The Curious Compendium 2023 Tour Finale: Griffons!

Wonderful and beautiful Japanese models!!

I didn't know that about Honshu wolves. One more curious detail in your compendium.

Thank you everyone. :)

Next are the red deer!

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These are closely related to Rocky Mountain elk; if given the chance they can interbreed. Even such, there are core differences between the two including: elk cows carry calves for 20 days longer than hinds, and elk bulls keep their antlers for up to 35 days longer than stags, and the bugle of an elk vs the roar of a red deer are very different experiences. In either case, conservation of populations and habitat for red deer in Europe is improving their outlook still! In many areas introducing new factors the red deer hasn't faced in years such as competition with wisents, predation by any number of large carnivores, and the return of forested habitats to deforested areas, is hoped to make native herds more robust.

Beautiful collection of Red deer.They can hybridise with Sika deer as well and it has caused major problems with Red deer population in the UK and Ireland since the introduction.Elk and Sika can also hybridise creating a Silk!

Ok, as you may imagine, I have lots of "gray wolves". Instead of showing them all at once, I will present them 1 photo at a time also.

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My fun fact for this will be that contrary to popular belief, wolves do NOT have a strict "alpha-omega" heirarchy. The biologist who popularized the term, ironically one of the leading wolf researchers Dr. Mech, regrets his misunderstanding and consequent popularization of the idea. In reality, wolf packs are much more like human families in that each is unique and creates relationships 100% unique to them. There have been loads of studies since that show that wolf packs defy the ideology of "alpha heirarchy" and instead have far more complex family ties that also evolve as the pack experiences events in its lifetime. Being a very social animal, its no wonder their social complexity has been difficult to pin down.

I've read recently about that myth of the wolves but I was defintely not aware about the bugle sound of elks, I could swear they roared like red deer. thanks so much for reducing my ignorance. It can be very musical and sometimes like a painful cry. Here is a video.

I have never heard a stag roar in person but of course looked them up online... its a VERY different sound. Having grown up in Southeastern Idaho for most of my life to me an elk bugle is a comforting and familiar sound. I have had the pleasure of standing on a ridge at 6AM in Yellowstone National Park overlooking a meadow below and seeing bulls herd their harems of cows around with the sound of these trills on the air. On this particular morning, I even spotted a 3 legged elk cow.

To me the bugle is almost like whale calls. You can see in videos that the call takes up the entire front half of the body (in the belly you see the force of the "chuckles", the stuttering end to an bugle; you see the nostrils flare to force the high pitch out). I wonder if this is what some dinosaurs like parasaurolophus sounded like.

I forgot to say thanks Taylor for the info! I didn't realize there were so many hybrid possibilities in the UK!

Fallow deer!

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I was surprised to learn a while back that these guys come in other colors! Including black and gray. Their origins are unclear because of centuries of captivity but these are the most widespread deer worldwide! Lastly, their earliest record in the US may be with US president George Washington whom kept "English deer" and there are still fallow on his historical home property of Mount Vernon!

Gray wolves 1.1

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Something that I just learned today... there was a study completed where researchers played howls made by Eurasian gray wolves to North American gray wolves. Despite the howls having distinctive keys and melodic traits that have classified them as very different to N.A. wolves, the N. A. gray wolves responded to a variety of howling types! This makes them "mutually intelligible" howls of communication. :) Makes me wonder what all can be said in such harmonics?

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Gray wolves 1.1

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The biggest one is gray wolf or arctic wolf?
what is the brand?

That is the Papo Arctic wolf scaled up for their large model series and painted gray instead of white. As seen here.

I love seeing your large wolf pack! I didn't realize those paler Mojo wolves existed.. Mine look like the ones to the right. Were those older paintjobs?

Yes, that was the scheme for the original release of those models. At the time, that was the best option for realistic patterning.

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Yes, that was the scheme for the original release of those models. At the time, that was the best option for realistic patterning.

Ok thanks! I honestly like that paint scheme a lot more than the current ones.

That is sort of the tragedy of the current versions, they're kind of a flat muddy gray. I like the mould mostly of the howling one too, but the paint colors and scheme are weird for it also.

Whitetailed deer! (or White-tailed deer as both spellings are correct).
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Gosh... so many things I could say about this species... where to start! Well, they can jump over fences 7 feet tall  but have been recorded as leaping 10 foot tall fences! Pairing this with their unique ability to eat over 800 different kinds of plants (including domesticated cultivars and plants toxic to many other mammals) these guys often get labelled as pests when they infiltrate someone's private garden and flowerbeds in North America. Lastly, let's address the "deer in headlights" phenomenon. Deer eyes have more rods than cones which makes it easy for them to see in low light conditions like dawn and dusk (expected for a crepuscular animal). However, because rods are responsible (more or less) for collecting light while cones collect colors for vision, when a bright light like a car headlight is shone in their face, it effectively blinds the animal. Understandably this makes them freeze until their eyes adjust and their brain catches up, at which point they will then move off of the road. But obviously... this gives them a severe disadvantage if they are nearby a man made road at their peak activity hours of the day.

Only a few deers for so many wolves

So many great models! Even though they are very common, I love to collect a good white-tailed deer figure. I don't have the Safari trio. Your photos make me want to make room on one of my displays for them..

widukind wrote:

Only a few deers for so many wolves

Thank you everyone. Never fear, there are plenty more deer to show!

Gray wolf 1.2!
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Hmm... ah! Wolves are often thought to be be prey specialists. While many wolves will eat large prey species (like deer, elk, moose, bison etc.) they can also be great fisherman, "mousers", and enjoy a salad now and then. Wolves along coastal regions like Vancouver, Canada  take advantage of salmon runs just like bears, and wolves around great bodies of water like the Great Lakes in the US regularly eat chub and trout like fish when available. As pups part of how they entertain themselves and learn to hunt is by stalking rodents and other small animals. As adults they continue this to supplement their meals. Lastly wolves regularly eat plant material! Seasonal fruits and veggies, tubers, and grasses all make the menu. They also make a meal of the stomach contents of their prey. Not only will this be partly predigested but it also seeds their gut with the bacteria to help them digest such fibrous foods themselves. All of this makes for a balanced diet!

My favorite deer, mulies!

Mule deer!
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Their mule like ears are 3/4 the length of their head. Their antlers grow upward and outwards with 2 main beams thay tines will grow from (conversely whitetails have antlers that have one beam with tines sprouting up from and the antler turns inwards). The blacktail deer is a subspecies if mule deer.

What are the brands?

Safari please make one!

Hunter Dan is the large one, and Big Country is the small one. I hope someone makes a mule deer some day! Safari would do an excellent job.