Beautiful Animals

FM, Thanks for the species ID. Ducks with wierd feather formations. Am I supposed to know everything?

Dongdong is a beauty, Barry. Very sincere looking. A blue collar kinda guy. Thanks for the pic.

Vonny, I'm glad you have found this thread. Welcome. Very, very sorry to hear about Harvey. My heart is with you.

Gawgeous, RH, Just gawgeous. Thanks muchisimo.

Long-tailed weasel:

SHE is doing her job,protecting our sorry arses

Oops. A blue-collar kinda girl.

This week, a video of Matty, the baby sloth, and his handler, Claire, went viral. It might be the most amazing moment a human and animal have shared. Like, in the history of time.

In the video, Matty gazes at Claire with his little sloth face, and then, using his tiny sloth claws, he gives her a petal from a pink hibiscus flower.

Rachael Hosein, a tourist, captured the moment at a sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica, according to the New York Daily News. Watch it below.



Even if it isn't the "most amazing moment a human and animal have shared," it is sweet, and thud-worthy.

firefly, Wonderful moment. Loved it. It touched me. (I'm such a softie.) Thanks for posting it.

For an animal lover like me, this thread is a joy! Love all the photos and video clips, but especially those of dogs.

Trying to accept Harvey's death, but struggling - he was a huge part of our lives. Hardest part of it was watching our yellow Labrador bitch, Megan, waiting for him to come back!

I don't think I knew that, Vonny, or I've gone and forgotten. Please accept my condolences. And welcome to a wonderful wonderful (I sound like an american bandleader my parents and I watched while eating our tv dinners in the 50's) thread.

vonny, Most of us here can relate to your loss. And I tear up thinking about Megan waiting. And about my beloved pets, now all gone.

I started this thread because of a deep and abiding love of animals and also on a whim. It took on a life of its own.

I'm glad you find it a joy. Post a picture or two if you want. Otherwise, just look. Lotsa lookin' going on.

Yellow lab puppy. Megan?

Of all the threads on a2k, this one, I think, brings the most pleasure to those who visit here. Thanks for starting this one; it has a "life," because most of us love animals. When our children were young, I bought a golden retriever to teach our kids to take on some responsibility for the pet, but that never happened. I was the one taking him to the park so he could run and "retrive" the ball. I still remember that dog after all these years.

Roberta - Megan still looks like this - and she's 10 next month! Harvey was almost 12, and had been born with dysplasia, but he was a brave dog and had a full and wonderful life until the very day he died. We've always had Labrador Retrievers, usually two at a time, and the grief has been terrible every time one of them has died. But I can't imagine life without a dog, so just accept that the pain of loss is the price one has to pay for the vast amounts of love received in their lifetime.

I'm still fairly new to computers and computing (3 years) and self-taught, so posting photographs is still a bit of a mystery to me, but Found Soul has given me some tips about Photobucket which may come in useful once I get better organised.

Ossobuco - I agree - a wonderful thread! You made me laugh with your American bandleader - I know just what you mean!

SOMEONE'S puppy spent ALL morning driving SOMEONE crazy by: trying to eat pampas grass, a bottle cap, a brick, large sticks, the walkway, my little toe, and the fence; counter-surfing the kitchen until half the table contents were on the floor; killing several stuffies and attempting to eat the stuffing; pulling Pat's UGG soles all the way out of the boots; trying to drink old rain water collected on the covers of all the deck furniture; getting her nose caught in the fridge drawer; and in general being impossible... of course now she's collapsed and I'm wide awake...
Janis Ian

Sounds about right for a puppy, edgar. Who can resist?

Kagu hanging around:



Kagu displaying:

Male nyala (rare antelope):

Very handsome, that nyala.

from the sf chronicle's Day in Pictures today:

When did it become acceptable to wear pajamas in public? Everybody seems to be doing it these days. (Stein bei Laboe, Germany.)
Photo: Carsten Rehder, AFP/Getty Images




Cat quencher: A jaguar laps up water in an enclosure at Petro Velho Farm, a refuge of the nongovernmental organization NEX in Corumba de Goias, Brazil. Nex's sanctuary cares for big cats that cannot be returned to the wild.

Photo: Evaristo Sa, AFP/Getty Images


Not sure I get this one, but nice pic of the jaguar:
Sure it takes an effort, but raw meat doesn't grow on trees, you know: A jaguar has to work for his dinner by climbing a tree at Petro Velho Farm, a big-cat sanctuary outside Brasilia.
Photo: Evaristo Sa, AFP/Getty Images

Great pictures Ossobuco!

I wonder why it is that such relatively big animals never "learned" to suck water. All herbivores have, I believe, even the "smaller" ones.

Was it a response to being a prey animal whereas predators didn't have as much concern at the water hole?