Wish you a pleasant weekend! 😊

A reptile that hugs you is only looking for your warmth or tries to eat you.

Kleptothermy, theft of warmth, is a form of thermoregulation. It occurs in a wide variety of animal species, including human. For example when we cuddle up because it's cold.

Reptiles* cannot create body heat themselves. Their metabolism is dependent on external heat sources.

When your reptile hugs it body against you, it certainly feels safe. But it doesn't do it out of affection, but because you are warm.

It's still a nice feeling.

You should always keep in mind, that it's better for the animal not to take it out of the terrarium.

My leopard geckos are about to winter rest. I initiate a near-natural rest at a temperature of around 12°C.
It's important to get an accurate picture of the animals health beforehand. This includes taking fecal samples, scanning the body for abnormalities and assessing the strength of the animal.

*From a cladistic point of view, which is the scientific standard today, the reptiles as a monophyletic taxon, i.e. as a natural (complete) descent group (Reptilia as clade), should at least also contain the birds, which are warm-blooded.

Desert locusts (Shistocerca gregaria) only do two things 🤷‍♂️

I feed them alive to my animals.
I have also tried freeze-dried grasshoppers myself. Tasted a little like sunflower seeds. Did you ever eat insects and did you like it? 😋

Banana Joe, as fit as twenty years ago. Only better looking. 💪

When I do something with the terrarium, Dakota always has to watch what's going on. He's very headstrong and likes to design himself. No idea where he got this from. 🤷‍♂️

Enjoy life! 🎊🤷‍♂️✨

That's my brand new family member (Heterometrus laoticus) as it kills a dubia roach.

Like this fly, I'll take a little break now. I want to thank you very much. It is nice to be connected with you.😊

Goodyear Zeppelin NT over Frankfurt (09/2020). With a length of 75 meters, it's currently the largest semi-rigid airship in the world.

The Villa Stark in Markneukirchen was my home for two years. An important chapter in my life. You are not automatically rich when you live in a villa. You are rich when you experience love. This building is a children's home. A place where fates meet. A quick tutorial on the meaning of life.

We were 20-30 children and teenagers, divided into three groups. Nobody comes to a children's home when everything is okay. Some of us have spent our entire childhood there. It was 1998 when I got there. That was 8 years after the end of the German Democratic Republic. The children's home was just being modernized. I moved into a newly renovated villa - cool! From my mates and the childcare workers I learned how it used to be. When there was only one bathroom and how they used the same washing machine for all laundry and warming up sausages. When the furniture was old and the floors were worn out. But that at the time they were satisfied with what they had.

Having something is what most people want. Having a family is very nice. But life is fleeting. And it has its own plan. Whatever you have left is you. Your heart, your wishes and your dreams. With it you fill life wherever you are. That's exactly where the whole point lies. You can't buy love. You can never earn, force or demand it. You can only be a person of love. Nobody can take that away from you, except yourself. That's the energy to freely shape your life.

Some selfies when I was hiking in the Peruvian Cloud Forest near of Machu Picchu. Only 1% of the global woodland consists of cloud forests. It's the habitat of numerous unique animal and plant species. Cloud forests are among the most endangered terrestrial ecosystems on earth. They are particularly dependent on constant climatic conditions (e.g. leaves that are very drought-sensitive), which will change as a result of climate change. Many cloud forest regions are important agricultural production areas due to their always humid and mild climate.