#Tasmanian hyena

[dellinah]

TASSIE TIME!!!

I had the chance to visit the Oslo thylacine! It's currently on display at the Museum of Natural History in Oslo, Norway.

It's just SUCH a good specimen, really well preserved for how old it is. It's been in Norway since 1888 but barely has any bad spots unless you look up really close. There was a furless spot on the leg and behind the ear, other than that it looks brand new and almost alive! I keep expecting it to turn its head to look at me, knowing it wouldn't :(

It's also a bit too short for accurate thylacine proportions, but I think that just has to do with how much they stretched the wires in the legs when mounting it. Very accurate otherwise, might be my favorite specimen!

Really happy they gave it a cute environment to be in, too. Before it was just a green stand, now it has a pretty painting and grass around it so it looks like it's still roaming the depths of Tasmania

They also have a skull on display (thylacine on top and grey wolf on bottom, to show examples of convergent evolution), tho I'm almost sure that was a replica. Pretty cool still! They're so small upclose, but the specimen itself is bigger than I thought it'd be

I was overtaken by a deep sense of longing when looking at it. It's strange to think this was a living creature once, but everyone who saw it alive is long gone. But this remains. This mounted animal survived both word wars, it has been on this Earth longer than any human alive today has. If taken care properly, it will be here long after everyone today is gone, remaining a grim reminder to future generations of humanity's greed.

Still, pretty cool. Just wish I could see a living one too. Rest in peace doggo thing.

Bonus: they also had a great auk, which is another animal recently extinct by men. I didn't know about this one at all, it was really cool to see it there!

[wyomingweasel]

Testing the waters. Hey everyone! I don't have the energy or much time to sit down and spruce up this page yet but here's some art I did in the meantime. I've been doing these stream headshots all year

[lynxz-studios]

new sona but like. again

———

reblogs r very appreciated :3

[permafrown]

nothing as freeing as drawing a fursona. i doodled myself as a centipede today.

[totally-not-an-awkward-okapi]

I don’t like that bird boy has teeth. But if he’s gotta have ‘em they may as well make sense for a carrion eater.

[xlokis-toy-hoardx]

I was at the zoo and got 3 new guys

A tasmanian devil from Semo, a virginia opossum from Wild Republic and a spotted hyena from Ravensden

[lianazombilina]

I drew this Hyena and Tasmanian Devil. 

[molluskzone]

people who have fursonas of cool species like spotted hyenas or aardwolves or thylacines or tasmanians devils but who just draw them as normal dogs / generic canines are so confusing to me because why bother at that point... just make a dog character with cool markings... same goes to some extent for felines in which people draw animals with unique characteristics and face shapes like leopards cheetahs and lynxes with the same face but its much more noticable on the ones people just turn into dogs... half the fun of drawing cool species is learning their unique traits

[nineblooddances-if]

Do each of the Commanders have a favourite animal?

THE COMMANDER'S FAVORITE ANIMALS

COMMANDER AAPO I LIBERTAS 

Humans.

Reason: UNKNOWN.

── ⋅ ⋅ ✶ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ⋅ ⋅ ✶ ⋅ ⋅ ──

COMMANDER ANIL/AIDEN II LUXURIA 

Goats.

Reason: She likes their horns.

── ⋅ ⋅ ✶ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ⋅ ⋅ ✶ ⋅ ⋅ ──

COMMANDER ALICE III GULA 

Tasmanian Devil.

Reason: They cute and funny.

── ⋅ ⋅ ✶ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ⋅ ⋅ ✶ ⋅ ⋅ ──

COMMANDER ERIC/EDWARD IV AVARITIA  

Mice.

Reason: They mind their own business and are quiet. At times.

── ⋅ ⋅ ✶ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ⋅ ⋅ ✶ ⋅ ⋅ ──

COMMANDER LOUIS V IRA  

Dogs.

Reason: They are loyal animals. Who doesn't like something loyal.

── ⋅ ⋅ ✶ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ⋅ ⋅ ✶ ⋅ ⋅ ──

COMMANDER GABRIEL VI MENDAX 

Mourning Doves.

Reason: They remind him of himself, for an odd reason.

── ⋅ ⋅ ✶ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ⋅ ⋅ ✶ ⋅ ⋅ ── 

COMMANDER DAMEION VII VIOLENTI 

Wolves.

Reason: Self-explanatory.

── ⋅ ⋅ ✶ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ⋅ ⋅ ✶ ⋅ ⋅ ──

COMMANDER LUCY OR LUCIUS VIII FICTUS 

Cuckoo Bird

Reason: Another self-explanatory.

── ⋅ ⋅ ✶ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ⋅ ⋅ ✶ ⋅ ⋅ ──

COMMANDER TRENT IX PRODITIO

Hyenas.

Reason: They're backstabbing animals. He finds that cute.

[fatehbaz]

A Dreamtime story from the Nuenonne First Nation of Bruny Island off the Southeast Coast of Tasmania (lutruwita) narrates how [...] a young pup [...] of the “Tasmanian tiger” (thylacine) [...] transformed [...] into corinna [...]. When lutruwita -- Tasmania, also known as Van Dieman’s Land -- was opened for British colonization in 1803, a medley of settlers -- from [...] fortune-seekers to species hunters -- made it to the island in the course of a few years. Travel guides and memoirs published at the time soon dubbed Tasmania the “sanatorium of India,” drawing many British colonists to the island who hoped to recuperate their health debilitated by prolonged stay in the tropics.

More significantly, it wasn’t only materials and bodies that circulated between the colonies [India and Tasmania]. But also ideas, impressions, and experiences gained in one colony made their way to the other. [...]

Settler farmers identified the thylacine as a “blood sucking vampire” [...]. [P]olitician John Lyne -- a representative of the Tasmanian rural lobby -- proclaimed, quite preposterously, that “30000 or 40000 sheep” were taken each year by the thylacine [...]. By 1830, the Van Diemen’s Land Company was already offering a reward for the killing of [...] the “hyena” i.e. the thylacine. Likewise, Mercury reported in 1882 in a piece headlined “Tiger Extermination” that landowners declared “a reward of £5 to be paid for each full-grown tiger [...] and £2 10s, for all cubs [...]." As a result, the animal [...] was extirpated by 1936. Comparison between the thylacine and the Indian tiger abounded in settler discourses [...]. This was in spite of the fact that the thylacine and the Indian tiger were two entirely different species, morphologically and ecologically. [...] Yet early settlers in Tasmania, many of whom had first landed on or had connections in British India carried the idea of the tiger as a ferocious predator [...]. [T]hese representations of the thylacine’s “nature” were based on faulty understanding of the animal perpetuated by myopic colonial science that privileged imperial economic interests above all. [...]

---

One of the major thylacine traders in Tasmania was James Harrison. Known as the “West Coast naturalist,” Harrison purchased and sold about twenty-five live animals and twenty dead specimens of thylacine. He was born in the Nowgong district of Assam in northeast India to a family of speculators en route from England. It is noteworthy that James Harrison spent his childhood in a region in India that was known for its [...] wildlife. Game hunting [...] was [...] [a] common pursuit among the Europeans in Assam [...]. Moreover, the period saw a spike in the visit of professional hunters and species collectors to the region as vast [habitat] was being stripped off to make way for tea plantations. [...]

---

William Thomas Dennison, who served as governors of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) and Madras in India, described in Varieties of Vice Regal Life (1870) the tiger hunts he had organized in India. Dennison’s book reinforced the idea that the tiger is a pest, an impediment to human progress, which echoed his policies towards the thylacine during his stint as the governor of Tasmania (1847-1854). [...]

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Likewise, Sainthill Eardley Wilmot -- the grandson of Sir John Eardley Wilmot, the lieutenant-governor of Van Diemen’s Land from 1843 to 1846 -- served as a forestry officer in British India. Sainthill was born in Hobart in 1852 and spent his early life there. In My Home In Tasmania (1852), Louisa Ann Meredith mentions the presence of an “untamed” wild thylacine in Sainthill’s grandfather Sir John Eardley Wilmot’s private menagerie in Hobart. Later Sainthill Eardley Wilmot would take a particularly hostile attitude towards the tiger and other big cat species while working as the Inspector General of Forests in British India. [...] He also wrote an it-narrative about the Indian tiger, The Life of a Tiger (1911), that predicted the tiger’s impending extinction. On multiple occasions, he has alluded to the thylacine “wreaking havoc” on flocks of sheep in Tasmania. [...]

The material circulation of the living thylacine in India is little known apart from an exhibition of two live members of the species at Madras Zoo in 1886 [...]. The narrative circulation of the animal, however, has been relatively plentiful.

---

Text by: Bikash Kumar Bhattacharya. "Constellation Spirit, Vicious Vermin, and Icon of Environmental Guilt: Affective Entanglements of the Thylacine in Tasmania and India". The Otter, Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE). Emotional Ecologies series (edited Jessica M. DeWitt and Sarah E. York-Bertram). 20 July 2023. [Image and caption also published and included in Bhattacharya's article. Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[copias-cake]

Ghoul Headcanons

The Ghouls as other earthly animals/not cats, but they get increasingly more obscure:

Sodo: chihuahua

Aether: warthog

Mountain: elk

Omega: black bear

Phantom: fruit bat (he's what inspired this post)

Aurora: hummingbird

Zephyr: hyena

Swiss: honey badger

Mist: platypus (poison elbows!)

Cumulus: sugar glider

Sunshine: fennec fox

Ifrit: tasmanian devil

Cirrus: venezuelan poodle moth

Alpha: microlophus (aka lava lizard)

Rain: axolotl beta fish jellyfish mediterranean dealfish (look this one up, trust me)

Bonus w/ Papas:

Primo: owl mountain goat

Secundo: vulture kimono dragon

Terzo: peacock fox flamingo

Copia: rat, obviously possum

Nihil: proboscis monkey actually no fuck him, he doesn't deserve to be part of my headcanon

Imperator: cymothoa isopod (fucking parasite) no fuck her too

[polytherian]

SNAPPING WOLVES: "Canis spinosa."

a small, aggressive subspecies of the Threatening Wolf.

tagging @scarsmood for inspiring this journey and @ferny-fang because he seemed interested. :3

general build: snapping wolves are, as mentioned, a lot smaller than their threatening wolf ancestors. their average shoulder height is around 3-4ft while their body length is around 4-5ft from nose to tail. they tend to be built slimmer as well, with less muscle, longer + slender legs, sleek fur, with a longer muzzle. built for agility, terrain navigation, and speed.

colorings + markings: they tend to be dully-colored; muddy browns, rusty oranges, and smokey black are some examples. they usually have solid coloration, however markings aren't rare- said markings bear resemblance to a striped hyena or on the back flank similar to a tasmanian tiger. spotted markings are fairly uncommon.

spikes + other factors: they trend towards short, sleek fur, occasionally with a single "mane" of longer fur running down the length of the body. they have both longer and more back spines than threatening wolves, usually laying flat within the "longer fur mane." these spines can be raised and flattened at will- usually used as a threat display. their tail is whip-thin and often used as a distraction in combat. they are able to open their jaws extremely wide, similar to the tasmanian tiger. uniquely, they have two pairs of large ears, similar to bat ears, that can move/swivel independently. three-toed paws (not shown in image) with retractable claws.

fun facts!: their saliva acts as an skin irritant. depending on the bite, it can cause anything from a mild rash to long-lasting burn scars. (however, they can't breath fire like their ancestors.)

. . .

feeding: omnivorous scavengers. lone snappers will scavenge dead animals, rotting fruits, etc. snappers in a pack may endurance-hunt larger animals; grouping up and surrounding their prey until it exhausts itself. however, this endurance-hunting phenomenon isn't seen often; theorized to be a sort of "celebration ritual."

habitat: they live around the foothills of large mountains, most often around forestry. while they do mantain a territory, it is not nearly as "strict" as many other territorial animals. packs will often let other packs stroll through their territories, as long as said pack keeps a distance from their home "den."

pack behavior: packs can be any size under ten. they trend towards 5-7. they are usually built up of "siblings;" that is, snappers that have known each-other since puphood, even if the snappers in question are not blood-related. packs don't have a definite leader- it's less a hierarchy and more a group, kept together for both safety, social bonds, protection, etc.

other fun facts: their vocalization's are described as "very strange;" a series of hyena-like laughs to communicate with packmates, cat-like hissing, clicking, and chirping, as well as guttural moans and growls when threatened. speaking of; snappers are actually more cowardly than they seem- while they may flair up their fur and spines under duress, they are hesitant to actually attack humans.

. . .

to be elaborated on in a later post: reproduction + courtship, more pack dynamics (as well as how lone snappers behave,) more visuals and niche facts, etc. feel free to ask me questions about this species! please.

[squeakyclamart]

ok hold on. Ok guys hang on wait listen hear me out. Ok listen guys hang on, wait, wait -- guys wait listen to me

actually I don't really have a way to explain myself here . Yes I turned the pizza guys into animals I'm sorry. You don't understand i'm having a moment here, this has been driving me insane for days

I CAN explain my design choices however

Pizzahead - fox - I think "triangle head," my brain goes immediately to fox. Foxes just got that Shape, yknow? I almost went for a hyena for funny laugh, but outside of hyenas having a bit too stocky of a build (and not quite the tail I wanted), I figured foxes also make silly little noises so hey. Whatever

Peppino - tasmanian devil - You already know why .I mean come on. But also the color scheme worked out rather nice, with the white patch being his 'shirt'

Gustavo - little owl - I wanted him to be small and relatively round but also some creachure that has a natural rivalry with rats/mice. I could have gone with cat, but decided Nahhh and went with funny little owl instead. Brick meanwhile is still a rat because I think that's funny

Pepperman - capybara - Ok listen. He looks awful here. He looks downright terrible. But also I want to keep him that way. The stem does not help but without it he looked bald . Anyway I had a rodent theme going for the tower gang initially, and even if that changed as Noise became a rabbit, I still liked Pepperman being a big fucking capybara because I think it's Silly. Also because capys are one of the few rodents that come in a reddish color in certain lights. So

Vigilante - guinea pig - He is small. He can tuck his legs in under himself and look like he's got none. He's not threatening in the slightest. The most he can do is squeak really loudly at you. And I think he should stay that way. He is a leftover from the tower gang having a rodent theme Also look up guinea pigs wearing cowboy hats. you will not be disappointed

Noise (and Noisette) - rabbit - Ok everyone listen. I know it's a popular thing to turn this man into a rat, and I'm totally on board and I agree, and I originally had him as a rat, however. It created a sorta Pluto and Goofy thing between him and Brick, which would be funny and fitting, but I just didn't vibe with it. Plus that one comic with Pepperman calling Noisette's hats "rabbit ears" has stuck in my head like some sort of parasite and I can't get rid of it

Fake Peppino - he is just peppino but his anatomy is fucked up and he's goopy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gerome - cat - there is no intrinsic value or reason for this I just wanted to turn him into a small cat

Mr. Stick - heron - It was beamed into my mind like a prophecy. Tall lanky ass bird (to fit with Gustavo also being a bird) with big long beak. what else could you ask for

anyway. um. Yes. Sorry . I can't really explain myself for this one outside of that . yea. ok. bye

[hazyaltcare]

A sprite edit for a draconequus OC (MLP) with a fluffy neck and head, the hind legs and the head of a dappled horse, the forearms and ears of a Tasmanian Devil, a phoenix wing that is red and orange with yellow tips, a bat wing, straight goat horns, a spotted hyena tail and cat eyes with heavy eye markings and with the sclera of one of them being indigo and the sclera of the other being a split between green and blue.

Mod Haze (🎮Greyson)

[thewickedkat]

when i started watching GBBO during the early days of the pandemic (like so many other people) i immediately fell in love with it against my will. it was heartwarming to find this little show where amateur bakers stretched out of their comfort zones and helped each other and learnt new things and challenged themselves. everyone was nice. everyone was lovely. it was a fantastic break from American 'reality' shows.

but somewhere along the line it...stopped being that? it stopped being about 'hey i had this creative idea i wanted to try, new flavours i haven't worked with, i hope it's agreeable' and started being about 'oh Prue likes booze, let's gin this up,' or 'Paul doesn't like matcha, that's a no-go.' it became about tailoring their bakes to what the judges might give higher marks for...in whatever Byzantine fucking system those two have; honestly it's so confusing that even when a baker follows a brief to the letter it boils down to the judges' aesthetics.

Mary Berry was at least willing to try new things, if the baker followed the brief. and she always gave encouragement, never dismissive the way Prue is turning out to be (honestly i think Prue genuinely believes that spices are meant to be in little jars on a rack so they can be admired from afar, bah).

Paul was always a wanker but when i first started watching i was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt because he was upfront about shit not being cooked all the way through, or why something didn't pass his criteria. now his fame has gone to his head, with everyone vying for his stupid goddam handshake. why? the man tears into bread like a rabid hyena whilst swearing he is an 'expert' on bread (i want to see his fucking bread degree) and just insults someone smugly. he is no help at all. if he stepped into my kitchen to evaluate bread i was baking i would wield a wooden spoon about his head and shoulders mercilessly with all the fury of a Tasmanian devil.

Noel is fine. love Noel. Matt? eh, bit of a lump. miss Mel and Sue though, really. Sandy was cute and i loved her cheekiness.

to say nothing of the cultural insensitivity of the past couple seasons (Mexican week made me cringe into my sofa), the challenges are growing so ridiculous as to be a pastiche of what GBBO used to be. ice creams! ice creams were a challenge! i don't care if it's during Custard Week, the only baked thingy was a waffle cone! no! fuck off! it ain't called the Great British Ice Cream Social!

the show's staff--and sure as shit the judges--seem to forget that these people are amateurs. they love baking, it is a beloved hobby for them. it's something that brings them joy and gives them fulfillment, and every time i hear someone say 'there's no excuse for lack of perfection' or some such bullshit i want to eat Paul and Prue's hearts in the marketplace.

this is the first season where i genuinely feel that the bakers aren't having fun. and that's fucking sad.

[mcytblrconfessions]

i think CTommy is soooooooooooo fluffy orqnge cat core. hes like a baby hyena and an opossum and a cornsnake and a baby seal and a squirrel and maybe a gazelle? ansd definitely a tasmanian devil ans also a butterfly and a shiny galarian zigzagoon And also every minecraft mob at once. the other day i gave sugar water 2 the ants and snails ouitside of my house Bc I thought he would like it if i did tyat..anxd i dont kill spiders anymore bc of The same reaosn..... when im sad before i do anything good 4 myself i imagine im ctommy so i feel like im takiing cafe of My Son and makin g him a cup of Tea so he calms down aftr a  nightmare.... Ansd. ithink he would rlly relate 2 Scootaloo..... . my boy i am cfradling him in my arsm like a newborn child he deserves. a nice warm guiso ^_^ and to break into peoples houses and rob them If He Wants 2.

okay