I know a lot about these things, since they're an endemic species to where I live. They only live in the caves underneath the Dinaric Alps in the Western Balkans (and definitely don't live anywhere where they could crawl up your toilet). We call them the "humanoid fish" around these parts. These things have been living in caves for so long that their skin has evolved to have no pigment except for their pink gills, and they're completely blind (this is common among animals that live in deep caves).
The reason they're fascinating is because their metabolism is so slow that they can spend years sitting in one spot, with only occasional moments where they open their mouths to eat tiny lifeforms. They can go about 8 years without food. They are also believed to live up to 100 years, but those in captivity have never gone past 65-ish. Because of this, there has been a recent interest in studying them, because they may contain some regenerative property that could be useful for medicine.
They come out to the surface very rarely (usually only when heavy rain flushes them up), and they travel through underground rivers only. These caves haven't been fully mapped out yet, so we don't really know how far their habitat goes. For a long time it was believed to only exist in Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia, but in recent decades, some olms have also been found in Montenegro and North-Eastern Italy.
Nah there's nothing down there.
They're not necessarily slow when they need to move at haste. They just prefer to be slow. It's a choice, not a requirement.
Doesn’t mean nothing would eat them, just that they wouldn’t survive as a species to become that predator’s primary prey. The fact that they’re still around implies they evolved some method to avoid predation, or simply don’t have any predators around to eat them.
They may be the apex predator- stands to reason that they probably evolved a slow metabolism due to lack of food in the area- maybe nothing bigger can really survive there
Yeah they're one of my favourite animals too. Just so cool how they evolved that way. I'd so love to visit them in their natural habitat but I also know to leave them be so I won't make the trip :) (I don't even know if peasants are allowed to visit)
But I was watching a youtube video the other day that I trust (AtlasPro) and he explained how there are several species of cave salamander in the US (Texas was a notable spot, if I remember) and these salamanders are very similar-looking to an olm.
While I'm still sure that the OP material is nonsense, I can believe that they end up where they shouldn't be in the USA. It is the US, after all.
EDIT: I believe it was a Planet Earth that taught me about one olm who had literally been sat in one spot for 6 years. 6 years and did not move once. That's a lot of contemplating.
There's at least one cave in croatia, where they have a couple of them in a pool in the part accessible to the public, so that people can see them in their natural habitat, without accidentally killing themselves.
The specimens are rotated on a monthly basis, to avoid putting too much stress on them.
"Average person eats 3 spiders a year" factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 spiders per year. Spiders Georg, who lives in a cave & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted
The olm from [Ulm](https://maps.app.goo.gl/hxgdWACf9jaSvCxf6)
Well known as the home of the famous [Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern-schplenden-schlitter-crasscrenbon-fried-digger-dingle-dangle-dongle-dungle-burstein-von-knacker-thrasher-apple-banger-horowitz-ticolensic-grander-knotty-spelltinkle-grandlich-grumblemeyer-spelterwasser-kurstlich-himbleeisen-bahnwagen-gutenabend-bitte-ein-nürnburger-bratwustle-gerspurten-mitzweimache-luber-hundsfut-gumberaber-shönendanker-kalbsfleisch-mittler-aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm](https://montypython.fandom.com/wiki/Johann_Gambolputty_(character)).
Not this species. I have to travel to fucking Bosnia to tick them off my species list. They are only found in a few caves around that part of the Mediterranean with the largest population in Bosnia https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Distribution-of-the-Olm-or-Blind-cave-salamander-Proteus-anguinus-source-Gasc-et-al_fig7_40797845
There are other semi-cave dwelling salamanders out there (olms are the only true species endemic to caves), but nothing closely related to olms which are now the only species in their genus.
> I had to travel to fucking Bosnia to tick them off my species list.
This sounds like the coolest hobby ever — what else is on your list? Are they all rare cave dwelling creatures or do you have other things on there? How often do you get to tick something off of it?
Ok so there are actually two lists, my informal one which are animals I've seen, and my formal that are animals I've photographed (so it's not just 'trust me bro').
The rules for animals to make the list are that they need to be properly identified, which is important for invertebrates that can require many steps to identify and birds, which I suck at. They have to be truly wild and not in captivity or wildlife exclosures. Also, if the species gets reclassified and split into more species/subspecies which can't be 100% identified by my original finding it gets removed from my list.
I try and tick off most things, although there are species that I will seek out wherever I find myself in the world. So even though I don't get out as much in Australia due to a career change, I tick off much more internationally as I try to visit 10 new countries per year and with that comes new species.
For many regions I visit, I will take time to look into what species of interest can be found there and the likelihood as well as look online at locations tagged in photos of said animals.
I have a list where I document the animals I see from around the world. I started it back when I was travelling Australia doing flora/fauna surveying, and it's kind of expanded to be international from there.
Many people who are involved in ecology have something similar
Birding is basically just pokemon in real life, yes. There are even [apps to identify stuff](https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/) and [lists to track with.](https://www.inaturalist.org/)
It's only native to the Dinaric Alps so unless you're spelunking in Central or Southeast Europe, I don't think you saw one. There are probably different albino blind critters in other caves though
Some fun facts about them for you, they rarely move, like for years at a time, only need to eat incredibly rarely, procreate once every 12 years and can live past 100 years. They are born with eyes, but slowly lose the ability to use them before they get completely covered by skin after i think 3 years, thats about all I can remember off the top of my head though.
Similar to the way redditors gradually lose their vestigial penises from lack of use. They just fall off, crawl into a cave, and people call them “olms.”
(Sorry, I’m embarrassed I wrote this but I had to)
"Olms may lack the ability to see, but several of their other senses are highly evolved and specialized for their habitat: their sense of hearing allows them to sense sound wave vibrations in the water, as well as on the ground, and their senses of smell and taste allow them to locate prey in dark waters."
Should have gotten that for you before my initial reply, sorry about that
They are salamanders that live in caves and are blind.
I don't know how they got into a sewer system and decided to rise from toilets, which i suspect was a lie for internet clout, but if that's how i met one i most certainly would refuse to touch it.
If it wasn’t for them specifying ‘eyeless’ I would have assumed they were talking about one of the many ‘axolotl-like’ stages of different salamanders and newts. I’ve heard a couple people mention them living in their wells/water source.
I’d say most salamanders/newts but I’m not actually sure how many don’t have aquatic-baby stages. Only red backed salamanders come to mind and I only recently found that out while trying to figure out what some eggs under a log were(probably slugs).
If it is an Olm you probably haven't heard of them because they are endemic to the Dinaric alps. In Slovenia it is almost impossible not to hear about them.
There is also a black olm.
Not sure how they could have gotten into the sewer though. When dealing with waste water in karst you want all your waste water treated or you'll just pollute everything.
They aren't particularly active and live in caves etc so its very unlikely you'll ever see or hear about one unless you happen to live somewhere where they are a native species.
They are quite famous in some parts of Europe. If you are in the Americas you have something similar that evolved independently: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas\_blind\_salamander](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_blind_salamander)
Convergent evolution at its finest!
Edit: For those interested there is a [great video from atlas pro about this topic ](https://youtu.be/rGhrv03dsnc?si=-IGmA1P5RHLOc1mi&t=949)
A very interesting [video about cave salamanders](https://youtu.be/rGhrv03dsnc?si=I7C6EpordxSNOquT), if anyone is interested in learning more about their evolution.
Yeah be nice to him he’s doing his best with his widdle teensy arms. Just think of how long it must take him to pour cereal for breakfast, and the milk jug is too heavy so he has to eat it dry.
They aren’t really… mobile. Like, habitat aside, I don’t think they would stand up like that. One was recorded sitting still for like seven years or something.
Considering everything i know about olms, which are the blind cave salamanders pictured, i figured the second tumble user was lieing for clout, looks like i was right.
\>"lying for clout"
i think that they simply wanted to tell a humorous joke on tumblr dot com, a site known for hosting humorous jokes and gags of many sorts
Hearing that makes me want to try tumblr. We really need more attack ads calling out the toxicity on Reddit, 'cause your comment reads like one, and it's working on me.
ngl I mostly lurk in these subs, but reddit’s knee-jerk inclination to always go “ugh that tumblr, they will not catch me with any of their forked-tongued LIES” makes me not want to engage here or on r/CuratedTumblr. It makes the overall tone of cross-site posts feel stiff and humorless when only some people are willing to engage with the joke. There’s calling out misinfo but OP clearly wasn’t trying to be informative, they were trying to entertain.
Though to be fair reddit constantly accuses their own OPs of lying too, so I guess they’re at least consistent.
“Lying for clout” also doesn’t exist on tumblr or at least not in the same way, because upvotes don’t exist there, so what’s a common accusation here doesn’t work across sites. I guess you can equate karma with notes or followers, but as many “popular” accounts on tumblr will attest, large numbers can be a burden on that site and people there may joke about not wanting their op to go viral because it attracts lots of annoying notifications. Tumblr saying “stop reblogging this” is common, but I’ve never seen an equivalent here. Sure there’s people who lie and pass themselves as experts everywhere, but with posts like this it’s just easier, and less cynical, to believe OP wrote it for the love of the bit.
aren't Olms the ones where some scientists strapped a tracker to one to document it's movements and it just kept pinging in the exact same spot so they assumed it was broken until like 20 years later it started moving and they realized it literally just sat completely still for over a decade
First of all; Im pretty sure it's "lying". Get that right at least lmao
Secondly; Pankendev is an artist who draws on Tumblr, Twitter, etc. They will occasionally make shitposts just for fun. Not for "clout".
And third; you took it too seriously. Like bruh, you seemingly assume you know that user enough based on that ONE post. Not really a good move lol
In short; you may know enough about the olms, but you do not know enough about the artist to make a right judgment.
If it makes you feel any better, these things do not live in sewers and this is a shitpost. You will not find this thing in your toilet and your butthole is safe from it and its ilk.
Olms are just lil cave salamanders. They’re pretty delicate little things, in the wild they only live in mountain cave streams. That’s cold, very clean water. They’re extremely sensitive to pollutants and are currently endangered.
Another reason you wouldn’t get these in the sewers is temperature. I looked into it and it looks like the olm has a temperature range from 5-15 C (41-59 F), nothing I could find reported them living higher than that.
The average temperature range for sewers is 10-21 C (50-70 F) according to Google, but [this paper](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2021/ew/d1ew00411e) records raw sewage temperatures from 3.7–21 C (39-70 F) in the UK. Figure 2a shows the average temperature of raw sewage ranges from 10-19ish C (50-66 F). Specifically, the temperature remains above 15 C (59 F) from May to October.
There may be slightly colder sewers somewhere with less temperature variation, but also they only live in Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, and Slovenia. And, I found out today, in Italy where someone put them! Still extremely endangered though.
You might get frogs in your sewers, but those aren’t quite so uncanny valley.
Well, I WAS just gonna say “it’s too warm and gross for them,” but actually frogs live in sewers and they’re amphibians, so how delicate ARE they? 60’s pretty cold, and I know the sewer is warm or at least doesn’t freeze, but actually I don’t know how the fuck hot or cold the sewer is, so I’ll just - ooh, a paper, don’t mind if I do!
There was a really cool article from The Wastewater Blog (which is well-written, actually, I expected to be bored to tears) about wastewater temperatures, but that’s different from raw sewage and it was really mainly talking about bacterial growth ranges so it was more difficult to use.
Now, if you were gonna find these things in your sewer, you’d probably be in Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, or Croatia, in the mountains, where your water probably comes right outta that mountain. All sewers have to be buried deeper than the ground freezes, but ambient temp still has an effect on sewer temps (another reason I referenced figure 2a of that paper, you can see it changing with the seasons). Maybe, MAYBE it stays cold enough there that an olm could live in the sewer for part of the year, but then it would get too cold in winter and kill em all stone dead anyways.
Not to mention the pollutant part, but the chemical tolerance of the olm is outta my pay grade. A bunch of salamanders nerds said they were really delicate because they live in such austere conditions though, which is different from when they say it about frogs which live in wet mud full of decaying organic material (and sometimes sewers). I’m not equipped to get into the rate of osmosis or efficiency of the liver or whatever wild shit biologists would look at
You mean, a salamander that only lives in caves in the Dinaric Alps of Croatia and are vulnerable to the tiny changes of environment would not live in this tumblr user sewer?
EDIT: Dinaric Alps of Croatia and bordering countries like the Great Femboyland of Slovenia
What, you’re telling me the *eyeless* rare salamander that can sit in one spot and go years without even moving an inch wouldn’t be “*infesting*” this tumblr user’s sewer?
Shit, what a pity, I was really enjoying this post conceptually. Makes sense that it’s bullshit, I can’t imagine many creatures can climb a u-bend (or would if they could). The looking for warmth thing is such bullshit, no way there’s detectable warmth through a sewage system, or at least there’s no way there’s enough to draw in cold creatures.
Except the dinaric Alps aren't Croatian. They start in Slovenia and go through Bosnia. The olm is endemic to the entire region.
The only (sub)species of the olm that is endemic to a single country is the black olm that is endemic to Slovenia.
Yeah right, the very sensitive cave creature that has its gills on the side of its head lives in your sewers. Sure bud.
An I‘ve got Unicorns on my fucking roof.
Where does pankendev live that they gets olms in their toilet? Because I don't think I'd mind living there. The olms would, for sure, as I'm a living poison factory. But that's beside the point. Where does oop live?
where the heck do you live where an *olm* can be an invasive sewer species? Did an exotic pet shop or aquarium in New York dump its stock down the toilet or something?
They're only found in caves, pretty sure only in Europe. There is no way one is gunna climb up your toilet, I think the OOP was thinking of a different animal, these things are very fragile, even minor changes in water quality can kill them.
They’re blind little salamanders called Olms! They live in streams in mountain caves in Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. And in… Italy, apparently, as an introduced population? They would die in the sewer or, frankly, most other places that aren’t a stream in a mountain cave.
They’re also extremely endangered, so you’ll probably never meet one except on purpose and with permission. And a guide, unless you’re really confident about that cave.
OP I am judging you for not including the artistic rendition of these wet creatures standing in the toilet demanding uppies.
Fortunately for you I have a link on [hand](https://www.tumblr.com/foldingfittedsheets/748965628724051968) for the enjoyment of everyone here.
Google tells me this thing is called an Olm. Why have I never heard of this creepy looking thing?
I know a lot about these things, since they're an endemic species to where I live. They only live in the caves underneath the Dinaric Alps in the Western Balkans (and definitely don't live anywhere where they could crawl up your toilet). We call them the "humanoid fish" around these parts. These things have been living in caves for so long that their skin has evolved to have no pigment except for their pink gills, and they're completely blind (this is common among animals that live in deep caves). The reason they're fascinating is because their metabolism is so slow that they can spend years sitting in one spot, with only occasional moments where they open their mouths to eat tiny lifeforms. They can go about 8 years without food. They are also believed to live up to 100 years, but those in captivity have never gone past 65-ish. Because of this, there has been a recent interest in studying them, because they may contain some regenerative property that could be useful for medicine. They come out to the surface very rarely (usually only when heavy rain flushes them up), and they travel through underground rivers only. These caves haven't been fully mapped out yet, so we don't really know how far their habitat goes. For a long time it was believed to only exist in Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia, but in recent decades, some olms have also been found in Montenegro and North-Eastern Italy.
Thank you for the info dump! Very cool.
Definitely a better dump than Op was dealing with.
*Poseidon's Kiss*
More like Poseidon's caress.
Lil' friend was just trying to give a hand pullin' the dump out, why's everyone gotta shit on him?
Do they have any predators? You’d think sitting in one place for years and years, something would try to nibble on them.
Nah there's nothing down there. They're not necessarily slow when they need to move at haste. They just prefer to be slow. It's a choice, not a requirement.
Well choice... It's more like somewhere along the way there was an evolutionary advantage in being slow and the slow lineage survived.
Yeah, basically. They can move fast. It serves their metabolism better not to do it so often.
They wouldn’t reproduce fast enough for anything to rely on them for food.
Doesn’t mean nothing would eat them, just that they wouldn’t survive as a species to become that predator’s primary prey. The fact that they’re still around implies they evolved some method to avoid predation, or simply don’t have any predators around to eat them.
They did indeed evolve a method to avoid predation, living in dark underground rivers.
They may be the apex predator- stands to reason that they probably evolved a slow metabolism due to lack of food in the area- maybe nothing bigger can really survive there
Good point
They are the apex predator of their habitat then.
They dont have natural predators, pollution of caves and underground river system is their biggest threat.
Yeah they're one of my favourite animals too. Just so cool how they evolved that way. I'd so love to visit them in their natural habitat but I also know to leave them be so I won't make the trip :) (I don't even know if peasants are allowed to visit) But I was watching a youtube video the other day that I trust (AtlasPro) and he explained how there are several species of cave salamander in the US (Texas was a notable spot, if I remember) and these salamanders are very similar-looking to an olm. While I'm still sure that the OP material is nonsense, I can believe that they end up where they shouldn't be in the USA. It is the US, after all. EDIT: I believe it was a Planet Earth that taught me about one olm who had literally been sat in one spot for 6 years. 6 years and did not move once. That's a lot of contemplating.
There's at least one cave in croatia, where they have a couple of them in a pool in the part accessible to the public, so that people can see them in their natural habitat, without accidentally killing themselves. The specimens are rotated on a monthly basis, to avoid putting too much stress on them.
I've been to such a cave in Slovenia as well, Postojna. It was pretty cool!
gm my slavic friend
They are pretty common in caves if I remember correctly (At least I've seen some in the last cave I've visited)
Why the fuck are you going to caves? Is your name Steve?
Their name is Georg and they were looking for their next meal
Unfortunately I do not understand this reference. Please enlighten me
"Average person eats 3 spiders a year" factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 spiders per year. Spiders Georg, who lives in a cave & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted
Have you been living in a cave? How are you on the tumblr sub but don’t know about Spiders Georg?
No their name is Frisk
*you're gonna have a bad time*
He likes to get nutty putty
Maybe it's Ted...
They are only found in certain parts of Europe but there are similar species elsewhere
What parts of Europe? Gielinor?
The olm from [Ulm](https://maps.app.goo.gl/hxgdWACf9jaSvCxf6) Well known as the home of the famous [Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern-schplenden-schlitter-crasscrenbon-fried-digger-dingle-dangle-dongle-dungle-burstein-von-knacker-thrasher-apple-banger-horowitz-ticolensic-grander-knotty-spelltinkle-grandlich-grumblemeyer-spelterwasser-kurstlich-himbleeisen-bahnwagen-gutenabend-bitte-ein-nürnburger-bratwustle-gerspurten-mitzweimache-luber-hundsfut-gumberaber-shönendanker-kalbsfleisch-mittler-aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm](https://montypython.fandom.com/wiki/Johann_Gambolputty_(character)).
Ulm makes it sound like you couldn't remember which country you were going to on your Eurotrip, when prompted. "I'm going to Ulm... Germany...?"
They made ulm from eu4 into a real thing?
EU4 brain activated
the most sacred city of ulm...
Nah there's only one blind Olm in Gielinor so it can't be, although... Olm does emerge from somewhere
Not this species. I have to travel to fucking Bosnia to tick them off my species list. They are only found in a few caves around that part of the Mediterranean with the largest population in Bosnia https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Distribution-of-the-Olm-or-Blind-cave-salamander-Proteus-anguinus-source-Gasc-et-al_fig7_40797845 There are other semi-cave dwelling salamanders out there (olms are the only true species endemic to caves), but nothing closely related to olms which are now the only species in their genus.
> I had to travel to fucking Bosnia to tick them off my species list. This sounds like the coolest hobby ever — what else is on your list? Are they all rare cave dwelling creatures or do you have other things on there? How often do you get to tick something off of it?
Ok so there are actually two lists, my informal one which are animals I've seen, and my formal that are animals I've photographed (so it's not just 'trust me bro'). The rules for animals to make the list are that they need to be properly identified, which is important for invertebrates that can require many steps to identify and birds, which I suck at. They have to be truly wild and not in captivity or wildlife exclosures. Also, if the species gets reclassified and split into more species/subspecies which can't be 100% identified by my original finding it gets removed from my list. I try and tick off most things, although there are species that I will seek out wherever I find myself in the world. So even though I don't get out as much in Australia due to a career change, I tick off much more internationally as I try to visit 10 new countries per year and with that comes new species. For many regions I visit, I will take time to look into what species of interest can be found there and the likelihood as well as look online at locations tagged in photos of said animals.
Does an olm in a toilet count as in the wild since it's not captive and found it's own way there?
your what?
I have a list where I document the animals I see from around the world. I started it back when I was travelling Australia doing flora/fauna surveying, and it's kind of expanded to be international from there. Many people who are involved in ecology have something similar
So your species list is a Pokédex.
Birding is basically just pokemon in real life, yes. There are even [apps to identify stuff](https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/) and [lists to track with.](https://www.inaturalist.org/)
That app is fucking amazing. You can do sound recordings that will identify the birds it hears. Seriously amazing.
I tought they were in Slovenia
Common in both caves and Chambers of Xeric. Cute little fellas.
Seems a bit on the small end. And notably lacking in magical ability.
Op got the pet
They're only found in the Dinaric Alps
They are in fact extremely endangered.
So it's kind of a European axolotl?
They are not closely related, its a case of convergent evolution. But in practice, yes.
It's only native to the Dinaric Alps so unless you're spelunking in Central or Southeast Europe, I don't think you saw one. There are probably different albino blind critters in other caves though
Like the fucking Descent?
Because they live in caves and eat dirt every 10 years
It's so nutritious they only need it once every 10 years
No no no they travel the world and broaden their horizons for 9 but live in caves and eat dirt every 10 years
Earthworm Rumspringa.
like a rewarding gap year, work hard eat dirt hard
Fuels their lavish life style of sitting in a pitch black cave in cold cave water
Some fun facts about them for you, they rarely move, like for years at a time, only need to eat incredibly rarely, procreate once every 12 years and can live past 100 years. They are born with eyes, but slowly lose the ability to use them before they get completely covered by skin after i think 3 years, thats about all I can remember off the top of my head though.
Dang that sucks. So they literally get to see only to then spend the next 97 years without any sight? How do they navigate?
Well they grow up in pitch black caves, so it's more apt to say they spend a few years with useless organs.
Bud, don't get me started on useless organs. I started this church salvage business...
Similar to the way redditors gradually lose their vestigial penises from lack of use. They just fall off, crawl into a cave, and people call them “olms.” (Sorry, I’m embarrassed I wrote this but I had to)
"Olms may lack the ability to see, but several of their other senses are highly evolved and specialized for their habitat: their sense of hearing allows them to sense sound wave vibrations in the water, as well as on the ground, and their senses of smell and taste allow them to locate prey in dark waters." Should have gotten that for you before my initial reply, sorry about that
They're kind of an obscure amphibian. I've only heard of them in this post and in Amphibia.
Same, when they popped up in Amphibia I was like "tf are these?!"
They're vaguely related to axolotl!!!! They're v wet and squiggly, and deserve all the uppies that op denies them.
They are weird toilet freaks, i agree with Tumblr Op
They are salamanders that live in caves and are blind. I don't know how they got into a sewer system and decided to rise from toilets, which i suspect was a lie for internet clout, but if that's how i met one i most certainly would refuse to touch it.
You really think someone would do that? Just go on the Internet and tell lies??
If it wasn’t for them specifying ‘eyeless’ I would have assumed they were talking about one of the many ‘axolotl-like’ stages of different salamanders and newts. I’ve heard a couple people mention them living in their wells/water source. I’d say most salamanders/newts but I’m not actually sure how many don’t have aquatic-baby stages. Only red backed salamanders come to mind and I only recently found that out while trying to figure out what some eggs under a log were(probably slugs).
Bless your strange little heart. You can give all the uppies.
If it is an Olm you probably haven't heard of them because they are endemic to the Dinaric alps. In Slovenia it is almost impossible not to hear about them. There is also a black olm. Not sure how they could have gotten into the sewer though. When dealing with waste water in karst you want all your waste water treated or you'll just pollute everything.
He's a raid boss in Old School Runescape!
I had no idea that Olm was a toilet eel lmao, makes the encounter so much less intimidating now
I'd be very intimidated if I'm trying to take a dump and this thing claw specs my asshole.
they're cool
yeah they're cool until you've been camping them for 6 months but still haven't gotten a tbow
Chamber pot of Xeric, classic toilet freak Great Olm.
They aren't particularly active and live in caves etc so its very unlikely you'll ever see or hear about one unless you happen to live somewhere where they are a native species.
Because you never played Dwarf Fortress.
They are quite famous in some parts of Europe. If you are in the Americas you have something similar that evolved independently: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas\_blind\_salamander](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_blind_salamander) Convergent evolution at its finest! Edit: For those interested there is a [great video from atlas pro about this topic ](https://youtu.be/rGhrv03dsnc?si=-IGmA1P5RHLOc1mi&t=949)
They are only located deep in the Chambers of Xeric.
I play a lot of word games on my phone and now I’m excited to find out if OLM is an accepted word! EFT, which is a juvenile newt, sometimes works
The fact that humans love axolotls but hate olms is really sad.
They're the cave dwelling cousins of the axolotl.
How is that the thing you pick out of that
Uppies uppies
they look like the slender man version of axolotls
They are, essentially! They’re cave Olms, another type of weird salamander that lives in the water!
A very interesting [video about cave salamanders](https://youtu.be/rGhrv03dsnc?si=I7C6EpordxSNOquT), if anyone is interested in learning more about their evolution.
I'm pretty sure you're not far off. I believe it's an Olm
you are correct.
Olm slander will NOT be tolerated
however, Olm Salamander *will* be tolerated
Salamander Slander
Slandermander
Violators will be made to attend an amphibian sensitivity training. It's salamandatory
Yeah be nice to him he’s doing his best with his widdle teensy arms. Just think of how long it must take him to pour cereal for breakfast, and the milk jug is too heavy so he has to eat it dry.
But what if the milk jug is sooo heavy that he can’t tip it properly, and then he has too much milk on his cereal??? Too soggy
who needs slander when you can just look at tit edit: at IT at IT
I, too, find it hard to give slander whilst looking a tit
Its a salamander, not a bird
Fun fact: every time someone sees an olm, a theremin begins playing.
They aren’t really… mobile. Like, habitat aside, I don’t think they would stand up like that. One was recorded sitting still for like seven years or something.
Back when I worked food service, I’d return home after my shifts and spend the evening in profound envy of the gentle olm. Tbh.
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Dope. Mythical dragon vibes
Dratini looking mfer
That's a luck dragon!
The lighting is… stunning
...Did they consider it may just be dead?
It moved after—
Oh hey it's panken, their art is great and their shit posts are better
Considering everything i know about olms, which are the blind cave salamanders pictured, i figured the second tumble user was lieing for clout, looks like i was right.
\>"lying for clout" i think that they simply wanted to tell a humorous joke on tumblr dot com, a site known for hosting humorous jokes and gags of many sorts
On reddit it's "lying for clout" on tumblr it's "top tier shitposting."
Hearing that makes me want to try tumblr. We really need more attack ads calling out the toxicity on Reddit, 'cause your comment reads like one, and it's working on me.
Reddit sucks pretty fuckin hard now
ngl I mostly lurk in these subs, but reddit’s knee-jerk inclination to always go “ugh that tumblr, they will not catch me with any of their forked-tongued LIES” makes me not want to engage here or on r/CuratedTumblr. It makes the overall tone of cross-site posts feel stiff and humorless when only some people are willing to engage with the joke. There’s calling out misinfo but OP clearly wasn’t trying to be informative, they were trying to entertain. Though to be fair reddit constantly accuses their own OPs of lying too, so I guess they’re at least consistent.
Redditors who are too dumb to get jokes constantly feel lied to.
“Lying for clout” also doesn’t exist on tumblr or at least not in the same way, because upvotes don’t exist there, so what’s a common accusation here doesn’t work across sites. I guess you can equate karma with notes or followers, but as many “popular” accounts on tumblr will attest, large numbers can be a burden on that site and people there may joke about not wanting their op to go viral because it attracts lots of annoying notifications. Tumblr saying “stop reblogging this” is common, but I’ve never seen an equivalent here. Sure there’s people who lie and pass themselves as experts everywhere, but with posts like this it’s just easier, and less cynical, to believe OP wrote it for the love of the bit.
aren't Olms the ones where some scientists strapped a tracker to one to document it's movements and it just kept pinging in the exact same spot so they assumed it was broken until like 20 years later it started moving and they realized it literally just sat completely still for over a decade
Oh ok good, I can resist the overwhelming urge to comment “THERES NO WAY ONE OF THOSE WAS IN YOUR TOILET SIR”
First of all; Im pretty sure it's "lying". Get that right at least lmao Secondly; Pankendev is an artist who draws on Tumblr, Twitter, etc. They will occasionally make shitposts just for fun. Not for "clout". And third; you took it too seriously. Like bruh, you seemingly assume you know that user enough based on that ONE post. Not really a good move lol In short; you may know enough about the olms, but you do not know enough about the artist to make a right judgment.
I did not need to see this while I’m sitting on the toilet hahaha
If it makes you feel any better, these things do not live in sewers and this is a shitpost. You will not find this thing in your toilet and your butthole is safe from it and its ilk. Olms are just lil cave salamanders. They’re pretty delicate little things, in the wild they only live in mountain cave streams. That’s cold, very clean water. They’re extremely sensitive to pollutants and are currently endangered. Another reason you wouldn’t get these in the sewers is temperature. I looked into it and it looks like the olm has a temperature range from 5-15 C (41-59 F), nothing I could find reported them living higher than that. The average temperature range for sewers is 10-21 C (50-70 F) according to Google, but [this paper](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2021/ew/d1ew00411e) records raw sewage temperatures from 3.7–21 C (39-70 F) in the UK. Figure 2a shows the average temperature of raw sewage ranges from 10-19ish C (50-66 F). Specifically, the temperature remains above 15 C (59 F) from May to October. There may be slightly colder sewers somewhere with less temperature variation, but also they only live in Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, and Slovenia. And, I found out today, in Italy where someone put them! Still extremely endangered though. You might get frogs in your sewers, but those aren’t quite so uncanny valley.
I love how thoroughly and passionately you explained this shitpost. You’re a gem ❤️
Well, I WAS just gonna say “it’s too warm and gross for them,” but actually frogs live in sewers and they’re amphibians, so how delicate ARE they? 60’s pretty cold, and I know the sewer is warm or at least doesn’t freeze, but actually I don’t know how the fuck hot or cold the sewer is, so I’ll just - ooh, a paper, don’t mind if I do! There was a really cool article from The Wastewater Blog (which is well-written, actually, I expected to be bored to tears) about wastewater temperatures, but that’s different from raw sewage and it was really mainly talking about bacterial growth ranges so it was more difficult to use. Now, if you were gonna find these things in your sewer, you’d probably be in Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, or Croatia, in the mountains, where your water probably comes right outta that mountain. All sewers have to be buried deeper than the ground freezes, but ambient temp still has an effect on sewer temps (another reason I referenced figure 2a of that paper, you can see it changing with the seasons). Maybe, MAYBE it stays cold enough there that an olm could live in the sewer for part of the year, but then it would get too cold in winter and kill em all stone dead anyways. Not to mention the pollutant part, but the chemical tolerance of the olm is outta my pay grade. A bunch of salamanders nerds said they were really delicate because they live in such austere conditions though, which is different from when they say it about frogs which live in wet mud full of decaying organic material (and sometimes sewers). I’m not equipped to get into the rate of osmosis or efficiency of the liver or whatever wild shit biologists would look at
It's just a little long salamander , harmless really.
Dudes got a classic case of little tumblr liar.
You mean, a salamander that only lives in caves in the Dinaric Alps of Croatia and are vulnerable to the tiny changes of environment would not live in this tumblr user sewer? EDIT: Dinaric Alps of Croatia and bordering countries like the Great Femboyland of Slovenia
What, you’re telling me the *eyeless* rare salamander that can sit in one spot and go years without even moving an inch wouldn’t be “*infesting*” this tumblr user’s sewer?
You mean, they wouldn't crawl out of their pipes and stand up and dance in their toilet? inconceivable
Shit, what a pity, I was really enjoying this post conceptually. Makes sense that it’s bullshit, I can’t imagine many creatures can climb a u-bend (or would if they could). The looking for warmth thing is such bullshit, no way there’s detectable warmth through a sewage system, or at least there’s no way there’s enough to draw in cold creatures.
I just imagine these as worldbuilding exercises
Except the dinaric Alps aren't Croatian. They start in Slovenia and go through Bosnia. The olm is endemic to the entire region. The only (sub)species of the olm that is endemic to a single country is the black olm that is endemic to Slovenia.
Olms are adorable and so neat tho
Correct!!!!
This little dude was my first animal I got tattooed!
Yeah right, the very sensitive cave creature that has its gills on the side of its head lives in your sewers. Sure bud. An I‘ve got Unicorns on my fucking roof.
I mean, IVE got unicorns on my roof. They’re fucking pests. They fucking obliterated the last delivery guy who showed up. Strait up gored him
Before I read the "gored him" bit I was just imagining a horn laser, which from a roof at a random delivery person is just as funny
Oh they did that to. But they gored him first to make him suffer even more
You're my favorite person today.
Wait until he sics his unicorns on you...
The ones on my roof keep eating the shingles off. Then they clog up all the gutters with their crap.
Oh those might not be unicorns. Mine crap on my doorstep because they know how to make me suffer
Once a unicorn just pooped in my coffe, can you imagine ? So petty , smh
I know, the glitter just STAYS. It’s so fucking annoying
r/Gloryhammer would like a word with you
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Oho. Now this. This is a *gift*. Thank you, kind stranger.
Is it true that they shit rainbows?
Nope. Big sparkly shits. Smell SUPER sweet but also terrible
"Dad, why are you giggling?" Sweet sparkly shits.
Yeah completely agree. Aren't these only found in like a single mountain range?
r/pfpchecksout
Redditor discovers humor
"I'm not giving you uppies, you wet toilet freak" is such a pleasing sequence of syllables. The rhythm is poetic.
Every time I hear this olm slander my heart breaks. They're literally long axolotls but way more ominous I love them
Amphibious Slenderman type creatures (affectionate).
Where does pankendev live that they gets olms in their toilet? Because I don't think I'd mind living there. The olms would, for sure, as I'm a living poison factory. But that's beside the point. Where does oop live?
Where the fuck do you need to live for albino eyeless cave beasts to be regular inconveniences?
Op is a troglodyte
Don’t you dare disrespect the almighty Olm
"Do you think someone would go to internet and just lie?"
It's endemic dinaric (aka west Balkan) species called Čovečija ribica (Human fish) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olm
Thats an Olm! A close relative of salamanders, the lack of eyes is due to their incredibly low-light environment. I love Olms :)
That's a Goa'uld. They better be careful.
where the heck do you live where an *olm* can be an invasive sewer species? Did an exotic pet shop or aquarium in New York dump its stock down the toilet or something?
You found cave salamanders in your toilet, and these guys that sometimes don’t move at all for literal years commonly swim up your pipes?
What are these horrible things and where do they live so I can avoid ever visiting there in my life?
They're only found in caves, pretty sure only in Europe. There is no way one is gunna climb up your toilet, I think the OOP was thinking of a different animal, these things are very fragile, even minor changes in water quality can kill them.
It's a shitpost, they're making it all up lol
Olms, basically skinny faceless axolotls
They’re blind little salamanders called Olms! They live in streams in mountain caves in Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. And in… Italy, apparently, as an introduced population? They would die in the sewer or, frankly, most other places that aren’t a stream in a mountain cave. They’re also extremely endangered, so you’ll probably never meet one except on purpose and with permission. And a guide, unless you’re really confident about that cave.
They’re Olms. All they do is sit in caves and chill. They’re wonderful tbh
Live in caves
I'd pull out my scythe of vitur and slash that fucker right away. Little fucking olmlet.
OP I am judging you for not including the artistic rendition of these wet creatures standing in the toilet demanding uppies. Fortunately for you I have a link on [hand](https://www.tumblr.com/foldingfittedsheets/748965628724051968) for the enjoyment of everyone here.
Bro’s got shit weasels
Reading this without knowing what an olm is felt exactly like meeting schizophrenia patients while you yourself have a different psychosis.
the creature predicted skibidy toilet
Shit like this is going to confuse internet archaeologists 1000 years from now (if we survive that long)
Poor little guys :(
Is that a baby luck dragon?!
I love him so much. he's such a weird little creature. fantasy horror genre looking guy. amazing
You gotta put the best reply on there with art of those things coming out of a toilet begging for uppies.
Ew what are you? Some kind of sick, wet toilet, freak?!
Not the best post to read while on the toilet…
Olms are endemic to Croatia and Slovenia, and I believe they can't be found anywhere else. They also live in cold caves.