"Hey guys, check out what happens when you toss a pinecone in the fire!"
chucks bird; bird screams; tries to fly off; sets woods on fire
"Huh... Usually they just kinda pop..."
this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2025
830 points (99.6% liked)
Science Memes
16771 readers
2148 users here now
Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
- Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
- Keep it rooted (on topic).
- No spam.
- Infographics welcome, get schooled.
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
Research Committee
Other Mander Communities
Science and Research
Biology and Life Sciences
- !abiogenesis@mander.xyz
- !animal-behavior@mander.xyz
- !anthropology@mander.xyz
- !arachnology@mander.xyz
- !balconygardening@slrpnk.net
- !biodiversity@mander.xyz
- !biology@mander.xyz
- !biophysics@mander.xyz
- !botany@mander.xyz
- !ecology@mander.xyz
- !entomology@mander.xyz
- !fermentation@mander.xyz
- !herpetology@mander.xyz
- !houseplants@mander.xyz
- !medicine@mander.xyz
- !microscopy@mander.xyz
- !mycology@mander.xyz
- !nudibranchs@mander.xyz
- !nutrition@mander.xyz
- !palaeoecology@mander.xyz
- !palaeontology@mander.xyz
- !photosynthesis@mander.xyz
- !plantid@mander.xyz
- !plants@mander.xyz
- !reptiles and amphibians@mander.xyz
Physical Sciences
- !astronomy@mander.xyz
- !chemistry@mander.xyz
- !earthscience@mander.xyz
- !geography@mander.xyz
- !geospatial@mander.xyz
- !nuclear@mander.xyz
- !physics@mander.xyz
- !quantum-computing@mander.xyz
- !spectroscopy@mander.xyz
Humanities and Social Sciences
Practical and Applied Sciences
- !exercise-and sports-science@mander.xyz
- !gardening@mander.xyz
- !self sufficiency@mander.xyz
- !soilscience@slrpnk.net
- !terrariums@mander.xyz
- !timelapse@mander.xyz
Memes
Miscellaneous
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Biologist here,
that pinecone pop is always fun, cus it's like unintentional biology lesson time when people do it.
It's by "design" (evolution) that they do that. So that the specific species can spread.
It's why fires are important for forests. Just you know not like 90 trillion fires in 1 summer...
😱
Does anyone have a source for this besides memes? I did not find anything 😢
The squirrels in my area like to eat pine cones...
They probably like to eat baby birds, too. They’re a lot more vicious than people give them credit for.
Guess what a cuckoo chick does to the other birds in the nest.
Guess what the mother cuckoo does when it finds out the parasitized bird mom eject the cuckoo egg.
Not eat them! 😜
No, they let them fall to their doom.
Don’t fool yourselves, a squirrel would murder you and everyone you loved given the chance
Furlow the squirrel-o is offended by your unfounded accusations. 
More seriously though. Given abundance of food basically everything we 'know' about animal species interaction gets thrown out the window.
At any moment outside my window you find a dozen species eating side by side every single day that we were told would 'for sure kill each other before sharing a food source'.
What that says about scarcity in relation to humanity I'll leave to someone else...
The animals in my yard behave very differently than the animals a couple of hundred yards away in the woods.
They just know it isnt worth the fight… yet
I eat pine cones...
Yeah but if they try you can just peck at his eyes until he stops. Give hem the old HEY SHITASS D'YA MIND?
Man fuck cuckoos. Raise your own children, you little fucking parasites.
I mean they literally lay their eggs in another bird's nest, and then the chick kicks out the other eggs when it hatches, so that another bird mom will think it's their own and mistakenly raise it, while screwing over the other chicks before they even have a chance to be born.
I wish these fuckers would go extinct.
Nest parasitism is not unique to cuckoos and you can't really put a value judgement on evolution. Brown-headed cowbirds are the most common nest parasites in North America. There's lots of species where the parents kill their own children if they either think they aren't strong enough to survive or if the food supply is too insecure to care for them. It's just nature.
you can't really put a value judgement on evolution
I can and I will and you can't stop me!
(/s for safety)
I can and I will. No /s. I'm 100% serious.
Its pure evil and proof there is no god. I wish all parasitic creatures would fuck off and die. The world is fucked up enough as-is.
Parasitic creatures play an important role in regulating the environment.
A species with no checks will spread out of control, causing serious ecological damage. (I.e. Emerald ash borer, kudzu, tree of heaven)
It may be gruesome from our perspective, but it's just part of how nature regulates itself.
How is parasitism any worse than straight up eating something else? Also, house cats kill for fun. Should they go extinct?
I think there might be some anthropomorphism affecting the opinion, and I know a lot of people dislike "raising someone else's children ", especially unknowingly.
In humans, this mostly happens to men just due to biology, but I'm sure some women have experienced swapped kids.
It's not like those animals are betraying defined social constructs while knowing better, so i agree with you more on this, but that would be my best guess for someone reacting so emotionally to it.
(Also there's far worse things to use for the "no god" argument, like cancer and numerous other vicious diseases or syndromes)
Now tell us what you really think.
Fuck fascists, fuck tankies, fuck Charlie Kirk, and Motherfuck Donald Fucking Trump.
Happy now?
No, but that's not your fault.
have you tried poutine? that makes me happy.
*Me, walking past a Storks nest and ignoring the fallen chick that is dead since days*
"so majestic"
Fair, but let's not extinct another species because of how we feel about its adaptations.
Yeah but then what would the Swiss use for clocks? Seagulls?
I mean it sure would sound hilarious.
"Tik tok tik tok tik tok kchchch AAAAAAAHH!!!”
I find seagulls hilarious with that whole head tilted all the way back laughing like a dry hinge.
So do I! I sometimes ask them: "What are you laughing at?!"
Well, great! Now you told them! Poor guy is going to need a new hiding place now
So that's why I've never seen one!
Thought this was two pine cones until I read the description.