New Species Added: Basselope!

It's time to finally to announce a secret I've been keeping for weeks: the addition of an incredibly elusive animal to the repository collection!

Meet the basselope: a rare species that was thought to be extinct until a last surviving individual was rediscovered in 1986. Thanks to some incredible breeding successes in the subsequent years, the basselope population rebounded successfully. Now found in all continents but Antartica, modern basselopes have proven to be a highly adaptable species, and populations in different regions display a wide range of phenotypic variability.

Meet.... the basselope!

Basselope, while not domesticated, regularly choose to den in human homes. The North American population has a particular fondness for couches.

The "jungle" phenotype has lost their antlers over time, likely due to ease of movement through dense plants and vines. They are known for their habit of swinging their ears through the air as they move: while the origin of this behavior is unknown, it's theorized this adaptation may be both a form of enhanced thermoregulation and a way of communicating with conspecifics.

One isolated population of basselope has begun to shed their antlers seasonally, and they have begun a new annual tradition of posing against a backdrop of their previous year's accomplishments.

One of the most elusive morphs is the "arctic" basselope. Despite sharing a range with other basselope populations - which is not all that far north - they're known for developing a strikingly colored and oddly jingly winter coat. The genes responsible for this seasonal color expression are as of yet unknown.

More super-rare, never-before-seen basselope photos can be found here!

Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission from the basselopes to use these and all photos of them in the repository as references, including for works that will/may be sold.

The Animal Photo Reference Repository is an independent, permanently open-access project and funded entirely by donations, which allows me the creative freedom to have way, way too much fun on April 1st.

New Species Added: Basselope!

It's time to finally to announce a secret I've been keeping for weeks: the addition of an incredibly elusive animal to the repository collection!

Meet the basselope: a rare species that was thought to be extinct until a last surviving individual was rediscovered in 1986. Thanks to some incredible breeding successes in the subsequent years, the basselope population rebounded successfully. Now found in all continents but Antartica, modern basselopes have proven to be a highly adaptable species, and populations in different regions display a wide range of phenotypic variability.

Meet.... the basselope!

Basselope, while not domesticated, regularly choose to den in human homes. The North American population has a particular fondness for couches.

The "jungle" phenotype has lost their antlers over time, likely due to ease of movement through dense plants and vines. They are known for their habit of swinging their ears through the air as they move: while the origin of this behavior is unknown, it's theorized this adaptation may be both a form of enhanced thermoregulation and a way of communicating with conspecifics.

One isolated population of basselope has begun to shed their antlers seasonally, and they have begun a new annual tradition of posing against a backdrop of their previous year's accomplishments.

One of the most elusive morphs is the "arctic" basselope. Despite sharing a range with other basselope populations - which is not all that far north - they're known for developing a strikingly colored and oddly jingly winter coat. The genes responsible for this seasonal color expression are as of yet unknown.

More super-rare, never-before-seen basselope photos can be found here!

Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission from the basselopes to use these and all photos of them in the repository as references, including for works that will/may be sold.

The Animal Photo Reference Repository is an independent, permanently open-access project and funded entirely by donations, which allows me the creative freedom to have way, way too much fun on April 1st.

New Species Added: Basselope!

It's time to finally to announce a secret I've been keeping for weeks: the addition of an incredibly elusive animal to the repository collection!

Meet the basselope: a rare species that was thought to be extinct until a last surviving individual was rediscovered in 1986. Thanks to some incredible breeding successes in the subsequent years, the basselope population rebounded successfully. Now found in all continents but Antartica, modern basselopes have proven to be a highly adaptable species, and populations in different regions display a wide range of phenotypic variability.

Meet.... the basselope!

Basselope, while not domesticated, regularly choose to den in human homes. The North American population has a particular fondness for couches.

The "jungle" phenotype has lost their antlers over time, likely due to ease of movement through dense plants and vines. They are known for their habit of swinging their ears through the air as they move: while the origin of this behavior is unknown, it's theorized this adaptation may be both a form of enhanced thermoregulation and a way of communicating with conspecifics.

One isolated population of basselope has begun to shed their antlers seasonally, and they have begun a new annual tradition of posing against a backdrop of their previous year's accomplishments.

One of the most elusive morphs is the "arctic" basselope. Despite sharing a range with other basselope populations - which is not all that far north - they're known for developing a strikingly colored and oddly jingly winter coat. The genes responsible for this seasonal color expression are as of yet unknown.

More super-rare, never-before-seen basselope photos can be found here!

Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission from the basselopes to use these and all photos of them in the repository as references, including for works that will/may be sold.

The Animal Photo Reference Repository is an independent, permanently open-access project and funded entirely by donations, which allows me the creative freedom to have way, way too much fun on April 1st.

Photo of the Day: Geck. (Madagascar giant day gecko)

Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission to use this and all photos in the repository as references, including works that will/may be sold.

The Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository is an independent, permanently open-access project and funded entirely by donations, please consider contributing if you can!

**Patreon** -- **Ko-Fi**

Hate to break it to you, but this is AI.

See how there's five toes there?

Lions have four toes in front- the fifth is offset. At this angle, you'd only see four, not five. The innermost toe is way too high and way too visible for this to be a real lion.

Here are some pics of lions from the Animal Photo Reference Repository to demonstrate what I mean by an offset toe:

It's pretty far back, you wouldn't see that tuft of hair from that angle.

Also it appears one of his middle toes has two claws, he's missing the offset toe on his other foot, and the cub's foot isn't sinking into the mane at some parts. It's really convincing- but it's not real.

I sent this to @kaijutegu last night because she’s my expert AI identifier, and I think it’s so interesting to see the differences in what we both noticed about this video. And yeah, this one is tricky! I was only half-sure it was fake.

She immediately noticed the feet and the cub’s eye shape changing. Super specific anatomical differences.

My thoughts were more along the lines of: that adult male lion looks too perfect for a wild lion, also where did he get his mane blown out. I noticed more of the behavior, too, that he’s being way too chill about a cub on his head and not reacting to it shifting around at all (even the most tolerant dads are going to grimace a little). And the cub looks too coordinated to me for a baby that little.

It’s neat to me how many ways there can be to catch AI fakes, even when they’re this good. You don’t have to be an expert in a specific animal’s behavior - heck, the anatomy aspect is probably more concrete and less subjective than a behavioral interpretation.

Here’s two screen-grabs of a very, very tolerant dad (and his facial expressions) with cubs about the same age as the fake one. This is Chisulo from Fresno with his current cubs.

Photo of the Day: Grey seal nappin'

Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission to use this and all photos in the repository as references, including works that will/may be sold.

The Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository is an independent, permanently open-access project and funded entirely by donations, please consider contributing if you can!

**Patreon** -- **Ko-Fi**

Quickly boosting the repository's Patreon! This is where the magic happens (aka where you get sneak peeks of upcoming photos, plus exclusive videos)!

The art reference project is run entirely on donations. Contributions from users like you make it so I can continue expanding the species and photosets.

Here's a quick cost breakdown of my recent day-trip to go add newborn elephant photos to the repository:

Total: 12.5 hours of time and $156 for day-of trip costs. All covered by one month of support from current Patrons!

What it contributed for site (online soon):

Right now the Patreon funds one day trip like this a month, as long as it's within a couple hours drive from my home base. My current goal is for the Patreon to reach maybe... 350 a month? $350 a month would let me travel further afield this summer - driving and car-camping a couple days at a time - to capture species not in human care in the PNW. Can we make it happen? There's a reptile place with over 80 species of snake I'm itching to return to... and baby bongos just begging to be photographed...

Thanks so much to all of my current Patrons! You're literally why I can keep doing this work and running the site.

Folk had requested a bit of a cost breakdown for the site funding, so here's a start!

This is just for a single day trip to get more photos. It's a little harder to estimate the long-term costs, but there's website hosting ($256 annually), the time to build the site and sort/edit/upload photos, purchase lenses and gear (multiple thousands invested so far), or things like the repair from that spontaneous shutter failure of doom last winter.

Thanks so much to everyone who supports the site, be it through the crowdfunding, spreading word of mouth about the project, or just using it and enjoying it!

The more the Patreon grows, the faster I can expand the under-represented taxa (looking at you, snakes) because the facilities in my area just don't have a wide range of species. If you can help, that would be lovely!

Photos of the Day: Chilean flamingo dribbles

Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission to use these and all photos in the repository as references, including works that will/may be sold.

The Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository is an independent, permanently open-access project and funded entirely by donations, please consider contributing if you can!

**Patreon** -- **Ko-Fi**

Photo of the Day: red panda lunchtime

Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission to use these and all photos in the repository as references, including works that will/may be sold.

The Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository is an independent, permanently open-access project and funded entirely by donations, please consider contributing if you can!

**Patreon** -- **Ko-Fi**

GUYS HELP, DOES ANYONE HERE WORK WITH ANIMALS- AND WILLING TO ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS FOR AN ESSAY. MY INTERVIEW FELL THROUGH GUYS. PLEASE- ITS ONLY 12 QUESTIONS AND ITS ANONYMOUS

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. I DONT WANT TO HAVE TO CRAFT A FAKE INTERVIEW TO PASS THIS CLASS

I AM ON MY KNEES

I WILL BLAZE THIS SHIT IF I HAVE TO

@why-animals-do-the-thing maybe?

Depending on your definition of working “with” but if I don’t fit the bill I can probably hook you up. Feel free to DM me.

New Taxa Added: Sheep and Goats!

We've got some common and uncommon friends in this update!

Rocky Mountain Goats:

Bighorn Sheep:

Sichuan Takin:

Aoudad:

Chinese Gorals:

Want to have input on the next species to come online, or who is photographed next? Join the Patreon!

Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission to use these and all photos in the repository as references, including works that will/may be sold.

The Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository is an independent, permanently open-access project and funded entirely by donations, please consider contributing if you can!

**Patreon** -- **Ko-Fi**

Photos of the Day: raccoon balancing act

Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission to use this and all photos in the repository as references, including works that will/may be sold.

The Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository is an independent, permanently open-access project and funded entirely by donations, please consider contributing if you can!

**Patreon** -- **Ko-Fi**