#analysis 101

Some animals, like humans, are incredibly intelligent, which causes giant swings not only in personality, but also behavior. This means that while these species are well-studied, they are almost too well-studied, with many anecdotal behaviors contradicting each other due to individuals having differing personalities and values. This causes these species to be really easily anthrpomorphised and misanalyzed simply due to contradicting information. Because of this high amount of variation in behavior and personality, these forms are considered non-viable. For some of these species too, there is the question of “non-human persons”, which would cause these species to be non-viable for the same reason that humans are; because each individual is just that, and it can’t be analyzed since the behavior and personality is too close and too hard to distinguish. There aren’t many of these species around, but for now the Great apes, Bottlenosed dolphins, Orcas, Baleen whales, and the Elephants are among the species too individualistic with too large a variation in personality to be properly analyzable.* *Note that some of these forms have been analyzed, and some may find them to be viable forms. It is a debated topic, but the consensus is still that these forms aren’t analyzed and seen on the same level as humans in regard to personality and personhood. Feral/Hybrid Animals These include animals like the coywolf, the liger, the tigon, and the mule. Also, feral cats and dogs are also not viable forms in analysis. This is because there’s too much personal bias that could get in the way, where someone may be able to “pick and choose” the traits they would like to see from each parent species. Another thing to take into account again is the fact that personality and behavior can vary wildly between populations, depending on the situation. There is also little observable behavior of these animals in the wild, which makes it difficult to pin them down in analysis. Mythical Animals This should seem like a no-brainer, but for a long time mythic forms were considered perfectly normal and that those individuals who were just “too different” or “so different from everyone else” would be seen as a mythical being. These would range from phoenixes to winged wolves to dragons from all sorts of cultures. However, the problem is that mythical forms, again, carry so much personal bias because there are no observable behaviors and they vary in mythology from culture to culture. There is no real way to be able to analyze mythic forms and get it right every time. Might as well make up an animal in your head and call yourself settled as that. Extinct Animals

The problem of most extinct species like dinosaurs or mastodons is the fact that most of their behavior is speculative and we will never know what their behaviors are naturally like, even if we managed to clone and bring them back from the dead. The only time a viable extinct form could be used is a form that was well-researched before its extinction. However, most behaviors are far too prone to personal bias interpretations, and are therefore non-viable. Low Complexity Animals While arthropods and mollusks are generally still considered viable forms, the lower the complexity of an animal, the harder it can become to translate its behavior to our own. Some of them are so small they live on a completely different plane of reality, where it is simply not feasible to take that animals as a form. Some animals are also so simple, they don’t have the same behaviors and may even be missing some core reactions that make an animal viable. Examples of these kinds of animals include cnidarians (jellyfish), tardigrades (water bears), corals, sponges, components of plankton, and the like. Again, every family may have it’s own individual animal that may still be viable, so research wisely. Domesticated Animals

Almost all domesticated animals have had, for the convenience of humanity, their wild behaviors either lessened or bred out entirely. These animals either don’t have behaviors different enough from their wild counterparts to warrant a separate analysis or they just don’t have enough observable behaviors period. Many domestic animals only exhibit unhealthy behaviors, which makes for an incomplete analysis at best. These include the majority of livestock animals, like goats, sheep, cattle, and camels. As one leaves livestock and food animals, however, things get more fuzzy, since some domestic animals have had their wild behaviors bred for and enhanced, so that they can complete different complex tasks. Many dogs, horses, and other work animals are able to be analyzed by their unique behaviors, but still as many others are non-viable due to anecdotal evidence, anthropomorphism or being bred simply for aesthetics. Take caution and do plenty of research for each domestic breed, since some may not be very different from one another, and only a handful of breeds in each group may be viable. Potentially viable domestic forms include cats, ferrets, rats, and horses. Don't Forget to Research!

Each species has the potential to be a non-viable form, and the trick to the difference between a viable and a non-viable form is research the crap out of it! Some good research websites for quickly seeing if an animal is viable are: Wikipedia, Animal Diversity Web, Encyclopedia of Life, and Arkive. Individual animals also have their own websites, like Big Cat Rescue or the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Book research is also important and great sources, so don’t forget to check online or at the library for books, scientific papers, or studies that may be harder to find but give a lot of detailed research on a single or multiple species. Documentaries are also readily available online in many cases; if you can find them, utilize them! Research is everywhere, don’t be afraid to go out and look for it. So What Now? Now that we know how to interpret, what to interpret, and where to interpret, we can move onto actual analysis and picking out the important puzzle pieces that makes an analysis possible! In the next section we can take everything we have learned so far and learn how to pick out and put together core traits for each form. Core traits are important because it makes the difference between looking for a form that is only kind of manipulative, confrontational, loyal, etc. between a form that has loyalty, confrontation, or manipulation be so important that it wouldn’t be the same form without it. It can be hard to figure out at first but it is possible! The analysis itself is just about within our interpreting grasp!