Artwork
If you would like to purchase any of the original oil paintings, signed by the artists, please contact us at BuyPaintings@EYEAM.art and let us know which eyes you have your eye on!
ARCTIC WOLF
Their white fur camouflages them against the snow – you might never see them, but they will most certainly see you. They live in packs, usually of 5 to 7, but sometimes of up to 20 wolves. Their 42 teeth can crunch bones and each wolf can chow down more than 20 lbs. of flesh in a single meal.
Along with mines, roads, and pipelines, climate change is squeezing their territory.
6 ¼”
(To be auctioned during EYE AM Gallery Openings, 2022)
ASIAN ELEPHANT
Adult males can weigh over 11,000 lbs. Both male and female African elephants have tusks; in Asian elephants, only the males do. Their tusks are actually teeth that extend beyond their mouths. They will not grow back if damaged. There are 40,000 muscles in an elephant’s trunk; humans have 600 muscles in their entire bodies.
Historically, this largest land mammal on the Asian continent roams from the Persian Gulf to India to China, but the overwhelming presence of humans has reduced its range by 85%. The population has declined by at least 50% in just the past three generations.
Asian elephants are revered as symbols of good luck, prosperity, strength, power, wisdom, memory and vitality. They are considered destroyers of evil and removers of obstacles.
7 ½”
$1,250
AYE AYE
Earth’s largest night-loving primate. The only place it is found is Madagascar. It spends most of its life alone. Looks like a half bat, half monkey. Its incisors never stop growing, like a rat’s. Its middle finger is long and thin and moves independently from the other fingers – ideal for fast tapping on trees (8 taps a second) and rousting out delicious insects. That same middle finger, aimed at a human, often makes that person feel cursed and vengeful enough to kill.
6 ¼”
$1,250
BERKSHIRE PIG
Considered the oldest breed in England. Rare today. A heritage breed. Known for their intelligence, their excellent disposition and for their curious and friendly nature.
After World War II, they suffered a serious decline in population when pork production turned industrial, favoring profit over quality. They were declared ‘vulnerable’ in 2008 when there were less than 300 breeding sows left in the world.
In recent years, Berkshire pigs have made a comeback because of Japanese demand, resulting in increased numbers being bred for marketing.
6 ¼ “
$1,250
BLACK-FLANKED ROCK WALLABY
Their tail at 22 inches is a few inches longer than the rest of their body. Their super well-padded feet help them grip and dash among rocky outcrops and caves. They can run up to 20 mph and jump almost 9 ft. in the air. They live in groups of tens to hundreds of individuals. Predation, habitat loss and competition for food threatens their existence. Their native Australia has the highest mammal extinction rate of any country in the world.
7 ½”
$1,250
BONOBO
Humans’ closest cousin. They spend as much as a quarter of their time on the ground walking around on two legs. They can recognize themselves in a mirror. They’re known as the ‘Make Love, Not War’ apes – showing compassion for each other and a willingness to share food, shelter and necessities. Up to 100 Bonobos live together. Theirs is a society ruled by females. Like chimps, they have an alpha male who protects the group, but the elder females decide where the community travels, what they eat and when they eat.
Civil unrest and growing poverty in the region around the bonobos’ forests have contributed to bonobo poaching and deforestation. The apes’ numbers are not precisely known but are suspected to be in serious decline.
7 ½”
$1,250
BORNEAN ORANGUTAN
Easily identified by their red fur. The name orangutan means ‘man of the forest’ in the Malay language. These great apes share 96.4% of their genes with humans and are considered highly intelligent. They are earth’s largest arboreal mammal, spending their lives swinging through the vast stretches of forest that supply their food
Their arms are 1 ½ times longer than their legs with a span of 7 ft. from fingertip to fingertip. They eat with their feet as well as their hands – in fact, their hands and feet look almost exactly the same. Every night, they make a new nest to sleep in.
The destruction and degradation of the tropical rain forest, especially the lowland forests of Borneo and Sumatra, is the main reason orangutans are threatened with extinction.
7 ½”
$1,250
BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN
Bottlenose Dolphins live in warm water all over the world. They grow to about 13 feet long and weigh around 1300 lbs. Their skin is gray, smooth and rubbery. Their outer layer, the epidermis, is really thick and, like ours, constantly flakes and peels, making sure their body stays smooth and slick for swimming. Dolphins, again like us, curious and chatty, are considered among the smartest animals on the planet.
Despite their protection under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), several species and subspecies of dolphin are threatened. The reasons are entirely man-made. Between competing for food, drowning in fishing nets and the ever-increasing pollution of the oceans, dolphins risk not just decline in numbers, but extinction.
7 ½”
$1,250
CHACOAN PECCARY
Weighs 65-105 lbs. and is about 40 inches long. They’re only found in some countries in South America and have been around for 8 million years. They’re tough, known to be fearless in the face of danger and avid eaters of inedible food like cacti. They might look like pigs but are actually not related to them at all.
The population is at risk due to habitat loss and over-hunting. They’re a protected species, but the laws are not rigorously enforced and hunting even happens inside national parks!
7 ½”
$1,250
CHANNEL ISLAND FOX
Weighing 4-5 lbs., the Channel Island Fox is the size of a house cat, which is way smaller than other foxes. The only carnivore unique to California. They live on 6 of the 8 Channel Islands off the Southern California coast – and nowhere else on earth.
Golden eagles were drawn to islands by the tasty piglets on Santa Cruz, the largest of the islands. At the same time, they began preying on the island fox too, causing the fox population to plummet, not just on Santa Cruz but on the nearby islands of Santa Rosa and San Miguel.
6 ¼ “
$1,250
CHINSTRAP PENGUIN
Called ‘stonebreaker penguins,’ not because they collect rocks, but because their screech is rumored to be piercing enough to shatter stones. They stand at 25 to 30 inches and weigh 7 ½ to 11 lbs. They swim at 18 mph and can go as far as 50 miles offshore every day for food. They can dive as deep as 230 feet. Their dives usually last less than a minute.
Just north of the Antarctic Peninsula, there’s a small, ice-covered island shaped like an elephant’s head. Every year, braving the brutal winds and equally brutal landscape of crags, cliffs and glaciers, hundreds of thousands of chinstrap penguins nest here. In January 2020, making the first count in many years, researchers discovered that tens of thousands of penguins were missing. Global warming is the prime suspect behind the sharp fall in numbers of these charismatic birds – named for the distinctive black line that runs below their beaks from cheek to cheek.
6 ¼ “
$1,250
DROMEDARY CAMEL
Dromedaries have one hump while camels have two. They stand more than 6 feet tall at the shoulder and 10 feet long. Their thick brown fur protects them from the sun during the day and keeps them warm at night. Their large nostrils can be closed during dust storms. They have two layers of long eye lashes. A Dromedary Camel can drink 30 gallons of water in 10 minutes. They are no longer considered a wild animal. In Africa and Arabia, they are kept under the control of herders for meat and milk production.
6 ¼ “
$1,250
FLORIDA PANTHER
Females are 6 feet from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail. Add a foot for males. Their tails make up almost 1/3 of their body length. They can run up to 35 mph but only for a few hundred yards. Mostly they creep up on their prey and spring on them from as far away as 15 feet. They are the only mountain lion subspecies found east of the Mississippi River.
The victim of an over-a-hundred-year-old bounty placed on their heads to protect livestock and game animals, they were nearly extinct by the mid-1950s. Today the main threats to the surviving population are habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation.
With only about 200 left, the Florida Panther is one of the rarest and most endangered animals in the U.S.
7 ½”
$1,250
GOLDEN-HEADED LION TAMARIN
Squirrel-sized, tree-dwelling, fruit-eating monkeys. The thick, golden manes that frame the faces of both males and females explain their name. Their tails are longer (12-15 inches) than their 8-13 inch bodies. All of them weigh less than two pounds. The only place on earth that they can be found is Brazil.
They are threatened by the increasing fragmentation of their habitat into small, unconnected areas, each capable of supporting no more than a minute number of groups.
6 ¼”
$1,250
GOULDIAN FINCH
Native to Australia. A small, colorful bird. Both males and females are bright with black, green, yellow and red markings. They are mostly silent, but every so often will let out a high pitched, whistling ‘ssitt.’
The ravaging wildfires of the dry season are the Gouldian Finch’s most serious threat.
6 ¼ “
$1,250
GREEN SEA TURTLE
At 5 feet long and 500 lbs., the world’s largest hard-shelled sea turtle. Fast in the water –clocking in at 35 miles per hour– but slow on land where it likes to go sun bathe. It has been on earth more than 150 million years, which is long enough to watch the dinosaurs evolve and go extinct. In all of that time it hasn’t ever been able to pull its head into its shell.
They are at risk because their eggs are overharvested, the adults are hunted, civilization endangers their nesting sites and it is all too easy to get caught up in fishing gear.
7 ½”
$1,250
HAWKSBILL TURTLE
At up to 45 inches long and weighing 110 to 150 lbs., this is one of the world’s smallest species of turtle. With their beaks that look more like they belong on a bird of prey, they chop into and feed on sponges that are toxic to other creatures and that threaten the health of the coral reefs. They can be found in the coastal waters of more than 108 countries.
To lay their own eggs, female hawksbill turtles return to the nesting grounds where they were born.
They have been swimming the oceans way longer than humans have been on earth. These reptiles have survived for 100 million years.
Their greatest threat is the wildlife trade.
7 ½”
$1,250
HELMETED HORNBILL
Noisy and conspicuous. Native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. They are more often heard than seen – they have a one-of-a-kind call that ends in a wild flurry of hysterical laughter. They have a wrinkly, featherless neck and a very long tail, but their most notable feature is their casque (which means helmet in French), a solid ivory-like block atop their short bill that weighs as much as 10% of a bird’s entire body weight. Jewelry made from the hornbill ‘ivory’ is in high demand; it is the sad reason why they are being hunted to extinction.
7 ½”
$1,250
IBERIAN LYNX
Yellowy coat is heavily spotted for camouflage. Their black-tipped tail is short – if they had evolved a long tail, like other cats, its wagging might well easily scare off the only thing they eat: rabbits. Disease has made rabbits scarce, so the Iberian lynx is in danger of starving to extinction. In 2002, there were fewer than 100 left in their native Andalusia in southern Spain. If they do go extinct, they will be the first feline species to die out since the pre-historic era.
6 ¼”
$1,250
INDIAN BENGAL TIGER
India’s national animal. Since they hunt at dusk and dawn, their stripes help them hide in the shadows of the tall grasses. They stalk their prey and pounce instead of chase. They’re built so powerfully that they can haul their kill for as much as a mile, even it if outweighs them. They’ll feast on up to 80 lbs. in a single meal and won’t need to eat again for 3 weeks. They have the longest canines among the carnivores, even longer than a lion’s.
India’s exploding human population has squeezed their habitat, making it easier for poachers to get at them and dramatically increasing the risks of conflict with people.
6 ¼ “
$1,250
JERSEY COW
Jersey cattle are a small, easy-to-keep variety with a single purpose: to make milk. Just like humans, cows only produce milk for their babies. One Jersey cow can produce 10 times her weight in milk during each lactation. The calves are taken away at birth to save the milk for humans. The mothers have been known to cry for days afterward, only to be bred again as soon as possible so that they give birth again and lactate again, and again, and again, enduring the cruel cycle over and over and over in their short lives. Jersey cows are considered one of the best-producing cows out there.
7 1/2”
$1,250
KAKAPO
The only flightless parrot on earth is also the fattest and heaviest, the largest parrot anywhere. They are also one of the longest living birds, with a lifespan up to 95 years.
They jog jauntily around the forest floor on their big, scaly, muscular legs and climb to the treetops where they use their too-soft-to-fly wings for balance and to help control the descent after they leap off.
Their Latin name translates to something like ‘owl-face soft-feather.’ Not only are they nocturnal like owls, they also have the owls’ whiskery disc-looking face.
They are found only in New Zealand, and indeed, especially after the introduction of cats to the region, in fewer and fewer places there. Their natural defense of freezing when frightened might work to save them from predatory birds, but makes them easy prey for the cats and other animals who hunt by scent.
7 ½”
$1,250
KOALA
The only animals other than primates who have fingerprints. They also have unique nose prints. They live out their lives by themselves, and are even more alone than that as they are the sole surviving members of their family, phascolarctidae — which makes them unlike any other creature on earth. It is a rumor that they are bears; they are not, not even close.
Koalas don’t drink much water; they get enough from the eucalyptus leaves they eat. Eucalyptus leaves are toxic, fibrous, and not very nutritious so a koala needs to eat over three pounds of them every night. That’s a lot to digest. No wonder they sleep 18-20 hours a day.
In their native Australia, May 3 is Wild Koala Day. Koalas are on the top 10 list of animals most threatened by climate change.
6 ¼ “
$1,250
LEATHERBACK SEA TURTLE
The largest turtle – weighing up to 2200 lbs. The deepest diving turtle – they can dive nearly 4000 ft. They can stay underwater up to 85 minutes. They have the widest global distribution of all turtles. After millions of years on the planet, they look same as they did in the time of the dinosaurs. They are the only turtle species that does not have a hard shell.
Apart from the laying of eggs, they spend all their time in the ocean. Their bodies have adapted to maintain a warm temperature even in the most frigid water. They travel ridiculously long distances, even across entire oceans, and swim more than 10,000 miles a year to reach their nesting grounds.
They face threats on both nesting beaches and in the water. Incidental capture in fishing gear (bycatch), hunting, and collection of turtle eggs for human consumption pose the greatest dangers.
The Pacific population has suffered the most over the last couple of decades. As few as 2300 adult females survive, making the Pacific leatherback the world’s most endangered marine turtle.
6 ¼ “
$1,250
MOUNTAIN GORILLA
One of earth’s largest primates. They live in the altitude, on the steep volcanic slopes of Central Africa. We share 98% of our DNA with them. Each of our fingerprints is unique; for them, it’s their nose prints. They have longer hair and shorter arms than other gorillas. Each troop of 5-30 mostly female and young gorillas is led by dominant, older male called a silverback. He provides protection, and also makes the decisions – when to eat (usually for 5 hours a day), when to rest, when to go, when to stay.
This great ape’s survival is threatened by human encroachment, and especially by humans’ tendency to political instability in this region. According to a recent report, there are only about 1000 mountain gorillas left in the wild.
6 ¼ “
$1,250
NIGERIAN DWARF GOAT
The Nigerian Dwarf Goat is an American breed of goat. Goats bred for their milk are often kept permanently in barns, sometimes by the thousands. A hot iron is used to burn the horns off the baby goats soon after they’re born so that they can fit more easily into the milking machinery, and also so they won’t hurt each other fighting for space in their terrible living conditions.
6 ¼ “
$1,250
NORTHERN GREY WHALE
Reaching a length of 49 feet, a weight of 40 tons, and living between 55 and 70 years, these magnificent creatures beat out every other mammal for the longest annual migration – swimming between breeding and feeding areas up to 14,000 miles a year at a rate of 75 miles a day, moving at an average speed of 2-6 mph.
No other whale feeds like grey whales. They skim along the seafloor, becoming enormous vacuum cleaners, scooping up critter-filled muck. They have no teeth, but instead filter food from water through special bristly structures in their mouths, leaving plumes of sand and mud behind them. They have odd, bow-shaped heads and white blotches all over; the blotches are barnacles – up to 400 lbs. worth — that have attached themselves to the whale’s fifty odd feet of skin.
They were nicknamed devilfish by whalers in the 19th century because of their fearsome fury when harpooned. Today, they are no longer hunted for their oil, but they are still threatened — by oil exploration, by the danger of entanglement in fishing gear, and by ships they might collide with.
10”
$1,500
NORTHERN WHITE RHINO
After the elephant, the white rhino is the largest land mammal. Of the two sub-species, northern and southern white, the northern are the smaller of the two, topping out at 3500 lbs. White rhinos are not actually white; instead, they are grey. The confusion comes from the Dutch world ‘wijde’ – which means wide, not white — and was used to describe the rhino’s mouth (adapted for grazing on grass) as distinct from the black rhino’s pointed mouth (designed for snatching leaves and branches).
Historically, uncontrolled hunting in the colonial era caused the major decline of white rhinos. Today they are poached for their horns.
There are only two Northern White Rhinos left in the world and they are both females. The last male passed away in 2018. This is a painting of his eye.
6 ¼”
$1,250
NUBIAN GIRAFFE
Their average weight is 2800 lbs., but an adult male can weigh as much as 4,000 lbs. – 24 lbs. of that is their heart. They are the tallest mammal on earth, standing between 16 and 19 feet tall at the shoulder. Strangely, giraffes have the same number of bones in their 6 foot 6 inch long necks as humans have in their short ones.
They aren’t territorial but roam the savannah to browse the treetops. They sleep for only a few minutes at a time. Unlike most mammals, giraffes walk using both legs from the same side of the body at the same time. Every step is about 15 feet long. Running they mostly use their front legs – both fore legs move together, and so do both hind legs. They are faster than they look. When alarmed, they can run up to 36 mph.
Because of habitat loss and poaching, the Nubian giraffe population is down 98 percent. Conservation came late for them. They live exclusively on protected lands in Kenya.
6 ¼ “
$1,250
PLAINS BISON
U.S.A.’s national mammal. North America’s largest land mammal. Can weigh up to 2000 lbs. and stand at 12 feet long. Before the west was settled by Europeans, 30 – 60 million bison roamed the Great Plains. By 1889, there were only 512 left. Thanks to conservationists and Indigenous peoples, the bison is back from the brink of extinction.
7 ½”
$1,250
RED PANDA
They are instantly recognizable by their red coloring (adorable face), long bushy tails (adorable face) and raccoon-like markings (adorable face… which is the first thing you’d see if you were standing under one of the tall, tall trees they live in in the high forests of the Eastern Himalaya and they were climbing down toward you.) They were called panda a good fifty years before the more familiar black and white ones. These pandas are about the size of a large house cat.
They are threatened by habitat loss and degradation, human interference and poaching. It is believed that the total population of red pandas has declined by as much as 40% just over the last 20 years.
6 ¼ “
$1,250
SAOLA
Pronounced sow-la, which means ‘spindle horns’ in their native Vietnam, they are also called ‘Asian unicorns.’ Their two parallel long, straight, pointed horns can measure up to an amazing 20 inches — twice the size of their head.
The Saola was just discovered in 1992. It is first large mammal to be identified in 50 years. In the wild, they’ve only been photographed 3 times.
In Southeast Asia, most endangered species of wildlife are threatened by targeted offtake for the wildlife trade, either for bushmeat or for traditional Asian medicine. Paradoxically, Saola is one of the few large animals in the region without a significant price on its head. Ancient Chinese and other Asian cultures never knew the Saola and so it does not appear in their traditional pharmacopeias. But the Saola gets caught up in the general slaughter and they are killed incidentally, as by-catch. Especially dangerous for them is the setting of thousands of wire cable snares by professional poachers. The scale of the problem is beyond description.
7 ½”
$1250
SILKY SIFAKA
17.5-21 inches long and weighing 6.7-14.3 lbs., the Silky Sifaka is a large lemur as lemurs go. They’re sometimes called ‘Angels Of The Forest’ on account of their long, silky white fur. Their diet consists mostly of leaves and fruits. They hang suspended to eat.
They are found only in northeastern Madagascar. One of the rarest mammals on earth. One of the world’s 25 most endangered primates. In critical danger of extinction on account of habitat loss to slash-and-burn agriculture for producing rice as well as illegal rosewood logging. There is also no local taboo against hunting them, so hunting is an ever-growing problem.
7 ½”
$1,250
SNOW LEOPARD
Perfectly blending into their surroundings, they are the famous ‘ghosts of the mountains.’ They can leap up to 50 feet, tramp the toughest snow with their huge paws, keep themselves warm with their big fat tails that double as scarves, but they cannot roar. If you are lucky enough to happen upon one at home in the frigid and barren high altitudes of Central Asia, they won’t attack. They might bat their baby blues at you and hiss like a cat.
Hunting, habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict and climate change — these are the greatest threats to snow leopards.
7 ½”
$1,250
SNOWY OWL
Hooray for Hedwig from HARRY POTTER. The snowy owl has an abundance and heavy load (4 lbs.) of white feathers. And yellow eyes. With a 6 foot wingspan, the females are larger than the males, but the males are whiter. Additional feathers on their feet keep them warm on the cold wide open tundra where they live. They hunt during the day, unlike most other owls who are known to hunt at night. They have great eyesight and excellent hearing. They can fly up to 46 miles an hour and can dive into nearly 8 inches of snow to grab a meal – which they don’t chew, but swallow whole. They mostly eat lemmings, something like 1600 a year; the snowy owls numbers rise and fall with the lemming population.
In down times, the snowy owls fly south where they can be killed by cars, by collision with power lines and by hunters who sell their eyes and claws to overseas markets.
7 ½”
$1,250
SOUTH AFRICAN SABLE ANTELOPE
Their astonishing horns can grow up to 5 feet long, about the same length as an elephant’s trunk. At first, their horns grow straight and tall, then slowly arc backwards. They are also easy to identify by their faces that look decoratively painted. At almost 500 lbs., these are one of Africa’s largest antelopes. They can run up to 35 mph to escape when they need to.
Humans are the primary threat. Between trophy hunting and habitat destruction for agricultural development, the Sable antelope is listed as endangered.
10”
$1,500
SOUTHERN WHITE RHINO
Male white rhinos can grow nearly 6 feet tall and weigh up to 5,500 lbs. – that’s the weight of 30 human men. Because white rhinos have very bad eyesight, they depend heavily on their hearing. To keep alert, their long, tubular ears can swivel independently. If necessary, they are able to run up to 25 mph, but only for short bursts.
Their horns aren’t really horns because they’re not attached to their skulls and don’t have a core of bone. Sadly, though, it is their ‘horns’ that endanger them, prized for their supposed medicinal magic. Being relatively unaggressive and living in herds makes white rhinos particularly vulnerable to poaching. In South Africa, where most southern white rhinos are found, at least one white rhino is illegally killed every day.
6 ¼”
$1,250
SOUTHWESTERN GRAY FOX
The southwestern gray fox weighs 4-5 lbs. and stands 12-15 inches at the shoulder. They have strong, hooked claws and are the only member of the dog family known to climb trees – to hunt, to sleep or to escape predators. Their preferred places to live are rocky canyons and ridges.
Their main threat is habitat loss, which is forcing them to live nearer and nearer to humans.
7 ½”
$1,250
ST. ANDREW BEACH MOUSE
Their body averages 3 inches long with a 2-inch-long tail behind. They have black eyes, large ears and white feet – a back foot can be as big as ¾ of an inch which is quite big compared to the rest of them. They live only on the coastal beaches and dunes of Florida. They are nocturnal creatures, and their activities are governed by the brightness of the moon.
Climate change and human incursion are their greatest threats. Once they take up residence somewhere, they tend to stay there for life or until a catastrophe like development or a hurricane wipes out their home.
6 ¼ “
$1,250
ST. MARY’S RIVER TURTLE
At almost 18 lbs., one of Australia’s largest turtles. Because of the green algae that grows like spiky hair on their heads they’re nicknamed punk rock turtle.
Solitary, they prefer to live on their own and underwater, where they can comfortably stay up to 72 hours thanks to the gill-like formations on their long tails.
Unique in the world, this turtle diverged from all other living creatures around 40 million years ago; by comparison, humans split from their closest primate relatives less than 10 million years ago.
They have suffered a decline as a result of the building of dams and the poaching of eggs for the pet trade.
6 ¼ “
$1,250
SUMATRAN ELEPHANT
The smallest subspecies of Asian elephant is also the largest mammal on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. They can weigh up to 10,000 lbs. and reach a height of 9 ft. They are weirder-looking than African elephants – almost completely bald with small ears. Female Sumatran Elephants usually don’t have tusks; those that do have them hidden inside their mouths.
Between the loss of their land and human-elephant conflict, there are only half as many Sumatran Elephants as there were just one generation earlier.
7 ½”
$1,250
SUNDA PANGOLIN
Shy. Night-loving. About the size of a cat. Eats up to 20,000 ants and destructive termites every day – its sticky tongue can extend up to 16 inches longer than its body.
Rumor has it that bullets ricochet off the Pangolin’s hard, plate-like scales – not true, but its scales are its defense… and its downfall since they are prized in traditional Chinese medicine. Like armadillos, a threatened Pangolin will curl up into a spiky ball. Which sadly makes for easy grabbing.
Pangolins are the most trafficked animal in the world. More than a million have been poached in the last decade.
7 ½”
$1,250
SWIFT FOX
The house cat-sized swift fox is well-named – it can run over 30 mph, even up to 40 mph. Improbably, they can climb and even live in trees, but most inhabit underground burrows, which can be as much as 13 feet deep and, like rabbit warrens, have several entrances for escaping predators. They hunt at night from dusk to dawn and, unlike most members of the dog family, nourish themselves not only on flesh but also by eating plants.
They have faced habitat loss because of farming, industrial and urban development. In the 1930s, hundreds were accidentally exterminated from predator control programs aimed at eradicating wolves, coyote and ground squirrels from prairies.
7 ½”
$1,250
SYRIAN BROWN BEAR
This small (!) 550 lb. subspecies of the brown bear is native to the Middle East. They’ve been around so long that they are mentioned in the Bible. Because they are the only bear known to have white claws and on account of their distinctively pale, light yellow fur, they are thought to be the missing link between the polar bear and the grizzly bear.
The population of the Syrian Brown Bear is significantly declining. It is already extinct in Egypt, Israel, Syria, and Lebanon, due to habitat loss and poaching.
7 ½”
$1,250
VAQUITA
Up to 5 feet long and weighing around 120 lbs., they are the world’s smallest porpoise. Their distinctive looks, black rings around each eye and black curved lips, have likened them to smiling pandas.
Native to the ecologically and fish-rich waters of Mexico’s Gulf of California, they are often accidentally caught and drowned in illegal fishing nets. They are the world’s most endangered marine mammal. Only 30 vaquita porpoises survive, but scientists are not giving up on them.
7 ½”
$1,250
WILD AFRICAN ASS
The Wild African Ass or African wild donkey is thought to be the ancestor of the domestic donkey. They live in the deserts and other arid areas of the Horn of Africa. Critically endangered, there are only 570 individuals existing in the wild.
Domesticated as early as 6,000 years ago, these sturdy animals can survive immense water loss of as much as 30% of their body weight, and restore this huge loss within only 2-5 minutes when drinking water.
Mature males defend large territories around 9 square miles in size, marking them with dung heaps – an essential marker in the flat, monotonous terrain. Swift and sure-footed in their rough, rocky habitat, the African wild ass has been clocked at 30 mph.
7 ½”
$1,250
YUNAN SNUB-NOSED MONKEY
Weighs about 30 lbs. and is around 30 inches long. They’re called ‘snub-nosed’ because they don’t have nasal bones; nobody knows why that is.
Like the Giant Panda, they are considered a Chinese national treasure.
Still, few people will ever lay eyes on one.
That’s because these enigmatic creatures make their home at a higher altitude than any other primate except humans – in the coniferous forests of the Himalaya, 14,500 feet above sea level. Plus, not only do the groups they live in travel with the changing seasons, but they travel every day, making fresh nests in tall trees on vertiginously steep slopes, places that are so cold they have frost almost 280 days out of the year.
Despite being a prized and protected species, their numbers have sadly been in decline for decades on account of illegal hunting and habitat loss.
7 ½”
$1,250
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If you would like to purchase any of these original oil paintings, signed by the artists, please contact us at BuyPaintings@EYEAM.art.
© EYE AM ART 2023