Four For Your Pleasure

Clare noticed my dearth of bat photos and went to the trouble of sifting through the many bat images out there to present you with this quad-pack of Chiropterans.

Why does each of them look like they are caught between a sneeze and laughing? That last one's nose really gets to me. It reminds me of one of my kids' spikey play-toys.

BTW, you can click on each of the 'Photo' links to get more species information on each of these four beasties.

Thanks for the links, Clare.

Photo credit: Alex Borisenko, via the Royal Ontario Museum and LiveScience.com



















Photo credit: Alex Borisenko, via the Royal Ontario Museum and LiveScience.com



















Photo credit: Alex Borisenko, via the Royal Ontario Museum and LiveScience.com



















Photo credit: Alex Borisenko, via the Royal Ontario Museum and LiveScience.com

Mystery Fish Revealed

Many of you left your answers in an attempt to identify my mystery fish. And many of you got it right. Congratulations to: haineux (first to respond), Xris, Swintah, and YewHew - it is a guitar fish! Dagon the fish god is now prepared to bestow many blessings upon you.

It was kat that alerted me to this creature. She sent me this article about a mystery fish in Russia. The fishermen who caught it thought they had captured an alien and took video footage of it on a camera phone. But since it didn't appear to be a threat, they went ahead and ate it anyway, much to the dismay of ufologists and scientists everywhere. One of the fishermen said it was the tastiest dish he had ever eaten.

I would love to get inside the mind of a man who believes he has captured an alien and then decides to eat it. I don't know that we would have much in common.

Click here to see the video of the alien sea monster

Photo from: Florida Museum of Natural History

Your Quote Here

This is a photo of a walrus being playful with his trainer. I thought it a good opportunity for you to come up with some possible taglines that might go along with this photo (most of you are more clever than I, after all). Feel free to comment.

Thanks for the photo, Patrizio.

Rolling Out the Uglies, Part III

This giant squid was recently caught by New Zealand fisherman off the coast of Antartica. What's with all the giant squids popping up recently? We have enough ugly animals top side, we don't need any abyssal creatures showing up.

But I guess this squid didn't have much of a choice. A squid's gott eat, right? How was he supposed to know that there were some Kiwi's on the other end of the line waiting with a gaff and camera?

UPDATE: Both Brestle and Arachnophile have confirmed that I have misidentified this as a giant squid. It is actually a colossal squid. Check out this link from Arachnophile for more details.

Photos (1 & 2) from Reuters via Yahoo!

Rolling out the Uglies, Part II (Aussie-style)

You're looking at a close cousin of the great white shark. Everyone say hello to the Mako shark, who is new to this site. Be nice to him, because he is one of the fastest creatures in the sea, clocking in at 30 mph (48 kph). That's pretty speedy. If you decide to comment on his less-than-attractive appearance where he can hear you, give yourself a good headstart.

The Yahoo! story that came along with this photo talks about a drunken Australian who attacked one of these with his bare hands. Australia: the land of Puggles and Inebriated Shark-fighters.

Photo from AFP via Yahoo!

Rolling Out the Uglies, Part I

Yahoo! Photos has been supplying us with a cornucopia of ugly animals of late. There are too many to bring you just one a day, so I'll be pumping out some extra posts to keep up.

Below is a male Hamadryas baboon (papio hamadryas). This chap looks a bit nonplussed, but I don't know why. Even though this particular species is common enough and easy enough to breed that no other Czech zoos keep them (this one lives in Liberec), this baboon's exhibition is one of the most frequently visited at his zoo. He's getting lots o' love. Oh well, you can't please every monkey.

Photo by RadekPetrasek, via A/P & Yahoo!

Pop Quiz, Fish Face

I haven't done a pop quiz for a while. Can anyone identify this fish face? I know what it is. Do you? No cheating, Kat (since you sent it in!) The first one to answer correctly will receive three blessings from Dagon, the Philistine fish god.

Photo courtesy: FishAnatomy.net

Envenomator

You're looking at a giant carnivorous centipede, possibly a member of scolopendra gigantea. The guy holding this is defying the MSDS sheet that came along with this arthropod. Their poison is very toxic. In fact, should you be envenomated (great word!) by one of the members of scolopendra, you would suffer from scolopendrism, which consists of local sharp pain (think hornet sting), severe swelling, chills, fever, and weakness.

The next time you travel to South America or the Caribbean, say, to Jamaica, keep your eye out for these. Paradise can be a painful place.

Thanks for the photo, Phlimm.

Photo courtesy: Mark M. Lucas