Animal Styles

Animal styles have always been big in martial arts. In some ways it's a lot like the furry subculture. There are lots of tigers and dragons and praying mantises. Precious few moles or pangolins. In response to a thread on another forum here are my martial animal inspirations:

Martial inspirations from animals....
To start with, since I'm actually a large amphibian Here are some important lessons from The Way of the Toad

• Kill and eat anyone smaller than you
• Run away or hide from anyone larger
• If you get into a fight with someone larger, poison them
• Praying Mantis is over-rated
• White Crane is terrifying

From my cats

• You'll never stay in fighting shape if you don't get your 16 hours of sleep a day
• Kill from ambush
• Killing goes better with torture
• Eat what you kill but leave the not-so-tasty bits all over the house
• Learn knife fighting first
• If you're not afraid of a German Shepherd you must be as big as a German Shepherd. If you know it, so will everyone else

From sloths

• The best defense is being so still and covered with moss that nobody sees you
• Haste makes waste
• The most vulnerable time of day is when you climb out of bed to defecate.

From bonobos

• Make love, not war
• Make more love, not war
• Make really inventive love with your friends and neighbors, not war
• Make love swinging from trees, in large groups and with everyone except your mother, not war

From bees

• Only the Queen uses her sex organs for sex
• The rest of us fight with them
• And then we die (bee stings are modified ovipositors)

From elephants

• Size is everything

From amoebae

• Pound for pound, the amoeba is the most vicious creature on the planet
• Eat your enemies

From plants

• Plants give amoebae a run for their money
• If you're not using it to eat, build, or have sex use it to kill something
• Strangle your enemies
• Starve your enemies
• Poison the ground that they live on
• Once you kill them, eat them

From skunks

• If you have chemical weapons you don't need to be smart, strong or tough

From ants

• Mindless ferocity and large numbers beat everything