Escape from the ABCs

What does the sickle-billed vanga eat ( just wondering because of the the shape of its bill )

 

Easier said than done!

 

I recently visited the darling downs zoo and saw many cool bird species like

Ruddy shelduck

Bleeding heart pigeons

Egyptian geese

Albino peacocks

 

Very interesting animals especially the Pygmy hog and Burmese ferret badger

 

I visited an exhibit today called 'The Fascinating World of Spiders and Scorpions' and saw lots of really, really cool spiders and scorpions.

A few of my favourites from the exhibit were:


Nhandu vulpinus


Aphonopelma chalcodes

And

Cyclosternum fasciatum

Not sure how rare these spiders are, but I like the look of them.

 

I had a C. fasciatum a couple of years ago, no pictures sadly. One of the prettiest tarantulas in my opinion.

 

My personal favourites are:

Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo (Currumbin Sanctuary)

Lumholtz Tree Kangaroo (David Fleay Wildlife Park though she has sadly passed away know)

Billbies (Currumbin Sanctuary and David Fleay Wildlife Park)

Barking owls (David Fleay Wildlife Park)

Eastern Quoll (Queensland Zoo and Currumbin Sanctuary)

Babirusa (Singapore Zoo)

Amazonian Manatee (Singapore River Safari)

Jaguarundi (Singapore River Safari)

Southern Ground Hornbill (Jurong Bird Park)

Moray Eels (Sealife Maloolaba)

Yellow Bellied Gliders (David Fleay Wildlife Park)

Southern Cassowary (Australia Zoo,Currumbin Sanctuary and David Fleay Wildlife Park)

Tawny Frog Mouth (David Fleay Wildlife Park)

 

Recently at the great lakes aquarium in Duluth, (Photos will be posted on zoochat in the Media category soon) I saw some not necessarily rare animals, but definitely oddities of the natural world. These include comb Jellies, (Sadly I do have photos of those but they are the worst quality I could have possibly imagined), Electric eels, Sea lampreys, Chambered nautilus, and Whip spider.

 

Pretty rare.

 

I spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to find the 'frog' that was producing that soundtrack

 

Same here, I was wondering what was making that noise and when I linked the dove to it I was mind-blown. They truly are Croaking ground-doves (and the ones in Nürnberg are plenty and very active which makes for a really cool show)

 

In Brazil (and Latin America) I love seeing zoos exhibit any of the many unusual or diverse native species. The Xenartha is an interesting group and anteaters, sloths and armadillos are always intriguing, New world primates too such as muriquis, marmosets and tamarins are fascinating in their astounding diversity and some of the smaller and more obscure small felines such as pampas / pantanal cat, Geoffrey's cat and oncilla are treats to see.

Then there are the birds (mainly the psittacines) , amphibians and reptiles (particularly the venomous snakes) are also highlights for me. But if I'm honest (despite being a supporter of good zoos) I would much rather observe any of these species in wild areas than in captive environments and when I get the chance I often do in National parks.

When I travel outside of Latin America I'm not so interested in seeing neotropical species and actually I like to visit zoos which showcase the smaller, endangered and unusual or more endangered mammal species that are not commonly kept in Latin America. If only to get a visual reference see what these creatures actually look like in the flesh.

Some of these species that I remember being fascinated viewing would be animals like the Malagasy giant jumping rats , pottos , Rodriguez fruitbats , loris , galago , fossa , boki boky etc.

 

Interesting, not necessarily an animal that anyone would (At first) recognize. I never even knew they were a species until I saw this thread. It would probably go unnoticed for a long time though.