Penguins can't fly.

Usually I don't have much to say about birds, I have nothing against them but ... oh wait that's a lie emus freak me out and magpies have scared me since I was little, and my brother told me they go for the light in your eyes, peck out your eyes and suck out your brain, I have a degree in animal behaviour but some things never leave you. Oh and I don't trust parrots or anything with a bill like a duck. But for some reason I love penguins ( no I don't say it weird cause I'm a Kiwi.)

The kings speech.

 I think it is because they are much more vertical than most birds and are more like little fat feathery people in suits.Also part of the reason I like them is they are prone to the same weaknesses that we are like gravity:

The video seems to be having issues loading on here so I'll add it to YouTube and post the link. You think my drawing is amazing wait till you hear my singing. http://youtu.be/-ny3u99vqQ8

Oh yea and anything that outsmarts a human and makes them look silly gets a huge tick from me. He gets the fish on his terms not hers. Also everyone knows they can' fly but I think that's part of why I like them they can't get the higher ground and ambush you. They are on an equal level they don't have the unfair advantage of flight. Much more approachable.

Melbourne Aquarium has a cool exhibit with Gentoo and King penguins, and you can do a close up encounter with them if you have the time and extra money. It's on my list of things to do hopefully Grumpidy can meet them as well.

Grumpy wombat vs Grumpy cat

Okay so its about time I did a focus on the name sake of this website. Wombats have been a favourite of mine for a while.

Okay this one is Happy but who wouldn't be with a corn cob.

 The main reason they are a recurring favourite is that they are the embodiment of a grumpy animal, and you all know from Grumpidy that I love grumpy animals. These guys were the epitome of grumpy long before grumpy cat came along.
Anything that sleeps in a burrow is far grumpier than something that sleeps anywhere. The share fact that it storms off down it’s hole leaves its back end to do it's fighting is amazing.
If that doesn't scream talk to the hand I don't know what does. The only difference is talk to hand isn't scary; the back end of a wombat in a tunnel is the most dangerous part. Even if a predator can avoid the nasty kick to the head and actually get up close to a wombat the hard plates in its lower back ( under the fur) will deflect most attacks. You can easily see where the back slopes down straight
Then if a predator finally gets up close enough to do anything the wombat will allow the predator to slide his head in above these hard plates, then using the strong legs will push up and crush the skull of a predator against the roof of the tunnel. Now that is way more dangerous than any look a grumpy faced cat can give. Don't get me wrong I still love grumpy cat I just think he’s got a bit of competition out there, and Australian animals are ready to take that challenge.
There are also people out there who think that Koala's are Australia's grumpiest animal, how can this be true, look at those stompy wombat feet and stocky build.

Stompy Feet McWombat

 These guys are built to be grumpy like a very strong baby bulldozer. Look at the strong shoulders and those feet really mean business. Don't worry the babies in the pouches are fine with all that digging; the pouch faces backwards for this very reason.
 Okay so I have covered how grumpy they are and I definitely wouldn't mess with one in the wild. BUT under the right circumstances they can also be total sweethearts. They are a favourite of rescue shelter workers because of their personalities. Sadly their defenses don't protect them against human populations with attacks such as fences and cars. Floods are another main factor that effects a great number of wombats. There are great places that try to help and there is likely several in most states such as SleepyBurrows and Cedar Creek Wombat Rescue . Wombats are one of the great under-appreciated and misunderstood animals, It only takes one look at them to make them a favourite for life.
Now to try draw this mini bulldozer.

Raccoons...innocent right?

Just a bit of a background I love animals with their tongues out. How can you not!

Just because they have the black balaclava doesn't mean they are naughty or up to something. Oh wait in this case it definitely does. These guys radiate a cheeky curious energy. No mater what they are doing, how innocent they try to look, they always give that impression of being up to something. I get told often by people that know me well that I have naughty look on my face, this usually means someone thinks I am up to something. Raccoons have this all the time.

We met this guy while we were walking round the lake at Stanley Park in Vancouver, he was following a group of tourists at a distance. I don't think they knew he was there, he followed them for a short while then got bored and started to forage. The lady at the information center said these ones were pretty tame, and that there was a group of woman who would go for walks every evening and feed them. So this one was just trying his luck during the day. We had some apple with us but he wasn't really interested in that. We had some bread with us as well. That he loved ...who wouldn't prefer carbs when you usually eat plants and small animals.In the wild and around suburban areas it isn't usually a good idea to feed them or leave them with access to food such as rubbish because they come to rely on human influence for food and can become a pest. The ones in Stanley Park are almost a tourist attraction and can let you get close to them but they are still wild animals and need to be given the respect that they can be dangerous. The one below was at a resort in Costa Rica, came up into the area by the pool at night and went straight to the rubbish bins, rummaged through for quite a while before being scared off by a staff member. 

Okay so after the issues last week with The Lion King im happy to say raccoons are properly representd by disney in Pocahontas with Meeko always hungry and curious with the correct marking. :P. So I don't have to draw a picture to prove a point this week but I will draw some tomorrow and put them up for you so check back for them.
 

Okay so it turns out raccoons are easy to draw you can use literally any shape and just draw a dark eye mask and a stripey tail, for example

Triangle

Square

Circle

No but seriously its not hard here are some better pictures and the picture from my map for continuity .

Meerkats are Amazing but very hard to draw.

I'm very easily distracted by animals, ohh look a Meerkat.

 

This is my lap, so its pretty easy to understand why my favourite animals at the moment are Meerkats. I was at Melbourne Zoo on Monday ready to do the meerkat encounter. Usually there is a pretty long waiting list to get a reservation because only four people can do it each day, but because I went alone they were able to fit me in with a group of three. Fortunately for me the other group canceled ( something about having a baby today...priorities, you're doing it wrong)so I had the most amazing solo encounter. I was allowed 25 minutes with five of the cutest animals climbing all over my lap. Supervised of course but the thought still crossed my mind to tuck one into my jacket.They make you sit on your hands so you aren't tempted to touch them, in my case I can understand why they did this.

The main female claimed my lap pretty early on and wouldn't get off, she was making little growlie noises when the others tried to join her, I like to think we had a connection, the keeper said something about food and warmth, I'm sure it was unrelated to my Meerkat though, I wasn't paying full attention to the keeper I was a bit distracted with forming a life long bond with a Meerkat called Chardonnay.

Meerkats have really dark skin on their tummy's so when the sun is out they will stand with their belly to the sun as a way to warm up...I am researching meerkats literally as I write this for my own benefits and naturally images of Timon come up, my world just changed a little bit as I realised...The Lion King lied to me. I know that I am an adult and this shouldn't bother me but I am genuinely sad that The Lion King lied. It depicted Timon with a really lite coloured stomach. Like I know that the dark skin is under the fur but you can still see it. See I can draw a Meerkat with a dark stomach, I use the word draw very loosely here cause Meerkats are very hard to draw, much harder than I was expecting. What I should of said was I can colour in a Meerkat so that it has a dark stomach.

 Here is another drawing and a picture from my poster so you know which animal I actually meant with all the rambling this week.

 << Haha Mare-cat. Cross between a carebear and a nightmare...A Nightmarecat.






#Animaloftheweek

Sharks are totally awesome!

This shark is at Melbourne Aquarium.

 So the reason sharks caught my attention as my favourite animal for this week: My boyfriend and I went out on a a fishing charter. I say fishing loosely because he fished I got distracted, I talked to the captain, I drove the boat, I got really sea sick, and I had a nap ( fishing is hard work).  While I wasn't extremely busy fishing there was a blue shark swimming around the boat. Not only did this shark distract me from being sick but it sparked a passion to know more about this majestic creature. The captain said it would have been between 2 and 3 meters long. It had four Remora fish swimming underneath it, and it was truly amazing to see. We ended up moving on to another site cause the shark was a bit too interested in our fish, but I could have watched it all day. I didn't manage to get any decent photos, with the reflection of the water and the sharks natural camouflage.

Ever been to a gym... don't worry I haven't either but I've walked past a few, an you see guys there that have massive shoulders going down to a small waste and normal legs. A sexy triangle if you will. This is what sharks are a big triangle, beautiful, powerful creatures. Wide "shoulders" going down to a narrower tail. The jocks of the ocean,  Fun to look at but tend to get a bit annoyed if you touch them.
See I totally draw a shark with a triangle as the base.

Sharks are triangle shaped animals.

You can't really tell from this picture because its his bad side, but um hes really actually quite friendly. Sharks don't have hands so if they want to investigate something they use their mouth. Much like a puppy or a baby.
Sharks have been represented across pop-culture as evil killing machines, we have all heard of the movie Jaws or at least know the concept. A great movie, a powerful movie. It shaped the image of sharks for many years. Peter Benchley was the man who wrote jaws, he regrets everything he had to do with creating that image of sharks. After going on many expeditions and spending a large amount of time with experts in the field he devoted the rest of his life to preserving the great shark species and spreading a message of conservation not fear. I highly recommend watching this video all the way to the end. It is a short clip about the legacy of Peter Benchley. Support our sharks is another great group to get behind for news and relevant information on the progress in conserving what sharks are left. Sharks are definitely a species I would recommend reading up about. There is some really interesting stories and information out there.
Just to put it into perspective hotdogs kill more people a year than sharks do. Here's another 19 things. And some more attempts at drawing a shark.Plus a picture from my poster of animals around the world ( ill tick them off as I go).