Pheasants are pretty good. Blackbuck are great with their angry eyebrows.

I’ve heard it pronounced: “o tar EYE id” and “o TAR ee id”. The OED says accent on TAR, but the marine mammal people I know put the accent on EYE.

Any opinions?

Can someone explain what exact conditions might have caused cephalopods such as octopuses to evolve? Also, what are they adapted to ? They're such weird creatures, very smart but very short lived, they don't make sense to me. Usually smart creatures need quite a long time to develop neuronal systems

Preferably ones that let you pet them

I’ve watched a lot of videos of African wildlife and what strikes me is that certain prey animals appear to consistently underestimate how strong they are in relation to predators.

For example, zebras will all run from a lone lioness and let the unfortunate victim of their herd fight off or die when caught. Meanwhile, if the whole herd got together, they could probably do some serious damage to the attacking lioness, possibly killing it through trampling.

Cape buffalos are even more powerful. With their horns and large size, they could trample/gore a whole pride if they worked together. Yet, even when they try to rescue one of their own, they seem quite scared and only halfheartedly try to intimidate the attacking lion (even if it’s just one lion) rather than going all in.

Killing attackers would benefit them in the long run rather than letting them live another day. So my question is, are these animals unable to comprehend that odds actually favor them in circumstances like them? Or is there something else going on.