Fail. D=

Best animal ever. Hands down.
http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/yhst-...whal-thumb.gif

http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com/j/msnbc/C...vmed.widec.jpg

Some penguin appreciation here

I have to say im a fan of the beaver

dont hate the beaver

Red Pandas are the cutest.

http://fc96.deviantart.com/fs22/i/20..._PBPhoenix.jpg

But manatees are also awesome. They're so placid.

:D Yes! I love wolves. I'd like to have a husky one day. that's the closest I think you can really come to having a pet wolf. I always lol when I hear stories of people trying to domesticate wolves. It usually seems to end in slaughtered babies or small children...

^People should only have huskies if they can put them to work or really love going on hikes. They require a lot of activity .. Having a husky on Svalbard where it can pull some dog-sled now and then is super. Having one in an apartment in Oslo is not.

I've seen quite a lot of sled dogs being given away for free to be pets when they become too old. For huskies, that's usually at about 7-8 years I believe .. It's not much, but there's a lot of "wear and tear" on their bodies.

They also shed a lot.

Monkeys!
http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentr...ce-2410296.jpg

http://www.dajuana.com/animalspirits.../wolverine.jpg

Wolverines are some of the most badass animals on the planet.

My favorite animal is definitely my new 5 month old kitten, Paisley :) She is such a sweetheart.

That's not a monkey .. it's an ape!

I need to get out of this thread. :p

Fried tarantula are so cool. It's always a big surprise when i invite people at home.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1088/...34f2ce.jpg?v=0

...Yeah because slaughtered babies and small children is always gives me the lolz... But seriously, huskies are be pretty awesome. I'm not the biggest dog person but I would definetly like to have a husky.

To add to the thread, small wild cats are always cool:

the Pallas Cat:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2314/...4f6e36a4bc.jpg

Monkeys, apes, chimps...whatever. They are all cute. :)

http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2008/04...A2_450x300.jpg

they look like hairy old dwarfs. scary.

It's a pillow with legs.
Why are there so many useless animals?

Hahaha, it's not their fault. =P

why are there so many useless humans?

Ahhh...one of the animals I was referring to.

My favorite animal would have to be a penguin!

It's time to revive this thread with moar animalz!! :bringit:



THIS IS....NOT SPARTA!!!!

That video was awesome, anteater.

http://www.irreplaceablewild.org/med...ls_closeup.jpg

awwww yeahh.

Those hornets (or hornet) did pretty good in the Japanese Bug Fights (arthropod snuff, not for the feint of heart).

I take a pretty good interest in animals/insects that are part of a large... I don't really remember the word for it... insect civilization? It's not the proper term, but you know what I mean.

Bees, ants, and birds that flock together... The patterns they live by and how each of them has a role that's influenced by nature and results in the success of the whole. It's interesting to observe the mechanics of how it all works, and how loyal those instincts are.
It's as though these types of colonies aren't really about the individual insect itself, but was constructed by nature with the concept, as a whole, in mind.

In any case, the whole thing is fascinating.
I'm not too big on lone creatures. There isn't much of a dynamic that keeps my attention with solitary creatures, although I do find semi-solitary adaptable creatures to be interesting.
Every night when I'm smoking I take stock of the 20 + Mediterranean House geckos that live on the inner eaves of my porch. (I keep the porch light on for them, as it attracts their food).
I haven't actually researched the family tendencies of Geckos, because I wanted to try and figure it out on my own first, but I've noticed that they're not as territorial as Anoles, and they most likely give up their young at a very early age, as I frequently see baby Geckos alone, close to the ground, and typically during daylight hours scavenging for food in the grass until they acquire the instinct to move upwards.
I love the adaptability MHG's have though.
They don't really have any natural predators out here, so it's interesting to see how they restructure their tendencies to apply to the environmental situation.

Colony ;)

Yea I realized I'd said that in my own post. But if there's a better term out there, I'm willing to learn.

Insect colonies such as ant and bee colonies was a biological puzzle for quite a while because of what looked like altruism which is not adaptive. If you take honey bees as an example, typically there's only two individuals who reproduce, the queen and her male sperm donor. From that perspective only, the worker bees seem very altruistic, working hard to keep the queen satisfied while not reproducing themselves .. doesn't sound like it could evolve.

It wasn't until one understood and took into account inclusive fitness and the genetic relationship between the bees that it finally made sense. Traditionally, kids learn that having a high fitness is adaptive and that you gain that by reproducing, but it's not entirely correct. You gain a higher fitness when your genes are replicated, but not necessarily from your own reproduction. In a beehive, the bees are so genetically related that each worker bee gains a benefit to her own fitness from servicing the queen, helping her make them more sisters.

The reason they're so related is bee males are haploid and have only one set of genes which is always passed on. All his sperm contain the same genetics. When the male fertilizes the queen's eggs, she gets diploid female offspring which becomes worker bees. Because the only genetic variability between sisters comes from the queen, worker bees are so closely related that they share ~75% of their genes on average. Sisters themselves are more related to eachother than they would be to their own offspring would they have them (~50%). Because of that, it becomes adaptive for any worker bee to help the queen make her more sisters rather than getting her own offspring.

.. I think it's quite interesting :)

Pandas. And these mother****ers right here:

http://www.taintedsong.com/wp-conten...chow-chow2.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...-chow-0047.jpg

^Chow chows? I wonder if the really do taste good.

edit : Meh, chow chow means puffy-lion dog. Someone told me it was the chinese equivalent to "yum-yum" once. It did seem a bit cruel to simply name something "tasty".

=O :eek:

Leave the chow chows out of this dude... =/ :nono:

ARMADILLOS FTW
hippos are also epic

why doesn't that ever work... It's a tapir. Tapirs are amazing.

Fixed :)

You have to use the img-tags : [img]http://address.to/picture/here.jpg[/img]

BBCode Tutorial

Probably strange to most people, but my favourite animal would have to be bats.

http://www.netstate.com/states/symb/...eared_bat2.jpg

I've studied them in depth as pat of my degree, and they really are fascinating. Not only are they amazingly diverse (more than 1,200 species which makes up ~20% of all classified mammals) but they're the perfect vector to explain all of the major functions and models involved in biology. This can range from their fascinating dual evolution, the amazing ability to echolocate which can incorporate evolutionary niches as well as bioacoustics, as well as being able to be used to explain hibernation, roosting patterns, altruistic behaviour, conervation and a variety of breeding behaviours. In a way they're an ideal model species, and I was lucky enough to work alongside one of the leading World researchers in this area, being able to handle them, take blood samples and ring them to monitor populations year by year.

They're even kind of cute when you get used to them! There's some amazingly weird species out there.