these birds are so massive that they prefer to inhabit moutainous or ocean regions with strong winds so that they can glide more easily. i’m talking thirty pounds with a near eleven foot wing span. huge. they’re actually vultures (strange nomenclature in my mind) and as such feed on dead stuff, sorry, carrion. males have these offshoots from their snouts/beak called a caruncle – another interesting word. both males and females are bald and have white collars though these are more prevalent in males. i didn’t know that these birds are the national symbols for argentina, bolivia, chile, colombia, ecuador and peru. it’s interesting to me that these birds feed on the dead yet in andean mythology the birds are associated with a sun deity, essentially as ruler of the upper world, and are a symbol of health and power. andean condors in moleskine.
these guys live as long as humans. i didn’t know that, like many of the animals i have and will be drawing, they’re endangered. that’s part of the point of this project of mine. i remembered from school that you can tell crocodiles from (american) alligators by their longer but thinner snouts. also, they don’t like the cold as much as alligators. they seem to eat just about anything, including humans but that (apparently) is rare. crocodylus acutus in moleskine
these guys moo. seriously. they sound like cows. which is awesome. it seems like they’re pretty easy going. they live in many, many parts of north america, asia, south america, europe….nearly everywhere. seemingly like their cousins, they’ll eat just about anything they can put in their mouths. insects. of course. mice? yup. snakes. ok, let’s do it. birds. why not? wait, what? yeah, they eat birds. craziness. see? easy going. then again, some of the latter animals are also their predators so size matters here people. i didn’t know that they hunt nocturnally. also, people eat their legs. bullfrogs, aside, calling them american bullfrogs only makes me think of budweiser commercials from back in the day. rana catesbeiana in moleskine
not to mistaken with buffalo, these guys can weigh a tonne but can run at speeds of nearly sixty five kilometers per hour. they eat grass though so they won’t be coming after you for a meal, only if, you know, you piss them off. i didn’t know that the males and females generally live separately save for mating season. like many a good male, they fight over the ladies but they don’t go to the point of killing eachother. sensible, right? another fun fact is that their hides are so well insulated that snow can accumulate on their backs not melt. bison bison in moleskine.
i don’t remember much from my high school english classes. being the techno-geek that i am, english was not very high on the interest scale after the ninth grade. the asian six pack was though! but for some reason i do remember the rime of the ancient mariner, by samuel taylor coleridge. i had never heard of an albatross and after having heard the description, i imagined them to be quite giagantic birds. what i didn’t remember about the poem was the reference it made to the birds being a sign of both good and bad luck. ravens seem to share this same ambiguous symbolic meaning so for me there is a nice alternative when it comes to imagery. i find it funny that of all the animals i’ve drawn for the bestiary though, the two with such ambiguity happen to be birds.
i thought these guys live longer but their average life span is ten to fourteen years. males are closer to ten due to the fact that they fight with rivals regularly. apparently the stamina of lions isn’t great. they can get up to pretty fast speeds of fifty miles per hour but they’re sprinters, not lovers i mean marathoners. they hunt in packs. although i think the lionesses do the hunting. unfortunately, the populations of lions is also diminishing due in part to loss of habitat and humans being humans. panthera leo in moleskine.
