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Your favourite animal?

Hedgelayer

I love short horn cows, they're amazing.
I do a lot of hiking and in the winter you'll see then roaming around the Burren in the winterage, their plumage gets long and fluffy in the winter time.

They have character and look like something out of an old ladybird story book...

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Galwayguy35

Polar bears.

1o059k7ewrqj3n

The Duck.

In the air, on the water or on land.

Pleasing sound.

Beautiful feathers, available in many colours.

PsychoPete

Otters!

[Deleted User]

Dogs are number 1 for pets, though I have a cat I manage to love an undeserved amount.

For wild animals it's got to be other primates. So close to us but orders of enormity different at the same time, and that's what fascinates me about them (and us).

Rubberlegs

Giraffes. I have always loved them. I love their cute little faces and their sticky out ears. I love how tall they are and their patterns, no two giraffes have the same pattern

Zaph

Sloths. What's not to love about an animal that moves so slowly that algae grows on it? It takes a sloth about 50 minutes to cover 100m. That's impressive!

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28SLOT-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale

Zaph

Rubberlegs wrote: »

Giraffes. I have always loved them. I love their cute little faces and their sticky out ears. I love how tall they are and their patterns, no two giraffes have the same pattern

Although I saw one in South Africa years ago, I only discovered very recently that black giraffes exist. I just thought the one I saw had unusual colouring.

Atoms for Peace

Fecking Crows.

TheRepentent

Whales and Orca's in particular.

As for pets it has to be dogs and fancy rats.

The rats are lovely, playful and highly intelligent. Sadly only live maybe 2years due to inbreeding.

Tuco88

Dogs are a given...

Id say the Alaskan timber Wolf and Artic Fox... stunning creatures

[Deleted User]

TheRepentent wrote: »

The rats are lovely, playful and highly intelligent. Sadly only live maybe 2years due to inbreeding.

Or maybe it's because that's how long it survives, before an upstanding person shoots it.

What's a fancy rat ? One that doesn't give you Lyme Disease?

ILoveYourVibes

Humans.

storker

Deleted User wrote: »

I always thought the Guinness marketing department had too much money for
(a) TV advertising
(b) Drugs

TheRepentent

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Or maybe it's because that's how long it survives, before an upstanding person shoots it.

What's a fancy rat ? One that doesn't give you Lyme Disease?

The proper name for pet rats to differentiate them from the wild ones that carry nasty sh1t

storker

Rubberlegs wrote: »

Giraffes. I have always loved them. I love their cute little faces and their sticky out ears. I love how tall they are and their patterns, no two giraffes have the same pattern

I like how they appear so aloof among all the hunting and killing that goes on near them (even though they're not as immune to it as they might seem).

"What's that? Lions at it again are they? Nothing to do with us old boy. Those leaves look jolly nice..."

tupenny

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

I enjoy a dog, but horses are my fav, and here's why.

A dog is, generally, genetically programmed to be loyal. Over thousands of years, we selected the most loyal dogs and kept their most loyal offspring as companions, and so on.

Not so with horses. We selected horses for their agility and temperament was often an afterthought. So, you don't assume a horse's trust, you have to earn it, very slowly, very carefully. It might take years. It might never happen.

But when you have a horse's trust, they will do any strange thing you ask of them. It is completely unnatural and counter-intuitive for a horse to jump, in straight lines, over intimidating obstacles. But they take the view that, although this seems like a stupid idea, you're generally a reliable person, and they'll trust you. That is a beautiful thing. There is no other animal, that I can think of, which is born to distrust man, and after getting to know you, will risk serious injury and overcome their instincts, just because you ask them to.

There are cynics who believe that horses are goaded and frightened into performing for humans. These people have probably never met a horse. Horses are many times bigger and stronger than we are, they are not frightened into anything.

Interesting. Not something I ever thought much into..

Hippos and foxes for me. Both intriguing and hippos so deceivingly fast and smart. If I'd to be an animal 100% would pick be a hippo

kowloon

Steyr 556 wrote: »

The Duck.

In the air, on the water or on land.

Pleasing sound.

Beautiful feathers, available in many colours.

Rocky Damaged Fawn wrote: »

For a pet, I think you can't get better than a dog but my favourite animal overall would have to be the elephant. I spent six weeks working with them and studying them, in Africa, many years ago. Absolutely amazing animals.

Wouldn't mind hearing more about that.

I can't name a favourite animal, but I've had cats and dogs and several types of bird as pets along with some rescued wild birds. I also have a badger that visits.

Mehaffey1

Big dog person when it comes to pets meaning I hate yappy little dogs the size of a Jack Russell or less.

Overall though I'd say cows, Jersey dairy cows in particular, full of personality especially compared to the forever forlorn black and white Holsteins we see in Ireland typically.

fonecrusher1

Its got to be piggys! Bacon, sausages, pork belly, spare ribs, pork fillet, yummy.

Beef too. I mean cows. Lovely beef fillet with a glass of red wine. Sirloin and ribeye.

Crispy duck!

Carry

Generally I love the whole animal world, at least the mammals, but birds too, and sometimes even spiders, as long as they stay in their designated corners and don't try to crawl over me.
Oh, and bumblebees in my garden, they are kind of cuddly and clumsy. Honeybees, of course, they do a great job in my orchard.

Since I moved to the countryside I discovered a fondness for cows. So gentle beasts.
I like foxes too, they are like a mix of dog and cat and can be very funny. Have one living nearby that comes occasionally visiting, once in front of my door looking at me like "and you are?".

I was always fascinated by wolves, the most amazing creatures ever (for me at least), mostly misunderstood but magnificent in their survival instinct, intelligence and social behaviour.

Polar bears are the ultimate predators, in their environment understandable, but they are just, I don't know, beautiful?

Strangely I like pigs, they are very intelligent and genetically closer to human DNA than any other animal, hence I don't eat pork.

As pets it's dogs. Can't resist any dog, they just melt my heart.

And cats. Currently I have one that just turned up and took me for granted. And I just surrendered to that fluffy, entitled, gimme food, don't bother me, want cuddles, gone hunting, need your desk chair, your bed is mine, don't invite strangers and generally royal fleabag of a tomcat.

ILoveYourVibes

Horses and cats.

kowloon

Mehaffey1 wrote: »

Overall though I'd say cows, Jersey dairy cows in particular, full of personality especially compared to the forever forlorn black and white Holsteins we see in Ireland typically.

I love when cows find something interesting and all gather together for a look. They're just big milk dogs.

[Deleted User]

kowloon wrote: »

I love when cows find something interesting and all gather together for a look. They're just big milk dogs.

Ted Hughes captured this very well in his poem CHAUCER, which on the face of it, is about his wife Sylvia Plath reading Chaucer's Canterbury Tales to an audience of rapt cows in a field in Devon.

But, this is Ted Hughes we're talking about. It's impossible to read the poem without his darker imagining, that Chaucer's audience were beasts, that Plath's audience are a herd of cows.

Nevertheless, if you can find the whole poem online, it's worth reading just for that surface observation of cows and their odd curiosity towards humans.

They shoved and jostled shoulders, making a ring,
To gaze into your face, with occasional snorts
Of exclamation, renewed their astounded attention,
Ears angling to catch every inflection,
Keeping their awed six feet of reverence
Away from you. You just could not believe it.
And you could not stop. What would happen
If you were to stop? Would they attack you,
Scared by the shock of silence, or wanting more –?

So you had to go on. You went on –
And twenty cows stayed with you hypnotized.
How did you stop? I can't remember
You stopping. I imagine they reeled away
Rolling eyes, as if driven from their fodder.
I imagine I shooed them away. But (etc..)

[Deleted User]

I think I remember reading that while all music increases milk output in cows, classical music outperforms country music by a country mile, so to speak.

Cows be cultured.

[Deleted User]

Candie wrote: »

I think I remember reading that while all music increases milk output in cows, classical music outperforms country music by a country mile, so to speak.

Cows be cultured.

Horses have musical preferences too. My neighbour keeps a stallion, and he insists he (horse) won't perform without mood music.

I myself had a pony who wouldn't settle without music coming from the radio in the barn. Someone used to switch over to Radio 1 at night, and the poor girl wouldn't have gotten a wink of sleep all night. You'd come into the yard at 8am, she'd be staring out the door at you, transfixed with worry about the war in Iraq.

Jesus but I talk some sh1te when I can't sleep... Maybe I should stop listening to Radio 1.

kowloon

Candie wrote: »

I think I remember reading that while all music increases milk output in cows, classical music outperforms country music by a country mile, so to speak.

Cows be cultured.

A neighbour of mine had LMFM going the entire time in his milking shed, not sure what the cows made of it though.

BeerWolf

Deleted User wrote: »

Which breed? The one on the end?..

"Dog..!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkQfVB6mOtQ

Bandana boy

I love dogs, they are so great.

but after Dogs the most beautiful creature I ever seen was a Cheetah . I was on safari in the Serengeti once and there was one chilling on a dune watching the plains , that let us drive right up beside it and to this day thinking about it makes me smile.

storker

Carry wrote: »

I was always fascinated by wolves, the most amazing creatures ever (for me at least), mostly misunderstood but magnificent in their survival instinct, intelligence and social behaviour.

Polar bears are the ultimate predators, in their environment understandable, but they are just, I don't know, beautiful?

I do like wolves and dogs that resemble wolves, even though I'm not a dog person.

Polar bears too, plus their big arses are kind of funny. Ditto for all bears actually.

Cina

I don't think any other animal will ever compete with dogs. They bring so much joy and happiness, there's a reason they're called a man's best friend. And look at all the help they provide to people with disabilities, and in law enforcement etc. so they're not just cute pets or anything.

I would genuinely get about 4 or 5 dogs if I was at home enough and had a big enough garden for them.

Other than that, elephants are pretty amazing. I was lucky to do the whole bathing and feeding elephants thing in Asia and it was great. You can tell they're extremely intelligent. And anyone who wants to see elephants in Asia, do this, and don't go on the f*cking elephant rides please!