Andi Pasti's Animal Art

You might have seen that one on an episode of "One Planet". A bird searching for spiders and receiving an unpleasant turn. This scene was genuinely one of the most surprising outcomes in a natural story on television, even for a long-time-nature-documentary-watcher like me. The spider-tailed horned viper is a quite recent, but extraordinary discovery. It evolved modified scales on the tail that form a tail tip resembling a spider. Camouflaged against the rocks of Iran, it imitates spider movements to attract birds which want to feed on spiders. In a split-second the snake attacks with its venomous fangs to kill the bird. The viper was actually first known to the Western world in 1968, where it was captured and investigated in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, USA. Back then, the weird and unhealthy looking tail end was written off as a spider attached to the snake, and later regarded as a deformation or tumour. Only later in 2003, when another specimen was found...

When  you watch some funny video compilations on the internet with Pandas falling down trees and rolling down hills endlessly, you might think they are not quite equipped for living in this world. Humans on the internet in the last decade certainly have formed an opinion that Giant Pandas are just meant to go extinct, that they are not build for survival and it’s a miracle they are still around. See some proofs here , here and  here . And indeed, their survival was threatened in the past. In this post I want to explore how it came to be why giant Pandas suffer from human misunderstanding and what effect this still has on us and them. Giant Panda - a picture book teddy bear The Giant Panda's magical allure So what is it with Giant Pandas  ( Ailuropoda melanoleuca )?  Why do we cherish them so much? These animals seem to be the unicorn of the animal world, a super model for highlighting conservation programs and marketing, in contrast to other animals. They have tota...

I’ve recently finished this book and need to tell you that it will light up your curiosity about the natural world. In this post I will give a quick review why “ Animal Kingdom - A Natural History in 100 objects ” by Jack Ashby ( link ) might be one of the best books about natural history. Why Animal Kingdom is so enjoyable First off, despite being very informative, Ashby's writing style is super accessible . You won't need to fear that he will throw around terms that make your head scratch, it is written as a popular science book.  And I chuckled a lot, even laughed out loud.   Would you think that many people are interesting in worms? Not so much. Would  you think that a specimen of the penis worm in the Grant Museum of Zoology London would regularly cause interesting looks and comments by the visitors? Sure you would. Did you know that the Echidna displayed in the Grant Museum has its feet mounted in the wrong direction? Echidna back feet point backwards, so that these...

Porcupines are well known, easily identifiable by the massive amount of quills covering their body. Which always and immediately raises the question on how they mate. Well, in short, very carefully. But what about the stages right before that? The first look, the first conversation, the first kiss and bonding on emotional level? Find out! And before you wonder: no, porcupines can not shoot their quills like darts! They fall off or break when predators attack them so they get stuck in their skin. Thanks for asking. The comic - porcupines dating African porcupines form a lifelong bond and can mate several times a year. Because porcupines are equipped with their sharp quills, intercourse is very dangerous. Therefore the female initiates by presenting her back. Gestation period is  around 3 months with a litter of up to four pups, called porcupettes (adorable name, isn’t it?). Because these porcupines are mostly active at night, and although pairs are kept in captivity, scientists and ...

A few weeks ago I signed up for an online drawing session with wildlifedrawing.co.uk . A few times a year I attend these along the in-person ones. They provide a comforting space where you can unwind, draw and learn more about a particular animal. And you will leave more inspired and uplifted after each session. Drawing hairy-nosed otters online This time it was about the hairy-nosed otter, for me a welcome change to the more familiar and better known Eurasian otter or sea otters you hear a lot about. Hairy-nosed otters are home in South East Asia, where they sadly get victimised by poachers and habitat loss. These otters are so rarely sighted that we don’t know a lot about them and they are considered endangered by the IUCN. Instead of a pencil, our instructor Jennie used a brush ink pen, after the work of  Charles Tunnicliffe‘s wood carvings. I haven’t drawn with ink in a long time traditionally too and decided to give it a try. I used Faber Castell technical pens for the most pa...

A few of my brain cells worked together and came up with a little, funny animal comic about a hunting cheetah (see more posts about animals ). I think as inspiration I can blame the Keeper Chat podcast where I learned about some interesting cheetah facts that are rarely mentioned in documentaries. Enjoy! I have been dreaming a while now about writing about animals and our relationship or misconceptions about them. But who reads blogs nowadays anyway, huh? So I tried to keep short, funny and a bit educational. Maybe, maybe this is the start of a new project. Is there an animal and a behaviour you would like to see in a comic? Fancy another funny comic? Click here . Or have you read my greatest art achievement yet ? Thanks for reading and till next time, Andi Pasti

How is it end of February already? I didn't get to update the final of the Animal Advent Calendar as I became more overwhelmed right before Christmas and needed to stop. On top of that, I got sick for a few weeks in January. Learning to draw animals is challenging For a long time it was my desire to draw animals. But with so many shapes and forms it is an immense undertaking to tackle them all, if not impossible. I bought several books and did numerous live drawings. But with live drawings you might often feel overwhelmed because your animal models don’t hold still how you like it. The easiest indeed were reptiles and by chance sleeping piglets, which I could have done a blog post about (darn). Books present a calmer and self directed way of learning. And I did start off with books and some generic body plan drawings, feet and hands. But it’s not the most fun way. And you need a lot of discipline to get through a book. At which it again feels a bit like work.  Animal research and d...

Welcome back to the Animal Advent Calendar on the 4th Advent. We will be looking at what sketches I did for animals starting with letters P - V. P for Philippine Eagle The Philippine eagle lives only on the islands of the Philippines and is the largest eagle followed by the bald eagle from North America, though not as famous. It grows to 1 m length and 7 kg of weight, it also features a nice, extravagant hairdo. They feed on all sorts of medium sized animals like civets, squirrels, deer, birds, lizards, snakes and monkeys. The latter prey brought them their other name, “monkey-eating eagle”, as people have observed them hunting monkeys. Couples hunt together, while one distracts the monkey herd from the front , the other one strikes from the back. Philippine eagles mate for life and only produce one offspring every two years which they nurture 20 months. This slow breeding cycle and their slow maturity of 3-7 years, the eagle is threatened. Human factors like deforestation, mining, agr...

Welcome to the 3rd Advent and back to my Animal Advent Calendar. Today we will be looking at the animal sketches for animals starting with letters I - O.  I for Indri Indris are the largest lemur and endemic to Madagascar, meaning they only live there. They are also called babakoto in the indigenous language, meaning “ancestor of man”, and are protected from consumption. As many species they are threatened by logging and habitat loss, leaving the populations strongly fragmented. If the animals don’t find other animals with different gene pools, the gene pool won’t mix well enough making the new generations vulnerable for diseases. Indris usually live in groups of 2 to 6, a pair with their young. In the morning they can be heard kilometres away in the forest,announcing their presence with wailing, long shouts. Look it up on YouTube, it sounds like a whale over water. J for Jaguar Jaguars are big cats from Middle and South America, often confused with the Leopard. Jaguars are more mu...