2004-04-05
Unusual Wild Animals I've Known (in one way or another)
I�ve always wanted to do a report on this, sharing some of my favorite and unusal animals. Since I can�t seem to organize my thoughts into something that would be remotely coherent right now, here ya� go.This one is one of the oddest, I think ... you mention pangolin, and people look at you like, "um, is that the name of a new band?" But my first introduction to this fascinating beastie was at an age of about, oh, whatever I was in 1st grade. Six, maybe? I was already reading way past my age group at the time (which these days would be "normal" for that age group hehe), and my Dad had this full set of Grolier�s Book of Knowledge These books were mostly kid-oriented encyclopedias, and I loved them. One of them had a story in it - a horror story or ghost story or something, I don�t remember now. But in this story, the "scary" thing was a pangolin. There was a sketch of a scene with it standing up and looming over a bed at night. It was huge in the picture and story, of course. In reality they�re rather small. But they do stand up on their hind legs.
Another fun animal, with which many are unfamiliar, is a genet. These, from what I understand, used to be commonly kept as pseudo-pets in Medieval and earlier times, because they were great mousers. However, their habit of eating their prey alive eventually made them less desirable for sharing the company of refined people as they became more, well, refined, over the ages. I�ve only seen these in pictures and on TV documentaries, unfortunately. They seem to be gorgeous animals.
Another animal that eats its prey alive is the African wild dog. This animal, like the hyena, has been quite misunderstood.
As an aside here, I�ll mention that, while I�m not that enamored of the wild dogs, I absolutely am fascinated and entranced by hyenas. Like the genet, I�ve only seen the wild dogs on TV documentaries. But hyenas are at the St. Louis Zoo, in the new River�s Edge exhibition. We went there for an evening event and all of the hyenas were out. Let me tell you, those animals are awesome. And it�s a good thing they were a rather far distance away, separated by a very tall boundary and a very deep pit � because one of them was examining me as if I were a piece of dessert. But oh, the intensity of that stare! The intelligence behind it! The majesty of their stance. *sighs*
Let�s see � 2 carnivores and an insectivore so far. Let�s go for something a little less predatory.
 a Grey headed flying fox! Find out more about this bat or take the quiz to see what kind of bat you are most like. |
There we go � the fruit bat!, otherwise known as a flying fox. My encounters with these were (and are) in the St. Louis Zoo. There was one there (I believe he�s gone to wherever good fruit bats go when they pass on) named, in a touch of originality surpassed only by naming your dog Spot, Count Dracula. This wonderful li�l guy would hang there upside down, just watching you with those big eyes. They have a rather sweet and musky aroma about them, which I never found unpleasant. Once I put my hand up to the mesh cage side and he sidled over and started licking me. I was watching him closely, because I am intensely pleased at any interaction I am allowed by a mostly wild animal, and suddenly I noticed his balls start to enlarge. They were, after all, pressed up against the cage like the rest of him. Then he backed up a little and started to move a bit. I didn�t quite back up in time, and ended up with a skirt (thankfully black that day, and an old one) covered in bat piss. Not guano, but honest to goodness liquid yellow urine. I think he liked me. I have no idea why his enlarged testicles would have produced urine unless they just squeezed his bladder when they enlarged. And they were of a size that comparably, to a human, would have been like bowling balls.
Enough of fruit bats.
For that matter, enough of mammals.
I love gulls, and the skua is one of my favorites. This particular gull was brought to my attention by reading an Alan Dean Foster book, the main character being one Skua September. Of course, I had to know from whence that name originated.
Another interesting bird is the kookaburra, which I originally discovered from a song long ago, about "kookaburra sits in an old gum tree".
Insects aren�t really my thing, and arachnids definitely not my thing, but a fascinating creature I�ve seen only on TV and that was on an old (very old) Johnny Carson show � a vinegaroon. Now, I can�t imagine having one of these as a pet but people keep tarantulas so *shrug*. One interesting thing about these, though, is that in one of the Star Trek episodes, the one about Halloween, the aliens� true forms seemed to be of these li�l guys.
Hmmm � what haven�t I touched on? Ahhh � swimming things. I�ll do one odd fish and then quit. (but I�m having soooo much fun!)
Let�s try this one: Archer Fish. I remember reading about this li�l champion in grade school, I believe. But I don�t remember where or anything else other than that it was neat that a fish could �fish� in the air like animals fished in the water.
OK I�ll quit now.
More later, in a more diary-esque manner, when I have dwindled my thoughts down to something able to be put on a single page and not sound like Jack Kerouac.
0 comments so far