#margays

[big-catsss]

(by Luis Cesar Tejo)

[crtter]

OK, so it has been proved margays can mimic the sound of baby new world monkeys to lure in the adults closer to them so they can hunt them, right? And I know margays aren’t super closely related to domestic cats or to their wild ancestors, the African wildcat. They’re closer to ocelots and pampas cats. Their habitat and prey are different too: while margays are rainforest cats, African wildcats are savannah and grassland cats, and, while both of them primarily hunt for small prey like birds and lizards, margays go after primates more often, mainly because there are lots of new world monkey species in South American rainforests.

However! There are plenty of old world primate species in Africa, and many of them share a habitat and range with African wildcats, such as olive baboons, patas monkeys and vervet monkeys. And, in 2009, a study was conducted by Karen McComb, a Behavioral ecologist of the University of Sussex, that established that certain sounds produced by domestic cats are in the same auditory range of human baby cries, and they incite the same urgency in catering to their needs in humans as baby cries do.

Keeping in mind that I don’t have a degree in anything but animation, I had to drop out of vet school due to undiagnosed ADHD reasons and everything I know about animal behavior was learned just for the fun of it, here’s my theory: WHAT IF, ages ago, a certain group of African wildcats learned to mimic the cry of the babies of certain old world monkey they shared a range with to lure in the adults close to them, but then we humans, like the giant social primates that we are, heard it and went like “No way, this pointy eared thing is making the same sound MY baby makes when it’s hungry! It must be starving to death! Maybe I should toss them some scraps from my latest hunt” and wildcats were like “Well, shit, this is way more convenient than trying to kill an adult monkey.”

[animalsandanimals]

[antiqueanimals]

The New Natural History. Written by Richard Lydekker. 1901.

[matt-conner]

animals

[aaron-mueller]

animals

[calitraditionalism]

The characters that consist of the minor storytelling group, the Margays.

Garterthroat - A larger molly. An actor who plays out tales told by the storytellers. Often slotted as a monster, and unsure whether she loves or hates it.

Cherrypath - A tom who often coaches new members of the Margays. Patient and well-spoken, but tends to be in the background for performances.

Shadesong - A small tom who is often the actor who plays the plucky underdog. Agile thanks to playing in many fight scenes.

Gingerpatch - A handsome tom who is the third actor of the group, and is a medium between the extremes of the other two. Miffed he’s not a -face.

Pipitfoot - A molly who loves wordplay as well as the fantastical elements of a story. Tells epics about heroes and mythical beasts in action.

Sootstorm - A very lanky molly who knows a lot about the Clans’ stories and beliefs. If asked about it, is happy to ramble about said stories and beliefs.

Laureldawn - A lanky molly with a long face. She specializes in horror stories, and makes the horror feel very real thanks to her eerie appearance and voice.

Cricketnose - A cat who loves to tell stories and fables with morals to them. They enjoy a good philosophical debate, especially regarding the morals of said stories.

[qatnip]

THE BABIES this is on my da and i felt like putting it here bc they took a while to draw. good kitties 

pls like and reblog <33