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December Photo Quiz

Discussion in 'Animal Photography' started by gentle lemur, 14 Dec 2017.

  1. gentle lemur

    gentle lemur Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    It's skin, scales, fur and feathers this month. Find 12 common names and the common theme. The order of the images is significant, and so is the fact that the first four images have labels from the Greek alphabet. That may help you, or it may not; but can you work out why I have done it?
    I have tried to make the first four rather harder than the others, so it might be a good tactic to start in the middle. My only other hint is to remind you that many species have more than one common name.
    Thinking caps on ;)
    Click on the image above and then enlarge it to see the full-size version.
     
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  2. gentle lemur

    gentle lemur Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    2 Likes, 50+ views, but no answers!
    Have I bamboozled the entire intellectual might of ZooChat? Surely not :)
    Here are a couple of little pointers. Image β is the one with the most tenuous connection to the theme (although it's a better fit than the fairy penguin, which was my first thought). Close study will also show you that one of the birds is in an unusual posture, but not one that is entirely out of character for the species.
     
  3. bongorob

    bongorob Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    I have answered but my post has not show up.
     
  4. bongorob

    bongorob Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Oh it did, in the other thread

    I would have had a go earlier, but I only just finished writing my letter to Santa.

    so here is my list

    α vermiculate wrasse
    β emperor tetra
    γ bush dog

    f green iguana
    g lesser sulphur-crested cockatoo
    i lion-tailed macaque
    j Cabot's tragopan
    k lilacine Amazon parrot
    l Caribbean flamingo
     
  5. gentle lemur

    gentle lemur Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Yes I saw it in the Gallery and was trying to copy it across, but you beat me to it.
    Only one correct answer, I'm afraid.
     
  6. LaughingDove

    LaughingDove Well-Known Member

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    α Jack Dempsey Cichlid
    β New Guinea Blue-eye
    γ Red Panda
    δ Water Shrew

    e Harpy Eagle
    f Island Day Gecko
    g Citron-crested Cockatoo
    h
    i
    Reeve's Pheasant
    j Cabot's Tragopan
    k Red-fronted Macaw
    l Caribbean (Red) Flamingo

    Not sure what the theme is. Maybe something colour related?
     
  7. gentle lemur

    gentle lemur Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    A few near misses, 1 correct species with the wrong name to fit the theme and 1 fully correct answer. The theme has some links to colour, but not very many.
     
  8. bongorob

    bongorob Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    I have only one correct answer. As a Stoke City fan all I can say is it is the taking part that counts and not the winning.
     
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  9. gentle lemur

    gentle lemur Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    That's the spirit! You laid the foundations for others to build on ;)
     
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  10. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    Some random answers:

    α Geophagus, I guess jurupari (may have had a name-change...) - not sure what you would use as a common name though, maybe just Eartheater?

    β White Cloud Mountain Minnow

    e Diamond Finch
    f one of the Phelsuma but I don't know enough about them for an ID
    g Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

    k is a conure, maybe Golden-capped Conure?
    l Major Mitchell's/Leadbeater's/Pink Cockatoo
     
  11. gentle lemur

    gentle lemur Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Progress!
    I was just about to post that the fish in α has had its name changed since I took this photo (it's now Satanoperca leucosticta, although I am sure that many fishkeepers still call it 'jurupari'). Fortunately Eartheater is what you need (the name can be applied to several other Geophagus and Satanoperca species too). Five more of these answers are correct, provided that you choose the right common name.
     
  12. Kakapo

    Kakapo Well-Known Member

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    The first four harder than others?? But the Beta (sorry, my keyboard don't have the symbol for it) is the easiest of all, even showing the entire animal. And given that is one of the most common aquarium fish seen in every pet shop makes it easier (in fact this was my first species of fish that I kept ever... Maybe I should buy some once more). So I'm surprised that only Chlidonias gave the correct hint...
    The second easier is the E. Very obvious too, diamond firetail, unmistakable!. The others are harder.
    Not much things can I add that has not ben said already. Just the J, that is not what has been said. I'm sure it's a bird of similar size (a bit smaller), and also ground-dwelling, but from a different continent and much more primitive... And its the most commonly kept species of their whole group.
    For the F, laughing dove and Chlidonias got clearly the correct genus (very different from green iguana). I guess that I know the scientific name, not sure if the common name is just a direct traslation, such as Klemmer's day gecko...
    Ah, and I see nobody commented yet on H? It's not just the only pheasant species that got widespread outside Asia and all over the world...? Not sure on this one...
    The most difficult for me are the Gamma and the i.
    My field are the identifications, I'm too ignorant for trying to see hidden things shared by common names and reasongs for put greek characters :p so I let it here.
     
  13. gentle lemur

    gentle lemur Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    The first four are harder because their links to the theme are a little more obscure, which is why I added the Greek letters as a hint. In addition, many ZooChatters don't know as much as they might about fishes :(
    I always try to have a mix with a few fairly easy photos and a few really tricky ones. That should encourage people to make a start and then to work out the theme. If you can find the theme and you remember that j fits between i and h, you have valuable clues to the identity of the most difficult photo, in my opinion (particularly if you check my other photos on ZooChat): I think you may be on the right lines with this one.
    γ
    and i are both quite common zoo species, bongorob was not a million miles away from them, but not very close either :)
    People can choose about e, is it a diamond finch/firetail/sparrow or a Harpy eagle?
    There is always a problem with common names, as I hinted in my first post. If you know one name, Google can help to find alternatives. I do check with Google and/or Zootierliste when I set the questions ;)
     
  14. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    I'm confused about this answer. Eartheater is correct for the Geophagus because you said so. But are none of the others the right common name? Because I don't know of any other names for the White Cloud Mountain Minnow...
     
  15. gentle lemur

    gentle lemur Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    . . . then that must be one of the correct ones :) (although its link to the theme is rather obscure, as I stated before).
    All three of your answers for l are right, in terms of identifying the species, but only one of them is completely correct because it also fits the theme :p
     
  16. gentle lemur

    gentle lemur Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Here are the correct answers so far:
    α Eartheater
    β White cloud mountain minnow
    γ ? (you're going to kick yourselves :))
    δ Water shrew
    e Diamond sparrow
    f ? day gecko
    g Lesser sulphur-crested cockatoo
    h ?
    i ?
    j ?
    k Golden-crowned conure
    l ? cockatoo

    I think one more correct answer should make the theme clear. How many mammals are there with pink skin and a coat of long white hairs?
     
  17. birdsandbats

    birdsandbats Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    y. Brown Bear
    h. Red Junglefowl (Domestic Type)
    l. Salmon-Crested Cockatoo
     
  18. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    Lots, if they're albinos! Perhaps it's an elderly human.
     
  19. Kakapo

    Kakapo Well-Known Member

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    I was unsure of being mammal fur and even more unsure to being pink - a white patch of hair under certain light can look like this photo. But when you told this I tought in Pink fairy armadillo - casually a species that appeared in my dreams this last night! The disadvantage is, that is a species too rare for get photos of it... unlike the J, that if I guessed correctly, I'm surprised that nobody devinated yet despite my clues... Here's another more clue for let the others devinate: it's not a tragopan, is not a galliform... in vague terms, it's a flying ostrich :p And it have an Elegant thin crest in the forehead ;)
     
  20. gentle lemur

    gentle lemur Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    I'm afraid you're wrong about all three. Chlidonias has already identified the cockatoo, you just need to work out which of its names is correct here.

    A fairy armadillo is a wonderful guess, although I would be amazed to dream about one. Unfortunately it's a species that I have never seen and so I have no photos, as you suspected: therefore it's not right. It would be most unfair to put an albino animal into a quiz like this, and even if I did it I would have to tell you all: although actually I very rarely bother to photograph colour varieties or mutations - there are too many wonderful wild species to concentrate on. I can state categorically that photograph i is not a self-portrait*, not Santa Claus and not even human :D
    Kakapo knows exactly what j is ;)

    * Samuel Beckett would have said that i is Not I.