Beautiful Animals

Costa Rican zebra tarantula:





Zebra butterfly:

Ground boa:





Ground squirrel:

Ground Puppy

Hey, reg. Dem ground puppies is ferocious. You be careful.

rosborne, I took a quick look around the Internet to see if I could identify that arachnid. Decided I didn't want to plow through six pages of photos at the tarantula gallery

http://www.swiftinverts.com/species/swiftsmiscpage.htm

So I decided to take the easy way. What the hell is that?

Some amazing photos (14) in this week's Wildlife series in the Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2008/may/02/wildlife?picture=333868131



Here's a pretty one -

Madison, US: A pair of geese forage in falling snow and rising mist
Photograph: Craig Schreiner/AP

Thanks for the link, osso. There are some wonderful photos there. Extricated another for here:

It's one of the Pinktoe tarantulas. I think it might be a Malaysian Pinktoe.

Fantastic honeybee shot Roberta. When I first saw it I thought that the flower looked like an orange blossom. I tried getting some similar shots when our orange tree was in blossom this spring, but no luck. When I caught the bees in a good pose, the focus was bad and vice versa. The orange blossom has a strong sweet scent which really attracts the bees.

This was the best I could do. They say that all of the wild honey bees in our area have been africanized so I will call this an Africanized honey bee. They are not aggressive when feeding. They become aggressive when protecting their hive.

rosborne, Thanks mucho for the pinktoe info.

mesquite, You may not be satisified, but those pictures look wonderful to me. Thanks for the orange blossom description. I don't think I've ever encountered them. Apple and cherry, yes. Orange, no.

I've been watching a series on Animal Planet (Chimp Eden). Five baby chimps were introduced to the adults last night. The babies triggered my maternal instincts.

One percentage point from human:





Bonobo (subspecies of chimp):

Tigershark, Major smile. Thanks. I needed that.

Still in a feline frame of mind. Here's an ocelot:





Asiatic golden cat:

What made you think of an ocelot, Roberta?

I have no idea, Francis. Stuff just pops into my head.

I used to know a pink-toed tarantula....

littlek, So you've met one in the flesh? I'm impressed. Would you mind my asking about the circumstances? A pet? A friend's pet? Crossing the road? Also, I like the photo you posted. It looks like the tarantula is wearing little shoes--sandals.

Bearded seal:





Walrus:

better to meet one 'in' than 'on'...







bearded collies