I just donated the second half of our Japan Mammalthon proceeds to the American Red Cross’s earthquake and tsunami fund! Thank you again for supporting us and the people and animals of Japan.
{ 2 comments }
From the category archives:
Mammalthons
Hi Mammals,
The fundraiser for the mammals of Japan is over, and I’m proud to say we raised $465.00. I’ve already donated half of it (in Japanese yen!) to Animal Refuge Kansai, and I’ll donate the rest to the American Red Cross when the transfer clears. Thank you again for supporting our work and the people and animals of Japan.
Love,
Jennifer and Coco
{ 2 comments }
Today is the final day of our fundraising effort to help Japan. These two drawings, along with the few that remain from earlier in the week, are for sale, with their entire purchase price going to help people and animals affected by the earthquake and tsunami in March—half to the American Red Cross, half to Animal Refuge Kansai, an animal shelter in Japan. Please help!
Raccoon dog (click image to enlarge)
This drawing has sold!
Besides today’s portrait, I drew the raccoon dog once before, back in February of 2009 during Hibernators Week—it’s the only canid that hibernates, which is interesting. But even more interesting is its position in Japanese legend. I shall quote from my own previous post, even though it feels a bit lame to do so, especially on the last day of our Mammals of Japan Mammalthon. Ah, well…
In Japan, where the raccoon dog is called the tanuki, the species is pretty common and can even be found in some urban areas. The tanuki is an interesting figure in Japanese folklore. It’s a shapeshifter and a bit of a trickster, and tanuki statues can bring good luck. The most interesting and, to me, strange element of the tanuki legend is the animal’s remarkably large scrotum, which it can use—in myths and stories now, not in real life!—as shelter from a storm or as a net for catching fish. I recommend this baffling series of 19th-century comic prints that show some of the tanuki’s creative uses for its endowments.
Seriously, check out those prints. You will be amazed. Perhaps envious. You may be inspired to buy your own tanuki art—no, not an expensive print from the 1800s, but an affordable original drawing!
Raccoon dog by Coco, age 12 (click image to enlarge)
Coco’s drawing has sold!
Thank you for your support, comments, and visits during our week-long visit to Japan. We are so saddened by the devastation there, and we’re glad that—with your help—we could help, even if our help is small. In drawing and researching these mammals, I’ve been reminded just how beautiful and special Japan is. I hope reconstruction and recovery is smooth, and my heart aches for those who lost loved ones.
{ 4 comments }
This week’s Daily Mammal drawings are of mammals of Japan, and they’re for sale, with the entire purchase price going to help people and animals affected by the earthquake and tsunami earlier this month. You can buy a drawing by me or by Coco, we can mat it or not, and no matter what you choose, half the purchase price will go to the American Red Cross and half will go to an animal shelter in Japan called Animal Refuge Kansai. If you don’t want our drawings, we won’t get offended—you can still help out by clicking the Donate button at the very bottom of this post. We’ll add your money to our fund. On to the mole!
Japanese mole (click image to enlarge)
0374
Researching this mole, I found a short story in the Paris Review by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from the Japanese, called “Mogera Wogura.” It is a fantastic story, in both senses of the word, and it seems to be digging its mole claws into my mind. It’s strange and I suspect it will haunt me a while. Somebody else please read it so we can discuss it!
Japanese mole by Coco, age 12 (click image to enlarge)
Coco’s drawing has sold!
The moles are very common and have no major threats, which is great for the little fellows. I wonder about the origin of the Japanese mole’s scientific name, but I can’t find anything on it. It seems that the common Japanese word for a mole is mogura, which is pretty much a combination of this mole’s generic and specific names. Hmm. There is only so much I can learn, and this shall have to be a mole nomenclature mystery in my life, I imagine.
{ 2 comments }
All week, my daughter Coco and I are selling our drawings of Japanese mammals to raise funds for Japan! If you buy one of them, whether matted or unmatted, your entire purchase price will go to help those affected by the earthquake and tsunami: half to the American Red Cross, half to Animal Refuge Kansai, a Japanese animal shelter taking in homeless pets. Please help, and please send your friends by, too!
Iriomote cat (click image to enlarge)
0373
This drawing has sold!
This cat may be the rarest feline species on the planet. There are only about 100 individual Iriomote cats living, and they’re found only on the Japanese island of Iriomote, which is just east of Taiwan. It’s an island that’s made up almost completely of impenetrable forest and home to some 2,000 people. Unfortunately for the Iriomote cat, the people like the same part of the island it does, and their highway goes right through the cat’s habitat. Despite efforts to protect the rare cat from harm, about four cats a year become roadkill. They’re also threatened by their habit of interbreeding with feral domestic cats, instead of mating only with each other.
Iriomote cats are quite elusive. They’re solitary and mostly nocturnal, and some researchers who dedicate their lives to studying them still go years without seeing one. According to this great article from The New York Times, some residents of Iriomote don’t even believe the wild cat exists.
Iriomote cat by Coco, age 12 (click image to enlarge)
Coco’s drawing has sold!
I said that this cat may be the world’s rarest feline because it’s been part of a taxonomic controversy almost since it was first described in the 1960s. Back then, scientists theorized that it was a “living fossil” species, the only existing member of an extinct group of cats. Then, other scientists decided it was actually a subspecies of the leopard cat, which is pretty common on the Asian mainland. Then it was back to being its own species, but in the same genus as the leopard cat, not in its own “living fossil” genus like before.
None of that ever got settled for sure, and now it looks like some people are leaning back toward the leopard-cat-subspecies idea. It seems that the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources considered it its own species until just a few years ago, but now the IUCN lists it under the leopard cat species, even though none of my other sources do.
This is important because the IUCN’s Red List is widely accepted and used as a definitive list of endangered species worldwide. Perhaps if I do a little digging in the records of the IUCN’s cat study group, I can find some of their reasons, and I may do that when I have the time. It’s good to remember that the designation of endangered species is dependent on many actors other than just counting how many cats there are that look alike.
If you’d like to help Japan without buying a drawing, click the Donate button below and we’ll add your contribution to our people-and-animals fund. And we still have two monkeys and one squirrel available for sale. See you tomorrow!
{ 3 comments }
This week’s drawings, by me and by Coco, are for sale to benefit animals and people affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan! If you buy a drawing, we’ll give half of the purchase price to the American Red Cross and half to Animal Refuge Kansai, an animal shelter in Japan. You can select a matted drawing or leave it unmatted. Unmatted, they’re 6″x9″ in colored pencil and marker on vellum. The mats are 9″x12″ and black. On to today’s monkey!
Japanese macaque (click image to enlarge)
0372
This drawing has sold!
The Japanese macaque is also called the snow monkey. They’re the guys you see relaxing in hot tubs and hot springs like this:
(That photo, as you no doubt noticed, is from National Geographic.) I wish there were Japanese macaques at Ten Thousand Waves, our local Japanese-style spa. It would be the perfect addition for the transporting atmosphere. Except I can imagine that they’re pretty noisy, and that might not be relaxing. Here’s a pretty fascinating article about why the macaques started hanging out in hot tubs, along with why they started playing with rocks and washing their sweet potatoes and wheat. The big trendsetter there was an 18-month-old baby girl monkey!
Here is Coco’s Japanese macaque. You should consider buying it to help Japan: all her other drawings have sold out. Collectors are lining up, people.
Japanese macaque by Coco, age 12 (click image to enlarge)
Coco’s drawing has sold!
My Japanese squirrel is still available for sale, too, and if you’re not big on art but you’d like to help the American Red Cross and Animal Refuge Kansai, consider clicking the button below. We’ll put your contribution into our fund.
{ 0 comments }
This week we’re selling our drawings to benefit Japan! You can buy an original drawing by me or by my daughter Coco, we can mat it for you or leave it as-is, and the best part is that not only do you get a unique work of art, you also get to help people and animals affected by the tsunami and earthquake of earlier this month. We’ll split the entire purchase price in half, giving 50 percent to the American Red Cross and 50 percent to Animal Refuge Kansai, an animal shelter in Japan. Today’s mammals have sold, but we’ll post more tomorrow, and my squirrel from yesterday is still available, too. Please help, and please send your friends over, too!
Japanese marten (click image to enlarge)
0371
SOLD, but please come back tomorrow!
The Japanese marten is a member of the mustelid family, which includes weasels, badgers, minks, ferrets, and otters—mustelids are those cute-yet-vicious little stinkers (sometimes literally) with pretty fur, beady eyes, and sharp teeth and claws. This marten lives in forests, but also sometimes in suburbs and residential areas, and Animal Diversity Web calls it an “opportunistic generalist” when it comes to food: it eats fruits, berries, and insects in the warm months and small mammals and birds all year long.
Japanese marten by Coco, age 12 (click image to enlarge)
SOLD, but please come back tomorrow!
Some of these guys have the most beautiful orange coloring, while some are a more dull brown. Coco and I both drew the orange variety. If you like their sharp little faces and tangerine-colored fur, please consider buying one of our drawings. (I recommend snapping Coco’s up while you have the chance—her previous two Japanese mammal drawings are already sold!) If you don’t care for the drawings, perhaps you’d like to donate to our Red Cross/Animal Refuge Kansai fund anyway. You can do that by clicking the donate button below.
See you tomorrow for another Japanese mammal!
{ 6 comments }
