Satisfying animal needs

With exploring, I have a need to touch, smell or taste things. Scoping out nice areas to relax somewhere, or just investigating things in general, requires me to be tactile with my surroundings. I like to drag my hands over things, disturb the soil, smell the ground, rocks, or trees, things like that. I am endlessly entertained by pulling apart decayed fallen trees too.

Being able to roll around in the dirt and dust is another thing I feel I have to do. Dust baths are something I always very much want to do, and I think about it not infrequently. I also love pulling at some grass types and chewing them. Some weed grasses that grow where I live, when they're ripe, oddily they taste like cucumber or celery.

Basking is a big thing for me, and mentally I benefit a lot from doing it. Although I realise humans benefit from being under the sun anyway. That said I don't really see myself having the same attitude towards catching rays like regular folk seem to. I'm attracted to basking on rocks or otherwise tough ground because I know it'll be warm.

I also very much need to have my own space. I know myself to get overly irritable about intrustion, regardless of whether or not that itself is therian related, I respond animalistically by trying to revert my spaces smell to what it should be. If I don't do that, I don't feel right.

The one I experience the most is the need/want to tear into or bite things. If I don't have fabric or something like that I often find myself chewing on my knuckles. Another would be running/hiking or stalking through woods and such, climbing anything and everything(trees because that's in my area) or rolling down surfaces.
Something I notice I do that Ethiopian wolves do(which is why I've been questioning them), is when they're hunting they kind of have their hind legs perched/hunched for better jumps. That's a terrible explanation, but the urge to do that is amazing so I often find myself jumping in some way shape or form, or doing that position in the morning and such.
I also hold my mouth open a lot, typically when I'm yawning, but also just for hte heck of it and such.

The thing I find myself doing the most is smelling everything. I have a very good sense of smell, to the point that I have sensory issues with it. I cannot eat certain foods because of this, and that sucks. I also seem to be able to notice when food is going off, when my partner cannot.

Aside from that, I guess the feeling of belonging in wild places and wishing I could live there, feeling cooped up and depressed if I don't go for a daily walk, fierce loyalty to my partner and family, but those could all just be normal human traits lol.

I never realized it till now but I too subconsciously do this lol I never thought how this correlated to my theriotype but it sure makes sense! Social Hierarchy has always been something that I just played more attention to and it bothers me when I do not know where I stand in a group other needs\urges include protecting and being fiercely loyal to those I consider family among other more docile habits like walks ect.

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Aside from that, I guess the feeling of belonging in wild places and wishing I could live there, feeling cooped up and depressed if I don't go for a daily walk, fierce loyalty to my partner and family, but those could all just be normal human traits lol.
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This is freakily relatable to me lol like I am the same exact way when it comes to habitat and family

I find myself craving raw meat a lot of the time and of course I cannot just eat raw meat so I try to compromise with myself and eat raw salmon because that I CAN have and on the days I do eat meat I tear into it like a wolf and chew on the bones. It does help satisfy the wolf and lion inside most days.

(2023-03-16 14:25)TherianRose Wrote:  One particular thing I've tried to describe to friends is how when I'm in the woods, paths and trails almost "highlight" themselves to me. I just have this...sense of where I want to go, I guess, even if it's not a trail in the human sense of the word. Maybe some of you can relate to that?

I'm a bit late but yes! I can relate to this.

I think it's part of the set of instincts we have for tracking prey. We can kinda see the pattern of upturned leaves from animal tracks in the woods. I think objectively it's barely noticeable, but my brain just makes it light up and be super obvious.

I've obviously had a lot of fun finding animal tracks, understanding how different animals move through the woods from observing the tracks, etc. It seems like to hunt you don't really need that much brain power? You kind of have to have this tracking instinct, the freedom (and courage) to explore and a bunch of free time and you're basically all set to knowing exactly where to be to have the best odds of finding someone tasty in the woods.

I should probably also mention that I have yet to find a use for this skill in my human life.

LP,
Dusty

Too bad we don't live in a D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) world or I would say that would be useful for a ranger to have. Might be useful in hunting when you're tracking an animal to hunt.

I experience heightened senses, specifically the sense of smell which I use a lot. I also use my mind as kind of a tracker to where the person is via the energy they give off.

I know it may sound crazy but I found a few of my friends at a place I volunteer at because I wanted to hang out with them. I don't think it's theriotype related other than the smell aspect.