#wild mammals

[rinusuarez]

Introducing the new Mammal Info Sheets. By joining the club, every week you will receive a PDF with exclusive information sheets about the animal I illustrate! You can learn facts and valuable insights about mammals from around the globe, stay informed about endangered species, and meet new ones. This week: the Numbat!

Here is the link to the club if you want to join:

Please share if you know someone who might be interested. Thank you!

[whatnext10]

Armadillos Don’t See Well, but They Have a Great Nose

Taking a Break On one of my recent trips to Watermelon Pond a pretty little nine banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) found me. I was hiking through the woods towards the water when it happened along. I say it found me because it came out of some heavy underbrush into the more open area where I was walking. It looked around, never saw me, and began to follow its nose around in search for some…

[eukaryotesrool]

Vulpini

(From top left, to bottom right: red fox, fennec fox, cape fox, corsac fox)

Vulpini is a tribe (taxonomic rank below subfamily, and above genus) comprised of true foxes (The genus Vulpes) and the fox-like Otocyon and Nyctereutes genuses. It is also the sister tribe of Canini.

(Take a wild guess what species this fella is)

With some exception, members of Vulpini closely resemble the red fox (Vulpes vulpes). For example, small size (relative to other canines, such as wolves or coyotes), bushy tails, and prominent ears are traits generally found within Vulpinids. Alright, stage set, lets get into it.

The best scientific name

(Thought I was gonna say the red fox, didn't ya?)

The corsac fox, Vulpes corsac (vulpes means fox, I cannot find the meaning of corsac) so, the corsac fox's scientific name, is a word meaning fox, and the word corsac... this is about as good as it gets, friends.

Honorable mention(s): Vulpes zerda, Vulpes Vulpes

The littlest baby

(SO CUTE)

The fennec fox's (Vulpes zerda) ears are just about the only big thing about it, they're not just the smallest fox, but the smallest Canid (true canine) as well.

Males are 15.4 to 15.6 inches (391.16-396.24 mm) long, not counting their relatively long, 9.1-9.8 inch (23-25 cm), tail. Females are generally even smaller, coming in at 13.6 to 15.6 inches (34.5-39.5 cm) long, their tails are the same length. They weigh 1.5 to 3.5 pounds (0.9-1.4 kilograms)

Honorable mention(s): Blanford's fox, cape fox

The weirdest

(AKA: Chinese/Asian raccoon dog, mangut, and neoguri)

The common raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) They are not a raccoon, or a dog, but a fox-like canine.

They're such lil weirdos! They look like raccoon in color palette, but don't really have the right body structure, so uncanny, yet cute.

Also, they're one of few canids to climb trees (but they aren't arboreal) AND they're the only canid to hibernate, their survival depends having enough extra fat built up for Winter.

Honorable mentions: Fennec fox, bat-eared-fox

The most Vulpini-y

(Was there ever any doubt?)

Vulpes vulpes, need I say more? I mean, just look at it, it (and its scientific name) screams fox.

They are unique in their highly adaptable nature, sadly they're a bit too good at it. Red foxes are very invasive, considered one of the world's 100 most invasive species, a list by the IUCN which includes not just animals, but all types of species, even viruses, so yikes.

Ironically, despite their name they are often afflicted with melanism and leucism, conditions which alter their pigmentation and therefore color.

Honorable mention(s): corsac fox, arctic fox

The biggest baby

(Haha, they friends)

Measuring at 22-32 inches (56-82 cm) with a 14-16 inch (35-43 cm) long tail, they are suprisingly light for their size, weighing just 15 pounds (2.7-6.8 kilograms)

Honorable mention(s): Arctic fox

My favorite

(I'm big enough to admit a lot of the reason I favor them is because they're amazingly cute)

Their huge floppers are multi-purpose-ears, not just giving them amazing hearing, but they also help to dissipate desert heat! They can go for long (I can't find out how long exactly) without drinking water, getting hydration from food or licking dew, they are the only carnivore in the Sahara Desert able to do so.

The thickness and color of these lads' fur helps with the heat as well.

Honorable mentions: Arctic fox, bat-eared-fox

The most threatened

Woohoo! Yeah! No picture, you know what that means?! It seems all Vulpinids are least concern, the least endangered possible rank on the IUCN's system.

Nice.

[vintagewildlife]

American bison By: S. Wilson From: Wild, Wild World of Animals: Wild Herds 1977

[doglover43]

vancouver sea wolves 🐟

[drafthearse]

a young wild boar in the Wisentgehege Springe game park near Springe, Hanover, Germany

[moomeecore]

african wild dogs

[antiqueanimals]

African Wild Dogs, Tanzania -- 72 x 44 cm. Woodcut. Wolfgang Weber (b. 1936)

via

[mammalianmammals]

Asiatic Wild Dog aka Dhole (Cuon alpinus), family Canidae, China

photograph by Eric Gevaert 

[rebeccathenaturalist]

A recent study confirms what wildlife experts have been saying for years: hunting coyotes just gets you more coyotes. In areas where wolves have been extirpated, coyotes have often taken on the wolf's mantle as "that evil beast that must be destroyed at all costs or else they will eat our flocks and our families and ruin the world". This disproportionate hatred for a native canid often ends with people indiscriminately shooting, trapping, or poisoning any coyote they possibly can.

Instead of ridding their areas of coyotes, they often find that the coyotes return in larger numbers. The study doesn't surmise why that is, only reporting that the populations do not drop in response to killing. But Team Trash makes some good educated guesses.

Maybe we can stop responding to an animal that is inconvenient to us with "kill it!" and instead look at some of the many nonlethal ways to protect livestock, pets, and ourselves. We may have hunted and trapped wolves, bears, and mountain lions out of much of their historic ranges, but it's apparent coyotes aren't going away. they're a reminder that nature will persist in spite of our attempts to control it to the nth degree, and I see that as a good reminder to remember our place as part of nature, rather than separate from it. We can find better, mutually safer ways to coexist, but it starts with us ratcheting back our most extreme responses to anything that doesn't immediately do what we want it to.

[witchstone]

Przewalski's Horse Equus ferus ssp. przewalskii 吐尔洪乡, 阿勒泰地区, 新疆维吾尔自治区 Turhong Township, Altay Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China 45.271788, 88.766909 by almaatai

[canisalbus]

For your gay little dogs

.

[whatnext10]

American Bison are an Unusual Find in Central Florida

American Bison One of the most unusual animals you can see here in Central Florida are a wild herd of American bison (Bison bison). They live out on the prairie area on Payne’s Prairie and roam wild along with a herd of Mexican wild horses. Last week, after a long day of birding, I took one more hike out on the prairie and came across this small group of bison as they grazed. Bison are not…

[eukaryotesrool]

White-Nosed Coatimundis

Don't fall prey to the same error I did, it is pronounced "koh-ah-tee-muhn-dees"

Scientifically known as Nasua narica, AKA antoon, gato solo, pizote, and tejón.

You may or may not have noticed the rather pronounced sniffer on this lad, the folks behind its taxonomy sure did, Nasua translates to 'nose' and narica translates to nostril, I leave this information for you to do with as you wish.

This caniformic cutie is known to help pollinate balsa trees, in exchange it gets precious nectar, though, most of its food comes from insects, with the occasional land crab, or small vertebrate.

Despite being part of the same family as raccoons (Procyonidae) it is actually diurnal. It spends most of its time on the ground, but does climb trees, something its large front claws, and tail, make it adapt at.

It is thankfully considered least concern by the IUCN, its range is large (comprising some of North, Central, and South America) and its population has been growing since the sixties, after it took a hit, it even seems to have gotten a stable population in Florida, after some escaped captivity, though, the exact time it started is unknown.

Some people keep them as pets, I frankly detest that, but I concede, if I could cuddle one of these fluff-babies without harming either of us, I would.

[vintagewildlife]

Mustangs By: P. Eppridge From: Wild, Wild World of Animals: Wild Herds 1977

[doglover43]

hellroaring mountain pack at carnelian creek - source