Share Animal Pictures: For Animal Lovers

[BigDon]

Klystron, I've spoken with researchers about my former job and was told there were people with Master's degrees who would have been envious.

When Genentech moved in across the freeway we would get very interesting people come into look at our stock. Some became very good customers. Though there were sometimes awkward moments when I would gaff a bit, being used to lecturing "the common man" about complex processes and then doing the same to a holder of multiple PhDs...with some, who I later learned were dept. heads, being somewhat direct about the matter.

 

[BigDon]

I have met, maintained and owned some incredibly intelligent fish over the decades. The high water mark for cold blooded aquatic intelligence seems to be the freshwater spiny eels of the genus Mastacembelus. (Why did that bold?) They make very nice pets if you know how to maintain them.

They even beat out cichlids in the abstract reasoning department.

The best one to keep would be the lemon eel, as they seldom exceed eight inches and still display a personality. (Some of the others easily exceed three feet.) The tire track eel is one of the most personable but get close to four feet long when full grown.

and while the fire eel is a very handsome fish, black with red reticulations, it's also as delicate as discus to environmental conditions and can be difficult to keep alive.

Fun fact:

Spiny eels invented the vibrating bone saw before we did. If you look along the dorsal surface on a sizable specimen you'll notice a row of seemingly small, triangular spines the exact shape of great white shark teeth, small serrations included. These aren't surface features, but actually anchored deep into their bodies.

Spotted one of our stock in a tank not conducive to said eel's good health. Was accidently transferred with driftwood pieces placed in the tank to provide territories and cover. Fortunately, because of the other denizens of the tank, I was wearing suede welder's gloves. So I netted out the eel but had to grasp it to keep it from jumping, when the fish went completely rigid, then started vibrating so fast the spines cut through the welder's glove and outer skin of the palm of my hand faster than I could release it!

My boss, who was busy in another section said later:

"Oh yeah, they do that. Be careful."

 

[BigDon]

More observations where I learned things, spiny eel division.

But to make my point, I need to mention lions first.

When lions kill prey, they use their well documented strangulation or suffocation techniques. But when lions try to kill *each other* they use an entirely different attack, that is, they try to bite out their opponent's lower spine, just above the sacrum.

Structurally this is the weakness point in any quadruped. This also extrapolates very well in defending oneself or others from large, aggressive canines. Strike the dog not on the head, but just above the hips. Though this works best if you're not the subject of the attack, due to orientation issues. Dog's heads are *designed* to take damage as they attack things with their faces for a living. Their lumbar vertebra? Not so much.

And if you absolutely have to...

Keep in mind a dog's lower jaw has a very, very low tolerance for rotational torque. It will easily dislocate if you grab and twist it. A good friend of mine was attacked by a full grown great dane and only suffered minor injury to his hand employing that technique. Most dogs have nothing left after you disable their jaw.

Anywho, back to fish.

So I owned a tire track for close to 20 years. Her name was Snoots, due to spiny eels having prehensile or at least highly mobile noses. With three flaps like flower petals around their nostrils.

The majority of spiny eels are what I used to refer to as "gentleman predators" Not very territorial at all and seldom molest things that don't fit in their mouths. Conversely spiny eels of any size won't tolerate being bullied and have a very direct way of dealing with aggressors.

There are a lot of African catfish roughly 8 to 12 inches in length in the aquarium trade. Some look very similar to each other but have very different habits, but also, due to their intelligence some can be driven "rogue" by bad or neglectful fishkeepers. I was trying to rehabilitate a bad catfish at home, which I had done before, but this cat started picking on Snoots. After the third good bite on the end of her tail in as many hours Snoots had had enough. Waited for an opportune moment, extended from her den and bit out the catfishes vent!

Turns out, from conversations with Dr. Sanchez, this is an invariably lethal insult. With death resulting from the inability to maintain osmotic balance. In around four hours in most cases.

Probably hurts a lot too.

And after I started watching for it at work I saw a couple of other cases, after the fact. Had to have a talk with the younger employees about who goes in with who after that.

 

[BigDon]

And my old boss, as you may surmise, was a colorful character. He was the spitting image of Sir Richard Attenborough. (The owner of Jurasic Park in the movies.) Could have easily been mistaken for twins.

Annnddd that's where the similarities ended.

Where one would imagine a pleasant British accent, replace it with a whisky graveled Chicago accent. And good Lord, the man was famous for casting a quick glance about the place, and if they wasn't any "polite company" present would come up with an off colored joke that would get *me* to stop in place!

"Dude!"

But not only was he on the Board of Directors at Steinhardt, (hence my long acquaintanceship with that fine institute) he got his advanced degree back in the forties. I looked at his diploma from the University of Chicago on the wall and once commented.

"Ichthyotomy huh? What is that, the science of removing fish from someone?"

His reply was unrepeatable here, but seems to be, (if I respelled it correctly) the science of the form and structure of fish.

 

[BillTre]

 

[BillTre]

Found this shot:

Which sure looks like it is the series from which the shot in this post came from.

 

[berkeman]

Little fish is like, "Lah de dah, lah de dah..."

 

[256bits]

Mother hen and her brood of chicks!

 

[Astronuc]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/27/us/dog-steals-purple-unicorn-gets-adopted-trnd/index.html
https://people.com/pets/dog-stealing-unicorn-toy-from-dollar-general-store-rescued-north-carolina/

He looks like our dog, but she would tear apart a stuffed animal. Someone described the dog as a Lab mix, but it appears to be an American Staffordshire terrier mix. Perhaps a mix of American Staffordshire and Labrador retriever.

 

[fresh_42]

 

[BillTre]

A cool looking fish:

 

[Ibix]

A cool looking fish:

View attachment 280683

Yeah. What is it?

 

[BillTre]

Apparently:
Larval Lionfish by Steven Kovacs (US), taken in Palm Beach, Florida.
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...ographer-of-the-year-2021-winners-in-pictures

 

[fresh_42]

Yeah. What is it?

JWST sunshield test fish.

 

[Drakkith]

Gotta ask the tough questions sometimes.

 

[strangerep]

Gotta ask the tough questions sometimes.
[If a spider wore pants...]

No 1: A tradie spider (Buttkraqus Offensicus).
No 2: A (reasonably) respectable gentleman spider with trousers + bare chest.
No 3: A typical female infuencer on Instagram. (Gluteus Maximus Showofficus.)

 

[DennisN]

A jackdaw couple I got on photo today:

 

[Klystron]

Several species of humming birds flew top cover this morning over the swimming pools, hunting tiny flying insects. An Anna's hummingbird couple hovered around a grackle couple building a nest in a palm tree, seeking small bugs disturbed by the nest building. The hummers nest high in an ash tree. Also saw unpaired robins who appear unafraid of the grackles but keep apart. Have not spotted finches yet.

Hummingbirds seem to fear nothing despite their small size; predators that they are.

 

[DennisN]

Several species of humming birds flew top cover this morning over the swimming pools

I think humming birds are very cool and beautiful animals. I've never seen one in real life.

 

[Keith_McClary]

robins

Edit: I think this is a Junco, not a robin.

and Oregon Juncos

 

[BillTre]

Several species of humming birds flew top cover this morning over the swimming pools, hunting tiny flying insects. An Anna's hummingbird couple hovered around a grackle couple building a nest in a palm tree, seeking small bugs disturbed by the nest building. The hummers nest high in an ash tree. Also saw unpaired robins who appear unafraid of the grackles but keep apart. Have not spotted finches yet.

Hummingbirds seem to fear nothing despite their small size; predators that they are.

I had to look this up since I was only aware of humming birds as nectar eaters.
But yes, they eat insects too (wiki link here)!

Other interesting humming bird factoids:
they are small, but can migrate very long distances.

Hummingbirds split from their sister group, the swifts and treeswifts, around 42 million years ago. The common ancestor of extant hummingbirds is estimated to have lived 22 million years ago.

Most male hummingbirds attract a female with their rather feeble song. In a few species the males perform complex aerial displays.

Showing off they flying abilities for selection among by the females I guess.

Hummingbirds have the highest mass-specific metabolic rate of any homeothermic animal.[3] To conserve energy when food is scarce and nightly when not foraging, they can go into torpor, a state similar to hibernation, and slow their metabolic rate to 1/15 of its normal rate.[4]

Due to their small size they are occasionally prey of spiders and insects, particularly praying mantises.[79][80]

Several interesting biophysical features are discussed in the Wikipedia article.

Humming birds are in many places, without a lot people knowing about them.
They are most easily seen around humming bird feeders and around certain flowering plants which they like.
You could find out and buy humming bird stuff (and plants) at places like garden shops that have bird feeder things.

 

[Keith_McClary]

Hummingbird

There is one here
Bird Photographer of the Year 2021 finalists revealed
as well as some (much) larger birds.

 

[berkeman]

I had to look this up since I was only aware of humming birds as nectar eaters.
But yes, they eat insects too (wiki link here)!

Yeah, I had no idea about that either until I saw the post here. My wife loves her hummingbird feeder on our deck, and even has a "Hummingbird Cam" WiFi camera watching it.

 

[berkeman]

There is one here
Bird Photographer of the Year 2021 finalists revealed
as well as some (much) larger birds.

Oh wow, amazing photography. Thanks for sharing!

 

[DennisN]

There is one here
Bird Photographer of the Year 2021 finalists revealed
as well as some (much) larger birds.

Superb photos. I really liked this one:

Swallow, Lincolnshire, UK, by David White

 

[berkeman]

Superb photos. I really liked this one:

Swallow, Lincolnshire, UK, by David White

Yeah, I was wondering if it was his grandfather who opened that window in the first place...

 

[DennisN]

I think humming birds are very cool and beautiful animals. I've never seen one in real life.

I remember I ordered a photo print of one many years ago because they can be so beautiful.
I think it was this gorgeous photo (look at the colors! ):

Green Violet-ear by Mdf, Edited by Laitche , licenced under Creative Commons on Wikipedia.There are many other nice photos of humming birds here on the Wikipedia page and on Wikimedia.Here is another great one, again, look at the colors! :

A Costa Rican hummingbird by Joseph C Boone, licensed under Creative Commons on Wikipedia.

 

[Klystron]

Thanks for all the great bird information, especially the beautiful hummingbirds. I attest to the veracity of observed hummingbird behaviour.

Migration:
My old house had a large backyard situated over natural springs (las vegas). Local parks featured arroyos packed with mammoth, bison, sloth and myriad bird fossils. Several drought tolerant southwestern trees and plants grew in the yard, creating a cool microclimate under migratory bird routes. I installed and maintained bird seed feeders, water sources and hummingbird sugar-water feeders marked with bright red sun screens.

Many exotic birds visited my yard in season; mostly unseen aside from stunning specimens such as goldfinches and extremely tiny hummingbirds barely larger than bumblebees who compete with bees for flowering nectars.

Easter Sunday six years ago I was misting plants with a hose while phoning my sisters in California. I felt a rumble in my chest similar to the whomp-whomp sound of an approaching helicopter. I looked up to observe a dull brown hummingbird hovering less than a meter away savoring the water. We locked eyes; mine blue behind brown lenses, her's a deep shimmering black reflecting my image. We regarded each other for what seemed like minutes; her hovering nearly motionless in the still morning.

Dull green plumage among the predominant dark browns accented her elongated body and nearly invisible vibrating wings. Head to tail feathers she matched the length and shape of my forearm. I had read about the empress hummingbird but never expected to meet the goddess in my backyard. She hummed and shifted frequencies; I fancied thanking me for the water on her long journey back home. I attempted to hum and sing a reply, stunned by the intelligence behind her dark eyes.

She sampled a last sip of airborne water then rapidly departed accompanied by a deep thrumming sound. I will always savor our encounter.

 

[Keith_McClary]

Cooper's Hawk looking for the Junco it chased against my window. The Junco was on the ground (knocked out?) right below, and escaped after the Cooper's left.

 

[BillTre]

Baby sting rays:

 

[BillTre]

An insect "hiding":

The black spots are the pseudo-pupils of the compound eyes. It is the ommatidia (individual eye units of the compound eye) where you are looking down the tube of the ommatidia (they lookk black). The ommatidia are radially arrayed in the compound eye.

 

[Ibix]

An insect "hiding":

View attachment 281436

The black spots are the pseudo-pupils of the compound eyes. It is the ommatidia (individual eye units of the compound eye) where you are looking down the tube of the ommatidia (they lookk black). The ommatidia are radially arrayed in the compound eye.

Wait... so its eyes would seem to follow you round the room?

 

[BillTre]

Wait... so its eyes would seem to follow you round the room?

Yes.

 

[DennisN]

The King and Queen of the park:
(taken yesterday)

 

[DennisN]

Today I was out testing a new lens for the first time (a vintage Canon FD 50 mm f/1.8 from the 1970s),
and a male mallard unexpectedly decided to pose as a model for me, so I just had to take a photo of it:

 

[fresh_42]

That is my stick!

 

[DennisN]

A pigeon in the city.
(Even comparatively calm pigeons can be a bit tricky to photograph when you have to use manual focusing as I did here with a vintage Canon FD lens. I took 15 photos and I think this one turned out best, though the focus could be better. A lesson learned for the next time .)

Sleeping animals are much easier to photograph, as this pigeon sleeping in a tree, also taken with a manual Canon FD lens:

 

[BillTre]

Some weird a$$ fish:

The Phantom Anglerfish (Haplophryne mollis) belongs to a group of anglerfish known as the "Ghostly Seadevils."

 

[DennisN]

The Phantom Anglerfish (Haplophryne mollis) belongs to a group of anglerfish known as the "Ghostly Seadevils."

Anglerfish are very cool.

By the way, @BillTre , if I remember correctly you've also taken your own photos of fish.
You don't have any photos you'd like to share here?
I would be interested in seeing them.

 

[BillTre]

Anglerfish are very cool.

By the way, @BillTre , if I remember correctly you've also taken your own photos of fish.
You don't have any photos you'd like to share here?
I would be interested in seeing them.

OK. Here are some pictures:

My fish studio, I lower a bright flash down on the copy stand to a few inches about the little tank:

I do it in the dark (reduces reflections).

Zebrafish (Danio rerio), the research animal about 2-3" long usually:

The fine black spots are single pigment cells. They are larger and flat.

Some fairly close zebrafish relatives (Danio kyathit, female on top), shot in a tank not the studio:

Danio kyathit, spotted variety (a variety from a different location):

Danio Choprae (a bit smaller than a zebrafish, more distantly related):

Danionella translucida, within a few mm's of being the smallest freshwater fish (photo through a research compound microscope) black round thing to left is eye, brain is grey-white blob above and to right of eye, gills and blood vessels below brain, spinal cord extends to right from back of brain:

One of the ~15 isles in one of the U of O fishrooms:

 

[DennisN]

OK. Here are some pictures:

Thanks for sharing!
Nice fish!

One of the ~15 isles in one of the U of O fishrooms:

All of those small containers (I don't know what they are called), are they for breeding or keeping fish, or both, perhaps?

 

[BigDon]

Mr. Tre,

Dr. Axelrod developed a wonderful technique for photographing small live fish.

Your setup is halfway there. An acrylic vessel eight by eight inches and 3/4 of an inch deep, (front to back), with a black backing. Fish can swim up and down, but still stay in the focal plane of the camera.
Your average plastics shop can make one in a hour.

Have you seen non-albino pearl danios? I think they're the prettiest of the lot.

I have to differentiate between them because locally some wholesaler got stuck with a massive load of the albino variety, while seeking to purchase the regular ones, and they were the only ones available for years.

Chicanery is very common in fish wholesalers I've found.

 

[BigDon]

Also...
I can just look at that bottom picture and I already know what that room smells like.

 

[BillTre]

All of those small containers (I don't know what they are called), are they for breeding or keeping fish, or both, perhaps?

Each can keep/raise about 20 zebrafish. The rack provides the infrastructure for each tank (water, air, return water flow to filter). The tanks are about 1 gallon. There are smaller tanks (~1 Liter) for raising young fish and other 1 liter tanks in which the fish can be crossed and eggs collected. We would get about 1 million eggs/year.

Dr. Axelrod developed a wonderful technique for photographing small live fish.

Your setup is halfway there. An acrylic vessel eight by eight inches and 3/4 of an inch deep, (front to back), with a black backing. Fish can swim up and down, but still stay in the focal plane of the camera.
Your average plastics shop can make one in a hour.

My set-up is a variant of his, which is well known. I have a little book on it that he made.
Because the tank is deeper (front to back) I can get photos of the fish doing more natural turns, which I like.

Have you seen non-albino pearl danios? I think they're the prettiest of the lot.

There are now about 3 species of pearl danios recognized, with slight differences in coloration. Many new Danios have been identified in the last twenty years. (Its a Danio-fest!).

Here's a pearl danio:

They have a lot of iridescence.

Here are a couple of Danio feegradei, which are pretty:

I have found several pigmentation mutations which are not in commercial demand, but have found homes in the lab of a friend who studies pigmentation in zebrafish.
Here s one with fewer black pigmentation cells and lots more iridophores (reflecting pigment cells):

The iridophores on the curved surface of the fish can produce a rainbow pattern of iridescence due to the differing pattern of interference:

Chicanery is very common in fish wholesalers I've found.

They often don't know much about the obscure fish they have
I hate the hobbyist names they are often less than worthless.

 

[BillTre]

Also...
I can just look at that bottom picture and I already know what that room smells like.

Actually, it didn't smell bad. Filtration kept the water good and we had a great HVAC system.

 

[BigDon]

One of the bigger disappointments in my life was commiting to memory the binomial names of over 1200 species of commonly kept aquarium fishes in the early 90's, exactly one year before there was a major revamping of the entire nomenclature system.

Kind of made me surly for a while. For years afterward whenever someone would correct me, my stock reply was, "You knew what I meant, right?"

 

[DennisN]

I can just look at that bottom picture and I already know what that room smells like.

Actually, it didn't smell bad. Filtration kept the water good and we had a great HVAC system.

I think I know what you are talking about. Is it that particular smell that can be around aquariums in e.g. pet stores? I actually like that smell, I don't know why, maybe I am weird.

Maybe it reminds me of childhood. We had an aquarium at home when I was a child, and I have memories of going around pet stores looking at and buying fish.

 

[BigDon]

But it did lead me to learn a lot of other binomial names, and thereby their connections to one another.

I believe you Mr. Tre, (or is it Dr. Tre?) Why? Because if that room wasn't redolent with geosmin, as suspected, point of pride would cause you to speak up, which it did.

It would be hard for normal Smoes* to keep that operation less than odiferous.*Portmanteau of Shmuck and Joe. Rhymes with Joe. In common usage locally.

 

[BigDon]

Mr. N,

The common mantra within the home aquarium industry is "A healthy aquarium, (freshwater) should smell like a warm plant."

The filtration system of healthy marine setups smells like cucumbers, at least to me.

 

[BillTre]

There are lots of kinds of smells possible around aquariums, some worse than others.

When I was four, my family moved to the DC area. For a year we lived in an apartment across the road from the National Zoo. It was my playground!
There are lots of smells in some of their buildings. Large animals buildings smelled a lot like a barn.

I had about 10-15 tanks when I was a kid (before going to college). Only some held fish.

It would be hard for normal Smoes* to keep that operation less than odiferous.

Well, we were well aware of the a bunch of problems like you describe. Since we got a lot of grant money to make a new facility, we designed things in, via the architect and many different engineers, to address our problems and improve conditions. This approach became standard for designing new NIH funded fish rooms.
I got along well with the engineers because I knew what I wanted to do and I was clear about it.
They were able to engineer it to happen with no problem other than cost and fitting it into the building.
We eliminated leaks, improved floors (sloping to drains has to be planned!), got an HVAC (air handling; heating ventilation and air conditioning) system able to keep the humidity and temperature down, got a great aquaculture water filtration unit (used on fish farms), computer controls/monitoring.
Lots of problems (and some labor) got engineered away. This was one of the most enjoyable, long term projects I have ever been involved in.
When done, everything was better.