Main Site Sheep Aren't a Species

[Sprite]

Despite sheep being one of the most ubiquitous and easily identifiable animals in the world they aren't included as a tag under FurAffinity's categorization system. There are nearly 150 unique Species tags available for critters both real and fictional, but not one of them exists for the poor caprine.

I'm not sure why they aren't included, but it's always struck me as extremely odd. Consequently, all artwork of my sheepish fursona ends up receiving the label "Mammals (Other)," which is frustratingly vague and unsatisfying.

I don't believe that it is an issue of sheep not being popular enough in the furry community to warrant a tag, as doing a search for "sheep" on the website accrues 63K results. Compare this to some other species which do have tags, such as "Iksar" which only kicks back 1.8K results or "Mantid" which only has 1.2K results.

One of my friends asked me if there wasn't a more specific, but still general tag I could use such as "Caprines (Other)," but sadly there isn't. There is however a series of tags labelled under "Cows & Bovines" that curiously includes both "gazelles" and "goats." But they are neither cows nor bovines; rather, they are "bovids." I only mention this because I believe someone confused these two terms for one another, and has hence created a problem where no adequate tag exists for most bovids, including sheep.

(To clarify, bovidae is a large family of mammals which include the cow, sheep, antelope, etc. Bovinae on the other hand is a subfamily which only refers to cow-like animals such as cattle, buffalo, and yaks. Bovid = Bovidae | Bovine = Bovinae.)

Hence, I propose the following changes:

• Add sheep as a Species tag. They really deserve one.
• Change "Cows & Bovines" to "Cows & Bovids."
• Change "Bovines (Other)" to "Bovids (Other)."

These changes would not only give sheep a tag but would correctly categorize "gazelles" and "goats" into the right section. The creation of a general tag for bovids would also give some more obscure species such as antelopes, ibexes, and wildebeests a place to be.

I'm not sure if there is any way I can suggests these improvements to the FurAffinity staff. But if there is, I would appreciate it if someone let me know. Thanks~

TL;DR - Sheep don't have a Species tag.

 

[Nyro46]

In terms of the "bovines/bovids" thing, it's the same with the "felines" category, too. It should actually be listed as "felids". Felines refers to domestic cats, small wild cats, lynx and cheetahs (and whichever other similar cats would fall under felinae) but lions, leopards, tigers, and all the other big cats are panthers (pantherinae), not felines.

The canines category seems fine for the most part, since foxes are listed separately. However, there are some canid species that would still be put under "mammals (other)" because they couldn't fit under "canines (other)". So maybe canines should also be changed to canids and foxes can be put with them instead?

Other ones I've noticed are that wolverines should be under mustelids, and skunks shouldn't be.

 

[Fallowfox]

There are lots of common species that seemingly don't have an individual category 'rabbits and hares' for one, or deer verses mose.

It may be better just do have species as user-filled option*; the worst that can happen is that somebody spells it wrong and doesn't get as much traffic.

*Just so that we avoid having to represent phylogeny in the submission boxes; it isn't really reasonable to confront users with a humungous nested classification scheme, and it would almost certainly be full of mistakes.

 

[Catdog]

I think the species section would be a lot better if it were just write-in. But that's just my onion

edit: Also I didn't read this entire thread what's up

 

[Doodle Bunny]

No sheep option? This is an outrage!!!!

 

[Asher Grey]

Honestly my only personal issue is that the list is so long *and* doesn't save commonly used/last used species. I have an incredibly difficult time picking out specific species words from the list so any time I go to submit something, I have to carefully read through it(usually several times because I miss what I'm looking for). It's annoying because I almost always just post one of like, 3 species.

I would prefer a write-in option myself, if not a system where you can begin to type in a species and it'll narrow the list of suggestions based on the first letters. It would allow for the list to be longer and include more species if need be --since it wouldn't make a huge difference-- and would save time and frustration.