posted September 26, 2015 04:16 AM            

My own would be.... hmmm ... This is actually hard....

posted September 26, 2015 04:18 AM            

Taurus - pandas because pandas are cozy and pleasure seeking (eat all day)

Gemini - dolphins because they are playful, social and witty

Cancer - pigeons because they always return home and are all about having a family

Leo - cats because you must worship them and do everything on their terms

Virgo - foxes because they are smart, quick and adaptable. Serious but playful

Libra - rabbit because they are gentle, soft and peaceful

Scorpio - crows because they will remember a bad person for life, and tell their friends, and all the crows in the area will attack the people that did them wrong

Sagittarius - squirrels because they are flexible, curious, and get everywhere!

Capricorn - bear because they can prepare for the worst. they can plan and be careful (bears eating and building a nest to hibernate through the winter)

Aquarius - ravens because they are smart, problem solvers and society animals

posted September 26, 2015 04:20 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Odette:
Nice idea!
I came across a website combining Western/Chinese signs and assigning new animals to represent them. Mine (Aries/Tiger) was the rhinoceros lol... which I didn't like very much.
But their interpretations were pretty good. I'll post the link here when I find it again

My own would be.... hmmm ... This is actually hard....

Aries... Something cute, kid-like, but very vicious when crossed (or when their territory is invaded) ... I definitely wouldn't think of the ram. It wouldn't be the first animal to come to mind.... ummmmm....
I have to get some things done and I'll come back to this thread!

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I tried my best but some of the animals I just KNEW, and others i had to think about. Also it would help if I knew more animals and about certain animals!

posted September 26, 2015 05:03 AM            

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Jack Russells tend to be extremely intelligent, athletic, fearless, and vocal dogs.

It is not uncommon for these dogs to become moody or destructive if not properly stimulated and exercised, as they have a tendency to bore easily and will often create their own fun when left alone to entertain themselves.

Their high energy and drive make these dogs ideally suited to a number of different dog sports such as flyball or agility.

Obedience classes are also recommended to potential owners, as Jack Russells can be stubborn at times and aggressive towards other animals and humans if not properly socialized.

They have a tremendous amount of energy for their size, a fact which can sometimes lead to trouble involving larger animals.
They may seem never to tire and will still be energetic after their owner has called it a day. While socialised members of the breed are friendly towards children, they will not tolerate abuse even if it is unintentional.

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posted September 26, 2015 07:31 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Odette:
Nice idea!
I came across a website combining Western/Chinese signs and assigning new animals to represent them. Mine (Aries/Tiger) was the rhinoceros lol... which I didn't like very much.
But their interpretations were pretty good. I'll post the link here when I find it again

My own would be.... hmmm ... This is actually hard....

Aries... Something cute, kid-like, but very vicious when crossed (or when their territory is invaded) ... I definitely wouldn't think of the ram. It wouldn't be the first animal to come to mind.... ummmmm....
I have to get some things done and I'll come back to this thread!

---

I suggest the Tasmanian devil.

So cute and cuddly.

Look again.

The only draw back is that it's mainly a scavenger. And I don't imagine aries as scavenger, not in a million years.

posted September 26, 2015 10:09 AM            

Virgo - A rat or maybe a snake? Sneaky, moving behind the scenes

Libra - A butterfly

Capricorn -

Leo - A dolphin lol...cute, intelligent animals. Loves playing around

Aries - An Elephant. Takes the lead, being the biggest animals around. No one f*** with an elephant lol

Pisces - don't know why but I thought about a donkey... they are cute animals (in my eyes) but follows others. Is often used by humans also :S

Capricorn - A crow maybe? Calculating, loves shiny stuff LOL

Taurus - A seal or Walrus... lying on the beach, having a good time lol

Gemini - Cheetah

Cancer - A bear. It's a motherly animal, taking great care of their cups. Sleeps in winther lol

Aquarius - A monkey maybe?

posted September 26, 2015 10:19 AM            

Taurus - bear - straight-forward

Gemini - monkey - curiosity, fun-loving

Cancer -.deer - gentle, big eyes

Leo - peacock

Virgo - birds - actually do think of virgos as birds as neat, chattery, sharp

Libra - owls - wise, objective (or swan - loyal, grace)

Scorpio - bats - see in the dark, work at night

Sag - seagull - fly in open spaces, hustlers

Cap - mole - not sure why but they just seem to get on with stuff without drawing much attention to themselves

Aqua - hamster - bear with me on this one ... Even though physically nothing alike they both seem independent, happy doing their own thing, purposeful, burrowing / introvert

posted September 26, 2015 10:57 AM            

Virgo - a goldfish. simple, no frills animal

Libra - a hummingbird or songbird

Leo - dolphin, cute, playful, liked by almost everyone, friendly and smart

Aries - doberman, or any trained attack dog

Pisces - butterfly. they can be beautiful, and fly off so quick you can't catch them

Capricorn - owl, old and wise

Taurus - buffalo. it has four stomachs and kinda plods along and looks threatening

Gemini - a flea, b/c they are always jumping around to something or someone else

Cancer - koala, cute, eats a lot, sleeps all day

Aquarius - zebra. unique look, impossible to tame or domesticate

posted September 26, 2015 11:00 AM            

ARIES: Parrot. Colorful, exuberant, may squawk.

TAURUS: Giraffe. Walking around slowly and gracefully, eating. (Not burritos...Hi T! )

GEMINI: Spider. Always busy, good at patterns, knows its language/art, and may catch others in it.

CANCER: Crab is perfect...gotta keep the crab....

LEO: Again, so hard to improve on the lion. Maybe a hawk for Leo ~ they are so observant, always scanning the landscape.

VIRGO: Raccoon. Always washes its food before eating it. And I'm kidding because I love Virgo and would not assign them that animal. Maybe a cat. Always grooming itself, looking pretty, wanting things to be just so.

LIBRA: What about the salamander? They are pretty, amphibious (dual, balanced environments) and, in legends, fire-proof. That matches Libras' self-protective tendencies...

SCORPIO: I agree with crow. Can't get that one out of my head.

SAG: Tiger. Because it looks so cool.

CAPRICORN: Elephant. Long memory, very loving, communicates through subsonic rumbles, and will tromple you to death (metaphorically) if you cross us.

AQUARIUS: Comb jellyfish

National Geographic: Strange Findings on Comb Jellies Uproot Animal Family Tree

posted September 26, 2015 11:16 AM            

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Originally posted by bansheequeen:
Aries - dogs/wolves because they are go getters, impulsive and instinctual

Taurus - pandas because pandas are cozy and pleasure seeking (eat all day)

Gemini - dolphins because they are playful, social and witty

Cancer - pigeons because they always return home and are all about having a family

Leo - cats because you must worship them and do everything on their terms

Virgo - foxes because they are smart, quick and adaptable. Serious but playful

Libra - rabbit because they are gentle, soft and peaceful

Scorpio - crows because they will remember a bad person for life, and tell their friends, and all the crows in the area will attack the people that did them wrong

Sagittarius - squirrels because they are flexible, curious, and get everywhere!

Capricorn - bear because they can prepare for the worst. they can plan and be careful (bears eating and building a nest to hibernate through the winter)

Aquarius - ravens because they are smart, problem solvers and society animals

Pisces - horses because they pick up on emotions you try to hide and get deeply effected by them

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posted September 27, 2015 05:16 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by bansheequeen:
Aries - dogs/wolves because they are go getters, impulsive and instinctual

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posted September 27, 2015 07:26 AM            

I got all the quotes from Wikipedia descriptions of these creatures. I did some other research that went into more detail and had a vague idea they would fit, but this is the gist of why I picked them.

Aries - Tasmanian Devil

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[...]they are thought to draw biting attacks toward less important areas of the body, as fighting between devils often leads to a concentration of scars in that region.

The Tasmanian devil has an exceptionally strong bite for its size, generating a force of over 553 N. The jaw can open to 75–80 degrees, allowing the devil to generate the large amount of power to tear meat and crush bones—sufficient force to allow it to bite through thick metal wire. The power of the jaws is in part due to its comparatively large head.

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Taurus - Wombat

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They are adaptable and habitat tolerant, and are found in forested, mountainous, and heathland areas[...]

Wombats dig extensive burrow systems with their rodent-like front teeth and powerful claws. One distinctive adaptation of wombats is their backwards pouch. The advantage of a backwards-facing pouch is that when digging, the wombat does not gather soil in its pouch over its young. Although mainly crepuscular and nocturnal, wombats also venture out to feed on cool or overcast days.

Wombats are herbivores; their diets consist mostly of grasses, sedges, herbs, bark, and roots.

Female wombats give birth to a single young in the spring, after a gestation period

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Most parrots exhibit little or no sexual dimorphism.

Parrots, along with ravens, crows, jays and magpies, are among the most intelligent birds, and the ability of some species to imitate human voices enhances their popularity as pets.

As seeds often have poisons to protect them, parrots are careful to remove seed coats and other fruit parts which are chemically well defended, prior to ingestion.

Learning in early life is apparently important to all parrots, and much of that learning is social learning. Social interactions are often practised with siblings, and in several species creches are formed with several broods, and these as well are important for learning social skills. Foraging behaviour is generally learnt from parents, and can be a very protracted affair. Supra-generalists and specialists are generally independent of their parents much quicker than partly specialised species which may have to learn skills over a long period of time as various resources become seasonally available.

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Prairie voles make shallow underground burrows and runways through surface vegetation. In winter, they tunnel underneath the snow. Their runways are used for many purposes, from predator protection to obtaining food. Prairie voles are easily disturbed. They will not hesitate to use their underground burrows if they notice predators close by or disturbances that pose a threat.

Unlike other voles, prairie voles are generally monogamous. The prairie vole is a notable animal model for studying monogamous behavior and social bonding because male and female partners form lifelong pair bonds, huddle and groom each other, share nesting and pup-raising responsibilities, and generally show a high level of affiliative behavior.

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The functions of the elaborate iridescent coloration and large "train" of peacocks have been the subject of extensive scientific debate. Charles Darwin suggested they served to attract females, and the showy features of the males had evolved by sexual selection. More recently, Amotz Zahavi proposed in his handicap theory that these features acted as honest signals of the males' fitness, since less fit males would be disadvantaged by the difficulty of surviving with such large and conspicuous structures.

Though the peafowl is native to India, in Babylonia and Persia the peacock is seen as a guardian to royalty, and is often seen in engravings upon the thrones of royalty.

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[...]the timidity of bonobos has meant there has been relatively little field work done observing the species in its natural habitat.

Most studies indicate that females have a higher social status in bonobo society.

Bonobos are capable of passing the mirror-recognition test for self-awareness, as are all great apes. They communicate primarily through vocal means, although the meanings of their vocalizations are not currently known. However, most humans do understand their facial expressions and some of their natural hand gestures, such as their invitation to play. The communication system of wild bonobos includes a characteristic that was earlier only known in humans: bonobos use the same call to mean different things in different situations, and the other bonobos have to take the context into account when determining the meaning. Two bonobos at the Great Ape Trust, Kanzi and Panbanisha, have been taught how to communicate using a keyboard labeled with lexigrams (geometric symbols) and they can respond to spoken sentences. Kanzi's vocabulary consists of more than 500 English words, and he has comprehension of around 3,000 spoken English words. Kanzi is also known for learning by observing people trying to teach his mother; Kanzi started doing the tasks that his mother was taught just by watching, some of which his mother had failed to learn.

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The Coccinellidae are generally considered useful insects, because many species feed on aphids or scale insects, which are pests in gardens, agricultural fields, orchards, and similar places.

The name "ladybird" originated in Britain where the insects became known as "Our Lady's bird" or the Lady beetle. Mary (Our Lady) was often depicted wearing a red cloak in early paintings, and the spots of the seven-spot ladybird (the most common in Europe) were said to symbolise her seven joys and seven sorrows.

[...]they are now known to be far more omnivorous than previously thought[...]

Certain species of coccinellids are thought to lay extra infertile eggs with the fertile eggs, apparently to provide a backup food source for the larvae when they hatch. The ratio of infertile to fertile eggs increases with scarcity of food at the time of egg laying. Such a strategy amounts to the production of trophic eggs.

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It is similar in appearance to the black-shouldered kite except for a very distinctive black underwing pattern of a shallow ‘M’ shape, seen when in flight. Roosting during the day in well-foliaged trees and hunting at night, it is the world's only fully nocturnal Accipitriformes or Falconiformes raptor.

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Hummingbirds have the highest metabolism of any homeothermic animal. To conserve energy when food is scarce, and nightly when not foraging, they go into torpor, a state similar to hibernation, slowing metabolic rate to 1/15th of its normal rate.

Hummingbirds consume more than their own weight in nectar each day, and to do so they must visit hundreds of flowers. Hummingbirds are continuously hours away from starving to death and are able to store just enough energy to survive overnight.

By relying on newly ingested sugars to fuel flight, hummingbirds can reserve their limited fat stores to sustain them overnight fasting or to power migratory flights.

The dynamic range of metabolic rates in hummingbirds requires a corresponding dynamic range in kidney function. The glomerulus is a cluster of capillaries in each nephron of the kidney that removes certain substances from the blood, like a filtration mechanism. The rate at which blood is processed is called the glomerular filtration rate (GFR). Most often these fluids are reabsorbed by the kidneys. GFR also slows when a bird is undergoing water deprivation. The interruption of GFR is a survival and physiological mechanism unique to hummingbirds.

Though many die during their first year of life, especially in the vulnerable period between hatching and leaving the nest (fledging), those that survive may occasionally live a decade or more.

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A crocodile’s physical traits allow it to be a successful predator. Its external morphology is a sign of its aquatic and predatory lifestyle. Its streamlined body enables it to swim swiftly, it also tucks its feet to the side while swimming, which makes it faster by decreasing water resistance.

Their tongues are not free, but held in place by a membrane that limits movement; as a result, crocodiles are unable to stick out their tongues.

Crocodiles are polyphyodonts; they are able to replace each of their 80 teeth up to 50 times in their 35 to 75-year lifespan.[28][29] Next to each full grown tooth, there is a small replacement tooth and a odontogenic stem cell in the dental lamina in standby that can be activated if required.

Crocodilians are more closely related to birds and dinosaurs than to most animals classified as reptiles, the three families being included in the group Archosauria ('ruling reptiles'). Despite their prehistoric look, crocodiles are among the more biologically complex reptiles.

Crocodiles have very good night vision, and are mostly nocturnal hunters. They use the disadvantage of most prey animals' poor nocturnal vision, to their advantage.

Crocodiles are ambush predators, waiting for fish or land animals to come close, then rushing out to attack.

They have evolved sharp teeth for piercing and holding onto flesh, and powerful muscles to close the jaws and hold them shut. The teeth are not well-suited to tearing flesh off of large prey items as is the dentition and claws of many mammalian carnivores, the hooked bills and talons of raptorial birds, or the serrated teeth of sharks. However, this is an advantage rather than a disadvantage to the crocodile since the properties of the teeth allow it to hold onto prey with the least possibility of the prey animal to escape.

There is a certain form of hierarchy in crocodiles, where the largest and heaviest males are at the top; having access to the best basking site, females and priority during a group feeding of a big kill or carcass.

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The true honey bees (genus Apis) are highly eusocial, and are among the best known of all insects.

All honey bees live in colonies where the workers sting intruders as a form of defense, and alarmed bees release a pheromone that stimulates the attack response in other bees.

A caste is a different form, morphologically or reproductively, within the same sex of a species. Honey bees have three castes: drones, workers, and queens. Drones are male, while workers and queens are female.

As in a few other types of eusocial bees, a colony generally contains one queen bee, a fertile female; seasonally up to a few thousand drone bees, or fertile males; and tens of thousands of sterile female worker bees.

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Elephants have a fission-fusion society in which multiple family groups come together to socialise.

One of the biggest threats to elephant populations is the ivory trade, as the animals are poached for their ivory tusks. Elephants are highly recognisable and have been featured in art, folklore, religion, literature and popular culture.

Because of their large size, elephants have a huge impact on their environments and are considered keystone species. Their habit of uprooting trees and undergrowth can transform savannah into grasslands; when they dig for water during drought, they create waterholes that can be used by other animals. They can enlarge waterholes when they bathe and wallow in them. At Mount Elgon, elephants excavate caves that are used by ungulates, hyraxes, bats, birds and insects. Elephants are important seed dispersers; African forest elephants ingest and defecate seeds, with either no effect or a positive effect on germination. The seeds are typically dispersed in large amounts over great distances.

Families may associate and bond with each other, forming what are known as bond groups. These are typically made of two family groups. During the dry season, elephant families may cluster together and form another level of social organisation known as the clan.

Old bulls appear to control the aggression of younger ones and prevent them from forming "gangs".

Individuals greet each other by stroking or wrapping their trunks; the latter also occurs during mild competition. Older elephants use trunk-slaps, kicks and shoves to discipline younger ones. Individuals of any age and sex will touch each other's mouths, temporal glands and genitals, particularly during meetings or when excited. This allows individuals to pick up chemical cues.

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Let me just include a bonus list for fun.

posted September 27, 2015 10:59 AM            

Do you have quaoar in a significant place? I do and love computer analogies. So ..

posted September 27, 2015 11:47 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by bansheequeen:
I tried my best but some of the animals I just KNEW, and others i had to think about. Also it would help if I knew more animals and about certain animals!

I was thinking dogs and wolves for aries but Im not so sure. They certainly have the "you mess with me I bite you!" attitude and if they want something (a ball or rabbit) theyll just chase after it without a second thought!

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As an Aries, this resonates with me!

A few months ago, I got into the biggest, most life changing fight of my life (it literally resulted in me moving across the country). I was dealing with the most manipulative, backstabbing, evil person I have ever met and she was accusing me of some kind of bad behavior, I can't even remember. My words to her were literally, "You put a dog in the corner, it's gonna bite!"