Other Theriotypes

A wide country

Any animal can be a theriotype. The animals on this page are named less often than canines, cats, birds or hoofed animals, mostly because they are less familiar, or because their inner lives are harder for a mammal-minded person to picture. Rarity says nothing about validity. A snake therian or a moth therian is as much a therian as anyone.

It can, though, be lonelier. An uncommon therian may go years without meeting anyone who shares their animal, and may find that even other therians understand them poorly. Many say that the real animal becomes their best companion in this: the more they learn about it, the less alone they feel.

Mammals of land and air

• Bears are large, mostly solitary foragers that eat a little of everything, though the polar bear lives mainly on seals and the giant panda on bamboo. They have a superb sense of smell, and many spend the winter in a den in deep sleep. Bear therians often describe a heavy body and broad clawed paws, a slow, unhurried pace, and a love of solitude and of food.
• Hyenas look like dogs but belong to the cat-like branch of the carnivores, nearer to mongooses and cats. Spotted hyenas live in large clans led by females, hunt most of their own food, and keep in touch with whoops and other calls. Hyena therians often mention a strong sense of clan and a wide range of voice.
• Otters and badgers are both in the weasel family. Otters live by water and play throughout their lives; sea otters crack shellfish with stones and rest afloat in groups. Badgers dig. European badgers share large family burrows and air their bedding outside. Otter therians often describe water and play; badger therians, earth, dens and determination.
• Rabbits, hares and rodents are mostly prey animals. Rabbits live in burrows and are born helpless; hares live above ground and are born furred and ready to run. Rats are social and clever, squirrels store food for winter, and beavers reshape whole valleys. Therians here often describe twitching noses and long or round ears, vigilance, and a love of burrows or stores.
• Bats are the only mammals capable of true flight, their wings made of skin stretched over long finger bones. Many hunt insects by echolocation; others feed on fruit or nectar and pollinate plants. Bat therians describe wings quite unlike a bird's, a love of the night, and high, enclosed resting places.

Creatures of the sea

• Seals are clumsy on land and graceful in water. True seals have no outer ear flaps and wriggle across the shore; sea lions and fur seals walk on their flippers. Seal therians often describe cold water, lying in the sun on rocks, and the relief of being afloat.
• Whales and dolphins breathe air and live in pods, sometimes for life. Dolphins and other toothed whales hunt by echolocation, some great whales sing long songs, and orcas live in family groups led by older females. Therians describe vastness, depth, sound and family.
• Sharks and other fish breathe through gills. Sharks have skeletons of cartilage and can sense the faint electric fields of living prey. Therians describe constant movement, cool water, quiet, and sensing their surroundings in ways hard to put into words.

Snakes, lizards and crocodilians

Reptiles take their warmth from their surroundings, and much of their life is arranged around basking, waiting and conserving energy. Snakes have no eyelids and no outer ears; they smell by flicking the tongue, and some sense the heat of nearby animals. Many lizards can shed a tail to escape and grow it back. Crocodilians are an ancient group, nearer kin to birds than to lizards, and their mothers guard the nest and carry hatchlings to water in their jaws.

Reptile therians often describe a phantom length of body, or an absence of limbs, a deep love of warmth, long stillness followed by sudden action, and a quieter, less social inner world. Some say their experience feels strange even to other therians, which is one reason patience with oneself matters here.

Insects and spiders

Insects have six legs; spiders, which are not insects, have eight. Ants, termites, honeybees and some wasps live in colonies; moths, beetles and mantises mostly live alone. Spiders spin silk for webs, shelters and travel. Therians of these groups are rare. They describe phantom antennae, extra limbs or delicate wings, and sometimes a sense of belonging to a colony. Their identities are among the hardest to explain, and among the most often doubted by others, which makes careful self-understanding especially valuable.

Extinct animals

A paleotherian identifies as an animal that no longer lives: a dire wolf, a cave lion, a saber-toothed cat, a mammoth, a thylacine, a dinosaur. Birds are living dinosaurs, which some find a comfort. Extinct animals are known from bones, frozen remains, ancient art and, for the most recent, old photographs and accounts.

That knowledge is incomplete and keeps changing; dinosaurs, for instance, gained feathers in the scientific picture within living memory. Paleotherians often hold details loosely, ground themselves in what is known, and accept that some questions will stay open. Some also describe a particular grief that their animal is gone.

Close relatives and easy confusions

Myths that mislead

• The cowardly hyena. Spotted hyenas are skilled hunters, and lions often steal from them, not only the other way around. The werehyena of legend is a story, not a portrait.
• The bear of story. Neither cuddly nor monstrous, the real bear is a peaceable forager best left alone. The bear warriors on the page about the bear and the berserker belong to saga.
• The blind, bloodthirsty bat. Bats can see, and most eat insects or fruit. Only a few species in the Americas drink blood.
• The wicked serpent. Snakes are neither slimy nor malicious. The serpents of myth are gathered under serpent brides and dragon kings.
• The man-eating shark. Sharks rarely bite people. People kill vastly more sharks than sharks kill people.
• Seal wives and witch hares. The selkie and the witch who runs as a hare are fine old tales, and say nothing about a seal or rabbit therian.

Respect, and the slow road

Many of these animals are overlooked or disliked, and many are in decline: sharks from overfishing, bats and insects from lost habitat, reptiles from persecution. Uncommon therians are often among their most faithful defenders. Never approach bears, hyenas or wild seals, and give seal pups on a beach a wide berth, since their mothers are usually nearby. Never handle bats, which can carry disease, or wild snakes. And never take or keep a wild animal because of a sense of kinship.

The page on theriotypes describes the slow method that applies to every animal: notice and record your own experience, learn the real animal well, and compare honestly over time. Some find that they are polytherian, with an uncommon animal beside a familiar one. If the loneliness of an unusual theriotype ever weighs heavily, the page on wellbeing and care is there, and so is the bench in the contemplation garden.