Amphiban

Kaiser Newt

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Kaiser Newt_1

This salamander is considered critically endangered because it lives in only four streams in the southern Zagros Mountains of Iran.

An interesting thing about this listing is that, like some critically endangered species, it thrives in captivity and there are a number of these guys in private hands. Even though they breed well in captivity, they should still be considered critically endangered because the genetic distribution of the captive population may not be as robust as that in the wild, and counting species health based solely on numbers can not be considered indicative of viability.

Bird

Capuchin Bird

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The sign by this guy said that their call sounded like a cow mooing. I thought “that’s odd”, and then thought no more of it until a kid wandered up and started mooing at the bird. Not much later, the entire flock was at the front of the cage looking at her and, eventually, mooing back.

So there. If you ever need a capuchin bird, stand outside and moo for a while.

Bird

Andean Cock of the Rock

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Andean Cock of the Rock_6

About the Andean cock of the rock, Wikipedia states “The nests are often constructed from the saliva of the females mixed in with vegetable matter and mud.”

“often”

This means that nests could also be otherwise constructed. Maybe sometimes it’s not mud. Glue could work well. Maybe sometimes it’s not vegetable matter. They’re on record as occasionally eating reptiles, so maybe sometimes it’s meat. Maybe they just super glue a bunch of snakes together and lay their eggs in that.

So many possibilities.

Uncategorized

Cab

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Earlier this year, the Red River Zoo put a combine cab in their ag barn. I didn’t get it at first, but *wow* was it popular. Later in the summer, I set up a little GoPro to take photos of the kids playing in it. I won’t bore you with the hundred or so photos I got of them, but I quite like this one.

Bird

Duck

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Which side of a duck has the most feathers?
The outside.

Why did the duck fly south for the winter?
Because it was too far to walk.

A man in a movie theater notices what looks like a duck sitting next to him. “Are you a duck?” asked the man, surprised. “Yes.” “What are you doing at the movies?” The duck replied, “Well, I liked the book.”

A duck waddles into a card shop, he waddles his way to the front desk asking the clerk, Do you got any tape? The clerk replies, No. So the duck waddles away. The very next day at the same time the same duck waddles into the Card Shop he waddles right up to that same clerk asking him, Do you have any tape? The clerk looking irritated replying in a stern voice,No! We are a card shop we sell cards not tape! And if you ask me again I will nail your bill to the counter! So the duck just waddles away. At the same time the next day the Duck is waddling into that same card shop He waddles right up to that same clerk asking him, do you have any nails? The clerk says,no. Then the duck replied good!! So do you have any tape?

What did the duck do after I told her all these jokes?
I thought she’d quack up, but instead she just barely tolerated my presence as I took this photo.

Mammal

Red Panda

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Years ago, shortly after I started getting serious about this photography thing, I happened by the zoo when there weather was stormy. I was lucky enough to get a photo of a red panda glowering out from between the leaves of his tree, water droplets sticking to his fur, pissed off because his mate wouldn’t let him inside.

This summer, I was there when there were three thunderstorm warnings. I spent hours watching the radar and moving back to the red panda enclosure in the hopes to getting a similar shot with my newer camera and lens. The first two storms missed us, but right before it got dark, the third storm came by. It had weakened considerably, but I was hoping that there would be enough moisture in the air to start sticking to the red panda fur (more like hair, really).

Nope.

It stuck to the leaves instead, so the red panda had a drink.

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