"In contrast to other species of colobus, they have slender bodies and ischial callosities, a hard thickened area of skin on the buttocks that allows comfortable sitting on branches. It has an all white tail which is longer than the body. They weight between for males and in females with a body length of is in males and in females. Ursine colobus are diurnal and highly arboreal, coming down from trees only occasionally when feeding. Their social behavior is like that of many polygynous monkeys, with each group consisting of related females their juvenile offspring and a territorial male. The"
"Unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. The unicorn was depicted in ancient seals of the Indus Valley Civilization and was mentioned by the ancient Greeks in accounts of natural history by various writers, including Ctesias, Strabo, Pliny the Younger, and Aelian. The Bible also describes an animal, the re'em, which some versions translate as ""unicorn"". In European folklore, the unicorn is often depicted as a white horse-like or goat-like animal with a long horn and cloven hooves (sometimes a"
"Undine Undines (or ondines) are a category of imaginary elemental beings associated with water, first named in the alchemical writings of Paracelsus. Similar creatures are found in classical literature, particularly Ovid's ""Metamorphoses"". Later writers developed the undine into a water nymph in its own right, and it continues to live in modern literature and art through such adaptations as Hans Christian Andersen's ""The Little Mermaid"". Undines are almost invariably depicted as being female, and are usually found in forest pools and waterfalls. The group contains many species, including nereides, limnads, naiades and mermaids. Although resembling humans in form, they lack"
"to be descendants of gods, and rightful rulers of all other species. With several thousand years to genetically tinker with themselves, the Varn are effectively unaging, and may possess survival abilities similar to the Ferin. The Vulpine are a race resembling anthropomorphic foxes, averaging about six inches shorter than humans, with relatively short legs and digitigrade feet, long torsos, and bushy tails. They are described as being natural farmers and pilots, and appear to have a noble class based around their agricultural tradition. They are also described as being matriarchal, and actively worship a supreme being they refer to as"
"years ago) from the main ursine stock; since it is the most basal member of the group, it is equidistant from all other extant ursids. The giant panda has been referred to as a living fossil. Despite the shared name, habitat type, and diet, as well as a unique enlarged bone called the ""pseudo thumb"" (which helps them grip the bamboo shoots they eat) the giant panda and red panda are only distantly related. The word ""panda"" was borrowed into English from French, but no conclusive explanation of the origin of the French word ""panda"" has been found. The closest"
"or geese. Birds are often further described by the exact position of their wings. The term ""segreant"" is usually applied to the griffin, but this approximation of ""rampant"" which is more appropriate for them has also been applied to the dragon. Additionally, there are positions applying to direction, to indicate variations from the presumed position of any charge. Animals and animal-like creatures are presumed to be shown in profile, facing dexter (the viewer's left), and humans and human-like beings are presumed to be shown ""affronté"" (facing the viewer), unless otherwise specified in the blazon. Animals and animal-like creatures are presumed"
"Animal rights and the Holocaust Several writers, including Jewish Nobel Prize laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, and animal rights groups have drawn a comparison between the treatment of animals and the Holocaust. The comparison is regarded as controversial, and has been criticized by organizations that campaign against antisemitism, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. A character in one of Singer's stories described the treatment of animals by humans as ""an eternal Treblinka"". Similarly, the eponymous character in J. M. Coetzee's ""Elizabeth Costello"" compared the Nazis' treatment of Jews to methods used by the meat industry"
"biased. Animals provide humans with a better understanding of ourselves, and how we think and act toward animals has the potential to reveal our attitudes toward other people and social order. Evidence of this can be seen in the ways that animal images may at times be expressing underlying racism: ""the most damning testimony given by accused police at the Rodney King trial involved characterization of King as a 'gorilla'; during the Gulf War Saddam Hussein was described in the American press as a 'rat'; and the actions of people in the Los Angeles riots were likened by the media"
"someone who has been there, that in those lands you see an animal that sort of looks like a cow, grazes like cow but is different from a cow in such and such way. Such use of analogy and comparison is, state the Indian epistemologists, a valid means of conditional knowledge, as it helps the traveller identify the new animal later. The subject of comparison is formally called ""upameyam"", the object of comparison is called ""upamānam"", while the attribute(s) are identified as ""sāmānya"". Thus, explains Monier Williams, if a boy says ""her face is like the moon in charmingness"", ""her"
"Oread nymph described as a nurse of Zeus, honoured by the god with a place in the sky. There are various proposed explanations for the name ""Cynosura"". One suggestion connects it to the myth of Callisto, with her son Arcas replaced by her dog being placed in the sky by Zeus. Others have suggested that an archaic interpretation of Ursa Major was that of a cow, forming a group with Bootes as herdsman, and Ursa Minor as a dog. George William Cox explained it as a variant of Λυκόσουρα, understood as ""wolf's tail"" but by him etymologized as ""trail, or"
"example of a traveler who has never visited lands or islands with endemic population of wildlife. He or she is told, by someone who has been there, that in those lands you see an animal that sort of looks like a cow, grazes like cow but is different from a cow in such and such way. Such use of analogy and comparison is, state the Indian epistemologists, a valid means of conditional knowledge, as it helps the traveller identify the new animal later. The subject of comparison is formally called ""upameyam"", the object of comparison is called ""upamanam"", while the"
"Ursari The Ursari (generally read as ""bear leaders"" or ""bear handlers""; from the Romanian ""urs"", meaning ""bear""; singular: ""ursar""; Bulgarian: урсари, ""ursari"") or Richinara are the traditionally nomadic occupational group of animal trainers among the Romani people. An endogamous category originally drawing the bulk of its income from busking performances in which they used dancing bears, usually brown bears and, in several instances, Old world monkeys, they have largely become settled after the 1850s. The Ursari form an important part of the Roma community in Romania, where they are one of the 40 tribal groups, as well as notable segments"
"alike, Spiegelman hoped to show the absurdity of dividing people along such lines. Spiegelman has stated that ""these metaphors ... are meant to self-destruct"" and ""reveal the inanity of the notion itself"". Professor Amy Hungerford saw no consistent system to the animal metaphor. Rather, it signified the characters' roles in the story rather than their races—the gentile Françoise is a mouse because of her identification with her husband, who identifies with the Holocaust victims. When asked what animal he would make Israeli Jews, Spiegelman suggests porcupines. When Art visits his psychiatrist, the two wear mouse masks. Spiegelman's perceptions of the"
"and of householders or city councils to suppliants—and to punish such crimes by hounding culprits relentlessly. The Erinyes are crones and, depending upon authors, described as having snakes for hair, dog's heads, coal black bodies, bat's wings, and blood-shot eyes. In their hands they carry brass-studded scourges, and their victims die in torment. According to legend, the three classic Furies sprang forth from the spilled blood of Uranus when he was castrated by his son Cronus. The sisters are: Pausanias describe a sanctuary in Athens dedicated to the Erinyes under the name Semnai: Tantalizing myth fragments dealing with the Erinyes"
"similar purpose. He became identified as or with the constellation known by the Greeks as Wolf (Lupus). Uridimmu Ur(i)dimmu, the reading is uncertain, meaning ""Mad/howling Dog"" or Langdon's ""Gruesome Hound"", Sumerian and giš.pirig.gal = ""ur-gu-lu-ú"" = ""ur-idim-""[""mu""] in the lexical series .gud = ""imrû"" = ""ballu"", was an ancient Mesopotamian mythical creature in the form of a human headed dog-man or lion-man whose first appearance might be during the Kassite period, if the Agum-Kakrime Inscription proves to be a copy of a genuine period piece. He is pictured standing upright, wearing a horned tiara and holding a staff with an"
"instead of the ass; at the end, Zhirinovsky beat Proshka with a whip, made the ass move and had a ride on him through the snow-covered backyard of his dacha. International organisations People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and World Animal Protection have accused Zhirinovsky of cruelty to animals. Zhirinovsky replied to the assertions by stating that similar treatment is commonplace in the Arab world and claimed that his ass has been treated ""better than many people"". Donkey The donkey or ass (""Equus africanus asinus"") is a domesticated member of the horse family, Equidae. The wild ancestor of"
"themselves. Talon are adept at civic rule and have great skills at fostering commerce between groups, usually to their own benefit. Ursa: The Ursa are a race of huge beings that can shapeshift between bear and human form. Ursa are intelligent, artistic, methodical and slow to anger, however when family or kin are threatened, the Ursa become the most aggressive of all races, employing an arsenal of punishing melee attacks. Ferran: The Ferran are a ferocious race of beings that can shapeshift between great cats and human form. The Ferran are dim, impulsive brutes who bite and slash their way"
"The Old English name Beowulf is a kenning, ""bee-wolf"", for bear, in turn meaning a brave warrior. The family Ursidae is one of nine families in the suborder Caniformia, or ""doglike"" carnivorans, within the order Carnivora. Bears' closest living relatives are the pinnipeds, canids, and musteloids. Modern bears comprise eight species in three subfamilies: Ailuropodinae (monotypic with the giant panda), Tremarctinae (monotypic with the spectacled bear), and Ursinae (containing six species divided into one to three genera, depending on the authority). Nuclear chromosome analysis show that the karyotype of the six ursine bears is nearly identical, with each having 74"
"work of another author adds a few more characteristics: ""the horn is conical, bent back towards the head, and longer than a span...the animal's ears protrude on both sides like those of a donkey, and...its upper lip forms into a finger-shape, like the protrusion on the end of an elephant's trunk."" These two descriptions leave no doubt that the Indian Rhinoceros is the basis for the animal. But the future confusion between the rhinoceros and the unicorn was already in the making since the Persian language uses the same word, ""karkadann"", for the mythological animal as it does for the"
"Wolverine The wolverine () (also spelled wolverene), ""Gulo gulo"" (""Gulo"" is Latin for ""glutton""), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, skunk bear, or quickhatch, is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a stocky and muscular carnivore, more closely resembling a small bear than other mustelids. A solitary animal, it has a reputation for ferocity and strength out of proportion to its size, with the documented ability to kill prey many times larger than itself. The wolverine is found primarily in remote reaches of the Northern boreal forests and subarctic and alpine tundra of the Northern"
"use of metaphors. For example, the Nazi's regularly compared the Jews to 'rats', and the Hutu's interchangeably used the term Tutsis and 'cockroach' in the majority of their propaganda. The use and effectiveness of these metaphors work on the aspect of moral disgust. Many animals such as snakes, leeches and rats tend to strike an unconscious automatic reaction of disgust, and therefore, by likening an outgroup to these animals the negative and 'disgusting' attributes of these animals are metaphorically projected onto the outgroup. The denial of human nature attributes lead to an attribute-based dehumanization process which separates the outgroup from"
"or a cat, was feared to become one of the undead. Ubirs are reanimated corpses that killing living creatures to absorb life essence from their victims. Tales of supernatural beings consuming the blood or flesh of the living have been found in nearly every culture around the world for many centuries. Almost every nation has associated blood drinking with some kind of revenant or demon, or in some cases a deity. A story is told about blood drinking in the Epic of Ural-Batyr. Once when the parents were gone hunting, Shulgen was challenging Ural to drink the blood of animal"
"ash to the foreheads of the churchgoers. Later the priest spoke to him in exasperation, saying: ""You were born an ass, and you will die an ass!"" ""Aha,"" said the sacrister, ""I'll remember that!"" and so saying, he continued giving the people of Kuurne their crosses of ash. The best-known donkey in Kuurne is 'Ambroos' (Ambrose), a larger-than-life and somewhat stylised statue in front of the town hall. The winner of the annual pro cycling race Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne received a big bouquet and a soft toy version of 'Ambroos' to wave from the stage. Kuurne Kuurne is a municipality located in"
"the ideological divide, the Cuban government described the revolutionary Che Guevara as a ""communist rat"" in 1958. Epithets are not limited to mammals; for instance, comparing someone to a snail means they are (extremely) slow, while calling them a slug implies they are lazy and loathsome. Frog is pejorative for French people in English, from the use of frogs' legs in French cuisine. Edmund Leach argued in a classic 1964 paper that animal epithets are insulting when the animal in question is taboo, making its name suitable for use as an obscenity. For example, Leach argues that calling a person"
"Shunka Warakin The shunka warakin (also shunka warak'in) is an animal mentioned in American folklore that is said to resemble a wolf, a hyena, or both. According to cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, ""shhuhnkha Warahwalkin"" is an Ioway term meaning ""carries off dogs"". Coleman suggested that the creature was some animal unknown to modern sources. An animal shot in 1896 by Israel Ammon Hutchins on what is now the Sun Ranch in Montana has been suggested by Coleman as an example of this mysterious creature. Joseph Sherwood, a taxidermist, acquired it from Hutchins, mounted it, and put it on display in his"
"Ubir Ubir (Chuvash: ""Вупăр (Vupăr)"" or ""Вупкăн (Vupkăn)"", Tatar: ""Убыр"", Turkish: ""Ubır"") is a mythological or folkloric being in Turkic mythology who subsist by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of living creatures, regardless of whether it is undead person or being. Ubirs were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, dark in colour; these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood. The causes of vampiric generation were many and varied in original folklore. In Turkic and Slavic traditions, any corpse that was jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog"
"animals, furthermore, are capable of moving relative to their environment. So while ""up"" might refer to the direction of a standing human's head, the same term (""up"") might be used to refer to the direction of the belly of a supine human. It is also necessary to employ some specific anatomical knowledge in order to apply the terminology unambiguously: For example, while the ears would be ""superior"" to (above) the shoulders in a human, this fails when describing the armadillo, where the shoulders are above the ears. Thus, in veterinary terminology, the ears would be ""cranial"" to (i.e., ""toward the"
"was a relatively shy, nocturnal creature with the general appearance of a medium-to-large-size dog, except for its stiff tail and abdominal pouch (similar to a kangaroo) and dark transverse stripes that radiated from the top of its back, reminiscent of a tiger. The thylacine was an apex predator, like the tigers and wolves of the Northern Hemisphere from which it obtained two of its common names. As a marsupial, it was not closely related to these placental mammals, but because of convergent evolution it displayed a similar general form and adaptations. Its closest living relative is thought to be either"
"living members. Unlike herbivores, which tend to become highly specialized for particular ecological niches and diversify greatly in form, carnivores tend to be broadly similar to one another, certainly on the level of gross external form. Just as Northern Hemisphere carnivores like cats, foxes and weasels are much more alike in structure than, for example, camels, goats, pigs and giraffes, so too are the marsupial predators constrained to retain general-purpose, look-alike forms—forms which mirror those of placental carnivores. The names given to them by early European settlers reflect this: the thylacine was called the ""Tasmanian tiger"" or ""Tasmanian wolf"", quolls"
"Lubber fiend The lubber fiend, Lob, lubberkin, lurdane or Lob Lie-By-The-Fire was a legendary creature of English folklore that was similar in attributes to the ""brownie"" (or ""Urisk"") of Scotland and northern England, the ""hob"" of northern England and the Scottish Borders, the Slavic ""domovoi"" and Scandinavian ""tomte"". It has been related also to Robin Goodfellow, and Hobgoblins. It is best known for being mentioned by John Milton. It is generally connected with the north of England. He is typically described as a large, hairy man with a tail, who performs housework in exchange for a saucer of milk and"
"to their relative military parity. In the first book they are described as ""sheep-like"", but Vance appears to have changed their characterization by the third, in which they are compared to leopards. The Dirdir are described as having a very complex sexuality, with many different genders that leads to many different combinations of gender-compatibility when it comes to sex and breeding, though each breeding still seems to involve only two individuals. The human client races, the Pnumekin, Chaschmen, Dirdirmen and Wankhmen resemble their alien patrons to some degree, due to selective breeding, surgery and the desire of the humans to"
"Q'ursha Q'ursha (; also Qursha or Kursha) is a legendary dog from Georgian mythology. Although he appears in a number of different stories, he is best known as the loyal companion of the culture hero Amirani. His name means ""black-ear"", a common Georgian name for dogs. He was said to be born of either a raven or an eagle, and is sometimes depicted as having eagles wings as a result. Apart from his wings, Q'ursha was sometimes described with other special features: colossal paws, ""lips of gold, and eyes as big as sieves"". He was attributed supernatural abilities such as"
"art. Alternatively, it is depicted as a dragon shaped like a deer, but with an ox's tail instead of a lion's tail. The Kirin Brewery Company, Ltd., is named after the animal and uses a picture of one in its labels. They are also often portrayed as partially unicorn-like in appearance, but with a backwards curving horn. In the Post-Qin Chinese hierarchy of mythological animals, the qilin is ranked as the third most powerful creature (after the dragon and phoenix), but in Japan, the kirin occupies the top spot. This is following the style of the ancient Chinese, as qilin"