Elusive, shy of people, a real mystery dog. This wild dog (like the Bush dog) has webbed toes. And, strangely enough, the female dog is way bigger than the male. Not too common in the world of dogs! This is the Short-Eared dog, one of the two rarest dogs in the world. Scientists trying to find him have only caught five of these dogs in 10 years! He lives in the Amazon jungle. Not in packs, like dingos, but alone. And because he’s alone in a gigantic jungle, he’s hard to find. And because he’s hard to find, no one has completed an…
Author: I Spy Animals
You almost don’t even notice them. You see squirrels and birds every day… maybe smelled a skunk or two. You may have even chased a raccoon off your porch with a broom. But have you ever had a baboon raid your home for food? Urban wildlife. Wild animals coming out of the wilderness and settling in where the living is easy; your hometown. Why? Food. Photo: T. BoswellThink of it like this; why wouldn’t a coyote choose to live near big cans overflowing with sweet-smelling (to a coyote) food items? No hunting or chasing involved. And don’t forget about…
The critically endangered Snow Giraffe can only be found in one spot on earth; at the snowy center of Mount Kilimanjaro, an extinct volcano in Africa. But their numbers are deteriorating so quickly that finding one to photograph is rare. These giraffes live at snow level because they feed on ice lichens, found growing under the snow on the Eastern Kilimanjaro Ridge. During deep snowfalls, however, they must dig for long hours to find enough lichens to live on. Though living at high altitude protects them from poachers, who can get $500,000 for a Snow giraffe hide and even more for their…
They’re very hard to spot because: -they blend in with the coral – and they’re small They are as small as your fingernail. So you swim by, never seeing the little gems that clutch the coral… They are Pygmy seahorses! How many times did I miss them in my dives around Bonaire and Tahiti? Could there have been dozens of Pygmy seahorses, all watching me? Let’s look at what I might have seen if I had looked closely: They look more like little candies than real seahorses! Now let’s have a bit of I Spy fun! How hard is it…
Photograph by Natalie Manuel The King of the Jungle…the lion. Surveys tell us that most people, though they have trouble naming many other animals shown to them, can identify a male lion. That’s a relief! There are eight types of lion, most of which live in Africa. Asiatic lions, like the ones pictured below, live in the Gir Forest in India: Most lions are varying shades of color, but there are some white lions living wild in Tambavati. White lions are not albino, but leucistic; their normal tan coat color is suppressed with the chinchilla gene, but their eyes are gold-brown, not red like a true albino’s. And that big…
There is a wild dog. It whistles. And chatters. It mews and cries. It even makes a chickeny clucking sound. But in groups, it can kill a tiger! Some biologists think our dogs are descended from this wild dog, not the wolf… Meet the Dhole! Looks kind of like a Red fox, doesn’t it? But don’t worry, you can tell the difference between the two: First, the Dhole has eye pupils (the black part) that are round The fox has squished-oval pupils…take a look: But in case you aren’t close enough to see the eyes, here’s another way to…
Not that he looks like one, but… this is one of the most rare of all wild dogs! No one knows much about him, but what we do know is this: he stays near water, he has webbed feet, and he lives in armadillo holes! He’s called the Bush Dog Here are pictures of his whole body. He has a squat body, short legs, and look at his tail! It’s tiny! He looks kind of like a marmot. Ever see one of those? No? Okay, here’s a side-by-side photograph: Okay, maybe side by side they don’t look a lot alike, but…
The cheetah is my favorite big cat. It has its own little genus and species, its own little idiosyncrasies. It’s a cat that has little talent for climbing, but can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 3 seconds…faster than an ultra-high-end sports car. Some cheetahs also have a rare fur pattern mutation. Cheetahs with larger, blotchy, merged spots are known as “king cheetahs”. Although often mistaken for a leopard because of its spotted pelt and similar size, it’s easy to identify a cheetah: 1st IK*: Just look for the distinctive black “tear marks” that run from its eyes, along the nose, and to…
Amazing and…well, improbable! This Australian bird can imitate any sound it hears. Jackhammer? No problem. Kookaburra? Piece of cake. Chainsaw? Oh, yeah. But you won’t really believe it until you hear it…
A hideous beast, armored and horned. Aggressive and near-sighted and highly dangerous. If it’s charging you, and it very well might, you’ll want to say your prayers. Not everyone’s favorite animal, for sure. But what if it’s gone? Forever? Would you care? Here’s a tiny portion of what the planet Earth lost in 2011. Three of the five species of rhinoceros, gone or almost gone: In fact, over 90% of all rhinos in the world have been exterminated. The Northern Sumatran rhino? Extinct. And the Western Black Rhino? Also extinct. In Indonesia, there may be about 30 Javan rhinos left…but their chance for survival…
The longest fence in the world was built because of this wild dog! The reason was simple. Dingos eat sheep. Australia has huge sheep ranches. Before the Dingo Fence was completed, a single sheep ranch lost over 11,000 sheep to Dingos in one year. How long is the fence? 3,488 miles…it divides a continent! Look at the map, below, to see just how huge this Dingo Fence is! The Dingo, or Warrigal, is an Australian wild dog. It probably arrived there thousands of years ago with the aboriginal people. A pure Dingo has white feet and a white-tipped tail. …
I was 6 years old when I realized that birds wear hats. It came from the Roadrunner. You know, the bird that was always foiling Wile E. Coyote’s plans. I loved watching that cartoon, and I naturally thought that roadrunners were tall, long-legged, and wore hats with ornate purple feathers on their heads. So imagine my shock on the family’s road trip out West, when my parents stopped the car and pointed excitedly along the road saying, “Look, girls! A roadrunner!” I looked, saw nothing. I stood up and leaned out the window and searched frantically. THIS is what I saw:…