Beautiful Animals

Time for me to check out what is going on in The Week in Wildlife (The Guardian slide show): http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2013/may/31/week-in-wildlife-in-pictures#/?picture=409730800&index=0

already I like the first photo -

Two bee-eater (Merops apiaster) birds in Poland. The birds feed on a mixture of bees and dragonflies.
Photograph: Darek Delmanowicz/EPA




A rose chafer climbs over blossom in Frankfurt, Germany.
Photograph: Frank Rumpenhorst/EPA




A white-tailed sea eagle at the Isle of Mull, Scotland, cleanly snatching a fish from the water. White-tailed sea eagles became extinct in Britain in 1916 and the species disappeared from the wild for over 50 years. It wasn't until 1975 that the first formal reintroduction was carried out, with a total of 140 birds returned to the wild over the course of 20 years. These birds have gone on to establish a population of over 80 breeding pairs on the west coast of Scotland. Despite this it is still rare to see the winged hunters showing off their fishing prowess.
Photograph: David Gibbon/Rex Features




A close up of a giraffe-necked weevil in Madagascar, Africa. British photographer Dale Morris spent a month snapping dozens of species, including chameleons, lemurs and insects like the giraffe-necked weevil.
Photograph: Dale Morris/Barcroft Media




Siberian mountain goats climb at the Sayano-Shushensky Nature Reserve, about 680 km (423 miles) south of Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. The reserve is known as a habitat for a small population of snow leopards.
Photograph: Ilya Naymushin/Reuters


Mountain goats generally amaze me.


A Malayan night heron (Gorsachius melanolophus) feeding its young who live in a nest on a tree at Taipei zoo, in Taipei, Taiwan. Malayan night herons live in south-east Asia, often found near water or in city parks. They eat earthworms, insects, frogs and lizards.
Photograph: TAIPEI ZOO/EPA
I'm pretty fond of night herons, unless they're in my own small yard. There was a big flock of them down the street from us, nesting in some poor woman's ficus tree. Many of them together can be very loud. Oh, and messy.




I left a bunch of photos out (there were 15..)

FBM, Fine looking and fuzzy moth. What kind is it? Do you know?

vonny, Look at those primate eyes. Magnifico. Thanks. Bengal tigers spend a lot of time in water. They gotta cool off somehow. Their northern and larger cousins, Siberian tigers, probably are looking for places to warm up. Who knows?

Reg, Is that an ocelot? A don't-mess-with-me beauty. Merci.

Bill, Thanks for the jagarundi. I never heard of or saw a poodle cat. Not only do caracals look wonderful, but they are amazing leapers. They can jump straight up and take a bird out of the air. Thanks for all three. Also thanks for the horned lizards, which I think (not sure) are sometimes referred to as horny toads.

Debacle, I usually take a dim view of people posting nonanimal photos on this thread. However, I'll make an exception in your case. Don't think for one moment that I'm intimidated or impressed by testicular size. You and I go way back, and I love pics of my home town--posted anywhere. Yes, before my time, but not by a lot. I remember many of the places shown. I remember those cars. When I was a kid playing out in the street, I used to sit on running boards. Thanks mucho, kid.

osso, I always look forward to your Guardian pics, And they never disappoint. Thanks mucho.

Golden pheasants:

Birds of Paradise

Found only on the island of New Guinea.

(video by Cornell Lab of Ornithology)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTR21os8gTA

Debacle - to get the video to show, put
[youtube] in front of the url
and [/youtube] after the url..

If I were near London, I'd go visit Tammy the Anteater:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/07/tammy-anteater-london-zoo

Siberian tiger grooming -

Eurasian otters -

Sorry about that. Many thanks, osso. I've copied and pasted the instructions to my desktop, right beside the keyboard.

Oh, don't be sorry, lots don't know how to do that. Me, I can only see you tube something like once in 30 tries because my computer is too old for updating to the right adobe flash. So when I do see one, like your NYC video, it's a big kick (in a good way).

Luckily I can see The Guardian videos just fine.

American Otters

Lounging sea otter -

Lion and cubs ...

I managed to get myself far behind in responding. Phooey on me.

I gotta say, Debacle, that I've seen that film before. No less mesmerized this time. Spectacular beyond words.

Loved the anteater and all dem otters.

In fact I loved them all.

Back in 2007 when I started this thread, I guess I thought that responding to each and every post and picture was a good idea. I still do. But sometimes I'm too pooped. Sorry gang.

I never fail to be amazed at how close we are to these primates.

Standing no-sea otter

Pronghorn. Second-fastest land animal. They can sprint at 60 mph. They can also run long distances at about 30 mph.

Giant river otter -

"I once met a lobster whose claws were THIS big! Honestly!"