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Day 18 of Raptor Month - Velociraptor Awareness Day!
Unfortunately my laptop broke so I couldn’t post it on the exact date, bute here it it: to celebrate Velociraptor Awareness Day “More Adventures of President Velociraptor!” Originally introduced here: https://ablazeko.tumblr.com/post/156622046936/the-many-adventures-of-president-velociraptor
Don’t forget to donate on the Utahraptor Block Project
Velociraptor Awareness Day: Awareness of the Challenges and Problems in Raptor Ownership
Velociraptor, given it’s small size, fluffy body, and playful nature, may seem like the ideal pet. Since it is a solitary ambush predator, it’s much like what you would get if you combine a cat with a bird!
But, like with any pet, there are major challenges in caring for a Velociraptor. As a veteran owner, I am here to warn about some of the issues you must be prepared for in your home.
Velociraptor is a nesting animal! If you are lucky (or unlucky, depending on your point of view) enough to have a female animal as I have, it is likely that she will regularly build nests out of the various blankets and towels in your home - or even your clothes! Eggs are produced, mate or no mate, about once a year. For unfertilized eggs, simply let her brood the eggs until the incubation time has passed (about 1 month). At that point, she will accept the eggs as a lost cause, and eat them herself. Be sure to have enough nesting materials for her to use, lest your nanna’s blanket get laid upon!
If you want information on breeding your Velociraptor, ask @spirellity, who has been successfully rearing these animals for years.
Raptors are easily distracted by loud sights and sounds. Be sure to keep the sound of your television at an appropriate volume, and try to avoid bright flashes and startling imagery. Don’t be too alarmed, however, if your Velociraptor gets engrossed in whatever you’re watching! Rey in particular is fascinated with the popular show Gravity Falls, as shown above.
Velociraptor is an obligate carnivore and, as such, cannot digest plant material. Be sure to keep your Velociraptor on a raw-meat diet, utilizing various different types of animals as food. In fact, it’s often better to let your Velociraptor hunt! If you have the resources, try to build a pen in your backyard that will not let the raptor, or it’s prey, out. Release the raptor with mice and other rodents and watch her hunt!
Even though they’re obligate carnivores, you have to be careful for them getting into your food! Cookies smell yummy whether or not you should have them. Raptors aren’t as deadly allergic to chocolate as some other animals, but still, I quickly got Ray out of this situation. Don’t let the raptor into the cookie jar!
Velociraptor is a curious animal. As such, you want to keep your valuables and belongings out of reach! Ray here has gotten into @plokool‘s Star Wars novels, and has completely messed up the order! We’re lucky she hasn’t ripped out any pages. Or destroyed the wifi router.
Being ambush predators, Velociraptor can and will hide behind anything, especially when they are hungry and thus instinctually drawn to hunt. Ray here has hidden behind my Scottish flag, but luckily I saw her. Though they aren’t very inclined to hunt their humans, still be on guard for the sharp claws if you suddenly cannot find your raptor!
Velociraptor, like all animals, loves to go outside! Be sure to take your raptor on regular walks for exercise and enrichment. But definitely use a leash! Otherwise unfamiliar sights and smells will distract your raptor and lead you on an unfortunate chase.
Your raptor is going to want to sleep in the bed with you. While I’m sure this is a tempting prospect, you want to avoid that. Raptors kick naturally in their sleep and you will probably be on the receiving end of that prospect. In addition, you want to establish a hierarchy with your raptor - and allowing her in the bed with you will probably destroy that system. Make a good, small bed for your raptor, much like that for a large dog. She’ll thank you for it in the end.
Raptors are expert climbers. Ray here has managed to get on top of my fridge. It could have been a lot worse - thanks to wing assisted inclined running, they can run up vertical surfaces and get as high as they want. Try to keep the tops of various cabinets (and refrigerators! and closets! and shelving!) clean and free of things you don’t want wrecked by your pet. And free of things that can wreck her!
While this is all very overwhelming, I will say that a raptor is a very rewarding and wonderful pet. If you manage to keep her safe and happy, she will be a lifelong friend and companion!
It’s Velociraptor Awareness Day today (the day for sharing scientifically accurate depictions of the raptor that is sadly mangled by all sorts of toys, movies and images), so here’s a few pieces of art!. I’m working on colour versions at the moment, but for now here’s the line art. The dromaeosaurids are obviously Velociraptor, and the big ugly brute of a protoceratopsid in the bottom picture is Udanoceratops.
(Apologies for the terrible image quality, you can click on the images to open a better-quality version)
It is now the 10th of Raptor Month!! Today is Nuthetes day!
Nuthetes is a suuuuuper dubious possible-dromie. There are only a few teeth to the species, and some research has suggested that it may actually be a proceratosaurid. BUT, sticking with the assumption that it is a dromaeosaurid, it would be one of the earliest raptors, and the only British raptor discovered so far! Which I think is kind of neat.
Since the remains are very very fragmentary, this Nuthetes is basically all speculation. I used a Velociraptor as a base reference, as they would have been around the same size, and then fiddled about with making the skull deeper and shorter, the body a little longer and thinner, the second and third digits a little less extreme, and then slightly smaller wings, with some of these changes inspired by Proceratosaurus (the other possible species the teeth could belong to). I also gave it super fluffy feathers all the way to its feet, and decided to put it in a snowy environment because as a Brit I associate Britain with being fucking cold. It’s probably not accurate to the environment at the time but oh well. I tried doing a more brown/tan colour scheme and it just wasn’t working for me.
(Also RIP my spine after drawing that tree. That tree killed me. But damn, it looks good.)
Speaking of speculative dromaeosaurs - the Utahraptor Project needs your help to find out more about one of our favourite speculative dromies! With the proper funds, we should be able to get a wonderful clear picture of this dinosaur, its ontogeny, its environment, how it lived and how (some of them at least) died! Every little helps so even if you can only donate a little, donate!
Also, here’s a bonus Nuthetes, in Union Jack colours
Long live Nuthetes. Happy Raptor Month.
A super late picture for Unenlagia Day for #RaptorMonth! This is Hemiola, who is super chilled out and currently searching for fish to catch. @a-dinosaur-a-day
Happy Easter everyone! And also happy Achillobator day! Achillobator is (in my opinion) one of the more underrated raptors, a giant dromaeosaurid from Mongolia that could have looked a person in the eye. And then eaten them.
I’ve drawn an Achillobator in the middle of a tense battle with a Talarurus, a large ankylosaur. The Achillobator is making excellent use of RPR (Raptor Prey Restraint) by digging its claws in and flapping its wings madly to keep its balance. Not that it’ll do much good in this case, as the pair of them are about to topple off a small rocky ledge.
This piece has two titles. The first, Tipping Point, is all fancy and artistic and stuff. The other title is Giant Sharp Bird vs. Tankbird, which is ... less so.
Here it is! The rest of Raptor Month!
As always, the 18th is Velociraptor Awareness Day, in which we remember what Velociraptor is actually like, rather than the media interpretation thereof
And the last week of April is Birds are Dinosaurs week, starting on the Birthday of the world’s Biggest BANDit (aka a scientist who clings to the disproven hypothesis that birds didn’t descend from dinosaurs), So what better than to talk about the dinosaurs that emphasized the bird-dinosaur link?!
We’ll start off with Mahakala on the 9th, the most early derived raptor known
Then we have Nuthetes on the 10th, which isn’t well known, but is from England, showing the European spread of this group!
Then we have Austroraptor on the 11th, the raptor that achieved gigantic size and isn’t shown enough love!
On the 12th we have Unenlagia day, another of the strange skinny raptor group, and the one that gave it it’s name!
On the 13th? Buitreraptor day, another Unenalgiian, a very smol one!
On the 14th we have Dakotaraptor day, because we can’t ignore a raptor that has captured the imaginations of many.
On the 15th, we have Dromaeosaurus day, and even though it’s not well known, we should pay attention to the one that gave it’s name to the whole shebang!
Next, on the 16th, is Achillobator day, the large raptor from Asia!
On the 17th it’s Yurgovuchia day, a smaller raptor known from Utah and closely related to big ones like Achillobator and Utahraptor!
On the 18th it’s VELOCIRAPTOR AWARENESS DAY, one of the biggest days in the ADADian calendar! I have no idea what I’ll be doing for it!
But Raptor Month surges on, and on the 19th It’s Tsaagan day, the raptor very similar than Velociraptor who deserves soooo much love.
On the 20th it’s Adasaurus day, the raptor from the Nemegt Formation!
We then go on to the 21st with Acheroraptor day, the OTHER raptor from Hell Creek!
On the 22nd it’s Saurornitholestes day, highlighting the most common small theropod from Dinosaur Provincial Park!
Then we have Bambiraptor on the 23rd, a raptor only described (though adults are known) from juvenile specimens!
Next we have Hesperornyhcus on the 24th, a Microraptorian from North America!
On the 25th we start Birds are Dinosaurs Week, and we start out with Rahonavis, an animal that has jumped around in classification between bird and raptor!
On the 26th we look at Zhenyuanlong, a Velociraptor-sized raptor with large wings preserved in its fossil!
Next up, on the 27th we have Tianyuraptor day, a raptor that may show a transition between the mainstream raptors and the strange forms in South America!
On the 28th we have Sinornithosaurus day, a raptor known with feather impressions in it’s fossil (and it wasn’t venomous, sorry gents)
On the 29th it’s Microraptor day, the day for the (first known) raptor with four wings!
And on the 30th it’s Deinonychus day, the day for the raptor who helped pave the way for understanding birds as dinosaurs!
And of course the entire week from the 25th to the 1st will also feature a lot of bird content for Birds are Dinosaurs Week!
Each day I’ll do a little shout out to the featured raptor, and I’ll reblog art tagged #RaptorMonth! I invite people to talk about raptors and share their thoughts about this excellent group of animals. Write stories, share hypotheses, talk about ontogeny, growth, behavior, all of it! There are so many exciting things to be done this month as we talk about raptors, birds, and everything in between.
Be sure to keep promoting the Utahraptor Block Project so we can keep raising funds throughout the month as we talk about all raptors! And be sure to use the hashtag #RaptorMonth!
In celebration of Tsaagan day, here’s a picture of Tsaagan mangas, AKA ‘The Hipster’s Velociraptor’, so called because it is practically identical to Velociraptor but is much less popular. This clearly makes it much better.
