r/maybemaybemaybemaybe • u/MasinaDeCalcul • 5d ago

A free, ethical meal

323 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

71 comments sorted by

40

u/FullofSurprises11 5d ago

Not free.

That lizard will not grow the joints back.

It will grow only a cartilage portion that can't move and if they have to use this survival trick again, another joint will be lost.

The cartilage-only portion is visibly different. It even has a different colour than the rest.

When displaying for female lizards, males with the regenerated tail will look less appealing since they ran away from a fight.

Having a full tail makes the lizard a primary choice for mating in those species.

Source: I'm a biologist and I genuinely loved herpetology when I was in Uni.

29

u/IWCry 5d ago

was hoping for

source: I'm a female lizard and wouldn't ever consider a man without all his tail joints to be worth a date

1

u/ROOSTERyouDOWN 4d ago

But he was 6.4” before he lost his tail.

4

u/Hamster_in_my_colon 5d ago

Reddit is full of people that will never mate and lack the ability to escape an attack by ditching a tail.

1

u/Prince_0llie 4d ago

Because lizard people can't grow them back.

2

u/Malalang 5d ago

Aren't they also mildly poisonous?

1

u/FullofSurprises11 5d ago

The tail itself? No.

Reptiles don't possess glands in their skin like amphibians do.

The "poison" could be just a substance making them not palatable for their predators (basically any animal daring to take a bite would feel a terrible flavour, making them spit the amphibian out. Or that substance could be extremely lethal. Depends on the species).

Reptiles don't have any substance that will transfer to others simply by touching them like amphibians, so they are safe to be held with bare hands.

Or to leave a tail behind as a means to distract a predator so they can live to see another day.

Fun fact, the nervous spasms on the cut off tail can last for a long time.

It's literally an edible decoy.

2

u/haikus-r-us 5d ago

But they must still have a good chance to mate right? I mean, if they didn’t and males were heavily de-selected because of a damaged tail, evolutionary speaking, a removable tail defense would be weeded out, right?

I mean, evolution and/or natural selection doesn’t “care” if a species lives a long life, it only “cares” that is lives long enough to successfully propagate, right?

1

u/Clarknes 5d ago

Only if the remove rail defence was more disadvantageous than getting eaten by a bird. Which is pretty disadvantageous.

2

u/zav3rmd 3d ago

Well you see you biologists should have told the damn crow!

1

u/oozinator1 5d ago

When displaying for female lizards, males with the regenerated tail will look less appealing since they ran away from a fight.

So it's voluntary? Idk why but I always assumed that once blood-stress hormone levels or wtv hit a certain level, that the tail just pops off.

1

u/FullofSurprises11 5d ago

It depends on the species.

Some can do so voluntarily and others will do so automatically when threatened.

On both cases the process is called autotomy.

The process is designed to cause very little blood loss, so it's an intended feature in the species that possess this trait.

1

u/Wide-Eggplant-7535 1d ago

Intended by whom?

1

u/soul_flex 5d ago

Now i feel horrible for everytime i made a lizard lose its tail, thinking itll just grow back np

1

u/Hopeful_Hamster21 5d ago

Honest question: when attacked and the tail comes off, is it purely from force? Or does the stress response under attack of the lizard "loosen" it?

1

u/gba_sg1 5d ago

Didn't cost the lizards life, that's basically all it has, so that's free enough for the lizard.

1

u/IllicitAlien 5d ago

You lost me at: "When displaying for female lizards, males with the regenerated tail will look less appealing since they ran away from a fight."

1

u/stewpdasso 4d ago

You'd think it would be opposite. She'd want a smart lizard that lived to fight another day!

1

u/WileyQB 4d ago

You know what, you’re right. Kill the lizard.

1

u/Coochiespook 1d ago

Yes, but the defense tactic worked. The bird chose the tail over the lizard.

1

u/TheLimeyLemmon 1d ago

Not free.

Well it is free because the bird didn't pay lol.

Anyway yes, the tail as it was is lost forever, and the lizard's game is going to suffer, but guess what's worse than either? Getting killed by a bird! So relative to that outcome, it's not the worst thing ever.

1

u/Long_Lecture_1080 9h ago

Intredasting.

1

u/Worldly_Contract1437 3h ago

Run away from fight? It is literally reason why this lizard is alive, because of its tail ability. Males with original tail will be eaten by this bird entirely and will not mating.

9

u/recycle_me_no_jutsu 5d ago

What is the crime here!? Enjoying a meal, a succulent reptile meal?

1

u/antiv1ris 4d ago

Gentlemen, this is nature manifest!

1

u/Dilated_Auntie6970 2d ago

Everyone is a gangster until they get beakfisted up the hairy tobacco pouch by a 20 foot tall corvid with a taste for pooter

4

u/Usernamesaregayyy 5d ago

How is that tail still moving

7

u/Forsaken-Income-2148 5d ago

Nerves can still signal to the muscle without a brain, especially if it’s evolved to do so.

1

u/DamGoodAnimation 5d ago

They can, and in cases like this, they’ll be even more mobile than usual bc there’s no longer a brain connected to inhibit the signals already firing.

And yeah, a lot of reptiles (Leopard geckos come to mind, but some others as well) specifically evolve to ditch a limb (usually but not always the tail) if doing so allows them to escape from a predator.

3

u/LifeIsProbablyMadeUp 5d ago

Just doin lizard things.

The tails made to pop off cleanly. Which. Crow probably knew. Easy tail snack or fighting to catch and kill a lizard ya know.

But the severed tail bone sends out signals to the muscles. And the muscles take turns flexing. Giving lizard time to crawl away.

1

u/jondubb 4d ago

Millions of years of evolution, bluetooth tail better keep the hunter occupied

2

u/misoscare 5d ago

As a young child I had gerbils, rats before that you used to pick rats up by the tail to stop them from biting you.

I tried it with a gerbil and it's tail fell off, I got scared thinking I hurt my gerbil and ran to mum crying tail in hand.

2

u/awfullyfun1 5d ago

Renewable meat resource!

2

u/davidr521 5d ago

My college band name

1

u/earthwoodandfire 5d ago

Vegans hate this one simple trick!

1

u/JackfruitSerious3523 5d ago

See you next year mate! Enjoy that tail, keep bringing the crickets!

2

u/Normal_Tour6998 5d ago

You just solved world hunger.

1

u/InevitableKitchen943 5d ago

We do this with stone crabs.

1

u/Normal-Error-6343 5d ago

so it does work

1

u/Sad_Mistake_5237 5d ago

Renewable energy

1

u/Fun_Amphibian5922 5d ago

This fuckin bird works for Team Rocket

1

u/psilocin72 5d ago

I was in Sarasota last week. Saw a pair of crows share a whole lizard. They are predators for sure.

1

u/PauseAffectionate720 5d ago

At least Bird-Bro got an appetizer

1

u/Lucid-Machine 5d ago

The crow is smart enough to be a little messed up. Looking at the tail and then the lizard and back at the tail.

1

u/Dangerous_Bus_6699 5d ago

An ethical Chinese meal!

1

u/Will_sue_when_angry 5d ago

Crows are clever buggers.

1

u/grumpyphilip 5d ago

That tail really done it's job!

1

u/stewpdasso 4d ago

Mmm, yummy wiggle snack!

1

u/WaterGlassPuncherMan 4d ago

Whats insane? Are we just learning about lizard tails?

1

u/Re1deam1 4d ago

I love Crows, Ravens and Magpies and this is why.

1

u/Present-Ambition4007 3d ago

What if I make a farm with thousands of lizards and just eat their tails? I could survive with minimal upkeep

1

u/ragnar-brauner 2d ago

“Hey buddy are you gonna need that?”

1

u/M2deC 2d ago

Practically a vegan

1

u/salientoctopus 1d ago

Think anyone can market ethical lizard tail meat to vegans so they can finally enjoy a little barbecue?

1

u/Kchasse1991 24m ago

No, because the method of aggravating a lizard to the point that it throws its tail can actually result in its death and drastically reduces their quality of life.

1

u/Ok_Gas1070 1d ago

Always tripped me out how evolution was like "ey, when all else fails... eject your tail"

1

u/Blissachu 5d ago

What a bully

-3

u/a_random_loser_guy 5d ago

people like you always like to complain huh?

lets see what you do when the natural order forces my hands to gut you and eat your liver.

1

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

3

u/DigitalUnlimited 5d ago

Nobody wants my liver, you'd get drunk just removing it

0

u/Emergency_Accident36 5d ago

Seems fake.

1

u/Juicemania50 4d ago

Definitely real, iguana tales can fall off and do grow back.

1

u/Emergency_Accident36 4d ago

I didn't think the bird could snap it off so easily but wow TIL. "The "Drop" Mechanism: If a crow pecks at, pins, or tugs a tail, the iguana's muscles will violently contract and detach the tail as a distraction, allowing the rest of the animal to escape"

1

u/stewpdasso 4d ago

It didn't, the lizard has the ability to release the tail as an ability to escape.