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”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.

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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

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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)

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Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus)

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

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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

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

Swag

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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.

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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]

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!

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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!

[mammalidentifier]

Common spotted cuscus (spilocuscus maculatus). Spotted cuscuses are very interesting animals: not only their markings vary a lot from individual to individual and in tone and intensity, they also have two naturally occurring very distinct color morphs (either predominantly gray or predominantly orange) AND their coat colors are a sexually dimorphic trait! Females are solidly colored and males have spots.

Pictured: male and female individuals of both color variants.

Interestingly enough, both males and females can be fully white as well! The cuscus pictured in the third reply is decked out in a fashionably unisex coat.

Truly animals are some of the most numerous creatures of earth

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

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

[mammalidentifier]

Easy! All but one of these animals are artiodactyls, which is to mean, ungulates who have an even number of functional toes on the end of their limbs. The odd one out is the zebra, who, as a perissodactyl, has an odd number of functional toes instead! Just like horses and donkeys, actually, zebras have a single toe at the end of each leg. It’s as if we humans put all of our weight on our middle fingers and toes:

Now, I know what you’re thinking: what about dolphins? They have don’t have any toes! And the answer is: they don’t have any toes now, but they used to! Cetaceans evolved from hoofed, semi-aquatic animals that resembled modern chevrotains and had an even number of functional toes.

Art of the earliest known ancestor of the cetaceans, Indohyus, and one of its descendants, Pakicetus, who’s considered the most basal whale. Created by the brilliant Sergey Meleshin (FinwalART on Artstation).

Even though they’ve lost most of their superficial resemblance to terrestrial animals, though, cetaceans are still very much even-toed ungulates on the inside. And I mean it literally: a look at their digestive system will show you it resembles the digestive system of ruminants much more closely than the digestive system of other carnivores!

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Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus)