Between this,
and the recent footage I would like to make my own attempt in this thread to taxonomically class Chinny.
I propose she belongs grouped in with the elasmobranchs, and is benthic - something similar to the epaulette shark. Like her other fellow seafloor dwelling sharks, she's very basal in her cognitive abilities, has awkward hurpling movements across the fartbox sea floor, and both enjoy finding a nice snack of shrimp on a feeding tray coral shelf.
It makes more sense then trying to group her taxonomically with higher mammals. Cows, pigs, whales... All waaaay too intelligent and mobile for ol' Chins to fit in.
I'm a wildlife biologist, so I'd like to take a crack at this.
It's true that pigs are intelligent, however, humans have bred them to be so wholly obsessed with food that they will literally place themselves in mortal danger just for a tiny morsel. They will hesitate, but in the end they will still go inside the chamber knowing there is food there(or in the case of feral hogs, run towards a marshmallow straight into the jaws of a crocodile). They also regularly cannibalize their own piglets even in the absence of external stressors which puts a dent in the layman's assumption of porcine intelligence being anywhere near human levels, which let's face it, thank fuck Chins can't have kids cuz there's no question in my mind she'd do the same thing. The digestive tract of a pig is also strikingly similar to humans, scarfing whatever they will fit in their jowls, a behavior synonymous with Chantal. So
sus scrofa domesticus seems fitting.
There are also dogs, an unpopular opinion but the science is clear: dogs value food over human relationships. They have evolved alongside humans to be attuned to our emotions and also developed stronger facial muscles from their wolf ancestors to best mimic human expressions in order to manipulate us into thinking the dog feels complex emotions towards us when
they do not. Not to say they can't have feelings, but they are limited to basic, primal emotions like fear and anger. Chantal is also known to attempt a facsimile of human emotion, but much like a dog, she does not understand such human concepts and only exists in the present moment, i.e. her only thoughts go towards her next meal. Unlike pigs (and Chantal), dogs do not stop eating when they are full; if provided with enough food most dogs will continue eating until they throw up (particularly labradors), and all dogs will eat anything and everything, including fecal matter. They will even eat their owners minutes after death, despite the dog's food bowls being recently filled. But, given that most people worship dogs to an unhealthy degree and adore them more than human life, this is probably not an ideal analog because Chins is anything but lovable.
Another option is cetaceans. Yes, whales and dolphins are far too graceful and intelligent to ever be associated with the ham beast, but a recent taxonomic overhaul using genetic data instead of phenotypical traits has placed hippopotamus in the same clade as cetaceans, now renamed
Cetartiodactyla. Hippos aren't exactly brain dead, but they're hardly what anyone would classify as intelligent. They weigh well over a metric ton, they eat 100 pounds of food a day, spend the vast majority of their time being lazy, and they are known to spray fecal matter everywhere. So in my professional opinion, she is a hippopotamus. Whatever the fuck she is though, she sure as shit isn't human.
Please hit me with puzzle pieces, for I am autistic af when it comes to zoology.
