This gallery contains 9 photos.
Today is not only a #MarsupialMonday, but it’s also the first annual International Tasmanian Devil Day! The Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is an endangered marsupial species endemic to Australia. Although it once ranged across the mainland continent, since its extirpation some 3500 years ago, it is now only found on the…
Vincent Willem Van Gogh was born #OTD (Zundert, Netherlands 30 March 1853 – Auvers-sur-Oise, France 29 July 1890). And since it’s also Easter Bunny time, here is a closer look at his two surviving works featuring rabbits, plus a few quotes from his letters where he mentions encounters with rabbits….
Happy Manatee Appreciation Day! As seen above, there are three officially recognized manatee species, all currently listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List. Today’s Animal Art of the Day is a 19th century illustration which was first identified as one, then identified as another, and finally correctly identified as…
This gallery contains 14 photos.
April 26th is Audubon Day. Included in Audubon’s Birds of America collection are illustrations of 5 birds that would soon after become extinct, along with 3 others that are now also feared extinct.
Maria Sibylla Merian’s image of a Murine Mouse Opossum (aka Merian’s Opossum and Linnaeus’ Opossum) from Suriname is unusual in that it appears to be the only mammal she ever depicted in her work…
For #AppreciateADragonDay, here are two versions of an illustration depicting Draco the dragon with the Ursa Major and Ursa Minor bear constellations. The first is from a medieval Carolingian illuminated manuscript known as the Leiden Aratea: Centuries later, Dutch humanist Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) acquired this manuscript and proceeded to publish…
Minneapolis Institute of Art: The Object Podcast42. Seeing Ourselves in Animals: An Unnatural History“As long as people have told stories, we have told stories about animals. Stories of slow turtles and fast rabbits, sly foxes and cunning monkeys, that are really stories about ourselves. But why? What can animals tell…
It’s #WorldLionDay! So, which medieval lion are you today? (I think I’m #8) Ok, but which medieval embroidered lion are you today? (#8 for me again) As noted on the lion’s page on the Medieval Bestiary website, the lion was the king of the beasts and thus was usually the…
