Beautiful Animals

I fear for the life of the person holding the camera and taking a photograph of this malicious beast. Just look at its intent and murderous stare!!

She's thinking something along the lines ...
"I'm going to maul you so bad that you grandchildren's grandchildren will come out born as bloody shredded wheat!!"

I wouldn't go so far as to call an animal malicious. In this case, let's just say aggressive. Very aggressive. Extremely aggressive. Genetically aggressive.

Margay (very small wild cat from South America):

I would rather handle the Tassie devil than any feral cat. They are positively tame by comparison to ferals. All noise no bite.

http://digg.com/d31Sy0q

Monkey's aren't exactly beautiful animals. But to nerds like me, intelligence is a turn-on, so monkeys who can talk (kind of) come close enough to being beautiful.

Cool.

tsar, Those are amazing drawings. Amazing.

Thomas, Many animals have calls and sounds that mean something. With primates, the calls get very specific. I believe it's the difference between communication (kinda general) and language (specific). Thanks for the video. Tres interesting. It makes sense that there would be "words" for life-threatening things. This fascinates me.

I have one disagreement with you (you can't be surprised). You say that monkeys aren't beautiful. I think many monkeys are beautiful, and apes as well. They have great expressive faces, which I find beautiful. Of course, beauty is an "eye of the beholder" thing.

Thomson's gazelle on the fly:

Aint that a shame .....folks be throwing out a perfectly good deer like that....

Copperhead:

Shiver. I am given to understand that snakes are disappearing from the planet, Roberta.

Don't click on this beetle. He's not a computer.

Letty, Shiver? You don't like snakes? I petted a boa constrictor once. A wonderful sensation. I did some checking on google. You're right about the world snake population. I would be sorry to see them go. They fascinate me.

Thanks for the bug. Didn't think it was a computer. More like a two-tone car.

Tamandua (kind of anteater):

Silver fox:

Common grackle:

This silver fox is one magnificent creature. I bet he would make a most excellent familiar.

http://www.csmonitor.com/CSM-Photo-Galleries/Photos-of-the-Day/2010/Photos-of-the-Day-06-16/(photo)/12

joyful photo..

tsar, The fox may be bewitching, but it ain't no witch.

Da boid pic is truly wonderful. I wouldn't mind being the person those little sparrows were sitting on. I had a similar experience in London with pigeons. Not quite as charming. They're heavier than I expected.

Mandrill:

A female North American red squirrel moves an orphan newborn to a new nest. A study by the University of Guelph in Canada last week found that red squirrels will adopt pups that have lost their mother - surprising behaviour for a species that is known to be asocial
Photograph: Ryan W. Taylor/redsquirrel.ca