#how many species of otter are there

[reasonsforhope]

"Many people know about the Yellowstone wolf miracle. After wolves were reintroduced to the national park in the mid-1990s, streamside bushes that had been grazed to stubble by out-of-control elk populations started bouncing back. Streambank erosion decreased. Creatures such as songbirds that favor greenery along creeks returned. Nearby aspens flourished.

While there is debate about how much of this stemmed from the wolves shrinking the elk population and how much was a subtle shift in elk behavior, the overall change was dramatic. People were captivated by the idea that a single charismatic predator’s return could ripple through an entire ecosystem. The result was trumpeted in publications such as National Geographic.

But have you heard about the sea otters and the salt marshes? Probably not.

It turns out these sleek coastal mammals, hunted nearly to extinction for their plush pelts, can play a wolf-like role in rapidly disappearing salt marshes, according to new research. The findings highlight the transformative power of a top predator, and the potential ecosystem benefits from their return.

“It begs the question: In how many other ecosystems worldwide could the reintroduction of a former top predator yield similar benefits?” said Brian Silliman, a Duke University ecologist involved in the research.

The work focused on Elk Slough, a tidal estuary at the edge of California’s Monterey Bay. The salt marsh lining the slough’s banks has been shrinking for decades. Between 1956 and 2003, the area lost 50% of its salt marshes.

Such tidal marshes are critical to keeping shorelines from eroding into the sea, and they are in decline around the world. The damage is often blamed on a combination of human’s altering coastal water flows, rising seas and nutrient pollution that weakens the roots of marsh plants.

But in Elk Slough, a return of sea otters hinted that their earlier disappearance might have been a factor as well. As many as 300,000 sea otters once swam in the coastal waters of western North America, from Baja California north to the Aleutian Islands. But a fur trade begun by Europeans in the 1700s nearly wiped out the animals, reducing their numbers to just a few thousand by the early 1900s. Southern sea otters, which lived on the California coast, were thought to be extinct until a handful were found in the early 1900s.

In the late 1900s, conservation organizations and government agencies embarked on an effort to revive the southern sea otters, which remain protected under the Endangered Species Act. In Monterey Bay, the Monterey Bay Aquarium selected Elk Slough as a prime place to release orphaned young sea otters taken in by the aquarium.

As the otter numbers grew, the dynamics within the salt marsh changed. Between 2008 and 2018, erosion of tidal creeks in the estuary fell by around 70% as otter numbers recovered from just 11 animals to nearly 120 following a population crash tied to an intense El Niño climate cycle.

While suggestive, those results are hardly bulletproof evidence of a link between otters and erosion. Nor does it explain how that might work.

To get a more detailed picture, the researchers visited 5 small tidal creeks feeding into the main slough. At each one, they enclosed some of the marsh with fencing to keep out otters, while other spots were left open. Over three years, they monitored the diverging fates of the different patches.

The results showed that otter presence made a dramatic difference in the condition of the marsh. They also helped illuminate why this was happening. It comes down to the otters’ appetite for small burrowing crabs that live in the marsh.

Adult otters need to eat around 25% of their body weight every day to endure the cold Pacific Ocean waters, the equivalent of 20 to 25 pounds. And crabs are one of their favorite meals. After three years, crab densities were 68% higher in fenced areas beyond the reach of otters. The number of crab burrows was also higher. At the same time, marsh grasses inside the fences fared worse, with 48% less mass of leaves and stems and 15% less root mass, a critical feature for capturing sediment that could otherwise wash away, the scientists reported in late January in Nature.

The results point to the crabs as a culprit in the decline of the marshes, as they excavate their holes and feed on the plant roots. It also shows the returning otters’ potential as a marsh savior, even in the face of rising sea levels and continued pollution. In tidal creeks with high numbers of otters, creek erosion was just 5 centimeters per year, 69% lower than in creeks with fewer otters and a far cry from earlier erosion of as much as 30 centimeters per year.  

“The return of the sea otters didn’t reverse the losses, but it did slow them to a point that these systems could restabilize despite all the other pressures they are subject to,” said Brent Hughes, a biology professor at Sonoma State University and former postdoctoral researcher in Silliman’s Duke lab.

The findings raise the question of whether other coastal ecosystems might benefit from a return of top predators. The scientists note that a number of these places were once filled with such toothy creatures as bears, crocodiles, sharks, wolves, lions and dolphins. Sea otters are still largely absent along much of the West Coast.

As people wrestle to hold back the seas and revive their ailing coasts, a predator revival could offer relatively cheap and effective assistance. “It would cost millions of dollars for humans to rebuild these creek banks and restore these marshes,” Silliman said of Elk Slough. “The sea otters are stabilizing them for free in exchange for an all-you-can-eat crab feast.”"

-via Anthropocene Magazine, February 7, 2024

#otters #sea otters #conservation #erosion #coastal erosion #coastline #marshes #saltwater #marine science #marine biology #marine animals #sea creatures #ocean #sustainability #soil erosion #erosion control #crab #good news #hope

[despazito]

internet search tips on how i sift through junk or mischaracterizing content when looking up visual animal references:

Use the scientific name instead of common name for less false ID (especially if you want to see real wolverines or jaguars instead of the x-men or car maker)

Instead of “baby“, try “juvenile” or a more species specific term (bird=chick, bovid=calf, carnivoran=cub, etc..)

If it’s a rarer animal without many results try searching its name in a native language, it’s usually on wikipedia

Search the scientific name in inaturalist for multiple party verified ID sightings with locations

Searching “skeletal” in place of “skeleton” gives different results and usually less products

try adding “zoo” to your search if you want to look at over-exploited viral species like otters, foxes, primates, or exotic cats. there can still be shady zoos but it weeds out videos of animals in people’s living rooms

Add “vet” if you’re searching for reference on how large/small an animal looks next to a human instead of exotic pet vids. vets and zoos can be very fond of sharing educational pics of an anesthetized animal’s cool features or a huge paw/teeth besides a human hand. vet visits for beloved zoo animals also tend to draw the media so there’s many articles written for them and in general i just love learning about weird vet procedures on exotic animals, 10/10 rabbit hole.

“Morph” or “mutation” tends to give you more legit resources on animal variations instead of photoshop edits.

Even though i know there’s a difference I also find that searching “leucistic” just gives you less fake stuff than the more commonly known albino or “white___” unless its a very common mutation. same with “dilute” instead of blue and such.

[irradiatedsnakes]

the Big TMA Furry List

this list with commentary/choice rationale below the cut :] i wrote a lot of thoughts down do please check it out.

jon: common raven

martin: tan jumping spider

sasha: southern flannel moth

not!sasha: red postman

tim: jackson's chameleon

melanie: eastern copperhead

georgie: triceratops horridus

basira: domestic cat (calico shorthair)

daisy: domestic dog (german shepherd)

elias: barn owl. jonah: eurasian eagle owl.

gerry: domestic dog (black doberman)

annabelle: white-booted racket-tail

jane: cabbage white

michael: spiny softshell turtle

helen: common hermit crab

oliver: black vulture

peter: risso's dolphin

mike: caelestiventus hanseni

jude: black kite

agnes: ???

nikola: stealing major's carousel horse

jared: american dog tick

breekon&hope: Hog and/or Bear. you get no more information

dekker: mouflon

gertrude: great tit

leitner: domestic cat (persian)

manuela: gray long-eared bat

rayner: olm

salesa: sea otter

simon: dodo

elaboration below !

jon: common raven

this was a choice i made before i even finished listening to the podcast back in 2020. jon's 1000% a bird to me, and the curious nature of corvids works well here. plus, i think a bird so universally ominous as a raven works perfectly as a horror protag :P i used to draw raven!jon with a couple troodon traits, mostly just cus it was fun, but i wanted to make my designs more grounded for this iteration. made them plantigrade, didn't get silly with body styles like i have with mp100 designs.

martin: tan jumping spider

if you've been here for a while you'll know that my furry martin has gone through about two million iterations. he started off as a european pine marten, to bold jumping spider, to chinese pangolin, to nine-banded armadillo, finally to nurse shark.

out of all of these the spider and the shark are my favorites. i wanted to go back to the jumping spider though- the design is really fun and i wasn't able to get the expressions right, but i'm more confident in my skills now and i'm having fun with the design. i may revisit nurse shark at some point. i switched from bold to tan jumper- i originally chose bold just cus they're my favorite jumper, but their stark black/white and iridescent aqua coloration just doens't work for martin. so, the tan jumper!

sasha: southern flannel moth

another old choice. species chosen because of a friend's fic, pharos by right (another i'm planning to reread now that i'm dipping my toes back into tma..)! southern flannel moths are poofy and orange, and their caterpillars are those super painful teddybear ones. i really like the design.

not!sasha: red postman

wanted to have her be another lepidopteran, and with all the many examples of mimicry among the group i thought red postman was a fun choice. doesn't look anything like a southern flannel moth, but that's sort of the point.

tim: jackson's chameleon

yet another choice from the oldtimes- most of the main characters are, i've mostly switched around the more secondary chars. first suggested, i believe, by @/ofdreamsanddoodles. i think there's something very fun about chameleons being basically a living mood ring & tim's Descent s1-3 showing physcially not just through the worm scars but through like, constant stress coloration during s3.

melanie: eastern copperhead

one of my favorite choices. i have a young copperhead specimen named after her. this one is quite vibes-based, but i do really like the copperhead as a viper that is not deadly. and i'm always a sucker for the "animal perceived as scary and violent that in actuality only strikes when under extreme stress" thing in furry assignments.

georgie: triceratops horridus

another favorite choice. visually, i really like how this works out, and trikes as a social and protective animal works well. she's literally got a shield on her face. horridus was chosen because i like the shape of the head and horns better than prorsus.

basira: domestic cat (calico shorthair)

got a little cat/dog thing going on for dasira. i like the inversion of the usual cat/dog dynamic with their unhealthy devotion instead, and visually it just works very well for them both.

daisy: domestic dog (german shepherd)

yeah i know this one's an exceedingly obvious choice.

elias: barn owl. jonah: eurasian eagle owl.

it's the institute logo! it's him! barn owl for elias specifically because of its very sleek look, designing him went fantastically. also, i can make the eagle owl's face disk work as a mimicry of ben meredith's muttonchops, which i think is a fun design bit to give to magnus.

gerry: domestic dog (black doberman)

certified gerryguy @/gerrydelano's choice. to quote a discord message from 3 years ago (sorry ron): "i feel like.........my INSTINCT is some kind of canine because like. the whole symbolism thing about being either an obedient or rabid dog. something something muzzled all your life. being a dangerous figure if people only see the silhouette but you just want scritches and nobody'll get close enough to you." black dog symbolism + breed which has ears cropped and tail docked, unecessarily molded for a Purpose which the dog has no say in

annabelle: white-booted racket-tail

sort of my original choice- she used to be part white-booted racket-tail, part anna's hummingbird. kept with the racket-tail cus it's fun and very cute. i've had a couple people express surprise that she wasn't a spider, but i think that's way too obvious. hummingbirds, though- they steal the webs of spiders to use as material to make their nests, but can sometimes become trapped in the webs and eaten by the spiders themselves. which is probably the metaphor-via-fursona-assignment i'm most proud of in this whole list

jane: cabbage white

the cabbage white is a butterfly whose caterpillars are routinely parasitized by the parasitoid wasp the white butterfly parasite. in case you're not familiar, parasitoid wasps lay their eggs on (usually) caterpillars, which hatch on the still-living caterpillar, devouring it from the inside before eventually emerging from the consumed husk of the host. also, i really liked the image of parasitoid wasp larvae emerging from an adult butterfly, rather than a caterpillar.

michael: spiny softshell turtle

for michael and helen, i wanted to choose animals which were, in some way, their own home. turtle is an obvious choice- and spiny softshells are a favorite of mine, and sufficiently strange-looking.

helen: common hermit crab

see previous entry. also please google "hermit crab without shell"

oliver: black vulture

bit of an obvious choice, but i adore vultures so i had to. black vulture chosen because i think the monochrome color scheme + straighter face work better than a turkey vulture for him

peter: risso's dolphin

i really like the idea of a cetacean for peter and the lukases as a whole, a famously social animal for the seemingly contradictory nature of this lonely-but-huge family, plus with so many cetaceans being endangered getting that lonely angle (risso's specifically are not, though, as peter is lonely through his own choice, not by circumstance).

mike: caelestiventus hanseni

it's a dimorphodont. he feels like a pterosaur to me, and i like the idea of a vast avatar as a usually short-flying arboreal species, for the unnaturality/contrast of it.

jude: black kite

black kites are one of the species of kites known to intentionally spread fires by picking up burning sticks to flush out prey.

agnes: ???

the only one i'm still undecided on. will update.

nikola: stealing major's carousel horse

i can't top that

jared: american dog tick

great choice from @/magnusarchivememes. Takes Your Blood And Gets So Big

breekon&hope: Hog and/or Bear. you get no more information

vaguely russian animals that are large and imposing but remain somewhat generic. which is the hog and which is the bear is not consistent.

dekker: mouflon

dekker has very much mammal vibes to me. the mouflon is a neat species of wild sheep. i think the noble, imposing but kind image of the ram works well for dekker as that sort of true-good hero figure, and mouflons in particular are very nice looking with good shapes. the statement giver in distant cousin describes dekker as "though he was slightly shorter than I was, it seemed like he towered over me." which i think this sheep works well with.

gertrude: great tit

i wanted all the main eye avatars as birds, just like how i give them all glasses. just a fun little treat for me. great tit was chosen for gertrude as a kind of classic british bird, and as tits in general are VERY fiesty despite their round and adorable appearance. i really like this image of a great tit posing with a dead mouse like it's a hunter with a trophy deer. the cheek markings also work really well to bring to mind the image of old person jowls.

leitner: domestic cat (persian)

vibes. also i like the idea of him as a spoiled domestic animal. if i remember correctly, this was also @/ofdreamsanddoodles' suggestion

manuela: gray long-eared bat

she's a bat. what's to say. WELL actually okay there's the perception of bats as blind but actually having quite good vision which i think meshes in a fun way with the dark, and the way manuela does her sciency stuff.

rayner: olm

i mean, yeah

salesa: sea otter

largely design-oriented, suitably scruffy. ocean animal with strong social bonds, it was a slam dunk soon as i thought of it.

simon: dodo

how couldn't i, come on.

#tma #furry tma #save

[cypherdecypher]

Animal of the Day!

Otter Civet (Cynogale bennettii)

(Photo from Batu Secret Zoo)

Conservation Status- Endangered

Habitat- Southeastern Asia

Size (Weight/Length)- 5 kg; 60 cm; 20 cm tail

Diet- Mollusks; Fish; Crabs; Fruits; Small birds

Cool Facts- Almost catlike in appearance, the otter civet adores water. Swimming with webbed feet gives them the ability to chase down fast fish and crack open crabs. The bottoms of their feet lack fur and their long claws help the otter civet to grab onto rocks and flip them over while hunting. Oil palm plantations are the largest threat to these civets, destroying miles of rainforest these critters call home. Even the smallest disturbance to their home can result in the otter civet abandoning their territory. There is hope to establish a National Park to protect the otter civet and many other species threatened in southeastern Asia.

Rating- 12/10 (Not stung by a bee, that’s just how they look.)

#Animal of the day #Animals #Mammals #Civets #Monday #May 8 #Otter civet #biology #conservation #science #the more you know

[goldenheart-supremacy]

Nimona AU - How to train your Dragon

@kestrel-wylde I kinda went nuts here...

During a dragon raid, the chief of Berk, Valerin's husband died.

They were both alternating battling dragons and helping their people.

When Valerin found her dead husband's body, she saw that he'd been burned badly.

Then she found that the reason his arms were tucked into himself was because he had been doing his best to protect a small bundle in his arms.

It was a baby. Since his parents seemed to have died in the raid as well, Valerin had decided to take the child under her care and adopted him since she and her husband haven't the chance to conceive yet.

Time skip to the future.

Ballister was an only child to his biological parents but if he ever did have siblings, he would've been considered the 'runt of the litter', as he didn't seem as well built for a Viking child his age.

At least, compared to the other Viking children his age.

Maybe Valerin and Ballister has a better relationship than Stoick and Hiccup did in the start of this AU story.

The conflict for Ballister is getting the village to accept his as the chiefess's scion and future chief.

Maybe when Ballister finds out and starts training Nimona, his reason for wanting to keep the secret is as to not make his reputation worse. [I don't know yet how he ends up injuring her like Hiccup did Toothless in the movie]

I just added my OCs for more character dynamics, like the original team had in the movie but feel free to use them or not or make your own OPs for the AU hahaha 😆

Some dialogue ideas...

Ballister, voiceover as a narrator: [Tomorrow, when training begins, I'm going to prove myself and show that I can stand at par with the others. Aerin Shieldstone, Connor Silverlock, Todd Sureblade, Abigail Swiftfeet, Atticus Valorarm and...]

Ambrosius was running away from some dragons, and he jumped over some barrels as a Zippleback launched a fireball at him.

Ballister, in a dreamily way: [... Ambrosius...]

Avoiding the impact of the blast, Ambrosius used the remaining leverage from jumping over the barrels to backflip away and ended up landing unto Ballister's arms...

Ambrosius, grinning: Good looking out, Bal.

Ambrosius pinches Ballister's cheek affectionately before leaping out of his arms, grabbing his axe and a bucket to see if there's anywhere else he needs to be...

Ambrosius: Look alive, Bal! Let's get rid of these beasts! Ballister, grabbing a sword: Right behind you, Ambs!

Trainer: Behind these doors are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight! The Deadly Nadder! Atticus, mumbling: Speed: eight; Armor: sixteen. Trainer: The Hideous Zippleback! Atticus: Plus eleven stealth times two. Trainer: ...The Monstrous Nightmare! Atticus: Firepower: fifteen. Trainer: The Terrible Terror! Atticus: Attack: eight; Venom: twelve! Trainer: CAN YOU STOP THAT?! Trainer, sighing: And the Gronkle. Atticus, more quietly: Jaw strength: eight. Connor, smirking: Someone's done some advanced reading... Ambrosius, chuckling: Only about a lot, too Atticus, smiling sheepishly: I read the book seven times. Ambrosius and Connor: Wow.

During training with the Gronkle to avoid getting hit...

Aerin, keeping his eyes on the Gronkle's location: Todd, keeping his eyes on Aerin: So, I moved to my parent's basement. Todd: Got some weights in there, you should come over some time to work out. Aerin, barrel rolls away: Todd, calling out to him: You look like you work out!

Then, the Gronkle hits a shot on the spot Todd was standing at...

Aerin and Connor - my OCs, besties Atticus and Abigail - OCs I remembered reading from your fic 'Love At First Fight', I just gave Atticus a temporary last name. Unless, you know, @kestrel-wylde wants to make it final haha I didn't write Abigal yet since I don't know much how to write the character. Atticus is based off the otter knight from the movie, so I kinda headcanon him as someone nerdy with animal facts, so I made him like Fishlegs here.

Edit: Please check out Kestrel's Httyd Nimona AU art!

#Nimona #Nimona AU #Httyd AU #Ballister Boldheart #Queen Valerin #or is it Chiefess Valerin now? #Ambrosius Goldenloin #Todd Sureblade #Nimona OCs #Aerin Shieldstone #Connor Silverlock #Abigal Swiftfeet #Atticus Valorarm

[willtheweaver]

A writer’s guide to forests: from the poles to the tropics, part 8

We’ve made it to the tropics. I hope you enjoyed this, and found it useful in your writing.

Tropical rainforest

Probably the most recognizable of forest environment, and among the most threatened.

Location-Latin America, Africa, Australia, Indonesia, and the Pacific islands in between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Many forests have been felled or heavily altered by human activity.

Climate-Subtropical to tropical, with conditions being wet year round. Rain does not fall all the time, with a defined rainy and dry season. (What’s the difference? Rainy season has rain almost daily while in the dry season you will have to make do with high humidity and morning fog) At higher elevations, nights are cooler, though still well above freezing, and mist and rain are more common(this is why mountainous RF are called cloud forests)

Plant life- This is a tree dominated environment. The understory and forest floor are dark, unless trees have recently fallen. Many small plants are arboreal, nestled in the upper branches of trees. Vines and other climbers use larger plants as scaffolding. In areas of poor soil, tropical pitcher plants (Nepenthes spp.) and bladderworts (Utricularia spp.) get much needed nutrients from animal sources.

Animal life- Rainforests are the most biodiverse environments on Earth. Insects are everywhere, as are the animals that eat them. Birds and primates can be found from the canopy to the forest floor. The moist conditions make for an ideal habitat for frogs and toads. Apex predators are the big cats-think jaguars, tigers and leopards. Some species of herbivores can be quite large; Africa is home to gorillas and forest elephants, while the island of Borneo, Sumatra, and Java support rhinos and orangutans (though the further of these species is uncertain)Waterways are home to all sorts of fish(there are more species in the Amazon river than in the Atlantic Ocean), and larger animals, such as otters, crocodilians, and even river dolphins. Isolated islands have far fewer mammal species, with bats being the only ones, but hardy insects, reptiles, and birds making up the majority of the biomass. Deforestation and the introduction of invasive species have caused the extinction of many animal species, with island forests being the hardest hit.

How the forest affects the story- When one thinks of societies in the tropics, it usually is through the lens of western stereotypes designed to shock audiences and give ‘civilization’ something to conquer. Avoid this at all cost! There is more to the forest. Before the Spanish conquest, the Amazon was home to cities, and the agricultural societies of New Guinea are believed to be contemporaries with the farmers of Mesopotamia.

Grain does not do well in the tropics, so farming will be based around plants such as açaí, coconuts, taro, breadfruit, bananas, and manioc. These can be supplemented by hunting and fishing, but long term storage will have to be addressed. High humidity is a breeding ground for bacteria and fungi, so organic material will have to be kept dry so they don’t rot. The concentration of microorganisms also means that good hygiene is needed to avoid disease.

Settlement will always cause disruption, and the extent of your character’s activities can have a big impact on the forest, and your story. And remember, the activity of a small village will be different to that of large scale logging. Management, use, and abuse of the rainforest can be a driving factor in the plot. How will your characters react? Is the threat from outside or from within? The destruction of the rainforest is one of the main factors, along with unmitigated greenhouse gas emissions that is causing the current climate crisis. Can your characters do better? Or will you create a cautionary tale that shows us the grim future we are currently barreling towards? (That choice, my dear writers, is completely up to you)

#writing #creative writing #writing guide #writing inspiration #writing prompts #writer #writers #writer on tumblr #writeblr

[dragonthunders01]

Spectember D27: Revamp the Dinosauroid

The end of the Triassic propitiated finally the dominance of dinosaurs in the next period with the rupture of the large supercontinent Pangea, though in this timeline something pushed further the fragmentation of the continent, and instead of just opening the rift of the Atlantic, it multiplied across Africa and a section of south America, making the Tr/J mass extinction more severe and killing out many more species of dinosaurs, so now the Jurassic was no longer dominated by the animals we have in our timeline, instead we get a strange variety of large dinosaur-like crocodiles, many sauropodomorphs that diverged from the smaller species that survived and never went into the same trend of gigantism as in our earth, many synapsids and so on. At the end of the late Jurassic a lot happened with the new order, within some of the second radiation of sauropodomorphs included varied carnivorous carnosaur-like species, medium size coelurosaur-like omnivores and smaller herbivores that look like silesaurs; from the omnivore lineage that have expanded in varied niches would rise a branch of semiaquatic species that resembled something like a scaly penguin with hands, long finger and claws, with short robust tails, shorter necks and longer heads with narrow keratinized mouths.

They are remarkable as many other animals of this world, through one particular species seems to have started a peculiar evolutionary trend in the last 10 million years.

For the reader, we will refer to this species as the Shagoids, a species originated from 50 cm long aquatic sauropodomorph descendants that wandered on the estuaries of the now more fragmented north Africa/south American region, their ancestors were more of a mix of a cormorant with an otter as unlike the rest of its own family this belongs, as one main feature of these are they still functional forelimbs, these still preserved functional arms and hands that helped them to manipulate their prey of crustaceans and mollusks. Over time these developed strategies to break down their prey shell, including the habit of picking and using stones which choose appropriately for this task. This behavior was passed on to new generations, learned and properly helped them to get food with less effort, the food quality increased brain energy, brain size also increased and so their skills were forged much more adequately.

It was on matter of few million years the Shagoids lineage abandoned their swimming lifestyle and became mostly semi aquatic coastal dwellers, living in the shores and just entering water to hunt their food rather than spending most of their time there. As social animals they formed hierarchy groups, formed by the head of a dominant female around minor males that could either mate with her or just serve them, as well many other younger individuals, matriarchs often had the duty to select and organize hunting and spending of food, as well regulate reproduction and mating between their lower family, as she normally is the eldest of the group, and only another female of the same blood can turn into a elder matriarch of if mated by the son of the elder, this perhaps was the moment they gained proper sentience as how they defined a cultural and social structure.

It seems at the end rathe in a sudden change of sea level in the last 3 million years did the final push on their evolutionary journey, as most of the Shagoid populations got stranded within the main continent with almost no way to find new connections to large water bodies, in other situation their species would have die for starvation, but at that point they were already adapted to feed on other food sources, from tubers, insects and small animals, being able to cook them using fire they managed to craft, and so properly passed the harsh time with the loss of a chunk of their population over the sudden change.

When the Shagoid expanded and found again large water bodies far from their native regions, they really have changed considerable from their ancestors, as their closest relative was a sort of strange loon like reptilian species wandering in the coasts, these were more like limbed penguins with long arms and tridactyl hands, which the third finger being a derivation of the 4th an 5th clawless digit fused into one, their short legs lost their webbed feet a while ago and are more adapted for walking, their head still preserve the characteristic seabird like shape but their teeth have changed in shape to be generalistic omnivore, with a large head which houses the most intelligent brain in the planet.

Over the last thousands of years, they have been becoming more and more prone to establish permanent settlements populated by hundreds of them much more different of their wandering tribes, often farm plants and even carry some animals for domestication.

For the first time in their history they are in the pathway of civilization… who knows what will happen next, either the Shagoid can remain like this until their extinction, or they will start building towards the sky and beyond.

#speculative evolution #alternative evolution #triassic #jurassic #sauropodomorph #dinosauroid #sapient #spectember

[barkbrained]

bark! can I ask a therian question?? do u have any idea what to do when u know you’re a certain kind of animal but no extinct or extant animal feels right? one does match very well(otter), but i don’t feel a connnection or like it’s me? i feel semi aquatic but literally not even fantasy creatures match how i feel. what do u even do then .. I need another alterhuman input if that’s okay

Hi!! I am happy to help, and I’ll do my best to lend some advice :)

It’s great that you have a bit of an idea of what u might be, but definitely don’t be afraid to look at a more broad scope of animals! A few animals that come to mind that are semi-aquatic mammals and slightly similar to otters would be beavers, minks, and marsh mongooses! But if you’ve already explored those animals as possibilities you can obviously disregard them :P

I encourage you to try different animals for yourself as well, there’s no shame in thinking you’re one species and then realizing you may be another, and sometimes it can even help you more confidently figure out which animal you are by process of elimination! There’s a huge amount of aquatic and semi-aquatic species’ out in the world to explore.

Often this kind of thing just comes with time, too. keeping track of your feelings, urges, and experiences with no specific regard to which animal you may be can help you figure out a clearer direction to look towards after you’ve gathered a lot of evidence that you can pull from! Trying to narrow down which specific habitat you belong to can be extremely helpful as well, since lots of animals only live in one or a few habitats and it can be easier to research many species’ In one specific habitat.

Best of luck to you and I hope this advice can be of any help!

#sorry for answering this a little late! #asks #anon #therian questions #alterhumanity

[despazito]

Idk I think if you're depicting any animal semi-seriously in media the least you can do for it is to try searching for some references in a natural setting. Especially in a medium like animation, referencing behavior is just as important as physiology. Sometimes the clearest photos of a species are in a very distressing context for the animal. Some people only know certain animals for how they look/behave under extreme stress. This is why I love camera trap footage so much as reference.

What I'm saying is if you're tasked with designing and animating an otter or a fox and your only videos referencing them in motion where captive pet videos I'm gonna be disappointed

You can tell when someone's put thought and effort into their depiction of a species, no amount of rigging or polygons can create believable animal behaviour*. Like to me the aristocats is a really cute movie because despite being anthropomorphized the kittens still behave like cute kittens!!

It's hard to find modern animation with great animal acting similar to Kahl's. It's either fully anthro movement or behaves like a dog, and I do think this oversaturation has some negative effects on our relationship with animals. Our society has become so based in narratives and stories and so many of our stories have misleading or fabricated beliefs about animals and how they behave

*except for that guy who made a program in C++ to simulate starling murmurations

#im not saying Ferdinand the bull is directly contributing to buffalo harassment in Yellowstone #but when youre not shown or told anything but Ferdinand and Babe you lose some flight instinct lol #when Ferdinand was created many Americans still lived on farms around animals #the joke is that bulls are aggressive and he isn't!!!! #a child born today could seriously grow up watching Ferdinand not knowing a real bull can fucking kill the shit out of you into adulthood #perhaps even parenthood

[sadkois]

hypothetically let's say nishiki had a fursona (like a secret one. he would die before admitting he has a fursona)

what species do you think it would it be

anon. listen. i would normally save this ask cause i def wanna draw somethin for this BUT.

i was literally JUST thinkin about what nishiki as a furr y would look like??? i came here to make a post about this exact topic but then OH AN ASK! and i click on the ask box AND IT WAS THIS. IM ACTUALLY SPOOKED ASGDHJK WHY ARE U IN MY MI N D

answerin ur question. well considerin i was about to ask everyone what they thought im not really sure lmao. but since u beat me to it...

UH it depends on two things. 1 how we usin fursona (in general or just animals with fur) and 2... what nishiki would BE vs what he would WANT to be? SEE IM OVERTHINKIN NOW.

okok options. well we obviously have koisona! its on theme! then im thinkin if nishki might draw himself as a koi dragon mayhaps? but try to be kinda subtle? cause kiruy u know....

HM if we wanna go for something different to the tattoos tho.... i've seen fox and otter goin around and really loved those! the last one i remember bein super cute... i also see him as a cat actually, he gives me those vibes.... i remember this au where shimano does more and actually gets nishiki to join him after that one talk in that alley... and so shimano now has both a dog and a cat :)

but anyways if we wanna go with doggos.... maybe somethin with afghan hound...? reminds me of his hair in y0 asgdhjk tho idk how to style it for kiwami hm... and he still gives me cat vibes.... IDK IDK. IDK MAN. so many options asfdghj

#also technically ur ask and what i was gonna ask are different things #cause i was thinkin more in a. ''everyone *is* a furry'' kinda way. while urs is a ''human nish has a secret fursona''. #also can furries get tattoos? if nishki is a koi and he has a koi tattoo wouldnt that be funny #this was a topic in the yakuzzi gc a few days ago and we ended with a ''(human) nish has his own face as a tattoo'' au #i died #ASDGHASJKKDGASHJDKASD #GOD WHAT AM I SAYIN #IM SO SORRY ANON #u are correct btw if nishki had one he would deny it so much hasdghfjkghgh #koianswers

[milli-the-silly1]

How will the local trout population effect the local trout population in chicago!!

Trout.

a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the generaOncorhynchus, Salmo and Salvelinus, all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the family Salmonidae. The word trout is also used for some similar-shaped but non-salmonid fish, such as the spotted seatrout/speckled trout (Cynoscion nebulosus, which is actually a croaker).

Trout are closely related to salmon and have similar migratory life cycles. Most trout are strictly potamodromous, spending their entire lives exclusively in freshwater lakes, rivers and wetlands and migrating upstream to spawn in the shallow gravel beds of smaller headwatercreeks. The hatched fry and juvenile trout, known as alevin and parr, will stay upstream growing for years before migrating down to larger waterbodies as maturing adults. There are some anadromous species of trout, such as the steelhead (a coastal subspecies of rainbow trout) and sea trout (the sea-run subspecies of brown trout), that can spend up to three years of their adult lives at sea before returning to freshwater streams for spawning, in the same fashion as a salmon run. Brook trout and three other extant species of North American trout, despite the names, are actually char (or charr), which are salmonids also closely related to trout and salmon.

Trout are classified as oily fish[1] and have been important food fish for humans. As mid-level predators, trout prey upon smaller aquatic animals including insects, crustaceans, baitfish and tadpoles, and themselves in turn are also important staple prey items for many wildlifes including brown bears, otters, raccoons, birds of prey (e.g. sea eagles, ospreys, fish owls), gulls, cormorants and kingfishers, and other large aquatic predators. Discarded remains of trout also provide a source of nutrients for scavengers, detrivores and riparian florae, making trout keystone species across aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.

[Credit to Wikipedia]

#trout #erm what the flip #wikipedia #Erm what the heckaroonies

[cypherdecypher]

Animal of the Day!

American Lobster (Homarus americanus)

(Photo in Public Domain)

Conservation Status- Least Concern

Habitat- Northwest Atlantic Ocean

Size (Weight/Length)- 60 cm

Diet- Sea urchins; Mollusks; Marine worms; Starfish; Crabs

Cool Facts- While you’re more likely to have an American lobster end up on your plate, not many people know how important they are in their ecosystems. They eat huge amounts of over populated sea urchins that destroy mass areas of kelp reefs. These reefs provide homes for hundreds of species of the fish and the American lobster acts as a guardian alongside sea otters and sheepshead. These lobsters can live up to 100 years old and can weigh more than a human baby. There are strict regulations on the harvesting of American lobsters, mostly regarding the protection of egg carrying females and the massive breeder males.

Rating- 12/10 (Keeping the ocean healthy, one snack at a time.)

#Animal of the day #Animals #Crustacean #Friday #May 19 #American lobster #Lobster #biology #science #conservation #the more you know

[spicylavender]

ok so I'm asking this completely unironically and with no judgement I promise, but how did otters become a thing in the furry fandom? Like a big common species that lots of people draw and make fursonas of? Cause like I totally understand all the other popular species- wolves, dogs, cats, dragons, original species etc, etc. Those all make complete sense to me and I know why so many people would vibe with them, so how did otters become a thing? Was it legit an echo thing or does this predate the game and I'm just showing my age with that assumption?

#furry #furry fandom #echo project

[themandylion]

Sharks Are So Smooth

Happy JayTim Week 2022! This is for the prompt “Mermaid” and is a prequel to my other story, There Are Many Advantages.

Tim is dispensing hot takes on sharks as learned from the internet. He may or may not be right because he's not a marine biologist. Jason is taking the sharks' side on things. Read it on AO3.

—

The third day the human paddled out to the research buoy, T'm was waiting for him.

While the human bobbed in place, downloading data and doing complicated things with test tubes and colored solutions, T'm swam up slowly from below. He knew from experience that this was the best way to approach humans undetected. The little hairs on human legs behaved much like the whickers on a seal or an otter, allowing them to detect movements in the water—though they didn't seem capable of using them in quite as sophisticated a manner as those animals.

In the two weeks the human had been coming out, T'm had had more than enough time to decide on the best way to approach this. He'd considered and discarded various complicated schemes that involved no direct interaction before finally concluding that confrontation would be the best way to get the message across. Confrontation and maybe a little bit of shock and fear.

So he swam up from below, waited for the exact right moment—when the human had restoppered his vials and stowed them away—and grabbed onto an ankle.

That was his first mistake.

Namely, he should have grabbed both ankles. The human's immediate response to being grabbed was to kick with the captured foot—not much of an issue, since T'm was far stronger—and then with the free one. It missed T'm's head, but by the barest of margins, and only because of how the human's legs were kept spread apart by the board he was on.

Clearly, scaring the human into changing his behavior wasn't going to work. T'm was going to have to resort to an actual conversation, much as it was against all the Rules to do so. With a sigh, he let go of the ankle, quickly swimming out of the way as it began kicking freely. Steeling himself for a bad reaction, he breached the surface of the water, making sure to put the buoy between them.

"Holy fuck," the human exlaimed, grabbing the front of the board he was floating on to stare at T'm. "You aren't seaweed."

"No. I'm T'm."

"You're a fucking mermaid. Wait, shit, no tits—merman? Merperson."

"Just mer works." They had always called themselves 'the People,' which wasn't the best practice when trying to communicate with people of other species. "Look, it's wonderful that you're out here doing, uh, things with colored liquid, but you need to wise up and stop paddling out on a board. Some shark is going to mistake you for a seal and attack you."

"I'm checking toxicity levels and recording tide information," the human explained. "There are corporations—err, groups of people—who are dumping toxic materials—uh poison? In the bay."

T'm rolled his eyes at the human's poor attempt to dumb down his words. "I know what corporations and toxic substances are. I'm not an idiot."

"And yet you actually believe the stupid propaganda that sharks go after surfers because they're mistaking them for seals," the human snapped back. "Surfers swim into areas where sharks are used to being top dogs a lot of the time and get hurt because they act like idiots. People make up shit about sharks 'mistaking' people for seals when your average shark is just trying to get a meal and really couldn't care less if they're eating a human or a seal. Point me to an article in a reputable scientific journal that actually supports that bullshit."

"I—"

"You can't, can you? Because it's pure speciesist anti-shark propaganda." The human stopped, his face turning a frankly adorable pink. "And you're a literal mythological creature that lives in the ocean and probably knows all kinds of shit to refute everything I just said. Fuck."

"More otherworldly than mythological," T'm admitted, even though that was against the Rules as well. "I don't know that much about sharks, actually. I'm much better versed on terrestrial avians; I'm doing my dissertation work on puffin migration. And I can't point you to any articles, but that could be because they're all behind paywalls and it's hard enough using the aquarium's free public internet—I wouldn't even know how to go about getting JSTOR access."

"Otherworldly?"

"From outer space," T'm helpfully elaborated. He pointed up at the sky. "We've lived here for a few thousand years now, so we do show up in human mythology, but so do humans." He tried to punctuate this with a smile, like the characters did on the television shows he watched. It didn't appear to reassure the human, which wasn't all that surprising. His terrestrial biology classes had always made it clear that humans were prone to feeling uneasy around too many sharp teeth.

"An alien merman—sorry, mer—that knows about JSTOR and studies puffins. Sorry, this is. A lot to take in." The human took in a deep breath, then slowly let it out. "Well, uh. Thanks for your concern?"

"It's mostly self-interest," T'm admitted. "You keep bumping my antenna when you're up here taking readings, which interrupts the signal from the aquarium in the middle of downloads, so I have to start all over again."

"Oh, that's fair." Clearing his throat, the human leaned forward around the buoy and held out a hand. "Hi? I'm Dr. Jason Todd. I work at the aquarium you're mooching wi-fi off of." Looking more than a little nervous, he smiled.

T'm returned the smile and took the human's hand in his, shaking it like he'd seen on television. "Hello, Jason. I'm T'm Dr'k, a research fellow in terrestrial biology at Centralwestern Atlantic University." He returned the smile, though this time he kept his teeth covered. They could work up to toothy grins—something told T'm they would be seeing plenty of each other in the future.

#JayTim #jaytimweek2022 #jaytimweek #mer AU #SPACE AU #(technically) #themandylion writes #MerMeme AU #my fic

[spacefinch]

Star Trek characters as Octonauts characters AU: an update:

TOS crew:

Kirk: Golden retriever.

Spock: Black cat.

Bones: North American River Otter. An old friend of Ranger Marsh, with whom he shares similar opinions about technology.

Uhura: African Grass Owl.

Scotty: Scottish Wildcat.

Sulu: White-tailed Deer.

Chekov: Eurasian pine marten. I originally had him be a Siberian Lynx (since he’s from Russia) but it didn’t quite work. Chekov needs to be a small lanky boy and that is not what lynxes are. Pine martens, however…

Chapel: Tawny Owl.

TNG crew:

Picard: European River Otter

Riker: Alaskan Malamute dog

Data: Still an android, but in this version, he’s modeled after a short-eared owl. His brother Lore is modeled after a long-eared owl.

Tasha: Black-tailed jackrabbit

Geordi: Serval cat. Born blind, but uses a high-tech visor to see. Best friends with Data.

Beverly and Wesley Crusher: Red foxes. Wes has darker, almost brown fur.

Worf: Fisher. (A type of mustelid.)

Deanna: Spotted Owl

DS9 crew:

Ben and Jake Sisko: Swamp rabbits— same species as Tweak and Marsh. The Siskos have dark brown fur, rather than green.

Jadzia: Red Salamander

Garak: Lizard (doesn’t matter what species)

Major Kira: Gray Fox

Odo: Still a Changeling in this AU. Usually assumes the form of a beige-colored cat.

Ezri: Spotted Salamander.

Bashir: Sea Otter

O’Brien: European Hare

Quark (and all other Ferengi characters): Fruit bats. With gigantic ears.

Voyager Crew:

Janeway: Red Fox

Chakotay: Canada Lynx

Tom Paris: Dog.

Harry Kim: Sea Otter

Neelix: Fishing Cat

Kes: Brush Rabbit

Seven of Nine: Cat, with cybernetic implants.

B’Elanna: Badger.

Tuvok: Spectacled Owl

The Doctor: Hologram, takes the appearance of a penguin. (Which looks a lot like Peso’s species.)

Connections to the Octonauts and Octo Agents:

Scotty is an old friend of Shellington, and even recommended him for the position of the Octopod’s head scientist. Barnacles invited Scotty to be Chief Engineer, but Scotty declined the offer. After all, he’d seen Tweak’s work firsthand. The Octonauts would be in good care with her as its engineer.

Similar to Barnacles, Chekov was an old student of Professor Natquik. He’s always boasting about how everything great was invented in Russia.

Voyager’s Doctor was modeled after one of Peso’s many cousins. Despite being a program of a social species, he does have trouble actually socializing.

Jadzia is one of Dashi’s friends from school.

Ben Sisko and Ranger Marsh have been friends for a long time. And their kids get along quite well! Tweak is older than Jake by quite a bit.

Bashir is one of Shellington’s old classmates. The two of them bonded over their love of science and their sea otter heritage.

#star trek #octonauts #star trek tos #shellington #Star Trek tng #star trek ds9 #star trek voyager #Star Trek AU

[noeggets]

So in theory I wanted to make my own jellyfish sonic oc (im actually doing that with the phantom jelly fish idea) how would you recommend incorporating the jellyfish parts in its design?

See so what I do is two different things

Either I look at the animal I'm making a try to imagine what it would look like as a sonic person by taking the image and putting it in my preferred art program and draw a base body for a sonic character

Every jellyfish sonic person is gonna have a bell, that large head lamp thing, so you can only come up with so many creative ways to make to make it unique but in the phantom jellyfish case me personally I would leave it a solid color or put the faded like pink brain thing in it so it looks semi transparent cause you dont have many colors to work with alone but if your using crazy colors say i make the phantom jelly purple i would make the brain teal

I try to stay true to the animal and if it doesnt have spots or stripes I try not to give it any but if you want to you can that's just me

My second method is learn from others, if you search pinterest or tumblr or deviantart or Google for that matter and put " 'preferred animal' sonic oc" you can see how somebody else would do it and work with how they interpreted it into a sonic person form and cheat off that to make your own

it's not stealing it's what you do with that design choice cause if that was the cause Shadow's quills are sonic's but bent different ways as long as your not like taking a whole design there are 0 problems with doing this

another thing that helps is if you have a character and a element you don't need much else cause that brings you a color too

like Water, you have your jellyfish, that could be cool but let me make it cooler maybe the tentacles are made of water and they could attack with them like many whips that would be cool maybe they are always walking on them like Kit tsunami

You can use actual canon characters that aren't the same species to get a general idea on what your about to do when creating a animal that hasn't been used in the sonic world

Like we have only seen one jellyfish sonic person and its Opal from the archie comics but you know what we have seen to go along with that? Sharks,Dolphins,fish,otter,octopus some animals are like in the same category as others

these may not be the same animals but they are all ocean creatures and you can gather from every design choice that having a sonic sea creature oc they do not have noses like the rest of the cast (I would even argue Charmy shouldn't have a nose because he is a bug but thats up in the air for whoever is drawing him to decide)

Another way I dont do often is try turning a existing sonic character into the animal you desire, I have a sketch book where I turned all the hedgehogs into different kinds of dogs it was a fun experiment

i'd say Hedgehogs Tenrecs and Meerkats are almost in the same slot because Hedgehogs have quills but meerkats do not, but you can give them almost the same ear types like Sonic's or like Surge or Gold you could even do it like Surge except more pointed and tiny

for the Meerkat i would go round like monkey khan from the archie comics like how i did knuckles there

i hope some of this nonsense actually helps you cause this is actually how i do it

#wiralonprimesskits #sth #talkin #sonic oc #sonic oc help #character creation