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albene t1_ixqxyix wrote

Komodo dragons can do this too, and because of how gender determination works in them, a female Komodo dragon will produce male offspring asexually. “It has been hypothesised that this reproductive adaptation allows a single female to enter an isolated ecological niche (such as an island) and by parthenogenesis produce male offspring, thereby establishing a sexually reproducing population (via reproduction with her offspring that can result in both male and female young).” [Link]

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[deleted] t1_ixr0pxz wrote

Most reptiles are able to. Mourning geckos are particularly cool as they only reproduce through parthenogenesis and the whole species is female.

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markzuckerberg1234 t1_ixr2h12 wrote

Whattttt

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crappercreeper t1_ixs2256 wrote

Most vipers in America can do this, too. Some will even do it when males are avaliable. It's terrifying. An army of snakes asexually making an army of snakes that will make an army of snakes...

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CosineDanger t1_ixs45ht wrote

Are you sure that you would prefer sexual snakes?

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crappercreeper t1_ixs4vqg wrote

Yes, make them put some effort into it. It will at least slow them down.

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snowblindswans t1_ixt1wy5 wrote

"Sexual Snakes" is my new band name.

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Mode3 t1_ixt2vk3 wrote

Don’t abbreviate that.

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snowblindswans t1_ixt37vb wrote

Too late. I've already ordered the patches.

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concerned_llama t1_ixtp4mo wrote

Hey, but just checking in, did you remove that inverted Indian symbol and the skulls out of it, right?

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OsmeOxys t1_ixtbqcm wrote

Asexual snakes has been my band name

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epsdelta74 t1_ixrabep wrote

Is that why they are mourning? Actually kind of serious - did people notice there were only females at some point and did that inform their name?

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[deleted] t1_ixrd2hl wrote

Oh, I had to look it up, but yes!

TIL they are called mourning geckos because they are vocal at night and it was said to be because the females were mourning their lost mates (because they knew they were all female)

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dewittless t1_ixrh08g wrote

This is amazing, this is like a mythical creature.

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smokeydabear94 t1_ixrn52x wrote

Reminds me of the cubone pokedex entry

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Diamondsfullofclubs t1_ixs4zju wrote

I'm going to start reading pokedex entries as old folklore rather than hard facts after considering your comment.

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SaintUlvemann t1_ixtd5o6 wrote

"This Pokemon was originally a plush doll that was thrown away!"

No, Pokedex, this Banette was originally a Shuppet that I hatched from the egg my brother gave me.

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Objective-Review4523 t1_ixrz28e wrote

Don't get me started on this conspiracy theory. It drives me mad whenever I think of it.

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adamup27 t1_ixsfe16 wrote

Hi there - getting you started on it. What is the cubone theory?

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Adthay t1_ixrhqme wrote

To add to this not only is the species entirely female but they're lesbians. Which is to say they don't reproduce through parthenogenesis until after they attempt to mate with another of their species.

Other facts, the species is actually a hybrid species of two other species of lizards whos habitats overlap. Males do exist and can reproduce but it's rare.

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Drone30389 t1_ixrofhw wrote

The same is true for Whiptail Lizards: some species have no males and reproduce parthenogenetically after the females engage in mating rituals.

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FUCK_REDD1T t1_ixrbydk wrote

When they reproduce with their genetically identical offspring is their any chance for mutations? Or do they create more genetically identical offspring?

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mokomi t1_ixs56tn wrote

Not an expert, but as long as it isn't an clone using the same DNA. There will always be a chance for mutations. Their offspring are near, but not exact. Whatever happens they are gaining males with a Y.

Now if you are thinking of diseases like human inbreeding does. All species do have that problem. They just die off or it's a common problem with XYZ. Humans live longer than their breeding age and they are many, many people. So problematic mutations just stick around and get worse.

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albene t1_ixsuee7 wrote

The offspring are not genetically identical as the process still involves meiosis, which means crossing over, random assortment and independent segregation still occur to create new combinations of alleles. The issue is that the gene pool is greatly reduced as it originates from a single individual.

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ShootYourStar t1_ixr17jy wrote

Many creatures can parthenogenisys(?) themselves, usually resulting in all males, the two I know are some types rays and a type of mite.

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ikefalcon t1_ixs4n9t wrote

Imagine having a child with your opposite-sex clone.

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Zetherith t1_ixs8kpv wrote

Then mate with that child to produce grandchildren that you can also mate with. Sounds hot.

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EstroJen t1_ixs35ns wrote

Wouldn't that cause the population to be hideously inbred?

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son_et_lumiere t1_ixsc3kv wrote

Have you seen komodo dragons?

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EstroJen t1_ixsdi1i wrote

I know if then and how deadly they can be. I imagine they would have the same issues though.

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albene t1_ixstxsj wrote

Yes, it would be an extreme cause of Founder Effect as the gene pool is not just reduced but originates from a single individual instead of a founding population

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MathMaddox t1_ixrye21 wrote

> parthenogenesis produce male offspring, thereby establishing a sexually reproducing population (via reproduction with her offspring

Sounds like an episode of Jerry Springer

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diiejso t1_ixqvk37 wrote

Life, Uh, Finds a Way

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[deleted] t1_ixrhuo9 wrote

[deleted]

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Obversa t1_ixrjkq6 wrote

Now I'm imagining "what if Palpatine returned as a turkey". Thanks, Reddit.

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SloanneCarly t1_ixr5dyp wrote

Fill the gaps in the dna with dna from African frogs

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HarryHacker42 t1_ixr7gsq wrote

There are only 2 genders!! Nothing else can exist.

​

"Looks up intersex at birth"... oh... guess not.

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montanunion t1_ixs4xxs wrote

Just fyi, sex and gender are different things. On one hand, turkeys probably don't have a concept of gender at all, since gender is a human society thing and turkeys are birds. On the other hand, sex refers to gamete production and since human procreation has only 2 gametes (eggs and sperm), there are only 2 sexes for humans.

On an unrelated third hand, the vast majority of intersex people identify with the genders male or female (usually the ones they were assigned at birth, though you can also be intersex and trans). Intersex conditions are also usually sex-specific. For example, Klinefelter's (XXY) only exists in men.

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SjuivaTuEtta t1_ixtgxgs wrote

The definition of men used for klinefelter’s is “has a y chromosome”.
also when talking about sexes there’s two aspects, yes there’s gametes but there is anatomy, secondary characteristics, and so on. If we reduce sex to the gametes, then someone with ovaries but otherwise male anatomy is female, and somebody with underdeveloped ovotestes has no sex at all bc no gametes, and someone with ovarie(s) and teste(s) is both, so there’s atleast four if you count combinations. Then add in anatomy/organ/secodnary characteristsics mismatched with the gametes, and you have many more. Its easiest to lump all atypical sex into one and call it ”intersex” and say it is an actual sex, the only place where that doesnt matter is a sperm/egg bank XD

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montanunion t1_ixtjmp1 wrote

Klinefelter men also have a penis and testicles so they are male by anatomy and many do produce sperm, though often not enough/not viable (but there are also some Klinefelter men who produce viable sperm) and most have clearly male secondary sex charactetistics. Globally, only something like 1 in 4 Klinefelter men know they have it and even in the West, many only find out about the condition in adulthood when they realise they have trouble conceiving.

Sex is gametes. That's how biological sex is defined. That's why there are only 2 sexes in humans.

However that doesn't make people who cannot produce gametes non-sexed, any more than the fact that humans are defined as "bipedal mammals" makes people with one leg less human. They are just humans with a specific condition. Someone who produces both sperm and eggs shows characteristics of both sexes.

> Its easiest to lump all atypical sex into one and call it ”intersex”

Easiest for whom? It's not an actual sex (because intersex people do not produce a third form of gametes) and if you look at intersex activism, many intersex people are strictly opposed to the idea that they could be one. The vast majority of intersex conditions are sex-specific, so they only occur in males or only occur in females.

There's absolutely no benefit to lumping all intersex conditions together and calling it a new sex, any more than throwing all conditions that cause aberrations of secondary sex conditions together and calling them a new sex. No one would argue that men with gynaecomastia and women who grow excessive facial hair (which are both quite common) are really a different sex.

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SjuivaTuEtta t1_iy36ssi wrote

Well good to know
you did ignore my thing about people who have both ovaries and testes though

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montanunion t1_iy3k3nn wrote

I didn't ignore that part, I wrote

> Someone who produces both sperm and eggs shows characteristics of both sexes.

That isn't a different sex either though since there is not a different form of gamete that they produce. And as far as I know, there has never been any known case of a person producing both viable sperm and eggs.

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Loloji42 t1_ixrczeh wrote

Also look at the blobs of Physarum polycephalum and their 720 sexes. That's more pronouns that we can handle safely.

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ShootYourStar t1_ixr1mjq wrote

You should look up the lesbian lizards, not the official name of course. They are in New Mexico, apperently a mutation occurred in one female lizard that cause her to lay exact clones of herself, all the offspring inherited this mutation, so now the region is over ran with this female only lizard species, all clones of the original/each other.

To stimulate egg production they all get together and roll around in a pile.

Edit 1, link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico_whiptail

Edit 2, the place, I was way off!

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MisterTrashPanda t1_ixrdz5q wrote

*incestuous lesbian lizards

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ShootYourStar t1_ixrfg35 wrote

Even after all my edits I forgot to add incestuous.

And its the most important part of the factoid!

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chickenstalker99 t1_ixsb2wl wrote

> To stimulate egg production they all get together and roll around in a pile.

Sounds like Saturday night at the trashy sorority house.

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Kevundoe t1_ixqsso8 wrote

Or, hear me out, turkey all look alike

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fast327 t1_ixrtqn5 wrote

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[deleted] t1_ixsch7m wrote

I live by a little piece of woods, like five acres, and last week there were like 17 turkeys at the end of my street. I'd never seen the big Toms in the wild before. Freaking amazing.

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fast327 t1_ixsgn3i wrote

Wait til you see them fly! Seeing a large bird up close in the air is a sight to behold.

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Jinzul t1_ixrl722 wrote

You’ve clearly never been around turkeys close enough to see that they do not look alike. ;)

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waffles-n-gravy t1_ixqr08s wrote

Maybe Jesus was really a turkey

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sharksandwich81 t1_ixr3aii wrote

Virgin Mary was actually a clone of Eve made from blood extracted from fossilized mosquitoes from the garden of Eden, and they used bits of Turkey DNA to fill in the missing pieces.

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Wurm42 t1_ixtapbr wrote

Jurassic Park meets Evangelion; what could go wrong?

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locks_are_paranoid t1_ixqw166 wrote

South Park did it with St. Peter being a rabbit. It was in the Fantastic Easter Special.

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linuxhiker t1_ixr3oi2 wrote

What I love about Easter is the origin of the holiday.... Look it up ;)

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rdyoung t1_ixri2tg wrote

Are you talking about the pagan holiday that was taken over?

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linuxhiker t1_ixrm0q1 wrote

Yes

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rdyoung t1_ixrnl6z wrote

It's insane how we went from a fertility celebration to rabbits pooping out chicken eggs because jesus.

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RedTheDopeKing t1_ixrhxp8 wrote

Not that I necessarily did before, but now I really don’t trust turkeys.

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Kancho_Ninja t1_ixr2nu1 wrote

When you really wanna baby, but ain’t got no time for a baby-daddy, go fuck yerself.

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GratefulPhish42024-7 t1_ixqs58g wrote

That clone might look similar but will it still be a jive turkey?

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Texcellence t1_ixr8b0m wrote

Begun the turkey clone wars have.

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wadewad t1_ixqzn4a wrote

That’s why somebody you don’t trust you call a turkey. How can you trust a guy who can literally go fuck themselves?

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CaptainChats t1_ixrrxb9 wrote

Is this only trait only in wild turkeys or do domesticated turkeys also have the ability to reproduce asexually? If so it seems like a useful trait for a domesticated animal.

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LarsAlereon t1_ixtyaam wrote

Also domesticated turkeys and chickens, though it doesn't happen often enough to be commercially reliable.

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ICSL t1_ixs4f9g wrote

This is why we eat them in massive numbers once a year. Otherwise, they will grow too numerous and overwhelm us.

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growsomegarlic t1_ixrpw15 wrote

🎵 If you like

the way

you look

so much 🎵

then baby

you should go and

reproduce asexually forming a near-clone of yourself. 🎵🎵

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Kelmon80 t1_ixtq0oh wrote

Well, it all makes sense now. All those clashes with Greece over area in the mediterrean - it's just Turkey making sure there's space enough for the second one once it goes ahead and fucks itself.

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bolonomadic t1_ixr6z9e wrote

I wish I could have a clone of myself baby to raise.

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rpaim8 t1_ixrah3i wrote

Can hens do this?

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Dr_Drini t1_ixrnba1 wrote

They’re the Virgin Mary of the bird world

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Numbah9Dr t1_ixs2hi1 wrote

That's why we eat them.

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atomicgoat t1_ixsnbfq wrote

Thanksgiving in perpetuity.

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CreativeAd5254 t1_ixuoeo6 wrote

The term "sometimes" is particularly interesting here

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Ivylaughed t1_ixqsv17 wrote

Fascinating article. Thank you!

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PM_ME_ROCK t1_ixrkhv3 wrote

Brings new meaning to, “Go fuck yourself”

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ntwiles t1_ixs9hjj wrote

Same actually.

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drygnfyre t1_ixsdumx wrote

Life finds a way.

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I_Am_Tuber t1_ixsm2qf wrote

this post and comment section 🤯

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imiyashiro t1_ixt1xcp wrote

Also recently discovered for California Condors!!!

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go_faster1 t1_ixtg9ql wrote

I don’t think I want to experience this Clone Saga

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sunseven3 t1_ixtzymc wrote

WTF? I haven't been drinking tonight...

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Professor-Paws t1_ixubuqt wrote

So can humans but yes rare in comparison and they're always chimeric.

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thewonderfullanky t1_ixuefjb wrote

You can tell the sex of a turkey by the shape of its poo

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OminOus_PancakeS t1_ixrylyy wrote

If I could do that, I'd get a lot more done 🤔

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CG1991 t1_ixs4ysk wrote

I don't know why, but this makes me deeply uncomfortable

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Mr_P3 t1_ixs5iea wrote

I’m sorry they can produce WHAT

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TheChonk t1_ixs6nc4 wrote

no need for the turkey Baxter then 😳

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JohnBsGhost t1_ixsar5h wrote

They also make great Marines.

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FitPrimary2126 t1_ixt222s wrote

So no one wants to talk about this, but convergent consequences of parthenogenesis slowly degrade the genome basically, because its basically copying itself repeatedly, we age and die, so logically, this wouldn't be an infinite cycle, the genome would degrade to a point where parthenogenesis would not be able to take place and the entire genome would die out.

Tl;DR: parthenogenesis sounds like end-game for a species that has lost normal capabilities of reproducing strong babies, forcing them to reclone themselves until the genome is basically decayed.

The only thing that would save creatures using parthenogenesis would be if they still had the ability to reproduce classically like komodo dragons, they are asexual, but a female will make a clone basically that is a male so they can continue normal breeding. They do not rely on parthenogenesis.

Just my opinion, whatever.

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copaceanu t1_ixtui7j wrote

Parthenogenesis is just a cheat that some animals can pull out of their sleeves if they reach on an isolated part of the forest. They're supposed to reconnect with main population in a few generation or just degrade into weirdness.

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Mojo96 t1_ixs7wo0 wrote

That reminds me of my third wife

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ratatard t1_ixsdltv wrote

OTOH englands reproduce by having one queen at a time laying eggs.

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Bucknasty129 t1_ixrbrtu wrote

Can confirm. None of the babies of the one I fucked look like me.

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dalawangdouble t1_ixqsncd wrote

Ewww, why would you wanna put something like that into your mouth?

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OneBlueHopeUTFT t1_ixqwfhj wrote

Have you ever looked at any animal and thought “I wanna put that in my mouth”?

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iTwango t1_ixrwq67 wrote

Honestly Bear Grylls has made me want to eat a live salmon straight out of the river like a grizzly bear. Probably never will tho

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[deleted] t1_ixqrl4t wrote

[deleted]

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pobody t1_ixqt24k wrote

I mean, yeah, but it's a bit early in the day for this, no?

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canalrhymeswithanal t1_ixr1yg4 wrote

Eh ... I've tried using nature to explain the fluidity if sex. One person sat down and thought about it, everyone else got mad.

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