Name this species please. Answer will be posted after 16.00 UST on September 30th. In the event of a tie, the winner will be the person who gives the most interesting extra piece of information about this species. Alan
A hint & a clue People who have tried our previous quizzes will know that the right answer is rarely obvious I'll give a clue: it is an endangered species (EN on the current Red List). Alan
I never saw a previous quizz, but I arrived to this one and my inmediate tought was a Grevy's zebra. However, when I arrived you already wrote that quote, that made think that is not a "too obvious" zebra. I enlarged the image for see if there is something that can give me a clue. And I saw that the upper border of each white line is very well defined while the lower border is not so defined. That makes me think that this are not black and white stripes over a plain skin, but whitish ridges with dark grooves. I would vote for the throat of a Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae).
I haven't got an answer yet, but it is a very small animal (or an animal with a small striped area) so definitely not a zebra or anything like that. Each stripe is white bordered either side by black - you can see the separation between stripes down the middle of each black strip. There are a couple of forks though which suggests the photo shows a rayed structure such as a fish's fin. My guess is it is a fish or an invertebrate - although I think a fish is less likely given that it would have to have been taken through water and the image looks really clean for a blown-up section.
okay, my final answer (which is pretty much completely different to my musings before): vulturine guineafowl.
which is wrong... because I just re-read that the clue was it is endangered, and vulturine guineafowl is least concern. Oh well, such a good guess too.
Here's the whole animal (click on the images to enlarge them), It is, or rather was, a fin whale*. It has been floating in the English Channel for a few days and was washed up yesterday, just south of the Langstone Rock at Dawlish Warren - half a mile from my flat. The joint winners are Kakapo and kiang. Neither hit the bullseye, but it was a difficult question and their answers were very close. Well done both of you. On average 2 or 3 fin whales are stranded or washed up on British coasts each year, so this is quite an unusual event. This whale was initially reported as a sperm whale, but it is obviously a rorqual from these throat pleats. the identification as a fin whale comes from the white right-hand side to its throat (its starboard bow one might say) and the white and grey baleen in its right upper jaw. The fin whale is remarkable because the left-hand side of the throat and the left baleen are grey. I can't think of any other mammal with such asymmetrical colouration. The whale was female and about 50 feet (16 m) long, which means that it was immature. A sad sight, but a very interesting one. I would love to see a living fin whale. Alan * or finback (for bongorob )
