Adorable obscure critters

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Adorable obscure critters

Postby cmsellers » Wed Mar 04, 2015 2:57 am

Given the horror-spawn being produced in the irrational fears thread, I thought we need some balance.

Here are pictures of the sea moth, a relative of the sea horse so obscure that I hadn't even heard of until this year, and I've been obsessed with animals (and loved seahorses) since I was a little kid.

It's a shame that such a cute little fish is named after that clothes-eating, night-tickling menace known as a moth; they really much more resemble an underwater hummingbird.

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How about the rest of you sharing some adorable animals you wish were better-known?
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Re: Adorable obscure critters

Postby SilverMaple » Wed Mar 04, 2015 4:37 am

Maybe not as obscure as the (admittedly awesome) sea moth, but the Northern Saw-Whet Owl is pretty much the most adorable miniature airborne rodent killing machine you can possibly think of. Lookit those cartoon eyes and floofiness!

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Here's one getting cuddles, and I think I'm gonna die of acute...well, cuteness if I watch this video again.

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Re: Adorable obscure critters

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Wed Mar 04, 2015 4:55 am

This right here is a long eared jerboa, a rodent native to Mongolia.

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Re: Adorable obscure critters

Postby Tesseracts » Wed Mar 04, 2015 5:22 am

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Re: Adorable obscure critters

Postby RainyDays » Wed Mar 04, 2015 5:31 am

I've been accused of having a slightly odd sense of cute. All the normal ones apply, but also some stranger ones. That's just to let you know, not everyone's going to agree with me. Now, have a bat! An adorable, leathery, fuzzy bat:

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To be a bit more obscure, a pangolin:
cute_baby_pangolin.jpg
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Re: Adorable obscure critters

Postby cmsellers » Wed Mar 04, 2015 5:34 am

@SilverMaple: Well I did say "adorable creatures you wish were better known." I suppose it meets both of those criterion.

Kagu:

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Sunbittern

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Violet turaco
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Great blue turaco
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Re: Adorable obscure critters

Postby Arkyle » Wed Mar 04, 2015 6:41 am

I presume you mean these ones?

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I still can't call them Touraco's, but these Louries are native to where I live, so I have hordes of them fly past every day.

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Re: Adorable obscure critters

Postby SilverMaple » Wed Mar 04, 2015 6:58 am

RainyDays wrote:I've been accused of having a slightly odd sense of cute. All the normal ones apply, but also some stranger ones. That's just to let you know, not everyone's going to agree with me. Now, have a bat! An adorable, leathery, fuzzy bat:


Anyone who says bats aren't adorable has never seen the Honduran white bat. How can you not love those ears?

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I've always particularly liked bats, not only because they eat bugs and pollinate plants, but because one of my all-time favourite book series as a kid was Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel. I don't think it was ever popular outside of Canada, but it's a young adult book series told from the perspective of bats, who of course go on adventures and such.

It has a lot of surprisingly realistic little details in it, like the way colours are never described (since bats don't have colour vision), as well as the inclusion of bat bombs, which were literally little bombs attached to bats that the U.S. was planning to use against Japan in World War II. It wasn't the brightest idea, since when they tested it out at their own military base, the bats tended to land wherever they damn well pleased and promptly proceeded to explode. Including, y'know, on fuel tanks. (Have bat bombs made an appearance in any Cracked articles? I feel like they should have.)
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Re: Adorable obscure critters

Postby Arkyle » Wed Mar 04, 2015 7:02 am

Aaawh the cute widdle fuzzy yellow ears. Alright, those are adorable :)
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Re: Adorable obscure critters

Postby cmsellers » Wed Mar 04, 2015 7:08 am

@RainyDays:
Bats are cute; that's an indisputable fact.

Brown long-eared bat
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Great fruit-eating bat
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Leaf-nosed bat
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Honduran white bat
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On the other hand: I find dragonflies adorable. That is weird, right?

@Arkyle:
It's no fair. South Africa has an awesome climate, awesome plants, and awesome birds?

Do you know what kind of loury that is?

Edited to fix broken image links.
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Re: Adorable obscure critters

Postby Australia » Wed Mar 04, 2015 7:08 am

I live in my namesake so no comment.
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Re: Adorable obscure critters

Postby cmsellers » Wed Mar 04, 2015 7:22 am

Australia wrote:I live in my namesake so no comment.

The "everything in Australia wants to kill you" meme is wearing thin. Not everything there wants to kill you; just the snakes, jellyfish, spiders, emus, cassowaries, magpies, koalas, dingoes, Tasmanian devils, and cockatiels. And cockatiels really suck at murder.

Also, you're home to wallabies, wombats, and koalas (they're still cute), to say nothing of your bird life.
You've got the kookaburra and so many awesome parrots and finches, most of which are world-renowned. In fact, most of them are so well-known it's hard to think of an obscure one.

How about the ground parrot?
Image
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Re: Adorable obscure critters

Postby Arkyle » Wed Mar 04, 2015 7:39 am

cmsellers wrote:@Arkyle:
It's no fair. South Africa has an awesome climate, awesome plants, and awesome birds?

Also, when you called that bird a loury, I initially thought you were using Commonwealth spelling on the parrot, and was confused, since lories live in Southeast Asia. I bet there's a similar etymology.

Do you know what kind of loury that is?


http://www.thekruger.com/knpbirds/gallirexporphyreolophus.htm Turaco's where called Lourie's here in South Africa until about 5 years ago. I'm no avid birder, but I imagine the renaming is part of a worldwide standardisation of species.

And yes, our birds are awesome :) Most people know the lilac breasted roller, but not that many know the Bee eaters:

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And our tiny owls http://www.krugerpark.co.za/africa_pearl_spotted_owl.html

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Re: Adorable obscure critters

Postby RainyDays » Wed Mar 04, 2015 7:42 am

Awesome, support for bats! I have a friend who has given me flak for years for liking them (and spiders and snakes and those kinds of creatures) so it's nice to see. I have a goal to hold one someday.

I had never even heard of pangolins until recently -- actually through the same friend who mocks my bat appreciation. I've been missing out. And dragonflies are definitely cute, too.

On the subject of insects: the orchid mantis!
orchid-mantis-550x422.png


Arkyle, your birds are incredible.
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Re: Adorable obscure critters

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Wed Mar 04, 2015 8:11 am

Here is the Yellow Billed Magpie, a resident bird native only to the Sacramento Valley:

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