Look guys here's a really cool commission I recently got to work on. Someone asked me to create a speculative illustration of a hybrid between a False killer whale and Pacific white-sided dolphin. A very fun mental exercise with a little sleuthing involved!
The intended hybrid does not exist as far as we know, however both Lags and Pseudorcas have hybridised with - you guessed it - our favourite free-for-all baby maker the Common bottlenose dolphin. By looking at those hybrids I could see how the different colour patterns interacted, and try to sort of "filter out" the middle man. Lucky for me, Pseudorcas have a very similar colour scheme to bottlenoses, so I could make some inferences there too.
I'm quite pleased with the end result! Of course I can't say whether this is truly what a hybrid between these species would look like, but I do think it's a well informed guess. Makes for a pretty dolphin!
Avant-garde author Kenji Siratori [@xenopoem] will debut 10 limited-edition tomes of Xenopoetic Report of Arthropod Vectors, a mutagenic work extending my conceptual world.
The Institute affirms: risks remain within controllable thresholds.
Regarding the last post, the type of foxes kept as pets in the UK descend from the American red fox (Vulpes fulva) which is genetically distinct from the European red fox (Vulpes vulpes crucigera). Not only that but they also have over 100 generations of captive breeding behind them, and while not truly domesticated they are still far removed from their wild ancestors, bred to have unnatural colours and tameness towards people. They can also suffer various health issues not present in wild foxes and generally lack the necessary survival skills. This is what happens when one cross breeds with a native fox;
This fox was one of a litter born to a wild vixen who most likely mated with an escaped silver (domestic) fox. The whole litter sported this pale colouring, making them more obvious to predators or hunters. On top of that they were all unusually tame and were known to wander around the streets in broad daylight and approach people without fear. This particular individual was struggling so much she had to be taken into captivity as she didn’t seem to have the normal survival skills of a wild fox.
Different species/subspecies evolved to best suit different environments and crossbreeding can ultimately lead to animals less adapted. For example, the long, soft fur of a North American fox would be useless in the British climate as it would serve no protection against the rain. UK foxes have much shorter, denser coats with coarse guard hairs to repel rain. Not sure what sort of fur the above fox had as the only only photos I could find of her was in her short summer coat, but hybrids can end up with unsuitable fur, such as this suspected hybrid found wild in the UK;
Just some of the words commonly used by conservationists to describe these felines.
In the wake of two of the world’s rarest kittens being rescued from beside a busy road, you might wonder, just why is it such a big deal?
The Scottish wildcat is the rarest species of cat on Earth, with only 35 pure individuals believed to still exist. As a result, these kittens represent 6% of all the Scottish wildcats in existence.
They are the largest wild predator exclusive to Britain, with an impressive arsenal - eighteen razor sharp retractable claws for gripping prey and climbing great heights; thick thigh muscles for sprinting at over 30 miles per hour; the ability to fall more than 50 feet and land on large paws, walking away unscathed.
These felines have walked the land for millions of years, as the European wildcats we know today, before mankind arrived or domestic cats existed. Indeed, the Scottish subspecies of cat we know today have roamed since The Stone Age. They had become what scientists term a ‘superpredator’ - they grew large, as big as four feet in some specimens. A true apex predator, at the top of the food chain, perfectly designed for survival and dominance.
They are of particular importance for controlling population numbers of invasive prey species, particularly rabbits, of which there has been a largely unchecked population explosion ever since their introduction. Thus, the wildcats fill a critical role in the balance of the food chain, and their large decrease in numbers - and that of the rabbits' other natural predators - has tipped the scales considerably, resulting in further ecological destruction .
They faced persecution at the hands of humans for 500 years before efforts were made to protect them; as late as the 1950s, they were believed to be man-eaters; a laughable myth when you consider the size, being roughly 50% larger than their domestic cousins but in no way capable of posing threat to human life. They were, however, a real threat to the humans’ livelihoods, and were executed for preying on game and livestock. They quickly became extinct in all of Britain save for the very edges of Scotland, in territories less suitable for farming and thus safer for the cats to hide away. Destruction of native habitats only escalated the problem, and their diminished range grew ever smaller. Now, the biggest threat to their survival is interbreeding with domesticated cats, particularly now that humans are encroaching ever further into their homelands. Efforts have been made to remedy the situation through means of pest control, but attempts by untrained individuals may cause accidental harm to a real wildcat if they are unable to tell the difference, especially since many hybrids share similar traits.
It is now feared that feral hybrids outnumber pure wildcats by 3000:1.
Hybrid cats remain feral and thus further contribute to the threat - it is said that all cats born with wildcat blood are unable to be tamed, even when captive born.
So the rescue of these two little kittens is nothing short of a miracle. We can only hope that more exist, and that it is not too late to stop their extinction.
In other news, two more kittens were born at Scotland’s Edinburgh Zoo, which experts hope may help provide a lifeline for the iconic species.The kittens will join a conservation breeding programme which it is hoped will save the species from extinction in the wild through future reintroductions
