#Large Beaks

[knowingwonder]

chalk drawing of raven

Ravens are all black birds but I wanted a brighter look so I used purples. These large birds gesture to communicate. They point with their beaks. Ravens can also use their beaks to rip objects open. They can use tools to get food.

[subbalakshmisastry]

Searching For Food Early in The Morning Painted Storks in Kukkarahalli ...

[serpentface]

The (now extinct) utosai, the last of the great lacetors.

Lacetors are a clade of warmblooded reptiles that fill niches as large grazers. The only genera surviving in the contemporary are relatively small (averaging about the size of cattle), but many older species grew bigger than elephants. Utosai were the last remaining members of this branch, dwindling towards extinction as their once vast grasslands experienced rapid desertification over a period of a mere few millenia, becoming the massive, mostly uninhabitable desert region colloquially known as the Deadlands.

They would historically live in herds consisting of one male, several (sometimes dozens of) females, and their associated young, which would migrate vast distances to follow seasonal rains. Males would fight each other to gain control of their mates or tempt away singular females, with young males roaming in bachelor herds. As reliable grasslands grew sparser, these herds grew much smaller, with the last remaining utosai being found largely as small bands of females and lone, wandering males that would opportunistically mate when they were lucky enough to find each other.

Utosai had very thick scaly skin that folds in plates, in part a vestigial defense mechanism against large predators that had LONG vanished. Like many other lacetor, they had partly bony facial pads that grew large and colorful in males as display features. Their tremendous curving horns served predominantly as additional display features, while the smaller, jutting horns partly figured into intraspecies combat, with males standing side by side and front to back and swinging these horns at each other in ritualized combat behavior.

These horns were clearly of value to the people who once inhabited the same ranges as utosai, as their ivory figured heavily into their craftwork and holy objects and can be found near-ubiquitously in the burials of high ranking people in the east interior Deadlands. These surviving utosai ivory artifacts are of tremendous value, with the mere prospect of obtaining them tempting many graverobbers and other such wealth-seekers into the remains of ancient human settlements (a mostly futile and often deadly task, most accessible tombs have already been plundered and those still left in peace are hidden deeply beneath the sands).

Utosai lasted far longer than many of their counterparts, surviving on (and trapped within) dwindling patches of coastal grassland fed by ocean rains, too isolated within stretches of desert for any chance of migration to grasslands further from the equator. These last fragmentary populations were discovered by traders and treasure seekers sponsored by the early 2nd Burri empire, with many hatchling utosai being taken back overseas hundreds of miles north. It is unknown when the last wild utosai died, but all but the tiniest fragments of their coastal grasslands are gone and the great beasts are nowhere to be found.

The captive animals were bred in Bur and eventually produced a relatively large (and heavily inbred) population, probably maxing out at around 1000 individuals. They were never truly domesticated but could be made tame and well accommodated to handling, which eventually developed into their use as mounts, forming an elite cavalry unit used in warfare. A war utosai was outfitted with a shielded tower upon its back from which archers could fire from height, and would be driven by a rider on its neck. Their use was functionally similar to irl war elephants, being utilized for intimidation, to scatter enemy formations, and to lead (or break) charges. These were the largest animals that most people would have ever seen, and were often reckoned as nigh-invulnerable. The utosai was heavily used in Bur's wars of conquest, and became an esteemed animal emblematic of the second Burri empire's might.

Very few consistently effective counters to the war utosai were discovered during the duration of their use. One very famous, very successful counter was used by the pre-Wardi Ephenni tribe in its war of independence against the second Burri empire (which was already beginning to collapse). The province of Ephennos was of key import to the empire as a breadbasket, being highly fertile lands and providing much of the grain that sustained the empire. A cavalry of ten utosai (a VERY excessive number against a less well-trained, less well-armed group of soldiers) was brought overseas to assist in crushing dissent and were devastating in battle, with only two of the ten being killed in three years of protracted warfare.

In an act of cleverness, desperation, or both, a trio of khait were covered in pitch and set ablaze, and spurred into hurtling towards the bulls in the utosai cavalry. The utosai panicked and fled, trampling many Burri soldiers in the process and utterly destroying their formations, with three of the eight utosai falling onto their sides (weighed down by their towers) and killed by Ephenni soldiers. This allowed for victory in battle, and this victory ultimately turned the tide in favor of the kingdom of Ephennos and its eventual independence. A motif of three khait wreathed in flames is still widely used in this region and as emblematic of Ephenni heritage (who, while broadly assimilated into Wardi nationality, still retain a sense of individual identity, and pride in their city-state being a center of power and birthplace of kings within Imperial Wardin).

The use of utosai in warfare dwindled after the discovery of this fairly effective counter. They were no longer reckoned as nearly invulnerable, and the great cost of transporting and feeding these animals became increasingly inviable. Captive breeding began to dwindle along with their use in warfare. The last utosai were lost, killed, or slowly died off in the Burri wilderness during and after the empire's tumultuous collapse. Some folklore describes hidden populations surviving in some wilder areas- there are several places in Bur where people claim to sometimes see the silhouettes of these great beasts against the horizon, and the rural parts of Ephennos are rumored to have a few of them (perhaps descendants of the surviving war utosai, perhaps their ghosts). Otherwise, they are lost to the world.

[fisheito]

I was so scare when i saw this

Rei.... what are you going to do to those slimes where my party is at serious risk of die

[yellowplumfruit]

my pigeon recently learned that he can rip the newspaper at the bottom of his crate so i’ve been waking up to the sounds of loud paper noises in the morning

[molagboop]

So I put the power of friendship and impractical outfits into Metroid Dread. No suits, no shields: we die in a giant laser hand cannon fight like true warriors.

[uygfiug]

hi anna!!! how have you been? i hope all is well :)

i am here with bug pictures!!!!

i put both these guys in a bug ID app and it seems like the top one is an earwig (specifically maybe it's a ring-legged earwig?) and then the bottom guy seems to be an eastern parsons spider?

also apologies for the quality, i'm always so afraid to get close to the bugs for photos lmao

hiya zip <333 ive been okay, weirdly i dont feel stressed at all about my exams, but they are having negative effects on me? how are you doing?

some bird pictures in return :)

(female mallards, eurasian coots (babies) & crows)

[moongothic]

I had a dream last night where I was in like... some kind of a video game and/or competition, where the contestants had to explore an area/level, going room to room and figure out the way to the next (the rooms would sometimes loop back to previous rooms, almost like a Spyro level), and eventually find a secret treasure that was hidden somewhere on the level

And I found the secret treasure, somehow! Not that the contents of the treasure were a secret, it was going to be a magic potion that either... God I can't fully remember, I think it was either going to turn you immortal (or something else, I forgor) or turn you into a dragon, one of the two. I had been hoping it'd be the former, but alas, drank the potion immidiately after finding it and it was the dragon potion. Wasn't particularly happy about it but it could've been worse. To be more specific the potion gave you the ability to transform back and forth so it wasn't like you got turned into a dragon forever, I was now a dragon-shapeshifter. Which was still kinda cool

But man, what really got me was how cool the dragon design kinda was. Like, it was like a bipedal vaguely humanoid dragon, completely white. The body had like the same soft shapes as Toothless does (with chonky hands and feet, like Megaman lmao) but the head was more like that of an iguana or a komodo dragon... I dunno man it was cool as hell, I really loved that design

The dream continued from there on because there was still like shit to find and things to explore on the level (and places only I could now reach because I could fly! Wheee) but I can't remember anything, like the plot of the dream has left my mind, all that remains is the neat dragonsona

[rxttenfish]

............ i’m starting to worry that all the talk of “trash pandas” and people calling themselves raccoons have unfairly given people the idea that raccoons are safe or docile or easy to handle

like, the original wish to talk of them in more endearing terms was in reaction to the overarching narrative that they’re pests and should be exterminated, but that absolutely DOES NOT mean you should get close to raccoons nor treat them as pets. they are still a dangerous animal that you shouldn’t disturb, much less come within biting distance of a raccoon.

[fromtraveldiaries]

Malabar pied hornbill, Dandeli, December 2022

[knowingwonder]

(via "Three poppies and a swan" Mouse Pad for Sale by KnowingWonder) Swans are known for their beauty and elegance.  They have their own constellation.

[darknanigans]

yeah, but can you draw echidnas from memory because of a hilarious amount of hyperfixation?

[underbootsociety]

Every goddamn time i see a shoebill stork I am stunned. I think to myself, This thing is an animatronic. It's 3d animated. It's elaborate speculative biology. But no. Against all better reason, this bird is real.

[subbalakshmisastry]

Highly Excited Blue & Gold Macaws

[molagboop]

I got a good grade in Wrist at the doctor's, which is both normal to want and possible to achieve.

Anyways, here are some progress shots on a painting I started a few nights ago to hold you over while I get back in the swing of things.

[magistralucis]

@absolut--kurant!

Wiping off a black glaze wash from the heron bell 🛎