#African animals

[blogforfauna]

Proteles cristata

Throughout history, there have been two types of hyenas: bone-crushing hyenas, and dog-like ones. Spotted, striped, and brown hyenas are the bone-crushing type. Of the dog-like hyenas, the aardwolf is the only species left.

Aardwolf means "Earthwolf" in Afrikaans, a language spoken in Southern Africa. Their use of burrows is what earned them the "earth" part of their name. Although wolf is also in its name and it looks very dog-like, aardwolves are not canines. They are the smallest of four hyena species, weighing around 20 pounds (9.07 kg).

Unlike the other hyena species that eat carrion, aardwolves eat insects. If they really need to they can also eat eggs, small mammals, and vegetation, but insects are preferred. Their main insect prey is termites, and they can eat up to 300,000 of them in one night using their long tongues. Their tongues are very sticky as well, with large papillae (those little tongue bumps) and sticky saliva.

Since they behave differently and are much smaller than other hyena species, scientists used to think aardwolves were not part of the hyena family. With their striped coats, researchers thought they might have even been mimicking the striped hyena.

Aardwolves are found in arid plains of eastern and southern Africa, where they live in burrows dug by aardvarks, springhares, or porcupines. Some dig their own burrows, but taking over an abandoned one is much easier. They sleep in these burrows during the day, coming out at night to hunt for insects and to hang out with friends or whatever.

I rate the Aardwolf 15/10. Little cuties :,)

Photo Credits:

(1) Catherine Withers-Clarke (2) Hennie van Heerden (3) H. van den Berg (4) Scott Roberts (5) Klaus Rudloff

[kreechur-croft]

A funky dude I made for my most beloved coworker

Her favorite animal and color are, of course, zebras & bright dandelion gold.

[kiwihounds]

Africa’s Ugly Five

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and every single one of these incredible animals has a beauty all their own. Really enjoyed doing this series! 

[arthistoryanimalia]

For #WorldStorkDay :

Géza Vastagh (Hungarian, 1866–1919)

Three Marabous, 1909

pastel on cardboard 

H 38 x W 48.5cm

Private Collection

🆔 Marabou Stork (Leptoptilos crumenifer), native to sub-Saharan Africa.

“[Vastagh’s] work is dominated by animal depictions, especially lions, but the animals of the Hungarian Puszta also influenced his work. With a government scholarship he traveled to North Africa, Algeria and Tunis in 1898 and was able to portray the animals in their natural habitat. He also found his motifs in the zoos of Berlin, Hamburg and Leipzig.”

[autthesnot]

A cheetah carrying a sitatunga through an endless expanse of ripe fruit.

This piece was an enormous labor of love.

Watercolor and gouache on pressed paper, 24”x18”

[ghostly-hyaena]

Hyena time!

[docileeffects]

[residences-of-the-darkforest]

I’m super interested right now in the size difference between different but similar animals that live in the same area so here have some pictures

Serval and cheetah

Cheetah(s) and leopard

Lioness and leopard

Lioness and cheetah

Lion and caracal

[misforgotten2]

“Gun jammed, huh? Sucks to be you.”

Reader's Digest   September 1972

[iincubust]

Huvember Entry #4

11/4/2023

[critter-sounds]

Note: Cheetahs meow, purr, and make all kinds of odd noises shared on this blog, but here's the chirpies.

[blogforfauna]

Parahyaena brunnea

Mostly due to habitat loss, brown hyenas are the rarest of the hyena species, with 4-10 thousand individuals in the wild. There are 30-50 thousand wild spotted hyenas, for comparison.

Brown hyenas are also known as strandwolves, which means "beach wolves" in Afrikaans, a language spoken primarily in South Africa. This name was given to them because brown hyenas in coastal areas spend a lot of time walking down beaches in search of food, and maybe to unwind after a long day. Some of the largest brown hyena populations are found in these coastal areas of Southern Africa, but there are also large populations in the Kalahari desert.

Although the name strandwolf suggests it, brown hyenas are not closely related to wolves or other canines. They can resemble canines, but hyenas are more closely related to cats than dogs. Their closest relatives are mongooses and civets. The photo below shows an African civet.

Brown hyenas are generally smaller than striped and spotted hyenas, but they can still get pretty big, weighing up to 90 pounds (40.8 kg). This size and their powerful jaws make them seem like formidable predators, but they're pretty bad hunters. They mostly scavenge for food or steal it from more capable hunters like cheetahs, leopards, and jackals. Since they can digest bones, hooves, horns, hair, and skin, they can basically eat every scrap food they find. Brown hyenas often live in groups, but this scavenging is done on their own.

Their clans are much smaller than those of spotted hyenas, and the structure is more similar to a wolf pack; most hyenas in the group are the offspring of the dominant hyenas. Brown hyenas are very social and form close bonds with other hyenas.

I rate the brown hyena 17/10. I like them. They seem a little bit lazy with their poor hunting skills and walks down the beach

Photo credits:

(1) Christophe Jobic (2) Mario Nonaka (3) Yarin Klien (4) Thilo Beck (5) Johan Swanepoel (6) Joel Sartore

[lizardsaredinosaurs]

Golden-rumped Sengi (Rhynchocyon chrysopygus) AKA Golden-rumped Elephant Shrew

Status: Endangered

East Kenya

Threats: habitat fragmentation, trapping

[joyjababanoid]

The Worried Elephant

Back in 2018 I made a bunch of comics for my family members for Christmas. It was the worst idea i ever had. I killed myself, lol. But I made a few good original comics and my family loved them, so... I guess it wasn't all bad XD

This one was made for my Mom, who loves elephants and African creatures. <3

[arthistoryanimalia]

It’s #WorldMeerkatDay!

Robert Jacob Gordon (Dutch, 1743-1795) Meerkats, 1773-80 + 1777-86 watercolor drawings from the Gordon African Collection (illustrations made during his expeditions to South Africa). Rijksmuseum collection.

[that-wilddog]

Guys African wild dogs are so fun to draw