Fun fact, The Questing Beast of Arthurian Legend is the result of people attempting to describe what a giraffe was, then being explained and drawn by people who have never actually seen it.
The Questing Beast was said to have a head and neck of a snake (long neck), body of leopard (coat pattern), hind legs of a lion (tufted tail) and feet of a deer (”hooves:).
I’m having emotions at this artwork. It’s caught between fright and awe; fascination and fear.
Behold, a unicorn.
He got two horns tho
*record scratch*
*music starts back up*
BEHOLD, A UNICORN
Well, maybe. If unicorns were inspired by rhinos, it would have been the Indian rhino, since the unicorn myth originated in India. But it tends to have short, stubby horns due to wear, and as you may notice the horn is on the nose, not the forehead.
There’s now three other accepted theories- aurochs, gazelles/antelopes, and the Asian kirin/qilin. The auroch was a large cow that is the ancestor of modern domestic cattle. It has large horns and went extinct in the 1600s. This is the likely source of the biblical “re’em”, a muscular, stout beast with a single horn that is now often misinterpreted as a unicorn. If and aurochs or a gazelle or antelope was viewed from the side for a fleeting moment, the viewer could easily mistake it for having a single horn. And the kirin is a mythical beast in many East Asian folklores that is essentially a horned dragon horse. Tales of it would have trickled their way to Europe along trade routes. Even today it’s often associated with unicorns, hence the Kirin in Monster Hunter.
It is, of course, quite likely that all four things, rhinos, aurochs, gazelles, and stories about kirins, melded together to result in the unicorn. In fact in late dark ages/early medieval times unicorns could even be described as a sort of wild donkey, deer, or goat. It eventually would change to being a horse. So the myth has evolved quite a lot, suggesting much outside influence over millennia.
Also, in Ming dynasty China, the kirin was associated with giraffes.
Hemitite is an iron ore material that is incredibly brittle since it’s iron rock.
It breaks because it is made thin as a ring and any decent pressure on it snaps it.
Not because of negative vibes
In other words:
The guy that made ‘em
I work at a rock shop, we have had these boys forever but due to some tik tok trend last week we have been getting people just comming in and rushing for the bands. Not to mention when they are like “man i hope yours does not break” and I tell them they are fragile and you should be careful with them they get angry with me since the only way the can possibly break is by vibes alone and not jusy throwing your hand down on a table too hard.
One of the main problems with the Dodo is something that is sometimes hard for people without a background in zoology to pick up on, and that is the extreme anthropomorphism of wild animals in their content. Anthropomorphism happens when we erroneously apply human behavior and morals to animal interactions, which might not sound like a big deal at first but is actually incredibly dangerous for both humans and animals. I have seen an article from the dodo claiming that a pet alligator “loves hugs” from his owner. Reptiles do not experience or exhibit emotions the way humans do, and to posit that any alligator loves hugging humans is an absolute recipe for disaster. This is far from an isolated incident in their content. They infamously posted a “heartwarming” video of a polar bear “petting” a sled dog with its paw and suggested that even polar bears can’t resist patting an adorable dog. They later had to pull the content because it turned out that the bear had killed and eaten the dog later that night. Polar bears do not see dogs as cute companions; this was an example of a predator/ prey interaction. If a viewer doesn’t have much background in the behavior of alligators or polar bears, they might accept the Dodos captions as fact, and walk away with a dangerously false perception of how these animals behave.
When we look at animal behavior through the lens of our humans experiences only, we do these species a huge disservice. We have to think critically when viewing animal content online, and do our best to try understand what the behavior actually represents. It’s also incredibly important to educate people and arm them with the knowledge to identify and call-out dangerous anthropomorphism in the media! It’s absolutely okay if you thought of the Dodo as sweet wholesome content- they’ve worked hard to cultivate this image for animal lovers. Now that you have some more background you will definitely start to see the troubling content more and you can work to educate others as well! I love videos of stray puppies finding loving homes, but until the dodo stops producing other videos with dangerous wildlife encounters I can’t in good conscience enjoy their channel.
I am Silver Tongue, I am an artist. I have many characters and you can check out my art in the art tag. I occasionally practice witchcraft though I don't do anything too complicated. I am girl 2 and don't know what else to put here.
