Today is world Endangered Species Day (May 16th) and we're sharing some species from our index today! The mainland clouded leopard, Grevy's zebra, koala and Bornean orangutan.
Next month we'll be fundraising at the Leicester Botanical Gardens for the Rainforest Trust, especially for the endangered Helmeted Hornbills who are constantly being poached for their horn 'ivory' and skulls.
When I mentioned last month that I had so many Young Justice OCs, I meant it... Aaaaand they're mostly animal based. Have I told you I liked animals? slslslsklssls
Meet APEX - A team of meta-enhanced animals, focusing primarily on animal welfare rather than human, that banded together after the passing of their creator, Octavius Gray, also known as The Warden.
Info about each below ↓
Veta:
Veta is one of The Warden's first human-to-animal brain-swap experiments, formerly being a meta-human by the name of Emily Maxwell, who was a 21 year old veterinary student when she was abducted while on her way home from work and became one of many meta-animals under his ranks. She originally came into contact with the Justice League during a zoo raid she partook in, and was freed from an inhibitor collar designed to prevent her telepathic communication. After almost being kidnapped by The Warden and later saving a leaguer during his second zoo raid, she was given a temporary protection order and allowed to stay in the watchtower under supervision, only lifting when she was found to be telling to truth. She then later joined the Covert Ops Teams.
Veta is now the Co-Leader of APEX, though Veta herself is a "team-switch", meaning she often willingly helps out the Covert Ops Team depending on if they need an extra set of paws. Veta is a telepath and can generate electricity through her fangs - the latter being a mechanical enhancement
Octavius:
A clone of the infamous Warden created for a reason unknown, but it's suspected that it was to be a beta subject for The Warden's future animal-to-human brain swap experiments. Despite his direct relation, Octavius is the complete opposite of his creator morals wise, but is just as insufferable and a know-it-all. Octavius was directly responsible for stopping The Warden's attack on New York, by appealing to the empathy of his fellow animals, convincing them to turn against their oppressive creator. An action that almost caused his death before Veta saved his life and ended The Warden's in turn.
Octavius is the leader of APEX. He's the brainiac of the group and doesn't actually go on mission himself unless they are short staffed. Octavius also doubles as the League's general scientist to the disdain of many who find is know-it-all attitude, dry sarcasm, and arrogance to be obnoxious, but he is helpful [and they like his colleagues] enough that they deal with him. While APEX runs out of the watchtower they generally don't follow the lead of the other teams and mainly do their own thing, mainly because Octavius doesn't really respect most of the leaguers and goes against most direct orders he is given, however his Co-leader Veta often keeps him in check when he's going too far.
Skipper:
Skipper is the youngest of the APEX team and is the "everyone's younger brother" type. His meta-power is superspeed, but if you asked him he'd tell you he wishes he had wind manipulation. Though he does make up for this by learning how to make tornados, though mainly just tiny ones. Skipper is goofy, lovable, and naïve, and it's a miracle that The Warden didn't dispatch him for his passiveness and unwillingness to hurt anyone, like many others that refused to follow orders were… Broke his horn by running into a wall, something he has repeated more than once afterward.
Hotrod:
APEX's resident hothead and the raddest member of the team [if you ask him at least…]. Hotrod is the pyrokinetic of the group and certainly lives up to the dragon part of Komodo Dragon - his favorite trick being, you guessed it, fire breathing. Easy to anger, full of sarcasm, and all around insufferable with some nauseating 80s slang ready to make everyone in the room eyeroll. He's not the teams favorite member, but can be a bit of fun when things go his way.
Has a weird knack for problem solving in the most unconventional way possible. Stuck in a trap? Let Hotrod take over and he always seems to come up with some way of escaping by using leftover crates or pipes. If it exists, he can make something of it. Maybe his true calling in engineering, but Hotrod would rather prefer to nap all day, ragebait his teammates, or tinker with old vintage cars. Are we sure this guy isn't a brain-swap experiment?
Umbra:
Named after his meta-enhanced ability with a personality to match, Umbra is the more cowardly, anxious, shy, introvert of the group. He hates confrontation, fighting especially, and often only goes on covert op missions as it aligns with his personality, powers, and skillset much better. He's a selective mute, often preferring to communicate through body language despite having a speech collar. One he often doesn't wear primarily due to his dislike of having pressure around his neck, even after a non-metallic, adjustable collar was offered.
Umbra's umbrakinesis allows him to manipulate shadows, including morphing his body into one - allowing him to seep into the environment acting as any other ordinary shadow casted by object and people alike. This ability makes him almost immune to damage as long as the object he is traversing across isn't destroyed. These abilities have also made him a very good eavesdropper, able to listen unseen from the shadows. He might be cowardly in nature, but he doesn't shy away from listening to the drama of others. In fact it might be one of his favorite accidental past times and he often keeps track of everything happening between APEX members and the other teams with almost an almost scary accuracy. But, if your not already a friend you may have to do him a lil favor or two to get any of the info out of him.
Sigrun:
A Grizzly Bear "liberated" from a raid on the Bronx Zoo by The Warden that was brain-swapped with a discharged vlatavan head guard by the name of Natalya Svetlana, who was an wildlife rehabilitator for roughly a year before her home was attacked by The Warden with her animals and herself being kidnapped. After the transfer, and subsequent brainwashing, Sigrun quickly climbed the ranks due to her former guard knowledge and super strength and ultimately became the general of The Wardens animal army. Later having a pair of cubs with an unknown bear, who, according to her, passed away. When the army later descended upon New York with the intention of taking it over, Sigrun was the one who ultimately called it off after Octavius appealed to her empathy and turned her army back on The Warden.
Sigrun resigned herself to be a simple team member of APEX rather than a team leader, though begrudgingly so, and she often takes issue with being bossed around even by those has was respect for. She contains the same thoughts to speech embed as Octavius, however unlike his hers is present on the inside of her throat. It is not quite sure why, but the location does protect it from outside attacks and she seems to have no issues with it thus far.
Sigrun's unnatural size was originally chalked up to possibly being a side effect of her meta-enhancement, however, further testing has found a liquid compound in her bloodstream that bares some similarity to cobra venom. Possibly being a modified variation of it. More testing is needed however to confirm this theory.
Orpheus:
A theorized former scientist partner of The Warden who was betrayed and mutated into an animalistic beast, but who they were and why isn't known. What is known is the fact that Orpheus was a direct attempt at recreating man-bat, something proven through an experiment report. Orpheus was treated as sub-human, according to himself and many who knew of his existence. He's was The Warden's errand boy; his lap dog that was caged when they weren't needed. He often did the Warden's dirty work. Many of his plans had Orpheus as the bright white target for the Justice League to attack, while The Warden did all his work in the background with everyone distracted.
Orpheus was freed by Veta, and later alerted the Justice League to the Warden's planned attack on New York a few hours before it happened. But it is theorized that his escape directly triggered the attack to happen sooner than planned. He later saved her and Octavius's life after the death of The Warden.
Orpheus is APEX's designated air unit and doubles as air transport for most of the flightless animals. His meta-enhancement gave him the ability to manipulate sonic waves, primarily using his bat echolocation as a deafening sonic blast. Unlike the rest of his team Orpheus is one of two members of the team that have refused thoughts to speech collars, as the feeling of pressure around his neck causes him to panic.
Honeysuckle:
Honeysuckle, often called Bee by her teammates, is the only animal on APEX that didn't originate from The Warden's ranks. Instead being an test subject rescued from an unrelated lab raid. Her in-depth knowledge on The Warden and many of the events that occurred under his rule would only be possible if she used to work for him, but not a single animal among his ranks seems to have any memory of her..
Bee is the second 'powerless' member of APEX, though that's not actually entirely correct… She's a psychic, a powerful one at that that can easily siphon memories from other minds almost without detection by way of memory wiping anyone who catches her using her powers. Why is she so secretive? Well that's only for her to know. Her monster form on the other hand can't seem to be activated at will; primarily only happening in high stress scenarios - hence the powerless label. Because of this inability, Bee is often only put on stealth missions due to her prehensile tail, small size, and exceptional climbing abilities, and she is damn good at her job. Bee is a "team-switch", and has gone on missions with the Covert Ops Team when a smaller set of hands are needed.
Bee, despite her cute looks, is probably the most unhinged member on the team. She is the second team member who doesn't have a speech collar, though she never elaborated on why she didn't want one.
Cool Facts- With a more mule-like appearance than their horse-like cousins, the Grevy’s zebra is the world’s rarest zebra. Mares gather in small herds led by a head stallion, wandering their arid home. These herds are non-territorial and travel between stallion territories. The lead stallion often travels with the mares for his own protection and usually submits to any territorial stallion they encounter. Grevy’s zebra mate year round and mares produce a single foal. Foals imprint on their mom by memorizing her fingerprint-like stripes. Male zebras are very friendly towards foals and gather them into small groups while their moms are off drinking or eating. Males will even take care of non-related foals with the hope his willingness to help out will convince the mother to mate with him the following year.
Rating- 11/10 (Threatened by drought and poaching but slowly recovering.)
A Grevy’s zebra, the worlds rarest species that only exists in the northern part of Kenya, and Ethiopia, looks on, amid a drought in Samburu National Reserve, Samburu county, Kenya. The intense drought in the region has brought a high number of casualties among the Grevy’s zebras as the local NGO Grevys Zebra Trust reports 58 deaths out of a population of about 2,800 in Kenya since June
Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987)
Grevy’s Zebra, 1983
one of ten prints from the Endangered Animals series, signed and numbered edition of 150
38″ x 38″ Screenprint on Lenox Museum Board
Grevy's Zebra (Equus grevyi) is still statused as Endangered on the IUCN Red List and is the most threatened of the three zebra species; it's also the largest living wild equid.
