The Curious Compendium 2023 Tour Finale: Griffons!

White Rhinos!

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Although there can easily be overlap for various reasons, white rhinos are largely grazing herbivores hence their wide square lip. Conversely, the black rhino is more of a browser of branches and leaves, their pointed prehensile-esque lip helps with browsing. These traits are also commonly used to tell the 2 African types apart.

An updated picture for my Asian lesser primates. It now has the Yowies silvery lutung baby.

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I will have it updated in my original post here too. Still need to redo the bats but they will come soon. :)

Lions!

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Some things I didn't know... in extremely dry areas, lions have been known to get water from some plant (products). Lions in the Kalahari desert have been known to drink water from crushed tsamma melon! Lions often hunt during storms as the wind and weather can make it harder for prey to hear, see, or smell them. Lastly, they are the only cats that roar together!

Black Rhinos!

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As far as I can tell this is not exactly a confirmed "fact" but I find it interesting... female rhinos with calves are very protective and often don't stray far from them. There appears to be a tendency (that some observers have noted) for black rhino moms to follow calves from behind, while white rhino moms have the calves follow closely behind.

So many lions!

Your collection is astonishing!

Sorry, my previous post was confusing. I didn't realise Schleich made more giraffes sticking their tongue out. I wondered about the size of the left-most giraffe in this photo:
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Thank you Taylor and Alain!

Sorry Roger, I completely forgot that one is "eating" too. I would say that the hips and shoulder are taller than the next giraffe in, but it were to have a normally positioned head like that model, it would be approximately the same height. So with that in mind, its neck is shorter than the other's (comparatively).

Thanks a lot!

Sorry for the delay, I was not feeling well yesterday.

Servals!

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These guys have the largest ears of any wildcat. If humans had comparable ears they would be as large as dinner plates! They are one of the most successful feline hunters with a 50% success rate. Lastly, they are crossed with domestic cats to create the breed, a Savannah, now recognized by the International Cat Association.

Beautiful servals! I love Safari's. I feel like it is underrated

Beautiful serval family, you just miss the Kaiyodo and Colorata ones!

Thank you Jolie and Alain. :)

Plains Zebras!

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There are several species and possible subspecies of zebra. Plains zebras stripe patterns are one way to tell them apart. The stripes on their haunches (back end) run horizontally, and the stripes over their shoulders run vertically. In the middle of the back this creates a triangular pattern dorsally. Lastly, they have a dorsal stripe that runs directly down their back to their tail, and they have stripes on their bellies. Because these guys belong to the equid group, they function similar to wild horses. They live in harems (a stallion, mares, and their foals), are defended by the stud of the group, and when they collect in larger herds for migration, stallions may temporarily "band" together to defend their herds from predations. Otherwise, they are in competition with one another and fight savagely for mares.

The zebra at the bottom right in the first photo doesn't quite confirm to your description of zebra stripes . What brand is it?

Not in this instance Roger. It is a customization done m
by myself of a melanistic variant. It is a Schleich mare, (the most recent) the same as the model right next to it on the left.

Thank you both!

Cheetahs!

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Some things I found neat about these guys. There are 5 species: Asiatic, Northwest African, South African, Sudan, and Tanzanian cheetahs. Cheetahs tend to hunt more during the day to avoid competition with other predators at night (lions, hyenas, leopards, etc.). It is beleived that cubs have mantles of hair that imitates a honey badger and because of the badgers' reputation it will deter most predators from even investigating the cubs!

Impressive cheetas pack and interesting information!

Great selection of Cheetahs!!

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Not in this instance Roger. It is a customization done m
by myself of a melanistic variant. It is a Schleich mare, (the most recent) the same as the model right next to it on the left.

Ah, it is a realistic pattern then. I now remember that you showed us this repaint before.

Thank you everyone!

Now Grevy's zebra and Quagga!

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Grevy's zebras are generally considered the most donkey-like (often described as mule-ish) of the zebras. They are the largest bodied, have the biggest ears, and longest faces. For the quagga, even though it went extinct over 130 years ago, it was the first ever animal to have its DNA analyzed!

Hippopotamus!

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Hippos do NOT sweat blood! They produce an as yet unnamed mucus like substance that in tinged red from their skin. This color is from red hipposudoric acid and orange norhipposudoric acid. This is still little understood, but it is secreted from glands in the skin, dries on the skin, survives bathing all day in rivers etc., protects their skin from UV radiation AND is a natural antibiotic (due to its acidity). This is also why hippos have they characteristic reddish-purple tinged skin!

What a fabulous collection of hippos!
And I've been so busy recently but I must find some time to look back through this topic as I adore your amazing collection, always such a joy to look through! I love how you are presenting each group with some information too, makes for such an interesting read!

Great bunch of hippos!!