this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2026

41 points (95.6% liked)

Ask Lemmy

38469 readers

2303 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

6) No US Politics.

Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Bluetreefrog@lemmy.world

TheSaneWriter@lemm.ee

TheSaneWriter@lemmy.thesanewriter.com

Asudox@lemmy.world

lemmy_bot@lemmy.world

beefbaby182@lemmy.world

ModeratorCan@lemmy.world

neidu3@sh.itjust.works

asudox@lemmy.asudox.dev

candyman337@lemmy.world

candyman337@sh.itjust.works

What's your favorite animal? (piefed.social)

submitted 1 day ago by early_riser@piefed.social to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

39 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I don't have a single favorite, but every now and then a critter will become the subject of my latest ADHD hyperfixation. I remember thinking skunks were cool in 5th grade. They're like badgers with chemical weapons. For the months leading up to getting my first guide dog I devoured stuff about dogs in general. I had always had pet dogs so it wasn't a new subject, just a more intense interest.

For a while it was octopi, then parrots. For some time in 2015 or early 2016 it was possums, the US's only marsupial.

Right now it's monkeys. I used to think monkeys were gross and disturbing in an uncanny valley sort of way, so humanlike but not human at the same time. But I've taken a shine to orangutans. They're quiet and introverted like me. Also new world monkeys like capuchins and woollies. Having a prehensile tail would be awesome.

all 40 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] Canopyflyer@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

Birds

Favorite bird? The Corvids, specifically crows and ravens.

Freakishly intelligent and once you befriend them the Murder will stay friendly for generations. My grandparents owned a farm and my grandfather made it a point to be friendly toward the local Murder. By the time I was old enough to ask him why the crows all flocked around him some 30 years had passed. He barely had to do anything. He would put out straw during the mating season and food at other times. The Murder would be your friend too, if they saw you with him.

[–] Oberyn@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

(Moth|serval)s !

[–] TheFunkyMonk@lemmy.world 15 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

Maybe a capybara. Here’s me dying when I met some.

[–] early_riser@lemmy.world 5 points 15 hours ago

Guinea big

[–] Lommy@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago

Look at you, living the dream!

[–] Tywele@piefed.social 4 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

Cats of all sizes, owls & corvidae and frogs.

Edit: I forgot to list stag beetles.

[–] troot@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 12 hours ago

I don't have a favorite animal, but my closed ones started to think I have a thing for deep-sea anglerfish, and they may be right.

[–] daggermoon@piefed.world 2 points 16 hours ago

I don't know if they're my favorite animal but I want a pet skunk. They're so cute! As for my favorite animal ever, maybe a wooly mammoth.

[–] leavenotrace@feddit.nu 8 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Magpies (the corvids, not the distantly related assholes in Australia) are so fascinating. They're self-aware (they pass the mirror test) and they're able to plan for future needs (for example, they'll cache food and then hide tools nearby to later break into their cache). They have a huge variety of vocalizations that vary by region, sort of like dialects. They also engage in play just for the fun of it, like sliding down snowy hills and tossing and then catching objects. I could go on and on about magpies, such cool birds.

[–] quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

There's a magpie couple that regularly visits my backyard, I really want to befriend them but I don't know how.

[–] leavenotrace@feddit.nu 1 points 13 hours ago

Lucky you!

There was a family of magpies in my yard at a place where I used to live. They're so observant that they would look through my windows and watch me while I prepared food or cleaned or whatever in my kitchen. They recognize individual human faces. If you go out of your way to be nice or mean to them then they'll remember that interaction for a long time and adjust their behavior around you accordingly.

[–] idunnololz@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago

The nautilus

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

[–] grranibal@lemmy.zip 1 points 20 hours ago

Relevant video at 0:16

[–] sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz 6 points 23 hours ago

Him. I never could have imagined these animals have much personality at all but he did.

[–] blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I grew up with cats, always loved cats. If I saw a cat on the street I'd always say hello (or at least try to).

Last year my girlfriend brought home a rabbit.

Rabbits are fucking cool.

Don't see as many on the street though

[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 4 points 1 day ago

Don’t see as many on the street though

Rabbits are all over in many places. Not the type people keep as pets though.

[–] dsilverz@calckey.world 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

@early_riser@piefed.social @asklemmy@lemmy.world

Both due to ADHD hyper-fixation and for spiritual/religious reasons, Athene noctua.

Athene noctua owl mid flight.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Owl religion? Go on.... 🤔

[–] grranibal@lemmy.zip 4 points 20 hours ago

c/superbowl

[–] dsilverz@calckey.world 2 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

@anon6789@lemmy.world @asklemmy@lemmy.world

Sort of.

I don't know an easy way to label whatever my religion is, for it's a personal belief system syncretized from many different religions: Sumerian and Egyptian, going through Abrahamic, all the way to Thelema, Hermeticism, Luciferianism, Gnosticism, Quimbanda, Wicca, Goetia, among others. Scientific knowledge is part of this too, despite the religiosity.

The highest figure I worship is The Dark Mother Goddess, a spiritual synthesis of chthonic goddesses. Just like the Tree of Shadow and its Qlippoths have depths, so has Mother with different emanations, which (in my belief) were seen as different figures with different names and backgrounds across history, similarly to "my name is Legion for we are many" from Samael/Lucifer (also part of my worship, btw, although I focus more on Her).

One of Her emanations, the emanation She chose when unexpected gnoses began to me, still being the main emanation She manifests, is Mother Lilith, Queen of Night.

Lilith has a whole long history, going all the way back to Mesopotamia and Sumerians. I'm limited to 3k chars in my instance so I'm unable to go into the depth I wished for a single text.

Basically, Lilith is a Hebrew name, appearing once in biblical canon, namely Isaiah 34:14. Sometimes is translated as "screech owl", but there are no screech owls, as in Megascops genus, in Levant (where Bible is set). The closest are scops owls (Otus), considered screech owls in the past.

Then, during my researches, I stumbled upon this specific, chilling species: Athene noctua lilith. Lives exactly in semi-deserts (thresholds) in Middle East, and... this gaze, these hauntingly beautiful eyes (as in the photo), I quite recognized them from gnosis... I mean, look at these eyes! Her eyes are not that scary and that's exactly what make 'em scary.

Then I found a paper from L. R. Guillén debunking a common premise in Spain culture where Goddess Athena is associated with barn owls (Tito alba) due to Spanish grammatical quirks, going through historical evidences to trace Athena back to Athene noctua owls. This is how I found out this specific species resonated with me precisely bc it was associated with one of Her emanations.

Then there are Inanna and Ereshkigal, Sumerian goddesses, also emanations, closely related to Lilith (esp. if we see the sisters as One, similarly to how Hecate is Triple Goddess).

Details may change over time, it's still an ongoing research of mine bc I follow a solitary "temple of one devotee" (myself, preaching to myself), I wasn't able to find others who somehow got the same... call from Her, so I rely on things I stumble upon (essentially gnosis, sudden knowledge, from Her).

There are other figures in my "pantheon": Stolas, Great Prince, is also an owl, but masculine. Differently from Goetia where demons are "serfs" to be trapped into a sigil and banished upon fulfillment, I see them as high teachers to be humbly asked, especially Stolas.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Thank you for sharing all that! You've given me a lot to read up on. I was intrigued when you mentioned the Owl of Athena/Owl of Minerva in modern religious context.

Also very interesting about the confusion in Spanish about the confusion of the barn owl and screech owl. There is another person here I talk with about the confusion of them in Mesoamerican religion, so I'll have to see that paper.

Owls are present in many belief systems, in good and bad incarnations, so I'm always curious to hear about them.

[–] dsilverz@calckey.world 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

@anon6789@lemmy.world @asklemmy@lemmy.world

Also very interesting about the confusion in Spanish about the confusion of the barn owl and screech owl. There is another person here I talk with about the confusion of them in Mesoamerican religion, so I’ll have to see that paper

The paper I mentioned is this one: https://digibuo.uniovi.es/dspace/handle/10651/23598

It's an open paper, but it's entirely in Spanish. Also, the things thereby described can't find much parallels in English because it involves gendered nouns (missing from English language which has just "the"; curiously it's a thing in German ("die/der/das"), with which English shares origins).

However, here's how I'd summarize it: in Spanish, both "lo buho" and "la lechuza" translate to English "the owl", but the latter is specifically a word for barn owls and it's a feminine noun ("la", the-she), while the former is the more broad of a word and it's a masculine noun ("lo", the-he). Given this context where owls are to be linked to feminine, it became consensus to use "lechuza", instead of "buho", to refer to the "Owl of Athene" (the Little owl), because Athene is feminine so the noun should be feminine as well. Hence the confusion.

In other romance languages, such as French and, to some extent, Portuguese, Strigidae owls (especially Athene noctua Little owl) is correctly feminine gendered.

French has chouette (Strigidae without prominent ear tufts, which includes Little owl), chevêche (specific word for Little owl) and chevêchette (Pygmy owl and other very small owls) are all feminine nouns (but they got hibou, which is masculine, for "horned" owls).

Portuguese varies. Here in Brazil, owl names are often compounds with the root "coruja" or "corujinha" ("corujinha-do-mato" screech-owl, "coruja-buraqueira" burrowing owl... even Tytonidae have no specific differentiation over here as she's called "coruja-das-torres"; not native from Brazil, but the Little owl would be called "Coruja de Atena", "corujinha" ou "coruja-pequena"), all feminine (except for the augmentative "corujão" which isn't exactly used for owls, rather a slang to refer to nocturnal people). In Portugal (and I suppose Angola, Moçambique and others), I learned they use the word "mocho", which is masculine, including for Little owl ("Mocho-galego").

When it comes to Latin, noctua is feminine, but būfus (seems to be specifically for eagle owl) is masculine. Greek has gláfka and koukouvágia, both feminine (but also got Latin cognate boúfos).

Linguistics in this regard is fascinating. My personal research also involves words across languages (including "dead" languages, such as Sumerian thanks to Halloran's Lexicon with transliterated entries e.g. "nínnamušen" owl, "mušennínna" is fearsome owl-woman). Many of the words for owl ("owl" itself) are onomatopoeias for hoot (Hindi uhoo, Japanese fukurō, etc), which quite of reminds me of the phenomenon in which "m" is a universal phoneme shared among words for "mother".

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

I really appreciate all the time put into your replies!

If you haven't discovered us yet on !superbowl@lemmy.world, you should join us. The French and German communities there have been very helpful there, and there is also a person that researches Aztec religion where we have discussed some of their linguistics as well and the trouble people have with determining what kind of owl Chiquatli is supposed to be.

Hearing some of the Portuguese owl words is helpful as well. I try to find photos and articles from all over the world, and having you all explain the languages to me helps me greatly.

[–] dsilverz@calckey.world 3 points 1 day ago

@asklemmy@lemmy.world @early_riser@piefed.social

The italic font isn't rendering on your Piefed side. The missing part between the comma and the full stop is "Athene noctua".

[–] remon@ani.social 3 points 20 hours ago

Spiders.

[–] IlmariGanander@lemmy.wtf 5 points 23 hours ago

I've been fascinated by pterosaurs lately. The book Pterosaurs by Mark P Witton is great.

Pterosaurs interest me because of their wing morphology. Instead of having the wing membrane between all the "fingers" like a bat, it's attached to their equivalent of a pinky finger in such a way it can fold up enough that they could use all four limbs to navigate on land. They just have such an interesting body shape that no animal today really has.

They also got much bigger than birds. Like, to the point that I want to write a fantasy book where the premise is that dragons are like ...the only pterosaur that survived extinction. Because it would be cool to have a dragon that's directly not related to modern reptiles, birds, or mammals...but still is speculatively based on a flying animal that did once exist.

[–] bazzett@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

I'm a biologist, so all of them. Yes, even cockroaches (they're so cute when eating cookies ❤️), parasites like horsehair worms and Demodex folliculorum, spiders (all of them!), mosquitoes and centipedes.

[–] DredPyr8Roberts@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Red Panda

[–] tanisnikana@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

[–] Fondots@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

It's a bit complicated

With no further qualification, dogs. I've had dogs for most of my life and home just doesn't feel homey without a dog to me.

But my wife and I have a bit of a thing for frogs, they're sort of our unofficial mascot.

I also thought narwhals were cool long before reddit had them baconing at midnight. I think they were kind of when I realized that kids can be smarter than/know things that grownups don't. I don't remember what exactly the context was, but I remember once bringing them up, my mom didn't believe they were real, so I marched my way upstairs to grab the book I read about them in to show her.

I also always liked Coatimundis (Coatis) because they were probably the weirdest animal the fairly small zoo I grew up near had.

And if I had to pick sort of a "spirit animal" for myself, it's probably a raccoon.

[–] a_gee_dizzle@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago

Right now it's monkeys. I used to think monkeys were gross and disturbing in an uncanny valley sort of way, so humanlike but not human at the same time.

I agree with you that it’s monkeys. Thats why this image is my profile pic.

It’s a selfie taken of a monkey. IIRC it became a precedent setting case in copyright law, because the owner of the camera tried to claim ownership over the photo. The issue was that you need to actually take the picture to own the it. But the guy didn’t take the photo; the money took the photo. And monkeys cannot own property, under the law. So the image became public domain. Here’s the Wikipedia page on the case

[–] kbal@fedia.io 4 points 1 day ago

Eric Burdon

[–] SouthFresh@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I'm a fan of the African Rain Frog

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago

Damn I actually didn't think about this a lot...

When I was a kid, my favorite color was green and my favorite animal... I remember it being turtles

Cuz they can just hide from all dangers... they always have a "home"... where they are safe...

Being an immigrant and growing up in an emotionally unstable household... I never felt like I had a "home"

Like... neither in context of country... or in the context of my "home" vs school vs someplace to go to... like the library or a friend's house...

Like... when it's time for school... I'm like ah fuck, this again (cuz of bullies and authoritarian teachers and classwork shit...)

Then when it's time to go home... I'm like: oh no, yesterday we have a whole argument at home and stuff were thrown around and a few bowls and plates were broken, I kinda feel scared

And I don't have any close frienda where I could just go to their place and chill out...

And the outside world felt scary to me to I didn't have like a runaway "base" in the woods or something...

So I kinda liked turtles lol...

Just retreat to inside the shell when there is conflict...

🫠

For some time I also liked monkeys because Curious George... (also mandela effect time: but pretty sure it had a tail didn't it?)

At one point, it was sheeps/goats... because 喜洋洋与灰太郎 (it's a Chinese Cartoon I remember watching as a kid)

Some other animals I liked at some point:

I liked Owls because it was the first nocturnal animal I learned of...

Pandas because I'm from China...

Frogs/Toads... idk why... maybe cuz its amphibious

And now I have a cat... probably the most useful animal... gets rid of mice

[–] jeffw@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I inherited a fish over a year ago and now I’m obsessed with aquatic animals. Aquatic snails are super cool and I’ve started breeding them to resell. Y’know, until next year when I find something cooler. Love that ADHD life

[–] Melobol@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Elephants! After them~~ everything else~~ is my favorite :)
Edit, never mind: Not everything else, mostly mammals and fishes - and couple danger noodles and creepy-crawlers - but definitely not icky bloodsuckers. Tho leeches are at least prettier while swimming, than those flying disease vectors.

[–] PopcornPrincess@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago

I like chicken mmmm

[–] gigastasio@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

My 5 year old.

Edit: Don’t downvote me. I’m hilarious!