Starship Asterisk*

This forum needs an animal thread. I will start it with this.

A snake ate a centipede which then ate it from the inside and then died as it emerged from the cloaca. Utter nonsense.
http://ideastations.org/radio/news/biti ... u-can-chew

If you prefer something less horrifying, jumbo squid cam is probably the most amazing animal cam I've ever seen. Unless, of course, you are horrified by squid.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... n-science/

Here's a couple.

Not the cuddly Koala ? http://mentalfloss.com/article/62012/7- ... ly-violent

I also like knowing where phrases come from. This one gets used a lot but it's sure different than I thought http://mentalfloss.com/article/31180/wh ... at-out-bag

I've been becoming more aware of all of the fake macro photography that goes on. I know that most insect photography is staged and most often shot in a studio, but some people do more than just staging. They make up stories and tell lies to garner more attention. Here's one story about that frog reading a beetle that went viral recently.

(Language warning: "BS" is used a lot here in its unabbreviated form.)
https://www.facebook.com/notes/1413633962271839/

So the lesson here is that animals move around and some photographers have no qualms abusing them to get them to stop. If someone posts a lot of stuff that looks too good to be true, it probably is. That said, there are also ways to pose animals without abusing them. I'm not advocating a witch hunt but I wish photographers would be more forthcoming with their techniques.

What type animals are you looking for? Pretty animals; Ugly ones; tame ones; wild ones? I take it the species doesn't matter!

That's why the thread is called Animalia. Anything goes. Maybe a bit less on the human animals and their closest animal friends and a bit more on everything else. I don't really care, though.

Speaking of animal photography- this was on one of our local news shows morning segment "You gotta see this" https://au.news.yahoo.com/odd/a/2651937 ... wild-ride/

I don't believe this article's photo of a deadly Brown snake is legit. I believe the snake is dead (but I'm not 100% sure):
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/anima ... 3x30c.html

Snakes apparently stay pretty lifelike in appearance even after being dead for a day. I saw this photo recently and was surprised to read that the snake is totally dead and staged.

African Forest cobra by andre de kesel, on Flickr

I've known some women that turned out to be real snakes in the grass.

On another note and possibly slightly off topic but it does have to do with animals
The apod planet earth photo that gets recycled now and then, it reads along the line of / This is the planet earth, it is home to several intelligent species such as the Dolphin.....
I've always liked how it lists Dolphins before us, Kudos to whoever wrote that.

THX1138 wrote:The apod planet earth photo that gets recycled now and then, it reads along the line of / This is the planet earth, it is home to several intelligent species such as the Dolphin.....
I've always liked how it lists Dolphins before us, Kudos to whoever wrote that.

I think the late Douglas Adams provided the inspiration:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Long,_a ... l_the_Fish:

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish is the fourth book of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy written by Douglas Adams. Its title is the message left by the dolphins when they departed Planet Earth just before it was demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass, as described in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Nitpicker, looking at the photo of your brown snake again I think I have found evidence that the snake is indeed dead and posed. If you notice the cobra and your brown snake's eyes, the pupil of both is fully dilated. This should not be the case for any snake in daylight conditions.

Edit: ...Or maybe not. All the images of brown snakes in daylight conditions I've looked up have black eyes. You can't really tell very well.

THX1138 wrote: This is the planet earth, it is home to several intelligent species such as the Dolphin.....
I've always liked how it lists Dolphins before us, Kudos to whoever wrote that.

Of course Flipper may have had something to do with that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipper_(1964_TV_series)

I always wondered what she was saying in "Dolphinese". Probably, "I'm not faster than lightning so quit singing that!"

I did a 'double take;' when I saw one of these running through the alley the other day! It was gone before I could grab my camera; so I borroweed this look alike from wiki! I've never seen a wild turkey in the city before!

Click to view full size image

Here's an article and 11 second video about a rarer than pandas, little Chinese fur-ball.
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-china-blog-32079630

Beyond wrote:Here's an article and 11 second video about a rarer than pandas, little Chinese fur-ball.
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-china-blog-32079630

The BBC screwed up it's external link, so click on this link http://www.bbc.com/news?ocid=global-news-pinned-ie9 and scroll down a little to the picture of the 'Magical Bunny' in the center of the page and click on the picture.

Beyond- that is the cutest little critter I've seen in a long time. I wish they hung out at golf courses. Then they could star in the next "Caddy Shack".

Actually I'd rather just get a few and make a habitat around our pond so our patients could watch them during their infusions like they watch the birds and fish. I know they'd love them probably more than vice versa.
Another pipe dream. Oops, I'd better be careful. I didn't know where that phrase came from. Not a vice to obtain.

While visiting the off-the-beaten-path of the Owyhee desert of southern Idaho and northern Nevada for dark skies, one has to fill the days with other experiences. This "animalia" was soon released by after it offered a parting gift to an, up-to-then, frustrated scruffy Astro Pharmacist.
Planning is everything – including checking for full moons for both sky-watching and fishing for rainbows. Both are beautiful but can be annoying. But, again, good things happen to those who wait.

http://www.ospreylakelodge.com/does-the ... t-fishing/

Nice catch, Ron. Nice of you to release, though I'm not sure it appreciated the time extension required for the photo.

Wanna own a goat farm? Write an essay and win the contest. Costs $150 to enter. Goat farm is in Alabama.
http://www.goatdairyessay.com/home.html

geckzilla wrote:Wanna own a goat farm? Write an essay and win the contest. Costs $150 to enter. Goat farm is in Alabama.
http://www.goatdairyessay.com/home.html

Thanks for the tip Geck. I passed this on to my daughter. We are moving her to Alabama this summer to be closer to her boyfriend who's training to fly helicopters for the Army at Fort Rucker. She'll need a job and is quite the writer after getting degrees in Art and Literature and teaching here in rural Idaho. Sounds like a good way to find the right person to take over the farm. Quite a cleaver approach.

You never know – she may come up with a winner and like raising goats. After all - she's been around an old goat most of her life.

Latest addition to my list of squares in nature:

Broxylus pfeifferi (Waterhouse, 1878) by urjsa, on Flickr

Koala bear moseys through hospitals emergency department.

http://www.wfsb.com/video?clipId=114657 ... start=true

Live walrus cam from Round Island Alaska. (And also many other live critter cams around the world)
http://explore.org/live-cams/player/wal ... und-island

The fanciest bird in the world.
Well, that's what the title says. But it does have a fancy tail.

Heh, yeah, those birds are something else. Who wouldn't want to have his babies?

I thought this video about grouper and eel cooperation was rather astonishing.