mammalidentifier

[mammalidentifier]

I wanted to add a diagram of the digestive system of a member of the order Carnivora to compare it to the cetacean's but l couldn't find a high quality one that l liked, so l put a quick one together on my phone:

Many thanks to my cat Frodo for serving as the model. Anyway, as you can see, meat eaters such as cats have a single stomach chamber, which makes the fact some cetaceans still keep their multiple chambered stomachs quite unusual!

[mammalidentifier]

Me? A cat? Psh, of course not! I wouldn't be able to type if I had cat paws, would I? I obviously have very dexterous fingers, capable of grasping and manipulating objects with precis-

Hey! Hey! How did this get here??? Who took this picture without my permission???

[mammalidentifier]

Sir that humpback whale image you just ID'd is AI-generated

Oh man, really? If that’s so, I’m definitely embarrassed! I like to think I’m good at telling AI generated images apart from actual pictures and I do have the habit to zoom in particularly “majestic” shots of animals to look for the usual telltale signs of AI images before reblogging them (such as elements melting into each other and that classic unnatural “shininess”) but I swear that this time nothing really caught my eye.

Either way, given that this is an animal identification blog and AI generated images of animals are like, notoriously inaccurate and the fact they’re taking over online image search engines is a pretty serious (and annoying) issue, I think it’s better to err on the side of caution and remove that post. To make up for it, here are some pictures of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) that are guaranteed of being of real animals!

[mammalidentifier]

@wartwing the OP of this post has disabled reblogs, but this is a banded linsang (Prionodon linsang)!

Despite sharing their name and superficial appearance with the African viverrids also known as linsangs, genetic analysis in the mid 00s has determined banded linsangs and their closest relatives not to be viverrids at all and, instead, the closest living relatives of all true felids!

[mammalidentifier]

Coyote (Canis latrans) and American badger (Taxidea taxus). Coyotes and American badgers are a very interesting case of cross-species collaboration! During warm months, they partner up to hunt for prairie dogs, ground squirrels and other small burrowing animals together.

You see, burrowing animals escape coyotes and badgers differently: since badgers hunt by digging up their dens, they take off running, which badgers often can’t keep up with due to their stubby legs. Coyotes, however, who are skilled runners and hunt by chasing and pouncing, are avoided by their prey by them hiding inside their dens, of which they will only emerge from from another, further away entrance, far away from the coyote.

So coyotes and badgers will actively seek each other out and hunt side by side! This way, the badger is able to dig up the rodents that manage to escape the coyote by hiding in their dens and the coyote is able to catch the ones that escape from the badger by taking up running. This partnership makes it so both animals have about a 30% higher rate of success in catching prey together than when hunting alone. Seeing them follow each other around is also, of course, a very cute sight:

Video by the Peninsula Open Space Trust - POST YouTube channel

speculative biology/fantasy/fictionalized large predators that kill indiscriminately and don't eat what they kill drive me up the fucking wall. it is so, so dangerous and exhausting to be a large predator. you don't want to get into a fight, you don't want to exert too much energy, because if you fuck up you can die. and once you manage to kill something, you eat it. you don't go and kill the rest of the herd, you scare off the rest of the herd and eat the thing you killed until something scares you off.

did you know tigers only have a 10% success rate as hunters? TIGERS.

[mammalidentifier]

”Hey, I don’t think I have logged on Tumblr in a couple of days! But I’m sure everything is going on just as usual and-”

[mammalidentifier]

why are you googling pregnancy tests and abortions. Are you doing research for a scrampire mpr

The most humbling thing that's ever happened to me is someone thinking it's more likely that I am writing Sesame Street MPreg than me having sex in real life.

[mammalidentifier]

Japanese raccoon dog (Nyctereutes viverrinus), also called by their Japanese language name, tanuki. Despite their raccoon-like appearance, raccoon dogs are canids, with their closest relatives being true foxes (Vulpes) and bat-eared foxes (Otocyon).

They also can’t use magic to turn old leaves into money like in folktales either, so this individual is not actually particularly wealthy. It seems to be having a good time, though!

[mammalidentifier]

That’s a red fox (Vulpes vulpes) indeed! It’s just wearing its summer coat rather than its more famous winter coat, which can make them look pretty different:

Source

[mammalidentifier]

Big-eared freerfs, individually known as:

1st picture: Long-eared jerboa (Euchoreutes naso)

2nd and 3rd pictures: Caracal (Caracal caracal) 

4th and 7th pictures: Greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros)

5th picture: Aardvark (Orycteropus afer)

6th, 8th and 10th pictures: Fennec fox (Vulpes zerda) 

9th picture: Domestic dog (Canis familiaris), more specifically of the Basset Hound breed

11th picture: Bat-eared fox (Otocyon megalotis), and

12th picture: European hare (Lepus europaeus)

[mammalidentifier]

Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus)

too many of you are going “ape shit”..... not enough going “ape sit”

[mammalidentifier]

Domestic rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus domesticus), more specifically the of the Netherland Dwarf breed. It has a figurine depicting a horse (Equus ferus caballus) balanced on its head, more specifically “Minty”, a character from the 3rd generation of the My Little Pony franchise, which was offered as a McDonald’s Happy Meal toy from January 28th to February 24th in the US in 2005.

[mammalidentifier]

Almost! Zoboomafoo was a sifaka as well, but he was a Coquerel's sifaka (Propithecus coquereli). They’re very similar, though:

The main visual difference between them is that Coquerel’s sifakas have a white beanie on.

Swag

[mammalidentifier]

Crowned sifaka (Propithecus coronatus). This one is a baby!

Swag

[mammalidentifier]

Southern tamandua (Tamandua tetradactyla). Tamanduas emit a malodorous liquid from their anal glands when they feel threatened, much like skunks do. Or so they say to thwart authorities when they’re accused of dealing illicit substances that smell a bit funky.

[mammalidentifier]

That’s not that unusual for cats, actually! You see, all mammals are cared for by adults of their species for a period of time after birth and, while a lot of animal behavior is instinctive, some behaviors can only be learned by young animals through observation and imitation of older family members.

The African wildcat (Felis lybica), the animal domestic cats (Felis catus) derived from, is largely solitary as an adult. Domestic cats, however, developed a trait that’s very common during the domestication process: neoteny, the retaining of physical and behavioral traits that are usually only present during youth into adulthood! Between other things, they never lose their kitten-like preference to be around their families rather than alone, with feral domestic cats living in large colonies.

First picture: African wildcat. Second picture: domestic cat. African wildcats can look a lot like your average tabby!

So, when raised as pets, cats tend to regard “their” humans as older, more experienced family members, which can result in them learning some very interesting behaviors from us!

The original thread OP’s cat feeding the dog, for example, was something he very likely learned from observing his human family: if they made a habit of dropping a little bit of food for the dog before giving some to the cat, the cat probably associated the two actions, and now thinks he’s allowed to take any leftover food for himself… as long as he diligently drops some on the floor before, that is!

Of course, not all domestic cats will learn the same behaviors, but most cats will learn at least a few things specifically because of their interaction with humans. For example, both adult African wildcats and adult feral domestic cats tend to not know how to meow! Meowing is usually only done by kittens to communicate with their mothers. Pet cats only keep doing it past kittenhood because us humans respond particularly well to it, being very vocal species ourselves!

[mammalidentifier]

Wild boar (Sus scrofa). This one is a very young piglet, less than 10 months old. As they get older than that, the stripes they’re born with to help with camouflage when they’re small and vulnerable start fading away, giving way to their brown adult coats.

In the specific terms used for boars… that’s a squeaker!