Just awhile ago I went to a little park and camping area near where I live. There is a nice little zoo that has native and once native animal species of Minnesota. Most of the animals there were injured in the wild and could not be released again.

Among them included: otters, wolves, coyotes, a black bear, panther, lynx, bobcat, red foxes, fisher, a fat badger, prairie dogs, turkeys, a variety of owls, raptors, deer, elk, once Minnesota native bison, snakes, and some farm animals. I think I actually named them all.

We also went on a two mile hiking trail. On the hike we saw four chipmunks, two squirrels, blue jays, butterflies in a nearby field, and we also saw deer tracks that looked pretty fresh.

I've now decided that I may go into biology.

One of my favorite animals is called the Blue-Footed Booby. It's a bird that lives in the Galapagos and has blue feet. It does this weird mating dance. They're really funny birds!
I also love tigers, polar bears, and horses.

I just found some cool animals.

Angora Rabbit:

Skinny Guinea Pig:

Shoebill:

Yeti Crab:

Blob Fish:

And finalllyyyy... straight out of a child's drawing and brought to you in the real life animal kingdom...

The Axolotl:

Yes, these are all real pictures of real animals.

~Riella

^ Wow those are some intense creatures! I especially love that rabbit! LOL
My cousins have guinea pigs that look more like the rabbit than that skinny one, so much hair!

Me and my brother each own a box turtle, and they live together in the same cage (have for the past 12 years). But in about a year from now I'm gonna be moving away and I was thinking I wanted to take my turtle. But does anyone know if that'd be a bad idea to separate them? They're male and female and mate quite often.

Wow Ithilwen, those were some animals! The Bob fish is gross though! I think the prettiest one was the crab
TheGeneral, I think it will be ok. My sister and I had turtles too, and when we seperated them they were fine. But they were both males...maybe that's why.

Axlotls are such cool animals! I actually had the opportunity to adopt a few of them this past spring, but declined. Our Systematics class has two of them that just kept breeding, and they needed to do something with the tadpoles (I think most of them actually became fish food ). But they just look so darn funny

Wolf I see that you consider the Grey Wolf to be a different species from the Coyote. Did you know about the debate going on between these two species right now? The two species can actually interbreed and produce fertile offspring (which is indicative of two species actually being one species). The problem with them being considered one species is all in the legality. Right now, Grey Wolves are protected as endangered species, but if Coyotes are technically the same species, they would also need protected.

You gotta love it when politics and science collide.

Yep (well actually I figured there would be a debate because of the circumstances.) That's actually a problem with the canid family, there so recent and many different members can interbred. In fact the coyotes in my area are all descended from wolf/western coyote crosses, which eventually developed into the eastern coyote. Then Dogs are technically wolves and black wolves are descended from dogs... And then there's dingos which have been considered as a separate species of canid, a subspiecies of wolf, and a subsubspecies of dog (Canis lupus familiaris dingo- now there's a mouthful!) at different times. Personally I class Dingos as dogs, and Coyotes as separate... but I'd likely be just as quick to change the coyote convention depending on what the result of the debate is... and red wolves... who knows? (some think them to be descended from coy/wolf crosses as well). Yeah I like my canines

All wolves are just awesome: Some other favourites that you didn't mention are...

The Maned Wolf, which I think is just gorgeous:

And then the critically endangered Ethiopian Wolf (less than 500 remain)

Canids in general just rock!

(I have forgotten how much I loved this thread).

I've been reading ahead for my ethology course (Animal Behaviour). Classes haven't even started yet, but I went ahead and read this week's texts so as to be prepared for class. There is an entire chapter of the text dedicated to bird songs, and the behaviour behind them.

It was very fascinating, in that there are only three families of birds which have to learn their songs. Parrots, Passerines (typical songbirds like cardinals, sparrows, etc...) and Hummingbirds. All other species (such as owls, pidgeons, etc...) will sing perfectly even if they are deafened as chicks. Deafen a parrot, finch, or a hummingbird, and they'll never sing. Even if a group of young are isolated, they won't sing unless they are played a tape.

The dynamics behind the song are really cool too. 10 - 50 days old is the critical point for song development. In this time, these birds are able to differentiate between songs belonging to their species, and songs of other birds. The songs of their species are stored in their head kind of like a data file. From 150 days to 200 days, the fledglings start playing back the songs in their heads, like a computer program, and then start matching their own voices to the stored voices in their heads. Once they've achieved a perfect copy (or perfect enough to satisfy them) they'll use that song for the rest of their life.

Along those lines, different bird song "dialects" pop up depending on whether a species lives in cities or towns, high or low elevations, etc...

I just thought it was really cool

Digs you literally just listed my second and third favorite canid in order XD (Actually I think I did mention maned wolves earlier on) I didn't know there were so few Ethopian wolves left! I might never see one!

I've heard something like that involving bird songs, but I never knew it was that complicated! That's awesome about the "dialects."

To go off our endangered animals collection:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amor_leopard

I love Amor leopards, unfortunately there are less than 40 individuals estimated to be in the wild making it one of the rarest subspecies of leopard.

Another favorite:

The thylacine (a.k.a. the Tasmanian Tiger, the Tasmanian Wolf) was the largest modern marsupial carnivore preceeding its extinction in the late 20th century. Reports of sightings continue to this day however none have been confirmed. Before it went extinct in the mainland it is believed to have experienced some competition with the dingos, which technically are not native to Australia. After the thylacine extinction dingos took over their ecological niche becoming a naturalized species.
But it's become a posterchild for both extinction and cryptozoology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thylacine

Edit: on a complete side note I was so depressed yesterday because I saw and American Crow and a juvenile Ring-Billed Gull next to each other about 2.5 meters away and I didn't have my camera! (I have a goal to get a good/recognizable picture of at least two different bird species in the same photo- it would have been perfect!) But yeah I think they were dumpster diving since they were both right next to the dumpster. And when the gull started walking away from me he inadvertently startled the crow it was kinda funny There was a squirrel nearby too but he wouldn't have been in the shot (Actually the gray squirrels here are extremely humanized... You can get pretty close before they run away and you have to knock on the dumpsters before you open them since every single one on campus has a hole (I think they were put there just so the squirrels wouldn't get stuck, but I really don't know) so they'll climb inside.

Yes, the Amur leopard is gorgeous! I've actually seen a couple, because there are quite a few in captivity. They actually had a few cubs at the Mod Moot, at the zoo we visited. They were very playful

Yes, it's sad about the Ethiopian Wolf. Wikipedia says that a rabies virus went rogue through a colony (which was already small) back in the 90's, and the genetic damage that it did was devastating. I really hope that they make it, because they are beautiful!

I also love thylacines, and wonder whether or not they are really extinct. I would guess that they probably are; a creature that large is unlikely to remain unseen this long. That being said. . . . the okapi and gorilla (large as they are) were not discovered until after 1900. Anything is possible.

That's funny about the crow and the gull! We kept a gull at the bird rehab place I work for. It wintered with us this past year. His name was phlegm, and he had wing issues; however, we were able to rehab him, and release him. We have two crows that are permanent residents. CeCe and Colee. They are both imprints, and get along great with each other.

So, I have to pick an animal for a project for my ethology class. I'll be observing said species for a total of at least 2 hours over the next few weeks, and I need to have 5 different individuals accounted for. Really, the only animals here on campus are house sparrows and squirrels. . . . . . Any suggestions

Too bad you didn't come to my college Digs, we have a squirrel with a half a tail... easy to pick out from the rest...

You don't have any geese? (then again I live next to a lake and my high school was next to a swamp )

I guess If I were you I'd try to go with animals that you know may have different markings/scars/colors I usually lean toward mammals, but you sound like you could manage birds

We have a squirrel with half a tail too! I'm not surprised to see that he is always the stupid one. I've actually seen him break into open windows of dorms and come out with cheese puffs. I've seen him sitting in the street like a traffic warden (which is probably how he lost his tail )

We've got a small lake (pond really), but there are no geese. There are a few mallards and other varieities of ducks, but I'm betting that they'll be migrating before too long.

I'm probably freaking out for nothing. We haven't even started classes yet, and I'm thinking about this

I've actually seen him break into open windows of dorms and come out with cheese puffs.

I guess it's a good thing we aren't allowed to open the screens.

We have a red fox here too and deer, yet we are right next to a small city and a nuclear power plant... You don't see them as often though.

Back to squirrels... Do you know how many times I've nearly been knocked out/ killed because they keep dropping pine cones that almost land on my head?! The answer: too many to count. In fact that statistic where more people get killed by coconuts falling on their heads than by sharks- I'm wondering how many of those are squirrel related.

I love the little devils, but I swear they have an assassination plot against me...

You ought to be on my campus. Some fool planted a bunch of female gingko trees on our main promenade. They have these fruits which smell positively RANCID when they get ripe, and the squirrels love running up the tree, and chucking several dozen down onto the ground for future consumption. I've managed to dodge them all thus far, but my days are numbered

Wolfloversk, dingos are native to Australia. I'm not sure what Wikipedia is implying there. I'm also a fan of the Tasmanian Tiger and when I was younger I wanted to go on an expedition to see if I could find one alive. Wishful thinking! I like to think that there are a few still out there in the more impenetrable parts of Tasmania.