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Scout, Pixie, Lewis, and Cooper enjoying a spring afternoon (pre-events of Tropical Storm).

Been awhile since I did traditional art, was nice for a change ^^

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Animal of the Day!

California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus)

(Photo from Smithsonian National Zoo)

Conservation Status- Least Concern

Habitat- Eastern Pacific Ocean

Size (Weight/Length)- 385 kg; 2 m

Diet- Fish; Squid; Crustaceans; Mollusks

Cool Facts- The extremely intelligent California sea lion is a highly social species of sea lion. Often hunting and sleeping together, their barking calls are easily identifiable. Despite having California in their name, California sea lions live from Mexico to Alaska and the many islands beyond it. During the mating seasons, California sea lions gather in mass on beaches to raise their pups. A female will give birth to a single pup that will stay at her side for a year and a half as the mother teaches them how to swim and hunt.

Rating- 13/10 (Don’t let the flippers fool you, you will be outrun.)

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there's a tortoise at work and he's 30 years old and I love that he's 30 years old because I can look at this animal that is 3 years older than me and go "does the man want his appy slices??" and he hustles over cause the man do want his appy slices

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Don’t be suspicious…

(via)

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As much as I love jumping spiders, ants, and bees for how intelligent and human-like they can be, it's funny to me that people seem to view them as more cuddly and cute partially because of it.

Because, like...being intelligent and human-like is exactly what makes them so devastating. I've talked before about ants and what forces of destruction they are to all other arthropods in the vicinity. Jumping spiders are cunning, able to plan out a way to kill just about anything their size if their fangs can pierce its shell. And bees are...well, bees.

But those big bugs that we think of as the mean, scary ones--other spiders, mantises, wasps...the jumping spiders and ants are what they're scared of. (Seriously, if ants make it up to a wasp nest, the wasps are screwed.) And then, on our scale, wolves, lions, tigers, pretty much anything that isn't a bear steers clear of bees.

These three really deserve to be treated more as scary, badass animals. I feel like they'd be offended otherwise, honestly.

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girls night

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Animal of the Day!

Bush Dog (Speothos venaticus)

(Photo from Franklin Park Zoo)

Conservation Status- Near Threatened

Habitat- South America

Size (Weight/Length)- 6 kg; 60 cm

Diet- Large rodents; Snakes

Cool Facts- This round looking pupper is known as the bush dog. Native to South America, the bush dog’s closest living relative is the maned wolf. They were first identified through fossils and were though to be extinct before they were discovered to still be alive and very good at avoiding humans. They eat mostly capybara and agouti in small packs. Larger packs are capable of taking down peccaries and tapir. Bush dogs prefer areas with large stretches of wetland with plenty of undergrowth as they are excellent swimmers. Bush dogs often give birth to up to six puppies. The puppies are taken care of by all pack members but generally stay in the den until they are weaned at four weeks old.

Rating- 12/10 (Short and stocky doggo is best doggo.)

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“aren’t you tired of being nice” no!!!! i’m tired of everyone else being mean!!!!!!!!

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A bunny has recently made it inside of the Pentagon’s inner courtyard- arguably one of the most secure locations on the planet, surrounded on all sides by over 100 yards of highly-guarded office building and sitting on top of at least two stories of concrete basements.

This comes several weeks after a lone chicken was found wondering one of the Pentagon’s security areas, though it certainly never made it as far in as this bunny

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Do you have any cursed or blessed facts about honey badgers? I know about their aggression, and resistance to venom, but do these OP mammals have anything else up their little sleeves?

actually yes, themselves!

okay so it sounds a little nonsensical, but honey badger skin is REALLY loose, so loose that they can more or less turn around inside of it!

not only does this technically make a honey badger more of a sock puppet than an actual animal, but it offers a huge amount of protection for them against being grabbed by a larger predator! honey badgers are known to squirm right out of a leopard or lion bite by just squidging themselves around inside themselves until they pop loose, leaving the larger predator with a mouthful of fur but no actual honey badger.

...more or less.

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You wouldn’t think that flamingoes are extremophiles just from looking at them. It’s like somebody tried to build the vertebrate equivalent of that fungus that lives inside nuclear reactors, and ended up with a gangly pink dinosaur with a spoon for a face.

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Meet Axel! He’s a honey badger, solo agent from Tropical Storm.

he’s legally blind without his glasses, but he doesn’t have to see to be able to kick tail and take names.

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dont let people tell u ur attraction to fire is "abnormal" or "hazardous" prometheus doesnt have his liver eaten every day for u to ignore the allure of arson