#color morph

[blackbackedjackal]

black & tan coyote by cliveh

[snommie]

New stickers in the shop!! The vinyl is transparent, so once you peel em you can see their whiskers :3

You can find my shop here

[doglover43]

piebald deer 🦴

[ratlegs]

Spotless Cheetah, photographed by Guy Combes

[tysonfurybattlepass]

Why do so many cats come in melanistic, but not all of them? I want to see an all black cheetah not just like a king cheetah which are awesome too but still.

i had to look this one up, because i honestly did not know! and the results are fascinating, to say the least.

turns out, melanism has evolved multiple different times across different genera of cats! the cop-out answer could be that cheetahs simply haven’t evolved complete melanism yet, but there are some other potential reasons to explore.

in Lucas Gonçalves da Silva’s publication simply titled Big Cats, he dedicates an entire chapter to the ecology and potential evolution of melanism in leopards and jaguars (the only big cats known to display complete melanism)

in his research, he found that the rate of melanism in both cats is around 10% of the sample groups, but there is a very strong correlation between living in dense, wet forests and the greater frequency of melanism.

in fact, melanism was completely absent from jaguar populations that lived in open floodplains areas, while the phenotype appeared at predictable rates in closed forest habitats.

so based on these trends, it seems that melanism is particularly linked to living in areas with high moisture, high temperature, and dense foliage, while being less common in open and flat terrain. it follows this trend, then, that cats like lions (and cheetahs, though they are not part of the genus being studied here), who live primarily in open grassland habitats, would probably not develop complete melanism in any significant population.

(that being said, though, servals have been known to come in all black, so these trends seem to be specific to the panthera genus, and it isn’t anything more than a hypothesis anyway.)

we still aren’t 100% sure why melanism is linked to wetter forested environments in larger species. it could be simply more advantageous in that environment, and thus naturally selected for (neutral polymorphism), but da Silva suggests that this might not be the case. rather, factors such as humidity and temperature may influence the development of the genes which code for coloring, causing the phenotype to appear more frequently.

here’s a link to the chapter about melanism in panthera, i highly recommend taking a look at it:

[tggardens]

A bonus shot of a little Red Koi isopod hanging out on a Lemon Button Fern leaf.

[dogwise]

Albino Barred Owlet

[canisoccidentalis]

Found this image while going through some old photos. Coyote with some sort of dilute gene? Pretty funky color morph that’s for sure.

Found via taxidermy.net.

[arthistoryanimalia]

For #WatercolorWednesday:

Samuel Daniell (British, 1775–1811) A Landscape in Ceylon, With Barking Deer and Fawn and a Pair of Paradise Fly-Catchers between 1808 and 1811 Watercolor, over graphite, with pen in brown ink and gouache on medium, moderately textured, beige, wove paper Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B2006.14.16.

The pecies depicted are the Southern Red Muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak) and white morph Indian Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi).

[velvetedantler]

Appears that the right sleeve of my cross fox fur jacket was made from a whitemark cross! Lovely white markings around the neck and the underbelly.

I think this unique pelt adds more charm to this jacket and to the casual fur buyer I don't think it's noticable. This is why I strongly urge furriers to buy mutation fox skins, even if the pelt doesn't perfectly match it is still going to look incredible on the finished garment.

[canisoccidentalis]

@fyanimaldiversity

Colombia confirmed the first case of an albino ocelot, after carrying out genetic tests on a feline with white fur and red eyes. 

The ocelot was found as a kitten, weighing just 440 grams, in the rural zone of Amalfi and was first thought to be a puma jaguarundi.

Medellin’s Conservation Park undertook genetic testing on the animal, concluding it was actually a leopardus pardalis, a native species of ocelot that is found all across the Americas.

[blackbackedjackal]

Albino Southern Black-backed jackal (L. m. mesomelas) by dougmacsafaris

[floweypilled]

Growing in the empty space where a Soul should be

[nobleriver]

The Doctor and River Song + Being A Besotted Old Married Couple

I’m all yours, Sweetie.  Only River Song gets to call me that.

Bonus:

[pseudis-paradoxa]

That’s a Mississippi map turtle. Still adorable!

Albino red eared slider turtle

[quesocheeso]

I headcanon Wukong having brown fur back before he had all his immortalities, and as he got stronger and more immortal he turned more golden/ginger

Only some of the older monkey demons and his generals knew him back then and know he originally had darker fur, so when Xiaotian was born everyone assumed he got his darker fur from Macaque but his generals were just cooing over him looking just like Wukong when he was younger. Macaque was surprised by this since he met Wukong after he had already lost all his brown fur, but he does remember him still having a brown undertone until he ate the immortal peaches and wine.

(Since I love drama) Some of the court/servants initially, being petty, spread rumors that Xiaotian was not the Emperor's son, y'know as one does, how they came up with this, who knows. But before the rumor can spread, the ffm generals are already there gushing about the baby looking just like Wukong when he was younger.