Christmas Photo Puzzle 2022 – MONOCHROME CREATURES

Christmas Photo Puzzle 2022 by gentle lemur posted 24 Dec 2022 at 12:40 PM

It's been a while since I composed a puzzle. I have tried to make this one quite easy to start, but there is a sting in its tail.
First identify the 20 species in the photos. All of them are monochrome, because they are essentially black and white, generally with some shades of grey. However I have used a little leeway, by including a touch of dark brown and ignoring eyes with brighter colours. Remember that some species have one sex that is monochrome and one that is not, so if I chose to include a smew, it would have to be a drake as the duck has a red-brown head.
But there is a second part to the puzzle. There is a 21st monochrome species hidden in the first answers: its name has 20 letters taken from their names in the order shown.
For each of these 20 species write down the first letters of its English common name and of the first and second parts of its scientific names (the generic and specific names). Use Zootierliste to check the names if you need to. This will give you a set of 3 letters, or perhaps 4 if there are alternative common names (although if a letter is repeated, things are simplified). For example if you think Photo 1 shows a Smew, choose the letters S, M and A because its scientific name is Mergellus albellus. When you have most, if not all, of the correct letters, select one from each set to identify the mysterious 21st species.

I will be happy to look at PMs with possible answers, but I will not reveal any answers until New Years Day. So please do not post any solutions in this thread until after noon (UST/GMT) on Sunday January 1st, 2023.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all ZooChatters.​

 

I've figured all of the species but I'm hopeless with word games.

 

Same! Gave up after about half an hour of trying to guess number 21. Thanks for the challenge though, @gentle lemur !

 

That's why I never do these

 

I'm in the same boat as the rest of you guys. I even took the time to do a spreadsheet, writing down all the letter options, and I STILL can't figure it out.

 

Is the name of the 21st species in the correct order as shown in the puzzle or is there a further anagram even if you've selected the correct letters of each set? If the latter, there are about a quadrillion possible combinations of letters ignoring repeats...

 

I think the puzzle would be almost impossible if I had scrambled the order of the letters.

So the first letter of the 21st creature's name should be chosen from the specified letters of the names of creature1 and so on. I'm sorry if I did not make that clear enough initially.
Actually I made a last minute change to creature 1 to make that first letter easy to choose: some of the others are also quite straightforward, but some are not.

 

Just one question, if that's allowed - are we looking for the 21st animal's common name or species name? Or rather, MIGHT it be the species name, or is it definitely the common name?

 

I think you should be able to work that out for yourself when you have enough of the correct sets of letters.

 

This afternoon I received a PM from a ZooChatter who believes that they have found a solution to this puzzle.
I will make no further comment at this stage.

 

I think I’ve figured it out, but I’m not the first to submit the answer. Still have no idea what 3 is though!

 

Ooh, my first Zoochat puzzle! I’ll give this one a shot!
Quick question: the 21st animal’s name has one letter from all 20 other animals, right? Because I almost got an animal out of the first 7, but then 8 didn’t have the final letter for it. I won’t say what this animal I almost got is.

 

Now you are puzzling me I will have to try to work out what this animal might be.
I have received a solution from @Strix but I will stick to my original statement and say no more at the moment.

 

THIS THREAD IS NOW OPEN FOR SOLUTIONS​

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The solutions I received from @amur leopard and @Strix were both correct. Has anyone else solved this puzzle?

 

Happy New Year!

Got it!

BBB Brent goose / Branta / bernicla
CAO Clown anemonefish / Amphiprion / ocellaris
LNK Luristan newt / Neurergus / kaiseri
STA Sacred ibis / Threskiornis / aethiopicus
EDV Eastern quoll / Dasyurus / viverrinus
BNN Black-crowned night heron / Nycticorax / nycticorax
KOO Killer whale / Orcinus / orca
BDP Black mamba / Dendroaspis / polylepis
AGT Australian magpie / Gymnorhina / tibicen
MEM Maranon poison frog / Excidobates / mysteriosus
PRA Pied avocet / Recurvirostra / avosetta
BVA Blacksmith lapwing / Vanellus / armatus

PCI Pig-nosed turtle / Carettochelys / insculpta
ZHZ Zebra pleco / Hypancistrus / zebra
YCD Yellow-knobbed curassow / Crax / daubentoni
SEA Somali wild ass / Equus / africanus
AVG Andean condor / Vultur / gryphus
AOL Arabian oryx / Oryx / leucoryx
AUT Asiatic black bear / Ursus / thibetanus
SSA Spotted scat / Scatophagus / argus

21st monochrome animal - Fin whale!

Must admit, it was #3 that threw me too... I was too stubborn to check for alternative common names

 

Happy new year!
I couldn’t solve this for the life of me, but I almost got “Bontebok” out of the first 7 groups of letters.

 

Congratulations to @Mo Hassan who is our third winner.
@Corangurilla did well to get as far as 'bontebok' and I believe that some folk were working towards 'banteng', but neither is a possible answer because you can't possibly get to 20 letters, even if you add their scientific names (and I did ask for just a name).
I was worried that this puzzle was too hard for anyone to answer, so I made some last minute changes by adding the brent goose and the night heron to give some easy letters before the orca, and I had a couple of hints ready: as far as I know a fin whale as never been kept in captivity, even temporarily (and I'm glad that is so) and so I guess few ZooChatters have ever seen one. I did see a very dead specimen that was washed up near my home in September 2016 - a sad sight, but a very interesting one.
I'm glad I didn't need to use these hints and I hope that most people who made an attempt were able to identify most of the species, even if the whale eluded them.