Beautiful Animals

That baby gorilla got to me..

from sfgate day in pictures,
Celery raw develops the jaw: Dresden Zoo keepers have determined the source of a loud crunching sound - a Crowned Lemur.
Photo: Matthias Rietschel / AP




Ha! Ha! Oh! Hee, hee, hee! STOP IT! Ha, ha, ha! Koshka comes to the rescue of the most ticklish of her four Amur cubs at the Denver Zoo.
Photo: Dave Parsons / Denver Zoo

Lemurs are such little cuties! I have never seen a crowned one. Very handsome fellow. I can just hear those cubs laughing.

Thanks, guys, for posting new and wonderful pics. A ticklish tiger. Who knew?




osso, When I was looking for pictures of baby primates, I was surprised to see that gorilla babies seemed the most human in some ways. (I was expecting it to be the chimps.)

Let's face it. chimps, orangs, gorillas. Not such distant relatives of ours, IMO

That little baby gorilla does seem so human in his face. It's really hard to grasp that such little babies like that can grow into such big wild and dangerous animals.

Arella Mae, You've mentioned several times how cute little animals grow up to be big and dangerous. Carnivores gotta eat. They eat meat. They hunt and kill to survive. Many animals are dangerous only when they feel threatened.

But the fact is that the most dangerous animal on the planet is us. And we start out as cute little babies too.

I can't tell you how many of the animals pictured here are endangered. They're endangered mostly because of us, not other animals.

I'm gonna shut up now.

Red bird of paradise displaying for a mate:

I didn't mean anything mean Miss Roberta. I know humans are the most dangerous animals of all. I know animals have to kill, etc., for food and survival. I only meant when you look at those little baby faces it is hard to see (for me) how such a change takes place, though I know it does. I am not explaining it very well but I honestly meant no disrespect or anything bad.

Actually, an article I read recently listed the top dangerous animals (I guess dangerous to us humans). They weren't tigers, rattlesnakes or bears. They were things like mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are the cause of many more human deaths than any single other animal. And vicious too (blood suckers!).

Beautiful bird, Roberta!

Arella Mae, I know you didn't mean anything wrong. You just happened to hit one of my numerous nerves. Please don't feel bad. I can be a pain in the patoot sometimes (more often than not).

littlek, I knew that about mosquitoes. They gotta make a living too. But I have far less tolerance for something that's sucking my blood and making me itch. Glad you like the boid. Dem boids of paradise are something special.

BTW, the most dangerous mammal to humans in Africa is a herbivore. The hippo. (Cuteness warning!)

The red bird of paradise looks like an orchid.




Speaking of endangered, a little good news -

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/09/04/state/n092159D63.DTL


Scientists hail find of rare fox in Sierra Nevada
By MARTIN GRIFFITH, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, September 4, 2010

Clip -
Scientists are hailing the confirmed find of a Sierra Nevada red fox about 90 miles south of Reno, a native subspecies feared extinct in the range since the last verified sighting in 1990.

The fox was photographed Aug. 11 near Sonora Pass on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest by a motion-activated camera set up by U.S. Forest Service employees monitoring the activities of other wildlife.
end/clip


They include in the article a photo of a red fox in another area -


photo by Keith Slausen / US Forest Service

Some baby gorillas:

Bad hair day:



Riding backwards:



Baby and mother:



Oh, my:



A yawn:

Butterfly fish:

Sand cat:

These are wild animals? I wonder where they populate?

Apparently these guys are the special forces of the cat world.

http://www.catsurvivaltrust.org/sand.htm

Hoary fox:

Looks more like a coyote. Still very beautiful.

What marvelous pictures! I am having a hard time deciding which I like the best. That bad hair day is toooooooooooooo funny and cute. I have never heard of sand cats but what a beauty. I have learned so much about so many different animals on this thread.

Roboida, the incredible lyrebird has probably been submitted before, but just in case anyone would like to see a video, here is one from David Attenborough.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3433507052114896375#

Beautiful boid, Diane. Don't remember whether someone posted here before or not. And it doesn't matter.

Love dat David Attenborough. Thanks for the link.

Wood duck:

Spotfin lionfish: