Vanitas#7 (Tarsier) 90×90 cm, pencil, charcoal, acrylic and oil on canvas, 2025. (Courtesy Janine Bean Gallery, Berlin.)

The Tarsier is a small, highly sensitive, nocturnal primate found in the Philippines, they are threatened by habitat loss due to deforestation. Tarsiers suffer greatly from illegal pet trade; hunters and trappers shake the animals out of their trees or chop down the branches of the trees in which they live to be captured and sold als a pet for which they are completely unsuitable, partly due to their sensitivity to light and touch.

The narwhal is a toothed whale native to the Arctic.
Narwhals have a distinctive tusk which is usually found only in males. Females rarely grow tusks, but in exceptional cases a female narwhal can develop one. The tusk is not only a distinctive appearance it is also a sensory organ with millions of nerve endings, which allows them to perceive the environment.
In medieval times, narwhals were hunted for their tusks, people would sell them as unicorn horns, earning narwhals the nickname ‘unicorn of the sea’

Octopuses are highly intelligent creatures. They can complete puzzles, untie knots, open jars, toddler proof cases and are expert escape artists from aquariums, their intelligence stems from a completely unrelated path to human intelligence which makes them true aliens. Like all marine animals, they are seriously threatened by pollution, overfishing and habitat loss, the Coral Reefs around the world are under threat due to factors including global warming and acidification of seawater.