#african golden wolf

[wilkpreriowy]

A female Serengeti wolf (Canis lupaster bea) chases a spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) away from her pups in a nearby den. Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania.

Photo © Charlie Summers / naturepl.com

[sheepchip]

Finishing up the canines with “true dogs”— Canis, Cuon, Lycaon, and Lupulella!

[blogforfauna]

Canis anthus and Canis aureus

African golden wolves, Canis anthus, were believed to be an African subspecies of the Eurasian golden jackal, Canis aureus, until 2015 when genetic tests showed that they were more closely related to grey wolves. That makes them the first “new” canines to be discovered in 150 years.

Photos show golden jackals on the left and African golden wolves on the right

Golden jackals are widespread in Europe and Asia. They are most common in southern Eurasian countries ranging from Myanmar (Burma) to Greece, but they are spreading further into European countries. Within the past 20-30 years they have spread into Italy and Ukraine, and there was even a sighting of one in Norway last year.

African golden wolves, also known as African wolves or golden wolves, are found in all North African countries and some of West, Central, and East Africa. Generally found in grasslands, they also live in forests, savannas, and desert environments. Golden jackals are rarely found anywhere besides grasslands.

Golden jackal ^

Small animals including rodents, reptiles, birds, and insects make up roughly half of the golden jackal’s diet, the other half consisting of fruits and other vegetation. They are also known to follow tigers to scavenge off large animals they kill. Golden jackals are very social and do almost everything in pairs, including hunting and scavenge.

Golden jackals are good hunters due to an amazing sense of smell. Because of this, people bred them with huskies and spitz dog breeds to create the sulimov dog. Sulimov dogs have one of the strongest senses of smell of any dog breed and are used for this reason as sniffer dogs.

Wild boars make up most of the African wolf’s diet, but they also frequently hunt small animals like ground squirrels, hares, and insects like the golden jackal. Also like golden jackals, African wolves are pretty social. They rarely form large packs like grey wolves, who they are more closely related to than to golden jackals, but their adult offspring will often stay with the parents to help care for pups.

I rate the golden wolf and jackal 15/10. One hid as a jackal for many years and the other steals from tigers. Amazing

African wolf ^

Photo credits:

(1) Jan Ebr (2) Lee R. Berger (3) Carlo Galliani (4) Vinay Narayana Swamy (5) Cécile Bloch (6) Mourad-Harzallah

[artsy-foxo]

[OC] Amadi at night

What do you think he's saying here? ------------------------------------- If you like this, please follow me here on Inkblot and also on these cool sites below! [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/artsy-foxo) [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/artsyfoxo.bsky.social) [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/m/ArtsyFoxo) [Autumn Hills (Webcomic) ](https://autumnhills.the-comic.org/)

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[hyenakat]

running with the wolves (and foxes. and dogs.)

(commission for @/CeolTheFox, @/fox_gassy, @/SammyTheTanuki, @/grishicat, @/socialhermtcrab, @/Wotokay_, and @/Reskao1 !)

[skekteksfurby]

I love these "inbetween guys" that essentially look like they're the halfway point between a wolf and a fox

[rowanwolf]

Winter brings with it the lupine urge to fling myself into a snowdrift and play. And then the realization that I don't have fur anymore hits and yeah. No rolling in snowdrifts. Spring is now bringing with it the lupine urge to just drop whatever shit I'm carrying, flop to the ground, and roll around in the grass. I swear to god, my wolf instincts consist of "I can eat that raw, right?" and "I'm upset, time to howl" and "roll in the snow/grass/sand/whatever" and nothing actually remotely useful.

[fursona-resources]

Species: Wolves (Canis)

This series focuses on helping people choose interesting species for their fursona through informing them of the many, often overlooked, species out there! This post is about wolves.

──── ◉ ────

Species:

Red Wolf (Canis rufus)

Size: 66cm (26in) height (at shoulder), 121cm (4ft) lenght, 20-36kg (45-80lbs)

Diet: carnivorous, preys on deer, small mammals

Habitat: coastal prairies, marshes, forests

Range:

Status: critically endangered/endangered

──── ◉ ────

Eastern Wolf/Timber Wolf (Canis lycaon)

Size: 63-91cm (25-36in) height (at shoulder), 160cm (5.5ft) lenght, 23-30kg (53-67lbs) weight

Diet: carnivorous, preys on deer, large herbivores

Habitat: deciduous forests, coniferous forests, mixed forests

Range (in blue):

Status: imperiled/threatened

──── ◉ ────

Coyote (Canis latrans)

Size: 58-66cm (21-25in) height (at shoulder), 76-86cm (2.4-2.8ft) lenght, 6.8-21kg (14-46lbs) weight

Diet: omnivorous, preys and scavenges small mammals, deer, livestock, insects, carrion, berries

Habitat: varied, sagebrush-steppe, forests, prairies, deserts, savannahs, alpine meadows, temperate ranforests, urban

Range:

Please note, the coyote has 19 subspecies!

They all have small but interesting variation, and can vary in size quite dramatically. If you'd like a coyote fursona, I recommend checking them out! The picture above is of a mountain coyote (Canis latrans lestes)

Status: least concern

──── ◉ ────

Grey Wolf (Canis lupus)

Size: 80-85cm (31-33in) height (at shoulder), 100-160cm (3.2-5.2ft) length, 23-80kg (50-176lbs) weight

Diet: carnivorous, preys on large ungulates, small mammals

Habitat: varied, temperate forests, mountains, tundra, taiga, grasslands, deserts

Range:

Please note, the grey wolf has 38 subspecies (the above pictured being eurasian wolf, Canis lupus lupus)!

Of which I would like to highlight:

Arabian Wolf (Canis lupus arabs)

Arctic Wolf (Canis lupus arctos)

Mexican Wolf (Canis lupus baileyi)

Also, please note the grey wolf comes in a variety of colors, regardless of subspecies

Status: least concern

──── ◉ ────

Dingo (Canis dingo)

Size: 52-60cm (20-23in) height (at shoulder), 120-150cm (3.9-4.9ft) lenght, 10-15kg (22-33 lbs) weight

Diet: carnivorous, preys on small mammals, livestock

Habitat: varied, spanning all if Australia

Range:

Please note, the dingo's taxonomic classification is debated - you may find it also listed as Canis familiaris, Canis familiaris dingo, or Canis lupus dingo

Status: threatened

──── ◉ ────

African Wolf/Golden Wolf (Canis lupaster)

Size: 40cm (15in) height, 7-15kg (14-33lbs) weight

Diet: Carnivorous, preys on small mammals, small reptiles, ground-nesting birds, insects

Habitat: mediterranean, scrublands, forests, savannahs

Range:

Please note! The african wolf has 6 subspecies!

Status: least concern

──── ◉ ────

Ethiopian Wolf (Canis simensis)

The Ethiopian wolf has 2 subspecies:

Northern Ethiopian Wolf (Canis simensis simensis)

Southern Ethiopian Wolf (Canis simensis citernii)

Size: 53-61cm (20-24in) height (at shoulder), 100cm (3.2ft) lenght, 11-20kg (24-44lbs) weight

Diet: carnivorous, preys on small mammals

Habitat: afroalpine grasslands, heathlands

Range:

Status: threatened

──── ◉ ────

Golden Jackal (Canis aureus)

Size: 46-51cm (18-20in) height (at shoulder), 69-84cm (27-33in) lenght, 8-11kg (18-24lbs) weight

Diet: omnivorous, preys and scavenges small mammals, small reptiles, ground birds, fish, insects, fruit

Habitat: open savannahs, deserts, arid grasslands

Range:

Please note! The golden jackal has 7 subspecies!

Status: least concern

──── ◉ ────

[aiza-luna]

So, I just woke up, my brain went onto brainrot mode and I thought "Why not do collages of outfits Morowa would wear out of work?", since, ya know, as an artist... I need ref. Lol

Anyways, went there and... I did it.

Was not expecting her clothes to Slay this hard tho, but I love it!! 🥹🥹😭😭🧡🤎

(Also I find this incredibly amusing when I remember her hanging around Aiden with one of those looks... Like, the most basic-looking dude with a gal that looks like she's going for a maganize photoshoot.

Same energy with Jordi standing besides him, tho even Jordi's suit is more simple/ minimalistic... He's still better dressed than Aiden tho. (saying this affectionally) ).

Anyways, Morowa fashion for y'all 🫶🏽🧡🤎✨

Will draw her wearing one of those looks soon 🗣️💅🏽✨

[l-just-want-to-see]

You’ll never recover from that kind of devotion.

Jason Grace: on family and the lack thereof, wolves that really are dogs, remembering and healing and the sudden inevitability of being remembered.

I Bet on Losing Dogs, Mitski / War of the Foxes, Richard Siken / You’re on Your Own, Kid, Taylor Swift / Trees II, McCafferty / Mowgli Taken in by the Wolves, 1937 / Space Dog, Alan Shapiro / Moon Song, Phoebe Bridgers / A Hymn to Childhood, Li-Young Lee / Susan Smith, wych elm / The Blood of Olympus, Rick Riordan / Saint Bernard, Lincoln / Lupa Capitolina in Ludus, Romania / The Odyssey, Homer (trans. by Emily Wilson) / quadruple dog art by @mxmorggo on Instagram / Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami / The Lost Hero, Rick Riordan / House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski / Vulnerability, @/kazerad / Euripides, Elektra / Jason seizing the Golden Fleece, Charles Natoire / Thalia (Grace) / I can’t find the source… / My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult / Seam, Tarfia Faizullah / In the Blood, John Mayer / The Vintage Book of African American Poetry, Michael S. Harper, Anthony Walton / Memento Mori, Crywank / And My Father’s Love Was Nothing Next To God’s Will, Amatullah Bourdon / Family Line, Conan Gray / Franz Kafka’s letters to his father / Kronos/Saturn, Peter Paul Rubens / Wolf and pup / American Teenager, Ethel Cain / LET YOUR FATHER DIE ENERGY DRINK, Daniel Lavery and Cecilia Corrigan / Scott Street, Phoebe Bridgers / Tumblr, @/inanotherunivrse / Tomatoes, Shane Koyczan / Pinterest / Tumblr, @/heavensghost / Tumblr, @/tagdevilish / through sickness and in health… by Angelina Hajducky on Instagram / Jason (given name), Wikipedia / Human Acts, Han Kang / The gas pillar in the Carina Nebula, NASA / Tumblr, @/roach-works / Not Strong Enough, boygenius / Grit, silas denver melvin / Herakles, Euripides (trans. by Anne Carson) / Pelias sending forth Jason, 1880 / The Audre Lorde Questionnaire to Oneself, Brianna Albers / The Mark of Athena, Rick Riordan / Wolf in White Van, John Darnielle / The Oresteia, Aeschylus / Tumblr, @/orpheuslament / Anecdote of the Pig, Tory Adkisson / The Burning Maze, Rick Riordan / I Bet on Losing Dogs, Mitski / Icarus, The Crane Wives / The Three Graces, Edouard Bisson / For Your Own Good, Leah Horlick

[wilkpreriowy]

Serengeti wolf (Canis lupaster bea) Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

Photo © Seig & Alice Kopinitz

[blackbackedjackal]

So since dogs, wolves, and coyotes can interbreed and have viable offspring are there any other canids that can? Not saying we should let them or anything. Completely against wild and domestic animals interbreeding. It's just so interesting that these three species can when most hybrids are infertile.

So theoretically, most species in the Canis genus could interbreed. Gray wolves, red wolves, eastern wolves, and dogs have all hybridized at some point with coyotes. Dingoes and golden jackals have hybridized with dogs so they could theoretically make viable offspring with coyotes and wolves. African golden wolves and Ethiopian wolves are in the same genus, so they could also potentially cross with the others (though I don't believe I've seen any confirmed examples of either).

Here's some examples of various hybrids:

Sulimolv dog - A golden jackal x domestic dog. The initial pair were Lapponian Herders crossed with golden jackals.

Dingo-dog. Because of ongoing interbreeding of dingoes and domestic dogs, there is a wide range of colors and body shapes today among the Australian wild dog populations.

Golden jackal x feral dog in India.

Coyote x long-haired dog breed.

Eastern coyote (Canis latrans "var.") - Predominantly coyotes but have traces of gray wolf, eastern wolf, and domestic dog.

[aperiodofhistory]

Books to read in autumn

Historical novels

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel: England in the 1520s

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett: Building the most splendid Gothic cathedral the world has ever known

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: A back-in-time Scottish romance

Company of Liars by Karen Maitland: A novel of the plague in the year 1348

The underground railroad by Colson Whitehead: Enslavement of African Americans through escape and flight

The God of small things by Arundhati Roy: A family drama in the 60s located in India

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank: A powerful reminder of the horrors of world war II

Fantasy

A Game of thrones by George R. R. Martin: A Fantasy epic run by politics, strong families, dragons

Red rising by Pierce Brown: A dystopian science fiction novel set in a future colony on Mars

Babel by R.F. Kuang: Student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree: A fresh take on fantasy staring an orc and a mercenary

Jade City by Fonda Lee: A gripping Godfather-esque saga of intergenerational blood feuds, vicious politics, magic, and kungfu

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik: A tale of hope and magic, with brave maidens and scary monsters

The Atlas six by Olivie Blake: A dark academic sensation following six magicians

Mysteries & Horror

The Gathering Dark: An Anthology of Folk Horror by various authors: Short stories perfect for the Halloween mood

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon: The story of Vern, a pregnant teenager who escapes the cult Cainland

The Weird and the Eerie by Mark Fisher: A noted cultural critic unearths the weird, the eerie, and the horrific in 20th-century culture through a wide range of literature, film, and music

Holly by Stephen King: Disappearances in a midwestern town

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas: Supernatural western

The good house by Tananarive Due: A classic New England tale that lays bare the secrets of one little town

Nonfiction

Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey: The trail of America's ghosts

What moves the dead by T. Kingfisher: A gripping and atmospheric retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's classic "The Fall of the House of Usher

South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry: A journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American South—and a revelatory argument for why you must understand the South in order to understand America

All the living and the dead by Hayley Campbell: An exploration of the death industry and the people―morticians, detectives, crime scene cleaners, embalmers, executioners―who work in it and what led them there

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter: Gödel, Escher, Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more

[t4tozier]

okay guys you’ve forced my hand

losers club fursonas

richie - brown bear. duh. or a hyena :)

eddie - stoat! little guys with too much energy. have y’all seen that video of the stoat on the trampoline? that’s eddie

bev - i’m picturing glamrock chica from fnaf but that doesn’t count so. sabertooth tiger. i think she deserves it

bill - grey wolf. pack leader <3 or a golden retriever

mike - clouded leopard. that’s the one that’s very paws right? idk it’s just vibes

ooh or a stag. i think i like that better

ben - otter or beaver :)

stan - possum. get it. ‘cause they p. ‘cause they play dead

or an african grey parrot

[stillflight]

I would like to offer this resource for therians, an extensive list of all of Sir David Attenborough’s nature documentaries that are available on soap2day, and a full list of what species* they each (notably, prominently) feature the natural behaviors of, separated by episode, and omitting species that were only shown dead, juvenile or being predated on. This took me a while (I have been working on it since Prehistoric Planet’s release) because I did in fact have to watch every single series in full in order to list all the species and the episodes are around 50 minutes long, but enjoy.

Long post ahead:

Most of these shows have closed captioning, which is why I’ve picked soap2day. Planet Earth is the only one that doesn’t. I did not include Dynasties and Dynasties II because each episode only features one species.

Thank you to Birch (@ambiguousmutt​) for his help (he watched about half of the episodes) so I didn’t have to do it individually. Credit goes to him as well.

*Sometimes Attenborough doesn’t say the specific species and I was too busy trying to get through the episodes to identify it. In those cases I just put the most specific name I could.

Planet Earth

Episode one (From Pole to Pole): emperor penguin, polar bear, caribou, arctic grey wolf, Amur leopard, six-plumed bird-of-paradise, superb bird-of-paradise, great white shark, African elephant, African buffalo, lechwe, baboon, African wild dog

Episode two (Mountains): gelada, walia ibex, Ethiopian wolf, guanaco, cougar, grizzly bear, markhor, snow leopard, golden eagle, grey wolf, panda, golden snub-nosed monkey, red panda, demoiselle crane

Episode three (Fresh Water): giant salamander, grizzly bear, smooth-coated otter, Nile crocodile, dolphin fish, midge, Amazon river dolphin, dorado, piranha, spectacled caiman, crab-eating macaque, snow goose

Episode four (Caves): wrinkle-lipped free-tailed bat, cockroach, bat hawk, cave swiftlet, yellow-red rat snake, Texas blind salamander

Episode five (Deserts): Bactrian camel, dromedary camel, red kangaroo, fennec fox, guanaco, long-nosed bat, Nubian ibex, flat lizard, lion, African elephant, locust

Episode six (Ice Worlds): snow petrel, Antarctic petrel, south polar skua, humpback whale, emperor penguin, eider, muskox, arctic grey wolf, polar bear, little auk, arctic fox

Episode seven (Great Plains): Mongolian gazelle, red-billed quelea, wildebeest, snow goose, arctic fox, arctic grey wolf, bison, wild ass, Tibetan fox, pygmy hog, African elephant, lion, baboon

Episode eight (Jungles): magnificent bird-of-paradise, spider monkey, howler monkey, siamang gibbon, gliding tree frog, colugo, red crab spider, African elephant, chimpanzee

Episode nine (The Shallow Seas): humpback whale, multiple corals, banded sea krait, trevally, dugong, bottlenose dolphin, Socotra cormorant, salp, comb jelly, sea lion, dusky dolphin, sea urchin, sunflower starfish, short-tailed stingray, great white shark, king penguin, fur seal

Episode ten (Seasonal Forests): Eurasian lynx, moose, crossbill, wolverine, western capercaillie, pine marten, great grey owl, pudu, kodkod, mandarin duck, cicada, red deer, Amur leopard, tiger, mouse lemur

Episode eleven (Ocean Deep): whale shark, oceanic whitetip shark, common dolphin, Cory's shearwater, manta ray, sea spider, vampire squid, spider crab, unnamed deep sea eel, giant isopod, chambered nautilus, Pacific spotted dolphin, mola mola, frigatebird, sailfish, blue whale

Planet Earth II

Episode one (Islands): pygmy three-toed sloth, Komodo dragon, sifaka, marine iguana, Galapagos racer, Buller's albatross, fairy tern, Christmas Island red crab, yellow crazy ant, chinstrap penguin

Episode two (Mountains): Nubian ibex, red fox, golden eagle, grizzly bear, bobcat, flamingo, mountain viscacha rat, snow leopard

Episode three (Jungles): spider monkey, flying lizard, sword-billed hummingbird, river dolphin, jaguar, glass frog, paper wasp, click beetle, red bird of paradise, Wilson's bird of paradise, indri

Episode four (Deserts): lion, Harris's hawk, shrike, locust, sand grouse, pale chanting goshawk, feral mustang, golden mole, desert long-eared bat, darkling beetle, Namaqua chameleon

Episode five (Grasslands): saiga antelope, lion, harvest mouse, carmine bee-eater, Kori bustard, African elephant, serval, Jackson's widowbird, grasscutter ant, compass termite, giant anteater, bison, red fox, arctic grey wolf

Episode six (Cities): langur, peregrine falcon, leopard, European starling, great bowerbird, raccoon, rhesus macaque, spotted hyena, wels catfish

Our Planet

Episode one (One Planet): lesser flamingo, orchid bee, golden-collared manakin, red-capped manakin, blue manakin, cormorant, booby, common dolphin, shearwater, African wild dog, timber wolf

Episode two (Frozen Worlds): gentoo penguin, wandering albatross, narwhal, Pacific walrus, humpback whale, orca, leopard seal, polar bear

Episode three (Jungles): lowland gorilla, forest elephant, black sicklebill, twelve-wired bird-of-paradise, western parotia, mountain treeshrew, Philippine eagle, black spider monkey, leafcutter ant, Sumatra orangutan, velvet worm

Episode four (Coastal Seas): northern fur seal, compass jellyfish, giant trevally, mobula ray, Atlantic stingray, bottlenose dolphin, grey reef shark, whitetip reef shark, sea otter, California sheephead wrasse, Steller's sea lion, bald eagle, humpback whale, Guanay cormorant, Inca tern, Peruvian booby, South American sea lion

Episode five (From Deserts to Grasslands): Socotran cormorant, Arabian leopard, Arabian oryx, African elephant, cheetah, bison, Alcon blue butterfly, saiga, Przewalski's wild horse, tiger

Episode six (The High Seas): blue whale, spinner dolphin, mobula ray, oarfish, anglerfish, bristle worm, giant petrel, black-browed albatross, wandering albatross, bluefin tuna, sea lion, humpback whale

Episode seven (Fresh Water): Australian pelican, torrent duck, grizzly bear, manatee, giant mayfly, common kingfisher, osprey, jaguar, callipterus cichlid, Siamese fighting fish, hippopotamus, lion, African elephant, sandhill crane

Episode eight (Forests): Siberian tiger, bald eagle, rough-skinned newt, great hornbill, African elephant, African wild dog, fossa, gray mouse lemur

A Perfect Planet

Episode one (Volcano): lesser flamingo, marabou stork, Galápagos land iguana, vampire ground finch, Aldabra giant tortoise, North American river otter, coyote, Kamchatka brown bear, wildebeest

Episode two (The Sun): yellow-cheeked gibbon, fig wasp, arctic grey wolf, wood frog, garter snake, arctic fox, Saharan silver ant, golden snub-nosed monkey, sooty shearwater, humpback whales

Episode three (Weather): straw-colored fruit bat, fire ant, Amazonian giant river turtle, desert rain frog, Bactrian camel, Christmas Island red crab, carmine bee-eater, Nile crocodile, African fish eagle, hippopotamus

Episode four (Oceans): common dolphin, marine iguana, flightless cormorant, flamboyant cuttlefish, eider, bottlenose dolphin, lemon shark, manta ray, blacktip reef shark, trevally, rockhopper pengin, Eden's whale

Episode five (Humans): none

Life

Episode one (Challenges of Life): bottlenose dolphins, cheetah, panther chameleon, orca, brown-tufted capuchin, stalk-eyed fly, hippopotamus, Clark's grebe, giant Pacific octopus, strawberry poison-dart frog, leopard seal, orangutan

Episode two (Reptiles and Amphibians): pebble toad, caiman, basilisk, Brazilian pygmy gecko, panther chameleon, Namaqua chameleon, red-sided garter snake, collared iguana, hog-nosed snake, horned lizard, sea krait, African bullfrog, Komodo dragon

Episode three (Mammals): Weddell seal, elephant shrew, aye-aye, caribou, straw-colored fruit bat, lion, spotted hyena, polar bear, brown-nosed coati, meerkat, African elephant, humpback whale

Episode four (Fish): sailfish, flying fish, weedy sea dragon, convict fish, sarcastic fringehead, mudskipper, Hawaiian freshwater goby, hippopotamus, barbel, silvertip shark, clownfish, sea lion, ragged tooth shark, multiple snapper, whale shark

Episode five (Birds): spatuletail hummingbird, lammergeier, red-billed tropicbird, magnificent frigatebird, red knot, horseshoe crab, lesser flamingo, chinstrap penguin, great white pelican, Clark’s grebe, sage grouse, Vogelkop bowerbird

Episode six (Insects): Darwin’s beetle, unnamed damselfly, monarch butterfly, alkali fly, Wilson’s phalarope, oogpister beetle, mongoose, bombardier beetle, honey bee, black bear, Japanese red bug, Dawson’s bee, grass cutter ant

Episode seven (Hunters and Hunted): ibex, short-tailed stoat, brown bear, Ethiopian wolf, California ground squirrel, star-nosed mole, cheetah, red fox, greater bulldog bat, bottlenose dolphin, Bengal tiger, rattlesnake, orca

Episode eight (Creatures of the Deep): Pompeii worm, Humboldt squid, nemertean worm, moon jelly, fried egg jellyfish, spider crab, stingray, cuttlefish, giant Pacific octopus, sunflower sea star, king crab, cleaner shrimp

Episode nine (Plants): monarch butterfly, purple-throated carib hummingbird

Episode ten (Primates): Hamadryas baboon, Japanese macaque, lowland gorilla, spectral tarsier, phayre's leaf monkey, ring-tailed lemur, Sumatra orangutan, chacma baboon, white-faced capuchin, brown-tufted capuchin, western chimpanzee

Blue Planet II

Episode one (One Ocean): bottlenose dolphin, tuskfish, tern, giant trevally, mobula ray, false killer whale, Asian sheepshead wrasse, orca, humpback whale, walrus

Episode two (The Deep): sea toad, Venus’ flower basket, unnamed shrimp, ethereal snailfish, cock-eyed squid, pyrosome, barrel-eyed fish, unnamed siphonophore, yeti crab, Humboldt squid, fangtooth fish, sixgill shark, scabbardfish, zombie worm

Episode three (Coral Reefs): broadclub cuttlefish, coral grouper, day octopus, multiple corals, green turtle, bottlenose dolphin, manta ray, bobbit worm, saddleback clownfish, marbled grouper, grey reef shark

Episode four (Big Blue): spinner dolphin, yellowfin tuna, mobula ray, sailfish, sperm whale, sea turtle, blue shark, great white shark, multiple jellyfish, Portuguese man o' war, whale shark, wandering albatross, shortfin pilot whale

Episode five (Green Seas): Garibaldi, Australian giant cuttlefish, weedy seadragon, common octopus, pyjama shark, sea otter, tiger shark, smooth stingray, zebra mantis shrimp, common dolphin, humpback whale

Episode six (Coasts): Pacific leaping blenny, king penguin, southern elephant seal, Sally Lightfoot crab, Galápagos sea lion, ochre starfish, clingfish, chain moray eel, Atlantic puffin, arctic skua

Episode seven (Our Blue Planet): none

Prehistoric Planet

Episode one (Coasts): Tyrannosaurus rex, Tethydraco, Phosphatodraco,  Tuarangisaurus, Mosasaurus hoffmannii, pycnodont fish, ammonites,  Kaikaifilu

Episode two (Deserts):  Dreadnoughtus, Tarbosaurus, Velociraptor,  Mononykus, Barbaridactylus, Secernosaurus

Episode three (Freshwater): Velociraptor, Tyrannosaurus rex, Deinocheirus, Quetzalcoatlus, Masiakasaurus, Beelzebufo, elasmosaur

Episode four (Ice Worlds): dromaeosaur, hadrosaur, Ornithomimus, Olorotitan, troodontid, Antarctopelta, Pachyrhinosaurus, Nanuqsaurus

Episode five (Forests): Austroposeidon, Triceratops, Carnotaurus, Qianzhousaurus,  Edmontosaurus, Atrociraptor, Anodontosaurus, Therizinosaurus, Telmatosaurus, Hatzegopteryx

The Hunt

Episode one (The Hardest Challenge): African leopard, African wild dog, Parson’s chameleon, nose-horned chameleon, African mantis, Darwin’s bark spider, Nile crocodile, Amur falcon, orca, cheetah

Episode two (Arctic): polar bear, arctic grey wolf, arctic fox, glaucous gull

Episode three (Forests): tiger, American marten, sparrow hawk, Portia spider, tarsier, harpy eagle, chimpanzee, army ant

Episode four (Oceans): blue whale, frigatebird, dorado, sargassum fish, spinner dolphin, Beroe ovata, Chiroteuthis, lionfish, black-browed albatross, sea lion, tuna, copper shark, common dolphin, Bryde's whale

Episode five (Plains): cheetah, caracal, honey badger, termite, bald eagle, lion, Ethiopian wolf, hotrod ant, spoor spider

Episode six (Coasts): bottlenose dolphin, algae octopus, sand bubbler crab, long-tailed macaque, marine otter, grizzly bear, grey wolf, peregrine falcon, orca, humpback whale

Episode seven (Conservation): none

Life In Colour

Episode one (Seeing In Color): Indian peafowl, mandrill, Costa’s hummingbird, magnificent bird-of-paradise, blue moon butterfly, fiddler crab, mantis shrimp, flamingo, poison dart frog

Episode two (Hiding In Color): Bengal tiger, langur, ptarmigan, crab spider, zebra, Cuban painted snail, blue-striped fangblenny, common waxbill, pin-tailed wydah, Augrabies flat lizard

Frozen Planet II

Episode one (Frozen Worlds): emperor penguin, orca, Pallas’s cat, Siberian tiger, grizzly bear, hooded seal, polar bear

Episode two (Frozen Ocean): polar bear, beluga, harp seal, skeleton shrimp, crested auklet, orca

Episode three (Frozen Peaks): high-casqued chameleon, japanese macaque, kea, andean flamingo, giant panda, golden eagle, andean mountain lion

Episode four (Frozen South): king penguin, Antipodean wandering albatross, blue whale, Weddell seal, chinstrap penguin, snow petrel, leopard seal, orca

Episode five (Frozen Lands): grey wolf, arctic fox, Amur leopard, Siberian tiger, painted turtl, Lapland bumblebee, snowy owl, caribou, grizzly bear

Episode six (Our Frozen Planet): none

Africa

Episode one (Kalahari): fork-tailed drongo, ostrich, black rhinoceros, Angolan giraffe, African leopard, armored ground cricket, spider wasp

Episode two (Savannah): Agama lizard, shoebill, bee-eaters and rollers, lesser flamingo, African elephant, crowned eagle, African fish eagle, martial eagle

Episode three (Congo): chimpanzee, central African rock python, Angola banana frog, African skimmer, rockfowl, African elephant

Episode four (Cape): emperor swallowtail, giant kingfish, African penguin, monkey beetle, springbok, yellow-billed kite, pied crow, ghost crab, vundu catfish, Nile crocodile, Bryde’s whale, great white shark, common dolphin

Episode five (Sahara): Grevy’s zebra, naked mole rat, barn swallow, Dromedary camel, dung beetle, crocodile, western yellow wagtail, Saharan silver ant

Episode six (The Future): none

[readyforevolution]

WHEN BLACK-MEN RULED THE WORLD

Some Things You Did Not Know About the Moors of Spain

1. The Spanish occupation by the Moors began in 711 AD when an African army, under their leader Tariq ibn-Ziyad, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from northern Africa and invaded the Iberian peninsula ‘Andalus’.

2. A European scholar sympathetic to the Spaniards remembered the conquest in this way:

a. The reins of the Moors horses were as fire, their faces black as pitch, their eyes shone like burning candles, their horses were swift as leopards and the riders fiercer than a wolf in a sheepfold at night . . . The noble Goths [the German rulers of Spain to whom Roderick belonged] were broken in an hour, quicker than tongue can tell. Oh luckless Spain!

Quoted in Edward Scobie, The Moors and Portugal’s Global Expansion, in Golden Age of the Moor, ed Ivan Van Sertima, US, Transaction Publishers, 1992, p.336

3. The Moors, who ruled Spain for 800 years, introduced new scientific techniques to Europe, such as an astrolabe, a device for measuring the position of the stars and planets. Scientific progress in Astronomy, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Geography and Philosophy flourished in Moorish Spain.

4. Basil Davidson, one of the most noted historians recognized and declared that there were no lands at that time (the eighth century) “more admired by its neighbours, or more comfortable to live in, than a rich African civilization which took shape in Spain”

5. At its height, Córdova, the heart of Moorish territory in Spain, was the most modern city in Europe and the world. The streets were well-paved, with raised sidewalks for pedestrians. During the night, ten miles of streets were well illuminated by lamps. This was hundreds of years before there was a paved street in Paris or a street lamp in London. Cordova had 900 public baths – we are told that a poor Moor would go without bread rather than soap while the then

Queen of England never had a bath!

6. The Great Mosque of Córdoba (La Mezquita) is still one of the architectural wonders of the world in spite of later Spanish disfigurements. Its low scarlet and gold roof, supported by 1,000 columns of marble, jasper and and porphyry, was lit by thousands of brass and silver lamps which burned perfumed oil.

7. Education was universal in Moorish Spain, available to all, while in Christian Europe more than ninety-nine percent of the population were illiterate, and even kings could neither read nor write. At that time, Europe had only two universities copied from Spain, the Moors had seventeen great Universities! These were located in Almeria, Cordova, Granada, Juen, Malaga, Seville, and Toledo in which the majority of the lecturers were women.

8. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, public libraries in Europe were non-existent, while Moorish Spain could boast of more than seventy, of which the one in Cordova housed six hundred thousand manuscripts.

9. Over 4,000 Arabic words and Arabic-derived phrases have been absorbed into the Spanish language. Words beginning with “al,” for example, are derived from Arabic. Arabic words such as algebra, alcohol, chemistry, nadir, alkaline, and cipher entered the language. Even words such as checkmate, influenza, typhoon, orange, and cable can be traced back to Arabic origins.

10. The most significant Moorish musician was known as Ziryab, the Blackbird who arrived in Spain in 822. The Moors introduced earliest versions of several instruments, including the Lute or el oud, the guitar or kithara and the Lyre. Ziryab changed the style of eating by breaking meals into separate courses beginning with soup and ending with desserts.

11. The Moors introduced paper to Europe and Arabic numerals, which replaced the clumsy Roman system.

12. The Moors introduced many new crops including the orange, lemon, peach, apricot, fig, sugar cane, dates, ginger and pomegranate as well as saffron, sugar cane, cotton, silk and rice which remain some of Spain’s main products today.

13. The Moorish rulers lived in sumptuous palaces, while the monarchs of Germany, France, and England dwelt in big barns, with no windows and no chimneys, and with only a hole in the roof for the exit of smoke. One such Moorish palace ‘Alhambra’ (literally “the red one”) in Granada is one of Spain’s architectural masterpieces. Alhambra was the seat of Muslim rulers from the 13th century to the end of the 15th century. The Alhambra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

14. It was through Africa that the new knowledge of China, India, and Arabia reached Europe. The Moors brought the Compass from China into Europe.

15. The Moors ruled and occupied Lisbon in Portugal (named “Lashbuna” by the Moors) and the rest of the country until well into the twelfth century. They were finally defeated and driven out by the forces of King Alfonso Henriques. The scene of this battle was the ‘Castle of St. George.’

Beginning in the 12th century and continuing for hundreds of years, the Inquisition was infamous for the severity of its tortures and its persecution of Jews and Muslims. Its worst manifestation was in Spain, where the Spanish Inquisition was a dominant force for more than 200 years, resulting in some 32,000 executions.