Staring Down at You

Centurio senex - the wrinkly face bat - is one of the ugliest creatures on the planet. Bats in general make for great subject matter for this blog, but the problem I have is finding a good repository of bat images. Anyone know of any?

I could use a lot more like the one below. Can you imagine looking up into your tree and see these things staring down at you? You would never venture outside again.

Photo courtesy: www.uaf.edu

Basking in the Sun

These marine iguanas seem to be really enjoying basking in the sun. I envy them. Not their looks, mind you, just their at-easeness (new word!).

Thanks for the photo, Franz.

Mundane & Evil

Ugh. The daddy-long-legs. The most mundane and evil of the spiders (I know, it isn't a true spider). This ubiquitous arachnid can be found in every nook and cranny in my house - under the eaves, in the garage, in window sills. It is also the most likely to be in the bath tub when I stumble in for a shower, or floating in my water when I go for a drink. But I count my blessings. Thankfully, they aren't as big as in this photo. If that were the case, I might as well live in Australia.

Photo courtesy: shuro.vunco.ru

Lunch Buffet

I'm glad that we as humans don't have transparent abdomens that reveal the content of our last meal. This girl (aedes atlanticus) has tapped into a rich vein - look at that swollen belly! I know it's sick to admit it, but I might have enjoyed smashing her and seeing the blood splat - as long as I was confident it was all my blood. I'm afraid mosquitos may see a group of humans as nothing more than a buffet ...

Thanks for the photo, Sean.

Challenge

Ugly baby alert. I originally thought it would be very difficult to find photos of ugly baby animals, but I was wrong - especially when it comes to baboons. The challenge now is finding a picture of a cute baby baboon. Anyone up to the challenge?

Great photo, Vearl!

Rotten Meat

One nice thing about ugly animals (probably the only nice thing, aside from providing me material for this blog), is that they tend to have more personality than your average, run-of-the-mill non-ugly, or even pretty animal.

Take this black vulture here, for instance. Its head is cocked to the side, looking at the camera. You wonder what it's thinking about: carcasses? its own bald and wrinkly head? why people are so fascinated by it? Actually, probably just about rotten meat.

Thanks for the photo, Steve.

Sinister Glee

I admit to feeling a sinister glee in revealing the ugliness of certain critters. Take the beloved butterfly, for instance. The mere mention of this fluttering insect brings to mind sunny days, beautiful colors, childhood innocence, and splats on your windshield.

Ah, but here is what they look like up close. Take a gander at the speckled wood butterfly. Straight from a horror film, my friends. What's with the fuzzy eyeballs? Anyone disenchanted yet?

Thanks for the photo, Brian.

Well Done

You can't ask for a better pose for this dog. Well done, photographyer, well done. I love it when dogs know their place.

Photo courtesy: Nearly Hairless Club