#giraffids

[antiqueanimals]

Okapis by Louis A. Sargent. From Wild Beasts of the World, Vol. Two. Written by Frank Finn, published in 1909.

Internet Archive

[jimkinnz]

homunculus facts¡

while they do have an extensive natural history explaining their existence' giraffes were finalized with alchemy•

like' if there was no alchemy' giraffes would look different•

at least somewhat•

they,re not homunculi though• they,re ruminants in infraorder pecora•

as a sidenote' there are several varieties of homunculi that also have a 4 chambered stomach and ossicones• but that,s convergence•

[cuttlefishcuddles]

Seeing an okapi in the zoo was the inspiration behind my love of biodiversity and nature in general. They'll always have a special place in my heart

Happy #WorldOkapiDay!

Here is the first published image of an Okapi from a 1901 watercolor by ZSL fellow Sir Harry Johnston. Quite good #SciArt considering he hadn't yet seen a live one and only had a skin, skull, and verbal descriptions to work with! It was given the scientific name Okapia johnstoni in his honor. ("Okapi" was derived from its Indigenous name "o'api" from the local Lese tribe.)

See the plate in context with the original text here: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/31888385#page/52/

🚨The Okapi is currently listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

[entelodante]

ANOTHER PALEO DESIGN. this time with a sivatherium because they were one of my favs in zoo tycoon 2. they opened my eyes to all the weird almost-giraffes out there

[wiimotion]

if my pokesona is anything, it’ll be a girafarigokapi.. with a blue watermelon tail!

[fawnrats]

[Image description: A stylized digital drawing of an okapi sticking out his tongue to reach a leafy branch. End of image description.]

[artapir]

Quetzalokapi model, life size. Vinyl figures and plush toys available in the gift shop.

Midjourney 5.2

[eggdropcat]

Sivatherium

[cameoamalthea]

Unicorns are NOT Equines

A common misconception is that a unicorn is a horse with a horn. While a unicorn may be mistaken for a white horse, they are not in fact equines.

Unicorns are a chimera. They have cloven hooves like deer or goats, a tail like a lion, and male unicorns have goat-like beards.

The okapi, known as the "African Unicorn" due to it's elusive, mysterious nature may also be mistaken for some kind of equine, a relative of the zebra.

But, the okapi is, in fact, not related to zebras at all but to giraffes. The same is true of the unicorn. It is a member of the Giraffidae.

While giraffe males may have three distinct horn-like protuberances on their heads called ossicones with the largest in the center of the head and all okapi have two. The unicorn, famously, has one that grows from the center of its head.

Given the prevalence of using horses to portray live-action unicorns and modern artistic depictions, which imagine unicorns as simply horses with a horn resembling a narwhal tusk, as well as their inclusion in equine-themed toy lines alongside ponies and pegasus, the notion that unicorns are in fact members of the family Giraffidae may seem strange.

However, many now-extinct members of Giraffidae family might easily be mistaken for a type of horse with some number of bizarre horn-like structures (Decennatherium rex looked like a horse with four-horns a quadricorn if you will)

Many other extinct relatives of giraffes were equally bizarre. This image shows the African Miocene giraffids Palaeotragus primeavus (center left), P. germaini (center right), Climacoceras africanus (far left) and C. gentryi (far right). P. germaini stands about 3 meters from hoof to shoulder.

Finally, consider this:

An actual photo of a baby giraffe.

[skyscrapergods]

The way you phrased things suggests that other species can and do become gods outside of the three "ponies". Jokes about Hubble the space giraffe aside, I was wondering as soon as you mentioned it: was Baobab once a giraffe, themself? Or were they a pony or some other equine, since the ponies at least also have really long necks once ascending into godhood, and Baobab themself is implied to be much, much older, and hence, larger, than the other gods?

Are they something that perhaps does not exist on the planet any longer? Would a quagga have any reason to go extinct in this world? Other giraffids? Perhaps an antelope? Maybe even an early equine ancestor, whatever came before the "ponies" and their relatives, from whom most (if not all) descend? idk man thinking about it is just kind of Interesting

Boabab was, as best as we can figure, a giraffe, and they are indeed much larger than Celestia. but they are also so old and beyond mortals, that it is much closer to think of Boabab as a tree, or a forest, or a continent, than a person.

"it" is somewhat more appropriate than "they" at this point in time, due to the abstract nature of Boabab's mind, and the complete lack of movement.

Boabab, The Boabab, The Tree/Trees, and Life are all appropriate names for the entity. No connection at all to swamp fever, a disease much younger than when Boabab's legs settled into the earth and became one with the land.

In equestria, there are many sentient creatures besides ponies, but they make up a minority due to pony colonialism and in some cases, settler genocide. Mane-ifest Destiny is a toxic concept still taught to most Equestrian foals today. Buffalo, cows, kirin, and donkeys exist, but in smaller numbers than ponies.

On the Africa-like continent, "people" consist of many species. Zebras, giraffes, antelope, water buffalo, wildebeasts, elephants, etc. Zebras are not the most populous group, and don't think of themselves as better than the other species, but often find Equestrian diplomats assume they are the rulers. Touring ponies will often ignore their giraffe tour guide to talk to an unqualified zebra citizen passing by. It can be irritating and humiliating. But that's what you get when casual pony supremacy is the norm.

There are other countries where the main sentient race are dragons, griffins, seaponies, hippogriffs, yaks, zebus, camels, and more.

[antiqueanimals]

Giraffes by Louis A. Sargent. From Wild Beasts of the World, Vol. Two. Written by Frank Finn, published in 1909.

Internet Archive

[waxwing-ed]

shading practice with a giraffid loosely based off a pliocene samotherium. mostly this was just an excuse to paint really quickly before i go to bed though

speedpaint under cut, cause they're fun(tw for flashing!)

[felipithecus]

Fossil Friday

Some giraffid & bovid skulls from the NMK paleontology collection🦒

[okapiandpaste]

wooly mammoth got such a huge fandom that scientists are desperate bring them back to life so science can be trendy and hip again. ancient giraffid fandom we have to LOCK IN!!

[primesquib]

Reachitung

grass

Giraffid Pokémon

Despite resembling lickitung, this pokémon is a cousin to girafarig. its tounge is especially sticky, in order to pluck leaves from trees.

Reachireachy

grass

Giraffid Pokémon

Its tongue and neck have grown even longer to reach leaves. Sometimes, they will blend in with the foliage of the forest, and seemingly disappear amongst the trees.

[intothetlkverse]

Decided to challenge myself by drawing every single TLK character out there, up until this point in time, and post it here. You can see the finished project on my main account, though I figured to post it on my tumblr just show I could proudly show off my work and a few of my head canons.

Here's all the extra species across TLG/K:

So with every list, there are almost always the outliers. I did try to be good about my sheets, combining species by similar categories like family tree relations(i.e. giraffes and okapis are both giraffids, feliforms, mustelids, etc.) or by general feel such as general size or associations(ex. aardvarks in the non-rodents category). However there was no doubt in my mind that I would end up with some truly hard to justify extras, ones that just couldn't fit, would've fit except for the lengths of the lists, or not enough members to justify their own list, and even some I forgot/chose to ignore until now. I'll give a brief description of them, why they didn't make any previous sheets, and any justifications for any changes I made.

Starting off with the bears, one of the biggest categories and probably could've made a smaller list, though I wasn't sure how to go about that. So Africa technically doesn't have any bears, the extinct Atlas bear aside, however in the Middle East we do have the Syrian brown bear, which is close enough to Africa, which makes it good enough for me. So from panda to polar to grizzly, they're all now Syrian brown bears, and there are five of them; Tangaagim/Taqaddam(reverence/sanctity-Arabic), his wife Female Polar Bear/Pabalelo(protection-Afrikaans), Heng Heng/Henna(a shrub, polite-Arabic), baby panda/Bapana(father-Sudanese) from the T&P Show episode/book "Don't Break the China", along with his parents, and Smolder the bear/Mvutaji(smoker) from various episodes. The first three are all native to the Tree of Life, as some of the few predators aside from the lions and Varya's family, though they mostly keep to themselves and chow down on the local foliage and fish. Bapana and his family live elsewhere in a more jungle setting, a strange trio as panda father's are notable absence typically. Mvutaji is a loner to most and a real pain in the butt and bully if you do get to know him, hence why others tend to avoid him. He's had a couple run-ins with Timon and Pumbaa, and has develop quite the aggression towards them.

Next is our other largest category here, featuring the goats. Technically could've added them to the bovines list, though that already was too long and had to be split. As for the goats, our mountain goats from TLG are now now Arabian tahr; Rama(ram), Cek/Cheik(learned, Arabic), and Baby/Bab(door, Arabic). A small herd, their family has lived for generations in the Tree of Life, enjoying the rocky cliffs surrounding the Oasis, occasionally acting as scouts for the pride.

We also have the Goat/Uboya(wool) from "The White I-don't-know-what", now a Nubian ibex, and Billy the Goat/Mbuzi(goat) from "Serengeti Western", also an ibex. For the former, after an eagle tries to hunt Simba during his mountain scaling trip, Simba struggles and the eagle ends up drops him. He lands in Uboya, and of course he's frightened by the sudden predator landing on his back, but after a brief moment of panic and decomposition, he allows Simba to ride him up the mountain to where the snow is. Meanwhile Mbuzi, along with Gaidi the scrub hare and Mad Dog McGraw/Nadawa(drugs) the wild dog, are part of a group of ruffians that threaten others for resources. Also there is Happy dog/Thabo(happiness-Southern Sotho) from "Let's Serengeti Out of Here". My HC is that Nadawa is an outcast from his pack due to his more sadistic, thieving behaviors and Thabo is his younger brother who thinks the world of his brother, not realizing he's a wanted criminal. Happy dog of course got a massive design rehaul to fit here, though I tried to still keep some semblance like making his eye color his original blue palette, keeping the lighter tip of his tail, and even sneaking in a smiley face in reference to his original tie on his chest. Mad Dog McGraw keeps his original colors, though I used the colors from his shirt, gloves, and hat as the spots/patches. The both of them I didn't know they existed until I really scoured the TLK wiki, otherwise he would've made it onto the canines sheet.

Going back to our hooved animals, we have our bactrian camel, now an Arabian-native dromedary camel; Nundu(hump), Kiril/Kiri(confession), a musk-deer-now-turned-Barbary-stag, and Tenuk/Teneil(cloud-Arabic) the tapir, now a rhino. Technically speaking, deer and antelope are not in the same family, cervidae vs bovidae, and while they may look similar, they are not closely related. Hence why he's here. Also I think I might lowkey ship him and Nundu here based on how they're looking at each other. Kiri and his herd are in the Nightlands in order to recoup their numbers after several tragedies wiped a lot of them out. Nundu is one of the Night Pride's members, serving as a messenger and guide for those seeking refuge at the Tree, directing them there if they see they truly need help, and Kiri was one of the ones Nundu personally guided back. Nundu got a hump removed to be more accurate to the Arabian-native camel species there, though I tried to keep some of the shaggy look. As for Teneil, tapirs are found in Malaysia, Sumatra, and South American countries, so a species swap was in order. Residing in the forest that Mama Civet and her porcupine prickle resided in, since their departure the community has slowly been rebuilding their strength and making it a safe haven for travelers once more, allowing the cultivation and free usage of tuliza for all. I chose rhino for him since that's the closest species they're related too, aside from horses interestingly enough, though looking at those lips I can see the resemblance. It does also amuse me a bit to think of a full-grown rhino being scared witless by a civet and some porcupine, then realizes later 'oh wait, I have a horn and several hundred pounds on these bullies'.

Next large category is primates, just non-monkeys: Kely(little-Malagasy) the golden bamboo lemur and the last of the Nightlanders, Perata(ring-Malagasy) the ring-tailed lemur from "A King-like Hairdo" that Simba saves from a log jam, Tarsier/Truuk(trick-Afrikkans) from "Congo on Like This", and Laini(delicate) the galago/bushbaby. Would've been on the primates list if it were not for the fact that it was so long, even when split up. So my HC is that a couple years ago, a horrible monsoon season hit Madagascar, and unfortunately several animals; Kely, Perata, and Truuk included, got sent to the mainland on fallen trees. Some like Kely and his troop eventually found themselves at the Tree of Life and settled in their, unable to figure out how to return back home. Perata the ring-tailed lemur found themselves in a similar predicament, landing closer to the Pridelands, though after being rescued and then rescuing Simba, the cub got him in touch with a bateleur eagle named Ubawa, who had previously shown great prowess and proficiency in returning animals back to their original homeland, as with Eiso the African penguin. Though locating and flying across the water to an island 250 miles off the coast while carrying a lemur on his back, Ubawa eventually succeeded in returning the little lemur home, then promptly retired from this job, and actually retired on the island. Next the tarsier, now aye-aye, Truuk, of whom I split both his tarsier disguise and jackal self into two different characters, now working together as partners. Though I hate to add further negative connotations to aye-ayes, given their already 'bad omen status', it was the closest thing I could get, since tarsiers are native to Southeast Asia and aye-ayes are from Madagascar, plus look closely to the former. He eventually came into contact with the jackal Barakoa. Using this misguided stereotype of being a harbinger of evil, plus being a generally frightening creature, he was able to negotiate with the jackal for his life; he would help trick and trap animals for Barakoa to kill, then they would split the results. Timon and Pumbaa nearly were the victims of this, though thankfully they had Simba around to chew butt and kick gum.... and.. well Tarsier's eyes kinda have that pink gum look to them, right? Lastly we have Laini the galago, a Pridelands native. Though mostly nocturnal, her and her group seem to be more diurnal, interacting with other animals freely in the day. Though skittish, she is very kind, even acting on occasion as the night patrol for the rulers.

Next up are marsupials, a group of mammals that have pouches in which their babies are nurtured in after birth. They are also mostly native to Australia and opossums are found additionally in both North/South America, though obviously not Africa, unless we go back several ages ago, though I like to stay more modern. First is Boudreaux/Butros(rock-Arabic) the opossum from "Okay Bayou?". Had considered moonrat, though that's a Southeast Asian species, plus not even a real rat. To keep with the grey color/general body shape/long snout, I went with the African giant shrew. Anyways he's one of Timon and Pumbaa's pals, an honest, simple soul. Next is formerly kangaroos, now springhares, mother and son duo; Joey/Jahi(dignified) and Joey's Mother/Jokia(attractive).

Lastly of the land-dweller is King of Pluto/Udo(second son-Afrikaans), given meerkat form. Unlike his daughter which did make it into the meerkat category, this guy didn't have any meerkat disguise or anything. His slug-like appearance would've made it onto the bug sheet, though I decided to just try and invent a meerkat form for him to go with his daughter. Colors like his daughter, blonde hair for his crown, eyebrows and chin meant to reflect his tentacles, and the blue and purple turaco feathers are reminiscent of his crown and cape.

And finally, the last category is warm-blooded sea creatures with Lumba Lumba(dolphin-Sudanese) the Indo-Pacific dolphin and Lester/Balyena(whale-Iloko) the humpback whale. Lester is a female human cursed to be a wish-giving male whale that gets turned back after fulfilling the wishes. I've already decided to do humans in the future for this project, just turned into animals to keep in with the animal-centric theme of this universe, though considering this character was a human that got turned into a whale, I've decided to just leave them as is. Also decided to split the difference, making them both female and a whale. Also I like how their name sounds like 'baleen', which is the name for the mouth filter system in most whales that allows them to strain seawater for food. Lumba Lumba is a Indo-Pacific dolphin. Both Chinese and Amazon river dolphins are known to be pink, though given that Lumba Lumba is clearly an ocean-dwelling type, an that albinism in ocean-dwelling dolphins does result in them becoming a pinkish color, like Angel the bottlenose dolphin, it made sense to make that the reason here, though unfortunately it does mean she's even more at risk for sunburns and the like. Decided to keep her saturated pink look.