overly long fashion XD
There are definitely smaller gar, its often the alligator gar that are the largest (hence the name) Also, depending on what state you live in, you can very likely even go fishing for one! Theyre mainly resident in mississippi and close to it!
Also your response regarding to overall fish treatement was absolutely beautiful, you are completely right! Nowdays as meat is easily accessible in grocery stores, and its been served in so many different ways people dont even associate it with animals now. They simply consume without thinking or caring. I bet if you forced a modern person go hunt for their own food, half of the population would go vegan haha! Its really just the issue of human greed and their lack of care what their actions do to the world around them. I've had so many conversations with people who even disagree that they themselves, are an animal. Which is SO confusing for me? There are millions of people who genuienly think they aren't "animals" they're above that apparently. my nr.1 philosophy is that no man is above no animal. We're all equal in my little world, but I guess most people don't see it that way. I guess its my pagan blood haha.
Truly ive noticed, its often adults who are malicious towards animals - not children, kids may act cruelly towards an animal, but its out of curiosity, not maliciousness, and its usually parents who teach their kids to fear or dislike an animal - especially bugs. Even without trying to, kids often check their parents even slightest expression to know how to react to something. I also believe its a parents job to teach a kid about empathy and the importance of life, and even discussing death - instead of tip-toe'ing around it. For example my sister has a child who's likely very autistic, and doesnt understand such things that you have to be gentle to animals and such. And she doesn't even try to correct him! Guess its that lack of care.
Very often cruelty also comes from lack of information too. Many people love to "save" or feed wildlife, without realizing how much harm comes from it. And when you tell them about all the negatives, they just get mad at you and say you're a "joy-kill" which is frustrating too.
Also yes, recently ive seen studies and experiments of scientists trying to bring back extinct species, which is so wrong in my eyes! Life has its own natural order, and there's no logical reason why you should go against it. I've seen them trying to bring back the mammoths, and experimenting on mice, now creating "wooly mice" (just mice with mammoth dna making it very hairy) i do not think creating new species is ok. Also the whole dire wolf fiasco, they advertise it that they brought back the dire wolf back, but it has no real dire wolf dna in it (thank god) its just a wolf modified to look like one. either way, i think this is crossing a very fine line.
Anyways, I really enjoy the fact you found these gar cute and seemingly enjoyed this blog! It really motivates me to write more.. thank you very much truly <3
Report Blog Entry
Credits for beautiful background art - @poodlewool (on twitter)
Comments
Displaying 5 of 5 comments ( View all | Add Comment )
<SHALLOWBONES>
I forgot to add this - this blog was inspired by one of my favorite wildlife educators Maya Higa from Alveus Sanctuary. She recently has started a new series called "Alveus Adventures" and their first episode was about the gar. So some of the information has been taken from this video! Please go check it out and give them all your support because these people are making the real change in our planet <3
Neco-Arc
i want to eat them.......
WOAH buddy. NOT cool.
by <SHALLOWBONES>; ; Report
☣ ; HORROR
I've just sat down to read this blog, I had never heard much about gars before. Not knowledgeable on fish but have seen fish enthusiasts online and I can understand the hype. This fact about the gar not changing at all throughout evolution reminded me of horseshoe crabs which I am slightly more familiar with and am fond of...
This gar wars thing shocked me, I had no clue they were so hated and this reminds me of my beautiful darlings (spiders) who are also killed unjustly all because humans do not like them. But for people to have poisoned entire rivers to kill them off is just saddening and cruel.
Either way I'm glad to have learned more about them, I really like these sorts of blogs, I made one a while ago and had planned on making more but never got around to doing so, this has motivated me... I will keep the gars in my thoughts...
thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my ramblings and poorly made jokes!
Fish are an interesting subject for me, and truth be told I don't even know why myself! I guess its the uniqueness? There's so so many species, so many different possibilities and just understanding how they adapt to their enviroment is so fun. I'll definitely be writing about more fish - more strange ones perhaps. But truly I'm an enthusiast of all life, everything just peaks my curiosity so much! And yes!! I LOVE horseshoe crabs!! (if i may, I always find it such a green flag when someone likes horseshoe crabs haha)
regarding the literal garcide (genocide) its insanity! gosh! it gets me fuming!!! I will NEVER understand people, I've had one too many conversations where I had to explain to 40 year old grown men why life is valuable and you shouldn't just kill something cuz you don't like it. Lack of empathy within people is baffling for me. But I don't wanna get carried away. As a kid I was conditioned to fear spiders, but I am slowly getting more and more comfortable with them! now whenever I'm trying to save one from the wrath of my family, I bring it either to my garage or attic, gotta keep your lovelies safe!
Also this is so darn amazing, to have motivated you, that's like the best outcome I could get out of writing a blog! It makes me truly happy. I will go check out your previous blog now as I'm curious, and ill be expecting more..#stay gar stay happy
by <SHALLOWBONES>; ; Report
It is no problem! And yes I can see how the different species are interesting, I don't know much about fish but find many of them cute or cool and interesting. The Pelican Eel comes to mind as I remember really liking it when I first learned of it at 12 years old lol. I also really like betta fish and those types of fish that crawl on the floor and they are spotted, no idea what they're called but I saw them at an Aquarium... Either way I like the strange variety of fish so I look forward to any blogs you write in the future about them!
And yes, agree on your second point, that is how I feel about people killing spiders for no reason, though I will admit I am hypocritical and kill flies & mosquitos without reason which I should probably stop ASAP and learn about them some more. It just makes me sad that people don't care then act as if you're the sensitive one for caring... These animals are here for a reason...
And do not worry, I was definitely conditioned to fear spiders too. I even used to kill them which I feel super bad for nowadays. Honestly even to this day I get a little itchy when I see pictures of them sometimes, it's just an instinctual reaction I guess, but it doesn't stop me from having them as my favorite animals. I started by doing gentle research on them and I ended up losing a lot of my fears once I identified exactly which species are actually dangerous, which ones aren't, and how rare deaths by spiders are nowadays (because my fear was more-so safety based, I genuinely used to think any spider could kill you LOL) I'm happy to hear you are overcoming you fear and saving them.
by ☣ ; HORROR; ; Report
- i wont add a paragraph this time, to not clutter and annoy you with my long ass responses XD
BUT! regarding mosquitos, I love bugs, i wish to protect bugs. But I do kill them myself, at some point, i consider it self defense, because im being bitten! of course im going to hit back!
I genuienly dont have a clue whats the best line of action for such things, as much as id love to be a saint that harms no one, i do not want my blood sucked and walk around all with red dots lol. I'm sure that mosquito populations are fine, everybody is hitting them, yet theyre nowhere near exctinction..i guess nature prepared them to be the most hated bug of all. as far as i know, they dont have a purpose beyond being food. who knows! Oh by the way, every mosquito that drinks blood - is a female, males dont do that. SO whenever you kill a mosquito, you just killed a girly doing #badgirl tingz and i consider that very rude.
ALSO pelican eel! holy shit! i've never seen that creatura! i love it!!! thank you so much for introducing me to it..ill have to do more research regarding it
by <SHALLOWBONES>; ; Report
I love long responses! Do not be afraid!
& I'm glad it's not just me. There are just so many mosquitos here during summertime that we've got to spray every room with bugspray before sleeping or we will wake up covered in bites, and I'm also mildly allergic to mosquito bites for some reason so they end up even itchier for me. (And also over here we have to worry about the dengue fever) So they are sort of my enemies... But they're kind of cool at the same time... But you're right, they've been around for very long. I guess humankind and mosquitos will always be in conflict...
Also I'm glad you like the pelican eel... I think they're awesome... I also like bobbit worms, japanese spider crabs & giant isopods a lot though these are not fish
by ☣ ; HORROR; ; Report
Animals
Wow I think I am a gar fan now. For a long time I had mistakenly assumed they were quite small so I was genuinely surprised to learn that they can grow up to ~6ft/182cm! I really thought that arowanas were the only big gar-like fish in the world lol.
I was also completely unaware that they can grow up to 90 years old, wow! I wonder what regions of the world would have the most senior gars, but now that I am thinking about it I can't imagine how we would reliably guess their age (unless their age is directly correlated to their size and vice versa)
I am very, very unknowledgeable about fish in general so I apologize in advance if I am to say that I was unaware of very basic things about them!
I do very strongly agree that our great, slippery, and scaley coresidents are very poorly treated! Whether it's marketplaces to sell them for meat or pet shops, their health is nearly always disregarded. I am genuinely convinced that many people are willing to care about something's suffering if it can blink, be furry, and/or bleed blood, but even then many humans completely disregard suffering of animals like rodents, dogs, cats, and other humans. Such a great shame; I wish the reasons behind this could be as simple as "we've separated ourselves from the idea of also being an animal to the point we have lost touch with reality," but really such cruelties are very likely innate to the need to survive... I was going to go on about how even our brains will still panic in situations that generally won't follow our death (e.g., being in a crowded area or giving speeches) as an example of how we're still quite "simple" in "animal ways" but it detracts greatly from the "humans and other animals" topic.
Given the rant above, you can very likely and correctly assume that I disagree with poor treatment of animals from superstitions. Again: L human irrationality. I too find it absurd and frustrating that even adults will not respect life! I shan't divulge further least I whine about social posturing for four paragraphs, LOL
Either way, there are many endearing images of the gar here! It truly must be the ultimate lifeform... I am going to look up if it survived the great dying, which I presume it did but it's best to check myself.... This will likely force me to cross reference information LOL tfw no niche Gar-paleontology research publications.
Tangential rant spawned from me checking to see what died in the great dying:
There used to be the meganeura griffinflies, but that one sadly died off. Perhaps it is for the best for us and other organisms since we can never be subject to the casual decapitation and brutality of the arthropod world. It appears that the meganeura predates the Gar and I would hope that not many beasts were subject to what actually sounds quite terrifying in real life. I do not want people to bring back species that are and have been long dead! It's very unwise! We do not need more people buying and releasing exotic animals and potentially destroying more ecosystems because of their poor foresight
first things first, thank you SO SO SO MUCH for this response! this means the world to me! I'm so happy I taught you something and got you interested in this topic! Reading your comment is a blast - now if i may, I'll respond in the same overly long fashion XD
There are definitely smaller gar, its often the alligator gar that are the largest (hence the name)
Also, depending on what state you live in, you can very likely even go fishing for one! Theyre mainly resident in mississippi and close to it!
Also your response regarding to overall fish treatement was absolutely beautiful, you are completely right! Nowdays as meat is easily accessible in grocery stores, and its been served in so many different ways people dont even associate it with animals now. They simply consume without thinking or caring. I bet if you forced a modern person go hunt for their own food, half of the population would go vegan haha! Its really just the issue of human greed and their lack of care what their actions do to the world around them. I've had so many conversations with people who even disagree that they themselves, are an animal. Which is SO confusing for me? There are millions of people who genuienly think they aren't "animals" they're above that apparently. my nr.1 philosophy is that no man is above no animal. We're all equal in my little world, but I guess most people don't see it that way. I guess its my pagan blood haha.
Truly ive noticed, its often adults who are malicious towards animals - not children, kids may act cruelly towards an animal, but its out of curiosity, not maliciousness, and its usually parents who teach their kids to fear or dislike an animal - especially bugs. Even without trying to, kids often check their parents even slightest expression to know how to react to something. I also believe its a parents job to teach a kid about empathy and the importance of life, and even discussing death - instead of tip-toe'ing around it. For example my sister has a child who's likely very autistic, and doesnt understand such things that you have to be gentle to animals and such. And she doesn't even try to correct him! Guess its that lack of care.
Very often cruelty also comes from lack of information too. Many people love to "save" or feed wildlife, without realizing how much harm comes from it. And when you tell them about all the negatives, they just get mad at you and say you're a "joy-kill" which is frustrating too.
Also yes, recently ive seen studies and experiments of scientists trying to bring back extinct species, which is so wrong in my eyes! Life has its own natural order, and there's no logical reason why you should go against it. I've seen them trying to bring back the mammoths, and experimenting on mice, now creating "wooly mice" (just mice with mammoth dna making it very hairy) i do not think creating new species is ok.
Also the whole dire wolf fiasco, they advertise it that they brought back the dire wolf back, but it has no real dire wolf dna in it (thank god) its just a wolf modified to look like one.
either way, i think this is crossing a very fine line.
Anyways, I really enjoy the fact you found these gar cute and seemingly enjoyed this blog! It really motivates me to write more..
thank you very much truly <3
by <SHALLOWBONES>; ; Report
Finn
this is soso awesome.. i loved reading all this beginning to end,, gtheyre one of my favorite fish. Very peculiar shape. i enjoy them
THANK YOU FINN <3333
now go watch Maya's video - OR ELSE!
by <SHALLOWBONES>; ; Report
YES SIR!!! ON IT SIR!!
by Finn; ; Report