otherkinnews | Entries tagged with animal: bird

Three pieces have been added to our personal website, The Chimeras Library, this month.

“Symbols Found In The Alterhuman & Related Communities” –
Our most recently created alterhuman related article. This 22-page document lists and shares information about some of the symbols created throughout the history of the alterhuman communities and communities related to it.
Can be found here .

“From the Blue Fleet” by Ocean Watcher –
A recently overhauled 25-page personal essay by Ocean Watcher about their experiences as a frilled shark & blue glaucus polytherian and Tetsu Hayami fictionkin (from the anime, Blue Submarine No. 6).
Can be found here.

“Iridescent Green Feathers and Scales” by Quatz –
A 12-page personal essay by Quatz explaining a bit about being an emerald tree boa & resplendent quetzal polytherian (and thereby how being a polytherian leads him to also be an amphithere theriomythic).
Can be found here.

These pieces and more can be found linked on our website.

frameacloud

Content warnings: None.

September. Chamonix, Mer De Glace area of the Alps, France: Shown above, a video from the back of an eagle flying through the mountains.

Source

Srachi, "Flying eagle point of view." 2013-09-16. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3QrhdfLCO8

frameacloud

Content warnings: For this article, none. For the linked site: Body dysmorphia, and essay about recovering from an eating disorder (anorexia).

August: Khamaseen revived their personal web-site, Feral Limbo. The web-site contains their essays about their personal draconity and chimerical therianthropy. This includes "Body being: my experience of phantom limbs," and an essay each about their experiences of being marbled cat, giraffe, and horned owl. Khamaseen plans to further improve the site.

Source

Khamaseen, Feral Limbo. http://www.ferallimbo.com/

frameacloud

Trigger warnings: None.

Published in July on Birds of a Feather, a blog about otherkin and therianthropes who identify as winged creatures, is an informal research essay by Faileas, "Wings." It's based on surveys of otherkin and therianthropes, regarding how they experience their sensations of phantom wings.

The essay has a copyright from 2005, so I'm not clear on whether this is a new essay.

Source

Faileas, "Wings." 2013-07-02. Birds of a Feather. http://birdsofafeather.feralscribes.org/wings-faileas/

frameacloud

Trigger warnings: None.

Last May, in the Beyond Awakening blog for otherkin: a therianthrope/otherkin named Meirya rounded up a list of otherkin and therian projects that are calling for submissions. In short, this includes:

- Under the skin: Therian community voices, an anthology of short writings about being an animal person.
- Radiant obscurities, an anthology of writings about uncommon types of therianthropes and otherkin.
- The 2013 Therian Census, collecting demographic information about therianthropes.
- Project Shift, an informational site about therianthropy.
- Birds of a Feather, an anthology of writings about identifying as a bird or bird-like creature.

For more details on each project, and how to submit your work to it, see Meirya's post.

Source

Meirya, "Calls for submissions." Beyond Awakening. 2013-05-30. http://thehornedgate.wordpress.com/2013/05/30/cfs/

frameacloud

Trigger warnings: news coverage, phantom limbs, amputation, occult (magic, divination)

Summary: Since last March, I took a vacation from researching for Otherkin News. From time to time, I did bookmark some things that I wanted to write articles about. In short, lately we’ve had: ongoing as well as published academic research of otherkin, wearable cat ears that use brainwave sensors to express your mood, over a dozen new and republished books by the Silver Elves, and a scientific study of a person who had phantom limbs corresponding to body parts that she’d never had.

In science

Phantom limbs: She felt fingers that she’d never had

A study published last February in Neurocase described a woman (“R.N.,” age 57) who had been born with an incomplete right hand. After amputation of this hand at age 18 due to an accident, she developed a “phantom limb:” she felt like her hand was still there. What made this case unusual was that her phantom hand included phantom fingers that she’d never physically had. Her phantom hand was complete with all its fingers.

Initially, her phantom hand felt shortened and painful, but after mirror therapy (a common treatment for phantom limb pain), her phantom hand took on completely normal proportions.[1]

Although this study is not about otherkin or therianthropes, it is of interest to our community. Some otherkin and therianthropes experience phantom sensations of body parts that they’ve never physically had, including tails.

See also: an earlier article on Otherkin News, regarding a study published in the Annals of Neurology about a woman, 64, who developed a supernumerary phantom limb: a third arm.[2]

Community research: Survey of furries, therianthropes, and otherkin

The International Anthropomorphic Research Project conducted their Winter 2012 survey of furries, with questions that included otherkin and therianthrope issues, determining the overlap of the three communities. The survey took place online as well as in person at Anthrocon 2012, a furry convention. The survey opened in 2012-03,[3] and is now closed to further submissions, saying, “A summary of the collected data will be available on this website shortly.”[4]

Innovations in technology: the Necomimi

Neurowear, a company specializing in high-tech fashion, recently released the Necomimi. As described in a previous Otherkin News article,[5] the Necomimi is a headband that includes brainwave sensors and a pair of animatronic cat ears. The sensors detect the wearer’s emotional state, and expresses it by moving the cat ears.

Neurowear released the Necomimi in Japan on 2012-04-28.[6] Neurowear’s official store says that the Necomimi is $99.95 US, but is currently sold out due to overwhelming demand, but they’re taking backorders.[7] Neurowear says they’re planning on releasing new models of the Necomimi with different ear shapes.

Some people have independently created animatronic ears inspired by the Necomimi. On Instructables, a community site where inventors and makers share their ideas, Abetusk tells how to build animatronic cat ears, although these are controlled by a remote, not by EEG.[8]

So far as I know, these inventions were not produced by any participant of the otherkin or therianthrope communities. However, they maybe be of interest to these communities as an example of a way that new technologies can augment the human body.

New published works

New and republished books by the Silver Elves

The Silver Elves, a family of elf people who have been writing about elven issues since the 1970s, and who consider themselves to be part of the otherkin community, have published and republished several books of their writings. During the past few months alone, they’ve released these:

The Magical Elven Love Letters, Volume 1 (collected essays and poems from 1979 to 2001) and Volume 2 (from the 1990s) have been republished with new covers in 2012-03. They also published Volume 3, which includes writings from the 1990s and from their move to Hawaii in 2008.
The Book of Elven Runes, a handbook for creating and using an original oracle (not Futhark runes) designed by the Silver Elves, was republished in 2012-05.
The Elven Book of Changes: A magical interpretation of the I Ching. An elven interpretation of the ancient Chinese oracle. Released 2012-03.
The Elven Book of Powers: Using the Tarot for magical wish fulfillment. Released 2012-05-24.
The Elven Book of Dreams: A magical oracle of Faerie. A dream symbol interpretation handbook. Released 2012-04.
The Book of Elven Magic: The philosophy and enchantments of the Seelie Elves. An elven perspective on spirituality and ceremonial magic. Released 2012-05.
What an Elf would do: A magical guide to the manners and etiquette of the Faerie Folk. As summarized by the authors, this is a “view of how elves see and interact with the world of the Normal folk as well as with Otherkind of all sorts. It is designed to help the elfin everywhere to move through the often mysterious cultures of mankind with confidence and ease.” Released 2012-06-02.
Arvyndase (Silverspeech): A short course in the magical language of the Silver Elves. A grammar of a constructed language designed by the Silver Elves. Released 2012-05.
Caressed by an Elfin Breeze: The poems of Zardoa Silverstar. Approximately 90 poems by Zardoa of the Silver Elves, some from over 30 years ago.
Eldafaryn: True tales of magic from the lives of the Silver Elves. “a series of vignettes from the lives of the Silver Elves starting in the present and going back and forth through time describing their lives, their magic, their philosophy and their unique view of the world.”
Magic Talks: Being a correspondence between the Silver Elves and the founders of the Elf Queen’s Daughters. Released 2012-06-02. From the summary provided by the authors: “Magic Talks is a collection of letters between the two sisters who are the founders of the Elf Queen's daughters (in 1973), Arwen and Elanor, and the Silver Elves, Zardoa and Silver Flame. This is the first book in a series of Tulku internet correspondence beginning in November of 2011 and ending in February 2012. Arwen and Elanor are also the original publishers of the ‘Magic Elf Letters’ sent out from the Elf Queen’s daughters. They published three letters a week for about three years. In the early 1979 the Silver Elves carried on these letters calling them “The Magical Elven Love Letters” and continued writing and publishing them for the next 30 years…”

These books by the Silver Elves are important contributions to the history and literature of the otherkin community.

Academic article: Laycock’s “We are spirits of another sort”

A new academic paper all about the otherkin community (and therianthropes as well, under the same word) was published in Nova Religio, a peer-reviewed journal about alternative and new religious movements. The article, “We are spirits of another sort: Ontological rebellion and religious dimensions of the otherkin community,” is by Joseph P. Laycock, Ph.D.

A regular in the vampire community, Merticus, briefly summarized Laycock’s article.[9] Merticus says the article cites the writings of several participants of the otherkin community.

A regular in the therianthrope community, Citrakāyaḥ (a cheetah) read Laycock’s full article, and then thoroughly covered his responses in “A laycat’s review of ‘We are spirits of another sort.’” He says that Laycock emphasizes that the otherkin movement is not a religion, although it is often spiritual, and in some ways resembles a religion.[10]

Media exposure of therianthropes

During 2012-02, the furry news blog, Flayrah, listed several newspaper articles that mentioned therianthropes in addition to furries.[11]

New blogs

Birds of a Feather: by and for bird-people, created 2012-02.[12] This blog is full of essays about being therianthropes and otherkin who identify as birds. Authors include Acies (an eagle), Akhila (raven, leopard), GreyGhost (gryphon), Meirya (hawk, phoenix), and Tsu (swan). The blog accepts essays submitted by others.

I’ve seen a lot more otherkin-related blogs created recently, especially those hosted on Tumblr.com, but I’ll have to address them in another post.

More?

Due to my hiatus from the otherkin community during the past several months, I’m behind on my reading, and I’ve missed out on a lot. The above list is likely very incomplete. I’m going to need a lot of help filling in all the gaps.

If you or somebody who you know recently created new writing, art, or other creative works about otherkin or therianthropes, then please let me know, so that I can list them here next time. Please feel free to e-mail me about any such new discoveries at any time. That would be very helpful! Thank you!

- O. Scribner

( Sources )

frameacloud

Trigger warnings: criticism of otherkin.

I thought that I would post a link list like this every month, but the otherkin community has been so creative recently that I find it hard to keep up! Scarcely any time after my previous link list, I’ve already got a long list of new articles and projects. Maybe I should post a link list here on a weekly basis instead of monthly?

New articles introducing otherkin-related concepts

“Cladotherianthropy,” by Pantairin, of Chimera. 2011-07.
A cladotherianthrope is one whose animal side is a generalization of all animals within a taxa, such as an entire genus, rather than a species. A very well-written introduction to the definition and history of this concept.

“A short history of soulbonding,” by Tatsuya Rokurou, of the Flatlanders.
This article is written with the assumption that the reader is already familiar with multiplicity. In 2001, the first mention of “soulbonding” (mentally communicating with fictional characters). An overview of this concept’s changing relationship with fan-fiction and multiplicity. The development of related concepts of “muses” and of “otakukin.” How the definition of “soulbonding” changed in 2003, and problems with that definition: it assumes that every soulbonding relationship is the same, which is false in actual practice.

New articles criticizing otherkin, and new responses to criticism

“Otherkin troll bingo!” by Tsu. 2011-11-12.
A list of the phrases that people most commonly use to discredit otherkin, followed by a list of short responses from an otherkin correcting misconceptions in all of those. Both parts were created by a bird otherkin.

“We are not sick and dangerous, for the record,” by an anonymous otherkin. 2011-10-27.
An otherkin described being otherkin to mental health counselors, and they responded positively. They don’t see it as disassociation, schizophrenia, or anything harmful. It just exists, so the responsible thing to do is to deal with it existing as best possible.

“The parable of the were-duck,” by Aura Escher. 2011-08-24.
A vampyre criticizes therians for claiming to be animals, saying that therians are not animals in any real way. Escher expresses the opinion that what therians fool themselves into mistaking for their “animal side” is actually something else which is present in all humans, and not an “animal side” at all.

“Confessions of a former otherkin,” by BellaDonna Saberhagen. 2011-11-13.
A personal reflection by a Neo-Pagan who once self-described as fairy, describing how inexperienced Neo-Pagans often initially go through a phase of deluding themselves and one another into believing excessively far-fetched things, including that they are dragons, werewolves, angels, or even gods, who will play a part in the end/transformation of the world. Saberhagen advises the reader to take caution with spirituality, and accept being human.

“The skeptical otherkin #3: How inappropriate,” by Feathertail. 2011-11-21.
An otherkin asks, how do we determine whether the use of an idea is cultural appropriation?

Articles on what it's like to be a...?

“Motionless claws,” by Citrakāyaḥ. 2011-07.
What it’s like to be a cheetah therianthrope.

“Certata: From the blue fleet,” by Earth Listener, of Chimera. 2011-11.
What it’s like to be a blue glaucus sea-slug therian.

“Tell me what it is like to be a swangirl,” by Tsu. 2011-11-18.
What it’s like to be a swan.

Untitled (swangirl), by Tsu. 2011-09-06.
On how the human and swan sides get along without clashing. On being autistic and otherkin.

Other new articles
“People are only visible when they’re encouraged to speak,” by an anonymous author. 2011-11-12.
The otherkin and therian community mostly limits itself to conversation in English. As a result, we hear less or not at all from people in non-English-speaking parts of the world.

“From fictionkin to animalkin,” by Mist Weaver, of the Chimeras. 2011-06.
Written by a fictional animal member of a plural system. Assumes the reader is already familiar with the concepts of fiction-kin, therianthropy, and plurality.

“More thoughts about monsters,” by Tsu. 2011-10-17.
On the sacredness of that which is seen as different, strange, wrong, unacceptable, or scary. Whether you are a monster or not, you deserve to exist.

Untitled (mythology), by Tsu. 2011-08-28.
On the value of mythology

“The upside-down of grounding,” by Child Of The Fae. 2011-11-15.
The metaphysical anatomy of this Fae otherkin differs from the standard metaphysical anatomy of a human. This creates a challenge when performing metaphysical acts such as “grounding.” Assumes the reader is already familiar with the concepts of metaphysical anatomy, otherkin, and grounding.

New foreign-language articles

“Otherkin – dziwactwo czy fantastyczny sposób na życie? (Otherkin – a quirk, or a fantastic way to live?),” by Ewelina Czarnecka. 2011-08-29.
(In Polish.) An introduction to otherkin for outsiders. This polite and not sensationalistic article is in a women’s online magazine, We-Dwoje, which is otherwise mostly about fashion and health.

New art

Otherkin comic, by Drakmanka. 2011-11-13. Very nice.

New Podcast

The Pagan Musings podcast is having a show about otherkin, interviewing three otherkin: “Arthur,” Stormcrow, and Lupa.

New projects

The Beyond Awakening blog focuses on exploring otherkin-related topics that have had relatively little written about them. The latest essay prompt is titled “Challenge: Energetic Health.” Meirya asks otherkin to write about how their metaphysical energetic anatomy differs from that which is defined as “normal and healthy” in most literature on the subject.

Waoterlelie is running a survey, and is asking for otherkin to take a Meyers-Briggs personality test, and then send in their results.

New web-sites

Walking Between Worlds, a collection of essays written by two anonymous Vanir elves: one, an otherkin, the other, her spirit companion.

New blogs

The Other Problems, or, Dear Solace: A secrets and advice Tumblr. Anonymously send in your otherkin-related secrets or pleas for advice. The person running this blog is familiar with both psychology and otherkin, and patiently offers very wise advice to any who ask for it.

It Was Never Perfect But It Was Always Right, an otherkin-inspired work of ongoing fiction that has only just begun.

I Want To Go Home: Send in pictures of places that feel like Home, pictures of places for which your otherkin side feels homesick.

Little Otherkin Things And Problems. Short blurbs summarizing small things that are distinct to otherkin experience, whether joyful or sorrowful.

Other new link round-ups, like this one

“Link roundup and some news,” by Meirya. 2011-11-26.
Includes some summaries of how the otherkin community has been changing recently.

“Non-human blogs, resources, and projects,” by Tsu. 2011-11-26.

Thank you

Thanks to Earth Listener for telling me about several of these new things. Thanks to Tsu and Meirya for also collecting lists of new links on their blogs. When the otherkin community is so wonderfully creative and active, I appreciate any kind of help for keeping up with the fast pace!

- O. Scribner

frameacloud

Trigger warnings for this article: surgical body modification, body issues, gender issues, mental health.

Here's a list of some new projects, articles, blogs, and translations from the past few months. (And, in some cases, some that I discovered only in the past few months, but which existed earlier than that. I assume they could use a little publicity.) I intend to post a summary of new otherkin creations of this kind each month from now on. The highlights of the projects listed here include: plans to bring recognition for otherkin by means of something resembling the OpenID system, a couple articles about surgical body modification for otherkin, and several articles exploring whether being otherkin should be diagnosed as a mental variation.

NEW PROJECTS

Tsu, a winged person, is collecting entries for the first issue of a new otherkin ’zine, The Forest Voice. Tsu told me via e-mail that when finished, this will be available in both PDF and print-on-demand. The theme for the issue is “walking man’s road: the difficulty of living as nonhuman in the human world.” Do you have any writing or art to offer?
Trigger warnings: homesickness, but it's not currently described in a vivid way.

Spectrum-X, a mage, wants to write a “directory on post-human/species modification,” an organized collection of links that tell how people can physically transform themselves by means of virtual reality, costumes, and surgery. Send ideas! There’s not much to see there yet, but the directory will be at this web-site.
Trigger warnings: body issues, surgery. Currently not graphic, but may become graphic later.

NEW ARTICLES

“Feathertail’s otherkin FAQ,” by Feathertail, 2011-10-05,
Another introduction to otherkin, this one offering genuinely common questions with quite brief answers, well organized in sections: the basics; how to relate to otherkin; otherkin and religion; otherkin-ness and you.
Trigger warnings: none that I can think of.

“‘Non-human,’” by an anonymous bird otherkin, 2011-10-30.
On problems with calling ourselves “non-human:” it defines us by what we are not; and it denies our humanity, which is not the best solution.
Trigger warnings: none that I can think of.

“The skeptical otherkin #1: ‘Otherkin are delusional,’” by Feathertail, 2011-10-17.
An otherkin considers various aspects of how one can argue that otherkin are delusional.
Trigger warnings: mental health issues, ableist language.

“The skeptical otherkin #2: Relatively speaking,” by Feathertail, 2011-10-22.
Should otherkin be silenced so the concept won’t spread? Examining a slippery slope fallacy.
Trigger warnings: vividly describes religious intolerance.

“Transspecies diagnosis,” by Rua, 2011-09-27.
Rua, a sidhe, argues that the DSM-IVTR criterion for gender identity disorder (transgender) matches otherkin so closely that one need only swap the word “gender” for “species.” Rua argues that if we could get transspecies recognized as a mental “disorder,” it could be a step toward getting otherkin accepted as something for real… and acknowledges that this would be sort of an ironic way of accomplishing this.
Trigger warnings: gender issues, body issues, mental health issues, ableist language.

“Redefining p-shifting,” by Tsu, 2011-10-25.
Tsu argues that otherkin should consider surgery and virtual reality as a real way to attain physical transformation. Gives a few speculative examples.
Trigger warnings: body issues, surgery. Not graphic.

“I love you all; how can I help,” by Feathertail, 2011-10-21.
Forming plans to create an OpenID system for non-human avatars in virtual and augmented reality, as a way for otherkin to achieve mainstream recognition.
Trigger warnings: none that I can think of.

“Here’s how I can help,” by Feathertail, 2011-10-25
Sequel to the above article.
Trigger warnings: none that I can think of.

“Deconstruction of an idea,” by Feathertail, 2011-11-09.
Further thoughts on how to create an OpenID system for non-human avatars. Considering the role of a personality quiz in constructing such a thing.
Trigger warnings: none that I can think of.

“More on tagging,” by Feathertail, 2011-11-12.
Further thoughts on how to create an OpenID system for non-human avatars.
Trigger warnings: none that I can think of.

“The otherkin (Die Anderen - Otherkin),” by Apu Kuntur (Stefan N. K.), no date.
A dragon/seraphim otherkin points out the connection between dragons and angels: seraphim, the Biblical “fiery flying serpents.”
Original German, and English translation.
Trigger warnings: vivid description of metaphysical experiences.

“I, an angel? Flying With Angel Wings - The Path to Myself (Ich, ein Engel? Auf Engelsflügeln zur Erkenntnis),” by Apu Kuntur (Stefan N. K.), no date.
More thoughts on the similarities of dragons and angelic seraphim.
Original German, and English translation.
Trigger warnings: vivid description of metaphysical experiences.

NEW FOREIGN-LANGUAGE ARTICLES

“Pride – ett tal (Pride—a speech),” by Susitar, 2011-08-06.
(In Swedish.) Transcript of a speech about therianthropy, delivered at a Pride event by a wolf therian.
Trigger warnings: gender issues, body issues.

“Ich bin ein Drache (Die Otherkin-FAQ) (I am a dragon [The otherkin FAQ]),” by Apu Kuntur (Stefan N. K.), no date.
(In German.) Based on, but not completely a translation of, Baxil’s Draconity FAQ in English.
Trigger warnings: ableism.

NEW TRANSLATIONS OF ARTICLES FROM ENGLISH INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Laopa produced a Spanish translation of Wolf Van Zandt’s article "History of therianthropy and the therian community," which was originally in English.
Trigger warnings: mental health, metaphysics, brief description of some unhappy conflicts in the community.

“Smokowatość FAQ (Draconity FAQ),” by Baxil, Polish translation by Nufuwyr.
About those who call themselves dragons.
Trigger warnings: ableism.

NEW BLOGS

Kin Diet, by (author not stated?), first post 2011-10-02.
A collection of recipes selected to please various types of otherkin and therians.
Trigger warnings: this link sometimes describes and includes photographs of foods likely to make certain readers feel uncomfortable, including meat and blood.

- O. Scribner

frameacloud

Trigger warnings for this article: wild birds in captivity. Work-safe.

In fables, animals speak, do clever things, and otherwise behave like humans so that we humans may more easily see ourselves. We take for granted that fables are teaching-tales, not to be taken as literal facts. The animals do fanciful, imaginary things. However, there seem to be some exceptions where the stories could have been based on observation of real animals. There is a curious case with the fable of the Crow and the Pitcher. It’s included in Æsop’s Fables, a collection of ancient Greek moral tales. I’ve been told that an identical story is in the Pancha-Tantra (“Five Chapters”), an Indian book of fables. The fable goes like this:

“A thirsty Crow found a Pitcher with some water in it, but so little was there that, try as she might, she could not reach it with her beak, and it seemed as though she would die of thirst within sight of the remedy. At last she hit upon a clever plan. She began dropping pebbles into the Pitcher, and with each pebble the water rose a little higher until at last it reached the brim, and the knowing bird was enabled to quench her thirst. Necessity is the mother of invention.”¹

Is this anthropomorphism (interpreting animals as human-like, as is characteristic of fables), or could this be something that real animals do? Usually the events in fables are clearly imaginary, but this one is to be wondered about. We are beginning to understand the remarkable intelligence found in crows and other members of the corvid family.

A recent study in animal intelligence resembled the fable.² Four rooks (crow-like corvids) were presented with this scenario: they were each given a vial, containing a little water, with a worm floating on top as bait. Then they were given stones. The clever rooks were able to solve the problem quickly and intuitively. As reported in Science Daily, “Two of the birds were successful on their first try to raise the height of the water to a level at which the worm floating on top could be reached whilst the other two birds needed a second try. […R]ather than attempting to reach the worm after each stone was dropped, they apparently estimated the number needed from the outset and waited until the appropriate water level was reached before dipping their beaks into the tube.” The test was repeated with variations, each revealing a little more of what the rooks understood of what they were doing. For example, rooks showed that they understood that this was a property unique to fluids: they didn’t bother to drop any stones into a vial of sawdust. When given stones of assorted sizes, the rooks “learnt rapidly that the larger stones displaced more water and they were therefore able to obtain the reward more quickly than using small stones.”³ The rooks weren’t trained to do this. They just figured it out.

This isn’t the only tool use expressed by rooks. In another study, rooks learned to bend a piece of wire into a fish-hook shape to pull some food out of a narrow jar. In this study, the researchers said they doubted that rooks use any tools in the wild… in any case, they haven’t been observed doing so. Why not, though? Anyone who has kept parrots knows that the smartest animals love a brain-teaser. A challenge to the wits keeps them entertained. In a healthy ecosystem, an animal’s time isn’t entirely taken up by a grim struggle for survival, and they even find time to play. Tool use is awfully hard to observe in the wild, so much so that we only recently found out that animals used tools at all.

This experiment is one of Aesop’s fables captured in real life, showing that intelligence in animals isn’t necessarily anthropomorphism. (So vain we are to think that intelligence is exclusively human-like!) In my opinion, we should consider the possibility that the fable of the Crow and the Pitcher appeared in both Greece and India not because the story migrated from one place to another, as has been suggested by folklorists. Rather, I fancy that it might have been a real and natural corvid behavior that was independently observed by people in various parts of the world. The memorable sight could have been first told not as a fable, but as an anecdote. “I could learn something from that bird,” they might have said.

- O. Scribner

( Sources )

Profile

Otherkin News

About

Otherkin News is a collaborative, volunteer-run blog for sharing news for otherkin, therianthropes, fictionfolk, plural systems, and all sorts of alterhumans. You can join and post here about current events in our communities and newspaper articles that are about us. The person moderating this is

frameacloud. Everyone is welcome to subscribe and explore our tags.

July 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

Otherkin News

News for all sorts of alterhumans

Entries tagged with animal: bird

Update to The Chimera Library

Video from flying eagle's point of view

Return of Khamaseen's Feral Limbo site, essays on draconity

Research essay on phantom wings

Several projects calling for submissions

Current events from the last few months

New otherkin articles, projects, blogs

New otherkin-related writings and projects

Aesop's Fable in Animal Behavior Study [culture]

Profile

About

Links

July 2025

Most Popular Tags

Syndicate